Modelling of wet granulation requires the rate of agglomerate coalescence to be estimated. Coalescence is dependent on the frequency of collisions that occur, and the fraction of collisions which result in coalescence. The collision rate is a function of granulator kinetics and powder properties, while the coalescence success rate is dependent on factors including the Stokes number and particle geometry. This work investigates an aspect of the geometry by examining the distribution of liquid on the surface of agglomerates in the capillary state. Agglomerates are created by adding particles, one at a time, about a central tetrahedral arrangement of four primary particles. For a given agglomerate, the wetted fraction of surface area, defined as the wetness, is evaluated using an approximate fluid surface. Packing density and binder saturation parameters are incorporated into the model. Given a number of primary particles and the volume of binder in a particle, the agglomerate wetness is able to be estimated using computational geometry.


Background: Concern has risen on the presence of the ethylmercury containing preservative thimerosal in vaccines. We assessed the risk for neurologic and renal impairment associated with past exposure to thimerosal-containing vaccine using automated data from the Vaccine Safety Data link (VSD). VSD is a large linked database from four health maintenance organizations in Washington, Oregon and California, containing immunization, medical visit and demographic data on over 400,000 infants born between '91 and '97. Methods: We categorized the cumulative ethylmercury exposure from Thimerosal containing vaccines after one month of life and assessed the subsequent risk of degenerative and developmental neurologic disorders and renal disorders before the age of six. We applied proportional hazard models adjusting for HMO, year of birth, and gender, excluding premature babies. Results: We identified 286 children with degenerative and 3702 with developmental neurologic disorders, and 310 with renal disorders. The relative risk (RR) of developing a neurologic development disorder was 1.8 ( 95% confidence intervals [CI] =1.1-2.8) when comparing the highest exposure group at 1 month of age (cumulative dose> 25 ug) to the unexposed group. Within this group we also found an elevated risk for the following disorders: autism (RR 7.6, 95% Cl = 1.8-31.5), non organic sleep disorders (RR 5.0, 95% Cl = 1.615.9}, and speech disorders (RR 2.1, 95% (1=1.1-4.0). For the neurologic degenerative and renal disorders group we found no significantly increased risk or a decreased risk. Conclusion: This analysis suggests that high exposure to ethyl mercury from thimerosal-containing vaccines in the first month of life increases the risk of subsequent development of neurologic development impairment, but not of neurologic degenerative or renal impairment. Further confirmatory studies are needed.


This paper investigates the path following control problem for a unmanned surface vehicle (USV) in the presence of unknown disturbances and system uncertainties. The simulation study combines two different types of sliding mode surface based control approaches due to its precise tracking and robustness against disturbances and uncertainty. Firstly, an adaptive linear sliding mode surface algorithm is applied, to keep the yaw error within the desired boundaries and then an adaptive integral non-linear sliding mode surface is explored to keep an account of the sliding mode condition. Additionally, a method to reconfigure the input parameters in order to keep settling time, yaw rate restriction and desired precision within boundary conditions is presented. The main strengths of proposed approach is simplicity, robustness with respect to external disturbances and high adaptability to static and dynamics reference courses without the need of parameter reconfiguration.


The single-scattering phase function of cirrus particles in the free atmosphere has been determined between angles of 15 and 90° in the forward direction and at 180° in the back direction. The technique involved measuring the solar radiation intensity scattered by thin cirrus with a lidar receiver and also determining the cirrus optical depth simultaneously from a lidar backscatter return. The solar scattered radiance appeared as a background signal on the lidar echo. The phase function at 180° was determined from the integrated cloud backscatter using standard techniques. Data were obtained during two experimental phases covering summer and winter periods. The values of the measured scattering functions fell within the range of various laboratory measurements. The results showed evidence for the 22° halo associated with scattering from hexagonal crystals.


Estela Welldon brings together a generous selection derived from her many literary gems, in which she illustrates her groundbreaking-and sometimes explosive-studies of female sexuality and perversions, perverse transference, malignant bonding, perverse motherhood, and the impact upon children of viewing domestic violence. Along with these are vivid descriptions of group analytic psychotherapy with forensic patients and, uniquely, of the joint group treatment of incest survivors and perpetrators. She also outlines the development of forensic psychotherapy as a new field of clinical and academic endeavour and her involvement in this. In a series of interviews with Brett Kahr she describes her professional journey, from being trained by Horacio Etchegoyen in her native Argentina, followed by an eye-opening period at the Menninger Clinic, then eventually to London and a distinguished career at the Portman Clinic.


This paper deals with the design of a decentralized fault diagnosis and prognosis scheme for interconnected nonlinear discrete-time systems which are modelled as the interconnection of several subsystems. For each subsystem, a local fault detector (LFD) is designed based on the dynamic model of the local subsystem and the local states. Each LFD consists of an observer with an online neural network (NN)-based approximator. The online NN approximators only use local measurements as their inputs, and are always turned on and continuously learn the interconnection as well as possible fault function. A fault is detected by comparing the output of each online NN approximator with a predefined threshold instead of using the residual. Derivation of robust detection thresholds and fault detectability conditions are also included. Due to interconnected nature of the overall system, the effect of faults propagate to other subsystems, thus a fault might be detected in more than one subsystem. Upon detection, faults local to the subsystem and from other subsystems are isolated by using a central fault isolation unit which receives detection time information from all LFDs. The proposed scheme also provides the time-to-failure or remaining useful life information by using local measurements. Simulation results provide the effectiveness of the proposed decentralized fault detection scheme.


Risto Seppänen Trust in inter-organizational relationships Lappeenranta 2008 200 p. Acta Universitatis Lappeenrantaensis 328 Diss. Lappeenranta University of Technology ISBN 978-952-214-660-1, ISBN 978-952-214-661-8 (PDF), ISSN 1456-4491 Trust in inter-organizational collaborative relationships has attracted substantial research interest among academics and practitioners. Previous studies have concentrated on the benefits of trust to business outcomes and economic performance, as it is considered to be a source of competitive advantage. Despite this increased level of interest, there is no consensus, much less overall agreement, about how it should be conceptualized or about the number of dimensions it incorporates. On the inter-organizational level there is an obvious challenge in defining both the trusting party and the objects of trust. Thus, the notion of trust as an under-theorized and poorly understood phenomenon still holds. Hence, the motivation of this study was fuelled by the need to increase our knowledge and understanding of the role and nature of trust in inter-organizational collaborative relationships. It is posited that there is a call for more understanding about its antecedents and consequences, as well as about the very concept in inter-organizational collaborative relationships. The study is divided into two parts. The first part gives a general overview, and the second part comprises four research publications. Both qualitative and quantitative research methodology is utilized. A multi-method research design was used because it provides different levels of data and different perspectives on the phenomenon. The results of this study reveal that trust incorporates three dimensions on both the individual and the organizational level: capability, goodwill, and self-reference. Trust develops from the reputation and behavior of the trusted party. It appears from this study that trust is clearly directed towards both individual boundary spanners and the counterpart company itself – i.e. not only to one or the other. The trusting party, on the other hand, is always an individual, and not the organization per se. Trust increases collaboration benefits and lowers collaboration drawbacks, thus having a positive effect on relationship performance. The major contribution of this study lies in uncovering the critical points and drawbacks in prior research and thereby in responding to the highlighted challenges. The way in which these challenges were addressed offers contributions to three major issues in the emerging theory of trust in the inter-organizational context: firstly, this study clarifies the trustor-trustee discussion; secondly, it conceptualizes trust as existing on both individual and organizational levels; and thirdly, it provides more information about the antecedents of trust and the ways in which it affects relationship performance.


Regulation of gene transcription is an
important aspect of insulin's action. However, the mechanisms
involved are poorly understood. Insulin inhibits glucagon gene
transcription and insulin deficiency is associated with
hyperglucagonemia that contributes to hyperglycemia in diabetes
mellitus. In the present study transient transfection analysis in a
glucagon-producing pancreatic islet cell line was performed, where
the activity of an artificial minienhancer consisting of
synergizing Pax6 binding sites (G3A) in front of a heterologous
promoter, as well as Pax6 activity when assessed using a GAL4/viral
E1B system, were inhibited by insulin. This provides evidence that
Pax6 can confer negative regulation by insulin in pancreatic
islets. Furthermore, Pax6 seems to play a critical role in the
insulin responsiveness of the glucagon promoter because the
overexpression of the Pax6 paired domain as well as the mutation of
the Pax6 binding sites within the glucagon promoter element G1 and
G3 markedly reduced basal activity and insulin responsiveness. The
expression of GAL4-Pax6 and GAL4-VP16 restored basal activity of
the doubly mutated promoter, whereas only GAL4-Pax6 restored also
insulin responsiveness. When the potential Pax6 coactivator CBP was
fused to the GAL4 DNA-binding domain, the GAL4-CBP activity was
inhibited by insulin within the glucagon promoter context but not
in front of the viral E1B promoter. Fusing N-, C-terminal and
middle parts of CBP with the GAL4 domain only the N- and C-terminal
part conferred transcriptional activity and insulin responsiveness.
Further mapping of the C-terminal of CBP revealed a single region
between amino acids 2040 and 2170 sufficient to confer the negative
regulation by insulin. The activity conferred by this region as
well as by the N-terminal part of CBP was inhibited by the
overexpression of the constitutively active form of PKB, myrPKB.
The results of present study suggest that the paired domain
transcription factor Pax6 is required for insulin responsiveness of
the glucagon promoter. They alsoindicate that the Pax6-interacting
coactivator CBP might be involved in this process. It is finally
speculated that within the specific context of the glucagon
promoter a nucleoprotein complex is being induced with Pax6 and CBP
as critical components. Insulin-induced signalling pathways might
target this large, glucagon promoter-specific protein complex
rather than any single transcriptional factor and therefore act
through a IRE-binding factor (IRF)-independent mechanism.


The legacy of conventional fields has resulted in many low permeability reservoirs deemed sub-commercial without an appropriate stimulation strategy. With low permeabilities and potentially heterogeneous reservoir characteristics, an optimal development approach would highly depend on their specific reservoir properties that may well require stimulation methods other than hydraulic fracturing. In this paper, we present a fully integrated characterization and modeling workflow applied to the Kita-Akita oil field in northern Japan, demonstrating the screening process for multiple completion and stimulation methods in a highly heterogeneous, low permeability sandstone reservoir.
 To select a best completion and stimulation candidate from multiple methods, we constructed an evaluation matrix including the maturity of technologies, applicability to our reservoir, productivity, and economics. Multi-branch type completions such as radial drilling and fishbone drilling, as well as hydraulic fracturing were simulated and subsequently compared based on their productivities. Especially for the radial drilling and the fishbone drilling, a 3D FEM model was built for their complex laterals, and the inflow performances were evaluated with homogenous reservoir properties, respectively. Besides, due to the highly heterogeneous nature of the reservoir, we built a full-physics subsurface model based on a pilot-hole data acquisition and legacy 2D seismic lines. The 3D model served as a canvas to assess reservoir flow and geomechanical behavior, calibrated with production history from past producing wells in the 1950's to 1970's. Based on these models, the best infill drilling location was selected and multiple well completion and stimulation practices were evaluated.
 Through the screening methodology, the multi-stage hydraulic fracturing was identified as the best suited from an instantaneous productivity perspective. Yet, even though hydraulic fracturing would enhance the accessibility into multiple distinctively isolated sandstones occurring in the deepwater slope channel setting, the treatment costs exceeded the economic threshold significantly in our case. Inflow performance evaluation based on the 3D FEM modeling illustrates multi-branch type completions such as radial drilling and fishbone drilling were identified with a good stimulation skin factor. As a result of 3D simulation study, multi-branch completion was revealed as a technical and economically viable stimulation option in the heterogeneously distributed sandstone reservoirs.
 The advent of recent completion and stimulation techniques now renders low permeability reservoirs with relatively large development potential. Even with the development challenges quite different from conventional reservoirs, the approach shown in this paper provides a helpful reference for the study and decision-making process when the legacy field needs an optimal stimulation strategy.


3D-Polarized Light Imaging (3D-PLI) provides data that enables an exploration of brain fibers at very high resolution. However, the visualization poses several challenges. Beside the huge data set sizes, users have to visually perceive the pure amount of information which might be, among other aspects, inhibited for inner structures because of occlusion by outer layers of the brain. We propose a clustering of fiber directions by means of spherical harmonics using a level-of-detail structure by which the user can interactively choose a clustering degree according to the zoom level or details required. Furthermore, the clustering method can be used for the automatic grouping of similar spherical harmonics automatically into one representative. An optional overlay with a direct vector visualization of the 3D-PLI data provides a better anatomical context.


This paper examines and ranks the District of Columbia's environmental problems. Four criteria are used to determine each problem's severity: public opinion of the problem, health effects, the number of people affected, and ecological and welfare effects. Public opinion is measured via 345 city resident and 23 stakeholder interviews. Stakeholders included environmental experts familiar with issues in the District. Health and ecological effects are captured by analyzing both the EPA's and District of Columbia's environmental data. The results show that the top four problems facing the city, in order of importance, are: drinking water, air pollution, the Anacostia River, and lead poisoning. Several recommendations for resolving the District's problems are offered and including creating a separate D.C. Environmental Agency, applying for EPA grant monies, publishing a D.C. environmental report, fostering community cooperation, and increasing education about the environment.


For much of the 19th and 20th Centuries, the international community resisted the notion of indigenous peoples' rights. In recent years, however, this has changed. The emergence of indigenous rights in international law may finally be upon us. At the very least, the language of international instruments and certain court decisions indicate a new era is emerging in which international law is beginning to recognize the rights of indigenous peoples. And the public seems increasingly aware of the challenges facing indigenous groups. Despite a past where victories for indigenous peoples' rights have been few, scholars are cautiously optimistic for the future. The current momentum behind the development of indigenous rights leads to the question: why now? Many of those who are optimistic attribute the development to the slow crystallization of international norms friendly to indigenous groups that are a natural extension of human rights or environmental justice. Other scholars suggest that the dedication of indigenous populations in national, regional, and international forums to advance and make others aware of indigenous issues has finally come to fruition. In this Article, Professor Parrish suggests that another phenomenon may be partly responsible for indigenous rights reaching an age of maturity in international law. The role of territoriality and territorial sovereignty as an organizing principle around which law coalesces is changing, and the dominance of the sovereign nation-state is fading. As the territorial state disassembles, the international system is no longer blind to non-state actors, like indigenous groups. Professor Parrish suggests that this "fading sovereignty" has left fertile ground for the rights of indigenous peoples to take root.


Over the past two decades, the European Union (EU) has become a central actor in financial regulation and developed complex institutions to fulfill its roles. Pre-financial crisis scholarship has provided key insights into the functioning of this institutional cobweb and its evolution over time. However, the financial crisis has highlighted four facets of EU financial regulation (EUFR) that deserve more scholarly attention than they have received so far: (1) the permissive pre-crisis consensus on the merits of financial liberalization and integration, (2) the embeddedness of financial regulation in the political economy of EU integration at large, (3) preference formation of public and private stakeholders in EUFR, and (4) the global economic and regulatory context of EUFR. This paper presents the key scholarly challenges across these four areas. Addressing them promises not only academic insights but also promotes the relevance of EUFR research for real-world policy dilemmas.


Deep neural networks have developed rapidly and have achieved out-standing performance in several tasks, such as image classification and natural language processing. However, recent studies have indicated that both digital and physical adversarial examples can fool neural networks. Face-recognition systems are used in various applications that involve security threats from physical adversarial examples. Herein, we propose a physical adversarial attack with the use of full-face makeup. The presence of makeup on the human face is a reasonable possibility, which possibly increases the imperceptibility of attacks. In our attack framework, we combine the cycle-adversarial generative network (cycle-GAN) and a victimized classifier. The Cycle-GAN is used to generate adversarial makeup, and the architecture of the victimized classifier is VGG 16. Our experimental results show that our attack can effectively overcome manual errors in makeup application, such as color and position-related errors. We also demonstrate that the approaches used to train the models can influence physical attacks; the adversarial perturbations crafted from the pre-trained model are affected by the corresponding training data.


The principles and implementation of an alternative approach to tunable diode-laser spectroscopy with wavelength modulation are described. This new technique uses the inherent phase shift between diode-laser power modulation and frequency modulation to separate the residual amplitude modulation and the first derivative signals recovered at the fundamental modulation frequency. The technique, through analysis of the residual-amplitude-modulation signal, is absolute, yielding gas-absorption-line-shape functions, concentrations, and pressures without the need for calibration under certain defined operating conditions. It offers the simplicity of signal analysis of direct detection while providing all the advantages of phase-sensitive electronic detection. Measurements of the 1650.96-nm rotation/vibration-absorption-line-shape function for 1% and 10% methane in nitrogen at various pressures are compared to theoretical predictions derived from HITRAN data, and the excellent agreement confirms the validity of the new technique. Further measurements of concentration and pressure confirm the efficacy of the technique for determining concentration in industrial-process environments where the pressure may be unknown and changing. An analysis of signal strength demonstrates that sensitivity comparable to that of conventional approaches is achievable. The new approach is simpler and more robust in coping with unknown pressure variations and drift in instrumentation parameters (such as laser characteristics) than the conventional approach. As such, it is better suited to stand-alone instrumentation for online deployment in industrial processes and is particularly useful in high-temperature applications, where the background infrared is strong.


HMN-176 ((E)-4-{[2-N-[4-methoxybenzenesulfonyl]amino]stilbazole}1oxide) is an active metabolite of HMN-214 ((E)-4-{2-[2-(N-acetyl-N-[4methoxybenzenesulfonyl]amino)stilbazole]}1-oxide), which has a potent antitumor activity in mouse xenograft models. In this study, we show that HMN-176 circumvents multidrug resistance in a K2 human ovarian cancer subline selected for Adriamycin resistance (K2/ARS). Upon treatment of K2/ARS cells with 3 M HMN-176, the GI50 of Adriamycin for the cells decreased by 50%. To explore the molecular mechanism of this effect, we assessed the expression of the multidrug resistance gene (MDR1), which is constitutive in K2/ARS cells, at both the protein and the mRNA level. Western and reverse transcription-PCR analysis revealed that the expression of MDR1 was significantly suppressed by treatment with HMN-176. Furthermore, when administered p.o., HMN-214 suppressed the expression of MDR1 mRNA in a mouse xenograft model implanted with KB-A.1, an Adriamycin-resistant cell line. Luciferase reporter fusion gene analysis demonstrated that HMN-176 inhibited the Y-box-dependent promoter activity of the MDR1 gene in a dose-dependent manner. Moreover, we show by electrophoretic mobility shift assay that HMN-176 inhibits the binding of NF-Y, which is thought to be an essential factor for the basal expression of MDR1, to its target Y-box consensus sequence in the MDR-1 promoter. Inhibition of MDR-1 expression was achieved with pharmacological concentrations of HMN-176, suggesting that HMN-176 may act by two different mechanisms—cytotoxicity and MDR1 downregulation—simultaneously. The data presented strongly suggest that the antitumor mechanism of HMN-176 (or its prodrug HMN-214 in vivo) is quite different from those of known antitumor agents.


It is a well-known fact that translated texts read differently from texts that have been written without the constraints imposed by source texts from another language. One of the features that can confer a distinctive feel to translations is the frequency with which certain lexical items are represented in them. Previous research has compared the frequency of specific words in translations and in texts that are not translations and unveiled substantial differences in their distributions. Most of these studies adopt a bottom-up approach. Their starting point is a given word whose frequency in translated and non-translated texts is then compared. In the present study, we adopt an explorative, top-down approach instead. We begin with a Portuguese language corpus of translated and non-translated literary texts and attempt to identify lemmas which are markedly over and under-represented in the translations. Our results not only appear to support existing bottom-up intuitions regarding distinctive lexical distributions, but also disclose a number of unexpected contrasts that would not have been discernible without recourse to corpora.


Background: Delirium is a common problem in patients hospitalized in Intensive Care Unit. Despite the importance, only less than 13% of cases are diagnosed by physicians and medical personnel. Objectives: The present research aimed to study knowledge and attitude of critical care nurses towards delirium. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in Iran. Convenience sampling was used to enroll nurses (186 persons) working in intensive care units of Rasht educational hospitals affiliated to Guilan University of Medical Sciences in 2015. Data collection instruments included a three part questionnaire: demographic data, 15- item questionnaire formerly used by Guthrie and Sendelbach (2009) on nurses' knowledge about delirium, and 10-item questionnaire adopted from Herrero et al on attitude of the nurses towards delirium. The obtained data were statistically analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson's correlation coefficient and t- test in SPSS-20. Results : The majority of nurses (68.3%) have intermediate knowledge about delirium and only 24.6 percent reported good knowledge and 76 percent had positive attitude about delirium. Conclusion: Nursing knowledge and awareness have a significant role in improvement of the quality of healthcare and preventive measures, as well as the attitude of nurses towards dealing with delirium patients. Hence, it is recommended to give greater importance to academic courses and ongoing post-graduation professional development programs in the workplace, as a globally practiced healthcare quality improvement strategy.


Importance A critical balance is sought between faculty supervision, appropriate resident autonomy, and patient safety in the operating room. Variability in the release of supervision during surgery represents a potential safety hazard to patients. A better understanding of intraoperative faculty-resident interactions is needed to determine what factors influence entrustment. Objective To assess faculty and resident intraoperative entrustment behaviors and to determine whether faculty behaviors drive resident entrustability in the operating room. Design, Setting, and Participants This observational study was conducted from September 1, 2015, to August 31, 2016, at Michigan Medicine, the University of Michigan's health care system. Two surgical residents, 1 medical student, 2 behavioral research scientists, and 1 surgical faculty member observed surgical intraoperative interactions between faculty and residents in 117 cases involving 28 faculty and 35 residents and rated entrustment behaviors. Without intervening in the interaction, 1 or 2 researchers observed each case and noted behaviors, verbal and nonverbal communication, and interaction processes. Immediately after the case, observers completed an assessment using OpTrust, a validated tool designed to assess progressive entrustment in the operating room. Purposeful sampling was used to generate variation in type of operation, case difficulty, faculty-resident pairings, faculty experience, and resident training level. Main Outcomes and Measures Observer results in the form of entrustability scores (range, 1-4, with 4 indicating full entrustability) were compared with resident- and faculty-reported measures. Difficulty of operation was rated on a scale of 1 to 3 (higher scores indicate greater difficulty). Path analysis was used to explore direct and indirect effects of the predictors. Associations between resident entrustability and observation duration, observation month, and faculty entrustment scores were assessed by pairwise Pearson correlation coefficients. Results Twenty-eight faculty and 35 residents were observed across 117 surgical cases from 4 surgical specialties. Cases observed by postgraduate year (PGY) of residents were distributed as follows: PGY-1, 21 (18%); 2, 15 (13%); 3, 17 (15%); 4, 27 (23%); 5, 28 (24%); and 6, 9 (8%). Case difficulty was evenly distributed: 36 (33%) were rated easy/straightforward; 43 (40%), moderately difficult; and 29 (27%), very difficult by attending physicians. Path analysis showed that the association of PGY with resident entrustability was mediated by faculty entrustment (0.23 [.03]; P < .001). At the univariate level, case difficulty (mean [SD] resident entrustability score range, 1.97 [0.75] for easy/straightforward cases to 2.59 [0.82] for very difficult cases; F = 6.69; P = .01), PGY (range, 1.31 [0.28] for PGY-1 to 3.16 [0.54] for PGY-6; F = 22.85; P < .001), and faculty entrustment (2.27 [0.79]; R2 = 0.91; P < .001) were significantly associated with resident entrustability. Mean (SD) resident entrustability scores were highest for very difficult cases (2.59 [0.82]) and PGY-6 (3.16 [0.54]). Conclusions and Relevance Faculty entrustment behaviors may be the primary drivers of resident entrustability. Faculty entrustment is a feature of faculty surgeons' teaching style and could be amenable to faculty development efforts.


Brazilian literature is traditionally understood to have developed in relative isolation from the literatures of Hispanophone Latin America, inhabiting a peripheral cultural space within the already peripheral sphere of Latin American literature. Perhaps the most striking example of this traditional conception is the commonly held assumption of the complete literary-historical separation of two of Latin America's most renowned fiction writers: the Brazilian Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis and the Argentine Jorge Luis Borges. Machado de Assis, in particular, is often regarded as inhabiting a double cultural periphery, as both a Latin American and a Brazilian, who, furthermore, wrote in a "minor" language, never traveled outside of his own country, and rarely ever left his native Rio de Janeiro. Another enduring belief, tangential to the tale of Brazil's cultural isolation, is that Machado de Assis's work went untranslated, by and large, until about half a century after his death. Yet the early translation history of Machado's work offers a fascinating insight into the literary ties that connect his work to the dominant literary cultures of the Americas and Europe and provides an intriguing literary-historical link between Machado de Assis and Jorge Luis Borges. Curiously, the connection between Machado and Borges, whose countries share a border, follows a route of translational cultural exchange through France and Spain, and involves a prolific translator who was both the first Spanish translator of Machado's short fiction and the mentor of a young Borges: Rafael Cansinos Assens. Thus, the early history of Machado's fiction in translation demonstrates that Machado is a much less peripheral figure than previously imagined, and that, through Machado, Brazilian literature is more intimately intertwined with the literatures of Hispanophone Latin America and the cultural capitals of Europe than critics and scholars have recognized.


A single-frequency pulsed all-fiber laser with a master oscillator power amplifier configuration is presented. While maintaining the properties of single mode, linear polarization, and narrow linewidth, a single-pulse energy of 260 μJ and over 500-W peak power is experimentally demonstrated at 1 kHz by employing tensile strain gradient and pulse-shape control methods. In addition, approximately 55 dB of optical signal to noise ratio is also achieved.


In this paper, we propose a novel visual tracking framework that intelligently discovers reliable patterns from a wide range of video to resist drift error for long-term tracking tasks. First, we design a Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) based tracker which is able to exploit a large number of tracked samples while still ensures real-time performance. Second, we propose a clustering method with temporal constraints to explore and memorize consistent patterns from previous frames, named as "reliable memories". By virtue of this method, our tracker can utilize uncontaminated information to alleviate drifting issues. Experimental results show that our tracker performs favorably against other state-of-the-art methods on benchmark datasets. Furthermore, it is significantly competent in handling drifts and able to robustly track challenging long videos over 4000 frames, while most of others lose track at early frames.


The asymmetric emission of gravitational waves produced during the coalescence of a massive black hole (MBH) binary imparts a velocity "kick" to the system that can displace the hole from the center of its host. Here, we study the trajectories and observability of MBHs recoiling in three (one major, two minor) gas-rich galaxy merger remnants that were previously simulated at high resolution, and in which the pairing of the MBHs had been shown to be successful. We run new simulations of MBHs recoiling in the major merger remnant with Mach numbers in the range and use simulation data to construct a semi-analytical model for the orbital evolution of MBHs in gas-rich systems. We show the following. (1) In major merger remnants the energy deposited by the moving hole into the rotationally supported, turbulent medium makes a negligible contribution to the thermodynamics of the gas. This contribution becomes significant in minor merger remnants, potentially allowing for an electromagnetic signature of MBH recoil. (2) In major merger remnants, the combination of both deeper central potential well and drag from high-density gas confines even MBHs with kick velocities as high as 1200  km s-1 within 1 kpc from the host's center. (3) Kinematically offset nuclei may be observable for timescales of a few Myr in major merger remnants in the case of recoil velocities in the range 700–1000  km s-1. (4) In minor merger remnants the effect of gas drag is weaker, and MBHs with recoil speeds in the range 300–600  km s-1 will wander through the host halo for longer timescales. When accounting for the probability distribution of kick velocities, however, we find that the likelihood of observing recoiling MBHs in gas-rich galaxy mergers is very low even in the best-case scenario.


This dissertation presents a study on the extent and limits of network transparency in distributed programming languages. This property states that the result of a distributed program is the same as if it were executed on a single computer, in the case when no failure occurs. The programming language may also be network aware if it allows the programmer to control how a program is distributed and how it behaves on the network. Both aim at simplifying distributed programming, by making non-functional aspects of a program more modular. We show that network transparency is not only possible, but also practical: it can be efficient, and smoothly extended in the case of partial failure. We give a proof of concept with the programming language Oz and the system Mozart, of which we have reimplemented the distribution support on top of the Distribution Subsystem (DSS). We have extended the language to control which distribution algorithms are used in a program, and reflect partial failures in the language. Both extensions allow to handle non-functional aspects of a program without breaking the property of network transparency.


Abstract We present a regularized logistic regression model for evaluating player contributions in hockey. The traditional metric for this purpose is the plus-minus statistic, which allocates a single unit of credit (for or against) to each player on the ice for a goal. However, plus-minus scores measure only the marginal effect of players, do not account for sample size, and provide a very noisy estimate of performance. We investigate a related regression problem: what does each player on the ice contribute, beyond aggregate team performance and other factors, to the odds that a given goal was scored by their team? Due to the large-p (number of players) and imbalanced design setting of hockey analysis, a major part of our contribution is a careful treatment of prior shrinkage in model estimation. We showcase two recently developed techniques – for posterior maximization or simulation – that make such analysis feasible. Each approach is accompanied with publicly available software and we include the simple commands used in our analysis. Our results show that most players do not stand out as measurably strong (positive or negative) contributors. This allows the stars to really shine, reveals diamonds in the rough overlooked by earlier analyses, and argues that some of the highest paid players in the league are not making contributions worth their expense.


Abstract— We report the results of high‐resolution, analytical and scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM), including intensive element mapping, of severely thermally modified dust from comet 81P/Wild 2 caught in the silica aerogel capture cells of the Stardust mission. Thermal interactions during capture caused widespread melting of cometary silicates, Fe‐Ni‐S phases, and the aerogel. The characteristic assemblage of thermally modified material consists of a vesicular, silica‐rich glass matrix with abundant Fe‐Ni‐S droplets, the latter of which exhibit a distinct core‐mantle structure with a metallic Fe,Ni core and a iron‐sulfide rim. Within the glassy matrix, the elemental distribution is highly heterogeneous. Localized amorphous "dust‐rich" patches contain Mg, Al, and Ca in higher abundances and suggest incomplete mixing of silicate progenitors with molten aerogel. In some cases, the element distribution within these patches seems to depict the outlines of ghost mineral assemblages, allowing the reconstruction of the original mineralogy. A few crystalline silicates survived with alteration limited to the grain rims. The Fe‐ and CI‐normalized bulk composition derived from several sections show CI‐chondrite relative abundances for Mg, Al, S, Ca, Cr, Mn, Fe, and Ni. The data indicate a 5 to 15% admixture of fine‐grained chondritic comet dust with the silica glass matrix. These strongly thermally modified samples could have originated from a finegrained primitive material, loosely bound Wild 2 dust aggregates, which were heated and melted more efficiently than the relatively coarse‐grained material of the crystalline particles found elsewhere in many of the same Stardust aerogel tracks (Zolensky et al. 2006).


Power consumption and energy density, energy consumption per unit volume, for power consuming devices has sharply increased in the last 50 years. Moreover, further advances and miniaturization of electronic components have led to increased energy density in the electronic equipment that necessitates better cooling strategies of these systems. As computers became larger and more complex, cooling of the active components becomes a critical factor for reliable operation and can consume a large portion of the total power consumption of the system. Furthermore, data centers use about %2 of the world's electricity supply, with nearly half of this amount dedicated for cooling of the computing equipment. One of the biggest and most expensive challenges for these centers, and a larger environmental concern, has become these cooling equipment. In spite of manufacturing and handling difficulties, liquid cooling of electronic components seems to offer a solution for this problem. An important part of such solution is to design a compact cooling channel system that offers a uniform temperature distribution for the cooled part. Constructal theory is inspired by fluid flow in nature (river basins, human veins, and fluid transportation in plants) for fluid based cooling systems. On the other hand, new advancements in 3D printing technology has brought the possibility of building complicated systems that more closely mimics nature. This work investigates the application of constructal theory for the design of a compact double sided cooling pad for such applications to be built using advanced 3D printing technology. Fluid enters the two networks, on the top and bottom of the pad, via a single inlet inside a separating layer between them. The heated fluid is then collected at the periphery of the channel network. An exit port is then attached to a collection well for the exit flow. Numerical method is used to redesign flow passage dimensions inside the heat sink and optimize fluid outlet layout to ensure uniform heat removal and temperature distribution in the pad. A sample model of the actual device is built; using advanced 3D printing technology, for flow study. Flow pattern, temperature distribution, and the resulted pressure drop for the designed heat sink are presented for different flow rates. This work started as undergraduate research that became partially funded by UREP 15 - 063 - 2 - 021.


For a stable electric power supply in the space, nuclear batteries have been used as the main power source in a spacecraft owing to their long lifetime and high reliability. In accordance with the plan for lunar mission in Korea, nuclear batteries will supply electricity to the rover that needs to be developed. According to the information about the estimated payload, Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute started with the conceptual design based on the previous studies in USA and Russia. Because a nuclear battery converts the decay heat of the radioisotope into electricity, thermal design, radiation shield, and shock protection need to be considered. In this study, two types of nuclear batteries, radial type and axial type, were designed according to the alignment of the thermoelectric module. Heat transfer analyses were performed to compare their thermoelectric efficiency, and test mockups were fabricated to evaluate their performances.


This thesis investigates the implication of empirical grounded electric power market facts using multiple methodologies, including market and contract design, analytic method, statistical method, and agent-based simulation method. Basically, this thesis focuses on centrally-managed electric power markets.European and U.S. electricity sectors have undergone substantial restructuring over the past twenty years. They have devolved from highly regulated systems operated by vertically integrated utilities to relatively decentralized systems based more fully on market valuation and allocation mechanisms.These restructuring efforts have been driven by a desire to ensure efficient energy production and utilization, reliable energy supplies, affordable energy prices, and effective rules and regulations for environmental protection. In keeping with the latter goal, a dramatic change is taking place in energy mixes: namely, a rapid penetration of variable energy resources combined with a movement away from traditional thermal generation.Variable energy resources (VERs) are renewable energy resources, such as wind and solar power, whose generation cannot be closely controlled to match changes in load or to meet other system requirements. Consequently, the integration of VERs tends to increase the volatility of net load (ie, load minus as-available generation) as well as the frequency of strong ramp events. Flexibility in service provision by other types of resources then becomes increasingly important to maintain the reliability and efficiency of power system operations.To accommodate increased VER penetration, TSOs and ISOs have introduced major changes in their market rules and operational procedures. These changes have included new product definitions to enhance load-following capability (eg, ramping products), revised market eligibility requirements to encourage greater VER participation, and the introduction of capacity markets in an attempt to ensure sufficient thermal generation as a backstop for the intermittency of VER generation.Also, CO2 emission issues are increasing important in electric power markets. In the U.S., the largest source of CO2 emissions is the electricity sector, which was responsible for 32% of total emissions in 2012. The Obama Administration proposed a Clean Power Plan in June 2014; nationwide, by 2030, this plan would achieve approximately 30 percent of CO2 emission reduction relative to 2005 CO2 emission levels in the power sector. There are several important issues arising from carbon mitigation options such as a carbon tax imposition and increase penetration of VERs need to be resolved.Chapter 2 introduces standardized energy and reserve contracts with swing (flexibility) in their contractual terms to resolve key issues that have arisen for centrally-managed wholesale electric power markets with increased penetration of renewable energy resources. Concrete examples are used to demonstrate how the trading of these standardized contracts can be supported by linked forward markets in a manner that permits efficient real-time balancing of net load subject to system and reserve-requirement constraints. Comparisons with existing wholesale electric power markets are given, and key policy implications are highlighted.Chapter 3 extends the system pattern short-term forecasting method for power systems to incorporate non-dispatchable renewable energy, thus permitting the forecasting of CO2 emissions along with the forecasting of prices, line congestion, and other system variables. It also develops an empirically-based system pattern transition matrix permitting a dynamic extension of the method. The practical usefulness of the resulting extended forecasting method is illustrated by means of a 5-bus test system based on data from the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO).Chapter 4 develops a 9-zone test system based on MISO data for application in electric power market studies. This 9-zone test system models MISO's original seven midwestern zones together with two recently-incorporated southern zones operating over a 15-line AC transmission grid. Generators with different fuel types and capacities submit hourly supply offers in a day-ahead market (DAM). Load-serving entities submit hourly demand bids into a day-ahead market in the form of a 24-hour regional load profile. This 9-zone test system allows a wide range of sensitivity studies. To illustrate the capabilities of the 9-zone test system, this study undertakes a comparative study of DAM Locational Marginal Price (LMP) outcomes for MISO prior to and after the integration of the two southern zones by conducting test-bed simulations for 7-zone and 9-zone test cases based on MISO data.Chapter 5 analyzes how the imposition of a carbon tax and the increased penetration of wind power in such markets could impact CO2 emissions and other key outcomes, such as energy dispatch, energy prices, market participant profits (by fuel type), and government tax revenues. Another innovation of this part is that the effects of increases in a carbon tax and wind power penetration are studied jointly. It is shown, for example, that CO2 emissions decrease from 0.23% to 6.17% as the carbon tax and the degree of wind penetration are systematically varied from a base case of zero tax and zero wind. The profits of coal- and oil-fired generation systematically decrease with increases in the carbon tax and/or increases in wind penetration, but the profits of other types of generation exhibit a more complex response. Comparisons with current MISO conditions are also given, and key policy implications are discussed.


This paper constructs a manager sentiment index based on the aggregated textual tone of corporate financial disclosures. We find that manager sentiment is a strong negative predictor of future aggregate stock market returns, with monthly in-sample and out-of-sample R2s of 9.75% and 8.38%, respectively, which is far greater than the predictive power of other previously studied macroeconomic variables. Its predictive power is economically comparable and is informationally complementary to existing measures of investor sentiment. Higher manager sentiment precedes lower aggregate earnings surprises and greater aggregate investment growth. Moreover, manager sentiment negatively predicts cross-sectional stock returns, particularly for firms that are difficult to value and costly to arbitrage.


Photographs taken through a window are often compromised by dirt or rain present on the window surface. Common cases of this include pictures taken from inside a vehicle, or outdoor security cameras mounted inside a protective enclosure. At capture time, defocus can be used to remove the artifacts, but this relies on achieving a shallow depth-of-field and placement of the camera close to the window. Instead, we present a post-capture image processing solution that can remove localized rain and dirt artifacts from a single image. We collect a dataset of clean/corrupted image pairs which are then used to train a specialized form of convolutional neural network. This learns how to map corrupted image patches to clean ones, implicitly capturing the characteristic appearance of dirt and water droplets in natural images. Our models demonstrate effective removal of dirt and rain in outdoor test conditions.


This paper examines the relation among corporate governance practices, pyramid ownership structure, and firm value by using a sample of Vietnamese listed firms. Using a sample of 103 non-financial firms listed on HOSE for the period from 2012 to 2014, and employing two-stage least square regression (2SLS) to deal with potential endogeneity, we find that some indicators, commonly adopted as a key components of corporate governance, such as size or independence of board of directors, are imperfect proxies for corporate governance practices. Our results indicate that it is better to employ a corporate governance index (CGI), including 117 criteria developed by Connelly, Limpaphayom, and Nagarajan (2012) since it allows for more comprehensive estimation of corporate governance. interestingly, our results show that the pyramid ownership plays an important role in the effect of corporate governance on firm value. The results are consistent regardless of whether companies have high or low family ownership.


Wireless visual sensor networks provide feature-rich information about their surrounding and can thus be used as a universal measurement tool for a great number of applications. Existing solutions, however, have mainly been focused on high sample rate applications, such as video surveillance, object detection and tracking. In this paper, we present a wireless camera node architecture that targets low sample rate applications (e.g., manual inspections and meter reading). The major design considerations are a long system lifetime, a small size and a low production cost.We present the overall architecture with its individual design choices, and evaluate the architecture with respect to its application constraints. With a typical image acquisition cost of 1.5 J for medium quality images and a quiescent power demand of only 7 uW, the evaluation results demonstrate that long operation periods of the order of years can be achieved in low sample rate scenarios.


Pain from the musculoskeletal system is very common in the modern society. Chronic musculoskeletal pain syndromes causes not only individual suffering but also dysfunctions of movements and postural control, as large costs for the society. In spite of significant efforts, there is a shortage of knowledge on effective prevention, diagnoses and rehabilitation of different chronic musculoskeletal pain syndromes. The general aims of this thesis was to investigate the predictive value of physical, sociodemographic, and psychosocial-behavioural variables for pain reduction after multimodal rehabilitation in patients with chronic low back or neck pain, and to develop and evaluate tests for objective and quantitative evaluation of characteristic sensorimotor disturbances in chronic neck pain. Logistic regression models revealed that unchanged pain intensity could be predicted with good precision while reduced pain intensity after rehabilitation was poorly predicted by the baseline variables. Altered pain intensity in chronic low back pain was predicted by high pain intensity, low levels of pain severity and high affective distress, while reduced pain intensity for patients with chronic neck pain were predicted by high endurance, low age, high pain intensity, low need of being social along with optimistic attitudes on how the pain will interfere with daily life, and few vegetative symptoms. One of the conclusions was that objective measures of specific sensorimotor disturbances should improve the precision by which treatment-induced effects can be assessed and predicted. A study was designed to objectively and quantitatively evaluate a large numbers of different sensorimotor characteristics in a small group of patients with chronic neck pain of different aetiology (whiplash-related and insidious). Kinematic data was recorded during different motor tasks, involving cervical rotations, arm movements and standing. In comparison to a group of asymptomatic control subjects, patients with chronic neck pain was characterised by slower movements, poor balance, reduced cervical stability during perturbations, altered smoothness of movement (jerk index), and reduced movement precision (variable error and variability in range of motion). The sensorimotor variables velocity of arm movements and cervical stability, could correctly classified nearly 90% of the subjects as having chronic neck pain or being asymptomatic. There was a large diversity of sensorimotor disturbances among the individual patients. This was confirmed in a regression model that failed to separate the groups insidious neck pain (sensitivity 44%) and WAD (sensitivity 67%). By investigating associations between the different sensorimotor variables, close relations was found between the repositioning acuity and variability in range of motion, and between standing balance and cervical stability/ standing balance during perturbation. These two groups of variables were only weakly related to each other and to smoothness of movement and movement velocity. The results indicate that chronic neck pain is characterised by specific sensorimotor deficits, and that there are common pathophysiological mechanisms in chronic neck pain of different aetiology. However, the lack of associations between several sensorimotor disturbances indicates that different mechanisms are involved. The thesis indicates that objective sensorimotor tests should be used to improve the quality of functional assessments in chronic neck pain. Methods that objectively and quantitatively measure e.g. movement precision, balance and cervical stability are also needed in order to evaluate current treatment methods and to develop new rehabilitation programs for specific sensorimotor deficits.


Factors associated with an increased risk of breast cancer include prior breast cancer, high circulating estrogens, and increased breast density. Adjuvant aromatase inhibitors are associated with a reduction in incidence of contralateral breast cancer. We conducted a prospective, single-arm, single-institution study to determine whether use of anastrozole is associated with changes in contralateral breast density and circulating estrogens. Eligible patients included postmenopausal women with hormone receptor-positive early-stage breast cancer who had completed local therapy, had an intact contralateral breast, and were recommended an aromatase inhibitor as their only systemic therapy. Participants received anastrozole 1 mg daily for 12 months on study. We assessed contralateral breast density and serum estrogens at baseline, 6, and 12 months. The primary endpoint was change in contralateral percent breast density from baseline to 12 months. Secondary endpoints included change in serum estrone sulfate from baseline to 12 months. Fifty-four patients were accrued. At 12 months, compared with baseline, there was a nonstatistically significant reduction in breast density (mean change: −16%, 95% CI: −30 to 2, P = 0.08) and a significant reduction in estrone sulfate (mean change: −93%, 95% CI: −94 to −91, P < 0.001). Eighteen women achieved 20% or greater relative reduction in contralateral percent density at 12 months compared with baseline; however, no measured patient or disease characteristics distinguished these women from the overall population. Large trials are required to provide additional data on the relationship between aromatase inhibitors and breast density and, more importantly, whether observed changes in breast density correlate with meaningful disease-specific outcomes. Cancer Prev Res; 4(12); 1993–2001. ©2011 AACR.


The current research used the contexts of U.S. presidential debates and negotiations to examine whether matching the linguistic style of an opponent in a two-party exchange affects the reactions of third-party observers. Building off communication accommodation theory (CAT), interaction alignment theory (IAT), and processing fluency, we propose that language style matching (LSM) will improve subsequent third-party evaluations because matching an opponent's linguistic style reflects greater perspective taking and will make one's arguments easier to process. In contrast, research on status inferences predicts that LSM will negatively impact third-party evaluations because LSM implies followership. We conduct two studies to test these competing hypotheses. Study 1 analyzed transcripts of U.S. presidential debates between 1976 and 2012 and found that candidates who matched their opponent's linguistic style increased their standing in the polls. Study 2 demonstrated a causal relationship between LSM and third-party observer evaluations using negotiation transcripts.


Bee pollen consists of floral pollen mixed with bee secretions and nectar. It has been considered as a functional food and has different kinds of biologically active ingredients, such as flavonoids, polyphenols, phytosterols and minerals. However, its function in cognition has yet been investigated. In the present study, we investigated the ameliorating effect of bee pollen against scopolamine-caused cognitive impairment through the passive avoidance test, the Y-maze test and the Morris water maze test. In addition, Western blotting was employed to verify the effects of bee pollen on memory-related signaling molecules in the hippocampus. Bee pollen extract (100 or 300 mg/kg, per os (p.o.)) obviously reversed scopolamine-caused cognitive impairment in the passive avoidance test, ameliorated spontaneous alternation versus the scopolamine-treated group in the Y-maze test and prolonged swimming time in the target zone in the Morris water maze test. In addition, the phosphorylation levels of extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK), cAMP response element-binding protein (CREB), protein kinase B (Akt) and glycogen synthase kinase-3β (GSK-3β), and the expression levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) in the hippocampi, were increased in response to the treatment with bee pollen extract (100 or 300 mg/kg, p.o.). These results indicated that bee pollen ameliorates cognitive impairment induced by cholinergic blockade through the enhancing conversion of proBDNF to mature BDNF by tPA, probably, through the ERK-CREB pathway or Akt-GSK-3β signaling pathway and would be a useful agent for the treatment of cognitive dysfunction.


Many of the central questions in bioinformatics relate to protein structure and function. We are mainly be concerned with three problems: identifying transmembrane segments in proteins, distinguishing disordered from ordered regions, and determining protein function from sequence information. In order to deal effectively with these problems, we have conducted an in-depth analyses of the physiochemical properties of the amino acids that make up proteins and the amino acid compositions of the various types of proteins.
We approach the above questions from a machine learning perspective; the advantage of machine learning approaches over traditional laboratory methods is that the former are generally faster and less expensive. We address the problem of identifying transmembrane segments in proteins using a variant of a self-organizing global ranking algorithm. The problems of distinguishing ordered regions from disordered regions in proteins and of determining protein function from sequence information are addressed using a tree-based recursive classifier. We provide extensive empirical and theoretical justification for these algorithms, and compare our algorithms to existing algorithms such as decision trees and support vector machines.


In the presence of limits to arbitrage, cross-sectional variation in periodic investor demand should be related to the degree of comovement of returns. I exploit the unusual weighting system of the Nikkei 225 index in Japan to identify cross-sectional variation in periodic demand for index stocks. Relative to their weights in a value weighted index, some stocks in the Nikkei are overweighted by a factor of ten or more. Using overweighting as an instrument for the proportionality between demand shocks for index stocks, I find a strong positive relation between overweighting and the comovement of a stock with other stocks in the index, and a negative relationship between index overweighting and comovement with stocks outside of the index. Put simply, overweighted stocks have high betas. The results suggest that excess comovement of stock returns is a consequence of an institutionalized commonality in trading behavior, rather than inefficiencies related to the speed at which index stocks incorporate economy-wide information.


During the last two decades, computer and information technologies have forced great changes in the ways businesses manage operations in meeting the desired quality of products and services, customer demands, competition, and other challenges. The Handbook of Computational Intelligence in Manufacturing and Production Management focuses on new developments in computational intelligence in areas such as forecasting, scheduling, production planning, inventory control, and aggregate planning, among others. This comprehensive collection of research provides cutting-edge knowledge on information technology developments for both researchers and professionals in fields such as operations and production management, Web engineering, artificial intelligence, and information resources management.


Simulating the time evolution of Partial Differential Equations (PDEs) of large-scale systems is crucial in many scientific and engineering domains such as fluid dynamics, weather forecasting and their inverse optimization problems. However, both classical solvers and recent deep learning-based surrogate models are typically extremely computationally intensive, because of their local evolution: they need to update the state of each discretized cell at each time step during inference. Here we develop Latent Evolution of PDEs (LE-PDE), a simple, fast and scalable method to accelerate the simulation and inverse optimization of PDEs. LE-PDE learns a compact, global representation of the system and efficiently evolves it fully in the latent space with learned latent evolution models. LE-PDE achieves speed-up by having a much smaller latent dimension to update during long rollout as compared to updating in the input space. We introduce new learning objectives to effectively learn such latent dynamics to ensure long-term stability. We further introduce techniques for speeding-up inverse optimization of boundary conditions for PDEs via backpropagation through time in latent space, and an annealing technique to address the non-differentiability and sparse interaction of boundary conditions. We test our method in a 1D benchmark of nonlinear PDEs, 2D Navier-Stokes flows into turbulent phase and an inverse optimization of boundary conditions in 2D Navier-Stokes flow. Compared to state-of-the-art deep learning-based surrogate models and other strong baselines, we demonstrate up to 128x reduction in the dimensions to update, and up to 15x improvement in speed, while achieving competitive accuracy.


The Merchant Marine is composed of all the commercial ships of a country and the personnel that man them. The American Merchant Seaman's Manual has been the primary seamanship text and reference book for the American Merchant Marine for more than sixty years. Merchant mariners going to sea for the first time need to know as much about their new job, their ship, the sea, and the Merchant Marine as they can. This manual is designed to provide the knowledge that these new seamen need to embark upon their careers at sea. Since the sixth edition was published in 1981, many changes have been made in each new printing. Changes in this new edition include a new chapter on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers, data on merchant fleets throughout the world, a revised chapter on wire rope, and a bibliography for sources of additional reading.


Today people typically read and annotate printed documents even if they are obtained from electronic sources like digital libraries. If there is a reason for them to share these personal annotations online, they must re-enter them. Given the advent of better computer support for reading and annotation, including tablet interfaces, do people ever share their personal digital ink annotations as is, or do they make substantial changes to them? What can we do to anticipate and support the transition from personal to public annotations? To investigate these questions, we performed a study to characterize and compare students' personal annotations as they read assigned papers with those they shared with each other using an online system. By analyzing over 1,700 annotations, we confirmed three hypotheses: (1) only a small fraction of annotations made while reading are directly related to those shared in discussion; (2) some types of annotations - those that consist of anchors in the text coupled with margin notes - are more apt to be the basis of public commentary than other types of annotations; and (3) personal annotations undergo dramatic changes when they are shared in discussion, both in content and in how they are anchored to the source document. We then use these findings to explore ways to support the transition from personal to public annotations.


Abstract. We present MAX-DOAS measurements of NO2, HCHO, and aerosols performed in Central Africa, in the city of Bujumbura, Burundi (3.38° S, 29.3° E). A MAX-DOAS instrument has been operated at this location by BIRA-IASB since late 2013. Aerosol-extinction and trace-gas vertical profiles are retrieved by applying the optimal-estimation-based profiling tool bePRO to the measured O4, NO2 and HCHO slant-column densities. The MAX-DOAS vertical columns and profiles are used for investigating the diurnal and seasonal cycles of NO2, HCHO, and aerosols. Regarding the aerosols, the retrieved AODs are compared to co-located AERONET sun-photometer measurements for verification purposes, while in the case of NO2 and HCHO, the MAX-DOAS vertical columns and profiles are compared to GOME-2 and OMI satellite observations. To characterise the biomass-burning and biogenic emissions in the Bujumbura region, the trace gases and aerosol MAX-DOAS retrievals are used in combination with MODIS fire radiative-power values and the tropospheric 3D chemical transport model IMAGES, as well as simulations from the NOAA backward-trajectory model HYSPLIT. The first results show that the aerosol and HCHO seasonal variation is driven by the alternation of rain and dry periods, the latter being associated with intense biomass-burning agricultural activities and forest fires in the south/south-east and transport from this region to Bujumbura. In contrast, NO2 is seen to depend mainly on local emissions close to the city, due to the short lifetime of this species (typically 1–2 hours).


Protecting systems within an enterprise has proven as important to overall security as securing the enterprise perimeter. Over the past few years, the number of vulnerabilities stemming from weaknesses in applications and operating systems has grown dramatically. In direct correlation with the number of weaknesses discovered, the number of viruses, worms, and security attacks has also exploded across the Internet. To add to the typical virus issues that businesses have had to confront, there are also malicious programs infiltrating organizations today in the form of spyware and adware. Prevent day-zero attacks Enforce acceptable-use policies Develop host-IPS project implementation plans Evaluate management hierarchy installation options, including single-server, multiserver, and built-in database usage Learn about CSA agents and manual and scripted installation options Understand policy components and custom policy creation Use and filter information from CSA event logs Troubleshoot CSA deployments with agent and management server logs and built-in troubleshooting toolsProtecting systems where the private data and intellectual property resides is no longer considered a function of perimeter defense systems but has instead become the domain of endpoint protection software, such as host Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS). Cisco® Security Agent (CSA) is the Cisco Systems® host-IPS solution. CSA provides the security controls that corporations need to deal with threats to host and desktop computing resources.Advanced Host Intrusion Prevention with CSA is a practical guide to getting the most out of CSA deployments. Through methodical explanation of advanced CSA features and concepts, this book helps ease the fears of security administrators seeking to install and configure a host IPS. This book explains in detail such topics as installation of the management servers, installation of the agents for mass deployment, granular agent policy creation, advanced policy creation, real-world troubleshooting techniques, and best practices in implementation methodology. This guide also provides a practical installation framework taken from the actual installation and support experience of the authors.This book helps you implement host IPS appropriately, giving your organization better protection from the various threats that are impacting your business while at the same time enabling you to comply with various legal requirements put forth in such legislation as HIPAA, SOX, SB1386, and VISA PCI.


This research aims to investigate organizational commitment in the investment decision-making
process around the themes of escalation, de-escalation and strategicc ontrol. This research involves a synergic chain of various methods such as narrative review, meta-analytical synthesis, archival
analysis, case study, field experiment, and survey. The research per se follows the COAI design (i.e.
conceptualization, operationalization, actualization and idealization) and goes through eight stages (i.e.
8Cs): conceiving, contriving, controlling, co-or'dinating, calibrating, conducting, collecting, and
concentering the research. The results of the review of previous research on escalation of commitment
in the investment decision-making context reveal that the literature on the escalation and de-escalation
of organizational commitment is discrete and quantitatively focused. The results of the meta-analytical
synthesis of the escalating commitment literatures confirm that the escalating commitment literature is
inconsistent. The results of the longitudinal case study via participant observation reveal that escalating
commitment can originate from, inter alia, psychological, strategic, operational, social, political,
institutional, ideological. and environmental dilemmas and that the processes can be cyclically
interweaved by varying conflicting perceived utilities including, those of experimenting, persisting,
time-biding, and withdrawing. The results of two field experiments reveal that, contrary to earlier
research, the higher the sunk costs the less likely investment decision-makers are to authorize funds to
continue with the string of investments and the lower their estimates are of the likelihood that the next
investment will be productive. The results of the survey by means of semi-structured interview provide
a statistical confirmation of the relevance of a conceptualized process model of strategic control and
reveal that the Chinese general managers interviewed ascribed a higher level of importance to the
idealization phase of strategic control and exposed some discernible weaknesses in the process of
strategic control. The research concludes with an explanation of the role of strategic control over
investments and with a tentative framework for the practical strategic control of investments. This
research recommends that future practice should focus on the effective management of investments in
a way which integrates differing rationalities in the full organizational context; it should address the
dynamics of organizational commitment in a broader way which covers, inter alia, economic,
psychological, political, operational, environmental, social, cultural and institutional perspectives; and
it should emphasize both external and internal strategic control factors inherent in the decision-making
process in a manner which echoes the principle of unity. It is also recommended that future research
should include new research inquiry systems, new research frameworks, new research techniques, and
new research dimensions in both the laboratory (e. g. virtual reality) and the real world settings (e. g.
longitudinal observation and cross-cultural comparative studies).


Recent comparative genomic and other large-scale bioinformatics studies increasingly have been using gene annotations, functional classifications, and complimentary data from the emerging "-omics" disciplines. Indeed, such analyses have better chances to uncover hidden patterns in complex multidimensional and heterogeneous biological systems data. On the other hand, inferences from such studies are extremely sensitive to data samples and quality, and are more difficult to compare or replicate owing to differences in supplementary data sources at times not publicly available. As a contribution toward the unification and integration of good quality data from heterogeneous bioinformatics resources, we present here an integrated data bank PANDITplus. It is built as an extension of PANDIT, the database of PFAM alignments and phylogenetic trees for known protein domains and families spanning lineages from the three domains of life. PANDITplus is a relational database containing information on functional categories, metabolic pathways, protein–protein interactions, disease associations, gene expression, three-dimensional structure, as well as estimates from evolutionary analyses of selective pressures. User-friendly interface enables customized queries and fast data access. We recommend PANDITplus as a common bioinformatics platform for testing evolutionary hypotheses, which go beyond the mere inferences from molecular data by incorporating supplementary gene information. Equally, PANDITplus provides an excellent resource for the development, testing, and comparison of statistical models of substitution and probabilistic dependencies between a molecular sequence and its various attributes. The database may be accessed via http://www.panditplus.org.


The reflection and refraction of a beam of light is treated. Approximate solutions of Maxwell's equations are used to describe the electromagnetic field of the beam being limited in the transverse direction. The point of departure is the classical paper by Schaefer and Pich. The laws of reflection and refraction are derived. Fresnel's formulas and their corrections are presented for both polarizations. The case of total reflection is investigated for E polarization in greater detail. The electromagnetic fields and the time-average Poynting vectors are explicitly derived for both the optically dense and less-dense media. The flow of energy at total reflection is studied extensively. It is shown that, due to the flow of energy in the less-dense medium, the center of gravity of the reflected beam is displaced, as was suggested by v. Fragstein. This leads to a shift of the totally reflected beam with respect to a geometrically reflected beam, as was experimentally demonstrated by Goos and (Lindberg-) Haenchen. New expressions for this "Goos–Haenchen shift" are derived. These expressions reduce to the classical formulas deduced by Artmann, v. Fragstein, Wolter, and Maecker if the angle of incidence is only slightly larger than the critical angle of total reflection. In consistency with Renard's viewpoint they, however, predict vanishing shifts in the limit of grazing incidence.


The spectrum of the Dirichlet Laplacian on conical layers is analysed through two aspects: the infiniteness of the discrete eigenvalues and their expansions in the small aperture limit. On the one hand, we prove that, for any aperture, the eigenvalues accumulate below the thresh-old of the essential spectrum: For a small distance from the essential spectrum, the number of eigenvalues farther from the threshold than this distance behaves like the logarithm of the distance. On the other hand, in the small aperture regime, we provide a two-term asymptotics of the first eigenvalues thanks to a priori localization estimates for the associated eigenfunctions. We prove that these eigenfunctions are localized in the conical cap at a scale of order the cubic root of the aperture angle and that they get into the other part of the layer at a scale involving the logarithm of the aperture angle.


SUMMARY The utilization of renewable energy sources (res) is crucial regarding to sustainable reconstruction of energy systems. The target is a balanced, sustainable development of Hungarian energy management considering equally the ecological, social and economic aspects. There are many different technologies of utilization of res varied by sources, conversion processes, size and products. The comparison of each technology and their sustainability assessment are required by the importance of efficient remodeling of energy infrastructure. The group of attributes was composed by numerous important parameters in the course of our analysis with the choice experiment (ce) methodology. The estimation of each attributes' influence on the individual's preferences and choices was possible by this method and the preferences of the statistical population was concluded. So thus the utility derived from each attribute was estimated. The result of the ce analysis for the population of experts is demonstrated in the current phase of our research.


Constraints on the thickness of mantle lithosphere involved in collisional orogenesis are fundamental for understanding the geodynamics of mountain building and the overall growth of continents by accretionary tectonics. Garnet peridotite and ultrahigh-pressure (UHP) crustal rocks provide such a constraint in many collisional orogens but have hitherto been unrecognized in western North America's Cordillera. Here we show the first evidence for exhumation of UHP (.2.8 GPa) garnet peridotite and eclogite and for deposition of these rocks as detritus in an Early Jurassic forearc basin (Laberge Group, Yukon Territory and British Columbia). Our results suggest that collision in this part of the North American Cordillera must have been thick skinned, involving a Proterozoic continental mass with a lithosphere .100 km (and possibly to 150 km) thick. Our discovery also provides insight into the vigor of uplift and erosion of deep-seated rocks in a nascent continental arc.


When confronted with a scene of emotional faces, our brains automatically average the individual facial expressions together to create the gist of the collective emotion. Here, we tested whether this ensemble averaging could also occur for facial attractiveness, and in turn shape 2 related face perception phenomena: adaptation and the cheerleader effect. In our first 2 experiments, we showed that adaptation aftereffects could indeed be shaped by ensemble statistics; viewing an increasingly unattractive group of faces conversely increased attractiveness judgments for a subsequently presented face. Not only did group adaptation aftereffects occur, but their effects were equivalent to those observed from the morphed average face of the group, suggesting that the visual system had averaged the group together. In our last 2 experiments, we showed that viewing a target face in an increasingly unattractive group led to the target being perceived as increasingly more attractive: a "cheerleader" effect. Moreover, our results suggest that this cheerleader effect likely comprises of both a social positive effect and a contrastive process, requiring variance between the surrounding and target faces; that is, the visual system appeared incapable of boosting a target's attractiveness when all of the faces in the scene were identical. Furthermore, the mean group attractiveness ratings strongly predicted both the cheerleader effect and adaptation aftereffects, with the latter 2 also interrelated. This suggests that ensemble statistics is the common underlying process linking each of these phenomena. To be perceived as beautiful, being surrounded by unattractive friends may help.


ABSTRACT This paper discusses the relevance of Georg Lukács' 1923 book History and Class Consciousness in the context of digital capitalism. It does so by analysing how Lukács' concepts of the dialectic of subject and object, ideology, reification, reified consciousness matter today in the context of big data and digital capitalism. The essay shows that History and Class Consciousness' critique of reification, ideology, and reified consciousness remains highly topical in the age of digital capitalism and big data. Lukács' analysis allows us to critically analyse how social media, big data, and various other Internet technologies are used as tools of reification. At the same time, Lukács reminds us that only human praxis can establish alternatives.


The purpose of this investigation was to examine the effects of presentation mode on speech intelligibility in adverse listening conditions as signal-to-noise ratio was systematically varied in anechoic and reverberant environments. Speech intelligibility scores were obtained from 21 normally hearing listeners using a nonsense syllable test. The syllables were recorded in three environments (mono anechoic, spatial anechoic and spatial reverberant) at three SNR (0, 5, and 9dB) using two simultaneous interfering sound sources. The findings indicate (a) percent correct performance was about 40% lower with the traditional diotic presentation compared to a virtual presentation; (b) performance in the virtual reverberant was about 5% lower than in the virtual anechoic environment.


This paper uses newly available data from the Social Security Administration's Retirement History Survey to examine the adequacy of saving. This data source is particularly rich; survey data for respondents covering the ydars 1969, 197 1( and 1953 have been matched with Social Security earnings records covering the years dating back to 1951. In addition to information on the path of lifetime earnhngs, the survey contains extensive data on individual asset holdings. The evidence indicates that surprisingly few couples currantly suffer significant reductions in their standard of living in their old age. This appears due, in large part, to our compulsory savings institutions, the Social Security and private pension systems. These institutions have succeeded in redistributing the lifetime consumption of private individuals from their youth to their old age.


A fundamental challenge in developing high-impact machine learning technologies is balancing the need to model rich, structured domains with the ability to scale to big data. Many important problem areas are both richly structured and large scale, from social and biological networks, to knowledge graphs and the Web, to images, video, and natural language. In this paper, we introduce two new formalisms for modeling structured data, and show that they can both capture rich structure and scale to big data. The first, hinge-loss Markov random fields (HL-MRFs), is a new kind of probabilistic graphical model that generalizes different approaches to convex inference. We unite three approaches from the randomized algorithms, probabilistic graphical models, and fuzzy logic communities, showing that all three lead to the same inference objective. We then define HL-MRFs by generalizing this unified objective. The second new formalism, probabilistic soft logic (PSL), is a probabilistic programming language that makes HL-MRFs easy to define using a syntax based on first-order logic. We introduce an algorithm for inferring most-probable variable assignments (MAP inference) that is much more scalable than general-purpose convex optimization methods, because it uses message passing to take advantage of sparse dependency structures. We then show how to learn the parameters of HL-MRFs. The learned HL-MRFs are as accurate as analogous discrete models, but much more scalable. Together, these algorithms enable HL-MRFs and PSL to model rich, structured data at scales not previously possible.


Objectives: Marine v-3 fatty acids (FAs) and Vitamin D (VitD) are reportedly capable of down-regulating inflammation in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and periodontal disease. This study was undertaken to relate marine FA and VitD status to RA disease status and periodontal conditions. Methods: RA outpatients (age 35 y) were consecutively recruited. Rheumatologic clinical data were collected and periodontal status obtained. A food frequency questionnaire was used to estimate fish and supplement intake. FA profiles in whole-blood and serum VitD levels were determined. Results: A total of 78 RA patients (age 57§12 y, disease duration 15§11 y) were included, 58% had active RA. Periodontitis was diagnosed in 82% of the patients, 18% had severe periodontitis. Seropositivity for rheumatoid factor and/or anticitrullinated protein antibodies was related to higher prevalence of periodontitis (P =0.008). Seafood intake in accordance with nutritional recommendations was associated with better RA disease outcome (largest P =0.008). An v-3 index >8, present in 14% of the patients, correlated with a more desirable patient global health assessment scored on a visual analog scale (VAS; P =0.004), lower periodontal probing depth (PD; P =0.021), and v-3 supplementation (P =0.001). Serum VitD levels >50nmol/L were found in 89%, of these 48% had VitD levels 75nmol/L, no differences were found for RA disease activity and periodontal measurements. Conclusions: Seropositive RA patients had a higher prevalence of periodontitis than seronegative patients. An v-3 index >8 was related to v-3 supplementation and more desirable VAS and lower PD. VitD status was satisfactory for most patients and was not associated with differences in RA severity or periodontal diagnosis. © 2018 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license. (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)


Bayes' Theory of conditional probability and efficient algorithms for probability computation together allow a probabilistic approach to expert systems known as Bayesian Belief Networks (BBNs). BBNs facilitate the graphical representation of complex problems and allow users to make expert predictions on the likelihood of a hypothesis in the absence of complete information. As such they seem applicable to the problem solving in the face of uncertainty that characterises enemy course of action (COA) assessment at the tactical level of war. In this paper, BBNs were constructed to reflect two distinct tactical intelligence problems, one based on conventional operations, and one based on peace support operations (PSO). Difficulties were encountered in quantifying the PSO BBN because the intelligence collection plan reflected a requirement to collect information on enemy capabilities as well as intent. Consequently, the BBN had to be modified. Overall, however, it was found that BBNs could be constructed to reflect the tactical enemy COA assessment problem. Nevertheless, it was found that the utility of such BBNs was limited, especially in the conventional environment, because of the likely requirement to modify quantification to reflect actual battlefield factors such as weather and terrain, even for the same set of COA. It was considered that the development of a library of BBN fragments prior to deployment could go some way to alleviate the problem, although mainly in the PSO environment with a slower operational tempo. On the other hand, the modification problem could be solved by making the BBN more general, allowing it to be used as a tactical indicator and warning tool, at least in the PSO environment.


Economic functioning will be realized non-problematically to an extent that countries can achieve financial deepening. Financial deepening will provide an important role for particularly transferring funds that are created by banks to real sector. Whether domestic credits created by banking sector have any effect on macro-economic variables such as inflation and economic growth for 10 chosen European countries was tested via panel data analysis. Annual data for 2006-2012 were used. As a result of panel data analysis, it was proved that domestic credits created by banking sector for 10 European countries did not affect inflation but did affect economic growth.


The rise of mobile technologies and the Internet of Things, combined with advances in Web technologies, have created a new Big Data world in which the volume and velocity of data generation have achieved an unprecedented scale. As a technology created to process continuous streams of data, Complex Event Processing (CEP) has been often related to Big Data and used as a tool to obtain real-time insights. However, despite this recent surge of interest, the CEP market is still dominated by solutions that are costly and inflexible or too low-level and hard to operate. To address these problems, this research proposes the creation of a CEP system that can be o↵ered as a service and used over the Internet. Such a CEP as a Service (CEPaaS) system would give its users CEP functionalities associated with the advantages of the services model, such as no up-front investment and low maintenance cost. Nevertheless, creating such a service involves challenges that are not addressed by current CEP systems. This research proposes solutions for three open problems that exist in this context. First, to address the problem of understanding and reusing existing CEP management procedures, this research introduces the Attributed Graph Rewriting for Complex Event Processing Management (AGeCEP) formalism as a technologyand language-agnostic representation of queries and their reconfigurations. Second, to address the problem of evaluating CEP query management and processing strategies, this research introduces CEPSim, a simulator of cloud-based CEP systems. Finally, this research also introduces a CEPaaS system based on a multi-cloud architecture, container management systems, and an AGeCEP-based multi-tenant design. To demonstrate its feasibility, AGeCEP was used to design an autonomic manager and a selected set of self-management policies. Moreover, CEPSim was thoroughly evaluated by experiments that showed it can simulate existing systems with accuracy and low execution overhead. Finally, additional experiments validated the CEPaaS system and demonstrated it achieves the goal of o↵ering CEP functionalities as a scalable and fault-tolerant service. In tandem, these results confirm this research significantly advances the CEP state of the art and provides novel tools and methodologies that can be applied to CEP research.


How is our understanding of development changing? What are the implications of these changes, whether practical or conceptual, for the future role of international non-government organizations (NGOs)? This short paper summarizes the main global trends in international development and then examines some pressing questions for international NGOs. It highlights the folly of simple, linear interventions and the merits of alternative approaches, such as bringing together stakeholders to find joint solutions (convening and brokering), or rapid iteration based on fast feedback and adaptation. For Oxfam, this new thinking would mean relinquishing a command-and-control approach across all aspects of its work in favour of embracing a systems approach.


The urgent need for clean and renewable energy and environmental awareness have promoted extensive research into creating a future sustainable energy supply system. Water electrolysis, considered the most promising technology for hydrogen production, has attracted much attention. A series of metal–nitrogen–carbon based heterogeneous electrocatalysts have been developed for HER and OER. Recent advances in this field are summarized here, including their structures, synthetic methods and especially highlighting the applications of several major kinds of catalysts in water splitting. Finally, the existing key challenges and research directions for enhancing performance are pointed out.


The reflexive sociology of Pierre Bourdieu offers a promising analytical framework for extending the insights offered by the classical tradition of ethnographic newsroom studies. On a methodological level, Bourdieu's analytical framework has the potential to help us address one of the key questions in ethnographic research: how should we theorise and empirically investigate context? The question is, not least, practical in nature. When it comes to newsroom ethnography, one of the traditional problems concerns the 'invisibility' of certain structures such as the political economy of everyday news work which guides journalist practice. By employing the analytical concepts of 'journalistic field', 'news habitus' and 'newsroom capital', reflexive sociology offers a research strategy for simultaneously studying journalistic practices and the structures that enable and constrain them. A case study of Danish news values is used as a vehicle for presenting Bourdieu's field theory, which is discussed in relation to newsroom studies more generally. It shows how the 'context', often missing in ethnographic studies, can be analysed using the framework of reflexive sociology.


Background: Cervical carcinomas comprise two main histopathologic types, squamous cell carcinomas and adenocarcinomas. Human papillomavirus (HPV) infections are causative for both types but the respective tumors may have different carcinogenic pathways. Methods: To assess potential etiologic heterogeneity of cervical cancer by histopathologic type, we examined invasive squamous cell carcinomas and adenocarcinoma cervical cancer incidence rates in the National Cancer Institute's Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database. We complemented standard descriptive epidemiology with comparative age-period-cohort (APC) models fitted to each histopathologic type. Results: Squamous cell tumors (n = 25,219) were nearly 5-fold more common than adenocarcinomas (n = 5,451). Age-adjusted incidence trends decreased for squamous cell carcinomas but increased for adenocarcinomas. Cross-sectional age-specific incidence rates increased more rapidly for squamous cell carcinomas than adenocarcinomas in adolescents and young adults then leveled off for both types. APC models confirmed that secular trends and age-specific rates differed for the two types (P = 0 for the null hypothesis of no difference). For squamous cell carcinoma, the APC "fitted" age-at-onset rate curve peaked before age 40 years then declined; for adenocarcinoma, the fitted curve increased rapidly until age 40 years then rose more slowly. Conclusions: Despite the necessary role of HPV infection in both squamous cell carcinomas and adenocarcinomas of the cervix, secular trends and age-related natural histories differed for the two tumor types, consistent with etiologic heterogeneity. Future analytic and clinical studies should consider the interaction (effect modification) of HPV infection and other cervical carcinoma risk factors by histopathologic type, time, and age. (Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2009;18(3):792–800)