Non-contact lap splices placed within a single concrete placement are often used and have been studied in previous research projects. However, non-contact lap splices used with each bar in a different concrete placement such that there is a cold joint between the bars, have not been investigated. This situation is found in the repair of adjacent box beam bridges and in the construction of inverted T-beam systems, among others. It is vital to understand whether the same mechanisms are present across a cold joint with two different types of concrete as are present in traditional non-contact lap splices. In this research, eight T-beam specimens with non-contact lap splices were tested. The spacing between the bars, the splice bar blockout length, and presence of transverse bars were varied to study the effectiveness of the splices. The beams were tested in four point bending so that the splice region was under constant moment and the tension forces in the spliced bars were constant. End and midspan deflections were measured along with surface strain measurements at midspan and at the quarter span points, top and bottom. Gap openings were also measured at the ends of the blockouts. The main conclusions found from this research are that beams containing non-contact lap splices were able to develop nominal capacity with the bar spacing less than or equal to 4 in. and the blockout between 17 and 20 in. long. Extending the blockouts and adding transverse bars underneath the splices did not add to the capacity.


In this article, we report a new super-hydrophobic surface with switchable adhesion that is responsive to both temperature and pH. When the water pH is fixed (pH = 7), a water droplet (4 μL) can roll on the surface at high temperature (45 °C) and be pinned at low temperature (20 °C). Simultaneously, the surface shows strong dependence on the pH of the water droplet, an acid droplet (pH = 2, 4 μL) can roll on the surface while a basic droplet (pH = 11, 4 μL) is pinned when the temperature is constant (45 °C). Reversible transition between the low adhesive rolling state and the high adhesive pinning state can be achieved by simply changing the temperature and/or the pH alternately. The smart effect of the surface is attributed to the cooperation of chemical variation of the poly(N-isopropylacrylamide-co-acrylic acid) P(NIPAAm-co-AAc) and the hierarchical structures on the surface. Such a novel super-hydrophobic surface with dual-responsive adhesion could potentially be used in a wide range of applications with more complex environments, such as biochemical separation, lab-on-chip devices and in situ detection.


This dissertation is grounded in my praxis as a Hatha yoga teacher in the community. I noticed that particular students were drawn to specific styles of Hatha yoga, whilst avoiding others. I took the styles of Hatha yoga into consideration, but further exploration also gave rise to whether methods of instruction were a fundamental component of the class demography. This in turn led to an examination of my own teaching pedagogy to explore how my philosophical approach to teaching, was in fact, carried over into to my praxis and if this was a factor in student retention in my classes. Studying my own pedagogy as a Hatha yoga teacher meant reviewing my philosophies, both from a theoretical perspective and later from a practical level, to see if my practice followed my philosophy. This could only be realised through a full investigation of my teaching methods, which was achieved by video taping one of my Hatha yoga classes. I believe that understanding originates from personal knowledge; therefore, the research must begin by examining my own pedagogy. In order to answer these questions I have investigated the historical foundations of yoga and the meaning of yoga in the modern Western world. During this process I became aware of the misrepresentations of Hatha yoga and the misconceptions that have derived from this. In order to answer my research question, whether my teaching pedagogy directly influenced the cohort of students who attended my yoga class, I have had to be cognisant of my own pedagogy. In order to achieve this I employed heuristic enquiry and more specifically the methods outline by Clark Moustakas (1990). Heuristic epistemology is achieved by creating phases in which the researcher uses her own experience to investigate and create meaning in which to discover a phenomenon. This method of enquiry offers the researcher non-linear steps with which to structure the process of a personal reflection. Explication of the pedagogy resulted from numerous viewings of the video recording. I reviewed my teaching methods to ascertain if what I said and thought I was doing was what I actually taught.


This paper develops a framework for the extraction of a reliability block diagram in component-based systems for reliability prediction with respect to specific missions. A mission is defined as a composition of several high-level functions occurring at different stages and for a specific time during the mission. The high-level functions are decomposed into lower-level functions, which are then mapped to their corresponding components or component assemblies. The reliability block diagram is obtained using functional decomposition and function-component association. Using the reliability block diagram and the reliability information on the components such as failure rates, the reliability of the system carrying out a mission can be estimated. The reliability block diagram is evaluated by converting it into a logic (Boolean) expression. A modeling language created using the Generic Modeling Environment (GME) platform is used, which enables modeling of a system and captures the functional decomposition and function-component association in the system. This framework also allows for real-time monitoring of the system performance where the reliability of the mission can be computed over time as the mission progresses. The uncertainties in the failure rates and operational time of each high-level function are also considered which are quantified through probability distributions using the Bayesian framework. The dependence between failures of components are also considered and are quantified through a Bayesian network (BN). Other quantities of interest such as mission feasibility and function availability can also be assessed using this framework. Mission feasibility analysis determines if the mission can be accomplished given the current state of components in the system, and function availability provides information whether the function will be available in the future given the current state of the system. The proposed methodology is demonstrated using a radio-controlled (RC) car to carry out a simple surveillance mission.


This paper is to design an intelligent weighing system to solve the problems in enterprises, such as incompatibility with hardware and software environment in different enterprise scenarios, the fixed interface layout and the dilemma that a single-way computational formulas can not fit the workflow of complementation of weighing system flexibly. A self-defining formula method is proposed to meet different demands from variable enterprises, which is solved by infix expression algorithm. The interface layout is screen self-adaptation by using an alterable resolution algorithm. The result of the experimental study reveals that the intelligent weighing system is more flexible in self-adaptation of environment than the traditional weighing system.


In Canada, a policy aiming at helping single parents on social assistance become self-reliant was implemented on an experimental basis. The Self-Sufficiency Entry Effects Demonstration randomly selected a sample of 4,134 single parents who had applied for welfare between January 1994 and March 1995. It turned out only 3,315 took part in the experiment despite a 50% chance of receiving a generous, time-limited, earnings supplement conditional on finding a full-time job and leaving income assistance within a year. The purpose of this paper is to determine whether a non-response rate of 20% is likely to harm the external validity of the experiment. We compare the estimated impact of the program using experimental data only to that obtained using additional data on individuals not taking part in the experiment. We find strong evidence of non-response bias in the data. When we correct for the bias, we find that estimates that rely on experimental data only significantly underestimate the true impact of the program.


North Carolina's written history begins in the sixteenth century with the voyages of Sir Walter Raleigh and the founding of the ill-fated Lost Colony on Roanoke Island. But there is a deeper, unwritten past that predates the state's recorded history. The region we now know as North Carolina was settled more than 10,000 years ago, but because early inhabitants left no written record, their story must be painstakingly reconstructed from the fragmentary and fragile archaeological record they left behind. Time before History is the first comprehensive account of the archaeology of North Carolina. Weaving together a wealth of information gleaned from archaeological excavations and surveys carried out across the state--from the mountains to the coast--it presents a fascinating, readable narrative of the state's native past across a vast sweep of time, from the Paleo-Indian period, when the first immigrants to North America crossed a land bridge that spanned the Bering Strait, through the arrival of European traders and settlers in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. |The first comprehensive account of the archaeology of North Carolina. Weaving together information gleaned from excavations and surveys, it presents a readable narrative of the state's native past from the Paleo-indian period through the arrival of European traders and settlers in the 16th and 17th centuries.


OBJECTIVE To investigate 1) differences in cardiometabolic risk and HOMA of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) across BMI categories (underweight to morbid obesity), 2) whether fit children have lower cardiometabolic risk/HOMA-IR than unfit children in each BMI category, and 3) differences in cardiometabolic risk/HOMA-IR in normal-weight unfit children and obese fit children. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS A pooled study including cross-sectional data from three projects (n = 1,247 children aged 8–11 years). Cardiometabolic risk was assessed using the sum of the sex- and age-specific z scores for triglycerides, HDL cholesterol, glucose, and the average of systolic and diastolic blood pressure and HOMA-IR. RESULTS A significant linear association was observed between the risk score and BMI categories (P trend ≤0.001), with every incremental rise in BMI category being associated with a 0.5 SD higher risk score (standardized β = 0.474, P < 0.001). A trend was found showing that as BMI categories rose, cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) attenuated the risk score, with the biggest differences observed in the most obese children (−0.8 SD); however, this attenuation was significant only in mild obesity (−0.2 SD, P = 0.048). Normal-weight unfit children had a significantly lower risk score than obese fit children (P < 0.001); however, a significant reduction in the risk score was found in obese fit compared with unfit children (−0.4 SD, P = 0.027). Similar results were obtained for HOMA-IR. CONCLUSIONS As BMI categories rose so did cardiometabolic risk and HOMA-IR, which highlights the need for obesity prevention/treatment programs in childhood. Furthermore, CRF may play an important role in lowering the risk of cardiometabolic diseases in obese children.


The environmental economics literature has ignored the effects of the interaction among capital mobility, private and public pollution abatement, and cross-border pollution on environmental policies. We analyze these effects in the context of a general equilibrium model. We find, among other things, that (i) when countries are symmetric, the presence of public pollution abatement makes Nash equilibrium pollution taxes efficient while lump-sum taxes remain inefficient; and (ii) when countries are asymmetric, both taxes are inefficient and the Nash equilibrium pollution taxes depend mainly on the direction of capital mobility, factor intensity, and the degree of cross-border pollution. These results indicate that policy cooperation is more important when countries are different.


The next challenge in qualitative spatial and temporal reasoning is to develop calculi that deal with different aspects of space and time. One approach to achieve this is to combine existing calculi that cover the different aspects. This, however, can lead to calculi that have a very large number of relations and it is a matter of ongoing discussions within the research community whether such large calculi are too large to be useful. In this paper we develop a procedure for reasoning about some of the largest known calculi, the Rectangle Algebra and the Block Algebra with about 10661 relations. We demonstrate that reasoning over these calculi is possible and can be done efficiently in many cases. This is a clear indication that one of the main goals of the field can be achieved: highly expressive spatial and temporal representations that support efficient reasoning.


Entity linking is the task of linking mentions of named entities in natural language text, to entities in a curated knowledge-base. This is of significant importance in the biomedical domain, where it could be used to semantically annotate a large volume of clinical records and biomedical literature, to standardized concepts described in an ontology such as Unified Medical Language System (UMLS). We observe that with precise type information, entity disambiguation becomes a straightforward task. However, fine-grained type information is usually not available in biomedical domain. Thus, we propose LATTE, a LATent Type Entity Linking model, that improves entity linking by modeling the latent fine-grained type information about mentions and entities. Unlike previous methods that perform entity linking directly between the mentions and the entities, LATTE jointly does entity disambiguation, and latent fine-grained type learning, without direct supervision. We evaluate our model on two biomedical datasets: MedMentions, a large scale public dataset annotated with UMLS concepts, and a de-identified corpus of dictated doctor's notes that has been annotated with ICD concepts. Extensive experimental evaluation shows our model achieves significant performance improvements over several state-of-the-art techniques.


Kant was never satisfied with the version of his "Refutation" published in 1787 (KrV, B 275-279). His dissatisfaction is already evident in the footnote added to the preface of the second edition of the Critique in 1787. As a matter of fact, Kant continued to rework his argument for at least six years after 1787. The main exegetical problem is to figure out who is the target of the "Refutation": a non-sceptic idealist or a global sceptic of Cartesian provenance or both. In this last case, a related problem is to know whether either of them is the Cartesian sceptic of the first Meditation, the idealist sceptic of the second Meditation and first part of the third Meditation, or some other non-sceptic idealist. I present and defend a new reconstruction of Kant's "Refutation" as a successful argument against Mendelssohnian idealism of Cartesian provenance. This defence is based on a simple logical sketch of the proof provided by Dicker, but essentially modified in the light of Dyck's insight about Kant's opponent. How shall I support my reading? First, by appealing to overwhelming textual evidence according to which the proof is of the existence of mind-independent things, showing that Kant's main opponent is Mendelssohn's idealism of Cartesian provenance. Finally, I support my reading by showing that Kant's "Refutation" is doomed to fail against all forms of global scepticism, but is quite successful against Mendelssohn's idealism.


As the academic publishing industry evolves, there has been an unprecedented growth of open access journals (OAJs). In educational technology alone, with an estimated 270 associated journals, nearly one-third are designated as open. Though OAJs are lauded for what their availability can contribute to social justice issues (reduction of subscription requirement barriers), some remain suspicious of the content found in them and question the legitimacy of publishing in them. In this study, we sought to discover the opinions of educational technology scholars about OAJs in their own field. We were able to learn which OAJs were deemed to be most valuable, as well as the characteristics of OAJs thought to be particularly important.


So far, humor is analized from the psychological point of view. There are only a few linguistic studies about humor. Therefore, the writer attempts to develop linguistic theory by analizing short-text humor in Reader's Digest magazine of November 1993 edition. She wanted to find out what linguistic element was violated by short-text humors in that magazine. To support her study, the writer used semantic and pragmatic theories. Here, the semantic theory covered semantic ambiguity (lexical and grammatical ambiguities) and truth conditional semantics (including causal falla-cy), whereas, the pragmatic one covered Austin's speech acts theory and Grice's co-operative principle. Thus, there are nine linguitic elements, i.e. : lexical ambi-guity, grammatical ambiguity, truth conditional seman-tics, causal fallacy, speech acts, maxim of quality, maxim of quantity, maxim of relevance and the last is maxim of manner. Each humor, except the non-linguitic ones, violated one of them. In a humor, there was a semantic mechanism working in it. This mechanism arranged the humor so it sounded funny. After understanding the humor through its semantic mechanism, the writer could justify which linguistic element was violated by the humor. The writer used qualitative approach in this study because it was a case study. Furthermore, she also used quantitative data in analizing the data. She collected all short-texts humor in Reader's Digest of November 1993 edition as her source of data. The analysis of the data contained two parts. The first was the analysis of semantic mechanisms of humor and the second was the analysis of linguistic element violations. From the first one, the writer found that most humor used unexpected meaning to surprise the read-ers and only one humor used expected meaning. The later analysis let the writer to find that speech acts was the most frequently violated linguistic element.


A panoramic view of the "Autry Community House" on Main Street, across from the William M. Rice Institute. The white, two-storied, gabled building is on the right-hand side of the image, with a sign near the street, which reads "The Owl", additional writing obscured by foliage. Traffic can be seen moving along the street on either side of a bordered esplanade, with two cars parked on the Autry House side. A scattering of birds in flight can be seen above the street, as well as a distant biplane. Written in white on the lower left-hand corner: "Schlueter, Houston, Ph. P. 3017, Ph. H. 4780", and on the lower right-hand corner, "Autry Community House, Rice Institute, Houston, Tex." Original resource is a black and white photograph.


Data is presented demonstrating the applicability of sonar-based, clamp-on flow measurement to several, longstanding flow measurement challenges within the oilsands industry, including hydrotransport, coarse tailings, and bitumen froth flow lines. Sonar-based flow measurement technology was developed and field proven in the oil and gas production industry over the last five years and provides robust, accurate volumetric flow rate measurement for a broad range of process fluids, slurries, pipes sizes and flow conditions. Sonar-based flow metering technology utilizes an array of sensors to listen to, and interpret, unsteady pressure fields within process flow lines. The methodology is implemented using strain-based sensors which clamp-on to existing process piping. Sonar-based flow monitoring systems determine volumetric flow rate by measuring the speed at which self-generated, coherent flow structures convect past the sensor array. Using similar sonar-based array processing techniques as those used for volumetric flow, sonar-based flow meters can also determine entrained air (or any other gas) levels by measuring the speed at which sound propagates within the process flow lines. The speed of sound in the process flow lines provides an accurate and robust, clamp-on method for determining entrained air levels in aerated liquids. Data is presented showing entrained air levels on a 16-inch diameter froth line exiting a steam-driven deaerator.


Shinto is an ancient faith of forests and snow capped mountains. It sees the divine in rocks and streams communing with spirit worlds through bamboo twigs and the evergreen sakaki tree. Yet it is also the manicured suburban garden and the blades of grass between cracks in city paving stones. Structured around ritual cleansing Shinto contains no concept of sin. It reveres ancestors but thinks little about the afterlife, asking us to live in and improve the present. Central to Shinto is Kannagara or the intuitive acceptance of the divine power contained in all living things. Dai Shizen (Great Nature) is the life force with which we ally ourselves through spiritual practice and living simply. This is not asceticism but an affirmation of all aspects of life. Musubi (organic growth) provides a model for reconciling ancient intuition with modern science and modern society with primal human needs. Shinto is an unbroken indigenous path that now reaches beyond its native Japan. It has special relevance to us as we seek a more balanced and fulfilled way of life.


The planning and designing of outdoor spaces in assisting the healing process of children in the hospital environment is new but full of prospect in health service sector in Malaysia. Experiencing with biotic, physical and climatic factors in the natural environment would nurture ill children through provision of space to play and get fascinated. Through passive and /or active participations with the garden elements, the children are able to get away from the confinement of ward conditions and routines of medical treatments. With proper design and implementation, the hospital outdoor spaces can be made into therapeutic platforms for the children to play, rest and socialise. The design must turn the place into a respite where the children's body and mind are engaged into a structured setting. Here they can experience diversity of forms, colours, shapes of landscape elements and dynamism of climatic factors, namely, light, wind and rain. All their senses can be stimulated by the garden environment that would lead to fascination and reduction of stress. Stress reduction is a crucial step in recuperation process that would result in several positive physiological outcomes including lower blood pressure, reduced muscle tension, and lower skin conductance. Furthermore, patients experiencing reduction of stress level would also display some psychological responses. In children, the responses are known as psychological peacefulness and adjustments that include less crying, more cooperation and more obedient toward clinical treatments given by caregivers of the hospitals. The effects of garden towards ill children treated in hospitals is described in depth in a research RMC 72338 Universiti Teknologi Malaysia report, "Study on the Effectiveness of Therapeutic Garden as a Platform to Recuperate Ill Children in the Nucleus Hospital Environment" and later summarised in an article, "Garden as an Environmental Intervention in Healing Process of Hospitalised Children".
1
Therefore, these design considerations and recommendations for the development of children therapeutic gardens are derived from the research done by Research Management Centre, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia from December 2000 to November 2002. The objectives of submission of these texts are (1) to share the research findings with Jabatan Landskap Negara for the development of therapy gardens in healthcare facilities, and (2) to call upon Jabatan Landskap Negara to finance Universiti Teknologi Malaysia to conduct more studies on therapeutic landscapes, including healing gardens for orthopaedics, Alzheimer, and terminally-ill (chronic) patients in hospital environment. Currently, UTM is making a link with the Department of Pediatrics, Universiti Sains Malaysia to jointly conduct this type of research.


SUMMARY 1. Stream ecosystems exhibit a highly consistent dendritic geometry in which linear habitat units intersect to create a hierarchical network of connected branches. 2. Ecological and life history traits of species living in streams, such as the potential for overland movement, may interact with this architecture to shape patterns of occupancy and response to disturbance. Specifically, large-scale habitat alteration that fragments stream networks and reduces connectivity may reduce the probability a stream is occupied by sensitive species, such as stream salamanders. 3. We collected habitat occupancy data on four species of stream salamanders in first-order (i.e. headwater) streams in undeveloped and urbanised regions of the eastern U.S.A. We then used an information–theoretic approach to test alternative models of salamander occupancy based on a priori predictions of the effects of network configuration, region and salamander life history. 4. Across all four species, we found that streams connected to other first-order streams had higher occupancy than those flowing directly into larger streams and rivers. For three of the four species, occupancy was lower in the urbanised region than in the undeveloped region. 5. These results demonstrate that the spatial configuration of stream networks within protected areas affects the occurrences of stream salamander species. We strongly encourage preservation of network connections between first-order streams in conservation planning and management decisions that may affect stream species.


The problems of morality are complicated by the competing perspectives that religion and philosophy sometimes bring to ethical discussions. Paul Diener provides a readable and coherent guide to these problems for scholars, students, and general readers. He provides overviews of how various religions and philosophical systems understand morality, and then examines possible relationships between religion and morality.


Objectives & Background Anaesthetic charts are an invaluable source of concurrent and retrospective information. They provide relevant history and events during surgical and/or anaesthetic procedures. Admission notes to the intensive care unit showed poor record keeping of events outside the theatre environment. In accordance with standards set by the Royal College of Anaesthetists (RCoA) and the Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland (AAGBI), we developed an 'Emergency Anaesthetic Chart', to be used in the Emergency Department by both emergency physicians and anaesthetists. The aim was to improve the quality and quantity of information recorded during an emergency requiring critical care input, in a recognisable and easy to use format. Methods A retrospective notes based review of admissions to the intensive care unit from the Emergency Department provided comparison against standards set by RCoA and AAGBI. The results were presented at a departmental meeting and the development of an 'Emergency Anaesthetic Chart' was undertaken to drive improvement. This was based on the current trust 'Day/23 hour Anaesthetic Record' used in the theatre environment. A further review looked at admission data since the implementation of the new chart, with the final data collection ongoing. Results In the initial audit 9 sets of notes were examined over 6 week period, in the re-audit 11 sets of notes over a 6 week period were examined, 7 using the new chart. All were patients admitted from the emergency department. Re-audit data (before, after) showed that demographic data remained well recorded at 100%. Improvement was seen in recording of medical history (56%, 100%) initial observations, (56%, 86%) and airway assessment (11%, 29%). Most importantly recording of procedural events (44%, 71%), repeat observations (33%, 100%) and subsequent drug administrations (22%, 86%) all showed significant improvement. Conclusion We revealed poor record keeping during critical care involvement in the emergency department and identified the need for a more reproducible and standardised method of data recording. An adapted version of a current anaesthetic chart has been found to be effective in increasing the quality and quantity of information recorded for emergency admissions. This improves adherence to the required standards, and is also recognisable and user friendly for staff conditioned to use the Trust's anaesthetic charts.


Efficient nonlinear optical frequency conversion is proposed and theoretically demonstrated by use of stopped short light pulses in a doubly resonant Bragg reflector. The pump pulse is shown to decelerate and stop in the reflector, and the stopped pump field reinforces the interaction with stimulated Raman scattering. The temporal walk-off between the pump pulse and the generated Raman pulse can be substantially reduced with the doubly resonant Bragg structure. Numerical simulations show that the conversion from the picosecond pump pulse to Stokes wave can reach 85%.


Objective In this study, we aim to investigate the association between aortic sclerosis and mortality and major morbidity in patients with established coronary artery disease undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). Design Preoperative echocardiograms of consecutive patients undergoing isolated CABG between 2007 and 2009 (n=1150) were analysed, excluding patients without an echocardiogram in the 30 days prior to surgery (n=483). Using logistic regression, we evaluated the association between aortic sclerosis and inhospital mortality and major morbidity. Using Cox proportional hazards, the effect on long-term all-cause mortality was determined. Setting Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston. Patients Patients undergoing isolated CABG between 2007 and 2009. Interventions Analysis of echocardiograms. Main outcome measures Inhospital mortality and major morbidity, and long-term all-cause mortality. Results 627 patients were suitable for enrolment; 207 (33%) had significant aortic sclerosis. These patients had higher rates of traditional cardiovascular risk factors. Significant aortic sclerosis was associated with an increased risk of inhospital mortality or major morbidity (OR 1.95; 95% CI 1.25 to 3.04). Following adjustment for baseline clinical and echocardiographic variables, the association remained significant (OR 1.90; 95% CI 1.15 to 3.11). The HR for adjusted all-cause mortality was 2.52 (mean follow-up 2.7 years). Conclusions Aortic sclerosis is a common finding in patients undergoing CABG. In these patients, its presence is associated with a higher risk of inhospital mortality or major morbidity, and is associated with a higher risk of all-cause long-term mortality independent of other risk factors.


Abstract COVID-19 has further exacerbated trends of widening health inequalities in the UK. Shockingly, the number of years of life lived in general good health differs by over 18 years between the most and least deprived areas of England. Poor diets and obesity are established major risk factors for chronic cardiometabolic diseases and cancer, as well as severe COVID-19. For doctors to provide the best care to their patients, there is an urgent need to improve nutrition education in undergraduate medical school training. With this imperative, the Association for Nutrition established an Interprofessional Working Group on Medical Education (AfN IPG) to develop a new, modern undergraduate nutrition curriculum for medical doctors. The AfN IPG brought together expertise from nutrition, dietetic and medical professionals, representing the National Health Service (NHS), royal colleges, medical schools and universities, government public health departments, learned societies, medical students, and nutrition educators. The curriculum was developed with the key objective of being implementable through integration with the current undergraduate training of medical doctors. Through an iterative and transparent consultative process, thirteen key nutritional competencies, to be achieved through mastery of eleven graduation fundamentals, were established. The curriculum to facilitate the achievement of these key competencies is divided into eight topic areas, each underpinned by a learning objective statement and teaching points detailing the knowledge and skills development required. The teaching points can be achieved through clinical teaching and a combination of facilitated learning activities and practical skill acquisition. Therefore, the nutrition curriculum enables mastery of these nutritional competencies in a way that will complement and strengthen medical students' achievement of the General Medical Council (GMC) Outcome for Graduates. As nutrition is an integrative science, the AfN IPG recommends that the curriculum is incorporated into initial undergraduate medical studies before specialist training. This will enable our future doctors to recognise how nutrition is related to multiple aspects of their training, from physiological systems to patient-centred care, and acquire a broad, inclusive understanding of health and disease. In addition, it will facilitate medical schools to embed nutrition learning opportunities within the core medical training, without the need to add in a large number of new components to an already crowded programme or with additional burden for teaching staff. The undergraduate nutrition curriculum for medical doctors is designed to support medical schools to create future doctors who will understand and recognise the role of nutrition in health. Moreover, it will equip frontline staff to feel empowered to raise nutrition-related issues with their patients as a fundamental part of enhanced care and to appropriately refer on for nutrition support with a registered associate nutritionist/registered nutritionist (ANutr/RNutr) or registered dietitian (RD) where this is likely to be beneficial.


Demonstrating the frequency, intensity and disparity of poverty among the various gender and spatial subgroups of Iranian society is the main intention of this paper. Respecting the demands, to the extent allowed by the available data, of Sen's (1987) capabilities approach to the assessment of human well-being, this paper estimates multidimensional poverty in Iran. This study uses the Alkire-Foster method, which is flexible enough to use in various data and dimensional contexts and is able to capture the intensity as well as the incidence of poverty. In order to estimate disparity of poverty, multilevel regression models have been utilised with the premise that households are nested within provinces. Therefore, the disparity in the incidence of poverty -between and within provinces- was estimated using a multilevel logit regression model, while the variation in the intensity of poverty among the poor was estimated by applying a multilevel linear model. The results reveal a remarkable disparity among different subgroups in Iran in which female-headed households and rural households are heavily disadvantaged compared to their peers in male-head and urban households.


In this paper, marine civil engineering structures such as breakwater and sea dikes are discussed along with the challenges of constructing a sea dike in coastal waters close to the coast for storage of flood waters or coastal reservoirs. Here the solution in utilizing or storing the abundant monsoon water which runs off to the ocean close to the coast itself using coastal reservoirs bounded by sea dikes with suitable modifications is proposed. Sea dike is an earthen dike, often meant to prevent flooding of the hinterland and the primary function is to protect low-lying coastal areas from inundation by the sea. For creating coastal reservoirs for storing river flood waters within the shallow waters of the coast close to the point where river joins the ocean. Breakwaters and sea dikes are structures which provide protection against the wave action of the sea and provide coastal protection. The same can be suitably modified for construction of coastal reservoir dikes. Each type of structures which are being considered in the marine environment will be discussed along with their advantages and disadvantages. Construction types of the sea dike or breakwater with specific modifications and alternatives will be presented with necessary design principles and different types of structures which are feasible in this marine environment. A case study of Ennore coal project, India is briefly presented, where a construction of breakwater has been done to protect coal harbour and incoming ships. This case study will be presented in brief to highlight the need for new construction technologies for building sea dikes using geotextiles. Emerging geosynthetic materials and innovative geosynthetic applications are presented for the construction of sea dikes for the creation of coastal reservoirs.


Long-range wide-area network (LoRaWAN) is one of the most promising IoT technologies that are widely adopted in low-power wide-area networks (LPWANs). LoRaWAN faces scalability issues due to a large number of nodes connected to the same gateway and sharing the same channel. Therefore, LoRa networks seek to achieve two main objectives: 1) successful delivery rate and 2) efficient energy consumption. This article proposes a novel game-theoretic framework for LoRaWAN named best equal LoRa (BE-LoRa), to jointly optimize the packet delivery ratio and the energy efficiency (bit/Joule). The utility function of the LoRa node is defined as the ratio of the throughput to the transmit power. LoRa nodes act as rational users (players) which seek to maximize their utility. The aim of the BE-LoRa algorithm is to maximize the utility of LoRa nodes while maintaining the same signal-to-interference-and-noise-ratio (SINR) for each spreading factor (SF). The power allocation algorithm is implemented at the network server, which leads to an optimum SINR, SFs, and transmission power settings of all nodes. Numerical and simulation results show that the proposed BE-LoRa power allocation algorithm has a significant improvement in the packet delivery ratio and energy efficiency as compared to the adaptive data rate (ADR) algorithm of legacy LoRaWAN. For instance, in very dense networks (624 nodes), BE-LoRa can improve the delivery ratio by 17.44% and reduce power consumed by 46% compared to LoRaWAN ADR.


The hydraulic safety of the city of Milan has always been a primary objective in the management of the territory of Regione Lombardia. The alluvial phenomena that, more and more frequently, have interested the territories of the metropolitan area and immediately upstream, towards the north-west (director MilanoGallarate-Varese) and towards the north (Brianza), have brought over time huge economic losses and determined in the local populations a perennial sense of anguish. The complexity of the so-called "Milanese hydraulic node", connected to the ferocious anthropization that has characterized these territories for centuries, and especially during the years of the "economic boom" (fifties and sixties), has always constituted an enormous obstacle for the administrations, both for problems in management and in economic terms. At the end of the past century the increasing emergency requirements have only begun to find concrete answers from the institutions, initially by means of the Piano di Assetto Idrogeologico (ex L. 183/89) and then by means of the Laws issued by Regione Lombardia (since 1998 competent in matter of territorial defence). Today, the hydraulic order of the safety system of the city of Milan is under adaptation and the realization of the planned and programmed participations will guarantee facing the hydraulic emergency during events with great return periods. In this paper the peculiarities of this hydraulic system and the institutional instruments and the solutions apt to guarantee the functionality of the system in front of the changed territorial scenes have been described. www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3517 (on-line) WIT Transactions on Information and Communication Technologies, Vol 43, ©2010 WIT Press doi:10.2495/RISK100581 Risk Analysis VII PI-693


Variation in larval supply to disjunct marine populations can provide insight into larval transport and delivery mechanisms, especially when compared with observations of physical transport. Daily variability in larval supply at two mussel-dominated hydrothermal vents, East Wall and Choo Choo, near 9u509N, East Pacific Rise, was quantified concurrently with hydrodynamic observations to investigate local dispersal processes. The magnitude and temporal variation in supply differed between the two vent sites despite their close proximity, 1.6 km. Larval supply was relatively high and uninterrupted at East Wall compared to low and episodic at Choo Choo. Observed variation in larval supply was compared to predictions based on advective transport from larval sources at neighboring vents. Variation in larval supply at Choo Choo correlated with along-axis southward currents, consistent with larval transport from a northern larval source. Larval supply to East Wall appeared to be independent of current velocities, suggesting that larvae came from multiple sources north of and south of and possibly including East Wall. Transport of larvae from discrete local sources can explain differences in larval supply to vent communities, even on spatial scales of kilometers.


Despite its profound importance for individuals and populations, children's mental health remains underappreciated as a public policy priority, to a degree that violates children's rights. Using a working definition of policymaking as collective ethical decision-making for the one and the many, we elaborate by describing an individual child's story (the one) and reviewing the pertinent population health research evidence (the many). We then outline three central public health ethical challenges: (i) addressing the high prevalence and impact of childhood mental disorders; (ii) addressing the avoidable social adversities that underlie many childhood mental disorders; and (iii) addressing stark shortfalls in prevention and treatment services for children. We end with discussing opportunities for progress, including addressing the attendant children's rights issues.


The number of internet connected devices is growing rapidly. It is getting difficult to gather and process the huge volume of the data generated from these devices. Edge computing paradigm is evolving that helps to process the data locally close to the source. This paper highlights using docker container based analytics services at the edge for data processing. Feasibility is studied for setting up deep learning framework on Raspberry Pi for real-time analysis of video feed from the surveillance camera. Performance benchmarking is also done to figure out overhead of containerization.


The term "greenwashing" refers to false or misleading environmental claims in advertising. This Note gives an overview of various laws that may be applied to greenwashers and the "Green Guides," the Federal Trade Commission's nonbinding guidance covering the application of the Federal Trade Commission Act to environmental claims. This Note argues that greenwashing is a persistent problem for consumers and the environment and that existing laws are not sufficient to prevent it. It suggests that additional federal regulation is needed to curb greenwashing, and that regulation should specifically define terms and be uniform across the country. Unlike the Green Guides, future greenwashing regulation should be binding and enforceable.


The process of revision the Romanian Constitution is initiated by the President of Romania on the proposal of the Government. The objectives of this revision proposal are to sanction at a constitutional level the results of the 2009 popular referendum, to impose several constitutional rules generated by the effects of the economic crisis, to establish a new constitutional framework arising from Romania's status as EU and NATO Member State, and at the enhancing the power separation mechanism. The revision proposal does not intend to change the semipresidential Romanian system. The revision of the Constitution responds exclusively to the need to modernize the Romanian society, as it is a new Member State of the European Union. The transition to a unicameral Parliament, the reduction in the number of the members of the Parliament, strict budget rules, the restriction of parliamentary immunity or the confiscation of the assests acquired by acts or deeds of corruption are stringent needs of the Romanian public life and represent the core of the present proposal of revision of the Constitution. The revision of any constitution at a given time responds to the needs of development of the society itself. Unlike the modification or revision of the laws inferior to the Constitution, the revision of the Constitution entails a special procedure, even more complex than in the case of ordinary or organic laws.


When a parallel manipulator suffers from failures, its performance can be significantly affected. Thus, fault tolerance is essential for task-critical applications or applications in which maintenance is hard to implement. In this paper, we consider three types of common strut failures corresponding to stuck joints, unactuated actuators, or the complete loss of struts, respectively. The impacts of different failures on the kinematics of a manipulator are examined, and the task space redundancy and kinematic redundancies are used to help overcome these failures. In addition, local measures of fault tolerance and their properties are analyzed. These measures can be helpful in architecture design and path planning


This thesis is primarily focused on the information combination at different levels of a statistical pattern classification framework for image annotation and retrieval. Based on the previous study within the fields of image annotation and retrieval, it has been well-recognized that the low-level visual features, such as color and texture, and high-level features, such as textual description and context, are distinct yet complementary in terms of their distributions and the corresponding discriminative powers of dealing with machine-based recognition and retrieval tasks. Therefore, effective feature combination for image annotation and retrieval has become a desirable and promising perspective from which the semantic gap can be further bridged. Motivated by this fact, the combination of the visual and context modalities and that of different features in the visual domain are tackled by developing two statistical patterns classification approaches considering that the features of the visual modality and those across different modalities exhibit different degrees of heterogeneities, and thus, should be treated differently.

Regarding the cross-modality feature combination, a Bayesian framework is proposed to integrate visual content and context, which has been applied to various image annotation and retrieval frameworks. In terms of the combination of different low-level features in the visual domain, the problem is tackled with a novel method that combines texture and color features via a mixture model of their joint distribution. To evaluate the proposed frameworks, many different datasets are employed in the experiments, including the COREL database for image retrieval and the MSRC, LabelMe, PASCAL VOC2009, and an animal image database collected by ourselves for image annotation. Using various evaluation criteria, the first framework is shown to be more effective than the methods purely based on the low-level features or high-level context. As for the second, the experimental results demonstrate not only its superior performance to other feature combination methods but also its ability to discover visual clusters using texture and color simultaneously. Moreover, a demo search engine based on the Bayesian framework is implemented and available online.


The aim of the CGIAR Research Program on Aquatic Agricultural Systems (AAS) is to improve livelihoods and food security by enhancing the productivity and diversity of aquatic and agricultural systems. The AAS program in the Barotse floodplain of Zambia, which is being implemented in ten communities including; Kabula, Kapanda Lealui, Mapungu, Mwandi, Nalitoya, Nembwele, Senanga, Sifuna and Situlu in December 2014, in Nanikelako in April 2015 and in Mwandi, evaluates changes in seasonal flooding patterns and the availability of natural resources to strengthen the productivity of aquatic agricultural management practices and improve the livelihoods of the poor and vulnerable. It is essential to understand the current food and nutrition security situation in the Barotse floodplain in order to support the AAS program objective. Food availability in the Barotse is highly seasonal; it becomes limited from August or September to January, during which time food and nutrition insecurity worsens. It is therefore necessary to identify opportunities to promote sustainable and diverse dietary options. This narrative provides an explanation of how the market research was conducted and some preliminary results. Overall, our research indicates that poor market access is a significant constraint in the Barotse floodplain, inhibiting AAS community members from securing proper nutrition and food.


We analyze a large, detailed operational data set from a restaurant chain to shed new light on how workload defined as the number of tables or diners that a server simultaneously handles affects servers' performance measured as sales and meal duration. We use an exogenous shock---the implementation of labor scheduling software---and time-lagged instrumental variables to disentangle the endogeneity between demand and supply in this setting. We show that servers strive to maximize sales and speed efforts simultaneously, depending on the relative values of sales and speed. As a result, we find that, when the overall workload is small, servers expend more and more sales efforts with the increase in workload at a cost of slower service speed. However, above a certain workload threshold, servers start to reduce their sales efforts and work more promptly with the further rise in workload. In the focal restaurant chain, we find that this saturation point is currently not reached and, counterintuitively, the chain can reduce the staffing level and achieve both significantly higher sales an estimated 3% increase and lower labor costs an estimated 17% decrease.

This paper was accepted by Noah Gans, special issue on business analytics.


Abstract Background and study aims Microsatellite instability accelerates colorectal cancer development in patients with Lynch syndrome (LS). Previous research showed that virtual chromoendoscopy increases detection of adenomas during colonoscopy surveillance of patients with LS. Because previous research revealed that Lynch patients have an increased vascular network in the oral mucosa, we hypothesized that increased vascularization of LS-associated adenomas is the cause of better detection with virtual chromoendoscopy. Patients and methods In this pilot study, patients with LS having a proven germline mutation were selected from two tertiary referral hospitals and non-LS patients from an outpatient colonoscopy center. Adenomas from patients with LS were exactly matched in size and histology with adenomas from non-LS patients. Initial adenoma diagnosis was confirmed by a specialist pathologist. All adenomas were stained with CD31 and adenomatous tissue was annotated by the specialist pathologist. Image analysis of CD31-positive microvessel density was conducted using FIJI software. Results Colonoscopy of 63 patients with LS and 24 non-LS patients provided 40 adenomas that could be exactly matched in size and histology. In image-analysis, the CD31-positive microvessel density (2.49 % vs. 2.47 %, P = 0.96), the average size of CD31-positive structures (514 μm2 vs. 523 μm2, P = 0.26) nor the amount of vascular structures per mm2 (183 vs. 176, P = 0.50) differed between adenomas of LS patients and non-Lynch patients. Conclusion The outcomes of this pilot case-control study did not provide further insights into the mechanism of increased adenoma detection in LS patients using virtual chromoendoscopy techniques.


Maritime shipping, commercial fishing, passenger and cargo shipping and offshore oil and gas industries are all major contributors to the economies of Atlantic Canada. These industries require workers to perform heavy materials handling under harsh environmental conditions, particularly extreme deck motions. The purpose of this study was to better understand the demands of a moving environment on the ability of a person to perform specific lifting tasks. -- Nineteen healthy male subjects volunteered for this study. Each subject was required to lift a 15 kg load under four lifting conditions. While performing these lifting tasks, a ship's motion simulator was used to create deck motions under foot. Three deck motions were considered: pitch, quartering and roll. A stable laboratory condition was also collected for all lifting conditions. Electromyography (EMG) histories of four muscles (erector spinae, latissimus dorsi, external oblique and trapezius) were collected bilaterally and thoracolumbar kinematics was measured throughout the experimental protocol. -- A repeated measures ANOVA was employed to assess trunk motions and muscle activities across the lifting and motion conditions. There were no significant differences found due to the motion effect for any of the muscles monitored in this study. However, the lifting task did produce differences in the EMG activities for some muscles. The maximal sagittal velocities were significantly smaller for all motion states in comparison to the stable lab condition (p≤0.01) while maximum twisting and lateral bending velocities increased in the motion conditions compared to the stable lab condition (p≤0.05). Results suggest that working in a moving environment will likely increase the operator's risk for overexertion injuries, particularly to the spine.


The author employed phenomenological methodology to examine clients' experiences of wilderness imagery in music psychotherapy sessions utilizing the Bonny Method of Guided Imagery and Music (GIM). GIM is a music-centered approach to psychotherapy in which the client engages with spontaneously generated imagery while listening to specially selected programs of music from the Western classical canon. The resultant imagery provides the basis for therapeutic experiences. Client experiences at times include imagery of wilderness. Due to the conflicting and at times contradictory ways of defining wilderness, the author utilized a broad definition: that which is primarily nonhuman. Three individuals with whom the researcher had conducted at least four GIM sessions prior to the study participated. Each participant engaged in a semi-structured interview focused on their experiences of wilderness imagery in one session of their choosing. Twelve themes emerged from these interviews: The experiences involved extraordinary interactions with wilderness images, and events felt both unexpected and predetermined. The degree of agency felt in choice-events was important to their experiences. Wilderness imagery provided both support and challenges for the participants. There was a sense of openness and expansiveness, as well as continuity of affect, associations, feelings, or images through shifting settings or images. Each participant became wilderness images, yet there was a sense of separateness. Wilderness was accompanied by energy sensations, and wilderness contained that which they needed. Wilderness images were experienced as analogs to waking life. Finally, the full meaning of these experiences continued to emerge over time. These themes illustrated complementarity in the participants' experiences of wilderness imagery. This way of understanding incongruent or opposing qualities, experiences, or beliefs provides a more integrative alternative to the idea of paradox in therapy. Additionally, their experiences pointed to an alternative organizational system in wilderness that tended to be nonlinear and unpredictable.


George Schuyler, a renowned and controversial black journalist of the Harlem Renaissance, and Josephine Cogdell, a blond, blue-eyed Texas heiress and granddaughter of slave owners, believed that intermarriage would "invigorate" the races, thereby producing extraordinary offspring. Their daughter, Philippa Duke Schuyler, became the embodiment of this theory, and they hoped she would prove that interracial children represented the final solution to America's race problems. Able to read and write at the age of two and a half, a pianist at four, and a composer by five, Philippa was often compared to Mozart. During the 1930s and 40s she graced the pages of Time and Look magazines, the New York Herald Tribune, and The New Yorker. Philippa grew up under the adoring and inquisitive eyes of an entire nation and soon became the role model and inspiration for a generation of African-American children. But as an adult she mysteriously dropped out of sight, leaving America to wonder what had happened to the "little Harlem genius." Suffering the double sting of racism and gender bias, Philippa had been rejected by the elite classical music milieu in the United States and forced to find an audience abroad, where she flourished as a world-class performer and composer. She traveled throughout South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia performing for kings, queens, and presidents. By then Philippa had added a second career as an author and foreign correspondent reporting on events around the globe-from Albert Schweitzer's leper colony in Lamberene to the turbulent Asian theater of the 1960s. She would give a command performance for Queen Elisabeth of Belgium one day, and hide from the Viet Cong among the ancient graves of the Annam kings another. But behind the scrim of adventure, glamour, and intrigue was an American outcast, a woman constantly searching for home and self. "I am a beauty-but I'm half colored...so I'm always destined to be an outsider," she wrote in her diary. Philippa tried to define herself through love affairs, but found only disappointment and scandal. In a last attempt to reclaim an identity, she began to "pass" as Caucasian. Adopting an Iberian-American heritage, she reinvented herself as Felipa Monterro, an ultra-right conservative who wrote and lectured for the John Birch Society. Her experiment failed, as had her parents' dream of smashing America's racial barriers. But at the age of thirty five, Philippa finally began to embark on a racial catharsis: She was just beginning to find herself when on May 9, 1967, while on an unauthorized mission of mercy, her life was cut short in a helicopter crash over the waters of war-torn Vietnam. The first authorized biography of Philippa Schuyler, Composition in Black and White draws on previously unpublished letters and diaries to reveal an extraordinary and complex personality. Extensive research and personal interviews from around the world make this book not only the definitive chronicle of Schuyler's restless and haunting life, but also a vivid history of the tumultuous times she lived through, from the Great Depression, through the Civil Rights movement, to the Vietnam war. Talalay has created a highly perceptive and provocative portrait of a fascinating woman.


A spectral line-by-line pulse shaper is used to experimentally generate and deliver ~1 ps optical pulses of 31~124 GHz repetition-rates over 25.33 km single-mode fiber without dispersion-compensating fiber. The correlation of such delivery capability to temporal Talbot effect is experimentally demonstrated. Incorporating shaper periodic phase control, the repetition-rates of these~1 ps optical pulses are further multiplied up to 496 GHz and delivered over 25.33 km single-mode fiber.


FEATURES OF THINKVISION M15 MONITOR Make productivity portable with ThinkVision M15. Its stunning form factor is meticulously designed to expand and match the screen real estate of multiple kinds of laptop, this light and slim 15.6-inch FHD resolution mobile monitor weighs just 860g1 while its head measures a mere 6 mm thick, making it perfect for multi-screen multitasking like spreadsheets in an airport lounge or sharing a presentation with a prospect in a restaurant. Equipped with two identical USB Type-C2 ports, the monitor gives users indispensable Power Pass Through capability. That means they can power both the monitor and the laptop with a single power adapter, up to 65W3, plugged into one port with a USB Type-C2 cable connected to the computer from the other port. Or they can simply power M15 from the laptop using just one USB Type-C2 connection. With safety ever in ThinkVision's minds, the M15 mobile monitor also comes equipped with TÜV Rheinland certified Low Blue Light technology, which protects users from eyestrain caused by certain frequencies of blue light. Simply turn it on with the press of a button.


Invasive coronary angiography (ICA) with measurement of fractional flow reserve (FFR) by means of a pressure wire technique is the established reference standard for the functional assessment of coronary artery disease (CAD) ( 1 , 2 ). Coronary computed tomographic (CT) angiography has emerged as a noninvasive method for direct assessment of CAD and plaque characterization with high diagnostic accuracy compared with ICA ( 3 , 4 ). However, the solely anatomic assessment provided with both coronary CT angiography and ICA has poor discriminatory power for ischemia-inducing lesions. FFR derived from standard coronary CT angiography (FFRCT) data sets by using any of several advanced computational analytic approaches enables combined anatomic and hemodynamic assessment of a coronary lesion by a single noninvasive test. Current technical approaches to the calculation of FFRCT include algorithms based on full- and reduced-order computational fluid dynamic modeling, as well as artificial intelligence deep machine learning ( 5 , 6 ). A growing body of evidence has validated the diagnostic accuracy of FFRCT techniques compared with invasive FFR. Improved therapeutic guidance has been demonstrated, showing the potential of FFRCT to streamline and rationalize the care of patients suspected of having CAD and improve outcomes while reducing overall health care costs ( 7 , 8 ). The purpose of this review is to describe the scientific principles, clinical validation, and implementation of various FFRCT approaches, their precursors, and related imaging tests. © RSNA, 2017.


A new type of hole transporting material (HTMs) with an incorporated planar amine or triphenylamine as a core unit have been prepared. The two amine derivatives were demonstrated to be efficient hole transporting materials in fabricating solid-state organic-inorganic hybrid solar cells. Perovskite-based solar cells with a planar amine derivative gave a short circuit photocurrent density (Jsc) of 20.98 m Acm(-2), an open circuit voltage (Voc) of 0.972 V, and a fill factor of 0.67, corresponding to an overall conversion efficiency of 13.63 %. The photovoltaic performance is comparable to that of the standard spiro-OMeTAD. Moreover, the device showed good stability under light soaking for 500 h. These HTMs hold promise to replace the expensive spiro-OMeTAD because of their high efficiency, excellent stability, synthesis from simple and inexpensive materials.


The importance of condenser optics is the fact that it is the bottleneck limiting efficiency in commercially available projection systems. Efficiency is a key parameter of projector performance, since it augments screen luminance, enabling the system to perform well under increasing levels of ambient light. Conventional condensers use rotational symmetric devices, most of them being elliptic or parabolic mirrors. They perform very far from the theoretical limits for sources such as arc lamps or halogen bulbs. Typical small displays in the 5-15 mm2 etendue range have geometrical efficiencies about 40-50% for the best condensers; although theory allows about 100% (no reflection nor absorption losses are considered). Two basic facts are underlying this effect: The coma aberration of the reflectors and the rotational symmetric image of the source making the source projected image to unfit with the target. Thus, the only way to improve this performance is to generate a free form design that is able to control the shape and rotation of the source projected images. As yet, this can only be done with the SMS3D design method. We present here one of such designs achieving a geometrical efficiency that is 1.8 times that of an elliptical condenser for a 4:1 target aspect ratio and for the range of target etendue with practical interest and 1.5 for 16:9 target. This design uses only 1 additional reflection, i.e., uses a total of 2 reflections from the source to the target. A prototype of this free form condenser has already been built.


Optimising energy consumption in wireless sensor networks is of dominant importance. Sink mobility is introduced to deal with this problem by approaching the sensor nodes and collecting their data buffers using the less energy demanding single-hop communication. The sink route is very crucial for the data collection operation performed in the network especially when the collection requests generated by the sensors are revealed dynamically to the sink and not known ahead. This paper presents a practical motion heuristic for constructing the sink route based on the dynamic arrival of the collection requests. Three control schemes are proposed for coordinating the interaction of multiple mobile sinks collectively performing the data collection in the network. The main objective is maximising the data collected by each mobile sink while minimising the sleeping time of each sensor awaiting the collection service. Simulation results show the performance of the mobile sinks under the proposed control schemes and the impact of the motion heuristic on the sensors' sleeping time in the network.


The public higher education system in Louisiana is facing a variety of problems. The Louisiana Legislature plays a vital role in the determination of policy regarding higher education in the state. Legislators have the responsibility of addressing current and emerging issues and finding solutions to problems. The purpose of the study was to determine the voting record of members of the 1992 Louisiana Legislature on issues facing higher education so as to infer legislative support for higher education. This purpose was accomplished by studying roll call votes on bills considered important to higher education in relation to personal characteristics of legislators. Data were collected on personal characteristics for all members of the 1992 legislature, including replacements. A panel of experts rated selected roll call bills voted on during the 1992-1993 regular and special sessions to determine the mean score for each bill. The mean score of each bill was applied to the appropriate yea or nay vote in determining a support for higher education score for each legislator. A model was developed for the senate that explained 33.1% of the variance in support for higher education. Seven variables in the stepwise regression model included legislative experience, business occupation, black race, number of bills introduced, education committee membership, legal occupation, and legislative committee leadership. A model developed for the house explained 21.4% of the variance in support for higher education. Five variables entered the stepwise regression model, including male gender, other occupation, democrat party affiliation, white race, legislative experience. The findings of the study indicated that there were more differences than similarities between the senate and the house research models in support for higher education. Legislative experience, race, and occupations, three variables common to both models, influence support for higher education differently in the two chambers. It is recommended that further study of the legislature include survey techniques to explore the influence of other factors contributing to the unexplained variance of legislative support for higher education.


Fluorescence microscopy with 7-nitrobenz-2-oxa-3-diazole phallacidin was used to survey vertebrate tissues for actin filament bundles comparable to the stress fibers of cultured cells. Such bundles were found only in vascular endothelial cells. Like the stress fibers of cultured cells, these actin filament bundles were stained in a punctate pattern by fluorescent antibodies to both alpha-actinin and myosin. The stress fibers were oriented parallel to the direction of blood flow and were prominent in endothelial cells from regions exposed to high-velocity flow, such as the left ventricle, aortic valve, and aorta. Actin bundles may help the endothelial cell to withstand hemodynamic stress.


Articular cartilage is a soft tissue showing inelastic properties. Under cyclic loading, inelastic materials may dissipate mechanical energy into heat. In knee cartilage, due to an intrinsic reduced heat convection related to its avascularity, a local temperature increase could be observed. This phenomenon is referred to as self-heating. As cells are sensitive to temperature variation, the energy dissipation could influence their metabolism. The goal of this study was to evaluate the effect of cartilage self-heating on chondrogenic expression. In the first part of this study, using a custom-made deformation calorimeter, we quantified the heat generated in cartilage submitted to cyclic loading at different frequencies. We calculated the corresponding local increase of cartilage temperature. At the cellular level, we then assessed the effect of these temperature variations on chondro-progenitor cell metabolism by measuring the gene expression of transcription factors involved in chondrogenesis. An up-regulation in mRNA expression levels of Sox9 and its co-activator PGC-1α was observed with an increase of temperature. Taken together, the results of this study suggest a dissipation contribution to chondrogenic gene expression. Dissipation phenomena might then be considered as a new variable in mechanobiology.


The electron motion in the presence of a strong classical and quantized pulse of an electromagnetic
field is studied with a special emphasis on the spin degree of freedom. It is shown
that the Hamiltonian of this system can be separated into two parts with the help of canonical
transformations of the field variables, namely the interaction between an electron and a singlecollective-
mode of the field and fluctuations relatively to this collective-mode. The application
of perturbation theory to the fluctuations allows the conditions of applicability of the singlemode
approximation for the quantized external field to be formulated. Furthermore, within this
approximation the electron spin evolution is investigated. In addition to fast spin oscillations at
the laser frequency, a second time scale is identified due to the intensity-dependent emissions
and absorptions of field quanta, that is collapse and revival dynamics. The effect is observable
at the experimentally feasible intensity of 1018 W=cm2. After this, we switch to the regime of
higher intensities, when the fluctuations of the external field can be neglected. We investigate
the asymmetries in the electron scattering arising due to the electron polarization and pulse
duration, and constrain the optimal conditions for the asymmetry observation.


The transcription factor Forkhead box M1 (FOXM1) plays important roles in oncogenesis. However, the expression statuses of FOXM1 isoforms and their impact on andmolecular basis in oncogenesis are unknown.We sought to determine the identities of FOXM1 isoforms in and the impact of their expression on pancreatic cancer development and progression using human tissues, cell lines, and animal models. Overexpression of FOXM1 mRNA and protein was pronounced in human pancreatic tumors and cancer cell lines. We identified five FOXM1 isoforms present in pancreatic cancer: FOXM1a, FOXM1b, and FOXM1c along with two isoforms tentatively designated as FOXM1b1 and FOXM1b2 because they were closely related to FOXM1b. Interestingly, FOXM1c was predominantly expressed in pancreatic tumors and cancer cell lines, whereas FOXM1a expression was generally undetectable in them. Functional analysis revealed that FOXM1b, FOXM1b1, FOXM1b2, and FOXM1c, but not FOXM1a, promoted pancreatic tumor growth and metastasis. Consistently, FOXM1b, FOXM1b1, FOXM1b2, and FOXM1c activated transcription of their typical downstream genes. Also, Sp1 mechanistically activated the FOXM1 promoter, whereas Kr€ uppel-like factor 4 (KLF4) repressed its activity. Finally, we identified an Sp1and KLF4-binding site in the FOXM1 promoter and showed that both Sp1 and KLF4 protein bound directly to it. Deletion mutation of this binding site significantly attenuated the transcriptional regulation of the FOXM1 promoter positively by Sp1 and negatively by KLF4. We showed that overexpression of specific FOXM1 isoforms critically regulates pancreatic cancer development and progression by enhancing tumor cell invasion and metastasis. Our findings strongly suggest that targeting specific FOXM1 isoforms effectively attenuates pancreatic cancer development and progression. Cancer Res; 73(13); 3987–96. 2013 AACR.


We analyze how the coronavirus is fabricated at the interface between science and the public in order to be addressable by political strategies. By means of a content analysis of Christian Drosten's podcasts, we follow (1) how SARS-CoV-2 is constructed in order to be understood by non-scientists, (2) how the specialist becomes a public expert, and (3) how this co-fabrication takes place. This provides insight into the "fabrication" of meaning and of how uncertainty is transformed into knowledge during times of major risk through focusing on the perception of the virus itself. Out of a perspective of speech act theory-informed assemblage thinking, the analysis emphasizes the role of the known-unknown and of the temporality of developments in formatting both virus and expert.


The high computational complexity of the expressive Description Logics (DLs) that underlie the OWL standard has motivated the study of their Horn fragments, which are usually tractable in data complexity and can also have lower combined complexity, particularly for query answering. In this paper we provide algorithms for answering conjunctive 2-way regular path queries (2CRPQs), a non-trivial generalization of plain conjunctive queries, in the Horn fragments of the DLs SHOIQ and SROIQ underlying OWL 1 and OWL 2. We show that the combined complexity of the problem is ExpTime-complete for Horn-SHOIQ and 2ExpTime- complete for the more expressive Horn-SROIQ, but is PTime-complete in data complexity for both. In contrast, even decidability of plain conjunctive queries is still open for full SHOIQ and SROIQ. These are the first completeness results for query answering in DLs with inverses, nominals, and counting, and show that for the considered logics the problem is not more expensive than standard reasoning.


In philosophy, legal theory and law, the Grundnorm, or basic norm, is often assumed to be the constitution, or that which overrides other norms. That is incorrect. This paper argues that the grundnorm should be the norm which regulates human procreation. This norm must proceed from the theoretical absence of human power, or a zero baseline. This essay attempts to correct the grundnorm fallacy with what will be called the Zero-Baseline Model. The correction reorients our human rights regimes and family planning systems, in ways that lead to an inevitable list of specific policy reforms that largely invert current family planning models and policies in use at the United Nations, European Union, the United States, and elsewhere. Those reforms can all be described in a simple narrative of reorienting family planning laws and policies from what would-be parents desire, subjectively, towards what all future children need, objectively. And as the evidence shows, those reforms prove highly effective and much more efficient in promoting child welfare, reducing economic and other inequalities, mitigating the climate and other ecological crises, protecting non-humans, and building democracy, than their alternatives.


Switch reference of the "canonical" type is found in most Uto-Aztecan languages, and is documented for Serrano, Luiseno, Cupeno and Cahuilla within the Takic subgroup in Southern California. Switch reference marking in these languages is described and compared, using a multivariate typology framework. All the languages share a same-subject suffix that may not appear outside the subgroup, but have evolved different suffixes for change of subject. The language also vary as to control type, with Serrano switch reference exhibiting pragmatic control and marking pragmatic or discourse discontinuity. In contrast, Luiseno exhibits syntactic control by grammatical subject, with few exceptions. Against a background summary of switch-reference marking in Uto-Aztecan more generally, histories of the Takic suffixes are suggested.


The continuing demand for technological advances while dealing with mutual constraining characteristics of digital systems as for instance lower feature size, lower power consumption, and lower compute latency drives a need for constant innovation. To further improve state-of-the-art digital hardware, thorough knowledge of computer arithmetic is needed. This thesis explores selected aspects of the design and evaluation of computer arithmetic based on carry-save and signed-digit redundant number representations to reduce the area, the critical path latency, and the power consumption of arithmetic circuits. Carry-save arithmetic is frequently used to realize basic arithmetic operations requiring inner product calculations, as multiplication, multiply-add, multiply-accumulate, and digital filters. This thesis enhances multiplication and multiply-accumulation based on carry-save arithmetic by improving the well known Wallace and Dadda partial product reduction strategies. An alternative concept of time-based reduction strategies is introduced as well and applied to multiply-accumulate units resulting in reduced area, critical path latency, and power consumption. A competitive redundant number representation is the signed-digit number representation. Not frequently implemented in state-of-the-art hardware designs, it is recurring in prototype development. Implemented signed-digit arithmetic is based on signed-binary adder cells. This thesis demonstrates the need for optimizing these cells and presents concepts of a systematic design space exploration of signed-binary adder cells. Additionally, the error resilience capabilities of signed-digit arithmetic is evaluated and favorable digit encoding schemes are presented.


Background: Parkinson ' s is an incurable, neuro-degenerative condition with multiple symptoms substantially impacting on living conditions and quality of life (QoL) for people with Parkinson ' s (PwP), most whom are older adults, and their families. The study aimed to undertake a literature review of studies conducted in the UK that quantify the direct or indirect impact of Parkinson ' s on people with the condition, their families, and society in terms of out-of-pocket payments and fi nancial consequences. Methods: Literature was searched for Parkinson ' s-related terms plus condition impact (eg, fi nancial, employment, pension, housing, health care costs, and QoL) in the UK setting. The strategy probed several electronic databases with all retrieved papers screened for relevancy. The instruments used to measure patient-related outcomes were then examined for their relevancy in justifying the results. Results: The initial search retrieved 2,143 papers of which 79 were shortlisted through title and abstract screening. A full-text reading indicated 38 papers met the inclusion and quality criteria. Summary data extracted from the articles on focus, design, sample size, and questionnaires/instruments used were presented in four themes: (a) QoL and wellbeing of PwP, (b) QoL and wellbeing of caregivers and family members, (c) employment and living conditions, and (d) direct and indirect health care and societal cost. Conclusion: UK results substantiated global evidence regarding the deterioration of QoL of PwP as the condition progressed, utilizing numerous measures to demonstrate change. Many spouses and family accept care responsibilities, affecting their QoL and fi nances too. The review highlighted increased health care and privately borne costs with condition progression, although UK evidence was limited on societal costs of Parkinson ' s in terms of loss of employment, reduced work hours, premature retirement of PwP and caregivers that directly affected their household budget.


Francoise Gilot was a young painter in Pasis when she first met Picasso - he was sixty-two and she was twenty-one. During the following ten years they were lovers, worked closely together and she became mother to two of his children, Claude and Paloma. LIFE WITH PICASSO, her account of those extraordinary years, is filled with intimate and astonishing revelations about the man, his work, his thoughts and his friends - Matisse, Braque, Gertrude Stein and Giacometti among others. Francois Gilot paints a compelling portrait of her turbulent life with the temperamental genius that was Picasso. She is a superb witness to Picasso as an artist and to his views on art...


This paper investigates the effect of time-domain (TD) and frequency-domain (FD) interpolation on the performance of a Multi-Band (MB) Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) Ultra-Wideband (UWB) system. We introduce a FD interpolator implemented by a radix-8 512-point IFFT architecture for applications on MB-OFDM UWB transmitters. For the specific application where the interpolation factor is fixed to four, the FD interpolator outperforms the TD interpolator implemented with digital low-pass FIR filters in terms of computational complexity. On the other hand simulation results show that FD implementation degrades the overall system performance for certain UWB channels.


An experimental study was conducted to examine the effects of high temperalurehigh frequency loading on the crack growth behavior in litanium composites Fatigue crack growth tests were performed on the unidirectional SM1240/TIMETAL-215 composite in air environment as three different temperatures: 24, 500, and 650°C with a loading frequency of (a Hz and a stress ratio of 0.1. Tests were also carried out in vacuum and on aged specimens. fn all the tests, the crack length was measured continuously while the crack opening displacement (COD) was measured at discrete positions along the crack length. Results show that, at all temperatures, the crack progresses in two sequential stages; a stage in which the crack growth rate decreases as the crack length increases followed by a stage characterized by an accelerated crack growth rate. The first stage corresponds to a crack-bridging condition and is the focus of the analysis in this paper. In additional to COD measurements, the microstructural features associated with the fracture process during this stage was examined by scanning electron microscopy with emphasis being placed on the matrix crack morphology, debonding location, temperature, and environmental influences on the fiber coatings. An analytical procedure, employing concepts of the theory of fracture mechanics and micromechanics analysis of the stress state along bridging fibers, was applied in order to calculate the fiber-bridging stress, the frictional shear stress, and the effective stress intensity factor. Results of this work suggest that the fiber-bridging stress and the frictional shear stress are variables along the crack length and are test temperature dependents. Furthermore, it was concluded that both the crack-tip opening displacement and the effective stress intensity factor can be used as measurements of the crack-tip driving force in the crack-bridging stage. Based on the experimental and analytical results collected in this study, a bridging damage mechanism under the loading condition specified here is suggested. This mechanism argues that the effect of temperature on the high frequency crack growth process is established through the temperature-related modification of the frictional shear stress and the resulting adjustment of the internal stress state in the debonded regions of the bridging fibers.


Many types of bacteria produce dormant spores when faced with nutrient deprivation. The decision to enter the developmental pathway is made when the cell is faced with environmental conditions that are unsuitable for vigorous growth but still possesses the nutritional resources to complete development. During development two significant metabolic events occur. First, carbon limitation forces the cell to reduce the catabolism of organic molecules and redirect the flow of carbon to anabolic pathways. Second, the biosynthetic priority shifts from the synthesis of growth-related macromolecular products, such as chromosomes and ribosomes, to structural components of the spore. The myxobacterium Myxococcus xanthus is an aerobic chemoorganotroph that derives carbon, nitrogen, and energy through catabolism of amino acids. Cell elongation and DNA and stable-RNA synthesis cease in SocE-depleted cells. In Escherichia coli, the stringent response helps regulate the growth rate. When E. coli is starved for amino acids, charged tRNA molecules become limiting and ribosomes pause during elongation. The socE and csgA genes are both regulated by RelA but have opposite transcription patterns during the M. xanthus life cycle. A drop of rain or a gust of wind could disperse a population to densities insufficient to complete fruiting body development. If this occurs after A-signaling, then the decision to resume growth would need to be made promptly and in a different manner.


Human blastocyst-derived, pluripotent cell lines are described that have normal karyotypes, express high levels of telomerase activity, and express cell surface markers that characterize primate embryonic stem cells but do not characterize other early lineages. After undifferentiated proliferation in vitro for 4 to 5 months, these cells still maintained the developmental potential to form trophoblast and derivatives of all three embryonic germ layers, including gut epithelium (endoderm); cartilage, bone, smooth muscle, and striated muscle (mesoderm); and neural epithelium, embryonic ganglia, and stratified squamous epithelium (ectoderm). These cell lines should be useful in human developmental biology, drug discovery, and transplantation medicine.


This study explores the issue of what is an appropriate default equity glide-path for client portfolios during the retirement phase of the life cycle. We find, surprisingly, that rising equity glide-paths in retirement – where the portfolio starts out conservative and becomes more aggressive through the retirement time horizon – have the potential to actually reduce both the probability of failure and the magnitude of failure for client portfolios. This result may appear counter-intuitive from the traditional perspective, which is that equity exposure should decrease throughout retirement as the retiree's time horizon (and life expectancy) shrinks and mortality looms. Yet the conclusion is actually entirely logical when viewed from the perspective of what scenarios cause a client's retirement to "fail" in the first place. In scenarios that threaten retirement sustainability – e.g., an extended period of poor returns in the first half of retirement – a declining equity exposure over time will lead the retiree to have the least in stocks if/when the good returns finally show up in the second half of retirement (assuming the entire retirement period does not experience continuing poor returns). With a rising equity glide-path, the retiree is less exposed to losses when most vulnerable in early retirement and the equity exposure is greater by the time subsequent good returns finally show up. In turn, this helps to sustain greater retirement income over the entire time period. Conversely, using a rising equity glide-path in scenarios where equity returns are good early on, the retiree is so far ahead that their subsequent asset allocation choices do not impact the chances to achieve the original retirement goal.


One of the most crucial problems facing teacher education today is one of relevancy. This cry for relevance suggests that what we in higher education do as we prepare students to become teachers is not compatible with the real world of the classroom. Backman tells us that as teacher educators we are perceived as (1) delivering preparation programs which have little real influence on the way in which our graduates actually teach; and (2) being completely out of touch with the actual teaching conditions in contemporary schools (1984). READING TEACHERS ARE ASKED "WHAT IS RELEVANT IN CLASSROOM?" Donna Jamar and Leo W. Pauls Emporia State University Emporia, Kansas One of the most crucial problems facing teacher education today is one of relevancy. This cry for relevance suggests that what we in higher education do as we prepare students to become teachers is not compatible with the real world of the classroom. Backman tells us that as teacher educators we are perceived as (1) delivering preparation programs which have little real influence on the way in which our graduates actually teach; and (2) being completely out of touch with the actual teaching conditions in contemporary schools (1984).


Transportation is the driving force of any country. Today we are facing an explosion in the number of motor vehicles that affects our daily routines. Intelligent transportation systems (ITS) aim to provide efficient tools that solve traffic problems. Predicting route congestions during different day periods can help drivers choose better routes for their trips. In this paper we propose "HITS" a traffic control system that integrates moving object database techniques [30, 28] along with data warehousing techniques [15]. Our system uses historical traffic information to answer queries about moving objects on road network, and to analyze historical traffic conditions to enhance future traffic related decisions.


Effects are a powerful and convenient component of programming. They enable programmers to interact with the user, take advantage of efficient stateful memory, throw exceptions, and non-deterministically execute programs in parallel. However, they also complicate every aspect of reasoning about a program or language, and as a result it is crucially important to have a good understanding of what effects are and how they work. In this paper we present a new framework for formalizing the semantics of effects that is more general and thorough than previous techniques while clarifying many of the important concepts. By returning to the category-theoretic roots of monads, our framework is rich enough to describe the semantics of effects for a large class of languages including common imperative and functional languages. It is also capable of capturing more expressive, precise, and practical effect systems than previous approaches. Finally, our framework enables one to reason about effects abstractly, and so can be applied to many stages of language design and implementation in order to create more broadly applicable tools for programming languages.


This paper presents the characteristics of bio-briquette resulted from a series process using a mixture of raw materials. As raw materials of biobriquette production, this research used biomass corn cobs and banana peels, and a fine coal waste.  Before using as component in the biobriquette, corn cobs, banana peels, and fine coal waste were carbonized. The carbonation process was carried out in temperature of 300-500 o C for 15 minutes. Carbonized corn cobs, banana peels, and a fine coal waste were characterized for calorific value and ash content.   In this work, the influence of composition carbonized biomass and carbonized coal has been investigated.  Before and after carbonization of biomass and coal, the calorific value and ash content of corn cobs were 4,239-6,386 kcal/kg and 3.47-8.12 % adb respectively, for banana peels were 4,135-6,042 kcal/kg and 16.99-32.31 % adb respectively, and for coal were 5,857-6,330 kcal/kg and 5.81-6.64 % adb respectively. The highest calorific value of biobriquette of 6,297 kcal/kg, highest fixed carbon content of 62.62 %, lowest volatile matter content of 26.18 % adb, lowest inherent moisture content of 5.14 % adb and lowest ash content of 6.06 were measured for composition of carbonized coal, carbonized corn cobs and carbonized banana peels ratio was of 1:4:0.


Recent studies support roles for neurokinin-1 (NK-1) and gastrin-releasing peptide (GRP) receptor-expressing spinal neurons in itch. We presently investigated expression of substance P (SP) and GRP in pruritogen-responsive primary sensory neurons and roles for these neuropeptides in itch signaling. Responses of dorsal root ganglion (DRG) cells to various pruritogens were observed by calcium imaging. DRG cells were then processed for SP, GRP, and isolectin B-4 (IB4; a marker for nonpeptidergic neurons) immunofluorescence. Of pruritogen-responsive DRG cells, 11.8-26.8%, 21.8-40.0%, and 21.4-26.8% were immunopositive for SP, GRP, and IB4, respectively. In behavioral studies, both systemic and intrathecal administration of a NK-1 receptor antagonist significantly attenuated scratching evoked by chloroquine and a protease-activated receptor 2 agonist, SLIGRL, but not histamine, bovine adrenal medulla peptide 8-22 (BAM8-22), or serotonin. Systemic or intrathecal administration of a GRP receptor antagonist attenuated scratching evoked by chloroquine and SLIGRL but not BAM8-22 or histamine. The GRP receptor antagonist enhanced scratching evoked by serotonin. These results indicate that SP and GRP expressed in primary sensory neurons are partially involved as neurotransmitters in histamine-independent itch signaling from the skin to the spinal cord.


Visual cues play important roles in sea turtle foraging behavior and likely influence their interactions with fishing gear. Altering these cues may be a useful strategy to reduce the inci- dental catch of sea turtles in various fisheries. We examined the potential effectiveness of 3 visual cues — shark shapes placed along the length of the gill net, illumination of nets by LED lights, and nets illuminated with chemical lightsticks — in reducing bycatch of green sea turtles Chelonia mydas in gill nets. We then adapted these potential deterrents into commercial bottom gill net fishery to quantify their effects on target fish catch rates and the catch value. Our results indicate that the pres- ence of shark shapes significantly reduced the mean catch rates of green turtles by 54% but also reduced target catch by 45% and, correspondingly, catch value by 47%. In contrast, nets illuminated by LED lights significantly reduced mean sea turtle catch rates by 40% while having negligible impacts on target catch and catch value. Similarly, nets illuminated by chemical lightsticks also sig- nificantly reduced mean sea turtle catch rates by 60% while having no significant impact on target catch and catch value. These results illustrate the potential for modifying fishing gear with visual deterrents to effectively reduce sea turtle catch rates.


Deep residual networks have recently shown appealing performance on many challenging computer vision tasks. However, the original residual structure still has some defects making it difficult to converge on very deep networks. In this paper, we introduce a weighted residual network to address the incompatibility between ReLU and element-wise addition and the deep network initialization problem. The weighted residual network is able to learn to combine residuals from different layers effectively and efficiently. The proposed models enjoy a consistent improvement over accuracy and convergence with increasing depths from 100+ layers to 1000+ layers. Besides, the weighted residual networks have little more computation and GPU memory burden than the original residual networks. The networks are optimized by projected stochastic gradient descent. Experiments on CIFAR-10 have shown that our algorithm has a faster convergence speed than the original residual networks and reaches a high accuracy at 95.3% with a 1192-layer model. Experiments on CIFAR-100 and ImageNet-1k have also verified the effectiveness of our proposed design.