In Fig. S5 , the nanoparticles are scattered in the multihole channels owing to the synergy of carbon and graphene. The surfaces of the nanofibers are rough with pores, and few graphene sheets can be observed on the fiber surface. This is likely attributed to the low content of graphene and the fact that it is embedded in the carbon matrix [35, 36] . An HRTEM image ( Fig. 2f ) was also acquired to verify the phase of the nanoparticles. It displays the lattice space (dimension of 0.64 × 0.24 nm 2 ), confirming the existence of the (100) and (102) lattice planes of ReSe 2 . The TEM element mapping of ReSe 2 @G@CNF in Fig. 2g shows that the Re, Se, and C are distributed uniformly throughout the carbon nanofibers.

This is likely attributed to the low content of graphene and the fact that it is embedded in the carbon matrix.


Blethisa catenaria Brown, a Holarctic species, is the only other species of the genus found within the range of B. multipunctata aurata. Like adults of B. tuberculata, those of B. catenaria are similarly distinguished from those B. multipunctata (Goulet & Smetana 1983) . However, adults of B. catenaria are distinguished from those of above species by the absence of a carina near the posterolateral angle of the pronotum and of a notch on the ventral margin of the apex of the aedeagus (Figs. 4A and 4B ).

Like adults of B. tuberculata, those of B. catenaria are similarly distinguished from those B. multipunctata.


Our driving motivation has been to enlarge the arsenal of tools required to push the AdS/CFT correspondence into its precision regime. An important limitation of our computation is that it exploits, in a crucial manner, the angular symmetry of the problem. Namely, we are able to turn the problem into effectively a one-dimensional one due to the symmetry. There are many problems in this class, some we have mentioned but others are less obvious such as the one-loop correction to the anti-parallel lines. It would be interesting, however, to have a better understanding of the form of the determinant independently of the symmetries and ultimately a computational approach that is intrinsically two-dimensional. The drive to less symmetric situations is not merely an academic goal. There are examples which are under control from the localization point of view but where the symmetry is not preserved [36] . More general methods are still needed and it would be valuable to develop them.

There are examples which are under control from the localization point of view but where the symmetry is not preserved.


Dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) are considered to be one of the most promising solar energy conversion devices alternative to the conventional silicon-based photovoltaic (PV) devices due to their facile fabrication process, their relatively low cost of production and a relatively high photoconversion efficiency [1] . A standard DSSC is composed of a working electrode (WE) in the form of a thin film of nano-sized TiO 2 grains sensitized by a ruthenium-based dye, and of a platinum-based counter electrode (CE). The space between the two electrodes is filled with a redox couple electrolyte; iodide/triiodide (I À 3 /I -) is commonly used in DSSCs. The counter electrode, in particular, is designated to enhance the transfer of electrons between FTO conductive glass and electrolyte solution, improving the redox reaction and, then, the dye regeneration. The material used as counter electrode is dependent on the redox couple used. A thin film of platinum (Pt) deposited on conducting glass is currently used as standard counter electrode for DSSCs, due to its outstanding electrocatalytic properties in the reduction of I À 3 species and exchange current density [2] [3] [4] [5] . The incident photons cause the promotion of excited electron from highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) to lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) levels of dye molecules. During the deexcitation process, electrons may decay in the conduction band of TiO 2 and being transported from photoanode to cathode, where they are transferred from platinum to the electrolyte solution and, due to the redox reaction, they return to the dye molecule. Despite its good properties, the high cost of platinum negatively affects the overall fabrication costs of the DSSCs, limiting thereby their industrial production [6] .

Dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) are considered to be one of the most promising solar energy conversion devices alternative to the conventional silicon-based photovoltaic (PV) devices due to their facile fabrication process, their relatively low cost of production and a relatively high photoconversion efficiency.

A thin film of platinum (Pt) deposited on conducting glass is currently used as standard counter electrode for DSSCs, due to its outstanding electrocatalytic properties in the reduction of I À 3 species and exchange current density.

Despite its good properties, the high cost of platinum negatively affects the overall fabrication costs of the DSSCs, limiting thereby their industrial production.


Designers often interact with existing products in the early phases of design in order to understand the solution space and gain inspiration for new ideas [1] . These interactions can vary from visually inspecting the product to physically dissecting the product in an effort to gain an understanding of the innerworkings of the design. These designer-product interactions are a vital part of the design process because new designs are often derivations or variations of existing products [2] . Therefore, these product interactions serve to aid designers in identifying components of existing products that can be re-used or recombined to form new design ideas.

Designers often interact with existing products in the early phases of design in order to understand the solution space and gain inspiration for new ideas.

These designer-product interactions are a vital part of the design process because new designs are often derivations or variations of existing products.


Peritonitis is a complication associated with canine pyometra, and septic peritonitis is associated with a mortality rate of 68% [38, 39] . Here, only one (1%) of the pyometra cases had peritonitis as identified macroscopically during surgery. In this dog, which was SIRS positive and had a hospitalisation length of 3 days, the preoperative lactate level was 1.9 mmol l -1 . Pyometra and peritonitis will thus not necessarily induce increased lactate levels. Blood lactate analysis alone has previously not been indicative of septic versus non-septic peritoneal effusion in dogs and cats [40] . Likewise were lactate levels not indicative of death or survival in dogs treated for septic peritonitis [31] .

Peritonitis is a complication associated with canine pyometra, and septic peritonitis is associated with a mortality rate of 68%.

Blood lactate analysis alone has previously not been indicative of septic versus non-septic peritoneal effusion in dogs and cats.

Likewise were lactate levels not indicative of death or survival in dogs treated for septic peritonitis.


Recently, a wealth of studies have begun to unveil the molecular basis of the trade-offs between growth and defense, indicating the presence of a complex signaling hub where hormone and light signaling pathways converge to optimize fitness. In light of this recent evidence, we propose a model showing that growth and defense trade-offs are not just the result of metabolic constraints (such as resource limitation), but rather a consequence of a transcriptional network that evolved to maximize plant fitness (Figure 2) [49, 95] . As such, growth and defense environmental cues are initially perceived by receptors, which in turn, activate transcriptional cascades responsible for the activation of specialized responses. A signaling node integrates these transcriptional programs to precisely control the elicitation of growth and defense traits in order to optimize plant performance. The proposed interaction of regulatory modules is prone to evolve in natural settings, where plants are constantly facing a blend of environmental signals that must be integrated and properly translated into growth and defense traits to maximize fitness. A relevant application of this premise is the use of genetic rewiring to achieve concomitant activation of growth and defense [49, 91] . This strategy could lead, in a relative short time, to the development of new crop cultivars where high biomass production is combined with lower demand for pesticides. Environmental cues are perceived and integrated through light and defense signaling to appropriately drive plant growth and defense processes. Proposed model of the integration of growth and defense signals, whereby a signaling node integrates multiple signals perceived from the environment to define the plant phenotype (output), which will ultimately determine plant fitness. The nature of the signal elicits different receptors (signal perception) to trigger signaling cascades that are integrated by molecular players acting as nodes of integration. The final plant phenotype is determined by the degree of activation and repression of specific molecular pathways.

In light of this recent evidence, we propose a model showing that growth and defense trade-offs are not just the result of metabolic constraints (such as resource limitation), but rather a consequence of a transcriptional network that evolved to maximize plant fitness (Figure 2).

A relevant application of this premise is the use of genetic rewiring to achieve concomitant activation of growth and defense.


The above property of the Klein-Gordon operator, when acting on 3D divergencefree vectors, can be extended as follows. Consider a generalized Proca equation where the Klein-Gordon operator acting on a divergence-free form-field of given rank gives zero. One can show that in D = 4k−1 dimensions this Klein-Gordon operator factorizes into the product of two first-order operators provided the form-field is of rank 2k − 1. Each of the two operators describes half of the helicity states that were described by the original generalized Proca equation. For k = 1 one obtains 3D 1-forms which we already discussed. The next case to consider is k = 2 which leads to 3-forms in D=7 dimensions. The corresponding massive self-duality equation was encountered first in the context of seven-dimensional gauged supergravity where the mass m plays the role of the gauge coupling constant [6] . The 7D Proca equation describes 20 degrees of freedom that transform as the 10 + + 10 − of the little group SO(6). The 10 + and 10 − degrees of freedom are each separately described by the two massive self-duality equations.

The corresponding massive self-duality equation was encountered first in the context of seven-dimensional gauged supergravity where the mass m plays the role of the gauge coupling constant.


Three-dimensional higher-derivative theories of gravity have received considerable attention over the years. The first example of such a higher-derivative theory is the "Topologically Massive Gravity" (TMG) model [1] . The TMG Lagrangian consists of the usual Einstein-Hilbert (EH) term, which by itself does not describe any degrees of freedom in three dimensions, and a Lorentz Chern-Simons (LCS) term which is parityodd and third-order in the derivatives. The two terms together describe a single massive state of helicity +2 or -2, depending on the relative sign between the EH and LCS terms. A more recent example is the "New Massive Gravity" (NMG) model [2] . NMG is the parity even version of TMG and its Lagrangian contains besides the EH term a particular combination of two fourth-order derivative terms, of which one is quadratic in the Ricci tensor and the other is quadratic in the Ricci scalar. The NMG Lagrangian describes, unitarily, two massive states of helicity +2 and -2. The signs in front of the kinetic terms corresponding to these two states are the same as a consequence of the fact that the Lagrangian is parity even.

The first example of such a higher-derivative theory is the "Topologically Massive Gravity" (TMG) model.

A more recent example is the "New Massive Gravity" (NMG) model.


The EU countries have increased their internal and external trade volume, their balance of payments, and decreased their inflation and unemployment rates since their membership was accepted (Akal & Şen, 2004) . Hence, most of the countries want to join the EU. Currently, four countries, namely Iceland, Turkey, Serbia and Macedonia (FYR) are official candidates for EU membership, which is actually the reason why we selected these countries for this study. Motivation details are presented below.

The EU countries have increased their internal and external trade volume, their balance of payments, and decreased their inflation and unemployment rates since their membership was accepted.

Motivation details are presented below.


It has been emphasised in many studies that there is a positive correlation between economic development and innovation (Işık & Kılınç, 2012) . The countries that are aware of the importance of innovation want to be leaders in innovative activities, while others fall in follower class for innovative activities. If one does not conduct innovative activities within its own country, there is a high possibility that this country will go abroad for many products and create a high current account deficit ratio. In this case, technology transfer takes place from the developed country to developing/underdeveloped country. In addition, the countries want to decrease current account deficit ratio in their economy. On the other hand, they would like to improve export potential and have high growing ratio in their economies. However, there is a trade-off herein between the current account deficit and high growing ratio. Because, if a country's growing ratio begins to increase year by year, this generally causes high current account deficit in the economy. In order to cope with this paradox, the importance of innovation-driven development for countries appears due to the fact that innovation provides both higher growing ratio and lowers current account deficit simultaneously in the country. The importance of innovation is gaining more attention from the EU because of the fact that EU countries want to be leader and avoid possible financial crisis in the future. In this regard, an objective examination of 'innovation performance' of EU candidate countries is quite vital. Hence, this research has attempted to compare the 'innovation performance' of EU candidate countries.

It has been emphasised in many studies that there is a positive correlation between economic development and innovation.


The last country considered in this article is Macedonia. Macedonia applied for EU membership in March 2004 (Archick & Morelli, 2014) . The EU is the main economic partner of Macedonia because many companies from the EU affect sectors such as banking and telecommunications in Macedonia (Mavromatidis, 2010) . Therefore, EU membership for Macedonia has a special property in terms of economy.

Macedonia applied for EU membership in March 2004.

The EU is the main economic partner of Macedonia because many companies from the EU affect sectors such as banking and telecommunications in Macedonia.


Another set of notable contributions, this time motivated by the well-known philosophy of Maximum Likelihood, formulates the problem as finding the set of parameters which maximise the relevant likelihood function for the observed data (Balakrishnan, 1972; Bruni et al., 1972; Fnaiech and Ljung, 1987; Gabr, 1985) . One drawback with these endeavours is that the likelihood function for this problem is a non-convex function of the parameters and therefore a gradientbased search algorithm is typically required. Unlike the case of the subspace-based algorithm the modifications required for multivariable identification are by no means trivial.

Another set of notable contributions, this time motivated by the well-known philosophy of Maximum Likelihood, formulates the problem as finding the set of parameters which maximise the relevant likelihood function for the observed data.


Still, many industrial processes involve fluids with low viscosities and shorter polymer molecules leading to even shorter relaxation times than the ones reported above. The electrospinning process for example involves sub-millisecond relaxation processes of polymer solutions (Regev et al. 2010) . In inkjet printing, the fluid viscosity typically lies between 3 and 20 mPa s, and low molecular weight polymer additives are used to stabilise the droplet ligature and prevent satellite formation (Hoath et al. 2009) . A downside of the addition of polymers is the increase of the extensional viscosity of the fluid and consequently the significant reduction of jetting speed and increase of the length of the droplet filament. An optimization of the polymer addition to balance an extensional viscosity increase and the satellite formation requires techniques that allow determination of very short relaxation times, down to even the microsecond level.

The electrospinning process for example involves sub-millisecond relaxation processes of polymer solutions.

In inkjet printing, the fluid viscosity typically lies between 3 and 20 mPa s, and low molecular weight polymer additives are used to stabilise the droplet ligature and prevent satellite formation.


Here σ 2 n := E(W n − 1) 2 and σ 2 := E(W − 1) 2 . These bounds imply that, in contrast to the case β < 1/2, P{W n > x} ≫ F (mx) for all n ≥ 2. At the end of Section 3 we give arguments for (10) .

At the end of Section 3 we give arguments for.


Metamaterials are tailored man-made composite materials, made of sub-wavelength building structures, possessing different properties from those of their constituent materials. These properties mainly result from the geometry of the building structures. Designing properly these structures one can achieve unique metamaterial properties, beyond those of natural materials, such as negative magnetic permeability, negative refractive index, and extreme permittivity or permeability values (i.e. close to zero or very large values) [1] [2] [3] . These novel properties can lead to new possibilities and solutions in a variety of potential applications, from telecommunication and information processing, to imaging, security and sensing. In particular, negative refractive index metamaterials can provide in principle perfect lensing (i.e. with a resolution beyond the diffraction limit), leading to new possibilities in imaging, lithography and data storage devices; moreover, they exhibit backwards propagation (i.e. opposite phase and energy velocity), which can be exploited in a variety of telecommunication devices, like antennas, filters, waveguides, transmission lines and so on [2] [3] [4] [5] .

Designing properly these structures one can achieve unique metamaterial properties, beyond those of natural materials, such as negative magnetic permeability, negative refractive index, and extreme permittivity or permeability values (i.e. close to zero or very large values).

In particular, negative refractive index metamaterials can provide in principle perfect lensing (i.e. with a resolution beyond the diffraction limit), leading to new possibilities in imaging, lithography and data storage devices; moreover, they exhibit backwards propagation (i.e. opposite phase and energy velocity), which can be exploited in a variety of telecommunication devices, like antennas, filters, waveguides, transmission lines and so on.


The two key variables emphasized in recent models of firm heterogeneity and international trade are, as previously noted, SIZE and PRODUCTIV-ITY. The SIZE variable is as expected positive in the regressions, indicating that larger firms have in general availability of a greater amount of resources and managerial capabilities and they are therefore better able at overcoming entry barriers in foreign markets and exporting their products and services overseas (Melitz, 2003; Helpman et al., 2004) . The estimated coefficient for the firm size indicator is also much larger for the Central American sample, pointing this out as a crucial factor of export competitiveness for business enterprises in this region. By contrast, the PRODUCTIVITY variable does not turn out to be significant in any of the regressions, differently from what is typically found in empirical analysis of export determinants for more advanced economies (Mayer and Ottaviano, 2007) .

The SIZE variable is as expected positive in the regressions, indicating that larger firms have in general availability of a greater amount of resources and managerial capabilities and they are therefore better able at overcoming entry barriers in foreign markets and exporting their products and services overseas.

By contrast, the PRODUCTIVITY variable does not turn out to be significant in any of the regressions, differently from what is typically found in empirical analysis of export determinants for more advanced economies.


Next, the two variables QUALITY and ICT are both positive and significant in all the estimations. They confirm that firms with a higher product quality, on the one hand, and ICT infrastructure, on the other, have on average higher export intensity. It is also interesting to observe that the estimated coefficients for both of these variables are substantially larger for companies in Central American economies, indicating the crucial importance of product quality and ICT infrastructures as factors of international http://www.rei.unipg.it/rei/article/view/141 13 The DIVERSIF variable turns out to be positive and significant in most of the regressions (except from those for the Central American sample). Since this indicator is defined as the degree to which a firm concentrates its sales on one main product line, the positive sign for this variable points out that, on average, firms with a more concentrated and less diversified product range have higher export intensity. This suggests that industrial specialization and the ability to focus on a restricted set of core competencies are key strategies of international competitiveness (Prahalad and Hamel, 1990; Aulakh et al., 2000) .

This suggests that industrial specialization and the ability to focus on a restricted set of core competencies are key strategies of international competitiveness.


From the spectra of the two switching states, one observes that the transmission to O 4 has the lowest loss, which is expected, as light only goes through GM4. As we used the 3D beam propagation method to design the device, it may not be accurate enough for the high index contrast silicon waveguides. The insertion loss of the switch fabric would be reduced if the MMIs were optimized using the 3D finitedifference time-domain method. Figure 5 shows the histogram of on-chip insertion loss of all the 24 states. The on-chip insertion loss is varied from 3.7 to 13.1 dB. The variation of on-chip insertion loss comes from the unbalanced routing paths and uneven splitting ratio of MMIs. Variable optical attenuators could be integrated into output waveguides to adjust the output optical power [23] .

Variable optical attenuators could be integrated into output waveguides to adjust the output optical power.


As such issues as global warming, energy crisis, and atomic energy plant stability in the face of earthquakes and tsunami draw attention, interest in environmental and energy issues rapidly increases around the globe [1] [2] [3] . In addition, as concerns in well-being and quality of life continue to rise, the demands among users involving lightings gradually advance from mere brightness and efficiency to the quality of lighting environment. Accordingly, LED digital control convergence technology, which replaces low-efficiency light bulbs and fluorescent light containing harmful substances such as mercury, has led to the creation and increasing popularity of emotional and human-friendly lighting environment [3] [4] [5] [6] .

As such issues as global warming, energy crisis, and atomic energy plant stability in the face of earthquakes and tsunami draw attention, interest in environmental and energy issues rapidly increases around the globe.

Accordingly, LED digital control convergence technology, which replaces low-efficiency light bulbs and fluorescent light containing harmful substances such as mercury, has led to the creation and increasing popularity of emotional and human-friendly lighting environment.


The holonomy group G 2 appears as an exceptional case in Berger's classification of the Riemannian holonomy groups [2] . A metric with holonomy contained in G 2 can be defined in terms of a parallel non-degenerate differential 3-form, often called a torsion-free G 2 -structure. A manifold M has cylindrical ends if a complement of a compact subset of M is identified with X × R + , for some compact manifold X called the cross-section of M . An important class of metrics on such manifolds are the exponentially asymptotically cylindrical (EAC) ones, i.e. metrics which are exponentially asymptotic to a product metric on the cylindrical part. An EAC G 2 -manifold is a 7-dimensional EAC manifold M with holonomy contained in G 2 , and its metric is defined by a torsion-free EAC G 2 -structure. Section 2 covers this background in more detail.

The holonomy group G 2 appears as an exceptional case in Berger's classification of the Riemannian holonomy groups.


In response to these challenges, transmission in HVDC has been developed to mitigate these issues. The HVDC technology is able to provide to the transmission system advantages such as transfer capacity enhancement and power flow control [5] . Indeed, HVDC applications have widely increased, presenting diverse configurations: pure DC links or hybrid configurations where AC and DC circuits are parallelized. The strength of the AC system with respect to the power rating of the HVDC link is described by the ShortCircuit Ratio (SCR) [2] [3] [4] . The interconnected networks may be electrically strong AC systems with an SRC greater than 3, or weak networks suffering from low inertia and low SCR. Indeed, the HVDC links are increasingly used inside the same AC network in order to enhance the power transmission capacity between some zones of the grid, such as the integration of renewable energy distributed generators.

The HVDC technology is able to provide to the transmission system advantages such as transfer capacity enhancement and power flow control.

The strength of the AC system with respect to the power rating of the HVDC link is described by the ShortCircuit Ratio (SCR).


The two challenges can worsen in the near future due to the gap between the growth of vehicle population and the expansion of infrastructure and addition of new roads or lanes. The number of operating vehicles in the world exceeded one billion vehicles in 2010, close to one quarter of those are running in US roads [3] . Researchers and authorities should keep in mind that due to continued population growth, continued economic growth, and continuing urbanization, it is expected that the global vehicle population will increase in the middle of the century to be somewhere between 2.5 billion and 4 billion vehicles [4] . Currently the question being asked and researched is how to enhance transportation system operations and how to ensure that transportation systems continue to function given the fact that the current transportation infrastructure might not be expandable, or might be very expensive to expand in many areas world-wide? Traffic at intersections contributes significantly to both the congestion and safety problems. The work proposed in this paper focuses on the management of traffic at intersections. Assuming a system of autonomous vehicles, the proposed algorithm models the traffic as a multi-agent system using a fully-distributed protocol where vehicles coordinate to pass through the intersection without collision and with minimum delay at the intersection. This is not only a challenge for autonomous vehicles, even our current transportation system has to deal with such issues. Studies show that about 40% of car accidents in the United States are related to intersections and about half of these accidents are caused by inadequate driver decisions.

The number of operating vehicles in the world exceeded one billion vehicles in 2010, close to one quarter of those are running in US roads.

Researchers and authorities should keep in mind that due to continued population growth, continued economic growth, and continuing urbanization, it is expected that the global vehicle population will increase in the middle of the century to be somewhere between 2.5 billion and 4 billion vehicles.


The decision to focus on algorithms based on autonomous vehicles is reasonable. Autonomous self-driving vehicles are becoming more real than fiction. These autonomous cars have been demonstrated by Google and other academic institutions such as the Technical University of Braunschweig, and more recently the University of Oxford. It is believed that the current generation of hardware can be used to produce such autonomous vehicles [5] . The rapid progress in research of how to build and operate such intelligent vehicles resulted in getting licensed in the state of Nevada.

It is believed that the current generation of hardware can be used to produce such autonomous vehicles.


The choice of proposing a fully-distributed protocol is also reasonable. In a few years, vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication will be mandated by the US Department of Transportation, as it is viewed to represent the next generation of vehicle safety improvements [6] . It is considered to be the next step after safety belts and air bags. Vehicles will be talking with each other and exchanging trajectory data. It is expected that this will significantly reduce the accidents and crashes especially those caused by human errors, besides alleviating traffic congestion. A protocol requiring vehicles at an intersection to continuously exchange coordination messages, like the one proposed in this paper, will soon be easy to implement in real vehicles on the roads 2. RELATED WORK Various approaches have been used by several researchers to handle the problem of optimizing the movement of vehicles at intersections. For example, several researchers studied how to minimize the delay at intersections while keeping the current traffic light control system and human-driven vehicles. These research efforts attempted to make the traffic signals smart enough to change their timings to adapt to traffic conditions. An example of a successful algorithm is MARLIN [7, 8] . This algorithm used reinforcement learning to teach a network of traffic signals how to adapt to traffic patterns in real-time. This method was able to reduce delay in a network of sixty intersections in downtown Toronto by 40% at peak hours. However, it relied on a central agent connected to all traffic signals to control their timings; this makes scalability of the system questionable when dealing with larger networks. In addition, maintaining traffic signals and making them smarter is an expensive option. For example, in the case of the MARLIN system, it is estimated that additional equipment need to be added to each intersection that cost between twenty and forty thousand dollars [8] .

In a few years, vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication will be mandated by the US Department of Transportation, as it is viewed to represent the next generation of vehicle safety improvements.

An example of a successful algorithm is MARLIN.

For example, in the case of the MARLIN system, it is estimated that additional equipment need to be added to each intersection that cost between twenty and forty thousand dollars.


In some cases it is advisable to use more control channels than number of output values in the object. The examples of such control system are the system for the control of frequency or phase of the laser light [1] [2] [3] . In such systems, the structure of the object allows controlling of the output value in different ways, which correspond to different mathematical models of the corresponding channels. With all this each of these models has their own speed limits on the maximum value of the impact and so on. Jointed control with the help of the both channels can simultaneously provide both high speed control and a large range of controlled changes of the output value of the object. This requires the use of two regulators jointly acting on the object.

The examples of such control system are the system for the control of frequency or phase of the laser light.


From the metabolism point of view, the injected magnetic nanoparticles injected into beings are eventually digested with liver. It has been further demonstrated that only normal liver cells can digest the injected magnetic nanoparticles, while liver tumor cells can not absorb the injected magnetic nanoparticles. With the magnetic nanoparticles, the relaxation time of MR like T 2 for normal liver cells is reduced. Thus, for T 2 -weighted MR imaging, the brightness of normal cells is reduced. However, the brightness of T 2 -weighted MR image for liver tumor cells remains unchanged. Therefore, by injecting magnetic nanoparticles into beings, the bright spots on liver MR image are regarded as tumors [19] . Nowadays, iron oxide magnetic nanoparticles are used as contrast medium in clinics for imaging liver tumors.

Therefore, by injecting magnetic nanoparticles into beings, the bright spots on liver MR image are regarded as tumors.


It is important to check the immunoreactivity of anti-CEA as conjugated onto dextran-coated Fe 3 O 4 functionalized magnetic nanoparticles. One of methods for this check is to observe the association between the anti-CEA functionalized Fe 3 O 4 magnetic nanoparticles and CEA molecules in PBS solution. The method used in this experiment for observing the nanoparticle-CEA association is so-called immunomagnetic reduction [24] [25] [26] . The time dependent ac magnetic susceptibility ac of the reagent mixing with 5 ng/mL CEA solution was recorded and shown with dots in Figure 5 . It was found that ac of the reagent keeps unchanged just after mixing with the CEA solution, as labeled with ac,o in Figure 5 . After one hour, the ac of the reagent starts to reduce. The reduction in ac of the reagent is not terminated until 3.8 hours after the mix of the reagent and the CEA solution. The IMR signal via (1) was found to be 1.68%. The reduction in ac of the reagent proves the association between the anti-CEA functionalized Fe 3 O 4 magnetic nanoparticles and CEA molecules. As the CEA concentration is increased, say 1000 ng/mL, the reduction in ac of the reagent is enhanced, as presented with cross symbols in Figure 5 . The IMR signal for 1000 ng/mL CEA Journal of Nanomaterials solution is found to be 3.17% via (1). The observed reduction in the ac of the reagent in Figure 5 demonstrates that the anti-CEA functionalized Fe 3 O 4 magnetic nanoparticles are capable of binding with CEA molecules.

The method used in this experiment for observing the nanoparticle-CEA association is so-called immunomagnetic reduction.


THE USE of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) for the development of engineering devices is becoming more popular in recent years with the advent of powerful supercomputers. Fluid flows are being simulated using various methodologies depending on the nature of the flow problem and the availability of computational resources. These methodologies can be broadly categorized into potential methods, direct numerical simulation (DNS), Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS), and large eddy simulation (LES). Potential methods offer the quickest turnaround, yield accurate surface pressure for attached flows, and are invaluable for initial design. In DNS, all relevant scales of motion are resolved accurately in space and time, and no model is used. However, the computational cost associated with DNS has limited its use to study turbulent flows in simple geometries (Moin & Mahesh, 1998) . The numerical simulations of fluid problems for engineering applications are most commonly performed using RANS methods. In general, RANS models work well for steady, attached flows but fail for the flow problems where the underlying physics is dominated by largescale unsteady phenomena. LES is an intermediate method between DNS and RANS in which the large scales of motion are resolved, whereas the effect of small scales is modeled. LES is an attractive approach to predict complex turbulent flows because of its better accuracy over RANS and cheaper computational cost than DNS.

However, the computational cost associated with DNS has limited its use to study turbulent flows in simple geometries.


The empirical investigation of marketing turnaround strategies and their effects is mostly anecdotal in nature. For example, Advertising Age reported on the sales decline of the Budget Gourmet brand of ready-made food and attributed the turnaround to a highly effective advertising campaign (Bender 2001) . However, we have no scientific evidence that the brand's performance improvement was actually due to the advertising campaign versus the pricing strategy change and increased point-of-purchase activity that occurred over this period. To the best of our knowledge, the only formal research on the impact of marketing policy changes on performance was conducted on Procter & Gamble's shift from promotionintensive to advertising-intensive marketing support (Ailawadi et al. 2001) . That research focused on a single identifiable regime shift in the data and provided no formal metrics for diagnosing gradual performance turnarounds over time.

For example, Advertising Age reported on the sales decline of the Budget Gourmet brand of ready-made food and attributed the turnaround to a highly effective advertising campaign.

To the best of our knowledge, the only formal research on the impact of marketing policy changes on performance was conducted on Procter & Gamble's shift from promotionintensive to advertising-intensive marketing support.


Truth seeking is a tendency to make a right decision with a process of repeated thinking [29] . Nurses who continuously pursue truth tend to reevaluate new information and perform clinical nursing intervention based on the validated evidences, not on habits alone [30] . Professional judgment develops and matures with the acquisition of greater contents of knowledge, reflective analysis and evaluation of actual experience [31] . Nurses with truth seeking trait can be beneficial for the organization for better practice based on evidences.

Truth seeking is a tendency to make a right decision with a process of repeated thinking.

Nurses who continuously pursue truth tend to reevaluate new information and perform clinical nursing intervention based on the validated evidences, not on habits alone.

Professional judgment develops and matures with the acquisition of greater contents of knowledge, reflective analysis and evaluation of actual experience.


Inquisitive nurses are continuously developing themselves by acquiring up-to-dated knowledge in their specialty areas, which is essential to become professional nurses. Nurses with high levels of clinical knowledge, inquisitiveness, and higher education tend to have higher levels of clinical competence [30, 32] . Hospitals could facilitate the opportunity of further education as retaining strategies of nurses with high clinical competence. Supporting nurses' further education could be beneficial for both nurses and the organization.

Nurses with high levels of clinical knowledge, inquisitiveness, and higher education tend to have higher levels of clinical competence.


Currently, the techniques available to assess pollutant concentrations in the built environment include field measurements, wind tunnel tests, CFD and other semiempirical models such as ASHRAE 2007. A recent study found that most available semiempirical models such as AFTOX, SCREEN, etc. cannot be used for near-field pollutant dispersion problems (Hajra et al., 2010) . ASHRAE 2007 is used for isolated buildings and does not incorporate the effects of adjacent buildings .

A recent study found that most available semiempirical models such as AFTOX, SCREEN, etc. cannot be used for near-field pollutant dispersion problems.


Although wind tunnel and field studies are useful in predicting plume dilutions, time and financial constraints are two of the major disadvantages associated with them (Blocken et al., 2008) . CFD has been used by various researchers to study plume released from isolated buildings and results obtained for different Schmidt numbers (Sct) showed discrepancies (Tominaga and Stathopoulos, 2007) . Therefore, it is necessary to study the variations of this number (Sct) in pollutant dispersion studies, particularly in the presence of adjacent buildings, since most CFD studies have not included the effect of adjacent buildings.

Although wind tunnel and field studies are useful in predicting plume dilutions, time and financial constraints are two of the major disadvantages associated with them.

CFD has been used by various researchers to study plume released from isolated buildings and results obtained for different Schmidt numbers (Sct) showed discrepancies.


Apis mellifera is a native species in the Mediterranean region, but because of pests common in beehives, such as Varroa, natural or feral swarms are rare in nature today, as they are in Europe (Moritz et al., 2005) . The native bee fauna in western Asia has a long history of interaction with wild, feral, or domesticated honeybees. This could have led to development of mechanisms that allowed their coexistence. However, the extreme density of honeybees in Israel, about 90,000 beehives scattered in 6,300 locations with an average area of 1.5 km 2 for any beehive location (Israel Honey Council web site), produces heavy pressure on the floral resources, and thus may negatively affect the native bee fauna, mainly during drought years or seasons when floral resources are limited.

Apis mellifera is a native species in the Mediterranean region, but because of pests common in beehives, such as Varroa, natural or feral swarms are rare in nature today, as they are in Europe.


The immune response to cancer is complex, and our understanding overall seems limited. For example, it is understood that the tumor microenvironment (TME) involves a mix of cell types and cellular and soluble molecules interacting in time and space [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] . Understanding how these factors interact spatially represents a particular challenge for the field of immuno-oncology. The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) has substantially informed our understanding of cancer immunity through the mapping of key genomic changes for 33 types of cancer [8] . Importantly, genomic techniques afford comparability across cancer types because of their ability to measure numerous immuno-oncology-related genes simultaneously and because multiple laboratories working independently can coordinate and harmonize their analyses. These kinds of studies, however, cannot be used to measure expressed proteins, the distribution of immune cells in the TME or the spatial arrangement of different cell types.

For example, it is understood that the tumor microenvironment (TME) involves a mix of cell types and cellular and soluble molecules interacting in time and space.

The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) has substantially informed our understanding of cancer immunity through the mapping of key genomic changes for 33 types of cancer.


In a connection with dynamical systems, Newman, Shneider and Shalev introduced a notion of an entropy of an associative algebra. They defined the entropy of a graded associative algebra A as H(A) = lim sup n→∞ a 1/n n where a n = dim A(n) is the vector space dimension of the n − th homogeneous component [28] . Notice that we can use Theorem 1.1 to construct algebras with arbitrarily small but nonzero entropy satisfying prescribed relations (if the number of relations is not too big).

They defined the entropy of a graded associative algebra A as H(A) = lim sup n→∞ a 1/n n where a n = dim A(n) is the vector space dimension of the n − th homogeneous component.


These new means of communications are considered as a very promising new technology and a keystone of the intended fifth generation wireless technology 5 (5G). Besides proximity services, D2D communications also allow to lower the battery usage for short distance transmissions, and can be used for information relaying from a device to another device, or from a device to a base station (BS), as well as for direct communications between devices [2] . This type of communications requires a synchronization between devices, made either by the 10 devices themselves (via tokens called "beacons"), or by the base stations [3, 4] .

Besides proximity services, D2D communications also allow to lower the battery usage for short distance transmissions, and can be used for information relaying from a device to another device, or from a device to a base station (BS), as well as for direct communications between devices.

This type of communications requires a synchronization between devices, made either by the 10 devices themselves (via tokens called "beacons"), or by the base stations.


One of the incompatibility loci (S) appears to be still functional in the L. temuientum accesssion used in this present study, otherwise segregations would agree with those proposed in model 1. The discovery of a functional incompatibility locus in a self-fertile species is of considerable significance for the possibility of reconstructing a self-incompatible form from genotypes that possess different self-compatibility loci (Larsen et a!., 1973) . Functional incompatibility loci would also provide additional evidence for the theory that self-fertile species are derived from self-incompatible ancestors. As the two incompatibility loci in the grass system rely on complementation for their expression, the single incompatibility locus in L. temulentum is unable to act in the absence of a functional product from the mutated locus. The continued existence of the apparently redundant self-incompatibility locus therefore demands the question as to its role: is it a vestige of the original self-incompatibility system or does it carry out another, as yet, unknown function?

The discovery of a functional incompatibility locus in a self-fertile species is of considerable significance for the possibility of reconstructing a self-incompatible form from genotypes that possess different self-compatibility loci.


Up until the mid-1960s, bus transit fi rms in the U.S. were primarily privately owned and operated. Privately owned streetcar lines in the early 1920s were aff orded public monopoly status with the rationale that the high initial capital costs associated with rail created a large economy of scale that justifi ed ownership by one public entity (Nicosia 2001) . However, rapid growth in automobile usage beginning in the 1920s and continuing more or less through the 1960s and 1970s (with a short decline due to rationing during World War II) eroded transit mode shares, especially for off -peak trips and weekend excursions and shopping trips. In the United States, as private agencies were taken over by public ones in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the resulting agencies tended to consolidate, leading to larger overhead expenses (Richmond 2001) . In response to the growing fi nancial troubles in the transit industry, a series of bills was passed to come to its aid. In 1964, the Urban Mass Transportation Act (UMTA) increased federal involvement in transit, providing grants for public takeovers of failing transit fi rms as well as capital investments, and, in 1974, the National Mass Transportation Assistance Act marked the beginning of a decade of federal funding of transit operating costs.

Privately owned streetcar lines in the early 1920s were aff orded public monopoly status with the rationale that the high initial capital costs associated with rail created a large economy of scale that justifi ed ownership by one public entity.

In the United States, as private agencies were taken over by public ones in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the resulting agencies tended to consolidate, leading to larger overhead expenses.


Privatization of bus services occurs in a range of forms and regulatory environments. In deregulated bus markets, governments eliminate many of the controls on market entry and exit, allowing private bus operators to compete along fi xed routes and semi-fi xed routes (Gomez-Ibanez and Meyer 1993) . The degree of liberalization schemes vary from complete free-entry to regulations of fares, entry, routing, and vehicle standards. In many countries, governments provide exclusive franchises along routes to private operators based on a competitive bidding process. With contracting of public transit, the public agency coordinates schedules, routes, and fares to overcome the problem of multiple providers, while the private operator owns and maintains vehicles and hires drivers. This arrangement allows public control while reducing operating costs and is more common in developed countries. Finally, privately operated small-scale vehicles, or paratransit, operating along semi-fi xed routes are found in a range of regulatory environments, sometimes operating informally or legally as a complement to the formal system such as dial-a-ride services for the disabled or airport shutt le services.

In deregulated bus markets, governments eliminate many of the controls on market entry and exit, allowing private bus operators to compete along fi xed routes and semi-fi xed routes.


The managements of zakah funds in the world are varied and depend on each prevailing system in the respective countries. There are countries that apply mandatory system with collective management, such as Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Malaysia. There are also countries apply voluntary system with collective management. The other countries apply voluntary system with individual management. Based on the table below, several countries apply monopoly in their zakah management, while several others, the governments and communities have the same involvement in zakah management and distribution. To increase the benefit reachability of zakah throughout Indonesia, the implementation of management science is necessary to take into a note, so that the zakah funds distribution can go effectively in reaching each mustahiq. In Islam, there are two groups: muzakki and mustahiq. The muzakki group consists of those who are obliged to pay for zakah, while the mustahiqs are those who have rights to get zakah fund. Zakah management pattern should be directed to organizational pattern (Widarwati and Afif, 2015) . The following is among the characteristics of organization: (1) Thus, if zakah funds are managed organizationally and not temporarily, the treatment for muzakki and mustahiq can go sustainably. Zakah management can also be focused based on the vision, mission, and purposes determined. In human resource management, there are also punishment and reward by placing the persons according to their respective competences. Every member of the zakah management organization has also strict divisions of tasks, authorities, and responsibilities.

Zakah management pattern should be directed to organizational pattern.


The QD-AMVA method we propose differs from existing techniques as it encompasses a much wider class of queuedependence, where service requirements of class r at station k can depend on both n k,r and n k , not just on n k as in the above works. Existing approaches for open load-dependent queueing systems focus on the case of a single station with a single server and single-class customers, which is analyzed by means of Markovian processes for either the queue lengths or the waiting times. Instead we focus on the case of a closed queueing network made of many stations, which we analyze iteratively by means of an AMVA algorithm especially designed for queue-dependent services. Furthermore, our method is straightforward to implement, provides guarantees on existence and uniqueness of the solutions, and delivers accurate results. Finally, since our technique operates directly on mean values, its computational costs are O(MR), for a model with M stations and R classes, and thus independent of the population size K . Conversely, all existing methods for multiclass models need to recursively or iteratively evaluate at least O(MRK ) state probabilities. This makes the overall cost of exact analysis of queue-dependent models O(MRK R+1 ) in the total population size depending on the solution approach [16] .

This makes the overall cost of exact analysis of queue-dependent models O(MRK R+1 ) in the total population size depending on the solution approach.


The test-retest method was adopted to assess the reliability of the survey questionnaires. The questionnaires were administered twice within a three-week timeframe to two groups (employers and employees) of non-participating respondents. For each group, there were five respondents coming from Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) regional line agencies. The result showed a reliability coefficient of .88 for employers' questionnaire and .71 for employees' questionnaire indicating that the questionnaires are reliable and comparable to standardized measures for non-ability test (Helmstadler, 1964) . For statistical analysis of data, means was used to get the norm score to describe the application of employability skills as well as the contextual performance as perceived by both employers and employees. Table 1 contains data on the level of application of employability skills of employees working in different public institutions in one region in the Philippines. These skills which are acquired during their college or university education are self-assessed by employees as to how they are applied in their respective workplaces. Periodic self-evaluation of strengths and weaknesses is one measure to keep one's employability (Hall, 1996; Seibert, 1996) . As shown in Table 1 , the Fundamental Skills made up of skill areas such as Communication, (2.32), Management of Information (2.24), Use of Numbers (2.28) and Thinking and Problem Solving (2.24) were applied "to some extent". Based on the mean scores of four skill areas, the Fundamental Skills category gained an overall mean of 2.27. This basically describes that employees' application of employability skills in their current jobs was to some extent only.

The result showed a reliability coefficient of .88 for employers' questionnaire and .71 for employees' questionnaire indicating that the questionnaires are reliable and comparable to standardized measures for non-ability test.

Periodic self-evaluation of strengths and weaknesses is one measure to keep one's employability.


Duplex stainless steels (DSSs) can be defined as a family of stainless steels whose structures are approximately 50% austenite and 50% ferrite, and its physical properties are a combination of the ferritic and the austenitic grades. In addition to their relatively low cost, they combine the best attributes of both austenitic and ferritic stainless steels which provide high strength and ductility with good resistance to corrosion (including stress corrosion cracking). Therefore, they are most commonly used when a combination of high mechanical strength and high corrosion resistance is required and are increasingly seen as an attractive alternative to the conventional stainless steels. However, owing to their high tensile and yield strength (roughly twice the yield strength of their counterpart austenitic grades, see Table 1 ), high work hardening rate, low thermal conductivity, high fracture toughness, strong tendency to form the built-up edge (BUE), and relatively high austenite and nitrogen content, modern duplex stainless steels are regarded as poorly machinable materials [1] .

However, owing to their high tensile and yield strength (roughly twice the yield strength of their counterpart austenitic grades, see Table 1 ), high work hardening rate, low thermal conductivity, high fracture toughness, strong tendency to form the built-up edge (BUE), and relatively high austenite and nitrogen content, modern duplex stainless steels are regarded as poorly machinable materials.


Corporate travel is that segment of the business travel market that can be described as travel undertaken by the employees of a particular organisation that has a substantial travel volume. Travel arrangements are generally consolidated into a centralized function that falls under a specific department or in many instances includes the establishment of a separate Corporate Travel Department that oversees the entire travel programme. One of the primary functions of such a department is to consolidate the travel volume to obtain leverage from travel providers such as airlines, hotels and car rental firms in the negotiation of contracts at reduced prices (Bell & Morey, 1995) . It is generally nondiscretionary travel because business travellers have little influence over where, when, how and how long to travel.

One of the primary functions of such a department is to consolidate the travel volume to obtain leverage from travel providers such as airlines, hotels and car rental firms in the negotiation of contracts at reduced prices.


In South Africa approximately 40 per cent of the total travel market can be considered corporate or business-related (Palapies, 2001) . It is expected that by 2003 more than half of the travel business in South Africa will be driven by corporate travel. Corporate travel spending for large organisations in South Africa can run from anything between R1 million and R300 million per annum and these costs steadily increase because, in most cases, travel and entertainment expenditure is not incurred by purchasing professionals but by the travellers themselves. The pre-eminent concerns of these travellers are not necessarily the cost involved but their own convenience and esteem while they are travelling (Gilbert & Morris, 1995; Mason & Gray, 1995) .

In South Africa approximately 40 per cent of the total travel market can be considered corporate or business-related.

The pre-eminent concerns of these travellers are not necessarily the cost involved but their own convenience and esteem while they are travelling.


Ozone (O 3 ) is one of the most important global air pollutants in terms of impacts to human health, croplands and natural plant communities, and may become more important in the future. It is found in two primary layers in the atmosphere: in the upper stratosphere and the troposphere. In the upper stratosphere, it is a beneficial molecule that absorbs harmful ultra violet (UV) radiation from the sun before it reaches the Earth's surface (Crutzen, 1998) . In the troposphere, ozone is a hazardous air pollutant which may cause damage to humans, animals, vegetation and materials under conditions of increasing surface ozone concentration because of smog photochemical reactions in the presence of growing atmospheric pollution (Kalabokas et al., 2000) . Ozone is not directly emitted into the atmosphere; it forms as a secondary pollutant from nitrogen oxides (NO x ) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the presence of sunlight. In urban areas on hot, sunny days ozone can reach very high concentration levels that can be unhealthy.

In the upper stratosphere, it is a beneficial molecule that absorbs harmful ultra violet (UV) radiation from the sun before it reaches the Earth's surface.

In the troposphere, ozone is a hazardous air pollutant which may cause damage to humans, animals, vegetation and materials under conditions of increasing surface ozone concentration because of smog photochemical reactions in the presence of growing atmospheric pollution.


Nest predation limits avian fitness, so birds should prefer nest sites that minimize nest loss (Forstmeier and Weiss 2004; Hudson and Bollinger 2013; Latif et al. 2012; Schaefer et al. 2005) . Therefore, nest site selection is a critical part of bird breeding ecology, especially for opencup and ground nesting passerines. Managers must have knowledge of the relationship between nest site selection and nest success before undertaking habitat management and conservation. To assist in these management decisions, we compared characteristics of nest sites with those of random points. Then evaluated which habitat features were related to breeding success of Marsh Grassbird at Zhalong National Nature Reserve.

Nest predation limits avian fitness, so birds should prefer nest sites that minimize nest loss.


Labelled Transition Systems (LTSs) have been used successfully to reason about system behaviour. Modal Transition Systems (MTSs) are an extension of LTSs that distinguish between mandatory, possible and unknown behaviour. MTSs have been studied for some time as a means for formally describing partial knowledge of the intended behaviour of software systems [3] .

MTSs have been studied for some time as a means for formally describing partial knowledge of the intended behaviour of software systems.


The forest-fire model we consider consists of a square grid of sites. At each time step, we either attempt to plant a tree on a randomly chosen site, or we drop a match on the site. A tree is planted if a site is not occupied by a tree. If a match is dropped on a site occupied by a tree, that tree and all adjacent trees are destroyed in a model fire. The sparking frequency is the inverse of the number of attempted tree drops before a model match is dropped. It is found that the frequencyarea distribution of fires over a range of sizes is power-law with a slope near unity. The frequency-area distribution of trees clusters is also power-law with a slope near two. This difference in slope follows since the probability that a match will ignite a cluster is proportional to the area of the cluster. The site-percolation model can be regarded as the forest-fire model without fires. This is a transient problem as the number of trees on the grid increases monotonically until every site is occupied by a tree. However, there is a well-defined critical point during this evolution. This critical point occurs when a cluster of trees spans the grid. Monte Carlo simulations with large grids show that a spanning cluster is formed when 59.275% of the grid sites are occupied by trees (Stauffer and Aharony, 1992) . At this critical point, the frequencyarea distribution of tree clusters is power-law with a slope of 2.055. This similarity to the forest-fire model only occurs at the critical point. At other times during the transient planting of trees, the distribution is not power-law (Turcotte, 1999) . The tuning parameter in this critical-point problem is the fraction of sites occupied ρ. The critical value of this tuning parameter is ρ c = 0.59275.

Monte Carlo simulations with large grids show that a spanning cluster is formed when 59.275% of the grid sites are occupied by trees.

At other times during the transient planting of trees, the distribution is not power-law.


For the three natural hazards described above, hazard assessment and event forecasting are of great importance. The applicability of power-law frequency-size distributions can be directly applied to hazard assessment. The rate of occurrence of smaller events can be extrapolated to give the expectation of larger events. This is routinely done for earthquakes (Kossobokov et al., 2000) . The forecasting of individual events, however, remains extremely controversial.

This is routinely done for earthquakes.


Increasing demand for higher capacity in the growing WLAN market has led to the introduction of a new generation of WLAN standards using more spectrally efficient modulation techniques. The 802.11a standards are based on orthogonal frequency division multiplexing modulation, where 52 uniformly spaced carriers are independently modulated with Phase-shift keying (PSK) or Quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM); thus it requires circuit architecture with low amplitude-phase mismatch and high linearity output, thus resulting in an improved error vector magnitude performance. The standard supports data rates from 6 to 54 Mbps in the 5 GHz unlicensed national information infrastructure band (5.15-5.35 GHz) [1] .

The standard supports data rates from 6 to 54 Mbps in the 5 GHz unlicensed national information infrastructure band (5.15-5.35 GHz).


This paper is organized as follows. Section 2 describes the frequency planning scheme for IEEE 802.11a application as well as the architecture of the proposed current-draining mixer utilized in low-voltage, switched transconductor topology. The simulation results on a 1.8 V current-draining mixer realized in 0.18 µm CMOS technology are reported in Section 3, while the conclusion is presented in Section 4. Figure 1 shows an LO generation scheme utilized in realizing two-step, up-conversion transmitter in compliance with IEEE 802.11a application. The VCO operates at two-thirds of the LO frequency and divide by two circuit produces quadrature outputs at one-third of the LO frequency. As the VCO operates at two-thirds of the LO frequency, this scheme effectively suppresses the injection pulling effect and reduces the LO-RF interaction by subsequent stage of PA [6] .

This paper is organized as follows.

As the VCO operates at two-thirds of the LO frequency, this scheme effectively suppresses the injection pulling effect and reduces the LO-RF interaction by subsequent stage of PA.


Mixer isolation is defined as the ratio in dB of the signal power available at one port of the mixer to the power level of that incoming signal at one of the other mixer port in a 50 Ω system. Most mixer designs result in maximum isolation from the LO to the BB ports and the BB to RF isolation being the poorest [5] . The non-idealities resulting in LO feedthrough to the BB input observes a dc component at the output, resulting in a static dc voltage [6] . In a direct conversion system, the RF and LO signal share the same band, the leakage results in severe blockage to the subsequent circuit block.

Most mixer designs result in maximum isolation from the LO to the BB ports and the BB to RF isolation being the poorest.

The non-idealities resulting in LO feedthrough to the BB input observes a dc component at the output, resulting in a static dc voltage.


Software architecture is an important phase in software lifecycle as it allows taking early design decisions about a system. Moreover it is also the earliest point in system development at which the system to be built could be analyzed [7] , [9] . Analysis of a system at the architectural level enables the choice of the right architecture for the system under consideration, thus saving major potential modifications later in the development cycle or tuning the system after deployment.

Moreover it is also the earliest point in system development at which the system to be built could be analyzed.


Note that these TOA-and TDOA-based source localization algorithms considered only line-of-sight (LOS) connections between the source and sensors. However, in indoor environments or urban areas, there are non-line-of-sight (NLOS) observations resulting from the obstacles (e.g., buildings) in the direct paths of the signal transmission. NLOS connections severely degrade the source localization accuracy, since the obtained TOA measurement is positively biased due to the longer NLOS traveling distance than the true LOS distance [31, 32] .

NLOS connections severely degrade the source localization accuracy, since the obtained TOA measurement is positively biased due to the longer NLOS traveling distance than the true LOS distance.


Source localization using a number of distributed sensors has been extensively studied in the past few years for a wide range of applications such as radar, sonar, and microphone array [1] [2] [3] . Recently, tremendous growth in advances of wireless sensor networks (WSNs) has promoted both algorithmic research and application of the source localization in sensor networks [4] [5] [6] . Usually, the positions of the sensor nodes are assumed to be known and the spatial location of the source is the parameter to be estimated. Measurements are extracted from the received signals at local sensors and then transmitted to a fusion center where the source position estimation is carried out by fusing the received measurements.

Source localization using a number of distributed sensors has been extensively studied in the past few years for a wide range of applications such as radar, sonar, and microphone array.

Recently, tremendous growth in advances of wireless sensor networks (WSNs) has promoted both algorithmic research and application of the source localization in sensor networks.


Uterine fibroids are the most common tumourin women [1] - [3] . Actually, up to 80% women will have at least one leiomyoma [2] . These monoclonal tumours arise from the uterine smooth-muscle tissue and depend on oestrogen and progesterone [2] . A single genetic hit might lead clonal expansion of stem cells within the normal myometrium [2] .

Uterine fibroids are the most common tumourin women.

Actually, up to 80% women will have at least one leiomyoma.

These monoclonal tumours arise from the uterine smooth-muscle tissue and depend on oestrogen and progesterone.

A single genetic hit might lead clonal expansion of stem cells within the normal myometrium.


As the accuracy of Cauchy-approximation-based coarse models is typically better than that of equivalent-circuit ones or the models using analytical formulas, the proposed technique usually yields a satisfactory design after just two or three iterations of the SM algorithm. The algorithm exploiting equivalent-circuit model typically needs more iterations [13, 14] . However, the computational cost of the optimization process is similar to that of SM exploiting equivalent circuits because of the additional overhead related to the coarse model creation. Nevertheless, the most important advantage of the proposed technique is its versatility: it allows application of space mapping for cases where reliable circuit-based or analytical coarse models are not available (cf. Sections 5.2 and 5.3).

The algorithm exploiting equivalent-circuit model typically needs more iterations.

Sections 5.2 and 5.3).


As mentioned in the introduction and in Section 3, the main novelty of the proposed technique is the way of creating the coarse model for the space mapping optimization process. Because the coarse model is built from coarsely-discretized EM model data, our technique is quite versatile and allows us to handle a large variety of microwave structures as illustrated above. This is not the case for standard SM which typically exploits equivalent-circuit models and has difficulty with handling EM-based coarse models directly [47] .

This is not the case for standard SM which typically exploits equivalent-circuit models and has difficulty with handling EM-based coarse models directly.


These findings are consistent with clinical evidence; patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) given aerosolized Levofloxacin twice-daily experienced a nearly 10-fold decrease in P. aeruginosa density (our definition of infection control) over the treatment period compared with the placebo group [104] . The study did not investigate the presence of phage, but did note that approximately 60% of P. aeruginosa isolates showed resistance to Levofloxacin, supporting our prediction that dosing should fall between once-and twice-daily depending on the susceptibility of the bacteria to antibiotics. Our findings are also consistent with existing antibiotic dosing protocols; although aerosolized quinolones are no longer approved for CF patients, IV and oral doses are commonly recommended on a once-, twice-, or thrice-daily schedule [88, 105] .

These findings are consistent with clinical evidence; patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) given aerosolized Levofloxacin twice-daily experienced a nearly 10-fold decrease in P. aeruginosa density (our definition of infection control) over the treatment period compared with the placebo group.

Our findings are also consistent with existing antibiotic dosing protocols; although aerosolized quinolones are no longer approved for CF patients, IV and oral doses are commonly recommended on a once-, twice-, or thrice-daily schedule.


Not surprisingly, vocabulary development is a considerably complex process due to the size of the potential lexicon and the multifaceted nature of vocabulary knowledge, because the processes by which learners acquire a great deal information about a particular word gradually develops over a long period of time. Such development in both L1 and L2 occurs as learners attempt to comprehend new words they hear or read in various contexts (Krashen, 1989) . Therefore, vocabulary development can expand in different ways when the learners encounter various contexts of reading, listening, and oral conversation (Nagy, Herman & Anderson, 1985; Sternberg, 1987) .

Such development in both L1 and L2 occurs as learners attempt to comprehend new words they hear or read in various contexts.

Therefore, vocabulary development can expand in different ways when the learners encounter various contexts of reading, listening, and oral conversation.


As such, the fields of pedagogy and reading have profoundly focused on strategies, and strategies have been given an important role in reading behavior discussions. Expert readers apply a wide variety of comprehension strategies, i.e., routines and procedures to comprehend what is read more effectively (Kazemi, Hosseini, & Kohandani, 2013) . Reading comprehension strategies can be defined as mental operations which are used by readers when they read a text and try to understand it effectively . In fact, reading strategies reveal how readers conceive a task, what textual cues they attend to, how they make sense of what they read, and what they do when they do not understand specific texts. Notably, reading strategies range from simple fix-up strategies such as simply rereading difficult segments and guessing the meaning of unknown words from the context, to more comprehensive strategies like summarizing and relating what is being read to the reader's background knowledge.

Expert readers apply a wide variety of comprehension strategies, i.e., routines and procedures to comprehend what is read more effectively.


The number of empirical studies researching reading strategies has been on the rise. Most of reading comprehension studies have demonstrated that explicit teaching of reading strategies to EFL learners is important in enhancing proficient readers and increasing their reading comprehension. In this view, teachers should guide students to use strategies to comprehend the meaning fabricated by the author (Brown, 1981; Baker & Brown, 1984; Grabe, 2002; Biancarosa & Snow, 2006; Van Keer & Verhaeghe, 2005) . The following section deals with almost recent empirical studies on multiple reading comprehension strategies in EFL settings including the studies conducted in Iran.

In this view, teachers should guide students to use strategies to comprehend the meaning fabricated by the author.


Value addition can also help alleviate potential wastage during times of bumper harvest when the market cannot clear the available vegetables. Instead of farmers selling at giveaway prices or losing the product, the surplus can be processed and sold later thereby reducing losses. There is high potential demand for processed AIVs. The richer households tend to consume more fruits and vegetables than poorer households. Urban households consume more than rural households; that is twice the volume of vegetables as rural consumers (Bawden et al., 2002; Okado, 2000) . In addition, there are opportunities for supplying other outlets such as wet markets and institutions such as hospitals, schools, and hotels (Ngugi et al., 2007) .

Urban households consume more than rural households; that is twice the volume of vegetables as rural consumers.

In addition, there are opportunities for supplying other outlets such as wet markets and institutions such as hospitals, schools, and hotels.


Previous studies indicate limited access to high quality seeds (Karanja et al., 2014) . This was addressed by CABI, World Vegetable Center, HORTI-Tengeru and other collaborators. Several approaches have since enabled the growers to have access to good quality seed. Contract farming, research mediated approaches and quality declared seed are the key mechanisms that now facilitate farmer access to improved seeds of AIVs (Rajendran et al., 2016) . Production practices have also been improved through facilitation by the extension officers of different government entities and other organizations.

Previous studies indicate limited access to high quality seeds.

Contract farming, research mediated approaches and quality declared seed are the key mechanisms that now facilitate farmer access to improved seeds of AIVs.


Given these scenarios it is important for measures to be taken that address market gluts, wastage and the associated output and income losses. Suffice to note that selling agricultural products is the main source of cash income for most rural household's farmers in Tanzania. Farmers are no longer not only interested in high yield or even in high prices per se, but in more remunerative marketing outlets (Scott, 1995) .

Farmers are no longer not only interested in high yield or even in high prices per se, but in more remunerative marketing outlets.


Vegetables are highly perishable; they start to lose their quality right after harvest and continue throughout the process until it is consumed. This poses major challenges in distribution and marketing. For this purpose elaborate and extensive marketing channels, facilities and equipment are vital. This behaviour of vegetables makes the commodity not to be held for long periods and fresh produce from one area is often sent to distant markets without a firm buyer or price (Osano, 2010) .

This behaviour of vegetables makes the commodity not to be held for long periods and fresh produce from one area is often sent to distant markets without a firm buyer or price.


African indigenous vegetables (AIVs) have gained prominence in the recent past (Abukutsa-Onyango et al., 2006) . Among the key reasons for this have been the recently documented nutritional and health benefits (Lotter et al., 2014) . The low requirement for high value inputs has been one other reason, which has enabled low resource farmers to practice AIVs production (Rajendran et al., 2015) .

African indigenous vegetables (AIVs) have gained prominence in the recent past.

Among the key reasons for this have been the recently documented nutritional and health benefits.

The low requirement for high value inputs has been one other reason, which has enabled low resource farmers to practice AIVs production.


The analysis of CLTS in Cambodia highlighted the power negotiations between community members, government and implementing organisations around the use of shame, but also between donors and beneficiaries around local ownership of development programs. While the use of shame, as a part of CLTS, claims to uphold global demands for aid sustainability (along with its no subsidy mantra), using shame for behavioural coercion or change in Cambodia is largely considered unacceptable. This has resulted in adapted approaches to sanitation improvement strategies and now even the World Bank has acknowledged that CLTS alone is not enough to improve sanitation (World Bank, 2015) . This modified sanitation discourse permits the use of subsidies, incentives and microfinance alongside CLTS, thus forming a CLTS-hybrid sanitation model. However, these designs may not be as appealing to donors as they require greater resource commitment. Further, even in this hybrid model, shame has not and cannot disappear as it is the cornerstone of CLTS design.

This has resulted in adapted approaches to sanitation improvement strategies and now even the World Bank has acknowledged that CLTS alone is not enough to improve sanitation.


Despite some limitations of measurement, the current results suggest future directions for research to continue to explicate the regulatory relationship that exists between individual and context that promotes positive development. In particular, work needs to be done to differentiate individual assets, as a setting condition for positive youth development, from measurement of individual thriving behaviors. An individual who is thriving will be giving back to self and developing new competencies and behaviors. In addition, care must be taken to understand the interactions and, indeed, the fusion that exist between individual and ecological assets. Youth who are adaptively functioning across time with their environments are youth who will be engaged and contributing to self, family, community, and civil society, thus making it difficult to unearth pure individual or ecological assets. In fact, the two cross-specified factors identified in the present research attest to this difficulty. Objectively measuring the resources present in the multiple contextual niches of individuals could add a significant dimension to the work, enabling better understanding of how actual setting conditions contribute to an individual's connection to his or her environment and ultimate positive development (Theokas & Lerner, 2005) .

Objectively measuring the resources present in the multiple contextual niches of individuals could add a significant dimension to the work, enabling better understanding of how actual setting conditions contribute to an individual's connection to his or her environment and ultimate positive development.


There can be no pure discrimination between internal and external settings in a youth who is actively engaging and is engaged by the context. From a developmental-systems perspective, there must be integration between the setting conditions for positive youth development and the attributes of such functioning (Lerner, 2004) . If there were no such integration, then the person would not be adaptively fused within the multiple levels of the system. In the case of these youth, it seems there is a good fit between individual and context.

From a developmental-systems perspective, there must be integration between the setting conditions for positive youth development and the attributes of such functioning.


Additional analyses more fully explored the relationship between Individual Assets and Ecological Assets, as empirically identified, by examining their individual and combined predictive ability with a summary score of thriving behaviors. The thriving summary score represents an individual's functioning across a number of indicators at a particular point in time. Individuals are not expected to be perfect and have high scores across all indicators, nor do all contexts offer opportunities for, or demand, all instances of thriving behaviors at all times. The combined score for an individual reflects their overall functioning and development of a subset of socially valued behaviors. Adolescence is a time of trying out new roles, experimenting with behaviors, and developing a stable sense of self (Lerner, 2002) . Thus, intraindividual differences in behaviors during this negotiation process will emerge.

Adolescence is a time of trying out new roles, experimenting with behaviors, and developing a stable sense of self.


The diversity index of the studied lakes ranged from 1.75 to 3.9 (table 3). Many researchers have found eutrophic lakes to have lower diversity then oligotrophic ones (Reynolds et al., 2000a) . The negative correlation between phytoplankton diversity and trophic state index (tSI) observed in this research provided further support for this generalization (r = -0.53; p < 0.05).

Many researchers have found eutrophic lakes to have lower diversity then oligotrophic ones.


In the investigated lowland lake (lake Skadar), the predominantly represented groups were chlorophyta and cyanobacteria, comprising 51% and 25% of the total phytoplankton abundance, respectively. The main representatives of greens were species from genera Pandorina, Crucigenia, Scenedesmus and Coelastrum (g and J groups), all characteristic for shallow, mixed and nutrient-rich lakes (Padisak et al., 2009) . The most abundant cyanobacteria were species from genera Microcystis (m) and Anabaena (h1), both associated with eutrophic conditions.

The main representatives of greens were species from genera Pandorina, Crucigenia, Scenedesmus and Coelastrum (g and J groups), all characteristic for shallow, mixed and nutrient-rich lakes.


In some of the lakes, a similar phytoplankton abundance (the same order of magnitude) to the former period of investigation was observed. This was the case for the oligotrophic moutain lakes, Biogradsko, crno and Zmijinje. Bacillariophyta still numerically dominated, but the proportion of Asterionella formosa (group c) has been reduced in favor of small Cyclotella species (a group). The predominance of oligotrophic indicator species and the similarity in phytoplankton abundance showed that the oligotrophic character of these mountain lakes had not changed with time. The values of chlorophyll a concentration and tSI comply with this assumption. The reasons for species replacements other than eutrophication include changing contributions to different functional groups, shifting nutrient requirements and grazing pressure (Dokulil and teubner, 2003) .

The reasons for species replacements other than eutrophication include changing contributions to different functional groups, shifting nutrient requirements and grazing pressure.


Patients with risk factors for HCAP were less likely to be tested, and had a lower rate of positive UAT results. However, the positive yield of UAT again documents the presence of usual, non-resistant pathogens among HCAP patients. As HCAP does not accurately select patients with resistant pathogens, and broad-spectrum antibiotic therapy does not improve their outcome, we do not recommend considering HCAP factors in the decision to order pneumocococcal UAT [19] . The HCAP concept was never adopted in Europe, and is "mostly dead" in North America.

As HCAP does not accurately select patients with resistant pathogens, and broad-spectrum antibiotic therapy does not improve their outcome, we do not recommend considering HCAP factors in the decision to order pneumocococcal UAT.


First we constrain the amount of fluctuations by comparing with the H1 diffractive J/Ψ photoproduction data [12] . The free parameters that describe the proton fluctuations, B q and B qc (see Sec. 2), are obtained by requiring a good simultaneous agreement with both coherent and incoherent diffractive cross sections. As these processes are separately sensitive to the average density profile and to the amount of fluctuations, this allows us to constrain both B q = 0.3 GeV −2 and B qc = 3.0 GeV −2 . This corresponds to having large event-by-event fluctuations in the proton wave function. This is illustrated in Fig. 3 , where we show 1 − Re TrV(x)/N c which can be seen to be roughly proportional to the density of the proton.

First we constrain the amount of fluctuations by comparing with the H1 diffractive J/Ψ photoproduction data.


Determination of enzyme activity to chromogenic substrates. Enzymatic activity was determined in homogenate and supernatant fraction of three larval stages of housefly. The reaction rate was estimated by reading of reaction product p-nitroaniline at 405 nm. Incubation solution usually contained 640 µl of 100mM Tris/HCl buffer, pH 8.3, 30 µl of enzyme and 30 µl of chromogenic substrate of 10mM concentration dissolved in dimethylformamide (DMF). After incubation at 37°C for 30 min, sometimes 60 min, reaction was stopped by 300 µl of 10% of trichloracetic acid (TCA). Enzyme activity is expressed in U which is defined as enzyme amount which produce 1 µmol p-nitroaniline per min per mg of proteins. The values are means of duplicate determinations. Concentration of proteins was determined by Bradford assay with bovine albumin as standard protein (Bradford, 1976) .

Concentration of proteins was determined by Bradford assay with bovine albumin as standard protein.


However, although the basis and structure of this model is well known and much supporting research is available little has been attempted regarding its further expansion (Brackstone, Sultan, & MacDonald, 2002) . This is especially the case when drivers have to perform their driving task under adverse conditions. This contribution therefore focuses on the theory and prospective modeling of adaptation effects in car-following behavior in case of the adverse weather conditions (i.e. fog) in relationship with the aforementioned psycho-spacing models.

However, although the basis and structure of this model is well known and much supporting research is available little has been attempted regarding its further expansion.


Basically in these models driving behavior is controlled by four different perceptual: a minimum and maximum threshold for desired spacing and a threshold for positive and negative relative speeds. These thresholds serve to delineate a relative speed -spacing plane (Δv,s) in which the driver of a following vehicle would be unable to notice any change in his dynamic conditions and would seek to maintain a constant acceleration a (Brackstone, Sultan, & MacDonald, 2002) . On crossing one of these thresholds, a driver will perceive that an unacceptable situation has occurred and will adjust his longitudinal driving behavior through a change in the sign of his acceleration. In the remainder of this contribution these points in the (Δv,s) plane are referred to as action points. The driver will maintain this acceleration until another threshold is crossed, producing the typical spirals in the (Δv,s) plane (Fig. 1) .

These thresholds serve to delineate a relative speed -spacing plane (Δv,s) in which the driver of a following vehicle would be unable to notice any change in his dynamic conditions and would seek to maintain a constant acceleration a.


Cold ethanol has been tested for displacing the starch from the developed dough [3, 4] . Although water is used on a commercial scale for the displacement of starch from gluten because of its ease of use and availability, the functionality of the resulting gluten is often inferior to native gluten [3, 4] . It has been suggested that cold ethanol is a better solvent for starch displacement [4] [5] [6] [7] . When cold ethanol was used to displace starch from the gluten matrix, there was a significant advantage of ethanol compared to water in terms of gluten functionality. Dilutions of 0-100% aqueous ethanol at a range of temperatures were tested [18] . Ethanol was most effective and economical as an extractant of gluten at 70% concentration and -13ºC [18] . The functionality of gluten could be improved by replacing the starch displacement fluid from water to 70% ethanol [3] [4] [5] [6] .

Cold ethanol has been tested for displacing the starch from the developed dough.

Although water is used on a commercial scale for the displacement of starch from gluten because of its ease of use and availability, the functionality of the resulting gluten is often inferior to native gluten.

It has been suggested that cold ethanol is a better solvent for starch displacement.

Dilutions of 0-100% aqueous ethanol at a range of temperatures were tested.

Ethanol was most effective and economical as an extractant of gluten at 70% concentration and -13ºC.

The functionality of gluten could be improved by replacing the starch displacement fluid from water to 70% ethanol.


Wheat gluten is marketed commercially in two forms, 'non-vital' and 'vital' [1] . Non-vital wheat gluten is the gluten that has undergone irreversible denaturation and cannot be revitalized. It absorbs water in an amount related to its particle size and distribution. In contrast, vital dry gluten in contact with water re-hydrates rapidly and regains its intrinsic functionality. The functionality of gluten is very important for improving baking performance and may be affected by several factors at different stages of gluten extraction. Vitality of gluten has been related to the rate of water absorption and the degree of viscoelasticity [1] .

Wheat gluten is marketed commercially in two forms, 'non-vital' and 'vital'.

Vitality of gluten has been related to the rate of water absorption and the degree of viscoelasticity.


The final step of gluten extraction is the drying of the gluten extract. Drying of the gluten extract has received considerable attention by the researchers because high temperature drying often has deleterious effects on the gluten functionality [19] . For commercial gluten production, the gluten is dried with high temperature air, whereas in the laboratory, freezing and vacuum drying have been reported to produce gluten with better functionality for breadmaking [1, 17] .

Drying of the gluten extract has received considerable attention by the researchers because high temperature drying often has deleterious effects on the gluten functionality.

For commercial gluten production, the gluten is dried with high temperature air, whereas in the laboratory, freezing and vacuum drying have been reported to produce gluten with better functionality for breadmaking.


The path of marine surface vehicles is usually a straight line or straight lines formed by waypoints at the open sea. Hence, there is little coupling between the longitudinal dynamics and the lateral dynamics. Some literatures present the riding control design of the FSHV [4, 7] . This paper mainly focuses on the steering control of the FSHV.

Some literatures present the riding control design of the FSHV.


Neuronavigation systems for frameless stereotaxy have been used in cranial neurosurgery since the middle of the 1980s [1, 2] . Owing to the rapid technological development in the field of image processing and in computer technology, such navigation systems are now used routinely. They are helpful not only in intraoperative anatomical orientation, but also in delimitation of healthy from pathological processes and in achieving accurate alignment of instruments at the operation site. Although computer-and image-guided surgical procedures are an improvement of frame-guided stereotaxy, most navigation systems for frameless stereotaxy still require rigid fixation of the patient's head throughout the operation.

Neuronavigation systems for frameless stereotaxy have been used in cranial neurosurgery since the middle of the 1980s.


The results of at least three studies using GIS buffer tools provide some evidence that greenness at any buffer size predicts physical health equally well. A national survey of physical activity and urban greenspace in Canada, for example, found that 30 m buffers predicted health as well as 500 m buffers [3] . Another study of greenness and air pollution exposure during pregnancy found that 100 m, 250 m, and 500 m buffers predicted birth and development outcomes similarly well [4] . A second study on birth and development outcomes and greenness found that 100 m and 500 m buffers had similar results [5] . What these studies fail to answer, however, is, does the impact of greenness on physical health plateau at a particular buffer size? To answer this question, one can compile these findings with those of other studies that examine greenness within larger buffer zones and look for trends across the studies.

A national survey of physical activity and urban greenspace in Canada, for example, found that 30 m buffers predicted health as well as 500 m buffers.

Another study of greenness and air pollution exposure during pregnancy found that 100 m, 250 m, and 500 m buffers predicted birth and development outcomes similarly well.

A second study on birth and development outcomes and greenness found that 100 m and 500 m buffers had similar results.


The multidisciplinary approach of tissue engineering might offer an attractive pathway to overcome these shortcomings and develop blood vessel substitutes identical or similar to native human arteries. In vascular grafts, an in vitro established autologous endothelial cell layer on the implant surface prior to implantation provides an excellent barrier between the synthetic material and the blood flow and has been reported to reduce thrombosis and intimal hyperplasia [2] [3] [4] . Overcoming these limitations will result in a distinct improvement of graft performance and patency [2] [3] [4] [5] .

In vascular grafts, an in vitro established autologous endothelial cell layer on the implant surface prior to implantation provides an excellent barrier between the synthetic material and the blood flow and has been reported to reduce thrombosis and intimal hyperplasia.

Overcoming these limitations will result in a distinct improvement of graft performance and patency.


The study also has limitations. Study participants were young, healthy, aerobically fit men, which limits the generalizability of the data. Exercise bouts were performed in a thermoneutral laboratory rather than under live fire conditions. However, the level of thermal strain attained and HR responses were within the range reported in previous studies of firefighting activity [8, 12, [20] [21] [22] [23] .

The study also has limitations.

However, the level of thermal strain attained and HR responses were within the range reported in previous studies of firefighting activity.