The effects of integrating comorbid patients such as schizophrenics, heroin addicts and individuals with diagnostic addictions and dependences into a primary care environment: results of a longitudinal study. By Matthew Hamilton, Jr. The results of previous investigations have revealed very sparse information concerning the real life effects of treating patients in a traditional primary care facility. These patients were violent, hallucinatory, boisterous, and manipulative. In addition, the majority sought to avoid primary medical care on every occasion. The process by which they were admitted and treated has been observed and reported in detail. Two hundred and fifty-six patients were enrolled over a period of five months in an integrated medical facility design. This facility provided both primary medical care and behavioral healthcare services. All patients were diagnosed as Mentally Ill Chemically Addicted (MICA). These patients consisted of schizophrenics, heroin addicts and patients with a myriad of addictions. Their treatment plans consisted of medical, behavioral and pharmacotherapy services. Receipt of methadone hydrochloride was contingent upon total treatment plan compliance. This integrated facility was the first of its kind in full operation in the state of New Jersey. Medical encounters consisted of comprehensive examinations, laboratory work and other medical tests. The length of time in treatment for patients in an integrated setting was compared to the State of New Jersey's mandatory examination protocols and summarized in the New Jersey Alcohol and Drug Abuse Data System (ADADS) six-month report for the period of January 1, 1998 – July 1, 1998. The ages ranged from 0-55 and the n = 29,857. The ADADS data indicates that 66% of all patients who entered a treatment program other than an integrated system were discharged in as little as 14 days. Conversely, the mean of time for all patients admitted into the study was 56.41 days, and the standard deviation was 34.94 days. The ages of the patients in the integrated setting were the same and the n = 256. Medical services dominated behavioral treatment by a ratio of 2:1. The analyses of these differences clearly suggest that integrated treatment is the best form of comprehensive care for these patients.


Introduction: Identifying different food patterns may play a role in reducing the incidence of hypertension. Since most studies in this field have been cross-sectional, studies demonstrating HTN incidence are very limited. Hence we conducted this longitudinal study to determine dietary patterns and their effects on the incidence of hypertension. Materials and Methods: Dietary patterns of 1787 subjects, aged 20-60 yrs, who participated in phase 3 of Tehran Lipid and Glucose Study (TLGS) were determined using factor analysis and the association between dietary patterns and the incidence of hypertension in phase 4 of TLGS was assessed, using logistic regression. Results: Mean age across quartiles of healthy and western dietary patterns differed significantly. Individuals with lowest adherence to healthy dietary pattern and highest adherence to western dietary pattern were younger than others. Participants in the highest quartile of the healthy dietary pattern were physically more active than those in the upper quartile of western dietary pattern, who had the lowest level of physical activity. The healthy dietary pattern was negatively associated with elevated systolic blood pressure in models 2 (adjusted for age, sex, education, smoking and BMI) and 3 (adjusted for age, sex, education, smoking and BMI and physical activity) (odds ratio: 0.74 (95% CI: 0.56-0.98) and 0.74 (95% CI: 0.56-0.97) respectively, P=0.03 for both). Conclusion: Results of this study showed that adherence to the healthy dietary pattern reduced the risk of incidence of hypertension by 26%.


Using his own professional experiences and fieldwork in the north-east of London as a
starting point, the author suggests that the time is now right to consider the place of Muslim
supplementary education in a wider social and educational setting. He suggests that four
factors support this: the growing public interest in the emergence of British Islam; the
continuing debate about the efficacy of traditional forms of Islamic education; the increasing
use of networking within the educational community; and the growing official recognition of
the contribution made by supplementary schooling.
Following a review of a wide range of relevant literary material, the author draws on a
number of life-story interviews in order to portray the reality and variety of British Muslims'
experience of Islamic education. The outcomes of ethnographic fieldwork are then used to
describe and analyse what takes place in a British maktab (elementary mosque school). This
includes a detailed explanation of how and why the Qur'an is learned, particularly by those
individuals who are training to become huffaz (those who have committed the whole Qur'an
to memory).
The ways in which Muslim supplementary schools might form part of the wider social and
educational community are then explored together with factors that might block or encourage
the creation of such an ideal. Analysis includes a review of existing organisational attempts
to promote the work of supplementary schooling. A case is also presented for the reappraisal
of the role of memorisation as a distinct form of learning.
The thesis ends with a concluding statement, focusing on the ideal of maktabs and
mainstream LEA schools working together to mutual benefit, and a number of
recommendations aimed at researchers and those involved in both Muslim and wider
community schooling.


The beyond 3G official IEEE name for next generation of wireless technology, some people also called it as 4G (fourth-generation) mobile communication systems. Beyond 3G will be used largely to contain not only cellular telephone systems but also several types of broadband wireless access communication systems, have been attracting much interest in the mobile communication field. A new age has begun for telecommunication industry. Over the past decade wireless industry has grown at a remarkable pace, consequently level of technology development goes beyond the level of customer desire. Application flexibility and being highly dynamic will be the main features of beyond 3G services of interest to users. Being there all these emerging technologies in one cellular network has opened the work of designing and optimization of the networks to be viewed from a different perspective. APSEN analysis for Beyond 3G wireless networks has been discussed. "AP" stands for application layer, analysis of services and applications. "SE" stands for session layer, analysis of session management protocol and "N" for network layer, analysis for network protocols. The main purpose of our research is to focus on the challenges offered at APSEN for beyond 3G wireless network. There are a lot of research challenges in each of the different layers but focus will be on APSEN. The objective is to take a look at and familiarize with some of the major challenges offered at APSEN for beyond 3G wireless network. Qualitative approach has been used which will help us to collect wide range of information and enhance our knowledge by analyzing the perspectives of different researchers.


Though his work is often categorized as Pop Art for its use of popular iconography and household objects, Jasper Johns can also be described as a Neo-Dadaist. Using wax-based paint, plaster relief, collage, and even commonplace objects such as brooms and rulers in his paintings, Johns achieves a sculptural texture in his work. He is arguably most known for his flag paintings of the 1950s (the Museum of Modern Art in New York recently paid over $20 million for White Flag), though other themes, including targets, numbers, letters, and maps, are also famously recurrent. Johns is widely considered one of the most important American artists of the 20th century. Available in over 20 languages, "TASCHEN's Basic Art" series offers budget-minded readers quality books on the greatest artists of all time. The neat, slick format and nice price tag make "Basic Art" books perfect for collecting. Every book in the "Basic Art" series features: a detailed chronological summary of the artist's life and work, covering the cultural and historical importance of the artist; approximately 100 color illustrations with explanatory captions; and, a concise biography.


Quantum computing has attracted significant interest in the optimization community because it potentially can solve classes of optimization problems faster than conventional supercomputers. Several researchers proposed quantum computing methods, especially Quantum Interior Point Methods (QIPMs), to solve convex optimization problems, such as Linear Optimization, Semidefinite Optimization, and Second-order Cone Optimization problems. Most of them have applied a Quantum Linear System Algorithm at each iteration to compute a Newton step. However, using quantum linear solvers in QIPMs comes with many challenges, such as having ill-conditioned systems and the considerable error of quantum solvers. This paper investigates how one can efficiently use quantum linear solvers in QIPMs. Accordingly, an Inexact Infeasible Quantum Interior Point Method is developed to solve linear optimization problems. We also discuss how can we get an exact solution by Iterative Refinement without excessive time of quantum solvers. Finally, computational results with QISKIT implementation of our QIPM using quantum simulators are analyzed.


Wee (PKC'12) proposed a generic public-key encryption scheme in the setting of related-key attacks. Bellare, Paterson and Thomson (Asiacrypt'12) provided a framework enabling related-key attack (RKA) secure cryptographic primitives for a class of non-linear relatedkey derivation functions. However, in both of their constructions, the instantiations to achieve the full (not weak) RKA security are given under the scenario regarding the private key composed of single element. In other words, each element of the private key shares the same modification. However, this is impractical in real world. In this paper, we concentrate on the security of public-key encryption schemes under linear related-key attacks in the setting of multi-element private keys (that is, the private key is composed of more than one element), where an adversary is allowed to tamper any part of this private key stored in a hardware device, and subsequently observe the outcome of a publickey encryption system under this targeted modified private key. We define the security model for RKA secure public-key encryption schemes as chosen-ciphertext and related-key attack (CC-RKA) security, which means that a public-key encryption scheme remains secure even when an adversary is allowed to issue the decryption oracle on linear shifts of any component of the private key. After that, we present a detailed publickey encryption schemes with the private key formed of several elements, of which the CC-RKA security is under the decisional BDH assumption in the standard model.


This project is a deconstructive discourse analysis of smart girlhood. From a feminist post structural framework, with a focus on discourse and performative identity, I scrutinize three . dominant discourses of smartness that are prevalent and academic and popular press. These constructions frame smart girls as being either Losers, Have-It-All Girls, or Imposters. By conducting semi-structured group interviews with six self-identified smart girls, I explore the question of how smart girls perform their smart girl identities in their current sociocultural context. After analyzing the data from the group interviews, I outline five themes that seem to be prevalent in the stories told by the smart girls in this thesis. Finally, I discuss how the performative identities of the smart girls in my thesis appear to be much more complex, multiple and rhizomatic than the discourses under review allow.


We examine 16 moderate-size earthquakes that have occurred since 1990 in the northeastern United States and southeastern Canada. Source parameters, such as focal mechanism, focal depth, and seismic moment, are determined using a regional waveform inversion technique in which the best-fitting double-couple mechanism is obtained through a grid search over strike, dip, and rake angles. Most of the 16 events and 10 previous ones with well-determined focal mechanisms show horizontal compression with near-horizontal P axes striking northeasterly, which is consistent with the maximum horizontal stress orientation for midplate North America. Four shocks along the St. Lawrence River, however, have P axes trending southeast (100°-130°), which is not compatible with the regional stress field and requires a local stress perturbation close to the St. Lawrence River. We examine several generating mechanisms for this localized stress variation, including that a "rift pillow" structure may exist in the lower crust below the St. Lawrence River. All of the 11 shocks in the United States occurred at shallow depths from 2 to 8 km; the 15 Canadian events are systematically deeper, with foci between 5 and 28 km. This geographic variation in focal depth is well correlated with the difference in surface heat flow values between the older Grenville and younger Appalachian provinces in the study area. We also examine apparent discrepancies between M W and m b( Lg ) magnitude for 17 events. Five earthquakes of very similar M W show variations in m b( Lg ) as large as 0.6, which implies that for seismic events with similar seismic moment in the study area, high-frequency seismic radiation behavior differs considerably.

Manuscript received 23 October 2002.


Red foxes hunting small animals show a specific behaviour known as 'mousing'. The fox jumps high, so that it surprises its prey from above. Hearing seems to be the primary sense for precise prey location in high vegetation or under snow where it cannot be detected with visual cues. A fox preparing for the jump displays a high degree of auditory attention. Foxes on the prowl tend to direct their jumps in a roughly north-eastern compass direction. When foxes are hunting in high vegetation and under snow cover, successful attacks are tightly clustered to the north, while attacks in other directions are largely unsuccessful. The direction of attacks was independent of time of day, season of the year, cloud cover and wind direction. We suggest that this directional preference represents a case of magnetic alignment and enhances the precision of hunting attacks.


Of all the mysteries that have confronted physicists in the past century surely entanglement must rank amongst the most perplexing. Not only does this phenomenon express itself over apparently arbitrarily large distances and barriers between two particles but it also expresses itself across time! I propose a model using higher dimensional space which conceptually can reconcile the apparent problems presented by entanglement - that of communicating faster than the speed of light and even communicating into the future.


We investigate the consequences of eld redeenition invariance in quantum eld theory by carefully performing nonlinear transformations in the path integral. We rst present a \paradox" whereby a 1 + 1 free massless scalar theory on a Minkowskian cylinder is reduced to an effectively quantum mechanical theory. We perform eld redeenitions both before and after reduction to suggest that one should not ignore operator ordering issues in quantum eld theory. We next employ a discretized version of the path integral for a free massless scalar quantum eld in d dimensions to show that beyond the usual jacobian term, an innnite series of divergent \extra" terms arises in the action whenever a nonlinear eld redeenition is made. The explicit forms for the rst couple of these terms are derived. We evaluate Feynman diagrams to illustrate the importance of retaining the extra terms, and conjecture that these extra terms are the exact counterterms necessary to render all physical quantities invariant under eld redeenitions. As a byproduct, we see explicitly how these extra terms are essential to understanding why the unphysical practice of dimensional regulariza-tion works at all. We indicate how the extra counterterms cancel out unwanted divergent contributions to physical quantities so that the result is consistent with simply setting divergences such as (d) (0) equal to zero in evaluations of Feynman diagrams. An exciting possibility is that these extra terms could allow for the presence of anomalies of higher orders in h in quantum eld theories with nonlinear symmetries.


Neuromorphic systems provide biologically inspired methods of computing, alternative to the classical von Neumann approach. In these systems, computation is performed by a network of spiking neurons controlled by the values of their synaptic weights, which are updated in the process of learning. Providing efficient synaptic learning rules, such as spike-timing-dependent plasticity (STDP), is a challenging task. These rules need to primarily use local information, but simultaneously develop a knowledge representation that is useful in the global context. From the implementation viewpoint, they also need to be suited for particular hardware technology. In this work, we propose a system with spiking neurons and synapses realized using phase-change devices. We design in a bottom-up manner an architecture for pattern learning and feature extraction. Experimental results from a prototype hardware platform demonstrate the capabilities of the proposed neuromorphic system.


Instant whole milk powder (IWMP) is designed to rapidly dissolve in water, which depends on the particle size distribution (PSD) and agglomeration. The warm and delicate milk powder exiting the dryer is transported via either pneumatic conveying or bucket elevators to packing. The gentleness of this powder transport process is important for IWMP, as it can break down the agglomerates, generating excess fines, which leads to poor dissolution properties. This work looked at the breakdown of milk powder at two different, geographically separate, industrial IWMP plants, using the Malvern Mastersizer, a laboratory laser diffraction instrument, and sieving, to evaluate the importance of breakdown on the final product properties given different conveying methods. It was found that the method of measurement affected the results, with sieves showing a larger powder size reduction during transport as compared with the Mastersizer. PSDs with a larger average size at the start of powder transport showed more breakdown, with a greater decrease in the average particle size. However, the larger decrease was not enough to compensate for the initially larger average particle size, and powder that started out with larger agglomerates at the fluidised beds still had a larger average particle size at packing. The Mastersizer appeared to break the large agglomerates during measurement, especially with powder that had not been through the entire transport line, thus masking the extent of the size reduction, however this could only occur to weaker agglomerates. Thus in order to produce IWMP with the desired functionalities, the focus should be on improving agglomeration as oppose to reducing transport breakdown to achieve the desired particle size distribution.


Four imidazole-bound oxovanadium(IV) haloperoxidase model complexes were prepared. Two heterogeneous catalysts were prepared by first linking imidazole-4-carboxylic acid or 1-methylimidazole-2-carboxylic acid to chloromethylated polystyrene and subsequently reacting these polymer-anchored ligands with vanadyl sulphate. Two homogeneous catalysts were prepared by reaction vanadyl sulphate with the free ligands. The activity of the catalysts was evaluated for the hydrogen peroxide facilitated oxidation of styrene and ethylbenzene and thioanisole. A maximum conversion of 99.9 % for styrene and 10.6 % for ethylbenzene was achieved. Excellent conversions of thioanisole (100 %) were obtained under mild room temperature conditions. The heterogeneous catalysts also proved to be recyclable for this reaction, with no appreciable loss in activity even after three catalytic cycles. The haloperoxidase activity was evaluated spectrophotometrically by following the bromination of phenol red to bromophenol blue. All four catalysts proved effective in catalysing this process.


This paper presents Canopy, Facebook's end-to-end performance tracing infrastructure. Canopy records causally related performance data across the end-to-end execution path of requests, including from browsers, mobile applications, and backend services. Canopy processes traces in near real-time, derives user-specified features, and outputs to performance datasets that aggregate across billions of requests. Using Canopy, Facebook engineers can query and analyze performance data in real-time. Canopy addresses three challenges we have encountered in scaling performance analysis: supporting the range of execution and performance models used by different components of the Facebook stack; supporting interactive ad-hoc analysis of performance data; and enabling deep customization by users, from sampling traces to extracting and visualizing features. Canopy currently records and processes over 1 billion traces per day. We discuss how Canopy has evolved to apply to a wide range of scenarios, and present case studies of its use in solving various performance challenges.


In the diamond industry, ferrofluids are used in ferrohydrostatic separators for the density separation of diamonds from gangue material. The size of the magnetic core of the coated particles forming the ferrofluid suspension is vital in ensuring the stability of the fluid. The particle size must be small enough such that sedimentation does not occur in a magnetic field gradient and under the influence of a gravitational field and such that magnetic agglomeration can be overcome. This paper discusses the particle size requirements for fluid stability under the influence of these effects.


California's newest prison—the first one commissioned since the 1990s—is also the first in decades not to be called a prison. The California Health Care Facility, Stockton (CHCF), opened in 2013 on the site of the former Karl Holton Youth Correctional Facility. Designed to hold 1,722 beds and now providing housing and treatment for 2,951 "inmate-patients," it houses the most medically and mentally challenged prisoners in the state. CHCF marks the dawn of a new era in California prisons. Although considered by the State of California a specialized tool that will help it comply with court orders to provide a higher standard of care in both medical and mental health treatment, it also serves as a window into the changing vision of prisoners and of the correctional enterprise in a state that helped lead the move to mass incarceration a generation ago. In this regard, it is interesting to compare this new vision for California prisons with a similarly paradigm-shifting prison—Pelican Bay State Prison and its notorious SHU (for security housing unit) opened in 1989 as California approached the peak of its commitment to mass imprisonment.


This article uses critical discourse analysis (CDA) in order to analyse the discussion of the Muslim dress code (commonly referred to as the hijab) on Al Jazeera's religious talk show A-Shari'a wal Hayat. Between 1998 and 2003, several episodes dealt with the Turkish and French ban and the 'issue' of the headscarf, most of them hosting prominent religious scholar Youssef Qaradawi. Drawing mostly on Fairclough's critical analytical approach to the media, I will examine, at the micro- or local level, key linguistic strategies and rhetorical arguments deployed by participants (mostly Qaradawi, and to a lesser extent, hosts and viewers) in order to justify their position concerning the nature of the Muslim dress code. This in depth textual/local analysis will be supplemented with a brief analysis at the macro- or global level, which will look at the overall structure of these episodes in order to see the extent to which dominant positions privileged by participants at the micro level are also reinforced by the superstructure of the episodes themselves. Throughout, an intertextual analysis will be used in order to study which religious discourses from the larger socio-cultural context are drawn upon in Al-Jazeera's discussion of the hijab. The purpose of this multi-levelled analysis is to answer the following questions: Which religious discourses on the hijab are privileged by those talk shows? Are there any differences in the range of opinions covered by the various episodes dealing with the same issue? How are the various positions, when they exist, manifested at the local/global levels of analysis? Most importantly, what do these discussions on the hijab tell us about Al-Jazeera's self-confessed editorial line ('the opinion and the other-opinion') concerning one of the most controversial religious topics for Muslims?


One can construct a mapping between Hilbert space and the class of all logics if the latter is defined as the set of all well-orderings of some relevant set (or class). That mapping can be further interpreted as a mapping of all states of all quantum systems, on the one hand, and all logics, on the other hand. The collection of all states of all quantum systems is equivalent to the world (the universe) as a whole. Thus that mapping establishes a fundamentally philosophical correspondence between the physical world and universal logic by the meditation of a special and fundamental structure, that of Hilbert space, and therefore, between quantum mechanics and logic by mathematics. Furthermore, Hilbert space can be interpreted as the free variable of "quantum information" and any point in it, as a value of the same variable as "bound" already axiom of choice.


The Provenance of Bronze Age Pottery from Central and Eastern Greece. Samples from nearly 800 Bronze Age pottery sherds from Euboea, Eastern Boeotia and Eastern Thessaly were analysed together with 9 raw clays from the same areas. The-analysis was carried out in an attempt to identify areas of pottery manufacture, to discover the origin of specific groups of pottery, to relate pottery to, raw clays and to see how far pottery compositions can be associated with, and predicted by, geology. The work was done on the same lines as earlier studies at the Oxford Laboratory and at the British School at Athens. The main analytical technique used was therefore optical emission spectroscopy. Some 25% of the total number of sherds were also analysed by atomic absorption spectrophotometry so that the results obtained by the two techniques could be compared. The interpretation of the results was facilitated by the use of, computer program packages for cluster and discriminant analysis. Both optical emission and atomic absorption analysis resulted in broadly similar groupings although the absolute concentrations were not directly comparable. The groupings obtained after atomic absorption analysis had the narrower concentration ranges. Nine elements were measured by both techniques but in atomic absorption potassium was added and proved; usefulas an additional discriminant. 777 Six composition groups were distinguished from the data. " One of them was identified as Euboean, 2 as Boeotian and 3 as coming from different regions of Thessaly. The greatest movement of pottery within these areas was from Euboea to Thessaly. No composition group which originated from outside these regions was identified. Six of the 9 raw clays were associated with the prevailing composition group in the area from which they came. It was not possible to predict trends in pottery composition by examination of the local geology.


Modular design has recently emerged as an efficient solution to build large data center (DC) facilities. Modular DCs are based on stand-alone prefabricated modules (i.e., PODs) that can be easily installed and interconnected. PODs can generate a large amount of traffic and thus require an ultra-high-capacity interconnection network. However, current electronic and optical interconnect architectures applied to modular DCs may experience major scalability problems in terms of high energy consumption and cabling complexity. To address these problems, we investigate five optical interconnect architectures based on spatial division multiplexing (SDM), and for each architecture, we propose a resource allocation strategy. We also present an extensive comparison among the SDM architectures in terms of cost and performance (i.e., blocking probability and throughput), with the objective to find the architecture offering the best trade-off between cost and performance for given DC sizes and traffic load values. Our results demonstrate that, in small modular DCs with low traffic load, an architecture based only on SDM is the best option, while in medium DCs with medium traffic load, an architecture based on coupled SDM and flexgrid wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) with spectral flexibility is the best solution. Finally, for large DCs with high traffic load values, the best trade-off between cost and performance is achieved by an SDM architecture that is based on uncoupled SDM and flexgrid WDM.


Objectives To compare the onset and trajectory of multimorbidity between individuals with and without rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Methods A matched, retrospective cohort study was completed in a large, US commercial insurance database (MarketScan) from 2006 to 2015. Using validated algorithms, patients with RA (overall and incident) were age-matched and sex-matched to patients without RA. Diagnostic codes for 44 preidentified chronic conditions were selected to determine the presence (≥2 conditions) and burden (count) of multimorbidity. Cross-sectional comparisons were completed using the overall RA cohort and conditional logistic and negative binomial regression models. Trajectories of multimorbidity were assessed within the incident RA subcohort using generalised estimating equations. Results The overall cohort (n=277 782) and incident subcohort (n=61 124) were female predominant (76.5%, 74.1%) with a mean age of 55.6 years and 54.5 years, respectively. The cross-sectional prevalence (OR 2.29, 95% CI 2.25 to 2.34) and burden (ratio of conditions 1.68, 95% CI 1.66 to 1.70) of multimorbidity were significantly higher in RA than non-RA in the overall cohort. Within the incident RA cohort, patients with RA had more chronic conditions than non-RA (β 1.13, 95% CI 1.10 to 1.17), and the rate of accruing chronic conditions was significantly higher in RA compared with non-RA (RA × follow-up year, β 0.21, 95% CI 0.20 to 0.21, p<0.001). Results were similar when including the pre-RA period and in several sensitivity analyses. Conclusions Multimorbidity is highly prevalent in RA and progresses more rapidly in patients with RA than in patients without RA during and immediately following RA onset. Therefore, multimorbidity should be aggressively identified and targeted early in the RA disease course.


This article was written as part of the curriculum for the Bachelor of Music in Music Management and the Bachelor of Science in Music Industry Studies at University of the Pacific. Each student conducted research based on his or her own areas of interest and study. To learn more about the program, visit: go.pacific.edu/musicindustry All images used from album covers are included under the Fair Use provision of U.S. Copyright law and remain the property of their respective copyright owners. Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/backstage-pass


The objective of this work was to determine
the sodium metabisulphite (NaMBS) subchronic toxicity used
as a food additive in Algeria. Three groups of female Wistar rats were treated
with 0.25%, 1% and 4% of NaMBS in their drinking water for 90 days. An immunization
protocol was conducted during the experiment. Mortality, comportmental and
weight modifications, and food and water consumption were recorded. At the end
of the experiment, the control and experiment rats were killed, and their blood
and organs were removed. Immunoglobulin levels were evaluated; biochemical and hematological
parameters were investigated. Our results showed that the administration of
NaMBS at 1% and 4% had significant effects on body weight, food and water
consumed. There was an increase in biochemical parameters (calcium, urea,
creatinine, uric acid, transaminases) and decrease immunoglobulin levels. The
hematology revealed a decrease in red blood cells and hemoglobin, as well as
leucocytosis. Physiological study showed enlarged spleen, kidney, liver and
stomach. In light of our results, we can conclude that subchronic intake of
NaMBS 1% and 4% seems
to alter immune function, biochemical, hematological and physiological para-meters in Wistar rats.


This article reports on an exploratory, longitudinal study, which examined six teachers' views on the factors that affect technology use in classrooms. The research examined teachers of grades 4, 5, and 6—for three years, studying the teachers both as a group and as individual case studies. Three case studies were selected for analysis, with the aim of exploring the relation between the changes that occurred in the teach-ers' educational views and practices as a result of their exposure to teaching and learning with the aid of rich technology and their views on factors affecting technology integration. The findings point to two developmental patterns in teach-ers' views on the factors affecting technology use in the classroom: the first is concerned with the source of influence on technology adoption, and focuses mainly on the human factor; the second is concerned with the nature of the influence when using technology in the classroom, ranging from technical to cognitive transformation. The three case studies reveal three different profiles of change and demonstrate the complex relations between teachers' orientations concerning the conditions affecting technology use, and the changes that occur in teachers' views and practices.


margin of Murabahah of vital importance in banking of Moslem law. Growth of banking of Moslem law not miss from growth of products banking of itself Moslem law. In developing its product banking of Moslem law claimed to always to relate at Al-Qur'An and of Hadist. Defrayal of murabahah represent defrayal product in banking of most dominant Moslem law. In its execution, defrayal of murabahah getting many criticism, especially in the case of stipulating of profit margin. This matter because of product defrayal of murabahah represent product which loo like with product defrayal of flat bloomy credit at conventional bank. In this research writer try to see factors any kind of having an effect on to determination of[is level of margin of murabahah. Analysis method the used factor analysis and indicator the checked fund of cost, expense of overhead, and cost risk. From result of statistical analysis pursuant to case study of PT. Bank Tabungan Negara (BTN) Syariah period of Februari 2005 up to December 2007, obtained conclusion that factor of cost fund of have an effect on signifikan to margin of murabahah factor and of cost fund of represent factor having an effect on dominant to margin of murabahah at PT. BTN Moslem law. In this research, factor of risk cost not be used as variable because PT BTN Moslem law specify value of risk constant cost of period to period, so that cannot be analysed.


For cardiac transplantation in infants, T cells are depleted and the thymus is removed. These manipulations should cause profound defects in the T cell compartment. To test this concept, 20 subjects who underwent cardiac transplantation in infancy and healthy age-matched subjects were studied. The number of T cells in the blood was nearly normal in all subjects 1–10 years after surgery. However, newly generated T cells were undetectable in 10 recipients and 10-fold less than controls in 10, suggesting absence of thymic function. TCRβ chain diversity, measured by a novel technique, was ∼100-fold lower than controls. T cell function, deduced from levels of human herpesvirus 7 and response to hepatitis B immunization, were notably impaired. Yet cardiac transplant recipients were generally free of opportunistic infections. Our findings demonstrate a novel approach to measuring lymphocyte diversity and suggest that understanding how these subjects resist infection could yield important insights into immune fitness.


A central challenge in reinforcement learning is discovering effective policies for tasks where rewards are sparsely distributed. We postulate that in the absence of useful reward signals, an effective exploration strategy should seek out {\it decision states}. These states lie at critical junctions in the state space from where the agent can transition to new, potentially unexplored regions. We propose to learn about decision states from prior experience. By training a goal-conditioned policy with an information bottleneck, we can identify decision states by examining where the model actually leverages the goal state. We find that this simple mechanism effectively identifies decision states, even in partially observed settings. In effect, the model learns the sensory cues that correlate with potential subgoals. In new environments, this model can then identify novel subgoals for further exploration, guiding the agent through a sequence of potential decision states and through new regions of the state space.


Localized states in one-dimensional, open, disordered systems and their connection to the internal structure of random samples have been studied. It is shown that the localization of energy and anomalously high transmission associated with these states are due to the existence inside the sample of a transparent (for a given resonant frequency) segment with minimum size of the order of the localization length. An analogy between the stochastic scattering problem at hand and a deterministic quantum problem permits one to describe analytically some statistical properties of localized states with high transmission. It is shown that there is no one-to-one correspondence between the localization and high transparency: only a small fraction of the localized modes exhibit a transmission coefficient close to one. The maximum transmission is provided by the modes that are localized in the center, while the highest energy concentration occurs in cavities shifted towards the input. An algorithm is proposed to estimate the position of an effective resonant cavity and its pumping rate by measuring the resonant transmission coefficient. The validity of the analytical results is checked by extensive numerical simulations and wavelet analysis.


Understanding human behavior is key for robots and intelligent systems that share a space with people. Accordingly, research that enables such systems to perceive, track, learn and predict human behavior as well as to plan and interact with humans has received increasing attention over the last years. The availability of large human motion datasets that contain relevant levels of difficulty is fundamental to this research. Existing datasets are often limited in terms of information content, annotation quality or variability of human behavior. In this article, we present THÖR, a new dataset with human motion trajectory and eye gaze data collected in an indoor environment with accurate ground truth for position, head orientation, gaze direction, social grouping, obstacles map and goal coordinates. THÖR also contains sensor data collected by a 3D lidar and involves a mobile robot navigating the space. We propose a set of metrics to quantitatively analyze motion trajectory datasets such as the average tracking duration, ground truth noise, curvature and speed variation of the trajectories. In comparison to prior art, our dataset has a larger variety in human motion behavior, is less noisy, and contains annotations at higher frequencies.


OBJECTIVE
To validate our hypothesis that there would be significant differences in treatment outcomes, including cephalometric values, degree of root resorption, occlusal indices, and functional aspect, between cases treated with labial and lingual appliances.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Twenty-four consecutively treated Class II cases with extractions and lingual appliance were compared with 25 matched cases treated with extraction and labial appliance. Orthodontic treatment outcomes were evaluated by cephalometric analysis, peer assessment rating, and an objective grading system (OGS). Additionally, functional analysis was also performed in both groups after orthodontic treatment. Statistical comparison was performed using the Wilcoxon signed rank test within the groups, and the Mann-Whitney U-test was used to compare between the labial and lingual groups.

RESULTS
The only significant difference between the groups was that the interincisal angle was larger in the lingual group than in the labial group. OGS evaluation showed that control over root angulation was significantly worse in the lingual group than in the labial group. There was no significant difference between groups in the amount of root resorption or in functional evaluation.

CONCLUSIONS
Generally, lingual appliances offer comparable treatment results to those obtained with labial appliances. However, care should be taken with lingual appliances because they are more prone to produce uprighted incisors and root angulation.


Introduction Acute kidney injury (AKI) requiring renal replacement therapy (RRT) is associated with high mortality. The creatinine-based stage of AKI is considered when deciding to start or delay RRT. However, creatinine is not only determined by renal function (excretion), but also by dilution (fluid balance) and creatinine generation (muscle mass). The aim of this study was to explore whether fluid balance-adjusted creatinine at initiation of RRT is related to 28-day mortality independent of other markers of AKI, surrogates of muscle mass and severity of disease. Methods We performed a post-hoc analysis on data from the multicentre CASH trial comparing citrate to heparin anticoagulation during continuous venovenous hemofiltration (CVVH). To determine whether fluid balance-adjusted creatinine was associated with 28-day mortality, we performed a logistic regression analysis adjusting for confounders of creatinine generation (age, gender, body weight), other markers of AKI (creatinine, urine output) and severity of disease. Results Of the 139 patients, 32 patients were excluded. Of the 107 included patients, 36 died at 28 days (34%). Non-survivors were older, had higher APACHE II and inclusion SOFA scores, lower pH and bicarbonate, lower creatinine and fluid balance-adjusted creatinine at CVVH initiation. In multivariate analysis lower fluid balance-adjusted creatinine (OR 0.996, 95% CI 0.993–0.999, p = 0.019), but not unadjusted creatinine, remained associated with 28-day mortality together with bicarbonate (OR 0.869, 95% CI 0.769–0.982, P = 0.024), while the APACHE II score non-significantly contributed to the model. Conclusion In this post-hoc analysis of a multicentre trial, low fluid balance-adjusted creatinine at CVVH initiation was associated with 28-day mortality, independent of other markers of AKI, organ failure, and surrogates of muscle mass, while unadjusted creatinine was not. More tools are needed for better understanding of the complex determinants of "AKI classification", "CVVH initiation" and their relation with mortality, fluid balance is only one.


Supply systems for water, energy and food in the Gulf region are becoming highly interlinked. In the last decades, interdependence was evident in the increase of coproduction plants and the cross-sectoral resource use footprints. In light of increasing integration due to growing scarcities, the construction of mega projects for coproduction, and the use of renewables across sectors, the security notion can be revisited. This paper proposes a view of the resource supply security based on the systems' characteristics under change and their ability to deal with risks and shocks (resilience). It introduces internal and external risk factors for the water, energy and food supply systems in the Gulf region and highlights recent knowledge on such risks. Further, the paper explains the vulnerability of supply systems to planning risks like scale, integration intensity and level of service provisions together with risks related to growth, technology, market and climate. In light of such insecurities, we stress the importance of investing in risk management and resilience policies in infrastructure planning. Response measures to future risks can focus on options like storage, knowledge, diversification and, importantly, promoting regional cooperation and synergies from common infrastructure planning between countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).


SUMMARY As in several other parts of the British Tertiary Igneous Province, breccias and felsite sheets are closely associated on the Isle of Rum. This association has been described and interpreted by several workers over the last 125 years. Opinion has divided into an intrusive origin for both rock types, as explosion breccias and felsite intrusions, versus a sedimentary origin for the breccias and an extrusive origin for the felsite. Evidence is reviewed for both opinions and it is concluded that the latter is substantially correct, as indicated by the presence of sedimentary structures and interbedded tuffs in the breccias and eutaxitic textures in the felsites. The breccias formed by inwards slumping of rocks from the oversteepened walls of a caldera, whereas the felsites formed by eruption of pyroclastic flows which were thick and hot enough to weld. It is inferred that the caldera formed initially and subsided progressively without any accompanying eruptions, and this is attributed to growth of the underlying magma chamber. The breccias accumulated during this stage. There followed a resurgent stage in which caldera collapse occurred in response to repeated ignimbrite eruptions partially emptying the magma chamber. The chamber is inferred to have been chemically and mineralogically zoned.


Abstract. Assessments of water balance changes, watershed response, and landscape
evolution to climate change require representation of spatially and
temporally varying rainfall fields over a drainage basin, as well as the
flexibility to simply modify key driving climate variables (evaporative
demand, overall wetness, storminess). An empirical–stochastic approach to the
problem of rainstorm simulation enables statistical realism and the creation
of multiple ensembles that allow for statistical characterization and/or time
series of the driving rainfall over a fine grid for any climate scenario.
Here, we provide details on the STOchastic Rainfall Model (STORM), which uses
this approach to simulate drainage basin rainfall. STORM simulates individual
storms based on Monte Carlo selection from probability density functions
(PDFs) of storm area, storm duration, storm intensity at the core, and storm
center location. The model accounts for seasonality, orography, and the
probability of storm intensity for a given storm duration. STORM also
generates time series of potential evapotranspiration (PET), which are
required for most physically based applications. We explain how the model
works and demonstrate its ability to simulate observed historical rainfall
characteristics for a small watershed in southeast Arizona. We explain the data
requirements for STORM and its flexibility for simulating rainfall for
various classes of climate change. Finally, we discuss several potential
applications of STORM.


The process of learning through Game Based Learning (GBL) presents both positive aspects and challenges to be faced in order to support the achievement of learning goals and knowledge creation. This study aims to characterise game dynamics in the adoption of multi-player GBL. In particular, we examine the multi-player GBL dynamics may enhance collaborative learning through a relation of positive interdependence while at the same time maintaining a certain level of competition for ensuring multi-player GBL gameplay. The first section of the paper introduces collaborative GBL and describes the combination of intragroup dynamics of cooperation and positive interdependence and an intergroup dynamic of competition to maintain gameplay. The second part of the paper describes two multi-player GBL scenarios: the multi-player game with interpersonal competition and the multi-player game with intergroup competition. For each scenario a case analysis of existing collaborative games is provided, which may help instructional and game designers when defining the collaborative GBL dynamics. Technological requirements and best practices in the use of collaborative GBL are described in the last sections.


We are interested in learning scalable agents for reinforcement learning that can learn from large-scale, diverse sequential data similar to current large vision and language models. To this end, this paper presents masked decision prediction (MaskDP), a simple and scalable self-supervised pretraining method for reinforcement learning (RL) and behavioral cloning (BC). In our MaskDP approach, we employ a masked autoencoder (MAE) to state-action trajectories, wherein we randomly mask state and action tokens and reconstruct the missing data. By doing so, the model is required to infer masked-out states and actions and extract information about dynamics. We find that masking different proportions of the input sequence significantly helps with learning a better model that generalizes well to multiple downstream tasks. In our empirical study, we find that a MaskDP model gains the capability of zero-shot transfer to new BC tasks, such as single and multiple goal reaching, and it can zero-shot infer skills from a few example transitions. In addition, MaskDP transfers well to offline RL and shows promising scaling behavior w.r.t. to model size. It is amenable to data-efficient finetuning, achieving competitive results with prior methods based on autoregressive pretraining.


Rhizoctonia solani Anastomosis Group 8 damages seedling roots of wheat, causing the 'bare-patch' disease. This makes the first 4 weeks after germination the most critical period for disease development. As the field inoculum of the pathogen is mainly concentrated in the surface 10 cm of soil, the rate of root growth becomes critical for the vulnerable tissues of the root to escape the attack from the inoculum zone. To evaluate the effect of alteration of root growth by soil compaction on disease severity, a study was undertaken in 40-cm-deep pots made from PVC pipes (8.7 cm diameter). Four depths of soil compaction (whole soil profile compacted, whole soil loose, upper 10 cm loose and compacted below, upper 20 cm loose and compacted below) were tested using sieved soil. Effective root length of infected seedlings was higher in the pots where the whole soil profile was compacted than others. Reduction in dry root weights, where soil was compacted to heights of 0, 17.5, 27.5 or 37.5 cm following inoculation, were 68, 30, 74 and 56%, respectively. Reduction in shoot weights was 52, 22, 66 and 44%, respectively. Eight days after incubation, microbial activity was greater where the soil was highly compacted than where there was a low level of soil compaction. Saprophytic growth in soil of Rhizoctonia solani Anastomosis Group 8 was higher in loosely packed soil than in compacted soil. This shows that higher impact of disease under compacted soil conditions is due to reduced root growth and that disturbing the soil below seeds can reduce the impact of disease.


This book reflects intersection between the lives, commitments, and strategies of two highly respected figures Dr. Paul Farmer and Fr. Gustavo Gutierrez joined in their option for the poor, their defense of life, and their commitment to liberation. Farmer has credited liberation theology as the inspiration for his effort to do "social justice medicine," while Gutierrez has recognized Farmer's work as particularly compelling example of the option for the poor, and the impact that theology can have outside the church. Draws on their respective writings, major addresses by both at Notre Dame, and a transcript of a dialogue between them.


A statistical method based on a simple uniform flow depth–discharge model for a two-stage main channel-floodplain river section has been developed and tested for data from four hydrometric gauging stations. The depth–discharge rating curve fitting procedure is formulated as a piecewise regression problem. A simulated annealing algorithm is used to obtain the least-squares rating curve parameters, including the main channel-floodplain change-point. Uncertainty of all parameter and discharge estimates is approximated by bootstrap techniques. The application of the methodology to field data showed an accurate agreement between the measured and the estimated depth–discharge relationships. A good agreement between the observed and estimated main channel-floodplain change-points was also achieved. Some difficulties, caused by factors such as unequal measurement error variance, infinite parameter estimates and the presence of more than two depth–discharge change points, were apparent; these are discussed.


This paper explores the origins of the extraordinary political power of the financial industry. It results from a centuries-old symbiotic relationship between private financiers and governments. Bankers obtained the right to issue money and the backing of central banks a lender of last resort, to bail them out as needed. If central banks would assume a larger share of the overall money creation rather than private banks, this would attenuate credit driven boom-bust cycles and provide governments with non-distortionary seignorage-income. Achieving such fundamental reforms will only be possible if the political clout of the banking industry is broken by judicial intervention or a voter revolt.


Dyslexia research has implicated phonetic dysfunction in the phoneme-grapheme associations which underlie reading skills. Expert readers of normal developmental etiology have required less mental effort, faster processing speed, and reduced focal attention when applying reading subskills. Readers with dysphonia and poorly automatized reading subskills have required more time, mental effort, and attention. Dyslexia automaticity deficit has been attributed to left hemisphere neuro-cortical disruptions of the underlying neurological substrata that support developmental acquisition of reading subskills. Effects of inefficiently automatized phoneme-grapheme skills accumulate over time resulting in poor reading skills that are detrimental to academic achievement. Using neuropsychological methodology, adults with dysphonetic dyslexia were selected for automaticity investigation via psychometrics and quantitative electroencephalography. Clinical group inclusion criteria included a current Leaming Disability {LO) diagnosis in the reading skills domain and dysphonia evidence. LD and non-clinical (NC) adult volunteers were characterized by phonetic ability after administration of selected subtests of Woodcock Johnson, Revised, Achievement Tests, namely, Word Attack, Letter-Word Identification, and Passage Comprehension. Neuropsychological automaticity tasks included Rapid Automatized Naming, Rapid Alternating Stimuli, and Color-Word Stroop. Response time and Stroop-effect data were recorded. Passive electroencephalographic data collection technique allowed access to remnant cortical activity after the performance of automaticity tasks. Active task iv electroencephalographic data was collected during the performance of Congruent and Incongruent Stroop subtests. Automaticity in this LD sample was characterized by slower response times and comparable cortical activation to NC group; the LD group required more time, but used similar cortical activation to achieve the same outcome of the NC group. Response time data, related to speed of processing, demonstrated that the LD participants required more time to complete the neuropsychological tasks; however the differences of some response time results disappeared when covaried with age. Electrophysiological data, reflecting cortical activation and mental effort, demonstrated comparable between group activations during both the passive and active recording tasks for left frontal and temporal cortical target locations. Some support was found for the semantic processing interpretation for the Color-Word Stroop.


OBJECTIVE--To develop a handicap measurement scale in a self completion questionnaire format, with scale weights allowing quantification of handicap at an interval level of measurement. DESIGN--Adaptation of the International Classification of Impairments, Disabilities and handicaps into a practical questionnaire incorporating the dimensions of handicap mobility, occupation, physical independence, social integration, orientation, and economic self sufficiency and scale weights derived from interviews with a general population sample, with the technique of conjoint analysis. SETTING--Two general practices in different areas of London. SUBJECTS--240 adults aged 55-74 years randomly selected from the practices, 101 (42%) of whom agreed to be interviewed, and 79 (78%) of whom completed the exercise. MAIN MEASURES--Rating of severity of handicap associated with 30 hypothetical health scenarios on a visual analogue scale, from which was derived a matrix of scale weights ("part utilities") relating to different levels of disadvantage on each dimension, with a formula for combining them into an overall handicap score. Severity scores measured directly for five scenarios not used to derive the scale weights were compared with those calculated from the formula to validate the model. RESULTS--The part utilities obtained conformed with the expected hierarchy for each dimension, confirming the validity of the method. The measured severities and those calculated from the formula for the five scenarios used to validate the model agreed closely (Pearson's r = 0.98, p = 0.0009; Kendall's tau = 1.00, p = 0.007). CONCLUSIONS--This interval level handicap measurement scale will be useful in assessing both specific therapies and health services, in clinical trials, in analyses of cost effectiveness, and in assessments of quality assurance.


Previous studies have revealed the excellence of the westernmost Mediterranean records for reconstructing climate conditions over the last two millennia. In particular, inorganic and organic proxies have revealed a coherent signal of climate and oceanographic responses during this time. Here we compare and integrate both proxy records for reconstructing climate and oceanographic conditions with focus on the last millennium. The higher temperatures indicated by lipid-based proxies during the Medieval Climate Anomaly (MCA) are coincident with drier conditions indicated by inorganic proxies. In contrast, lower temperatures and humid conditions are indicated during the Little Ice Age (LIA). The industrial period was characterized by increasing humidity in comparison with the previous LIA. However, a progressive aridification occurred since the second half of the twentieth century, coexisting with a warming trend and higher contribution of C3 grasses. Proxy records are also interpreted to show Atlantic water inflow at AD 1450 and 1950 and an intensification of the upwelling conditions coinciding with a prolonged positive North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) phase in the intervals AD 1000–1450 and 1960–1990. Large-scale oceanic–atmospheric circulation patterns (the NAO and the Atlantic meridional circulation) and solar irradiance variations seem to have played the major key role during the last millennium, together with anthropogenic contributions in the more recent record.


Abstract. A new low-order coupled ocean–atmosphere model for midlatitudes is derived. It is based on quasi-geostrophic equations for both the ocean and the atmosphere, coupled through momentum transfer at the interface. The systematic reduction of the number of modes describing the dynamics leads to an atmospheric low-order component of 20 ordinary differential equations, already discussed in Reinhold and Pierrehumbert (1982), and an oceanic low-order component of four ordinary differential equations, as proposed by Pierini (2011). The coupling terms for both components are derived and all the coefficients of the ocean model are provided. Its dynamics is then briefly explored, through the analysis of its mean field, its variability and its instability properties. The wind-driven ocean displays a decadal variability induced by the atmospheric chaotic wind forcing. The chaotic behavior of the coupled system is highly sensitive to the ocean–atmosphere coupling for low values of the thermal forcing affecting the atmosphere (corresponding to a weakly chaotic coupled system). But it is less sensitive for large values of the thermal forcing (corresponding to a highly chaotic coupled system). In all the cases explored, the number of positive exponents is increasing with the coupling. Two codes in Fortran and Lua of the model integration are provided as Supplement.


Light has traditionally been used for making objects visible to the naked eye. Lately, there has been tremendous interest in using it for free space communication. This has simultaneously been accompanied by significant interest in light emitting diodes (LEDs) that have been replacing conventional light sources in almost all applications like television, traffic lights, homes and offices etc. LEDs are better than existing incandescent lamps in terms of long life expectancy, high tolerance to humidity, low power consumption, and minimal heat generation. Fair amount of existing literature has focused on achieving uniform irradiance over a planar surface [1–7]. This has been addressed as the problem of finding the optimal LED geometry at the light source to achieve uniform irradiance. Several computationally intensive optimization routines like evolutionary, genetic algorithms were used for power allocation for the LED sources to realise uniform irradiance on the incident surface. The most practical scenario would be the case when the LEDs are placed randomly at the source with uniform illumination being achieved through power allocation, keeping the total power constant. This is addressed as the first problem in this thesis by considering a binomial point process (BPP) based stochastic geometry. Further, a simple meta-heuristic power allocation scheme is proposed for uniform irradiance on the incident surface. Power allocation is done by maximizing a metric for uniformity of the signal to noise ratio (SNR) at the output of the photo-detector. The performance of a stochastic visible light communication (VLC) system based on a BPP with a heuristic power allocation scheme to provide uniform irradiance is analyzed in terms of bit error rate (BER). By intelligently using various approximations, an analytical expression for the BER for the BPP based VLC is obtained . This expression is then used to numerically obtain the optimum number of LEDs required for a stochastic VLC system. Such results for VLC are rare and usually restricted to light sources with a fixed geometry. The asymptotic BER for a circular BPP VLC is obtained in closed form and found to be numerically close to that for a square BPP. The BER expression is used to estimate the cost of the VLC system in terms of the number of LEDs required for optimum system performance. While a BPP based stochastic model is a powerful tool for resource allocation for VLC, it is useful to consider power allocation for a VLC based on a single realization of a stochastic point process. Here, a Matern type II hard-core point process (HCPP) is desirable, since it accounts for minimum separation between any two LEDs for better coverage. This is the focus of the next problem addressed in the thesis. The variance of the power on the receiver plane is used as an objective function. Under some conditions, this function is shown to be convex, allowing for optimum power allocation. Through numerical results, it is shown that this approach is superior to existing techniques for power allocation.


We prove tight network topology dependent bounds on the round complexity of computing well studied $k$-party functions such as set disjointness and element distinctness. Unlike the usual case in the CONGEST model in distributed computing, we fix the function and then vary the underlying network topology. This complements the recent such results on total communication that have received some attention. We also present some applications to distributed graph computation problems.
Our main contribution is a proof technique that allows us to reduce the problem on a general graph topology to a relevant two-party communication complexity problem. However, unlike many previous works that also used the same high level strategy, we do not reason about a two-party communication problem that is induced by a cut in the graph. To `stitch' back the various lower bounds from the two party communication problems, we use the notion of timed graph that has seen prior use in network coding. Our reductions use some tools from Steiner tree packing and multi-commodity flow problems that have a delay constraint.


ABSTRACT In the fall of 2013, Mégaphone, an architectural-scale interactive "Speakers' Corner," was deployed outdoors after dusk in downtown Montréal, Canada. This urban art installation included a monumental media façade designed to display a transcription of some of the words uttered into the microphone by end users. Driven by the system's two temporal modalities—a performative "live mode" and an archival "sleep mode"—the video projections revealed the dual skins of a media façade that spanned almost an entire city block. This article examines how activists appropriated Mégaphone to transform an ordinary building into an urban mausoleum.


With Heaton's words, "the great Army of the Potomac has at last started," we get a sense of impatience, on the soldier's part, with Gen. George McClellan's well-known reluctance to send men into battle. The date of this letter coincides within the beginning of the Peninsula Campaign, which deployed over 121,000 Union soldiers. Perhaps Heaton's regiment, camped somewhere in Virginia, is about to meet up with this "offul Army down on the co[a]st it numbers 90 thousand men" as part of the Campaign. He notes some of the destruction left behind by retreating rebels, most notably the burned homes near Fairfax courthouse, supposedly where George and Martha Washington were married. (The home owned by Martha Custis, Washington's betrothed, was indeed burned in 1862 because of the war. This is believed to have been a likely site of the marriage in early January, 1759.) Other place names mentioned: Mannassas, Centerville.


This reader is one in a series of redesigned new editions of the most popular titles in the "Streamline Graded Readers" series, which contain a new design and new colour artwork. These original stories, designed for beginner to intermediate levels, have a contemporary feel that should appeal to teenagers and young adults. Readers can choose from mystery and intrigue, humour, science fiction and ghost stories. Each story is graded, supported by colour illustrations, and short enough to be read easily and fluently. Accompanying worksheets can be used for checking understanding and testing, as well as for a range of class activities to develop language and reading skills. All titles are available on cassette.


Extract
In Chapter 1 we described the burgeoning use of the term 'sustainability assessment', and the many different applications of sustainability assessment that can now be found in the literature, some of which are forms of ex ante impact assessment and some which take an ex post evaluation approach. There is also variety in terminology used to refer to the sustainability assessment that is a form of impact assessment, including sustainability appraisal (particularly in England), integrated assessment, integrated sustainability assessment and sustainability impact assessment. The point has not yet been reached at which there is universal consensus as to what any of these terms mean, much less a commonly understood process for conducting them. International practice varies considerably depending upon the legal and governance structures in place, the broader policy context and the form of decision making to which the assessment is applied. This variety is evident in the recently published book Sustainability Appraisal: A Sourcebook and Reference Guide to International Experience (Dalal-Clayton and Sadler, 2014). Given the variety of practice and lack of a standardised approach, the first challenge faced in any discussion of sustainability assessment is to articulate how it can be meaningfully distinguished from other forms of impact assessment and other environmental governance processes. It has been pointed out that 'the common cause shared by all environmental assessment and management tools [is] that of sustainability, even though many did not start out with that as the underlying purpose' (Sheate, 2009, p. 19).


Four extraction methods for Bursaphelenchus xylophilus and other aphelenchid nematodes were compared on the number of nematodes per gram recovered, and on the precision of the mean number of nematodes per gram of pine wood. The number of nematodes per gram recovered by each method, in addition to its inherent shortcomings when the actual number of nematodes is unknown, failed to provide clear rankings among the extraction methods. The precision of the mean number of nematodes per gram did provide clear guidelines for selection. Selection of the method may be based on prior knowledge about the range of nematodes to be expected or the independence of precision from the mean number of nematodes.


This capstone portfolio demonstrates my professional knowledge and practices of serving English language learners (ELL) in international settings. In this portfolio, there are three major sections. In the first section, I will present my philosophy of teaching to state my beliefs of teaching English language learners based upon the theoretical framework that informs my instructional decisions and practices. In the second section, I will provide artifacts in my graduate studies to demonstrate my understanding of the qualities and practices of an effective ELL teacher according to the eight domains of standards for ESL/EFL teachers, including planning, instructing, assessing, identity and context, language proficiency, learning, content, and commitment and professionalism. Each domain consists of my own interpretation of its standard along with one to two artifacts as evidence of my understanding and competence. In the third section, I will offer the implications for future teaching in which I present my reflection of the collection of my work, my visions of applying theories to practices, and questions and directions for my continuous professional development. CAPSTONE ELL PORTFOLIO 3


Garbage collection algorithms rely on invariants to permit the identification of pointers and to correctly locate accessible objects. These invariants translate into constraints on object layouts and programming conventions governing pointer use. There are recent variations of collectors in which the invariants are relaxed. Typically, rules governing pointer use are relaxed, and a 'conservative' collection algorithm that treats all potential pointers as valid is used. Such pointers are 'ambiguous' because integers and other data can masquerade as pointers. Ambiguous pointers cannot be modified and hence the objects they reference cannot be moved. Consequently, conservative collectors are based on mark-andsweep algorithms. Copying algorithms, while more efficient, have not been used because they move objects and adjust pointers. This paper describes a variation of a copying garbage collector that can be used in the presence of ambiguous references. The algorithm constrains the layout and placement of objects, but not the location of referencing pointers. It simply avoids copying objects that are referenced directly by ambiguous pointers, reclaiming their storage on a subsequent collection when they are no longer ambiguously referenced. An implementation written in the ANSI C programming language is given. Copying Garbage Collection in the Presence of Ambiguous References


Summary Curcuma aromatica, commonly known as 'Jangli Haldi' is a widely cultivated plant in India for its rhizomes. It is commonly used as condiments and as flavouring agents. Medicinally, it has been proven to possess various pharmacological activities like antimicrobial, anti7angiogenic activity, cholerectic activity, anthelminitic activity, antitumour activity, wound healing activity, cytoprotective activity, anti7inflammatory activity and antioxidant effects. Further, studies reveal the presence of various phytochemical constituents mainly essential oils (1,87 cineole, carvone, camphor, borneol, limonene etc.) with curcumin, curcumene and xanthorrhizol. These studies reveal its beneficial therapeutic effects and encourage finding its new uses. It also emphasizes on the fact that these results are made more fruitful by conducting clinical trials.


Over the past 30 years, the field of genetic engineering has grown in a spectacular manner. The methods involved in genetic engineering which were earlier considered cumbersome and involved sophisticated instrumentation have now became a common drill within the laboratories throughout the world. This rising technology is now involved in almost every aspect of biological research. Its application includes medical diagnosis, paternity disputes, forensic analysis, genome sequencing, etc. In the recent years, this technology has attained a large-scale attention, and now the commercial products developed using genetic engineering are known worldwide. The technique of genetic engineering is solely based on genetic information, which is encoded by the DNA in the form of genes. Through genetic engineering the genes can be introduced or manipulated within the host to develop products of value and importance, for treatment of genetic disorders, and to achieve other goals. The present chapter explains the techniques involved in genetic engineering and rDNA technology and its importance in revolutionizing different fields. The objective of this chapter is to highlight the basic principle and methodology involved in genetic engineering and its role in human welfare.


Lithuania is very poorly developed in the field of adult continuing education and to this day remains relevant to active participation in formal adult education. The article raises such issues as: how one actually participates in formal adult education, what some key issues and perspectives of adult formal education are, whether the surroundings help or hinder the smooth running of this process, etc. Thus the object of research is adults who seek primary and basic education participation in formal education. The purpose of this paper is to reveal the features of adults', involved in the initial and basic education, participation in formal educational. This article is based on the data of the international project 'Lifelong Learning Society in Europe Towards the contribution of the education system' (LLL2010), financed by the European Commission under the EU 6 Framework Programme thematic priorities'citizens and governance in a knowledge society. The duration of this project was 2005–2009. A combination of multi-stage/cluster and non-random stratified quota sampling methods were used in order to select the respondents. Data was processed by the computer-based program SPSS 17.0 for Windows. The questionnaire survey data was processed and based on a quantitative analysis. Therefore, the study was based on the constructive approach and the adult learning psychosocial paradigm. The article deals with the passing of environmental assistance for adults returning to formal education and the authors conclude that the key factor for an adult student to return is family. On the other hand, in formal educational institutions, educational consultants contribute minimally to the most recent entry into formal education. It was also stated in the article that the examination of the adult learner in a formal education organization is influenced by the building surroundings (which is sufficiently formalized and essentially based on the classical paradigm of learning).


The development and maintenance of color polymorphism in cryptic prey species is a source of enduring fascination, in part because it appears to result from selective processes operating across multiple levels of analysis, ranging from cognitive psychology to population ecology. Since the 1960s, prey species with diverse phenotypes have been viewed as the evolved reflection of the perceptual and cognitive characteristics of their predators. Because it is harder to search simultaneously for two or more cryptic prey types than to search for only one, visual predators should tend to focus on the most abundant forms and effectively overlook the others. The result should be frequency-dependent, apostatic selection, which will tend to stabilize the prey polymorphism. Validating this elegant hypothesis has been difficult, and many details have been established only relatively recently. This review clarifies the argument for a perceptual selective mechanism and examines the relevant experimental evidence.


The present work explores the possibilities of adapting poro-elastic lightweight acoustic materials to specific applications. More explicitly, a design approach is presented where finite element based numerical simulations are combined with optimization techniques to improve the dynamic and acoustic properties of lightweight multilayered panels containing poro-elastic acoustic materials.The numerical models are based on Biot theory which uses equivalent fluid/solid models with macroscopic space averaged material properties to describe the physical behaviour of poro-elastic materials. To systematically identify and compare specific beneficial or unfavourable material properties, the numerical model is connected to a gradient based optimizer. As the macroscopic material parameters used in Biot theory are interrelated, they are not suitable to be used as independent design variables. Instead scaling laws are applied to connect macroscopic material properties to the underlying microscopic geometrical properties that may be altered independently.The design approach is also combined with a structural sandwich panel mass optimization, to examine possible ways to handle the, sometimes contradicting, structural and acoustic demands. By carefully balancing structural and acoustic components, synergetic rather than contradictive effects could be achieved, resulting in multifunctional panels; hopefully making additional acoustic treatment, which may otherwise undo major parts of the weight reduction, redundant.The results indicate a significant potential to improve the dynamic and acoustic properties of multilayered panels with a minimum of added weight and volume. The developed modelling techniques could also be implemented in future computer based design tools for lightweight vehicle panels. This would possibly enable efficient mass reduction while limiting or, perhaps, totally avoiding the negative impact on sound and vibration properties that is, otherwise, a common side effect of reducing weight, thus helping to achieve lighter and more energy efficient vehicles in the future.


One of Australia's premier tourist locations, Tasmania also boasts Australia's highest incidence of wildlife roadkill, a sight that often offends tourists. Tasmanian tourism is highly regarded for its wildlife tourism sector, which attracts many visitors to the state to view and interact with wildlife. Tasmanian newspapers and State government departments commonly receive letters and telephone calls from visitors and residents who demand government action to reduce the amount of roadkill on Tasmanian roads. These protests are often based on ethical and aesthetic grounds. Wildlife roadkill can also directly adversely impact on wildlife tourism businesses themselves. Wildlife tourist operators rely on relatively high density, accessible populations of wildlife, so that viewing of wildlife is reliable. In some situations, these populations are threatened by high levels of road mortality. Roadkill also negatively impacts the tourism industry because it represents a risk to driver safety. Reduction in the availability of hire cars due to associated repairs, especially over the summer months, is also a negative impact on the tourism industry.
The objectives of this project were to address these issues by evaluating techniques to reduce wildlife roadkill and
discussing suitability and implementation of these methods in Tasmania. A number of techniques were not evaluated, but
are covered briefly.
Several measures were identified as being likely to reduce wildlife roadkill and/or decreasing visitor distress on account of roadkill. These are: wildlife signage, escape routes, table drain (ditch) management, platypus crossings, underpasses and potentially odour repellents. Ultrasonic whistles, wildlife reflectors and lighting have doubtful application, at least in Tasmania, although managers should follow up on current research in these areas. Light-coloured road surfacing and use of "driving lights" remain as possibilities for further trials. In terms of further research, priority should be given to research furthering our understanding of roadkill events and sites, and wildlife behaviour in reaction to oncoming traffic. This
information will better equip research into wildlife mitigation measures. These results are useful for road management authorities, environmental management authorities, and consultants who provide advice on mitigation of environmental impacts of road developments. This document will enable better roadkill mitigation, which will result in an improved experience for visitors to Tasmania.


1. We have determined the ventilatory response to CO 2 at two levels of end-tidal O 2 tension in eight normal subjects before and after (1) 4 days of 0.242 mmol (80 mg) oral frusemide daily and (2) 4 days of 0.024 mmol (10 mg) bendrofluazide daily. 2. Frusemide produced no significant alkalosis, change in end-tidal CO 2 tension or alteration in the CO 2 response line. However, we did demonstrate a linear relationship between the change in plasma total CO 2 content and the change in intercept of the CO 2 response line in hyperoxia after frusemide. 3. Bendrofluazide produced a metabolic alkalosis with no significant change in end-tidal CO 2 tension. The CO 2 response line after the drug showed a decrease in slope in hyperoxia and a shift to the right of the intercept in hypoxia. There was no relationship between change in plasma total CO 2 content and change in the intercept of the CO 2 response line in hyperoxia. 4. If these results obtained on normal subjects are applicable to patients with chronic bronchitis and emphysema, frusemide might be the diuretic of choice for use with controlled oxygen therapy in the management of acute exacerbations of this disease when it is complicated by ventilatory failure.


Keywords: Infertility, Chinese herbal medicine, ultrasound, hormone levels. Abstract Aim: To determine the relationship between female fertility indicators and the administration of Chinese herbal medicine (CHM). Design: A prospective cohort clinical study to measure accepted bio-medical factors that affect female fertility and to determine if CHM can improve these factors as well as pregnancy outcome. Setting: A private practice specialising in treating infertility with traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). The study took place between November 2003 and December 2004. Patient(s): Fifty women with the Western medical diagnosis of unexplained infertility. Interventions: One monitored menstrual cycle measuring pre-treatment fertility factors, followed by treatment with Chinese herbal medicine and subsequent measurement of the changes in the same fertility factors. Results: Significant differences were observed between the two time points for the majority of factors measured. Pregnancies in the sample group recorded 6 months after commencement of the last treatment were 28, with 11 live births and 7 miscarriages. Conclusion: The study outcome demonstrates that using Chinese herbal medicine results in higher success rates of pregnancy, with no patient side-effects and a reduction in the category of patients conventionally classified as having unexplained infertility.


A common response to the global sustainability crisis is to argue that human values and culture need to transform. However, the nature of this interior transformation is rarely explored in any detail. Instead, transformation is held up uncritically as the saviour that can get us out of trouble. In this paper, I apply a personal causal layered analysis (CLA) to tease out the dimensions of interior transformation for a viable future in more detail. The analysis draws out competing narratives of interior transformation and explores the potential of these narratives to facilitate transformation of values and consciousness. A story of a thriving Earth emerges as a key cultural resource for interior


OBJECTIVES: Early childhood UV light radiation (UVR) exposures have been shown to be associated with melanoma development later in life. The objective of this study was to assess sunburn and changes in sunburn and sun behaviors during periadolescence. METHODS: A prospective, population-based study was conducted in fifth-grade children (∼10 years of age) from Framingham, Massachusetts. Surveys were administered at baseline (September–October 2004) and again 3 years later (September–October 2007). Surveys were analyzed to assess prevalence of reported sunburn and sun behaviors and to examine changes in response over the follow-up period. RESULTS: Data were analyzed from 360 participants who had complete information regarding sunburn at both time points. In 2004, ∼53% of the students reported having at least 1 sunburn during the previous summer, and this proportion did not significantly change by 2007 (55%, P = .79), whereas liking a tan and spending time outside to get a tan significantly increased (P < .001). In 2004, 50% of students reported "often or always" use of sunscreen when outside for at least 6 hours in the summer; this proportion dropped to 25% at the follow-up evaluation (P < .001). CONCLUSIONS: With at least 50% of children experiencing sunburns before age 11 and again 3 years later, targeting children in pediatric offices and community settings regarding unprotected UV exposure may be a practical approach. Because periadolescence is a time of volatility with regard to sun behaviors, learning more about children who receive sunburns versus those who avoid them is a critical research task.


In this paper, we take a statistical decision-theoretic viewpoint on social choice, putting a focus on the decision to be made on behalf of a system of agents. In our framework, we are given a statistical ranking model, a decision space, and a loss function defined on (parameter, decision) pairs, and formulate social choice mechanisms as decision rules that minimize expected loss. This suggests a general framework for the design and analysis of new social choice mechanisms. We compare Bayesian estimators, which minimize Bayesian expected loss, for the Mallows model and the Condorcet model respectively, and the Kemeny rule. We consider various normative properties, in addition to computational complexity and asymptotic behavior. In particular, we show that the Bayesian estimator for the Condorcet model satisfies some desired properties such as anonymity, neutrality, and monotonicity, can be computed in polynomial time, and is asymptotically different from the other two rules when the data are generated from the Condorcet model for some ground truth parameter.


Professionalization has long been understood as a process of establishing market closure and monopoly control over work; however, in this article the author presents a case in which professionalization erodes rather than establishes occupational closure. She demonstrates how the Indian Plumbing Association (IPA), a newly formed organization of internationally trained plumbing contractors and consultants, has used the rhetoric and structures of professionalization to threaten pre-existing ethnicity-based closure enjoyed by traditional plumbers from the eastern state of Orissa. By employing a discourse of professionalism and by instituting codes, training, and certification programs, professionalization in this case has undermined Orissan plumbers by changing the basis of plumbing knowledge and opening entry to outsiders. The author concludes by suggesting that professionalization is a modern trope that does not necessarily imply monopoly benefits and higher job quality for all the members of a given occupational group.


We propose a new heuristic for nonlinear global optimization combining a variable neighborhood search framework with a modified trust-region algorithm as local search. The proposed method presents the capability to prematurely interrupt the local search if the iterates are converging to a local minimum that has already been visited or if they are reaching an area where no significant improvement can be expected. The neighborhoods, as well as the neighbors selection procedure, are exploiting the curvature of the objective function. Numerical tests are performed on a set of unconstrained nonlinear problems from the literature. Results illustrate that the new method significantly outperforms existing heuristics from the literature in terms of success rate, CPU time, and number of function evaluations.


OBJECTIVES
Prior studies suggest that a decreased cardiac catheterization rate for women with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) is partially attributed to gender differences in patient preferences for testing. The hypothesis was that these preferences are influenced by physician recommendations for cardiovascular testing.

METHODS
This was a cohort study of patients who presented to an emergency department (ED) with chest pain. At the time of ED disposition, patients were surveyed to assess whether or not the doctor discussed the possibility of coronary artery disease (CAD), the physician's recommendations for diagnostic testing, and the patient's preferences for further testing. The survey was repeated at the time of discharge from the hospital if the patient was admitted and again at 30 days for all patients. The main outcome was patient-reported physician recommendation for testing, and the secondary outcome was patient preference for cardiovascular testing.

RESULTS
There were 206 patients enrolled (118 women, 88 men). Women were less likely than men to receive cardiac catheterization as inpatients (9.8% vs. 20.0%, p = 0.04). In the ED, women were less likely to be recommended for stress testing (8.5% vs. 19.3%, p = 0.02) or cardiac catheterization (4.2% vs. 13.6%, p = 0.02) or to see a cardiologist (8.5% vs. 22.7%, p < 0.01). As inpatients, women were more likely to be told that no further testing was needed (70.5% vs. 50.0%, p = 0.03). While there was higher incidence of prior CAD and myocardial infarction among the men in the study, analysis after removal of these patients did not alter results. Physicians were less likely to counsel women about diagnostic testing options in the ED (10.1% vs. 22.7%, p = 0.03), as inpatients (11.5% vs. 40.0%, p < 0.01), and as outpatients (26.1% vs. 48.6%, p = 0.04). No patients in the study refused their doctors' recommendations. Women were less likely to prefer catheterization in the ED (5.1% vs. 15.9%, p = 0.01) and were more likely to prefer no further testing as inpatients (60.7% vs. 40.0%, p = 0.02).

CONCLUSIONS
Women who presented to the ED with symptoms concerning for ACS reported lower rates of physician recommendation for cardiovascular testing, as well as lower rates of counseling regarding cardiac etiologies of their chest pain. These findings suggest sex differences in preference for cardiovascular testing may be partially explained by the discussions between women and their doctors.


Bladder cancer (BC) is the second most common genitourinary malignancy and the fourth most common cancer in the US, and costs over an estimated $4 billion annually in the US alone. BC ranks amongst the most expensive cancer treatment to date. Most patients have curable transitional cell carcinoma and non-muscle invasive BC (NMIBC). Only approximately 30% of NMIBC patients progress to muscle-invasive BCs (MIBC), however, about 50% of these patients develop metastases within 2 years after cystectomy, and about half of patients die within 5 years. MIBC, which are notorious as heterogeneous and hard-to-treat cancers, do not effectively respond to adjuvant chemotherapy generally associated with a poor prognosis, causing most BC deaths (1).


Location-based services (LBS) use positioning technology to provide individual users the capability of being constantly reachable and accessing network services while on the move. However, privacy concerns associated with the use of LBS may ultimately prevent consumers from gaining the convenience of anytime/anywhere personalized services. Understanding consumer's privacy concerns toward LBS is of increasing importance as mobile and positioning technologies develop and change with escalating speed. Drawing on the integrative social contract theory and the trust-risk model, we conducted an experiment study to examine the effects of LBS providers' interventions—third party privacy seals, P3P (Platform for Privacy Preferences Project) compliance, and device-based privacy enhancing features—on building consumer trust and reducing privacy risk. Results indicated that service providers' interventions including joining third party privacy seal programs and introducing device-based privacy enhancing features could increase consumers' trust beliefs and mitigate their privacy risk perceptions. However, the proposed P3P compliance did not have a direct impact on perceived privacy risk, influencing it only indirectly, through trust. The study reported here is novel to the extent that existing empirical research has not examined this complex set of interrelated issues in the L-commerce context. Implications for theory and practice are discussed, and suggestions for future research along the directions of this study are provided.


In this paper Semi-Markov models are used to forecast the triple dimensions of next earthquake occurrences. Each earthquake can be investigated in three dimensions including temporal, spatial and magnitude. Semi-Markov models can be used for earthquake forecasting in each arbitrary area and each area can be divided into several zones. In Semi-Markov models each zone can be considered as a state of proposed Semi-Markov model. At first proposed Semi- Markov model is explained to forecast the three mentioned dimensions of next earthquake occurrences. Next, a zoning method is introduced and several algorithms for the validation of the proposed method are also described to obtain the errors of this method.


Arc motion in low voltage (240 VAC) high current (10/sup 3/-10/sup 4/A.) current limiting-circuit breakers is dominated by arc root mobility. The mobility is influenced by the gas flow and gas composition in the contact region, but there is little experimental data on these effects. New pressure and spectral data measurement during arc movement are presented using a flexible test apparatus and an arc imaging system. These measurements are used to investigate gas flow characteristics in the arc chamber. The chemical and physical phenomena occurring during the arc motion are discussed. The combination of optical and spectral data provides new insight into the arc motion. The influences of arc chamber material, contact material, and contact opening speed, are investigated to improve arc control for a low contact opening velocity.


The risk posed by intensification of North Atlantic hurricane activity remains controversial, in part due to a lack of available storm proxy records that extend beyond the relatively stable climates of the late Holocene. Here we present a record of storm-triggered turbidite deposition offshore the Dry Tortugas, south Florida, USA, that spans abrupt transitions in North Atlantic sea-surface temperature and Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) during the Younger Dryas (12.9–11.7 ka). Despite potentially hostile conditions for cyclogenesis in the tropical North Atlantic at that time, our record and numerical experiments suggest that strong hurricanes may have regularly affected Florida. Less severe surface cooling at midlatitudes (~20°–40°N) than across much of the tropical North Atlantic (~10°–20°N) in response to AMOC reduction may best explain strong hurricane activity during the Younger Dryas near the Dry Tortugas and possibly along the entire southeastern coast of the United States.