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PurposeThe purpose of this qualitative paper is to identify and amplify the voice of those experts who advise practitioners faced with foreign market entry decisions. This paper reports the importance that experts place on the rule of law, a positive ethical climate in host nations and the experts’ knowledge of investment financial performance after five years of the initial foreign market entry.Design/methodology/approachThe sample included 12 experienced expert professional interviewees who spent careers with publicly held multinational corporations, attorneys who advised multinational corporation officers, arbitrators with significant international dispute resolution experience, corporate ethics compliance experts, small global entrepreneurial business owners and an academic specializing in international commercial law and dispute resolution.FindingsThe rule of law and ethical climate significantly influence private market entry mode, dispute resolution choices and the likelihood of financial success. Finally, the findings illuminate the importance of the rule of law and a positive ethical climate in private foreign market entry decisions and their managerial and policy implications.Originality/valueThis study lays the foundation for the development of propositions to understand better the significant role of the rule of law in the private foreign investment decision-making process and the financial performance of the foreign investment.

The structure of Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) is an interconnected network of discrete components that record and count the votes of voters. The EVM system consists of four main subsystems which are Mother board of computer, Voting keys, Database storage system, power supply (AC and DC) along with various conditions of functioning as well as deficiency. The deficiency or failure of system is due to its components (hardware), software and human mismanagement. It is essential to reduce complexity of interconnected components and increase system reliability. Reliability analysis helps to identify technical situations that may affect the system and to predict the life of the system in future. The aim of this research paper is to analyze the reliability parameters of an EVM system using one of the approaches of computational intelligence, the neural network (NN). The probabilistic equations of system states and other reliability parameters are established for the proposed EVM model using neural network approach. It is useful for predicting various reliability parameters and improves the accuracy and consistency of parameters. To guarantee the reliability of the system, Back Propagation Neural Network (BPNN) architecture is used to learn a mechanism that can update the weights which produce optimal parameters values. Numerical examples are considered to authenticate the results of reliability, unreliability and profit function. To minimize the error and optimize the output in the form of reliability using gradient descent method, authors iterate repeatedly till the precision of 0.0001 error using MATLAB code. These parameters are of immense help in real time applications of Electronic Voting Machine during elections.

We conducted a survey of about ten different pedagogical tools with students of seven different small undergraduate business classes with average class size of 27 students. We propose that the high...

In recent years, graphene has been explored as a heating membrane for studying high-temperature dynamics inside the transmission electron microscope (TEM) due to several limitations with the existing silicon nitride-based membrane. However, the transfer of monolayer graphene films for TEM experiments is challenging and requires many complicated steps with a minimum success rate. This work developed a novel in situ heating platform by combining the graphene oxide (GO) flakes in the pre-patterned chips. The isolated GO flake was self-suspended between the metal electrodes by a simple drop-casting process. The GO was reduced and characterized using Raman and electron energy-loss spectroscopy. Furthermore, a GO-based heater was used to investigate the thermal stability of gold and silica nanoparticles. The gold nanoparticles evaporated non-uniformly and left an empty carbon shell, while silica disappeared uniformly by etching carbon support. We successfully demonstrated a GO flake as a heating membrane to study high temperature thermal dynamic reactions: melting/evaporation, agglomeration, Rayleigh instability, and formation/or removal of carbon in the nanoparticles.

Redox species such as transition metals may, unknowingly, integrate carbon materials that are produced (or supplied) for the assembling of electrodes in batteries, supercapacitors, and fuel cells. The extent to which these species alter the electrochemical profile of carbons and affect the performance and/or degradation of energy storage systems is still not fully appreciated. Alkaline oxidation (or fusion) is a promising approach to disintegrate nanocarbons for the subsequent study of their chemical composition by routine analytical tools. In this work, three commercial carbon powders, relevant for electrochemical applications and bearing varied textural orientation (point, radial, and planar), were selected to evaluate the versatility of fusion as a pretreatment process for elemental analysis. Additionally, the interaction of the flux, a lithium borate salt, with the carbons was elucidated by examining their post-fusion residues. The degree of structural degradation varied and, generally, the doping with Li and/or B (whether substitutional or interstitial) was low to nonexistent. With future developments, fusion could become a relevant pretreatment method to analyze the composition of carbon materials, even when complex mixtures (e.g., cycled battery electrodes) and larger batch scales are considered.

Conventional pressure sensors rely on diaphragms with large surface areas, which deform in response to pressure. Down scalability of these devices is one of the major challenges of the technology along with reducing the overall actuation voltage and achieving ultra-high sensitivity. We present a sensitive miniature pressure sensor based on the change in the physisorbed gases with the pressure of the surrounding air. The sensor consists of a suspended individual multiwall carbon nanotube (MWCNT) clamped on Au electrodes by electron-beam-induced deposition (EBID) of Pt. The variation in the surrounding pressure is shown to be tracked by monitoring the change in the resistivity, hence resistance, of the MWCNT bridge structure due to the change in percentage of oxygen and humidity in the surrounding medium with pressure. The experimental data reveal the practicability and simplicity of the proposed pressure sensor. (C) 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A 67-year-old female presented with severe hypoglycemia with a blood glucose of 34 mg/dl five hours after having dinner. She did not have diabetes and had no access to oral hypoglycemic agents, insulin, or any other drug known to cause hypoglycemia. She was a known case of primary hypothyroidism euthyroid on treatment. The physical examination was unremarkable. Her liver, renal functions, thyroid, and adrenal functions were normal. At a blood sugar level of 23 mg/dl, her serum insulin was 24,000 uU/ml (normal

Background: Human growth is susceptible to damage from insults, particularly during periods of rapid growth. Identifying those periods and the normative limits that are compatible with adequate growth and development are the first key steps toward preventing impaired growth. Objective: This study aimed to construct international fetal growth velocity increment and conditional velocity standards from 14 to 40 weeks’ gestation based on the same cohort that contributed to the INTERGROWTH-21st Fetal Growth Standards. Study Design: This study was a prospective, longitudinal study of 4321 low-risk pregnancies from 8 geographically diverse populations in the INTERGROWTH-21st Project with rigorous standardization of all study procedures, equipment, and measurements that were performed by trained ultrasonographers. Gestational age was accurately determined clinically and confirmed by ultrasound measurement of crown-rump length at Results: Peak velocity was observed at a similar gestational age: 16 and 17 weeks’ gestation for head circumference (12.2 mm/wk), and 16 weeks’ gestation for abdominal circumference (11.8 mm/wk) and femur length (3.2 mm/wk). However, velocity growth slowed down rapidly for head circumference, biparietal diameter, occipitofrontal diameter, and femur length, with an almost linear reduction toward term that was more marked for femur length. Conversely, abdominal circumference velocity remained relatively steady throughout pregnancy. The change in velocity with gestational age was more evident for head circumference, biparietal diameter, occipitofrontal diameter, and femur length than for abdominal circumference when the change was expressed as a percentage of fetal size at 40 weeks’ gestation. We have also shown how to obtain accurate conditional fetal velocity based on our previous methodological work. Conclusion: The fetal skeleton and abdomen have different velocity growth patterns during intrauterine life. Accordingly, we have produced international Fetal Growth Velocity Increment Standards to complement the INTERGROWTH-21st Fetal Growth Standards so as to monitor fetal well-being comprehensively worldwide. Fetal growth velocity curves may be valuable if one wants to study the pathophysiology of fetal growth. We provide an application that can be used easily in clinical practice to evaluate changes in fetal size as conditional velocity for a more refined assessment of fetal growth than is possible at present (https://lxiao5.shinyapps.io/fetal_growth/). The application is freely available with the other INTERGROWTH-21st tools at https://intergrowth21.tghn.org/standards-tools/.

Summary Background Preterm birth is a major global health challenge, the leading cause of death in children under 5 years of age, and a key measure of a population's general health and nutritional status. Current clinical methods of estimating fetal gestational age are often inaccurate. For example, between 20 and 30 weeks of gestation, the width of the 95% prediction interval around the actual gestational age is estimated to be 18–36 days, even when the best ultrasound estimates are used. The aims of this study are to improve estimates of fetal gestational age and provide personalised predictions of future growth. Methods Using ultrasound-derived, fetal biometric data, we developed a machine learning approach to accurately estimate gestational age. The accuracy of the method is determined by reference to exactly known facts pertaining to each fetus—specifically, intervals between ultrasound visits—rather than the date of the mother's last menstrual period. The data stem from a sample of healthy, well-nourished participants in a large, multicentre, population-based study, the International Fetal and Newborn Growth Consortium for the 21st Century (INTERGROWTH-21st). The generalisability of the algorithm is shown with data from a different and more heterogeneous population (INTERBIO-21st Fetal Study). Findings In the context of two large datasets, we estimated gestational age between 20 and 30 weeks of gestation with 95% confidence to within 3 days, using measurements made in a 10-week window spanning the second and third trimesters. Fetal gestational age can thus be estimated in the 20–30 weeks gestational age window with a prediction interval 3–5 times better than with any previous algorithm. This will enable improved management of individual pregnancies. 6-week forecasts of the growth trajectory for a given fetus are accurate to within 7 days. This will help identify at-risk fetuses more accurately than currently possible. At population level, the higher accuracy is expected to improve fetal growth charts and population health assessments. Interpretation Machine learning can circumvent long-standing limitations in determining fetal gestational age and future growth trajectory, without recourse to often inaccurately known information, such as the date of the mother's last menstrual period. Using this algorithm in clinical practice could facilitate the management of individual pregnancies and improve population-level health. Upon publication of this study, the algorithm for gestational age estimates will be provided for research purposes free of charge via a web portal. Funding Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Office of Science (US Department of Energy), US National Science Foundation, and National Institute for Health Research Oxford Biomedical Research Centre.

Nanoscaled spinel-structured ferrites bear promise as next-generation contrast agents for magnetic resonance imaging. However, the small size of the particles commonly leads to colloidal instability under physiological conditions. To circumvent this problem, supports onto which the dispersed nanoparticles can be anchored have been proposed. Amongst these, flakes of graphene have shown interesting performance but it remains unknown if and how their surface texture and chemistry affect the magnetic properties and relaxation time (T2) of the ferrite nanoparticles. Here, it is shown that the type of graphene oxide (GO) precursor, used to make composites of cobalt ferrite (CoFe2O4) and reduced GO, influences greatly not just the T2 but also the average size, dispersion and magnetic behaviour of the grafted nanoparticles. Accordingly, and without compromising biocompatibility, a judicious choice of the initial GO precursor can result in the doubling of the proton relaxivity rate in this system.

Nanocarbons continue to stimulate the scientific community while their production has also started to reach the industrial scale. With the commercialization of products that are based on materials such as carbon nanotubes (CNTs), it has become imperative to implement reliable quality control protocols for the routine analysis of their chemical composition and structure. Herein, we propose alkaline oxidation (a.k.a., fusion) as a valuable approach to disintegrate the graphitic structure of carbon nanotubes. Using the certified reference material SWCNT-1, it was shown that fusion enables the subsequent determination of elemental concentrations (Ni, Co and Mo) by a routine analytical tool such as inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES). Furthermore, the fusion residues were investigated, clarifying that the process does not result in the formation of non-intentional carbon compounds (e.g., carbides or carbonates) or lattice doping (e.g., B doping or Li intercalation).

A number of metallic one-dimensional nanostructures have been proposed as interconnects for next-generation electronic devices. Generally, reports on charge transport properties consider low current density regimes in nanowires (or nanotubes) with intrinsically straight configurations. In these circumstances, direct observations of the interconnecting nanofilament electrical failure are scarce, particularly for initially crooked structures. Here, the electrical and structural responses of suspended silver nanowires exposed to increasing current densities were analysed using in situ transmission electron microscopy. At low rates of bias application, initially straight nanowires showed trivial behaviour up to their breakdown, with electromigration and gradual necking taking place. By contrast, these nanowires with an initially crooked configuration exhibit a mixed set of responses which included string-like resonance and structural rearrangements. Remarkably, it was observed that restructuring does not necessarily compromise the transport function of these interconnectors. Hence, initially crooked nanowires could import higher resilience to future nanoelectronic devices by delaying catastrophic breakdown of interconnectors subjected to unexpected current surges.

The melt phase encapsulation of gadolinium iodide (GdI3) in small internal diameter carbon nanotubes (CNTs) was explored to understand how the tubular structure of the host could chemically stabilize a hygroscopic metal halide. However, given the distribution of diameters in the as-received CNTs, the final sample consisted of mixed encapsulation products. These varied from the monoelemental iodine chain to the atomic layer deposition of the binary halide. Supported by density functional theory calculations, these observations led to the proposition of a morphological phase diagram for GdI3 encapsulation in CNTs as a function of the host's internal diameter. Copyright © 2018 American Chemical Society.

The catalytic activity of as-synthesised nanoparticles is hindered by several factors such as impurities and lattice imperfections. Often, a post-synthesis treatment is mandatory to optimize the performance of these particles but little is known in regards to what this does to them. Here, graphene-supported platinum (Pt) nanoparticles were subjected to thermal annealing in a reductive atmosphere. Surface migration and re-structuring of the particles were observed through in-situ structural and chemical analysis. In addition, residual organic impurities were removed, though the oxide layer coating the Pt surface is not eliminated. Notwithstanding, the interaction of the nanoparticles and the substrate improved with the annealing step, and so did their electrochemically active surface area (ECSA). In these circumstances, better catalytic performance in nano-scaled Pt systems may be a result of the enhancement in ECSA and catalyst-substrate interaction, as opposed to the commonly used argument of surface oxide removal.

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are one of the most actively researched structural materials due to their interesting electrical, mechanical, and chemical properties. Unlike single walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs), little work has been focused on multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and their potential for practical devices. Here, we have fabricated bridge-shape devices integrating MWCNTs (> 50 nm in outer diameter) using three processes: optical lithography, electron beam-induced platinum deposition, and surface micromachining. Each device consists of a doubly-clamped nanotube suspended over gold electrodes on a highly conductive Si substrate. The suspended nanotubes are characterized individually using Raman spectroscopy and semiconductor parameters analysis and, overall, show, high crystallinity and low electrical resistance. The spring constants of doubly-clamped nanotubes were characterized using atomic force microscopy force−displacement measurements, with values as high as 70 N/m observed. Highly stiff MWCNTs are promising for a variety of applications, such as resonators and electrical interconnects. Through simulations, we estimate the resonance frequencies and pull-in voltages of these suspended nano-structures. The dependence of key parameters, such as the nanotube's length, Young's modulus, axial stress, and wall thickness is also discussed.

Helicity indicates the in-plane magnetic-moment swirling direction of a skyrmionic configuration. The ability to reverse the helicity of a skyrmionic bubble via purely electrical means has been predicted in frustrated magnetic systems, however its experimental observation has remained challenging. Here, we experimentally demonstrate the current-driven helicity reversal of the skyrmionic bubble in a nanostructured frustrated Fe3Sn2 magnet. The critical current density required to trigger the helicity reversal is 109 - 1010 A/m2, with a corresponding pulse-width varying from 1 {\mu}s to 100 ns. Computational simulations reveal that both the pinning effect and dipole-dipole interaction play a crucial role in the helicity-reversal process., Comment: Accepted by Advanced Materials

The bipolar pulsed power plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition method (PECVD) was used to deposit crystalline silicon carbide on the carbon fiber substrate. The β-SiC was deposited at a lower temperature of 150°C under the influence of Argon plasma. The polycarbosilane (PCS) was used as the source for silicon and carbon. The deposited coating on fiber was characterized using XRD for the phase detection and for the identification of crystallinity. The scanning electron microscope (SEM) was used for the morphological studies. The energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) was employed for identifying the elemental composition of the deposited coating.

Document recommendation systems for locating relevant literature have mostly relied on methods developed a decade ago. This is largely due to the lack of a large offline gold-standard benchmark of relevant documents that cover a variety of research fields such that newly developed literature search techniques can be compared, improved and translated into practice. To overcome this bottleneck, we have established the RElevant LIterature SearcH consortium consisting of more than 1500 scientists from 84 countries, who have collectively annotated the relevance of over 180 000 PubMed-listed articles with regard to their respective seed (input) article/s. The majority of annotations were contributed by highly experienced, original authors of the seed articles. The collected data cover 76% of all unique PubMed Medical Subject Headings descriptors. No systematic biases were observed across different experience levels, research fields or time spent on annotations. More importantly, annotations of the same document pairs contributed by different scientists were highly concordant. We further show that the three representative baseline methods used to generate recommended articles for evaluation (Okapi Best Matching 25, Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency and PubMed Related Articles) had similar overall performances. Additionally, we found that these methods each tend to produce distinct collections of recommended articles, suggesting that a hybrid method may be required to completely capture all relevant articles. The established database server located at https://relishdb.ict.griffith.edu.au is freely available for the downloading of annotation data and the blind testing of new methods. We expect that this benchmark will be useful for stimulating the development of new powerful techniques for title and title/abstract-based search engines for relevant articles in biomedical science. © The Author(s) 2019. Published by Oxford University Press.

Based on past research findings with college students, we tested whether perceived burdensomeness and thwarted belongingness represent important mediators of the association between future orientation and suicide risk (namely, depression and suicidality) in primary care patients. We conducted a multiple mediator test in a sample of 97 primary care patients. Our results indicated that perceived burdensomeness and thwarted belongingness accounted for the negative associations present between future orientation and measures of suicide risk. These findings provide evidence for perceived burdensomeness and thwarted belongingness as mechanisms accounting for the association between future orientation and suicide risk in primary care patients.

Nanoscaled spinel-structured ferrites bear promise as next-generation contrast agents for magnetic resonance imaging. However, the small size of the particles commonly leads to colloidal instability under physiological conditions. To circumvent this problem, supports onto which the dispersed nanoparticles can be anchored have been proposed. Amongst these, flakes of graphene have shown interesting performance but it remains unknown if and how their surface texture and chemistry affect the magnetic properties and relaxation time (

The phenomenon of congenitally missing teeth has been described with different names: hypodontia, oligodontia, anodontia, congenitally missing teeth and dental agenesis. The present paper reports familial hypodontia, involving two siblings from a single family. Case I reported the absence of 18, 12, 22 and 31 teeth whereas case II reported the absence of 31 and 41. On the evaluation of the two reported cases that were offspring of same parents and absence of any clinical features associated with any syndrome the final diagnosis of non- syndromic familial hypodontia was made. Both the cases presented agenesis of the teeth leading to malocclusion and aesthetic disturbances. Cases were offered a treatment of interdisciplinary dental approach.

Hyperthyroidism can manifest very early in fetal life (fetal thyrotoxicosis) or immediately after birth (neonatal thyrotoxicosis). The authors describe outcome of pregnancies in a woman with Graves' disease who received medical management and underwent subtotal thyroidectomy. The first pregnancy resulted in macerated stillbirth at 32 wk. Fetal tachycardia was followed by intrauterine death at 30 wk in the second pregnancy and macerated stillbirth at 26 wk in the third pregnancy. Fetal tachycardia was detected at 17 wk in the fourth pregnancy. Treatment with carbimazole along with thyroxine was followed by a live birth at 35 wk; but the baby developed severe fatal neonatal thyrotoxicosis with crisis on day 9 and died on day 12. Fetal tachycardia was noted in the fifth pregnancy as well and she was treated with carbimazole and thyroxine. She delivered a male baby at 37 wk. He developed neonatal hypothyroidism on day 8 which was controlled with thyroxine.

We conducted a randomised trial comparing lidocaine 2% gel with proparacaine 0.5% eye drops in children having elective squint surgery. One hundred and forty children aged between 3 and 14 years were recruited. The requirement for intra-operative fentanyl and postoperative ibuprofen was significantly less in the lidocaine group compared with the proparacaine group (1 (1.7%) vs 12 (18.5%), p=0.002 and 16 (27.6%) 38 (58.5%), p=0.001, respectively). The incidence of postoperative nausea and vomiting was significantly less in the lidocaine group compared with the proparacaine group (6 (10.3%) vs 16 (24.6%), p=0.04). There were no differences between the groups in terms of incidence and severity of the oculocardiac reflex. We conclude that, compared with proparacaine 0.5% eye drops, a single application of lidocaine 2% gel improves peri-operative analgesia and reduces the incidence of postoperative nausea and vomiting in elective paediatric squint surgery.

Using four case reports as examples the best treatment is discussed by considering the specific history and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings. In many cases different therapeutic alternatives are possible for treatment of meningiomas.

Neutrino oscillation is the new physics beyond standard model. In this paper we have revisited the issue of neutrino oscillation in simple and delicate manner. Starting from the fundamental quantum mechanical treatment for the neutrinos, we calculated the probabilities for the neutrino oscillating within three flavors. Normal and inverted hierarchy have been taken into account for the solar and atmospheric cases, in vacuum and matter. The probabilities have been plotted for all the cases and discussed., 23 pages, 15 figures

Fetal thyrotoxicosis is a rare disease occurring in 1 out of 70 pregnancies with Grave's disease or in 1 out of 4000-50,000 deliveries. The mortality is 12-20%, usually from heart failure, but other complications are tracheal compression, infections and thrombocytopenia. It results from transfer of thyroid stimulating immunoglobulins from mother to fetus through the placenta. This transplacental transfer begins around 20(th) week of pregnancy and reaches its maximum by 30(th) week. These autoantibodies bind to the fetal thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) receptors and increase the secretion of the thyroid hormones. The mother has an active autoimmune thyroid disease or has been treated for it in the past. She may be absolutely euthyroid due to past treatment by drugs, surgery or radioiodine ablation, but still have active TSH receptor stimulating autoantibodies, which can cause fetal thyrotoxicosis. The other features of this disease are fetal tachycardia, fetal goiter and history of spontaneous abortions and findings of goiter, ascites, craniosyntosis, fetal growth retardation, maceration and hydrops at fetal autopsy. If untreated, this disease can result in intrauterine death. The treatment for this disease consists of giving carbimazole to the mother, which is transferred through the placenta to the fetus. The dose of carbimazole is titrated with the fetal heart rate. If the mother becomes hypothyroid due to carbimazole, thyroxine is added taking advantage of the fact that very little of thyroxine is transferred across the placenta. Neonatal thyrotoxicosis patients are very sick and require emergency treatment. The goal of the treatment is to normalize thyroid functions as quickly as possible, to avoid iatrogenic hypothyroidism while providing management and supportive therapy for the infant's specific signs and symptoms.

Inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES) is a common, relatively low cost, and straightforward analytical technique for the study of trace quantities of metals in solid materials, but its applicability to nanocarbons (e.g., graphene and nanotubes) has suffered from the lack of efficient digestion steps and certified reference materials (CRM). Here, various commercial and certified graphitic carbon materials were subjected to a "two-step" microwave-assisted acid digestion procedure, and the concentrations of up to 18 elements were analyzed by ICP-OES. With one exception (Sm), successful quantification of all certified elements in the two reference nanocarbons studied was achieved, hence validating the sample preparation approach used. The applicability of our "two-step" protocol was further confirmed for a commercial single-walled carbon nanotube sample. However, the digestion was markedly incomplete for all other commercial materials tested. Where possible, the digestion residues of the carbon materials analyzed (CRM included) were characterized to understand the structural changes that take place and how this may explain the challenge of disintegrating graphitic carbon. In this respect, it was found that solid state nuclear magnetic resonance holds considerable promise as a nonlocalized, easily interpretable, and reliable tool to access the efficient disintegration of these materials.

The hollow cavities of nanotubes serve as templates for the growth of size- and shape-confined functional nanostructures, giving rise to novel materials and properties. In this work, considering their potential application as MRI contrast agents, gadolinium halides are encapsulated within the hollow cavities of WS2 nanotubes by capillary filling to obtain GdX3@WS2 nanotubes (where X = Cl, Br or I and @ means encapsulated in). Aberration corrected scanning/transmission electron microscopy (S/TEM) and spectroscopy is employed to understand the morphology and composition of the GdI3@WS2 nanotubes. The three dimensional morphology is studied with STEM tomography but understanding the compositional information is non-trivial due to the presence of multiple high atomic number elements. Therefore, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) tomography was employed revealing the three dimensional chemical composition. Molecular dynamics simulations of the filling procedure shed light into the mechanics behind the formation of the confined gadolinium halide crystals. The quasi-1D system employed here serves as an example of a TEM-based chemical nanotomography method that could be extended to other materials, including beam-sensitive soft materials.

We studied the statistical model of nucleons consisting of sea having various quark-gluon Fock states in addition to valence quarks. Using statistical consideration and taking 86% of the total Fock states contributing to the low energy properties of nucleon, we aim to find the contributions to these properties coming from the scalar, vector and tensor sea. We checked its validity against the assumption where the contributions from scalar and tensor sea have been suppressed and justified to be unimportant. We took the approximation that sea is getting a zero contribution from H_0 G_\bar10 and H_1 G_\bar10 in three gluon states. Under above considerations, the calculated magnetic moment, spin distribution and weak decay coupling constant ratio for proton and neutron states have been tabulated. We hereby confirm that the suppression of the scalar and tensor sea leads to modification in the parameters of the nucleons showing deviation from the experimental data., 13 pages, 5 figures, To be published in NPA

Aims: The aim of this study is to isolate and characterize organisms capable of utilizing high concentration atrazine from the contaminated sites. Methods and Results: A selective enrichment was used for isolating atrazine-degrading organisms from the contaminated sites resulting in isolation of an efficient atrazine-degrading organism designated as strain MB-P1. On the basis of 16S rRNA gene sequencing, total cellular fatty acid analysis and physiological and biochemical tests, strain MB-P1 was identified as a member of genus Rhodococcus. High performance liquid chromatography was performed to identify the atrazine degradation intermediates demonstrating that the degradation proceeds via formation of ‘de-ethylatrazine’ and ‘de-isopropylatrazine’. Further, plasmid curing by SDS method showed atrazine-degrading gene(s) to be plasmid-encoded. Conclusions: We have successfully isolated a Rhodococcus sp. strain MB-P1 which is capable of utilizing atrazine as sole source of carbon and energy at very high concentrations of 1000 ppm. The pathway for degradation of atrazine has also been determined. The metabolic gene(s) responsible for atrazine degradation was found to be plasmid-encoded. Significance and Impact of the Study: Rhodococcus sp. strain MB-P1 could be used as an ideal model system for in-situ degradation and restoration of ecological niches which are heavily contaminated with atrazine.

A new way of improving the oxidative behavior of carbon fibers coated with SiC through Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition technique. The complete study includes coating of SiC on glass slab and Stainless steel specimen as a starting test subjects but the major focus was to increase the oxidation temperature of carbon fibers by PECVD technique. This method uses relatively lower substrate temperature and guarantees better stoichiometry than other coating methods and hence the substrate shows higher resistance towards mechanical and thermal stresses along with increase in oxidation temperature.

This study presents a model, based on power generating system with shared load. The whole generating system consists of three subsystems viz: subsystem A , subsystem B and subsystem C. The subsystem A consists of one generating unit and one inbuilt transformer. The subsystem B also contains the same units and is connected in parallel to subsystem A. The output of this power system goes through the subsystem C that consists of one outer transformer and which may be further distributed as desired. The system has three types of states, viz: normal, degraded and failed. All types of failure rates and repair rates of inbuilt transformers are exponential while other repair rates are distributed quite generally. Supplementary Variable Technique has been employed to obtain various state probabilities and then the reliability parameters have been evaluated for the whole generating system.

The objective of this study was to ascertain knowledge of the normal anatomy and appreciation of components of an 'adequate' or 'acceptable' reduction by the medical staff responsible for management of distal radius fractures in the emergency departments (AE p = 0.031; chi(2) = 12.17. Only 18% respondents were aware of the acceptable ranges of adequate reduction; with orthopaedic staff, n = 12 (48%) being more aware than AE p = 0.002; chi(2) = 6.38. Only 19% formally measure the key parameters before decision making (52% orthopaedic vs. 8% AE p = 0.018; chi(2) = 7.31). Only 14% of respondents from hospitals equipped with picture archive navigation system stated that they used the angle measurement function.A lack of knowledge of the normal anatomical values and implementation of generally accepted measurement criteria predictive of fractures unlikely to benefit from repeat manipulations is evident. It is important to emphasise the influence of factors reported to affect stability such as age, functional demands of the patient and extent of initial fracture displacement in decision making. The introduction of a set of guidelines and further education of the medical staff could reduce the number of inappropriately treated distal radial fractures in the A&E setting with significant economic implications.

The use of electron and ion beam deposition to make devices containing discrete nanostructures as interconnectors is a well-known nanofabrication process. Classically, one-dimensional materials such as carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have been electrically characterized by resorting to these beam deposition methods. While much attention has been given to the interconnectors, less is known about the contacting electrodes (or leads). In particular, the structure and chemistry of the electrode-interconnector interface is a topic that deserves more attention, as it is critical to understand the device behavior. Here, the structure and chemistry of Pt electrodes, deposited either with electron or ion beams and contacted to a CNT, are analyzed before and after thermally annealing the device in a vacuum. Free-standing Pt nanorods, acting as beam-deposited electrode models, are also characterized pre- and post-annealing. Overall, the as-deposited leads contain a non-negligible amount of amorphous carbon that is consolidated, upon heating, as a partially graphitized outer shell enveloping a Pt core. This observation raises pertinent questions regarding the definition of electrode-nanostructure interfaces in electrical devices, in particular long-standing assumptions of metal-CNT contacts fabricated by direct beam deposition methods.

Aims In this study we describe the clinical, anthropometric and biochemical characteristics of patients with early onset Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) (

This study deals with a compound standby redundant system consisting of three sub-systems A, B, and C connected in series. The sub-system B consists of one main unit and the other is its standby redundant unit. These units further consist of two sub-units connected in series. The sub - units of main unit are connected to sub-units of standby unit through imperfect switching over device. Failure of all sub-systems and repair rate of switching over devices are exponential while repairs of all sub-systems are distributed quite generally. The various reliability parameters have been computed and analyzed by tabular and graphical illustrations

A two-year-old male poodle, diagnosed initially with primary portal vein hypoplasia was presented four months later with anorexia and dyspnoea. Clinical examination revealed shortness of breath, orthopnoea, muffled heart sounds and absence of normal lung sounds. Thoracic radiographs showed bilateral pleural effusion. Fluid analysis led to a diagnosis of chylothorax. After initial stabilisation, all possible causes of chylothorax were ruled out except for an idiopathic aetiology. This is the first case of chylothorax associated with primary hypoplasia of the portal vein.