The work is extensive and is carried out carefully, and the presentation is clear and thoughtful. Different age groups of subnormal children were tested on a large variety of tasks and compared with 8 to 10-year old normals. The conclusions were that the subnormal subjects performed generally better on perceptual than on motor tasks, and that there was a relatively greater impairment of simple than of complex motor functions. There was no marked difference between normals and subnormals on measures of eye dominance, two point differentiation, brightness differentiation, mirror drawing, the extent of the Muller-Lyer illusion and anticipation. Those tests which discriminated best between normal and subnormal children included pure tone threshold, simple RT and fine as well as gross motor co-ordination. Within the subnormal group, muscular strength, static equilibrium and decrease of the size-weight illusion developed from age eight up to adulthood, while performance of motor speed, motor manipulation, dynamic equilibrium and complex perceptual tasks developed up to the age of 15 and thereafter declined. Kinaesthetic and cutaneous space discrimination declined from age 8 onwards. Laterality and performance on some perceptual tasks requiring judgement of quantitative relations showed no development with age, but also no difference between normals and subnormals. On the other hand, no developmental trends but lower levels than normal were obtained on perceptual tasks requiring qualitative judgements and on pure tone threshold. Analysis of performance patterns according to neurological, EEG or etiological variables did not prove very productive. Such efforts might have been more successful if more determined attempts had been made to link the findings with those obtained in neuropsychology. Thus, the very high pure tone threshold in the subnormals contrasted with a near normal speech threshold. The author explains this in terms of lack of motivation, attention and arousal. But suggestions arising from neuropsychological work such as Milner's, that right-sided brain lesions may interfere with non-verbal auditory perception while lesions of the dominant hemisphere are more usually associated with verbal deficits, might have been taken into account. Maybe it would be advisable to give explanatory theories in terms of reticular system dysfunction a temporary rest. They have been rather overworked, and have tended to become so general as to appear almost meaningless. Moreover, in the context of the results reported in this book, they are far from convincing. Thus, while the results of this investigation are very interesting and the findings stimulating, a more sophisticated theoretical approach might have improved their interpretation.


Atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (CVD), which involves the heart, brain, and peripheral circulation, is a major health problem world-wide. The development of atherosclerosis is a complex process, and several established risk factors are involved. Nevertheless, these established risk factors do not fully explain the occurrence of CVD and further insight is required in factors such as genetic determinants that may identify individuals at risk. In this thesis we worked on the genetic basis of CVD in three parts.
Part one focuses on genes in lipid metabolism pathway and association with CVD. In chapters 2 and 3 we studied the association of the T64A polymorphism in the β3–adrenergic receptor gene (ADRB3) and the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma-2 (PPARG2) gene polymorphism (P12A), respectively, with coronary heart disease (CHD). Our studies in combination with meta-analyses of previous reports did not provide support for a role of these polymorphisms in CHD risk. In chapter 4 we examined the relationship between the cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP) gene polymorphisms and HDL levels and future CHD. Strong associations between higher HDL cholesterol levels and the CETP (-629)A, the CETP I405V V, and the CETP TaqIB B2 alleles and the haplotypes that comprised these alleles were found and the C(-629)A polymorphism was also related to a lower plasma LDL cholesterol. None of the CETP polymorphisms or haplotypes were, however, related to risk of CHD.
Part two focuses on genes in blood pressure regulation pathway and association with CVD. In chapter 5 we showed that presence of the α-adducin Gly460Trp polymorphism increases the risk of stroke, but not the risk of CHD or AMI. This risk is particularly elevated in the presence of systolic hypertension. In chapter 6 we showed in a meta-analysis that the presence of the T allele of the angiotensinogen gene (AGT) M235T polymorphism is associated with increased risk to develop preeclampsia/eclampsia. The latter is a risk factor of development of CVD in later life. We also showed in chapter 7 that this polymorphism is associated with self-reported hypertensive disorders in pregnancy among Caucasian Dutch women. In chapter 8, the pooled odds ratio of the meta-analysis, including our own data, presented evidence that there is an increase in the risk of CHD conferred by the M235T variant of the AGT gene. However, the relevance of this weakly positive overall association remained uncertain because it might be due to various residual biases, including Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium violation and publication biases.
In part three we showed that combination of genetic factors aggregated to a single genetic risk score (GRS) can be used in prediction of incident CHD and the GRS along with conventional risk scores improves the estimation of CHD risk in healthy Dutch women, chapter 9.
We also addressed some considerations with regard to meta-analysis of genetic association studies, forming consortia in this ongoing field, and predictive genetic testing, as well as the new findings in genome-wide association studies and implications of this thesis for clinical practice and future research directions in chapter 10.


SUMMARY Occupational therapists of the 21st century must be educated to provide intervention within health, education, community, and policy-making areas. Therapists need to solve complex problems, often in collaboration with numerous stakeholders. This article proposes that preparing occupational therapists for current practice requires a fundamental change in our educational beliefs and that a collaborative approach among students and fieldwork educators is most congruent with the interactive environments of current practice. The philosophical principles of collaborative learning are reviewed and practical considerations to apply the principles to Level II fieldwork programs are described.


Human concentrative nucleoside transporter, hCNT3, mediates Na+/nucleoside and H+/nucleoside co-transport. We describe a new approach to monitor H+/uridine co-transport in cultured mammalian cells, using a pH-sensitive monomeric red fluorescent protein variant, mNectarine, whose development and characterization are also reported here. A chimeric protein, mNectarine fused to the N terminus of hCNT3 (mNect.hCNT3), enabled measurement of pH at the intracellular surface of hCNT3. mNectarine fluorescence was monitored in HEK293 cells expressing mNect.hCNT3 or mNect.hCNT3-F563C, an inactive hCNT3 mutant. Free cytosolic mNect, mNect.hCNT3, and the traditional pH-sensitive dye, BCECF, reported cytosolic pH similarly in pH-clamped HEK293 cells. Cells were incubated at the permissive pH for H+-coupled nucleoside transport, pH 5.5, under both Na+-free and Na+-containing conditions. In mNect.hCNT3-expressing cells (but not under negative control conditions) the rate of acidification increased in media containing 0.5 mm uridine, providing the first direct evidence for H+-coupled uridine transport. At pH 5.5, there was no significant difference in uridine transport rates (coupled H+ flux) in the presence or absence of Na+ (1.09 ± 0.11 or 1.18 ± 0.32 mm min−1, respectively). This suggests that in acidic Na+-containing conditions, 1 Na+ and 1 H+ are transported per uridine molecule, while in acidic Na+-free conditions, 1 H+ alone is transported/uridine. In acid environments, including renal proximal tubule, H+/nucleoside co-transport may drive nucleoside accumulation by hCNT3. Fusion of mNect to hCNT3 provided a simple, self-referencing, and effective way to monitor nucleoside transport, suggesting an approach that may have applications in assays of transport activity of other H+-coupled transport proteins.


In the later twentieth century, American law attempted to address legacies of unjust treatment of Native Americans though legislation like the Indian Child Welfare Act, which requires considering Native American identity in child custody decisions. This created some complex legal questions about exactly what constituted Native identity. The Supreme Court case, Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl, exposed a number of problems that arose from determining authentic tribal identity. To offer a more precise analysis of the problem of identity in American law, I will engage in philosophical investigations into the nature of authenticity, bringing in the work of the German philosopher, Martin Heidegger. Since the publication of his work Being and Time, there have been many critics of Heidegger and authenticity as a whole. These critics argue that the jargon of authenticity no holds truth; its understanding has been manipulated and skewed beyond repair, and thus, they argue, that authenticity is a concept that should be thrown away. But authenticity is not an idea that can be ignored due to its prevalence in the laws of The United States. The law is required to make a decision despite authenticity's vagueness and misinterpretations. The confusion in the case of Baby Girl demonstrates why a conversation of authenticity is necessary and cannot be disregarded. Furthermore, it proves that the dismissal of authenticity on the grounds that it is a confused notion only perpetuates the misinterpretation and thus causes lawyers and judges to continue to make decisions in ways that may be even more imprecise. Thesis Mentor(s): ________________________________ Dr. Elizabeth Butterfield Honors Director: ________________________________ Dr. Steven Engel


As one application of digital camera signal processing, a wide-screen color video camera with a 1/3 in 9:16 charge coupled device (CCD) imager was successfully developed. To get a higher picture quality, exposure and white-balance were adaptively controlled through automatically understanding when and where the camera was used. The camera has full 500-line resolution and can be applied to a wide-screen TV system. >


Petkova, G., K. Nedyalkova, A. Mikova and Irena Atanassova, 2018. Microbiological characteristics of biochar amended alluvial meadow soil, Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., 24 (Suppl. 2): 81-84 Biochar (BC), produced by the pyrolysis of biomass under limited oxygen is highly stable and resistant to microbial decay and can serve as a long-term sink of carbon. During the last years biochar from different origin is studied as a soil amendment in many countries. The ecological importance of biochar addition is connected with decreasing of greenhouse gasses emissions and associated with them climate changes, and improvement of soil structure and fertility. The effect of biochar amendment on microbial amount and activity of Alluvial meadow soil was studied in field experiments with wheat and maize cultivated in crop rotation. The number of the main groups of soil microorganisms, CO2-production and microbial biomass were determined. A stimulating effect of biochar amendment on the soil microflora was established in the study. The CO2-production and the bacterial amounts werе positively affected to the greatest extent. The results obtained confirm the importance of biochar addition as а promising method for soil fertility conservation.


High resolution radars (HRRs) transmit a wideband signal to achieve a high range resolution. A target is considered as composed of multiple scatterers, which occupy or spread in multiple radar range cells with several scatterers in each cell. Therefore, the reflection of a target spreads in multiple range cells in the received signal, which contains more information of target than that obtained from low resolution radars. The target in high resolution radar systems is a range-spread target. The range-spreading or echo features of target are utilized for target detection and identification. The echoes of target are convolutions of transmitted signals with target range-scattering functions dependent on the gesture of target to the line of radar sight. A single echo is used in the conventional detection. It is difficult for target detection and identification in low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) condition. In this paper, we propose a new range-spread target detection scheme exploiting the image features of cross time-frequency distribution (TFD) of a pair of adjacent received signals. After dechirping, the received signal reflected from target consists of multiple sinusoidal components due to its multiple scatterers when a linear frequency modulated (LFM) signal is transmitted from radar. Some regular image patterns or features of target appear in the cross TFD of two adjacent received signals, while the cross TFD of two independent Gaussian noises does not show such patterns. The cross TFD features are exploited in the proposed scheme. Three steps are composed in the proposed scheme. Firstly, a cross smoothed-pseudo Wigner-Ville distribution (CSPWVD) is made for two adjacent received signals to generate a two-dimensional (2-D) TF image. Then, some regular geometric patterns are detected and extracted from the image. At last, two features of the extracted geometric patterns are jointly utilized to detect target. The proposed algorithm is verified by using raw radar data. It outperforms the conventional detection methods.


ABSTRACT The altitudinal zonation of forests on Mount Kerinci, Sumatra (3800 m) is described and compared with that in the temperate region of east Asia. Nine plots were selected between 1750 m in altitude and the upper limit of vegetation at 3250 m, at intervals of about 200 m in altitude. The plots are distinguished according to their main dominants, and the population structure of the dominant species is examined. The lower forests have species showing the whole range of size classes as well as solitary giants as dominants, but the upper forests lack these giants and are floristically poorer. Between 1750 m (the start of well preserved natural vegetation) and 2950 m (the forest limit) three forest zones are distinguished, and between 2950 and 3250 m a scrub zone. Upper forest zones tend to be dominated by species of the same genus or family which form important understory components of the zone below. Based on floristic comparisons with mountains of higher latitudes (i.e. Himalayas and Japan), the two lower forest zones (up to 2400 m) represent a subtropical zone, and the upper forest zone a warm-temperate zone. Climatic conditions at the forest limit on Mount Kerinci are similar to those at the latitudinal limit of warm-temperate evergreen trees; in the Himalayas the forest limit represents the latitudinal limit of the cool-temperate, and in Japan of the subarctic Altitudinal zonation patterns change with latitude, reaching their most complex on subtropical mountains where the two floristic realms, the Boreal and Palaeotropical, meet. A scheme for the pattern of vegetation zonation in east Asia is proposed.


From recent calls for positioning forensic scientists within the criminal justice system, but also policing and intelligence missions, this paper emphasises the need for the development of educational and training programmes in the area of forensic intelligence. It is argued that an imbalance exists between perceived and actual understanding of forensic intelligence by police and forensic science managers, and that this imbalance can only be overcome through education. The challenge for forensic intelligence education and training is therefore to devise programmes that increase forensic intelligence awareness, firstly for managers to help prevent poor decisions on how to develop information processing. Two recent European courses are presented as examples of education offerings, along with lessons learned and suggested paths forward. It is concluded that the new focus on forensic intelligence could restore a pro-active approach to forensic science, better quantify its efficiency and let it get more involved in investigative and managerial decisions. A new educational challenge is opened to forensic science university programmes around the world: to refocus criminal trace analysis on a more holistic security problem solving approach.


A 3-year-old boy presents to the emergency department (ED) with a 1-day history of irritability and listlessness. According to his parents, he was well until the night before when he began to behave abnormally, becoming excessively tired approximately 2 hours after eating dinner. During the night, the boy slept poorly, sporadically awakening with crying followed by brief periods of calmness. The morning of presentation, he was difficult to arouse with intermittent fussiness and reluctance to ambulate.


Planning theories and concepts have been evolved from the classical planning to post-modern planning. Which planning theory is appropriate to which community under which circumstances is still a matter of debate to be accentuated, particularly in developing countries. However, planning practice in Turkey is based on comprehensive planning theory, which is a bureaucratic and top-down approach. On the contrary, the contemporary planning approach espouses participation of the local citizens and locale. Public participation as a planning tool has not yet taken its place in Turkish planning rules and laws. So, public participation depends on the goodwill of local planning authorities and is practiced at a limited level. Having limited participation should be closely related with the quality of participants, recognition of planning site or community, awareness of problems of that community and the level of being. So, the following assumptions are of interest of this paper which is thought to be important in planning. Whether urban consciousness is a possessed merit or acquired afterwards, could citizens be enlightened in this matter. Whether being urban and having urban consciousness contribute to the solution of the urban problems through participation in the planning and plan-implementation processes. Whether the level of being urban is similar throughout the community or in the city. Whether being urban is related to the place where people live and to their social status, and if yes, whether being urban could be mapped/charted. Elaboration on the above assumptions/questions is the essence of this paper and the analytical parts of the study will clarify them.


The feeding of iron-fortified formula to infants has been shown to practically eliminate overt iron deficiency,13 the most common cause of anemia in childhood. The use of iron-fortified formula has increased steadily in recent years, from 40% of all US formula sales in 1971 to approximately 80% in 1985. This trend has been credited as the major factor in the declining prevalence of anemia in US infants, among both low-income 7 and middleclass8 populations. As many as 20% of formula-fed infants still receive low-iron formulas, which contain only 1.5 mg of iron per liter. Apparently, there is a misconception in a small segment of the health care community which believes that infants fed iron-fortified formulas are more likely to suffer gastrointestinal problems, such as colic, constipation, diarrhea, or regurgitation, than are infants fed low-iron formulas. The impression that low-iron formulas are associated with fewer adverse gastrointestinal reactions is not supported by controlled comparisons. Oski#{176} found no difference in the stool frequency or the incidence of colic, regurgitation, or vomiting between two groups of infants fed iron-fortified or low-iron formula. Nelson and coworkers'#{176} conducted a double-blind crossover comparison of lowiron and iron-fortified formulas. There was no difference in the prevalence of fussiness, cramping, regurgitation, colic, or flatus and no difference in stool characteristics except for color (darker with iron-fortified formula). The lack of adverse reactions to iron fortification of formulas is further supported by the fact that even therapeutic doses of iron are well tolerated by infants.1' Another concern expressed regarding the routine use of iron-fortified formulas is the possibility of adverse effects of iron on the absorption of other


In this paper, a multiscale modeling approach has been developed to simulate the intergranular crack propagation in textured polycrystalline materials. Embedded Atom Method (EAM) and Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations were carried out to determine the energy and fracture strength of different types of grain boundaries in Ni3Al. Subsequently, the atomistic model has been integrated with the microstructure based model of crack propagation using the Voronoi-Markov Chain-Monte Carlo approach. The model has been utilized to evaluate the crack length for various scenarios and reasonable results are obtained.


Abstract : This data report describes the results of work undertaken as part of an overall program to develop ground-flotation criteria for the C-5A aircraft.


Chronic Lyme disease complex describes the burden carried by patients infected with Borrelia burgdorferi as well as other co-infections or secondary co-infections (opportunistic infections). These infections can cause a significant burden on patients more so than Lyme disease alone. Along with the many underdiagnosed cases of Lyme disease throughout the world exists numerous undiagnosed co-infection and secondary co-infections leading to debilitating symptoms for many patients. The potential for co-infections varies by location as well as to the exposure to various species of ticks. Since there is potential for patients to experience several tick bites including those of different species, additional microorganisms also commonly transmitted via tick bite are included that are typically left out of the conversation of potential Borrelia burgdorferi co-infections. The most common co-infections of Lyme disease include anaplasmosis, babasiosis, bartonellosis and ehrlichiosis. Secondary co-infections or opportunistic infections commonly seen in patients with Lyme disease are also discussed. By helping to establish a comprehensive list of infections associated with Chronic Lyme disease complex may in fact help patients receive a proper diagnosis in order to administer the much needed comprehensive treatments patients deserve.


Concrete cover cracking induced by reinforcement corrosion is an important problem in reinforced concrete structures. Several existing analytical models for cracking time are discussed, and it is found that the penetration of corrosion products into corrosion cracks is neglected in these models. Based on our study, a theoretical model that takes the ingress of rust into cracks into account is proposed to predict the cracking time. In order to analyze the amount of corrosion products deposited in cracks, an accelerated corrosion test was performed. Based on the experimental results, the parameter k, which deal with the ingress of corrosion products into cracks, is calibrated to be 0.1~0.3 for accelerated corrosion test. By comparing the predictions with the test results, it is found that the proposed model has high accuracy in analyzing the cracking time and that the mean absolute error between predictions and observations is about 9.4%.


This article uses the third earl of Malmesbury's friendship with Louis Napoleon Bonaparte as a prism through which to view the Conservative Party's handling of Anglo-French relations during the period when Bonaparte was cementing his hold over France. After noting the long-term historiographical neglect of the subject, it explores Malmesbury's discussions with Louis Napoleon between 1848 and 1852, and indicates what they revealed about the assumptions underpinning Conservative foreign policy. It suggests that analysis of Malmesbury's role illuminates British domestic politics by placing his appointment to the Foreign Office in a clearer context than has been the case hitherto. It then examines the management of Conservative foreign policy in detail, describing how the 1852 Derby government recognized the new French empire and nurtured an Anglo-French entente without alienating Russia, Austria or Prussia. This was a significant diplomatic and political achievement, helping to demonstrate that Conservative diplomacy had a distinct identity and that mid-Victorian Britain did not view the world merely through a Whig or Palmerstonian lens. The article concludes that the events of 1852 represent an important and overlooked phase in the history of Anglo-French relations.


This Chapter presents a way to use Reference Models in Enterprise Architecture (EA) by a) assessing and organising them into a Structured Repository using a generalised Architecture Framework (ISO15704:2000 Annex A) and b) providing guidance for the selection of Reference Models that are suitable for specific EA tasks. A brief introduction to EA and current issues in using Reference Models in this domain is followed by sample mappings of several Reference Models from the Company Networks and Virtual Enterprises area onto the chosen framework. This is followed by a brief description of the meta-methodology guiding the selection of the Reference Models and by an example of Reference Model selection for a real situation. The Chapter closes with reflections on improving Reference Models quality and conclusions on the usefulness of the framework and meta-methodology used to structure and select Reference Models for EA tasks.


When ferroalloys are produced, a large number of coproducts are also formed: slag, riddlings of small fractions of ore raw materials and finished products (ferroalloys), sludge, dust and a number of other materials. Their use and processing allows for reduced consumption of the original minerals, thereby increasing the efficiency of the main production and reducing environmental pollution. As a result, both enterprise costs in the form of environmental payments for emissions and waste disposal, as well as government costs associated with environmental measures are reduced. However, the scale of use of ferroalloy production wastes is relatively small. The replacement of the main and auxiliary equipment with new, environmentally friendly equipment, can promote to significantly reduce or completely eliminate hazardous emissions and the generation of unclaimed production waste. It is necessary to organize the use of blast furnace gas from ore reduction furnaces for preheating and partial recovery of elements of charge materials.

Keywords: waste, ferroalloy production, utilization


Web 2.0 applications have become ubiquitous over the past few years because they provide useful features such as a rich, responsive graphical user interface that supports interactive and dynamic content. Social networking websites, blogs, auctions, online banking, online shopping and video sharing websites are noteworthy examples of Web 2.0 applications. The market for public cloud service providers is growing rapidly, and cloud providers offer an ever-growing list of services. As a result, developers and researchers find it challenging when deciding which public cloud service to use for deploying, experimenting or testing Web 2.0 applications. This study compares the scalability and performance of a social-events calendar application on two Infrastructure as a Service IaaS cloud services-Amazon EC2 and HP Cloud. This study captures and compares metrics on three different instance configurations for each cloud service such as the number of concurrent users load, as well as response time and throughput performance. Additionally, the total price of the three different instance configurations for each cloud service is calculated and compared. This comparison of the scalability, performance and price metrics provides developers and researchers with an insight into the scalability and performance characteristics of the three instance configurations for each cloud service, which simplifies the process of determining which cloud service and instance configuration to use for deploying their Web 2.0 applications. This study uses CloudStone-an open-source, three-tier web application benchmarking tool that simulates Web 2.0 application activities-as a realistic workload generator and to capture the intended metrics. The comparison of the collected metrics indicates that all of the tested Amazon EC2 instance configurations provide better scalability and lower latency at a lower cost than the respective HP Cloud instance configurations; however, the tested HP Cloud instance configurations provide a greater storage capacity than the Amazon EC2 instance configurations, which is an important consideration for data-intensive Web 2.0 applications.


An update on clinical aspects of HIV in africa highlights new proposed clinical definitions of adult AIDS and of tuberculosis in HIV+ adults, and staging of adult HIV infection. The 1986 WHO clinical definition of AIDS has been widely used in Africa, but now research suggests that this definition has several limitations: the definition will pick up several unrelated diseases such as diabetes mellitus and renal failure. It does not ascertain cases of AIDS marked by nonopportunistic infections. Most persons with pulmonary tuberculosis may be wrongly diagnosed with AIDS by this definition. The study showed that the WHO clinical definition has good specificity and positive predictive value for HIV+ people, but its positive predictive value fell to 30% in identifying people with AIDS in Africa. New definitions should take into account any serious morbidity, tuberculosis, neurological disease, both endemic localized Kaposi's, and aggressive typical Kaposi's sarcoma, and HIV serological testing. Tuberculosis is a problem because few HIV+ people suspected of having pulmonary TB (sputum-negative TB) actually have it based on bronchoscopy, while HIV+ persons with TB experience high mortality, often from pyogenic bacteremia. HIV+ persons with TB suffer high rates of relapse, possibly related to insufficient drug treatment or reinfection. 1 study showed that 6 months of isoniazid significantly improved incidence of TB over 30 months of follow-up. Staging of AIDS in Africa based on degree of immunosuppression was proposed as: 1) clinically inapparent HIV infection marked by pulmonary TB, soft tissue infections, and community acquired pneumonia; 2) lymphadenopathy, oral thrush, widespread pruritic maculopapular rash, herpes zoster, enteric illness, dysentery, and Kaposi's sarcoma; and 3) HIV wasting syndrome, chronic pulmonary disease, meningitis, and fever of unknown origin.


Polymorphic parasite antigens are known targets of protective immunity to malaria, but this antigenic variation poses challenges to vaccine development. A synthetic MSP-1 Block 2 construct, based on all polymorphic variants found in natural Plasmodium falciparum isolates has been designed, combined with the relatively conserved Block 1 sequence of MSP-1 and expressed in E.coli. The MSP-1 Hybrid antigen has been produced with high yield by fed-batch fermentation and purified without the aid of affinity tags resulting in a pure and extremely thermostable antigen preparation. MSP-1 hybrid is immunogenic in experimental animals using adjuvants suitable for human use, eliciting antibodies against epitopes from all three Block 2 serotypes. Human serum antibodies from Africans naturally exposed to malaria reacted to the MSP-1 hybrid as strongly as, or better than the same serum reactivities to individual MSP-1 Block 2 antigens, and these antibody responses showed clear associations with reduced incidence of malaria episodes. The MSP-1 hybrid is designed to induce a protective antibody response to the highly polymorphic Block 2 region of MSP-1, enhancing the repertoire of MSP-1 Block 2 antibody responses found among immune and semi-immune individuals in malaria endemic areas. The target population for such a vaccine is young children and vulnerable adults, to accelerate the acquisition of a full range of malaria protective antibodies against this polymorphic parasite antigen.


ABSTRACT The Piptocephalidaceae (Zoopagales, Zoopagomycota) contains three genera of mycoparasitic, haustoria-forming fungi: Kuzuhaea, Piptocephalis, and Syncephalis. Although the species in this family are diverse and ubiquitous in soil and dung, they are among the least studied fungi. Co-cultures of Piptocephalis and their hosts are relatively easy to isolate from soil and dung samples across the globe, making them a good model taxon for the order Zoopagales. This study focuses on the systematics of the genus Piptocephalis. Despite the fact that there are approximately 40 described Piptocephalis species, there are no modern taxonomic or molecular phylogenetic treatments of this group. Minimal sequence data are available, and relatively little is known about the true diversity or biogeography of the genus. Our study addresses two aspects: Piptocephalis systematics and analyses of the length and inter- and infraspecific variation of the nuc rDNA internal transcribed spacer (ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 = ITS) region. First, we generated a large subunit (28S) nuc rDNA phylogeny and evaluated several morphological characters by testing their correlation with the phylogeny using Bayesian Tip-association Significance testing (BaTS). We found monophyly of Piptocephalis species identified based on morphological traits, but morphological character states were not conserved across clades, suggesting that there have been multiple gains and losses of morphological characters. We also found that Kuzhuaea is nested within Piptocephalis. Second, we amplified the ITS from many Piptocephalis isolates, created a sequence alignment, and measured the lengths using the software ITSx. Piptocephalis species had ITS regions that were longer than the average for most Dikarya but were similar in length to those of the related genus Syncephalis.


Fragments of human oesophageal mucosa, urothelium, squamous and adenocarcinoma of the oesophagus and carcinoma of the bladder have been plated in culture and irradiated. The cells growing from the explanted tissues have then been studied for four weeks post irradiation to assess the overall rate of growth from the irradiated explants and the fraction of proliferating cells. The results show that when using cell number as an endpoint it is possible to derive growth curves from this type of data which permit a doubling time to be obtained for the cell population surviving different doses. In an attempt to determine the proliferating fraction of the cell population, cultures were labelled at appropriate intervals with tritiated thymidine and were also stained with Ki-67 antiproliferating antigen. The results show an interesting relationship between the dose response obtained for cell labelling with tritiated thymidine and area of cellular outgrowth. Ki-67 staining when used carefully and analysed as described was a useful indicator of proliferating cells. The results provide a means of determining the post irradiation growth potential of fragments of tissue from human organs and may be important for determined overall response of the tumour bulk to proposed treatment.


Many methods for quantitative structure-activity relationships (QSARs) deliver point estimates only, without quantifying the uncertainty inherent in the prediction. One way to quantify the uncertainy of a QSAR prediction is to predict the conditional density of the activity given the structure instead of a point estimate. If a conditional density estimate is available, it is easy to derive prediction intervals of activities. In this paper, we experimentally evaluate and compare three methods for conditional density estimation for their suitability in QSAR modeling. In contrast to traditional methods for conditional density estimation, they are based on generic machine learning schemes, more specifically, class probability estimators. Our experiments show that a kernel estimator based on class probability estimates from a random forest classifier is highly competitive with Gaussian process regression, while taking only a fraction of the time for training. Therefore, generic machine-learning based methods for conditional density estimation may be a good and fast option for quantifying uncertainty in QSAR modeling.


Abstract The Miller Oil Field is located on the western margin of the South Viking Graben in UKCS Blocks 16/7b and 16/8b. The oil is trapped in Upper Jurassic turbidite sands shed from the Fladen Ground Spur via the Brae complex submarine fan systems. The reservoir sands are of good quality with an average porosity of 16% and permeabilities occasionally in excess of 1 Darcy. The trap is formed within a subtle structural-stratigraphic combination. Overlying slow velocity Lower Cretaceous sediments produce a time flat which, after depth conversion, produces a 3-way dip closed feature. The trap is completed by stratigraphic pinchout of the reservoir sands to the northwest. The most recent (1985) seismic data allow the top reservoir reflector to be picked directly, which was not the case during the exploration and appraisal phase, when only the Top Kimmeridge Clay seismic pick could be made. The estimate of recoverable hydrocarbons is currently 300 MMBBL of oil and 570 BCF of gas. Development drilling commenced early in 1989. No results are yet available.


Use of media in general and of new media in particular, by children concerns many researchers and parents. Children and adolescents are exposed to an extensive range of communication channels and a variety of media. In this study, we used self-determination theory to examine why children and adolescents consume so much media. This is a mixed-method study. A total of 345 participants from Israel completed questionnaires; 90 children and teenagers were interviewed. Findings suggest that children and adolescents consume media because they feel that it meets their various needs, some of which are not being met in another environment, and each time choose the media that meet their specific needs, in the process of informed consumption. For example, to surf the Internet, they prefer a particular medium, PC or smartphone, or tablet over other medium, according to the ability of each medium to offer the specific content they are looking.


Bacterial poly-β-hydroxybutyrate (PHB) is a natural, biodegradable polymer, which is accumulated in the cells as an energy reserve materialdue to depletion of nitrogen or phosphorous in the presence of excess carbon source. This polymer is foreseen to possess high industrialpotentiality and excellent alternative to the non-degradable petroleum-based plastics. In this study, we isolated and characterized a localbacterial strain WA81 which accumulated 18mg/L PHB after 72 h growth in mineral salt medium under nitrogen deficiency. The PHB granuleswere detected in the cells using TEM and the genes encode for this polymer were detected by oligonucleotide primers using PCR technology.The 16S rRNA gene nucleotide sequence for this isolate was used to construct a phylogentic tree against all available sequences in the GenBank.The phylogenetic tree data suggested that the closest type strain to the local bacterium is the Microbacterium paraoxydans CF36T and hencewe named it Microbacterium sp. strain WA81. Moreover, the set of enzymes responsible for the PHB biosynthetic pathway and their controllingelements were detected in this local isolate using PCR. The genes encode for the biosynthesis enzymes are phbA (β-ketothiolase), phbB(acetoacetly CoA reductase), phbC (PHB polymerase), while the genes encode for the controlling elements are phbP (phasin), phbZ (PHBdepolymerase). The novelty of this local bacterium lies in its ability to accumulate huge amounts of PHB in its cytoplasm and the presence ofa whole set of genes encode for the PHB biosynthetic and catabolic pathways of this polymer. Int J Appl Sci Biotechnol, Vol 3(2): 143-150 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/ijasbt.v3i2.12277


There is controversy over the efficacy of aldose reductase inhibitors in preventing the development of peripheral nerve lesions in experimental diabetes. This study was designed to show whether long-term (28-wk) inhibition of aldose reductase by ponalrestat influences structural changes in peripheral sensory nerve in rats with chronic streptozocin-induced diabetes. Sciatic nerve levels of sorbitol and fructose were significantly reduced but not completely normalized by ponalrestat treatment, myo-lnositol levels, which tended to decrease in diabetic rats, were significantly increased by ponalrestat treatment and exceeded the level in nondiabetic control rats (P < 0.01). Ponalrestat treatment significantly increased nerve conduction velocity over the 28 wk of treatment (P < 0.05), but levels remained well below those of control rats. Structural analysis of sural nerve of diabetic rats disclosed significant preventive effects of ponalrestat on the reduction in myelinated nerve fiber size and fiber occupancy. Axon-fiber size ratio was also preserved in the ponalrestat-treated group. However, diffuse deposition of glycogen and increased glycogenosomes within axons were not influenced by ponalrestat treatment. In contrast to the effect on myelinated nerve fibers, morphometry of unmyelinated nerve fibers did not reveal a significant effect of ponalrestat treatment. These results suggest that chronic treatment with an aldose reductase inhibitor has beneficial effects on the peripheral sensory nerve of experimentally diabetic rats. The effects were primarily on myelinated rather than unmyelinated nerve fibers.


Solar flares are prominent eruptive phenomenon happening in the solar atmosphere. Major flares usually come from solar active regions (ARs) where strong and concentrated bipolar magnetic field exists and manifests as dark sunspots in photosphere. The photospheric magnetic field acts as the bottom boundary of corona system and confines the magnetic structure of the corona. For complex ARs, the coronal magnetic field generally contains electric current around the magnetic polarity inversion lines, which corresponds to the nonpotential magnetic field and manifests as twisted field lines. The coronal magnetic field structure evolves as the response to the variations of the photospheric magnetic field. This coronal evolution can be quasi-steady and approximated by the force-free condition. In some situations, the variations of photospheric magnetic field may cause sudden changes of topological structure of coronal magnetic field at certain sites in the corona. The plasmas at these sites lost equilibrium and are ejected from their original positions. This process is accompanied with magnetic reconnection and leads to the release of magnetic energy in the corona. Part of the released magnetic energy is converted to the electromagnetic emission which manifests as sudden brightening across a broad range of electromagnetic wave spectrum, and hence the flare phenomenon is initiated.


CXCR4 is a clinically relevant chemokine receptor that has first gained attention as one of the cofactors for HIV entry into target cells. Moreover, the receptor is involved in cancer cell migration to distant metastatic sites and immune effector recruitment in inflammatory diseases such as asthma and rheumatoid arthritis. Unfortunately, pharmacologic intervention is complicated by the vital function of CXCR4 in the organism. The most prominent of these functions is its role in stem cell homing. The CXCR4 chemokine ligand, produced by bone marrow stromal cells, leads both to migration of hematopoietic stem cells towards this niche and their retention in this compartment. As models of G-protein coupled receptor (GPCR) activation evolve, it becomes clear that multiple factors modulate the functional outcome of ligand binding to a receptor. Modulation of GPCR activity, for example by allosteric ligands, may permit more subtle therapeutic approaches adapted to long term treatment. In addition, GPCR signalling can be altered by hetero-oligomerization of GPCRs. In this perspective, it might be possible to achieve modulation of GPCR signalling by also targeting the oligomerization partner of a given receptor. This approach is described using the example of strategies that aim at the optimization of stem cell homing in the context of cord blood-derived hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.


Progress and development of organizations depend on improving the level of knowledge, insight, and skills of their human resources so that organizations can achieve to competitive advantage in line with their scientific and economic goals as well as innovation. The first step of educational planning in organizations is to determine educational needs and present educational plans for employees' growth and education. Educational needs are related to the knowledge, attitude or skills that human resources need them in order to carry out their job responsibilities optimally. Thus, this paper has been done aiming to investigate educational needs with the approach of job analysis. Research method is mixed exploratory. In qualitative part, research samples were 13 financial and urban economy experts selected by purposive sampling. Data were collected by semi-structured interview. In this part, required knowledge, skill, technology, and instrument for four jobs of accountant, auditor, document expert, and urban economy expert of Tehran Municipality were identified and four questionnaires were developed based on it. In quantitative part, 143 people were selected by simple random sampling method among financial and urban economy experts of Tehran Municipality including 62 urban economy experts, 49 accountants, 22 auditors, and 10 document experts. In order to analyze data statistically, Lee Hee and one sample t-tests were used. Finally, educational needs of four jobs including accountant, auditor, document expert, and financial and urban economy expert of Tehran Municipality were obtained. According to the priorities, for high priority needs, educational plan was proposed for the first year.


TheGaiamission is expected to make a significant contribution to the knowledge of exoplanet systems, both in terms of their number and of their physical properties. We develop Bayesian methods and detection criteria for orbital fitting, and revise the detectability of exoplanets in light of the in-flight properties ofGaia. Limiting ourselves to one-planet systems as a first step of the development, we simulateGaiadata for exoplanet systems over a grid of S/N, orbital period, and eccentricity. The simulations are then fit using Markov chain Monte Carlo methods. We investigate the detection rate according to three information criteria and the Δχ2. For the Δχ2, the effective number of degrees of freedom depends on the mission length. We find that the choice of the Markov chain starting point can affect the quality of the results; we therefore consider two limit possibilities: an ideal case, and a very simple method that finds the starting point assuming circular orbits. We use 6644 and 4402 simulations to assess the fraction of false positive detections in a 5 yr and in a 10 yr mission, respectively; and 4968 and 4706 simulations to assess the detection rate and how the parameters are recovered. Using Jeffreys' scale of evidence, the fraction of false positives passing a strong evidence criterion is ≲0.2% (0.6%) when considering a 5 yr (10 yr) mission and using the Akaike information criterion or the Watanabe–Akaike information criterion, and <0.02% (<0.06%) when using the Bayesian information criterion. We find that there is a 50% chance of detecting a planet with a minimumS∕N= 2.3 (1.7). This sets the maximum distance to which a planet is detectable to ~70 pc and ~3.5 pc for a Jupiter-mass and Neptune-mass planets, respectively, assuming a 10 yr mission, a 4 au semi-major axis, and a 1M⊙star. We show the distribution of the accuracy and precision with which orbital parameters are recovered. The period is the orbital parameter that can be determined with the best accuracy, with a median relative difference between input and output periods of 4.2% (2.9%) assuming a 5 yr (10 yr) mission. The median accuracy of the semi-major axis of the orbit can be recovered with a median relative error of 7% (6%). The eccentricity can also be recovered with a median absolute accuracy of 0.07 (0.06).


In August of 1990, the IRIS Data Management Center (IRIS DMC) was designated as the first FDSN Data Center. Since that time the IRIS DMC has also come to be known as the FDSN Archive. As the FDSN Archive, all member networks, through their own local Network Data Centers, routinely send data to the IRIS DMC. At the present time we have received data from seven member networks. These include: CNSN (Canada); CDSN (China); GEOSCOPE (France); Graefenberg (Germany); IRIS GSN (U.S.A.); MEDNET (Italy); POSEIDON (Japan). In addition to acting as the FDSN Archive, the IRIS DMC is responsible for archiving and distributing data from several sources. The Global Seismographie Network (GSN) and the Program for Array Seismic Studies of the Continental Lithosphere (PASSCAL) and the Joint Seismic Program (JSP) are three IRIS programs that presently send data to the IRIS DMS. The DMC also archives data from some regional networks in the United States and in the Former Soviet Union (FSU). The DMC is one component of a larger Data Management System (DMS) consisting of several components including two Data Collection Centers (DCCs), one Data Management Center (DMQ, a DMC Host at the University of Washington, a Wave form Quality Center (WQC), and the Moscow Data Analysis Center (MDC) in Russia.


Mieyanling has an antipyretic effect on the fever of animals caused by yeast or TAB vaccine. The hypothermal effect of Mieyanling on the temperature of normal mice and rats was also observed. The ED50 of antipyretic and hypothermal action of this drug in mice was 20g/kg and 50g/kg respectively. There was a CNS depressive effect when Mieyanling was administered 60g/kg orally to mice.


The need for rapid and accurate information is absolutely necessary development of a business. But in fact, to make the information in accordance with the above requirements is not an easy thing. This is because of the many problems and  the processed data and processing variations are manifold. It also occurs in Graha Medika Clinic Bekasi are currently  changing the process of purchasing the medicine that initially manually and then switch to computerization, to simplify the transaction process that occurs in the clinic housekeeping to get the information quickly and accurately. In order to solve various problems in data processing, especially in the case of the  purchase of medicines, information systems dibuatkanlah purchase of drugs at the clinic Graha Medika Bekasi, this study aims to determine how optimal drug purchases at the Information Systems graha medika clinic. Issues to be raised in this study is whether the information system drug purchases at Graha Medika Clinic Bekasi can help in the problems faced by Graha Medika Clinic and provide information up to date, by testing using the method Mc Call.

Keywords: Mc Call method, purchasing information system


In this paper, we study communication efficient distributed algorithms for distributionally robust federated learning via periodic averaging with adaptive sampling. In contrast to standard empirical risk minimization, due to the minimax structure of the underlying optimization problem, a key difficulty arises from the fact that the global parameter that controls the mixture of local losses can only be updated infrequently on the global stage. To compensate for this, we propose a Distributionally Robust Federated Averaging (DRFA) algorithm that employs a novel snapshotting scheme to approximate the accumulation of history gradients of the mixing parameter. We analyze the convergence rate of DRFA in both convex-linear and nonconvex-linear settings. We also generalize the proposed idea to objectives with regularization on the mixture parameter and propose a proximal variant, dubbed as DRFA-Prox, with provable convergence rates. We also analyze an alternative optimization method for regularized cases in strongly-convex-strongly-concave and non-convex (under PL condition)-strongly-concave settings. To the best of our knowledge, this paper is the first to solve distributionally robust federated learning with reduced communication, and to analyze the efficiency of local descent methods on distributed minimax problems. We give corroborating experimental evidence for our theoretical results in federated learning settings.


Severe atopic dermatitis has a profound effect on many aspects of the patient's life, and a combination of topical and systemic treatment is often necessary to control the disease. Systemic corticosteroids are rapidly effective, but should only be used short term for severe exacerbations because of their many long-term side effects. In chronic cases, starting another systemic immunosuppressant therapy while tapering off corticosteroids should be considered. The usefulness of cyclosporin A, azathioprine, and methotrexate has been documented in clinical trials. Cyclosporin A is rapidly effective, but has a narrow therapeutic index and possible renal toxicity. Azathioprine and methotrexate have a slower onset of action and are good treatment options for many patients, but are not always tolerated. Mycophenolate mofetil, mycophenolate sodium and biologicals are other alternatives, but need to be assessed in larger randomized trials. Despite the available therapeutic repertoire, there remain patients with very severe disease in whom we are unable to obtain satisfactory control. The therapy for patients with severe psoriasis has been revolutionized during the last decade, due to the development of targeted biological therapy, and it is indeed the hope that a similar process is about to emerge also for patients suffering from severe atopic dermatitis.


Cloud Computing is increasingly becoming popular as many enterprise applications and data are moving into cloud platforms. However, a major barrier for cloud adoption is real and perceived lack of security. In this paper, we take a holistic view of cloud computing security - spanning across the possible issues and vulnerabilities connected with virtualization infrastructure, software platform, identity management and access control, data integrity, confidentiality and privacy, physical and process security aspects, and legal compliance in cloud. We present our findings from the points of view of a cloud service provider, cloud consumer, and third-party authorities such as Govt. We also discuss important research directions in cloud security in areas such as Trusted Computing, Information Centric Security and Privacy Preserving Models. Finally, we sketch a set of steps that can be used, at a high level, to assess security preparedness for a business application to be migrated to cloud.


Deep-level defects related with 5d transition metal, osmium (Os) have been studied in ntype GaAs. Os has been incorporated in epitaxial n-GaAs layers in situ, during growth by lowpressure metal-organic chemical vapour phase epitaxy (MOVPE) technique. Mesa p+nn+ junction diodes are fabricated for investigations by deep level transient spectroscopy (DLTS). Two deeplevel peaks, observed in majority carrier (electron) emission spectra, Os1 and Os2, show a significant shift in peak positions to lower temperatures with the applied junction reverse bias, demonstrating enhancement of the thermal emission rate by the junction electric field. Doublecorrelation DLTS (DDLTS) measurements have been employed for accurate quantitative investigations of the observed field dependence. However, in view of the relatively small concentration of the deep level Os1, this technique is found to yield reliable data only for the deep level corresponding to the dominant peak, Os2. Detailed data have been obtained on the field effect for Os2, extending over junction electric field values 3 x 106 V/m - 1.2 x 107 V/m. The measured emission rate signatures show a reduction of the thermal activation energy from 0.48 eV to 0.21 eV for Os2 over this electric field range. Analysis of the data in terms of the recent theoretical work on field dependence indicates that Os2 is associated with a substitutional Os donor.


OBJECTIVES
To determine whether sampling feces off the ground replicates prevalence estimates for specific pathogens obtained from fecal samples collected per rectum of adult cows, and to determine characteristics of feces on the ground (fecal pats) that are associated with subsequent identification of Campylobacter spp, Cryptosporidium parvum, and Giardia duodenalis.

ANIMALS
A random sample of adult beef cattle from 25 herds located throughout California.

PROCEDURE
1,115 rectal and ground fecal samples were obtained. Samples were submitted for culture of Campylobacter spp and examined, using a direct fluorescent antibody assay, to detect C parvum oocysts and G duodenalis cysts. Characteristics of fecal pats, such as volume and consistency, were recorded.

RESULTS
Prevalence of Campylobacter spp was 5.0% (20/401) for rectal fecal samples, which was significantly greater than prevalence determined for ground fecal samples (2/402; 0.5%). Most isolates were C jejuni subsp jejuni. Prevalence of C parvum was higher in rectal fecal samples (6/557; 1.1%) than in ground fecal samples (1/558; 0.2%), but this difference was not significant. Prevalence of G duodenalis did not differ for rectal (36/557; 6.5%) versus ground (26/558; 4.7%) fecal samples.

CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE
Evaluation of ground fecal samples may not accurately indicate the prevalence of Campylobacter spp or C parvum in cattle but may reflect prevalence of G duodenalis. Differences in prevalence estimates between the 2 methods suggest inactivation of pathogens in feces after cattle have defecated. Prevalence estimates generated by evaluation of ground fecal samples, however, may more accurately estimate environmental pathogen burden.


Blood bank in Malaysia needs a systematic and integrated blood bank management system. Currently, the blood banks are either standalone or else they are limited to integrated among their group of hospitals. This paper is focused on web-based Blood Bank Management System (BBSM) which will be integrated throughout the blood banks in nationwide. This solution is aimed to serve the blood bank managements and as well as the donors. Individual blood bank has their own ways and approach of handling the blood pack stocks. This integrated system is to unite all the approach and the requirements. Integrated BBSM is to benefit both the donor and the blood banks. This system strongly follows the requirements of Health Level Seven (HL7) and World Health Organization (WHO). Donors will be able to keep track of their donation details and also their blood test report. As well as the blood bank management will be able to keep track on the inventory of donated bloods, upcoming donation campaigns and blood bank stock management.


This review describes the development in the use of Au(I)/Brønsted acid binary catalytic systems to enable an enantioselective transformation in one-pot that cannot be achieved by gold catalysts alone. The examples discussed herein are promising since apart from using chiral ligands there exists a possibility of using chiral Brønsted acids. Clearly, the horizon for enantioselective gold catalysis has been expanded as more options to make the gold-catalyzed reactions enantioselective have become available.


The objective of this work is the on-line control of the solid-liquid separation process in a water treatment plant using a focused beam reflectance measurement sensor (FBRM) in order to improve the coagulation, precipitation and flocculation of this plant. A previous study of the system is carried out in order to analyze the possible influence of the external variables on the floc mean chord size though of the monitorization of the flocculation tank. The formation of particle aggregates is the product of the addition of an inorganic flocculant (FeCl3) with a subsequent treatment with an organic synthetic flocculant (anionic polyacrilamide) that determine the formed floc properties. The FBRM study of the variations of the mean chord size realised after the changes in the system show an improvement in flocculant diffusion and a greater phase contact. The final objective is to improve the calcium carbonate precipitation conditions, to reduce the membrane fouling and avoid the deposit formation in the plant surface. The trials carried out a characterization of the waters before and after changes in the system in order to establish whether the final properties of the water fulfil the parameters required for its posterior use. The results obtained show that the measurement system FBRM is an on-line sensor that is good enough to be used as a control and prediction method in the water treatment industries. Furthermore, the relations between the data obtained by the sensor and the properties of the water after the depuration allow control of the outlet water.


App Inventor 2 with MySQL database is a step-by-step guide to write Android applications that use MySQL database residing on the Internet. The task is carried out in synergy between the Web components, WebWevier and Sharing App Inventor and MySQL database. The data transmission between Android App and MySQL database is ealised using php interface specially written and extensively documented. With this method the App assembled with App Inventor can share on a remote server a database whose contents you can update using a standard web browser. This means that you can deploy App whose contents can change over time, simply by changing the data in the database. Actions implemented: storing, editing, deleting, sorting, recovery and transfer records from the remote MySQL database to the Android mobile device. Sharing of data imported via the Sharing component. This guide contains detailed explanations, examples and links to download the Android app, database and php code. All examples are described and commented. Once done downloading, the files are already predisposed to be uploaded to the webserver and Android devices to be used immediately. On the basis of these concepts it will be possible to create your own personalized Android App-php-mysql custom system. For those who consider themselves novice, in the database it is described php / MySQL essential to the function of this application, and provided explanations on how to get cheap web server or free for your needs. If your app need to work with the data, this e-book can do for you!


Background: Distress is prevalent among residents and often attributed to rigors of training. Aims: To explore the prevalence of burnout and depression and measured mental quality of life (QOL) among graduating medical students shortly before they began residency. Method: Pooled analysis of data from 1428 fourth year medical students who responded to 1 of 3 multi-institutional studies. Students completed the Maslach Burnout Inventory, PRIME MD, and SF-8 to measure burnout, depression, and low mental QOL (defined as mean mental SF-8 scores ½ a standard deviation below the population norm) and answered demographic items. Results: Shortly before beginning residency, 49% of responding medical students had burnout, 38% endorsed depressive symptoms, and 34% had low mental QOL. While no differences in the prevalence of distress was observed by residency specialty area, there were subtle differences in the manifestation of burnout by specialty. Medical students entering surgical fields had lower mean emotional scores, students entering primary care fields had lower mean depersonalization scores, and students entering non-primary care/non-surgical fields reported the lowest mean personal accomplishment scores (all p ≤ 0.03). Conclusion: Our results indicate a high prevalence of distress among graduating medical students across all specialty disciplines before they even begin residency training.


Background: Ecological indicator values (EIVs) have a long tradition in vegetation ecological research in Europe. EIVs characterise the ecological optimum of species along major environmental gradients using ordinal scales. Calculating mean indicator values per plot is an effective way of bioindication. Following first systems in Russia and Central Europe, about two dozen EIV systems have been published for various parts of Europe.
Aims: As there was no EIV system available at European scale that could be used for broad- scale analyses, e.g. in the context of the European Vegetation Archive (EVA), we develop such a system for the first time for the vascular plants of Europe.
Location: Europe.
Methods: We compiled all national and major regional EIV systems and harmonized their plant nomenclature with a newly developed contemporary European taxonomic backbone (EuroSL 1.0). Using regression, we rescaled the individual EIV systems for the main parameters to continent-wide quasi-metric scales, ranging from 1 to 99. The data from each individual system were then translated into a probability curve approximated with a normal distribution, weighed with the logarithm of the area represented and summed up across the systems. From the European density curve we extracted then a mean and a variance, which characterise the distribution of this species along this particular ecological gradient.
Results and conclusions: Our consensus approach of integrating the expert knowledge of all existing EIV systems allowed deriving the first consistent description of the ecological behaviour for a significant part of the European vascular flora. The resulting Ecological Indicator Values of Europe (EIVE) 1.0 will be published open access to allow bioindication beyond country borders. Future releases of EIVE might contain more parameters, non- vascular plants and regionalisation or could be re-adjusted and extended to hitherto non- covered species through co-occurrence data from EVA.


ABSTRACT Purpose: To compare the stromal bed surface quality and the accuracy of dissection depth after deep lamellar cuts using the Leonardo Da Vinci (LDV) femtosecond laser (Z6) and the ONE Microkeratome. Methods: Deep lamellar cuts were performed on nine human donor corneoscleral buttons: five with the LDV femtosecond (FS) laser (Z6) (Ziemer) and four with the ONE Microkeratome (MK) (Moria). Corneal thickness was measured with ultrasound pachymetry before and after the dissection. The Stromal bed quality was evaluated using light microscopy (n = 4) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) (n = 9). The surface roughness on SEM images was graded on the scale of 1 (smoothest) to 5 (roughest) by four observers, blinded to the method used. Particle analysis on the SEM images was performed in order to have an objective measure of smoothness. Results: The achieved dissection depth using the FS laser was 496.4 ± 46.4 µm when attempting 500 µm and 474 ± 60 µm with the microkeratome when attempting 350 µm. Histological evaluation of the corneoscleral buttons by both light and electron microscopy showed significantly smoother surface using the FS laser compared to the microkeratome. There were fewer and smaller particles observed in the SEM images of FS laser cut buttons (p < 0.001).The average observer based score of anterior surface roughness (50×) was 2.2 for the FS laser and 3.9 for the microkeratome dissections (p < 0.001). Conclusions: The LDV femtosecond laser (Z6) platform is capable of creating deep corneal lamellar dissection with smoother surface quality and with more predictable cut depth as compared to the One Microkeratome.


Death touches all of us, yet few can deal comfortably and effectively with life in its terminal stages. By thoroughly examining the practical, social, and psychological aspects of the subject, this volume can help us cope with our own reactions as well as the needs of the dying and bereaved. What constitutes reasonable rather than extraordinary care for the dying person? At what point does death occur, and who should have the authority to decide? These and other modern dilemmas are examined with a view towards clarifying the issues raised by such developments as Iifesupport equipment, organ transplants, euthanasia, and cryonics. Coping with the emotional aspects of death is almost always extremely difficult for everyone the patient, family, and medical staff. Dr. Benton describes the six stages of grief and the feelings of guilt, rejection, isolation, and fear that may accompany it. He explores the social, psychological, and physical mechanisms involved in grieving and the different reactions that can be expected from a child, adolescent, or adult. Special consideration is given to the circumstances under which death occurred, such as disease, accident, aging, and suicide. Funerals and death rituals are examined for the meaning that they have for the bereaved. Health care practitioners learn a practical and emotionally sound approach to relating to the dying and their fami lies. The author descri bes in detail behaviors that encourage healthy expression of a patient's needs. He examines the major conflicts that are often experienced by the family, and presents beneficial ways of handling the acute emotional turmoil caused by the dying child. Guidelines are presented for inform-


In Merchants and Empire, Cathy Matson examines the economic ideas and behavior of New York City's commercial wholesalers, especially the middling merchants who, as a majority of active traders, affected the character of city commerce over its colonial years. Although less prominent in transatlantic dry goods commerce than the great traders, this middling majority spread dissenting economic ideas and flouted political authority time and again when the benefits to their interests were clear. Indeed, middling or lesser merchants fashioned a plausible alternative to mercantilism, and contributed significantly to the challenges Americans offered to British rule in the final colonial years.


We present a novel integrated visualization system that enables interactive visual analysis of ensemble simulations used in ocean forecasting, i.e, simulations of sea surface elevation. Our system enables the interactive planning of both the placement and operation of off-shore structures. We illustrate this using a real-world simulation of the Gulf of Mexico. Off-shore structures, such as those used for oil exploration, are vulnerable to hazards caused by strong loop currents. The oil and gas industry therefore relies on accurate ocean forecasting systems for planning their operations. Nowadays, these forecasts are based on multiple spatio-temporal simulations resulting in multidimensional, multivariate and multivalued data, so-called ensemble data. Changes in sea surface elevation are a good indicator for the movement of loop current eddies, and our visualization approach enables their interactive exploration and analysis. We enable analysis of the spatial domain, for planning the placement of structures, as well as detailed exploration of the temporal evolution at any chosen position, for the prediction of critical ocean states that require the shutdown of rig operations.


Purpose: To determine the robustness and accuracy of an open source 2D/3D GPU accelerated image registration algorithm in the context of cranial image guided radiotherapy. Methods: The open source 2D/3D image registration algorithm, Reg23, has been released under the GNU license. The algorithm utilizes an iterative digitally reconstructed radiograph (DRR) approach to the image registration problem. The DRR generator is accelerated on a GPU to rapidly iterate the optimization process. Multiple cost functions are supported and were analyzed. Robustness was determined by comparing a baseline set of orthogonal kV images of a cranial phantom with a predetermined isocenter to the planned isocenter in the CT image set and introducing more than 6000 combinations of rotations and translation to the position of the isocenter in the CT. Accuracy and time efficiency of various cost function were analyzed for the virtual patient shifts. Furthermore, a set of 43 experimental orthogonal images were acquired with a linac mounted kV imaging system of predetermined physical shifts which were compared to the results of the Reg23 algorithm. Results: The Reg23 algorithm was found to be accurate to 0.04±0.02mm for the virtual isocenter shifts and 0.23±0.40mm for real images compared to the CBCT registration results. Time to solution could be reduced from >70 s to <40 s without a significant change in the algorithm accuracy depending upon the cost function employed. Conclusions: The Reg23 algorithm is robust and sensitive to sub-mm variations of virtual shifts of the isocenter position. The Normalized Cross Correlation (NCC) cost function was determined to be most accurate and fastest for cranial image registration. For real experimental data, the Gradent Difference (GD) cost function was most accurate and both GD and NCC delivered results accurate to within 0.5 mm and 0.4° when compared to CBCT/CT registrations. © 2012 American Association of Physicists in Medicine


Thermally sprayed tungsten carbide cermet coatings are extensively used in engineering applications, such as cutting tools, rock and earth drilling tools. When coatings are compared, they often differ in a number of ways, such as being deposited from powder feedstock with different characteristics (e.g. particle size, powder porosity, method of manufacture, different carbide grain sizes, different volume fractions of binder, different binder types) and with different thermal spray systems. When a number of factors are varied at once, then it is very difficult to identify the causes of any differences observed in coating microstructure and performance.

In the current study, an attempt was made to vary just one variable at a time whilst keeping (as far as possible) the other variables constant. Experiments evaluated the independent effect of three parameters on the microstructure and performance of tungsten-carbide based coatings as follows: (a) metal binder type (comparing WC-12wt%Co and WC-12wt%Ni); (b) WC grain size (coarse and fine carbide size in WC-17wt%Co); and (c) metal binder content (WC-12wt%Co and WC-17wt%Co with similar carbide grain size). All feedstock powders used were agglomerated and sintered with similar particle size (-45+15 µm), deposited on mild steel substrates using a Metallisation MET-JET 4L kerosene-fuelled HVOF system. Coatings were characterized in terms of their microstructure, mechanical properties, and dry sliding wear behaviour. The research also addressed the possibility of using scratch testing as a method for evaluating the fracture mechanism of thick coatings and as a tool for predicting their wear behaviour.

The experimental results show more decomposition of WC (into W2C and W) in the WC-12Co coating compared with the WC-12Ni coating. This could be due to melting occurring at lower temperature in the W-Co-C system than in the W-Ni-C system during particle heating in the spray gun. There also appeared to be more amorphous phase formation in the WC-12Co coating. Hardness and fracture toughness are both higher in the WC-12Co coating than in the WC-12Ni coating. Additionally, the WC-12Co coating required higher loads to induce fracture in the scratch test. In sliding wear, both the WC-12Co and WC-12Ni exhibited a similar wear mechanism in mild wear but the WC-12Co coating withstood a higher applied load before the transition to severe wear.

The effect of the WC grain size on the WC-17Co coating was evaluated. The results show that fine and coarse carbide coatings have similar microstructural features. However, the fine carbide WC-17Co coating exhibited a higher hardness and lower fracture toughness. Furthermore, the fine carbide WC-17Co coating required higher loads to induce fracture in the scratch test compared to the coarse carbide WC-17Co coating. In sliding wear, both coatings exhibited a similar wear mechanism and rate in mild wear. However, the WC-17Co coating with fine WC grain size withstood higher loads before the transition from mild to severe wear.

The coating with lower metal binder content (WC-12Co) exhibited higher levels of decomposition compared with the coating with higher metal binder content (WC-17Co). Increasing the binder content resulted in reduction in the microhardness, increased the fracture toughness and reduced critical loads through all scratch test sections. In sliding wear, the coating with the higher binder content exhibited a wear rate up to four times higher than that of the coating with the lower binder content.

Overall, coatings with higher critical load during scratch testing also exhibited higher wear resistance. A linear relationship between the scratch critical load for development of semi-circular cracks and the mild – severe wear transition load is demonstrated. Consequently, it is proposed that scratch testing may be used to predict load bearing capacity in sliding wear.


Advances in bioengineering have led to increasingly sophisticated prosthetic devices for amputees and paralyzed individuals. Control of such devices necessitates real-time classification of biosignals, e.g., electromyographic (EMG) signals recorded from intact muscles. In this paper, we show that a 4-degrees-of-freedom robotic arm can be controlled in real-time using non-invasive surface EMG signals recorded from the forearm.

The innovative features of our system include a physiologically-informed selection of forearm muscles for recording EMG signals, intelligent choice of hand gestures for easy classification, and fast, simple feature extraction from EMG signals. Our selection of gestures is meant to intuitively map to appropriate degrees of freedom in the robotic arm. These design decisions allow us to build fast accurate classifiers online, and control a 4-DOF robotic arm in real-time.

In a study involving 3 subjects, we achieved accuracies of 92-98% on an 8-class classification problem using linear SVMs. These classifiers can be learned on-line in under 10 minutes, including data collection and training. Our study also analyzes the issues and tradeoffs involved in designing schemes for robotic control using EMG. Finally, we present details of online experiments where subjects successfully solved tasks of varying complexity using EMG to control the robotic arm.


EXTENDED ABSTRACT In typical large-scale scientific applications, several parameters of complex computational models have to be predefined in a simulation, each with a wide range of possible values. Listing all possible combinations of parameters and exhaustively trying them all is nearly impossible even in extreme-scale High Performance Computing (HPC). There may be a huge number of possible combinations and processing each one may take several hours or days, making the whole computation last for weeks or months. Typically, after the initial set ups, the scientist starts the computation and occasionally fine-tunes specific parameters based on intermediate result analysis. The term " human-in-the-loop " is used when computational scientists can actively participate in the computational process. Specific adaptations can generate an important improvement on performance, resource consumption, and quality of results [2]. To allow for online human adaptation, dynamic workflow solutions are required. Most existing workflow solutions do not allow for online human adaptations, which is considered a future research challenge in a recent survey [4]. Chiron[3], WorkWays [7], and Copernicus [8] are a few exceptions that allow for online data adaptation. Parameter tuning – the subject of research of this work – is only one among many other types of adaptations possible in human-adapted workflows in HPC [6]. Registering the adaptations is essential to track and analyze the effects of fine-tunings. In [1], the authors discuss past, present and future of scientific workflows, and as a future issue they mention that "monitoring and logging will be enhanced with more interactive components for intermediate stages of active workflows." We did not find any work that registers workflow adaption in logs or in provenance databases. This work aims at capturing and registering such human adaptation data (e.g., values before and after a specific parameter fine-tuning; reason for the tuning), relating them with other relevant data (e.g., domain-specific strategic values and execution data), and allowing all these data to be efficiently integrated. This contributes for online data analysis and data-driven decisions (e.g., how a specific user action impacted the processing time), helping to put humans in the online loop of large-scale scientific computing. Also, recording those adaptations contributes to the results' reliability and reproducibility. We developed DfAdapter [5], a tool that collects human adaptations in the dataflow, while the workflow runs. It controls and stores specific parameter-tunings in a provenance database, relating the human adaptation data with data for: domain, dataflow provenance, execution, and performance. As shown in Figure 1, initially DfAdapter registers the user Bob, who is going to adapt the dataflow; then it registers identifiers of the current state of the workflow (e.g. step i of the loop). To track the tunings, it receives from Bob the set of parameters, e.g. attr5 to be modified to "val5" into Dataset2. Then, DfAdapter modifies the values in Dataset2. Finally, it registers the iteration counter, the execution state at the adaptation moment, the dataset, values before and after, and the current wall-time all in the provenance database. Relevant insight is obtained with visualizations complemented by tracking queries like: "List all Bob's tunings correlating with time step" or "Avg. of values 10 iterations before DfAdapter can be coupled to a workflow and after the tunings". managed by a parallel workflow management system or by a workflow defined using an HPC library, or even a script. DfAdapter works as a debugging tool on an instrumented code. Figure 1. Tuning parameters in a dataset in a dataflow.


The optimization problems usually need specific techniques to solve, therefore many approaches and methods were proposed to solved such problems, but there are many difficulties (limitations) still faced the problem solvers such as how to reach the solution (or solutions) with high performance and efficiency or with more accuracy results or with suitable behavior. Thus the artificial intelligence tools are considered the best tools that can be used to solve the optimization problems, because the AI tools must decide two important aims: the problem reduction and the guarantee of solutions which lead to less the effect of the difficulties (limitations) and give more suitable criteria in performance, efficiency, and behavior. The swarm intelligent techniques are considered the most modern AI techniques which contains many approaches that are used to solve optimization problems with high performance and efficiency and suitable behavior In this paper a specific study is made to the behavior of the swarm intelligence techniques and evaluates its performance to solve various problems, then there is a presentation to a scientific comparative section in which many approaches is presented that used different swarm intelligence techniques such as Ant Colony Optimization (ACO), Bees Algorithm (BA), and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) to solve various optimization problems and them make a comparison among them in term of behavior and performance. Finally we reach to scientific discussion and conclusions that distinguish among the presented approaches to prove that the swarm intelligence techniques success in solving practical, important, and applicable problems with high performance, efficiency, and special behavior.


Abstract This article reviews the "state of practice" with regard to sentinel lymph node biopsy, a new and evolving technique currently used most commonly for staging of malignant melanoma and adenocarcinoma of the breast. Sentinel lymph node biopsy has the potential to both increase the accuracy of lymph node sampling as a prognostic tool and to decrease the need for unnecessary and morbid extensive lymph node dissection in such patients. The need for close cooperation and planning involving the surgeon and pathologist is stressed, and gross room tissue handling, radiation safety, microscopic examination, and the use of ancillary diagnostic techniques are discussed.


Over many years there was a general acceptance that thick ice sheets of marine
isotope stages 2, 4 and 6 were restricted largely to continental Eurasia, Greenland
and North America including the adjacent shelves of the Arctic Ocean. With this
"Beringia" was understood as an ice-free land bridge between the continents of Asia
and America during glacial times with low sea levels and exposed shelves. However,
since about 15 years a growing number of evidence is found in water depth up to
more than 1000 m that grounding of ice has occurred in various places of the Arctic
Ocean since MIS 6 and/or before including the "Beringian" continental margin. With
the decline in Arctic Ocean summer sea ice during the last decade it has been
possible to hydro-acoustically survey areas so far sparsely investigated because of
operational constrains. Glacial landforms were discovered on many continental
slopes as well as ridges and seamounts of the Arctic Ocean, which rise up to less
than about 1000 m below present sea level. These landforms include moraines,
drumlinized features, glacigenic debris flows, till wedges, mega-scale glacial
lineations (MSGL), and iceberg plough marks. They suggest that thick ice has
occurred not only on nearly all margins of the Arctic Ocean but also covered pelagic
areas.
In our studies we present submarine glacial landforms from the western and central
Arctic Ocean, which are interpreted as a result of a complex pattern of Pleistocene
glaciations along the continental margin of the East Siberian Sea. This was
discovered during the cruises of RV "Polarstern" in 2008 and RV "Araon" in 2012.
Orientations of these landforms suggest thick ice has flown north onto the deep
Arctic Ocean, thereby grounded on plateaus and seamounts of the Medeleev Ridge.
In addition, during the recent RV "Polarstern" cruise in 2014, hydro-acoustic data is
presented from the Lomonosov Ridge (Siberian side to close to the North Pole),
which support the hypothesis of widespread grounding of ice in the Arctic Ocean
from different Eurasian sources. The data suggest that thick ice-shelves have
developed from continental ice sheets on a nearly circum-arctic scale. These ice
shelves extended far north and covered large areas of the Arctic Ocean. It now
depends on the stratigraphical analysis of existing and future sediment cores to find
out whether or not these ice shelves have occurred contemporaneously and when
the individual grounding events have occurred.


Lanzkowsky, P., Shende, A., Aral, I., Saluja, G. (1975). Archives of Disease in Childhood, 50, 685. Organ irradiation and combination chemotherapy in treatment of acute lymphocytic leukaemia in children. A total of 30 consecutive children with acute lymphocytic leukaemia (ALL) were treated from June 1971 until December 1974. Remission was induced with the use of vincristine and prednisone. After induction of remission, cranial irradiation and intrathecal methotrexate were given. Then the liver, spleen, and kidney were irradiated and 6-mercaptopurine, cyclophosphamide, and methotrexate were administered during the maintenance phase. Pulsed doses of vincristine and prednisone were administered at 10- to 12-week intervals. The patients were subdivided into two groups based on their initial white blood cell (WBC) counts: a standard risk group with an initial WBC count of less than 25 000/mm3 (25 X 10(9)/1) and a high risk group with an initial WBC count greater than 25 000/mm3 (25 X 10(9)/1). Of the 30 children entered in this study one standard risk patient died in the induction phase before attaining remission. Analysis of the results is therefore based on the remaining 29 patients, 22 standard risk and 7 high risk patients, who attained complete remission. Survival rates in continuous remission were found to be 43% of the high risk group, 88% for the standard risk group, and 77% for the combined group. Analysis of the data indicates that this therapy is unsatisfactory in high risk ALL. The results to date of this therapy for standard risk are sufficiently encouraging to continue its use in this subgroup of patients.


THIS PAPER PRESENTS AN EXACT MODEL FOR STUDYING THE GLOBAL BUCK-LING OF CONCRETE-FILLED STEEL TUBULAR (CFST) COLUMNS WITH COMPLI-ANT INTERFACES BETWEEN THE CONCRETE CORE AND STEEL TUBE. THIS MOD-EL IS THEN USED TO EVALUATE EXACT CRITICAL BUCKLING LOADS AND MODES OF CFST COLUMNS. THE RESULTS PROVE THAT INTERFACE COMPLIANCE CAN CONSIDERABLY REDUCE THE CRITICAL BUCKLING LOADS OF CFST COLUMNS. A GOOD AGREEMENT BETWEEN ANALYTICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL BUCKLING LOADS IS OBTAINED IF AT LEAST ONE AMONG LONGITUDINAL AND RADIAL INTERFACIAL STIFFNESSES IS HIGH. THE PARAMETRIC STUDY REVEALS THAT BUCKLING LOADS OF CFST COLUMNS ARE VERY MUCH AFFECTED BY THE INTERFACIAL STIFFNESS AND BOUNDARY CONDITIONS.


The great value of applying digital games in language learning has been highlighted. However, there has been a lack of attention paid to the effects of prior knowledge in a contextual game-based language learning environment. To this end, this study developed an MMORPG-based educational game to facilitate English learning, aiming at investigating how students' different levels of prior knowledge, in terms of their prior English ability and online gaming experience, affect their learning performance and anxiety. The results showed that the high English ability students significantly outperformed those with low English ability, the low online gaming experience students significantly outperformed those with high online gaming experience, and the low English ability students experienced significantly higher degrees of anxiety than those with high English ability. Furthermore, the results showed that prior English ability was positively correlated to learning performance but negatively correlated to anxiety, and anxiety was negatively correlated to learning performance. These findings suggest that a contextual game-based learning environment can be exploited as a useful tool to support language learning; however, the learning performance and anxiety created by the environment were affected to varying degrees by the levels of students' prior knowledge.


Abstract The 'Big Data' paradigm will revolutionize understanding of the natural environment. New technologies are revolutionizing our ability to measure, model, understand and make robust, evidence-based predictions at increasingly spatial and temporal resolutions. Realising this potential will require reengineering of environmental sciences in the observation infrastructure, in data management and processing, and in the culture of environmental sciences. Collectively these will deliver vibrant, integrated research communities. Manipulating such enormous data streams requires a new data infrastructure underpinned by four technologies. Pervasive environmental sensor networks will continuously measure suites of environmental parameters and transmit these wirelessly to scientists, regulators and modellers in real time. Integrated environmental modelling will process data, streamed from sensor networks, using components synthesizing natural systems developed by domain experts, each of which will be linked at runtime to other expert developed components. Semantic interoperability will facilitate cross-disciplinary working, as has already happened within the biosciences so that data items can be exchanged with unambiguous, shared meaning. Cloud computing will revolutionize data processing allowing scalable computing close to observations on an as-needed basis. Leveraging the full potential of these technologies requires a major culture change in the environmental sciences where national and continental scale observatories of sensors networks become basic scientific tools.


One of the crucial challenges in the recently emerging Internet of Things (IoT) applications is how to handle the massive heterogeneous data generated from a large number of resource-constrained sensors. In this context, cloud computing has emerged as a promising paradigm due to its enormous storage and computing capabilities, thus leading to the IoT-Cloud convergence. In such a framework, IoT devices can be grouped into several clusters and each cluster head can send the aggregated information to the cloud via a gateway for further processing. Although a number of clustering methods have been proposed for the conventional Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs), it is important to consider specific IoT characteristics while adapting these techniques for wireless IoT networks. One of the important features of IoT networks that can be exploited while developing clustering techniques is the collaborations among heterogeneous IoT devices. In this regard, the network-wide knowledge at the cloud center can be useful to provide information about the device relations to the IoT gateway. Motivated by this, we propose and evaluate a cloud-assisted device interaction-aware clustering scheme for heterogeneous IoT networks. The proposed method considers the joint impact of residual energy and device closeness factor for the effective selection of cluster heads. Our results show that the proposed clustering scheme can significantly prolong the network lifetime, and enhance the overall throughput of a wireless IoT network.


The sensitivity of micro- and nanoscale resonator beams for sensing applications in ambient conditions was investigated. Micro-electromechanical (MEMS) and nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS) were realized using silicon carbide (SiC) and polycrystalline aluminium nitride (AlN) as active layers on silicon substrates. Resonant frequencies and quality factors in vacuum as well as in air were measured. The sensitivity behaviour under ambient conditions with a mass loading in the range of picogram (pg) was verified and measurements with biological mass loading were performed. In addition, the sensitivity to pressure variations was analysed.


In November 1987, Linwood Boyette, an African American man and retired US army sergeant, became one of the first people in West Germany to be jailed for alleged HIV transmission, following charges brought under a legal Maßnahmenkatalog (catalog of measures) in the state of Bavaria. Boyette stood accused of having knowingly exposed three white male sexual partners to HIV and bringing them into "danger of death." Boyette's racial and national "otherness" underscored the widespread West German perception of AIDS as a racialized threat linked to the United States. With his example, this article frames early West German criminalization of HIV/AIDS as a transatlantic spectacle of carceral discipline and racialized punishment. The article concludes that the US-inspired Bavarian response mirrors an ongoing carceral racialization of HIV that systemically harms individuals and communities of color in the United States today.


Switching Median Filter with Boundary Discriminative Noise Detection (BDND) is one of the useful methods that are capable to restore digital images which have been extremely corrupted by universal impulse noise. Following the fundamental framework of the switching median filter, the construction of BDND can be divided into two stages. The first stage classifies the pixels into either "noise" or "noise-free" pixels, while the second stage restores the image by changing only the intensity values of the "noise" pixels. Unfortunately, the originally proposed BDND employs sorting operations in both of its stages. This condition makes the originally proposed BDND computationally expensive. Therefore, in this paper, an implementation of BDND with reduced computational time is suggested. This reduction is achieved mainly by manipulating the local histograms' properties. Experimental results show that the proposed implementation successfully produces the same results as the originally proposed BDND, but with much shorter processing time.

 Key words: Digital image processing, impulse noise, median filter.


Investment arbitration was originally developed primarily to protect investors from wealthy developed countries against arbitrary expropriations by governments in developing countries. However, over time, it has taken on a very broad dynamic and is nowadays often used to limit regulatory interference of any government with the business plans of any foreign or foreign owned companies. This is causing "regulatory chill" in many parts of the world, where governments, in particular in less developed or less affluent countries, are weary of changing or enforcing environmental protections, labor laws, consumer laws, etc., because they have already been forced to pay after costly arbitration proceedings in similar cases. We cite a number of examples where countries were trying to introduce sensible regulation in response to changing circumstances and ended up paying damages to investors who might never have been able to implement their business ideas even in the absence of the regulatory changes. As a result, we not only see an undue limitation on the sovereignty of many countries and governments and their ability to regulate in the best interest of their citizens. We also see more and more countries turning their backs on investor-state arbitration and on bilateral or multilateral protection treaties in general. A complete breakdown of the established system may not be imminent but talk about a crisis does no longer seem alarmist. What is needed, therefore, is a re-balancing of the rights and obligations of the investors and the host countries, and a better appreciation of sustainable development goals and other valid public interest considerations in the host countries. This idea is not new and we are not the first ones to postulate the need for change. However, we may be offering some new ideas and a new evaluation of some existing ideas on how such a change could be brought about in practice.