P-glycoprotein (Pgp; also known as MDR1, ABCB1) is the most important and best studied efflux transporter at the blood-brain barrier (BBB); however, the organization of Pgp is unknown. The aim of this study was to employ the recently developed super-resolution fluorescence microscopy method spectral precision distance microscopy/spectral position determination microscopy (SPDM) to investigate the spatial distribution of Pgp in the luminal plasma membrane of brain capillary endothelial cells. Potential disturbing effects of cell membrane curvatures on the distribution analysis are addressed with computer simulations. Immortalized human cerebral microvascular endothelial cells (hCMEC/D3) served as a model of human BBB. hCMEC/D3 cells were transduced with a Pgp-green fluorescent protein (GFP) fusion protein incorporated in a lentivirus-derived vector. The expression and localization of the Pgp-GFP fusion protein was visualized by SPDM. The limited resolution of SPDM in the z-direction leads to a projection during the imaging process affecting the appeared spatial distribution of fluorescence molecules in the super-resolution images. Therefore, simulations of molecule distributions on differently curved cell membranes were performed and their projected spatial distribution was investigated. Function of the fusion protein was confirmed by FACS analysis after incubation of cells with the fluorescent probe eFluxx-ID Gold in absence and presence of verapamil. More than 112,000 single Pgp-GFP molecules (corresponding to approximately 5,600 Pgp-GFP molecules per cell) were detected by SPDM with an averaged spatial resolution of approximately 40 nm in hCMEC/D3 cells. We found that Pgp-GFP is distributed in clustered formations in hCMEC/D3 cells while the influence of present random cell membrane curvatures can be excluded based on the simulation results. Individual formations are distributed randomly over the cell membrane.


The conversion of glycerol to acrolein is an undesirable event in whisky production, caused by infection of the broth with Klebsiella pneumoniae. This organism uses glycerol dehydratase to transform glycerol into 3-hydroxypropanal, which affords acrolein on distillation. The enzyme requires adenosylcobalamin (coenzyme B12) as cofactor and a monovalent cation (e.g. K+). Diol dehydratase is a similar enzyme that converts 1,2-diols (C2-C4) including glycerol into an aldehyde and water. The subtle stereochemical features of these enzymes are exemplified by propane-1,2-diol: both enantiomers are substrates but different hydrogen and oxygen atoms are abstracted. The mechanism of action of the dehydratases has been elucidated by protein crystallography and ab initio molecular orbital calculations, aided by stereochemical and model studies. The 5'-deoxyadenosyl (adenosyl) radical from homolysis of the coenzyme's Co-C σ-bond abstracts a specific hydrogen atom from C-1 of diol substrate giving a substrate radical that rearranges to a product radical by 1,2-shift of hydroxyl from C-2 to C-1. The rearrangement mechanism involves an acid-base 'push-pull' in which migration of OH is facilitated by partial protonation by Hisα143, synergistically assisted by partial deprotonation of the non-migrating (C-1) OH by the carboxylate of Gluα170. The active site K+ ion holds the two hydroxyl groups in the correct conformation, whilst not significantly contributing to catalysis. Recently, diol dehydratases not dependent on coenzyme B12 have been discovered. These enzymes utilize the same kind of diol radical chemistry as the coenzyme B12-dependent enzymes and they also use the adenosyl radical as initiator, but this is generated from S-adenosylmethionine.


Abstract The creation of the Wenzhou Spoken Corpus, an online searchable corpus of a modern Chinese dialect, presents a number of challenges that are of interest to the corpus linguistic community. We review issues involved with collection of spoken data, its transcription and markup, as well as the functionality of the search tools. The transcription makes use of Chinese characters as well as IPA symbols for Wenzhou colloquial forms not conventionally represented by characters. XML was adopted as the standard for the basic format of files, with file searches expressed in XPath form. The search tools provide the usual options of restricting searches by age, gender, etc., and yield concordances and tables of collocates. Though the collection of data for the corpus was 'opportunistic' in some ways, and so not ideally balanced or representative, it is nevertheless proving to be a valuable tool for corpus-based research on Wenzhou.


Following the 2010 U.S. Supreme Court landmark decision on campaign finance (i.e., Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission), political comedian Stephen Colbert took to the airways with a new kind of entertainment-based political commentary; satirical political activism. Colbert's creation of a super PAC garnered the attention of national media, providing him the opportunity to move his satire beyond the confines of his late-night comedy show (The Colbert Report). Transcending traditional boundaries of late-night political comedy, Colbert appeared in character on a variety of political talk shows. Meta-coverage of this collision between parody and reality begs the question: Do audiences who consume Colbert's super PAC parody in different media contexts demonstrate significantly different effects? Using data from a Web-based experiment (N = 112), effects of consuming Colbert's super PAC satire in different media contexts (political comedy show, political talk show) were compared. Results indicate that consuming Colbert's super PAC parody in the context of his comedy show resulted in significantly higher levels of issue knowledge and support for campaign finance reform when compared with those who consumed Colbert's super PAC parody in the context of a political talk show (Morning Joe). The present study addresses the theoretical and practical implications for political and policy communication.


Open dumps was the main option of the local communities in household waste management, this practice being banned after July 16, 2009. The paper examines the correlation between dumpsites volumes, population density and local geographical conditions in the context that in most rural administrative-territorial units of the county there were no facilities for waste collection. The geographical distribution of dumpsites volumes reflects the disparities between different areas of the county and on the other hand, it highlights the spaces exposed to pollution. Also, the comparative analysis between 2004 (pre-accession) and 2009 (post-accession) reflects a rudimentary waste management system in this period which favored the waste dumping. This paper analyses the issues of rural waste management and its environmental implications at local scale. Such approaches are necessary for a proper analysis of EU environmental policies implementation at regional and local level.


The quick way to learn Microsoft OneNote! This is learning made easy. Get productive fast with OneNote and jump in wherever you need answers. Brisk lessons and colorful screenshots show you exactly what to do, step by step--and practice files help you build your skills. Access local and online OneNote notebooks from any device Create notes that include handwriting, drawings, screen clips, audio clips, video clips, and structured equations Revise, reorganize, flag, format, search, and share your notes Customize OneNote for the way you like to work Get more done by integrating OneNote with Microsoft Word, Excel, and Outlook Share notes by using email, Microsoft OneDrive, and SharePoint Look up just the tasks and lessons you need


Abstract The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of 60 days of rose-hip and grapeseed dietary supplementation of a balanced home-cooked diet on serum oxidative stress parameters: ROMs, MDA and FRAP in army service dogs before and after regular physical exercise. The dogs were fed a balanced cooked diet as instructed by army standards until the initial blood sampling in June. Thereon the dogs were randomly allotted to 4 groups according to the dietary regime: dogs maintained on a balanced cooked diet according to army standards, branded dry dog food, cooked diet with added 500 mg rose-hip extract, and cooked diet with added 100 mg grapeseed extract for a 60 day period from June to September after which all 4 groups were fed the standard cooked meal diet. Sampling was performed at the beginning of the experiment (June), 60 days from the start of the treatment (September) and finally 60 days after the end of supplementation (November). Statistical analysis of the results included descriptive statistical parameters: mean (M), standard deviation (SD), and variation coefficient (CV%). In order to test the statistical significance of the differences between treatments a multifactor variance test (ANOVA) was performed for ROM, MDA and FRAP and the combined effects of diet, exercise and time period were observed. The initial (in June) increase in MDA and ROMs after exercise indicates the presence of oxidative stress 30 minutes after exercise. However, the antioxidative effects of rose-hip and grapeseed extracts are not conclusive, as multifactor ANOVA testing of time, diet, and exercise factors did not reveal for MDA statistically significant differences either at 60 days of supplementation nor 60 days after withdrawal of the supplements. Only one distinct exception was recorded for the prolonged antioxidative effects reflected in significantly decreased (p<0.01) ROMs before and after exercise in dogs fed the branded dry food 60 days after the end of such dietary regime (November). FRAP values tend to be higher (p>0.05) after exercise compared to before exercise in all experimental groups in November, indicating on a possible redistribution and upregulation of endogenous antioxidants during the experiment.


It is becoming clear that, if we are to solve our nuclear waste disposal problems, we will need to deal seriously with public concerns. Such concerns need to be addressed on their own terms: If people perceive a problem to be real, it will be real in its consequences, whatever the official pronouncements may be. Growing evidence makes it clear that concerns over nuclear waste disposal are not limited to small or unrepresentative groups of activists, but rather comprise a virtual consensus in society. In addition, while the common belief was once that the biggest policy need was to deal with disparities between 'real' risks and those that were merely 'perceived,' quantitative research now points to a very different conclusion. While expert judgments are often taken as representing 'real' risks for decision-making purposes, expert judgments often prove susceptible to the same errors as are found among members of the general public. At the same time, the perceptions of the broader public often reflect more wisdom than was once apparent. If we are to deal effectively with radioactive waste disposal problems, in short, we may need a clearer understanding of what it means to live in a technological society. 'Real risks' today include not just the risks of death, which have been substantially reduced by science and technology, but also the risks of recreancy--of cases where those of us in the technical community fail to carry out our duties with the necessary commitment and vigor.


Sera from normal subjects were examined for reactivity to human herpesvirus 6 (HHV-6) by the anticomplement immunofluorescence test. Of a total of 179 serum specimens from donors aged from under 10 to 59 years, 141 specimens showed positive reactivity against HHV-6. The positive rate was 70 to 83% for all age groups, and there were no substantial differences in the positive rates. Sera from younger children aged from 0 to 21 months were then examined in detail. The antibody-positive rate of children aged from 0 to 5 months decreased from 52 to 5%, but it gradually increased by 12 months. Almost all children had the antibody against this virus after 13 months of age.


"BEST. PD. EVER!" Some teachers make bold claims for the way that Twitter supports their professional development, yet research into this area is rather limited. This study sought to gain a better understanding of the practices involved and the part that Twitter plays. It uses a sociomaterial sensibility informed by actor-network theory (ANT) to unravel the complex webs of relations which form, break apart and reform when knowledge practices are enacted in the mediated arena of Twitter.
To explore this rich but messy environment, I evoke the spirit of the Parisian flâneur to develop an ethnographic approach I refer to as 'flânography.' Characterised by purposeful wandering, the approach coupled participant observation and interviews, with emerging methods involving a bot and a 'walkie-talkie' app. Adopting the sensibility of the flâneur consistently through data collection, analysis and presentation resulted in traversals which render pathways of experience. This led to me presenting the findings in three 'Gatherings' (Law, 2004a), each taking a tweet or other data snippet as a point of departure. Through the Gatherings I present the activities of both human and nonhuman participants, establish how they came together (or didn't) and gain a better appreciation of the outcomes of those interrelationships.
In reading across the Gatherings, two interlocking dimensions emerged through which teachers' learning practices on Twitter might be conceptualised. 'Compound learning' describes how practices can be understood through three meanings of compound: framed chemically (through formation of bonds and associations), financially (like interest which grows cumulatively) and as a mixture (an assortment of actors engaged in activities). The second dimension describes how compound learning can be enacted across three 'scales:' acts, activities and practices.
By extending previous research, this thesis contributes a richer and deeper understanding of what 'Twitter Professional Development' involves, thereby helping to legitimise it within broader professional development discourse. Adding to the current literature on teachers' professional learning, this thesis reveals how significant personal-isation is in two senses: that teachers can exercise choice in what, when and how they learn; and secondly, the importance of being able to forge socio-professional connections with fellow educators in different ways. The flânographic approach and the new methods which arose within it offer wider contributions for studies exploring activities which range across online and offline spaces, and through time.


Disjoining pressure isotherms for foam films made from a nonionic surfactant, octyl β-glucoside, are measured at different surfactant concentrations, ionic strengths, and solution pH values. Below the cmc an electrostatic double-layer repulsion is present and dominates the long-range interaction. The decay length of the forces agrees with the expected Debye length and the measured long-range interactions are consistent with solutions to the nonlinear Poisson−Boltzmann equation using constant charge conditions. The deduced surface charge densities increase with pH and ionic strength but decrease with increasing surfactant concentration. At, or just above, the cmc, surfactant covers the interface and suppresses the charge sufficiently to induce a transition from a common black film to a Newton black film. Ultimately, the film stability is determined by both surface forces and elasticity. Combining both, via an overall film tension, leads to a general expression for the film elasticity.


The Moon has been a subject of interest of space agencies, being seen as a candidate to establish a permanent outpost in space [1]. However, in order to reach this goal with reasonable efforts, the utilization of local resources which are available on the Moon is an essential requirement. The access to water-ice is of main interest, since it would provide a local source for oxygen and hydrogen, and thus make a costly transport of breathable air and fuel from earth dispensable. The formation of water-ice on the Moon can be explained from different mechanisms [2], e.g. reactions of sunwind particles with locally present oxides which can be found in Moon regolith. Further theories explain the presence of water-ice with out-gassing of the Moon's core, or consider meteoroids or comets as possible carriers. Meanwhile, the missing atmosphere and exposure to the sun leads to evaporation and thus a reduction of water-ice on the lunar surface. This leads to the conclusion that water-ice can be only present in so-called cold traps, permanently shadowed polar regions, and LCROSS mission [3] successfully provided evidences for the presence of water-ice in these regions. In order to allow for a direct, local examination and exploration of polar regions, more complex and technological challenging missions are required. These missions will comprise a higher risk than remote sensing missions – commonly the deployment of mobile robotic systems is considered which need to be capable of locomotion in demanding crater regions [4]. Despite a higher operational risk, such missions provide a high scientific value, since they will allow a thorough exploration of the polar regions of the Moon, e.g. to analyse the presence of volatile matter and distribution of this matter [5]. Motivated by these requirements and building upon experiences gained in LUNARES [6], the project RIMRES has developed a modular, reconfigurable, heterogeneous multirobot system to serve as a terrestrial demonstrator for lunar crater exploration missions. The capability of reconfiguration is one of the essential design aspects of the project RIMRES leading to a flexible approach to (re)use of available resources. This reconfigurability can be exploited for nominal operation and in conditions of failure, and provides a means to increase the system's overall efficiency while still maintaining redundancies.


Analyzer. The conditions remained identical apart from increased concentration of indicator enzymes.3 Normal ranges were determined for each system on blood drawn from healthy volunteers. The results are given in the Table. The range for asparate aminotransferase was much narrower with the LKB instrument, the upper limit of normal falling by 8 units. This was due to the standard deviation being virtually halved, since the mean was similar to the previous value.


Kaur Alttoa: St. Michael's Church in Laanemaa – A Fortified Church? Keywords: St. Michael's Church, Laanemaa, sacral architecture in Estonia, fortified church, 13. century, middle ages Summary: It has been traditionally claimed that St. Michael's Church in Laanemaa was built, along with its vaults, in the late 13th century, and that it was a fortified church – the attic above the vaults could be used as a hiding place in case of emergency. Research during the last few years has revealed that the story of the church's construction includes two longer periods. The original church had a wooden ceiling. The vaults were not added until the Late Middle Ages. A similar support system was also used in the Keila and Johvi churches in Northern Estonia. Based thereon, it can be assumed that the reconstruction of St. Michael's Church occurred around 1500. It has also become clear that it was not a fortified church. CV: Kaur Alttoa is a long-time scholar and teacher of art history at the University of Tartu as well as one of the foremost specialists of the history of medieval architecture in the Baltic region. His objects of interest have included both medieval fortresses and sacral buildings. Among his major contributions stands out the restoration and study of the St. John's Church in Tartu, which was also published as a monograph in 2011.


The stratigraphic succession of the North American Midcontinent contains a high-resolution (< 100,000 year) record of sea level and climate change spanning the Pennsylvanian-Permian boundary. Outcrop-based sequence stratigraphic analysis on the upper Wabaunsee, Admire, and lower Council Grove groups in Kansas and Nebraska reveals a hierarchy of fifty-one fifth-order meter-scale cycles grouped into five fourth-order composite sequences. Fifth-order cycles are bounded by subaerial unconformities in nearshore settings and correlative conformities in offshore settings, and are therefore very thin depositional sequences. Lowstand systems tracts, observed only in nearshore deposits, are expressed as sandy, incised-valley fills in these meter-scale cycles. Transgressive systems tracts, which are dominated by carbonate deposition, include coastal evaporites indicating arid climatic conditions. Highstand systems tracts, which are dominated by siliciclastic deposition, include thin but persistent coals in muddy coastal successions indicating humid climatic conditions. Paleosols at sequence boundaries evolve from vertic to calcic, indicating climate change from relatively humid to relatively arid conditions during subaerial exposure. This indicates that relatively arid climate coincided with eustatic lows while relatively humid climate coincided with eustatic highs on this low-latitude platform. Composite sequences are bounded by subaerial, angular unconformities and display a transgressive-regressive stacking pattern of meter-scale cycles. The high-resolution stratigraphic record of the Midcontinent helps constrain the rate and magnitude of environmental change in ancient icehouse conditions and can serve as a baseline of environmental change for comparison with other coeval successions.


To design a retaining wall, conventional Mononobe–Okabe method, which is based on the pseudo-static approach and gives the linear distribution of seismic earth pressures in an approximate way, is used to compute the seismic earth pressures. In this paper, pseudo-dynamic approach is used to compute the seismic earth pressures on a rigid retaining wall by considering the effects of time, phase difference in shear and primary waves and soil amplification along with the horizontal and vertical seismic accelerations and other soil properties. Design value of the seismic active earth pressure coefficient is found to increase with increase in the seismic accelerations, phase difference in body waves and soil amplification, whereas the reverse trend is observed for the passive case. Influence of various soil parameters on seismic passive earth pressure is more significant than that for the active case under harmonic seismic loading. Results are provided in the combined tabular and graphical non-dimensional form for both the seismic active and passive earth pressures. Present results are compared with the available results in literature to validate the proposed non-linearity of seismic earth pressure distribution.


S>Some recent results from the Los Alamos program in which hydraulic fracturing is used for the recovery of geothermal energy are discussed. The location is about 4 kilometers west and south of the ring fault of the enormous Jemez Caldera in the northcentral part of New Mexico. It is shown that geothermal energy may be extracted from hot rock that does not contain circulating hot water or steam and is relatively impermeable. A fluid is pumped at high pressure into an isolated section of a wellbore. If the well is cased the pipe in this pressurized region is perforated as it is in the petroleum industry, so that the pressure may be applied to the rock, cracking it. A second well is drilled a few hundred feet away from the first. Cold water is injected through the first pipe, circulates through the crack, and hot water returns to the surface through the second pipe. Results are described and circumstances are discussed under which artiflcial geothermal reservoirs might be created in the basaltic rock of Hawaii. (MCW)


Food security is a hugely important and complex issue. Such complexity is demonstrated, inter alia, by the lack of a consistent definition of food security under the international policy framework. Of the various elements that can affect food security, trade in agriculture plays a significant role both in positive and negative terms. This article considers the concept of food security as emerging from the WTO Agreement on Agriculture (AoA) and discusses it in the light of the most commonly accepted definition of food security (i.e. the FAO's definition). The analysis highlights a bifurcation in the concept at stake, depending on the forum considered. According to the AoA, food security is conceived as an exception. It does not consider the individual condition, but focuses either on a country's agricultural self-sufficiency or on the suitability of food self-reliance at national and global levels. While within the UN agencies, a multifaceted and multidimensional concept emerges


This book provides detailed and current information on using fullerenes (bucky-balls) in photodynamic therapy (PDT), one of the most actively studied applications of photonic science in healthcare. This will serve as a useful source for researchers working in photomedicine and nanomedicine, especially those who are investigating PDT for cancer treatment and infectious disease treatment. The book runs the gamut from an introduction to the history and chemistry of fullerenes and some basic photochemistry, to the application of fullerenes as photosensitizers for cancer and antimicrobial inactivation.


Porifera are a diverse animal phylum with species performing important ecological roles in aquatic ecosystems, and have become models for multicellularity and early-animal evolution. Demosponges form the largest class in sponges, but previous studies have relied on the only draft demosponge genome of Amphimedon queenslandica. Here we present the 125-megabase draft genome of a contractile laboratory demosponge Tethya wilhelma, sequenced to almost 150x coverage. We explore the genetic repertoire of transporters, receptors, and neurotransmitter metabolism across early-branching metazoans in the context of the evolution of these gene families. Presence of many genes is highly variable across animal groups, with many gene family expansions and losses. Three sponge classes show lineage-specific expansions of GABA-B receptors, far exceeding the gene number in vertebrates, while ctenophores appear to have secondarily lost most genes in the GABA pathway. Both GABA and glutamate receptors show lineage-specific domain rearrangements, making it difficult to trace the evolution of these gene families. Gene sets in the examined taxa suggest that nervous systems evolved independently at least twice and either changed function or were lost in sponges. Changes in gene content are consistent with the view that ctenophores and sponges are the earliest-branching metazoan lineages and provide additional support for the proposed clade of Placozoa/Cnidaria/Bilateria.


Summary

Sharks of the genus Carcharhinus exhibit subtle morphological differences that are difficult to observe because of the common practice of head and fin removal, making species identification challenging. A total of 317 sharks, commonly called 'cacao-baia' (large individuals) or 'machote' (small size) in Brazil, were captured by the tuna fleet at the Santos and Guaruja fishery ports on the southeastern coast of Brazil and identified at the species level by multiplex PCR. The Internal Transcribed Spacer 2 region of ribosomal DNA was amplified using universal primers, and species-specific primers were used for some of the Carcharhinus species. A total of 313 shark carcasses were directly identified by multiplex PCR. Four carcass samples did not amplify; therefore, the partial COI sequences were used to confirm their taxonomic identity. The results show that more than one species was being traded under the same commercial designation, including some Carcharhinus species that are under protection by federal legislation. Such species misidentification directly affects the long-term sustainability of sharks.


Disintegration of lyophilized Bacteroides amylophilus H I 8 suspended in water, by agitation with glass beads, gave an extract containing 40% of the total cell protease activity. Better yields of an esterase which hydrolysed p-toluenesulphonyl-L-arginine methyl ester (TAME) were obtained by disintegration in 0I M-phosphate buffer (pH 7.0). Ultrasonic disintegration of fresh suspensions was used to obtain larger quantities of cell extract. The protease had a broad plateau of activity between pH 5-5 and 9.5 ; the esterase had maximum activity at pH 8.0. Divalent cations had relatively little effect on either activity but 5 x I O ~ M C ~ C ~ , restored activity to EDTA-inhibited esterase. The protease was not inhibited by EDTA. Both activities were inhibited by di-isopropylphosphofluoridate but the protease was incompletely inhibited (87 yo). Neither activity was activated nor inhibited by thiol reagents. In addition to TAME, N-a-benzoyl-L-arginine methyl ester (BAME), N-a-benzoyl-L-arginine ethyl ester (BAEE), N-a-benzoyl-DL-arginine-pnitroanilide and lysine ethyl ester were hydrolysed, indicating a trypsin-like specificity. The esterase differed from trypsin in not hydrolysing N-a-benzoylL-arginine amide (BAA) nor N-a-benzoyl-DL-arginine-naphthylamide (BANA) and in hydrolysing BAME more rapidly than TAME. There was some hydrolysis of N-a-benzoyl-~-leucyl-2-naphthylamide and some amino peptidase activity as shown by the hydrolysis of ~-analyl-2-naphthylamide, L-leucylglycine and L-leucinamide. TAME competitively inhibited at least 64 % of the protease activity. The K, for casein was 0.17 % (w/v). Casein at concentrations greater than 3.0 yo (w/v) caused substrate inhibition. The rate of ' tyrosine ' liberation was proportional to protease concentration provided that less than 0.5 mg. 'tyrosine' was liberated from the 80 mg. casein in the standard assay. Protease concentration to the power 213 or the power 1/2 was proportional to the rate of hydrolysis but the straight line did not go to the origin. Bacteroides amylophilus H 18 extracts contained much nucleic acid which could not be separated from the protease activity by ammonium sulphate, protamine sulphate nor manganese chloride precipitation. Continuous electrophoresis was also ineffective. Ion-exchange chromatography separated the nucleic acids, but the protease activity was scattered in so many fractions that the purification was only three-fold and the recoveries poor.


Learn how to apply modern AI to create powerful cybersecurity solutions for malware, pentesting, social engineering, data privacy, and intrusion detection
Key Features
Manage data of varying complexity to protect your system using the Python ecosystem

Apply ML to pentesting, malware, data privacy, intrusion detection system(IDS) and social engineering

Automate your daily workflow by addressing various security challenges using the recipes covered in the book
Book Description
Organizations today face a major threat in terms of cybersecurity, from malicious URLs to credential reuse, and having robust security systems can make all the difference. With this book, you'll learn how to use Python libraries such as TensorFlow and scikit-learn to implement the latest artificial intelligence (AI) techniques and handle challenges faced by cybersecurity researchers.

You'll begin by exploring various machine learning (ML) techniques and tips for setting up a secure lab environment. Next, you'll implement key ML algorithms such as clustering, gradient boosting, random forest, and XGBoost. The book will guide you through constructing classifiers and features for malware, which you'll train and test on real samples. As you progress, you'll build self-learning, reliant systems to handle cybersecurity tasks such as identifying malicious URLs, spam email detection, intrusion detection, network protection, and tracking user and process behavior. Later, you'll apply generative adversarial networks (GANs) and autoencoders to advanced security tasks. Finally, you'll delve into secure and private AI to protect the privacy rights of consumers using your ML models.

By the end of this book, you'll have the skills you need to tackle real-world problems faced in the cybersecurity domain using a recipe-based approach.

What you will learn
Learn how to build malware classifiers to detect suspicious activities

Apply ML to generate custom malware to pentest your security

Use ML algorithms with complex datasets to implement cybersecurity concepts

Create neural networks to identify fake videos and images

Secure your organization from one of the most popular threats – insider threats

Defend against zero-day threats by constructing an anomaly detection system

Detect web vulnerabilities effectively by combining Metasploit and ML

Understand how to train a model without exposing the training data
Who this book is for
This book is for cybersecurity professionals and security researchers who are looking to implement the latest machine learning techniques to boost computer security, and gain insights into securing an organization using red and blue team ML. This recipe-based book will also be useful for data scientists and machine learning developers who want to experiment with smart techniques in the cybersecurity domain. Working knowledge of Python programming and familiarity with cybersecurity fundamentals will help you get the most out of this book.


Gauge stations are distributed along the Solim\~oes/Amazonas main channel to monitor water level changes over time. Those measurements help quantify both the water movement and its variability from one gauge station to the next downstream. The objective of this study is to detect changes in the water level relationship between consecutive gauge stations along the Solim\~oes/Amazonas main channel, since 1980. To carry out the analyses, data spanning from 1980 to 2010 from three consecutive gauges (Tefe, Manaus and Obidos) were used to compute standardized daily anomalies. In particular for infra-annual periods it was possible to detect changes for the water level variability along the Solim\~oes/Amazonas main channel, by applying the Morlet Wavelet Transformation (WT) and Wavelet Cross Coherence (WCC) methods. It was possible to quantify the waves amplitude for the WT infra-annual scaled-period and were quite similar to the three gauge stations denoting that the water level variability are related to the same hydrological forcing functions. Changes in the WCC was detected for the Manaus-Obidos river stretch and this characteristic might be associated with land cover changes in the floodplains. The next steps of this research, will be to test this hypotheses by integrating land cover changes into the floodplain with hydrological modelling simulations throughout the time-series.


Studies on women entrepreneurship have witnessed a rapid growth over the past 30 years. the field is in an adolescence stage with a considerable number of journal articles, literature reviews and books being published on women entrepreneurs. the objective of this study is twofold. first is to examine the number of papers published on women entrepreneurship in 12 established entrepreneurship journals from 1900 to 2016. second is to assess the growth of the field by specifically reviewing literature reviews published from 1980s till 2016 and put forward future research directions. our review findings suggest that there is still a long way to go in terms of building a strong theoretical base for research on women entrepreneurship. the lens of feminist theories can be applied in conjunction with the existing entrepreneurship theories to advance the field. methodologically, past research is dominated by the positivist paradigm and there is a need to embrace innovative methods to build explanations using a constructionist approach. further, studies are mostly restricted within national boundaries primarily being conducted in developed economies. there is a need to build transnational networks and foster professional communities to enable the growth of the field.


Source-to-source
translation of programs from one high level language to another has been shown
to be an effective aid to programming in many cases. By the use of this
approach, it is sometimes possible to produce software more cheaply and
reliably. However, the full potential of this technique has not yet been
realized. It is proposed to make source-to-source
translation more effective by the use of abstract languages, which are
imperative languages with a simple syntax and semantics that facilitate their
translation into many different languages. By the use of such abstract languages and by translating only often-used fragments of
programs rather than whole programs, the need to avoid writing the same program
or algorithm over and over again in different languages can be reduced. It is
further proposed that programmers be encouraged to write often-used algorithms
and program fragments in such abstract languages. Libraries of such abstract
programs and program fragments can then be constructed, and programmers can be
encouraged to make use of such libraries by translating their abstract programs
into application languages and adding code to join things together when coding
in various application languages. This approach can also improve program
reliability, because it is only necessary to
verify the abstract programs once instead of verifying them separately in each
application language. Also, this approach makes it possible to generate code
faster than programming from scratch each time. This approach is compared to
the use of libraries and to other methods in current use for communication
between programming languages and translation
between languages.


In recent years, 'Experiential Futures'—"the practice of making manifest, one or more fragments of an ostensible future world in any medium or combination of media..."—has been used to bring hard-to-imagine, future possibilities into immediate and observable settings (Candy, 3). Yet, central to what is supposed to make Experiential Futures 'tick' is an experience which, up until this point, has yet to be studied with rigour. This project uses Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) methodology, to explore in detail the thoughts, feelings and sense-making activities engaged in by participants during a set of student-led experiential scenarios staged at OCAD University in Toronto, Canada. Using in-depth, semi-structured interviews and empathy mapping exercises, experiential scenario participants were asked to recall their experiences to the researcher.

The outcomes of this study are threefold:

I. a descriptive account of participant experiences during experiential scenario encounters. This account of participant perceptions, emotional responses and the formation of understandings, may help sensitize designers to their audiences.

II. an analysis of the participant experience during experiential scenario encounters. The analysis may help illuminate some of the unique merits and potential weaknesses of using experiential scenarios to explore possible futures.

III. an identification of aspects of the participant experience underserved in today's experiential scenarios. Designers may use this to enhance the participant experience.


Based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork in lowland Peru, this study examines interactional functions of Northern Kampa (Arawak) lip funneling gestures. The study has shown that lip funnels have two functions, spatial deictic and upgrading. Spatial deictic lip funnels orient the addressee to a referential target in acts of direct and deferred ostension and abstract pointing; they are accompanied with aligned gaze and coupled with a variety of lexical items (although they need not be). Spatial deictic lip funnels are intense, sometimes held for the duration of the entire utterance. The second function of lip funnels is to amplify the speaker's claim to epistemic authority in upgraded responses. In the upgrading function, lip funnels are paired with a limited range of grammatical constructions (negative-interrogative, polar focus and exhaustive focus); the gesturer's gaze is directed at the recipient, or eyes are shut. Nasalization of vowels is in complementary distribution with eye shutting. 'Upgrading' lip funnels are transitory facial actions, normally lasting a split second.


This article takes a critical look at the developing body of cases that address the threshold issue in Internet contracting: the issue of assent. While the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act and the federal Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act remove barriers to Internet contracting by providing that a contract shall not be denied legal effect solely because it is in electronic form, the statutes leave the substantive law of contracts intact. Therefore, it is up to the courts to define the extent to which the rules of assent should be modified to adapt to electronic transactions. While the Internet is new, the challenges presented by Internet contracts are not. Traditional contract rules, based on the paradigm of two individuals meeting face-to-face to negotiate written terms, have been modified over the years to accommodate diverse methods of communicating contract terms. These modifications have been fashioned to account for the different signals sent to offerees by new methods of contracting. Today's courts, however, virtually ignore the fact that the common law of contracts has developed rules that account for the different signals sent by contract terms that are delivered in novel ways. This article argues that courts must consider the cautionary function that the paper contract form has traditionally served and account for the different signals sent by electronic contracts. To support this argument, the article reviews the electronic contracting case law and compares it to older cases addressing the issue of assent when contract terms are delivered by novel methods. The paper then discusses the factual differences between paper and electronic contracts, drawing on computer science and marketing scholarship examining the ways that individuals perceive electronic communications. The paper concludes by suggesting approaches to the assent issue that take these different perceptions into account.


This paper analyzes the trade creation and trade diversion effects of the regional trade agreements (RTAs) in Asia and their effects on intra-regional trade flows using annual trade data for the period 1980-2009. The research will attempt to achieve the following objectives: (a) analyze the major RTAs in Asia and their effects on intra-regional trade flows. (b) use a gravity model to estimate the trade creation and trade diversion effects of various RTAs on trade flows within and across member groups; and (c) measure the effect of RTAs on members' trade with other Asian countries. The findings of this study are, for the most part, consistent with findings of previous studies on the Asian trade flows. The coefficients of real GDP, population, and distance had expected signs and magnitudes in all models estimated.


Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks on network infrastructure are one of the major challenges facing network service providers. Despite the recent rise of low-volume application-level attacks, volume-based DDoS attacks still dominate, with peak traffic rates of 80Gbps being observed recently. This prompts the need for more efficient ways to deal with them. Meanwhile, service providers are struggling to acquire the right technology, resources and expertise to offer more resilient and reliable services. One of the solutions to help address this issue is to adopt an autonomous resilience strategy that systematically coordinates resilience related activities such as detecting and mitigating attacks. In this paper, we study an implementation of an autonomous traffic rate limiter - a function that can be used to mitigate DDoS attacks - that capitalises on the AnYa algorithm, an autonomous learning systems (ALS) algorithm that provides advanced features that are crucial to support an autonomous resilience strategy. These features include self-structuring and support for online learning. In our study, we experimentally show how remediation and recovery processes can be realized autonomously, in response to changes in the operational policy.


The article presents the hypothesis that the increase in the intermediate consumption caused by the growth of material costs due to innovation and modernization temporarily reduces the level of economic efficiency. This leads to further multiple increases of final product volume, which, in turn, increases the region's economic potential and competitiveness, provides its enhanced participation in inter-regional and international exchange processes. The authors consider the main factors and conditions that determine the variation of these parameters in the market economy and discuss the intermediate and final product, export, import and others. The results of the analysis, calculations and statistics reveal and confirm the possibility of their measurement with the use of interindustry balances. The study aims at assessing the quantitative interdependence of intermediate and final products growth based on the analysis of interregional and international exchange in the system coordination to macroeconomic indicators of the socio-economic development of the region during the periods of planned and market economy. Another purpose is to determine the directions of the region's participation in the division of labour and implementation of innovations in order to increase of gross domestic product. On the example of the development of Bashkortostan economy, the authors have revealed that a greater involvement of the region in the foreign economic processes led to the increase in the flow of exports and imports and the simultaneous reduction of production export to other regions of the Russian Federation and import from them. At the same time, the region has focused mainly on the export of fuel and energy products. The proportions of intermediate and final products in the period under review have changed by increasing the final products. That confirms the improvement of conditions for the growth of the region's competitiveness. On the example of oil-extracting and oil processing industries, the authors have proved that the modernization and introduction of innovative approaches to the organization of production are an effective tool for multiple increases of the final product volume, despite the increase in intermediate products.


As the result of migration, many languages have a homeland variety and one or more so-called heritage varieties spoken in the countries of migration, often in Europe, North America, or Australia. One of these is Ambon Malay, a language originally spoken in the Central Moluccas, Indonesia, but also spoken as a heritage language in the Netherlands.

When one language is spoken alongside another one, contact-induced change is expected to occur. This change inevitably leads a heritage language to diverge from its homeland counterpart and to converge toward the socially dominant language. This dissertation explores contact-induced change in heritage Ambon Malay, as spoken by Dutch-Ambon Malay bilinguals. In order to investigate divergence and convergence, the present study systematically compares heritage Ambon Malay to its homeland variety, to Dutch, and to the language of first generation speakers in the Netherlands. The comparison, both quantitative and qualitative, is based on semi-spontaneous speech data and it focuses on four grammatical areas: nominal modification, aspect marking, give-constructions and resultative constructions.

The most pervasive type of contact-induced change encountered in heritage Ambon Malay is 'change in frequency', namely a change in preference for one construction over another equally possible construction when the preferred construction is shared with Dutch. As a result, heritage Ambon Malay grammar is converging toward Dutch and diverging from the homeland variety. Beside Dutch influence, divergence from the homeland variety is also accounted for by the quantitatively and qualitatively different language input that heritage speakers have received in the county of migration.


Elevated blood pressure that is transmitted from deep to superficial veins via perforating veins in case of insufficiency causes dilatation of superficial veins and consequently leads to the varicose syndrome. Statistically processed results obtained in the examination of perforating veins of lower extremities by Color Doppler echo-flebography were grouped in the experimental group and control group. The data on the examinees were inserted in the table that included: gender, age, genetic factor, presence of symptoms (swollen lower extremities, pain, heavy legs, skin lesions), and general topography of perforating veins: Dodd's, Boyd's and Cockett's perforating veins. In the experimental group, which consisted of 17 patients, 70 perforating veins in the lower extremities were examined. Statistically, these veins had two observation characteristics: diameter expressed in mm and functional condition like sufficiency or insufficiency. In the control group, which consisted of 10 patients, 18 perforating veins in the lower extremities were examined with the identical observation characteristics as in the experimental group. Statistically processed data did not prove any interrelatedness of statistical importance between the genders, age, examinees' gender and genetic predisposition on the one side and the diameters of examined perforating veins on the other. In most cases, enlarged diameter represented also the insufficiency function, thus in the experimental group perforating veins were 3.5mm in the diameter and more - insufficient in 91.2% and perforating veins of smaller diameters in 8.8%. Color Doppler echo-flebography is a non-invasive method, easily accessible, repeatable and reliable in the estimation of topography, morphology and haemodynamics of perforating veins. In the initial phase, prior to dilatation and varicosity of superficial veins, when insufficient perforating veins are registered, surgical intervention includes ligging of these veins. Thus by their exclusion, blood pressure that is transmitted from deep to superficial veins is lowered and the otherwise inevitable series of changes is interrupted. .


In this paper we create a model of human behavior in online communities, based on the network topology and on the communication content. The model contains eleven distinct hypotheses, which validate three intuitions. The rst intuition is that the network topology alone fails to clearly distinguish between the users who contribute to the community and the troublemakers. The second intuition is that the content of the messages exchanged in an online community can separate good and insightful contri- butions from the rest. The third intuition is that there is a delay until the network stabilizes and un- til standard measures, such as betweenness central- ity, can be used accurately. Taken together, these three intuitions are a solid case against indiscrimi- nately using network measures. They also underline the importance of the communication content. We show that the sentiment within the messages, espe- cially antagonism, can signicantly alter the commu- nity perception. We create a novel sentiment analysis technique to identify antagonistic behavior. We use real world data, taken from the Slashdot discussion forum to validate our model. All the find- ings are accompanied by extremely signicant t-test p-values.


Although wide variation in the type of consideration offered in corporate acquisitions is observed in practice, little is known about how bidders or targets choose the method of payment in takeovers. Further, several empirical studies report that shareholders of both targets and bidders earn higher returns in cash offers than in equity offers, but the reasons for this more favourable impact of cash offers have not been empirically established. This study attempts to fill these gaps in the literature by addressing three research questions:-
1) What factors determine the method of payment used by bidders in corporate acquisitions?
2) How do target shareholders choose between cash and equity when the bidder has offered "equity with a cash alternative" as the method of payment?
3) Why are bid premia higher in cash offers than in equity offers?

In examining how bidders choose the method of payment this study in contrast to all previous studies, emphasises that there is a simultaneous and joint relationship between the method of payment and the choice of accounting policy. Accordingly, we adopt a simultaneous equations framework with payment method and accounting policy choices as endogenous variables. Our results show that payment method has a significant impact on accounting policy choice whereas the reciprocal effect is not significant. This result reflects the fact that UK accounting rules have eroded the distinction between merger and acquisition accounting which is more clearly observed in the US. We study how target shareholders choose the payment currency by examining how a choice is made between cash and equity when the bidder has offered "equity with a cash alternative" as the method of payment. We find that information about the opportunities for realising synergies in the acquisition have no influence on the choice of payment method by target shareholders. The choice is based primarily on the difference in value between the cash and equity offers. This is consistent with the theoretical predictions based on the efficient market hypothesis, that all publicly available information about a security can be reduced into a single index, namely the share price. We tested some of the popular explanations which have been advanced in the literature to explain the higher returns to cash offers. The capital gains tax compensation and the wealth redistribution hypotheses are rejected. Information asymmetry between managers and shareholders can explain some of the higher returns observed in cash offers. This is consistent with signalling models which predict that the use of equity to finance investments signals a belief by managers that their shares are overvalued.


The 2018 Woody Crops International Conference was held from 22 to 27 July 2018 throughout Minnesota and Wisconsin, USA to unite world-leading short rotation woody crop (SRWC) organizations at a forum designed to enhance information exchange while also building a platform for developing future collaboration around SRWC production systems. The meeting included pre-conference and post-conference tours in Minnesota and Wisconsin and technical sessions in Rhinelander, Wisconsin. Technical sessions were framed under the topics: Genetics and Physiology, Phytotechnologies, Stakeholders, Bioproducts, Harvesting and Logistics, Biomass Production, and Ecosystem Services. This Conference Report provides a compilation of abstracts from each of the 38 oral and poster presentations delivered during the technical program. It should serve to enhance future discussions among scientists, academicians, regulators, and the general public relative to sustainable application of SRWC technologies for a multitude of current objectives.


A fascinating examination of ethics, religion and psychology, this selection of Schopenhauer's works contains scathing attack on the nature and logic of religion, and an essay on ethics that ranges from the American slavery debate to the vices of Buddhism. Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves - and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives - and destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization and helped make us who we are.


A mixture of digestates from biogas plant and bottom ashes from biomass combustion can be a valuable source of nutrients and organic substances as well as an improver of the adsorption capacity and water-air properties of the soil. Pelletization of such a mixture makes its composition more stable and the handling easier. However, the properties of pelletized fertilizer are affected by the external factors. The paper presents the results of the research on the impact of air accessibility during the storage of fertilizer pellets produced on the basis of digestate from biogas plants, bottom ashes derived from the biomass combustion and mineral additives (quicklime, zeolite and bentonite) on their fertilizing properties, enzymatic activity and technical parameters, such as resistance to mechanical loads. The research showed that the fertilizers stored under the roof, exposed to the atmospheric air for 1 year, contained by 5.5% more water compared to the samples shielded from the air. These more humid fertilizers were also characterized by slightly higher nitrogen content and 1.7-fold lower enzymatic activity of dehydrogenases and 1.6-fold higher activity of phosphatases, but their resistance to mechanical loads, both static and dynamic was lower. On the other hand, the effects of storage conditions on the urease activity and the content of potassium, phosphorus and heavy metals were not observed. Generally, the storage of fertilizers in airtight containers is more advantageous, because under such conditions the changes in the fertilizing properties are insignificant, while their resistance to mechanical loads is much higher.


The growing influence of wire delay in cache design has meant that access latencies to last-level cache banks are no longer constant. Non-Uniform Cache Architectures (NU-CAs) have been proposed to address this problem. Furthermore, an efficient last-level cache is crucial in chip multiprocessors (CMP) architectures to reduce requests to the off-chip memory, because of the significant speed gap between processor and memory and the limited memory bandwidth. Therefore, a bank replacement policy that efficiently manages the NUCA cache is desirable. However, the decentralized nature of NUCA has prevented previously proposed replacement policies from being effective in this kind of caches. As banks operate independently of each other, their replacement decisions are restricted to a single NUCA bank. We propose a novel mechanism based on the bank replacement policy for NUCA caches on CMP, called The Auction. This mechanism enables the replacement decisions taken in a single bank to be spread to the whole NUCA cache. Thus, global replacement policies that rely on the current state of the NUCA cache, such as evicting the least frequently accessed data in the whole NUCA cache, are now feasible. Moreover, The Auction adapts to current program behaviour in order to relocate a line that is being evicted from a bank in the NUCA cache to the most suitable position in the whole cache. We propose, implement and evaluate three approaches of The Auction mechanism. We also show that The Auction manages the cache efficiently and significantly reduces the requests to the off-chip memory by increasing the hit ratio in the NUCA cache. This translates into an average IPC improvement of 8%, and reduces energy consumed by the memory system by 4%.


A study on the consolidation behaviour of Kelang clay is presented in this paper. The soil samples taken near the Port of Kelang showed that the clay can
be divided into upper marine and the lower river clays. The initial distinction was based on the existence of sea shells in the upper deposits and none in the lower deposits. It has been shown that these two clays have different consolidation properties as well as other basic geotechnical characteristics. Consolidation
history indicated that Kelang clay is normally consolidated and may be classified as a high compressibility clay. The overburden pressure due to fill must be
neglected in order to obtain the true over consolidation ratio. It was also found that the correlation given by Terzaghi and Peck (1967) provided the best
estimates for the compression index, particularly that of the marine clay.


Background: Ischemic myocardial damage accompanying coronary artery bypass graft surgery remains a clinical challenge. We investigated whether xenon anesthesia could limit myocardial damage in coronary artery bypass graft surgery patients, as has been reported for animal ischemia models. Methods: In 17 university hospitals in France, Germany, Italy, and The Netherlands, low-risk elective, on-pump coronary artery bypass graft surgery patients were randomized to receive xenon, sevoflurane, or propofol-based total intravenous anesthesia for anesthesia maintenance. The primary outcome was the cardiac troponin I concentration in the blood 24 h postsurgery. The noninferiority margin for the mean difference in cardiac troponin I release between the xenon and sevoflurane groups was less than 0.15 ng/ml. Secondary outcomes were the safety and feasibility of xenon anesthesia. Results: The first patient included at each center received xenon anesthesia for practical reasons. For all other patients, anesthesia maintenance was randomized (intention-to-treat: n = 492; per-protocol/without major protocol deviation: n = 446). Median 24-h postoperative cardiac troponin I concentrations (ng/ml [interquartile range]) were 1.14 [0.76 to 2.10] with xenon, 1.30 [0.78 to 2.67] with sevoflurane, and 1.48 [0.94 to 2.78] with total intravenous anesthesia [per-protocol]). The mean difference in cardiac troponin I release between xenon and sevoflurane was −0.09 ng/ml (95% CI, −0.30 to 0.11; per-protocol: P = 0.02). Postoperative cardiac troponin I release was significantly less with xenon than with total intravenous anesthesia (intention-to-treat: P = 0.05; per-protocol: P = 0.02). Perioperative variables and postoperative outcomes were comparable across all groups, with no safety concerns. Conclusions: In postoperative cardiac troponin I release, xenon was noninferior to sevoflurane in low-risk, on-pump coronary artery bypass graft surgery patients. Only with xenon was cardiac troponin I release less than with total intravenous anesthesia. Xenon anesthesia appeared safe and feasible.


Different designs for producing multiple stopband mesoporous silicon rugate filters via electrochemical anodization are compared. The effects of light absorption and dispersion to visible range filter design are investigated. Thermal oxidation is applied for passivating the chemically reactive porous silicon surface, and the response of the passivated structures to ethanol vapor is examined. Differences in gas sensing properties for the various designs are evaluated and possible reasons for the observed differences are discussed. Methods for sidelobe suppression in multipeak filters are discussed and demonstrated, and their effects in gas sensing applications are estimated.


We modify the price-setting version of the vertically differentiated duopoly model by Aoki (2003) by introducing an extended game in which firms noncooperatively choose the timing of moves at the quality stage. Our results show that there are multiple equilibria in pure strategies, in which firms always select sequential play at the quality stage. We also investigate the mixed-strategy equilibrium, revealing that the probability of generating outcomes out of equilibrium is higher than its complement to one. In the alternative of full market coverage, we show that the quality stage is solved in dominant strategies and therefore the choice of roles becomes irrelevant as the Nash and Stackelberg solutions coincide.


Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API) of good quality is core to the manufacturing of effective and safe essential drugs. The price of APIs is the main cost driver for manufacturing. Only a limited number of large manufacturers of finished pharmaceutical products have their own API manufacturing capabilities, and none of them can make all required APIs in-house. The majority of manufacturers, including all those located in Sub-Saharan Africa (with the exception of one company in South Africa) have to buy all APIs in the open market. The paper tries to make the structures of the API market more transparent, trying to determine how difficult it is for small manufacturers in developing countries to navigate the global API market and ensure that they get a quality product at a fair price. It also looks into the competitiveness of the market, trying to assess the risk that manufacturers or traders monopolize parts of the API market for essential medicines with low commercial attractiveness. The author confirms the initial assumption that the API market provides a challenge in particular to small manufacturers, who have limited means to verify the quality of the APIs they are buying. One potential way to address this problem would be to broaden the World Health Organization (WHO) prequalification system to include APIs for drugs that are on the WHO model list for essential medicines.


BORIS NEMTSOV: A TRUE RUSSIAN PATRIOT DAVID J. KRAMER It is hard to believe that a year has gone by since Boris Nemtsov was shot and killed just yards from the Kremlin walls. Boris' assassination reminded us that Russian critics and opponents of the Putin regime face significant danger, whether they live and stay in Russia or emigrate to seemingly safer places overseas (see Alexander Litvinenko, poisoned in London in 2006). Boris chose to stay and fight for what he believed was right. He felt it his patriotic duty and responsibility to shine a light on the abuses and outrages of the Putin clique. And for that he paid the ultimate price. Few people were as outspoken and courageous as Boris, a true Russian patriot who sought the best for his country. Boris believed that Russia had taken a seriously wrong turn under the reign of Vladimir Putin, and he regularly criticized the policies and authoritarianism that he felt were threatening his country's future. He sought to expose the corruption and wrongdoings of the Putin regime and issued regular reports, whether on the Sochi Olympics or Putin's palaces, revealing how rotten and kleptocratic the regime had become. At the time of his murder, Boris was working on a report, "Putin. War", on Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Thanks to a number of Boris' friends and colleagues who bravely filled the void, the report was released, albeit posthumously for Boris, to expose the involvement of Russian forces fighting in Ukraine, the extent of Russian casualties, the economic and financial costs of the war for Russia, and the role of forces sent by Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov. It is not clear whether Boris' plans to issue the report played a role in his murder, but the possibility certainly cannot be ruled out. Despite repeated warnings that he was risking the ire of the Kremlin, Boris was determined to do what he believed was right. It is heartening to see other Russian patriots determined to bring his unfinished work to fruition, a fitting tribute to Boris' tireless efforts. One of the issues Boris believed in passionately was the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law and Accountability Act, which the U.S. Congress passed in 2012 and President Obama signed into law that December. On numerous occasions, Boris stressed that this legislation was not anti-Russian, but in fact was pro-Russian because it targeted individuals who engaged in gross human rights abuses, including the murder of the lawyer Sergei Magnitsky. There was no better spokesman than Boris to counter nefarious Kremlin propaganda painting the Magnitsky Act as anti-Russian. In the absence of justice inside Russia, Boris believed, the Magnitsky Act was the next best thing to providing some element of accountability. Because it targeted individuals, not the country, if people did not engage in human rights abuses, they had nothing to fear from being sanctioned through a visa ban and asset freeze. Despite considerable risk back home, Boris became an active advocate for the legislation, meeting in Washington with Members of Congress and their staffs. Boris knew that going after a corrupt, abusive Russian official's ability to travel to the United States and his ill-gotten gains was risky to his own safety. But he believed it was the right thing to do, and no risk would dissuade him from pursuing justice. Along with others, he and I on several occasions pushed publicly for the Magnitsky legislation, and it was clear to me that Boris' advocacy made a big difference. He had an excellent reputation among Senators and Representatives, and his cogent presentations convinced Members that voting for the Act was the best way to press for rule of law and accountability in his homeland. Throughout the years, I appeared several times with Boris on panels and at meetings, including the rollout in Washington of his report, "Winter Olympics in the Sub-Tropics: Corruption and Abuse in Sochi," which detailed allegations of rampant corruption in preparation for the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics. …


My aim in this paper is to discuss a metaphysical framework within which to understand "standard linguistic entities" (SLEs), such as words, sentences, phonemes, and other entities routinely employed in linguistic theory. In doing so, I aim to defuse certain kinds of skepticism, challenge convention-based accounts of SLEs, and present a series of distinctions for better understanding what the various accounts of SLEs do and do not accomplish.


This paper presents GPU performance optimization and scaling results for inference models of the Sparse Deep Neural Network Challenge 2020. Demands for network quality have increased rapidly, pushing the size and thus the memory requirements of many neural networks beyond the capacity of available accelerators. Sparse deep neural networks (SpDNN) have shown promise for reining in the memory footprint of large neural networks. However, there is room for improvement in implementing SpDNN operations on GPUs. This work presents optimized sparse matrix multiplication kernels fused with the ReLU function. The optimized kernels reuse input feature maps from the shared memory and sparse weights from registers. For multi-GPU parallelism, our SpDNN implementation duplicates weights and statically partition the feature maps across GPUs. Results for the challenge benchmarks show that the proposed kernel design and multi-GPU parallelization achieve up to 180 TeraEdges per second inference throughput. These results are up to 4.3x faster for a single GPU and an order of magnitude faster at full scale than those of the champion of the 2019 Sparse Deep Neural Network Graph Challenge for the same generation of NVIDIA V100 GPUs. Using the same implementation11 Our code is open-source at https://github.com/merthidayetoglu/SpDNN_Challenge2020, we also show single-GPU throughput on NVIDIA A100 is 2.37x faster than V100.


Objectives: The aim of this research was to assess the level of awareness of rehabilitation professionals employed in academic rehabilitation centers in Tehran with reference to Tele-rehabilitation technology. Methods: In this study, a descriptive cross-sectional research method was used. The research was implemented by using a researcher-designed questionnaire which was developed by the integration and cultural adaptation of different tools collected in the field of tele-health implementation feasibility. The content and face validity of the questionnaire was determined and approved by Lawsche's method. The reliability of the questionnaire was assessed by test-retest correlation coefficient determinations. After considering the inclusion and exclusion criteria, informed consent was obtained, and the questionnaires were distributed among the study sample, which comprised of 141 rehabilitation professionals. Results: The findings show that a desirable level of awareness does not exist among rehabilitation professionals with regards to this technology. Based upon the results, only 8% of the participants had basic knowledge of this technology required in case of implementation. Discussion: Since rehabilitation professionals' awareness and knowledge can be a major key to a better implementation and application of this technology, it seems that there is a need for some developmental and training programs, such as informative educational workshops and seminars, to help them improve their level of knowledge and awareness.


Advances in hydraulic fracturing (aka "fracking") technologies and horizontal drilling have enabled the extraction of previously unviable unconventional oil and gas resources. However, as global environmental concerns have become more prominent and unconventional oil and gas developments have moved ever closer to residential centers, public scrutiny of the industry and its methods and impacts of extraction have increased. Water impacts feature prominently among the contemporary societal concerns about fracking. These concerns include the large water requirements of the process itself, as well as concerns about the potential pollution of groundwater and the (underground) environment more broadly. Anthropologists have undertaken qualitative field research on unconventional gas developments in a variety of settings, largely among local communities in regions of extraction. The perspectives employed by anthropologists are commonly drawn from the broader social science literature, including the anthropology of water and natural resources, science and technology studies, studies of social movements, and studies which examine the energy‐society nexus. Based on the shortcomings of the published anthropological accounts, interdisciplinary research collaboration with hydrologists, engineers and economists, as well as a more fulsome engagement with the variety of hopes, fears and dreams of fracking and unconventional gas, is recommended. WIREs Water 2018, 5:e1272. doi: 10.1002/wat2.1272


The elastic modulus of organic matter can strongly influence the mechanical behaviour of source rocks. Although recent advances have shed crucial light on the mechanical properties of natural organic matter under ambient conditions, the elastic properties of kerogen and bitumen at reservoir temperatures remain poorly constrained. In this paper, we use a novel atomic force microscope technique to measure the changes to organic matter during the heating of an organic-rich shale. Our measurements show that bitumen becomes more compliant with heating and in an experiment during which the temperature was increased from 25 to 225°C, the reduced elastic modulus dropped from 6.3 to 0.8 GPa. In contrast to bitumen, we were unable to discern any significant changes to the elastic modulus of kerogen with increasing temperature. Our results suggest that the temperature dependence of the elastic properties could be used as an additional method to differentiate between bitumen and kerogen in shales. Moreover, our analysis indicates that temperature should be taken into account when modelling the elastic properties of bitumen under reservoir conditions.


Background: Contracture is a very common complication of joint immobilization in daily examination, but its cause is still unknown. A fibrotic change of the capsule is suggested to be one of the main causes of the joint contracture. The goal of this study was to analyze the expression pattern of transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1) and connective tissue growth factor (CTGF), which are implicated in fibrosis in the capsule of a rat immobilized knee model. Materials and Methods: We immobilized the unilateral knee joints of 66 rats in 150 degrees of flexion using a plastic plate and metal screws. Sham operated knee joints of 66 rats had holes drilled and screws inserted but none of them were plated. The capsule from the anterior and posterior portion of the knee joints was harvested at 3 days, 1, 2, 4, 8 and 16 weeks after immobilization and the expression patterns of TGF-β1 and CTGF were characterized using in situ hybridization and immunohistochemistry. Results: The in situ hybridization demonstrated that the mRNAs of both TGF-β1 and CTGF increased continuously during the first 2 weeks after immobilization and then decreased. The response was relatively higher in the posterior capsule than in the anterior one. In contrast, the immunoreactivity of both TGF-β1 and CTGF increased gradually with time. The response was much stronger in the posterior capsule than in the anterior one. Conclusions: The capsule has a potency to produce TGF-β1 and CTGF after immobilization. CTGF may play a role in causing and maintaining capsular fibrosis in collaboration with TGF-β1. The fibrotic change in the posterior capsule may have resulted in limited motion in extension in this immobilized knee model in rats. It may be possible to prevent joint contractures by somehow blocking the fibrotic process.


This paper shows that the space of persistence diagrams has properties that allow for the definition of probability measures which support expectations, variances, percentiles and conditional probabilities. This provides a theoretical basis for a statistical treatment of persistence diagrams, for example computing sample averages and sample variances of persistence diagrams. We first prove that the space of persistence diagrams with the Wasserstein metric is complete and separable. We then prove a simple criterion for compactness in this space. These facts allow us to show the existence of the standard statistical objects needed to extend the theory of topological persistence to a much larger set of applications.


Aerodynamic interference between the main and tail rotor can have a strong negative influence on the flight mechanics of a conventional helicopter. Significant unsteadiness in the tail rotor loading is encountered under certain flight conditions, but the character of the unsteadiness can depend on the direction of rotation of the tail rotor. Numerical simulations, using Brown's vorticity transport model, of the aerodynamic interaction between the main and tail rotors of a helicopter are presented for a range of forward and lateral flight trajectories. Distinct differences are predicted in the behavior of the system in left and right sideward flight that are consistent with flight experience that the greatest fluctuations in loading or control input are required in left sideways flight (for a counterclockwise rotating main rotor). These fluctuations are generally more extreme for a system with tail rotor rotating top-forward than top-aft. Differences are also exposed in the character of the lateral excitation of the system as forward flight speed is varied. The observed behavior appears to originate in the disruption of the tail rotor wake that is induced by its entrainment into the wake of the main rotor. The extent of the disruption is dependent on flight condition, and the unsteadiness of the process depends on the direction of rotation of the tail rotor. In intermediate-speed forward flight and right sideward flight, the free stream delays the entrainment of the tail rotor wake far enough downstream for the perturbations to the rotor loading to be slight. Conversely, in left sideward and quartering flight, the free stream confines the entrainment process close to the rotors, where it causes significant unsteadiness in the loads produced by the system.


The major goal of this thesis is to gain a better understanding of the molecular self-assembly on GaAs, which can be useful for design of functional self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) on this technologically important semiconductor substrate. For this purpose, high quality SAMs of non-substituted alkanethiols and some specially designed molecules, including 4,4´-terphenyl-substituted alkanethiols, -(4´-methyl-biphenyl-4-yl)-alkanethiols, partially fluorinated alkanethiols (PFAT), and dihexadecyl diselenide have been prepared on GaAs (001) through the optimization and careful control of the rigorous experimental conditions. These SAMs were investigated in detail by a combination of advanced surface characterization techniques, providing a deep insight into the molecular organization and properties of these films.
In the first place, pronounced chain length effect for all studied SAM systems on GaAs was elucidated, viz. deterioration of the film quality occurs with decreasing length of the molecular chain, accompanied by a partial oxidation of the GaAs substrate, due to the less effective protection property.
In the second place, by using the series of the 4,4´-terphenyl-substituted alkanethiols and -(4´-methyl-biphenyl-4-yl)-alkanethiols, the existence of so called bending potential at the headgroup-substrate interface in the SAM/GaAs(001) system with a preferable GaAs-S-C angle of ~104° was demonstrated. For the above SAMs, this potential plays the dominant role in the balance of the structure-building forces, mediating the odd-even behavior in the molecular orientation and packing density. This result suggests that the bending potential should always be taken into account at the design of functional molecular films on GaAs substrate.
The influence of the above factors, viz. the chain length effect and the bending potential, were additionally studied by the example of PFAT SAMs with variable length of the fluorocarbon chain, viz. CF3(CF2)n-1(CH2)11SH (denoted as FnH11SH, n = 6, 8, and 10). To better understand the structure and organization of these films, the corresponding study of the reference PFAT/Au system was performed first, resulting in a variety of valuable general findings regarding the balance of the structure-building interactions in complex monomolecular films. As for the PFAT/GaAs system, the respective SAMs were found to be highly ordered and densely packed, and consequently able to protect the GaAs surface from the oxidation. This protection depended on the chain length and was less effective for the films with shorter fluorocarbon chain due to their lower quality. Indeed, with decreasing length of the fluorocarbon segment, progressive deterioration of the orientation order accompanied by a slight decrease in the packing density was observed in the fluorocarbon part. In contrast, the hydrocarbon segments in FnH11SH/GaAs exhibited similar orientation, with the average tilt angles close to the optimum one determined by the bending potential. This underlines once more the important role of bending potential in the balance of structure-building interactions in aliphatic SAMs on GaAs.


This contribution reconstructs the history of movable books, books created for a wide range of different purposes (teaching, mnemonics, play, divining, etc.) including mechanical or paratextual devices demanding or soliciting the interaction of the reader. The investigation runs from hand-written books to the most courageous paper-engineering experiments of the 20th century Avant-Garde, considering some specific editorial genres, including calendars, "libri di sorti", anatomical books, navigation handbooks etc., and animated children's books. In particular, it demonstrates how the happy season for animated paper production and publishing of the 19th century would not have been possible without the scientific inheritance of optical studies and vision sciences, precursors a short time before the invention of the Lumiere brothers (1895). The study also examines some literary works using combinatorial mechanisms, experimenting the semiotic potential of expressive codes and very different techniques and materials: the reference is to books of Futurism and Dadaism, the "artists' book", and other avant-garde texts from the second half of the 20th century.


World trend of the XXI century — Industry 4.0 and digital platforms. In 2014, General Electric (GE) partnered with Big Tech giants — AT&T, Cisco, IBM and Intel — to take control of the global manufacturing industry created the Industrial Internet Contributors Association (Industry IoT Consortium IIC). By 2021, the IIC included Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Accenture, Huawei, Bosch, EMC, SAP, Siemens, SAS and others. GE together with BigTech created the industrial cloud platform Predix, declaring it to be practically an "operating system" for factories, analogous to Android or iOS in the world of machines, the language of the industrial Internet. However, in 2020 GE and Predix suffered a devastating fiasco. The article provides an analysis of the root causes and problems, and formulates the requirements for digital platforms of industrial software. The author describes alternative solutions and new principles for implementing digital transformation of Industry 4.0 based on the closing technologies of digital genesis, graph-centric platforms, tools, models and systems of collective conscious scientifically based balanced management (industrial, corporate, social, state). Closing technologies offered by Russia have got an enormous social and political resource.


Joining the current debates in American literary history, Jose David Saldivar offers a challenging new perspective on what constitutes not only the canon in American literature, but also the notion of America itself. His aim is the articulation of a fresh, transgeographical conception of American culture, one more responsive to the geographical ties and political crosscurrents of the hemisphere than to narrow national ideologies.

Saldivar pursues this goal through an array of oppositional critical and creative practices. He analyzes a range of North American writers of color (Rolando Hinojosa, Gloria Anzaldua, Arturo Islas, Ntozake Shange, and others) and Latin American authors (Jose Marti, Roberto Fernandez Retamar, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and others), whose work forms a radical critique of the dominant culture, its politics, and its restrictive modes of expression. By doing so, Saldivar opens the traditional American canon to a dialog with other voices, not just the voices of national minorities, but those of regional cultures different from the prevalent anglocentric model.

The Dialectics of Our America, in its project to expand the "canon" and define a pan-American literary tradition, will make a critical difference in ongoing attempts to reconceptualize American literary history.


The Bacillus sphaericus UPMB10 plant growth-promoting strain was selected for colonization and inoculant formulation studies. The UPMB10 strain is a Gram positive, endospore forming bacteria. The biochemical assay results showed that this strain was able to hydrolyze complex carbon source (potato starch) but did not utilize simple sugars. The UPMB10 strain was able to grow in the presence of 10 µg mL-1 of the antibiotic streptomycin and 10U of bacitracin which may be an important inherent characteristic in the competitiveness of this plant growth-promoting rhizobacterium. The results of the in vitro colonization study showed that B. sphaericus strain UPMB10 could successfully proliferate on and colonize the roots of Oryza sativa L. MR220 for up to 28 days after inoculation. Enumeration of bacteria colonizing the rice root indicated that the UPMB10 strain colonized both the rhizoplane and the root interiors at up to 108 and 104 cfu g-1 root tissue, respectively. The production of root cell wall degrading enzymes, cellulase and pectinase, by this strain may have facilitated cellular entry. Scanning electron microscopy of colonization showed dense colonization at areas rich in root exudates specifically the elongation zone, junction of lateral roots and junctions of epidermal cells for up to 21 days. Clusters of microcolonies formed a mucigel within the mucilaginous sheath of the root. Colonies were also seen colonizing beneath what could possibly be the epidermal cuticle of the roots, especially in the relatively older primary roots. The colonization of the rice roots by this strain displayed adhesion structures which attached the cells with the root surface of rice and between each other. The process of root colonization also elicited a varying pattern of bacterial morphology during temporal colonization of rice roots. Normal rods of this strain were sized 0.5 – 0.6 µm x 1.5 – 1.9 µm. Some colonies of cells appeared rounder and fatter (0.9 – 1.1 µm x 1.3 – 1.8 µm) with widths twice that of the normal rods. Results also showed colonies elongating (length 5.3 – 6.2 µm) in readiness for cell replication possibly as a result of receiving sufficient nutrients from the colonized sites on the roots. The UPMB10 strain was successfully tagged with the green fluorescent protein (GFP) marker in the plasmid specifically constructed for this study (pSV101gfp3) by electroporation. The presence of GFP was confirmed by PCR, SDS-PAGE and Western blotting. The fluorescence signal of the transformants however, was too weak to be used to follow colonization on roots in non-sterile environments.

The effects of different bacterial liquid media, carrier materials (coirdust, ground oil palm fronds [GOPF] and GOPF amended with Kusokom compost), temperatures (20, 30 and 40C), moisture potentials (pF 2.19 and 2.54) and storage period (6 months) on viable cell growth were evaluated. Tryptic soy broth (TSB) was found to be suitable for the cultivation of a high number of viable bacterial cells (108 cfu mL-1) for long term inoculant production. Ground oil palm fronds (GOPF) + 25% Kusokom compost was found to be a suitable carrier for maintaining and increasing the number of B. sphaericus UPMB10 viable cells (Log10 9.28 cfu g-1) at near room temperature (30 °C) for up 6 months. The results indicated that there were interactions between the factors studied for the inoculant formulation. Consequently, the growth and survival of UPMB10 in the carriers depended on the storage temperature and time (p=0.05). Highest viable growth in GOPF, coir dust, GOPF + 50% Kusokom compost and GOPF + 25% Kusokom compost was recorded at temperatures 20°C, 30°C, 40°C and 30°C respectively, and at storage time D21, D7, D28 and D14, respectively. Results of interactions between carrier and temperature indicated that growth and viability was more favourable at 30°C in GOPF and GOPF + 25% Kusokom compost, while GOPF + 50% Kusokom compost treatment was able to tolerate storage temperature of 40 ° C. In all treatments the viable population was significantly higher at D161 (Log10 8.61 cfu g-1) and D21 compared to D1 (Log10 8.00 cfu g-1). The outcome of this study showed the potential of producing a commercial inoculant from GOPF+ 25% Kusokom compost for Malaysia and other tropical countries with high numbers of B. sphaericus UPMB10 that showed high colonizing ability.


Objectives Recent investigations have associated airborne particulate matter (PM) with increased coagulation and thrombosis, but underlying biological mechanisms are still incompletely characterised. DNA methylation is an environmentally sensitive mechanism of gene regulation that could potentially contribute to PM-induced hypercoagulability. We aimed to test whether altered methylation mediates environmental effects on coagulation. Methods We investigated 63 steel workers exposed to a wide range of PM levels, as a work-related condition with well-characterised prothrombotic exposure. We measured personal PM10 (PM≤10 µm in aerodynamic diameter), PM1 (≤1 µm) and air metal components. We determined leukocyte DNA methylation of NOS3 (nitric-oxide-synthase-3) and EDN1 (endothelin-1) through bisulfite-pyrosequencing and we measured ETP as a global coagulation-activation test after standardised triggers. Results ETP increased in association with PM10 (β=20.0, 95% CI 3.0 to 37.0), PM1 (β=80.8 95% CI 14.9 to 146.7) and zinc (β=51.3, 95% CI 0.01 to 111.1) exposures. NOS3 methylation was negatively associated with PM10 (β=−0.2, 95% CI −0.4 to −0.03), PM1 (β=−0.8, 95% CI −1.4 to −0.1), zinc (β=−0.9, 95% CI −1.4 to −0.3) and iron (β=−0.7, 95% CI −1.4 to −0.01) exposures. Zinc exposure was negatively associated with EDN1 (β=−0.3, 95% CI −0.8 to −0.1) methylation. Lower NOS3 (β=−42.3; p<0.001) and EDN1 (β=−14.5; p=0.05) were associated with higher ETP. Statistical mediation analysis formally confirmed NOS3 and EDN1 hypomethylation as intermediate mechanisms for PM-related coagulation effects. Conclusions Our study showed for the first time, that gene hypomethylation contributes to environmentally induced hypercoagulability.


A simple and effective method of determining the phytate content of a single wheat seed was considered necessary for selecting the materials of moderate phytate during early generations breeding. 23 wheat genotypes (16 winter wheat cultivars and 7 spring wheat cultivars) were firstly used as determining samples of phytate content (PC) and inorganic phosphorus content (IPC) of the whole meal, secondarily they were planted in two locations for two times (2004 and 2005). The all single plants were harvested by a plot from those sites, then 6 individual plants were randomly selected to save their seeds for each plot, and the seeds of other plants were grinded into whole meal to assay their PC and IPC. Subsequently, every seed from per individual plant was cut into two semi-grain seeds: the semi-grain seed without embryo (SGSWOE) and the semi-grain seed with embryo (SGSWE); the SGSWOE was carried out to assay colorimetric scoring values by inorganic phosphorus content (CSVIPC), while according to the CSVIPC index, the satisfied SGSWEs were saved to plant at next generation or the dissatisfied SGSWEs were eliminated. The results showed that there was significantly negative correlation between PC and IPC of the wheat meal from either the first samples or the materials harvested at those sites, and for the latter there was significantly negative correlation between PC and CSVIPC. There was no significant difference of CSVIPC among the SGSWEOs and SGSWE of the spikes and individual plants from the same plot or the same genotype at any sites. In conclusion the CSVIPC of the SGSWOEs can indirectly express PC level of the wheat meal: the higher the former was, the lower the latter was. So the CSVIPC of SGSWOE can be applied to assaying the level of corresponding SGSWE according to their index, and screening the individual plant of moderation phytate. Moreover, this method is characterized by high efficiency during breeding processing.


Dropout is often used in deep neural networks to prevent over-fitting. Conventionally, dropout training invokes random drop of nodes from the hidden layers of a Neural Network. It is our hypothesis that a guided selection of nodes for intelligent dropout can lead to better generalization as compared to the traditional dropout. In this research, we propose "guided dropout" for training deep neural network which drop nodes by measuring the strength of each node. We also demonstrate that conventional dropout is a specific case of the proposed guided dropout. Experimental evaluation on multiple datasets including MNIST, CIFAR10, CIFAR100, SVHN, and Tiny ImageNet demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed guided dropout.


Today most of the oil is produced. This has triggered a wider interest for gas reservoirs. To determine how much gas that can be recovered in a reservoir it is important with good knowledge of the trapped gas saturation. This includes getting more information about trapped gas which demands more research in this area. Trapped gas saturation is recognized as an important factor in the process of recovering gas. In this project, literature has been studied and a lot of experimental work was done. Several papers have been read, and a basic knowledge of trapped gas, both what it is and how it can be determined, has been obtained. A main objective when reading was to gain knowledge about factors that affect the amount of trapped gas in a reservoir. In addition to reading about the theory, it has bee tested in the lab. The main purpose of the lab work was to see how rate change would affect the residual gas saturation, by using USS method. Spontaneous co-current imbibition experiments were also obtained. Six cores; three Berea plugs and three cores from the northern sea were chosen for execution of the experiments. In total 3-4 USS experiments were executed for every core, where an important area of study should have been to figure out how different pressure differences would affect the results. In addition one spontaneous imbibition experiment where done for each core. Normally water is used as the wetting phase. In this study IsoparL was chosen as the wetting fluid due to simplification factors in the lab. Previous studies of spontaneous imbibition experiments had shown good results when using IsoparL, so it was assumed that it could be used in USS experiments as well. It was discovered that IsoparL did not work well as the wetting fluid. By using this fluid, all the results obtained would be in the region of ΔP>0. So the most important conclusion obtained from this study is that water should be used as the wetting fluid when studying Sgr by using USS method. It was found that Sgr will decrease as rate increase when studying rates equal or larger than 4 ml/h with IsoparL as the wetting fluid.


Monomodal microwaves have overcome the safety uncertainties associated with the precedent domestic microwave ovens. After fast acceptance in inorganic and organic syntheses, polymer chemists have also recently discovered this new kind of microwave reactor. An almost exponential increase of the number of publications in this field reflects the steadily growing interest in the use of microwave irradiation for polymerizations. This review introduces the microwave systems and their applications in polymer syntheses, covering step-growth and ring-opening, as well as radical polymerization processes, in order to summarize the hitherto realized polymerizations. Special attention is paid to the differences between microwave-assisted and conventional heating as well as the microwave effects.