Embodied and creative research methods provoke honesty, emotion, and vulnerability in participants, which add to the richness of the stories they tell and are willing to share. The positionality of the researcher is less of "interviewer" and more "co-producer" or participant in a dialogue. Visual and creative approaches invite participants to share in ways in which they are not able or willing through words alone. The data and outputs they produce, with film, art, or objects, can in turn affect those who see it more than written text and need to be analysed and disseminated along with more traditional transcripts, articles, and presentations. In the context of investigating sensitive issues such as those around embodied identity, these methods, which use embodied methods to explore embodied research questions, may feel the most appropriate. These approaches lie along the boundary of therapy and research, asking much of researchers who are unlikely to have received therapeutic training or ongoing support. Due to this deficit, the researched may find that their experience is not held or contained in a way that the content would demand. Similarly, the data themselves lie on the boundary of art and research, in that they can be seen as more than a tool to facilitate reflection, but as artifacts in their own right. What are the implications in this scenario? Where should we position ourselves and our work along these boundaries? Who holds the space for the researcher and the researched if both are made vulnerable?


Information Fusion coordinates large-volume data processing machines to address user needs. Users expect a situational picture to extend their ability of sensing events, movements, and activities. Typically, data is collected and processed for object location (e.g. target identification) and movement (e.g. tracking); however, high-level reasoning or situational understanding depends on the spatial, cultural, and political effects. In this paper, we explore opportunities where information fusion can aid in the selection and processing of the data for enhanced tacit knowledge understanding by (1) display fusion for data presentation (e.g. cultural segmentation), (2) interactive fusion to allow the user to inject a priori knowledge (e..g. cultural values), and (3) associated metrics of predictive capabilities (e.g. cultural networks). In a simple scenario for target identification with deception, cultural information impacts on situational understanding is demonstrated using the Technology-Emotion-Culture-Knowledge (TECK) attributes of the Observe-Orient-Decide-Act (OODA) model.


Superimposed luminance racket is regular of imagery from devices used for low-light vision, for instance, picture intensifiers (i.e., night vision contraptions). In four examinations, we checked the ability to recognize and isolate development portrayed shapes as a component of lift movement to-clatter extent at a collection of shock speeds. Self-driving vehicles can change the way we travel. Their headway is at a basic point, as a creating number of mechanical and academic research affiliations are bringing these advancements into controlled however evident settings. An essential capacity of a self-driving vehicle is condition understanding: Where are the general population by walking, substitute vehicles, and the drivable space? In PC and robot vision, the errand of perceiving semantic classes at a for every pixel level is known as scene parsing or semantic division. While much progress has been made in scene parsing starting late, current datasets for getting ready and benchmarking scene parsing estimations revolve around apparent driving conditions: sensible atmosphere and generally daytime lighting. To supplement the standard benchmarks, we show the Rain cover scene parsing benchmark, which to the extent anybody is concerned is the principle scene parsin benchmark to base on testing tempestuous driving conditions, in the midst of the day, at dusk, and amid the night. Our dataset contains 30 minutes of driving video got in the city of Vancouver, Canada, and 326 edges with hand-remarked on pixel astute semantic imprints.


General Interest How the Internet Works, 7th ed., Preston Gralla (Que, 2004, 368 pp., ISBN 0-78972973-3, $29.99; www.quepublishing.com) Preston Gralla is a well-known technology columnist and author. In this large-format book lavishly illustrated by Michael Troller, Gralla explains all of the concepts that most people are likely to encounter in connecting to the Internet. The explanations are not deep, but they systematically cover the basics. Most people, even experts, will probably find at least some of the explanations helpful. For example, I feel that I know quite a bit about the Internet, but Gralla's explanation of proxy servers clarified the subject for me. The illustrations are colorful and attractive, but in many cases are merely decorative. Visual learners may find them helpful, though I doubt that anyone could get much from the book just by looking at the pictures. The text, on the other hand, can probably stand alone. If you know people who are just starting to use the Internet and electronic mail, consider giving them this book. It may save you from having to answer some difficult questions.


Introduction: Autism is a pervasive developmental disorder characterised by abnormal development in the first two years of life and impairment with respect to the following three areas: social interactions, communication, and behaviour. The disorder is more common in males than females. The aim: The study was conducted to assess the effects of sensory integration therapy on selected fitness skills in autistic children. Material and methods: The study assessed a group of 20 children (15 boys and 5 girls) aged 3 to 10 years. All children were diagnosed with autism and underwent 2-year therapy. The children showed impaired sensory modulation with abnormal stimulus reception and processing in the tactile, auditory, vestibular (balance), olfactory, and gustatory sensory systems. The study assessed fitness skills and their correlations with sensory integration therapy used in the children. The assessment used the Sensorimotor Development Questionnaire developed by Zbigniew Przyrowski and selected tests from "Obserwacja Kliniczna" as well as history-taking conducted with the parents. The following aspects were analysed: muscle tone, static balance, dynamic balance, jumping on two legs, jumping on one leg, catching and throwing a ball, and self-care activities, such as putting on shoes. Results: Sensory integration therapy contributed to an improvement in motor, sensory, cognitive, emotional, communication, and social development in the study patients. Conclusion: The use of sensory integration effectively supports sensory processes in autistic children.


This thesis takes a diagram of Walter Benjamin's Urbekanntschaften ('primal acquaintances')
as its starting point to explore questions of friendship and generation in relation to history, as manifested through Benjamin's work and biography. The diagram, drawn hastily in
the corner of a notebook in 1932, includes 48 names connected by lines. I first transpose
this diagram into a number of counter-forms to interrogate its potential significance: into
the arborescent form of an ontogenetic/phylogenetic tree, a diagram of chemical bonds,
a city map and an astral chart. Each chapter then draws out a number of spatio-temporal
constellations detectable on the diagram: from Benjamin's exile in Switzerland from 1917
to his time in Naples/Capri in 1923–24 and, lastly, to his time in Paris around 1927. With
each moment clusters of names and shared generational concerns emerge. With 1933 and
the fracturing of the generation by political and social crisis, the diagram is surpassed by
another document: an address book, used by Benjamin from 1933 until his death in 1940.
The address book is a record of scattering: the dispersal of people, relationships, things in
exile, as testament to repeated erasures. In order to ground the thesis in an account of
experience, I contextualise each moment on the stage of Benjamin's generational
development. This is both collective (historical, phylogenetic) but also individual
(historical, ontogenetic), from an account of adolescence to maturation into the 1920s.
1933 brings an account of degeneration and the thesis falls back into childhood in the
conclusion: with an account of projected salvation. The purpose of this thesis is to
reconsider the work of Walter Benjamin within the context of his life, through his
associations and within the currents of larger historical conjunctures; to examine questions
of friendship and its relation to history and politics; to investigate the parallels of friendship and generation from the work of Benjamin alongside his contemporaries; to understand friendship's relation to freedom and the redemption not just of life but the concept of friendship itself.


BACKGROUND: A major impediment to understanding quality of care for children with disabilities (CWD) is the lack of a method for identifying this group in claims databases. We developed the CWD algorithm (CWDA), which uses International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM) codes to identify CWD. METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional study that (1) ensured each of the 14 567 codes within the 2012 ICD-9-CM codebook was independently classified by 3 to 9 pediatricians based on the code's likelihood of indicating CWD and (2) triangulated the resulting CWDA against parent and physician assessment of children's disability status by using survey and chart abstraction, respectively. Eight fellowship-trained general pediatricians and 42 subspecialists from across the United States participated in the code classification. Parents of 128 children from a large, free-standing children's hospital participated in the parent survey; charts of 336 children from the same hospital were included in the abstraction study. RESULTS: CWDA contains 669 ICD-9-CM codes classified as having a ≥75% likelihood of indicating CWD. Examples include 318.2 Profound intellectual disabilities and 780.72 Functional quadriplegia. CWDA sensitivity was 0.75 (95% confidence interval 0.63–0.84) compared with parent report and 0.98 (0.95–0.99) compared with physician assessment; its specificity was 0.86 (0.72–0.95) and 0.50 (0.41–0.59), respectively. CONCLUSIONS: ICD-9-CM codes can be classified by their likelihood of indicating CWD. CWDA triangulates well with parent report and physician assessment of child disability status. CWDA is a new tool that can be used to assess care quality for CWD.


In wireless communications for industrial automation, industrial equipments frequently communicate each other through the transmission of a small amount of data. For a random access system, a frame format that multiplexes a data signal to IEEE 802.11 short preamble sequence has been proposed to improve a spectrum efficiency. This frame format enables a receiver to realize timing synchronization, channel estimation, frequency offset compensation, and data transmission simultaneously within a preamble period. In receivers for wireless LAN communication systems, a direct conversion architecture has been widely employed because of its low production cost and low power consumption. However, this architecture suffers from a DC offset mainly caused by the leakage of a local oscillator (LO) signal. In order to eliminate the DC offset, a high-pass filter (HPF) is often inserted before an A/D convertor. When the gain of a low noise amplifier (LNA) changes in the presence of the DC offset, the level of the DC offset varies in the middle of the short preamble signal. With the time-varying DC offset, the received signal suffers from the long transient response of the HPF. In the use of the proposed frame format, the transient response causes severe deterioration on a bit error rate (BER) performance. In the previous research, a differential filter has been applied in a digital domain to eliminate the residual DC offset and estimate a frequency offset. In order to obtain better BER performance with time-varying DC offset elimination, the differential filter outputs with different delay values are summed together. It is shown that the set of differential filters with specific delay values can reduce the BER. The BER performance for two differential filter branches with the delays, dl = {4, 5}, improves the error floor by a half than that with the single branch only with the delay, dl = 4, when the number of the receive antennas is 3 on an Indoor Residential A channel model.


The lowland Amazon rainforest houses some of the greatest tree diversity on Earth. While the vast majority of these species are rare, a small number are common and widespread and thus considered to play a disproportionate role in many of the global ecosystem services provided by the Amazon. However, the extent to which dominant Amazonian tree species actually include multiple clades, each on their own unique evolutionary trajectory, is unknown. Here we investigate the extent to which lineage divergence may be occurring within Protium subserratum (Burseraceae), a common and widespread tree species that is monophyletic with populations exhibiting genotypic and phenotypic differences associated with soil and geography. Utilizing a combination of phylogenomic and population genomic methods with sampling from across the range, we found that P. subserratum contains at least eight distinct clades. Specialization onto white‐sand soils has evolved independently at least twice within the species; however, phenotype is not correlated with soil type. Finally, cryptic diversity at the base of the Andes is associated with elevational shifts. Together these results lend support to the hypothesis that common and widespread Amazon tree species may not represent evolutionary cohesive units. Instead, these dominant species may more commonly represent species complexes, undergoing evolutionary transitions on a trajectory to become multiple range‐restricted, specialist species.


Abstract Objective: Clinical evidence suggests a complex-per-haps correlative-relationship between stressful experiences and addiction. The goal of this review is to provide an overview of recent basic research linking stress and addiction, to indicate novel areas of study, and to suggest how data from basic research may influence clinical assessment and treatment of patients with stress-related disorders, substance abuse, or a history of both disorders. Methods: Reviewed here are recent basic research (preclinical) articles available via PubMed (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov) with particular relevance to novel neural mechanisms underlying the putative stress/addiction relationship. Findings: Three types of relationships between stress and addiction are identified and discussed: (1) Neural adaptations common to both chronic stress and chronic exposure to drugs of abuse; (2) The influence of stress on the rewarding or sensitizing aspects of drugs of abuse; and (3) The influence of stress on the relapse to drug taking after a drug-free period. Each relationship appears to involve alterations in dopaminergic and glutamatergic systems and their related second messenger pathways. However, brain regions that influence the brain's reward pathway, such as the hippocampus, and other novel aspects of neuroplasticity, such as adult neurogenesis, are also receiving attention. Conclusions: A wealth of evidence shows that stress and addiction can produce similar adaptations in discrete brain regions, and that there is bidirectional influence of the experience of stress and drug exposure. These preclinical findings encourage further exploration of the neural mechanisms underlying stress and addiction with the hope that additional discoveries will aid treatment of patients with stress-related disorders and addiction, or comorbid diagnoses.


In this work, algorithms were developed for retrieving water quality parameters related to Singapore's reservoirs. The main constituents that affect the water reflectance (WR) – i.e. proportion of incident light reflected from the surface of water bodies after removing the surface glint component – are the suspended particles, phytoplankton and coloured dissolved organic matter (CDOM). The existing absorption spectrum model for phytoplankton in seawater is not accurate for the phytoplankton types that exist in the fresh water environment. The phytoplankton absorption spectrum was modelled by a series of Gaussian peaks from 400 to 750 nm. The peak strengths were dynamically derived from the WR measured. The phytoplankton absorption model is incorporated into a semi-empirical WR model for retrieving the absorption and backscattering coefficients of water components such as suspended sediments, CDOM and phytoplankton. The chlorophyll-a concentration and water turbidity estimated using this model correlate well with field sampling measurements, with coefficients of determination (R) exceeding 0.8.


Feminist authors have long been trying to alter the patriarchal structure of the Western society through different aspects. One of these aspects, if not the strongest, is the struggle to overcome centuries long dominance of male authors who have created a masculine history, culture and literature. As recent works of women authors reveal, the strongest possibility of actually achieving an equalitarian society lies beneath the chance of rewriting the history of Western literature. Since the history of Western literature relies on dichotomies that are reminiscences of modernity, the solution to overcome the inequality between the two sexes seems to be to rewrite the primary sources that have influenced the cultural heritage of literature itself. The most dominant dichotomies that shape this literary heritage are represented through the bonds between the concepts of women/man and nature/culture. As one of the most influential epics that depict these dichotomies, Homer's Odysseus reveals how poetry strengthens the authority of the male voice. In order to define the ideal "man", Homer uses a wide scope of animal imagery while forming the identities of male characters. Margaret Atwood, on the other hand, is not contended with Homer's poem in that it never narrates the story from the side of women. As a revisionist mythmaker, Atwood takes the famous story of Odysseus, yet this time presents it from the perspective of Penelope, simultaneously playing on the animal imagery. Within this frame, I intend to explore in this paper how the animal imagery in Homer's most renowned Odysseus functions as a reinforcing tool in the creation of masculine identities and how Margaret Atwood's The Penelopiad defies this formation of identities with the aim of narrating the story from the unheard side, that of the women who are eminently present yet never heard.


Every year, students of color across the United States diversify their university campuses; in return, many of them fail to engage with their peers or succeed in their class work due to feelings of neglect or fear that contribute to a lack of engagement and success. To begin to explore the challenges students of color face when enrolled at a predominantly white institution, one must look into how their experiences help or hinder their thriving. Beyond surviving in a college environment, thriving conveys a student's full engagement in his or her intellectual, social, and emotional experiences. A sense of psychological well-being contributes to their persistence to graduation and to life (Schreiner, Pothoven, Nelson, & McIntosh, 2009). To best help students of color thrive throughout their college experience, this study asked students of color two questions. The first related to their perceptions of their own thriving, and the second explored the factors of thriving students of color excel in while enrolled at a predominantly white institution. Five factors determine students' thriving: academic determination, diverse citizenship, engaged learning, positive perspective, and social connectedness. This study used the Thriving Quotient by Laurie Schreiner (2010). Forty-five students of color completed the survey, and the data was analyzed in two data sets: firstyear students and upperclassmen. The results indicated students of color are indeed thriving, and most of them are represented in four of the five thriving factors. However, there are still students of color who are not thriving, and they should not be overlooked.


Consistent with Lewin's legacy and SPSSI's traditions, out work has focused on inequality and power dynamics between people. Drawing on interpersonal positivity biases, stereotype content emphasizing perceived warmth and competence, and on the compensation effect (trading off warmth and competence), we study how people communicate, understand, and present themselves and others, especially across status divides. First, polite communicators omit negativity in describing individuals, especially stereotyped ones. Negativity omission creates innuendo (its absence implies the negative information), which allows stereotype to stagnate. Listeners understand the innuendo and infer the negativity from its omission. Impression-managers understand this dynamic and use positive innuendo: They downplay one aspect (e.g., warmth or competence) to convey the other. Status determines which strategy people use: High-status speakers talk down (warmly), and low-status speakers talk up (competently). Cross-race interactions also show this dynamic. This creates dysfunctional inter-status interactions, the two people operating at crossed purposes.


Introduction We aimed to assess the incidence and demographics of interval cancers (cancers diagnosed within 2 years of a negative FOBT screening) in the eligible population of the East Midlands region. Method The National Bowel Cancer Audit Programme data from three centres (Queens Medical Centre, Nottingham; Royal Derby Hospital and Sherwood Forest Hospitals) for all colorectal cancers in the screening age group (60–74 years)over a 2-year period (August 2011–August 2013) were linked for their FOBT screening status (BCSP database/Eastern Hub). Three cancer groups were identified: interval cancers, screen detected (positive FOBT) and those in the non-uptake group (eligible patients who declined screening). Tumours at and distal to the splenic flexure were classed as left sided tumours. Dukes C and D tumours were classed as advanced tumours. All three centres were in incident rounds of screening. Results Of the 521 colorectal cancers identified, 128 (25%) were interval cancers, 162(31%) were screen detected and 231 (44%) were from the non-uptake group. Gender, ethnicity and Deprivation index were comparable between the three groups. The mean age in the interval cancer group was greater (67 yrs) compared to the screen detected (66 yrs) (p = 0.005). The interval cancer group had a higher incidence of right sided cancers (38% vs. 25% and 29%; X 2=6.59; p = 0.033) compared to the screen-detected and non-uptake groups. Cancers detected in the interval cancer group were of a more advanced stage (Dukes C/D) (70% vs. 34% and 54%; X 2=37.2;p < 0.005) in comparison to screen-detected and non-uptake groups. The one year mortality in the interval cancer group (16%) was higher than the non-uptake group (12%) and the screen detected group (3%) (16%vs12% and 3%; X2=13.8;p < 0.005). Conclusion A quarter of colorectal cancers identified in our screening-eligible population were interval cancers. We highlight the probability that these cancers were 'missed' by the guaiac-based FOBT screening tests. The interval cancer group also had poorer outcomes when compared to the screen-detected group. We highlight the need for a test with a lower false negative rate for population based FOBT screening. Disclosure of interest None Declared.


To optimize injection molding warpage, this paper applies the uniform design of experiment method to search for the optimal injection molding processing parameters. The warpage. simulation analysis is accomplished by emplying Moldflow software. The melt temperature, mold temperature, injection time and packing pressure are regarded as processing parameters, and processing parameters are optimized through establishing a regression equation, and the optimization result and influence factors are analyzed. The results show that uniform design of experiment can reduce number of experiments used effectively and the quality of the product is greatly improved by the optimization method.


Supersonic, two-phase flow of a gas/particle mixture directed towards a substrate may enable the deposition of "cold" particles onto a "cold" substrate under certain conditions. The method is commonly known as Cold Gas Dynamic Deposition or Cold Spray. Current research shows that copper can be deposited within a wide range of parameters and velocity regimes, whereas the deposition of other materials may involve difficulties depending on the material properties and substrate characteristics. Although particle velocity is recognized as being the key factor in the deposition of particles with the cold spray process, it alone cannot describe the state of the particle prior to and during impact. A simple analysis shows that the impulse of particles with equal particle velocity and size depends significantly on its density. For common engineering metals, an interval varying by up to a factor of 5 is possible considering, for example, magnesium and molybdenum. The impact force, directly dependent on the particle's impulse, governs the pressures generated during impact. In a simplified calculation, pressure values of around 3000 MPa can be very easily determined. While the particle impulse accounts for the degree of interaction - partial or complete deformation - the particle's and the substrate's lattice structure and its capacity to deform determine the type of particle substrate interaction. Depending on these properties, the substrate, the particle or both will be deformed. Evaluating impact experiments shows distinct differences between the impacts of copper, steel and aluminum particles on aluminum and steel substrates. The paper presented may be seen as a contribution to the discussion of a theory to evaluate coating and substrate combinations prior to spraying in order to predict bonding and coating build-up or to offer guidance concerning the optimum parameter set for deposition.


The Vanderbilt free-electron laser (FEL) is a continuously tunable source of pulsed, mid-infrared radiation. FEL applications research has been underway for a decade. Recent experimental advances in FEL ablation of soft tissue indicate the potential for FEL-based protocols in surgery and medicine. In anticipation of these medical applications, the Vanderbilt FEL is being upgraded to meet the reliability and performance standards for a medical laser. Facilities for laser surgery have been constructed and equipped and medical delivery systems are being developed for pre-clinical and clinical research.


The fastest transform in the family of fast Linearly Independent Arithmetic (LIA) logic is introduced in this paper. The transform is the most efficient LIA transform in terms of complexity. Recursive equations defining the LIA transform and the corresponding butterfly diagrams are shown. Finally, application of the new LIA transform in Boolean functions verifications is discussed.


Present study like to examine the variables that are significant, in the selection of offshore outsourcing locations for the voice based jobs in India and Philippines. The study has statistically tested human resources factors, finance factors, national level factors, communication, language, culture, client and service provider relationship, service delivery, organizations credentials and regulatory environment. The study has used descriptive research design, survey questionnaire method and deliberative purposive sampling techniques on the total sample size of 178 top and middle level employees of BPOs and Call centres. Data were analyzed using structure equation modeling, multiple regression, weighted least square method and Path analysis. Results of the study shows, overall affects of above discussed factor variables on the selection of location as Philippines are more than choosing India as preference of location for voice based jobs.


ABSTRACT Daylight provision to the indoor space is affected by different building elements that cannot be fully controlled by the users, such as the window size of a space. The dimensions of the fenestration not only affect the lighting levels, but they also affect how the space is perceived by its users. The present study examines three different window sizes via virtual reality, to study how they affect the perception of both a small and a large space at high latitudes. Additionally, two context scenarios (socializing and working), as well as three different sky types (overcast sky and clear skies with either high or low sun angle) were evaluated. The experimental study applied a mixed design with within-subjects and between-subjects factors. A total of 150 participants evaluated the scenes using a Likert-type scale to rate eight different subjective attributes. The statistical results showed that both window size and space type significantly affect the participants' spatial perception, as well as their satisfaction with the amount of outside view. Larger windows led to more positively evaluated spaces for all studied attributes. Moreover, a significant interaction was found between window size and type of space for the satisfaction with the amount of view in the space, indicating that the window size was dependent on the type of space in which the windows are located. Specifically, the window sizes were rated higher in the small space than in the large space for the evaluation of amount of view. The findings show that window size affects how people perceive a space, and additionally, that other spatial features, such as space type, affect window size preferences.


A complete set of orthogonal operators accounting for electrostatic and magnetic effects in the ds and d2s configurations is defined and a physical interpretation in terms of perturbation theory is given.


Two sessile filter-feeders of similar body sizes, the goose barnacle Capitulum mitella and mussel Septifer virgatus, occur in patches on a moderately wave-exposed rocky shore of south Japan in the western Pacific. Their pattern of coexistence was investigated through field observations and experimental manipulation, focusing in particular on seasonally variable modes of facilitation under harsh environmental conditions found in the upper intertidal. Field observations and reciprocal-removal experiments showed a high survivorship of C. mitella in both mixed patches (containing C. mitella and S. virgatus) and Capitulum-only patches. In contrast, S. virgatus exhibited a substantially higher survivorship in the mixed than in single situations, indicating that S. virgatus was positively affected by the presence of C. mitella, while the latter was not influenced by the presence of the former in the upper intertidal. An artificial patch transplant experiment demonstrated that C. mitella enhanced S. virgatus survivorship and growth both in summer when thermal stress was severe and in winter when physical disturbance caused by wave action was strong. In contrast, the artificial shade treatment enhanced S. virgatus survivorship only in summer. In summer, thermal conditions (temperature and interstitial humidity within patches) were harsher in the unshaded (S. virgatus-only) than in the mixed (C. mitella + S. virgatus) and shaded treatments (S. virgatus with artificial shade). In contrast, the effect of severe physical condition as evidenced by the extent of shell wear in mussels was more pronounced in the shaded and unshaded treatments than in the mixed treatment in winter. These results suggest that C. mitella had 2 different habitat-modifying functions: (1) amelioration of thermal stress and (2) amelioration of physical stress; the artificial shade performed only the first of these.


Ricochet is a low-latency reliable multicast protocol designed for time-critical clustered applications. It uses IP Multicast to transmit data and recovers from packet loss in end-hosts using Lateral Error Correction (LEC), a novel repair mechanism in which XORs are exchanged between receivers and combined across overlapping groups. In datacenters and clusters, application needs frequently dictate large numbers of fine-grained overlapping multicast groups. Existing multicast reliability schemes scale poorly in such settings, providing latency of packet recovery that depends inversely on the data rate within a single group: the lower the data rate, the longer it takes to recover lost packets. LEC is insensitive to the rate of data in any one group and allows each node to split its bandwidth between hundreds to thousands of fine-grained multicast groups without sacrificing timely packet recovery. As a result, Ricochet provides developers with a scalable, reliable and fast multicast primitive to layer under high-level abstractions such as publish-subscribe, group communication and replicated service/object infrastructures. We evaluate Ricochet on a 64-node cluster with up to 1024 groups per node: under various loss rates, it recovers almost all packets using LEC in tens of milliseconds and the remainder with reactive traffic within 200 milliseconds.


Deep bite is an abnormally increased vertical overlap of upper and lower incisal teeth in centric occlusion, with or without palatal tissue trauma. The purpose of current study was to find out the frequency and pattern of deep bite among the patients visiting department of Orthodontics, Faisalabad medical university and de,Montmorency College of dentistry. Orthodontic plaster model and lateral cephalograms records of 200 subjects were included as per selection criteria. The data were statistically analyzed by SPSS (19.0). Duration of study was from 2016 November to October 2017. The mean age of the sample was 18.32±3.44 years. The frequency of deep bite was found to be 25% with more patients being females. As far as the distribution of 25% patients in different categories of deep bite, maximum number of patients was having mild to moderate degree of deep bite. It was concluded that female are more affected by deep bite malocclusion and frequency of deep bite malocclusion was find out to be 25%.


´Scenario-aware dataflow (SADF) is a prominent tool for model ing and analysis of dynamic embedded dataflow applications. In SADF the application is rep resented as a finite collection of synchronous dataflow (SDF) graphs, each of which represents one possible application behaviour or scenario. A finite state machine (FSM) specifies the possible orders of scenario occurrences. The SADF model renders the tightest possible performance guarantees, but is limited by its finiteness. This means that from a practical point of view, it can only handle dynamic dataflow applications that are characterized by a reasonably sized set of possible behaviours or scenarios. In this paper we remove this limitation for a class of SADF graphs by means of SADF model parametrization in terms of graph port rates and actor execution times. First , we formally define the semantics of the model relevant for throughput analysis based on (max,+) linear system theory and (max,+) automata. Second, by generalizing some of the existing results, we give the algorithms for worst-case throughput analysis of parametric rate and parametric actor execution time acyclic SADF graphs with a fully connected, possibly infinite state transition syste m. Third, we demonstrate our approach on a few realistic applications from digital signal processin g (DSP) domain mapped onto an embedded multi-processor architecture.


This case study presents an extreme example of a problem that appears to occur frequently: misuse of risk assessment instruments in sex offender evaluations. This study does not critique the instruments themselves, but highlights problems in their application to specific cases. A particular challenge to evaluators is how to assess risk when some data about the subject are unknown or unreliable. For some currently used risk-assessment instruments, there are no established guidelines for how to accommodate missing data. Evaluators must not use actuarial instruments when there is insufficient reliable data to score the instruments. Instead, evaluators should list relevant risk factors and describe which factors are present, absent, or unknown.


Natural honey contains an array of glycoproteins, proteoglycans and glycopeptides. Size-exclusion chromatography fractionated Ziziphus honey proteins into five peaks with molecular masses in the range from 10 to >200 kDa. The fractionated proteins exhibited in vitro activities against Giardia lamblia with IC50 values ≤ 25 μg/mL. Results indicated that honey proteins were more active as antiprotozoal agents than metronidazole. This study indicated the potential of honey proteins and peptides as novel antigiardial agents.


Treatment of colon carcinoma with the anti-epidermal growth factor receptor antibody Cetuximab is reported to be ineffective in KRAS-mutant tumors. Mutation testing techniques have therefore become an urgent concern. We have compared three methods for detecting KRAS mutations in 59 cases of colon carcinoma: 1) high resolution melting, 2) the amplification refractory mutation system using a bifunctional self-probing primer (ARMS/Scorpion, ARMS/S), and 3) direct sequencing. We also evaluated the effects of the methods of sectioning and coring of paraffin blocks to obtain tumor DNA on assay sensitivity and specificity. The most sensitive and specific combination of block sampling and mutational analysis was ARMS/S performed on DNA derived from 1-mm paraffin cores. This combination of tissue sampling and testing method detected KRAS mutations in 46% of colon tumors. Four samples were positive by ARMS/S, but initially negative by direct sequencing. Cloned DNA samples were retested by direct sequencing, and in all four cases KRAS mutations were identified in the DNA. In six cases, high resolution melting abnormalities could not be confirmed as specific mutations either by ARMS/S or direct sequencing. We conclude that coring of the paraffin blocks and testing by ARMS/S is a sensitive, specific, and efficient method for KRAS testing.


OBJECTIVES
Vitamin D is increasingly recognized as an important mediator of immune function and may have a preventive role in the pathogenesis of sepsis. We sought to evaluate the association between vitamin D status and sepsis severity and hypothesized that vitamin D insufficiency would be associated with increased sepsis severity.

METHODS
This was a pilot study of emergency department (ED) patients age ≥ 18 years evaluated for suspected infection at an urban, teaching hospital. The authors measured illness severity using the following assessments at baseline and 24 hours: 1) severe sepsis, defined as suspected infection plus two or more elements of systemic inflammatory response syndrome criteria and acute dysfunction of one or more organ systems; 2) Acute Physiology Age Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE) II scores; and 3) Sepsis-related Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) scores. Vitamin D insufficiency was defined as baseline serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25OHD) levels <75 nmol/L.

RESULTS
Eighty-one patients were enrolled, with a median age of 62 years (interquartile range [IQR] = 48-76 years), 47% were female, and 77% were white. At baseline, 64 (79%) had 25OHD levels of <75 nmol/L, and 43 (53%) had severe sepsis. At 24 hours, 48 (59%) had severe sepsis. Patients with baseline 25OHD levels of <75 nmol/L, compared to patients with 25OHD levels of ≥ 75 nmol/L, were more likely to have severe sepsis (61% vs. 24%; p = 0.006) and SOFA scores ≥ 2 (44% vs. 18%; p = 0.049). Additionally, at 24 hours, those with 25OHD levels of <75 nmol/L were more likely to have severe sepsis (67% vs. 29%; p = 0.005), dysfunction of two or more organ systems (50% vs. 18%; p = 0.02), APACHE II score of ≥ 25 (19% vs. 0%; p = 0.06), and SOFA scores of ≥ 2 (63% vs. 29%; p = 0.02). Additionally, all four patients who died during the index hospitalization had 25OHD levels of <75 nmol/L.

CONCLUSIONS
Vitamin D insufficiency was associated with higher sepsis severity in ED patients hospitalized for suspected infection. Larger observational studies, mechanistic studies, and ultimately randomized controlled trials are needed to determine causation and to evaluate if vitamin D supplementation can reduce the risk of sepsis as a preventive or therapeutic strategy.


Since factor analysis is one of the most often used techniques in psychometrics, comparing or combining solutions from different factor analyses is often needed. Several measures to compare factors exist, one of the best known is Tucker's congruence coefficient, which is enjoying newly found popularity thanks to the recent work of Lorenzo-Seva and ten Berge (2006), who established cut-off values for factor congruence. While this coefficient is in most cases very good in comparing factors in general, it also has some disadvantages, which can cause trouble when one needs to compare or combine many analyses. In this paper, we propose a modified Tucker's congruence coefficient to address these issues.


Inter-vehicle communication (IVC) protocols have the potential to increase the safety, efficiency, and convenience of transportation systems involving planes, trains, automobiles, and robots. The applications targeted include peer-to-peer networks for web surfing, coordinated braking, runway incursion prevention, adaptive traffic control, vehicle formations, and many others. The diversity of the applications and their potential communication protocols has challenged a systematic literature survey. We apply a classification technique to IVC applications to provide a taxonomy for detailed study of their communication requirements. The applications are divided into type classes which share common communication organization and performance requirements. IVC protocols are surveyed separately and their fundamental characteristics are revealed. The protocol characteristics are then used to determine the relevance of specific protocols to specific types of IVC applications.


Supreme Court doctrine bars tribal courts from exercising criminal jurisdiction over non-Indians, but tribal courts often are the only practical mechanism available to protect Indian women from non-Indian domestic violence. Congress recognized this fact in the Violence Against Women Act by noting that tribal courts may use their civil contempt power to enforce personal protection orders originating in foreign jurisdictions.This short paper describes the civil contempt power of tribal courts, and how tribal courts have used this power. The paper concludes with a short analysis of the implications of federal Indian law on tribal court authority to issue civil contempt citations to non-Indians.This is a paper prepared for the Michigan Indian Judges Association quarterly meeting, held on May 16, 2008, at the Bay Mills Indian Community.


Although the Korean church has been frequently used to recruit Korean immigrants in research, little is known about the specific strategies and process. The purpose of this integrative review was to describe recruitment strategies in studies of Korean immigrants and to identify the process of Korean church-based recruitment. Thirty-three studies met inclusion criteria. Four stages of church-based recruitment were identified: initiation, endorsement, advertisement, and implementation. This review identified aspects of the church-based recruitment process in Korean immigrants, which are different from the Black and Hispanic literature, due to their hierarchical culture and language barriers. Getting permission from pastors and announcing the study by pastors at Sunday services were identified as the key components of the process. Using the church newsletter to advertise the study was the most effective strategy for the advertisement stage. Despite several limitations, church-based recruitment is a very feasible and effective way to recruit Korean immigrants.


PurposeThe purpose of this study was to identify technological innovation in libraries and further examine the knowledge source and their effects during the technology life cycle (TLC).Design/methodology/approachThis paper discusses the technological innovation taking place in libraries. Patent citation analysis was used to capture the trend of technological innovation associated with libraries.FindingsThe findings are as follows: (1) library technologies are now in the ascent phase of their life cycles; (2) private companies from the United States, Germany, France, Japan and the United Kingdom are the top-five owners of intellectual property rights associated with library technology and (3) patent data along with knowledge and technology indicators can be interpreted in the light of library development. The knowledge source with the highest degree of scientific and technological orientation was identified as basic material chemistry. The major technological categories that have received the greatest knowledge effect from library-associated technological innovation are chemistry, electrical engineering, instruments, mechanical engineering, with other fields (civil engineering and furniture, games) being subject to less effect.Research limitations/implicationsThere are two research limitations in this study. First, the results use single informants, patents retrieved from United States Patent and Trademark Office, as the source of data. Second, this study uses patent citation measures for exploring the knowledge source and effect of technological innovation, these measures are only subjective for those new invention highly based technological advances. This study concludes that technological innovation for libraries will be characterized by an increasing role for science-intensive and interdisciplinary areas. This study also suggests that organizational learning facilitates innovation. Therefore, a library hoping to co-evolve with dynamic environment through technological innovation should improve its organizational learning processes.Practical implicationsTheories of technology-push and demand-pull were examined in relation to technological innovation taking place in libraries. The TLC analysis indicated that library technology is mainly in the ascent stage, suggesting that libraries have not achieved the strongest technological transformation. The findings suggest that the importance of demand-pull and technology-push vary over the TLC of libraries.Social implicationsTo survive in a dynamic environment library must be able to cope with increasing complexity and high-speed technological change. It is pivotal to integrate the views of users (as customers), software houses or design companies (as suppliers) as well as other libraries (as communities) into the sustainable development strategy of a library. In these contexts, libraries with the capacity to innovate will be able to respond to new demands faster and to invent and provide new services better than noninnovative libraries.Originality/valueAnalysis based on the technological innovation perspective to identify the future development of libraries is still lacking. This paper seeks to identify the technological innovation employed in libraries to accommodate the 21st century model of information-seeking behavior. This study identifies a variety of factors that have influenced the transformation of library services, and these include technology developments and new demands from library users. To illustrate the driving forces of technology-push in libraries, this paper examines holistic-patented technologies invented for libraries.


Plastic pollution is present in aquatic systems worldwide. While numerous studies have investigated microplastic interactions with marine organisms, microplastic effects on freshwater organisms, especially insects, have been rarely studied. Previous studies have mainly focused on dietary uptake of microplastics, but the presence of microplastics in animal constructions is largely unknown. To date, microplastics have only been observed in the tubes of a marine polychaete species. In freshwater systems, common caddisfly (Trichoptera) larvae build cases by using larval silk and mineral grains from benthic sediments, which are known microplastic sinks. Therefore, we examined caddisfly cases for microplastic presence. We collected caddisfly Lepidostoma basale cases in the field, disintegrated them using hydrogen peroxide, and determined microplastic polymer type through micro-Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy. We found primary and secondary microplastics of different shapes, colors, sizes and chemical compositions (e.g. poly propylene, polyethylene, polyvinyl chloride). Thus, this is the first study to show that microplastics are present in the biological construction of a freshwater organism. Larval stages are usually more vulnerable than adult individuals, and microplastics can transport persistent organic pollutants and emit toxic leachates. In the caddisfly larval case, those substances are in close proximity to the sensitive larval body, which may be harmful for the larva and may eventually impede its development. We discuss the potential of caddisfly larval cases to act as microplastic bioindicators in freshwater habitats.


Expected vacancies created by impending mass retirements, community colleges may hold great opportunities for women who aspire to senior leadership. Women, given their preferences for the community college setting as well as their strong representation among students, faculty, and staff, are poised to fill the leadership void. Using narrative methodology, this qualitative study explored the lived experiences of women in pipeline positions at North Carolina community colleges. The seven participants in the study successfully navigated the advancement process, and determining how and why they were successful was a focus in data analysis.Major themes that emerged from data analysis were: formative experiences, perceived barriers, success strategies, and gender influences. Findings indicated that there are significant early personal, professional, and institutional experiences that impact the career upward mobility of women. Findings also illustrated that women face unique and specific barriers in both their personal and professional lives as they seek advancement. Nevertheless, they have developed multiple strategies and skills to help them be successful women senior leaders. These findings, may have implications for leadership development programs, the agencies that administer them, support networks, and community colleges, particularly in the manner in which the challenges of multiple role expectations are addressed.


Time-resolved laser-Doppler velocimeter measurements of the circumferential velocity component were obtained for the flow between the center pair of four disks of common radius R2 corotating at angular velocity Ω in a fixed, cylindrical enclosure. Mean and rms profiles of this velocity component were obtained for two disk rotation speeds (300 and 3600 rpm), two relatively thick tapered obstructions (long and short) placed radially inward midway between each pair of disks, and three ventilation conditions (unventilated, blowing, and sucking) resulting from an imposed inter-disk radial throughflow. The profiles were determined at four circumferential locations downstream of the respective obstructions; radially along the midplane, and axially at selected radial locations. The profiles for the unventilated flow case show that the circumferential component of motion signficantly accelerates near the hub, in the region between the tip of the obstruction and the rotating hub. Elsewhere, this component of motion is significantly decelerated. The presence of ventilation, whether directed radially outward or inward, significantly affects the flow field only in the region immediately around the hub, and far downstream of the obstruction where it increases both the mean and rms velocities. Analysis of the time records suggests that the observed increases in the rms values are due to the circumferentially periodic nature of the radial ventilation condition. These observations are, for the most part, independent of the disk speed of rotation and the length of the obstructions. A comparison of present unventilated flow results with the corresponding results of Usry et al. (1993), who used much thinner obstructions, reveals the extent to which increasing the obstruction blockage ratio induces larger levels of flow unsteadiness.


Projection neurons belonging to the anterolateral system (ALS) underlie the perception of pain, skin temperature and itch. Many ALS cells are located in laminae III-V of the dorsal horn and the adjacent lateral white matter. However, relatively little is known about the excitatory synaptic input to these deep ALS cells, and therefore about their engagement with the neuronal circuitry of the region. We have used a recently developed mouse line, Phox2a::Cre, to investigate a population of deep dorsal horn ALS neurons known as "antenna cells", which are characterised by dense innervation from peptidergic nociceptors, and to compare these with other ALS cells in the deep dorsal horn and lateral white matter. We show that these two classes differ, both in the density of excitatory synapses, and in the source of input at these synapses. Peptidergic nociceptors account for around two-thirds of the excitatory synapses on the antenna cells, but for only a small proportion of the input to the non-antenna cells. Conversely, boutons with high levels of VGLUT2, which are likely to originate mainly from glutamatergic spinal neurons, account for only ∼5% of the excitatory synapses on antenna cells, but for a much larger proportion of the input to the non-antenna cells. VGLUT1 is expressed by myelinated low-threshold mechanoreceptors and corticospinal axons, and these innervate both antenna and non-antenna cells. However, the density of VGLUT1 input to the non-antenna cells is highly variable, consistent with the view that these neurons are functionally heterogeneous.


This thesis comprises analysis for two types of catalysis: CO oxidation and N2O decomposition; related by their research in sol-gel catalysis. The CO oxidation work was undertaken on behalf of Servomex plc in order to understand how their catalyst-based sensor (Tfx 1750) worked and why it failed when exposed to coal power station flue streams within its two-year guarantee period. This research will show, by means of many analytical techniques and catalytic tests: 1. A comparison of the Servomex catalyst powder and a sol-gel prepared material containing the same components: 10 % Pt on 10 % Zr02 doped Al2O3. 2. The mechanism of CO oxidation observed on the surface of these catalysts. 3. What effect sulphur oxides (SO2 and SO3) have on both catalysts, and the mechanisms that give rise to S build up on their surfaces. In contrast, the catalysed N2O decomposition research was sponsored by Dytech in order to determine which metal oxides and multimetal oxide systems are suitable for N2O decomposition in satellite propulsion systems. This research will allow: 1. A comparison of a wide range of metal oxide systems during thermal treatment in an N2O atmosphere. 2. Further analysis into the best systems with respect to their suitability as catalysts; such as selectivity, activation temperatures, longevity and reliability. 3. A comparison of different preparation techniques; precipitation and sol-gel, by using various analytical techniques and catalytic testing. 4. A comparison of the in-house rig system designed for the comparison of catalysts by thermal treatment, and a rig system built by the Surrey Space Group as a realistic comparison for actual satellite propulsion systems. This comparison will justify the results shown in part (1).


ABSTRACT To make a nondestructive measurement of tritium retained on/in materials surfaces, conversion efficiency of β-rays to characteristic X-rays in an argon atmosphere has been examined. For this purpose, various tritium-containing graphite plates were prepared at first by ion implantation. After the tritium implantation, measurements of an X-ray spectrum from the graphite plates were carried out in the argon atmosphere. A good linear relation was observed between the intensity of Ar(Kα) characteristic X-rays and the total amount of tritium deter-mined by full-combustion. The apparent conversion efficiency was determined as 4.15x10−6 counts/s/Bq. To determine the intrinsic conversion efficiency for argon atoms, relevant correction factors such as geometrical efficiency, absorption of X-rays, effects of a tritium depth profile and a photoelectric effect were experimentally evaluated through numerical calculations. Taking into account these correction factors, the intrinsic conversion efficiency was determined to be 3.1x10−4 photons/β-particle.


In the past year, COVID-19 has transformed how legal education – and legal writing – is delivered to students. Online instruction replaced in-person instruction, professors and students were forced to adapt quickly to an alternative learning format, and grading policies were adjusted to account for the unique hardships that online learning engendered for many law students. And all of this occurred while administrators, faculty, and students were living in fear of a virus that has killed more than 570,000 citizens in the United States.

Notwithstanding, the challenges involved in transitioning to online learning – along with the challenges of transitioning to in-person instruction post-COVID – need not compromise the transformative and practical instruction that legal writing courses can effectuate, regardless of whether through online or in-person instruction. Indeed, several universal principles or designs can ensure that students learn real-world writing and critical thinking skills in online and in-person contexts. Those principles are below and can be useful to both new and experienced legal writing faculty to ensure that legal writing courses provide students with the competencies to succeed in law school and the legal profession.


Substantial uncertainty exists in daily and sub-daily gross primary production (GPP) estimation, which dampens accurate monitoring of the global carbon cycle. Here we find that near-infrared radiance of vegetation (NIRv,Rad), defined as the product of observed NIR radiance and normalized difference vegetation index, can accurately estimate corn and soybean GPP at daily and half-hourly time scales, benchmarked with multi-year tower-based GPP at three sites with different environmental and irrigation conditions. Overall, NIRv,Rad explains 84% and 78% variations of half-hourly GPP for corn and soybean, respectively, outperforming NIR reflectance of vegetation (NIRv,Ref), enhanced vegetation index (EVI), and far-red solar-induced fluorescence (SIF760). The strong linear relationship between NIRv,Rad and absorbed photosynthetically active radiation by green leaves (APARgreen), and that between APARgreen and GPP, explain the good NIRv,Rad-GPP relationship. The NIRv,Rad-GPP relationship is robust and consistent across sites. The scalability and simplicity of NIRv,Rad indicate a great potential to estimate daily or sub-daily GPP from high-resolution and/or long-term satellite remote sensing data.


If "hardware" consists of transistors, integrated circuits, solder, copper, glass epoxy board, etc., then anything placed on paper to describe hardware is a model. A great variety of models have been and continue to be used for a variety of purposes. We analyze models; we synthesize models; we communicate with others and computing machines via models. Some models such as circuit schematics, mechanical drawings, printed circuit art work, wiring lists, etc., are very explicit and offer the great detail necessary to fabricate hardware. They may reveal what the hardware looks like, but the organization, operation, and function of the hardware are difficult to determine from such models because of their volume and because they do not attempt to clearly reveal such things.


The study was conducted during 2013 in Vasudevanallur block of Tirunelveli district in Tamil Nadu state to assess the profile characteristics of farmers growing SRI paddy. The study was conducted in Vasudevanallur block of Tirunelveli district in Tamil Nadu. A total of 120 respondents were selected, and interviewed using a well structured, pretested interview schedule. In addition to percentage analysis, cumulative frequency, correlation co-efficient and multiple regressions were the statistical tools employed. Majority of the respondents belonged to the old age category and were literates i.e., primary to secondary level of education. Majority of the respondents had agriculture as their secondary occupation and little more than half of the respondents belonged to low level of annual income group. Majority of the respondents had medium level of farming experience (25 years). Majority of the respondents had less than 2.5 acres of area under SRI cultivation. System of Rice Intensification farmers possessed medium level of social participation, scientific orientation, risk orientation, credit orientation, innovativeness, extension agency contact and economic motivation.


The transient conductivity in low-density polyethylene is studied. Isochronal currentvoltage measurements for 1800 s and 1 day time intervals are carried out under dry N2 atmosphere. When after every measurement the sample is fully discharged at high temperature the isochronal current - voltage characteristic reveals an ohmic behavior. When the next field increase is applied without sample discharging the current-voltage characteristic is super-quadratic. We explain this increase of the current assuming that a fraction of the previous injected charge is detrapped by the field and it contributes to current increase. Consequently the current – voltage characteristic is strongly dependent on the time lag between two successive rises in the field. Neither the Poole-Frenkel mechanism nor the Richardson – Schottky mechanism can by used to explain the experimental results. The isothermal charging and discharging currents are explained assuming the movement of injected/ejected charge in the resultant local field. The values obtained for the adjustable parameters of the model are in good agreement with the values in the literature.


Ciprofloxacin (CIP) is a poorly soluble drug that also displays poor permeability. Attempts to improve the solubility of this drug to date have largely focused on the formation of crystalline salts and metal complexes. The aim of this study was to prepare amorphous solid dispersions (ASDs) by ball milling CIP with various polymers. Following examination of their solid state characteristics and physical stability, the solubility advantage of these ASDs was studied, and their permeability was investigated via parallel artificial membrane permeability assay (PAMPA). Finally, the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) of the ASDs were compared to those of CIP. It was discovered that acidic polymers, such as Eudragit L100, Eudragit L100-55, Carbopol, and HPMCAS, were necessary for the amorphization of CIP. In each case, the positively charged secondary amine of CIP was found to interact with carboxylate groups in the polymers, forming amorphous polymeric drug salts. Although the ASDs began to crystallize within days under accelerated stability conditions, they remained fully X-ray amorphous following exposure to 90% RH at 25 °C, and demonstrated higher than predicted glass transition temperatures. The solubility of CIP in water and simulated intestinal fluid was also increased by all of the ASDs studied. Unlike a number of other solubility enhancing formulations, the ASDs did not decrease the permeability of the drug. Similarly, no decrease in antibiotic efficacy was observed, and significant improvements in the MIC and MBC of CIP were obtained with ASDs containing HPMCAS-LG and HPMCAS-MG. Therefore, ASDs may be a viable alternative for formulating CIP with improved solubility, bioavailability, and antimicrobial activity.


Combination of Global Positioning System (GPS) and Inertial Navigation System (INS) can improve the navigation performance that is superior to either one. This paper proposed and discussed an INS/GPS integrated navigation method based on adaptive neuro-Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS) to fuse INS and GPS data. In this method, an ANFIS network was trained to mimic the error dynamical model of INS when GPS signals were available. If GPS outages occur, the trained ANFIS network is utilized to bridge the GPS outages. Simulations in INS/GPS integrated navigation system show the proposed method can reduce the positioning error during GPS outages.


Background: The empirical dietary inflammatory pattern (EDIP) is a hypothesis-driven dietary pattern used to assess the inflammatory potential of diet in the US population. Food-frequency questionnaire responses are used to build regression models comparing this dietary information to circulating inflammatory profiles, to help determine which food groups have more or less inflammatory potential on specific individuals. We will eventually use this tool in a cancer patient intervention to modify inflammation and improve chances of survival.
Methods: EDIP scores were calculated for 4 models from 24hr recalls reported by 67 women noncancer controls that had signed an informed consent prior to participation. The Luminex Human Chemokine Multiplex Assay was used to measure 11 chemokines and cytokines. As seen in previous studies, we first derived a model, EDIP-Limited (EDIP-L), by using a reduced rank regression model of all 17 food groups followed by a multivariable regression analysis to identify a dietary pattern that predicts concentrations of two inflammatory biomarkers: IL-6 and TNF-a. We derived a secondary EDIP score using a new model, EDIP-All Inclusive (EDIP-AI), which included the same 17 food groups to predict all 11 circulating biomarkers in our panel. Lastly, we developed two additional EDIP models to test how the biomarker predication may change when we regrouped our food variables from 17 to 14 groupings. EDIP-Limited New (EDIP-LN) used 14 new food groups derived from the same 24hr recalls, only predicting IL-6 and TNF-a. EDIP-All New (EDIP-AN) used those same 14 food groups with all 11 biomarkers.
Results: In this study, we optimize models for EDIP and report the differences in EDIP scores based on the inflammatory biomarkers and food groups used in analysis. Briefly, the components of EDIP-L were not significant. After including all the biomarkers, the components of EDIP-AI were: "fruit juice" (p = 0.0009), "snacks" (p = 0.0008), "leafy green vegetables" (p = 0.0074), "low-energy beverages" (p = 0.0098), "red meat" (p = 0.0038), "fruit" (p = 0.0002) and "whole wheat grains" (p = 0.0138). Similarly, after reorganizing our food items into 14 food groups, the components of EDIP-LN were not significant. However, components of EDIP-AN were: "fruit juice" (p = 0.0107), "snacks" (p = 0.0116) and "fruit" (p = 0.0026).
Conclusions: Findings demonstrate the EDIP scores differ based on the inflammatory biomarkers and food groups used in the analysis on the same noncancer controls. Depending on the methods used, an individual's diet may be considered more pro- or anti-inflammatory. This study provides insight into the inflammatory potential of an individual's diet and the factors that may affect how we calculate this potential.


This report presents the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) extension for the stepped wedge cluster randomised trial (SW-CRT). The SW-CRT involves randomisation of clusters to different sequences that dictate the order (or timing) at which each cluster will switch to the intervention condition. The statement was developed to allow for the unique characteristics of this increasingly used study design. The guideline was developed using a Delphi survey and consensus meeting; and is informed by the CONSORT statements for individual and cluster randomised trials. Reporting items along with explanations and examples are provided. We include a glossary of terms, and explore the key properties of the SW-CRT which require special consideration in their reporting.


The adherence to collagen of rabbit platelets labeled in vivo with (35)SO(4) (=) has been studied both in vitro and in vivo. The young platelets are labeled with (35)SO(4) (=) 2-3 days after administration of the isotope to the animals. We exposed platelet-rich plasma (ethylenediamine-tetraacetate, EDTA, as anticoagulant), prepared from blood taken from rabbits 54 hr after giving the (35)SO(4) (=), to collagen in vitro. There was a fall in the specific radioactivity of the nonadherent platelets which indicated a selective adhesion of young platelets to the collagen. In experiments designed to have most of the (35)S label in the oldest platelets it was found that exposure of plasma containing these platelets to collagen resulted in an increase in the specific radioactivity of the nonadherent platelets. Similar observations were obtained when glycine-(14)C was used as a platelet label. However, when DF(32)P (di-isopropyl phosphorofluoridate-(32)P), which is thought to label platelets of all ages equally, was used, the adherence of platelets to collagen did not result in any changes in the specific activity of the nonadherent platelets. In in vivo studies in which we infused a collagen suspension into rabbits 54 hr after giving (35)SO(4) (=) we found that the specific radioactivity of the platelets remaining in the circulation fell. This did not occur when we infused the collagen 96 hr after giving the (35)SO(4) (=). The results from these studies indicate that young platelets adhere to collagen more readily than older platelets.


Glyptapanteles indiensis polydnavirus (GiPDV) is essential for successful parasitization of the larval stage of the lepidopteran Lymantria dispar (gypsy moth) by the endoparasitic wasp Glyptapanteles indiensis. This virus has not been characterized previously. Ultrastructural studies of GiPDV showed that virions had a rod-like or rectangular form and each contained as many as ten nucleocapsids enclosed by a single unit membrane envelope. Field inversion gel electrophoresis (FIGE) analysis of the virus genomic DNA revealed that GiPDV had a segmented genome composed of 13 dsDNA segments, ranging in size from approximately 11 kb to more than 30 kb. Four genomic segments were present in higher molar concentration than the others. Further characterization of the GiPDV genome yielded several cDNA clones which derived from GiPDV-specific mRNAs, and Northern blot analysis confirmed expression of isolated cDNA clones in the parasitized host. Each was present on more than one GiPDV genomic DNA segment, suggesting the existence of related sequences among DNA segments. It has been proposed previously that in polydnavirus systems, genome segmentation, hypermolar ratio segments and segment nesting may function to increase the copy number of essential genes and to increase the levels of gene expression in the absence of virus replication. The present data support this notion and suggest that GiPDV morphology and genomic organization may be intrinsically linked to the function and evolutionary strategies of the virus.


This paper describes a quadrature direct digital frequency synthesizer (QDDFS) architecture based on a new phase-to-sine conversion technique. The proposed technique uses polynomial interpolation and rotational transformation in a fine/coarse approach, achieving high-resolution output with a wide spurious-free dynamic range (SFDR). The QDDFS with this technique requires small-sized lookup tables and a simple computational engine. The fine/coarse decomposition significantly reduces the size of required lookup tables, and the polynomial interpolation enables accurate approximation of cosine and sine values. Two prototype QDDFS ICs were fabricated in 0.35-/spl mu/m CMOS. The final prototype IC produces 16-b cosine and sine outputs with a spectral purity greater than 100-dB. It has a frequency tuning resolution of 0.03-Hz at a 150-MHz sampling rate and consumes 350-mW with a 3.0-V power supply.


Respiratory foreign body aspiration is a critical condition. Foreign body aspirations can be fatal or can rarely be silent. Our case, a 44-year-old female patient diagnosed as COPD at another clinic due to complaints cough and shortness of breath, applied to our service with cough, sputum and shortness of breath. The chest X-ray showed a homogeneous opacity in the lower right section. The foreign body taken out by flexible bronchoscopy and forceps was a needle. It should be noted that foreign body aspiration in adult patients may mimic diseases which cause airway obstruction.


Joby Talbot's Path of Miracles is a seventy-minute a cappella choral masterwork that portrays the experience of a pilgrim traveling the Camino de Santiago. Composed in 2005 on commission from Nigel Short for his professional choir Tenebrae, Path of Miracles is a modernday soundtrack of this enduring pilgrimage. This paper examines Path of Miracles from three perspectives: as a representation of pilgrimage, as a reflection of the sacred and secular aspects of the Camino de Santiago, and as an example of a postminimalism in a choral work. Chapter 2 studies Path of Miracles as a musical depiction of common pilgrimage experiences as explained by anthropologists. Modern pilgrimage scholarship examines a person's motivation to take a pilgrimage, his or her separation from daily life and social status, the re-shaping of a pilgrim's identity along the journey, the physical effect of constant walking on the mind and body, and the re-entrance of the pilgrim into society. Path of Miracles represents these stages of pilgrimage musically. Additionally, Chapter 2 demonstrates how Path of Miracles is a modern-day, musical depiction of the French route, and this chapter will explore how the piece serves as a musical guidebook, depicting the landscape, cathedrals, cultures, people and sounds found on the Camino Frances. Chapter 3 examines the sacred and secular musical elements found in Path of Miracles, and how these elements portray the dichotomy of religious and non-religious aspects of the Camino's history. Path of Miracles encapsulates this intersection primarily through reference to sacred and secular musical forms and texts. Chapter 4 provides a musical analysis of Path of Miracles for conductors and performers to reference, organized movement-by-movement. Each movement is introduced by a graph that represents its musical elements and structure. The graphs also highlight Talbot's use of postminimalist compositional devices, such as repetition, reference and quotation, rhythmic and textual layering, tiered dynamics, and phase shifting. Because this piece does not fit neatly into a common choral genre like the oratorio or cantata, defining and tracing the theoretical approach and musical influences on the piece is a concrete way to help conductors, performers, and audience members understand the complexities and style choices within its eighteen-voice texture. INDEX WORDS: Joby Talbot, Path of Miracles, pilgrimage, Camino de Santiago, postminimalism PILGRIMAGE AND POSTMINIMALISM IN JOBY TALBOT'S PATH OF MIRACLES


Within a broader context of visual and musical symmetry patterns, we explore biblical parallelism, the poetic symmetry patterns of the Bible. We present six frequently occurring parallel forms – simple, chiastic, elliptical, sequential, unequal length, and repeated words. These six forms are broad enough to include many known examples of biblical parallelism. Our major contribution is a system of visual representation based on four attributes - column position, shading, use of blanks and caps. The visual representation system compactly represents and indicates diverse parallel styles at a glance. Many illustrations are presented including a complex parallelism using four parallelism methods


The purpose of this paper was to generate several possible configurations of micro/nano-positioning stage with bridge-type mechanism based on graph theory. The structural characteristics of stage were discussed first. Then, these modules made up of micro/nano-positioning stage were abstracted. Thus the stage could be described with a tree-graph. According to the spanning tree theory, several possible configurations of stage are enumerated correspondingly. Subsequently, the configuration synthesis of six bridge-type mechanisms was investigated and 720 results were obtained. Rules for generating structures with symmetry are established. On the basis of this, several innovative structures are presented. Furthermore, the result of this paper provides a practicable approach for the structural design of stage and the design method based on graph theory is effective.


This study was conducted to determine  the effect of growth hormones and mycorhyza application on the growth of ramin cuttings.  A Completely Randomized Design with 5 replicates was used in this study. The experiment consisted of two stages  i.e  hormon treatments (control, Rapid root, Root Up, IBA 250 mg/l, IBA 500 mg/l, IBA 1000 mg/l), F usarium and mycorhyza applications. The result showed that  the highest number of root  was obtained from Root Up (12,83 cm),  while the lowest was from F usarium treatments (4,67 cm). IBA 250 mg/l enhanced the number of roots and the length of root significantly  but not stimulate the development of  new leaf.  While mycorhyza application improving  the growth of the new leaf  and  the root development of ramin.


The minimum spanning tree (MST) construction is a classical problem in Distributed Computing for creating a globally minimized structure distributedly. Self-stabilization is versatile technique for forward recovery that permits to handle any kind of transient faults in a unified manner. The loop-free property provides interesting safety assurance in dynamic networks where edge-cost changes during operation of the protocol. We present a new self-stabilizing MST protocol that improves on previous known approaches in several ways. First, it makes fewer system hypotheses as the size of the network (or an upper bound on the size) need not be known to the participants. Secondly, it is loop-free in the sense that it guarantees that a spanning tree structure is always preserved while edge costs change dynamically and the protocol adjusts to a new MST. Finally, time complexity matches the best known results, while space complexity results show that this protocol is the most efficient to date


Single Co and Ta/Co bilayers were grown on Si(100) substrates in a magnetron sputtering system. The effect of Ta buffer layer and the thickness of Co layer on the structural and magnetic properties of the Co layers has been studied. A single Co layer shows a textured structure above thickness of 40 nm according to the x-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern. The magnetic properties of Co layers depend significantly on the thickness of the films. Ta grows as highly textured β-Ta (tetragonal) phase on Si with a smooth surface. The XRD and atomic force microscopy results show that the Ta buffer layer improves the structural properties dramatically, resulting in a strongly textured and smoother surface morphology. The Ta layer also affects the magnetic properties of Co layers to a large extent, especially inducing an in-plane anisotropy in thin Co films.


Studies of translational control have benefited enormously from development of a suite of tools that allow in vivo views of ribosome positions, providing information that was difficult to extract from preexisting genetic and in vitro approaches. These new methods include ribosome profiling, which measures genome-wide translation via the sequencing of mRNA fragments bound by 80S translating ribosomes (Ingolia et al., 2012), and QTIseq (quantitative translation initiation sequencing), which precisely and quantitatively maps sites of translation initiation (Gao et al., 2015). Broad application of these methods has been powerful, often confirming defined translation mechanisms, but sometimes suggesting a need to revisit long-held assumptions about general andspecificmechanismsof translational regulation. Zhou and colleagues integrate use of these and other global approaches to reveal an added layer to the regulation responsible for stress-responsive translation of the mRNA for transcription factor ATF4 (Zhou et al., 2018). The 50 leader of ATF4 is known to contain two upstream open reading frames (uORFs). In the absence of stress, it is thought that the ATF4 ORF is poorly translated due to the translation of uORF2, which is overlapping and out of frame with the ATF4 ORF start codon (Vattem and Wek, 2004; Lu et al., 2004). Under an array of stresses, however— including starvation—the translation initiation factor eIF2a is phosphorylated (p), and the ATF4 ORF is resultantly translated. A general model for uORF-based regulation, based on elegant studies of the Gcn4 transcription factor-encoding gene in budding yeast, proposes that eIF2a-p reduces the amount of ternary complex (TC) available tomediate translation initiation. This causes a general decrease in translation initiation. However, in the case of at least a subset of genes with ORF-repressive uORFs that are translated under non-stressed conditions, the ultimate effect is increased translation of the main ORF. This is due to ''leaky scanning'' by ribosomes that lack TCs, and therefore bypass uORFs (Hinnebusch, 2014). Consistent with this model, mutation of uORF2 enhances ATF4 translation under non-stressed conditions (Vattem and Wek, 2004; Lu et al., 2004). Zhou and colleagues explored this mechanism in detail, comparing ribosome profiling and QTI-seq data for control and starved cells. They observed that, while 80S translating ribosome occupancy within the ATF4 ORF indeed increased upon starvation, there was no associated decrease in ribosome occupancy of uORF2. This result was confirmed by reporter assay and led Zhou and colleagues to investigate the possibility that ATF4 regulation involved additional mechanisms beyond the prevailing model. Mass spectrometry of proteins associated with ATF4 mRNA revealed enrichment of the RNA demethylase ALKBH5 in starved cells compared to control conditions. ALKBH5 can reverse N-methylation of adenosine (mA); therefore, the authors performed global mapping of the mA mRNA modification sites to investigate a possible link between this modification and ATF4 translation. They noted that the ATF4 mRNA showed several regions of mA modification, including one within uORF2. Intriguingly, this site in


Culture is considered as a key term in anthropology, now in critical mode, and to be worked through powerful tropes that lead to issues in politics, interpretation, translation, stereotype and racism. Anthropology is described as a cultural system itself, with a large supporting institutional apparatus, not unlike the culture industry as critiqued by Adorno and the Frankfurt School. The high mass culture/high culture distinction is considered and some distortions explained (away). Street culture and culture as (development) resource are evaluated, leading to an assessment of culture as souvenirs, trinkets and the ephemera of tourism as a modern commodity fetish. How this measures up to political struggles is again considered in the light of work by critics such as Fanon and those engaged with anti-imperialist struggles worldwide.


In this paper, the so-called Wang-Mendel (WM) method for generating fuzzy rules from data is enhanced to make it a comprehensive and flexible fuzzy system approach to data description and prediction. In the description part, the core ideas of the WM method are used to develop three methods to extract fuzzy IF-THEN rules from data. The first method shows how to extract rules for the user-specified cases, the second method generates all the rules that can be generated directly from the data, and the third method extrapolates the rules generated by the second method over the entire domain of interest. In the prediction part, two fuzzy predictive models are constructed based on the fuzzy IF-THEN rules extracted by the methods of the description part. The first model gives a continuous output and is suitable for predicting continuous variables, and the second model gives a piecewise constant output and is suitable for predicting categorical variables. We show that by comparing the prediction accuracy of the fuzzy predictive models with different numbers of fuzzy sets covering the input variables, we can rank the importance of the input variables. We also propose an algorithm to optimize the fuzzy predictive models, and show how to use the models to solve pattern recognition problems. Throughout this paper, we use a set of real data from a steel rolling plant to demonstrate the ideas and test the models.


Drawing on the recent identification of anthropogenic dark earths (ADEs) in West Africa's Upper Guinea forest region, this article engages with Amazonian debates concerning whether such enriched soils were produced intentionally or not. We present a case study of a Loma settlement in Northwest Liberia in which ethnography, oral history, and landscape mapping reveal subsistence practices and habitus that lead African dark earths (AfDEs) to form inevitably around settlements and farm camps. To consider the question of intentionality and how the inevitability of AfDE is experienced, we combine historical and political ecology with elements of nonrepresentational theory. The former show how the spatial configuration of AfDEs in the landscape reflect shifting settlement patterns shaped by (1) political and economic transformations, mediated by (2) enduring ritual practices and social relations between first-coming and late-coming social groups that are symbolically related as uncles and nephews. We use nonrepresentational theory to show how the Loma phenomenological experience of these soils and their origins is better conceptualized in terms of sensual objects, the formation of which is inflected by these social and political processes. We thus reframe the debate away from intentionality, to theorize enriched anthropogenic soils and landscapes in terms of shifting sociocultural, political, and historical factors interplaying with the practical, sensually experienced, and inevitable effects of everyday life.


The late 15th century became a time of dramatic changes in the Hebrew book-making as well. The Hebraica team of the 15cBOOKTRADE project prepared a thorough description of the extant copies of the Hebrew incunabula kept in the libraries of Europe and Israel. Notes of ownership, deeds of sale, personal remarks, institutional stamps, signatures of censors – all of them provide a rich picture of the distribution and use of Hebrew printed books throughout Europe (and also their ways from Europe to North Africa and the Middle East). Among a few hundreds of the checked volumes some were printed in Italy and remained there all the centuries since then, others were printed in Portugal and soon made their way to the Ottoman lands and from there to Yemen or Persia. Although the survey is not complete yet, since some important collections such as Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana still need to be included in the MEI database, the main results can enrich our knowledge on certain rabbis and scholars or provide interesting evidence of communal life, literacy, trade, the role of women and of the books in private possession.


Background: Pulmonary artery catheters are usually placed by resident anesthesiologists with pressure wave monitoring from educational point of view. In some cases, the placement needs longer time or is difficult only by observing the pressure waves. Aims: We sought to examine the time required for the catheter placement in adult patients and determine factors influencing the placement. Settings and Designs: Prospective, observational, cohort study. Methods: We examined the time required for the catheter placement. If the catheter is placed in longer than 5 min, this could be a difficult placement. We examined the effect of the patient's age, body mass index, cardiothoracic ratio (CTR) and tricuspid regurgitation, left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) and training duration of a resident on the difficult catheter placement. Next, we excluded the difficult cases from the analysis and examined the effect of these factors on the placement time. Statistical Analysis: The data were analyzed by logistic regression analysis to assess factors for the difficult catheter placement and multiple linear regression analysis to evaluate the factors to increase the placement time after univariate analyses. Results: The difficult placement occurred in 6 patients (5.7%). The analysis showed that LVEF was a significant factor to hinder the catheter placement (P = 0.02) while CTR was a significant factor to increase the placement time (P = 0.002). Conclusion: LVEF and CTRs are significant factors to be associated with the difficult catheter placement and to increase the placement time, respectively.


A study was made of certain cations present in hemolymph and alimentary tract tissues of healthy and diseased European chafer larvae and the spores of Bacillus popilliae collected from diseased hemolymph. The major ions found in the hemolymph, in order of decreasing abundance, were potassium, magnesium, sodium, and calcium. Hemolymph of diseased larvae contained relatively higher concentrations of sodium, potassium, magnesium, iron, and zinc than hemolymph of healthy larvae. Concomitantly, the concentrations of ions were lower in the mid-gut and anterior intestinal tissues of diseased larvae. Only sodium decreased slightly in the diseased tissues of the rectum and rectal sac; other ions remained unchanged or increased. Little or no manganese or copper was detected in the hemolymph or tissues. The major cations of spores of B. popilliae were sodium, calcium, and magnesium. Small amounts of potassium, manganese, copper, iron, and zinc were detected in the spores. Based on calcium and dipicolinic acid determinations of the spores, sufficient calcium was found to allow for the formation of calcium dipicolinate in the expected concentrations.


We use information theoretic achievable rate formulas for the multi-relay channel to study the problem of as-you-go deployment of relay nodes. The achievable rate formulas are for full-duplex radios at the relays and for decode-and-forward relaying. Deployment is done along the straight line joining a source node and a sink node at an unknown distance from the source. The problem is for a deployment agent to walk from the source to the sink, deploying relays as he walks, given the knowledge of the wireless path-loss model, and given that the distance to the sink node is exponentially distributed with known mean. As a precursor to the formulation of the deploy-as-you-go problem, we apply the multi-relay channel achievable rate formula to obtain the optimal power allocation to relays placed along a line, at fixed locations. This permits us to obtain the optimal placement of a given number of nodes when the distance between the source and sink is given. Numerical work for the fixed source-sink distance case suggests that, at low attenuation, the relays are mostly clustered close to the source in order to be able to cooperate among themselves, whereas at high attenuation they are uniformly placed and work as repeaters. We also prove that the effect of path-loss can be entirely mitigated if a large enough number of relays are placed uniformly between the source and the sink. The structure of the optimal power allocation for a given placement of the nodes, then motivates us to formulate the problem of as-you-go placement of relays along a line of exponentially distributed length, and with the exponential path-loss model, so as to minimize a cost function that is additive over hops. The hop cost trades off a capacity limiting term, motivated from the optimal power allocation solution, against the cost of adding a relay node. We formulate the problem as a total cost Markov decision process, establish results for the value function, and provide insights into the placement policy and the performance of the deployed network via numerical exploration.


Developing Green Building (GB) is one of the most effective measures to save energy and reduce carbon emissions in the world. To promote the development of green building, it is necessary to analyze driving factors and contribution through the analysis for relationship between regional economy and green building. Therefore, based on the system dynamic(SD) theory, this paper constructs the structure model of the stock flow diagram, including the regional economic subsystem, social subsystem, government support subsystem and green building subsystem. Among the model, Guangdong province, as the most prosperous province of economic development with the largest numbers of certified green buildings in China, has been chosen to show the influence level of their relationship. Through simulation, results can be easily shown that development of GB can make contributions to the field of local economy, however, also be limited by the regional condition, including policy incentive, regional economic, technological, etc. We can also find that direct contribution to the GDP the Green Building made can reach about 2.47 ‰, and 9.23 ‰ indirectly. If the current level of regional production is stable, it can be found that each additional 10,000 square meters of green area building may produce about ¥018.2 million for economy. On the contrary, that the regional economy investment in fixed assets increased by ¥1 million can stimulate 0.001648 million square meter demand of GB. Additionally, employment opportunities directly or indirectly have also been considered.


One of the simplest set of equations for the description of epidemics (the SEIR equations) has been much studied, and produces reasonable approximations to the dynamics of communicable disease. However, it has long been recognized that spatial and social structure are important if we are to understand the long–term persistence and detailed behaviour of disease. We will introduce three pair models which attempt to capture the underlying heterogeneous structure by studying the connections and correlations between individuals. Although modelling the correlations necessarily leads to more complex equations, this pair formulation naturally incorporates the local dynamical behaviour generating more realistic persistence. In common with other studies on childhood diseases we will focus our attention on measles, for which the case returns are particularly well documented and long running.


Aims: To test the hypothesis that feeding soy formula to infants with congenital hypothyroidism (CH) leads to prolonged increase of thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH). Methods: The study was a review of 78 patients seen during their first year of life between 1990 and 1998. Data regarding clinical diagnosis, date of treatment initiation, TSH, levothyroxine dose, weight, length, and diet information from each visit were collected from the charts. Results: There were eight patients in the soy diet group and 70 in the non-soy diet group. There was no significant difference between the two groups in the starting dose of levothyroxine or the change in this dose over one year. There was a significant difference between the two groups in the following areas: time to TSH normalisation, first TSH on treatment, percentage with increased TSH at 4 months of age, percentage with increased TSH throughout the first year of life, and in the overall trend of TSH at each visit. Conclusions: Infants fed soy formula had prolonged increase of TSH when compared to infants fed non-soy formula. These infants need close monitoring of free thyroxine and TSH measurements, and they may need increased levothyroxine doses to achieve normal thyroid function tests.