The lack of agility in cyber defense gives adversaries a significant advantage for discovering cyber targets and planning their attacks in stealthy and undetectable manner. While there has been significant research on detecting or predicting attacks, adversaries can always scan the network, learn about countermeasures, and develop new evasion techniques. Active Cyber Deception (ACD) has emerged as effective means to reverse this asymmetry in cyber warfare by dynamically orchestrating the cyber deception environment to mislead attackers and corrupting their decision-making process. However, developing an efficient active deception environment usually requires human intelligence and analysis to characterize the attackers' behaviors (e.g., malware actions). This manual process significantly limits the capability of cyber deception to actively respond to new attacks (malware) in a timely manner. In this paper, we present a new analytic framework and an implemented prototype, called gExtractor, to analyze the malware behavior and automatically extract the deception parameters using symbolic execution in order to enable the automated creation of cyber deception schemes. The deception parameters are environmental variables on which attackers depend to discover the target system and reach their goals; Yet, they can be reconfigured and/or misrepresented by the defender in the cyber environment. Our gExtractor approach contributes to the scientific and system foundations of reasoning about autonomous cyber deception. Our prototype was developed based on customizing a symbolic execution engine for analyzing Microsoft Windows malware. Our case studies of recent malware instances show that gExtractor can be used to identify various critical parameters effective for cyber deception.


We consider the ground state of a system of chargeless fermions, such as neutrinos, of mass m and magnetic moment μ interacting through long-range magnetic dipole interaction, within the framework of a Hartree–Fock variational approach. At high densities the uniform paramagnetic state becomes unstable towards a ferromagnetic state with quadrupolar deformation of the Fermi surface. The exchange energy which is attractive dominates the repulsive kinetic energy. If we let the density be a variable, then above a certain density the system will collapse to an infinite density state unless another short-range interaction stops the collapse. In the case of large deformations, the possibility of a purely dipolar deformation exists.


We find that people who experience social marginalization are more likely to share COVID-19 news indiscriminately, that is, sharing news that is factually untrue and true, as well as news that seems surprising and unsurprising. This effect, driven by their general motivation to seek meaning, holds when people self-identify as being socially marginalized (i.e., experiencing frequent feelings of discrimination) and when they are situationally induced to feel marginalized. We demonstrate that an intervention to help people obtain a temporary sense of meaning by having high (vs. low) power can reduce indiscriminate news sharing. For socially marginalized individuals, sharing news on social media appears to reflect a need to make sense of their world and comprehend it.


Hepatitis A virus (HAV) replicates relatively slowly in cell culture without a cytopathic effect, a fact that limits the use of tissue culture assays. The radioimmunofocus assay is the standard method for HAV titration, although it is labor intensive and requires the use of radioisotopes. A simple, rapid and objective infectivity assay based on an in situ enzyme immunoassay (EIA) is described here for a Brazilian cell culture-adapted HAV strain (HAF-203). The assay uses a peroxidase-labeled polyclonal antibody to fixed monolayers as an indicator of infection. EIA may be completed within 7 days using serial 5-fold dilutions of the virus, yielding a titer of 5.024 log 50% tissue culture infective dose (TCID50)/ml for HAF-203. This technique had a detection limit of 1.1 log TCID50/ml and the specificity was demonstrated by detecting no reaction on the columns of uninfected wells. The reproducibility (with intra- and inter-assay coefficients of variation ranging from 1.9 to 3.8% and from 3.5 to 9.9%, respectively) and quantitation of the assay were demonstrated by close agreement in virus infectivity titers among different assays of the same amount of virus and between assays of different amounts of virus. Furthermore, this assay does not require the use of radiolabeled antibodies. We describe here an efficient EIA that is highly reproducible and that could be used to monitor HAV growth in cell culture and to determine the quantity of HAV antigen needed for diagnostic assays. This is the first report of the infectious titer of the Brazilian cell culture-adapted HAV strain (HAF-203).


This is an invaluable introductory guide for the English student who needs to decipher a page from a play, or a facsimile equivalent, from the Shakespearean period. The original quartos and folios of early play texts are increasingly subject to editorial and critical scrutiny, and electronic facsimiles are making the originals accessible to undergraduate and graduate students. Giddens provides a practical 'how to' guide to the original printed texts of Shakespeare and his contemporaries. He explains how the features of the play text came about, what the different elements mean, and who created them. The book provides that important first step towards bibliography and critical editing, presenting a detailed account of how to read these early texts and how they have been turned into the modern editions we are accustomed to.


Denial of Service (DoS) attacks aiming to exhaust the resources of a server by overwhelming it with bogus requests have become a serious threat. Especially protocols that rely on public key cryptography and perform expensive authentication handshakes may be an easy target. A well-known countermeasure against DoS attacks are client puzzles. The victimized server demands from the clients to commit computing resources before it processes their requests. To get service, a client must solve a cryptographic puzzle and submit the right solution. Existing client puzzle schemes have some drawbacks. They are either parallelizable, coarse-grained or can be used only interactively. In case of interactive client puzzles where the server poses the challenge an attacker might mount a counterattack on the clients by injecting fake packets containing bogus puzzle parameters. In this paper we introduce a novel scheme for client puzzles which relies on the computation of square roots modulo a prime. Modular square root puzzles are non-parallelizable, i.e., the solution cannot be obtained faster than scheduled by distributing the puzzle to multiple machines or CPU cores, and they can be employed both interactively and non-interactively. Our puzzles provide polynomial granularity and compact solution and verification functions. Benchmark results demonstrate the feasibility of our approach to mitigate DoS attacks on hosts in 1 or even 10 GBit networks. In addition, we show how to raise the efficiency of our puzzle scheme by introducing a bandwidth-based cost factor for the client.


Following an attempt to harmonize the U.S. GAAP and IFRS a new IFRS standard became mandatory in the EU known as IFRS 13 "Fair value measurement" in 2013. The new accounting standard aims to decrease inconsistencies with fair value measurement by introducing new disclosure requirements for fair value assets with no active market (level 3). This study investigates how well Swedish listed firms have complied with the new disclosure requirements, and whether their compliance level has affected the information asymmetry between market participants. The sample consists of Swedish listed firms from Nasdaq OMX within the banking, forestry and real estate industry where fair value assets on level 3 are prevalent. The result revealed that Swedish firms had increased their compliance level with the disclosure requirements; furthermore, the regression analysis indicated a negative relation between an increase in disclosure level and information asymmetry after controlling for some variables. However, since the result was not significant suggestions for future research is to increase the sample size outside of the Swedish context.


In many applications it is necessary to characterize the statistical properties of the wavelet/wavelet packet coefficients of a stationary random signal. In particular, in a stationary non-Gaussian noise scenario it may be useful to determine the high-order statistics of the wavelet packet coefficients. In this work we prove that this task may be performed through multidimensional filter banks. In particular, we show how the cumulants of the M-band wavelet packet coefficients of a strictly stationary signal are derived from those of the signal and we provide scale-recursive decomposition and reconstruction formulae to compute these cumulants. High-order wavelet packets, associated with these multidimensional filter banks, are presented along with some of their properties. It is proved that under some conditions these high-order wavelet packets allow us to define frame multiresolution analyses. Finally, the asymptotic normality of the coefficients is studied by showing the geometric decay of their polyspectra/cumulants (of order greater than two) with respect to the resolution level.


The paper is concerned with the importance of quantifying ceramic material from tombs and the potential contribution of quantitative analysis to the interpretation of funerary contexts. The irst part argues that quantitative approaches ought to be included in all publications of pottery from burial assemblages and outlines the considerations that should be taken into account in quantifying data. The second part discusses a case study from the archaeology of Early Iron Age Crete with the aim to demonstrate that the contribution of quantitative approaches can go beyond the ield of ceramic analysis. By quantifying urns from select Cretan tombs I challenge the widespread identiication of these contexts as family tombs and pave the way for alternative interpretations.


Abstract Restoration of historic fire regimes is complicated by concerns about exotic plant invasions, yet little is known of how the two may interact. Seeds of Japanese brome, spotted knapweed, Russian knapweed, and leafy spurge were subjected to fire at six fuel loads (100 to 700 g m−2) and a nonburned control. Fires were simulated with field-cured grass and time–temperature profiles were developed from thermocouples at the soil surface. Emergence was determined by species and fuel load in growth chambers. Fuel load explained 98% of variation in mean heat dosage and emergence decreased with increasing fuel load across species. Emergence was reduced 79 to 88% relative to nonburned treatment with 100 g m−2 of fuel and at least 97% with 200 g m−2 of fuel. Emergence probabilities were less than 0.01 for all species but spotted knapweed with a 300 g m−2 fuel load. Results indicate high potential for fire to disrupt the life cycle of invasive species through direct seed mortality. The relationship between fuel load and seedling emergence provides good predictability of fire effects on surface-deposited seeds. A single fire is unlikely to eradicate many invasive species because they often produce abundant seeds and some will undoubtedly escape fire. However, abrupt reductions in seedling emergence with relatively light fuel loads indicate that fire may be an effective tool for increasing mortality of invasive plant seed across a broad range of habitats. Nomenclature: Japanese brome, Bromus japonicus Thunb. ex Murr.; spotted knapweed, Centaurea maculosa Lam.; Russian knapweed, Acroptilon repens (L.) DC; leafy spurge, Euphorbia esula L.


In vivo experiments were undertaken to study the transport of metal ions away from the intramuscular (IM) injection site and to study the binding of the metals to blood cells. Hamsters were injected intramuscularly with metal salts or with corrosion products generated by fretting corrosion of 316 LVM stainless steel or MP-35N plates and screws. The animals were bled at 0 time, and 2, 4, 6, 24, 48, and 96 h after injection. The concentration of nickel, cobalt, and chromium in the serum, attached to red cells, and attached to white cells was determined. This study showed that metals are rapidly transported from the intramuscular site with high levels in the blood by 2 h. The level of metal in the blood varied considerably with nickel being transported in high concentration to the blood, chromium with a valence of 6+ being transported to the blood, and cobalt and chromium with a valence of 3+ being transported less to the blood. The highest amount of cell binding was observed with chromium 6+. Cobalt showed negligible binding to blood cells. When all the metal salts injected together were compared with the individual salts injected alone, there was no difference. This indicated that the each metal behaves independently of the presence of the others.


Microemulsions are widely used as potential drug delivery systems, especially through the dermal route as a means to avoid systemic side effects. Also, it is well known that the formation and characteristics of MEs depend on their composition. This study aimed to investigate the influence of various types and ratios of components which could dissolve diclofenac sodium on ME formation in term of size of ME regions through the construction of sixteen pseudoternary phase diagrams using the titration method. The data obtained were used to prepare oil-in-water and water-in-oil diclofenac sodium MEs. Two o/w and two w/o blank microemulsions were selected from the system providing the largest ME region and these were subsequently incorporated with 1 % w/w diclofenac sodium. Afterward, their physicochemical and drug release properties were assessed. The largest ME region was found in the system consisting of 2:1 Cremophor RH40:Span 80, ethylhexyl palmitate and 2:1 water:isopropanol. Characteristics of diclofenac sodium MEs were similar to those of their blank counterparts, with the exception of the drug-contained MEs having higher conductivity. Our findings indicated that compatibility of oil and surfactant structures was the crucial parameter for ME formation. Furthermore, the present research not only expanded the phase behavior studies of MEs using different blends of Cremophor RH 40 and Span 80 as surfactant and cosurfactant mixtures, but also reported the application of ethylhexyl palmitate in ME formulations. Incorporation of diclofenac sodium into four studied MEs did not affect ME type. Location of the drug, drug mobility and interfacial film rigidity in MEs were found to influence the release characteristics of the loaded drug.


The aims of this cross-sectional study were to compare metabolic parameters in people with gout and diabetes with gout only and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) only. Fifty General Practices in NHS Ayrshire and Arran (population 340 377) contributed data. The sample was split into three groups, those with both gout and T2DM, those with gout only and those with T2DM only. The prevalence of gout in Ayrshire and Arran was 2.65%. The prevalence of gout in people with type 1 and 2 diabetes was 1.90% (p=0.30) and 10.12% (p<10−5), respectively. Patients with both conditions were significantly more likely to be male (p<10−5), older (p<10−5), have a higher mean body mass index (p<0.001), higher triglycerides (p<10−4), lower mean total, high-density lipoprotein- and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (p<10−5), lower estimated glomerular filtration rate (p<0.001), neuropathy (p=0.02), lower haemoglobin (p<0.001), to be prescribed more medications (p<10−5) and less likely to smoke (p<0.01). There was an association between lower haemoglobin A1c and increased prevalence of gout (p<0.001). 42.4% of patients with gout alone and 36.2% of those with both gout and diabetes had a urate measure. This study defines much more clearly the association between gout and T2DM. Of interest, in terms of lifestyle, both better glycaemic control and smoking are associated with a higher prevalence of gout.


Behavioral modelling encompasses a number of processing requirements. These include the processing of any mental attributes, the perceived environment and the actions to be performed. These increase the load of any processor running the simulation. If there are many such behavioral modules in an animation, the playback of the scene becomes non-interactive. A simple way to improve playback speed is to store the simulation data at suitable locations. Playback of the animation is then just a matter of reading the simulation data. The speedup is often visually noticeable, although it is at the cost of storage space.


The authors present two unsuccessful clinical cases of end-to-side neurorrhaphy. In the first patient the distal median nerve was coapted in an end-to-side manner to the intact ulnar nerve. In the other patient four cables of sural nerve graft were used to bridge the ulnar nerve and the intact median nerve by two end-to-side coaptations. Neurorrhaphies were performed via epineural sutures through epineural windows. Both of the cases failed to demonstrate any signs of regeneration either clinically or as evidenced by electromyography, Semmes-Weinstein monofilament test, or 256-Hz vibration tests at 18 and 21 months' follow-up respectively.


The specific receptor of alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) is a universal tumor marker, being expressed on the surface of many tumor cells, but not in normal human tissues. AFP enters the cell by receptor-mediated endocytosis; its receptor-binding site is hypothetically localized in the third domain of AFP. A recombinant C-terminal AFP fragment, which contains all the third and a part of the second domains of hAFP, was produced. This AFP fragment was bound specifically to the AFP receptor on the surface of tumor cells and was accumulated by them with the same efficiency as the full-size hAFP. Similar to hAFP, the recombinant C-terminal fragment inhibited the estradiol-induced growth of hormone-dependent MCF-7 cells in vitro. Hence, the recombinant C-terminal AFP fragment can be used as a protein vector for the targeted delivery of cytostatic drugs to tumor cells.


The effective and ethical use of data to inform decision-making offers huge value to the public sector, especially when delivered by transparent, reproducible, and robust data processing workflows. One way that governments are unlocking this value is through making their data publicly available, allowing more people and organisations to derive insights. However, open data is not enough in many cases: publicly available datasets need to be accessible in an analysis-ready form from popular data science tools, such as R and Python, for them to realise their full potential. This paper explores ways to maximise the impact of open data with reference to a case study of packaging code to facilitate reproducible analysis. We present the jtstats project, which consists of R and Python packages for importing, processing, and visualising large and complex datasets representing journey times, for many modes and purposes at multiple geographic levels, released by the UK Department of Transport. jtstats shows how domain specific packages can enable reproducible research within the public sector and beyond, saving duplicated effort and reducing the risks of errors from repeated analyses. We hope that the jtstats project inspires others, particularly those in the public sector, to add value to their data sets by making them more accessible.


Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman (HJB) equations are nonlinear controlled partial differential equations (PDEs). In this thesis, we propose various numerical methods for HJB equations arising from three specific applications. First, we study numerical methods for the HJB equation coupled with a KolmogorovFokker-Planck (KFP) equation arising from mean field games. In order to solve the nonlinear discretized systems efficiently, we propose a multigrid method. The main novelty of our approach is that we subtract artificial viscosity from the direct discretization coarse grid operators, such that the coarse grid error estimations are more accurate. The convergence rate of the proposed multigrid method is mesh-independent and faster than the existing methods in the literature. Next, we investigate numerical methods for the HJB formulation that arises from the mass transport image registration model. We convert the PDE of the model (a MongeAmpère equation) to an equivalent HJB equation, propose a monotone mixed discretization, and prove that it is guaranteed to converge to the viscosity solution. Then we propose multigrid methods for the mixed discretization, where we set wide stencil points as coarse grid points, use injection at wide stencil points as the restriction, and achieve a meshindependent convergence rate. Moreover, we propose a novel periodic boundary condition for the image registration PDE, such that when two images are related by a combination of a translation and a non-rigid deformation, the numerical scheme recovers the underlying transformation correctly. Finally, we propose a deep neural network framework for the HJB equations emerging from the study of American options in high dimensions. We convert the HJB equation to an equivalent Backward Stochastic Differential Equation (BSDE), introduce the least squares residual of the BSDE as the loss function, and propose a new neural network architecture that utilizes the domain knowledge of American options. Our proposed framework yields American option prices and deltas on the entire spacetime, not only at a given point. The computational cost of the proposed approach is quadratic in dimension, which addresses the curse of dimensionality issue that state-of-the-art approaches suffer.


Economists often analyze questions of law and policy by reference to the criterion of private willingness to pay (WTP), with the belief that people's WTP for a good is an accurate proxy for the welfare that they would obtain from that good. For two reasons, the proxy is crude. The first problem is that people may not pay for all of the benefits they receive, and in such cases, use of WTP may lead in unfortunate directions, even or especially if welfare is our lodestar. Inefficient results may nonetheless increase welfare. The second and more fundamental problem is that people may be willing to pay for goods whose acquisition does not improve their welfare. People typically choose on the basis of their affective forecasting, and their affective forecasts can lead them to make bad blunders. Sometimes people overestimate the welfare effects of both losses and gains. These points have many implications for law and policy. In particular, juries are probably offering greatly inflated dollar awards for hedonic damages, and the outcome of cost-benefit analyses, based on WTP, may not capture welfare, suitably defined. The absence of a connection between increases in Gross Domestic Product and self-reported happiness is highly suggestive here.


Vernacular houses using indigenous building materials have shown to be a good strategy for sustainable energy consumption without compensating the occupant's indoor thermal comfort. Bamboo has been identified as the most used building material for vernacular houses in South-East Asia region. However, very little investigation has been conducted to study the passive performance of a bamboo house in maintaining indoor thermal comfort. This study compares the indoor microclimate conditions using thermal comfort Predicted Mean Vote and Predicted Percentage of Dissatisfied models (PMV-PPD) developed by American Society Heating, Refrigerating and Air-conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) between indigenous bamboo house (H1) and modern brick house (H2) at a village located in the Ulu Gombak Forest Reserve, Selangor. Observations on environmental factors and predicted thermal comfort satisfaction level between day and night times were also taken into consideration. The findings suggest that the use of bamboo plus other vernacular house design features such as raising a house on stilts, located on hilly site and providing air permeability in H1 can lead to a thermally comfortable indoor environment, particularly during night time.


Problem. The process of adjusting to college has been difficult for many Korean-Americans because of the tension that exists between traditional sex roles versus androgynous sex roles. While it has opened doors to new and exciting opportunities in personal growth, complex challenges of academic, emotional, and social adjustments must be made. The traditional views of the subculture have posed unique problems for young Korean Americans who have enrolled in higher education. This descriptive study examined the relationship between androgynous flexibility and the college adjustment of Korean American students. Androgynous flexibility was investigated in terms of college adjustment. Method. The sample population consisted of 153 Korean American college students from six universities from the East and West Coasts of the United States who voluntarily completed two surveys, the Bem Sex-Role Inventory (BSRI), Short Version, measuring psychological androgyny, and the Student Adaptation to College Questionnaire (SACQ), measuring college adjustment. Each subject's Bem score was determined. The score from the Bem indicated if an individual was identified as androgynous, undifferentiated, masculine, or feminine. Then, the adjustment scores for each individual was calculated from the Student Adaptation to College Questionnaire. The four sex-role groups' adjustment scores were compared for significant differences at the .05 level by using t-tests. Results. Results indicated that androgynous Korean American subjects adjusted to college significantly better than feminine or undifferentiated Korean American students. However, there were no significant differences in levels of adjustment to college between androgynous Korean American students and masculine Korean American students. Conclusions. Bern's theory of behavioral flexibility was not fully supported by the findings of this research. There was no conclusive evidence of greater flexibility of behavior with androgynous individuals. Bern postulated that Psychological Androgyny allows people to be more flexible in their behaviors. Overall, androgynous individuals reported significantly higher adjustment levels than feminine or undifferentiated subjects, however their adjustment scores were not significantly higher than masculine individuals. Another conclusion which can be made from this study is that masculine traits play a more active role than feminine traits in the adjustment process to college for Korean Americans. Findings suggest that masculine traits are more influential with the adjustment process to college for this population.


Soil forms the outer skin of the earth's land surface. Often less than a metre in depth, it is essential to sustain natural terrestrial ecosystems and human life. Soils result from the interactions over time between climate, parent material, topography, vegetation, and biota. They vary from place to place. Mineral soils are composed of mineral matter, organic matter, and gas- or liquid-filled pores in varying proportions. Soils perform a wide range of functions and provide many ecosystem or environmental services; with the climate problem, the soil is increasingly being recognised as a potential sink for carbon from the atmosphere. In part because of humankind's (over)use of soils and in part because of natural and human-induced environmental change, there is a widespread decline in soil quality and an increasing number of threats to soil, which jeopardise both the soil's natural functions and its use by humans. As a limited resource, soils must be used sustainably. Soil protection strategies have been indirectly embodied in a number of United Nations conventions, and there are now national and supranational developments towards specific regulations and legislation to protect soils and their functions.


In this paper, we propose a discriminative approach for retrieval of video shots characterized by a sequential structure. The task of retrieving shots similar in content to a few positive example shots is more close to a binary classification problem. Hence, this task can be solved by a discriminative learning approach. For a content-based retrieval task the twin characteristics of rare positive example occurrence and a sequential structure in the positive examples make it attractive for us to use a learning approach based on a generative model like HMM. To make use of the positive aspects of both discriminative and generative models, we derive Fisher and Modified score kernels for a Continuous HMM and incorporate them into SVM classification framework. The training set video shots are used to learn SVM classifier. A test set video shot is ranked based on its proximity to the positive class side of hyperplane. We evaluate the performance of the derived kernels by retrieving video shots of airplane takeoff. The retrieval performance using the derived kernels is found to be much better compared to linear and RBF kernels.


Cores and cuttings from six wells in Polk County, Texas, were studied to determine the age, depositional environment, and organic maturation history of the Woodbine hydrocarbon producing interval and superjacent Rapides Shale. Palynologic analysis of the Woodbine core samples indicates a late Albian to earliest Cenomanian age for the section. Palynomorphs recovered from the Rapides Shale samples indicate a much younger age than the Woodbine with the unconformity representing possibly as much as a full stage. The depositional environment of the Woodbine section is interpreted from palynologic, sedimentary structure, petrographic, and seismic data to have been on a prodelta continental shelf seaward to a topographic break in the shelf formed by an earlier (Early Cretaceous) carbonate buildup. Organic maturation studies of the Woodbine samples indicate vitrinite reflectance (RQ) values ranging from 1.1 to 1.4 with thermal alteration index (TAI) values of 2.3 to 3.2. The organic matter distribution consists of abundant vitrinite and inertinite with mixed matter assemblages less common. Two samples are from intervals that have produced hydrocarbons. These samples had RQ values ranging from 1.1 to 1.2 with mixed matter organic distributions. Theoretical studies indicate that such samples should be the source of wet gas. Wet gas is precisely what these sample intervals have produced.


This study investigated the etiology of canine ehrlichiosis and possible clinical and epidemiological data associated with the infection in 70 dogs suspect of ehrlichiosis attended at the Veterinary Hospital of the São Paulo State University in Botucatu city during 2001 and 2002. Dogs were evaluated by clinical-epidemiological and hematological data and molecular analysis by partial amplification and DNA sequencing of the ehrlichial dsb gene. E. canis DNA was amplified and sequenced in 28 (40.0%) dogs. Dogs younger than 12 months old showed significantly higher infection rates (65.0%; P < 0.05). Diarrhea, apathy, and anorexia were the major clinical signs observed in 55.2% (P = 0.05), 47.0% (P > 0.05), and 42.4% (P > 0.05) of the PCR-positive dogs, respectively. Twenty-five anemic (<5.5 x 10(6) RBC x microL (-1)), and 8 leukopenic (<5.5 x 103 WBC x microL (-1)) dogs were PCR-positive (P > 0.05). All 28 PCR-positive dogs showed thrombocytopenia (< 175 x 103 platelets x microL (-1)) and revealed statistical significance (P < 0.05). E. canis was the only Ehrlichia species found in dogs in the studied region, with higher infection rates in younger dogs, and statistically associated with thrombocytopenia.


This is the first of two papers on outcomes of the evaluation of the National Accelerated Literacy Program (NALP) in the NT. NALP was an attempt to rapidly improve literacy outcomes for Indigenous students in 100 schools in the Northern Territory by implementing a method of teaching known as Accelerated Literacy (AL). The authors present findings of the evaluation of the implementation of NALP (2006-2008), focusing on the degree to which the implementation program was effective in changing teaching practices according to the requirements of the Accelerated Literacy method. The evaluators conducted a survey of practitioners, focus group interviews with teachers and coordinators in schools and systematically observed AL teaching in 68 classrooms in 36 schools. It confirms that within four years, NALP had achieved the implementation of AL in a large number of NT schools such that teachers and principals in close to the t arget number of schools had been engaged in the process of change. However, notwithstanding thi s progress in implementation of the program in NT schools, the results of this evaluati on suggest that by early 2008 there had been uneven success in changing teacher practice to achieve the levels of teaching of AL to desired standards in classrooms. The evaluation que stions whether the policy commitments were always insufficient to support and sustain the implementation of AL to appropriate levels in terms of quality and completeness of syst emic support.


The new data-driven industrial revolution highlights the need for big data technologies to unlock the potential in various application domains. In this context, emerging innovative solutions exploit several underlying infrastructure and cluster management systems. However, these systems have not been designed and implemented in a "big data context", and they rather emphasize and address the computational needs and aspects of applications and services to be deployed. In this paper we present the architecture of a complete stack (namely BigDataStack), based on a frontrunner infrastructure management system that drives decisions according to data aspects, thus being fully scalable, runtime adaptable and high-performant to address the needs of big data operations and data-intensive applications. Furthermore, the stack goes beyond purely infrastructure elements by introducing techniques for dimensioning big data applications, modelling and analyzing of processes as well as provisioning data-as-a-service by exploiting a seamless analytics framework.


Elderly clients are often homebound due to culminating health problems. The deteriorating health status of the elderly combined with the accumulating losses of family, friends, financial support, and autonomy may result in diminished resources. The devastation that results from the overwhelming losses endured by the homebound elderly may lead to powerlessness and hopelessness (Johnson, Roberts, & Cheffer, 1996; Miller, 1992). This investigation explored if there was a relationship between powerlessness and the level of hope in the homebound elderly. Further exploration was also conducted to determine if the number of visits provided to the homebound elderly by home health care personnel and the length of time homebound had a relationship with the homebound elderly's powerlessness and their level of hope. The overriding theoretical framework for this investigation was based on Roy's Adaptation Model (Phillips et al., 1998). Additional theoretical support was based on the mid-range theory of the Powerlessness/Hopelessness Cycle (Miller, 1992) and the Holistic Power Model by Kubsch and Wichowski (1997). Participants for this investigation were homebound elderly individuals (60 years or older) who were clients of Medicare certified home health care agencies (HHC), and who did not have a terminal illness. Fifteen participating HHC agencies distributed survey packets to qualifying clients, who in turn completed and returned the survey packets to this investigator for data analysis. The sample (N=87) population consisted of individuals ranging in age from 60-99 with a mean age of 81.94. Participants were 76% female and 24% male. All respondents were Caucasian and 80.5% were of the Protestant faith. The demographic information indicated that 60.9% of the subjects were widowed and 26% were married. The Powerlessness Assessment Tool (PAT) (Kubsch & Wichowski, 1997) measured the homebound client's level of powerlessness and the strength of this/her seven power resources. Powerlessness scores ranged from the minimum of five to the highest possible score of 25 (M=16.99, SD=4.41) with higher scores indicating less powerlessness. The seven power resources measured for each client included (a) self-esteem, (b) energy, (c) knowledge about their condition, (d) physical strength, (e) belief system, (f) psychological stamina and support network, and (g) motivation to get better. Possible power resource scores could range from 7 to 35, and the mean for this sample group was 22.9. Assessment of the samples' level of hope was accomplished by utilizing the Miller Hope Scale (MHS). Possible scores on the 40-item, 6-point scale could range from 40 to 240, with higher scores indicating higher levels of hope. Data analysis indicated the hope scores of the sample (N=87) ranged from 90 to 225 (M=165.95, SD=27.564). To answer the research questions the levels of powerlessness and hope were examined using Pearson's r. A significant negative correlation was found between the length of time homebound and the level of powerlessness (r=-0.26, p=0.02), however a significant relationship between the length of time being homebound and the level of hope was not found (r=-0.05, p=0.65). Correlational analysis also did not find significant relationships between the number of visits from the HHC providers and the levels of powerlessness and the levels of hope. However, a highly significant relationship was noted between the two variables, powerlessness and hope (r=0.54, p=0.00). The homebound clients' total power resource scores also were positively correlated with levels of powerlessness (r=0.70, p=0.00) and levels of hope (r=0.71, p=0.00). These data indicated that as the clients' level of hope and level of power resources increased their feelings of powerlessness decreased. Additional findings revealed other significant correlations. Phone calls from friends were significantly related to levels of powerlessness (r=0.43, p=0.00) and levels of hope (r=0.38, p=0.00) indicating that those who received more phone calls from friends had higher levels of hope and less powerlessness. Significant relationships also were noted between the levels of hope and visits with friends (r=0.22, p=0.05), which indicated that those with higher levels of hope had a greater number of visits from friends. The homebound clients who indicated religion or spirituality was an important part of their life had fewer feelings of powerlessness (M=17.18, SD=3.82) than those who did not (M=16.68, SD=5.93), and had higher hope scores (M=170.46, SD=25.32) than those who did not (M=155.05, SD=31.30). Future research to explore whether the relationships found in this investigation are evident in other homebound individuals who are not receiving services from a HHC agency may be beneficial. HHC providers and nurses in all clinical fields need to become aware of the relationship between powerlessness and hopelessness.


The soybean cyst nematode (SCN) first appeared in the United States in North Carolina during the 1950s. In Iowa it was first discovered in Winnebago County in 1978. SCN is spreading rapidly; it has since been identified in over half of the counties in the state (see Fig. 1). In Winnebago County alone, soybean yield losses from SCN have cost growers nearly $2 million per year. Of the more than 2,000 soil samples from around the state that were tested for SCN by the Iowa State University Cooperative Extension Service in 1988, more than 75% were found to be infested. In fact, a majority of the samples contained SCN densities greater than 1,000 eggs per 100 cubic centimeters of soil. Significant yield suppression has occurred in Iowa at densities much lower than this. In short, SCN is rapidly becoming a major factor in limiting soybean yields through Iowa.


Background. Infertility represents a major medical and economic issue worldwide. There are few data regarding the pattern of infertility causes in Romania. Objective. The aim of this study was to determine if there is a pattern of the infertility causes in the Romanian population similar to those found in other countries. Materials and method. The charts of 67 couples referred to the Filantropia Clinical Hospital of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Bucharest, for infertility, between the 1st of January 2019 and the 1st of March 2020, were analyzed. Results. The average women's age was 31.96 years old (standard deviation ± 3.6), while the average male age was 34.9 years old (standard deviation ± 5.87). The average duration of infertility was 2.5 years (standard deviation ± 2.37). In our study, an increased prevalence of the female factor (80.59%) was observed. Whilst in the female group the most frequent cause was the anovulatory disorders, including polycystic ovary syndrome (47.76%), the least frequent factor was the cervical factor (5.97%). Female-only factor was encountered in 47.76% of the couples. Regarding male infertility, after summing the isolated and mixed groups, the overall prevalence was 43.27%. Mixed infertility causes were observed in 32.83% of the couples. The idiopathic infertility was established after diagnostic procedures in 6 couples, representing 8.9% of the study group. Conclusions. Although it is difficult to establish, the identified pattern of infertility causes are similar to those presented in other developing countries, with a high prevalence of the female infertility. Further research is needed to establish a national pattern of infertility.


Back ground: Abdominal lipoblastomas which are benign but uncommon soft tissue tumors in children rarely arise from the mesentery.However, benign, these may attain in large size and cause compression symptoms. Complete resection and close post-operative monitoring are necessary for avoidance of recurrence. Histopathology with immunohistochemistry in conjunction with the morphology is the gold standard for diagnosis. Herein such a rare a case of mesenteric lipoblastoma with huge abdominal distention is reported.
Case presentation: A 2-year-old girl presented with an enormous abdominal swelling occupying almost all quadrants of the abdomen with repeated dull abdominal pain. The swelling was a non-tender and tensely cystic. USG and CT Scan could not distinguish the proper origin or location of the mass but demonstrated as a large encapsulated and lobulated fatty mass measuring about (16.4x10.0x18.6cm) involving right hypochondriac, epigastric, bilateral ilio-lumber, umbilical & hypogastric regions, pushing the bowel loops upward & laterally with mild mesenteric thickening of perilesional mesentery and separated from the liver & both kidneys and other intraabdominal organs. After exploratory laparotomy there revealed a well capsuled large (about 15x11x14cm)soft yellow mass displacing the entire intra-abdominal contents, connected by a single vascular pedicle with the mesentery and loosely enclosing the mesentery as a whole. Histology and immunohistochemistry of completely resected mass conurmed the presence of mature adipocytes and immuno-morphology was compatible with Lipoblastoma.
Conclusion: This case represents one of the largest mesenteric lipoblastomas in accordance to the patient's age that histologically, mostly composed of mature adipocytes with few lipoblasts.
J Shaheed Suhrawardy Med Coll, December 2020, Vol.12(1); 54-57


Sandfly-borne phleboviruses are endemic in the Mediterranean basin. However, levels of exposure of human and animal populations are inadequately researched. Toscana virus (TOSV) is present in Portugal where it causes human infection and disease; in contrast there are few data for sandfly fever Sicilian virus (SFSV) which has neither been isolated nor detected by molecular tests and for which there are only limited serological data. The sera collected from 1160 dogs and 189 cats in southern Portugal were tested for the presence of neutralizing antibodies against TOSV and SFSV, two viruses recognized as distinct serocomplexes in the Mediterranean region. Our data showed (i) seropositivity to TOSV and SFSV in dogs at a rate of 6.8 and 50.8 %, respectively, and (ii) that 3.7 % of cats were seropositive for TOSV. TOSV findings are in line with previous results obtained with less stringent serological assays. Our results for SFSV in dogs clearly indicate that the virus is circulating widely and that humans may be exposed to infection via the dogs. Although the presence of SFSV was suggested by haemagglutination inhibition in 4/1690 human sera in 1974, this is the first time, as far as we know, that SFSV has been shown to circulate so widely in dogs in Portugal. Future studies should be directed at isolating strains of SFSV in Portugal from dogs, humans and sandflies collected in high prevalence regions. As dogs appear to be good sentinels for SFSV, their role as a possible reservoir in the natural cycle should also be considered.


The terms "growth" and "development" are increasingly being viewed as distinct, but interrelated, processes with spatially-specific outcomes (Flammang, 1979). Local development efforts must cope with rapidly changing economic situations, and the roles of technology, innovation, and entrepreneurship are recognized as critical to the long-term development process (Malecki and Nijkamp, 1988). "New" economic development strategies address community-specific needs for new and better jobs, diversified economic bases, and revitalized economic environments that build on local strengths to shape the community's economic future. As an endogenous process that involves local governments and public or private organizations, "local economic development" attempts to " ... stimulate or maintain business activity and/or employment ... to develop local employment opportunities in sectors that improve the community ..." (Blakely, 1989, p. 15). Local development efforts also occur in the context of planning, overseen by local, regional and state governments.


This guide is to help Guilford student connect to resources they need to knowledgeably cast their ballots in the 2020 elections, including methods to vote locally or by absentee ballot and how to find reliable information about candidates.


ABSTRACT This paper addresses the publication of results from national tests in primary and lower secondary schools by Norwegian national authorities. Test results must be made available to the public, and are published in an aggregated format at school, municipal, county and national levels on a public website. These aggregated test results are meant to provide information on school quality for local government, as well as for school development. However, how the data are presented influences their usability, and this is further affected by the fact that many municipalities and the majority of schools are quite small. Hence, in many instances the information that can be retrieved from aggregated test results at school or municipal level are of little or no value to the users. When presenting the aggregated data to the public, the government should clearly state that the data might not be useful for small schools or small municipalities with regard to analysing their own performance and for quality enhancement.


The need for efficient cooling techniques has motivated researchers to focus into heat transfer and flow behavior of various configurations of finned surfaces. Inclined rectangular fin is found to be an effective vortex generator for heat transfer augmentation, wherein longitudinal vortices is generated and keeps intensity at far downstream. It is expected that the heat transfer from the endwall and the fin surface can be improved and hence we have identified this configuration as very promising. Rectangular fins of different height were constructed and experimental investigation of heat transfer and flow with arrays of rectangular fins was conducted. Effect of velocity, attack angle, fin height and pitch ratio on local heat transfer coefficients is studied. In order to accomplish the experiment, 7 × 7 arrays of rectangular fins were attached on the heating surface and then placed in rectangular duct with different angle of attack to the free stream flow. Stream wise heat transfer coefficients were measured both at centerline and of 10 mm off line of heating surface by means of the thermocouples. T-type thermocouples and an infrared camera (TVS 8000) with a 160 × 120 point In-Sb sensor were used to measure the temperature and the detailed heat transfer from the endwall along with fin base.


A design proposal for developing a high-precision timer of the real-time digital copying control system is put forward by analyzing the real-time characteristics of Windows 2000 operating system. Proposals of using information systems timer—WM_TIMER, multimedia timer, VxD and hardware to achieve high-precision timing in Windows operating system are analyzed and compared. Based on computer high-frequency timer and multi-thread technology, timing function provided by Microsoft Visual C++ is used to achieve a high-precision software timer of the system. Finally, the researched timing method is tested in Advantech IPC-610 host with Intel Pentium 4 processor, and the maximum timing error is less than 5μs which meets the system timing requirements.


Background : High prevalence of consanguineous marriages has been reported in Iran. Since this pattern of marriage may increase the prevalence of diseases with autosomal recessive pattern of expression, the study was assigned to determine this among patients referred to diabetes and osteoporosis clinics of Dr Shariati hospital, Tehran, Iran.  Methods : The consanguineous marriage was studied among 1789 couples of three successive generations via Questionnaire. Results : The prevalence of consanguineous marriages in three successive generations was 9%, 17% and 19%, respectively with an increasing pattern of prevalence. Overall the prevalence of first cousins marriage was 10% with 69% among consanguineous marriage group. The higher the level of education, the lower the prevalence of consanguineous marriage. Conclusion : In view of the increasing prevalence of consanguineous marriage that may be followed by some trouble consequences about disease expression, it seems necessary to provide facilities for genetic counseling before marriage for youth.


An experiment was carried out to assess the diversity of castor germplasm in Ethiopia. A total of 102 accessions, one elite genotype and two standard varieties were characterized at Melkassa and Arsi Negelle, in the Central Rift Valley of Ethiopia using 12 traits for one during 2013 main season. Analysis of variance, principal component and cluster analysis was performed for the combined data. The result showed that there is tremendous phenotypic variability for agronomic and morphological traits of castor among the tested accessions. For some traits such as 100 seed weight, wider variation was observed compared to the entire USDA germplasm collection. In this study the accessions were clustered in two five classes with cluster V having only one accession. Principal component analysis indicated that PC1 contributed 79% of the variation and capsules per plant and seeds per plant constituting the most to variation among accessions. In this study, number of capsules and seeds per plant were the two most important yield component traits to be considered in the future breeding program.


A comparison was made of the hardness of Z250 and Esthet-X composites light cured with different light sources. Cavities (3 mm diameter x 6 mm deep) were prepared in 240 bovine incisors. The composite was bulk inserted and light-cured using halogen light, LED or xenon plasma arc (PAC) with different irradiances and exposure times, maintaining the same energy density. The specimens were stored in an incubator at 37 °C for 24 hours prior to sectioning for hardness measurements. Three measurements were taken at each depth: surface, 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 mm. The data were analyzed by ANOVA and Tukey's test (p < 0.05). No statistically significant differences were found for LED up to 2 mm, for PAC up to 3 mm, and for halogen light up to 5 mm. Photoactivation with intermediate power density and exposure time resulted in the highest Knoop hardness values.


The breeding population of Magpie Pica pica was censused in a 200 hectare surburban area (Vårberg) in the south-west part of Stockholm in 2007. The area was divided into four different zones to evaluate the effect of different types of urban settings. A total of 113 nests were found, and density differed significantly between zones. The density of breeding Magpies was 9 pairs/km2 in a zone with no buildings ("natural" habitats). In a zone with detached and terraced houses the density was 53 pairs/km2. In a zone with apartment buildings less than four stores high the density was 81 pairs/km2. This was the highest density, close to tenfold the density found in the zone without buildings. In a zone with tall buildings exceeding three stores, the density was 66 pairs/km2. The nests were generally placed higher up in the trees in the zone with natural habitats than in the zones with buildings. Nests were found in 16 different species of trees with pine and whitebeam being the most frequent ones, but no single favourite could be detected.


Little research on sensory study has been conducted from a marketing perspective and most of sensory studies have been done from a science perspective. Thus, this study examined wine sensory perceptions in the consumers' minds, which is how wine consumers associate grape variety Shiraz/Syrah by the three different region of origins with specific sensory images. Total 234 questionnaires were collected from online wine community members at restaurants in Korea. The main results show that the most two shared sensory images of Shiraz/ Syrah were 'Dry' and 'Fruity' across the three region of origins. For Barossa Shiraz, the unique images were mainly found in Aroma image category such as 'Chocolate', 'Prune', whereas for Rhone Syrah, the unique images were mainly revealed in Overall image category e.g. 'Deep', 'Fascinating'. Additionally, this study confirmed that Maipo Valley is not recognizable region of origin of Shiraz/ Syrah. This study employed a free choice, Pick Any and conducted correspondence analysis to find out the degree of associations of sensory images and each region of origin.


I. LEGENDS OF THE WALL A. Pre-FISA B. FISA 1. Applications for FISA Surveillance Orders 2. Judicial Approval of FISA Surveillance Orders 3. The Govemment's Intended and Actual Use of FISA-Acquired Information a. FISA Provisions Requiring a Certification About the Purpose of Proposed Surveillance and Authorizing Limited Judicial Review of That Certification b. Minimization Procedures c. Section 1806 of the FISA i. Section 1806(a) ii. Section 1806(b) C. The "Primary Purpose" Test 1. Origin of the Primary Purpose Test 2. Linkage of the "Primary Purpose" Test to the FISA D. The Department of Justice's Use of the Primary Purpose Test as the Foundation for the Wall E. The Patriot Act's Supposed Demolition of the Wall II. IN RE SEALED CASE A. How the Case Arose 1. The FISA Trial Court Adopts the Attorney General's 1995 Procedures as Required "Minimization Procedures". 2. In 2002, the Department of Justice Changes Information Sharing Procedures To Implement the Patriot Act 3. The FISA Trial Court Rejects the Department's March 2002 Information Sharing Procedures 4. The Department of Justice Creates a Route for Appealing the FISA Trial Court's Opinion B. The FISA Court of Review's Opinion 1. The Court of Review's Analysis of the Original FISA 2. The Court of Review's Analysis of the Patriot Act Amendments to the FISA 3. The Court of Review's Fourth Amendment Ruling 4. Summary of Court of Review's Opinion; Description of That Court's Disposition of the Case; Later Proceedings in the Case III. ANALYSIS OF STATUTORY ISSUES AND THEIR TREATMENT BY THE FISA COURTS A. Importance of Statutory Rulings in In re Sealed Case B. Statutory Analysis of the Original FISA 1. The Purpose Provision of the Original FISA a. Text of the Original FISA's Purpose Provision i. The Primary Purpose Test's Defective Textual Interpretation ii. The FISA Court of Review's Erroneous Conclusion That the Original FISA's Purpose Provision Did Not Limit the Government's Intended Prosecutorial Use of Foreign Intelligence Information iii. The Requirement that Achievement of a Foreign Intelligence Purpose be the Primary Purpose for Seeking a FISA Surveillance Order iv. The Permissibility, Under the Original FISA, of the Government's Using FISA Surveillance for the Primary (or Even the Sole) Purpose of Investigating and Prosecuting Crime of any Type When the Government Intended the Prosecution to Serve a Foreign Intelligence Purpose v. Summary of Textual Analysis of the Original FISA's Purpose Provision b. Legislative History of the Original FISA's Purpose Provision i. Legislative History Showing that the FISA Purpose Provision Limits the Type of Information That can be Sought as Well as the Intended Use of That Information ii. Legislative History Seemingly Supporting the "Primary Purpose" Test iii. Legislative History on the "Noncriminal" Standard for FISA Surveillance iv. Scarcity of Legislative History Citing Primary Purpose Case Law 2. Provisions on Minimization Procedures a. Text of FISA Provisions on Minimization Procedures b. Legislative History of Minimization Procedures C. …


In this thesis, one of the current control algorithms for the R744 cycle, which tries to optimize the performance of the system by two SISO control loops, is compared to a cost-effective system with just one actuator. The operation of a key component of this system, a two stage orifice expansion valve is examined in a range of typical climate conditions. One alternative control loop for this system, which has been proposed by Behr group, is also scrutinized. The simulation results affirm the preference of using two control-loops instead of one loop, but refute advantages of the Behr alternate control approach against one-loop control. As far as the economic considerations of the A/C unit are concerned, using a two-stage orifice expansion valve is desired by the automotive industry, thus based on the experiment results, an improved logic for control of this system is proposed. In the second part, it is investigated whether the one-actuator control approach is applicable to a system consisting of two parallel evaporators to allow passengers to control different climate zones. The simulation results show that in the case of using a two-stage orifice valve for the front evaporator and a fixed expansion valve for the rear one, a proper distribution of the cooling power between the front and rear compartment is possible for a broad range of climate conditions.


Key aspects of the safety study of a water-cooled fusion DEMO reactor is reported. Safety requirements, dose target, DEMO plant model and confinement strategy of the safety study are briefly introduced. The internal hazard of a water-cooled DEMO, i.e. identification of hazardous inventories, identification of stored energies that can mobilize these hazardous inventories and identification of accident initiators and scenarios, are evaluated. It is pointed out that the enthalpy in the first wall/blanket cooling loops, the decay heat and the energy potentially released by the Be-steam chemical reaction are of special concern for the water-cooled DEMO. An ex-vessel loss-of-coolant accident (ex-VV LOCA) of the first wall/blanket cooling loop is also quantitatively analyzed. The integrity of the building against the ex-VV LOCA is discussed.


: Bone morphogenetic protein-2 (BMP-2) has diverse functions and is especially important in bone and cartilage development. Recombinant human BMP-2 (rhBMP-2) is an osteoinductive growth factor that has been clinically applied as a bone graft substitute. However, high-dose rhBMP-2 can cause complications such as induction of significant swelling that can endanger the patient's life. Atelocollagen sponge (ACS) is the commercially provided standard carrier of rhBMP-2 in clinical applications. However, a large concentration of rhBMP-2 is required to be clinically effective with ACS as the carri -er. Octacalcium phosphate/collagen (OCP/Col) has been shown to be an excellent bone substitute compared with other bone substitute materials such as hydroxyapatite or β-tricalcium phosphate due to its biological properties. In this study, we eval uated the use of OCP/Col as a carrier to minimize the effective dose of rhBMP-2. ACS or OCP/Col discs impregnated with different rhBMP-2 concentrations were implanted in mice calvarial bone defects. Morphological analysis with micro-CT both at 4 and 6 weeks post-implantation showed homogenous hard tissue formation in the defects of the OCP/Col group at all rhBMP-2 concentrations tested (0, 0.25, 0.50, or 1.00 μg). In contrast, ACS alone or with 0.25 μg of rhBMP-2 showed almost no bone formation. However, bone mineral density in all groups of ACS and OCP/Col was not dependent on rhB-MP-2 concentration. Histological evaluation indicated that bone formation progressed depending on rhBMP-2 concentration in the defects of both the ACS and OCP/Col groups, although the newly formed bone area was significantly higher in the OCP/Col group than in the ACS group. These results indicate that OCP/Col could be an effective carrier of rhBMP-2, minimizing the application dose of rhBMP-2 in clinical settings and avoiding the complications caused by high-dose rhB-MP-2.


Our complex and rapidly changing world demands a more nimble, responsive, and flexible Extension organization. The findings from a study involving interviews across a state Cooperative Extension Service paint a picture of organizational learning in Extension. Four key dimensions of learning surfaced. Of particular importance are the application of a model for organizational knowledge creation and the characteristics of transformational organizational learning for innovation. Recommendations focus on actively supporting organizational learning, developing ways to tap the vast knowledge and skills of Extension professionals, and institutionalizing means to transfer learning.


This paper presents the research results of milling process optimization in the electromagnetic mill to obtain the predetermined particle size distribution of brown coal. Because of an important role of brown coal in Polish energy industry (power plants produce 9433 MW of electrical power from brown coal, which corresponds to about 34% share in total fuel usage structure of energy industry in Poland-2nd quarter 2013 [1]), there is a great need to look for and develop highly efficient methods of its mining, valorisation and low-emission combustion alongside with CO2 capture technology. This paper proposes, as one of the methods of adapting low-rank coal to being utilized in modernized and newly built plants, the process of simultaneous grinding and drying in an electromagnetic mill system. This method is energy efficient and what is more significant it reduces the space required for its adaptation, thanks to electromagnetic mill's compact installation design. It is essential to obtain the desired characteristics of the product through the adequate control of the processes. Major concern of this case study was focused on determination of optimal grinding parameters in the electromagnetic mill in order to obtain two products of a desired size distribution (1-6.3 mm for application in fluidized bed boilers and 0-315 µm for boiler burners). The authors presented some theoretical considerations of the mechanisms and physical phenomena occurring during a fragmentation of solid particles as well as the literature review of the subject. The process complexity level, taking place in the active area of electromagnetic mill, involves the influence of particle-milling rod and particle-particle interactions as well as the volume of milling rods or coal particle residence time on the size distribution of the product. All of the mentioned factors account for nonlinearity of the problem and make the conditions difficult to rescale. Hence, a heuristic approach to inverse problem was chosen to analyse the differences between the desired and obtained particle size distributions. The examinations concerned grinding parameters such as total amount of rods (volume-based) and rod sizes (single and multi-size combinations of milling elements) were conducted. Equivalent samples of Polish brown coal with a particle diameter size ranging from 0 to 10 mm were chosen as an investigated material. Influence of the total volume of rods was examined using three amounts: 100 ml, 150 ml and 200 ml. Two grinding aid sizes were chosen in the form of ferromagnetic rods: fine rods of the size of 10 x 1 mm and coarse rods of the size of 20 x 2 mm.


This paper introduces a monadic object code for functional languages that allows an architecture independent, compact representation of program modules; it includes support for distributed applications by featuring a lightweight thread model and asymmetric communication. It proposes to ooset ineeciencies introduced by the architecture independence by specialising and optimising the code before or during execution. The proposal is substantially diierent from classical byte code in both the structure of the language, as it is a strongly-typed functional language encapsulating side-eeects in monadic form, and the representation of the code, as it is a bit-aligned structurally, compressed code designed for runtime code-generation, not for interpretation.


OBJECTIVE: To assess perinatal outcomes of women hospitalized for assault during pregnancy as a function of timing of delivery. METHODS: A retrospective population-based study analyzing maternal discharge records linked to birth/death certificates in California from 1991 to 1999 was performed. International Classifications of Disease, Ninth Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM) codes were used to identify injury types and outcomes. External causation codes identified assaults as the mechanism of the injuries. Injury Severity Scores were assessed. Odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated, and multivariate logistic regression was used for analysis of outcomes. RESULTS: A total of 2,070 women were hospitalized during pregnancy after sustaining an assault. Assaulted women were younger, multiparous, and with delayed prenatal care compared with unassaulted controls. Women delivering at the assault hospitalization had high rates of prematurity: 24%, OR 2.4 (95% CI 1.8–3.3), maternal death: 0.71%, OR 19 (95% CI 2.7–144.7), fetal death: 9.3%, OR 8 (95% CI 4.6–14.3), uterine rupture: 0.71%, OR 46 (95% CI 6.5–337.8), and other adverse outcomes compared with unassaulted women. Women discharged after an assault, delivering at a subsequent hospitalization, had increased risks of abruption: 2%, OR 1.8 (95% CI 1.3–2.5), hemorrhage: 3.2%, OR 1.8 (95% CI 1.4–2.5), prematurity: 15%, OR 1.3 (95% CI 1.2–1.5), and low birth weight: 13.4%, OR 1.7 (95% CI 1.5–1.9) at delivery. CONCLUSION: Women sustaining an assault during pregnancy experience both immediate (uterine rupture, increased fetal and maternal mortality) and long-term sequelae (prematurity and low birth weight infants), which have significant negative effects on pregnancy outcome. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: III


Bronchiolar obstruction is commonly manifested in Computed Tomographic (CT) images as areas of decreased attenuation relative to adjacent normal lung parenchyma. The certain identification ofsuch areas is difficult in practice, particularly if such areas are poorly marginated. This paper presents a novel approach to the enhancement offeature differences between normal and diseased lung parenchyma so that reliable visual assessment can be made.


This paper describes an approach for pedestrian detection in infrared images. The developed system has been implemented on an experimental vehicle equipped with an infrared camera and preliminarily tested in different situations. It is based on the localization of warm symmetrical objects with specific size and aspect ratio; since also road infrastructures and other road participants may have such characteristics, a set of matched filters was added in order to reduce false detections. A final validation process, based on the human shape's morphological characteristics, is used to build the list of pedestrian appearing in the scene. No temporal correlation, nor motion cues are used in this first part of the project.


With the increasing popularity of augmented reality (AR) services, providing seamless human-computer interactions in the AR setting has received notable attention in the industry. Gesture control devices have recently emerged to be the next great gadgets for AR due to their unique ability to enable computer interaction with day-to-day gestures. While these AR devices are bringing revolutions to our interaction with the cyber world, it is also important to consider potential privacy leakages from these always-on wearable devices. Specifically, the coarse access control on current AR systems could lead to possible abuse of sensor data. Although the always-on gesture sensors are frequently quoted as a privacy concern, there has not been any study on information leakage of these devices. In this article, we present our study on side-channel information leakage of the most popular gesture control device, Myo. Using signals recorded from the electromyography (EMG) sensor and accelerometers on Myo, we can recover sensitive information such as passwords typed on a keyboard and PIN sequence entered through a touchscreen. EMG signal records subtle electric currents of muscle contractions. We design novel algorithms based on dynamic cumulative sum and wavelet transform to determine the exact time of finger movements. Furthermore, we adopt the Hudgins feature set in a support vector machine to classify recorded signal segments into individual fingers or numbers. We also apply coordinate transformation techniques to recover fine-grained spatial information with low-fidelity outputs from the sensor in keystroke recovery. We evaluated the information leakage using data collected from a group of volunteers. Our results show that there is severe privacy leakage from these commodity wearable sensors. Our system recovers complex passwords constructed with lowercase letters, uppercase letters, numbers, and symbols with a mean success rate of 91%.


Field crops influence soil microbiota, impacting the health status and productivity of cropping systems. We conducted a two year field experiment using thirteen genotypes of chickpea and applied deep amplicon pyrosequencing to verify whether plant genetics control the fungal community of the root endosphere. We obtained 63796 sequences of ITS1F/ITS2 and 52129 of 18S rDNA gene clustered into 127 non-mycorrhizal and 89 mycorrhizal operational taxonomic units (OTUs), respectively. Plant genotype and year (soil and weather) had significant effects on the fungal community of chickpea root endosphere. The desi genotypes had higher levels of mycorrhizal and non-mycorrhizal fungal richness and diversity than kabuli genotypes. This study reveals a "genotype effect" of chickpea on the soil microbiota and indicates the possibility to improve the performance of this crop through the selection of genotypes with improved root fungal communities.


Background Iterative reconstruction methods have attracted attention for reducing radiation doses in computed tomography (CT). Purpose To investigate the detectability of pancreatic calcification using dose-reduced CT reconstructed with model-based iterative construction (MBIR) and adaptive statistical iterative reconstruction (ASIR). Material and Methods This prospective study approved by Institutional Review Board included 85 patients (57 men, 28 women; mean age, 69.9 years; mean body weight, 61.2 kg). Unenhanced CT was performed three times with different radiation doses (reference-dose CT [RDCT], low-dose CT [LDCT], ultralow-dose CT [ULDCT]). From RDCT, LDCT, and ULDCT, images were reconstructed with filtered-back projection (R-FBP, used for establishing reference standard), ASIR (L-ASIR), and MBIR and ASIR (UL-MBIR and UL-ASIR), respectively. A lesion (pancreatic calcification) detection test was performed by two blinded radiologists with a five-point certainty level scale. Results Dose-length products of RDCT, LDCT, and ULDCT were 410, 97, and 36 mGy-cm, respectively. Nine patients had pancreatic calcification. The sensitivity for detecting pancreatic calcification with UL-MBIR was high (0.67–0.89) compared to L-ASIR or UL-ASIR (0.11–0.44), and a significant difference was seen between UL-MBIR and UL-ASIR for one reader (P = 0.014). The area under the receiver-operating characteristic curve for UL-MBIR (0.818–0.860) was comparable to that for L-ASIR (0.696–0.844). The specificity was lower with UL-MBIR (0.79–0.92) than with L-ASIR or UL-ASIR (0.96–0.99), and a significant difference was seen for one reader (P < 0.01). Conclusion In UL-MBIR, pancreatic calcification can be detected with high sensitivity, however, we should pay attention to the slightly lower specificity.


In this report we will calculate the amplitude for a scalar-to-scalars (φ3 φ2φ2) decay which involves a triangle loop. We compute the real and imaginary part of the amplitude separately and will argue that this is much more straightforward and practical in this case rather than having to deal with or worry about branch cuts of logarithms.We will derive simple cutting rules closely related to the imaginary part of the amplitude. In doing this, we derive a formula that deals with expressions of the form δ[f(x,y)]δ[g(x,y)], containing two Dirac delta functions.


Supporting high data-rates and a large number of connected devices has always been challenging for wireless technologies operating in the microwave band. Wireless communication in the millimeter band is a promising solution to address this challenge and deliver gigabit throughput and very low latency. However, efficient communication in this band poses a great challenge in terms of radio resource allocation and requires adequate network planning and efficient design of wireless networking protocols. Despite the availability of commercial devices utilizing the IEEE 802.11ad protocol, these devices provide only limited access to the operations of the lower layers of the protocol stack, which hinders in-depth analysis and development of innovative solutions. For these reasons, researchers rely on high-fidelity system-level simulators to understand the interactions and behavior of millimeter-wave communication devices. In this paper, we demonstrate the capabilities of the IEEE 802.11ad model in ns-3. This model allows researchers to study the performance of the IEEE 802.11ad protocol for various deployment settings with high fidelity, using realistic phased antenna arrays and quasi-deterministic channel models. More particularly, we look at the impact of LOS blockage and the use of NLOS paths on link performance. In addition, we show the benefits of deploying multiple access points per room to guarantee gigabit throughput per user. Finally, we evaluate the performance of the IEEE 802.11ad protocol in a typical high-density scenario consisting of a single access point and ten stations.


The multidisciplinary Authors summarize the lessons learned from stimulating a long horizontal Polymer Injection well with a Hoisting Unit; the main objective was to reduce the associated cost as compared to a Coiled Conventional Tubing (CCT) Unit, but achieving the same or even improved results. The details procedures for conducting this type of job is summarized in this paper.
 The well was completed with a smart completion, creating four distinguished zones, Earlier, bullheading approach was carried out, but later on when the smart completion failed, it was necessary to stimulate with a CCT to cover all the different zones in the long well section. This has caused a sharp increase in the price of the job. Hence, a trial has been carried out utilizing a Hoist, with improved acid recipe that is cheaper and better in performance as compared to earlier. The detailed procedure for conducting this type of job is summarized in this paper
 The tables show the injectivity test result in three stages, in the Hoist and the CCT approach the result shows a good improvement after main treatment and a success of the trial with Hoist as compared to CCT. This has proven to be economically viable and unlocked huge cost savings for all future stimulation jobs. A 50% reduction in the total cost is observed. This work has concluded a successful methodology in the utilization of a hoist in performing multi-stage stimulation in long horizontal wells. Very encouraging results have been observed and the suggested method is highly recommended, further trials will continue to be done with other wells
 The authors believe the learnings from these trials are of great benefit and will add to the state of knowledge of the industry relating to stimulating long horizontal wells


Small Musical Worlds in the Mediterranean is a pioneering book-length study of the complex topics of identity, ethnicity and global processes in children's musical lives in the Republic of Cyprus a Mediterranean country during its post-colonial era. What is it about this country's musical enculturation that made musical identity such a potent element in Greek Cypriot children's worlds? How is history, tradition, modernity, ethnic fluidity, syncretism and diversification in the Mediterranean negotiated in the construction of musical 'self' and 'other' in children's daily lives? This book, through a journey of 'fieldwork at home', discusses how children select, reject, reproduce and transform meanings and create new ones at the microlevel of their lives through which individuals and groups define themselves and others. Towards this exploration, musical identity in childhood is discussed in terms of cultural production and reproduction, human expression, inter-relating and learning. Ethnographic vignettes of children's musical practices and direct words add depth and humour to the flow of the book. This study is a synthesis of ethnomusicology, musical anthropology, education and folklore in which the author effectively weaves together theories of musical enculturation and identity, sociocultural learning and human agency. The book will be invaluable to scholars interested in musical enculturation, musical identities, children's contextual musical practices, ethnicity, globalization studies, music education and Mediterranean studies.... Download ebook, read file pdf Ethnicity, Globalization and Greek Cypriot Children's Musical Identities


This paper addressed how the organizations that promote the use of ICTs by farmers and traders in Benin approached the issue of linking smallholder farmers to markets and if they succeeded in their interventions. The main result was that farmers were not the main targets of the ICT-based market initiatives, nor were they intended to be the direct beneficiaries of the projects. Hence, the ICT impact on improving market linkages could be questionable. Nonetheless, there was hope that farmers would benefit through greater market transparency and greater access to highly rewarding value chains for traders.


Introduction:The present study was aimed to assess the awareness, knowledge, and attitude towards basic life support (BLS) among the dental students and faculty of Al Azhar dental college.
Materials and Methods:A descriptive study was conducted by using a Questionnaire comprising of 20 questions to collect the data pertaining to awareness and knowledge of BLS, attitude towards BLS among the 3rd, final year dental students and the faculty members. After excluding the incomplete response sheets which were none in the present study, the data from 212 members were subjected to the analysis. The Main outcome measure was the over all score in the BLS knowledge. Knowledge of BLS was assessed as per the data contained in the Basic life support manual from American Heart Association.
Results: Out of 212 members 109 were 3rd year students and 85 were final year students and 18 faculty members. The overall knowledge score was 33.7%. Overall results were poor with less than minimum knowledge on the topic BLS. A score of less than 50% was evident in the study indicating a poor knowledge of BLS among both the students and the faculty.The range of correct answers were 3-11 among students and 4-6 among the staffs. A significant difference (p


A three-dimensional structure of a model decapeptide is obtained by performing molecular dynamics simulations of the peptide in explicit water. Interactions between an N-myristoylated form of the folded peptide anchored to dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine fluid phase lipid membranes are studied at different applied surface tensions by molecular dynamics simulations. The lipid membrane environment influences the conformational space explored by the peptide. The overall secondary structure of the anchored peptide is found to deviate at times from its structure in aqueous solution through reversible conformational transitions. The peptide is, despite the anchor, highly mobile at the membrane surface with the peptide motion along the bilayer normal being integrated into the collective modes of the membrane. Peptide anchoring moderately alters the lateral compressibility of the bilayer by changing the equilibrium area of the membrane. Although membrane anchoring moderately affects the elastic properties of the bilayer, the model peptide studied here exhibits conformational flexibility and our results therefore suggest that peptide acylation is a feasible way to reinforce peptide-membrane interactions whereby, e.g., the lifetime of receptor-ligand interactions can be prolonged.


This SSRN paper consolidates –
I. unchanged, the Comment posted on Policy Exchange's Judicial Power Project on 28 September 2019, and
II. with very minor amendment, the Supplementary Notes posted there on 7 February 2020. These explain why the Comment's theses are sound. The UK Supreme Court's nullification of the Queen's prorogation of Parliament on 9/10 September 2019 was contrary both to the Bill of Rights 1689 and to the settled law of the constitution about the non-justiciability of the conventions regulating the inter-relations of Crown and Parliament and giving effect to the principle of ministerial accountability to Parliament. Academic attempts to deny the revolutionary character of the decision in Miller/Cherry v Prime Minister misrepresent the law of the constitution, and overlook the key facts about prorogation in Erskine May's Law and Practice of Parliamentary, in the primary 20th century textbook on the law of the constitution, and above all in the Bill of Rights considered with the history of late Stuart prorogations. The factual misjudgments and injustices at the heart of the Judgment are further explored, and confirm the wisdom of the law of non-justiciability the Judgment cast aside.


A broadband compact antenna is implemented by modifying the full ground plane metamaterial antenna. The strip matching ground is used to enhance the impedance matching by 800% compared to the full ground plane case while maintaining its compact size as 1/10 lambda0 by 12 size of antenna ground plane. Planar inverted F antenna (PIFA) is also known for its compact size and its capability to easily operate at multiple frequencies. The simulated and measured results demonstrate that the proposed antenna should be a potential candidate to use in the modern wireless communication system.


According to micromechanics, consider the porous shape memory alloy (SMA) as a composite-sphere model. Isolate a constant thickness spherical shell which is composed of SMA, and is traction free on its inner surface and subjected to the uniform hydrostatic pressure and the deviatoric stress on its external surface. Then, a constitutive model for porous SMA considering hydrostatic stress is proposed by elasticity solution. The stress distribution of the spherical shell was calculated. Corresponding to different applied stresses, the spherical shell is divided into different regions of pure austenite, pure martenite, and austenite/martensite mixture under isothermal circumstances. The martensite volume fraction is then obtained. The predicted results have been compared with the obtained experimental data by Zhao and Sia Nemat-Nasser. It shows that the modeling results are in good agreement with the experiments and the initial phase transition point for porous SMA is lower than the dense SMA.


Comparing Media Systems; Three Models of Media and Politics. Daniel C. Hallin and Paolo Mancini. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004. 342 pp. $75.00 hbk. $29.99 pbk. Democratizing Global Media; One World, Many Strategies. Robert A. Hackett and Yuezhi Zhao, eds. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2005. 328 pp. $79.00 hbk. $34.95 ppk. The venerable Four Theories of the Press included two "theories" of Western media: the Libertarian, represented more or less by partisan European newspapers and some broadcasters, and the Social Responsibility, typically public service broadcasters and non-partisan U.S. newspapers. Hachten later put both into a single "Western" concept. Now we have a third typology that divides Western media and political systems into three groups: Mediterranean or Polarized Pluralist Model (France, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain), Northern European or Democratic Corporatist Model (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland), and the North Atlantic or Liberal Model (the Anglosphere of Britain, United States, Canada, and Ireland). Unlike the other two, Comparing Media Systems embeds the media into the political system and devotes as much attention to the symbiotic relationship between politics and journalism as to the media themselves. The two authors, one from California, the other from Italy, trace the origins of the book to an earlier joint enterprise that concluded twenty years ago and list nearly two pages of places visited and people consulted. It is a thoughtful analysis, long in gestation, worth careful reading, full of useful insights. After a section of chapters devoted to defining criteria for evaluating media systems and political systems, the authors turn to the three-part Europe plus North America typology to see where the major countries of the West are alike-and different. The conclusion, represented in a final section, focuses on homogenization of both political and media systems and, inevitably, Americanization. Are all of the Western media finally, as Jeremy Tunstall asked several decades ago, American? The answer here is "yes," but only partly. The authors conclude that the Anglosphere liberal media model has triumphed in the West but credit factors such as technology, commercialization, distancing of media from political parties, and the dominance of the United States in information production rather than the tired explanation of cultural imperialism. And they note that the robust media/political mix traditionally associated with Old Europe is likely to appeal to parts of New Europe and other regions emerging from various forms of authoritarianism more than the antiseptic professionalism of U.S. journalism. Even in the United States, the explosion of cable outlets leads to a segmentation along economic and ideological lines that is reminiscent of European media. Fox News is conservative? At one time, the Italian government divided the three public networks among the three major parties, and the Netherlands once allocated broadcast time in a similar way. A Frenchman would still be puzzled by U.S. concerns of political media "bias." Of course, newspapers are partisan; aren't they supposed to be? What if the media are partisan and occasionally irresponsible? It's a question that resonates widely. The world's media really aren't American yet and are not likely to be in the future. Democratizing Global Media deals with some of the same issues but from a very different perspective. If anything, it is Canada-centric since the editors are from Simon Fraser University, and, except for Robert McChesney and Majid Tehranian, none of the contributors lists a U. …


A system for the automatic segmentation of the pulmonary vasculature in thoracic CT scans is presented. The method is based on a vesselness filter and includes a local thresholding procedure to accurately segment vessels of varying diameters. The output of an automatic segmentation of the airways is used to remove false positive detections in the airway walls. The algorithm is tested with a quantitative evaluation framework based on manual classification of well-dispersed local maxima and random points on ten axial sections in a scan. The algorithm has been applied to ten low dose CT scans annotated by two observers. Results show that local thresholding and airway wall removal both improve segmentation performance and that the accuracy of the proposed method approaches the interobserver variability.


The growth of tourism which employs natire potencies as a tourism decoy becomes a good opportunity for Cilacap municipality. Its shown that tourism development in this municipality mostly done by using natural resources as the fascination. Encouragement to raise the quality of tourism in Cilacap Municipality is carried out on the superior tourism venue "Teluk Penyu Beach". Consequently the growth and promotion of that tourism campaign have brought many positive result for the civilians nearby. What so-ever, consequently occurring unequality between the need for fascination and the attraction available. Hence the visitor were not satisfied and it effected to the stability of animal visiting record level. The might occurred due to unconcentrated services by the management to all structure component which created the fascination properly. Therefore they couldn't give sufficient services to the tour location. Obviously visitor are very important for tourism, hence they must be served as good as possible to feel comfort and enjoy, then they might return next time. Assessment or desire of the visitors for an enjoyable fascination has a significant role the possibility for them to return the same place, despite the cost matterns, therefore its very necessary to evaluate "did the tourism fascination at Teluk Penyu Beach Cilacap municipality could satisfy the visitor or not", and what do visitors expect? Thus the objective of this research is to identify this research is to identify some factors which composed tourism attraction at Teluk Penya Beach, Cilacap municipality based on perception and preference of the visitors, and also determine priority of its development Analysis in this research uses several methods such as "Descript Analysis Method" and quantitative analysis method. DAM which using "Single Variable Analysis" is employed to figure out the visitors perception and preference to fascination composer at Teluk Penyu and determine its priority order. According to the result by doing some analysis to visitors, we have acquired several factors which composed the tourism fascination at Teluk Penyu based on visitors perception and preference simultaneously the priority order its development. First, factors of structures and infrastructures, second, factor of natural tourism of fascination, Third, factor of accommodations, fourth, factors of special tourism attraction, fifth, factors of social and cultural tourism attraction, sixth, factors of accessibility. Recomendedly to enhance the services sustainable to every factors which compose the tourism fascination increating the attraction or supporting factor.


INTRODUCTION
Crohn's Disease (CD) occurs in the elderly in 5 - 25% of cases. Aim of our study: to define the features of clinical presentation, diagnostic tools and therapy of CD in old age.

METHODS
In the last ten years we observed in our Department 47 patients affected by CD. We divided them into two groups: A (42 patients < 65 years old) and B (5 patients ≥ 65 years old). A retrospective survey evaluated the clinical presentation, diagnosis and treatments with relative outcomes.

RESULTS
Group A: 23/42 patients (54,76%) were operated on. The most important indication for surgery was intestinal obstruction (15/42 pts, 65,2%). Small bowel resection was the most frequent surgical procedure (13/42 pts, 56,2%). Overall, 2/23 (8,7%) of the patients developed postoperative complications. There was no postoperative mortality. 8 pts (34,7 %) developed recrudescence of CD. Group B: 3 of 5 pts were operated on. Intestinal obstruction was the indication for surgery in all cases (100%). Two patients underwent small bowel resection (66,6%) and the third patient was submitted to an ileo-colic resection (33,3%). There was no mortality in the aftermath of surgery. In 2/3 operated patients (66,6%) recurrence occurred. All operations in the old patients were performed in urgency.

CONCLUSIONS
Surgery of CD in the elderly appears in our experience to have the same indications and procedures as in young patients. The postoperative morbidity, mortality and recurrence rates are similar in two groups even if we observed slightly higher postoperative morbidity rates in elderly due to the presence of comorbidity.


Manufacturing cell formation and its balance in just-in-time (JIT) type production environments have usually been studied separately in the literature. This practice is unrealistic since both problems interact and affect each other when the cells are operating. This chapter proposes a methodology to design multiple manufacturing cells and simultaneously balance their workload. The cells considered are U-shaped and process mixed models of product families. A nonlinear integer programming mathematical model is proposed, which integrates cell formation and their balancing, considering various production factors. For illustration, the method is applied to the redesign of a rack manufacturing process.


Recurrent Neural Network (RNN) has been successfully applied in many sequence learning problems. Such as handwriting recognition, image description, natural language processing and video motion analysis. After years of development, researchers have improved the internal structure of the RNN and introduced many variants. Among others, Gated Recurrent Unit (GRU) is one of the most widely used RNN model. However, GRU lacks the capability of adaptively paying attention to certain regions or locations, so that it may cause information redundancy or loss during leaning. In this paper, we propose a RNN model, called Recurrent Attention Unit (RAU), which seamlessly integrates the attention mechanism into the interior of GRU by adding an attention gate. The attention gate can enhance GRU's ability to remember long-term memory and help memory cells quickly discard unimportant content. RAU is capable of extracting information from the sequential data by adaptively selecting a sequence of regions or locations and pay more attention to the selected regions during learning. Extensive experiments on image classification, sentiment classification and language modeling show that RAU consistently outperforms GRU and other baseline methods.


Aim: To study subjective and objective outcomes following functional endoscopic sinus surgery (FESS) in patients with chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS). Materials and methods: We prospectively followed up 140 CRS patients after FESS for 6 months to 2 years. Demographic data was collected. Using the Lund–Kennedy endoscopic score (LKES) and the sinonasal outcome test (SNOT-22) score, we assessed the postoperative outcome. Results: Patients with CRS with polyps (CRSwNP) were more likely to be asthmatic ( p = 0.01) and have allergic rhinitis ( p = 0.02). CRSwNP patients had higher LKES than those without polyps (CRSsNP) ( p = 0.001). Postoperative improvement in LKES was significantly greater in CRSwNP patients ( p < 0.001). Preoperative SNOT-22 scores were high in both groups, and postoperative scores showed significant improve ment ( p < 0.001). Patients who had revision surgery had a similar baseline and postoperative LKES and SNOT-22 scores to those who underwent primary surgery. Conclusion: FESS improves both endoscopic and quality of life outcomes for patients with CRS with and without polyps. Clinical significance: Our study highlights the improvement both in the overall quality of life and in each of the subdomains in patients with CRS after FESS especially in the Indian population. It is important to correlate the objective and subjective outcomes with standardized instruments postoperatively. This will help in monitoring the disease and aid in postoperative management Functional Endoscopic Sinus Surgery on Patients with Chronic Rhinosinusitis: A Prospective, Cohort Study among Indian Patients. Clin Rhinol An Int J 2018;11(1):1-6.


We study the problem of a planner who resolves risk-return trade-offs - like financial investment decisions - on behalf of a collective of agents with heterogeneous risk preferences. The planner's objective is a two-stage utility functional where an outer utility function is applied to the distribution of the agents' certainty equivalents from a given decision. Assuming lognormal risks and heterogeneous power utility preferences for the agents, we characterize optimal behavior in a setting where the planner can let each agent choose between different options from a fixed menu of possible decisions, leading to a grouping of the agents by risk preferences. These optimal decision menus are derived first for the case where the planner knows the distribution of preferences exactly and then for a case where he faces uncertainty about this distribution, only having access to upper and lower bounds on agents' relative risk aversion. Finally, we provide tight bounds on the welfare loss from offering a finite menu of choices rather than fully personalized decisions.