The structure of karst hydrosystems is complex and the related hydrodynamic functioning mechanism can be highly heterogeneous in both unsaturated and saturated zones. The Low-Noise Underground Laboratory of Rustrel (LSBB) is located in unsaturated zone (UZ) of Fontaine de Vaucluse (FdV) karst hydrosystem. In this way, the LSBB is a unique place to apply surface-based geophysical surveys due to numerous and various geological and hydrogeological knowledge under the investigated zone. We exhibit in this paper complementarity and efficiency of Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT) and Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR). Both GPR and ERT are well suited for the first phase of our study, in order to characterize the general structure of the investigated chosen zone. GPR results highlight the tectonic features which are also, but less accurately, seen by ERT apparent resistivity maps. ERT 2D inverted results have shown the presence of moderate resistivity zones within the limestone. The provided information allowed carrying out following step of our study to enhance understanding of local karst UZ e.i. apply Magnetic Resonance Sounding (MRS), Gravimetry and Low Frequency Electromagnetics (LF-EM).


A novel flame retardant polymethylsilsesquioxane (PMSQ) was successfully obtained via combination of non-hydrolytic and hydrolytic sol-gel routes. Chemical structure of the resultant PMSQ was determined by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, Fourier-transform infrared spectrometry and powder X-ray diffraction, respectively. All the measurements demonstrated that the product possessed regular structure with chain-to-chain width of 0.87nm and chain thickness of 0.40nm. Weight average molecular weight of PMSQ was measured to be 3.5×105 using gel permeation chromatography. Numerical simulations of the molecular structure suggested that PMSQ should exhibit cis-isotactic configuration and double helical conformation at undisturbed condition.


This study traces the geographic evolution of minority-owned businesses in sub-metropolitan areas across the United States and investigates potential factors that underlie their intra-metropolitan location shift. Using data from the 2002 and 2007 Survey of Business Owner, this study addresses these questions for Asian-, Black- and Hispanic-owned enterprises in 19 selected large metropolitan areas in the U.S. It is found that ethnic enterprises have a stronger presence in the cities versus the suburbs but have experienced faster growth in the suburbs. The rate and direction of this spatial shift varies by ethnic business type, region, and metropolitan context.


This paper presents the R package HAC, which provides user friendly methods for dealing with hierarchical Archimedean copulae (HAC). Computationally efficient estimation procedures allow to recover the structure and the parameters of HAC from data. In addition, arbitrary HAC can be constructed to sample random vectors and to compute the values of the corresponding cumulative distribution plus density functions. Accurate graphics of the HAC structure can be produced by the plot method implemented for these objects.


Taking the leap from research and requirements to product design is an age-old challenge. This course provides a proven strategy for transforming your research into a Conceptual Model. It provides an iterative process that allows you to build the essential foundation for a successful interactive system, taking into consideration the users' mental model. It provides one with a framework for envisioning how users perceive, understand, and experience their tasks and processes in the context of your product. This way, one can mold the model to facilitate users' understanding of their tasks and processes and positively influence their experience, including: functionality - what they do; configuration -- where; and navigation -- how they go from one place to another within the system.


The limited computational and memory resources available in the Radio Frequency Identification RFID tags constitute the essential challenge to find a technique that satisfies high security requirements. In this paper, security and privacy requirements for an RFID authentication system are defined. Although some of the conventional cryptographic operations provide these requirements partially, they are not considered as suitable solution for RFID applications because operations cost is high especially for RFID tags. An unconventional use of homomorphic encryption is proposed to provide low-cost security and privacy in this research. HEADA is proposed as a novel authentication technique, which consists of deployment and authentication process stages. The homomorphic encryption is used solely in the generation of keys during deployment stage. These keys are used by RFID tags to generate anonymous authentication keys during the authentication process using only integer addition operations. Moreover, some of the conventional approaches have to use a brute-force search in the server side to identify a tag. Unlike these techniques, HEADA enables the server to identify a tag only by a binary search. It is shown that HEADA is the only technique to satisfy all security and privacy requirements using low-cost operations in both tag and server sides. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Many dynamically disturbed galaxy clusters exhibit diffuse radio emission, which takes the form of cluster-wide synchrotron giant radio halos and peripheral Mpc-sized radio relics. Smaller-scale, diffuse radio sources – called mini-halos – are found in the cool cores of a number of relaxed clusters. Halos and relics reveal a population of ultra-relativistic electrons coexisting with the intra-cluster thermal gas. The origin of these electrons is one of the most debated problems of cluster astrophysics. Significant improvement in our understanding of the properties of giant halos and of the physical mechanism behind their formation has been possible thanks to dedicated and extensive statistical studies such as the GMRT Radio Halo Survey and its ongoing extension. Because of their rarity, mini-halos are still poorly understood. Detailed radio spectral studies help to discriminate between various physical interpretations of mini-halos, but the information on their spectral properties is still scarce. Our recent spectral analysis of the mini-halo in RXJ 1720.1+2638 – the best-studied object of this class so far – has provided new insights on the origin of the synchrotron-emitting electrons in cluster cool cores.


The thesis investigates Sergei Prokofiev's Violin Sonatas (Op. 80 and Op. 94bis) within the historical contexts of their years of composition (1938-46), dissemination (1944-48) and publication (1946-51) in the Soviet Union, the USA and, partially, the UK. It therefore considers Sergei Prokofiev's Soviet years (1936-53) from a new perspective and unfolds the Western dissemination history of the Violin Sonatas and Prokofiev's relationship with Western musicians during the Second World War and the Stalinist era. Moreover, the thesis sheds light upon the Soviet and Western cultural and diplomatic organisations that facilitated the dissemination and publication of the Violin Sonatas in the USA and the UK during the 1940s.

The thesis examines and deduces via extensive study of primary sources the chronology of the composition of the Violin Sonatas. The First Violin Sonata (Op. 80, 1938-46), which has hitherto been examined most briefly in the literature, is traced from sketches to the Autograph Manuscript. The sketches are organised chronologically around the interrupted compositional period (1939-44), while the Autograph Manuscript dates from 1946. The Second Violin Sonata (Op. 94bis, 1944), a transcription of the Flute Sonata, is examined via copyist manuscripts, which trace the collaboration process between Prokofiev and the violinist David Oistrakh, who initiated the transcription of the Flute Sonata into the Second Violin Sonata, and subsequently became the dedicatee of the First Violin Sonata.

Furthermore, the thesis evaluates the perception of the Violin Sonatas through the press reviews of premieres and interpretations of the works during the 1940s, both in the Soviet Union by David Oistrakh, and in the USA by Joseph Szigeti. The analysis of the first performance editions edited by Oistrakh and Szigeti in late 1940s and early 1950s (Muzgiz, Leeds Music Corporation, Anglo-Soviet Music Press) sheds light upon different historical approaches to the interpretation of the Violin Sonatas and is reflected in the recital that supplements the thesis.


In the present study, the thermal Lattice Boltzmann Technique is combined with the Ghost Fluid method to simulate the flow and heat transfer rate around a NACA 0015 airfoil in the presence of an external magnetic field source. It is tried to investigate the mutual effects of the Hartmann and Reynolds numbers as well as the magnetic field angle and the attack angle of the airfoil on the flow and heat transfer characteristics. Besides, the total entropy generation rate of the system was studied through its main components, i.e. entropy generation rate due to friction, heat transfer, and Magneto Hydrodynamics. Therefore, the tests were carried out for various Re and Ha numbers, plus different magnetic field angles and airfoil attack angles, and their influence on the active parameters which are Cd, Cl, and Nu, along with the entropy generation rate of the system, were recorded. The results revealed that with an increment of the Re number the Cd and Cl graphs drop, but the Nu value raises. Also, the total entropy generation rate of the system is at its maximum around γ = 60.


Objective: To evaluate morphological problems for children with complete unilateral cleft lip and palate (UCLP). Design and Setting: A cross-sectional study was performed on 46 patients with complete UCLP at Osaka University Dental Hospital. Patients and Participants: The method was applied to three groups of children with UCLP (8 4-month-old infants, 18 1.5-year-old children, and 20 4-yearold children). Main Outcome Measures: The three-dimensional coordinates of facial landmarks were extracted automatically from XYZ data sets and from photo images produced by an optical surface scanner. Results: The intercanthal distance, nose width, and mouth width were closer to those of normal children in the older group. Deviation of the columella toward the noncleft side was smaller in the 4-year-old group. The angle of the nasal tip was large in all groups. Asymmetry of the ala was conspicuous at the upper part of the nose in the vertical dimension. Asymmetry of the nostril was observed in the vertical dimension and in the anteroposterior dimension in the 4-year-old group. The angle of the Cupid's bow was obtuse on the noncleft side, and the bottom of the Cupid's bow deviated toward the cleft side. The Cupid's bow was longer on the noncleft side. Protrusion of the vermilion was poor in all groups.


Firefighters work in dangerous and unfamiliar situations under a high degree of time pressure and thus team work is of utmost importance. Relying on trained automatisms, firefighters coordinate their actions implicitly by observing the actions of their team members. To support training instructors with objective mission data, we aim to automatically detect when a firefighter is in-sight with other firefighters and to visualize the proximity dynamics of firefighting missions. In our approach, we equip firefighters with smartphones and use the built-in ANT protocol, a low-power communication radio, to measure proximity to other firefighters. In a second step, we cluster the proximity data to detect moving sub-groups. To evaluate our method, we recorded proximity data of 16 professional firefighting teams performing a real-life training scenario. We manually labeled six training sessions, involving 51 firefighters, to obtain 79 minutes of ground truth data. On average, our algorithm assigns each group member to the correct ground truth cluster with 80% accuracy. Considering height information derived from atmospheric pressure signals increases group assignment accuracy to 95%.


In the paper the aluminide layer was deposited by CVD method on the CMSX 4 single crystal nickel base alloy. The aluminizing process was carried out at the 1050 °C during 8 h. The chemical vapor deposition process was performed by means of AlCl3 aluminum chloride. The effects of aluminizing were verified in microscopic examination (microstructure and depth layer) and chemical composition on the surface and cross-section of aluminide layer. The oxidation resistance in the air atmosphere at the 1100 °C during 1000 h was a criterion of efficiency of CVD process. The hardness distribution on the cross-section aluminide layer before and after oxidation test was investigated. The parabolic mass change was observed during oxidation. Under oxidation test during 120 h on the grain size of NiAl phase was observed the phase transformation β NiAl →Ni3Al. The increase of oxidation time causes decreasing of substrate hardness and stabilization of Topologically Closed Packed phases.


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate perioperative administration of gabapentin as an adjunct for analgesia in dogs undergoing amputation of a forelimb.

DESIGN
Randomized, controlled trial.

ANIMALS
30 client-owned dogs. Procedures-On the day before surgery, a baseline pain evaluation was performed in each dog by use of multiple pain assessment methods. Dogs then received gabapentin (10 mg/kg [4.5 mg/lb], PO, once, followed by 5 mg/kg [2.3 mg/lb], PO, q 12 h for 3 additional days) or a placebo. On the day of surgery, dogs were anesthetized and forelimb amputation was performed. Fentanyl was infused after surgery for 18 to 24 hours; use of other analgesics was allowed. In-hospital pain evaluations were repeated at intervals for 18 hours after surgery, and owners were asked to evaluate daily their dog's activity, appetite, and wound soreness for the first 3 days after discharge from the hospital. Results were analyzed by use of a repeated-measures ANOVA.

RESULTS
Pain evaluation scores did not differ significantly between gabapentin and placebo groups in the hospital or at home after discharge.

CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE
As an adjunct to other analgesics and anesthetics, gabapentin, at the dose and frequency used in this study, did not provide a significant benefit for the management of acute perioperative pain in dogs undergoing forelimb amputation. The small sample size and number of other confounding factors, such as aggressive use of other analgesics, limited the likelihood of detecting a benefit of gabapentin. Other gabapentin doses or dosing regimens warrant further study.


The goals of the paper are to identify the impact damage and strength reduction behavior of sandwich structure, composed of carbon/epoxy laminates skin and Nomex core with two kinds of thickness (10 and 20mm). For these, low velocity impact tests were conducted using the instrumented impact-testing machine and damages are inspected by SAM. And then, subsequent static tests are conducted under flexural loading to identify the strength reduction behavior of the impacted sandwich structures. The impact damages are mainly delamination in carbon/epoxy skin and their behavior is mostly independent of core thickness. Also, their energy absorbing behavior is identified through calculating the energy absorbed by impact damage. Finally, the strength reduction behavior is evaluated through Caprino's model, which was proposed on the unidirectional laminates.


National Honor Society Over ten years ago the Department of Secondary-School Principals (then the National Association of Secondary-School Principals) organized the National Honor Society with the end in view of stimulating scholarship in the secondary schools of the United States. To-day there are over one thousand chapters and these are in the best high schools in the country. The four objectives of the society are: to create an enthusiasm for scholarship, to stimulate a desire to render service, to promote worthy leadership, and to encourage the development of character. Every high-school principal who has a chapter is enthusiastic over the productive results of this organization in his school.


Although social influence and leadership are inextricably intertwined, with a few notable exceptions, they are typically discussed in isolation from one another. The overlap of methods of social influence and theories of leadership, however, makes it clear these topics should be discussed together. Furthermore, the involvement of group norms, which are group-based social constructs related to values within the group, clearly link leadership and social influence research. Group norms are involved in social influence via such group-oriented influences as conformity, and they are involved in leadership by setting the values used to determine the group's leader. Understanding the relationship between and the potential limitations of social influence and leadership will provide researchers in both fields with a stronger foundation for future areas of inquiry.


Introduction While calls for the strengthening of U.S. education once again surface in the name of global competitiveness, a primary issue facing engineering education is retention in the profession. As Lowell and Salzman (2007) have argued, the demand for engineers and scientists remains strong and the overall production of engineers and scientists appears more than adequate. The troubling trend over the last two decades, however, is that the highest performing students and graduates are leaving science and engineering pathways at higher rates than are their lower performing peers (Lowell, Salzman, Bernstein, & Henderson, 2009). This finding is significant for engineering education as it identifies an important direction for research in this area. Based on their study of pathways through and beyond college, Lowell et al. (2009) conclude that "students are not leaving STEM pathways because of lack of preparation or ability" and that research efforts should turn to "factors other than educational preparation or student ability in this compositional shift to lower-performing students in the STEM pipeline" (p. iii). Our understanding of the aforementioned shift is limited even while the study of engineering career pathways began as early as the late 1970s with the work of LeBold, Bond, and Thomas (1977) on black engineers at Purdue University. Although the literature on engineering education and the profession has proliferated since that time, relatively few studies have looked carefully at the career decisions of engineering graduates. For instance, much of the work on engineering career pathways simply accounts for the numbers of engineers at different points in the pathway to quantify attrition points and rates (e.g., Bradburn, Nevill, Forrest, Cataldi, & Perry, 2006; Choy, Bradburn, & Carroll, 2008; Forrest Cataldi et al., 2011; Frehill, 2007a; Reese, 2003; Regets, 2006) and provides little information on differential pathways or the factors which influence these pathways. More recent work investigates aspects of early career engineers that reflect a focus beyond educational preparation and training and academic and technical ability (e.g., Fouad & Singh, 2011; Ro, 2011), but a thorough review reveals a collection of data sets and studies that remain incomplete for comprehensively understanding the early career pathways of engineers.


Tourism has emerged as a dominant economic factor in India and in international horizon. With its economic and all other advantages, tourism can certainly play a determining role in the development of poorer economies which suffer from an adverse balance of payment situation, a high degree of social backwardness, besides the other environmental problems. However, to achieve success in tourism, India needs to adopt planning and management approach on scientific lines. Fortunately, tourism planning and development is now increasingly attending the attention of researchers from different disciplines ranging from geography, history, sociology, economics, commerce management and environmental sciences. Since each state in the country represents its own geo-socio-cultural identity, it therefore, demands specific tourism development plans and action thought within umbrella of an overall tourism prospective for the country. Being a resident of Gujarat research project related to the state naturally came as an obvious choice, of researcher. So the researcher has selected a topic related to the tourism industry: Problems and prospects of Tourism Industry in Gujarat State.


The rates of penetration of various cations through isolated apricot Prunus armeniaca L. leaf cuticles were determined. Steady state rates were measured by using a specially constructed flow-through diffusion cell. The penetration rates of the monovalent cations in group IA followed a normal lyotropic series, i.e., CS(+) >/= Rb(+) > K(+) > Na(+) > Li(+). The divalent cations all penetrated through the cuticle more slowly than the monovalent cations. Comparison of the relative values of k (permeability coefficient) and D (diffusion coefficient) indicates that the penetration of ions through isolated cuticles took place by diffusion and was impeded by charge interactions between the solute and charge sites in the penetration pathway. Cuticular penetration rates of K(+) and H(2)O at pH above 9 were of similar magnitude. At pH 5.5 H(2)O penetration was not affected but that of K(+) was greatly reduced. From this observation and from data on cuticle titration and ion adsorption studies, we hypothesize that cuticular pores are lined with a substance (perhaps a protein) which has exposed positively charged sites.


The goal of this paper is to address the question: 'why do lurkers lurk?' Lurkers reportedly makeup the majority of members in online groups, yet little is known about them. Without insight into lurkers, our understanding of online groups is incomplete. Ignoring, dismissing, or misunderstanding lurking distorts knowledge of life online and may lead to inappropriate design of online environments. To investigate lurking, the authors carried out a study of lurking using in-depth, semi-structured interviews with ten members of online groups. 79 reasons for lurking and seven lurkers' needs are identified from the interview transcripts. The analysis reveals that lurking is a strategic activity involving more than just reading posts. Reasons for lurking are categorized and a gratification model is proposed to explain lurker behavior.


Combustion is the primary source of vehicular pollution,[1]. The Euro countries recently agreed on the goal that would reduce current vehicular emission , in particular carbon emissions by 85% by 2050. This would mean a 95% reduction in the carbonisation of the transportation sector, which is one of the accepted prolific contributors to pollution,[10]. As will be seen, de-carbonisation is a key issue with vehicular light duty diesel engine emissions, [9],along with reduction in NOx, with the latter being highlighted[3,4]. Two constituents of diesel emissions, Particulate Matter (PM) and NOx are contradictory in the conditions of their formation and hence require a combination of technologies to solve the problem satisfactorily. Consequently, emission reduction technologies are The most stringent norms are those of Super Ultra Low Emission Vehicles (SULEV) formed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Euro 6 has been proposed and awaiting approval. The author's opinion of a balanced solution being a combination of several technologies is established. The logical path to this conclusion is presented, duly referenced.


It is well recognized that data cubing often produces huge outputs. Two popular efforts devoted to this problem are (1) iceberg cube, where only significant cells are kept, and (2) closed cube, where a group of cells which preserve roll-up/drill-down semantics are losslessly compressed to one cell. Due to its usability and importance, efficient computation of closed cubes still warrants a thorough study. In this paper, we propose a new measure, called closedness, for efficient closed data cubing. We show that closedness is an algebraic measure and can be computed efficiently and incrementally. Based on closedness measure, we develop an an aggregation-based approach, called C-Cubing (i.e., Closed-Cubing), and integrate it into two successful iceberg cubing algorithms: MM-Cubing and Star-Cubing. Our performance study shows that C-Cubing runs almost one order of magnitude faster than the previous approaches. We further study how the performance of the alternative algorithms of C-Cubing varies w.r.t the properties of the data sets.


Optical communication systems operating at 10Gbit/s such as 10Gigabit Ethernet are becoming more and more important in Local Area Networks (LAN) and Metropolitan Area Networks (MAN). This market requires optical transceivers of low cost, size and power consumption. This drives a need for uncooled DFB lasers directly modulated at 10Gbit/s. This paper describes the development of a state of the art uncooled high speed DFB laser which is capable of being manufactured in high volume at the low cost demanded by the GbE market. A DFB laser was designed by developing technological building blocks within the 'conventional' InGaAsP materials system, using existing well proven manufacturing processes modules wherever possible, limiting the design risk to a few key areas where innovation was required. The temperature and speed performance of the InGaAsP SMQW active layer system was carefully optimized and then coupled with a low parasitic lateral confinement system. Using concurrent engineering, new processes were demonstrated to have acceptable process capability within a manufacturing fabrication environment, proving their ability to support high volume manufacturing requirements. The DFB laser fabricated was shown to operate at 100C chip temperature with an open eye at 10Gbit/s operation (with an extinction ratio >5dB). Up to 90C operation this DFB shows threshold current as low as 29mA, optical power as high as 13mW and it meets the 10Gb scaled Ethernet mask with extinction ratio >6dB. It was found that the high temperature dynamic behavior of these lasers could not be fully predicted from static test data. A production test strategy was therefore followed where equipment was designed to fully test devices/subassemblies at 100C and up to 20Gbit/s at key points in the product build. This facilitated the rapid optimisation of product yields upon manufacturing ramp up and minimization of product costs. This state of the art laser is now transferred into volume manufacture.


To ensure secure content delivery, the Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG) has dedicated significant effort to the digital rights management (DRM) issues. MPEG is now moving from defining only hooks to proprietary systems (e.g., in MPEG-2, MPEG-4 Version 1) to specifying a more encompassing standard in intellectual property management and protection (IPMP). MPEG feels that this is necessary in order to achieve MPEG's most important goal: interoperability. The design of the IPMP Extension framework also considers the complexity of the MPEG-4 standard and the diversity of its applications. This architecture leaves the details of the design of IPMP tools in the hands of applications developers, while ensuring the maximum flexibility and security. This paper first briefly describes the background of the development of the MPEG-4 IPMP Extension. It then presents an overview of the MPEG-4 IPMP Extension, including its architecture, the flexible protection signaling, and the secure messaging framework for the communication between the terminal and the tools. Two sample usage scenarios are also provided to illustrate how an MPEG-4 IPMP Extension compliant system works.


BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE
Extracorporeal photochemotherapy (ECP) is a therapeutic approach based on the biological effects of ultraviolet light (UV) - A and psoralens on mononuclear cells collected by apheresis. Recently, ECP has been under investigation as an alternative treatment for various immune and autoimmune diseases. The aim of this study was to evaluate the safety and feasibility of a new three-step ECP technique, in terms of reproducibility, acceptance, tolerability, and short and long term side effects.

DESIGN AND METHODS
Seventeen patients affected by acute or chronic graft-versus-host disease (GvHD), pemphigus vulgaris, or interferon-resistant chronic hepatitis C and one patient being treated for prevention of heart transplant rejection underwent 240 ECP procedures. MNC collection and processing parameters were recorded, biological effects of UV-A/8 methoxy-psoralen (8-MOP) were evaluated, and short and long term side effects were monitored.

RESULTS
At a mean follow up of 7 months (range 2-19) 240 ECP had been completed, a mean of 7,136 mL (range 1,998-10,591) of whole blood having beenprocessed per procedure. The mean of total nucleated cells collected per procedure was 6.5x109 (range 0.65-23.8), with a mean MNC percentage of 85% (41. 4-98%) in a mean final volume of 115.5 mL (37-160). No severe side effects were documented and no infectious episodes occurred throughout the course of the treatment.

INTERPRETATION AND CONCLUSIONS
The new ECP technique was highly reproducible as regards the collection and each processing step. Short and long term side effects were mild. No increase in infectious episodes was recorded. All patients willingly underwent ECP, demonstrating an excellent tolerability for the procedure even after several courses.


Ti-Mo alloy containing Nb and Sn were arc melted and composition analyzed by EDX. The XRD analysis indicates that the crystal structure and mechanical properties are sensitive to Sn concentration. A combination of Sn and Nb elements in synergy hindered formation athermal ω phase and significantly enhanced β phase stability. The low elastic modulus and good ductility as observed implied that this alloy can be more suitable for biomedical application than the conventional metallic biomaterials from better mechanical compatibility perspective.


In this paper I shall investigate the nature of education as seen from the neoAristotelian perspective. My thesis is that education should be seen as a part of political activity in the source sense of the term, that is, as an element of human development rooted in the idea of the good, which makes this concept at odds with the modern concepts of politics and education. I start with a brief discussion of the classical concept of politics with special attention being paid to the relation between ethics, education and politics. I then address the changes in the philosophical background of this concept of politics introduced in early modernity, in order to indicate the consequences of this process for education as subordinated to an economy-influenced politics. Following is the discussion of some aspects of contemporary Aristotelianism. I argue for the thesis that education is the basic form of policy understood along Aristotelian lines.


Semantic segmentation has a broad range of applications, but its real-world impact has been significantly limited by the prohibitive annotation costs necessary to enable deployment. Segmentation methods that forgo supervision can side-step these costs, but exhibit the inconvenient requirement to provide labelled examples from the target distribution to assign concept names to predictions. An alternative line of work in language-image pre-training has recently demonstrated the potential to produce models that can both assign names across large vocabularies of concepts and enable zero-shot transfer for classification, but do not demonstrate commensurate segmentation abilities. In this work, we strive to achieve a synthesis of these two approaches that combines their strengths. We leverage the retrieval abilities of one such language-image pre-trained model, CLIP, to dynamically curate training sets from unlabelled images for arbitrary collections of concept names, and leverage the robust correspondences offered by modern image representations to co-segment entities among the resulting collections. The synthetic segment collections are then employed to construct a segmentation model (without requiring pixel labels) whose knowledge of concepts is inherited from the scalable pre-training process of CLIP. We demonstrate that our approach, termed Retrieve and Co-segment (ReCo) performs favourably to unsupervised segmentation approaches while inheriting the convenience of nameable predictions and zero-shot transfer. We also demonstrate ReCo's ability to generate specialist segmenters for extremely rare objects.


Poultry farming in the Russian Federation is a dynamically and successfully evolving branch of agricultural production at the present stage of national economic development. The question of effective and efficient feeding in aviculture has always been a very acute problem. In the struc-ture of the final cost of products formation  feeding stuffs reach 75% according to various es-timations. The most expensive in the production of feed mixtures are suchprotein components of the food ration as fish meal and bone tankage, soy and sunflower meal, protein additives and concentrates. However, as the study shows, the possibilities of such high-protein cultures, as soybean are not fully in use for feed production. Along with soybean and its processed prod-ucts, it is also possible to use food waste products from the meat and fish industry, in respect that the waste processing of poultry is more than 30% of the bird's carcase weight. These com-ponents of the  feedstuff are also quite valuable, because they are rich in high-grade protein and able to meet the daily demand of poultry in amino acids. Until now, it has not been paid enough attention to applied researches, related to obtaining binary soy-meat and bone meal, soy-fishbone meal, soy-herb and soy-luminaria feed mixtures. In such combinations, the mois-ture contained in the raw material is average and, therefore, it is possible, at least twice, to re-duce the energy costs for its removal during drying. At the same time, as a result of the analyti-cal review, it was revealed a contradiction between the desire and endeavor of producers to improve the efficiency of poultry production by finding rational methods of preparation, appli-cation of modern technologies and improved technical means in the preparation of feed pellets based on binary compositions on the one hand and a known level of scientific knowledge about the laws of obtaining meat-bone, fish-bone or vegetable-grass pastes, the processes of averaging of moisture in the binary compositions and mechanisms of formation of the final product, namely, seals, molding pellets with a low crumbling and their subsequent drying on the other hand. In this connection, studies aimed at improving lines for production of feed products in the form of protein-mineral and protein-vitamin compositions using soy component are relevant and have important economic significance. The presence of this problem is also due to the lack, at modern stage of development, of special equipment and technologies, as well as scientifical-ly-based data for the design and construction. The paper proposes the design of a promising device ¬- a press granulator designed for the preparation of granulated feed for poultry on the basis of soy-meat and bone compositions and the results of experimental studies.


Abstract The nexus between China's human and economic presence abroad and its security policy is increasingly important. Within this nexus, this study statistically explores whether and to what extent Chinese contractors reduce the number of Chinese nationals they send to work in North Africa, the Middle East and the Horn of Africa when the security situation in host states worsens. We find no significant evidence that either warnings from Chinese embassies and consulates to leave host countries or expert perceptions of host stability influence the number of Chinese workers. Worker numbers appear to decrease significantly only in the aftermath of large-scale violent events. These findings suggest that Chinese companies are relatively acceptant of security risks and uncertainties, despite the decade-long regulatory efforts of the Chinese government to make them more security-conscious overseas and, thus, to reduce pressure to use diplomatically and economically expensive military means for their protection.


To accommodate high-luminosity LHC operation at a 13 TeV collision energy, the CMS Endcap Muon Level-1 Trigger system had to be significantly modified. To provide robust track reconstruction, the trigger system must now import all available trigger primitives generated by the Cathode Strip Chambers and by certain other subsystems, such as Resistive Plate Chambers (RPC). In addition to massive input bandwidth, this also required significant increase in logic and memory resources. To satisfy these requirements, a new Sector Processor unit has been designed. It consists of three modules. The Core Logic module houses the large FPGA that contains the track-finding logic and multi-gigabit serial links for data exchange. The Optical module contains optical receivers and transmitters; it communicates with the Core Logic module via a custom backplane section. The Pt Lookup table (PTLUT) module contains 1 GB of low-latency memory that is used to assign the final Pt to reconstructed muon tracks. The μ TCA architecture (adopted by CMS) was used for this design. The talk presents the details of the hardware and firmware design of the production system based on Xilinx Virtex-7 FPGA family. The next round of LHC and CMS upgrades starts in 2019, followed by a major High-Luminosity (HL) LHC upgrade starting in 2024. In the course of these upgrades, new Gas Electron Multiplier (GEM) detectors and more RPC chambers will be added to the Endcap Muon system. In order to keep up with all these changes, a new Advanced Processor unit is being designed. This device will be based on Xilinx UltraScale+ FPGAs. It will be able to accommodate up to 100 serial links with bit rates of up to 25 Gb/s, and provide up to 2.5 times more logic resources than the device used currently. The amount of PTLUT memory will be significantly increased to provide more flexibility for the Pt assignment algorithm. The talk presents preliminary details of the hardware design program.


Summary

1
Quantitative host–parasitoid food webs are descriptions of community structure that include data on the abundance of hosts and parasitoids, and the frequency of links between them, all expressed in the same units.

2
Quantitative host–parasitoid food webs were constructed describing the community of leaf-mining insects (Diptera, Coleoptera and Lepidoptera) and their parasitoids (Hymenoptera) in an 8500-m 2 area of moist tropical forest in Belize, Central America, over a 1-year period.

3
The summary food web, containing data for the whole year, is we believe the most diverse quantitative host–parasitoid web yet described. It contains 93 species of leaf-miner, 84 species of parasitoid and 196 links between hosts and parasitoids.

4
Most parasitoids were generalists, with individual parasitoid species recorded as parasitizing up to 21 host species. In contrast, most leaf-miners were specialists, with 114 links documented between leaf-miners and their host plants.

5
A robustness analysis was used to reveal the effects of different sampling intensities on food web statistics. The results suggest that the sampling had revealed most of the species of host and parasitoid in the community, but further interactions among species would continue to be detected with additional sampling. Measures of the ratio of hosts to parasitoids and of realized connectance were relatively insensitive to sampling intensity.

6
Three seasonal webs were constructed, revealing temporal changes in the structure of the community. There was greater turnover in host species composition than parasitoid species composition among seasons, but most web statistics remained relatively constant across seasons.

7
Both the summary web and the seasonal webs show low levels of compartmentalization, suggesting that the host–parasitoid community is not divided into relatively discrete subwebs with largely independent dynamics.

8
The extent of potential indirect interactions between pairs of hosts was assessed by constructing quantitative parasitoid overlap graphs. These suggest that abundant species are likely to have greater indirect effects on less abundant species than vice versa , and that species in the same taxonomic order are more likely to interact indirectly. The graphs do not support the hypothesis that species sharing the same host plant are more likely to interact via shared parasitoids.


A retrospective review has been performed of the operative complications of pinning the slipped upper femoral epiphysis. Eighty-three hips in 64 patients were reviewed. A complication rate of 34% was found for the initial operation. The overall incidence of complications for the pin removal operation was 19%, but it was much higher if threaded pins had been used (p < 0.0001). Although many of the complications were minor, one-third necessitated further surgery. It is suggested that prophylactic pinning in situ of the opposite hip and the use of threaded pins should be reviewed. In addition, alternative procedures such as epiphysiodesis may deserve further consideration.


The lungs of cigarette smokers are known to contain increased concentrations of extracellular ferritin-bound iron. Reductants present in cigarette smoke may mobilize alveolar ferritin-bound iron, which could then promote oxidative injury to lung cells. Because iron-mediated oxidative injury may be relevant to the pathogenesis of emphysema and lung cancer, which have a predilection for upper lobes, we sought to determine whether concentrations of extracellular iron, ferritin, and transferrin differed in upper and lower lobes of cigarette smokers. Bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) was performed in the upper and lower lobes of 15 asymptomatic smokers and six healthy nonsmokers. BAL fluid recovered from upper lobes of smokers contained higher concentrations of iron (p < 0.01) and ferritin (p < 0.006) and lower concentrations of transferrin (p < 0.003) compared with the lower lobes. In contrast, BAL fluid recovered from upper and lower lobes of nonsmokers contained much lower concentrations of iron and ferritin, and concentrations were similar in both sites. These findings indicate that, compared with the lower lobes, upper lobes of the lungs of smokers contain higher extracellular concentrations of ferritin-bound iron and decreased concentrations of transferrin. This distribution of lung iron and iron-binding proteins may promote oxidative injury in the upper lobes of smokers.


The effects of carbon tetrachloride on protein and lipoprotein secretion, and on lipid peroxidation, have been investigated in isolated rat hepatocytes. It was found that although the free-radical scavenger promethazine completely suppressed the increased peroxidation produced by carbon tetrachloride, it had no effect on the inhibitory action of carbon tetrachloride on lipoprotein secretion. In consequence, the latter effect of carbon tetrachloride does not appear to be mediated through a peroxidative stage.


This paper describes an inspection system designed to automatically detect and classify surface imperfections occurring on continuously cast hot steel slabs in a steel mill. The need to perform inspection at real-time throughput rates of 546 Kpixels/s using off-the-shelf components has led to the development of a unique architecture and algorithm set. The segmentation operations are done in a high-speed array processor front end. The imperfection classification is done in a mini-computer which uses statistical as well as syntactic/semantic classification techniques. The inspection system is currently undergoing evaluation in a steel mill.


The first divine book, which opens a window onto God's way in the world and in the People of Israel, is also the first book which opens horizons to the vision and understanding of man.' So concludes this survey of Genesis which embellishes that theme: the Bible links the fate of Israel with that of Man (sic). True (except for Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Job); why should any ancient Jewish book affirm otherwise? And why shouldn't any pious Jews, ancient or modern, believe it?


Over the past two decades, the Jordanian education system has made significant advances. Net enrollment in basic education increased from 89 percent in 2000 to 97 percent in 2006. Transition rates to secondary education increased from 63 to 79 percent in the same period. At the same time, Jordan made significant gains on international surveys of student achievement, with a particularly impressive gain of almost 30 points on the science portion of the Third International Mathematics and Science Study. Changes in test scores over time are presented and analyzed using decomposition analysis. The trends are related to policy changes over time. It is argued that benchmarking education systems and constant feedback between researchers and policymakers contributed to this achievement.


This book discusses how the ways that young people's educational trajectories into and beyond lower secondary education are regulated can influence their future lives. It draws on the results of empirical studies in eight European countries: Finland, France, Germany Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Slovenia and UK (England and Northern Ireland), carried out under the EU-funded GOETE project. The book explores the different ways that educational trajectories are—actively or passively— negotiated, and organized in the individual countries, and the ways that these shape educational opportunities and life chances. Its central aims are to elaborate the different ways in which educational trajectories are governed in the eight countries, and to compare the differences between those approaches and their outcomes in the eight countries. It focuses on the relationships between the different (national and local) forms and outcomes of interactions between collective and individual actors, structures, institutions, mechanisms, and discourses exert influence on education policy and practice at various levels—inter- and transnational, nation-state, regional, local or school levels.


Disease incidence is often lower in more diverse communities of plants and animals On a floodplain of the River Saale near Jena, Germany, grassland plants are naturally bombarded by spores of pathogenic fungi. But whether or not those fungi cause infection turns out to be largely about the neighborhood: Plants on highly diverse experimental plots have much lower levels of infection than plants grown in monoculture (1) (see the photos). The pathogens, it appears, are less likely to encounter their optimal host on the more diverse plots, which reduces disease prevalence and incidence. This protective effect of diversity has been found in many studies, not just for plants but also for diseases afflicting humans and wildlife. It has remained unclear, however, whether this observation holds generally (2, 3). In a recent paper, Civitello et al. addressed this question in a rigorous meta-analysis of diversity-disease relationships (4).


The objectives of this study were to monitor resistance to the antimicrobial growth promoter avilamycin on pig farms, with changes in resistance over time and in relation to avilamycin use of particular interest. The aims were to consider how best to measure resistance and to determine which organisms in the faecal flora, in particular which Enterococcus species, were expressing resistance. Resistance to therapeutic antimicrobials used in human medicine was also to be assessed. In considering how best to measure resistance, standard statistical methods were used and novel epidemiological techniques were also developed. The findings suggested that standard statistical formulae should be applied to calculating sample numbers for antimicrobial resistance studies and that the organism, antimicrobial and animal population of interest should be clearly defined. Furthermore, the epidemiological models suggested that the sensitivity and specificity of the tests used must be defined and that the current practice of testing a small number of colonies from a small number of animals means that resistant organisms will be missed if the prevalence of resistance is very low, and that changes in resistance below 5 per cent prevalence cannot be monitored with accuracy. When the test used is not 100 per cent specific then the current practice of confirming the presence of resistance based on one bacterium testing positive is potentially misleading. The relationship between resistance and antimicrobial use on farms was shown to be difficult to assess due to the many factors potentially influencing the prevalence of resistance. The use of Slanetz and Bartley medium was shown to be effective in isolating Enterococcus species with a prevalence of isolation ranging from 0.5 to 1 but to be poorly specific for this genus. E. faecium, E. faecalis, E. hirae and E. durans were shown to be capable of expressing resistance to avilamycin and the relative proportion of these species was found to be different on different farms. Minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) of avilamycin ranged from 1mug/ml to >128mug/ml in the enterococcal isolates tested. The large number of Escherichia spp. and smaller number of Yersinia spp. isolates tested were resistant to avilamycin with MIC >128mug/ml whilst the MIC in a small number of Campylobacter spp. isolates ranged from 8mug/ml to 128mug/ml. Avilamycin resistant enterococci were isolated from all four farms studied and resistance had persisted or been reintroduced on one farm where avilamycin had been withdrawn from use two years previously. This was only detected when faeces were screened on avilamycin-containing medium and not by conventional individual isolate MIC determination. The prevalence of resistance to a panel of human therapeutic antimicrobials was assessed in enterococci and Escherichia spp. but few conclusions could be drawn due to the small sample numbers studied. The molecular basis of avilamycin resistance was determined in 4 enterococcal isolates. Two E. faecium and one E. faecalis had substitutions in the gene encoding ribosomal protein LI6 but one E. hirae and one E. faecium had sequences identical to the sensitive reference strain. In summary, avilamycin resistance was detected on all 4 farms studied using conventional microbiological techniques but was difficult to quantify, and it was not possible to measure changes in prevalence over time with accuracy using these methods.


Background and purpose Effectiveness of currently used mechanical thrombectomy devices has been evaluated using animal models mainly based upon the angiographical data analysis. However very little has been described about the histologic changes observed in the arteries treated with mechanical thrombectomy devices. The purpose of this study is to evaluate acute arterial histologic changes induced by mechanical thrombectomy using a dedicated swine stroke model. Materials and Methods A total of eight Superficial Cervical Arteries in four swine were occluded with experimental thrombus and treated using the Merci Clot Retrieval System®. Each treated artery was harvested immediately after the procedure and histologic analysis of each arterial sample was performed. Four untreated Superficial Cervical Arteries were used as controls. Results A total of 24 attempts at clot retrieval were made. The average number of retrieval attempts per artery was three. Circumferential intimal denudation and separation of smooth muscle layers in the tunica media were seen in all samples. The intimal denudation was seen regardless of the number of retrieval attempts. A minor sub-intimal dissection was seen in one artery. Arterial perforation with sub-adventitial hematoma was seen in two arteries and these findings were associated with microwire/microcatheter navigation rather than the use of the clot retrieval device. Conclusion Minor histologic changes including intimal denudation and separation of smooth muscle layers in tunica media were seen in every artery treated by mechanical thrombectomy. Two arteries that showed major histologic change (sub-adventitial hematoma) were both associated with microwire/catheter navigation rather than the use of the clot retrieval device. It is possible that major arterial injury (eg vessel perforation) during the mechanical thrombectomy is more likely to be associated with microcatheter/microwire navigation rather than clot retrieval itself. This animal model may be useful in the preclinical safety evaluation of the mechanical thrombectomy devices. Competing interests I Yuki: None. I Kan: None. A Golshan: None. H Vinters: None. R Kim: None. N Yin: None. G Duckwiler: Concentric Medical. F Vinuela: None. Y Murayama: None. F Vinuela: None.Abstract E-038 Figure 1


Preserving cultural heritage of industrial sites has become a political issue in Australia and elsewhere with the closure of many manufacturing and engineering based industries, the needed modernization of existing industrial sites and the spread of housing development into areas that have traditionally been preserved for industrial use. The size of these sites makes it difficult to preserve them and the preservation of most cultural heritage becomes partial, such as displaying industrial machinery in parks well away from their original position and context. Australia is losing much of its important industrial cultural heritage. Newcastle, Australia, is the sixth largest city in Australia and is the largest coal export port in the world. Its entire history of European settlement, since 1801, was built on industry. Its history is a cycle of booms and busts with a constantly changing industrial landscape. The paper examines an alternative and holistic method of preserving the cultural heritage of industrial sites, which would otherwise has been lost, using augmented reality and mobile technologies. The city of Newcastle is presented as a case study.


The emergence and rapid spreading of
novel SARS-CoV-2 across the globe represent an imminent threat to public
health. Novel antiviral therapies are urgently needed to overcome this
pandemic. Given the great role of main protease of Covid-19 for virus
replication, we performed drug repurposing study using recently deposited main protease
structure, 6LU7. For instance, pharmacophore- and e-pharmacophore-based
hypotheses such as AARRH and AARR respectively were developed using available
small molecule inhibitors and utilized in the screening of DrugBank repository.
Further, hierarchical docking protocol was implemented with the support of Glide
algorithm. The resultant compounds were then examined for its binding free
energy against main protease of Covid-19 by means of Prime-MM/GBSA algorithm. Most
importantly, the resultant compounds antiviral activities were further predicted
by machine learning-based model generated by AutoQSAR algorithm. Finally, the
hit molecules were examined for its drug likeness and its toxicity parameters through
QikProp algorithm. Overall, the present analysis yielded four potential inhibitors (DB07800, DB08573, DB03744 and DB02986) that are
predicted to bind with main protease of Covid-19 better than currently used
drug molecules such as N3 (co-crystallized native ligand), Lopinavir and
Ritonavir.


We previously demonstrated, using the glioblastoma cell line U87MG as an experimental model, that the adenoviral mediated overexpression of the truncated protein HARPΔ111-136 inhibits the proliferation of these cells in vitro as well as tumor growth and angiogenesis in vivo. This study focused on identifying the underlying mechanisms for the observed antitumoral effect. The present study demonstrated that HARPΔ111-136 induced the ATF4/ATF3/CHOP cascade resulting in a strong expression of the proapoptotic protein CHOP, leading to tumor cell apoptosis as demonstrated by PARP cleavage and FACS analysis. siRNA-mediated CHOP gene silencing abolished Ad-HARPΔ111-136 induced apoptosis. Moreover, Ad-HARPΔ111-136 increased the expression of the death receptor DR5 and enhanced U87MG cells sensitivity in vitro to TRAIL a DR5 ligand with subsequent activation of caspase 8. Infection of U87MG cells with Ad-HARPΔ111-136 also enhanced radiation-induced apoptosis. In vivo, the combination of Ad-HARPΔ111-136 and radiation therapy resulted in a striking inhibition (92%) of the growth of U87MG xenografts, resulting from the potent effect on tumor angiogenesis and tumor cell apoptosis as determined by TUNEL analysis. Taken together, our results indicated that the inhibitor HARPΔ111-136 sensitized U87MG cells to apoptosis.


The 2005-2006 and 2006-2007 terms produced several noteworthy decisions in the area of administrative law, furthering administrative law jurisprudence in three key areas: the relationship between constitutional and administrative law, especially with respect to judicial review of exercises of administrative discretion that affect Charter rights and freedoms (Multani v. Commission scolaire Marguerite Bourgeoys); exclusive and concurrent jurisdiction (Tranchemontagne v. Ontario (Director, Disability Support Program) and Bisaillon v. Concordia University) and standard of review (Livis (City) v. Fraternite des policiers de Livis Inc. and Council of Canadians with Disabilities v. Via Rail Canada Inc.). Overall, there was a strong synergy between administrative law and human rights matters over the past two terms, with human rights issues driving many of the recent developments in the field.


The critical design issues for wireless networks include provisioning of seamless communication with Quality-of-Service (QoS) guarantees, improved service accessibility, reliable data transfer, and high communication performance. However, limited bandwidth and processing power of the network elements and scarce, and time/location-dependent radio resources make the design space much more complex and challenging.
The overall objective of this research is to design and analyze the resource allocation schemes for wireless networks that can provide high communication performance.
Driven by two main evolution issues in wireless cellular networks, core network evolution to all-IP wireless networks and radio access network evolution to high-capacity wireless networks based on multi-frequency, multi-hop transmission, in this research we investigate two kinds of resource allocation in wireless networks: network resource allocation and radio resource allocation. The resource allocation algorithms proposed in this research focus on perfect load balancing across each network element and dynamic multi-hop relay network formation in wireless cellular and wireless mesh network environment. The relay network formation includes path discovery to a GW or a relay mesh router, path selection, frequency allocation, and local tuning to reduce interference in resulting relay networks further.
The advantages of these algorithms are demonstrated through extensive simulation. The results show that the algorithms achieve significantly improved throughput gain.


The Aim of this study is to investigate human viral contamination in urban rivers and its impact on coastal waters of southern California. During the first year study, three types of human viruses (adeno, entero and hepatitis A) were detected using nested- and RT-PCR at eleven rivers and creeks along southern California coast. Fecal indicator bacteria as well as somatic and F-specific coliphage were also tested. Approximately 50% of the sites were positive for human adenoviruses. However, there was no clear relationship between detection of human viruses and the concentration of indicator bacteria and coliphage. Both fecal indicator bacteria and human viral input at beaches near river mouths were associated with storm events. The first storm of the wet season seemed to have the greatest impact on the coastal water quality than following storm events. During the second year of study, a detailed seasonal assessment of microbial pollution was conducted in two major Southern California urban rivers, San Gabriel and Los Angeles. A total of 114 river samples from five different sample locations along these two rivers were collected over a one-year period and analyzed for fecal indicator bacteria, including total coliform, fecal coliform, and enterococcus and indicator viruses, including F-specific and somatic coliphage, and human entero and adenoviruses. Based on the California recreational water quality standards, 52.5% of the samples exceeded at least one fecal indicator bacteria standard. Both somatic and F-specific coliphage were detected in higher concentrations (up to 5x102 PFU/100ml) during storm events. Enterovirus was detected in ~13% of the samples by reverse-transcription PCR. Adenovirus was detected by real-time PCR in approximately 50% of the samples, with concentrations ranging from 10 to >106 genomes per liter. However, plaque assay using two human tissue culture cell lines, HEK-293A and A549, yielded negative results suggesting adenoviruses detected by real-time PCR may not be infectious. Correlations between human adenoviruses and F-specific (p=0.13) and somatic coliphages (p=0.06) were found. However, these correlations were not statistically significant at 95% level. No significant correlation between human adenoviruses and fecal indicator bacteria (total coliform, fecal coliform, and enterococcus) was observed. This study presents the first quantitative measure of human adenoviruses in urban rivers and their statistical relationship to fecal indicator bacteria and coliphages. This study also provides the first direct evidence that human viruses are prevalent in southern California urban rivers.


File transfer is very common in a modern distributed computing environment. Protocols such as HTTP and FTP are designed for downloading or uploading files from/to servers. Some other tools such as 'secure copy' are used to transfer files among hosts securely. In this paper, the file transfer is considered in the context of connecting distributed applications, what is an output of a data producer on one node would be an input of a data consumer on another node. Intermediate files are used as a medium to connect workflow computational phases, which is a common paradigm used in grid environments. Distributed File Streamer a.k.a. DFS, as its name implies, uses data streaming to couple distributed applications. Instead of waiting for a producer application for output to transfer completely to the consumer node, DFS streams the data over the network directly to a consumer program, managing the data flow efficiently and providing a framework for partial file consumption. This paper describes the architecture of the DFS framework, gives its performance model analysis, and provides results demonstrating DFS advantages over the traditional way on several examples


A Galerkin's method-based numerical procedure is extended to obtain the modal field distribution ofmulticore photonic crystal fibers for the first time to our knowledge, which can reveal how the air hole sizeinfluences the mode coupling and how the coupling strength varies with wavelength. These results will behelpful in the future design of multicore photonic crystal fibers with proper guidance properties.


Radiocarbon dating of elevated coastal phenomena along the emergent footwall of the Eliki Fault in the West- em Gulf of Corinth has established a chronology of tectonic emergence during Holocene times. The results confirm -6 m of coastal uplift over the last 3000 years at sites both immediately adjacent to, and more distant from, the offshore l'ault. Although revealing little or no spatial vm.iation along the fault, temporally the data de- fine two phases of enhanced tectonic activity (0-3000 year B.P. and pre- 7-8000 year B.P.) separated by a 4- 5000 year period of tectonic quiescence. Well documented historical surface faulting during the most recent lclive phase testify to the contribution to net uplift played by coseismic increments, but these are considered to be superimposed on significant aseismic movements. While asesismic uplift confuses the palaeoseismic .ecord, correlation of prominent notch levels with dated raised shoreline fauna provides evidence for at least 3 surface faulting events during the past 2500 years.


ObjeCtive To compare the effectiveness of insulin pumps with multiple daily injections for adults with type 1 diabetes, with both groups receiving equivalent training in flexible insulin treatment.


Compelling experimental and human studies implicate myeloid-driven inflammation as a significant component in the initiation and progression of atherosclerosis and a range of other chronic inflammatory diseases, including obesity, type 2 diabetes mellitus, and metabolic syndrome. Indeed, elevated circulating white blood cell (WBC) count is a strong predictor of coronary heart disease and all-cause mortality independent of traditional risk factors, an association that has been observed across sexes, age, and diverse ethnic populations over the past 4 decades.1,2 Elevated monocyte counts may also correlate with cardiovascular risk better than other WBC subsets.3 Accumulating studies have recognized specific circulating myeloid cells, such as Ly-6C+ monocytes in mice and CD14+CD16+ subsets in humans, as potential instigators of atherosclerotic lesion formation and insulin resistance.4 The importance of the number of peripheral monocytic cells as a contributor to lesion formation was highlighted, in part, using op/op mice that bear a mutation in the coding region for macrophage colony-stimulating factor; op/op mice bred onto atherosclerotic-prone mice exhibited marked reductions in lesion formation.5 Subsequent experimental studies demonstrated that reduction in the number of peripheral myeloid cells in the circulation pharmacologically also attenuated the development of vascular inflammatory disease.6 However, identification of the downstream transcriptional regulators that govern peripheral myeloid cell numbers and function in the context of atherosclerosis remain poorly understood.

Article, see p 992

In this issue of Circulation Research , Tsuchiya7 reveals an important role for the forkhead box O (FoxO) family of transcription factors, namely FoxO1, FoxO3a, and FoxO4, in controlling the number of circulating myeloid cells and effects on atherosclerosis and insulin resistance. Specifically, myeloid ablation of all 3 FoxO isoforms increased the proliferation rate of granulocyte-macrophage progenitors (GMPs) in the bone marrow, resulting in elevated peripheral numbers of monocytes …


Chronic and recurring depression presents challenges to theologians working on the doctrine of grace. First, its frequent misrepresentation inhibits accurate perceptions of God's loving presence in this context. Second, like all suffering, it threatens the affirmation of divine benevolence upon which the doctrine is predicated. Third, the moral complexities of depression obfuscate grace's healing effects. To meet these challenges and clarify the contextual work of grace, the author draws on depression narratives to identify the effects of grace as gratuitous, elevating, and healing expansions of possibility that many sufferers experience as depression persists.


This is a guide to sources for basic research for students enrolled in the Department of Psychology, Counseling and Human Development.


Background/Aims Long-term surveillance of pyogenic liver abscess remains unavailable. We thus aimed to identify the recurrence rates of pyogenic liver abscess among various etiologies and pathogens, and to elucidate the factors related with this recurrence. Methods Six-hundred and one patients with pyogenic liver abscess were prospectively enrolled to observe abscess recurrence during a mean follow-up period of up to 6.06 years. On the basis of the etiology of the initial abscess, patients were divided into different subgroups as follows: there were 152 (25.3%) patients classified as cryptogenic, 229 (38.1%) with diabetes mellitus, 144 (24%) with underlying biliary tract disease, and 76 (12.6%) with other organic diseases or mixed subgroups. Results The cumulative recurrence rates of pyogenic liver abscess were lower in both the cryptogenic (2.0%) and diabetic (4.4%) groups than in the underlying biliary tract disease (23.8%) group (log-rank test, P<0.001). The diabetic group had a higher rate of Klebsiella pneumoniae infection and a lower rate of Escherichia coli infection than the biliary tract group (P<0.001). For patients infected with K. pneumoniae, the recurrence rate of pyogenic liver abscess was as low as that of the diabetes and the cryptogenic groups (P>0.05). Conclusions Pyogenic liver abscess is more commonly recurrent in patients with underlying biliary tract disease. Irrespective of diabetic status or cryptogenic etiology, the recurrence of K. pneumoniae-infected liver abscess is low in the long-term.


Objective The Department of Hematology, Zealand University Hospital, Denmark, and the National Institute of Public Health, University of Southern Denmark, created the first nationwide, population-based, and the most comprehensive cross-sectional health-related quality of life (HRQoL) survey of patients with myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs). In Denmark, all MPN patients are treated in public hospitals and treatments received are free of charge for these patients. Therefore, MPN patients receive the best available treatment to the extent of its suitability for them and if they wish to receive the treatment. The aims of this article are to describe the survey design and the characteristics of respondents and nonrespondents. Material and methods Individuals with MPN diagnoses registered in the Danish National Patient Register (NPR) were invited to participate. The registers of the Danish Civil Registration System and Statistics Denmark provided information regarding demographics. The survey contained 120 questions: validated patient-reported outcome (PRO) questionnaires and additional questions addressing lifestyle. Results A total of 4,704 individuals were registered with MPN diagnoses in the NPR of whom 4,236 were eligible for participation and 2,613 (62%) responded. Overall, the respondents covered the broad spectrum of MPN patients, but patients 70–79 years old, living with someone, of a Danish/Western ethnicity, and with a higher level of education exhibited the highest response rate. Conclusion A nationwide, population-based, and comprehensive HRQoL survey of MPN patients in Denmark was undertaken (MPNhealthSurvey). We believe that the respondents broadly represent the MPN population in Denmark. However, the differences between respondents and nonrespondents have to be taken into consideration when examining PROs from the respondents. The results of the investigation of the respondents' HRQoL in this survey will follow in future articles.


Objective: To provide new insights into the interpretation of genetic variants in a rare neurologic disorder, CDKL5 deficiency, in the contexts of population sequencing data and an updated characterization of the CDKL5 gene. Methods: We analyzed all known potentially pathogenic CDKL5 variants by combining data from large-scale population sequencing studies with CDKL5 variants from new and all available clinical cohorts and combined this with computational methods to predict pathogenicity. Results: The study has identified several variants that can be reclassified as benign or likely benign. With the addition of novel CDKL5 variants, we confirm that pathogenic missense variants cluster in the catalytic domain of CDKL5 and reclassify a purported missense variant as having a splicing consequence. We provide further evidence that missense variants in the final 3 exons are likely to be benign and not important to disease pathology. We also describe benign splicing and nonsense variants within these exons, suggesting that isoform hCDKL5_5 is likely to have little or no neurologic significance. We also use the available data to make a preliminary estimate of minimum incidence of CDKL5 deficiency. Conclusions: These findings have implications for genetic diagnosis, providing evidence for the reclassification of specific variants previously thought to result in CDKL5 deficiency. Together, these analyses support the view that the predominant brain isoform in humans (hCDKL5_1) is crucial for normal neurodevelopment and that the catalytic domain is the primary functional domain. Neurol Genet


Adhesion properties of asphalt mixtures are very important. Especially for porous asphalt adhesion problems are immediately a possible cause of low durability. At Delft University of Technology, research on the adhesive zone between the bituminous mortar and the stone is in progress. Small test specimens were produced and the aggregates received all kinds of treatments (sawing, coring, sandblasting, etc). An important question is if these test specimens are representative for the actual surfaces of the aggregates in the mixture. In this paper the possible influence on bitumen-aggregate adhesion of different stone surface characteristics is discussed. For this purpose, roughness tests are conducted on treated aggregate surfaces for columns used in the laboratory tests and the real stone particles as used in mixtures. Roughness (stereo-, confocal, and electron microscope), specific surface area (stereo- and confocal microscope), and surface free energy (sessile drop) are determined. It is concluded that sawing and sandblasting influence the roughness strongly compared to the aggregate surface. Also, the specific surface area of 4/8 aggregate is much larger than of the treated specimens. It is important to take this in consideration when using test results.


We report single-mode operation, with transform-limited bandwidth, of a XeF excimer laser utilizing a novel grating-interferometer-based optical cavity. The laser beam has a bandwidth of ~40 MHz with a half-power tunability of ~0.7 nm. Laser peak power is ~10 W.


A considerable amount of literature has focused on the risk of overheating in residential buildings. Overheating has attracted increased attention because it consists a major concern for public health. Overheating is often assessed (as in the case of CIBSE TM52 and TM59 guides) with the aid of Building Performance Simulation (BPS) tools. Nevertheless, the literature shows that it is challenging to predict overheating accurately with these tools. Given that the role of BPS tools is constantly expanding in the area of overheating predictions, it is of vital importance to increase their reliability accordingly.Modelling overheating reliably requires realistic and accurate input data regarding climate (e.g., air temperature, solar radiation), site context (e.g., exterior noise level, shading from surrounding buildings), building fabric (e.g., thermal insulation, optical properties of glazing), building services (e.g., heat gains from uninsulated pipework, operation of the ventilation system) and occupant behaviour (e.g., windows and blinds operation, heat gains from electrical appliances). All these inputs are associated with a high degree of uncertainty. These inputs also all contribute uncertainty when using BPS tools to predict indoor temperature. Hence, it is important to be able to account for them more consistently and accurately. Therefore, the aim of this research was to improve the reliability of using BPS tools in predicting the overheating risk of dwellings in multi-residential buildings. This was achieved by studying in detail three modern energy-efficient flats located in London; flats that are representative of many high-density developments that have been built in London in recent years.The analysis that was conducted via dynamic thermal modelling and a Sensitivity/Uncertainty Analysis (SA/UA), employing also monitored data, revealed areas that overheating assessments (such as TM59) need to be further improved. First, in terms of providing guidance on how to handle the thermal interaction between communal spaces and the assessed flat. The comparison between monitored and simulated data (following the above guidance) showed that the Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) with respect to the air temperature in the communal corridors was equal to 1.3°C and 1.1°C in the two corridors that monitored data existed; a discrepancy that was considerably lower than that in the adjacent flats. Second, in terms of examining different infiltration/exfiltration pathways. The way that infiltration/exfiltration is modelled can exert a significant impact on the outcome of the analysis; the respective RMSE for the air temperature varied from 1.7°C to 4.4°C. Third, in terms of specifying more realistic input values for numerous parameters. For example, the replacement of the outdoor air temperature with the monitored supply temperature of the ventilation system closed the gap between predictions and monitored data to a great extent; the RMSE was reduced from 3.8°C to 1.4°C. This finding shows that the common assumption made in thermal modelling that the supply temperature of a mechanical ventilation system is equal to the outdoor temperature, might lead to unrealistic results.Finally, this research demonstrated how the gap between predictions and reality can be bridged efficiently employing the Bayesian paradigm as implemented in this research including in the calibration not only static (i.e., constant over time) but also dynamic (i.e., varying over time) parameters. The calibration reduced the RMSE from 3.8°C to 0.6°C and from 2.8°C to 0.9°C in the two assessed spaces. Nevertheless, it was shown that it was challenging to predict overheating accurately, even with the aid of the calibrated model. In the first assessed room, both the uncalibrated and calibrated models predicted zero overheated hours in comparison to the monitored 8.5 overheated hours. In the second assessed room, the uncalibrated and calibrated models predicted 1.5 and 18.5 overheated hours respectively, whilst the monitored value of the overheated hours was equal to 10.7. This highlights amongst others, the sensitivity of typical metrics employed in current overheating assessments.The results of this research support the idea that an overheating assessment should incorporate various sources of uncertainty (e.g., infiltration), providing a range ofvalues of the desired Building Performance Indicator (BPI) instead of a single value of it. Furthermore, an overheating assessment should consider the employment of less sensitive overheating metrics, such as the Continuously Overheated Intervals (COIs) metric; a metric that when the calibrated model was employed, reduced the discrepancy between monitored and predicted overheated hours from 72.9% to 10.9%.


Adam Smith is the father of modern economics. His work on the wealth of nations is the corner stone of the economic theory, which remains a valid reference nowadays. Smith was also one of the earliest thinkers to introduce the concept of complex emerging phenomena when stating that persons or firms can help society as a whole by pursuing their own interest. Based on this apparent contradiction, our objective is to study the topology and dynamics of international trade markets using the theory of complex networks from a weighted and bipartite perspective. Our data contains records of non-aggregated activity of international trade for 5000 products, 1000 categories and 100 industries over 15 years of history, from 1995 to 2009. We perform our analysis of markets based on the premise that markets are an economic analogy of mutualistic ecosystems, where a win-win situation is equally valid for mutualistic species (for instance, plants and pollinators) as it is for exporters and importers. Based on this analogy and the bipartite approach, we apply a similar set of the topological indicators to trade networks than those commonly used to study mutualistic networks. Based on the findings and statistical patterns of these topological measures, which highly resemble those of mutualistic networks, we also study the nested structure and the nestedness performance of trade networks across different level of aggregation of the data and for multiple periods. Following this topological but static study, we perform a thorough analysis of targeted dynamical phenomena, a newly develo- ped methodology that takes advantage of the historical trade data, which leads to the discovery of mechanisms and patterns that explain the persistence over time of nestedness in trade networks. With this, we collect the findings of market topology and dynamics and formulate several statistical models to describe the process of market formation through a network growth process. We test several models but finally focus in a mutualistic model of markets, which is a link aggregation process that combines a preferential attachment mechanism and the weighted bipartite approach. The model is capable of simultaneously reproducing all the common features of the empirical data while providing further insights on how highly biased local decisions, which are consistent with self-interest, can lead to the well being of the system as a whole, providing an alternative explanation to the claims of Adam Smith.


Entrepreneurship education (EE) theory and practice show increasing interest in the concept of identity work as integral to entrepreneurial learning. EE offers various approaches to guiding students towards entrepreneurial identities, but critics note that these meet neoliberal manifestations of the entrepreneurial self, leaving little room for alternative identities to be cultivated in EE. Concerned with this critique, we aim to contribute to the EE literature through a detailed investigation of the identity work practices enacted in a case of EE, which explicitly seeks to facilitate the entrepreneurial identity construction of students. Through an in-depth analysis of teacher–student interactions, we identify three practices: setting new rules to activate the entrepreneurial self, playing by the rules by figuring the script and bending the rules protecting the self. Our analysis highlights the significance of resistance and notions of authenticity, which leads us to rethink the meaning and conditions of entrepreneurial identity work in EE.


The FRIB cryogenic engineering group designed and built the sub-atmospheric cold box which supports the 2 K (31 mbar) operation of the FRIB accelerator cryo-modules. The centrifugal cryogenic (cold) compressors, designed with room temperature motors and active magnetic bearings, were supplied by Air Liquide to FRIB specifications and were integrated into the cold box which was built on site. The preliminary commissioning tests demonstrated that the system has achieved all the specification goals of operating from 110-180 g/s with a suction pressure of 0.028 mbar, discharge pressure of 1.15 bar and a discharge temperature less than 30 K. This paper will briefly review the sub-atmospheric 2 K system design features and discuss the recent commissioning results.


This paper proposes a route computation method for a GMPLS based survivable network. It is classified as a precomputed and centralized approach. It tries to globally optimize both working and recovery routes for each demand while taking account of GMPLS recovery schemes and network resource constraints. To enhance its scalability as well as computational performance, two unique devices are introduced to the method: utilization of a tabu-search algorithm for the weighted constraint satisfaction problem (WCSP) and the limitation of candidate routes. Experimental results demonstrate the possibility that it could handle practical-scale networks with satisfactory performance in both optimality of solution and computational time


Cancer is one of the most devastating conditions affecting humans. Current drugs used in the treatment of cancers and other diseases are becoming ineffective as a result of drug resistance, occurring naturally as well as the abuse and misuse of drugs as well as issues of patient compliance to therapy due to its high toxicity. To overcome this resistance and improve the efficacy of these drugs, a selective drug delivery is essential. Such selective or targeted delivery is the use of antibody conjugated polymeric drugs in the treatment of cancers. A targeted delivery of cytotoxic agents to tumors is believed to improve both their anti-tumor effect and safety. This review focuses on the recent cancer drug therapy such as chemotherapy, immunotherapy, hormone therapy and antibody drug conjugates as well as research on new therapies such as polymer drug conjugates and antibody conjugated polymeric prodrugs. Challenges encountered in antibody conjugated polymeric prodrugs for cancer treatment and measures to improve it such as nanosizing the delivery systems are also discussed.


This paper reviews the most prominent changes that have taken place in the plant breeding industry in Sweden. We argue that the establishment of Intellectual Property Rights schemes creates power asymmetry in the seed value chain and has therefore been a major driver of consolidation in Sweden and internationally. Furthermore, we provide an assessment of the use of cultivars bred domestically. This has been achieved by identifying and classifying the variety owners for major crops based on the origin of the breeding station and calculating the percentage of the domestically-bred varieties used in crop production. The ratio of local varieties in relation to imported varieties is of special significance to Sweden, which has a long history of plant breeding and a challenging climate.


Background : Parkinson's disease (PD) patients have been described as having an 			introverted, rigid and harm-avoidant personality, 			which 			present decades before motor 			symptoms begin. Previous studies have relied on subjective reports 			about patients' premorbid personalities. The objectives of this study 			were to examine current personality profiles of PD patients and to 			assess how personality indicators of early-adult life correlate with 			current personality. Methods: Data were collected from 89 PD cases and 99 controls through 			in-person assessments of current personality characteristics and 			early-adult life personality indicators based on activities and 			lifestyle patterns during ages 20 			- 35 years. Associations of latent variables 			representing early-adult activity risks, lifestyle risks and 			routinization with current personality characteristics were studied 			using Pearson correlations, partialling out the effects of age, sex 			and education. Results: Greater current levels of neuroticism (OR 			= 			1.05 (95% CI 1.00 			- 			1.11)) and 			harm-avoidance (OR 			= 			1.07 (95% CI 1.00 			- 			1.15)) were evident 			in cases compared to controls, adjusting for age, sex and education. 			Significant correlations between early-life indicators and late-life 			personality characteristics were consistent among cases and controls 			for associations of early-adult life routinization with current 			measures of neuroticism (cases: r 			= 			0.33, 			P 			= 			0.01; controls: r 			= 			0.26, 			P 			= 			0.04), extraversion 			(cases: r 			= 			-0.33, 			P 			= 			0.01; controls: r 			= 			-0.33, 			P 			= 			0.04), 			novelty-seeking (cases: r 			= 			-0.33, 			P = 			0.015; controls: r 			= 			-0.34, 			P 			= 			0.007) and 			harm-avoidance (cases: r 			= 			0.47, 			P 			= 			0.0003; controls: r 			= 			0.45, 			P 			= 			0.0002) and for 			early-adult life activity risks with harm-avoidance (cases: r 			= 			-0.47, 			P 			= 			0.0004; controls: r 			= 			-0.42, 			P 			= 0.0006). Conclusion: Current personality profile of PD cases, reflected by higher 			neuroticism and harm-avoidance, may reflect stable personality 			traits characterized by greater routinization and lower risk-taking 			in earlier adult life. J Neurol Res. 2014;4(2-3):51-62 doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.14740/jnr280w


In Pakistan—a country in the midst of the fertility transition—16 percent of all pregnancies are unintended, most of which end in a birth. In midtransition societies, unwanted fertility is thought to be due to declines in desired family size that are not accompanied by access to family planning; however, gender issues and cultural norms may also play a role by limiting women's reproductive autonomy. Using the Pakistan Demographic Health Survey of 1990-91 and 2012-13, I aimed to examine whether women's empowerment (proxied by women's education) accompanied by perceived spousal concordance on desired family size influence the intendedness of the last birth. In addition, I aimed to see whether educational gradient of unintended fertility has changed over time. Results show that perceived spousal concordance in general is not associated with unintended childbearing. Analysis show that compared to women with no formal education, educated women are more likely to have mistimed birth rather than a wanted or unwanted birth. Moreover, the educational gradient in the risk of having unintended birth has changed over time. There is a strong educational gradient for unwanted higher-order births over time. Women with a secondary education are less likely to have unwanted birth over time. The results suggest that highly educated women are least likely to want many children as but also least likely to be able to exert their own preferences.


: Spin-trapping and electron spin resonance (ESR) spectroscopy were used to detect free radicals generated during light exposure of lymphoma cells sensitized in vitro by metallotetrasulfophthalocyanines (Al-PcS4 and Zn-PcS4). 5,5-dimethyl-1-pyrroline-1-oxide (DMPO) and alpha-phenyl-beta-tert-butylnitrone (PBN) were used as spin-trapping agents. Hydroxyl radical spin-adducts were detected under conditions of both extracellular and intracellular photosensitization. In addition, organic radicals of different origin and/or variable yields were trapped, depending on the photosensitization conditions and the spin-trap used. For comparison, analogous experiments were carried out with another tumor-localizing photosensitizer, Photofrin II.


Money has changed its form many times throughout history and has begun to turn into digital form as an alternative to the current situation. The newest type of money form is a cryptocurrency which has been developed independently of any central authority. The usage areas of cryptocurrencies are increasing day by day. Bitcoin is one of the most accepted cryptocurrencies in the world, which was issued in 2009, dominated the cryptocurrency market and attracted the attention of large masses with its rapid rise in value. Cryptocurrency market size exceeded $800 billion in early 2018. Most of the cryptocurrency users want to get a share from value increases of cryptocurrencies. However, these behaviours are not in line with the philosophy of cryptocurrencies. Cryptocurrencies also cause problems of legitimacy for Muslim users in termsof Islamic Jurisprudence (Fiqh). Although many religious institutions and Islamic scholars say that cryptocurrencies are haram, several Islamic scholars consider that they are halal. In our study, the legitimacy of cryptocurrencies in terms of Fiqh is analysed multidimensional employing the existing literature and fatwas. Furthermore, we attempt to determine the features of Islamic cryptocurrency.


The British and German residential sectors account for similar fractions of national energy demand and carbon emissions. They also exhibit underlying differences in the building stock, fuel split, tenure and household load profiles. The temporal habits in British and German households are also quite different, which is challenging to measure due to the paucity of German smart meter data. This contribution takes this background as a starting point to explore some of the temporal and socioeconomic
characteristics of residential energy demand in Britain and Germany. The Centre for Renewable Energy Systems Technology (CREST) residential load profile generator is updated for the UK and extended to the German context and validated with standard load profiles, providing high levels of accuracy according standard normalized root-mean-squared error (NRMSE) measures. The paper then analyzes the energy-related activities of different socioeconomic household groups based on with National Time
Use Survey data from both countries. The analysis showed some clear differences between groups and countries, which are a reminder of the importance of non-energy policy (e.g. school hours) in determining peaks. As well as encountering useful insights into international differences in energy related behaviour, the results showed some key differences within specific socioeconomic groups, such as single persons, families with children, and pensioners. Further work will focus on extending the
German CREST model to include a German appliance stock, as well as allocating these appliances according to households' socioeconomic characteristics. The definition of the groups themselves needs to be refined, perhaps to include multiple variables and based on clustering or similar techniques, and validation with smart meter data.


OBJECTIVES
To develop effective and targeted interventions to improve care for patients with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP), insight is needed into the factors that influence the quality of antibiotic use. Therefore, we measured the performance of nine quality indicators and studied determinants of variation in the quality of antibiotic use.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
Data on 498 prospectively included patients with CAP from eight medium-sized Dutch hospitals were extracted from the medical charts. Outcomes of nine indicators were calculated using previously constructed algorithms. Multilevel logistic regression analysis was performed to explain differences in performance rates at the patient, doctor and hospital level.

RESULTS
Performance indicators were generally moderate. Markers of severe illness were found to be positive predictors of timely administration of antibiotics (low oxygen saturation on admission OR 1.11; 95% CI: 1.04--1.19) and obtaining blood samples for culture (low sodium concentration on admission OR 1.10; 95% CI: 1.03--1.16). Recent outpatient antibiotic therapy (OR 0.46; 95% CI: 0.26--0.80) and presence of a hospital antibiotic committee (OR 0.27; 95% CI: 0.08--0.90) were negatively associated with guideline-adherent empirical therapy. The main positive predictor of timely administration of antibiotics (within 4 h) was antibiotic administration in the Emergency Department (ED) (OR 3.9; 95% CI: 1.96--8.73).

CONCLUSIONS
We gained new insights into factors that determine quality of antibiotic prescription in hospitals. Treatment in the ED, rather than in the ward, will result in earlier administration of antibiotics. Guidelines should clarify preferred antibiotic management of patients who have received antibiotics prior to admission. Hospital-based structures aimed at quality improvement, such as antibiotic committees, do not necessarily lead to better adherence to national standards. Efforts should be made to encourage these committees to implement national guidelines at a local level.


The increasing disparity between CPU speed and storage system require novel techniques to achieve high I/Os for computing systems with high assurance properties, such as timeliness, fault tolerance and online expansion. Proposed architecture is balanced memory architecture which is for high I/O(Input Output) intensive Autonomous Decentralized System using Data Transmission System memory concept in DF (Data Field) to achieve timeliness in information systems to solve today's High I/O intensive application market demand. The proposed architecture also implements two new memory caches in the system, namely L3 that works at local memory level and L4, on top of HDD. Moreover, the proposed —high I/O intensive distributed system concept called Autonomous Decentralized Data Transmission System (ADDTS) that is composed of triosubsystems with three autonomous decentralized remote storage nodes. These remote storage nodes have online expansion technique for storage system to improve system capacity. Therefore, the proposed system architecture solves previous issues and it achieves flexible data storage system that increases or decreases its capacity as per the requirements. The I/O performance evaluation shows significant enhancement over the traditional computing and ADS systems.


Displaced lateral trochanteric fractures require satisfactory reduction by external rotation and internal fixation with a Richard's nail plate for acceptable clinical results. In cases where the proximal fragment lies in external rotation, classic reduction procedures may accentuate displacement. External rotation of the distal fragment by temporary fixation of the proximal fragment allows all fracture fragments to move together during subsequent internal rotation and internal fixation. This paper discusses the anatomic and roentgenographic aspects of these injuries.