In the Brazilian Amazon, uncontrolled fire is one of the main drivers of forest degradation leading to important loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services (ES). Smallholders are often considered as the main actors responsible for these damages, as they commonly depend on fire for agricultural management activities. Since the 1990's, different policies and actions have been implemented to control fire use, but with limited success and fire continues to be an important problem in the region. With the perspective of engaging a participatory policy with stakeholders and realistically bring about a transition out of fire in the Amazon, we take stock of current knowledge on fire from different science realms and understand how this knowledge has influenced policies and institutional arrangements launched in the region up to date. Building on a theory of compliance, we overview the policies developed to reduce fire in the Brazilian Amazon and identify through a review in the recent literature the reasons associated to the generalized non-compliance observed until now. Our analyses show that policies launched so far have been focusing solely on the negative impacts of fire and as such, radically ban the use of fire in a way that is at odds from the practices and motivations of local actors. This flaw explains the failure of institutional arrangements in stimulating compliance related to fire risk in the region. We sum up the different challenges that need to be addressed to build more effective institutional arrangements, which would be more adapted to the actors' motivations and able to encourage environmental services conservation. ( Resume d'auteur)


First of all, we would like to thank the anonymous reviewer very much. All the comments helped us improve the manuscript a lot. We are very appreciative of that. For each comment, we have carefully examined and answered with our best efforts. The paper is significantly revised and structured based on the reviewer's valuable comments and suggestions. Thank you! Please kindly find enclosed our updated manuscript and our responses to each comment below. Anonymous Referee #1 Received and published: 4 June 2018


This article introduces the main mathematical methods of diagnosis of diseases. At first, based on the study of the issue, it is concluded that the task of diagnostics is the most important task for the implementation of effective activities of any medical institution. Methods. Further, in the theoretical part, the main diagnostic models are formulated, such as discriminant analysis and taxonomy (cluster analysis). Then methods of discriminant analysis are applied for the diagnostic system, which allow reducing the medical problem to a system of linear inequalities, using the meth-od of decomposition of the function by basic functions. Results. At the end of the article, important conclusions are made that iterative methods for solving this problem are grouped mainly around the linear correction method, and final methods are grouped around the simplex method. The issue of using decision rule collectives in application packages is also discussed. Further, as a practical part, we consider the application of the described methods to a specific medical task, namely, the diagnosis of primary headaches by signs. To solve the problem, we construct the decisive rules that are the result of discriminant analysis. For these purposes, the Committee method is enabled, and other methods are used in comparison with it. The results show better predictive power for the Committee method. Conclusion. In the conclusion the author about kind of the specifics of mana¬gement of medical institutions, and highlighted the criterion of a correct and timely diagnosis – as one of the main, lets talk about the efficiency of management from the point of view of public health that is Central to an integrated approach of evaluating the effectiveness of medical organiza-tions.


HACCP is a quality control system to ensure food safety.It removes food hazards or reduces them to a safe level by effective control of critical steps in food processing.This paper studied the actual production of company,and carry out hazard analysis to raw material purchasing,storage,production process,final production storage and other steps according to the seven essential principles of HACCP.CCPs are found in this paper.Relevant control measures are set up.And the HACCP control system of UHT sterilized milk is established and the effect is very good.This paper makes a firm base for the company to apply HACCP certification.


Object pushing presents a key non-prehensile manipulation problem that is illustrative of more complex robotic manipulation tasks. While deep reinforcement learning (RL) methods have demonstrated impressive learning capabilities using visual input, a lack of tactile sensing limits their capability for fine and reliable control during manipulation. Here we propose a deep RL approach to object pushing using tactile sensing without visual input, namely tactile pushing. We present a goal-conditioned formulation that allows both model-free and model-based RL to obtain accurate policies for pushing an object to a goal. To achieve real-world performance, we adopt a sim-to-real approach. Our results demonstrate that it is possible to train on a single object and a limited sample of goals to produce precise and reliable policies that can generalize to a variety of unseen objects and pushing scenarios without domain randomization. We experiment with the trained agents in harsh pushing conditions, and show that with significantly more training samples, a model-free policy can outperform a model-based planner, generating shorter and more reliable pushing trajectories despite large disturbances. The simplicity of our training environment and effective real-world performance highlights the value of rich tactile information for fine manipulation.


Dear Reader, Indians should be proud of "India". We have grown from a tiny group in the "sixties" to what we are today through "IDMA" (Indian Drug Manufacturers' Association), through intense "networking" and "knowledge exchange" between pharmaceutical and allied professional experts as well as open and free public interactions with highly nationalistic and self-motivated bureaucrats in the Indian Government institutions and corporations.


"Beginning with the end in mind!" (PAS1192-2:2013) 1 This is the premise of the UK Governments Level 2 BIM (PAS 1192-X) initiative for publicly funded projects in the United Kingdom. The intent of the BS1192 initiative (the initial BIM - Building Information modelling - building block) was to provide a process or a framework for all of the parties involved with the provision of publicly funded projects to ensure that projects were delivered on-time and under budget against the historic baseline data. The process is designed to cover both the information processes and the Management processes and covers the project from inception to in use. The challenge facing the parties involved with these publicly funded projects is to ensure that the data that is created at the outset of the project is used during the operational phase of the asset within a Common Data Environment (CDE). BIM or as Bentley Systems reflect it as B/IM, is a process that involves a methodology or a process that can be applied to any infrastructure asset project. The B in BIM can easily be replaced by R for Road or Rail, a U for utility etc. The IM reflects not just information modelling but also information management and information mobility. Mobility in this instance does not only refer to the ability of data to be viewed and acted upon in the field via the use of handheld devices but mobility in the sense that data is created once and is then repurposed over the life of the asset from a Project information Model (PIM) scenario to an Asset information Model (AIM) environment. How can the use of technology be used to enhance and facilitate information mobility over the lifecycle of an infrastructural asset? If one considers the progression of B/IM on a X and Y axis with the X axis representing information mobility and the Y axis representing information modelling advancements, one could consider that B/IM is evolving from its' initial Level 1 focus on design modelling ( the ability to visualize design content and intent to prevent co-ordination errors in drawings and models) to BIM Level 2 where the use of design solutions to improve the mobility of data into the construction phase through improved information model simulation, resulting in an ability to achieve analytical modelling and construction modelling within a common data environment. The challenge then becomes how to progress B/IM to the operations of the infrastructure, whereby the infrastructure asset owner is able to leverage real time information associated with the asset to create asset performance models that enable predictive responses to the current status of the asset. The ability to extend a common platform to cover this element of PAS 1192 - X is critical to the success or failure of the current B/IM initiatives around the world. Research indicates that 18% of the total cost of an asset is associated with the design build phase. This


Objective To study the multi-channel percutaneous renal mirror of a joint operation extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy treatment antlers form the curative effect and the clinical value of kidney stones.Methods Retrospective analysis in April 2009 to December 2011 by the method of treatment 26 patients and summarized the clinical data.Results 26 cases were multi-channel gravel,operation time 65-115 min,an average of(81.5±4.5) min,blood transfusions 6;15 cases of no postoperative residual stones,11 cases were treated ESWL treatment,review KUB radiographs,7 cases of no residual stone,1 case 0.5 cm stone 1 gold residue in the renal next lamp,3 cases accept second operation,postoperative follow-up 3 months without exception.Conclusion Multi-channel percutaneous renal arthroscopic surgery ESWL joint treatment antlers form a gravel rate of kidney stones,safe and reliable,it is worth promoting.


To research the causation factors of human errors in marine traffic accidents quantitatively,the influencing degree of the causation factors which lead to human errors is analyzed,so as to control accidents caused by human errors.On the base of introducing the classification framework of human's unsafe behavior and the "man-machine-environment" system,the Human Factors Analysis and Classification System(HFACS) is used and the Human Error Analysis and Classification System for Marine Traffic Accident(HEACS-MTA) is proposed to classify human errors in marine traffic accidents.The Grey Relational Analysis(GRA) is used to analyze the accident causes quantitatively,and the conclusion is made that the management factor is the root cause of the accidents.The order of the main human error factors which lead to accident is precondition for unsafe acts,unsafe supervision,unsafe acts and organizational influences.


Helen Brown and Lucy Jones (art&science June 17) highlight the key role of nurses in the nutritional status of patients and acknowledge the difficulties and barriers we face.


no.: 30792 EXPLORATION OF FUNCTIONAL REORGANIZATION IN CERVICAL SPONDYLOSIS MYELOPATHY – A DTI AND FMRI STUDY Yong HU, Jiao Long CUI, Chun Yi WEN, Kin Cheung MAK, Keith Dip Kei LUK Department of Orthopaedics and Traumatology, LKS Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, (HONG KONG) Introduction: The morphological and signal change in anatomical magnetic resonance images (MRI) did not necessarily parallel with clinical symptoms in cervical spondylosis myelopathy (CSM), which poses a big challenge to clinician for early diagnosis and precise prognosis. Functional reorganization may play an important role in the pathophysiological mechanism of this chronic degenerative disease. The present study sought to explore the relationship between functional reorganization and structural damage in CSM. Methods: Fourteen healthy subjects (56±13 yrs) and six CSM patients (65±12 yrs) were recruited. Cross-sectional area, compression ratio, T2-weighed signal change, Fractional anisotropy (FA) value and somatosensory stimuli-induced blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) signal change were quantitatively measured via conventional T2-weighted, diffusion tensor and functional MRI on a 3T MR system. Results: BOLD signal change was significantly higher in myelopathic cord (7.86±0.95%) compared to healthy cord (5.52±0.21%) (p<0.01). Significant difference was detected between healthy and myelopathic cord with crosssectional area, compression ratio and FA value (p<0.05). FA value indicated a much stronger correlation with BOLD signal change (Healthy: r=0.4887, p=0.0764; CSM: r=0.8938, p=0.0163) compared to T2-weighted signal change or morphometry data. Conclusion: Greater microstructural damage was found to significantly and linearly correlate with enhanced functional activation in myelopathic cord, which possibly suggests the extent of microstructural damage is a factor relevant to the extent of functional reorganization in CSM. This study demonstrates a quantitative structure-function relationship in healthy and myelopathic cord, which might provide a promising method to gain additional insight into the role of structural damage/functional reorganization in the spinal cord diseases.


The physics of some of the most relevant climatic and geophysical drivers affecting the Chilean coasts are reviewed. Some relevant figures about the country are introduced, and recent findings and research gaps on extreme waves, meteotsunamis, storm surge, sea level rise, earthquakes and tsunamis along the country are analyzed. A discussion on how to combine these phenomena to assess the level of flooding from a multi-hazard perspective is proposed, and a conceptual framework for the integration of short-term meteorological effects, long-term climate driven hazards and geophysical drivers into a multi-hazard analysis is discussed. Finally, the identification of gaps and future research is proposed. The multi-hazard, probabilistic and nonstationary design approach proposed herein, where uncertainty is at stake, can be extended to the design of coastal infrastructure, such as the stability of breakwaters, overtopping and forces on slender elements.


2008^ Background: Bevacizumab is an anti-angiogenic therapy approved for recurrent glioblastoma (GBM); however, use of bevacizumab remains controversial. In the current study we demonstrate that recurrent GBM patients with a particular imaging phenotype identified on diffusion MRI who also show an early response on contast-enhanced T1-weighted digital subtraction maps (delta T1) have a significant survival advantage when treated with bevacizumab. Methods: A total of 105 patients with recurrent GBM enrolled in a multicenter clinical trial (BRAIN Trial, AVF3708g) with apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) data from diffusion MRI available were included. Delta T1 maps were calculated by subtracting post-contrast from pre-contrast T1-weighted images, leaving only areas of enhancement visible. ADC histogram analysis was performed prior to therapy by fitting a double mixed Gaussian model to ADC histograms in contrast-enhancing areas. Patients were stratified into three groups based on their imaging phenotype: (1...


Taiwan is surrounded by the ocean, and its coastline is 1,566 km. It has broad coastal areas and abundant biological and landscape resources in these coastal areas. In addition, Taiwan can be called a oceanic country; however, ocean and ocean administration affairs have not been valued for a long time. In recent years, sensing the significance of ocean and ocean administration affairs, the government has made an "Ocean Policy White Paper" which demonstrated their determination to develop the ocean affairs. Nevertheless, although related units in the government have proposed the problems of the administration of coastal area, the key point lies in the lack of the "execution" of the policy. The policy itself is surely important, but it definitely takes execution to carry it out. Considering the current framework of coastal area in our country, the administration organization or law and regulation show that there are disorder and too many reporting lines and they lack a powerful implementing organization. These lead to that the authority of these affairs was not centered and each unit did things in their own way and also the government failed to effectively administer the coastal area in our country for a long time. In the revised Organization Act of Executive Yuan, three proposals of administrating ocean and coastal area were proposed which were to establish Ministry of Marine Affairs, Committee on Ocean Policy and Environment Resources Department. Nonetheless, this study regarded that the establishment of Ministry of Marine Affairs may cause flaws in other governmental structures. Is it necessary to set up the Committee on Ocean Policy? It takes careful evaluations in advance. In recent years, the problems of global environment such as the ever-increasing climate change, global warming and ocean pollution not only destroy and impact the nature and ecology greatly but also cause enormous losses for the human society and economy. The Environment Resources Department administers the power of land planning of lands, coastal area and ocean, and in order to meet the principle of administrative unity, this study therefore suggested to establish an Environment Resources Department. Furthermore, an "Ocean and Atmosphere Administration" should be set under the department; under "Ocean and Atmosphere Administration", Section of Marine Affairs, Section of Marine Technology, Section of Marine Monitor, Section of Weather Forecast, and Section of Earthquake should be set up. In addition, under "Ocean and Atmosphere Administration" 5 bureaus should be set up including Ocean Administration Bureau, Coast dministration Bureau, Marine Monitor Bureau, Marine Measurement Bureau and Weather Bureau in order to integrate the planning and administration of affairs of ocean and coastal area and to make it become a responsible authority of marine technology and affairs. Moreover, the coastal area administration authority should be established under the local government. The central government should establish an administration plan and adjust it according to local natural environment and geographic characteristics in order to achieve the purpose of joint administration of coastal area of central and local governments.


A pre-mixed sour gas flare burner comprises a gas inlet pipe, a pre-mixing burning chamber, a draught cover, an combustion-supporting gas pipe and an S-shaped porous fire gatherer. The draught cover is in a necked form and is arranged at the lower end of the pre-mixing burning chamber. The gas inlet pipe extends axially into the cavity of the pre-mixing burning chamber, and the upper end of the gas inlet pipe retracts at a certain level corresponding to the upper end of the pre-mixing burning chamber. The upper end of the gas inlet pipe is in the necked form. The combustion-supporting gas pipe axially extends to the interior of the gas inlet pipe, and the upper end of the combustion-supporting gas pipe retracts at a certain level corresponding to the upper end of the gas inlet pipe. The upper end of the combustion-supporting gas pipe is in a necked form and extends into the lower end of the necked portion of the gas inlet pipe. The S-shaped porous fire gatherer is arranged at the upper end of the pre-mixing burning chamber. The auxiliary gas is charged, air inputting amount is increased, mixing uniformity degree of gases is increased, the acid gas sufficient-burning rate is increased, and standard emission is realized; furthermore, flame can be stabilized, and instant burning can be realized.


In Moroccan context, ministerial directives insist on the adoption of the school project as a tool for educational management of a school. But for this, actors need some tools to help in the development of the project such as the diagnosis of the current situation and the classification of priorities. The quantitative data provided by the MASSAR information system and other sources of information must be used scientifically to generate new knowledge useful for the decision-making of education managers and which will consequently contribute to improving the performance of the Moroccan school, this on the one hand. On the other hand, a school project is designed for a period of three years; it would be interesting to be able to predict the expected results of such a project and to be able to regulate it as and when it is implemented. In this work, we propose a new approach that aims to contribute to the development of a decision support system in the field of educational piloting based on the multiagent approach.


Currently little is known about how service users perceive the neuropsychological testing process in a memory clinic setting. This service evaluation sort to gain information about patient's satisfaction with the neuropsychological assessment process. Using a patient satisfaction survey adapted from Foran et al. (2016) patient satisfaction across different facits of the neuropsychological assessment process was examined. Overall patient satisfaction with the neuropsychological assessment process was high with no difference found between subscales. Qualitative data from the questionnaire identified areas of importance to patients relating to test anxiety, pressure of timed tests, and length/comfort of test sessions.


Relative permeabilities to water and gas are important parameters for accurate modeling of the formation of methane hydrate deposits and production of methane from hydrate reservoirs. Experimental measurements of gas and water permeability in the presence of hydrate are difficult to obtain. The few datasets that do exist suggest that relative permeability obeys a power law relationship with water or gas saturation with exponents ranging from around 2 to greater than 10. Critical path analysis and percolation theory provide a framework for interpreting the saturation-dependence of relative permeability based on percolation thresholds and the breadth of pore size distributions, which may be determined easily from 3-D images or gas adsorption-desorption hysteresis. We show that the exponent of the permeability-saturation relationship for relative permeability to water is related to the breadth of the pore size distribution, with broader pore size distributions corresponding to larger exponents. Relative permeability to water in well-sorted sediments with narrow pore size distributions, such as Berea sandstone or Toyoura sand, follows percolation scaling with an exponent of 2. On the other hand, pore-size distributions determined from argon adsorption measurements we performed on clays from the Nankai Trough suggest that relative permeability to water in fine-grained intervals maymore » be characterized by exponents as large as 10 as determined from critical path analysis. We also show that relative permeability to the gas phase follows percolation scaling with a quadratic dependence on gas saturation, but the threshold gas saturation for percolation changes with hydrate saturation, which is an important consideration in systems in which both hydrate and gas are present, such as during production from a hydrate reservoir. Our work shows how measurements of pore size distributions from 3-D imaging or gas adsorption may be used to determine relative permeabilities.« less


Abstract. The rationale for and results of plasma exchange (PE) in the therapy of different immune‐mediated neurological diseases such as myasthenia gravis, multiple sclerosis, acute and chronic‐relapsing Guillain‐Barré syndromes, polymyositis, dermatomyositis and amyothrophic lateral sclerosis are reviewed. Dialysis dementia and Refsum's disease, subacute sclerosing panencephalitis and schizophrenia are mentioned, too. If we exclude the treatment of acute Guillain‐Barré syndrome, where PE alone appears to be sufficient to produce recovery or improvement, the combined use of immunosuppressive drugs and/or lymphocytapheresis is probably needed in the treatment of the other diseases. PE allows the disease to be controlled rapidly while long‐term pharmacological control is established. An underlying theme in this review is the need of adequately controlled studies or at least of large case lists with exhaustive reports concerning both positive and negative results since a new perspective is needed for this topic. Nonetheless, a number of uncontrolled observations suggest that probably PE effectiveness in most immune‐mediated neurological diseases could be proven if the requisite trials were performed.


Correction: Proportionality between variances in gene expression induced by noise and mutation: consequence of evolutionary robustness Kunihiko Kaneko Although the simulation data as well as the conclusion on the proportionality between V ip (i) and V g (i) in the work [1] is correct, interpretation of some data therein should be corrected. As the sampling number (L = 200) to measure the average gene expression level is not large enough, there is a bias in the estimate in V g (i). Finiteness in the number of sampling L will generally cause a bias of the order of V ip (i)/L, in the estimate of the variance V g (i). The too good proportionality between V ip (i) and V g (i) for large σ , shown in Figure two (a)(b) of [1] (especially for small V g (i)), is due to this artifact. Accordingly, the sharp peak at ∼ 1/L = 1/200 in Figure three of [1] is due to this insufficiency by the sample number. Still, the proportionality between the two variances V ip (i) and V g (i), albeit not so sharp, holds, as already observed in the region with larger V g (i) in [1]. We have simulated the model with a larger number of samples, i.e., N = L = 1000. As is shown in Figure 1, the proportionality is well discernible, where the proportion coefficient V g (i)/V ip (i) decreased with the increase in the noise level σ , which was already observed in the broad peak beyond 1/L in Figure three of [1]. This broad peak beyond 1/L in Figure three of [1] was found to be sharper as N was increased, from 200 to 1000. This peak indeed corresponds to the proportion coefficient extracted from Figure 1 in the present Correction. As the noise level σ was increased, the peak position ρ = V g (i)/V ip (i) decreased. Hence for larger σ , larger L is needed to get reliable estimate in the proportion coefficient. As for Figure five and Figure six of [1], the sharp proportional-ity for V g (i) < ∼ 0.001 is due to the above bias, while the discussion therein concerns with the approach of V g (i) to V ip (i) at larger V g (i), which is not affected by the bias here. To sum up, the main claim of [1], i.e., proportional-ity between V …


The authors obtained some iterative approximation theorems of fixed points for minor asymptotically nonexpansive mappings with external error member in uniformly convex Banach space, and proved these results by a new method. These results improved and extended some recent results.


The raining of sulphur by the Frasch Process requires from 4 to 50 tons of superheated water for each ton of sulphur mined. The water is heated by direct steam injection to 325°F and pumped down a well into an underground sulphur dome where its sensible heat is utilized in the melting of the sulphur. Compressed air enters the base of the well and aerates the sulphur causing it to flow to the earth's surface. Before it can be used as boiler feed water for the pro duction of steam to heat the mine water, the water supply re quires chemical treatment to remove scale forming salts or to inhibit their scale-forming actionj otherwise a scale forms on boiler tubes and reduces the capacity of the boilers. When the sulphur domes are offshore, the problem of providing boiler water is most serious due to the high (3.5%) solids content of sea water. Although the sodium chloride (con stituting 3.07c by weight of the sea water) does not form scale, the other salts are primarily scale-forming compounds which readily adhere to boiler tubes. Conventional chemical treatment of sea water is economically prohibitive because of the large quantities of solutes, absolute as well as compared to onshore water supplies, and the correspondingly high


Tracking number plate is very important in surveillance. This system is used in traffic control system, security area, parking, tolling.


Ivanka Trump visited Johnson Space Center with NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine and talked to the Expedition 56 crew. The astronauts also checked U.S. spacesuits ahead of upcoming spacewalks.


Medical professionals assure us that they will only provide care that limits harm (nonmaleficence) and promotes the best outcomes (beneficence) for patients. The basis of this social contract is the expectation of integrity, morality, and altruism in their business practices, making doctors trustworthy sources of good health care. A doctor's first duty is to their patient, a dictum as relevant today as it was for Hippocrates. In our complex society, it is more important than ever that doctors are trusted by their patients. In return, doctors enjoy autonomy of practice, status in society, and selfregulation.


For investors, it is critical to select the lowest risk one from numerous investment projects to invest for creating the largest profit. How to choose the best investment project is a challenge for decision makers. This paper firstly uses BSC to select some better ones from candidate investment projects, eliminated comprehensive measuring and testing poorly enterprise. Then the investment risk comprehensive evaluation for the rest projects is made by using AHP, which is used to select the lowest risk project. For decision makers in the project investment, this can provide a theoretic basis for decision-making. Compared to other investment decision methods, AHP-BSC model can more quickly provide more accurate decision-making for decision makers.


Reactions of MeSPCl2, EtSPCl2 and Cl[graphic omitted], respectively with Co2(CO)8 in the presence of zinc powder give the Co6 clusters [Co6(µ6-P)(µ-SMe)3(CO)12]1, [Co6(µ6-P)(µ-SEt)3(CO)12]2 and [Co6(µ6-P)(µ4-SCH2CH2S)(µ-µ-[graphic omitted])(CO)12]3 respectively; in 1 six Co atoms form a boat-shaped array consisting of a basal square of four cobalt atoms with two opposite edges bridged by two apical Co atoms, with the metal arrangement surrounding a semi-interstitial P atom, and with two µ-SMe ligands bridging underneath the basal square and another bridging µ-SMe side-linked to the basal square.


The invention discloses a multilayer plastic particle screening machine. The multilayer plastic particle screening machine comprises a fixing base and a vertical bracket, wherein a first filter box, a second filter box and a third filter box are arranged on the vertical bracket from bottom to top sequentially; corresponding hoses are connected to side surfaces of the first filter box, the second filter box and the third filter box respectively, the tail ends of the bottoms of the hoses are connected with receiving boxes respectively, a first filter screen is arranged at the bottom of the first filter box, a second filter screen is arranged at the bottom of the second filter box, a third filter screen is arranged at the bottom of the third filter box, the first filter box, the second filter box and the third filter box are connected in series through hopper covers respectively, and a vibrating device is arranged on the fixing base. With the adoption of the scheme of the multilayer plastic particle screening machine, four types of plastic particles with different particle sizes are obtained through filtering of the third filter box, the second filter box and the first filter box, the working efficiency is high, and the particle flowability is good.


This paper demonstrates MIMO STAP radar techniques for Doppler-spread clutter mitigation using a 5-element transmit speaker array and a 16-element receive microphone array. Doppler-spread clutter is mitigated by ldquovirtualrdquo transmit beampattern nulling using partially-adaptive beamspace slowtime MIMO STAP (SLO-MO) on received audio data. For a transmit beamspace dimension of three, the ability of SLO-MO processing to achieve a 30 dB suppression of Doppler-spread clutter using only a single adaptive transmit degree of freedom is demonstrated. Additionally, MIMO acoustic array processing is shown to be useful in understanding factors which impact radar performance like clutter spatial spread.


Background/Aims
 Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) is a heterogenous, childhood-onset condition persisting into adulthood in over 50% of people. Recognition of JIA-specific features is poor in adult services, there are no validated disease activity scores for adults with JIA and specialist adult JIA clinics are rare; this leads to under-treatment of adults with JIA. Sheffield Teaching Hospitals (STH) has a mature transition service and well-established young adult clinic (YAC) for 16-25 year olds and older adults with JIA. Here, we evaluate the proportion of our adult rheumatology workload attributable to JIA, the prevalence of JIA subtypes and therapies utilised.
 Methods
 Outpatient attendances in STH rheumatology are coded by diagnosis. The evaluation period was 1.12.2018 to 27.2.2020. We evaluated the number and characteristics of patients in the JIA cohort, producing a database from coded diagnoses and patient records, and analysed this using Microsoft Excel. Local permission was granted.
 Results
 11,520 patients were seen in adult rheumatology in the evaluation period; 9,422 had a coded diagnosis of which 4,915 (52%) had inflammatory arthritis (IA). Assuming a proportional number of the 2,098 non-coded patients had IA (1,090), the adult IA cohort is estimated at 6,005. 304 patients (aged 17-72) with JIA were seen in adult rheumatology, accounting for 5% of the adult IA cohort. 280 (92%) were in the YAC, and 24 (8%) in general rheumatology. 31 (10%) patients had evidence of uveitis. The commonest subtypes of JIA were: 75 polyarticular (25%), 38 enthesitis related (13%) and 37 extended oligoarticular (12%). 64 (21%) patients had no subtype specified. Of the 233 (77%) JIA patients ever treated with methotrexate, 132 (57%) had discontinued due to inefficacy or adverse effects. 175 (58%) patients were on biologic treatment: the commonest therapies were adalimumab (40%, 70 patients) and etanercept (27%, 47 patients). There is evidence of diagnostic relabelling from JIA to other IA to access biologics not approved by NICE.
 Conclusion
 This evaluation uses real-world data, with some data loss due to absent coding, but shows JIA is a small proportion of adult rheumatology. This is a complex group with high biologic use, poor methotrexate tolerance and heterogenous disease phenotypes. Young adults experience specific challenges in adult services and require developmentally appropriate care, for which best evidence confirms young adult clinics are ideal. The majority of people with JIA are in a dedicated young adult service at STH. Biologics are used within NICE guidance, except for a minority where JIA is relabelled as IA to access additional biologics or due to independent funding requests. NICE guidance for JIA is outdated and restrictive. JIA is an adult disease in > 50% and requires specialist services, further research to elucidate validated adult disease activity scores and wider education amongst adult rheumatologists.
 Disclosure
 R.J. Nock: None. J.R. Maxwell: Other; JRM has served on advisory boards for Abbvie, Pfizer, BMS and Lilly and has received speaking honoraria from Pfizer, BMS, Novartis and Lilly. R.S. Tattersall: Other; RST has received speaker fees and educational grants to attend meetings from UCB, AbbVie, Pfizer and Janssen.


In this article, I would like to write the review of the book, entitled Motivational Dynamics in Language Learning. It was edited by Zoltan Dornyei, Peter D. MacIntyre and Alastair Henry. The International Standard Book Numbers of this book are as follows: ISBN-13:978-1-78309-256-7 (hbk) and ISBN-13:978-1-78309-255-0 (pbk). This book has 429 pages and two parts. Before the first part of this book, there is a foreword and an introduction part. Before foreword, the names of the contributors of this book and their short biographies are given. Contributors of this book are listed by Dornyei, Maclntyre and Henry (2015: p.p. ix-x-xi-xii-xiii). Article visualizations:


The iodate oxidation of arsenous acid exhibits single‐hysteresis bistability in a continuous flow stirred tank reactor. Other patterns of multiple stationary states including mushrooms and isolas are exhibited by this system when a constant flow of solvent is introduced to the CSTR in addition to the usual flow of reactants. A simple empirical rate law model provides a near quantitative description of the behavior. This model is analyzed and compared to other model systems.


The purpose of this paper is to elucidate the relationship between the molecular orientation and the electrical conduction in polyimide (PI) films. We will propose a method for quantitative evaluation of the molecular orientation by comparing the FTIR reflection-absorption spectrum (RAS) with the transmission spectrum of unoriented PI such as in KBr pellets, and apply it to PI on an evaporated Au substrate. The molecular orientation of PI was investigated by RAS, and on the basis of this result the conduction characteristics are discussed.


believed to be particularly neurotoxic and may propagate disease by recruiting additional a-syn molecules to the aggregates. Here, we have investigated such seeding effects of protofibrils, large soluble a-syn oligomers. Our aim is to elucidate if a-syn protofibrils can seed monomeric wild type a-syn to form aggregates in vitro and in vivo. Methods: Alpha-synuclein protofibrils were generated by incubating recombinant wt a-syn with the reactive aldehydes 4oxo-2-nonenal (ONE) and 4-hydroxynonenal (HNE), generating protofibrils of similar size but with different structural and functional properties. Next, wt monomeric a-syn (1 mg/ml) was incubated with 1% of HNE-protofibrils, ONE-protofibrils or mature amyloid-like fibrils, respectively. As control sample, no seed was added to the monomers. The samples were incubated while shaking at 37 C and measured at certain intervals using a Thioflavin T (ThT) assay. After 96 h the samples were also analyzed with atomic force microscopy (AFM). Finally, to evaluate in vivo effects ONEprotofibrils were injected into cortex layer III-IV of aged a-syn transgenic mice. Results: In the ThT assay, the seeding effect of HNEprotofibrils were found to be similar to the control sample. In contrast, the ONEprotofibrils accelerated the aggregation process even better than the fibril sample, albeit the ThT signals of the ONE-induced aggregates were generally lower compared to both HNE or fibrillar seeded aggregates. Moreover, AFM analyses showed that despite that the ThT signal differed somewhat among the seeded samples, all samples displayed similarly-sized amyloid-like fibril structures. Finally, ongoing experiments will show the observed in vitro aggregation effects also occur in vivo. Conclusions: Here, we show that ONE-induced protofibrils have the ability to seed a-syn monomers in vitro. ONEprotofibrils caused a rapid aggregation, which occurred faster than what was observed for the sample seeded with amyloid-like fibrils, whereas the seeding effect of HNEprotofibrils was neglible and similar to that of the non-seeded sample.


The aim of the present study is to investigate the potential of Brachystegia eurycoma gum in ameliorating brittle fracture (i.e., lamination and capping) a problem often encountered during tableting. Granules of metronidazole (test drug) were prepared by wet granulation technique using Brachystegia eurycoma or acacia gum at concentrations of 2.5, 5.0, 7.5 or 10%w/w. The resulting granules were evaluated for packing and flow properties. Granules were compressed into tablets with and without a centre hole (as in- built defect) using a compression load of 2.0 arbitrary unit on the load scale. The tablets were evaluated for tensile strength and the data was used to calculate the brittle fracture index (BFI). The compressibility index which is a measure of ease of compaction of the granules upon tapping was < 23.5% while all granules were free flowing with angle of repose <36.90. Increase in binder concentration led to an increase in Pf and T values irrespective of the type of the gum binder used in the formulations. Generally, increasing the binder concentration at a given compression load resulted in a decrease in the brittle fracture tendency of the tablets. For instance, at a binder concentrations of 2.5% w/w the BFI for Brachystegia eurycoma and acacia gum were 0.13 and 0.10 respectively while their corresponding values at binder concentration of 7.5% w/w were 0.06 and 0.08. The study has shown that Brachystegia eurycoma gum is an effective binder that produces harder tablets with low brittle fracture tendency.