Purpose: To assess the influence of the frequency of spatial registration in total marrow irradiation using Helical Tomotherapy to correct for intrafraction variations. Methods: The analysis was performed using TCP and NTCP models in a phantom study. Different cases were investigated: one treatment per fraction (no‐junction), and splitting the treatment along Y‐axis (SUP‐INF direction) into 2 or 3 independent sub‐treatments (one/two‐junction), which allows 2 or 3 spatial registrations per treatment fraction. Linearly increasing margins were added to expand the CTV (ribs and spine) and OARs (lungs) with increasing distance from the registration point (iPTV and iPRV). Margin increases of 5, 10 and 15 mm were analyzed. The prescription was for 95% of the iPTV to receive 20 Gy. Results: The dose to the iPRVs was reduced when the treatment was split; D20 to lung was 22, 16.2 and 13.4 Gy for no‐junction, one‐junction and two‐junction cases respectively. However the dose received by the iPTV also decreased; the volume of the iPTV receiving the prescription was 93.9%, 90.5% and 88.4% respectively. The probability of uncomplicated cure TCP(1‐NTCP) increased 3% from no‐junction to two‐junction cases for a maximum margin of 5 mm. The corresponding difference for maximum margin of 15 mm was 22%. Larger margins combined with splitting the treatment to perform additional patient registrations showed benefit, mainly due to lower NTCP. Conclusion: Increasing uncertainties can be reduced by splitting large treatments and realigning the patient prior to each sub‐treatment. This technique reduces the NTCP and marginal misses of the PTV.


Nearly all high schools, colleges, and Universities are vulnerable to Title IX lawsuits. As part of a school's effort to comply with Title IX, it is wise to prepare for potential lawsuits before full compliance is accomplished, Mr. Tungate and Mr. Orie point out. Universities have found that going to court is not the best way to resolve a Title IX dispute. Since Brown University lost Amy Cohen et al. v. Brown University et al. after a bruising four-year battle that cost more than half a million dollars, most colleges and secondary schools have learned that it's best to try to settle when sued under Title IX. A Title IX case begins when an individual files a complaint with a school, files a complaint with the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (OCR), or files a lawsuit in federal court. Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 prohibits gender discrimination at any educational institution that receives federal assistance. The provisions of Title IX did not take effect until 1978. Once they did, a flurry of lawsuits ended with the U.S. Supreme Court's 1984 ruling in Grove City v. Ball, which severely restricted the application of the law. The 1988 Civil Rights Restoration Act put the teeth back into Title IX, and today we are witnessing a new wave of Title IX litigation at the college and high school levels. A school that violates Title IX runs the risk of losing its federal funding, being forced to adopt a court-ordered compliance program, and having to pay compensatory and punitive damages. Sports programs are frequently the targets of complaints filed with the OCR. The OCR begins its investigation by determining whether there is gender balance in the entire athletic program - not just in. individual sports. The OCR recognizes that some sports are dominated by one gender, but it wants to see that a school's athletic program as a whole offers opportunities to both men and women in proportion to their numbers in the school. At the high school level, even if the OCR finds overall equality in a school's athletic program, the agency could still find the school in violation of Title IX in a specific area. According to the U.S. Department of Education, a school's athletic program complies with the law if it can demonstrate that: * the participation of women is substantially proportional to their enrollment; * the program has a history of expanding opportunities for women; and * the interests and abilities of women have been fully and effectively accommodated. Brown University: The Landmark Case The longest-running and most expensive Title IX case to date is Cohen et al., the case with which we opened. This class action suit began when Brown University, in a cost-cutting move, downgraded two men's and two women's varsity programs to club status. The demotion affected 37 men and 23 women. Nine women from the demoted women's gymnastics and volleyball teams sued the university for violation of Title IX. At the time of the suit, Brown had one of the most gender-equal athletic programs in the country. Nationally, 51% of college students are women, yet only 31% of athletes are women. At Brown, women make up 49% of the student population and 39% of the athletes. The university argued that its athletic program "fully and effectively accommodated the interests and abilities" of its students and thus complied with Title IX. The court, however, focused on the disparities between gender ratios in the student population and in the athlete population and between funding for men's and women's programs. After multiple decisions by both a district court and the First Circuit Court of Appeals and an unsuccessful attempt to have the U.S. Supreme Court reconsider, Brown had to comply with a court-approved Title IX corrective action plan and was stuck with half a million dollars in legal fees. Virginia Tech: Roll Over and Play Dead The experience of Brown University was not lost on other schools. …


Graduate destination survey data from the University of Tasmania (UTas 2005a) underscore the reality that a large proportion — at one extreme 79.4% from the Bachelor of Science in 2003 — of students undertaking undergraduate degrees in the sciences do not enter the workforce upon graduation. Science degrees lead to further study at Honours, Masters, and PhD level. Thus undergraduate degrees in science are a foundation for research careers and should contain a greater proportion of research-oriented knowledge and practice than most other undergraduate degrees. At the University of Tasmania, a project was initiated in 2004 to emphasise this reliance upon research skills in the undergraduate curricula and to highlight the nexus that exists between teaching and research that is so critical to scientific scholarship and student development. The project is the first such project undertaken within Australia.

This paper describes the project, which, because of its successful introduction is now an annual undertaking. The aims of the project are to provide a model and a means of consolidating, integrating, and promoting the teaching research nexus within the undergraduate science curriculum at the University of Tasmania. The project seeks to develop
a model that encourages academics to incorporate learning outcomes related to information literacy, research methodology, and the effective communication of scientific research into their undergraduate units, and, to establish a journal (entitled nexus) that showcases the research undertaken by our undergraduate students.

In the paper we present the methodology developed for the embedding of the journal's requirements within the undergraduate curricula, the novel use of mentors to aid the students in their writing, the infrastructure developed to sustain the project into the future, and insights into pitfalls and their avoidance. We highlight the success of the project, describe the learning outcomes engendered directly and indirectly by the project, and indicate critical factors for ongoing success. Finally, we present preliminary results of an evaluation of the project from the three perspectives of Editorial Committee, academic staff, and students.


INTRODUCTION: APPALACHIA IN RUIN Ruins are expressions of time. Their slow, almost indiscernible changes are much like our own aging and reminders of our own mortality. Ruins are not easily definable. They can be attached to personal recollection or collective memory. Growing up among the ruins of an Appalachian Ohio River town, an aesthetic of decay emanates from abandoned storefronts, factories, and civic buildings, while instilling an understanding of temporality, decline, and an acceptance of finality. But Appalachia preserves its past in order to prolong its memory's decay. Appalachian culture embraces ruins as signifiers that solidify collective memory and arouse contemplative nostalgia. Ruins are preserved in order to memorialize the past, with the intention these spaces will become integrated in Appalachia's new postindustrial culture.


The title compound, 2-[(4-chlorophenyl)(1H-indol-3-yl)methyl]-1H-indole was synthesized in good yield by condensation reaction between commercially available indole and 4-chlorobenzaldehyde under constant stirring in glacial acetic acid as a catalyst and solvent. The product obtained was characterized by spectroscopic techniques and finally the structure was confirmed by X-ray diffraction studies. The compound crystallizes in the triclinic crystal system with the space group P-1 with unit cell parameters a = 7.4955(4) A, b = 12.0832(7) A, c = 13.7889(8) A, α = 106.727(2)o, β = 103.691(2)o,γ = 96.829(2)o and Z=2. The crystal structure features a strong N-- H…O hydrogen bond with different packing motifs. In the crystal string N—H...π, C—H…π and C—H...Cl interactions occur, forming a three dimensional network.


ABSTRACT A network of Christian female mystics in Lebanon and Syria has been forming since the early 1980s. Composed of women from large cities, such as Beirut or Damascus, it is characterized by its denominational and social diversity. This article will focus on one of these mystics: Catherine Fahmi, who has been living, and officiating, in her apartment in the suburbs of Beirut since the late 1990s. Catherine is a Maronite. She is a married mother of three, in her forties. Each Tuesday morning, she experiences a public ecstasy. Every year, on Good Friday, surrounded by a number of faithful followers, she sees and experiences the Way of the Cross. My aim here is to grasp the complex interplay between this female mystic, her followers and the Maronite Church. Her activities, and the rituals surrounding her stigmatized body, will be analyzed in terms of 'counter-conducts,' a notion developed by Michel Foucault.


Background In the UK, overall stroke mortality has declined. A similar trend has been seen in coronary heart disease, although recent reports suggest this decline might be levelling off in middle-aged adults. Aim To investigate recent trends in stroke mortality among those aged 40–69 years in England. Methods The authors used routine annual aggregated stroke death and population data for England for the years 1979–2005 to investigate time trends in gender-specific mortalities for adults aged 40 to 69 years. The authors applied log-linear modelling to isolate effects attributable to age, linear 'drift' over time, time period and birth cohort. Results Between 1979 and 2005, age-standardised stroke mortality aged 40 to 69 years dropped from 93 to 30 per 100 000 in men and from 62 to 18 per 100 000 in women. Mortality was higher in older age groups, but the difference between the older and younger age groups appears to have decreased over time for both sexes. Modelling of the data suggests an average annual reduction in stroke deaths of 4.0% in men and 4.3% in women, although this decrease has been particularly marked in the last few years. However, we also observed a relative rate increase in mortality among those born since the mid-1940s compared with earlier cohorts; this appears to have been sustained in men, which explains the levelling off in the rate of mortality decline observed in recent years in the younger middle-aged. Conclusions If observed trends in middle-aged adults continue, overall stroke mortalities may start to increase again.


Free-space optical (or optical wireless) communications represent an attractive technology for the realization of high-bandwidth wireless communications. However, for propagation through the atmosphere the characteristics of the optical signal are different from those of the signals from, e.g., fiber channels or radio-frequency wireless channels, and therefore the error characteristics on these links are also different. For evaluating fading mitigation techniques for optical wireless communications a channel model is needed that can be easily used by protocol designers. Existing channel models for optical wireless communications are based on atmospheric propagation theory and therefore require a deep physical understanding of the optical propagation through the atmosphere. The goal of this publication is to develop a simplified approach for modeling the received power dynamics of the atmospheric free-space optical channel. The proposed model consists of a random number generator and a low-pass filter and is therefore easy to implement and use. This approach is only valid for systems utilizing intensity modulation with direct detection, but this limitation is acceptable since most commercially available systems use this modulation format. The channel model is developed based on the statistics of received power measurements from a maritime-mobile link, a land-mobile link, and a satellite downlink.


Super-resolution STED microcopy provides optical resolution beyond the diffraction limit. The resolution can be increased laterally (xy/2D) or axially (z/3D). 2D STED has been extensively used to elucidate the nanoscale membrane structure and dynamics, via imaging or combined with spectroscopy techniques such as fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS) and spectral imaging. On the contrary, z-STED has not been used in this context. Here, we show that a combination of z-STED with FCS or spectral imaging enables us to see previously unobservable aspects of cellular membranes. We show that thanks to an axial resolution of approximately 100 nm, z-STED can be used to distinguish axially close-by membranes, early endocytic vesicles or tubular membrane structures. Combination of z-STED with FCS and spectral imaging showed diffusion dynamics and lipid organization in these structures, respectively.


This paper evaluates the effects of a high school curriculum reform that was introduced in one German state on high school dropout. The reform increased the standards of the curriculum by reducing the freedom of choice in course selection (amongst other things) resulting in an increase in the level and the weekly teaching hours in the subjects German, a foreign language, mathematics and natural sciences. Using a quasi-experimental evaluation design exploiting variation across time and states, we identify the reform effect on students' probability to graduate from high school. The results show that high school dropout rates have increased for males and females alike. However, the effect for males vanishes two years after reform implementation, while it remains persistent for females even after three years.


Soft fluidic actuators consisting of elastomeric matrices with embedded flexible materials are of particular interest to the robotics community because they are affordable and can be easily customized to a given application. However, the significant potential of such actuators is currently limited as their design has typically been based on intuition. In this paper, the principle of operation of these actuators is comprehensively analyzed and described through experimentally validated quasi-static analytical and finite-element method models for bending in free space and force generation when in contact with an object. This study provides a set of systematic design rules to help the robotics community create soft actuators by understanding how these vary their outputs as a function of input pressure for a number of geometrical parameters. Additionally, the proposed analytical model is implemented in a controller demonstrating its ability to convert pressure information to bending angle in real time. Such an understanding of soft multimaterial actuators will allow future design concepts to be rapidly iterated and their performance predicted, thus enabling new and innovative applications that produce more complex motions to be explored.


Two different metallothionein genes, labelled as mt-d and mt-a were identified in wheat (Triticum durum and Triticum aestivum) genomic DNA sequences were characterized. mt-d and mta, were found to contain 416 and 399 nucleotides, respectively. Nucleic acid sequence alignment showed 95 % similarity between the two. Sequencing results showed that the difference resulted from two extra TTTTTA repeats in the intron regions. cDNAs encoding mt-genes were identifed by RT-PCR. Gene alignment algorithms strongly suggested that both of these cDNAs (mt-a and mt-d) encoded an open reading frame of 75 amino acids with two cysteine-rich domains featuring Cys-XCys motifs at the amino- and carboxy termininus. The deduced amino acid sequences of mt-a and mt-d genes show striking similarity to the MT-like proteins described within the Class II as Type 1 MTs and showed 100 % similarity with each other as deduced from cDNA sequencing results. These results indicate that mt-d from T.durum forms a "novel type 1" MT. For further studies of mt-d expression, localization of the durum metallothionein protein (dMT) and its interactions with other proteins mt-d gene was inserted into the 5' MCS of pGFPuv vector. Verification was based on sequence data and restriction enzyme analysis. However, expression could not be validated by neither by visual detection of GFP expression nor by SDS-PAGE analysis. A more detailed sequence analysis indicated that the problem was due to a point mutation within the coding sequence of the GFPuv, resulting in a stop codon and premature termination of the fusion protein. Results presented here show the presence of metallothionein gene in the wheat Triticum durum. Although our attempts to express the gene as a fusion protein together with GFP to facilitate its localization in different systems was not successful it will be important in future studies to pursue this goal and achieve expression of labelled protein in plant systems to gain insights into its exact function in plants.


Elections in India are conducted almost exclusively using electronic voting machines developed over the past two decades by a pair of government-owned companies. These devices, known in India as EVMs, have been praised for their simple design, ease of use, and reliability, but recently they have also been criticized following widespread reports of election irregularities. Despite this criticism, many details of the machines' design have never been publicly disclosed, and they have not been subjected to a rigorous, independent security evaluation. In this paper, we present a security analysis of a real Indian EVM obtained from an anonymous source. We describe the machine's design and operation in detail, and we evaluate its security in light of relevant election procedures. We conclude that in spite of the machines' simplicity and minimal software trusted computing base, they are vulnerable to serious attacks that can alter election results and violate the secrecy of the ballot. We demonstrate two attacks, implemented using custom hardware, which could be carried out by dishonest election insiders or other criminals with only brief physical access to the machines. This case study carries important lessons for Indian elections and for electronic voting security more generally.


Introduction: Treatment approaches within health care are highly variable. This is an unavoidable characteristic of clinical practice and could be characterised either by uncertainty of information or outcome or by concern for a person's preferences or both. Accordingly, several studies have reported large variations in general dental practitioners' (GDPs') administration strategies of antibiotic prophylaxis in patients with specific medical conditions. Objectives: To study GDPs' certainty in administration of antibiotic prophylaxis in patients with specific medical conditions, and secondly, to evaluate GDPs' assessment of risk for complications if antibiotics were not administered. Methods: Postal questionnaires in combination with telephone interviews were used. A total of 101 GDPs participated. The GDPs' were presented with three simulated cases of patients with specific medical conditions (moderate hypertension, not well-controlled type 1 diabetes, and heart valve prosthesis) for which antibiotic prophylaxis might be considered necessary when performing dental procedures (scaling, tooth removal, and root canal treatment). The GDPs were asked to mark their assessments of certainty and risk on a 100 mm VAS. Differences were analyzed with t-test. The study was supported by the Swedish Research Council (grant 521-2001-6341). Results: Generally, the GDPs presented high certainty in all their decisions independent on whether they administered antibiotic prophylaxis or not (P>0.05). However, when they assessed the risk for complication if not administering antibiotic prophylaxis, the values were much higher for GDPs that would administer antibiotics compared to those that would not (P<0.05). Conclusions: The GDPs presented high certainty in their decisions, independent on whether they administered antibiotic prophylaxis or not. This could implicate that GDPs are less susceptible to modify their behaviour and that implementation of evidence into practice would be difficult.


Since 1900, more than 108,000 officially protected conservation areas have been established worldwide, largely at the urging of five international conservation organizations. About half of these areas were occupied or regularly used by indigenous peoples. Millions who had been living sustainably on their land for generations were displaced in the interests of conservation. In Conservation Refugees, Mark Dowie tells this story. This is a "good guy vs. good guy" story, Dowie writes; the indigenous peoples' movement and conservation organizations have a vital common goal--to protect biological diversity--and could work effectively and powerfully together to protect the planet and preserve biological diversity. Yet for more than a hundred years, these two forces have been at odds. The result: thousands of unmanageable protected areas and native peoples reduced to poaching and trespassing on their ancestral lands or "assimilated" but permanently indentured on the lowest rungs of the money economy. Dowie begins with the story of Yosemite National Park, which by the turn of the twentieth century established a template for bitter encounters between native peoples and conservation. He then describes the experiences of other groups, ranging from the Ogiek and Maasai of eastern Africa and the Pygmies of Central Africa to the Karen of Thailand and the Adevasis of India. He also discusses such issues as differing definitions of "nature" and "wilderness," the influence of the "BINGOs" (Big International NGOs, including the Worldwide Fund for Nature, Conservation International, and The Nature Conservancy), the need for Western scientists to respect and honor traditional lifeways, and the need for native peoples to blend their traditional knowledge with the knowledge of modern ecology. When conservationists and native peoples acknowledge the interdependence of biodiversity conservation and cultural survival, Dowie writes, they can together create a new and much more effective paradigm for conservation.


For over seventy-five years Edward S. Corwin's text has been a basic reference in the study of U.S. Constitutional Law. The 14th edition, the first new edition since 1973, brings the volume up to date through 1977. In this classic work, historian Edward Corwin presented the text of the U.S. Constitution along with his own commentary on its articles, sections, clauses, and amendments. Corwin was a renowned authority on constitutional law and jurisprudence, and was hired at Princeton University by Woodrow Wilson in 1905. Far from being an impersonal textbook, Corwin's edition was full of opinion. Not afraid to express his own strong views of the development of American law, Corwin offered piquant descriptions of the debates about the meaning of clauses, placing recent decisions of the court "in the familiar setting of his own views." The favor of his style is evident in his comments on judicial review ("American democracy's way of covering its bet") and the cabinet ("an administrative anachronism" that should be replaced by a legislative council "whose daily salt does not come from the Presidential table"). Corwin periodically revised the book for nearly forty years, incorporating into each new edition his views of new Supreme Court rulings and other changes in American law. Although Corwin intended his book for the general public, his interpretations always gained the attention of legal scholars and practitioners. The prefaces he wrote to the revised editions were often controversial for the views he offered on the latest developments of constitutional law, and the book only grew in stature and recognition. After his death in 1963, other scholars prepared subsequent editions, fourteen in all.


The influence of forming on the cyclic behaviour of various thin sheet metals with austenitic phases is looked into, with the main focus lying on the variation of cyclic parameters and the progression of work hardening over the materials' fatigue life. There is a marked interaction of hardening due to increased dislocation density resulting from forming and hardening due to cyclic straining under varying strain amplitudes of strain controlled LCF testing. This is strongly dependant on the degree of forming and the amplitude of the following cyclic loading. Also, the temperature influence during forming of addtional forming elements in a temperature controlled die on the fatigue performance of austenitic and complex three phase steels was analysed, showing a marked influence of the forming temperature on the fatigue performance, enabling positive effects to be achieved by choosing suitable material specific forming temperatures.


Exploration is essential for solving complex Reinforcement Learning (RL) tasks. Maximum State-Visitation Entropy (MSVE) formulates the exploration problem as a well-defined policy optimization problem whose solution aims at visiting all states as uniformly as possible. This is in contrast to standard uncertainty-based approaches where exploration is transient and eventually vanishes. However, existing approaches to MSVE are theoretically justified only for discrete state-spaces as they are oblivious to the geometry of continuous domains. We address this challenge by introducing Geometric Entropy Maximisation (GEM), a new algorithm that maximises the geometry-aware Shannon entropy of state-visits in both discrete and continuous domains. Our key theoretical contribution is casting geometry-aware MSVE exploration as a tractable problem of optimising a simple and novel noise-contrastive objective function. In our experiments, we show the efficiency of GEM in solving several RL problems with sparse rewards, compared against other deep RL exploration approaches.


This study investigates the multilevel interplay among team-level, job-related, and individual characteristics in stimulating employees' innovative work behavior (IWB) based on the theoretical frameworks of achievement goal theory (AGT) and job characteristics theory (JCT). A multilevel two-source study of 240 employees and their 34 direct supervisors in two medium-sized Slovenian companies revealed significant two- and three-way interactions, where a mastery climate, task interdependence, and decision autonomy moderated the relationship between knowledge hiding and IWB. When employees hide knowledge, a team mastery climate only facilitates high levels of IWB if accompanied by either high task interdependence or high decision autonomy. In the absence of one of these job characteristics, knowledge hiding prevents higher levels of IWB even in the case of strong team mastery climate. The results suggest that multiple job design antecedents are necessary to neutralize the negative influence of knowledge hiding on micro-innovation processes within organizations.


We researched science report samples from two of the biggest Newspaper databank in Taiwan: "Apple daily" and "United Daily News Group (Include United Daily News, Economic Daily News, United Evening News, World Journal)", collected 59 articles about anti-aging cell and gene researches. Content analysis was employed in this study to analyze those reporting stereotypes and mistakes. To sum up, our study pointed out that there were some problems in newspaper media representation in Taiwan: 1. Lack of Basic Information of the Researches that made readers doubted about value and authenticity of these anonymous research reports; 2. Inexplicit explanation of experiment method and research mechanism that confused readers with improper and unreasonable expectations to scientific discovery processes and complexity of practical application of science; 3. Editing vison and news resources were too limited within mainstream news agencies of developed countries or relatively unauthoritative resource of the Western world.


Hospital acquired infections (HAIs), especially ventilator associated respiratory infection (VARI) cause significant morbidity and mortality, and disproportionally so in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), including Vietnam, where infection control in hospitals is often neglected. The management of HAIs in these settings is challenging because of the high proportions of antimicrobial drug resistance and limitations of laboratory diagnostics, financial and human resources in terms of knowledge and skills for antimicrobial stewardship and infection prevention and control.
Because resistance is driven by use of antimicrobials, my thesis started with a question on use and cost of antimicrobials in public hospitals in the country followed by a detailed assessment of use and cost of antimicrobials in the management of ventilator associated respiratory infections (VARI). I obtained detailed bids from hospitals and provincial departments of health representing 28.7% (1.68 / 5.85 billion US$) of the total hospital medication budget in Vietnam. Antimicrobials represented 28.6% of these costs. Antimicrobials were stratified using the Access, Watch, Reserve (AWaRe) groups proposed by WHO in 2017. I showed that the most commonly used antimicrobials across sites were second generation cephalosporins (20.3% of total procured defined daily dose, DDD) followed by combinations of penicillins and beta-lactamase inhibitors (18.4% of total procured DDD). The most expensive antimicrobials are the last resort antimicrobials, which can considerably increase the cost of treatment for patients with HAIs caused by multidrug resistant pathogens in critical care units in Vietnam. In recognition of this problem, I estimated the excess cost of management of VARI using a costing model study. At the current incidence rate of 21.7 episodes per 1000 ventilation-days, I estimated there were 34,428 episodes of VARI nationally, associated with a direct cost of more than US$ 40 million per year. Our studies showed the need for an affordable and scalable intervention in critical care units to reduce the burden of VARI and provide cost savings for national health expenditure.
My studies also showed that antimicrobial costs are a major component of the excess cost of VARI management in Vietnam (51.1%) and that a one day reduction in the duration of antimicrobial therapy can save US$ 1.72 million. Therefore, my thesis has focused on interventions to prevent VARI and to shorten antimicrobial therapy. In recognition of human resources constraints in Vietnam, including for microbiology diagnostics and critical care nursing, I have studied automatic technology and equipment, including matrix assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDITOF-MS) for rapid identification of pathogens and continuous automatic cuff pressure control device to prevent VARI. To examine effectiveness of these intervention, I conducted 2 randomised controlled trials to evaluate the clinical effectiveness of matrix assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDITOF-MS) in optimizing antimicrobial therapy and to evaluate the effectiveness of continuous cuff pressure control in preventing VARI. For the latter, pending unblinding and final results I describe the implementation of the trial and report the incidence of hospital acquired bloodstream infection during this trial.
A diagnostic randomised controlled trial (RCT) was conducted to evaluate the impact of MALDITOF-MS versus conventional diagnostics in improving antimicrobial use in patients with confirmed infection. Although MALDITOF-MS provided more rapid identification of invasive bacterial and fungal pathogens than conventional microbiology, the proportion of patients on optimal therapy at 24 or 48 hours after growth of specimen did not increase. These findings showed that without human resources and an effective antimicrobial stewardship programme, technology alone cannot provide a solution for antimicrobial overuse in hospitals in LMICs.
A randomized controlled clinical trial was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of continuous cuff pressure control versus daily manual cuff measurement (VARI-prevent). In this study I recruited and followed-up 597 adult patients who were admitted to ICUs and were intubated within 48 hours of admission. The patients were randomised to receive either continuous or manual cuff pressure measurement and control and were followed for occurrence of VARI during ICU stay and up to 90 days after randomisation. The study has completed recruitment and follow-up and final analysis is ongoing. The overall rate of VARI and VAP in eligible patients was 23.7% (140/591) and 17.3% (102/591) respectively. The data from this trial (VARI-prevent) was analysed to estimate the incidence density rate of hospital acquired bloodstream infection (HABSI) in 3 ICUs in Vietnam for the first time. The most common pathogens causing HABSI were Klebsiella pneumoniae followed by Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Acinetobacter baumannii and Coagulase-Negative staphylococci. Polymicrobial culture results were reported in 6.8% (3/44) patients with culture confirmed HABSI. The rate of HABSI and central line associated BSI (CLABSI) were 7.4% (44/591) and 9.3% (31/333), respectively. The incidence density rate of HABSI and CLABSI were 3.76 per 1000 patients-days and 8.43 per 1000 catheter-days, respectively. This suggests that the implementation of infection prevention and control bundle including catheter care is important to reduce the high incidence of HABSI in Vietnam.
The findings in my thesis are relevant to healthcare professionals and policy stakeholders. It demonstrates the magnitude of HAI burden and creates awareness of potential beneficial interventions. Results of my trials will be helpful to inform decisions to establish the antimicrobial stewardship programmes and infection prevention and control bundles to improve patients' outcomes.


In this work, we propose a two-layered descriptive model for motion processing from retina to the cortex, with an event-based input from the asynchronous time-based image sensor (ATIS) camera. Spatial and spatiotemporal filtering of visual scenes by motion energy detectors has been implemented in two steps in a simple layer of a lateral geniculate nucleus model and a set of three-dimensional Gabor kernels, eventually forming a probabilistic population response. The high temporal resolution of independent and asynchronous local sensory pixels from the ATIS provides a realistic stimulation to study biological motion processing, as well as developing bio-inspired motion processors for computer vision applications. Our study combines two significant theories in neuroscience: event-based stimulation and probabilistic sensory representation. We have modeled how this might be done at the vision level, as well as suggesting this framework as a generic computational principle among different sensory modalities.


NTRU (Nth degree Truncated polynomial Ring Units) is probably the only post quantum public key cryptosystem suitable for practical implementation. Recently, several NTRU based systems have also been shown having property of homomorphic encryption with important application in cloud computing security. In this thesis, several efficient algorithms and architectures for NTRUEcrypt system and for NTRU based homomorphic encryption system are proposed. For NTRUEncrypt system, a new LFSR (linear feedback shift register) based architecture is firstly presented. A novel design of the modular arithmetic unit is proposed to reduce the critical path delay. The FPGA implementation results have shown that the proposed design outperforms all the existing works in terms of area-delay product. Secondly, a new architecture using extended LFSR is proposed for NTRUEncrypt system. It takes advantage of small polynomials with many zero coefficients, and thus significantly reduces the latency of the computation with modest increase of the complexity. Thirdly, a systolic array architecture is proposed for NTRUEncrypt. There is only one type of PE (process element) in the array and the PE was designed with optimized arithmetic. The systolic array yields all the output in N clock cycles. Two new architectures are proposed for computation of NTRU based fully homomorphic encryption system. One architecture uses LFSR with a novel design of the modular multiplication unit, and the other proposed architecture is systolic array based which uses two types of PEs.


The crystal structure of the already known binary title compound LaZn5 (lanthanum pentazinc) (space group P6/mmm, Pearson symbol hP6, CaCu5 structure type) has been redetermined from single-crystal X-ray diffraction data. In contrast to previous determinations based on X-ray powder data [Nowotny (1942). Z. Metallkd. 34, 247–253; de Negri et al. (2008). Intermetallics, 16, 168–178], where unit-cell parameters and assignment of the structure type were reported, the present study reveals anisotropic displacement parameters for all atoms. The crystal structure consists of three crytallographically distinct atoms. The La atom (Wyckoff site 1a, site symmetry 6/mmm) is surrounded by 18 Zn atoms and two La atoms. The coordination polyhedron around one of the Zn atoms (Wyckoff site 2c, site symmetry -6m2) is an icosahedron made up from three La and nine Zn atoms. The other Zn atom (Wyckoff site 3g, site symmetry mmm) is surrounded by four La and eight Zn atoms. Bonding between atoms is explored by means of the TB–LMTO–ASA (tight-binding linear muffin-tin orbital atomic spheres approximation) program package. The positive charge density is localized around La atoms, and the negative charge density is around Zn atoms, with weak covalent bonding between the latter.


The position of public school superintendent has experienced both a redefinition and a rebirth in its criticality. With increased accountability due to the shifting public school "Back to Basics" educational perspective in the 1980s, the launch of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) in 2001, and the signing of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) in 2015 by President Barack Obama, the role of superintendent has seen a shift from that of an organizational manager to that of an instructional leader. Much has been studied about the importance of the public school superintendent, particularly the challenge of superintendent retention. High turnover rates appear to contribute to the lack of continuity required to move an educational organization in the direction of its mission. One factor accounting for high turnover appears to be some superintendents' inability to build relationships with their school boards. This multi-case study/cross-case analysis examined why superintendents struggle to create and sustain significant relationships with their school boards. It explored the metacognitive processes of two superintendents, what factors contribute to their use of specific strategies, and how decisions relating to the strategies have been made. This study provides an important investigation into a topic that may offer greater understanding of ways to improve superintendency tenure, and how educational preparation and training programs for superintendents can be improved to equip superintendents with leadership skills to work collaboratively and constructively with school boards. Chief findings showed how the two superintendents in the study used strategies of relationships, management of ego, communication, educating the board, and politics to build and maintain relationships with their school board members. While the findings show these superintendents were mindful, thoughtful, and strategic, the data also indicate a linear, technical, and interpersonal connection between these superintendents' leadership and their board member relationships. The findings suggest ways to enhance superintendent leadership by having them focus on transformational leadership, adaptive leadership, and interactions with board members that affect the organizational system as a whole. Each of these is influenced by both superintendent and board member contextual understanding, political interplay, and organizational learning.


To replace the present NAND flash memory, resistance switching random access memory (ReRAM), which has both memory and selection functionalities with a simple metal-insulator-metal structure should be implemented. To accomplish this goal, ReRAM must be self-rectifying, low-power-consuming, and highly uniform, and it must have reliable states. In this work, the Pt/TiO2/HfO2-x/TiN resistive switching memory structure showed self-rectifying resistive switching behavior with unprecedented unique I-V curves. This is named "self-current saturation," which can give an extremely uniform variation of the low resistance state. The plausible reasons for the whole switching behavior, including the unique I-V curves, in this material system are presented herein. The diffusion of Ti along the grain boundaries of HfO2 down to the bottom electrode TiN and the defect formation within the HfO2 layer near the TiO2/HfO2 interface made the resistance switching device have the characteristics of both the unidirectional diode and electronic bipolar switching devices.


Let f : R → R be a nonconstant polynomial function. Using the information from the "curve of tangency" of f, we provide a method to determine the Łojasiewicz exponent at infinity of f. As a corollary, we give a computational criterion to decide if the Łojasiewicz exponent at infinity is finite or not. Then we obtain a formula to calculate the set of points at which the polynomial f is not proper. Moreover, a relation between the Łojasiewicz exponent at infinity of f and the problem of computing the global optimum of f is also established.


This lavishly illustrated guide will enable you to identify the caterpillars of nearly 700 butterflies and moths found east of the Mississippi. The more than 1,200 color photographs and two dozen line drawings include numerous exceptionally striking images. The giant silk moths, tiger moths, and many other species covered include forest pests, common garden guests, economically important species, and of course, the Mescal Worm and Mexican Jumping Bean caterpillars. Full-page species accounts cover almost 400 species, with up to six images per species including an image of the adult plus succinct text with information on distribution, seasonal activity, foodplants, and life history. These accounts are generously complemented with additional images of earlier instars, closely related species, noteworthy behaviors, and other intriguing aspects of caterpillar biology. Many caterpillars are illustrated here for the first time. Dozens of new foodplant records are presented and erroneous records are corrected. The book provides considerable information on the distribution, biology, and taxonomy of caterpillars beyond that available in other popular works on Eastern butterflies and moths. The introductory chapter covers caterpillar structure, life cycles, rearing, natural enemies, photography, and conservation. The section titled "Caterpillar Projects" will be of special interest to educators. Given the dearth of accessible guides on the identification and natural history of caterpillars, Caterpillars of Eastern North America is a must for entomologists and museum curators, forest managers, conservation biologists and others who seek a compact, easy-to-use guide to the caterpillars of this vast region. * A compact guide to nearly 700 caterpillars east of the Mississippi, from forest pests to garden guests and economically important species *1,200 color photos and 24 line drawings enable easy identification * Full-page species accounts with image of adult insect for almost 400 species, plus succinct text on distribution and other vital information * Many caterpillars illustrated here for the first time * Current information on distribution, biology, and taxonomy not found in other popular works * A section geared toward educators, "Caterpillar Projects" * An indispensable resource for all who seek an easy-to-use guide to the caterpillars of this vast region


Skill in writing English is considered a very difficult or complex skill to acquire, especially for students studying English as a foreign language. Often-times, students lose track of what they are doing in the process of writing in English because of the plethora of ideas that come into their minds. In order to be able to accommodate and conceptualize these ideas, managing this cognitive data can be done by using the Think Aloud Protocols Technique. This cognitive based learning method is developed based on the competence of the students in writing. Through a Research and Development (R & D) design, this finding was applied to build up a cognitive learning model which was oriented to the products of the writing by the students in English. It was found that in general, the cognitive processes of thestudents were able to comprehend explicitly all the activities related to pre-writing, writing, and after writing. However, when referring to their actual competence, the cognitive speeches of the studentsshowed that they did not completely comprehend it all. Quite a lot of barriers were found and there are also several strategies that the students did in pre-writing, writing, and after writing. A mode forlearning to write based on cognitive processes was also found and has been tested. The results from the test showed that there was some improvement in the English writing produced by the students.


As a remnant of the Laurentide Ice Sheet, Barnes Ice Cap owes its existence and present form in part to the climate of the last glacial period. The ice cap has been sustained in the present interglacial climate by its own topography through the mass balance‐elevation feedback. A coupled mass balance and ice‐flow model, forced by Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 climate model output, projects that the current ice cap will likely disappear in the next 300 years. For greenhouse gas Representative Concentration Pathways of +2.6 to +8.5 Wm−2, the projected ice‐cap survival times range from 150 to 530 years. Measured concentrations of cosmogenic radionuclides 10Be, 26Al, and 14C at sites exposed near the ice‐cap margin suggest the pending disappearance of Barnes Ice Cap is very unusual in the last million years. The data and models together point to an exceptionally warm 21st century Arctic climate.


The Epstein-Barr virus BZLF1 gene product (ZEBRA) is a transcriptional activator whose expression in latently infected B cells is sufficient to induce the viral lytic cycle. Since there is no transcription of BZLF1 during latency, we carried out experiments to determine whether cis-acting negative elements in the BZLF1 promoter contribute to the lack of expression during this phase of the virus cycle. A series of deletion plasmids encompassing positions -551 to +14 of the BZLF1 promoter region were constructed and tested for the ability to drive chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (CAT) gene expression in the absence of inducing agents such as 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA) and anti-immunoglobulin. Expression from the intact 551-bp region was very weak in most of the cell lines tested, but deletion of 165 bp from the 5' end caused a sevenfold increase in expression of CAT. Within these 165 bp, a minimal 48-bp region was sufficient to down regulate the expression of a simian virus 40/CAT fusion plasmid. The 48-bp negative element consists of 7-bp dyad symmetry elements separated by 27 bp. The rightmost half of the dyad symmetry element partially overlaps a region which has a 14-of-15-bp homology to the human cytoskeletal gamma-actin promoter.


While education has played a strong role in the ancient debate on the necessary preconditions for the good life, the contemporary literature on subjective well-being has not paid much attention to the possibility of education having an independent effect on happiness. Typically, education is mentioned only as having indirect effects, e.g., through its effect on income and wealth, employment status, health and mortality, marriage success, or as a proxy for socioconomic status. Also, the view that education - like income - mainly raises aspirations and therefore leads to lower levels of happiness is widespread in the literature, mostly without empirical evidence. Using data from the last five waves of the World Value Survey, the goal of this paper is to comprehensively study the empirical evidence by using logistic regression techniques to shed more light on the neglected role of education in happiness differentials. The results suggest that the relationship beteen education and happiness is distinct from the relationship between income and happiness. While there is evidence that higher income does not go hand in hand with higher happiness after a certain point, there is no evidence of a similar levelling off in the relationship between education and happiness.


The current knowledge on detection of, and reaction to, sound by fish is reviewed, with special emphasis on underwater noise from offshore wind farms. The detection distance to wind farms for 3 species of fish representing various hearing capabilities varies between 0.4 and 25 km at wind speeds of 8 to 13 m s -1 . The detection distance depends on the size and number of windmills, the hearing abilities of the fish, background noise level, wind speed, water depth and type of sea bot- tom. The noise from windmills may decrease the effective range for sound communication of fish; however, it is not known to what extent this decrease affects the behaviour and fitness of fish. Wind- mill noise does not have any destructive effects upon the hearing abilities of fish, even within dis- tances of a few metres. It is estimated that fish are consistently scared away from windmills only at ranges shorter than about 4 m, and only at high wind speeds (higher than 13 m s -1 ). Thus, the acoustic impact of windmills on fish is restricted to masking communication and orientation signals rather than causing physiological damage or consistent avoidance reactions. These conclusions must be viewed with great caution, however, as the existing data are prone to large uncertainties. Further studies on more detailed measurements of the sound-field and of fish behaviour around windmills are needed.


This contribution reflects on the relationship between courts and the legislature in tort law from a comparative European perspective. Though there is a substantial body of comparative literature on tort law as such, the relationship between the judiciary and the legislature in comparative tort law has received significantly less attention. Here, the approach under civil law systems to tort law is and the interaction between the judiciary and the legislature under those systems is explored. If we look beyond the misconception among common lawyers that civil law courts act merely as 'porte-parole de la loi' there is much flexibility to be found. In tort cases, civil law courts may assume a role that complements the role assumed by the legislature. Where codes give leeway for case law to create, develop, and innovate in tort law, courts will fill the space. Where the legislature is active, courts may assume a more subservient role. Yet, there is no single concept of power balance in civil law tort systems. In some countries, courts may be more willing than in others to show policy initiative where the legislature fails to act. The overall conclusion must be that although there is a fundamental difference in the starting point between the common law and those legal systems that have a codified tort law system, the balance between the legislature and the courts may be similar in many respects.


Pasoh Forest Reserve is located away from industrialized or urbanized areas. As a
remote area, therefore Pasoh Forest Reserve is important to provide baseline
information on the level of soil acidification in Malaysia. Furthermore, studies on the
natural fires soil such as Sepang fire-peat are rare in Malaysia. The investigation of
natural fires soil is essential for comparison purposes to Pasoh Forest Reserve.
Hence, the objective of the study was to determine the physico-chemical properties
of soils at Pasoh Forest Reserve and Sepang fire-peat swamp for evaluating the
extent of acid deposition. Six subplots with dimension of 1 m x 1 m x 1 m were
selected at the Pasoh Forest Reserve, while, only one plot with dimension of 1 m x 1
m x 1m was dug at the Sepang fire-peat swamp. Soil samples were taken from every
10 cm layer until 1 m depth. For each soil sample, acidity (PH), moisture content,
bulk density, electrical conductivity, available phosphate (P042), available sulphate
(sol"), exchangeable acidity, exchangeable A1 and H, exchangeable base cations,
effective cation exchangeable capacity (BeEC) and base saturation were determined.
At top part of soil profile at Pasoh Forest Reserve, there was an A horizon,
characterized by dark brown colour as a result of an accumulation of humified
organic matter intimately mixed with mineral matter. Below the A horizon, there was an E horizon, which was lighter in colour and texture. Below the E horizon, there
was an EB horizon, which was dominated by the properties of E master horizon but
with some properties of B master horizon. The B horizon was granular, blocky, or
prismatic structure. The Pasoh Forest Reserve soils are clayey and acidic. The natural
soil fires at Sepang caused destruction of soil structure as well as its texture, thus no
clear horizon could be observed and the soil was sandy. Throughout 1 m soil depth,
Pasoh Forest Reserve and Sepang fire-peat soils showed variation of soil properties.
The results indicated that Pasoh Forest Reserve soils were more acidic than Sepang
fire-peat soils. By comparing to the Pasoh Forest Reserve soils, the Sepang fire-peat
soils showed lower mean values in bulk density and exchangeable acidity, but higher
mean values in electrical conductivity, pH, base saturation, available sulphate and
available phosphate. Sepang fire-peat soils were also showed relatively high values
in exchangeable Mg and Ca, but low values in exchangeable K and Na. Furthermore,
mean base saturation values of Sepang fire-peat soils and Pasoh Forest Reserve soils
were 97.87 ± 2.42% and 78.77 ± 3.78%, respectively. The base saturation ofPasoh
Forest Reserve soil was strongly correlated with the exchangeable Ca, whereas the
base saturation of Sepang fire-peat soil was strongly correlated with exchangeable
acidity. The significant differences between Pasoh Forest Reserve and Sepang firepeat
soils were attributable to changes of soil composition after soil fires in Sepang
causing mineral transformation. However, the physico-chemical properties of Pasoh
Forest Reserve soils were similar to the previous findings by the Allbrook (1973) and
Yoda (1978). Thus, the Pasoh Forest Reserve soils were presumably not unaffected
by acid deposition. Additionally, there was no appreciable soil acidification occurred
in the Pasoh Forest Reserve since 1973 (29 years).


Peer and self-assessment offer an opportunity to scale both assessment and learning to global classrooms. This article reports our experiences with two iterations of the first large online class to use peer and self-assessment. In this class, peer grades correlated highly with staff-assigned grades. The second iteration had 42.9% of students' grades within 5% of the staff grade, and 65.5% within 10%. On average, students assessed their work 7% higher than staff did. Students also rated peers' work from their own country 3.6% higher than those from elsewhere. We performed three experiments to improve grading accuracy. We found that giving students feedback about their grading bias increased subsequent accuracy. We introduce short, customizable feedback snippets that cover common issues with assignments, providing students more qualitative peer feedback. Finally, we introduce a data-driven approach that highlights high-variance items for improvement. We find that rubrics that use a parallel sentence structure, unambiguous wording, and well-specified dimensions have lower variance. After revising rubrics, median grading error decreased from 12.4% to 9.9%.


Abstract This article interprets a smallpox epidemic which took place in Sydney in 1881, in the light of Michel Foucault's work on health, populations and the development of administrative government. It is a local and historical study informed by, and written in response to, a critical sociological literature which traces the development of public health strategies in the modern West. It examines, first, the 'writing' of the epidemic in and by a new colonial bureaucracy of health. Second, it explores the spatial politics at work in the policy and practice of emergency quarantine, a practice unusual for the late nineteenth century. Third, it questions the debate on consent brought about by the practice of compulsory isolation. It is argued that this epidemic was a significant event that prompted shifts in the management of colonial population health towards a 'governmental' mode.


Section 508 of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) mandates that programs and services be accessible to people with disabilities. While schools of library and information science (SLIS*) and university libraries should model accessible Web sites, this may not be the case. This article examines previous studies about the Web accessibility of SLIS Web sites and university library Web sites supporting SLIS and builds on these studies by providing current data about SLIS opportunities for learning about accessible products and services for individuals with disabilities. This study looks at the nation's 12 highest-ranked SLIS and at their disability-related curricula. A WebXACT-compliance check is used to determine World Wide Web (W3C) compliance for SLIS and the main libraries. A survey is distributed to the SLIS to determine disability curricular offerings. A Web search of SLIS course descriptions for these schools provides clarification about course offerings. The compliance check gives cause for concern. The survey results indicate that most SLIS programs offer disability instruction: Specifically most SLIS programs offer instruction of Web accessibility. The mixed results from the survey and the compliance check might indicate that the individuals that are responsible for Web design on these campuses are not knowledgeable about W3C standards. The fact that SLIS students are being taught appropriate accessibility standards should indicate that the future of Web accessibility is brighter. (*SLIS is used as a generic term throughout the article to refer to all library science, library and information science, information science, and other similar programs.)


BACKGROUND
During a cycle of in vitro fertilisation plus intracytoplasmic sperm injection (IVF/ICSI), women receive daily doses of gonadotropin follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) to induce multifollicular development in the ovaries. Generally, the dose of FSH is associated with the number of eggs retrieved. A normal response to stimulation is often considered desirable, for example the retrieval of 5 to 15 oocytes. Both poor and hyper-response are associated with increased chance of cycle cancellation. Hyper-response is also associated with increased risk of ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS). Clinicians often individualise the FSH dose using patient characteristics predictive of ovarian response such as age. More recently, clinicians have begun using ovarian reserve tests (ORTs) to predict ovarian response based on the measurement of various biomarkers, including basal FSH (bFSH), antral follicle count (AFC), and anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH). It is unclear whether individualising FSH dose based on these markers improves clinical outcomes.

OBJECTIVES
To assess the effects of individualised gonadotropin dose selection using markers of ovarian reserve in women undergoing IVF/ICSI.

SEARCH METHODS
We searched the Cochrane Gynaecology and Fertility Group Specialised Register, Cochrane Central Register of Studies Online, MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL, LILACS, DARE, ISI Web of Knowledge, ClinicalTrials.gov, and the World Health Organisation International Trials Registry Platform search portal from inception to 27th July 2017. We checked the reference lists of relevant reviews and included studies.

SELECTION CRITERIA
We included trials that compared different doses of FSH in women with a defined ORT profile (i.e. predicted low, normal or high responders based on AMH, AFC, and/or bFSH) and trials that compared an individualised dosing strategy (based on at least one ORT measure) versus uniform dosing or a different individualised dosing algorithm.

DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS
We used standard methodological procedures recommended by Cochrane. Primary outcomes were live birth/ongoing pregnancy and severe OHSS. Secondary outcomes included clinical pregnancy, moderate or severe OHSS, multiple pregnancy, oocyte yield, cycle cancellations, and total dose and duration of FSH administration.

MAIN RESULTS
We included 20 trials (N = 6088); however, we treated those trials with multiple comparisons as separate trials for the purpose of this review. Meta-analysis was limited due to clinical heterogeneity. Evidence quality ranged from very low to moderate. The main limitations were imprecision and risk of bias associated with lack of blinding.Direct dose comparisons in women according to predicted responseAll evidence was low or very low quality.Due to differences in dose comparisons, caution is warranted in interpreting the findings of five small trials assessing predicted low responders. The effect estimates were very imprecise, and increased FSH dosing may or may not have an impact on rates of live birth/ongoing pregnancy, OHSS, and clinical pregnancy.Similarly, in predicted normal responders (nine studies, three comparisons), higher doses may or may not impact the probability of live birth/ongoing pregnancy (e.g. 200 versus 100 international units: OR 0.88, 95% CI 0.57 to 1.36; N = 522; 2 studies; I2 = 0%) or clinical pregnancy. Results were imprecise, and a small benefit or harm remains possible. There were too few events for the outcome of OHSS to enable any inferences.In predicted high responders, lower doses may or may not have an impact on rates of live birth/ongoing pregnancy (OR 0.98, 95% CI 0.66 to 1.46; N = 521; 1 study), OHSS, and clinical pregnancy. However, lower doses probably reduce the likelihood of moderate or severe OHSS (Peto OR 2.31, 95% CI 0.80 to 6.67; N = 521; 1 study).ORT-algorithm studiesFour trials compared an ORT-based algorithm to a non-ORT control group. Rates of live birth/ongoing pregnancy and clinical pregnancy did not appear to differ by more than a few percentage points (respectively: OR 1.04, 95% CI 0.88 to 1.23; N = 2823, 4 studies; I2 = 34%; OR 0.96, 95% CI 0.82 to 1.13, 4 studies, I2=0%, moderate-quality evidence). However, ORT algorithms probably reduce the likelihood of moderate or severe OHSS (Peto OR 0.58, 95% CI 0.34 to 1.00; N = 2823; 4 studies; I2 = 0%, low quality evidence). There was insufficient evidence to determine whether the groups differed in rates of severe OHSS (Peto OR 0.54, 95% CI 0.14 to 1.99; N = 1494; 3 studies; I2 = 0%, low quality evidence). Our findings suggest that if the chance of live birth with a standard dose is 26%, the chance with ORT-based dosing would be between 24% and 30%. If the chance of moderate or severe OHSS with a standard dose is 2.5%, the chance with ORT-based dosing would be between 0.8% and 2.5%. These results should be treated cautiously due to heterogeneity in the study designs.

AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS
We did not find that tailoring the FSH dose in any particular ORT population (low, normal, high ORT), influenced rates of live birth/ongoing pregnancy but we could not rule out differences, due to sample size limitations. In predicted high responders, lower doses of FSH seemed to reduce the overall incidence of moderate and severe OHSS. Moderate-quality evidence suggests that ORT-based individualisation produces similar live birth/ongoing pregnancy rates to a policy of giving all women 150 IU. However, in all cases the confidence intervals are consistent with an increase or decrease in the rate of around five percentage points with ORT-based dosing (e.g. from 25% to 20% or 30%). Although small, a difference of this magnitude could be important to many women. Further, ORT algorithms reduced the incidence of OHSS compared to standard dosing of 150 IU, probably by facilitating dose reductions in women with a predicted high response. However, the size of the effect is unclear. The included studies were heterogeneous in design, which limited the interpretation of pooled estimates, and many of the included studies had a serious risk of bias.Current evidence does not provide a clear justification for adjusting the standard dose of 150 IU in the case of poor or normal responders, especially as increased dose is generally associated with greater total FSH dose and therefore greater cost. However, a decreased dose in predicted high responders may reduce OHSS.


There are many forms of shopping and all have consequences for the movement of goods and people, and for the patterns of energy demand that follow. In bringing different aspects of DEMAND research together we make three key points. First, different modes of shopping affect the practices and energy demands of consumers and of retailers, distributors and producers alike. Second, patterns of energy and travel demand vary depending on how aspects of shopping are organised in time and space. However, our third point is that different forms of shopping co-exist, overlap and change. Rather than trying to compare the energy demands of physical vs online shopping, as if these were coherent forms, the more important task is to explain escalating expectations of delivery and of what shopping entails. For all forms, what matters is how the 'last mile' is organised and why the 'next day' is so significant. In developing these points our aim is to inform and promote further research and reflection on the travel and energy demands associated with shopping in all its forms.


We introduce a Nelson-Siegel type interest rate term structure model with the underlying yield factors following autoregressive processes revealing time-varying stochastic volatility. The factor volatilities capture risk inherent to the term struc- ture and are associated with the time-varying uncertainty of the yield curve's level, slope and curvature. Estimating the model based on U.S. government bond yields applying Markov chain Monte Carlo techniques we find that the yield factors and factor volatilities follow highly persistent processes. Using the extracted factors to explain one-year-ahead bond excess returns we observe that the slope and cur- vature yield factors contain the same explanatory power as the return-forecasting factor recently proposed by Cochrane and Piazzesi (2005). Moreover, we identify slope and curvature risk as important additional determinants of future excess returns. Finally, we illustrate that the yield and volatility factors are closely con- nected to variables reflecting macroeconomic activity, inflation, monetary policy and employment growth. It is shown that the extracted yield curve components have long-term prediction power for macroeconomic fundamentals.


This thesis focuses on the simulation of the gyroscopic effect using the software MSC Adams. A simple shaft-disk system was created and parameter of the system were changed in order to study the influence of the gyroscopic effect. It was shown that an increasing bearing stiffness reduces the precession motion. Furthermore, it was shown that the gyroscopic effect vanishes if the disk of system is placed symmetrically on the shaft, which reduces the system to a Jeffcott-Rotor. The second objective of this study was to analyze different defects in a simple fixed axis gear set. In particular, a cracked shaft, a cracked pinion and a chipped pinion as well as a healthy gear system were created and tested in Ad-ams. The contact force between the two gears was monitored and the 2D and 3D frequency spectrum, as well as the Wavelet Transform, were plotted in order to compare the individual defects. It was shown that the Wavelet Transform is a powerful tool, capable of identifying a cracked gear with a non-constant speed. The last part of this study included fault detection with statistical methods as well as with the Sideband Energy Ratio (SER). The time domain signal of the individual faults were used to compare the mean, the standard deviation and the root mean square. Furthermore, the noise profile in the frequency spectrum was tracked with statistical methods using the mean and the standard deviation. It was demonstrated that it is possible to identify a cracked gear, as well as a chipped gear, with statistical methods. However, a cracked shaft could not be identified. The results also show that SER was only capable to identify major defects in a gear system such as a chipped tooth.


Understanding everyday social practices is challenging as many are mundane and taken for granted and therefore difficult to articulate or recall. This paper reflects on the challenges encountered in a qualitative study underpinned by current theories of practice that incorporated visual methods. Using this approach meant everyone in a sample of 20 household cases, from children through to adults in their 80s, could show and tell their own stories about domestic kitchen practices. Households co-produced visual data with the research team through kitchen tours, photography, diaries/scrapbooks, informal interviews and recording video footage. The visual data complemented and elaborated on the non-visual data and contradictions could be thoroughly interrogated. A significant challenge was handling the substantial insight revealed about a household through visual methods, in terms of household anonymity. The paper reflects on the challenges of a visual approach and the contribution it can make in an applied sociological study.


Computation of a satisfactory policy for a decision problem when the parameters of the model are uncertain is a problem encountered in many applications. The traditional robust approach is based on a worst-case analysis and may lead to overly conservative solutions. In this paper we directly quantify the robustness to uncertainty and consider the tradeoff between the nominal performance and robustness measures. Optimization in both linear programming and Markov decision processes is discussed. For linear programming we consider the tradeoff between the nominal cost of a solution and a robustness measure that quantifies the magnitude of constraint violation under the most adversarial parameters. We propose an algorithm that computes the whole set of Pareto efficient solutions based on parametric linear programming. For Markov decision processes, we consider the tradeoff between the performance under nominal parameters and the performance under adversarial parameters. For the special case where only the rewards are uncertain, we propose an algorithm that computes the whole set of Pareto efficient policies in a single pass.


We analyzed the impact of financial support system on technological innovation of small and medium manufacturing firms in Korea, with a special interest in technology guarantee system. This was done using a sample of 1,014 Korean manufacturing firms of which 43% were venture companies. Our study provides two important conclusions. First, the result of empirical analysis indicates that financial support systems have a significant influence on both product innovation and process innovation of SMEs in Korea. Second, a more important conclusion of this research is that technology guarantee system impacts on product innovation; however not on process innovation. This result implies that technology guarantee system attaches more importance to technological innovations related with product development than to those related with process enhancement.


Learning multiple related tasks from data simultaneously can improve predictive performance relative to learning these tasks independently. In this paper we propose a novel multi-task learning algorithm called MT-Adaboost: it extends Adaboost algorithm Freund1999Short to the multi-task setting, it uses as multi-task weak classifier a multi-task decision stump. This allows to learn different dependencies between tasks for different regions of the learning space. Thus, we relax the conventional hypothesis that tasks behave similarly in the whole learning space. Moreover, MT-Adaboost can learn multiple tasks without imposing the constraint of sharing the same label set and/or examples between tasks. A theoretical analysis is derived from the analysis of the original Adaboost. Experiments for multiple tasks over large scale textual data sets with social context (Enron and Tobacco) give rise to very promising results.


Background: Although immunization coverage has increased in recent times in India, the quality of the Indian national immunization programme is still debatable. So, this study was conducted to assess the quality of documentation of immunization and health education to mother during Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) which is the national immunization programme of India and stresses on childhood Immunization against diseases of public health importance. The quality of maintenance of cold chain was also assessed in the study along with other factors.
Method: This cross sectional study involved female Junior Health Worker (JHW) of Davangere taluk in South India as participants. These were selected based on lot quality assurance sampling (LQAS). Each Junior Health worker Female (initially called multipurpose workers) who did immunization was considered as 1 lot. The numbers of lots rejected were considered for analysis and if rejection was higher than the allowed defect (obtained from LQAS table) the quality was considered poor.
Results: Identification of needed vaccine by the JHW was poor as determined by LQAS technique. Vaccination status of children and vaccine recommendation for sick children was poor. Care of vaccine was good except for contamination during loading. Vaccination technique practiced by female JHW of Davangere taluk was poor. EPI education given to mother had failed in many places by LQAS. Maintenance of cold chain and supply of vaccine was good. Knowledge about immunization process among service providers was 100% about all vaccine.
Conclusion: The quality of immunization sessions were not up to the mark.


When controlling dynamic systems, such as mobile robots in uncertain environments, there is a trade off between risk and reward. For example, a race car can turn a corner faster by taking a more challenging path. This paper proposes a new approach to planning a control sequence with a guaranteed risk bound. Given a stochastic dynamic model, the problem is to find a control sequence that optimizes a performance metric, while satisfying chance constraints i.e. constraints on the upper bound of the probability of failure. We propose a two-stage optimization approach, with the upper stage optimizing the risk allocation and the lower stage calculating the optimal control sequence that maximizes reward. In general, the upper-stage is a non-convex optimization problem, which is hard to solve. We develop a new iterative algorithm for this stage that efficiently computes the risk allocation with a small penalty to optimality. The algorithm is implemented and tested on the autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) depth planning problem, and demonstrates a substantial improvement in computation cost and suboptimality, compared to the prior arts.


Resonance Raman spectra of the ferric homodimeric hemoglobin from Scapharca inaequivalvis have been measured over the pH range 5.8-8.3 in buffers of ionic strengths 0.01 and 0.1 M to determine the spin and coordination state of the iron atom. Three species contribute to the spectra: a low spin hexacoordinate, a high spin pentacoordinate, and a high spin hexacoordinate component. Optical absorption and EPR spectra measured under the same conditions allowed the identification of the ligands in the sixth coordination position, namely the distal histidine in the low spin derivative and a water molecule in the high spin one. The relative concentrations of these three species depend on pH in an unusual way. Thus, the aquomet derivative is present over the whole pH range, albeit in small amounts as most of the hemoglobin converts to the low spin hemichrome at acid pH values and to the pentacoordinate derivative at neutral and slightly alkaline ones. The formation of a pentacoordinate heme as the pH is increased has not been reported previously for other myoglobins and hemoglobins. Low ionic strength and high protein concentration favor the formation of the high spin pentacoordinate species, while at high ionic strength and low protein concentration the low spin hexacoordinate species prevails. Ionization of the iron-bound water molecule occurs at pH > or = 9.3; accordingly, signals from the hydroxyl derivative were not observed in the Raman spectra over the pH range studied.


The cytoskeleton is a dynamic filamentous structure composed of at least actin and microtubule networks. Actin and microtubules are no different structurally from their animal and fungal counterparts. However the strategies of cell differentiation and development in plants require this network to respond appropriately to plant-specific developmental cues and to environmental factors. This book views the cytoskeleton from different perspectives but on the whole as a network composed of structural and regulatory proteins controlled by internal and external stimuli that result in different aspects of cell differentiation.


Research background: SMEs face financial constraints in their development, which limits their access to external funds, tightens their investment possibilities, and limits their growth. Much research effort has been devoted to understanding the nature and sources of this phenomenon. In sharp contrast to this, very little has been said about the role of these factors in explaining the default probability of these types of enterprises. Understanding such interrelationships could help to adopt policies to alleviate the situation of constrained SMEs and lower their default rates.
Purpose of the article: This study analyses the role of financial constraint factors in SME defaults. This is done by utilising the financial constraint factors in a newly derived default prediction model. A comparison of the derived model and other SME default prediction models is carried out to assess the potential of financial constraints in the discrimination power of the model.
Methods: In this study, we use the Cox semiparametric model, while leaving the baseline hazard rate unspecified and employing macroeconomic variables as explanatory variables. The discrimination power was addressed in terms of the area under the curve (AUC), resulting in out-of-sample testing. The DeLong test was used to compare the AUC of the created and analysed models. The model was estimated on a set of over 213,731 SMEs from 28 counties, covering the period 2014?2019.
Findings & value added: It was found that adopting the financial constraint measures can explain the default of small and medium enterprises with high accuracy; however, they do not explain the default of micro enterprises.


This paper presents a methodology for creating streaming, distributed inference algorithms for Bayesian nonparametric (BNP) models. In the proposed framework, processing nodes receive a sequence of data minibatches, compute a variational posterior for each, and make asynchronous streaming updates to a central model. In contrast to previous algorithms, the proposed framework is truly streaming, distributed, asynchronous, learning-rate-free, and truncation-free. The key challenge in developing the framework, arising from the fact that BNP models do not impose an inherent ordering on their components, is finding the correspondence between minibatch and central BNP posterior components before performing each update. To address this, the paper develops a combinatorial optimization problem over component correspondences, and provides an efficient solution technique. The paper concludes with an application of the methodology to the DP mixture model, with experimental results demonstrating its practical scalability and performance.


This Note explores a widening circuit split on the constitutionality of blanket strip search policies involving arrestees and pretrial detainees. As a result of the widening split, government officials across the country strip search detainees as a matter of routine procedure without any reasonable suspicion that the detainees have contraband. These detainees include individuals without criminal histories who are arrested for traffic or other minor offenses, and who have done nothing to suggest that they are attempting to smuggle contraband into corrections facilities.This Note recognizes that an objective legal analysis can be informed by relevant social science findings, and relies on an interdisciplinary approach in analyzing the constitutionality of strip search policies. Research has consistently found that strip searches are invasive, humiliating, and traumatizing even when conducted professionally and according to protocol. At worst, strip search policies allow corrections officers to abuse their power and systematically perpetrate sexual violence toward detainees. Ultimately, this Note argues that blanket strip search policies are unconstitutional and courts must only uphold strip searches when there is an individualized reasonable suspicion that a detainee is concealing contraband.


This paper analyses the effects of work-related training on worker productivity. To identify the causal effects from training, we combine a field experiment that randomly assigns workers to treatment and control groups with panel data on individual worker performance before and after training. We find that participation in the training programme leads to a 10 percent increase in performance. Moreover, we provide experimental evidence for externalities from treated workers on their untreated teammates: An increase of 10 percentage points in the share of treated peers leads to a performance increase of 0.51 percent. We provide evidence that the estimated effects are causal and not the result of employee selection into and out of training. Furthermore, we find that the performance increase is not due to lower quality provided by the worker.


INTRODUCTION
Sleep loss is ubiquitous in military settings, and it can be deleterious to cognitive, physiological, and operational functioning. This is especially true in the military operational context (e.g., training, garrison, combat) where continuous operations prevent adequate time for rest and recuperation. Furthermore, even when servicemembers do have opportunities for sleep, environmental disruptors in the military operational context make it difficult to obtain restorative sleep. Such environmental disruptors are potentially preventable or reversible, yet there is little public awareness of how to minimize or eliminate these sleep disruptors. Therefore, the goal of this review was to outline prominent environmental sleep disruptors, describe how they occur in the military operational context, and also discuss feasible strategies to mitigate these disruptors.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
We discuss four factors - light, noise, temperature, and air pollution - that have previously been identified as prominent sleep disruptors in non-military settings. Additionally, we extracted publicly-available yearly temperature and pollution data, from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association and the Environmental Protection Agency, respectively, for major prominent military installations in the continental US in order to identify the sites at which servicemembers are at the greatest risk for environmental sleep disruptions.

RESULTS
Based on previous literature, we concluded light and noise are the most easily mitigatable sleep-disrupting environmental factors. Air pollution and temperature, on the other hand, are more difficult to mitigate. We also propose that harsh/uncomfortable sleeping surface is a fifth critical, previously unexplored sleep disruptor in the military operational context. Furthermore, we identified several problematic military sites for air pollution for temperature. Specifically, each branch has major installations located in regions with extreme heat (especially the Army), and each branch has at least one major installation in a high air pollution region. These findings show that even when in training or garrison in the US, military servicemembers are at risk for having sleep disruption due to environmental factors.

CONCLUSIONS
Environmental disruptors, such as light, noise, temperature, and air pollution, can negatively impact sleep in the military operational context. Simple, feasible steps can be taken to reduce sleep disruptions that are caused by light and noise. Yet there is a need for research and development on tools to mitigate air pollution, extreme temperatures, and inhospitable sleeping surfaces. Leadership at the discussed military bases and training facilities should focus on improving the sleep environment for individuals under their command. Such interventions could ultimately improve warfighter health, wellness, and operational performance, leading to greater warfighter readiness and lethality.


The intangible means of expression was a topic of investigation across various disciplines when Michael Chekhov was developing his pedagogic practice. In the world of science, Harold Saxton Burr and Albert Szent-Gyorgi, were examining the body as a conductor of energy. Their research was relevant to Chekhov's approach regarding how the actor communicates with internal and external stimulus. This article begins with an analysis of Chekhov's theories on Radiation, it moves on to offer insights into science and energy work with reference to cell Biologist James Oschman and his concept of 'the living matrix' and Mae Wan Ho's critique of quantum cohesion. Examples of praxis demonstrate that contemporary science and body work can provide a greater understanding of how Radiation and the organisation of energy can enhance performance.


The aim of this study is to identify and describe the translator's creation in shifting the language style and illocutionary type of different gender speech in romantic speech event of literary object. This research is a descriptive qualitative study that describes the translation shift in pragmatic and sociolinguistic domain as the impact of certain translation technique used. The data were obtained from the translation utterances of male and female characters on romantic speech events and validated by three raters through FGD (Focus Group Discussion) before then being analyzed through domain, taxonomy, componential and cultural themes analysis. The results of this study indicate that the translator made four types of shift; illocutionary shift, sub-illocutionary shift, language style in the form of intensifier and empty adjective shift. Besides, there are five translation techniques affecting those shift types, those are reduction, modulation, established equivalent, amplification (addition), and discursive creation. Subsequent findings indicate that reduction technique is the most influencing technique to the translation shift made, especially in the shift of language style in the form of intensifier which gave an impact to the characteristics of different gender speech.


Abstract Objective This study aimed to evaluate the outcomes of newborn pulse oximetry screening in a level IV, tertiary care neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Study Design This is a retrospective cohort study of neonates who received newborn pulse oximetry screening after being admitted to a single-center, level-IV NICU between 2014 and 2021. Neonates with known critical congenital heart disease were excluded from the study. Results Of the 4,493 neonates who had pulse oximetry screening, there were three positive screens (fail rate of 0.067%, 0.67 per 1,000 screened). The average age of screening was 818 hours. There were no positive screens of newborns who were admitted during their initial birth hospitalization and were screened while off oxygen. There were no new diagnoses of critical congenital heart disease (true positives) and there were no known false negatives. Conclusion The results bring into question whether pulse oximetry screening with the current AAP-endorsed algorithm should be re-evaluated for a level-IV NICU at a children's hospital. However, the results may not be generalizable to other NICU's where echocardiography and prenatal echocardiograms are not as readily available. Key Points Pulse oximetry has been shown to be effective in decreasing delayed diagnosis of critical congenital heart disease (CCHD); however, there are limited prior studies on newborn pulse oximetry in the NICU. In our study of over 4,000 neonates admitted to a level IV tertiary care NICU, there were no true positives (no new diagnoses of CCHD). Special considerations may be needed for pulse oximetry screening in the NICU setting.


Life imprisonment has been part of South Africa's penal regime for decades. This article analyses how this form of punishment has changed in meaning in since 1906. The author looks at life imprisonment during the death penalty period ; life imprisonment in the aftermath of the abolition of the death penalty ; life imprisonment under the Criminal Law Amendment Act, when it could only be imposed by the High Courts ; and life imprisonment during the Criminal Law Amendment Act, when the regional courts were also empowered to impose this sentence. The author discusses the laws and circumstances which prevailed in the above four periods. With life imprisonment now being the severest sentence that can be imposed in South Africa, the author highlights the challenges associated with it and calls upon the government, courts and civil society to think seriously about how this form of punishment should be administered so as to avoid confusing inmates and exposing the government to litigation.


Summary The concepts of evidence-based practice and clinical governance are slowly becoming commonplace in practitioners' everyday terminology. The concepts of accreditation, re-accreditation and external appraisal and validation loom in the not too distant future. However, are these terms so frighteningly divorced from the reality of standard family practice? Are practitioners life long learners by default, driven by an ability to maintain general health care? Or is life long learning something that practitioners must develop post graduation? In an attempt to answer these questions, this paper briefly discusses the historical development of life long learning and poses questions as to its applicability into daily practice.


The two major exit ramps to Interstate 5 in downtown Seattle, Washington needed to be reconstructed. High volume of traffic and high incident of accidents required less closure time for construction. Therefore, paving was conducted with fast track concrete mix and maturity was monitored to determine opening strength for concrete. Both maturity and fast track have been around for some time now; however, the idea of concrete maturity to determine the opening strength for pavement is a relatively new concept. Prior to the field application of fast track concrete mix and concrete maturity, numerous tests were conducted. Tests included the maturity value determination for an opening flexural strength of 400 psi and the insulating factor needed for fast track paving. Test results showed that a maturity value of 400 °C-hour is needed for a flexural strength of 400 psi. Also, an insulating factor of 3 (R=3) is sufficient to obtain the opening flexural strength of 400 psi in eight to twelve hours after placement of concrete. With this test information, paving was performed at the ramps of the Albro St. and Spokane St. exits. Pavement achieved the required opening strength of 400 psi in eight to eleven hours after placement of concrete. Reconstruction of the ramps was completed in two days with fast track paving.


The suburban landscape is a landscape of opportunity. Historically, the suburban landscape has been a desirable place for living. Because it demands the use of automobiles, it is also a landscape undesirable for pedestrians. Optimistically, through principles of New Urbanism, walkability, and mass transportation via light rail, there is an opportunity to transform the auto dominated suburban landscape into one that promotes walkability. Located in the suburbs of Alexandria, Virginia, an atypical intersection is analyzed for its characteristics of walkability. This intersection consists of several major roads converging to create a location overly dominated by busy roads and automobiles. Though there are accomodations that signify this intersection is also a place for pedestrians, a walkability checklist and a walkability study prove otherwise. The author investigates transforming this otherwise unwalkable landscape into one that promotes walkability by providing a safe, comfortable, and enjoyable experience for suburban pedestrians. Design intentions are focused on preserving much of the existing land use and not re-developing suburbia into a new urban center. Yet, through using new urbanist principles for walkability, there is the opportunity to create a new suburban center. Table of


In this paper, we introduce a novel approach for scheduled tracking of a moving target based on bearings-only sensors. Unlike classical approaches that are typically based on the extended or unscented Kalman filter, we rely on circular statistics to describe probability distributions for angular measurements more accurately. As the energy available to sensors is limited in many scenarios, we introduce a scheduling algorithm that selects a subset of two sensors to be active at any given time step while minimizing the uncertainty of the state estimate. This is done by anticipating possible future measurements. We evaluate the proposed method in simulations and compare it to an UKF-based solution. Our evaluation demonstrates the superiority of the presented approach, particularly when high measurement uncertainty makes consideration of the circular geometry necessary.


In the current scenario of increasing demand for solar photovoltaic (PV) systems, the need to predict their feasibility and performance is more than ever. Irradiance of a geographical location almost exclusively determines the generation possible via solar. Hence, accurate irradiance data is required to assess the value of solar PV systems. Emphasizing such need, this paper presents a method of estimating global horizontal irradiance (GHI) using the two dimensional (2-D) spatial interpolation technique. The proposed model is geo-agnostic and can estimate irradiance depending on the geographical range of the input data. This paper also compares the model predictions with a standard irradiation dataset in the industry. This comparison helps in getting insights regarding the spatio-temporal trends in recent times. As part of our asset management, solar PV plants spread all over India have irradiation sensors whose measures are sent to our servers on a real-time basis. This is incorporated into our in-house analytics portal which is developed for operations and monitoring. Thus, the data is organized for each plant with its geographical parameters (latitude and longitude) along with Global Tilted Irradiation (GTI) measured by on ground sensors. T-factors (calculated as function of tilt, azimuth of the site) corresponding to each sensor orientation are also known which are used to obtain Global Horizontal Irradiation (GHI) values. As part of our study, the increasing predominance of solar PV as a renewable source of energy is discussed. This has focused the attention on the need to have quality irradiation data. The above research has been as an endeavour to use a data-driven approach to solve the issue at hand. Hopefully, this work can showcase the power of using data-intensive techniques such as the one shown to solve the many challenges in the energy industry especially those in solar. The model is built using irradiation sensor data pan India and used an effective spatial interpolation technique, kriging, to produce the gap-filled estimates. The statistical measures of estimate error are also mentioned which show impressive accuracy. Heat maps for respective months have also been produced for better visualization of GHI trends. An independent dataset of industrial benchmarking standards is also compared with the estimates to better understand the temporal GHI trends with respect to long-term averaged values. The assessment of this work's potential is for the industrial community to ascertain as this can have various use cases of immense business value.