“Because There Is Something About You, in the Way You Hold a Space”

New York City space puts forward multifold arrays of reflection on the state of the contemporary human self, in particular, of human beings in their interaction with an avantgarde, pompous, profit-oriented, world-reaching, rapid, and ephemeral space. Two post 9/11 Don DeLillo novels: Cosmopolis (2003) and Falling Man (2007) meticulously exhibit the spatial and temporal impact on urban environment and its inhabitants. The present paper scans New York’s urban space in these two novels, categorizing it into exteriors that encompass Manhattan’s streets and squares, and interiors that encompass hair salons, a ruined private flat and the destroyed Twin Towers. These spaces are scrutinized through an interdisciplinary approach that combines fiction with urban and social theory using views of Marshal Berman, Kwame Appiah, Gaston Bachelard, Michel Foucault among others. Revealing cultural divides in public spaces and a dual reality in confined spaces, the close analysis outlines aspects of DeLillo’s early 21st-century New York in which space is not detached from time in shaping an estranged self. The analysis, further, suggests that the accepted break in the flow of creativity and everyday life in the world city before and after 9/11, is, on the contrary, a continuous stream of trauma and a repeated pattern of destruction and creation

Alginate Metal Complexes and Their Application

Alginate is a natural polymer that can form complexes in the presence of multivalent metal. In this chapter, we summarized the newest alginate metal complexes application in many fields; organic synthesis, environmental and medical application. The main idea was about alginate complexes’ role in the drug delivery system as a chiral excipient to reach the enantioselective release in the case of chiral drugs. We also present a case study about the ketoprofen enantioselective release investigation from alginate mixed beads with two ion metal types

Geomorphic surfaces of eastern lake Urmia Playa and their influence on dust storms

Lake Urmia is one of the most important salt lakes in the world and the largest in Iran. At present, because of the recession of Lake Urmia and deposition of lacustrine sediments on the lake bed, a large part of the surrounding areas has become flat with several playa surfaces. So far, there have been very few studies related to Lake Urmia playa and its geomorphology. Therefore, the aim of this research was to field study of playa surfaces of Lake Urmia in its eastern part and also to identify areas susceptible to wind erosion. In this study, different playa surfaces from the northeast to the south of the lake were identified and mapped using satellite imagery. Then, boundaries of the mapped surfaces were checked during field observations. Moreover, physical soil properties, such as texture, bulk density, saturation percentage, resistancy, particle size distribution and soil aggregate stability, were determined. Next, the correlation of the studied properties with each surface resistance to wind erosion was investigated, and finally the geomorphic surfaces of Urmia Playa and their resistance to wind erosion were mapped using ARCGIS software. Based on the results, the study area included agricultural lands, shrub-grass zones, sand and gravel zones, mud-clay salt flats, sand-salt crusts, puffy grounds, delta-fans and wet zones. Results showed that approximately 25% of the surfaces had high resistance to wind erosion and they are therefore stable surfaces with no potential for generating dust in the future. About 35% of the surfaces were strongly susceptible to wind erosion, highly prone to generate saline dusts and sand storms. These areas were located in the east and southeast of the lake. Also, 40% of playa surfaces had moderate resistance to wind erosion. These areas can become very sensitive to wind erosion if ground water depth or the roughness of the surface changes. In conclusion, sandy-salt surfaces in the east and southeast of the lake are the most susceptible to wind erosion with high potential for generating dust, sand, and salt storms, which can affect agricultural lands and human health in the near future.Keywords: dust, erosion, geomorphology, Inceptisols, playa, Lake Urmi

Aktueller Stand der chemo-mechanischen Wurzelkanalaufbereitung in den zahnärztlichen Praxen Bayerns

Standard means of endodontic therapy have changed within the last decade due to new technical developments and an increasing scientific knowledge in this field. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the current status of materials, instruments and appliances used for root canal treatment by dentists in Bavaria. A comprehensive questionnaire was performed among 6900 Bavarian dentists in the year 2004. By use of a standardized questionnaire sheet, the colleagues were asked to give written information about their individual therapeutic concepts including the materials as used to perform root canal treatment. A total of 1666 dentists were enrolled into this study returning the questionnaire within the period of time that has been scheduled. This corresponds to a 24.1% return ratio. Detailed analysis of the collected data revealed the following specific results: The dentists included into the study had an age range from 27 to 71 years. Stratifying the study sample into different categories of age showed that the majority of study subjects belonged to the subgroup of age from 35 to 49 years (53,2%). The majority of dentists were male (77.5%) and most frequently dentists were working in private practices (71%). The age- and gender distribution of the participating dentists in this study is comparable to a statistic of the federal dental association (KZBV 2005). Regarding the health care insurance of patients that are treated endodontically on average 17% of patients had a private health care insurance. Considering the individual treatment means used by the dentists for endodontic therapy the following results were achieved: On average each dentist performed 10.5 root canal treatments per week. Regarding the method used for the determination of endodontic working length (multiple answers possible) 81% of the dentists used radiographs for this purpose. A comparably high percentage of dentists (46.6%) used endometric devices for the determination of the working length. Instrumentation of root canals (multiple answers possible) was performed by 57% of dentists with machine driven devices along with Nickel-Titanium (NiTi) files. The Profile system represents the most popular machine driven endodontic treatment system among Bavarian dentists since this particular system was used by 46% of study participants followed by the ProTaper system (32%) and the Flexmaster system (31%). Machine driven endodontic treatment devices were mainly used with a suitable torque-limited motor. The various products used for this purpose were (multiple answers possible) TriAutoZX, Morita (17.5%), ATR, Dentsply (14.9%), Endostepper, SET (11.4%) and Endo IT Control, VDW (11.1%). Nevertheless, a considerable percentage of dentists (35%) used machine driven devices without torque control. For the irrigation of instrumented root canals dentists spent a mean time of 2.1 minutes and used irrigating solutions (multiple denominations possible) as follows: NaOCl (85.1%), H2O2 (62.4%), EDTA (18.1%), CHX (15.2%). Overall, there was observed an increasing use of machine driven devices along with NiTi files and of EDTA and Chlorhexidine as compared with previous studies. Moreover, comparison of present data with current studies form different European and Non-European countries revealed that the use of rotating NiTi systems was significantly higher among Bavarian dentists. Based on the present results it can be assumed that the concepts as used for endodontic treatment by Bavarian dentists represents a high therapeutic standard

An Efficient Localization and Avoidance Method of Jammers in Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks

Jamming is a terrifying attack that could harm 802.11p-based vehicular communications by occupying the communication channels by overwhelming the network with jamming packets, especially for self-driving cars, as it is essential to send/receive messages without any interruptions to control the vehicles remotely. In wireless vehicular ad hoc networks (VANET), the attacker’s mission is more accessible due to the network’s open nature, way of communication, and lack of security measures. Most of the existing studies have focused on jamming detection approaches. However, few of them have addressed the jammer localization challenge. Moreover, even in these limited studies, the solutions’ assumptions, the proposed countermeasures, and their complexity were also missing. Therefore, this paper introduces a new approach to detecting, localizing, and avoiding jamming attacks in VANETs with high efficiency in terms of accuracy, implementation and complexity. The proposed approach uses the signal strength of the jammer for estimating only the distance between jammer and receiver, while then a less complex algorithm is proposed for localizing the jammer and then redirecting the vehicles away from the roads the attacker is using. This approach was simulated using real-life maps and specialized network environments. Additionally, the performance of the new approach was evaluated using different metrics. These evaluation metrics include (1) the estimated position of the jammer, (2) the handling of the jammer by announcing its location to normal vehicles (3) the avoidance of the jammed routes by increasing their weight, which forces the cars to reroute and evade the jamming area. The high localization accuracy, measured by the Euclidean distance, and the successful communication of the attacker’s position and its avoidance have highly increased the packet delivery ratio (PDR) and the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR). This was noticed significantly before and after avoiding the jamming area when for example, the PDR increased from 0% to 100% before and after bypassing the jammer’s routes

An Efficient Localization and Avoidance Method of Jammers in Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks

Jamming is a terrifying attack that could harm 802.11p-based vehicular communications by occupying the communication channels by overwhelming the network with jamming packets, especially for self-driving cars, as it is essential to send/receive messages without any interruptions to control the vehicles remotely. In wireless vehicular ad hoc networks (VANET), the attacker’s mission is more accessible due to the network’s open nature, way of communication, and lack of security measures. Most of the existing studies have focused on jamming detection approaches. However, few of them have addressed the jammer localization challenge. Moreover, even in these limited studies, the solutions’ assumptions, the proposed countermeasures, and their complexity were also missing. Therefore, this paper introduces a new approach to detecting, localizing, and avoiding jamming attacks in VANETs with high efficiency in terms of accuracy, implementation and complexity. The proposed approach uses the signal strength of the jammer for estimating only the distance between jammer and receiver, while then a less complex algorithm is proposed for localizing the jammer and then redirecting the vehicles away from the roads the attacker is using. This approach was simulated using real-life maps and specialized network environments. Additionally, the performance of the new approach was evaluated using different metrics. These evaluation metrics include (1) the estimated position of the jammer, (2) the handling of the jammer by announcing its location to normal vehicles (3) the avoidance of the jammed routes by increasing their weight, which forces the cars to reroute and evade the jamming area. The high localization accuracy, measured by the Euclidean distance, and the successful communication of the attacker’s position and its avoidance have highly increased the packet delivery ratio (PDR) and the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR). This was noticed significantly before and after avoiding the jamming area when for example, the PDR increased from 0% to 100% before and after bypassing the jammer’s routes

Nanosizing Cynomorium: Thumbs up for Potential Antifungal Applications

Cynomorium coccineum L., the desert thumb, is a rather exotic, parasitic plant unable to engage in photosynthesis, yet rich in a variety of unique compounds with a wide spectrum of biological applications. Whilst extraction, separation and isolation of such compounds is time consuming, the particular properties of the plant, such as dryness, hardness and lack of chlorophyll, render it a prime target for possible nanosizing. The entire plant, the external layer (coat) as well as its peel, are readily milled and high pressure homogenized to yield small, mostly uniform spherical particles with diameters in the range of 300 to 600 nm. The best quality of particles is obtained for the processed entire plant. Based on initial screens for biological activity, it seems that these particles are particularly active against the pathogenic fungus Candida albicans, whilst no activity could be observed against the model nematode Steinernema feltiae. This activity is particularly pronounced in the case of the external layer, whilst the peeled part does not seem to inhibit growth of C. albicans. Thanks to the ease of sample preparation, the good quality of the nanosuspension obtained, and the interesting activity of this natural product, nanosized coats of Cynomorium may well provide a lead for future development and applications as “green” materials in the field of medicine, but also environmentally, for instance in agriculture

Lymphocytic Interstitial Pneumonia in Primary Sjögren's Syndrome: A Case Report

Sjögren's syndrome (SS) is an autoimmune disorder in which lymphocytes infiltrate the exocrine glands, resulting in the development of sicca symptoms. Lymphocytes may also invade various other organs and cause diverse symptoms. Interstitial pneumonia has been observed frequently in SS patients. Typically, the pneumonia responds well to systemic steroids, and fatal cases are rare. We experienced a case of lymphocytic pneumonia accompanied by SS and treated with cyclophosphamide pulse therapy, and we present details of the case herein