Dealing with conflicting and target-specific requirements is an important issue in multisensor and multitarget tracking. This paper aims to allocate sensing resources among various targets in reaction to individual information requests. The proposed approach is to introduce agents for every relevant target responsible for its tracking. Such agents are expected to bargain with each other for a division of resources. A bilateral negotiation model is established for resource allocation in two-target tracking. The applications of agent negotiation to target covariance tuning are illustrated together with simulation results presented. Moreover, we suggest a way of organizing simultaneous one-to-one negotiations, making our negotiation model still applicable in scenarios of tracking more than two targets.


Autonomous robots are increasingly interacting with users who have limited knowledge of robotics and are likely to have an erroneous mental model of the robot's workings, capabilities, and internal structure. The robot's real capabilities may diverge from this mental model to the extent that one might accuse the robot's manufacturer of deceiving the user, especially in cases where the user naturally tends to ascribe exaggerated capabilities to the machine (e.g. conversational systems in elder-care contexts, or toy robots in child care). This poses the question, whether misleading or even actively deceiving the user of an autonomous artifact about the capabilities of the machine is morally bad and why. By analyzing trust, autonomy, and the erosion of trust in communicative acts as consequences of deceptive robot behavior, we formulate four criteria that must be fulfilled in order for robot deception to be morally permissible, and in some cases even morally indicated.


Few subjects have generated so many newspaper headlines and such heated controversy as the treatment, or non-treatment, of handicapped newborns. In 1982, the case of Baby Doe, a child born with Down's syndrome, stirred up a national debate in the United States, while in Britain a year earlier, Dr. Leonard Arthur stood trial for his decision to allow a baby with Down's syndrome to die. Government intervention and these recent legal battles accentuate the need for a reassessment of the complex issues involved. This volume--by two authorities on medical ethics--presents a philosophical analysis of the subject based on particular case studies. Addressing the doctrine of the absolute sanctity of life, Singer and Kuhse examine some actual cases where decisions have been reached; consider the criteria for making these decisions; investigate the differences between killing and letting die; compare Western attitudes and practices with those of other cultures; and conclude by proposing a decision-making framework that offers a rational alternative to the polemics and confusion generated by this highly controversial topic.


Ebola virus (EBV) disease is globally acknowledged public health emergence, which is endemic in the West and equatorial Africa. To understand the epidemiology especially the dynamic pattern of EBV disease, we analyse the EBV case notification data for confirmed cases and reported deaths of the ongoing outbreak in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) between 2018 and 2019, and examined the impart of reported violence of the spread of the virus. Using fully Bayesian geo-statistical analysis through stochastic partial differential equations (SPDE) that allows us to quantify the spatial patterns at every point of the spatial domain. Parameter estimation based on the integrated nested Laplace approximation (INLA). Our findings reveal strong association between violent events in the affected areas and the reported EBV cases and deaths, and the presence of clusters for both cases and deaths both of which spread to neighbouring locations in similar manners. Findings from the study are therefore useful for hotspot identification, location-specific disease surveillance and intervention.In 2018, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) confirmed their tenth Ebola epidemic in 40 years. The outbreak is the country's largest Ebola outbreak and the second largest ever recorded after the West African epidemic of 2014-2016.The current outbreak is reported to be occurring in a longstanding conflict zone, this study focused investigating the spatial distribution of Ebola incidence in DRC and the role of violent events.Violent events in the affected areas was found to be significantly associated with reported Ebola cases, which is highly relevant for hotspot identification and location-specific disease surveillance and intervention.


Zone Routing Protocol (ZRP) is a hybrid protocol that combines the advantages of both the proactive and reactive protocols. It is classified as: Intra Zone Routing, which uses hop count of the Nneighbors using proactive techniques and Inter Zone Routing, which includes the rest of the network excluding the N-neighbors using reactive techniques. In anycast routing, the packets are routed to the most nearest anycast group member. In this paper, a literature review about Zone Routing Protocol and Anycast addressing is presented along with the concept where we propose to use Anycast addressing in Zone Routing Protocol assuming that the destination as a member of anycast address, is proposed. This idea is proposed for the consistent improvement of performance of Zone Routing Protocol.


Valosin containing protein (VCP)/p97 is a hexameric ATPase of the AAA family, which regulates a wide array of essential cellular processes. Dominant mutations in the N-domain of the VCP give rise to the complex disease syndrome known as Inclusion body myopathy with Paget disease of the bone and frontotemporal dementia (IBMPFD). VCP plays a key role in the ubiquitin-proteasome dependent protein degradation although mutations in VCP seem to result in a late stage autophagy defect. Osteoclast precursors containing VCP mutations are hyper-responsive to RANKL and M-CSF treatment. This suggests that under normal homeostasis VCP plays an important role in regulating the response of osteoclasts to bone microenvironment. However, the mechanisms by which VCP mutations stimulate osteoclast differentiation in Paget disease of the bone (PDB) are not completely understood.
To gain insight into disease phenotype associated with VCP mutations I examined the role of VCP in autophagy and the role of autophagy on osteoclastogenesis. I have shown that VCP co-localises with p62 and LC3 at the subcellular level in cells undergoing autophagy and that VCP co-immunoprecipitates with p62 in the autophagy-dependant manner. I have also examined the stability of VCP in the cell and shown that p62 has a role in stabilising the VCP protein and that the mutant protomers seem to be less stable than the normal VCP protomers. Initiation of autophagy in RAW264.7 cells in the presence of RANKL resulted in marked reduction in osteoclast formation, regardless of the time point at which the treatment begun. I also found that RANKL and TNFα induced NFκB activation is increased (in an autophagy dependent manner) in macrophages from the heterozygous VCP mouse compared to normal macrophages.
These data together with the already existing knowledge on VCP, and the link with PDB, suggest that modulation of the autophagy pathway by VCP may represent a major regulator of bone remodelling and maintenance. Autophagy has direct effect on the fate of osteoclast progenitor cells thus regulation of osteoclastogenesis is a key process underlying the pathogenesis of PDB. This work acts to further our understanding of the pathogenic mechanism of VCP-related disease and will facilitate the search for modifiers of the disease phenotype.


Title of Document: ELEVATED TEMPERATURE EFFECTS ON CAROTENOID BIOSYNTHESIS IN THE DIPLOID STRAWBERRY, FRAGARIA VESCA Melantha E. Jackson, Doctor of Philosophy, 2015 Directed By: Professor Herman Sintim Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry Carotenoids, a subfamily of the isoprenoids, are one of the most diverse classes of secondary metabolites distributed throughout nature. They are lipophilic in nature, and include over 600 tetraterpenoid compounds synthesized by plants, bacteria, and fungi. Carotenoids, as the major pigment responsible for the red, yellow, and orange colors of fruits and vegetable, help promote human health and wellness by serving as antioxidants and precursors to vitamin A. Climate changes that threaten plant reproduction, negatively impact crop production worldwide. Little is understood about the chemistry of carotenoids in plant reproductive structures. Insight into the metabolic roles and functions of carotenoids in plant reproduction and, the effects of abiotic stresses on carotenoid biosynthesis in these structures would globally impact agriculture production by reducing yield loss. The potential for these metabolites to protect the reproductive structures under elevated temperature stress was assessed using biochemical analysis, genomics, and genetic studies. Fourteen candidate genes involved in carotenoid biosynthesis were identified, revealing three small gene families. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) expression analysis of these genes and targeted metabolic profiling using liquid chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry (LC-HRMS) throughout plant development under control and moderately elevated temperature stress showed that gene expression and metabolite accumulation are tissue specific and differentially responsive to elevated temperature stress. Three phytoene synthase genes were identified and characterized. Genomic analyses revealed that the PSY gene family exhibits functional diversity in plant tissues, both with respect to location and stage of development, as well as in response to abiotic stress. ELEVATED TEMPERATURE EFFECTS ON CAROTENOID BIOSYNTHESIS IN THE DIPLOID STRAWBERRY, FRAGARIA VESCA


Contemporary debates over recent Court decisions provide a rich context to weigh claims of judicial countermajoritarianism against the work of constitutional theorists, critical legal scholars, and political scientists who view the Court as a majoritarian body. In particular, the Court's decisions in Lawrence v. Texas, Gratz v. Bollinger, and Grutter v. Bollinger have reignited arguments concerning the propriety of judicial review. Prominent judicial commentators have described the decisions as important, and unexpected, civil rights victories from a markedly conservative Court. Liberal and conservative scholars and activists seem to agree with this description: mainline civil rights organizations and liberal scholars view the decisions as examples of the Court protecting and advancing the interests of disadvantaged groups, while conservatives, apparently accepting this portrayal, argue that these cases demonstrate that the Court has aligned itself with leftist and elitist interests, rendering its opinions incongruent with majoritarian public thought.This Article challenges liberal and conservative assessments of Lawrence, Gratz, and Grutter. Although the outcome of these cases might indeed prove helpful to the agendas of social movements for racial and sexual justice, progressive scholars and activists should not receive these cases with elation. Instead, the research of constitutional theorists, critical legal scholars, and political scientists allows for a more contextualized and guarded account of and reaction to these decisions. Instead of representing extraordinary victories for oppressed classes, these cases reflect majoritarian and moderate views concerning civil rights, and the opinions contain many doctrinal elements that reinforce, rather than dismantle, social subordination. Only a sober reading of these cases can permit equality theorists to place the decisions within a broader movement that contests narrow conceptions of legal and social equality.This Article explicates my thesis in three parts. Part I examines the body of works by constitutional theorists, critical legal scholars, and political scientists on judicial majoritarianism in order to construct an analytical framework for considering how Court doctrine reinforces dominant interests. The purpose of Part I is not to determine whether or not (or under what circumstances) the Court should be countermajoritarian, but instead to analyze substantial research that complicates, if not refutes, traditional understanding of the Court as undemocratic. Part II applies the analytical framework developed in Part I to Lawrence, Gratz, and Grutter and concludes that, contrary to popular portrayals, these decisions fortify, rather than aim to dismantle, social hierarchies of race, sexuality, class, and gender. Furthermore, Part II demonstrates that the Court explicitly grounds its rulings in these cases upon democratic considerations, thus lending support to arguments that contest countermajoritarian discourse. Part III utilizes social movement theory to explain the enthusiastic reaction of liberals to Lawrence, Gratz, and Grutter. Part III argues that civil rights organizations enthusiastically received these cases, despite their limitations, because for years these groups have conducted litigation and activism within a conservative legal framework that generally opposes affirmative action and gay rights agendas. Part III then offers strategic considerations for legal theorists and activists who seek progressive legal change before a majoritarian Court.


Introduction Muscles and tendons adapt to mechanical loading (Arampatzis et al., 2007). However, different time courses of adaptation in response to training (Mersmann et al., 2016) may lead to discordance within the muscle-tendon unit (MTU), potentially increasing the risk of injury. In this study, we monitored the triceps surae (TS) MTU mechanical properties in elite jumpers over one year of training and competing, in order to detect potential training-induced discordance between muscle and tendon adaptation. Methods This preliminary analysis is part of an ongoing nationwide study on the TS MTU adaptation of more than 30 jumpers (long jump, triple jump, high jump and pole vault) of the German national team. Maximum ankle plantarflexion moment and Achilles tendon (AT) stiffness of nine jumpers (23±3y) and one jumper 10 months post Achilles tendon reconstruction, were regularly assessed over 1 year at their respective Olympic training centres, using a mobile device (dynamometry and ultrasonography; TEMULAB®, Protendon, Aachen, Germany). Both time course and coefficients of variation (CV) of muscle and tendon adaptation were evaluated. Results On average, 16 measurements were conducted for these first 10 athletes. Both TS muscle strength and AT stiffness were higher in the take-off leg (average: 371±58Nm and 874±113N/mm, respectively) compared to swing leg (348±44Nm/kg; 812±110N/mm). In both legs, the relative changes of TS muscle strength and AT stiffness over one year showed similar patterns, meaning that changes in TS muscle strength were followed by changes in AT stiffness, with CVs of 8.9±2% and 12.9±4.9% respectively. However, following AT reconstruction, TS muscle strength but not AT stiffness was consistently lower in the affected leg (average over all data points: 1.8±0.2Nm/kg; 503.7±90.7N/mm) compared to the healthy leg (3.4±0.2Nm/kg; 496.8±33.1N/mm), despite intensive training. Discussion Our results indicate limb-specific differences of both TS muscle strength and AT stiffness due to training, with higher values for the take-off leg compared to the swing leg. Over one year there was a concordant adaptation of TS muscle strength and AT stiffness in both legs, suggesting a low tendon injury risk due to discordance within TS MTU. Following AT reconstruction, a consistent deficit in TS muscle strength but not AT stiffness was seen compared to the healthy leg, meaning that AT rupture and reconstruction could be risk factors for irreversible discordance within TS MTU. References Arampatzis et al. (2007). J Exp Biol, 210, 2743-2753. Mersmann et al. (2016). J Appl Physiol, 121, 893-899.


Background
Animal studies suggest that acidosis protects against arterial calcification, which contributes to arterial stiffness. The goal of this study was to investigate the associations of serum bicarbonate and pH with arterial stiffness in community-living older adults.

Methods
We performed cross-sectional analyses among 1698 well-functioning participants 70-79 years of age. Bicarbonate and pH were measured by arterialized venous blood gas at the point of care. Bicarbonate was categorized into low (<23 mEq/L), normal (23-27.9) and high (≥28). Arterialized venous pH (AVpH) was categorized into tertiles: ≤7.40, >7.40-7.42 and >7.42. Arterial stiffness was evaluated by pulse wave velocity (PWV) and high ankle-brachial index (ABI; >1.3/incompressible). We used linear and logistic regression to evaluate the association of bicarbonate and AVpH with PWV and high ABI, respectively.

Results
The mean age was 76 years and 15% had an estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR)  <60 mL/min/1.73 m2. The mean bicarbonate was 25.2 ± 2.1 mEq/L and the mean AVpH was 7.41 ± 0.03. Compared with participants in the normal bicarbonate category, those in the low bicarbonate group had 8.8% higher PWV (P = 0.006) and 1.87 greater odds of high ABI (P = 0.04). However, the associations were not significant after adjusting for eGFR (P = 0.24 and 0.43, respectively). There was no difference in PWV or high ABI across AVpH tertiles. Results were similar in those with and without chronic kidney disease and after excluding participants on diuretics.

Conclusions
We did not observe an independent association of bicarbonate or AVpH with arterial stiffness measured by high PWV or ABI in community-living older individuals. Future studies evaluating patients with a greater severity of chronic kidney disease and with more extreme alterations in acid-base status are warranted.


The goal of the research was to provide an enjoyable experience in posing. A pose
game was developed that guided players to a desired pose. When the player reached the
desired pose his image was placed in a �ctional scene as a reward. The game provided
feedback in the form of a hint towards the desired pose, an indication of the distance
between the desired pose and the player's current pose and, a mirror image of the player
on screen. The input for the game was vision based. The Kinect provided the sensor
data about the player's pose to the pose game.
This thesis describes the study that aimed at evaluating the feedback of the pose
game. Four feedback options were implemented in this study. With each option the hint
towards the desired pose was varied. 1) The minimum feedback did not provide a hint.
2) The pose chain feedback showed in succession three silhouettes of poses describing
the movement to the desired pose. 3) The inkspot transition had an unde�ned shape
transforming into a silhouette as the player came closer to the pose. And 4) the focus
image feedback showed an image of an object indicating the context and the focus of
the pose.
The study questioned which of these options had the best user performance, based on
the constructs e�ectiveness and e�ciency, and which provided the best user experience,
based on the constructs pleasure, engagement and satisfaction. The experiments were
done in a laboratory setting and 28 participants, recruited from the University of Twente,
provided their experiences with each of the four options through questionnaires and an
interview. The order of the feedback was varied over four groups to balance the results.
The results of the survey were analyzed using a repeated measures ANOVA. The
feedback options, the participants and the respective measures were within subjects factors
and the group of feedback order was the between subjects factor. For the analyses
where task completion was a constraint a one-way ANOVA was used with the feedback
options, the (un)completed tasks and the respective measure as the factors in the
analyses.
The results show that the pose chain feedback option gave the best user performance
and provided the best user experience. The reason why most of the participants liked
this option the best is that it was the most clear on what needed to be done. The
inkspot transition and focus image were favored by some of the participants, because
these were more challenging and required more creativity. The minimum feedback was
the least favored and in general the participants were the most negative about it.


The objective of this study was to systematically review the psychometric properties of the measures used in assessing the psychosocial well-being status of children and adolescents. This review updates and expands on the previous review of the literature on child well-being in order to assess all available studies from 2000 to 2013 on the measurement properties of all available well-being assessment instruments that aim to measure the construct of well-being in childhood and adolescence. Overall, 182 measures designed for measuring child and adolescent well-being were found. These measures vary in length and structure from one item scales to multidimensional questionnaires with 70 items and more. Most of the instruments measure positive indicators of well-being (e.g., life satisfaction, quality of life, self-esteem, etc.), others measure deficit indicators (e.g., anxiety, depression, stress, etc.), and a few instruments measure both positive and deficit indicators. In addition, there are some instruments with undefined modality of well-being. Thus, our study has revealed an ongoing theoretical shift from a deficit approach to well-being to a strengths-based approach. The results also indicate that the reliability information is reported for the majority of the instruments. The most frequently used reliability measure for all these instruments is the Cronbach's alpha internal consistency coefficient. The reports of validity are available for approximately one-third of the instruments. Measures of well-being in adolescence are dominant, however, some instruments are suitable for the measurement of well-being and its indicators in childhood, and some reach the period of emerging adulthood (19-21 years). Most of the studies were conducted in North America and Europe with only a few of them being cross-cultural.


Can the look and the feel of a website give information about the trustworthiness of an article? In this paper, we propose to use a promising, yet neglected aspect in detecting the misinformativeness: the overall look of the domain web page. To capture this overall look, we take screenshots of news articles served by either misinformative or trustworthy web domains and leverage a tensor decomposition based semi-supervised classification technique.
 The proposed approach i.e., VizFake is insensitive to a number of image transformations such as converting the image to grayscale, vectorizing the image and losing some parts of the screenshots. VizFake leverages a very small amount of known labels, mirroring realistic and practical scenarios, where labels (especially for known misinformative articles), are scarce and quickly become dated. The F1 score of VizFake on a dataset of 50k screenshots of news articles spanning more than 500 domains is roughly 85% using only 5% of ground truth labels. Furthermore, tensor representations of VizFake, obtained in an unsupervised manner, allow for exploratory analysis of the data that provides valuable insights into the problem.
 Finally, we compare VizFake with deep transfer learning, since it is a very popular black-box approach for image classification and also well-known text based methods. VizFake achieves competitive accuracy with deep transfer learning models while being two orders of magnitude faster and not requiring laborious hyper-parameter tuning.


This study describes the process of translating, adapting and validating the Klein et al's Unidimensional Target-neutral Scale of Commitment (KUT) into Czech. The KUT scale is a self-report scale that consists of four items. The scale was adapted using three independent translations into Czech, one back-translation into English by a native speaker, assessment by experts, and piloting in cognitive interviews with 13 respondents. The study also provides evidence on the scale's reliability and validity for measuring organizational commitment defined as a psychological bond with an organization. The analyses were based on data obtained from 811 Czech-speaking adults working for Czech organizations. Using ordinal structural equation models (SEM) estimated on the polychoric correlation matrices with the robust WLSMV estimator, the Czech adaptation of the KUT scale showed similar psychometric characteristics to the original English version. The Czech KUT scale is unidimensional and internally consistent. All items have high factor loadings. The scale is invariant across groups defined by gender, workload and the sector in which the organization operates. The convergent validity is supported by the fact that the organizational commitment measured by the Czech KUT scale relates positively to job satisfaction, self-rating of job performance, extra-role behaviour and negatively to turnover intention. The Czech KUT scale also proved incremental validity to job performance over job satisfaction measured by Job Descriptive Survey. Therefore, the scale is a valid instrument for measuring organizational commitment within the Czech-speaking population. It can be used for organizational surveys as well as for research within the organizations.


It has been argued that an objectual semantics for plurals falls victim to Russell's paradox, and that a nominalistic semantics should therefore be preferred (Boolos 1984); similar considerations have sometimes been extended to other types of abstract reference, in particular to property talk. We suggest that this line of argument is mistaken: deeply entrenched features of ordinary language guarantee that property and plural talk do give rise to paradoxes. In the case of properties, the grammar of English is untyped, which makes it straightforward to generate a paradox. In the case of plurals, it is badly typed, which means that paradoxes can be generated, but in complicated ways. In both cases, the problem is not to avoid paradoxes but to model them. We conclude that an objectual semantics is entirely in order, but that it must be developed within a trivalent semantics suited to a paradoxical object language.


In this paper, we build on a previous and incomplete Scottish study by Allan et al. (2007) that made a key methodological contribution in operationalising the Leontief (1970) environmental input-output model to consider the need to determine social and/or resource costs of supplying common resources such as a 'clean environment' at a local or regional level. At the same time, Allan et al. (2007) acknowledged that poor data hindered complete testing of Leontief (1970) environmental input-output model. For this reason, this paper revisits and expands on the development made by Allan et al. (2007) using improved data and applies the model to incorporate the resource implications of negative externalities from waste generation into the economic process. This is with the aim to answer some key policy issues including identifying whether the polluter pays for waste management and who ultimately bears the resource costs for waste disposal and management within the economy. We argue that this approach may be useful for policy if, for example, a 'polluter pays' scenerio is considered relative to one where government retains some commitment to pay for waste management.


Bio Inspired computation is the part of Artificial intelligence which was inspired by the biological behaviors of biological systems. Swarm intelligence is the collective behavior of an organized group in day-to-day life. Common examples of swarm intelligence include ant colony, bee colony, etc. and some are non-swarm intelligence like bat algorithm, etc. This study mainly focuses on application areas of various bio inspired computing based swarm and non-swarm intelligence. This review also discusses the newly developed algorithms. Specific application areas of such algorithms have been discussed in this research. This research highlighted the future scope of present algorithms


We introduce I/O Braid, an interactive textile cord with embedded sensing and visual feedback. I/O Braid senses proximity, touch, and twist through a spiraling, repeating braiding topology of touch matrices. This sensing topology is uniquely scalable, requiring only a few sensing lines to cover the whole length of a cord. The same topology allows us to embed fiber optic strands to integrate co-located visual feedback. We provide an overview of the enabling braiding techniques, design considerations, and approaches to gesture detection. These allow us to derive a set of interaction techniques, which we demonstrate with different form factors and capabilities. Our applications illustrate how I/O Braid can invisibly augment everyday objects, such as touch-sensitive headphones and interactive drawstrings on garments, while enabling discoverability and feedback through embedded light sources.


In a recent editorial, Fiorella et al 1 marvel at the recent maturation of the neurointerventional surgical field, which they attribute to what they claim are 'two seemingly diametrically opposed factors': industry-driven research and evidence-based practice (emphasis ours).1 The thesis of the editorial is that, if randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are the gold standard, they are not feasible in many circumstances.

Here is the list of situations for which RCTs are allegedly not 'feasible': 'At the introduction of a new device'; 'When devices are designed to treat diseases that have a poor natural history with standard management'; 'When no suitable control group exists'; 'When iterative technologies emerge to compete with existing technology'; 'When the disease is insufficiently prevalent for an RCT to be completed'; 'When there is no market to support an industry-sponsored trial'; and 'When treatment is proven for the same disease in a different patient population'.1

Are there any indications left? When should our community properly test innovative treatments against the standard management that has existed up until then? If not at the introduction of the innovation, when uncertainty is maximal; if not later in the process, when clinicians are 'accumulating critical case experience', and not even when a second iteration emerges, then when? According to the authors, it is too late when 'equipoise no longer exists'. Thus we are invited to consider innovative solutions. Unfortunately, the small case series with historical comparisons that the authors propose can hardly qualify as innovative: they are the very methods which have previously misled us and that …


The past two decades have seen an increased emphasis placed on the relationship between communication and ethics, a subject that philosophers have debated for centuries. An analysis of textbooks as disciplinary artifacts reveals that students enrolled in communication courses across the university are often presented with conflicting or contradictory ethics instruction. Commonly, business and technical communication textbooks advocate a foundational approach toward the subject, whereas interpersonal communication textbooks, as taught within the liberal arts, support a nonfoundational view. Rather than bolstering students' understanding of the importance of ethical communication, such broad-based contradictions might lead to an overall ambivalence toward the subject. A critical pedagogy—one that acknowledges and explores this tacit disciplinary debate on ethics—would provide students a more comprehensive philosophical and historical basis for determining their own perspectives on ethical communication.


Introduction: Achieve to maximum progress and improvement, just depends on addressing targeted research investment and investment of researchers and students. So, the present study was accomplished by the aim of evaluation of the relationship between self-efficacy in research and research performance of dental student of Yazd Dental College in 2014. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, all interns and assistants in Yazd Dental School were participated. The required data were collected by using the Self-efficacy in Research and Research Performance questionnaire plus demographic variables (age, sex and duration of using denture). The data were analyzed by SPSS ver.16 using ANOVA, T-test and Pearson's correlation coefficient. Results: In the present study, 80 students with the mean age 27.30±4.67 years were participated. Twenty-two students (27.5%) were males and 58 (72.5%) were females. The overall mean of self-efficacy in research was 159.79±27.69. And the mean of research performance was 11.02±16.37. The results showed that there was a significant and positive relationship between the overall scale of self-efficacy and research (p-value=0.004,r= .03). Based on the age, there was no significant difference in the mean score of self-efficacy in research in all aspects but in the areas of skills and expertise (p>0.05). There was a significant difference in the mean score of research performance in terms of the age(p-value=0.023). There was no statistical significant between the overall mean score and the score of seven parts of self-efficacy in research and research performance in the terms of sex (P>0.05). Conclusions: Regarding the association of self-efficacy in research with research performance of dental students, it can be stated that awareness of the level of self efficacy in research can lead to better planning for improving the research performance.


Objective: To investigate the role of Notch signaling pathway in the differentiation of rat bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) into Schwann cells (SCs). Methods: BMSCs were isolated from high glucose medium and cultured in fetal bovine serum (FBS) and α-MEM medium. The resulting cells were treated with β-mercaptoethanol (β-ME), all-trans retinoic acid (RA), platelet-derived factor (PDGF-AA), basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF), Forskolin, Heregulin .After induction of differentiation,cells were divided into three groups: control group, all-induced group and blocker group. Notch pathway blocker DAPT was added in the blocker group upon induction. The expression of Jagg1 ligand, Hes1 target gene, Notch1, Dll1 receptor protein and signal protein (S100, p75, GFAP) were determined by quantitative RT-qPCR. Cell proliferation was measured by CCK-8. Flow cytometry was used to detect the apoptosis of MSCs .Results: Compared with the control group, the expression of SCs signal protein (S100, p75, GFAP) was significantly increased in the all-induced group and the blocker group. Compared with theall- induced group, the Jagg1 ligand , Hes1 target gene, Notch1, Dll1 receptor protein was significantly lower; compared with the all- induced of the group, the proliferation effect of the blocker group and the apoptosis rate was significantly lower than the other two groups, the difference was statistically significant, P <0.05) . Conclusion: Inhibition of Notch signaling pathway can enhance the differentiation of MSCs into SCs. The possible mechanism is that Notch signaling pathway may promote cell proliferation and promote early apoptosis of MSCs.


1. The skeletal muscle capillary permeability to 131I− and [51Cr]EDTA was studied in the exercising human forearm of seventeen non-diabetics and seventeen long-term juvenile diabetics with clinical signs of diabetic angiopathy.

2. The permeability data was obtained using the indicator diffusion technique, which implies intra-arterial injection and collection of multiple venous samples during the first passage of the tracers through the organ. The capillary permeability was expressed as the capillary diffusion capacity, CDC, i.e. the maximum unidirectional flux of tracer over the capillary membrane of 100 g of muscle per unit concentration difference over the capillary.

3. The average values for both CDCI and CDCCr-EDTA were found to be significantly increased ( P < 0·001) in long-term diabetics as opposed to non-diabetics: CDC1 = 18·7 (SD, 3·2), 13·2 (SD, 1·0); CDCCr-EDTA = 6·74 (SD, 1·09), 3·73 (SD, 0·30)mol 100g−1 min−1 per mol ml−1 respectively.

4. The findings indicate an increased skeletal muscle capillary permeability in long-term diabetics which most probably is due to an increased permeability per unit capillary surface area.


The interplay between the torsional potential energy and the scaling of the 1-4 van der Waals and Coulomb interactions determines the stiffness of flexible molecules. In molecular simulations often ad-hoc values for the scaling factor (SF) are adopted without adequate justification. In this letter we demonstrate for the first time that the precise value of the SF has direct consequences on the critical properties and mechanisms of systems undergoing a phase transition. By analyzing the melting of n-alkanes (hexane C6, dodecane C12, tetracosane C24) on graphite, we show that the SF is not a universal feature, that it monotonically decreases with the molecular length, and that it drives a cross-over between two distinct mechanisms for melting in such systems.


As a result of the divorce revolution, more children grow up in complex families. Yet, we know little about how family complexity affects relationships when children are adults and parents are ageing. In this article, we use unique survey data to test fundamental ideas about intergenerational ties: the role of biology, partnerships (marriage and cohabitation), residence, and selection. The survey used a register-based oversample of Dutch adults who grew up in nonstandard families, collected data among adult children and their parent figures, and used a double multi-actor design in which adult children reported on their parents and parents reported on their children. Using random- and fixed-effects models, we confirm most hypotheses but the results are highly gendered. For fathers, we find evidence for a partnership premium and no disadvantage of being a stepparent once the length of residence is adjusted. For mothers, the partnership premium is weaker but the effect of biology is strong: stepmother-stepchild ties are much weaker, even after taking residence patterns into account. Biological mothers are the primary kinkeepers, and for fathers of any type, their relationship to children depends on their partnership to the biological mother. Within-family comparisons suggest that selection into divorce and remarriage do not explain these disadvantages.


Distributed learning has become a hot research topic due to its wide application in cluster-based large-scale learning, federated learning, edge computing and so on. Most traditional distributed learning methods typically assume no failure or attack on workers. However, many unexpected cases, such as communication failure and even malicious attack, may happen in real applications. Hence, Byzantine learning (BL), which refers to distributed learning with failure or attack, has recently attracted much attention. Most existing BL methods are synchronous, which are impractical in some applications due to heterogeneous or offline workers. In these cases, asynchronous BL (ABL) is usually preferred. In this paper, we propose a novel method, called buffered asynchronous stochastic gradient descent (BASGD), for ABL. To the best of our knowledge, BASGD is the first ABL method that can resist malicious attack without storing any instances on server. Compared with those methods which need to store instances on server, BASGD takes less risk of privacy leakage. BASGD is proved to be convergent, and be able to resist failure or attack. Empirical results show that BASGD significantly outperforms vanilla ASGD and other ABL baselines when there exists failure or attack on workers.


Purpose Sociocultural factors influence psychological adjustment to cancer in Asian patients in two major ways: prioritization of relationships over individual orientations and belief in the efficacy of interpersonal cooperation. We derived and validated among Chinese colorectal cancer (CRC) patients an instrument assessing cancer perceptions to enable the study of the sociocultural processes. Patients and methods Qualitative interviews (n=16) derived 15 items addressing interpersonal experience in Chinese CRC patients' adjustment. These 15 items and 18 corresponding self-referent items were administered to 166 Chinese CRC survivors and subjected to exploratory factor analysis (EFA) to establish the initial scale structure and reliability. The final 29 items, together with other psychometric measures, were administered to a second cohort of 215 CRC patients and subjected to confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Results EFA (63.35% of the total variance) extracted six factors: personal strain, socioeconomic strain, emotional strain, personal efficacy, collective efficacy, and proxy efficacy. CFA confirmed the psychometric structure [χ(df)=702.91 (368); Comparative Fit Index=0.95; Nonnormed Fit Index= 0.94; Incremental Fit Index=0.95; standardized root mean square residual=0.08] of the six factors by using a model with two latent factors: experience and efficacy. All subscales were reliable (α=0.76–0.92). Appropriate correlations with adjustment outcomes (symptom distress, psychological morbidity, and subjective well-being), optimistic personalities, and social relational quality indicated its convergent and divergent validity. Known group comparisons (i.e., age, active treatment, and colostomy) showed its clinical utility. Conclusion The cancer experience and efficacy scale is a valid multidimensional instrument for assessing intrapersonal and interpersonal dimensions of cancer experience in Asian patients, potentiating existing patient-reported outcome measures.


When targeting frontier technologies, less developed economies usually face obstacles to achieve high growth in the long run, because of their low level of knowledge relative to the adoption technology target. If the intensity in which the adoption activity uses knowledge is high, then the less developed economy may end up trapped in a low growth equilibrium. We show that in this case it is beneficial to target less advanced technologies, which helps to compensate the scarcity of knowledge during the transition. Nevertheless, polarization is possible. If knowledge intensity in the adoption activity is low, then possessing a low stock of knowledge allows targeting the technology frontier even in a poor R&D environment. In this case, all economies achieve a high growth equilibrium in which only income level differences persist in the long run.


The extreme urgency in discussing terror bombings and anticipatory self-defense cannot be overstated. Terror bombings were responsible for the single bloodiest month for U.S. and British troops in Afghanistan (July, 2009), for the death of nine people in Indonesia (July, 2009) for the death of three policemen in Spain and for the death of countless Iraqi citizens (including August, 2009), just to name a few. This article specifically focuses on anticipatory self defense and intelligence gathering in an effort to proactively prevent terror bombings. Terror bombing is defined herein within the broadest possible parameters to include the following: dirty bombs, suicide bombings, remote controlled bombings and nuclear weapons and presents the greatest contemporary threat presently posed by terrorists. Therefore, it is critical that terror bombings are understood and effective counter-measures developed. The most effective way to understand the threat is through a detailed comparative analysis of terror bombings and the operational, policy, legislative, and judicial responses of the nations affected. In the article, I propose that the key to pre-empt, prevent and respond to the threats posed by terror bombings is stronger intelligence which is crucial in allowing nations to focus on effective anticipatory self-defense.


The paper aims at analysing the impact of the likely change in rainfall on food availability and access to food in Sudan. The empirical investigation is based on an integrated approach consisting on a stochastic method and CGE model. The former provides the likely changes in sorghum, millet and wheat productivity and their probability of occurrence according to rainfall predictions based on historical data. These results are at the basis of the shocks simulated in a standard CGE model augmented with a stochastic component. Achievements underline the negative impact on the two dimensions of food security taken into consideration, mainly due to a reduction in cereal supply, a marked cereal inflation pressure and income contraction; the grater negative effect on the poorest households; and a deterioration of the economic performance of the country. In this context, the paper stresses a strong interconnection among climate change, poverty and food insecurity and thus the need for an integrated policy-making approach.


According to David Lewis' influential thesis of Humean Supervenience, the world is a plurality of self-contained individuals standing in external relations of spatiotemporal distance. In the last decades, this thesis has been under attack by what I call 'holistic ontologies', the most salient of which are Dispositional Essentialism, Ontic Structural Realism, Priority Monism, and Existence Monism. These reactions obey different but closely related suspicions against the central features of Humean Supervenience. On one hand, there are suspicions against the idea of external relations; on the other hand, there are suspicions against the idea of self-contained plurals. Common to these holistic ontologies is to conceive the world not as an externally related heap but, in different degrees of strength, as an 'internally related whole'. This work, following Bradley's stance against relations, puts under critical scrutiny the merits of these holistic ontologies. The central aims are to make explicit the different senses of 'wholeness' and 'internal relatedness' that they happen to endorse; make explicit their internal flaws; and show the relative superiority of Existence Monism. As it happens, Existence Monism vindicates Bradley's core ideas about relations, namely: that external relations are unable to relate; that internal relations are inherently unstable; and that all relations–external and internal–are better understood as imperfect abstractions from a more substantial, non-relational, kind of unity. I conclude with some skeptical remarks against my own metaphysical preferences and against ontology in general.


The mechanism(s) by which arsenic exposure contributes to human cancer risk is unknown; however, several indirect cocarcinogenesis mechanisms have been proposed. Many studies support the role of As in altering one or more DNA repair processes. In the present study we used individual-level exposure data and biologic samples to investigate the effects of As exposure on nucleotide excision repair in two study populations, focusing on the excision repair cross-complement 1 (ERCC1) component. We measured drinking water, urinary, or toenail As levels and obtained cryopreserved lymphocytes of a subset of individuals enrolled in epidemiologic studies in New Hampshire (USA) and Sonora (Mexico). Additionally, in corroborative laboratory studies, we examined the effects of As on DNA repair in a cultured human cell model. Arsenic exposure was associated with decreased expression of ERCC1 in isolated lymphocytes at the mRNA and protein levels. In addition, lymphocytes from As-exposed individuals showed higher levels of DNA damage, as measured by a comet assay, both at baseline and after a 2-acetoxyacetylaminofluorene (2-AAAF) challenge. In support of the in vivo data, As exposure decreased ERCC1 mRNA expression and enhanced levels of DNA damage after a 2-AAAF challenge in cell culture. These data provide further evidence to support the ability of As to inhibit the DNA repair machinery, which is likely to enhance the genotoxicity and mutagenicity of other directly genotoxic compounds, as part of a cocarcinogenic mechanism of action.


JURISIC, M., A. STANISAVLJEVIC and I. PLASCAK, 2010. Application of Geographic Information System (GIS) in the selection of vineyard sites in Croatia. Bulg. J. Agric. Sci.,16: 235-242 The research determines the methods for site estimation taking into account a number of objective limiting factors that occur in grapevine growing. The relief parameterization was used for calculation of geomorphological parameters. The pedometric mapping was used for calculation of pedological variables. The actual condition of land cover was registered by sketches and plans gathered during on-site investigations. Afterwards the sketches were georeferenced and over-lapped to LANDSAT satellite images in order to verify the actual situation. Logical spatial inquieries were used in the selection of optimal sites for a particular kind of permanent plantations. The optimal vineyard site was defined as an overlapping of locations where, based on the physical plan you can find either valuable or especially valuable land, or other arable land and of southern relief exposition with a total of an annual incoming light level above 1208 KWh/m 2 as well as the relief sloping not above 12% and under 2%. This implies an altitude not lower than 110 m and the soil acidity up to 5.6 pH. The inquiery produced a simple map showing the areas which are either suitable (1) or not (0) for grapevine growing. Estimation showed that a total of 17782 ha of the County are suitable for grapevine growing. Compared to the actual situation (1612 ha) it is discernible that about 10% of available resources have been used.


"I Never Thought I'd See You Again: Painting History" Curated group exhbition: Mike Bouchet and Paul McCarthy, Jason Brooks, Agnieszka Brzezanska, Jonah Freeman and Justin Lowe, Pamela Golden, Diango Hernandez, Narelle Jubelin, Koen van den Broek, Ian Whittlesea
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I never thought I'd see you again.
Where have you been until now?
Well how are you? how have you been?
It's a long time since we last met.
Roxy Music, "Chance Meeting"

"I never thought I'd see you again" is not exactly about history painting. Neither obliged to any style, nor explicitly referential to particular precedents, the exhibition begins with the premise that painting, more than any medium, is always driven by its own genres.

Painting is persistent in the history of art precisely because of the specificity of the styles and idioms it adopts or quotes. Even if contemporary painting is underpinned by a conceptual framework, it is almost impossible to avoid some reference to that almost infinite list of established modes - landscape, portrait, still life, formalist, expressionist, to name a few.

But rather than painting being a reiteration of its past, the recognition of, and resistance to, these conventions makes it a site of constant renewal. No longer bound to such polarities as figuration or abstraction, contemporary practice takes the idea of painting as a given. It co-opts genres without hierarchy or priority, and as a type of shorthand or economy of expression. That is to say, we recognise something in the 'style' of the painting.

We speak its language, because many of the conventions of painting are all around us in the visual information we negotiate every day. We recognise the conventions, from perspective to painterly gesture, even if those conventions are put to work for different purposes. And it is less about what an image in the painting might convey, than the means through which that image or gesture is achieved.

The exhibition does not try to find a unified style for painting today, but recognises that there are modes in which the painter may operate, perhaps without long-term commitment, but also without irony. Painting is never without reference, context or precedent. It always carries with it many memories and legacies and at the same time appears thoroughly regenerated.


BACKGROUND: Brainstem cavernous malformations (BSCMs) are relatively uncommon, low-flow vascular lesions. Because of their relative rarity, relatively little data on their natural history and on the efficacy and durability of their treatment. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the long-term durability of surgical treatment of BSCMs and to document patient outcomes and clinical complications. METHODS: The charts of all patients undergoing surgical treatment of BSCM between 1985 and 2009 were reviewed retrospectively. The study population consisted of 300 patients who had surgery for BSCM. Forty patients were under 19 years of age at surgery; pediatric BSCMs have been reported separately. Patient demographics, lesion characteristics, surgical approaches, and patient outcomes were examined. RESULTS: The study population consisted of 260 adult patients with a female-to-male ratio of 1.5 and mean age of 41.8 years. Of the 260 patients, 252 presented with a clinical or radiographic history of hemorrhage. The mean follow-up in 240 patients was 51 months. The mean Glasgow Outcome Scale on admission, at discharge, and at last follow-up was 4.4, 4.2, and 4.6. Postoperatively, 137 patients (53%) developed new or worsening neurological symptoms. Permanent new deficits remained in 93 patients 3(36%). There were perioperative complications in 74 patients (28%); tracheostomy, feeding tube placement, and cerebrospinal fluid leakage were most common. Eighteen patients (6.9%) experienced 20 rehemorrhages. Twelve patients required reoperation for residual/recurrent BSCM. The overall annual risk of postoperative rehemorrhage was 2%/patient. CONCLUSION: Although BSCM surgery has significant associated risks, including perioperative complications, new neurological deficits, and death, most patients have favorable outcomes. Overall, surgery markedly improved the risk of rehemorrhage and related symptoms and should be considered in patients with accessible lesions.


The molecular mechanism of the Povarov reaction in acetonitrile has been studied at the MPWB1K/6-311G** level of theory. This reaction follows a domino process that comprises two sequential reactions: (i) a Lewis acid catalysed aza-Diels–Alder (A-DA) reaction between a N-aryl imine and a nucleophilic ethylene yielding a formal [4 + 2] cycloadduct; (ii) a stepwise 1,3-hydrogen shift at this intermediate affording the final tetrahydroquinoline. At this computational level, the Lewis acid catalysed A-DA reaction presents a two-step mechanism as a consequence of the large stabilisation of the corresponding zwitterionic intermediate. Our study allows establishing that the N-aryl substituent has no remarkable incidence in the activation energy, but the presence of a second C-aryl substituent has a relevant role in the reaction rate. Analysis of the DFT-based reactivity indices of the reagents provides further explanation of the behaviours of the mechanism of the A-DA reaction involved in the Povarov reaction.


Abstract. Mobile augmented reality system is the next generation technology to visualise 3D real world intelligently. The technology is expanding at a fast pace to upgrade the status of a smart phone to an intelligent device. The research problem identified and presented in the current work is to view actual dimensions of various objects that are captured by a smart phone in real time. The methodology proposed first establishes correspondence between LiDAR point cloud, that are stored in a server, and the image t hat is captured by a mobile. This correspondence is established using the exterior and interior orientation parameters of the mobile camera and the coordinates of LiDAR data points which lie in the viewshed of the mobile camera. A pseudo intensity image is generated using LiDAR points and their intensity. Mobile image and pseudo intensity image are then registered using image registration method SIFT thereby generating a pipeline to locate a point in point cloud corresponding to a point (pixel) on the mobile image. The second part of the method uses point cloud data for computing dimensional information corresponding to the pairs of points selected on mobile image and fetch the dimensions on top of the image. This paper describes all steps of the proposed method. The paper uses an experimental setup to mimic the mobile phone and server system and presents some initial but encouraging results


Saying that human dignity constitutes a problem may require explanation. It is in fact one of those things that we like to take for granted, and thus not to consider a problem. At the same time, paradoxically, we may be so sceptical about the possibility of bringing it into focus that we aren't willing even to consider as amounting to a problem.
Between these two extreme, but common, attitudes this article addresses the problem of identifying what human dignity is, what we mean by the expression and what we refer to when we intend what is meant by the expression. Discussions about this have often turned into a competition between different traditions and worldviews that provide incompatible 'foundations' for human dignity, a competition that seems to have to be 'won' before a discussion of the nature of human dignity can begin. Such competition misses the point that we must mean something by the word for us to find it meaningful in order to fight about it. The 'problem' of human dignity consists in finding out what this is, and dealing with the problem thus serves to deflect attention away from the issue of conflicting worldviews towards the central theme around which they diverge, but on which they must converge for any discussion of human dignity to be meaningful. Concentrating on the problem in this manner implicitly directs itself towards its 'solution', i.e. to finding out what it might be that different conceptualisations compete to conceptualise.
In the following we shall first give a 'satellite' overview of what has been said about human dignity in the European tradition and discuss how to interpret the textual evidence (1). Then we shall suggest that human dignity could plausibly be said to be the fundamental value of the human being and show that representative accounts of the textual evidence converge on this idea (2). And finally we shall explain by a phenomenological analysis what it means that human dignity is the fundamental value of
the human being (3). The background to this is my recent book On the Problem of Human Dignity, in which sources are discussed and arguments unfolded in much more detail. Here I shall attempt to present the argument in miniature. It goes without saying that there is more to say.


The characterisation of termination using well-founded monotone algebras has been a milestone on the way to automated termination techniques, of which we have seen an extensive development over the past years. Both the semantic characterisation and most known termination methods are concerned with global termination, uniformly of all the terms of a term rewriting system (TRS). In this paper we consider local termination, of specific sets of terms within a given TRS. The principal goal of this paper is generalising the semantic characterisation of global termination to local termination. This is made possible by admitting the well-founded monotone algebras to be partial. We also extend our approach to local relative termination. The interest in local termination naturally arises in program verification, where one is probably interested only in sensible inputs, or just wants to characterise the set of inputs for which a program terminates. Local termination will be also be of interest when dealing with a specific class of terms within a TRS that is known to be non-terminating, such as combinatory logic (CL) or a TRS encoding recursive program schemes or Turing machines. We show how some of the well-known techniques for proving global termination, such as stepwise removal of rewrite rules and semantic labelling, can be adapted to the local case. We also describe transformations reducing local to global termination problems. The resulting techniques for proving local termination have in some cases already been automated. One of our applications concerns the characterisation of the terminating S-terms in CL as regular language. Previously this language had already been found via a tedious analysis of the reduction behaviour of S-terms. These findings have now been vindicated by a fully automated and verified proof.


Both natural infection with SARS-CoV-2 and immunization with a number of vaccines induce protective immunity. However, the ability of such immune responses to recognize and therefore protect against emerging variants is a matter of increasing importance. Such variants of concern (VOC) include isolates of lineage B1.1.7, first identified in the UK, and B1.351, first identified in South Africa. Our data confirm that VOC, particularly those with substitutions at residues 484 and 417 escape neutralization by antibodies directed to the ACE2-binding Class 1 and the adjacent Class 2 epitopes but are susceptible to neutralization by the generally less potent antibodies directed to Class 3 and 4 epitopes on the flanks RBD. To address this potential threat, we sampled a SARS-CoV-2 uninfected UK cohort recently vaccinated with BNT162b2 (Pfizer-BioNTech, two doses delivered 18-28 days apart), alongside a cohort naturally infected in the first wave of the epidemic in Spring 2020. We tested antibody and T cell responses against a reference isolate (VIC001) representing the original circulating lineage B and the impact of sequence variation in these two VOCs. We identified a reduction in antibody neutralization against the VOCs which was most evident in the B1.351 variant. However, the majority of the T cell response was directed against epitopes conserved across all three strains. The reduction in antibody neutralization was less marked in post-boost vaccine-induced than in naturally-induced immune responses and could be largely explained by the potency of the homotypic antibody response. However, after a single vaccination, which induced only modestly neutralizing homotypic antibody titres, neutralization against the VOCs was completely abrogated in the majority of vaccinees. These data indicate that VOCs may evade protective neutralising responses induced by prior infection, and to a lesser extent by immunization, particularly after a single vaccine, but the impact of the VOCs on T cell responses appears less marked. The results emphasize the need to generate high potency immune responses through vaccination in order to provide protection against these and other emergent variants. We observed that two doses of vaccine also induced a significant increase in binding antibodies to spike of both SARS-CoV-1 & MERS, in addition to the four common coronaviruses currently circulating in the UK. The impact of antigenic imprinting on the potency of humoral and cellular heterotypic protection generated by the next generation of variant-directed vaccines remains to be determined.


The behavioral effects of long-term exposure to a mixture of organic solvents were investigated in a comparison of the test results of 100 car painters with those of a reference group. The test battery included tests for intelligence, memory, psychomotor performances, and personality. In addition to the comparison of the mean results, two discriminant function analyses were made. In one, only the performance test variables were used, but in the other personality variables were also included. The results indicated impairments in psychological performances, as well as personality changes in the exposed group. Impairments in visual intelligence and verbal memory and a reduction of emotional reactivity were the central features of the adverse effects of solvent exposure, but the behavioral disturbances also involved several other functions, including performance on a verbal intelligence test. The possible role of the differences in the initial intelligence levels were controlled with a separate comparison of the test results of 33 pairs of exposed and nonexposed subjects who were matched for age and for their intelligence level, measured during the military service. The discriminant function analyses were based on the results of these matched subgroups and tested in the rest of the material. According to the results the sensitivity of the psychological test methods was high, but the specificity somewhat low, with regard to solvent exposure. The concentration of various solvents included in the exposure of car painters were low, the summated exposure corresponding corresponding to 32% of the Finnish threshold limit value. The possible role of a potentiating effect of the solvent in the development of behavioral disturbances is discussed.


The foreign fighter phenomenon in Syria and Iraq has led to many worries about the potential negative consequences that might occur in the near future. The scenario of returned foreign fighters launching attacks in the West is by far the most prominent one. This article aims to broaden the discussion on the potential fallout of the phenomenon by examining three particular dimensions: the physical threat (including the terrorist threat), ideological consequences, and societal consequences. After presenting these dimensions, three historical cases of jihadi foreign fighting (Afghanistan, Bosnia and Somalia) are examined to see to what extent different types of fallout materialized. The final part of the article attempts to gauge which indicators or signs of potential fallout are already observable in the case of the on-going conflict in Syria and Iraq. If we seek to prepare ourselves for the future fallout of today's foreign fighter phenomenon, we must look beyond the terrorist threat.


Parental care, male desertion, and reproductive success in the Spanish Sparrow, Passer hispaniolensis. Zoological Studies 43(1): 123-131. Parental care in altricial birds is costly, and mate desertion can occur due to sexual conflict over the level of parental investment in the offspring. This cessation of parental care by 1 parent can affect the success of the current reproduction. In the Spanish Sparrow (Passer hispaniolensis), the nests can either have bi-parental or female-only care. Males desert early in the breeding cycle. This study quantifies parental feeding effort and brooding behavior in nests with bi-parental or femaleonly care, and describes the impact of desertion on reproductive success. The absence of differences between sexes in bi-parental care nests suggests that males generated feeding efforts similar to females, but females performed a greater number of brooding visits. Bi-parental care nests presented higher total feeding effort compared to uni-parental care nests, but the average feeding care received by each nestling did not significantly differ between the 2 types of nests, due to the higher number of nestlings present in the bi-parental nests. From these results, we expect, as was observed, that nestling conditions were similar between uni- and biparental nests. Only hatching success differed between uni- and bi-parental nests, while other breeding success parameters did not significantly differ between nest types. Single females invested significantly more per nestling than did coupled female, having to provide more in order to feed the same number of offspring. These results suggest that single females compensated for the absence of male parental care in order to maintain their short-term fitness.


Nearly all of the state and federal laws that treat embryos as persons contain a fundamental ambiguity. Contrary to common belief, there is no "moment" of conception. Instead, conception is a forty-eight hour process, during which the haploid genomes of the sperm and egg are gradually and precisely transformed into the functioning diploid genome of a new human embryo. During that two-day period, many common clinical and laboratories activities take place, including the culling of unsuitable embryos, the freezing of others, and the testing of embryos for genetic abnormalities. The legal status of these activities will turn on the point in the two-day process of conception that is chosen to trigger the life-begins-at-conception laws. In this Article, I argue that laws triggered by conception should not take effect until the process of conceiving a new diploid embryo is complete. This occurs when the embryonic genome begins to function, roughly forty-eight hours after insemination, at the eight-cell stage. Prior to that, a new human life is being conceived, but has not yet been conceived. Although many people will find this a surprising conclusion, it is consistent with both the gradual nature of the transformation from gametes to embryo and with the goals that the authors of these laws sought to accomplish.


With the rise and proliferation of social media on the Internet, social media analysis is emerging as a new business model for software companies. The purpose of this paper is to provide a systematic overview of different types of such business models. After developing a coding schema based on the business model, we conducted an in-depth analysis of 16 websites of companies that actively promote social media analysis to their clients. We identified three archetypes of business models in this area: specialist content analysts, social data and application integrator, and social media service provider. Future research can build on these insights in order to focus on designing or revising methods for social media analysis to realize either of these business models. Software companies can benefit from the results by positioning their own business models in this emerging market more thoughtfully.


The objectives of this paper are two-fold: a. Demonstrate by means of a well-documented full-scale case history in the Great Lakes that beach nourishment can mitigate shore damage due to a littoral barrier; b. Detail a methodology for analysis of the effectiveness of mitigation measures which lead to conclusions on the needed frequency of nearshore soundings as a tool for monitoring. In 1970 a temporary harbor was installed by private interests along the southeastern Lake Michigan shoreline near Bridgman, Michigan, (Figure 1). The harbor was necessary to protect floating plant involved in building a large privately-owned electric generating facility. The harbor was constructed of steel sheet pile and extended lakeward about 125 meters from the water's-edge to a depth about 3 meters below low water datum (LWD)2. Net littoral transport is about 75,000 cubic meters per year southward. The updrift and downdrift lakebed and bluff materials consist of sand. To ensure that this littoral barrier would not have an adverse effect on adjacent properties it was necessary for the Corps of Engineers to impose stringent requirements for issuance of a Federal permit for the installation. Bypass of at least 75,000 cubic meters per year of sand was required to mitigate potential erosion of downdrift beaches due to interruption of littoral transport. The permit also required intensive monitoring of the shoreline to ensure that any adverse effects of the harbor would be promptly detected and remedied. The monitoring consisted of: a. Monthly 1:3000 scale aerial photographs of the shoreline sixteen kilometers north (updrift) to sixteen kilometers south (downdrift) ro\-fF tthheo htla'i rVtbt-lof\rv>. b. Monumenting and thrice-yearly measurement of backshore-nearshore profiles spaced 150 meters apart, for a distance of 2450 meters north and 2450 meters south of the harbor, extending about 900 meters lakeward to about -8 meters LWD (Figure 2). The nearshore soundings were made by acoustic sounder every 30 meters along each profile. The survey boat was located along the profile by triangulation. Backshore profiles were provided by photogrammetric mapping.


By using emulsions with high volume fractions of internal phase as polymerisation media porous copolymers of acrylic acid and acrylamide, cross-linked by methylenebisacrylamide, were prepared. The ratio of acrylic acid to acrylamide were varied (molar ratios 70:30, 50:50, 30:70) in order to yield polymers with various loading of acidic functional groups. Porous polymers with an open-cellular architecture were obtained with void diameters between 2.8 μm and 3.9 μm and with interconnecting pores approx. 0.3 μm in diameter. The chemical composition of the polymers influenced the conversion degrees during the process of functionalisation of acidic groups to acid chloride, being the highest in the case of polymer with the lowest content of acrilyc acid.


In Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum Co., the Supreme Court applied the presumption against extraterritorial application of U.S. law to hold that the Alien Tort Statute (ATS) did not encompass a claim between aliens for misconduct that occurred in another nation. Without much elaboration, the Court stated that the ATS only encompasses claims that "touch and concern the territory of the United States...with sufficient force to displace the presumption." As it did in Sosa v. Alvarez-Machain, the Kiobel Court purported to rest its decision on the original public meaning of the ATS when enacted in 1789. The Court, however, misperceived the original meaning of the statute by accepting two mistaken historical claims about the ATS advanced by academics and lower courts. First, the Court accepted the notion that incidents involving the rights of ambassadors prompted the First Congress to enact the ATS. Second, the Court endorsed the idea that the ATS was originally meant to cover only three "torts" that corresponded to the three criminal offenses against the law of nations emphasized by Blackstone in his Commentaries — namely, torts against ambassadors, violations of safe conducts, and claims relating to piracy. Both propositions lack substantial support in the historical record and oversimplify the political context in which the statute was enacted. To address incidents involving ambassadors, the First Congress enacted distinct jurisdictional and criminal provisions, including vesting original jurisdiction over claims by ambassadors in the Supreme Court. Indeed, the First Congress enacted specific jurisdictional and criminal provisions to address all three of the "Blackstone crimes." The ATS served a different purpose. Congress enacted the statute to cover a distinct category of claims by foreign citizens against U.S. citizens for acts of violence that none of these other provisions adequately addressed. The Court's reliance on these two myths in Sosa and Kiobel led it to misconstrue the ATS and, in certain respects, to unduly narrow the statute's application. In future cases, the Court should abandon these myths and recognize that the ATS was originally meant to apply (1) to a broader range of tort claims by aliens, and (2) only to claims against U.S. citizens — a jurisdictional limitation that the Court has yet to address.


Practical applications of portfolio optimisation tend to proceed on a "top down" basis where funds are allocated first at asset class level (between, say, bonds, cash, equities and real estate) and then, progressively, at sub-class level (within property to sectors, office, retail, industrial for example). While there are organisational benefits from such an approach, it can potentially lead to sub-optimal allocations when compared to a "global" or "side-by-side" optimisation. This will occur where there are correlations between sub-classes across the asset divide that are masked in aggregation – between, for instance, City offices and the performance of financial services stocks. This paper explores such sub-class linkages using UK monthly stock and property data. Exploratory analysis using clustering procedures and factor analysis suggests that property performance and equity performance are distinctive: there is little persuasive evidence of contemporaneous or lagged sub-class linkages. Formal tests of the equivalence of optimised portfolios using top-down and global approaches failed to demonstrate significant differences, whether or not allocations were constrained. While the results may be a function of measurement of market returns, it is those returns that are used to assess fund performance. Accordingly, the treatment of real estate as a distinct asset class with diversification potential seems justified.


The paper presents the performance of a novel distributed bus differential protection scheme, which utilizes independent multi-principle advanced protection algorithms, including differential percent slope, delta phase directional comparison, rate of change of differential (ROCOD) currents, delta phase directional comparison on neutral current differential, and a check zone to secure the electrical bus bars up to three zones (two main and one transfer bus). This bus protection scheme measures currents from conventional CTs, converts them into digital signals and publish them using IEC 61850 process bus based (9-2) sampled values as Merging Unit. It also subscribes the sampled values amongst all the other relay units (within protection scheme) using fiber optic / copper Ethernet communication. High-speed GOOSE messages (IEC 61850, 8-1) is used to monitor the real time Isolator / Circuit Breaker status, enabling dynamic reconfiguration of the CT inputs to different bus protection relay units depending on the load – generation availability. The proposed bus protection scheme does not need any external Ethernet switch for the sampled value (9-2) exchange. Once the sampled values are received by each protection relay unit, they all act as MASTER relays, and all the relays respond (trip/block) simultaneously to the system event. This also adds redundancy into the bus protection scheme. Rigorous validation and testing has been carried out to validate the performance of the relay scheme using a transmission system simulated in a RTDS (Real Time Digital Simulator). The test cases include switching, loading, inrush currents, and extreme CT saturation conditions for external and internal faults. Many test cases to reflect the practical situation such as high impedance faults, evolving faults, and faults on lightly loaded conditions have also been performed and will be discussed.


INTRODUCTION
Fine-needle aspiration (FNA) is routinely used to distinguish benign from malignant tumors in thyroid nodules. Most benign or malignant diagnosis are confirmed by histology, but for suspected malignancies (Follicular neoplasm and Hürthle-cell neoplasm histology is always required. Some clinical factors have been identified as predictors of malignancy in the suspicious cases with eventual interest for treatment options.

AIM
To determine the correlation between FNA and histological diagnosis in malignant tumors at Hospital de Egas Moniz. Identify factors that may influence the risk of malignancy in patients with suspected malignancies (Tumor size, gender and age group).

METHODS
Retrospective study of patients with malignant or suspected malignant tumors diagnosed by FNA in the institution. All patients were subsequently diagnosed by histology and age, sex and tumor dimension were also recorded.

RESULTS
From 2685 FNA performed between October 1996 and June 2005, 68 patients were considered for analysis, which have been diagnosed as malignant (34 patients) or suspicious of malignancy (34 patients). Only in one case didn't the histology confirm the cytological diagnosis of malignancy. Among the suspicious FNA 25 were benign (23 female and 2 male, mean age of 54,3 +/-17 yo and mean nodule size of 2,8 +/- 1,8 cm) and nine (26,5%) were malignant (all female, mean age 68,3 +/- 13 yo and mean nodule size 2,67 +/- 1,5 cm). Nodules with 2 cm or more were malignant in 37% (vs 8% when < 2 cm; P=0,033) and patients with 50 yo or more revealed to be malignant in 33% (vs 10% when < 50 yo; P=0,019), therefore nodule size and age were identified as independent predictors for malignancy.

CONCLUSIONS
There was a strong correlation between cytological and histological diagnoses. Age and tumor size were strong predictors of malignancy in patients with suspected malignancies. This and other factors may be useful to identify patients who may benefit from a total thyroidectomy as the first intervention.


Cadle and Yeates' Project Management for Information Systems is suitable for undergraduate students studying Project Management within the IT environment. This comprehensive and practical book is an excellent starting point for any students of Project Management for Information Systems, whether they are from a computing or a business background, at undergraduate or masters level. The authors strike a good balance - covering both the mechanics of project management and the human factors involved and include plenty of case studies and exercises as well as good and bad examples from real life. This fifth edition has new material on: development life-cycles and approaches (including agile approaches) different types of IS projects and how to manage them implementing change through information systems updated coverage of leadership and management.


Of the rocks exposed on the Earth9s surface, 66 percent (±3.5 percent) are sedimentary and 34 percent are crystalline, at the 95 percent confidence level. Extrusive igneous rocks average about one-fourth of all crystalline rock outcrops, with the highest percentages in Asia and South America. Less than 5 percent of all Precambrian rocks are mapped as sedimentary. The relationship between the geologic age of a sedimentary rock and its outcrop area is lognormal and is well described by a decay curve with a half-life of 130 × 10 6 yr. That is, one-half of all existing sedimentary rocks are younger than Jurassic. Such a short half-life indicates that the rate of sedimentary recycling must be very rapid.


Major transformations in the global political economy have ushered in what is commonly thought of as an information and communication technology-led revolution. While a great deal has been written about some aspects of this "global shift"--the so-called borderless world or intimations of a "new economy"--much less attention has been paid to its significance for politics and policymaking. This paper looks at the relationship between ICT and politics through an examination of the concept and practices associated with e-governance, taken to be integral to the re-shaping of relations between the state, the market and society. The discussion does not assume either the feasibility or desirability of e-governance. Rather it interrogates the governance model itself, and what this signifies for state capacity, through an empirical assessment of e-governance in the Philippines. The concluding argument suggests that there exist outstanding institutional and technological challenges that have yet to be addressed in any systematic way.


A critical difference between living and nonliving is the existence of cell membranes, and hydration of membrane surface is a prerequisite for structural stability and various functions such as absorption/desorption of drugs, proteins, and ions. Therefore, a molecular level understanding of water structure and dynamics near the membrane is important to perceive the role of water in such a biologically relevant environment. In our recent paper [ J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 2016 , 7 , 741 ] on the IR pump-probe study of the OD stretch mode of HDO near lipid multibilayers, we have observed two different vibrational lifetime components of OD stretch mode in the phospholipid multibilayer systems. The faster component (0.6 ps) is associated with OD groups interacting with the phosphate moiety of the lipid, while the slower component (1.9 ps) is due to choline-associated water molecules that are close to bulklike water. Here, we additionally use hydrazoic acid (HN3) as another IR probe of which frequency is highly sensitive to its local H-bonding water density. Interestingly, we found that the vibrational lifetime of the asymmetric azido stretch mode of HN3 in the lipid multibilayer system is similar to that in neat water, whereas its orientational relaxation is a bit slower than that in bulk water. This indicates that due to the tight packing of lipid molecules, particularly the head parts, in the gel phase, HN3 molecules mostly stay near the choline group of lipid and interact with water molecules in the vicinity of choline groups. This suggests that membrane surface-adsorbed molecules such as hydrophilic drug molecules may interact with choline-associated water molecules, when the membrane is in the gel phase, instead of phosphate-associated water molecules.


Many machine learning problems can be interpreted as learning for matching two types of objects (e.g., images and captions, users and products, queries and documents, etc.). The matching level of two objects is usually measured as the inner product in a certain feature space, while the modeling effort focuses on mapping of objects from the original space to the feature space. This schema, although proven successful on a range of matching tasks, is insufficient for capturing the rich structure in the matching process of more complicated objects. In this paper, we propose a new deep architecture to more effectively model the complicated matching relations between two objects from heterogeneous domains. More specifically, we apply this model to matching tasks in natural language, e.g., finding sensible responses for a tweet, or relevant answers to a given question. This new architecture naturally combines the localness and hierarchy intrinsic to the natural language problems, and therefore greatly improves upon the state-of-the-art models.


Background: Adeoid cystic carcinomas of the salivary gland
account for approximately 10% of parotid gland tumors.
Well-differentiated tumors are characterized by a slow growth
rate, a low recurrence rate after complete surgical excision
and rare metastatic potential. High-grade tumors are more
aggressive, local reccurence rate after surgery approaches 60%
and 30% develop distant metastases. We are presenting small
group - 6 cases with longer survival after targeted, biological
therapy Methods: 6 patients ( 4 males and 2 female) with median
age: 50 years. Multiple lung and liver dissemination with all
of them. Histology: adenoid cystic carcinoma, KRAS wt, ckit wt,
BRAF wt with all. In one women PDGFR mutation on exon 10. No
comorbidities, all tumors was clinically symptomatic.
Treatment: Combination Cisplatin 50mg/m2 day 1 +Fluorouracil
100mg/m2 48 h continual and docetaxel 60mg/m2 day 1 was used on
the first line , after progression in the second line patient
was treated with Mitoxantron monotherapy . Third line we
indicated imatinib mesylate to patients ckit wt and sunitinib
undervent female patient with PDGFR mutation. Results: Therapy
using docetaxel and platinum and fluorouracil was effective (
PR 4 patient , median TTP 10month ) The treatment with
Mitoxantron was effective :partial regression 5 patients TTP 13
months we have documentated. The effect of the treatment with
Imatinib mesylate: stabilization of the dissease 4 patient
without mutation TTP longer than 5 months in all cases. Female
patient with mutation was treated 8 months only,Sunitinib was
ineffective.Patients PDGFR wt are alive more than 2 years with
metastatic dissease Conclusions: In our group was PDGFR
mutation negative prognostic factor for treatment effect and
progression.Patients with ckit wt and PDGFR wt have
documentated significantly better prognosis and chemotherapy
response.


The literature since 1985 on the biological monitoring of occupational, environmental, or iatrogenic exposures of humans to nickel is surveyed from the author's perspective. Urine and serum are the body fluids commonly analyzed for nickel. Nickel concentrations in urine specimens from unexposed persons usually exceed the current analytical detection limits, while nickel concentrations in their serum specimens are close to the detection limits. For this reason, and because urine collection is painless, noninvasive, and convenient, urine is more practical than serum for the biological monitoring of nickel-exposed workers. Electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry with Zeeman background correction is currently the method of choice for the analysis of nickel in biological materials. Procedures for quality assurance and strategies for biological monitoring are summarized, as performed in the author's laboratory, and current reference values are listed for nickel concentrations in urine and serum specimens from healthy unexposed persons.


Undoped and V-doped 6H—SiC single crystals have been grown by the physical vapor transport method. The V concentration is determined to be 3.76 × 1017 at/cm3 and 6.14 × 1017 at/cm3 by secondary ion mass spectrometry for low V-doped and high V-doped SiC samples, respectively. The undoped 6H—SiC shows diamagnetism, while the V-doped 6H—SiC exhibits weak ferromagnetism. The lower V-doped sample shows stronger ferromagnetism compared to that of the higher V-doped sample. However, the structural characterization indicates that the lower V-doped SiC has a relative poor crystalline quality. It is found that both V dopants and defects are essential for introducing ferromagnetic exchange in V-doped SiC single crystals.


I. INTRODUCTION Several striking trends have emerged from the Supreme Court's recent review of a number of patent cases: First, the Court has consistently found against patent holders in its most recent cases. Second, these unfavorable decisions have been remarkably free of dissent. Finally, there has been a significant increase in the number of patent cases reviewed by the Court. These important cases limit the once-formidable clout of patent holders, suggesting that appellate counsel for patent defendants can leverage the recent cases to protect their clients and eliminate undesirable patents. On the other hand, these new cases indicate that counsel for patent holders will face serious challenges in their attempt to reverse this trend in the law (but likely will reap significant rewards if they overcome those challenges). On either side, appellate practitioners have a chance to make a major difference in this important area of commercial law. II. THE IMPORTANCE OF THE PATENT APPEAL Patent law is generally regarded as an esoteric specialty, which raises the question of why the appellate community should care about the Supreme Court's patent decisions. One reason is quite simply that these cases often involve market power and thus involve very large sums of money. The recent patent litigation woes of medical device company Boston Scientific graphically illustrate why patents matter to today's industry and modern efforts at innovation and they also illuminate companies' reasons for devoting so many resources to patent litigation. It would be an understatement to say that patent litigation has not been kind to Boston Scientific during the first part of the twenty-first century. In February 2008, Boston Scientific suffered a $431,867,351.00 adverse judgment in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. (1) That was followed in May 2008 by a $250,000,000 jury verdict against the company in another case. (2) Thus, in less than six months, the company incurred roughly half a billion dollars in liability through unfavorable outcomes in patent cases. The subject of massive patent damages awards is beyond the scope of this practice note. However, Boston Scientific's troubles illustrate patent litigation's current importance. It is no wonder that patent litigation cases are sometimes referred to as "bet the company" cases. (3) Appellate practitioners, through their work before the Federal Circuit (which generally hears patent cases) (4) as well as in the Supreme Court itself, have a unique chance to help shape this important field. Several interesting trends are emerging in the Supreme Court's treatment of patent matters, trends that will impact patent litigation throughout the United States. III. THE SUPREME COURT'S RECENT DECISIONS HAVE CONSISTENTLY FAVORED PATENT-INFRINGEMENT DEFENDANTS Recently, the Supreme Court has not been kind to patent holders, which have lost five patent cases in a row before the Court. Even a simplified analysis of those cases illustrates this striking trend: First, in eBay Inc. v. MercExchange L.L.C., (5) in which patentee MercExchange sued eBay for infringement of the MercExchange patents, (6) the Court rejected the idea of a general rule whereby permanent injunctions are automatically granted to patentees who prevail at trial. (7) This would appear to be a major blow intended particularly to target so-called "patent trolls"--entities that create or collect patents and then withhold the inventions in order to garner profits by tactics such as bargaining for exorbitant licensing fees. (8) Some believe that the eBay decision was an attempt to rein in patent trolls by hobbling one of the valuable features of a patent--a virtual certainty of a right to exclude others from practicing the art or using the invention disclosed in the patent--by replacing it with the uncertainty of judicial discretion and reducing the leverage that patent trolls have had in negotiating licensing fees. …


The superposition of anatomical structures often greatly impedes detectability in conventional mammography. Spectral imaging and tomosynthesis are two promising methods used for suppression of the anatomical background. The aim of this thesis is to compare and evaluate the benefits of tomosynthesis and spectral imaging, both in combination and separately. A computer model for signal and noise transfer in tomosynthesis was developed and combined with an existing model for spectral imaging. Measurements were performed to validate the models. An ideal-observer detectability index incorporating anatomical noise was used as a figure of merit to compare the different modalities. For detection of a contrast-enhanced tumor in a breast with high anatomical background, the optimum performance for spectral tomosynthesis was found at a tomo-angle of 10 degrees. The improvement was in the order of a factor 10 compared to non-energy-resolved tomosynthesis with the same angular extent. This was supported by clinical results.


A direct numerical simulation (DNS) of bare rod bundles with a low pitch-to-diameter ratio is performed with heat transfer at different Prandtl numbers. Turbulence statistics for temperature and velocity as well as the turbulent budgets have been collected. High-fidelity simulations are performed with the spectral element method (SEM) using Nek5000, a highly scalable code. To pertain to industrial-related flows, a rod bundle model is based on Hooper and Wood's (Hooper, J. D., and Wood, D., 1984, "Fully Developed Rod Bundle Flow Over a Large Range of Reynolds Number," Nucl. Eng. Des., 83(1), pp. 31–46) experimental setup. Both wall normalized velocity profile and turbulent kinetic energy are validated with a Reynolds number of 22,600. Kolmogorov length scales and time scales are calculated to be within the simulation's spatial–temporal resolution. Moreover, gap vortices and coherent structures are quantified by using Lambda2 vortex criterion, frequency analysis, and two-point correlation. Heat transfer statistics are discussed with a constant heat flux for six different Prandtl numbers ranging from 2 to 0.002. This range shows significantly different characteristics in temperature for both mean and variance. Mean temperature profiles in the subchannel center are very sensitive to the Prandtl number when it becomes small. It is also found that the location of the local maxima for the variance of temperature fluctuations becomes very sensitive at larger Prandtl numbers. The temperature frequency analysis reveals a shift to lower frequencies for low Prandtl numbers. The DNS results provided in this work will contribute as benchmark for the improvement and development of existing and new turbulent heat transfer models at different Prandtl number regimes.


Migrant Capital presents state-of-the-art empirical, theoretical and methodological perspectives on migration, networks, social and cultural capital, exploring the ways in which these bodies of literature can inform and strengthen each other. In so doing, it brings the theoretical and methodological dimensions into dialogue with each other. The migrants discussed in the book are ethnically and socio-economically diverse and have a range of migratory trajectories and experiences. Various types of networks are looked at and compared: intra-ethnic and inter-ethnic; locally-based, national and transnational; informal and formal, including migrant community organisations. Migrant Capital is international in focus drawing on research from Australia, North America, the Caribbean and across Europe. Migration research often focuses on individual cases, thereby running the risk of over-emphasising the peculiarities of particular migrant groups and locations, leading to criticisms of empirical nationalism. The range of case studies in this collection can open up a comparative perspective in order to contribute to a broader theoretical framework rooted in empirical research.


Fuzzy description logics (DLs) have been investigated for over two decades, due to their capacity to formalize and reason with imprecise concepts. Very recently, it has been shown that for several fuzzy DLs, reasoning becomes undecidable. Although the proofs of these results differ in the details of each specific logic considered, they are all based on the same basic idea. In this report, we formalize this idea and provide sufficient conditions for proving undecidability of a fuzzy DL. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach by strengthening all previously-known undecidability results and providing new ones. In particular, we show that undecidability may arise even if only crisp axioms are considered.