Burnout is a growing concern across health care disciplines. Burnout is a prolonged response to persistent work‐related stressors and includes elements of exhaustion, depersonalization, and perceived ineffectiveness. The body of literature exploring the causes and consequences of burnout has grown substantially. Rates of burnout in clinical pharmacists are similar to those reported for other health care professionals. However, many aspects of burnout have not been adequately characterized in clinical pharmacists. This manuscript outlines key findings from the literature on burnout in other health care disciplines and establishes relevant connections to clinical pharmacy. Burnout has negative consequences related to personal well‐being and is linked to stress‐related health outcomes. Burnout is associated with increased job turnover, decreased productivity, and quality concerns, including both patient safety and satisfaction. A variety of factors contribute to the development of burnout, including provider characteristics, practice specialization, type and quantity of work expectations, work environment, social and organizational support, and reward. Interventions that focus on individual providers have been shown to modestly improve burnout. Interventions that emphasize organizational change may have a more significant impact, and several groups have outlined organization‐focused strategies to improve well‐being in the workplace. Such strategies include enhancing communication, promoting true collaboration and community, addressing staffing shortages, empowering employee decision‐making, and developing and promoting institutional values. Best practices for improving well‐being within an organization include a multidisciplinary, multimodal approach that is supported by both resources and leadership engagement.


We study and experimentally demonstrate a sensitive single-shot correlation system in which only a diffraction grating is used to produce a transverse time delay (TTD) in the reference pulse. The mechanism of the TTD introduced by the grating and the formation of the relative time delay (RTD) in the noncollinear correlation system are analyzed in detail. By using our system, we successfully measured the temporal duration of picosecond laser pulses, and a time resolution of ~0.047 ps is obtained at 1047 nm. The impact of the grating dispersion and the second harmonic beam walk-off effect on the measurement are considered.


Could it be that the familiar and beloved figure of Confucius was invented by Jesuit priests? In "Manufacturing Confucianism", Lionel M. Jensen reveals this very fact, demonstrating how sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Western missionaries used translations of the ancient ru tradition to invent the presumably historical figure who has since been globally celebrated as philosopher, prophet, statesman, wise man, and saint.Tracing the history of the Jesuits' invention of Confucius and of themselves as native defenders of Confucius' teaching, Jensen reconstructs the cultural consequences of the encounter between the West and China. For the West, a principal outcome of this encounter was the reconciliation of empirical investigation and theology on the eve of the scientific revolution. Jensen also explains how Chinese intellectuals in the early twentieth century fashioned a new cosmopolitan Chinese culture through reliance on the Jesuits' Confucius and Confucianism.Challenging both previous scholarship and widespread belief, Jensen uses European letters and memoirs, Christian histories and catechisms written in Chinese, translations and commentaries on the Sishu, and a Latin summary of Chinese culture known as the Confucius Sinarum Philosophus to argue that the national self-consciousness of Europe and China was bred from a cultural ecumenism wherein both were equal contributors. "Manufacturing Confucianism" will have a major impact on studies of China, comparative literature, post colonialism, and Asian religions. For its insights into the history of modern Chinese nationalism, this path breaking study will also engage readers interested in contemporary Chinese affairs.


Charting the development of the studio practice of New York based artist Anthony McCall (b.1946), this publication features facsimile reproductions of pages from McCall's extensive archive of notebooks, which are supported by production scores and installation photographs. It was formed out of a series of discussions that took place over the last decade between McCall and the artists Graham Ellard and Stephen Johnstone.

Anthony McCall is known for his 'solid-light' installations, a series that he began in 1973 with his seminal Line Describing a Cone, in which a volumetric form composed of projected light slowly evolves in three-dimensional space. Since creating this ground-breaking piece, McCall has had work exhibited at museums and galleries throughout the world, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Tate; Whitney Museum of American Art; Serpentine Gallery; Centre Pompidou; Moderna Museet, Stockholm and Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin.

Examining McCall's work of the 1970s and the pieces developed since his return to making art in 2003, the conversations explore McCall's over-riding preoccupations as an artist whose work occupies a space between sculpture, cinema and drawing. In doing so, the book also narrates how McCall has transformed the way he understands his own practice, particularly in relation to notions of performance, the body, projected installation, durational structure and spectatorship.

Emphasising both the continuities and shifts in McCall's working methods in the studio over the last 40 years, Anthony McCall: Notebooks and Conversations presents unique insights into his extraordinary body of work.Contents: Introduction: Thinking in notebook form, Graham Ellard and Stephen Johnstone; Conversations - Tate Britain, London;10 September 2004; Centre Georges Pompidou, La Maison Rouge, Paris; 5 October 2004; Anthony McCall Studio, New York; 3 March 2005; Ellard and Johnstone Studio, London; 25 March 2006; Ellard and Johnstone Studio, London; 20 March 2011; Gallerie Martine Aboucaya, Paris; 22 October 2013; Flims; Performances; Slide works; Chronological list of notebooks; Biographies.About the Author: Graham Ellard and Stephen Johnstone have collaborated since 1993. Their large-scale video installations and 16mm films, concerned with the parallels between film and architecture, have been exhibited in galleries and museums internationally, including Tate Liverpool; Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney; Centre Pompidou; the Internationale Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen; The Aichi Triennale, Nagoya and Tate Britain. Graham Ellard is Professor of Fine Art at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London. Stephen Johnstone is Professor of Fine Art at Goldsmiths, University of London.Reviews: 'The handsome volume Anthony McCall: Notebooks and Conversations ... is the kind of book that will increase in importance to students of art and art history over time ... it is the kind of invaluable document that will help us access his [McCall's] artworks in their own terms far into the future.' Jarrett Earnest, The Brooklyn Rail

'...this compendium offers readers a fascinating insight into the working methods and thought processes of this groundbreaking British artist...Illuminating.' StateF22Co-publisher: Published by Lund Humphries in association with Kunstmuseum St Gallen, Switzerland


The Chandra Orion Ultradeep Project (COUP) provides the most comprehensive data set ever acquired on the X-ray emission of pre-main-sequence stars. In this paper, we study the nearly 600 X-ray sources that can be reliably identified with optically well-characterized T Tauri stars (TTSs) in the Orion Nebula Cluster. With a detection limit of LX, min ~ 1027.3 ergs s-1 for lightly absorbed sources, we detect X-ray emission from more than 97% of the optically visible late-type (spectral types F-M) cluster stars. This proves that there is no "X-ray-quiet" population of late-type stars with suppressed magnetic activity. We use this exceptional optical, infrared, and X-ray data set to study the dependencies of the X-ray properties on other stellar parameters. All TTSs with known rotation periods lie in the saturated or supersaturated regime of the relation between activity and Rossby numbers seen for main-sequence (MS) stars, but the TTSs show a much larger scatter in X-ray activity than that seen for the MS stars. Strong near-linear relations between X-ray luminosities, bolometric luminosities, and mass are present. We also find that the fractional X-ray luminosity LX/Lbol rises slowly with mass over the 0.1-2 M☉ range. The plasma temperatures determined from the X-ray spectra of the TTSs are much hotter than in MS stars but seem to follow a general solar-stellar correlation between plasma temperature and activity level. The scatter about the relations between X-ray activity and stellar parameters is larger than the expected effects of X-ray variability, uncertainties in the variables, and unresolved binaries. This large scatter seems to be related to the influence of accretion on the X-ray emission. While the X-ray activity of the nonaccreting TTSs is consistent with that of rapidly rotating MS stars, the accreting stars are less X-ray active (by a factor of ~2-3 on average) and produce much less well-defined correlations than the nonaccretors. We discuss possible reasons for the suppression of X-ray emission by accretion and the implications of our findings on long-standing questions related to the origin of the X-ray emission from young stars, considering in particular the location of the X-ray-emitting structures and inferences for pre-main-sequence magnetic dynamos.


The behavior of domain wall-dislocation interaction in Fe50Ni50 alloy has been investigated in pre-annealed and quenched samples using some magnetic structure-sensitive properties. In the two samples it was found that the maximum magnetic permeability (µmax), the high field magnetic permeability (µa) and the magnetic anisotropy (K) were increased with the degree of plastic strain during the early stage of deformation, and attributed to the precipitation of FeNi3 phase during pre-annealing or after quenching from high temperature. Further increase in dislocation density in the matrix during the later stage of deformation, affects the average value of the strength of interaction between the domain wall and dislocation, thus contributes to the decrease in µa and µmax. The observed change in the magnetic anisotropy, K, with plastic strain deformation is explained in terms of themagnetic hardening of the material by dislocations. The domain wall surface energy, a, the thickness of the magnetic domain, a, and the exchange energy, A, of the present alloy were determined from a simple measurement of the magnetic permeability and magnetic anisotropy.


The first transmembrane (TM1) helix in the red cell anion exchanger (AE1, Band 3, or SLC4A1) acts as an internal signal anchor that binds the signal recognition particle and directs the nascent polypeptide chain to the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) membrane where it moves from the translocon laterally into the lipid bilayer. The sequence N-terminal to TM1 forms an amphipathic helix that lies at the membrane interface and is connected to TM1 by a bend at Pro403. Southeast Asian ovalocytosis (SAO) is a red cell abnormality caused by a nine-amino acid deletion (Ala400–Ala408) at the N-terminus of TM1. Here we demonstrate, by extensive (∼4.5 μs) molecular dynamics simulations of TM1 in a model 1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine membrane, that the isolated TM1 peptide is highly dynamic and samples the structure of TM1 seen in the crystal structure of the membrane domain of AE1. The SAO deletion not only removes the proline-induced bend but also causes a "pulling in" of the part of the amphipathic helix into the hydrophobic phase of the bilayer, as well as the C-terminal of the peptide. The dynamics of the SAO peptide very infrequently resembles the structure of TM1 in AE1, demonstrating the disruptive effect the SAO deletion has on AE1 folding. These results provide a precise molecular view of the disposition and dynamics of wild-type and SAO TM1 in a lipid bilayer, an important early biosynthetic intermediate in the insertion of AE1 into the ER membrane, and extend earlier results of cell-free translation experiments.


Infectious diseases cause millions of deaths annually in the developing world. Recently, microfluidic paper-based analytical devices (μPADs) have been developed to diagnose such diseases, as these tests are low cost, biocompatible, and simple to fabricate. However, current μPADs are difficult to use in resource-limited areas due to their reliance on external instrumentation to measure and analyze the test results. In this work, we propose an electricity and external instrumentation-free μPAD sensor based on the colorimetric enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for the diagnosis of infectious disease (3D-tPADs). Designed based on the principle of origami, the proposed μPAD enables the sequential steps of the colorimetric ELISA test to be completed in just ∼10 min. In addition, in order to obtain an accurate ELISA result without using any instrument, we have integrated an electricity-free "timer" within the μPAD that can be controlled by the buffer viscosity and fluid path volume to indicate the appropriate times for washing and color development steps, which can avoid false positive or false negative results caused by an extended or shortened amount of washing and development times. Due to the low background noise and high positive signal intensity of the μPAD, positive and negative detection results can be distinguished by just the naked eye. Furthermore, the ELISA result can be semi-quantified by comparing the results shown on the μPAD with a color chart diagram with a detection limit of HIV type 1(HIV-1) p24 antigen as low as 0.03 ng mL-1. These results demonstrate the proposed sensor can perform infectious disease diagnosis without external instrumentation or electricity, extending the application of the μPAD test for on-site detection and use in resource-limited settings.


1,2,3-Trimethoxybenzene (TMB) is one of the most versatile chemical used for the synthesis of several pharmaceuticals, dyes, polymers, organic compounds, etc. The stable isotope ratio analysis has increased attention day-by-days in several fields such as agricultural, food authenticity, biochemistry, medical research, etc. The current study was aimed to evaluate the effect of the biofield energy treatment on the isotopic abundance ratios of 13C/12C or 2H/1H or 17O/16O (PM+1/PM) and 18O/16O (PM+2/PM) in TMB using Gas chromatography - mass spectrometry (GC-MS) technique. TMB was divided into two parts - one part was denoted as control and another part was referred as biofield energy treated sample that was received through Mr. Trivediꞌs unique biofield energy (The Trivedi Effect®). The GC-MS of the biofield treated TMB was characterized at different time intervals considered as T1, T2, T3, and T4 to examine the impact of the biofield energy treatment on isotopic abundance ratio with respect to the time. The GC-MS spectra of the both control and biofield treated TMB exhibited the presence of molecular ion peak [M+] at m/z 168 (calculated 168.08 for C9H12O3) along with similar pattern of fragmentation. The relative peak intensities of the fragmented ions in the biofield treated TMB, particularly at T2 and T3 was altered from the control sample. The isotopic abundance ratio analysis in the biofield treated TMB exhibited that the isotopic abundance ratio of PM+1/PM in the biofield treated TMB at T2 and T3 was significantly enhanced by 128.13 and 117.99%, respectively with respect to the control sample. Consequently, the percentage change in isotopic abundance ratio of PM+2/PM+1 was significantly increased in the biofield treated TMB at T2 and T3 by 125.93 and 116.67%, respectively as compared with the control TMB. The isotopic abundance ratios (PM+1/PM and PM+2/PM) in the biofield treated TMB at T1 and T4 was altered with respect to the control TMB. In summary, 13C, 2H, and 17O contributions from (C9H12O3)+ to m/z 169 and 18O contribution from (C9H12O3)+ to m/z 170 for the biofield treated TMB, particularly at T2 and T3 were significantly improved and biofield treated TMB might exhibit changed isotope effects as compared to the control sample. The biofield treated TMB might assist to develop new chemicals and pharmaceuticals through using its kinetic isotope effects like understanding the reaction mechanism, the enzymatic transition state and all aspects of enzyme mechanisms.


HISTORY
Two cats were presented for orthopaedic surgery.

PHYSICAL EXAMINATION
With the exception of the orthopaedic injuries found, clinical examination showed no abnormality.

MANAGEMENT
As part of anaesthetic management, one cat received intrathecal morphine, the other epidural morphine. Following recovery, intense grooming was observed. After ensuring adequate analgesia this behaviour was interpreted as pruritus. In the first cat, pruritus was initially managed with medetomidine constant rate infusion (CRI) at 1 and 1.5 μg kg(-1)  hour(-1) . The lower dose produced sedation and no relief from pruritus, the higher dose ablated pruritus but induced sedation. Two propofol (lipid emulsion formulation) boli of 0.1 mg kg(-1) ablated pruritus without causing sedation. The second cat was successfully treated with four boli of 0.1 mg kg(-1) propofol over 20 minutes.

FOLLOW-UP
Following treatment with propofol, pruritus did not recur in either cat and both were discharged from the hospital.

CONCLUSIONS
This is the first clinical report of morphine-induced pruritus in cats and management with low-dose propofol. These cases suggest an antipruritic mechanism for lipid-formulation propofol.


The ability of grazing animals to enhance quality of diet by selection is im-portant in production. The study determined the effects of selection on dietary quality of cattle grazing monocultures of smooth bromegrass (Bromus inermis Leyss; SB), switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.; SG), and big bluestem (Andropo-gon gerardii Vitman; BB) as influenced by plant maturity. Three ruminally-fistu-lated steers (295 kg) strip-grazed SB, SG, and BB at vegetative, elongation, early reproductive, and a regrowth stage of development. Selection was maximized by pro-viding cattle access to 40 kg of DM/d per head. Clipped samples were compared with dietary samples accumulated during 45 min grazing following total rumen evacuation. Dietary CP was enhanced 3 to 4% for SG and BB, and 8% for SB (P < 0.05). Dietary IVDMD was enhanced at elongation and reproductive stages for SG and BB and vegetative and reproductive stages for SB. Dietary NDF was 7 to 13% less (P < 0.05).- in SG compared with forage-on-offer, whereas there was no effect with SB and BB diets. Diets of cattle grazing SG and BB had less ADF than clipped forage at elongation and reproductive stages, whereas ADF for the SB diet was less at the elongation phase (P < 0.05). Dietary lignin did not exceed 4% whereas the grass-on-offer was much greater. Regrowth produced forage and diets comparable to the elongation stage. If adequate forage is available, the selection ability of cattle can provide a supe-rior diet compared with forage-on-offer. When the quality of warm-season grasses has declined, animal selection allows for potentially greater animal gain when grass quality is not optimum.


Central banks are powerful but poorly understood organisations. In 1900 the Bank of Japan was the only central bank to exist outside Europe but over the past century central banking has proliferated. John Singleton here explains how central banks and the profession of central banking have evolved and spread across the globe during this period. He shows that the central banking world has experienced two revolutions in thinking and practice, the first after the depression of the early 1930s, and the second in response to the high inflation of the 1970s and 1980s. In addition, the central banking profession has changed radically. In 1900 the professional central banker was a specialised type of banker, whereas today he or she must also be a sophisticated economist and a public official. Understanding these changes is essential to explaining the role of central banks during the recent global financial crisis.


Critical infrastructures such as wireless network systems demand dependability. Dependability attributes addressed in this thesis include availability, reliability, maintainability and survivability (ARMS). This research uses computer simulation and artificial intelligence to introduce a new approach to measure dependability of wireless networks. The new approach is based on the development of a neural network, which is trained to investigate ARMS attributes of a wireless network capable of serving 100,000 subscribers. Given the reliability and maintainability of wireless infrastructure components, the resulting impact on network availability and survivability are determined. Component mean time to failure (MTTF) is used to model reliability, while mean time to restore (MTR) is used for maintainability. Here, unavailability, the complement of availability, is defined as the fraction of time the entire network system is down, while survivability is the fraction of network users who have service. Both availability and survivability can be instantaneous or averaged over some period. The simulation output is used to train the neural network, which is obtained from simulation experiments for a range of component's MTTF and MTTR values. In turn, the NN is used to gain insights not easily apparent from simulation results. The NN also assists in estimating the number of FCC-Reportable outages of a wireless network. Lastly, a variety of reliability/maintainability growth and deterioration scenarios is analyzed with the NN. Besides focusing on questions regarding availability and survivability under reliability and maintainability growth/deterioration scenarios, this research also focuses on the relative performance of neural network modeling compared to analytical and simulation techniques. Approved: Andrew Snow Associate Professor of Communication Systems Management


Objectives. To report three cases of triathletes who presented with swimming-induced pulmonary edema (SIPE) following water immersion. They were subsequently diagnosed with Takotsubo cardiomyopathy (TCM). Design. Retrospective case series. Method. All cases were recreational athletes competing in mass participation triathlons between June 2018 and 2019. They were initially managed by the event medical team and subsequently at the local tertiary level hospital. Written consent was gained from all the subjects. Results. The three triathletes were aged between 50 and 60 years, two were females, and all presented with acute dyspnoea on exiting the water. Two also presented with chest pain and haemoptysis. A diagnosis of SIPE was suspected by the medical event team on initial presentation of low oxygen saturations and clinical signs of pulmonary oedema. All were transferred to the local emergency department and had signs of pulmonary oedema on chest radiographs. Further investigations led to a diagnosis of TCM with findings of T wave inversion in anterolateral electrocardiogram leads and apical hypokinesia on transthoracic echocardiogram and unobstructed coronary arteries. Conclusions. This case series presents triathletes diagnosed with SIPE and TCM following the open water swim phase. It is unclear whether the myocardial dysfunction contributed to causation of SIPE or was the result of SIPE. Mass participation race organizers must be prepared that both SIPE and TCM can present in this population. Those presenting with an episode of SIPE require prompt evaluation of their cardiac and pulmonary physiology. Further research is required to ascertain the exact nature of the relationship between TCM and SIPE.


We define two air exchange effectiveness parameters which indicate the extent of short circuiting, mixing, or displacement air flow in an entire building, the air diffusion effectiveness which indicates the air flow pattern locally, and the normalized local age of air. After describing two tracer gas procedures for measuring these parameters, we discuss assumptions inherent in the data analysis that are often violated in large office buildings. To obtain valuable data, careful selection of buildings for measurements and assessments to determine if operating conditions are reasonably consistent with the assumptions are necessary. Multiple factors, in addition to the air flow pattern in the occupied space, can affect measurement results, consequently, the interpretation of measurements is not straightforward. We summarize the results of measurements in several office buildings and in a research laboratory. Almost all measurements indicate that the extent of both short circuiting and displacement flow is small. A moderate amount of short circuiting is evident from a few measurements in rooms with heated supply air. Ages of air and their reciprocals (local ventilation rates) often vary substantially between rooms, probably because of room-to-room variation in the rate of air supply. For future research, we suggest assessments of measurement accuracy,more » development of measurement approaches that may be practically applied for a broader range of buildings, and a greater focus on pollutant removal efficiencies.« less


More than three billion people, nearly half of humankind, live on less than two-and-a-half U.S. dollars per person per day. Studies have shown repeatedly that the main and often the sole asset of the poor is their labor. It follows that to understand global poverty one must understand labor markets and labor earnings in the developing world. Excellent books exist on ending world poverty that discuss in depth many important aspects of economic development but do not focus on employment and self-employment, work and non-work. Working Hard, Working Poor fills in where the other books leave off. Issues of analyzing poverty and low earnings in the developing world are quite different from those in the developed world. The discourse in the developed world is about incentive effects of social welfare programs, cultures of poverty, single-parenthood, homelessness, drug and alcohol abuse, ill health, mental illness, domestic violence, and the like. But in the developing world, different issues predominate, such as own-account work and household enterprises, agricultural work, casual employment, and informal work. And some of the policy issues--stimulating economic growth, harnessing the energies of the private sector, increasing paid employment, and raising the returns to self-employment--take a different twist. This book shows how people in poverty work, what has been effective in helping the poor earn their way out of poverty, and how readers might help. Available in OSO: http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/oso/public/content/economicsfinance/9780199794645/toc.html


Transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) can evoke illusory flash-like visual percepts known as phosphenes. The perception of phosphenes represents a major experimental challenge when studying tACS-induced effects on cognitive performance. Besides growing concerns that retinal phosphenes themselves could potentially have neuromodulatory effects, the perception of phosphenes may also modify the alertness of participants. Past research has shown that stimulation intensity, frequency and electrode montage affect phosphene perception. However, to date, the effect of an additional tACS parameter on phosphene perception has been completely overlooked: the relative phase difference between stimulation electrodes. This is a crucial and timely topic given the confounding nature of phosphene perception and the increasing number of studies reporting changes in cognitive function following tACS phase manipulations. However, studying phosphene perception for different frequencies and phases simultaneously is not tractable using standard approaches, as the physiologically plausible range of parameters results in a combinatorial explosion of experimental conditions, yielding impracticable experiment durations. To overcome this limitation, here we applied a Bayesian optimization approach to efficiently sample an exhaustive tACS parameter space. Moreover, unlike conventional methodology, which involves subjects judging the perceived phosphene intensity on a rating scale, our study leveraged the strength of human perception by having the optimization driven based on a subject's relative judgement. Applying Bayesian optimization for two different montages, we found that phosphene perception was affected by differences in the relative phase between cortical electrodes. The results were replicated in a second study involving new participants and validated using computational modelling. In summary, our results have important implications for the experimental design and conclusions drawn from future tACS studies investigating the effects of phase on cognition.


In medical exposure situations, the significant role of and the need to improve the benefit/risk dialogue between health professionals, patients and other stakeholders are well recognized. This paper analyses stakeholder engagement processes in various medical applications of ionising radiation. It addresses the role and potential benefit of radiological protection (RP) culture for health professionals and the issues associated with the practical implementation of informed consent processes. The paper highlights the need to develop RP culture among health professionals to facilitate dialogue between practitioners and patients and to foster the implementation of the principles of radiological protection. It argues that patients' participation can be enhanced by creating spaces and opportunities for dialogue between patients and the relevant medical professionals, both before the implementation of medical procedures using ionising radiation, particularly at the moment of referral, as well as after these procedures. Risk communication training for medical professionals and their closer collaboration on this topic may enhance the dialogue with patients.


The dental implant drilling procedure is an essential step for implant surgery, and frictional heat in bone during drilling is a key factor affecting the success of an implant. The aim of this study was to increase the dental implant drill lifetime and performance by using heat- and wear-resistant protective coatings to decrease the alveolar bone temperature caused by the dental implant drilling procedure. Commercially obtained stainless steel drills were coated with titanium aluminum nitride, diamond-like carbon, titanium boron nitride, and boron nitride coatings via magnetron-sputter deposition. Drilling was performed on bovine femoral cortical bone under the conditions mimicking clinical practice. Tests were performed under water-assisted cooling and under the conditions when no cooling was applied. Coated drill performances and durabilities were compared with those of three commonly used commercial drills with surfaces made from zirconia, black diamond. and stainless steel. Protective coatings with boron nitride, titanium boron nitride, and diamond-like carbon have significantly improved drill performance and durability. In particular, boron nitride-coated drills have performed within safe bone temperature limits for 50 drillings even when no cooling is applied. Titanium aluminium nitride coated drills did not show any improvement over commercially obtained stainless steel drills. Surface modification using heat- and wear-resistant coatings is an easy and highly effective way to improve implant drill performance and durability, which can improve the surgical procedure and the postsurgical healing period. The noteworthy success of different types of coatings is novel and likely to be applicable to various other medical systems.


Changing climates threaten the habitats and ecosystems at variable extents throughout the world. Forests are unique habitats and ecosystems that are vulnerable by the consequences of climate change. The climate change causes disturbances, alterations. and shifting on the forests that can be diagnosed at the tree and stand scales, as well as can be monitored and analyzed at the landscape scale. Furthermore, some recent researches concentrate on conveying the forest tree and stand-level shifting and disturbances to the forest landscape level by upscaling. In this study, the climate change impacts on the forest landscapes; prin- cipally, the disturbances including the drought-induced mortality, growth and productivity failures, and insect outbreaks are evaluated. Secondarily, climate change-induced alterations of the forest species distributions and forest landscape compositions, dynamics of the forest biodiversity, and tree migrations are discussed by focusing particularly on the relatively recent advances involving the modeling procedures. Ultimately, monitoring the climate change-driven shifting phenology of the forest landscape through the remote sens- ing techniques is referred in this study. Moreover, the study examples dependent upon the climate-ecological modeling and satellite data assessment of the forest landscapes throughout the world are also referenced. The landscape-scale assessment of the climate change impacts on the forest ecosystems provides integrated and comprehensive approach toward the proposal of sustainable mitigations and solutions to the phenomenon.


In this paper, we propose a new particle filter based on sequential importance sampling. The algorithm uses a bank of unscented filters to obtain the importance proposal distribution. This proposal has two very "nice" properties. Firstly, it makes efficient use of the latest available information and, secondly, it can have heavy tails. As a result, we find that the algorithm outperforms standard particle filtering and other nonlinear filtering methods very substantially. This experimental finding is in agreement with the theoretical convergence proof for the algorithm. The algorithm also includes resampling and (possibly) Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) steps.


Today, computer science and robotics have been highly developed.
Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) is widely used in mobile robot navigation,
game design, and autonomous vehicles. It can be said that in the future, most
scenarios where mobile robots are applied will require localization and mapping. Among them, the construction of three-dimensional(3D) maps is
particularly important for environment visualization which is the focus of this
research.

In this project, the data used for visualization was collected
using a vision sensor. The data collected by the vision sensor is
processed by ORB-SLAM2 to generate the 3D cloud point maps of the environment. Because, there are a lot of noise in the map points cloud, filters are
used to remove the noise. The generated map points are processed by the
straight-through filter to cut off the points out of the specific range.
Statistical filters are then used to remove sparse outlier noise. Thereafter,
in order to improve the calculation efficiency and retain the necessary terrain
details, a voxel filter is used for downsampling. In order to improve the
composition effect, it is necessary to appropriately increase the sampling
amount to increase surface smoothness. Finally, the processed map points are
visualized using Octomap. The implementation utilizes the services provided by
the Robot Operating System (ROS). The powerful Rviz software on the ROS
platform is used. The processed map points as cloud data are published in ROS
and visualized using Octomap.

Simulation results confirm that Octomap can show the terrain
details well in the 3D visualization of the environment. After the simulations,
visualization experiments for two environments of different complexity are
performed. The experimental results show that the approach can mitigate the
influence of noise on the visualization results to a certain extent. It is
shown that for static high-precision point clouds, Octomap provides a good
visualization. The simulation and experimental results demonstrate the
applicably of the approach to visualize 3D map points for the purpose of
autonomous navigation.


Literary history asserts that one of the earliest collective articulations of the plight and condition of the Black Diaspora in the western hemisphere occurred from the mid-nineteenth century to the initial decades of the twentieth century with the rise of what can be considered "negritude" ideology in literature1. In many spaces throughout Africa and the Diaspora, this watershed eroded antiquated notions and perceptions of Blackness while rendering voice to silenced experiences and people in world literatures. Black intellectuals, political figures, and revolucionaries postulated counter discursive arguments in an effort to reclaim agency while combating globally entrenched pejorative stereotypes. Equally, new tapestries were woven as literary pieces stitched by these authors confronted the social realities of Blackness. For this cadre of writers, Blackness became centrifugal to their discourse as they sought through literary expressions an aesthetics that separated them ideologically and thematically from their white contemporaries. Many of the early drum majors of this movement in literature included Aime Cesair (Martinique), Leon Damas (French Guyana), Leopold Senghor (Senegal), Langston Hughes (USA), Rene Depestre (Haiti), Virginia Brindis de Salas (Uruguay), and Nicolas Guillen (Cuba). Negritude emerged as Black poets in Africa, the United States, and the Caribbean chartered a new course politicizing constructs of Old and New World Blackness by challenging hegemonic social and political positionality of Blackness through rendering counter articulations that reflected their own experiences and ideologies. This "first" wave of collective Black voices promoted Black pride, an Africa-centered identity, and a collective understanding of the struggle against the vestiges of colonialism, slavery, post-emancipation ignorance, subjugation, and racism. This investigation explores the socio-political poetics of Bias Jimenez situating him as a continued voice of the negritude aesthetic in the Spanish-speaking world. Selected poems from the author's Caribe, africano en despertar (1984), are presented and evaluated for three purposes. First, the poems used for analysis attest to the continuation of negritude ideology of Afrocentric thematic poetry in the Caribbean. Second, the poet's social criticism is directly linked to an ideology of white supremacy resulting from colonialism and slavery. And lastly, the selected verses politically challenge the historical vilification of Blackness in an effort to overcome and dismantle the post-colonial conditioning of persons of African descent in the Caribbean. However, prior to these assessments, it is important to offer brief commentary on Negritude and the Spanish-speaking Diaspora as a precursor to the emergence of Bias Jimenez. Although primarily regarded as a francophone expression, there were many Anglophone and Hispanophone players in the literary phenomenon so designated as Negritude. As mentioned earlier, one included the celebrated Cuban poet, Nicolas Guillen. Regarding his role in the Diaspora Negritude movement, Ian Smart in Nicolas Guillen: Popular Poet of the Caribbean (1990) states: He is generally lionized by the critics as an exponent of an exotic version of mainstream Latin American poetry, a somewhat avant-garde Negroid poetry (literally, poesia negroide). He has also been claimed by the experts, and justly so, as a member of the Afro-American literary community, so his name is mentioned in the same breath as those eminent figures who were the principals in the so-called Harlem Renaissance: Claude McKay, Countee Cullen, Sterling Brown, Langston Hughes. The last-named was a personal friend and, indeed, exercised considerable influence on the Cuban Poeta Nacional. Since the Negritude movement was originated mainly by Caribbean poets (albeit speaking French and operating out of Paris), Guillen's connection to this phenomenon has been explored with some critical validity. …


The new practices and theories of parliamentary representation that emerged during Elizabeth's and James' reigns shattered the unity of human agency, redefined the nature of power, transformed the image of the body politic, and unsettled constructs and concepts as fundamental as the relation between presence and absence. In The Third Citizen, Oliver Arnold argues that recovering the formation of political representation as an effective ideology should radically change our understanding of early modern political culture, Shakespeare's political art, and the way Anglo-American critics, for whom representative democracy is second nature, construe both. In magisterial readings of Titus Andronicus, Julius Caesar, Coriolanus, and the First Tetralogy, Arnold discovers a new Shakespeare who was neither a conservative apologist for monarchy nor a prescient, liberal champion of the House of Commons but instead a radical thinker and artist who demystified the ideology of political representation in the moment of its first flowering. Shakespeare believed that political representation produced (and required for its reproduction) a new kind of subject and a new kind of subjectivity, and he fashioned a new kind of tragedy to represent the loss of power, the fall from dignity, the false consciousness, and the grief peculiar to the experiences of representing and of being represented. Representationalism and its subject mark the beginning of political modernity; Shakespeare's tragedies greet political representationalism with skepticism, bleakness, and despair.


English -- The impact of residualisation on social work has so far hardly been explored. Based on existing literature and recently started empirical research in Amsterdam we analyze several consequences. Residualisation refers to the process whereby urban social housing is strictly allocated to the lowest income groups. What does this concentration of disadvantaged households mean for the role of social workers? Firstly, for community workers residualisation mostly implies a renewed role as instigators of residents' participation in urban renewal trajectories for social mix. Furthermore community activities are increasingly used to offer safe havens for new and old groups of residents and also to prevent expensive treatments for several residential groups. For social workers focusing on individual support or casework residualisation results in an increasingly complex caseload. Residualisation does not imply extra formation for social work, but rather extra attention for the effortful coproduction of welfare between formal and informal actors. Within this playing field, we distinguish link work as vital for both formal and informal social work. Link work is about establishing vertical and horizontal connections between different worlds, across sectoral, professional or trust gaps. We expect that in areas of residualisation successful urban social work is dependent on strong linking skills.


Background Care during pregnancy and performing consultation for delivery preparation play an important role in improving pregnant women's knowledge. Objective The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of consultation and instruction in the preparation classes for delivery on pregnancy consequences, including choosing the type of delivery, the performed type of delivery, and infant's weight. Methods This study was conducted in 2015 on 170 pregnant women who had been referred to the prenatal clinic in Hamedan. The participants were randomly divided into intervention and control groups. Eight sessions of consultation for delivery preparation were held for the women in 20 to 36 weeks of pregnancy. The control group received only the routine care. After 37 weeks of pregnancy, the participants answered a questionnaire. The infant's weight was measured after birth. Data were analyzed Using SPSS-21 and McNemar–Bowker Test, independent t-test, chi-square test, and Fisher exact test. Results Results showed a significant statistical difference between the two groups concerning their selective and performed delivery (p<0.001). The weight of infants in the intervention group was significantly higher than that of those in the control group (p<0.001). Conclusion The findings of this study showed that the consultation for delivery preparation had a positive effect on some pregnancy consequences such as selecting the type of delivery performed and infant's weight. Trial registration The trial was registered at the Iranian Registry of Clinical Trials (http://www.irct.ir) with the IRCTID: IRCT2015012513405N9. Funding The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.


Piotr Dyba - with modern_peripherals: Python and Flask

Auto-scrolling sites, glance-following ads, and gesture friendly web
pages are coming!

Over the last few years three products emerged that enable
interaction with computer in a new way: Myo Armband, Leap Motion
Controller and EyeTribe. The Myo Armband is a device that uses the
electrical activity in your muscles to wirelessly control your
computer, phone, and tablet, which is especially useful when your
hands are "tied" or dirty. This device will be used to navigate
through the presentation. The Leap Motion Controller tracks both hands
in front of the screen. From a web developer's perspective, both
devices allows us to use gestures, previously restricted to touch
devices, on desktops. EyeTribe is an affordable eye-tracking device.

The talk will briefly cover setting up SDKs and python wrappers, and
then focus on possible uses in daily life, business and, of course,
web app development. Code examples will be included. In addition, the
trade-offs between processing this new type of input data in the
client versus processing input on the server will be discussed.


Specialized radiation treatments such as IMRT, VAT, SRS, Tomotherapy, CyberKnife and Gammaknife use small fields or combination of small fields on the order of few millimeters. Small-field dosimetry is challenging due to source size obstruction, lack of electronic equilibrium and size of detectors. Source size is dependent on the design of the accelerator and could be obstructed by the collimating system with decreasing field sizes. Electronic equilibrium is a phenomenon associated with the range of secondary particles and hence dependent on the beam energy, spectrum and the composition of the medium. Detectors could be inherently large compared to beam size and may produce volume averaging and perturbations. Recommendations of a good working practice for relative dosimetry measurements (PDD, TMR, output factor etc.) and dose calculations based on formulation of the new IAEA/AAPM non-compliant dosimetry1 is discussed in the context of small field dosimetry that is adopted in the AAPM TG-155.2 This course provides insight of TG-155 that defines small field, provides suitability of a detector and associated correction factor to convert reading to dose. It also provides beam modeling and dose calculations as a critical step in clinical utilization of small field radiotherapy. Small errors in beam data, approximations in dose algorithms, or misaligned field settings can propagate into large errors in planned and delivered dose. The modeling and treatment planning aspects of small field dosimetry is reviewed with emphasis on the most critical parts for ensuring accurate and safe radiation therapy. Please enter your abstract text here.1P. Alfonso, P. Andreo, R. Capote, M. S. Huq, W. Kilby, P. Kjall, T. R. Mackie, H. Palmans, K. Rosser, J. Seuntjens, W. Ullrich and S. Vatnitsky, "A new formalism for refeence dosimetry of small and nonstandard fields," Med Phys 35, 5179-5186 (2008).2I. J. Das, P. Francescon, A. Ahnesjo, M. M. Aspradakis, C. W. Cheng, G. X. Ding, G. S. Ibbott, M. Oldham, M. S. Huq, C. S. Reft and S. O.A., "Task Group 155 report: Small fields and non-equilibrium condition photon beam dosimetry," Med Phys (under review).

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Devices that deal with small fields 2. Definition of small fields 3. Description of absolute and relative dosimetry 4. Choice of detector in small field dosimetry 5. Correction factors for converting reading to dose 6. Understanding the implication of small fields in clinical practice.


Multiple endocrine neoplasia is a group of disorders that affect the body's network of hormone-producing glands called the endocrine system. Hormones are chemical messengers that travel through the bloodstream and regulate the function of cells and tissues throughout the body. Multiple endocrine neoplasia typically involves tumors (neoplasia) in at least two endocrine glands; tumors can also develop in other organs and tissues. These growths can be noncancerous (benign) or cancerous (malignant). If the tumors become cancerous, the condition can be life-threatening.


Introduction
Immunotherapy is becoming a promising approach for unresectable-hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC); the anti-tumor response is affected by the tumor microenvironment (TME). Although Wnt/β-catenin mutations are reported to cause non-inflamed phenotype, their role on TME remains controversial. We aimed to clarify the heterogeneity of immunophenotype in HCC with Wnt/β-catenin mutations.

Methods
This study includes 152 resected HCCs; mutations in the catenin beta-1, adenomatous polyposis coli, or AXIN1, or AXIN2 genes were defined as Wnt/β-catenin mutations. With hierarchical cluster analyses, TME were classified into inflamed or non-inflamed classes based on the gene expressions associated with T-cell activation. Expression profiles of molecules related to cell differentiation and biliary-stem cell markers were compared between the TME classes to investigate whether differences in tumor traits were associated with TME.

Results
Forty of 152 (26.3%) HCCs carried the Wnt/β-catenin mutations. Of these, 33 were classified as non-inflamed (33/40, 82.5%) and 7 as inflamed (7/40, 17.5%). Non-inflamed class was characterized by low number of CD3+, CD4+, and CD8+ cells on immunostaining, and high mRNA expressions of AXIN2 and GLUL, which are involved in the canonical Wnt/β-catenin signaling and hepatocyte differentiation, respectively. Non-inflamed tumors showed higher enhancement on the hepatobiliary-phase of gadolinium-ethoxybenzyl-diethylenetriamine (Gd-EOB-DTPA)-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) compared to inflamed tumors. HCCs classified as inflamed class are revealed to have high numbers of CD3+, CD4+, and CD8+ tumor infiltrating lymphocytes on immunostaining. This class is associated with increased expression of anti-epithelial cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM) and FOXM1 accompanied by upregulation of genes related to interferon-gamma signaling, dendritic cell migration, regulatory T cells and MDSC activation and recognized as low enhancement nodule on Gd-EOB-DTPA-enhanced MRI.

Conclusion
Heterogeneity of tumor traits and TME was observed in HCC with Wnt/β-catenin mutation. The potential was indicated that tumor traits and TME are determined not only by the activation of the HNF4A but also by FOXM1, both of which are downstream transcription factor of the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway.


Employers of graduate and placement engineers require the students to demonstrate a level of competency in key technical and employability skills in their placement/graduate applications. Therefore any employability development learning in any engineering courses needs to be supported by engineering professionals with commercial/professional knowledge and appreciation of organizations/recruitment processes. Also, provide a learning experience and opportunities that enable students to self identify, reflect and articulate their relevant engineering and employability skills required for placement and graduate roles. Is embedding employability into the curriculum design the solution to the problem? If, 'yes', how effective is such an approach in providing an authentic and supported employability learning experience? This paper will present an example of an embedded employability curriculum design solution applied to engineering courses. In the first year of implementation the student engagement in the placement process increased by 8-fold, less than 6% of students in 2009-2010 were registered as not engaged, in comparison to the previous year where 50% were not engaged in the voluntary non embedded employability sessions. However, from the student's perspective can this success be attributed to the embedded curriculum design solution? This paper presents the quantitative and qualitative results of the student perspective and experience of the curriculum design solution and whether it has had a positive contributing factor on their employability.


After the collapse of the socialist political system that had glued the Soviet Union together, two dozen nations re-emerged on the world stage. "The New Georgia" presents both a broad and an intimate view of society in one of those nations, a country previously best known to the West as the home of the infamous Stalin. Composed by candlelight and typed during short intervals when electricity was available, the book begins with general geographical and historical background of this country, sitting precariously at the political crossroads of eastern Europe and western Asia. Part I also includes sections on many aspects of social geography, including population and family dynamics, education, employment, class stratifications, housing, ethnicity, and religion. Part II analyzes the specific issues of a rapidly changing society, including the sudden transition to a market economy, regional variations in welfare, crime and drug abuse, urban-specific problems, and ethnic tensions. Despite the maze of problems in post-Soviet Georgia, Gachechiladze concludes hopefully that "Georgia will come closer to the way of development that all progressive countries of the West have. . . . According to Stjepan Mestrovi, editor of the Eastern European Series and author of "Habits of the Balkan Heart," "The New Georgia" "engages in a cultural analysis that will be of interest to readers in diverse fields."


The paper examines requirements for IT support in open innovation within companies. Based on an in-depth single-case study, we derive four major levels of IT requirements: incentive & inspiration, information & knowledge, communication & collaboration, and feedback & feed-forward. The multitude of requirements identified on each level clearly points to the need for IT support during the internal open innovation process. The paper concludes that many findings from prior research on innovation management systems apply to the internal open innovation context as well, but with some interesting differences. An IT system for open innovation within a company should pay particular attention to the incentives and inspiration of employees. The system should motivate all employees to participate in open innovation and stimulate innovative ideas by indicating clear benefits as well as recent needs, challenges and developments in their company's context. Furthermore, a virtual community seems to be a powerful concept for driving open innovation in the company. It fosters the activity of and the interaction between employees, thereby addressing all of our requirement levels. To build and run such an intraorganizational open innovation community, social software offers useful concepts and applications. Based on the identified requirements, we present initial concepts for their implementation.


In this paper, I propose that switch-reference in Quechua can best be analyzed as agreeing tense. Given the properties of the Quechuan switch-reference system and the clause structure of Quechua, I assume that a switch-reference adverbial clause does not have a valued tense feature and must agree with its superordinated clause in tense. Tense agreement is only possible if the subjects of both clauses are identical. The same subject marker is analyzed as the spell-out of successful tense agreement, while the different subject marker is the spell-out of failed agreement. I argue that this approach to switch-reference is conceptually as well as empirically compelling and raises the interesting question as to whether switch-reference is a true morpho-syntactic category or not.


Under a federal law, each state by January 1, 1993, must provide for safe disposal of its low-level radioactive wastes. Most of the wastes are from using nuclear power to produce electricity, but 25% to 30% are from medical diagnosis, therapy, and research. Exposures to radioactivity from the wastes are much smaller than those from natural sources, and federal standards limit public exposure. Currently operating disposal facilities are in Beatty, Nev, Barnwell, SC, and Richland, Wash. National policy encourages the development of regional facilities. Planning a regional facility, selecting a site, and building, monitoring, and closing the facility will be a complex project lasting decades that involves legislation, public participation, local and state governments, financing, quality control, and surveillance. The facilities will utilize geological factors, structural designs, packaging, and other approaches to isolate the wastes. Those providing medical care can reduce wastes by storing them until they are less radioactive, substituting nonradioactive compounds, reducing volumes, and incinerating. Physicians have an important role in informing and advising the public and public officials about risks involved with the wastes and about effective methods of dealing with them.


Facial injuries in children are much less common than in adults particularly in the first five years of life. The canine population also subjects the child to dog bites, sometimes resulting in considerable soft tissue disorganization and loss. During preschool years, parental supervision reduces the risk of serious injuries; although falls are frequent they are usually from a small height. The small volume of facial skeleton not yet weakened by the air sinuses are protected also by the cheek adipose tissue i.e. less subject to fracture than the cranium & lower third of the face Children have increased elasticity of the bone & a short thick condylar neck which also resists fracture, however the presence of deciduous &permanent teeth results in a higher tooth to bone ratio and encourages fracture through the developing tooth crypts. Facial deformity may result not only from the displacement of bony structures but also from impaired growth which is attributable to injury. Techniques used to treat fractures in children are modified by certain anatomical, physiological & psychological factors related to childhood. Fear apprehension & strange surroundings from the children requires considerable technique & patience from the attending doctor to do a thorough clinical & radiographic evaluation of the injury. Under these circumstances treatment should be designed to incorporate a minimum number of separate procedures. A one stage technique is preferred & considerable care must be exercised during treatment if miniplates or transosseous wiring is used to avoid the developing tooth buds. Condylar fractures & injuries should be viewed with concern in the growing child because of the possibility of ankylosis of the joint & impaired facial growth. Soft tissue injuries resulting in densely scarred areas may require reconstructive procedures for such untreated areas may interfere with subjacent bony growth & loss of soft tissue should be remedied using standard reconstructive techniques as used in an adult.


We present a simple algorithm that makes possible the simulation of ronchigrams for any optical system in which it is possible to make an exact ray tracing. We report the simulations for the following grids: the Ronchi classical, square, circular, radial, circular-radial, biparabolic, elliptic-hyperbolic, bipolar, and bielliptic ones.


Electrical bio-impedance can be considered as a physiological measurement of significant value in research and clinical applications. This is because certain structures of living organisms and the human body such as tissues and membranes are characterized by their specific impedance, which can be easily measured with existing technology. In addition, many body functions (physiological processes) involve changes in their ionic and electrolytic content and size, features that are followed by changes in their electrical characteristics indicated by their impedance values. The use of surface electrodes for measuring impedance in humans makes the method more attractive. Thus, during the 2nd half of the last century, impedance techniques have been developed to measure the blood flow in limbs, to form cross-sectional images of human body sections and to define body composition. The imaging techniques suffer from poor resolution due to the anisotropic electrical properties of the tissues. Epigastrography, based on determination of electrical impedance changes, is a simple, inexpensive, radiation free technique, which can be repeated many times without any trauma to the patient and is a valuable research tool. This work involves the generation, analysis and interpretation of epigastric electrical impedance signals. The signals recorded represent the epigastric impedance of a fasting volunteer before, during the oral intake of a liquid meal of typically 450 mL and for periods between 45 minutes to 2 hours post-prandially. The half emptying times (T50s) were calculated for a variety of test meals, and the statistically significant differences between the T50s were found for meals which varied in calorific content in a total of 7 studies with at least 9 subjects per study. Significant differences between T50s were found also when testing the same meal but under different conditions, namely, intravenous infusion of peptides (GLP-1, loxiglumide) or placebo (physiological saline) and the release in the gastric cavity of amino acids, free or bound with an orally taken gelatine capsule. However, the impedance T50s calculated were found to be considerably shorter than half emptying times presented in the literature using other techniques. Simultaneous application of scintigraphy confirmed that the T50s based on impedance were in comparison shorter. Similarly when experiments were carried out, simultaneously with the octanoic acid breath test and application of paracetamol absorption the same shorter, in comparison, values of T50s were obtained. The comparison with scintigraphy strengthened the suspicion that impedance values were being strongly influenced by the presence of gastric acid. Gastric acid studies undertaken for a number of conditions supported the considerable influence that gastric acid played. In vitro measurements of conductivity and pH of mixtures of test meals with gastric juice aspirations from subjects showed the acid influence. Finally, the physiology of the gastric mucosa from the resting state to secretion leads to the hypothesis that epigastric impedance is in the main controlled by the conductivity of the gastric content rather than by the volume of the meal content in the stomach and is supported by the laws of physics underlying the electrical impedance of a bulk object. In conclusion, both experimental and clinical results from the studies and investigations undertaken in this research convinced the author that the epigastric impedance reflects the conductivity and the acidity of the gastric content. Further by carrying out signal processing of the epigastric impedance signals employing fast Fourier transformation information was extracted about the gastric contractions in the range of 2.5 to 4.5 cycles per minute, confirming the usefulness of the technique in the study of gastric motility. In addition studies are necessary, to establish the validity of the results in the clinical environment and to answer conclusively the question "whether epigastric impedance can be developed as an external monitoring technique of gastric acidity and motility".


Fuel management is one of the main challenges for wildfire prevention in the Mediterranean region, where wildfires have important environmental and socioeconomic effects. Different treatments are usually applied in fire-prone shrubland to try to modify its flammability. However, a knowledge gap on the effectiveness of fuel management techniques still exists. We studied the effects of two mechanical treatments (shrub crushing and shrub clearing with removal) and of prescribed burning, on fire behaviour, and compared them with untreated vegetation. Experimental burns in 0.8 × 6 m samples of regenerated shrubs 2 years after treatments were performed in an outdoor wind tunnel. All fuel treatments effectively modified fire behaviour, but no significant difference between treatment types was observed. Shrub fuel structure was the main factor affecting fire behaviour. Reduction of fuel load and height, especially necromass fraction, decreased flame height and fire intensity but did not affect fire rate of spread. Moisture contents of live and dead fuel fractions were not significant as independent parameters, but the average moisture level of the shrub fuel complex showed a relevant effect in determining fire behaviour. Temperature regime within and above the shrubs was also related to shrub fuel structure. This study contributes to understanding fuel management in shrubland by providing information about different fuel treatments effects on fire behaviour.


Synthetic polypeptides from the ring-opening polymerization of N-carboxyanhydrides (NCAs) are one of the most important biomaterials. The unique features of these synthetic polypeptides, including their chemical diversity of side chains and their ability to form secondary structures, enable their broad applications in the field of gene delivery, drug delivery, bio-imaging, tissue engineering, and antimicrobials. In this review article, we summarize the recent advances in the design of polypeptide-based supramolecular structures, including complexes with nucleic acids, micelles, vesicles, hybrid nanoparticles, and hydrogels. We also highlight the progress in the chemical design of functional polypeptides, which plays a crucial role to manipulate their assembly behaviours and optimize their biomedical performances. Finally, we conclude the review by discussing the future opportunities in this field, including further studies on the secondary structures and cost-effective synthesis of polypeptide materials.


Increased competition and a change in economic conditions have permanently changed the expected returns of private equity funds. As a result, successful private equity firms will be required to add value through an active and disciplined portfolio management process. The author describes a comprehensive, proactive portfolio management process and related tools that have been successfully implemented at a leading private equity fund. The article reviews investment oversight tools such as summary scorecard preparation, exit plan development and scenario modeling, systematic risk/opportunity assessment, and the creation of deal team action plans, along with specific examples of "real world" applications. The suggested approach can help private equity firms realize improved performance by accelerating their response to early warning signs such as key performance indicators; achieving better alignment of deal team and company activities with the ultimate exit plan throughout the life of an investment; optimizing the timing and positioning of an investment exit; and improving the management of the private equity firm's professional resources.


This policy brief is written as a follow-up to CIPS' policy paper "The Advent of a New Trade Governance After the Omnibus Law Neraca Komoditas" that was published before the issuance of Presidential Regulation No. 32/2022. Legalized on February 21st 2022, Presidential Regulation No. 32/2022 on Neraca Komoditas is the implementing regulation of the Job Creation Law on trade. It regulates the use of and the procedure to enact Neraca Komoditas. The regulation provides a legal basis for the new Neraca Komoditas trade mechanism after the Government of Indonesia has promoted the idea in the past year (see Gupta, Pane, & Pasaribu, 2022 for early analysis on the Neraca Komoditas). The Neraca Komoditas will be rolled out for rice, salt, sugar, beef and fisheries products in 2022, while other goods that require export and import licensing will start to use Neraca Komoditas in 2023.


The study of white-collar crime remains a central concern for criminologists around the world and research concentrates on its nature, prevalence, causes and responses. However, most books on white-collar crime tend to focus on Anglo-American examples, which is surprising given the amount of rich data and research taking place in mainland Europe. This new handbook seeks to reset the balance and, for the first time, presents an overview of state-of-the-art research on white-collar crime in Europe.Adding to the existing Anglo-American body of knowledge, the Handbook will discuss specific European topics and typical European features of white-collar crime. The Routledge Handbook of White-Collar and Corporate Crime in Europe consists of more than thirty chapters on topics ranging from the Icelandic Banking Crisis, to the origins of the study of white collar crime, to contemporary topics, such as white-collar crime in countries post-transition from communist regimes; the illegal e-waste trade and white-collar crime in professional football. Furthermore, the book contains extensive case study analyses of landmark European cases of white-collar crime.The editors have gathered together the leading voices in the field and a final section offers commentaries on white-collar crime in Europe from eminent criminologists David Friedrichs and Hazel Croall. This Handbook will thus serve as a work of reference for all scholars and students engaged in the study of corporate and white-collar crime and will also set out directions for new research in the future.


The aim of the thesis is to examine the use of acorns in human subsistence and to relate this
to the interpretation of acorn remains from archaeological sites.
The worldwide archaeological record of acorn finds is first reviewed, and archaeologists'
interpretations of past uses of acorns are discussed. The ethnographic record of acorn use
is next examined, with emphasis on similarity and variability within and between regions.
Particular attention is paid to food-processing and detoxification techniques. An
examination of the biological and ecological characteristics of acorns and oak trees follows,
with emphasis on those factors which make them a useful resource, and, conversely, those
factors which might bias against their use. Factors affecting the availability of acorns, and
their nutritional qualities are considered.
Interpretations which have been made in the archaeological literature about acorn use are
then re-examined in the light of the available archaeological, ethnographic, and biological
data. Problems with the nature of the available data, and their use, are discussed, and the
potential for a more critical approach to the use and interpretation of such sources of data is
examined. Consideration is given to the extent to which taphonomic factors, relating to
either cultural or natural processes, may influence the representation and interpretation of
acorns in archaeological sites. Finally, the implications that the study of one potentially
important wild plant-food resource may have for general models of past human subsistence
are discussed.


This article briefly explores the current problems surrounding young people's knowledge, skills and engagement in the civic life of the democracy in the United States and the contributions that public legal education or civic learning [1] can make to improving youth engagement as members of a democracy. The article will acknowledge the contribution made by the law-related education movement of the 1950s. More specifically, the article will explore the history of a law school based program - Street Law -- that describes the most important way that law schools in the United States contribute to civic learning. Finally, the article will reveal the actual source of the term "Street Law" and the ongoing impact that Street Law has on the young people and the law students who teach it. [1] I will use the term "civic learning," instead of public-legal education, which is the more common term in Washington State and in many other states in the U.S.


Wireless communication became popular in the last decades, giving the mobility to the users. However with increased number of users and contention, network efficiency can hardly keep up with user needs. This thesis focuses on a new frequency domain contention technique called FICA. In FICA, the channel is assumed to be using Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex (OFDM) with multiple sub-carriers. We investigated the use of multiple channels and multiple access points (APs) in the design. First we investigated having one channel that is divided into number of sub-carriers, it shows good result, but only for limited number of users. Therefore we worked on the second scenario of having several sub-channels and each sub-channel is divided into a number of sub-carriers to communicate through one AP. And for efficient result nodes contend on the contention band and winner nodes will have the chance to send their data through the transmission band. In real world, networks have more than one AP, for that reason we investigate the third scenario, which is having more than one AP. In this setup, the result showed significant outcome, that we can divide the channel into several sub-channels to serve more than one AP and hash an ID for each AP. We further investigated optimal number of ID bits that are used to represent the hashed receiver IDs. We summarize the results as following: 1) it is possible to divide the channel bandwidth into several sub-channels that is divided into several sub-carriers to serve large number of users. 2) node contention should be partitioned into contention band and transmission band to reduce the overhead that the contending node cause when contending on the whole channel. 3) AP ID is required when the network has more than one AP. 4) number of sub-carriers in the contention band has to increase at least to the double for higher efficiency, since more AP on the network would make the channel more loaded. 5) AP ID can be anything between 20-40 bits. Decreasing the ID to less than 40bits did not affect the throughput and efficiency of the channel.


Router Security Strategies: Securing IP Network Traffic Planes provides a compre-hensive approach to understand and implement IP traffic plane separation and protection on IP routers. This book details the distinct traffic planes of IP networks and the advanced techniques necessary to operationally secure them. This includes the data, control, management, and services planes that provide the infrastructure for IP networking.

The first section provides a brief overview of the essential components of the Internet Protocol and IP networking. At the end of this section, you will understand the fundamental principles of defense in depth and breadth security as applied to IP traffic planes. Techniques to secure the IP data plane, IP control plane, IP management plane, and IP services plane are covered in detail in the second section.

The final section provides case studies from both the enterprise network and the service provider network perspectives. In this way, the individual IP traffic plane security techniques reviewed in the second section of the book are brought together to help you create an integrated, comprehensive defense in depth and breadth security architecture.

Understanding and securing IP traffic planes are critical to the overall security posture of the IP infrastructure. The techniques detailed in this book provide protection and instrumentation enabling operators to understand and defend against attacks. As the vulnerability economy continues to mature, it is critical for both vendors and network providers to collaboratively deliver these protections to the IP infrastructure.

Russell Smoak, Director, Technical Services, Security Intelligence Engineering, Cisco

Gregg Schudel, CCIE No. 9591, joined Cisco in 2000 as a consulting system engineer supporting the U.S. service provider organization. Gregg focuses on IP core network security architectures and technology for interexchange carriers and web services providers.

David J. Smith, CCIE No. 1986, joined Cisco in 1995 and is a consulting system engineer supporting the service provider organization. David focuses on IP core and edge architectures including IP routing, MPLS technologies, QoS, infrastructure security, and network telemetry.

 Understand the operation of IP networks and routers Learn about the many threat models facing IP networks, Layer 2 Ethernet switching environments, and IPsec and MPLS VPN services Learn how to segment and protect each IP traffic plane by applying defense in depth and breadth principles Use security techniques such as ACLs, rate limiting, IP Options filtering, uRPF, QoS, RTBH, QPPB, and many others to protect the data plane of IP and switched Ethernet networks Secure the IP control plane with rACL, CoPP, GTSM, MD5, BGP and ICMP techniques and Layer 2 switched Ethernet-specific techniques Protect the IP management plane with password management, SNMP, SSH, NTP, AAA, as well as other VPN management, out-of-band management, and remote access management techniques Secure the IP services plane using recoloring, IP fragmentation control, MPLS label control, and other traffic classification and process control techniques

This security book is part of the Cisco Press Networking Technology Series. Security titles from Cisco Press help networking professionals secure critical data and resources, prevent and mitigate network attacks, and build end-to-end self-defending networks.


Experiments were conducted using the X2 expansion tube at two conditions representative of flight velocities of 10.0 and 12.2  km/s for a vehicle entry into Earth's atmosphere. Calibrated spectral measurements were made of radiating shock layers across and through the surface of a model. These measurements provided a unique dataset for the validation of computational codes used in the calculation of incident vacuum ultraviolet radiative heat flux. Computational simulations at equilibrium gas chemistry were conducted using the Specair program and showed good agreement with the measurements.


Law is anthropocentric. With the limited exception of its treatment of the corporation, law is a system of rules that privileges the concept of the human and ascribes reality through a human perspective. Appreciating this, it is truly impressive that animal issues in the law have become so prominent throughout the legal education system. With this increased exposure to posthumanist critiques of the legal system and its status for and treatment of animals, an increasing number of those involved in legal education are rethinking the law's species-based hierarchy that places humans at the apex. This flourishing interest in animal law is paralleled by growth in the field of Critical Animal Studies (CAS). However, these two disciplines have developed independently of each other. Acknowledging this, animal law scholarship is currently poised to incorporate the insights of CAS. Integrating such insight into the analysis of animal issues in the law will rectify the speciesist and otherwise exclusionary formulations of the socially constructed differences between various species, which have so far been unquestioned assumptions. CAS offers an understanding of these socially constructed differences and advances a common mission between issues identified as animal injustices and those identified as human injustices. CAS stresses the interconnection between human and animal issues, not simply parallels. This important synthesis can subvert the confinement of animal issues in the legal sphere and is key to extending these essential issues into a more diverse community.


In South Africa, the management of municipal services has been an ongoing dilemma for the new government because of what it terms `a culture' of non-payment among users. As a result, prepayment has been widely implemented in electricity, telephone and, more recently, water services. Hailed as the solution to the non-payment problem, but also as a new social `paradigm' for service delivery, prepayment has been made more palatable by the introduction of free basic water and electricity. This paper analyses the state's attempt to impose prepayment in order to regulate, manage and re-educate the poor in South Africa into a `payment culture'. These social control processes, however, have been resisted; they provide a window on to the ambiguities of neo-liberal social development and the re-assertion of class power in South Africa through the engineering of a market-based disciplinary society. The paper concludes that the analysis of neo-liberal class power in South Africa needs to take account of the reciprocal dynamics of the state and popular responses. Prepaid service delivery has only to a limited extent relieved absolute poverty, but more generally has become linked to negative outcomes such as intermittent services and increased household stresses. The article draws on state documents, local municipal records and case studies of prepayment.


Apart from starting, growing and/or sustaining a business, owner-managers in small firms have the responsibility to balance business goals and managerial priorities, with ownership control tendencies and family values (as in the case of the prolific family enterprise) in a fashion that can comfort all business stakeholders. Understanding the inter-relationship among owner-manager's leadership style, intra-organisational management systems, and business growth can enable us to develop insights into how small business leaders masterfully construct a management approach that is conducive to sustainable performance. This empirical paper draws evidence from a large-scale postal survey (5710 respondents) of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in the UK and explores the association of small business managerial style and performance. Logistic regression analysis reveals that the managerial style of entrepreneurs is influenced by a series of demographic and situational factors. Moreover, owner-managed businesses characterised by delegation of authority appear to achieve higher growth in sales and operationalise in a more professional way. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications. The role of managerial style in interpreting business's growth performance will complement the leadership literature.


This practice based study investigates engagement with interconnecting themes of travel and
rural landscape in contemporary art practice. It argues that cross-disciplinary reading and
interaction between a grouping of select art practice and history of art scholarship and a
grouping of select cultural geography, tourism, sociology and social anthropology
scholarship, generates a richer understanding and communication of these themes in
contemporary art. A review of existing scholarship reveals that there are a number of existing
contemporary works of art which demonstrate engagement with interconnecting themes of
travel and / or northern rural landscape. Despite this, they are yet to be presented as an
identifiable, coherent, body of work of significance to the research community. Existing art
historical interpretation and analysis of this work additionally fails to reference recent,
relevant discourses of embodied experiences of travel and landscape which characterise
much of the associated scholarship in cultural geography, tourism, sociology, and social
anthropology. A combination of history of art and art practice methodology is utilised in this
study to address this gap in scholarship.
In the thesis, I identify and set out relevant existing scholarship in the disciplines of art
practice and history of art, and those of cultural geography, tourism, sociology and social
anthropology. Select examples of contemporary art are analysed and evaluated in relation to
'wayfaring', a theory sequentially formulated by social anthropologist Tim Ingold. Two key
concepts articulated by Ingold, those of 'linear journeying' and 'within-ness', form the
conceptual framework for this exercise. Drawing on the findings of this engagement with
works by other artists, I propose an original method of 'bridging' as a hybrid art practice /
history of art strategy for further addressing the gap in scholarship and delivering a further
original contribution to knowledge. The artists' book is identified as an effective, appropriate
contemporary art medium for undertaking this bridging. I review examples of contemporary
artists' book practice and explore this medium's potential for communicating embodied
experiences of linear journeying and within-ness in the context of a travel and rural
landscape subject.
I produced an original artists' book, 'Travelling the Line'. This work details my experiences as
a hiker and artist of travelling to two particular northern rural landscapes for this study, the
Scottish Highlands and Finnish Lapland. Part travel guide, part art object, 'Travelling the Line'
takes the form of a hardback print book and a stand-alone, online digital platform, the latter of
which includes additional video and sound content. It successfully communicates my own
personal, linear, embodied act of travelling; and demonstrates the value of bringing together
two bodies of scholarship, Ingold's theories and contemporary art practice. Included with this
thesis is a print version of 'Travelling the Line' and an online version, accessible at https://
travellingtheline.wordpress.com.


This paper describes the influence of grounding on voltage and current transients during DC-link fault in a High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) cable system. After presenting the topology and the modelling of the HVDC system, the paper focuses on cable parameters calculation and on propagation behaviour of travelling waves during fault conditions. DC short-circuit fault is then simulated for different cable screens as well as converter station neutral points grounding impedances. The results presented in the paper provide a preliminary insight for HVDC grid protection system design.


Abstract This paper argues that the European Union's attempts to externalize JHA policies and turn neighbouring countries into partners contributing to its internal security are hampered by numerous factors, including its obvious ambivalence towards these countries. The limitations of pursuing internal security objectives through a 'soft' partnership approach are particularly visible in the South Caucasus. The paper examines the EU's policies in Georgia and finds that they lack strategic vision and coherence. EU activity in Georgia illustrates three major challenges to the export of JHA policies in the neighbourhood: (1) the form of relations between the EU and its supposed partners ('modes of governance'); (2) the EU's policies vs. local expectations; and (3) the contradictions in the EU's objectives (democracy vs. efficiency).


Recently some state and local governments in the United States have sharply reduced or eliminated public employee unionism and bargaining rights in the belief that their fiscal adversity stems mainly from overcompensation of public employees caused by collective bargaining. The authors examine public-private sector pay and benefit relationships, the effects of unions on public employee pay, the effectiveness of employment dispute resolution procedures, and the ability of public sector labor and management to combat fiscal adversity. They provide new evidence showing that: on balance, public employees are undercompensated relative to their private sector counterparts; the effects of unions on compensation are smaller in the public than in the private sector; and public sector dispute resolution procedures and joint labor-management initiatives to reform work function reasonably well.


Abstract: In FIAMM and Fedon the European Court of Justice has ruled that Community undertakings hit by US trade sanctions authorised by the WTO Dispute Settlement Body are not entitled to compensation damages from EC political institutions. The article discusses the cases in the background of current debates on the attitude of the Court of Justice towards international law and, more broadly, on European legal pluralism. From this standpoint, it provides a critical assessment of the legal issues involved in this litigation – internal status of WTO obligations, scope for manoeuvre of EC political institutions in international trade relations, liability for unlawful and lawful conduct – and offers a comparative analysis of the possible solutions to the case suggesting that a finding of liability for lawful conduct would have been a preferable outcome in both theoretical and substantive terms.


We illustrate the corrosive effect of even small amounts of adverse selection in an asset market and show how it can lead to the total breakdown of trade. The problem is the failure of "market confidence", defined as approximate common knowledge of an upper bound on expected losses. Small probability events can unravel market confidence. We discuss the role of contagious adverse selection and the problem of "toxic assets" in the recent financial crisis.


A circuit split between the Second Circuit's 2014 decision, United States v. Newman, and the Ninth Circuit's 2015 decision, United States v. Salman, illustrates problems in insider trading law dating back over thirty years to the Supreme Court's decision in Dirks v. SEC. Dirks held that when a corporate insider provides information to an outside party who then trades on the information, it must be shown that the insider received some form of a personal benefit for providing the information in order to impute liability. The courts in Newman and Salman disagreed on the sort of evidence that suffices to prove such a personal benefit. As this question is set to be decided by the Supreme Court, these cases provide an apt opportunity for reexamining the law of insider trading. Although it might be argued that, for both moral and efficiency reasons, the courts in Newman and Salman reached the right outcome, the analysis in both decisions was strained as a result of the personal benefit requirement first articulated in Dirks. As this Note discusses, this split demonstrates that proof of a personal benefit as an element of insider trading in tipper/tippee cases should not be required, as it creates unnecessarily subjective inquiries into the relationship between the tipper and tippee, resulting in confusion in the boundaries of permissible trading activity. Because insider trading walks a fine line between behavior that should be encouraged (the use of information for legitimate business purposes) and discouraged (exploiting information obtained by virtue of an inside position for personal gain), it is important to more clearly define the bounds of insider trading activity. In place of requiring proof of a personal benefit, this Note argues that a wholly new statutory approach to insider trading is warranted and offers an alternative statutory proposal that may serve as a starting point for a discussion of adopting legislation.


The Affordable Care Act prohibited insurers from denying or limiting coverage for children under the age of 19 in 2010. In response, some insurers ceased to offer coverage to children in need of individual health insurance, known as a "child-only" policy. This issue brief examines new state legislative and regulatory action to promote the availability of child-only policies in response to this market disruption. The analysis finds that 22 states and the District of Columbia passed new legislation or issued a new regulation or subregulatory guidance. As a result, child-only coverage is available in nearly all of these states. These findings suggest that states have flexibility to take innovative actions to maintain or improve their markets and insurers are highly sensitive to the risk of adverse selection. The findings also suggest the need for meaningful regulatory incentives to avoid market disruption in successfully implementing broader reforms in 2014.


We have covalently grafted tetrazine derivatives to graphene oxide through nucleophilic substitution. Since the tetrazine unit is electroactive and nitrogen-rich, with a reduction potential sensitive to the type of substituent and degree of substitution, we used electrochemistry and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy to demonstrate clear evidence for grafting through covalent bonding. Chemical modification was supported by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and thermal analysis. Tetrazines grafted onto graphene oxide displayed different mass losses compared to unmodified graphene and were more stable than the molecular precursors. Finally, a bridging tetrazine derivative was grafted between sheets of graphene oxide to demonstrate that the separation distance between sheets can be maintained while designing new graphene-based materials, including chemically bound, redox structures.


This thesis examines how assessment models can be built and used for financial feasibility analysis of investment projects. An overview of financial feasibility assessment methods is presented, as well as a general assessment model, which can be used as a base when constructing new models. Risk analysis methods are introduced, as uncertainties can highly affect the outcome of the assessment. A new optimization method used to estimate financing requirements of investment projects is presented, as well as a new method to predict the optimal year to sell the investment. A case study is used to illustrate the use of a model to assess the financial feasibility of a geothermal cogeneration plant. The conclusion is that Net Present Value, Internal Rate of Return and Modified Internal Rate of Return should be used to assess financial feasibility of investment projects. In addition to calculating the financial feasibility criteria, assessment models should allow the user to perform sensitivity analysis, scenario analysis, and simulation to analyze risk associated with the investment project.


We used faecal profiling to assess diet quality of animals under three different management types in a semi-arid savanna, northwest of Kimberley, Northern Cape, South Africa. The levels of faecal crude protein (FCP) and faecal phosphorus (FP) of free-ranging springbok (Antidorcas marsupialis) and blue wildebeest (Connochaetes taurinus) on a game ranch, goats and cattle grazing in a communally-managed area, as well as cattle grazing under commercial management were determined in the wet and dry seasons over a period of two years. Plant and soil analyses were also conducted. Goats had the highest FCP and FP of all species in all seasons during the study. It appeared that selective feeders (goats and springbok) and short-grass feeders (wildebeest) do not suffer from low forage quality because their FCP and FP levels were above critical values during all seasons. Contrastingly, cattle need nutrient supplementation because their FCP and FP were below critical nutritional values during the dry seasons. Plant and soil chemical characteristics, especially soil P, had an influence on faecal quality during the study. Clay pans provide an important habitat because of the high soil quality and, consequently, high diet quality. Our surprising finding that faecal CP levels were higher under communal management than under commercial management may be ascribed to higher nutrient deposition (due to higher stocking rates) and greater diet selectivity available to free-ranging animals under communal management. Higher faecal CP and P levels in game animals may also be ascribed to unrestricted movement and, consequently, greater access to palatable plants. The results of this study demonstrate the value of faecal profiling for management of semi-arid savanna livestock and game.


We study the effectiveness of learning low degree polynomials using neural networks by the gradient descent method. While neural networks have been shown to have great expressive power, and gradient descent has been widely used in practice for learning neural networks, few theoretical guarantees are known for such methods. In particular, it is well known that gradient descent can get stuck at local minima, even for simple classes of target functions. In this paper, we present several positive theoretical results to support the effectiveness of neural networks. We focus on twolayer neural networks where the bottom layer is a set of non-linear hidden nodes, and the top layer node is a linear function, similar to Barron (1993). First we show that for a randomly initialized neural network with sufficiently many hidden units, the generic gradient descent algorithm learns any low degree polynomial, assuming we initialize the weights randomly. Secondly, we show that if we use complex-valued weights (the target function can still be real), then under suitable conditions, there are no "robust local minima": the neural network can always escape a local minimum by performing a random perturbation. This property does not hold for real-valued weights. Thirdly, we discuss whether sparse polynomials can be learned with small neural networks, with the size dependent on the sparsity of the target function.