Welcome to Atlanta, Georgia and to the 24th International Parallel and Distributed Processing Symposium. It has been my honor to spend several years of planning for Georgia Institute of Technology to host this event and to work with the Computer Society and our veteran volunteer team to make this week a reality. The success of this symposium is a direct result of the hard work and contributions made by many, including the organizing committee members, the steering committee, the authors, the speakers, and the commercial participants — all of whom I gratefully acknowledge.


While the application of cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM) to helical polymers in biology has a long history, due to the huge number of helical macromolecular assemblies in viruses, bacteria, archaea, and eukaryotes, the use of cryo-EM to study synthetic soft matter noncovalent polymers has been much more limited. This has mainly been due to the lack of familiarity with cryo-EM in the materials science and chemistry communities, in contrast to the fact that cryo-EM was developed as a biological technique. Nevertheless, the relatively few structures of self-assembled peptide nanotubes and ribbons solved at near-atomic resolution by cryo-EM have demonstrated that cryo-EM should be the method of choice for a structural analysis of synthetic helical filaments. In addition, cryo-EM has also demonstrated that the self-assembly of soft matter polymers has enormous potential for polymorphism, something that may be obscured by techniques such as scattering and spectroscopy. These cryo-EM structures have revealed how far we currently are from being able to predict the structure of these polymers due to their chaotic self-assembly behavior.


The world of science cannot be measured in terms of development and progress. It shows how far human mind can work and think. It has now reached to the technology known as "Blue Eyes Technology" that can sense and control human emotions and feelings through gadgets. The eyes, fingers, speech are the elements which help to sense the emotion level of human body. This paper implements a new technique known as Emotion Sensory World of Blue Eyes Technology which identifies human emotions (sad, happy or thinking) using image processing techniques by extracting eye portion from the captured image which is then compared with stored images of database. After identifying mood the songs will be played to make human emotion level normal. So, the media player is based on blue eyes technology(1). Emotion detection has several applications in areas such as artificial intelligence, image processing, intelligent Human-Computer interfaces. This paper reviews the literature on different aspects like different theories of emotions, methods of detecting emotions like face detection, eye detection, lip detection. This paper reviews comparative techniques for recognizing emotions through images.


This thesis will analyse the pros and cons of a module-based approach versus the currently existing certificate schemes and the proposed requirements for a module-based certificate scheme to serve as a plausible identity verification system. We will present a possible model and evaluate it in respect to the existing solutions and our set of identified requirements.


This paper undertakes the issue of portfolio insurance from the perspective of a risk-averse agent requiring his financial wealth to grow at a floored rate in excess of an equity benchmark. The suggested solution is a generalization of the CPPI approach within a two-equity asset framework. The paper examines some features of this extension related to its dynamic, its relative risk-reward profile and its static replication. It focuses more specifically on the optimal design of this portfolio strategy in the sense of consumption-investment decision making.


A 71-year-old man presented with a high fever, polyarthralgia, petechiae and palpable purpura accompanied by livedoid change on his legs and feet. Histopathological findings of the purpura revealed perivascular infiltration of neutrophils, mononuclear cells, and nuclear debris, and extravasation of red cells mainly in the upper dermis: all signs consistent with leukocytoclastic vasculitis. Small vessel thrombi, which are characteristic features of septic vasculopathy, were also observed. Direct immunofluorescence showed negative results. Blood culture revealed the growth of gram-negative bacilli. Subsequently, 16S rRNA sequencing of DNA confirmed the organism as Streptobacillus moniliformis, which is the causative pathogen of rat-bite fever. He had frequently encountered wild rats in his house although there was no evidence of rat bite on his body. Empiric therapy with intravenous administration of ceftriaxone in combination with azithromycin hydrate led to a prompt resolution of the symptoms. Precise history-taking related to contact with rats and detection of skin eruptions suggestive of leukocytoclastic vasculitis on the extremities, especially on the feet, can be clues to Streptobacillus moniliformis infection. Familiarity with its cutaneous features is important for early diagnosis; the evidence herein may also help in understanding its underlying pathogenesis.


This work proposes a distributed control scheme for the state agreement problem which can guarantee prescribed performance for the system transient. In particular, i) we consider a set of agents that can exchange information according to a static communication graph, ii) we a priori define time-dependent constraints at the edge's space (errors between agents that exchange information) and iii) we design a distributed controller to guarantee that the errors between the neighboring agents do not violate the constraints. Following this technique the contributions are twofold: a) the convergence rate of the system and the communication structure of the agents' network which are strictly connected can be decoupled, and b) the connectivity properties of the initially formed communication graph are rendered invariant by appropriately designing the prescribed performance bounds. It is also shown how the structure and the parameters of the prescribed performance controller can be chosen in case of connected tree graphs and connected graphs with cycles. Simulation results validate the theoretically proven findings while enlightening the merit of the proposed prescribed performance agreement protocol as compared to the linear one.


The weld-induced residual stresses in a tubular planar K-shaped connection made of construction steel grades S355J2H and S690QH are evaluated using three-dimensional finite element models in thermo-mechanical simulation of welding process. Both lumped single-pass and multi-pass simulation alternatives are examined. The transversal component is the largest residual stress component at the gap region for all models, with values reaching the yield strength of studied steel grades. The shapes of residual stress profiles evaluated from the multi-pass models for the two steel grades show a similar trend. Although this can change when the effects of phase transformations will be considered. Considerable difference in the residual stress distribution in the gap region is observed between multi-pass welding simulation and equivalent single-pass models for both steel grades studied. For the single-pass models, the effect of using element activation on the residual stresses are negligible.


Minimizing a non-smooth function over the Grassmannian appears in many applications in machine learning. In this paper we show that if the objective satisfies a certain Riemannian regularity condition with respect to some point in the Grassmannian, then a Riemannian subgradient method with appropriate initialization and geometrically diminishing step size converges at a linear rate to that point. We show that for both the robust subspace learning method Dual Principal Component Pursuit (DPCP) and the Orthogonal Dictionary Learning (ODL) problem, the Riemannian regularity condition is satisfied with respect to appropriate points of interest, namely the subspace orthogonal to the sought subspace for DPCP and the orthonormal dictionary atoms for ODL. Consequently, we obtain in a unified framework significant improvements for the convergence theory of both methods.


Computer vision researchers design intelligent machines capable of perceiving visual information. One of many approaches is to model the fascinating visual processing done by primates. The eyes, the brain, and their interconnections provide a rich set of visual perceptions without conscious effort. How primates "see" has long been an intriguing research question in neuroscience, biology, physiology, and psychology. Based on discoveries in these fields, computer scientists have attempted to apply biologically plausible models to the design of visual machines. While still inferior to primates, the performance of existing systems has been demonstrated to be quite promising. It appears that a machine based on biological principles can be simple yet achieve high accuracy and generalize well.
This thesis takes a closer look at an artificial vision system based on biological principles, specifically with respect to object recognition and categorization. An existing system will be investigated, followed by various modifications leading to a new and improved system. The proposed model employs unsupervised feature learning, simulating a hypercolumn of the primary visual cortex, a hierarchical feed-forward framework, mimicking simple and complex cells, and finally neural network classification, based on a computational model of interconnected neurons. Compared to existing approaches, the proposed system is not only more biologically inclined, but also more effective. With significantly shorter running times it achieves good accuracies on several data sets compared to other state-of-the-art systems. Another key feature is good generalizability. The proposed approach does not rely on delicate domain specific segmentation procedures often employed by traditional vision systems. There are few parameters and a single set of parameters can be applied to images from different domains without significant loss of accuracy.
In order to evaluate the system, experiments are conducted both on a commonly used collection of natural scenes as well as a challenging collection of realistic underwater marine images. The latter data is a rather uncommon data source in the computer vision community. Although automated labeling of various species of tiny planktonic organisms has recently attracted the attention of a number of researchers, biologically inspired vision systems had not previously been applied to this kind of data. Despite domain specific difficulties, such as low image quality, and high diversity of shapes and motions, the potential of the proposed system is shown to be quite promising. Given the demonstrated performance, there is a high likelihood that such a system could substantially facilitate research of the planet's ocean ecosystems. As plankton plays an important role in the carbon cycle, high-volume automated labeling of planktonic specimens may lead to new insights concerning global climate changes. The encouraging experimental results in the marine domain bode well for future application of the proposed approach to other domains currently not considered by mainstream computer vision applications.


The minimax approach to the design of systems that are robust with respect to modeling uncertainties is studied using a game theoretic formulation in which the performance functional and the sets of modeling uncertainties and admissible design policies are arbitrary. The existence and characterization of minimax robust solutions that form saddle points are discussed through various methods that take into account several common features of the games encountered in applications. In particular, it is shown that if the performance functional and the uncertainty set are convex then a certain type of regularity condition on the functional is sufficient to ensure that the optimal strategy for a least favorable element of the uncertainty set is minimax robust. The efficacy of the methods proposed for a general game is tested in the problems of matched filtering, Wiener filtering, quadratic detection, and output energy filtering, in which uncertainties in their respective signal and noise models are assumed to exist. These problems are analyzed in a common Hilbert space framework and they serve to point out the advantages and limitations of the proposed techniques.


High bandwidth and accuracy of the current control loop are fundamental requisites when a fast torque response is required or for facilitating the reduction of torque ripple in high performance drives, especially at high speed. One of the most suitable control methods to achieve these goals is dead beat current control (DBCC). Many types of DBCC have been proposed and implemented in literature. This paper proposes a DBCC incorporating two new functionalities. One is a two steps current prediction to improve prediction accuracy when current measurements are taken place before each sampling period; and particularly to reduce the overshoot during transients when mean value is used as current feedback. The second is a novel compensation method for the rotor movement to eliminate offset errors which occur at high speed. Moreover, the dynamic and steady state performance of the proposed DBCC is assessed in simulations. On the basis of the simulation tests, the control parameters are tuned for experiments and the performance of the proposed functionalities are verified. Finally, the advantage of DBCC, compared with a classical dq PI current regulator, is verified in experiments.


Dairy farming, in Vietnam, existed in the early twentieth century thanks to the favorable natural advantage. During many difficult periods, the Vietnam's dairy industry has developed constantly and contributed significantly to the food needs ensuring. However, Vietnam's dairy industry still could not satisfy the domestic milk demand. Retail milk prices in Vietnam are very high, whereas the price of milk sold by the dairy farmers is very low. The cause stems from the control of dairy companies in the quantity and quality of milk. Moreover, that control caused an imbalance in the profits and benefits of each actor in the dairy value chain. This study, hence, finds out the distribution of benefits, costs, value-added among the actors, and problems in the practical management in dairy milk value chain with specific focus on Bavi as the case study.


The work embodied in this dissertation covers the isolation and characterization of chemical constituents obtained from two medicinal plants of Pakistan. The isolated constituents were either new or previously reported in the literature from other sources. They were characterized via various sophisticated spectroscopic techniques available at International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences (ICCBS), University of Karachi (Pakistan). The dissertation is divided into three chapters:

The first chapter is a general article entitled, "Successive Development in Natural Product Chemistry� , describing the importance of natural products in last two decades, choice of plants for bioactive natural products, sources of natural products, systems of traditional medicines, role of National Cancer Institute (NCI) in the development of phytomedicines, Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), various chromatographic techniques, structure elucidation of phytochemicals, their bio-testing, synthesis and many many more issues related to the bioactive natural products.

The following two plants were investigated for the search of new chemical constituents: Euphorbia wallichii Hook F. (Euphorbiaceae) Salvia nubicola Wall. ex Sweet. (Lamiaceae) The second chapter entitled, "Euphorbia wallichii Hook F." deals with the chemical analysis of titled plant. E. wallichii was collected from Malumjabbah (a northern hilly region of Pakistan).

As a result of this study, two new and seven reported constituents have been obtained. Among the new constituents: a rearranged pentacyclie triterpene of multiflorane class (wallichiione) and a cerebroside (wallichiioside) could be obtained. The known constituents include: a tetracyclic triterpenoid (24-methylenecycloartan-3B-01), two pentacyclic triterpenoids of glutinane class (3a-acetoxy-D: B-friedoolean-5-ene & alnusenol), a fatty acid ester of steroid (B-sitosterol palmitate), a flavone (kaemferol), an ester (ethylgallate), and a glycoside (ellagic acid 4-a-L-arabinopyranosyl) of gallic and ellagic acids, respectively.

Structures of all the purified constituents were elucidated with the aid of modern spectroscopic techniques including 2D-NMR. Medicinal features of the genus Euphorbia together with botanical descriptions of titled source and highlights of the family Euphorbiaceae are also included in this chapter.

The third and last chapter of dissertation entitled, "Salvia nubicola Wall� deals with the isolation and characterization of five new and four reported constituents from S. nubicola which was collected from Quetta (Pakistan).

Among the new constituents: three sesquiterpene-Iactones [a germacranolide (nubtrienolide) and two guaianolides (nubenolide and nubdienolide)], an epimeric-lupane (3-a-hydroxy-20-oxo-30-norlupane), and a ceramide (nubenamide) were obtained. The known constituents include: a flavone (crismaritin), a steroid (B-sitosterol), a steroidal glycoside (B-sitosterol-glucoside) and a pentacyclic triterpene (oleanolic acid).

Structures of all the purified constituents were elucidated with the aid of modern spectroscopic techniques including 2D-NMR. However, structures of nubtrienolide, nubenolide and crismaritin were further confirmed via single crystal x-ray crystallography while the stereochemistry of 3-a-hydroxy-20-oxo-30-norlupane was determined by means of n.O.e experiment. Crismaritin is a known constituent but its x ray data were not reported.

Pharmacology (phytotoxicity, antibacterial and antifungal activities) of nubtrienolide, 3a-hydroxy-20-oxo-30-norlupane and nubenamide could also be studied and it was concluded that among the three tested metabolites, 3a-hydroxy-20-oxo-30 norlupane was found the most active constituents among the three tested metabolites.

Botanical descriptions of S.nubicola, biological and medicinal features of the genus Salvia with the basic features of the family Lamiaceae are also included in the same chapter.

During the phytochemical investigations, altogether seven new and eleven known constituents were obtained from the two investigated plants. As a result, five papers have been published and one is in process of publication. In the end of the dissertation, a list of publications by author and relevant published papers (to-date) are included.

It is to clarify here that each chapter has separate scheme, table, figure and compound numbers. Highlights of biosyntheses related to the obtained constituents, chemical literature survey of corresponding source and references are also included in each chapter independently.


The aim was to investigate the relationship between apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values measured by diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DW MRI) and the split glomerular filtration rate (GFR) in infants with congenital hydronephrosis. Diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) (b = 0 and 700 seconds/mm(2)) was performed with a General Electric Company (GE) Signa 1.5T MR unit in 46 infants suffering single congenital hydronephrosis and in 30 healthy infants as normal control group. The ADCs were calculated with regions of interest (ROIs) positioned in the renal parenchyma. The 46 obstructed kidneys were classified into four groups according to the GFR level: renal dysfunction compensated group, renal dysfunction decompensated group, renal failure group, and uremia group. The renal ADCs in six groups (normal kidneys in control group, contralateral kidneys, and four groups of hydronephrotic kidneys) were compared statistically using analysis of variance (ANOVA), and the correlative relationship between ADCs and GFR was examined by Pearson's correlation test. There were statistically significant differences in renal ADCs among the six groups. The ADCs of hydronephrotic kidneys were lower than that of the normal kidneys. There was a moderate positive correlation between the ADCs of hydronephrotic kidneys and split GFR (r = 0.744). This study indicated that the ADCs of congenital hydronephrotic kidneys were lower than that of normal renal parenchyma, and there was a positive correlation between the ADCs and split renal GFR, which demonstrates that the ADCs can reflect the filtration function of hydronephrotic kidneys and may provide some reference to help clinical physician to explore a novel noninvasive approach to evaluate the single renal function.


Theme treatment is a long neglected issue in intercultural studies of school writing. Taking a historical approach, this chapter traces theme treatment in Chinese school essay writing during the 20th century. The study shows that Chinese school writing moved from neo-Confucian topics to Socialist issues for the most part of the century and that the themes always needed to be "correct," or in alignment with the dominant Chinese ideology. Currently, Chinese students write on diversified themes reflecting a hybrid value system emerging in Chinese society. The study further reveals that theme treatment carried equal, if not more, weight to textual organization in that it often decided the selection of types of writing and dictated the layout of text structure.


Video and computer games have become an important area of study in the field of education. Games have been designed to teach mathematics, physics, raise social awareness, teach history and geography, and train soldiers in the military. Recent work has created computer games for teaching computer programming and understanding basic algorithms.
We present an investigation where computer games are used to teach two fundamental computer science concepts: boolean expressions and recursion. The games are intended to teach the concepts and not how to implement them in a programming language.
For this investigation, two computer games were created. One is designed to teach basic boolean expressions and operators and the other to teach fundamental concepts of recursion. We describe the design and implementation of both games.
We evaluate the effectiveness of these games using before and after surveys. The surveys were designed to ascertain basic understanding, attitudes and beliefs regarding the concepts. The boolean game was evaluated with local high school students and students in a college level introductory computer science course. The recursion game was evaluated with students in a college level introductory computer science course.
We present the analysis of the collected survey information for both games. This analysis shows a significant positive change in student attitude towards recursion and modest gains in student learning outcomes for both topics.


Rationale: The hyperpolarization-activated current Ih that is generated by hyperpolarization-activated cyclic nucleotide-gated channels (HCNs) plays a key role in the control of pacemaker activity in sinoatrial node cells of the heart. By contrast, it is unclear whether Ih is also relevant for normal function of cardiac ventricles. Objective: To study the role of the HCN3-mediated component of ventricular Ih in normal ventricular function. Methods and Results: To test the hypothesis that HCN3 regulates the ventricular action potential waveform, we have generated and analyzed a HCN3-deficient mouse line. At basal heart rate, mice deficient for HCN3 displayed a profound increase in the T-wave amplitude in telemetric electrocardiographic measurements. Action potential recordings on isolated ventricular myocytes indicate that this effect was caused by an acceleration of the late repolarization phase in epicardial myocytes. Furthermore, the resting membrane potential was shifted to more hyperpolarized potentials in HCN3-deficient mice. Cardiomyocytes of HCN3-deficient mice displayed approximately 30% reduction of total Ih. At physiological ionic conditions, the HCN3-mediated current had a reversal potential of approximately −35 mV and displayed ultraslow deactivation kinetics. Conclusions: We propose that HCN3 together with other members of the HCN channel family confer a depolarizing background current that regulates ventricular resting potential and counteracts the action of hyperpolarizing potassium currents in late repolarization. In conclusion, our data indicate that HCN3 plays an important role in shaping the cardiac action potential waveform.


We study the problem of learning a most biased coin among a set of coins by tossing the coins adaptively. The goal is to minimize the number of tosses until we identify a coin i* whose posterior probability of being most biased is at least 1-delta for a given delta. Under a particular probabilistic model, we give an optimal algorithm, i.e., an algorithm that minimizes the expected number of future tosses. The problem is closely related to finding the best arm in the multi-armed bandit problem using adaptive strategies. Our algorithm employs an optimal adaptive strategy -- a strategy that performs the best possible action at each step after observing the outcomes of all previous coin tosses. Consequently, our algorithm is also optimal for any starting history of outcomes. To our knowledge, this is the first algorithm that employs an optimal adaptive strategy under a Bayesian setting for this problem. Our proof of optimality employs tools from the field of Markov games.


Non-pregnancy associated (N-PA) listeriosis, caused by Listeria monocytogenes, is a rare but severe disease, and is predominantly food-borne. Most cases appear sporadic and their infection vehicle remains unknown. Incidence has increased since 2008 in Germany. We aimed to identify underlying conditions and foods associated with sporadic N-PA listeriosis in Germany. We performed a nationwide case-control study from March 2012-December 2013. Cases were sporadic N-PA listeriosis patients notified to public health. Control subjects were age (40–65 years, 66–75 years, ≥76 years) frequency-matched persons from a nationwide random telephone sample. A structured questionnaire collected information on underlying diseases, therapies and >60 food items. We conducted multivariable logistic regression analysis, adjusting for host factors identified by causal diagram theory, and calculated population attributable fractions. We enrolled 109 cases and 1982 controls. Cases' median age was 69 years, 55% were male, 44% received immunosuppressive therapy within 3 months prior to illness onset; a further 28% had at least one immunocompromising disease. In multivariable analysis, immunosuppressive therapy (OR 8.8, 95%CI 4.9–15.6), immunocompromising disease (OR 2.7; 95%CI 1.4–5.2), gastric acid suppression (OR 3.0; 95%CI 1.4–6.3), the consumption of cold cooked sausages (OR 2.6; 95%CI 1.6–4.4), the preferred consumption of packaged cheese (OR 2.1; 95%CI 1.3–3.5) and pre-sliced cheese (OR 2.2; 95%CI 1.3–3.7) were significantly associated with N-PA listeriosis. These foods accounted for 59% of all cases. Typical high risk foods, e.g. cold seafood, certain types of cheeses, tended to be negatively associated with disease. In conclusion, immunosuppressive therapy and frequently consumed ready-to-eat foods are the main risk factors for sporadic N-PA listeriosis in Germany. To reduce their risk, immunocompromised persons should consume the identified foods well before the 'use-by' date. The microbiological criteria for Listeria monocytogenes in ready-to-eat foods may insufficiently protect persons who are markedly immunocompromised.


Today many open sources of information are available on the Internet that provide sharing and reusing of learning materials to reduce the cost of designing new courses, save the time, and avoid effort duplication. In this research, mechanisms that support instructors and e-tutors in selecting the most appropriate learning materials for more effective learning outcomes are investigated. On one hand, instructors need to prepare course materials that meet specific goals such as course objectives and syllabus. On the other hand, students need to have studying materials that match their learning styles and that are built based on their background knowledge. Therefore, the objective of the research is to build a model and an architecture for a Smart e-Learning Assistant (SeLA) that provides instructors and e-tutors with smart assistance in selecting the most appropriate Learning Objects (LOs) for both Adaptive Course Preparation and Delivery from a higher level perspective. SeLA employs two main theories in building its model: the Revised Bloom's Taxonomy of instructional design (RBT) and Felder-Silverman Learning Style Model (FSLSM). Under this research, a prototype in .NET environment has been developed and evaluated.


Abstract Background Whipple disease (WD), a rare systemic infection caused by Tropheryma whipplei, can be a diagnostic challenge due to its variable presentation. The role of T. whipplei polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is unclear as small bowel biopsy with Periodic acid-Schiff (PAS) staining remains the diagnostic gold standard. Individualized diagnostic approaches based on variable clinical manifestations are underutilized. We investigated the methodologies employed at our institution to diagnose WD. Methods We retrospectively collected all cases of WD diagnosed from 1994 to 2016. Microbiology laboratory and anatomic pathology databases were queried. Case characteristics and disease clinical phenotypes (classical, localized WD arthritis, and localized central nervous system [CNS] disease) were described. The diagnostic approach and testing yield were analyzed and reported. Results Thirty-three cases of WD were diagnosed (18 classic WD [CWD], 9 localized WD arthritis [LWD], 6 CNS WD). Misdiagnosis and delay in diagnosis were frequent. Diagnostic approach and test yield differed by classical vs localized WD involvement. Small bowel tissue biopsy PAS stain/PCR was overwhelmingly positive (86%/92%) in CWD, yet seldom positive (12%/42%) in LWD (P < .001). Affected joint synovial fluid PCR was frequently positive in both CWD (100%, 3/3) and LWD (85%, 6/7). Conclusions These results support the role of small bowel biopsy PAS stain/PCR in the diagnosis of CW, though this approach may be of limited utility in LWD or CNS WD without gastrointestinal symptoms. Affected joint synovial fluid or cerebrospinal fluid PCR was frequently positive in both CWD and LWD, supporting its diagnostic usefulness.


We study the existence and computational complexity of coalitional stability concepts based on social networks. Our concepts represent a natural and rich combinatorial generalization of a recent notion termed partition equilibrium [5]. We assume that players in a strategic game are embedded in a social (or, communication) network, and there are coordination constraints defining the set of coalitions that can jointly deviate in the game. A main feature of our approach is that players act in a "considerate" fashion to ignore potentially profitable (group) deviations if the change in their strategy may cause a decrease of utility to their neighbors in the network. We explore the properties of such considerate equilibria in application to the celebrated class of resource selection games (RSGs). Our main result proves existence of a super-strong considerate equilibrium in all symmetric RSGs with strictly increasing delays, for any social network among the players and feasible coalitions represented by the set of cliques. The existence proof is constructive and yields an efficient algorithm. In fact, the computed considerate equilibrium is a Nash equilibrium for a standard RSG, thus showing that there exists a state that is stable against selfish and considerate behavior simultaneously. Furthermore, we provide results on convergence of considerate dynamics.


A coated wire calcium selective microelectrode for biological use was developed, comprising a PVC selective matrix containing calcium ionophore IV coated on copper wire, previously covered with a solid-state contact mixture. The obtained calcium microsensor presented a Nernstian answer in a concentration range of 10-1 to 10-6 mol/L. The selectivity coefficients over the main interfering ions of biological interest proved that the calcium microelectrode is highly selective. Also, the response time (6s) and repeatability have been determined. The pH variation did not significantly modify the calcium microelectrode answer, being stable over the pH range (6.7-7.3) of interest. The obtained calcium microelectrode is simple, inexpensive and able to give reliable electrochemical response, recommending itself as a solution for assessing the level of inorganic ions of the gingival crevicular fluid and saliva.


: Among-individual variation in dietary preferences can impact community dynamics and be a driving force for evolutionary divergence, although it can be difficult to assess in free-ranging marine mammal populations. In this study, we investigate the existence of variation in isotopic niche within a population of putative herring-specialist killer whales. Isotopic ratios of carbon and nitrogen were measured in 67 skin biopsy samples from 56 individual killer whales, sampled in herring overwintering (winter) grounds and spawning (summer) grounds in Iceland when the whales were presumably feeding on herring. Whales that appeared to follow herring year round (n = 31) had lower δ 15 N values, consistent with a diet predominantly composed of herring. This supports the existence of herring specialists in the population. In contrast, whales that were only photo-identified either in winter or in summer (n = 25) had larger variation in δ 15 N values. A discriminant function analysis clearly distinguished between putative herring specialists and whales seasonally travelling to Scotland in summer (n = 3), which exhibited distinctly larger δ 15 N values indicative of a diet including higher trophic level prey. This study shows that herring-eating killer whales in Iceland exhibit intra-population ecological variation, whereby individuals or groups differ in the proportional contribution of different prey items to their diet. This variation occurs in the absence of social and, potentially, reproductive isolation. Although further information will be required to assess the degree of structuring within the population, such heterogeneity should be taken into account in future conservation and management plans.


Article History: Received: 10 Sep. 2016 Accepted: 9 Mar. 2017 The Steger and Warming flux vector splitting implicit scheme is used to numerically solve two dimensional Reynolds Averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) equations governing the vortex induced vibration of a flexible riser laterally supported by a spring and a damper. The k–ε model is used as turbulence model to simulate the turbulent flow in the wake of the riser. To update the new position of the riser, the lift coefficient obtained from the previous RANS iteration is coupled by the body motion equation. The proposed numerical solution is able to provide fair results in terms of lift coefficient, amplitude of oscillation and the effect of reduced velocity on it. The numerical results are compared with the available experimental and computational data where fairly good agreement even at the lock-in regime has been obtained. Taking wider external boundary, using conservative form of the equations, applying k-ε turbulence model for the separated flow and finally using the variable time step as the lock-in region approaches, are main features of the proposed numerical model.


Agricultural production is a balancing act. On one side is sustainable production of food and biobased products for a growing population. On the other is protecting our natural resources and the environment. The global decline of the honey bee, a major domestic pollinator of many crops, exemplifies how complex the factors are that contribute to maintaining this balance. Overall bee colony decline, including loss from colony collapse disorder (CCD), poses a serious challenge to agricultural research worldwide. The causes are still not definitive, but stress from pesticides may be a factor. This spring, the European Commission temporarily restricted the use of three neonicotinoid pesticides for specific applications (pending more research). Last year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) formed a bee health task force to take an even broader look at the pollinator crisis, with a plan to collect interagency input and develop a federal Pollinator Roadmap before the end of 2013.


ABSTRACT
Behavior of fisherman society the assumed wrong by using potasium will deal with fisherman society which do not use potasium so that conflict potency menyimpan among both. This matter draw to be checked by at fisherman society in Archipelago Of Countryside of Sapeken, District Of Sapeken, Sub-Province of Sumenep where with the behavior give negative impact to area territorial water of itself. Damage of effect usage of potasium is destroying of rock representing place where fishs multiply. Beside that usage of potasium also result fishs which do not become target catch like small fishs become to follow death because poisoned so that swiftly will result fish become used up. Its Negative impact is usage of chemicals of Potasium is to generate damage of environment. Even if some of fisherman society have owned understanding of danger will from potasium that is fisherman have realized that sea not possible to be taken by its result by using potasium further because fish will quickly used up and environmental become to destroy so that result of fish will tend to downhill progressively so that need the existence of awareness that sea have to be taken care of by its continuity. This Formula research internal issue is: (1) Why fisherman use potasium in catching fish [in] Archipelago Of Countryside of Sapeken, District Of Sapeken, Sub- Province of Sumenep?. (2) How impact of behavior of fisherman use potasium in catching fish [in] Archipelago Of Countryside of Sapeken, District Of Sapeken, Sub- Province of Sumenep?. In this research, writer use descriptive research type in the form of qualitative. Approach qualitative assume that human being is active creature, which have freedom of willingness, its behavioral can only comprehend in its cultural context, and its behavioral do not be relied on law of causality. Technique data collecting the used is interview that is tcara obliging researcher someone perform a direct contact verbally and look in the face with its source and also in situation that intend to be used by for, despitefully also use observation to obtain;get picture of conducted research. Technique analyse data the used is descriptively qualitative namely give picture in such a manner systematically, faktual and also aktual of obtained data in field. From various explained clarification previously can be concluded as follows: (1) behavioral Forms of fisherman utilizing potasium happened because them feel strong motivation to increase fish haul so that in the end will improve life of their economics (2) the behavioral Form wrong damage and in fact have been realized by all just fisherman only because fisherman see there is still interpose opportunity to remain to to utilize potasium. As a result they remain to utilize potasium as medium to catch fish because felt to give advantage (3) Fisherman assume just fair obtain;get result of which is more if catching fish with potasium as according to fund and risk released to catch fish with potasium ( 4) Form damage of effect utilize potasium do not only at condition of ekosistem fisak go out to sea but also affect at change of behavior exist in society effect of emulation.


Abstract A cluster randomized trial estimated the effects of a supplemental vocabulary program, Elements of Reading®: vocabulary on student vocabulary and passage comprehension in moderate- to high-poverty elementary schools. Forty-four schools participated over a period spanning 2 consecutive school years. At baseline, 1,057 teachers and 16,471 students from kindergarten, first, third, and fourth grade participated. The schools were randomly assigned to either the primary or intermediate grade treatment group. In each group, the nontreatment classrooms provided the control condition. Treatment classrooms used the intervention to supplement their core reading program, whereas control classrooms taught vocabulary business-as-usual. The intervention includes structured, weekly lesson plans for 6 to 8 literary words and aural/oral and written language activities providing multiple exposures and opportunity for use. Hierarchical linear modeling was used to estimate both proximal (Year 1) and distal (Year 2) effects on vocabulary and passage comprehension. The intervention had positive and statistically significant proximal effects but no statistically significant distal effects. The results indicate that the intervention can improve targeted vocabulary and local passage comprehension, but expecting global effects may be overly optimistic.


In the Ethiopian Central Highlands, a serious soil degradation occurs while fuelwood demand is high. This study consists of an evaluation of seven tree species for fuelwood and soil restoration under three soil management options: control, manure and manure + mulch, in degraded highlands of Ethiopia. The experimental design was a split‐plot, species as the main plot and treatment as subplot, with three replicates. Survival count, height and root collar diameter growth measurements were measured annually until 48 months. Biomass production for fuelwood was inferred at the end of the experiment. Before and after the experiment, soil parameters (pH, organic carbon, N, P, K and cation exchange capacity) were measured to test changes in soil condition because of species plantation. A mixed model and repeated analysis of variance was performed. Grevillea robusta A. Cunn. ex R. Br. showed maximum survival (100%), followed by H. abyssinica (Bruce) J.F.Gmel. (93·52%); while the lowest survival rate was recorded for A. decurrens Willd. (57·41%). Hagenia abyssinica (Bruce) J.F.Gmel. and Chamaecytisus palmensis (Christ.) Hutch showed the lowest growth rates but both species showed the highest soil condition improvement. E. globulus Labill. and Acacia species presented the highest growth rates and biomass although Eucalyptus depleted soil nitrogen. Hagenia abyssinica (Bruce) J.F.Gmel. is recommended for soil rehabilitation, whereas Grevillea robusta A. Cunn. ex R. Br. can be used for simultaneous fuelwood production and soil rehabilitation. An ecological based study on E. globulus' Labill. effects in Central Highlands is recommended before recommendation for large scale fuelwood plantations. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


An automatic coefficient design method for synthesis of bandpass sigma-delta modulators (BPSDMs) is presented in this brief. Single-stage BPSDM structures, cascade-of-resonator with distributed feedback, cascade-of-resonator with distributed feedforward, and a new structure with lower coefficient spread, are all used to fit the synthesized coefficients. The automatic coefficient design method is realized in an easy-to-use computer program. Even for inexperienced designers, reliable and high-tolerance BPSDM coefficients for various applications can be automatically and efficiently generated. The methodology covers many design concerns including BPSDM coefficient tolerance for circuit component mismatch, design tradeoffs among in-band noise suppression, oversampling ratio, modulator order and quantizer bit number. Finally, design examples with orders of 6 and 8, and quantizer bit number of 1-bit and 3-bit, respectively, are used for the verification of the proposed automatic coefficient design method.


OBJECTIVE To determine the prevalence and prognostic significance of unrecognized myocardial infarction (MI) by delayed-enhancement MRI (DE-MRI) in asymptomatic patients with diabetes. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS In this prospective, two-center study of asymptomatic patients without known cardiac disease (n = 120), two prespecified cohorts underwent a research MRI: 1) a high-risk group with type 1 diabetes and chronic renal insufficiency (n = 50) and 2) an average-risk group with type 2 diabetes (n = 70). The primary end point was a composite of all-cause mortality and clinical MI. RESULTS Overall, the prevalence of unrecognized MI was 19% by DE-MRI (28% high-risk group and 13% average-risk group) and 5% by electrocardiography. During up to 5 years of follow-up with a total of 460 patient-years of follow-up, the rate of death/MI was markedly higher in patients with diabetes with (vs. without) unrecognized MI (all 44% vs. 7%, high-risk group 43% vs. 6%, and average-risk group 44% vs. 8%; all P < 0.01). After adjustment for Framingham risk score, left ventricular ejection fraction, and diabetes type, the presence of unrecognized MI by DE-MRI conferred an eightfold increase in risk of death/MI (95% CI 3.0–21.1, P < 0.0001). Addition of unrecognized MI to clinical indices significantly improved model discrimination for adverse events (integrated discrimination improvement = 0.156, P = 0.001). CONCLUSIONS Unrecognized MI is prevalent in asymptomatic patients with diabetes without a history of cardiac disease and confers a markedly increased risk of death and clinical MI.


Ethnic groups in the United States have long advocated on behalf of their countries of origin and their interests. Our understanding of ethnic group influence on the American foreign policy process, however, remains tentative. Diaspora Lobbies and the US Government , a collection of essays edited by Josh DeWind and Renata Segura, makes a fresh contribution to this area of study through its focus on policy convergence/divergence between the US government and ethnic interest groups.


Dynamic voltage scaling (DVS) is a popular approach for energy reduction of integrated circuits. Current processors that use DVS typically have an operating voltage range from full to half of the maximum Vdd. However, it is possible to construct designs that operate over a much larger voltage range: from full Vdd to subthreshold voltages. This possibility raises the question of whether a larger voltage range improves the energy efficiency of DVS. First, from a theoretical point of view, we show that for subthreshold supply voltages leakage energy becomes dominant, making "just in time completion" energy inefficient. We derive an analytical model for the minimum energy optimal voltage and study its trends with technology scaling. Second, we use the proposed model to study the workload activity of an actual processor and analyze the energy efficiency as a function of the lower limit of voltage scaling. Based on this study, we show that extending the voltage range below 1/2 Vdd will improve the energy efficiency for most processor designs, while extending this range to subthreshold operation is beneficial only for very specific applications. Finally, we show that operation deep in the subthreshold voltage range is never energy-efficient.


This Note addresses the constitutionality of National Popular Vote (NPV) legislation. National Popular Vote is a movement to reform the electoral college via state statute to turn the Presidential election into a national one. Four states (Maryland, New Jersey, Illinois, and Hawaii) have already passed laws providing that, in the event that states representing 270 electoral votes pass similar legislation, their electors will be awarded to the winner of the national vote. This Note argues that NPV legislation violates the guarantee clause, which incorporates aspects of process federalism, including a federally elected President. Part I discusses the national popular vote movement and applicable jurisprudence, arguing that although the Supreme Court recognizes that state legislatures have "plenary" power to appoint presidential electors, they cannot radically alter the Electoral College by enacting just any method for selecting presidential electors. In addition, Part I provides background on two potential constitutional problems for NPV legislation: the Compact Clause and the Guarantee Clause. Part II examines the principles of republican government that the Guarantee Clause protects. An analysis of historical sources from the framing and ratification of the Constitution, state practices concerning appointment of presidential electors, and other scholarly interpretations of the meaning of republican government reveals that the Guarantee Clause protects a compound republican government at the national level. It concludes that the guarantee of a republican form of government encompasses aspects of process federalism. Part III applies these republican principles to argue that NPV legislation is unconstitutional for two reasons. First, a national election of the President violates the concept that, in our compound republic, the source of the President's power is federal, not national. Second, the means employed by NPV violates the Guarantee Clause, and if electoral reform is desired, it should come through constitutional amendment. Allowing a minority of states to switch the nation to a national popular vote would also violate the republican principle that no state shall legislate for another state. In addition, allowing states unbridled discretion to adopt schemes like that in NPV legislation fails to account for the problem of "superstates." Superstates could be created if one state combines its electors with another's. Those two states could then send their electors to the winner of the superstate's vote. Taken to the extreme, the eleven states with a total 270 electoral votes could form a superstate where all 270 electoral votes go to the winner of the superstate, making the remaining thirty-nine states irrelevant in presidential elections. This suggests that there should be some constitutional limit on the ability of some states to make legislative choices for other states concerning the election of the President. Finally, Part IV discusses which branch is best suited to guarantee a federally elected President and has the power to determine that NVP legislation violates the Guarantee Clause. This Comment argues that the Supreme Court is in the best position to decide whether or not national popular vote legislation violates the Guarantee Clause. This Comment does not argue that a national popular vote is an inferior method of electing the President, it merely posits that the movement to a national popular vote should be accomplished via constitutional amendment, not by statutes in a minority of states.


Even as the 250th anniversary of its outbreak approaches, the Seven Years' War (otherwise known as the French and Indian War) is still not wholly understood. Most accounts tell the story as a military struggle between British and French forces, with shifting alliances of Indians, culminating in the British conquest of Canada. Scholarly and popular works alike, including James Fennimore Cooper's Last of the Mohicans, focus on the action in the Hudson River Valley and the St. Lawrence Seaway. Matthew C. Ward tells the compelling story of the war from the point of view of the region where it actually began, and whose people felt the devastating effects of war most keenly - the backcountry communities of Virginia and Pennsylvania. Previous wars in North America had been fought largely on the New England and New York frontiers. But on May 28, 1754, when a young George Washington commanded the first shot fired in western Pennsylvania, fighting spread for the first time to Virginia and Pennsylvania. Ward's original research reveals that on the eve of the Seven Years' War the communities of these colonies were isolated, economically weak, and culturally diverse. He shows in riveting detail how, despite the British empire's triumph, the war brought social chaos, sickness, hunger, punishment, and violence to the backcountry, much of it at the hands of Indian warriors. Ward's fresh analysis reveals that Indian raids were not random skirmishes, but part of an organized strategy that included psychological warfare designed to make settlers flee Indian territories. It was the awesome effectiveness of this "guerilla" warfare, Ward argues, that led to the most enduring legacies of the war: Indian-hating and an armed population of colonial settlers, distrustful of the British empire that couldn't protect them. Understanding the horrors of the Seven Years' War as experienced in the backwoods thus provides unique insights into the origins of the American republic.


The possibility of thousands of flow-accelerated-corrosion (FAC) zones causes long and costly inspection procedures for nuclear, as well as fossil-fuel power plants, even if the number of zones is minimized on the basis of temperature and flow velocity. In order to decrease the number of inspection zones, suitable prediction or estimation procedures for FAC occurrence should be applied, and the resulting computer programs should be tuned with as many inspection data as possible. Such coupling of the estimation and inspection procedures should allow effective and reliable preparation to be made against FAC occurrence and propagation. This paper defines the FAC risk as the mathematical product of the possibility of the occurrence of wall thinning and its hazard scale. The possibility of the occurrence of wall thinning was designated as the time margin for pipe rupture determined by applying a one-dimensional FAC code, which could predict the wall-thinning rate with an accuracy within a factor of 2, while the hazard scale was defined as the volume of effluent steam and water from the ruptured mouth, which was enthalpy of water originally flowing in the pipe multiplied by the square of the pipe inner diameter. High FAC risk zones along entire cooling systems could be evaluated in only one-tenth or one-hundredth of the computer time as for a three-dimensional FAC code to determine the priority for inspection-order importance.


Clinically, Marfan's disease behaves as an abiotrophy of some connective tissue element. Cardiovascular manifestations result from defective aortic media, defective valve cusps, interatrial communication, and pectus excavatum. The defect of the aortic media manifests itself by dissecting aneurysm, diffuse aneurysm of the ascending aorta or a combination. Subacute bacterial endocarditis in a patient with Marfan's disease is described. Interatrial septal defect is less frequent than previously believed. Cardiac symptoms in severe pectus excavatum must be evaluated in light of possible Marfan's disease. Fifty families in which at least one bona fide instance of Marfan's disease has occurred were collected.


This paper presents a set of Bilingual Dictionary Drafting (BDD) methods including manual extraction from existing lexical databases and corpus based NLP tools, as well as their evaluation on the example of German-Basque as language pair. Our aim is twofold: to give support to a German-Basque bilingual dictionary project by providing draft Bilingual Glossaries and to provide lexicographers with insight into how useful BDD methods are. Results show that the analysed methods can greatly assist on bilingual dictionary writing, in the context of medium-density language pairs.


A layer of breccia that contains fragments of impact ejecta has been found at 10 sites in the Paleoproterozoic iron ranges of northern Michigan, in the Lake Superior region of the United States. Radiometric age constraints from events predating and postdating depo si tion of the breccia are ca. 1875 Ma and 1830 Ma. The major bolide impact that occurred at 1850 Ma at Sudbury, Ontario, 500–700 km east of these sites, is the likely causative event. The Michigan sites described here, along with previously described sites in Minnesota and Ontario, defi ne an extensive ejecta-bearing deposit throughout the Paleoproterozoic iron ranges of the Lake Superior region that we refer to as the Sudbury impact layer. The layer at the sites in Michigan exhibits a range of thicknesses, lithologic characters, and sedimentary settings. The diversity of rock types and internal stratigraphic details of the layer imply that several different processes of transport and deposition are represented, but the detailed investigations needed to document them are incomplete. Many of the sites had been described and interpreted previously as products of common terrestrial processes, but the presence of relict shock-induced planar deformation features in quartz indicates that the breccia layer is in fact the product of an extra terrestrial impact. At most localities, this layer also contains relict fragments of altered devitrifi ed glass and/or accretionary lapilli. One immediate use of the impact layer is as an ultraprecise time line that ties together the well-known stratigraphic sequences of the various geographically separated iron ranges, the correlation of which has remained controversial for many decades. The Sudbury impact layer most commonly lies at a horizon that records a signifi cant change in the character of sediments across the region. The impact layer marks the end of a major period of banded iron formation deposition that was succeeded by deposition of ficlastic rocks, commonly black shales. The impact may have produced regional, if not global, changes in the environment that resulted in this widespread synchronous change in sedimentation style.


A novel and highly versatile doping method has been developed to allow active dopants, including materials incompatible with the polymer matrix, to be incorporated into microstructured polymer optical fibers through the use of nanoparticles. The incorporation of quantum dots and silica nanoparticles containing Rhodamine isothiocyanate is demonstrated.


The effect of the euro exchange rate on inflation has taken on significant importance recently, with the application of the ECB's expansionary monetary policy measures having coincided with episodes of euro appreciation, such as that observed between the second half of 2017 and early 2018, which tend to exert downward pressure on imported prices. This article analyses the factors behind the fluctuations in the euro exchange rate against the dollar during the recent period, and finds that this appreciation may have largely been due to the higher relative growth of the euro area, compatible with a pick-up in expected euro area inflation. However, the subsequent depreciation, since February 2018, might reflect factors related to changes in the relative confidence of financial markets to the detriment of the euro, and to the lower relative growth of the euro area compared with the United States. Further, it is documented how the pass-through of exchange rate movements to overall consumer-price inflation in the Spanish economy has increased slightly in recent years, owing mainly to the energy component, while core inflation remains much less sensitive to exchange rate changes.


We propose a new approach to associate supervised learning-based confidence prediction with the stereo matching problem. First of all, we analyze the characteristics of various confidence measures in the regression forest framework to select effective confidence measures using training data. We then train regression forests again to predict the correctness (confidence) of a match by using selected confidence measures. In addition, we present a confidence-based matching cost modulation scheme based on the predicted correctness for improving the robustness and accuracy of various stereo matching algorithms. We apply the proposed scheme to the semi-global matching algorithm to make it robust under unexpected difficulties that can occur in outdoor environments. We verify the proposed confidence measure selection and cost modulation methods through extensive experimentation with various aspects using KITTI and challenging outdoor datasets.


Seventy six Australian women aged 27 to 72, with minimal to mild symptoms of incontinence as assessed by the Incontinence Severity Index (ISI), were recruited through general medical practices and randomly assigned on a 2:1 basis to intervention or waitlist control. The intervention, conducted by nurse continence advisors, included physical assessment, pelvic floor muscle training, and bladder training offered on three individual visits at Weeks 1, 9 and 16. The main outcome measures were pelvic floor muscle strength, endurance and contractility, self-reported incontinence severity, self-recorded bladder function, and participant evaluation of the programme. There were statistically significant improvements in all measures, and the women's evaluations of the programme were overwhelmingly positive. From these results, it is concluded that an early intervention programme for urinary incontinence is effective among women who choose to attend. However, it appears that there are barriers to women seeking help and it was shown that public health interventions are needed to de-stigmatise and prevent the condition.


Synchronizing medication refills-renewing all medications at the same time from the same pharmacy-is an increasingly popular strategy to improve adherence to medication regimens, but there has been little research regarding its effectiveness. In light of increasing policy interest, we evaluated the impact of a pilot refill synchronization program implemented by a large national insurer. A random sample of Medicare Advantage patients receiving mail-order refills for common maintenance medications (antihypertensive, lipid-lowering, or antidiabetic agents) were invited to join the program and followed for twelve months. On average, the absolute increase in the proportion of patients deemed adherent during follow-up was 3-10 percentage points for the intervention group, compared to 1-5 percentage points for the control group. Patients with poorer baseline adherence showed larger increases in the absolute proportion deemed adherent in intervention (23-26 percentage points) compared to a control group (13-15 percentage points). Synchronizing refills might be a promising intervention to improve adherence to maintenance medications, especially among Medicare patients with low baseline adherence.


We aim to characterize how different speakers contribute to the perceived output quality of multi-speaker Text-to-Speech (TTS) synthesis. We automatically rate the quality of TTS using a neural network (NN) trained on human mean opinion score (MOS) ratings. First, we train and evaluate our NN model on 13 different TTS and voice conversion (VC) systems from the ASVSpoof 2019 Logical Access (LA) Dataset. Since it is not known how best to represent speech for this task, we compare 8 different representations alongside MOSNet frame-based features. Our representations include image-based spectrogram features and x-vector embeddings that explicitly model different types of noise such as T60 reverberation time. Our NN predicts MOS with a high correlation to human judgments. We report prediction correlation and error. A key finding is the quality achieved for certain speakers seems consistent, regardless of the TTS or VC system. It is widely accepted that some speakers give higher quality than others for building a TTS system: our method provides an automatic way to identify such speakers. Finally, to see if our quality prediction models generalize, we predict quality scores for synthetic speech using a separate multi-speaker TTS system that was trained on LibriTTS data, and conduct our own MOS listening test to compare human ratings with our NN predictions.


We study the decision of two firms within an oligopoly concerning whether to enter into a horizontal agreement to exploit complementarities between their R&D activities and, if so, whether to merge or form a research joint venture (RJV). In contrast to horizontal merger, there is a probability that an RJV contract will fail to enforce R&D sharing. We find, first, that a horizontal agreement always arises. The insiders' merger/RJV choice involves a trade-off. While merger offers certainty that R&D complementarities will be exploited, it leads to a profit-reducing reaction by outsiders on the product market, where competition is Cournot. Greater brand similarity and contract enforceability ("quality") both favour RJV, while greater R&D complementarity favours merger. Interestingly, the insiders may choose to merge even when RJV contracts are always enforceable, and they may opt to form an RJV even when the likelihood of enforceability is negligible.


This guide compiles newly available resources, either by trial or offered by vendors to aid in remote and online teaching and learning.Please contact kjuliano @drew.edu or your librarian for further information


Being able to detect and recognize human activities is important for making personal assistant robots useful in performing assistive tasks. The challenge is to develop a system that is low-cost, reliable in unstructured home settings, and also straightforward to use. In this paper, we use a RGBD sensor (Microsoft Kinect) as the input sensor, and present learning algorithms to infer the activities. Our algorithm is based on a hierarchical maximum entropy Markov model (MEMM). It considers a person's activity as composed of a set of sub-activities, and infers the two-layered graph structure using a dynamic programming approach. We test our algorithm on detecting and recognizing twelve different activities performed by four people in different environments, such as a kitchen, a living room, an office, etc., and achieve an average performance of 84.3% when the person was seen before in the training set (and 64.2% when the person was not seen before).


Passive radars using illuminators of opportunity have attracted much attention in the international radar community. One existing radio transmission system that may be utilised for this purpose is the Global System for Mobile communication (GSM). The paper presents a study showing the feasibility of using a GSM signal for passive radar. The analysis of the GSM waveform, and any significance or influence it has with respect to the passive radar design considerations are investigated in detail. The paper describes fully the design and implementation of a low-cost GSM-based passive radar prototype in addition to the associated signal processing scheme. Numerous measurements for various ground-moving targets were investigated extensively. The preliminary processing results demonstrate the feasibility of using GSM signals as a radar waveform and have the potential capability to detect and track different types of ground-moving targets.


This article explores the religious meaning of Archaic and Classical dedications with images of rituals (e.g. sacrificial procession, libation) and dedicatory inscriptions. I argue that these objects ought to be treated as meaningful expressions of individuals' piety rather than as reflections of actual cult practices. I adopt a holistic approach that considers the two components of dedications—images and texts—as inextricably intertwined in the creation of meaning. The argument is exemplified through the examination of dedications to the Nymphs: the so-called Pitsa tablet, Archandros' relief from the Athenian Asklepieion, and two reliefs from a cave at Penteli. The detailed analysis of images, inscriptions, and their juxtaposition reveals how these dedications made the devotion of named individuals perpetual at a specific site, and shaped the manner in which the sacred was to be envisioned. Art and text together marked the site of deposition as a place of worship of the Nymphs, articulated specific ideas regarding rituals, the nature of the goddesses and their companions Pan and Hermes, and the possibilities for human interaction with these divinities. In rendering individual devotion continuous, these dedications confirmed the inexistence of such visualized rituals in reality. They elided and asserted the divide between the real and the imaginary in Greek religion. 1


The effects of a para substituent, as the electron-donating -OCH3 and -OtBu groups and the electron-withdrawing -Br and -F atoms, on azobenzene isomerization have been investigated in a series of imidazolium ionic liquids (BMIM PF6, BMIM BF4, BMIM Tf2N, EMIM Tf2N, BM2IM Tf2N, and HMIM Tf2N). The thermal cis-trans conversion tends to be improved in the presence of the substituent, as pointed out by the first-order rate constants measured at 25 °C. Both the rotation and the inversion mechanisms occur in BMIM Tf2N, EMIM Tf2N, and HMIM Tf2N, as highlighted by typical V-shape Hammett plots, but only rotation takes place in BMIM PF6, BMIM BF4, and BM2IM Tf2N. The possible interactions between the cation and the anion of the solvent and both the isomers of the azobenzene derivatives have been studied by small-wide-angle X-ray scattering (SWAXS). The calculated cis population in the photostationary state and the hardness parameter η of the trans isomer show that azobenzene and F-azobenzene are the less reactive molecules for the trans-cis conversion in all the investigated ionic liquids.


Introduction: The management of job-related stress and the improvement of self-efficacy in health care workers are essential for promoting health-care services. The aim of this study was to determine the efficiency of stress management group therapy in job stress and self-efficacy of nurses. Method: This was a quasi-experimental study conducted on 20 nurses (of Nohom Day Hospital in Torbat Heydariyeh) who were selected through convenience sampling and assigned into two intervention and control groups randomly. The intervention group participated in 8 sessions of stress management group therapy and the control group received no intervention. Data analyses were performed using descriptive statistics and independent and dependent t-test by SPSS 21. Results: The mean and standard deviation of participants' age in the intervention and control group were 38.00±6.24, 36.00±8.5, respectively. After the intervention, there was a significant difference in the mean scores of job stress and self-efficacy between control and intervention groups (p< 0.0001). Conclusion: It can be concluded that performing stress management group therapy among nurses can reduce job stress and increase self-efficacy. Therefore, it is recommended that this useful and effective approach be employed for empowering the workforce in the health system.


Over the next fifty years, the size and age structure of Europe's population will experience major changes due to low fertility rates, continuous increases in life expectancy due to medical advances and the retirement of the baby boom generation. The main output of this work package is a model which allows the construction of scenarios for health and long-term care expenditure based on the premise that health spending is driven by a number of demographic, economic, social and institutional variables. The projections computed in this study are not forecasts but are instead intended to provide an indication on the potential timing and scale of budgetary challenges that could result from Europe's ageing population.


Abstract The aim of the paper was to discuss the factors determining the susceptibility of cows to mastitis, the most important for breeders, including losses incurred by milk producers due to the disease. Inflammations of mammary gland are common and the most awkward problem which dairy farmers face around the world. In the case of clinical udder inflammation, it is estimated that the cost of mastitis is about 200 € per cow with fluctuations from 100 even up to 1000 €. Resistance, i.e. the susceptibility of cows to mastitis, is conditioned genetically. The possibility of BoLA and lactoferrin gene polymorphism, using in the selection cows resistant to mastitis, is indicated. Bacteria inhabiting the mammary gland, and the living environment of animals are primarily the main etiological factor. Moreover, many authors indicate the differences between breeds of cows in resistance to mastitis. High-productive breeds are generally more susceptible to the udder inflammation, in comparison to the local breeds. The greatest reduction in milk yield is observed in the case of these breeds, and especially in Holstein-Friesian breed, in which the decline of daily yield at somatic cell count (SCC) amounting above 500,000 per ml of milk can reach 25%. The probability of mastitis occurrence increases with an age of cows and following lactation, and dry period is a time of increased risk. Higher incidence of inflammation is also associated with abnormalities in the construction of the udder (unevenly developed quarters, too long or too short teats). In recent years, a possible relationship between feeding system of cows with their resistance to udder infections has been reported. It is emphasized that a deficiency of selenium and vitamins A and E in the ration may contribute to the increase in the number of mastitis incidences. There are, however, unclear opinions of various authors on the effect of automatic milking system on udder health.


The work presents a numerical investigation of gasoline direct injection and the resulting early development of spray plumes from an eight-hole injector (Engine Combustion Network Spray G). The objective is to evaluate the impact on the droplet size distribution (DSD) statistics from the assumed model physics, particularly for the small scales. Two modelling approaches are compared: Eulerian–Lagrangian spray atomisation with adaptive mesh refinement and a stochastic fields transported probability density function method. The two models simulate the small scales and sub-grid droplet physics with different approaches, but based on the same concept of transport of liquid surface density. Both approaches predict similar liquid distributions in the near-field comparable to experimental measurements. The spray break-up patterns are very similar and both models reproduce quasi-log-normal droplet distributions, with same overall Sauter mean diameters. The Eulerian–Lagrangian spray atomisation with probability density function approach shows different break-up behaviour between droplets originating from the dilute region and those originating from the dense core region. The transition from Eulerian to Lagrangian can be observed in the Eulerian–Lagrangian spray atomisation with adaptive mesh refinement predicted distribution with an abrupt change in the DSD. Both methods are able to produce similar DSD below filter width/grid size resolution.


To mark 150 years of being 'Open to the World' Ca' Foscari invited
students to write about their mobility experiences abroad, and to
focus on a learning experience – not necessarily a formal one. More
than a hundred students participated. This volume brings together the
winning accounts and all the short and long listed entries. As well
as illuminating the significance of the mobility experience to
students' personal development and celebrating fundamental human
values of tolerance, friendship, and hospitality, they reveal a great
well of creative resources in the use of English as a lingua franca.


The interdisciplinary nature of information systems (IS) presents significant challenges for IS teachers. This paper examines the nature of the IS teaching task. It asks: what are we trying to achieve as IS teachers? What are the characteristics of IS and what might these tell us about how we should be teaching IS? What is the nature of the multiple role of the IS teacher? Where do our curricula come from and how do we integrate research and teaching? Since IS has no unified theoretical foundations, unlike the computational mathematics which underpins computer science, identifying principles on which information systems teaching should be based is difficult. By identifying some of the various roles which IS teachers adopt, this paper seeks to define some overarching principles that should drive IS teaching. Teacher's roles include theoretician, practitioner, priest, counsellor and evangelist. Each of these roles suggests principles for teaching IS. The paper also suggests the key importance of networks of communication in establishing the basis of IS teaching.


ABSTRACT Adult dinosaurs preserved attending their nests in brooding positions are among the rarest vertebrate fossils. By far the most common occurrences are members of the dinosaur group Oviraptorosauria. The first finds of these were specimens recovered from the Djadokhta Formation at the Mongolian locality of Ukhaa Tolgod and the Chinese locality of Bayan Mandahu. Since the initial discovery of these specimens, a few more occurrences of nesting oviraptors have been found at other Asian localities. Here we report on a second nesting oviraptorid specimen (IGM 100/1004) sitting in a brooding position atop a nest of eggs from Ukhaa Tolgod, Omnogov, Mongolia. This is a large specimen of the ubiquitous Ukhaa Tolgod taxon Citipati osmolskae. It is approximately 11% larger based on humeral length than the original Ukhaa Tolgod nesting Citipati osmolskae specimen (IGM 100/979), yet eggshell structure and egg arrangement are identical. No evidence for colonial breeding of these animals has been recovered. Reexamination of another "nesting" oviraptorosaur, the holotype of Oviraptor philoceratops (AMNH FARB 6517) indicates that in addition to the numerous partial eggs associated with the original skeleton that originally led to its referral as a protoceratopsian predator, there are the remains of a tiny theropod. This hind limb can be provisionally assigned to Oviraptoridae. It is thus at least possible that some of the eggs associated with the holotype had hatched and the perinates had not left the nest.


Our society needs Pay for Success (PFS) schemes to work. We are spending too much on social programs that do not generate results, too much on high-cost treatments, and not enough on lower cost and more humane prevention. Amid our deteriorating fiscal state, we must figure out how to do more with less. No wonder a growing array of academics, financial intermediaries, consultants, government officials, and New York Times commentators are extolling "The Promise of Social Impact Bonds," an intriguing new variant of the PFS approach. Yet I'm hesitant to jump on the bandwagon, in part because to date there are only a few social impact bonds (SIB) up and running, and we don't know yet if they are working. The most established initiative, to combat recidivism among inmates released from the Peterborough Prison in the United Kingdom, has yet to produce any definitive results. In 2012, the first SIBs were launched in the United States in New York City and Massachusetts, among other early adopters. But it will be years before we know whether these experiments have paid off. If the "invest in what works" movement is about scaling proven solutions, there is considerable irony in so many of its participants calling for widespread adoption of a financial mechanism for doing so that remains essentially untested.


The authors evaluated the traffic operations and safety effects of 5 mph and 10 mph speed limit reductions in the vicinity of high-speed, signalized intersections with advance warning flashers (AWF). Traffic operational effects of the reduced speed limits were analyzed for seven high-speed, signalized intersections with AWF using the Quantile regression model and Seemingly Unrelated Regression Estimation (SURE). Change of speed limit from 60 mph to 55 mph did not lead to any statistically significant reduction in 15th, 50th, or 85th percentile. The reduction from 65 mph to 55 mph hour led to a 4.6 mph reduction in 85th percentile speed; also, the speed dispersion based on inter-percentile range between 15th and 85th percentiles was reduced by 1.8 mph. About the mean and standard deviation of speed estimated by SURE, the only statistically significant impact is from the speed limit reduction of 10 mph from 65 mph, which reduced the mean speed of vehicles by 3.8 mph at the significance level of 95%. In the safety effect study, a crash analysis based on 56 approaches from 28 intersections was performed. The 10 mph speed limit reduction from 65 to 55 mph was found to reduce, on an average, 0.4 crashes per approach per year with 90% percent level of confidence while the 5 mph reductions in the dataset was found to reduce, on an average, 0.6 crashes per approach per year with 95% significance level. Also, the studied approaches with 10 mph reduction were found to have a lower probability of possible injury crashes and a higher probability of property damage crashes with a 90% level of confidence. The 5 mph reductions in this dataset did not show any significant effect on reducing crash severity. It was also found that lower speed limits in vicinity of the signalized intersection reduced the probability of fatal and injury crashes.


We have obtained contemporaneous light, color, and radial velocity data for three proto-planetary nebulae (PPNe) over the years 2007 to 2015. The light and velocity curves of each show similar periods of pulsation, with photometric periods of 42 and 50 days for IRAS 17436+5003, 102 days for IRAS 18095+2704, and 35 days for IRAS 19475+3119. The light and velocity curves are complex with multiple periods and small, variable amplitudes. Nevertheless, at least over limited time intervals, we were able to identify dominant periods in the light, color, and velocity curves and compare the phasing of each. The color curves appear to peak with or slightly after the light curves while the radial velocity curves peak about a quarter of a cycle before the light curves. Similar results were found previously for two other PPNe, although for them the light and color appeared to be in phase. Thus, it appears that PPNe are brightest when smallest and hottest. These phase results differ from those found for classical Cepheid variables, where the light and velocity differ by half a cycle, and are hottest at about average size and expanding. However, they do appear to have similar phasing to the larger-amplitude pulsations seen in RV Tauri variables. Presently, few pulsation models exist for PPNe, and these do not fit the observations well, especially the longer periods observed. Model fits to these new light and velocity curves would allow masses to be determined for these post-AGB objects, and thereby provide important constraints to post-AGB stellar evolution models of low- and intermediate-mass stars.


The participation of users in system development and its role in IS success have been core topics of IS research since the 1960s, yet critical analysis and recent changes in IS practice suggest the need to revisit the topic. The purpose of this paper is to revitalize participation as an important area of IS theorizing and research and to build the foundations for an updated theory that is robust enough to accommodate changing IS practice. In this paper, we critically analyze traditional IS participation theory and show that it contains partial and conflicting explanations for participation's effects on system success. These explanations leave important conceptual issues unresolved, particularly when viewed in light of developments such as ERP system installations, outsourcing, and new software development approaches such as contextual design. To address these gaps, we outline the key elements of a new theoretical framework, including a redefined concept of system success, an elaborated conceptualization of participants and other actors, a fine-grained characterization of participation activities, and a restatement of hypothesized causal links among the concepts. We conclude with a brief discussion of research strategies for investigating the framework.


Sense Smart City is a Swedish project designed to conduct research, create new business opportunities and sustainably increase ICT research and innovation capability with specific objective to make urban cities/areas "smarter". The project will generate new and better ICT solutions, that instrument urban areas to gather and combine information (energy, traffic, weather, events, activities, needs and oppinions) continously as well as "on-demand". This will enable city environments to become "smarter", as more adaptive and supportive environment, for its inhabitants and visitors - people as well as organisations.


Many investors think of active and passive management as mutually exclusive approaches in investment management; they are proponents of either active or passive management. In the view of the authors, it is more useful to think of these investment management approaches as lying along a continuum, with passive management using index replication at one end of the continuum, and active management using aggressively concentrated portfolios at the other end. Both investment management approaches have benefits and shortcomings. By combining active and passive approaches to investment management, plan sponsors, foundations, and endowments can maximize the benefit potential and may minimize the shortcomings of each to improve overall portfolio results. The authors compare the two approaches, discuss their historical performance, and present a framework for combining the two on a strategic (long–run), tactical (medium–run), and dynamic (short–run) basis.


A 45-year-old female had been suffering for about 6 months almost daily from paroxysmal neck swellings with occasional difficulties in swallowing and from non-specific abdominal complaints. Hormone analyses, performed because of the marked blood pressure increase up to 210/120 mm Hg during such an attack, revealed an increase in vanillyl mandelic acid and epinephrine concentrations in the 24-hour urine. CT demonstrated a tumour of 4 x 5 x 5 cm size in the region of the right adrenal. The paroxysmal neck swellings and blood pressure increase could be reproduced by means of pressure applied over the tumour range with the ultrasound transducer. The tumour was extirpated and histology revealed a phaeochromocytoma. For more than one year now the patient has been free from complaints. To date, recurrent neck swellings have not been reported in association with a phaeochromocytoma. Possible causes may be an enhanced congestion of the deep neck vessels during paroxysmal blood pressure increase or an enhanced response by the adrenoreceptors of these vessels to the released catecholamines.


Port cities are particularly important because they are affected by mutations and fluctuations of industrial evolution. These ports encounter other sequential and recreational functions that miss opportunities for identity and particular waterfront characteristics. A city's waterfront could be envisioned as a thick line, an equipped and inhabitable limen, creating a sense of belonging that could lead to significant identity by corresponding to both internal qualities of a city and external regional influences. These marginal bands can reveal the dynamic in-between-ness of being in the middle.

It is an appropriate time to assess redevelopment projects on waterfront sites and shorelines to evaluate ways to recreate the image of the city, appeal to an urban population and recapture economic investment. Waterfront projects embody potential that speaks to our future and our past. In fact, a waterfront is a hybrid-scape that deals with the gap between city and water to provide alternatives for future usage.


Objective: This study aims to identify factors that have a substantial impact on the fertility performance of the human population in developing countries. Methods: We have used 16 different countries' demographic and health survey data to complete the study. To address the study objective, binary logistic regression random effect metaanalysis and random effect meta-regression are used. Results: At the end of the analysis, it is found that Odds Ratio (OR) for variable women's age is 0.06 [0.06; 0.07] for the event high fertility which is least among all other results. OR for education of women and partner be respectively 0.31 [0.25; 0.39] and 0.44 [0.35; 0.56]. OR for age at first marriage was found to be 0.47 [0.40; 0.56] for the event high fertility. On the other hand, per-capita-health-expenditure can explain 57.14% of the total amount of variation for the variable age at first marriage. Additionally, 49.17% of the heterogeneity can be explained by annual population growth for the variable type of place of residence. Conclusion: In a developing country, women's age is the most important factor to explain fertility performance. After women's age, an increase in education for both partners and women lead to fertility decline. Another unusual factor that influences fertility behavior is the per capita health expenditure of a country. A rise in per capita health expenditure ultimately leads to fertility decline.


This dissertation documents alternative designs of the Zero Forcing decoding algorithm with Successive Interference Cancellation (ZF-SIC) for use in Vertical Bell Laboratories Layered Space Time Architecture (V-BLAST) Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) systems, in an effort to reduce the computational complexity of the receiver. The development of a wireless platform utilizing this architecture intended for use in an indoor wireless multipath environment was created to analyze the multipath environment. This implementation is the result of efforts from several individuals within the CST group. My contributions are documented in this dissertation. In order to obtain channel state information (CSI), a training sequence is sent with each incoming frame. A pseudo-inverse operation is performed on the channel matrix and applied to each OFDM symbol that was received. Performing this operation on each tone and across each OFDM symbol is computationally inefficient in a MIMO configuration. If the number of pseudo-inverses can be reduced while maintaining acceptable levels of bit error, the processing time of each frame can be decreased. Traditionally, tests of the performance of ZF-SIC have been conducted with simulations modelling a multipath channel. In this thesis, CSI is observed using an open loop platform developed for MIMO-OFDM communications. The rate of change of the channel is observed for different multipath environments. The proposed methods of decoding require modifications to ZF-SIC. The suggested changes are only applicable to a MIMO OFDM based method of data transmission. The most effective method of reducing decoding complexity and maintaining an acceptable number of bit errors was observed to occur in the time domain rather than in the frequency domain. For selecting frames and averaging frames in the time domain it was determined that the optimal number of OFDM symbols per frame is 1932 and 174, respectively.


Investigation of Electrically Driven Transition in Magnetite, Fe3O4, Nanostructures by Alexandra A. Fursina Magnetite, Fe3O4, is a strongly electronically correlated system and thus exhibits remarkable electrical and magnetic properties, including the Verwey transition at TV 122 K, which has attracted much attention since its 1939 discovery. Fe3O4 has recently revealed a new effect. By performing experiments at the nanoscale, we have discovered a novel electric-field driven transition (EFD) in magnetite below TV , from highto low-resistance states driven by application of high bias. The EFD transition is detected both in Fe3O4 nanoparticles and thin films, is hysteretic in voltage under continuous biasing, and is not caused by self-heating. In this thesis we report on a thorough investigation of this new EFD transition. First, we unveil the origin of hysteresis observed in I-V curves. By applying voltage in a pulsed manner with controlled parameters, we unambiguously demonstrate that while the transition is field-driven, hysteresis results from Joule heating in the low-resistance state. A simple relaxation-time thermal model captures the essentials of the hysteresis mechanism. Second, by doing multilead (four-terminal) electrical measurements, we quantitatively separate the contributions of the Fe3O4 channel and each metal/electrode interface, and explore the contact effects upon testing devices incorporating various contact metals. We demonstrate that on the onset of the transition, contact resistances at both source and drain electrodes and the resistance of Fe3O4 channel decrease abruptly. Finally, we measured the distribution of switching voltages, Vsw, its evolution with temperature, and its dependence on out-of-plane magnetic field. Based on the experimental facts collected in this work we suggest the possible mechanism of EFD transition in Fe3O4 as a charge gap closure by electric field. This is one of the first experimental observation of a theoretically predicted EFD transition in correlated insulators. These studies demonstrate that nanoscale, nonequilibrium probes can reveal much about the underlying physics of strongly correlated materials.


Permanent residents at high altitude may develop excessive polycythaemia (H-Hb) and pulmonary hypertension, which often leads to cardiac failure. Inhibitors of calcium channels have been shown to reverse pulmonary hypertension in respiratory diseases and in primary pulmonary hypertension, but their efficiency has not been evaluated in high-altitude-induced pulmonary hypertension. Systolic pulmonary arterial pressure (Ppa) was studied by Doppler echocardiography, at rest and after sublingual nifedipine, in 31 asymptomatic residents at 3,600 m. Individuals were separated into two groups according to resting Ppa: a group with low Ppa (< or =4.7 kPa, n=17) and a group with high Ppa (>4.7 kPa, n=14). Individuals were also split into two groups according to haemoglobin (Hb) concentration: a normocythaemic (L-Hb) group ([Hb] < or =180 g.L(-1), n=17) and a H-Hb group ([Hb] >180 g.L.(-1), n=14). No significant difference in Ppa was observed between the L-Hb and H-Hb groups. There was no correlation between [Hb] and Ppa. Nifedipine induced a decrease of >20% in Ppa in two-thirds of the subjects. This response was correlated with higher levels of basal Ppa (p<0.001) and was inversely correlated with age in the L-Hb group (p<0.05). Pulmonary vasoreactivity to nifedipine was independent of the degree of H-Hb. Pulmonary hypertension secondary to chronic altitude hypoxia may be reversible, despite a possible remodelling of the pulmonary arterioles.


Temporary public art sculpture trails (T-Pasts) have been used for over 20 years around the world to fulfil a number of objectives. They can help to generate revenue for host towns and cities; they can contribute to place branding; they can provide entertainment for residents and visitors; and they can raise funds for designated charitable causes. They typically feature object characters that have a relevance for the host place and they invariably utilise the same operational model. They receive significant local publicity and various claims are made concerning their economic, social and aesthetic impact. But there is a case to be made that they are 'hidden in plain sight' as some people will walk or drive past exhibits without ever seeing them. In this article, we track the history of T-Pasts, categorise them into different types, examine their value for different stakeholders, discuss their various impacts and offer a conceptual impact model. We conclude the article with a discussion that contextualises T-Pasts in relevant themes, including place enabling and place building, and also the significance of the temporary element.


ABSTRACT In this paper we present statistical analyses of three textbooks used by Swedish teachers to support year one children's learning of mathematics. One, Eldorado, is authored by Swedish teachers, another, Favorit, is a Swedish adaptation of a popular Finnish series and the third, Singma, is a Swedish adaptation of a Singapore series. Data were coded against the eight categories of foundational number sense, which are the number-related competences literature has shown to be essential for the later mathematical success of year one learners. Two analyses were undertaken; the first was a frequency analysis of the tasks coded for a particular category, the second was a time-series analysis highlighting the temporal location of such opportunities. The frequency analyses identified statistically significant differences with respect to children's opportunities to acquire foundational number sense. Additionally, the time series showed substantial differences in the ways in which such tasks were located in the structure of the textbooks. Such differences, we argue, offer substantial didactical challenges to teachers trying to adapt their practices to the expectations of such imports.


Since, generally, in high population areas and large cities for maximum use of land, buildings are constructed without distances or with insufficient distance, thus, during severe earthquakes, due to unbalanced vibration of the structure Adjacent bodies (which do not have enough distance from one another) and without considering the effects of the soil, the impact phenomenon occurs. The most natural way to avoid impact is to provide sufficient distance between adjacent structures. In the present article, the proposed distance between the standard 2800 Iran between two adjacent structures is also evaluated for the impact of impact phenomena using time histories analysis of structural-soil-structural models. To this end, evaluation of seismic behavior of structures 3, 6, and 12 of 3rd and 5th craters on type I and III soils was performed and for analysis of 6 earthquake records with different earthquake hazard levels Has been used. These structures were modeled in the OpenSees software. Then, to obtain an optimum distance between the structures, the PSO algorithm was used, the code of this algorithm was written in MATLAB software and connected with the OpenSees software. After reaching the convergence condition, the optimum interval was presented and compared with the proposed interval in the standard 2800. The results indicate that the proposed distance in standard 2800 for high-risk earthquakes is not adequate and is not suitable and, given the soil conditions, structures and earthquakes, there is a possibility of collision.