Devices using electroactive polymer-supported carbon material can be exploited as alternatives to conventional electromechanical actuators in applications where electromechanical actuators have some serious deficiencies. One of the numerous examples is precise microactuators. In this paper, we show for first time the dilatometric effect in nanocomposite material actuators containing carbide-derived carbon (CDC) and polytetrafluoroetylene polymer (PTFE). Transducers based on high surface area carbide-derived carbon electrode materials are suitable for short range displacement applications, because of the proportional actuation response to the charge inserted, and high Coulombic efficiency due to the EDL capacitance. The material is capable of developing stresses in the range of tens of N cm-2. The area of an actuator can be dozens of cm2, which means that forces above 100 N are achievable. The actuation mechanism is based on the interactions between the high-surface carbon and the ions of the electrolyte. Electrochemical evaluations of the four different actuators with linear (longitudinal) action response are described. The actuator electrodes were made from two types of nanoporous TiC-derived carbons with surface area (SA) of 1150 m2 g-1 and 1470 m2 g-1, respectively. Two kinds of electrolytes were used in actuators: 1.0 M tetraethylammonium tetrafluoroborate (TEABF4) solution in propylene carbonate and pure ionic liquid 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium trifluoromethanesulfonate (EMITf). It was found that CDC based actuators exhibit a linear movement of about 1% in the voltage range of 0.8 V to 3.0 V at DC. The actuators with EMITf electrolyte had about 70% larger movement compared to the specimen with TEABF4 electrolyte.


Concrete faced rock fill dam has been increasingly popular among dam engineers
due to their inherent advantages over other type of dams. The construction of
concrete faced rockfill dam has been conducted in full swing in recent years. But still
there is some crucial problems needed further investigation.
In this study an attempt has been made to investigate various aspects related to the
structural analysis of concrete face rockfill dams, this involved, physical modelling,
constitutive modelling, effect of concrete slab and simulation of sequence of
construction.
To model sequential stages of construction of concrete faced rockfill dam the Dead-
Birth-Ghost element technique was used. The physical modeling was carried out
using finite-infinite elements to represent bedding media, eight and six noded
isoparametric elements were used for modeling the dam body and the concrete face
respectively. Moreover the interfacial behavior between the concrete face and the
body of the dam was modeled using interface element. The constitutive modeling has body of the dam was modeled using interface element. The constitutive modeling has
been accounted by employing the hyperbolic nonlinear elastic model. So based on
the above physical and material modeling a two dimension linear and nonlinear
finite element program with different type of isoparametric elements was written.
The verification of the program was well established by analyzing certain bench
mark examples.
The applicability of the above program has been illustrated by analyzing two
concrete faced rockfill dam namely; Kavar dam currently under construction in Iran
(53.5 m), and Bakun dam currently under construction in the state of Sarawak
Malaysia (205 m).
The results indicates that the sequences of construction, reservoir filling and
nonlinear material behavior have significant effects on the structural response of the
dam in terms of displacement and stresses and need to be considered for accurate
prediction of the structural behavior of the dam and focuses on the effect of face slab
on the distribution of deformation and stresses developed due to the static loading
including gravitation and reservoir loading.


This study is based on the premise that modern day performances of late Renaissance sacred music are informed more by biases and assumptions concerning performance practice rather than on information gleaned from the primary sources. The result is homogeneity in performance practice within this body of literature which is in direct contradiction to the primary sources. Four controversial areas of performance practice, vibrato, text expression techniques, ornamentation and doubling instrumentation, are investigated in the context of four motets by Luca Marenzio (15531599). Findings from primary sources contemporary to Marenzio's time that relate to these four performance practice areas are closely examined and reinterpreted, and suggestions are given for historically informed application of these findings to contemporary choral performance settings. Examination of these primary sources demonstrates that Marenzio's motets are unique entities onto themselves, each with a different set of performance practices. This finding has profound implications not only for performances of Marenzio's sacred works, but also for performances of late Renaissance sacred music as a whole.


Quantum stochastic calculus is extended in a new formulation in which its stochastic integrals achieve their natural and maximal domains. Operator adaptedness, conditional expectations and stochastic integrals are all defined simply in terms of the orthogonal projections of the time filtration of Fock space, together with sections of the adapted gradient operator. Free from exponential vector domains, our stochastic integrals may be satisfactorily composed yielding quantum Ito formulas for operator products as sums of stochastic integrals. The calculus has seen two reformulations since its discovery—one closely related to classical Ito calculus; the other to noncausal stochastic analysis and Malliavin calculus. Our theory extends both of these approaches and may be viewed as a synthesis of the two. The main application given here is existence and uniqueness for the Attal–Meyer equations for implicit definition of quantum stochastic integrals.


This paper evaluates an ambitious and newly designed program for increased integration in Sweden. The purpose of the program is to help newly arrived, low-educated refugees into employment. The program includes four main components: (1) intensive initial language training, (2) work practice under close supervision, (3) job search assistance, and (4) extended cooperation between the local public sector and firms. An important feature of the program is that the demand side of the labor market, represented by the largest real estate company in Gothenburg, is involved in designing the program. Our evaluation is based on a randomized controlled trial, where potential participants in one of the first waves were randomly assigned to treatment and control groups. The paper presents results from the first two years after randomization. Using inference based on Fisher's exact test, we show that the program has positive effects on employment: around 30% of the individuals in the treatment group are employed each month during the first year following the end of the program, compared to an average of approximately 15% in the control group.


As our population continues to grow, health professionals in the U.S. have a growing concern for the current and future population related to diabetes mellitus. Diabetes is an underlying disease that occurs when one's blood sugar level is too high for a prolonged period of time.(1) When untreated, short-term and long-term effects are detrimental. Acute complications include: "diabetic ketoacidosis, hyperosmolar hyperglycemic state, or death." (3) Moreover, the long-term effects include: "cardiovascular disease, stroke, chronic kidney disease, foot ulcers, and damage to the eyes." Diabetes is a growing epidemic causing health professionals to research prevention methods as well as a way to diagnosis patients based on certain characteristics. As a result, the Chronic Disease Prevention Program (CDPP) provides blood sugar testing in a non-traditional setting (e.g. grocery stores, libraries, etc.). By using the CDPP data set and applying the tools of machine learning we will predict whether someone is diabetic or requires additional testing. Machine learning is a way to develop algorithms, allowing the computers to learn. The attributes that will be analyzed in the data set are: BMI group, age, gender, blood sugar, self diabetes, and whether the testing was done during fasting or randomly. These attributes were analyzed using Linear Regression to learn more about the relationship between the response variable (i.e. blood sugar) and the explanatory variable. Besides applying Linear Regression, we used Multiple Linear Regression as well a K-Nearest Neighbors, and Decision Tree.


FRENCH AND GERMAN TOBACCO. -The Progr?s MVedical July 13, x889, gives a brief account of the international congress to protest against the abuse of tobacco, which was recently held in Paris. M. Ortolan made the interesting statement that the proportion of nicotine in tobacco is less when the stalks grow close together, and when the leaves are numerous and placed very low upon the trunk. This is the reason, he said, whythe German, who smokes more than the Frenchman, poisons himself less. In the former country tobacco-growing is free, whereas in France it is regulated by the government, and the number of leaves to the stalk is limited. French tobacco, he said, contains as much as six per cent of nicotine.


This original collection examines how architectural ideas, social models and building forms circulate round the world and become mediated and adapted to local conditions. The book shows how types such as skyscrapers, mosques or living history museums are imported, adapted and contested in different societies and how urban landscapes are reshaped by the global circulation of models drawn from elsewhere.

Written by scholars from different disciplinary backgrounds –architecture, anthropology, geography, linguistics, science studies and sociology – the book draws its inspiration from a series of different approaches and offers both original theoretical reflection and carefully crafted case-studies.


Despite the importance of retirement adequacy goals to public policy, retirement fund design and personal financial planning, there has been little formal research on the estimation of retirement adequacy goals for South African households. This research derived estimated retirement adequacy goals for employed one- and two-adult households. A consumption-smoothing model with a minimum-income underpin was developed to estimate wealth-earnings ratio goals using data from the Income and Expenditure Survey 2005-2006. Household wealth-earnings ratio goals were estimated to be between 10,5 and 18,2 times annual salary depending on retirement age, household composition, income, location, age, education, household income distribution, home ownership and salary support. Considering current retirement savings rates, retirement before age 67 is unlikely to be affordable for most households.


The United Kingdom as a member of the EU can enjoy full access to the Single European Market. In terms of agri-food trade, EU is UK's most important partner. However, in June 2016, the UK opted to leave EU. This decision will significantly influence the whole economy of the UK including agri-food trade. The objective of this paper is to examine development and comparative advantages of The UK's agri-food trade with respect to the EU-27 markets. The analysis is based on Balassa index and its stability over the period. The agri-food trade data were acquired from Eurostat Comext database and cover the period 2000-2016. The analysis showed that over the period, the UK was able to retain comparative advantages only in three categories – HS 03 Fish, HS 21 Miscellaneous edible preparations, HS 22 Beverages, spirits and vinegar. In the rest of agri-food commodities the declining trend can be observed and in 2016 the UK had comparative disadvantages in 21 agri-food commodities. Based on the results of regression focused on the stability of distribution of Balassa indices over time, we can conclude that the degree of specialization in the agri-food trade between the United Kingdom and the rest of the EU has been decreasing as the number of commodity groups with a comparative advantage has been declining. With respect to Brexit, the agrarian trade of the UK deserves special attention, because the potential increases in trade costs are expected to affect the UK proportionally more than the EU-27.


Piezoresistive pressure sensors are widely used in biomechanics applications involving both static and dynamic loading conditions. The overall accuracy of these sensors has been reported previously in the literature, and multiple linear or polynomial custom calibrations have been proposed to enhance sensors' performance mainly in low dynamics conditions. The aim of this technical note was to propose a 'point-to-point' time-based method to improve Tekscan F-Scan sensor calibration procedures in reconstructing a force signal with variable dynamic content and duration, using an application-specific loading pattern, characterised by an initial impact followed by a slow dynamic phase. The performance of the proposed calibration procedure was compared with four methods divided into time-based calibrations ('point-to-point', 'log time–based' and Tekscan 'step') and linear calibrations ('drop-ball' and Tekscan 'single-point'). The 'point-to-point' calibration was the only method providing accurate force estimation over the entire duration, showing an inaccuracy of about 10% both in impact and slow dynamic phases. Tekscan default calibrations ('step' and 'single-point') underestimated the criterion force by ~60% over the impact phase but performed better in the slow dynamic phase (~20% of inaccuracy). 'Log time–based' and 'drop-ball' performed well during the impact phase (~11%) but overestimated the slow dynamic phase by ~170%. For this reason, we recommend 'point-to-point' calibration for estimation of forces which are characterised by an initial impulsive event and a subsequent slow-changing load. These findings highlight the importance of selecting the most appropriate calibration with respect to signal dynamics, in terms of loading range, loading pattern and impact duration.


We consider a nonlinear nonseparable functional approximation to the value function of a dynamic programming formulation for the network revenue management (RM) problem with customer choice. We propose a simultaneous dynamic programming approach to solve the resulting problem, which is a nonlinear optimization problem with nonlinear constraints. We show that our approximation leads to a tighter upper bound on optimal expected revenue than some known bounds in the literature. Our approach can be viewed as a variant of the classical dynamic programming decomposition widely used in the research and practice of network RM. The computational cost of this new decomposition approach is only slightly higher than the classical version. A numerical study shows that heuristic control policies from the decomposition consistently outperform policies from the classical decomposition.


Nitrocellulose, a kind of explosive substances, is widely used in the commercial and military field. It is harmful to public safe and environment. In order to protect personnel from explosion of nitrocellulose, it must be unambiguously detected in real time. At present, the explosive substances are mainly detected and analyzed by the analytical instruments. However, the most of these methods are very expensive and time-consuming, which restricts its widespread use. Compared to the spectral methods, electrochemical analysis presents advantages such as simplicity, high sensitivity and low cost. Combining with the molecular imprinting methodology with electrochemical sensor technology has been used in the filed of nitro explosives detection. But there is no report on the detection of NC by MIP sensor at moment. So the purpose of paper is a preparation of MIP sensor for detection nitrocellulose.


As people crowded into British cities in the nineteenth century, industrial and biological waste byproducts and then epidemic followed. Britons died by the thousands in recurring plagues. Figures like Edwin Chadwick and John Snow pleaded for measures that could save lives and preserve the social fabric. The solution that prevailed was the novel idea that British towns must build public water supplies, replacing private companies. But the idea was not an obvious or inevitable one. Those who promoted new waterworks argued that they could use water to realise a new kind of British society--a productive social machine, a new moral community, and a modern civilisation. They did not merely cite the dangers of epidemic or scarcity. Despite many debates and conflicts, this vision won out--in town after town, from Birmingham to Liverpool to Edinburgh, authorities gained new powers to execute municipal water systems. But in London local government responded to environmental pressures with a plan intended to help remake the metropolis into a collectivist society. The Conservative national government, in turn, sought to impose a water administration over the region that would achieve its own competing political and social goals. The contestants over London's water supply matched divergent strategies for administering London's water with contending visions of modern society. And the matter was never pedestrian. The struggle over these visions was joined by some of the most colourful figures of the late Victorian period, including John Burns, Lord Salisbury, Bernard Shaw, and Sidney and Beatrice Webb. As Broich demonstrates, the debate over how to supply London with water came to a head when the climate itself forced the endgame near the end of the nineteenth century. At that decisive moment, the Conservative party succeeded in dictating the relationship between water, power, and society in London for many decades to come.


Fiber-optic epifluorescence imaging with one-photon excitation benefits from its ease of use, cheap light sources, and full-frame acquisition, which enables it for favorable temporal resolution of image acquisition. However, it suffers from a lack of robustness against autofluorescence and light scattering. Moreover, it cannot easily eliminate the out-of-focus background, which generally results in low-contrast images. In order to overcome these limitations, we have implemented fast out-of-phase imaging after optical modulation (Speed OPIOM) for dynamic contrast in fluorescence endomicroscopy. Using a simple and cheap optical-fiber bundle-based endomicroscope integrating modulatable light sources, we first showed that Speed OPIOM provides intrinsic optical sectioning, which restricts the observation of fluorescent labels at targeted positions within a sample. We also demonstrated that this imaging protocol efficiently eliminates the interference of autofluorescence arising from both the fiber bundle and the specimen in several biological samples. Finally, we could perform multiplexed observations of two spectrally similar fluorophores differing by their photoswitching dynamics. Such attractive features of Speed OPIOM in fluorescence endomicroscopy should find applications in bioprocessing, clinical diagnostics, plant observation, and surface imaging.


Awareness of the broader contexts that influence health supports respectful, patient-centered care that incorporates lived experiences, optimizes health outcomes, improves communication, and can help reduce health and health care inequities. Although there is little doubt that genetics and lifestyle play an important role in shaping the overall health of individuals, interdisciplinary researchers have demonstrated how the conditions in the environment in which people are born, live, work, and age, play equally as important a role in shaping health outcomes. These factors, referred to as social determinants of health, are shaped by historical, social, political, and economic forces and help explain the relationship between environmental conditions and individual health. Recognizing the importance of social determinants of health can help obstetrician-gynecologists and other health care providers better understand patients, effectively communicate about health-related conditions and behavior, and improve health outcomes.


More and more studies have shown that genetic determinants may mediate variability among persons in the response to a drug, and thus some therapeutics may benefit only a subset of patients. Genomic technologies, such as DNA sequencing, mRNA transcript profiling, and comparative genomic hybridization, are providing biomarkers to predict who are most likely to respond to a given drug, and thus brings opportunity to conduct targeted clinical trials with eligibility restricted to the subset of patients. In this paper, we evaluate the relative cost of a targeted design versus an untargeted design for a randomized phase III clinical trial comparing a new treatment to a control. Our investigation indicates that the effectiveness of the targeted design critically depends upon the difference of treatment effect between patient subsets, the proportion of targeted patients in the population, the diagnostic assay performance, and the relative cost of screening versus drug expenses.


Existing penetration testing approaches assess the vulnerability of a system by determining whether certain attack paths are possible in practice. Thus, penetration testing has so far been used as a qualitative research method. To enable quantitative approaches to security risk management, including decision support based on the cost-effectiveness of countermeasures, one needs quantitative measures of the feasibility of an attack. Also, when physical or social attack steps are involved, the binary view on whether a vulnerability is present or not is insufficient, and one needs some viability metric. When penetration tests are performed anyway, it is very easy for the testers to keep track of, for example, the time they spend on each attack step. Therefore, this paper proposes the concept of quantitative penetration testing to determine the difficulty rather than the possibility of attacks based on such measurements. We do this by step-wise updates of expected time and probability of success for all steps in an attack scenario. In addition, we show how the skill of the testers can be included to improve the accuracy of the metrics, based on the framework of item response theory (Elo ratings). We prove the feasibility of the approach by means of simulations, and discuss application possibilities.


The African political experience since independence in the latter half of the Twentieth Century clearly discloses a sour story in need of a sober reflection. There have been different reasons advanced for the present situation or state of development, political or otherwise, in the African States. One of the most foremost reasons is the Leadership problem that the Continent happens to be riddled with. This problem is reflected in different spheres of life of the postcolonial African States. However, most riveting is the effect it has had on Governance. At most, the form of Governance in these countries, or more explicitly, the manner of governing in the same cannot be said to be good, as the qualities that are attached to Good Governance are lacking in these countries. Therefore, this paper is concerned with the reassessment of the African politics and a redirection of the same towards Good Governance especially at this point in African Development history, it is imperative that there be a turn around from the co"uptive form of Governance practiced in most African countries, to Good Goyernance since it is the most potent way to save Africa from doom and steer it towards the Development much needed.


Buried beneath today's Midwestern towns, under several layers of earth and the accumulated debris of two thousand years, are the clues to an ancient mystery. A Native American people, now known as the Hopewell, lived and worked these lands, building earthworks which in some instances dwarf the ruins at Stonehenge. More significantly, these mammoth earthworks were built in different geometric shapes, using a standard unit of measure and aligned to the cycles of the sun and the moon. Using the foundation of existing scholarship, this book presents new discoveries showing the accomplishments of the Mound Builders in astronomy, geometry, measurement, and counting. William Romain then goes one step further to theorise why generations of people toiled to move millions of tons of earth to form these precise structures, joining the ranks of the Egyptians, Mayans, Greeks, Chinese, and other advanced ancient cultures. This book will appeal to many readers, including anthropologists, mathematicians, and historians, but perhaps especially to readers curious about ancient cultures and seeking explanations for these magnificent earthen structures.


The environmental impacts of rotary kiln incineration, which is widely used in China for treating industrial hazardous waste (IHW), is evaluated in this work through life cycle assessment (LCA). Emissions data of key pollutants, along with energy and material inputs and outputs of rotary kiln incineration, were collected from a commercial-scale operating IHW incineration plant located in Hangzhou city in eastern China, and the corresponding environmental impacts were analyzed based on the LCA model. It is concluded that the IHW incineration process has the greatest impact on human toxicity, followed by global warming. Heavy metals, especially Pb and As, are the main contributors to human toxicity, while CO2 is the main cause of global warming. PCDD/Fs have a relatively small contribution to human toxicity and overall environmental safety. This study has two improvement suggestions based on the assessment results: An energy recovery system and a DeNOx system should be added to the IHW incineration process, since the former would reduce the contribution of IHW incineration to global warming, while the latter would enable incineration plants to minimize the emissions of NOx; Fly ash and bottom ash should be stabilized and further treated to mitigate the problems caused by heavy metals.


Phenolic compounds are important quality indicators of wine. Their composition in wine is determined by various factors, including grape variety, terroir, viticultural practices and oenological practices. There is very little extraction of colour compounds and, generally, very little phenolic content is expected and desired during traditional sparkling wine (TSW) vinification. Since phenolics are thought to reduce ageing capacity (Zoecklein, 2002), and are linked to browning in TSW (Ibern-Gomez et al., 2000), winemakers try to keep phenolic concentrations low throughout winemaking. This study investigated the effect of grape temperature at pressing on the phenolic extraction in Methode Cap Classique (MCC) wines and the evolution of the phenolics throughout winemaking. MCC wines were made by the traditional method over two vintages (2014 and 2015) using Chardonnay and Pinot Noir grapes harvested from two regions (Robertson and Darling) and stored at 0°C, 10°C, 25°C and 30°C. MCCs made from grapes stored at lower temperatures (0°C and 10°C) were found to have lower total phenolic content, colour intensity and total hydroxycinnamates than wines made from grapes stored at higher temperatures (25°C and 30°C).  This shows that there was greater phenolic extraction at higher temperatures. No changes in the phenolic content were observed throughout winemaking.


Currency crises tend to be regional; they affect countries in geographic proximity. This suggests that patterns of international trade are important in understanding how currency crises spread, above and beyond any macroeconomic phenomena. We provide empirical support for this hypothesis. Using data for five different currency crises (in 1971, 1973, 1992, 1994, and 1997) we show that currency crises affect clusters of countries tied together by international trade. By way of contrast, macroeconomic and financial influences are not closely associated with the cross-country incidence of speculative attacks.


The molecular events leading to the development of GH-producing pituitary tumors remain largely unknown. We hypothesized that activating mutations of the GHRH receptor might occur in a subset of GH-producing pituitary tumors. Genomic DNA samples from 54 GH-producing pituitary tumor tissues were screened for mutations of the GHRH receptor. Eleven homozygous or heterozygous nucleotide substitutions [169G > A (A57T), 338C > T (P113L), 363G > T (E121D), 409C > T (H137Y), 547G > A (D183N), 673G > A (V225I), 749G > A (W250X), 760G > A (V254M), 785G > A (S262N), 880G > A (G294R), 1268G > A (C423Y)] were found in 12 patients (22.2%). The 169G > A substitution (A57T) appears to be a polymorphism (4 patients, 7.4%). E121D and V225I were each found in 2 patients. In 1 patient with the V225I sequence, the substitution was not found in genomic DNA from peripheral leukocytes, suggesting a somatic mutation. A patient with a heterozygous W250X mutation was homozygous for the C423Y substitution. These variant GHRH receptors were studied in transfected TSA-201 cells to evaluate the functional consequences of the amino acid changes. None of the GHRH receptor variants was associated with basal elevation of intracellular cAMP. GHRH induced variable cAMP responses. With the W250X and G294R variants, there was no cAMP stimulation by GHRH, indicating that the mutations are inactivating. Expression of the W250X GHRH receptor on the cell membrane was severely decreased and GHRH binding to the G294R GHRH receptor was impaired. Although GHRH receptor variants are common in GH- producing pituitary adenomas, constitutively activating mutations, as a mechanism for GH-producing pituitary tumors appear to be rare.


This essay was the author's presidential address at the annual meeting of the Pacific Coast Branch, American Historical Association, in Waikoloa Beach, Hawai'i, on August 6, 2016. The address compares three multiracial communities—in Boyle Heights, California; Cape Town, South Africa; and various sites in Hawai'i—and asks why these areas often sparked controversy and were considered dangerous by the powers governing these societies. How these communities became multiracial through labor migration and urban land policies is explored, as well as the nature of interracial life that was created. Each of these communities shares a common history of interracial radicalism that threatened white supremacy, as well as confronting policies of forced removals that attempted to destroy their multiracial nature. Finally, the address, given in Hawai'i at the end of the Obama presidency, addresses the importance of keeping local histories alive through projects of historical memory and museums of conscience.


We present results from an eye tracking study of automatic text summarization. Automatic text summarization is a growing field due to the modern world's Internet based society, but to automatically create perfect summaries is challenging. One problem is that extraction based summaries often have cohesion errors. By the usage of an eye tracking camera, we have studied the nature of four different types of cohesion errors occurring in extraction based summaries. A total of 23 participants read and rated four different texts and marked the most difficult areas of each text. Statistical analysis of the data revealed that absent cohesion or context and broken anaphoric reference (pronouns) caused some disturbance in reading, but that the impact is restricted to the effort to read rather than the comprehension of the text. However, erroneous anaphoric references (pronouns) were not always detected by the participants which poses a problem for automatic text summarizers. The study also revealed other potential disturbing factors.


With the advancesin Web-based oriented technologies, experts are able to capture user activities on the Web. Users' Web browsing behavior is used for user identification. Identifying users during their activities is extremely important in electronic commerce (e-Commerce)as it has the potential to prevent illegal transactions or activities particularly for users who enter the system through the use of unknown methods.In addition, customer behavioral pattern identification provides a wide spectrum of applications such as personalized Web pages, product recommendations and present advertisements. In this research, a framework for users' behavioral profiling formation is presented and customer behavioral patternsare used for customer identification in the e-Commerce environment. Based on activity control, policies such as user restriction or blockingcan be applied.The neural network classification and the measure of similarity among behavioral patterns are two approaches applied in this research. The results of multi-layer perceptron with a back propagation learning algorithm indicate that there is less error and up to 15.12% more accuracy on average.The results imply that the accuracy of the neural network approach in customer pattern behavior recognition increases when the number of customers grows.In contrast, the accuracy of the similarity of pattern method decreases.


Energy consumption is one of the most critical protocol properties in a wireless sensor network. Therefore, a precise energy model is required for the evaluation of protocols. In addition to evaluation, an energy model can also be used for on-line energy accounting. After processing user queries, nodes aware of the energy model can send an energy bill towards the network's data sink. This allows the user to adjust future queries to be more energy efficient. The contribution of this paper is twofold: First, a theoretical energy model based on simple finite automata is presented. This model can be used for online accounting, simulation and generation of a-priori knowledge. Second, the proposed theoretical model is backed up by practical measurements using a new measurement device called SNMD, which also offers management functions for sensor-net testbeds. Therewith, output of the theoretical model can be compared to and validated against by real-world measurements.


Social responsibility theory of enterprise has always been the important issue concerned by the academic circles for a long time. Social responsibility theory of Chinese enterprises started relatively late with relatively weak social responsibility awareness. This study, starting from the social responsibility concept of enterprises, elaborates the significance of social responsibility to the enterprise development and introduces the establishment of social responsibility model of building enterprise based on the social responsibility as well as construction of performance evaluation mode and index system, which makes corresponding contribution to promoting the development of social responsibility of building enterprises in China and building of a harmonious society.


This article considers the relationship between exaptation and degrammaticalization. Both may involve obsolescent material being re-used, to express an existing grammatical category or a category not previously encoded. The processes involved are familiar ones: reanalysis triggering category reassignment. In both cases, change is caused by failure to acquire a grammatical category. Faced with material that expresses that category, acquirers either interpret it as some existing category or else abduce the existence of some new category. Exaptation and degrammaticalization are thus understood as cases of reanalysis within an acquisition-based framework of change. The concept of exaptation is therefore useful but not foundational: useful in highlighting unexpected pathways of development during ongoing obsolescence or opacity, but explicable in terms of other processes. I demonstrate this approach using two case studies: degrammaticalization of indefinite pronouns as nouns in Slavic and Celtic; and exaptive reinterpretation of the was-were distinction as expressing polarity in English dialects.


In this work, we propose a new solution for parallel wave generation by WaveNet. In contrast to parallel WaveNet (van den Oord et al., 2018), we distill a Gaussian inverse autoregressive flow from the autoregressive WaveNet by minimizing a regularized KL divergence between their highly-peaked output distributions. Our method computes the KL divergence in closed-form, which simplifies the training algorithm and provides very efficient distillation. In addition, we introduce the first text-to-wave neural architecture for speech synthesis, which is fully convolutional and enables fast end-to-end training from scratch. It significantly outperforms the previous pipeline that connects a text-to-spectrogram model to a separately trained WaveNet (Ping et al., 2018). We also successfully distill a parallel waveform synthesizer conditioned on the hidden representation in this end-to-end model.


Humans perceive and evaluate environments affectively. Some places are experienced as unsafe, while some others as attractive and interesting. These affective responses to environments influence people's daily behavior and decision-making in space, e.g., choosing which route to take, or which place to visit. In this article, we report on a methodology of using people's affective responses to environments for enhancing computer-based route planning. More specifically, we explore a crowdsourcing approach to model and collect people's affective responses to environments; an Affect-Space-Model and a mobile application are developed to facilitate this crowdsourcing approach; a routing algorithm (named AffectRoute) is then proposed to aggregate and integrate the collected data for automatic route planning. Evaluation with human participants shows that the routes generated by considering people's affective responses to environments are significantly preferred over the conventional shortest ones, which are employed in car navigation systems and many online route planners. In conclusion, considering people's affective responses to environments contributes to the improvement of automatic route planning. The proposed method can be integrated into existing route-planning services (e.g., location-based services) to provide users with more satisfying routing results.


Myocardial infarction mostly presents with atypical signs and symptoms and has different risk factors in young individuals compared to older individuals. These risk factors are often preventable, therefore recognizing them and taking precautions can save these patients from suffering myocardial infarction. Scarcity of studies and lack of guidelines for assessment and management of young MI patients, make it more challenging for these individuals to get accurate medical care, even though MI in this age group is on the rise. Traditional risk factors, such as smoking, hyperlipidemia, hypertension, male sex, obesity, and family history of premature cardiovascular disease, contribute to the risk of myocardial infarction at a young age, but additional non-traditional risk factors, such as substance abuse, thrombophilia, coronary anomalies, immune disease, allergic reactions, and psychological stressors, uniquely contribute to the risk profile of young individuals. This review is aimed to discuss and guide the risk factor assessment for the development of myocardial infarction in young individuals based on current evidence and our >20-year of experience in Young Myocardial Infarction Clinic.


This poster, presented at Rice University's first Data Science Meetup (http://dsmeetup.rice.edu/), compiles presentations from several conferences:

The left side of the poster (originally a PowerPoint presentation) was presented at "Reflection on the One Hundred Year of the New Culture Movement, V" at Peking University in Beijing, September 19-20, 2015. This presentation will be included in the conference volume.

The right side of the poster was presented at two different times at two different conferences in 2014:

a) Poster presentation on using Gephi and R to plot out the Anhui connections of Chen Duxiu, at the 5th International Conference of Digital Archives and Digital Humanities, "Crossover and Transformation," co-organized by Research Center for Digital Humanities, National Taiwan University and Academia Sinica Digital Center. Taipei, Taiwan, December 1-2, 2014.

b) Presentation at the International Conference on "Modern China in Global Contexts, 1600-Present," "The Strength of Anhui ties in Chen Duxiu's Social Networks,"

Co-organized by the Historical Society of Twentieth Century China and Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan, 11-13 August 2014.


Promotion of entrepreneurship has been recognized world over as key to accelerate the economic development of a region. India also continues to take steps to directly or indirectly promote entrepreneurship. This paper attempts to find out the constraints being faced by entrepreneurs in the Indian manufacturing sector. For this study the entrepreneurs have been classified as per their gender, region, age and education. This study also highlights the steps that can be taken to overcome the various types of constraints being faced by such entrepreneurs.


Background

Although there is now a focus on the positive, health-enhancing aspects of work and activity (Waddell & Burton, 2006), it is also acknowledged that there are a wide range of psychosocial factors that act as obstacles to recovery and work participation which require a more in-depth understanding (Nicholas, 2010). People with persisting low back pain (and other illnesses) who are receiving benefits because they cannot work are now being encouraged and helped to return to employment, in line with the UK government's welfare reform agenda. Individual and social influences involved in the everyday life experiences of beneficiaries with persisting low back pain which may act as obstacles to recovery and work participation. However, there is little understanding of these influences. In this exploratory study, we used qualitative methods to facilitate an in-depth examination of the illness beliefs of those close to back pain patients (their 'significant others'), considering how these might influence both patients' own beliefs about their condition and work participation.

Methods

In-depth interviews were conducted with nine patients reporting non-specific low back pain of more than three months duration and their significant others (closest adult family member) (n = 18). The self-regulatory model (SRM) (Leventhal et al., 1984) was used as a guide to organise the interview schedule and interview transcripts were analysed using template analysis (e.g. King, 2004). Analysis focused on the significant other interview data and we sought to identify themes which demonstrated clear contrasts between dyads in which the patient had or had not remained in employment.

Findings

Three overarching themes are presented and discussed: (1) the extent of impact on patient activity (including employment); (2) treatment expectations; (3) patient identity. Overall, the significant others of patients who were out of work due to their back problem tended to emphasise the extreme consequences of the patient's back pain on every aspect of their lives. They described the back pain as preventing the patient from doing things, even though closer analysis of the detail suggested that in fact the patient was able to undertake everyday activities, albeit at a lower functioning level than prior to symptom onset. Significant others of patients who remained in employment focused instead on what the patient could still do. In terms of treatment expectations, significant others of out of work patients appeared to believe that their relatives needed to be pain-free in order to resume participation in normal life, and equated only complete removal of pain with treatment success. In contrast, significant others in the employed sample tended to talk in terms of 'management' rather than 'cure', and were more accepting of the possibility that options available to manage pain were unlikely to provide complete relief of the patient's pain symptoms. These attitudes were further reflected in participants' beliefs about patient identity: significant others of employed patients described their relative in heroic terms; significant others of out of work patients described the patient as disabled and a blameless victim.

Discussion

Previous studies have shown that the impact of musculoskeletal pain and disability is greatest among socially disadvantaged populations, and among those with low education levels, and that low income and low educational attainment are the socioeconomic variables most consistently found to be associated with higher prevalence and severity of musculoskeletal problems (Carr & Klaber Moffett, 2005). The present study also suggests that socio-economic status has an important role to play in work participation outcomes. In this study, those who had remained in employment had higher status jobs and were more able to negotiate necessary flexibility and role adaptations to enable them to continue in work despite their pain. The role of good existing relationships, particularly with line managers in this context, was apparent.

In terms of treatment expectations, significant others in the employed sample were more accepting when medical professionals were perceived as unable to provide answers in terms of a full explanation of the problem, or to provide a curative treatment. In contrast, significant others of those patients who were out of work were dissatisfied with treatment and sceptical of healthcare providers because patients were still experiencing pain, ultimately equating their relative's recovery with being 'cured'. Expectations about treatment have been proposed to be one of the major influences on outcome for patients with chronic low back pain, and the results from this study suggest that the treatment expectations held by significant others could further reinforce patient expectations, acting as wider psychosocial obstacles to recovery.

There was a notable difference in the way that the two samples described how the patient's back problem had impacted on both the patient's identity and on their activities. The significant others of working patients tended to emphasise what the patient could do despite their back pain and attributed this to the patient's admirable personal characteristics, describing them as heroic and stoical. In contrast, the significant others of non-working patients emphasised the extent to which the back pain prevented the patient doing things and descriptions of patient identity focused on them as a victim, anticipating and rebuffing potential accusations of personal responsibility and blame.

Undertaken as it was in the context of changes to the welfare system in the United Kingdom, this work has potential implications for understanding how patients and their families may respond to the changes, and how that may impact on work participation outcomes. Our findings suggest that, if left to their own devices, there may be a danger that patients who feel that there are insurmountable obstacles to a return to their previous employment and who believe themselves to face socio-cultural scepticism about their condition, along with widespread ill-feeling towards the unemployed, may become entrenched in a position whereby it becomes all the more important to be seen as completely disabled, thus limiting their activity and their chances of any return to work. We discuss current reports and policy initiatives which recommend a focus on what patients can do, rather than what they cannot and note that our results support these initiatives. In addition, our findings, although preliminary and exploratory, emphasise the importance of taking social and environmental factors into account and we suggest that significant others may have an important role to play in this context.


The field of drug delivery is rapidly expanding to bridge the gap between novel drugs that are created and their effective entry into diseased tissue. In one growing area of research, synthetic polymers are being utilized to meet these needs. The precise control over their chemistry allows polymers to be tuned to the drug delivery application and make them attractive candidates for research. The focus of this dissertation is to engineer responsive polymersomes for drug delivery and understand their ability to reduce drug toxicity, increase absorption in diseased cells and tissue, and control the release of drug in vitro and in vivo. Gemcitabine, a nucleoside analog, was encapsulated in the aqueous core of nano-polymersomes composed of the biodegradable and biocompatible polymer PEO-PCL, and the in vitro toxicity of this novel drug delivery construct was tested against Panc-1 cells. The polymersome formulation performed at par with the free drug with one-log cell killing at 1 ìM of gemcitabine. The polymersome was also able to control the release of gemcitabine, and this release was modulated by the degradation kinetics of the ester linkages in the membrane. Photodynamic therapy was performed against OVCAR-5 (ovarian cancer) cells. A hydrophobic photosensitizer, benzoporphrin derivative monoacid A (BPD-MA) was encapsulated the in the membrane of polymersomes composed of PEO14-PBD22 (OB14.5) polymer, and its phototoxicity was compared to an existing photosensitizer formulation called verteporfin that is currently used in the clinic for age-related macular degeneration (AMD). The polymersome formulation outperformed verteporfin both at the in vitro and in vivo level. Additionally, we investigated the photorupture of giant polymersomes encapsulating a near IR fluorophore (porphyrin dimer, PZn2) in the hydrophobic membrane and dextran in the aqueous lumen. Polymersomes synthesized from softer polymers released more of a reporter dye than stiffer polymersomes when illuminated with 690 nm of light. Finally, we investigated the fractionation of giant polymersomes in a deterministic lateral displacement device and developed a hydrodynamic model to predict this fractionation based on the attractive and repulsive forces experienced by the polymersome. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering First Advisor Daniel A. Hammer


The introduction of infrared water vapor channel radiance ensemble data assimilation (DA) has improved numerical weather forecasting at operational centers. Further improvements might be possible through extending ensemble data assimilation methods to better assimilate infrared satellite radiances. Here, we will illustrate that ensemble statistics under clear-sky conditions are different from cloudy conditions. This difference suggests that extending the ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) to handle bi-Gaussian prior distributions may yield better results than the standard EnKF. In this study, we propose a computationally efficient bi-Gaussian ensemble Kalman filter (BGEnKF) to handle bi-Gaussian prior distributions. As a proof-of-concept, we used the 40-variable Lorenz 1996 model as a proxy to examine the impacts of assimilating infrared radiances with the BGEnKF and EnKF. A nonlinear observation operator that constructs radiance-like bimodal ensemble statistics was used to generate and assimilate pseudoradiances. Inflation was required for both methods to effectively assimilate pseudoradiances. In both 800- and 20-member experiments, the BGEnKF generally outperformed the EnKF. The relative performance of the BGEnKF with respect to the EnKF improved when the observation spacing and time between DA cycles (cycling interval) are increased from small values. The relative performance then degraded when observation spacing and cycling interval become sufficiently large. The BGEnKF generated less noise than the EnKF, suggesting that the BGEnKF produces more balanced analysis states than the EnKF. This proof-of-concept study motivates future investigation into using the BGEnKF to assimilate infrared observations into high-order numerical weather models.


Studying social thinking provides a promising field of investigation for the constitution of common knowledge in communication and action of historically and culturally situated groups. Its genealogy helps the understanding of the symbolic efficacy of social practices and their own operating collective logic. The English translation of a short version of Serge Moscovici's article on the new magical thinking allows a wider audience to gain access, for the first time, to a text that perfectly illustrates the currentness and relevance of the social psychology of knowledge.


Soft shadows, glossy reflections and depth of field are valuable effects for realistic rendering and are often computed using distribution ray tracing (DRT). These "blurry" effects often need not be accurate and are sometimes simulated by blurring an image with sharper effects, such as blurring hard shadows to simulate soft shadows. One of the most effective examples of such a blurring algorithm is percentage closer soft shadows (PCSS). That technique, however, does not naturally extend to shadows generated in image space, such as those computed by a ray tracer, nor does it extend to glossy reflections or depth of field. This limitation can be overcome by generalizing PCSS to be phrased in terms of a gather from image space textures implemented with cross bilateral filtering. This paper demonstrates a framework to create visually compelling and phenomenologically accurate approximations of DRT effects based on repeatedly gathering from bilaterally weighted image space texture samples. These gathering and filtering operations are well supported by modern parallel architectures, enabling this technique to run at interactive rates.


Sinter hardening is commonly used in the powder metal (PM) industry as a cost effective method to produce components requiring high mechanical performance. Using accelerated cooling in combination with higher alloying contents, sinter hardening steels offer similar performance to conventional heat treated steels with reduced distortion. As demands on component precision increase, understanding the effects of processing and composition on the precision of the sinter harden steels will be required by component manufacturers to select the proper sinter hardening grade and composition for a given set of requirements. In this paper, common sinter hardening alloys are subjected to various processing conditions. The mechanical performance and precision of the different compositions under these processing conditions will be presented.


ABSTRACT The main goal of the article is to study the role of quality benchmarking deployment for achieving world-class manufacturing status. The production structure distinguishes output from the production unit. This structure is divided into customization and new products. Customization describes the range of products and adaptation to customers' needs. New products are added to incorporate claims in the world-class competitive advantage literature and companies need to increase the introduction of such products. A world-class competitive advantage seeks to combine a high degree of customization with a fast response to customer demands. A production line with such characteristics needs to be flexible. In addition, a simple organizational chart, in combination with new production technology, will avoid time-consuming procedures. A world-class competitive company is characterized by design flexibility and the interval of introducing new products. Indeed, a company's interval for the new products is an indication of its success. Production technology describes the sequence of activities in the workflow. Some pioneers have divided production technology aspects to automation of equipment, the sequence of operations in terms of workflow rigidity, the specificity of evaluation of operations, and continuity of the units of throughput. literature The on world-class manufacturing describes a large and growing body of techniques for manufacturing and its management as efficiently as possible. As parts of total quality management, benchmarking management and quality function deployment (QFD) have become powerful competitive tools used by many successful companies. In this article, we propose a quantitative model that links QFD with benchmarking to help the company establish competitive benchmarking. In this empirical study, we examined Imam Khomeini International Airport (IKIA). After data collection, quality requirements and service design requirements were identified; quality requirements were prioritized; and, finally, using quality benchmarking deployment (QBD), service design requirements (benchmarking elements) were prioritized. The results showed that enhancing convenience of transport facilities with outside and foreign countries, enhancing performance of the related institutions, and improving efficiency of passport and visa checks are the first three priorities of airport service. Recommendations could provide the IKIA with a valuable strategic planning tool in airport service.


The present paper comprises a review of the Caribbean shallow water Corallimorpharia. Six species, belonging to four genera and three families are treated, including Pseudocorynactis caribbeorum gen. nov. spec. nov., a species with tentacular acrospheres containing the largest spirocysts ever described. Several genera and species have been synonymised. The monotypic family Ricordeidae Watzl, 1922, has been re-established to accommodate Ricordea Duchassaing & Michelotti, 1860. In Ricordea florida a correlation was noticed between depth of occurrence and the rate of asexual reproduction; shallow water specimens of this species as a rule exhibit clonal growth, specimens from deeper water invariable are solitary. All genera of Discosomatidae (= Actinodiscidae sensu Carlgren, 1949), save one, have been lumped together in a single genus, Discosoma Ruppell & Leuckart, 1828. Speculations about food uptake in Discosomatidae are put forward. The structure of corallimorpharian and scleractinian nematocysts is quite similar. Actiniarian and zoantharian penicilli (p-rhabdoids) A and corallimorpharian, scleractinian and antipatharian penicilli D, both sensu Schmidt (1969, 1972, 1972a and 1974), do not essentially differ in structure; they are to be regarded as sub-types of a single basic type. Three more or less distinct varieties of corallimorpharian penicilli D can be distinguished. Schmidt's scleractinian and corallimorpharian holotrichs I (cf. Schmidt, 1972; 1974) in fact represent an additional type of penicilli, here defined as penicilli E. The distribution of penicilli E in the scleractinian polyp tends to be considerably more restricted than in the corallimorpharian polyp. The systematic status of the Corallimorpharia is discussed. The group does not fundamentally differ from the Scleractinia and should be classified among the latter as a separate sub-order. The distributional patterns of Discosoma sensu lato, Ricordea and Corynactis are discussed. Discosoma and Ricordea have a discontinuous distribution in tropical waters. Corynactis has a world-wide, continuous distribution in tropical and temperate waters. Long distance transport seems a possible way of dispersal in Corynactis, not in Discosoma and Ricordea.


Inflammatory myofibroblastic tumors (IMTs), also known as inflammatory pseudotumors and inflammatory fibrosarcomas, are uncommon mesenchymal tumors composed of myofibroblastic spindle cells admixed with lymphocytes, plasma cells and eosinophils. Once thought to be reactive, these lesions are now considered to be neoplastic. These tumors can occur throughout the body, most commonly in the lung, mesentery and omentum. Patients commonly present with painless abdominal mass or with intestinal obstruction. IMTs may be multicentric, have a high local recurrence rate and may metastasize in rare cases. The lesions show wide variability in their histologic features and cellularity, and marked inflammatory infiltration, predominantly of plasmatocytes and lymphocytes, and occasionally neutrophils and eosinophils. Anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) rearrangements and/or ALK1 and p80 immunoreactivity are reported in 33-67% of the tumors. Owing to the rarity of these lesions, there are no specific imaging findings that distinguish IMTs from other mesenteric masses. Complete surgical resection is the treatment of choice. Local recurrence rates are high, and re-excision is the preferred therapy for local recurrences. ALK-positive tumors show good response to ALK inhibitors. Current knowledge and comprehensive review of the available literature on IMTs is herein presented.


Objectives To determine how soon after delivery the risk of post-pregnancy hypertension increases in women with hypertensive disorders of pregnancy and how the risk evolves over time. Design Nationwide register based cohort study. Setting Denmark. Populations 482 972 primiparous women with a first live birth or stillbirth between 1995 and 2012 (cumulative incidence analyses), and 1 025 118 women with at least one live birth or stillbirth between 1978 and 2012 (Cox regression analyses). Main outcome measures 10 year cumulative incidences of post-pregnancy hypertension requiring treatment with prescription drugs, and hazard ratios estimated using Cox regression. Results Of women with a hypertensive disorder of pregnancy in a first pregnancy in their 20s, 14% developed hypertension in the first decade post partum, compared with 4% of women with normotensive first pregnancies in their 20s. The corresponding percentages for women with a first pregnancy in their 40s were 32% and 11%, respectively. In the year after delivery, women with a hypertensive disorder of pregnancy had 12-fold to 25-fold higher rates of hypertension than did women with a normotensive pregnancy. Rates in women with a hypertensive disorder of pregnancy were threefold to 10-fold higher 1-10 years post partum and remained twice as high even 20 or more years later. Conclusions The risk of hypertension associated with hypertensive disorders of pregnancy is high immediately after an affected pregnancy and persists for more than 20 years. Up to one third of women with a hypertensive disorder of pregnancy may develop hypertension within a decade of an affected pregnancy, indicating that cardiovascular disease prevention in these women should include blood pressure monitoring initiated soon after pregnancy.


High-speed, low-power design of Viterbi decoders for trellis coded modulation (TCM) systems is presented in this paper. It is well known that the Viterbi decoder (VD) is the dominant module determining the overall power consumption of trellis coded modulation decoders. We propose a pre-computation architecture incorporated with T-algorithm for Viterbi decoder, which can effectively reduce the power consumption without degrading the decoding speed much. A general solution to derive the optimal pre-computation steps is also given in the paper. Implementation result of a VD for a rate-3/4 convolutional code used in a TCM system shows that compared with the full trellis VD, the pre-computation architecture reduces the power consumption by as much as 70% without performance loss, while the degradation in clock speed is negligible.


Background Red cell distribution width (RDW) is raised in many diseases. Although disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC)-triggering diseases such as sepsis and cancer are also associated with raised RDW, we believe that a superimposed DIC would further raise the RDW owing to fibrin deposition with attendant red cell fragmentation. Hence, we also believe that extensive fibrin deposition will lead to higher RDW (due to red cell fragmentation) and higher risk of multiorgan damage (MOD) (due to microvascular blockade) in DIC. This implies that high RDW in DIC would partly reflect the intensity of fibrin deposition and risk of MOD. We therefore hypothesize that RDW elevation may be associated with an increased risk of MOD in DIC. If our hypothesis is correct, DIC patients with MOD will have significantly higher RDW than their counterparts without MOD. Materials and methods We performed a retrospective comparative analysis of the frequencies of organ damage with respect to RDW values among 96 DIC patients seen from 1996 to 2007 in two tertiary hospitals in Nigeria. Results Patients with organ damage had higher mean values of RDW as compared with patients without organ damage (22.3 vs. 16.8%, P<0.05). Pearson's analysis showed positive correlation between values of RDW and number of damaged organs among DIC patients with MOD (r=0.78, P<0.05). Discussion This study suggests that high RDW values were associated with organ damage, and the number of damaged organs increased with rising values of RDW, as revealed by a significant positive correlation between RDW values and number of damaged organs. This correlation suggests that higher RDW values were associated with higher risk of MOD. These findings have validated our hypothesis that fibrin deposition, which is a major cause of MOD in DIC, would also cause red cell fragmentation and elevation of RDW. We conclude that high RDW is a risk factor for MOD in DIC, and RDW values may be of predictive significance in assessing the risk of MOD in patients with DIC.


Common vascular disease states including diabetes, hypertension and atherosclerosis are associated with endothelial dysfunction, characterised by reduced bioactivity of nitric oxide (NO). Loss of the vasculoprotective effects of NO contributes to disease progression, but the mechanisms underlying endothelial dysfunction remain unclear. Increased superoxide production in animal models of vascular disease contributes to reduced NO bioavailability, endothelial dysfunction and oxidative stress. In human blood vessels, the NAD(P)H oxidase system is the principal source of superoxide, and is functionally related to clinical risk factors and systemic endothelial dysfunction. Furthermore, the C242T polymorphism in the NAD(P)H oxidase p22phox subunit is associated with significantly reduced superoxide production in patients carrying the 242T allele, suggesting a role for genetic variation in modulating vascular superoxide production. In vessels from patients with diabetes mellitus, endothelial dysfunction, NAD(P)H oxidase activity and protein subunits are significantly increased compared with matched non-diabetic vessels. Furthermore, the vascular endothelium in diabetic vessels is a net source of superoxide rather than NO production, due to dysfunction of endothelial NO synthase (eNOS). This deficit is dependent on the eNOS cofactor, tetrahydrobiopterin, and is in part mediated by protein kinase C signalling. These studies suggest an important role for both the NAD(P)H oxidases and endothelial NOS in the increased vascular superoxide production and endothelial dysfunction in human vascular disease states.


Objective The authors assessed whether brain changes detected by diffusion tensor (DT) MRI can improve the understanding of structural damage in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and are associated with different risks of conversion to AD in amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI). Methods Twenty-one aMCI patients, 21 AD patients and 20 healthy subjects underwent conventional and DT MRI at baseline. All subjects were clinically followed up over 2 years; at the end of follow-up, aMCI were grouped into converters to AD (aMCI-C) and non-converters (aMCI-NC). The mean diffusivity (MD) and fractional anisotropy (FA) were obtained from total grey matter (GM) and white matter (WM), and from several GM and WM regions of interest (ROIs). On T1-weighted images, normalised volumes of the whole brain (NBV), GM (NGMV) and WM were measured. Results A significant 'trend' of worsening with a trajectory 'normal/aMCI/AD' was found for NBV and NGMV, total GM and WM MD, total WM FA, as well as for diffusivity abnormalities in several GM and WM ROIs, mainly located in posterior brain regions. aMCI-C had GM and WM changes similar to those seen in AD, whereas aMCI-NC showed a DT MRI pattern similar to that of healthy subjects. DT MRI metrics that better distinguished aMCI-C from aMCI-NC were MD of total GM and WM, hippocampi, anterior insulae, frontal and parietal WM, occipital GM and WM, and FA of temporal WM. Volumetric variables were not able to distinguish the two aMCI subgroups (aMCI-C and aMCI-NC). Conclusions Subtle brain diffusivity changes occur from the prodromal stages of AD, mainly in posterior brain regions, and spread over the course of the disease to involve the frontal lobe. In aMCI, the severity of microstructural damage within and beyond the medial temporal lobe is associated with an increased short-term risk to develop AD.


OBJECTIVE. The initial presentation of congenital and acquired heart disease in children can present a diagnostic challenge. We sought to evaluate B-type natriuretic peptide as a marker of critical heart disease in children at presentation in the acute care setting. METHODS. A cohort of 33 pediatric patients with newly diagnosed congenital or acquired heart disease had B-type natriuretic peptide levels obtained on hospital admission after evaluation in an acute care setting. Patients were admitted from March 2005 through February 2007. A noncardiac cohort of 70 pediatric patients who presented with respiratory or infectious complaints had B-type natriuretic peptide levels obtained during emergency department evaluation. A comparison of B-type natriuretic peptide results was performed. RESULTS. Cardiac diagnoses included cardiomyopathy (14), left-sided obstructive lesions (12), anomalous left coronary artery from the pulmonary artery (4), total anomalous pulmonary venous return (2), and patent ductus arteriosus (1). Cardiac cohort mean age at presentation was 33.6 months. The 33 patients with new cardiac diagnoses had a mean B-type natriuretic peptide level of 3290 pg/mL (SD: ±1609; range: 521 to >5000 pg/mL). The 70 noncardiac patients' mean age at presentation was 23.1 month, and mean B-type natriuretic peptide level was 17.4 pg/mL (SD: ±20; range: <5 to 174 pg/mL). CONCLUSIONS. B-type natriuretic peptide levels were markedly elevated at presentation in the acute care setting for all patients in this cohort of children with newly diagnosed congenital or acquired heart disease. B-type natriuretic peptide levels from noncardiac patients were significantly lower, with no overlap to the cardiac disease group. B-type natriuretic peptide level can be useful as a diagnostic marker to aid in the recognition of pediatric critical heart disease in the acute care setting.


Introduction: Dietary supplements are an important source of vitamins and minerals that may help prevent several disease-causing biological pathways involved in one-carbon metabolism, including the suppression of cell proliferation, oxidative stress, nitric oxide synthesis, and angiogenesis. The present study aimed to assess the association between the intake of folate, Vitamin B6, Vitamin B12, and minerals and the consumption of alcohol among university students.
Methods: This study was participated by students aged 19-22 years from the University of Sarajevo between 2017 and 2018. Using a questionnaire, we interviewed in a week them to collect information regarding age, socio-economic status, alcohol consumption, and dietary supplement intake. Then, we investigated the association between the baseline intake of folate, B vitamins, and minerals and that of alcohol consumption.
Results: Most students consumed Vitamin B supplements (32%) and folic acid (10%). Dietary multivitamins and minerals were less prevalent in more than a year, accounting for 186 (23.9%) and 174 (24.3%) students, respectively, than those in less than a year. In a year, <20% of students consumed multivitamins 129 (16.6%) and minerals 116 (15.3%). Meanwhile, 256 (27.1%) students consumed alcohol. The Chi-square test of independence showed that drinking habits and the intake of such dietary supplements had no association (p > 0.05).
Conclusion: An extremely low percentage of the participating students in Canton Sarajevo used dietary supplements of Vitamin B, folate, multivitamins, and minerals. Moreover, alcohol consumption and dietary supplement intake were not associated. Further research is needed to establish the best cost-effective public health system to achieve a sufficient intake of dietary supplements.


ABSTRACT In this paper, the theme of multi-voicedness in the search on the path of life is explored. It will be argued that we, as human beings, not only live within an ambiguous world, but also have to deal with an ambiguous self. In the quest for happiness it is the challenge to acknowledge all inner positions, each with their own perspective on reality. The article describes a narrative method based on the archetypal biblical story of the prodigal son. By retelling this three times, as three symbolic stories, namely that of the youngest son, the oldest son and the father, the participants are invited to probe their lives from different sides and accept all inner voices that speak.


In considerations of societal change, the application of classic evolutionary schemes to prehistoric southwestern peoples has always been problematic for scholars. Because recent theoretical developments point toward more variation in the scale, hierarchy, and degree of centralization of complex societies, this book takes a fresh look at southwestern prehistory with these new ideas in mind. This is the first book-length work to apply new theories of social organization and leadership strategies to the prehispanic Southwest. It examines leadership strategies in a number of archaeological contexts from Chaco Canyon to Casas Grandes, from Hohokam to Zuni to show striking differences in the way that leadership was constructed across the region. These case studies provide ample evidence for alternative models of leadership in middle-range societies. By illustrating complementary approaches in the study of political organization, they offer new insight into power and inequality. They also provide important models of how today's archaeologists are linking data to theory, providing a basis for comparative analysis with other regions. CONTENTS-Alternative Models, Alternative Strategies: Leadership in the Prehispanic Southwest / Barbara J. Mills-Political Leadership and the Construction of Chacoan Great Houses, A.D. 1020-1140 / W. H. Wills -Leadership, Long-Distance Exchange, and Feasting in the Protohistoric Rio Grande / William M. Graves and Katherine A. Spielmann-Ritual as a Power Resource in the American Southwest / James M. Potter and Elizabeth M. Perry-Ceramic Decoration as Power: Late Prehistoric Design Change in East-Central Arizona / Scott Van Keuren-Leadership Strategies in Protohistoric Zuni Towns / Keith W. Kintigh-Organizational Variability in Platform Mound-Building Groups of the American Southwest / Mark D. Elson and David R. Abbott-Leadership Strategies among the Classic Period Hohokam: A Case Study / Karen G. Harry and James M. Bayman: The Institutional Contexts of Hohokam Complexity and Inequality / Suzanne K. Fish and Paul R. Fish- Leadership at Casas Grandes, Chihuahua, Mexico / Michael E. Whalen and Paul E. Minnis-Reciprocity and Its Limits: Considerations for a Study of the Prehispanic Pueblo World / Timothy A. Kohler, Matthew W. Van Pelt, and Lorene Y. L. Yap-Dual-Processual Theory and Social Formations in the Southwest / Gary M. Feinman


RSA key generation is of great concern for implementation of RSA cryptosystem on embedded system due to its long processing latency. In this paper, a novel architecture is presented to provide high processing speed to RSA key generation for embedded platform with limited processing capacity. In order to exploit more data level parallelism, Residue Number System (RNS) is introduced to accelerate RSA key pair generation, in which these independent elements can be processed simultaneously. A cipher processor based on Transport Triggered Architecture (TTA) is proposed to realize the parallelism at the architecture level. In the meantime, division is avoided in the proposed architecture, which reduces the expense of hardware implementation remarkably. The proposed design is implemented by Verilog HDL and verified in matlab. A rate of 3 pairs per second can be achieved for 1024-bit RSA key generation at the frequency of 100 MHz.


In our previous papers, we have proposed join cost functions derived from spectral distances, which have good correlations with perceptual scores obtained for a range of concatenation discontinuities. To further validate their ability to predict concatenation discontinuities, we have chosen the best three spectral distances and evaluated them subjectively in a listening test. The units for synthesis stimuli are obtained from a state-of-the-art unit selection text-to-speech system: rVoice from Rhetorical Systems Ltd. We also compared three different smoothing methods in this listening test. In this paper, we report listeners' preferences for each join costs in combination with each smoothing method.


Organic molecules are found everywhere and play an important role in almost all biogeochemical processes occurring on the surface of the Earth (Aiken et al. 1985; Thurman 1985; Schwartzenbach et al. 1993; Senesi and Miano 1994). They are found in soluble and insoluble phases, coatings on mineral and colloidal particles, and in gas phase molecules in soils, sediments and aquatic systems. The activities of macro- and micro-fauna and flora release organic molecules of various sizes and composition. Photochemical reactions in the atmosphere also add certain small chain molecules to the organic carbon content in the environment. Significant compositional variations occur in natural organic molecules, which include small chain carboxylic acids, alcohols and amino acids; and polymeric, polyfunctional and polydisperse macromolecules such as humic and fulvic acids. The behavior of small chain molecules and their influence on different geochemical reactions is well understood. However, understanding of the chemistry of biopolymers and their role in different biogeochemical processes in the environment is poor, which may be attributed to the unavailability of instrumentation to examine the chemistry of natural organic molecules in their pristine state.

Two important properties that dictate the behavior of natural organic molecules and biopolymers in the environment are: functional group chemistry and (macro)molecular structure (Schnitzer 1991). Evaluation of these two properties is complicated by the compositional and structural heterogeneity of the naturally occurring organic molecules, and their ability to form intramolecular and intermolecular H-bonds, which further modify their structure and chemical reactivity. These two properties are interrelated and one influences the other. The chemical composition of natural waters (pH, ionic composition and concentration, redox conditions) and soil and sediment particle surface chemistry (composition, coordination environment, number of reactive groups) also modify their behavior. It is not well understood how each of these environmental variables influences the …


The effects of a 6 weeks interval training with a wheelchair ergometer on the power and endurance of the upper limbs (UL) were studied in ten young able-bodied males. All subjects performed a maximal progressive test (10 W/2 min) on a wheelchair ergometer to measure the ventilation (VE), respiratory exchanges (VO2, VCO2) and oxygen pulse (O2p) at the maximal tolerated power (MTP) and ventilatory threshold (VT). Endurance capacity was measured with the tailored 45 min Square Wave Endurance Exercise Test (SWEET) from MTP and VT. Arm and forearm perimeters, diameters and skinfold thickness were also measured. The subjects were divided into a control group (CG n = 5) and a training group (TG n = 5; 3 SWEET sessions/week/6-week) with matched physical characteristics. Training the UL resulted in significant increases of parameters at MTP (power + 63%, peak VO2 + 33%, O2 pulse + 25%) and at VT (power + 125%, VO2 + 48%, O2 pulse + 33%). The UL diameter and perimeter significantly increased, and the skinfold thickness decreased. None of these variables showed a significant change in the CG. We conclude that this training improves specific force and endurance of the UL, by acting centrally as reflected by oxygen pulse increase, as well as peripherally as shown by morphologic changes.


With recent advances in data technology, large amounts of data of various kinds and from various sources are being generated and collected every second. The increase in the amounts of collected data is often accompanied by increase in the complexity of data types and objects we are able to store. The next challenge is the development of machine learning methods for their analyses. This thesis contributes to the effort by focusing on the analysis of one such data type, complex input-output data objects with high-dimensional multivariate binary output spaces, and two data-analytic problems: Multi-Label Classification and Conditional Outlier Detection.

First, we study the Multi-label Classification (MLC) problem that concerns classification of data instances into multiple binary output (class or response) variables that reflect different views, functions, or components describing the data. We present three MLC frameworks that effectively learn and predict the best output configuration for complex input-output data objects. Our experimental evaluation on a range of datasets shows that our solutions outperform several state-of-the-art MLC methods and produce more reliable posterior probability estimates.

Second, we investigate the Conditional Outlier Detection (COD) problem, where our goal is to identify unusual patterns observed in the multi-dimensional binary output space given their input context. We made two important contributions to the definition and solutions of COD. First, by observing a gap in between the development of unconditional and conditional outlier detection approaches, we propose a ratio of outlier scores (ROS) that uses a pair of unconditional scores to calculate the conditional scores. Second, we show that by applying the chain decomposition of the probabilistic model, the probabilistic multivariate COD score decomposes to a set of probabilistic univariate COD scores. This decomposition can be subsequently generalized and extended to a broad spectrum of multivariate COD scores, including the new ROS score and its variants, leading to a new multivariate conditional outlier scoring framework. Through experiments on synthetic and real-world datasets with simulated outliers, we provide empirical results that support the validity of our COD methods.


The Read/Conditional-Write (R/CW) protocol provides linearizable reads and conditional-writes of individual objects. A client's conditional-write of an object succeeds only if the object has not been conditionally-written since it was last read by the client. In this sense, R/CW semantics are similar to those of a compare-and-swap register. If a conditional-write does not succeed, it aborts. The R/CW protocol supports multi-object reads and conditional-writes; such operations are strictly serializable. A variant of the R/CW protocol, the Query/Update (Q/U) protocol, provides an operations-based interface to clients: clients invoke query and update methods on objects rather than reading and writing objects in their entirety. The R/CW and Q/U protocols are correct in the asynchronous timing model and tolerate Byzantine failures of clients and servers.


Objective: Rural physiotherapists may need to extend their skills to address the lack of allied health service provision in rural areas but will do so based on their perceived self-efficacy. This narrative review aims to understand self-efficacy amongst rural physiotherapists and contributing factors to self-efficacy, especially in the specialised area of paediatrics.

Method: A search of the literature was undertaken to understand the self-efficacy of rural physiotherapists who are expected to undertake specialist paediatric cases. Databases searched included CINAHL, PEDro, Informit, Proquest, PubMed, and Ovid. Articles were assessed for quality in accordance with the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) evidence ranking system. Using this search strategy and inclusion criteria, a total of forty five articles were found and included in the narrative review.

Results: Self-efficacy, a person's judgement of their capabilities, is a key component in performance, accomplishments, and positive well-being. If the rural physiotherapist has low self-efficacy in their work practices, then physiotherapy specialisation or advance practice may not be considered an achievable career option. However, the caseload of the rural physiotherapist is vast and demanding, spanning across many boundaries and scopes including paediatrics, which has been defined as an area of specialisation within physiotherapy. The work practices of the rural physiotherapist's are often challenged by the complexities of rural area's and an unstructured, poorly supportive workforce, thus giving cause for the recognition of rural physiotherapy as a specialist branch of physiotherapy practice. Yet, the majority of the evidence base surrounding this topic has been developed through opinion pieces and observational studies which were rated as level IV evidence. At present, the lack of higher level evidence allowed readers to make assumptions based on opinions and descriptive studies.

Conclusion: If the current workforce and structure leads to low self-efficacy in the rural physiotherapy population, this in turn could lead to impaired confidence in the ability to practice as a physiotherapist as well as result in the development of poor coping strategies. Early identification of the self-efficacy beliefs within this cohort will allow the development and evaluation of strategies to help address those issues identified as challenges in rural areas. There is a definite need for stronger, higher levels of evidence on this topic in order to develop more accurate definitions of the work practices and working environments of the rural physiotherapists. Additional higher level research is needed to better understand the self-efficacy of rural physiotherapists and possible contributing factors for low self-efficacy. Higher level research will also establish true clinical implications of low self-efficacy amongst the rural physiotherapist population.


Background: Mutations in the MYOC gene have been shown to explain 5% of unrelated primary open angle glaucoma (POAG) in different populations. In particular, the T377M MYOC mutation has arisen at least three separate times in history, in Great Britain, India, and Greece. The purpose of this study is to investigate the distribution of the mutation among different population groups in the northwestern region of Greece. Materials and methods: We explored the distribution of the "Greek" T377M founder mutation in the Epirus region in Northwestern Greece, which could be its origin. Genotyping was performed in POAG cases and controls by PCR amplification of the MYOC gene, followed by digestion with restriction enzyme. Statistical analyses were performed by an exact test, the Kaplan–Meier method and the t-test. Results: In the isolated Chrysovitsa village in the Pindus Mountains, a large POAG family demonstrated the T377M mutation in 20 of 66 family members while no controls from the Epirus region (n = 124) carried this mutation ( P  0.001). Among other POAG cases from Epirus, 2 out of 14 familial cases and 1 out of 80 sporadic cases showed the mutation ( P = 0.057). The probability of POAG diagnosis with advancing age among mutation carriers was 23% at age 40, and reached 100% at age 75. POAG patients with the T377M mutation were diagnosed at a mean age of 51 years (SD ± 13.9), which is younger than the sporadic or familial POAG cases: 63.1 (SD ± 11) and 66.8 (SD ± 9.8) years, respectively. Conclusions: The T377M mutation was found in high proportion in members of the Chryso-vitsa family (30.3%), in lower proportion in familial POAG cases (14.2%) and seems rare in sporadic POAG cases (1.2%), while no controls (0%) from the Epirus region carried the mutation. Historical and geographical data may explain the distribution of this mutation within Greece and worldwide.


This thesis aims at contributing to our understanding of how spatial-industrial processes take place in a southern European capitalist metropolis, Athens, and how those processes are shaped not only by economic forces and tendencies, but by social, political and cultural forces as well -forces which are unique in the Greek case making, therefore, necessary a departure from the conventional theoretical corpus of urban industrial geography which has been almost exclusively centred around the primacy of economy and production. In that context, a critical examination of conventional theories was advanced (chap. 1) and an alternative explanatory framework for interpreting the very "logic" of structuration and change of the Athenian urban-production space was tentatively constructed (chap. 2). Since industrial processes in urban space form constituent parts of the social reality as a whole, it was necessary to address some major facets of the contemporary Greek social formation and of its relations with spatial structure. Thus, aspects of the modern Greek society, its relations with urban production space, the role of the political sphere and the nature of urban planning was explored. Analysis was then concretised as the thesis' scope moved gradually in more detailed analytical levels to encompass the key-aspects constituting the multifaceted nature of the contemporary Athenian industrial spatiality. Therefore, an analysis of the post-war drive of Greek industry from development to crisis and "negative restructuring" was undertaken and the spatial implications of those changes were addressed (chap. 3) in order to help us understand the wider context of spatial - industrial change in Attica -the region of Greater Athens. Sub-regional and intra-urban industrial change was then addressed (chap. 4). Analysis starts from a historical perspective of the structuration of the Athenian production space and then it addresses the major trends of the industrial geography of contemporary Athens. A further inquiry into this industrial geography was then undertaken in a detailed survey of a growing suburban industrial locality (chap. 5). In the remaining chapters some crucial socio-political and cultural forces affecting the Athenian industrial spatiality were examined. Thus, an analysis of recent policies and measures for the reorganization of the Athenian industrial space was undertaken, and compared against European experiences (chap. 6). The analysis was followed up by an examination of the major social and political factors contributing to the creation and diffusion of an anti-industrial culture in the contemporary Athenian society (chap. 7). This point was further concretised in a detailed analysis of the socio-political tensions and controversies arisen between the central government and various social actors over an official project aiming at a planned reorganization and renewal of a major part of the Athenian industrial space during the early 1990s (chap. 8). It was argued in concluding (chap. 9) that the major problems of the Athenian industrial space are not mostly linked up with structural deficiencies in the sphere of economy and production, alone, but, moreover, with the inability of Greek society and the state machine to "produce" even a minimum amount of consensus on how the production space of the Greek capital should be organized and in what directions it should develop in the future.


Cavity quantum electrodynamics (QED) provides a powerful tool to realize quantum nondemolition measurements of either part of the system, emitter or photon, by observing the effect of the interaction on the other part. Such ideal projective measurements allow to detect, to prepare and to manipulate quantum states in a controlled and coherent manner. They are used with atomic or solid-state emitters in the optical or microwave domain. So far, Rydberg atoms in cavity QED systems have mainly been used to measure or create quantum states of light. Using a microwave cavity to determine the state of a single Rydberg atom or an ensemble thereof is less explored and constitutes a step towards the application of the long coherence time of Rydberg atoms as quantum memories for microwave-based quantum information processing. In our experiment, transmitting a weak probe tone through a 3D microwave cavity allows us to measure the dispersive shift induced by an ensemble of helium Rydberg atoms [1]. The system is quantitatively described by the dispersive Tavis-Cummings hamiltonian. We consistently observe maximal collective coupling strengths above 1 MHz with up to 3300 Rydberg atoms. We also determine the scaling of the collective dispersive shift with the atom-cavity detuning and the number of Rydberg atoms. The latter provides a non-destructive measurement of the number of Rydberg atoms (cf. Figure 1). We discuss the extension of this technique to nondemolition measurements of the pseudo-spin polarization of an ensemble of Rydberg atoms used as microwave frequency qubits.


BACKGROUND
In ambulant psychiatric care, intellectual disability (id) is often not recognised. Therefore, a Screener for Intelligence and Learning disabilities (scil) was recently introduced to assist recognition. However, because, current therapy is not adjusted for id-related problems, its effectiveness remains unknown. AIM: To gain insight into adequate adaptation of interventions by professionals for patients with severe mental illness (smi) and id, to improve the quality of care without the need to develop a completely new program of therapy. METHOD: A qualitative design (n=15) including 8 interviews and one focus group, among psychiatric practitioners and id experts. RESULTS: Five main themes were identified to adjust therapy: treatment, communication, inclusion of the network, estimation of support needs and self-management. CONCLUSIONS To align therapy with the requirements of patients with smi and id, a patient-oriented approach to care is necessary. Simple but effective modifications, summarised in a toolkit, appear to contribute to this. To offer appropriate care to patients with smi and id, attention is needed for both a support-oriented and a recovery-oriented approach.


"The Lady with the Little Dog and Other Stories 1896-1904" is an enchanting collection of tales which showcase Anton Chekhov at the height of his power as a writer. This "Penguin Classics" edition is translated by Ronald Wilks with an introduction by Paul Debreczeny. In the final years of his life, Chekhov produced some of the stories that rank among his masterpieces, and some of the most highly-regarded works in Russian literature. The poignant "The Lady with the Little Dog" and "About Love" examine the nature of love outside of marriage - its romantic idealism and the fear of disillusionment. And in stories such as "Peasants", "The House with the Mezzanine" and "My Life" Chekhov paints a vivid picture of the conditions of the poor and of their powerlessness in the face of exploitation and hardship. With the works collected here, Chekhov moved away from the realism of his earlier tales - developing a broader range of characters and subject matter, while forging the spare minimalist style that would inspire such modern short-story writers as Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner. Ronald Wilks's translation is accompanied by an introduction in which Paul Debreczeny discusses the themes that Chekhov adopted in his mature work. This edition also includes a publishing history and notes for each story, a chronology and further reading. Anton Chekhov (1860-1904) was born in Taganrog, a port on the sea of Azov. In 1879 he travelled to Moscow, where he entered the medical faculty of the university, graduating in 1884. During his university years, he supported his family by contributing humorous stories and sketches to magazines. He published his first volume of stories, "Motley Tales", in 1886, and a year later his second volume "In the Twilight", for which he received the Pushkin Prize. Today his plays, including "Uncle Vanya", "The Seagull", and "The Cherry Orchard" are recognised as masterpieces the world over. If you enjoyed "The Lady with the Little Dog" you might like Leo Tolstoy's "The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Other Stories", also available in "Penguin Classics".


This research focused on the effect of water temperature and pH to coagulation efficiencies in low turbidity water. And the optimum dose of coagulant was determined. Simulated the treatment processing, the organic matters and turbidity removal capacities of polyaluminum chloride (PACl) were measured in parameters of turbidity, CODMn and UV254 with different experimental conditions. The results indicated that the PACl optimum doses were 28mg/L. By increasing water temperatures in the range of 4°C~18°C, the turbidity removal efficiency was gradually enhanced, while the organic loading removal performed few correlations to temperatures. And the effective pH range was 6.0~9.0, that appeared greater influence on turbidity removal than organic loadings.


This paper reviews advances in the technology of integrated semiconductor optical amplifier based photonic switch fabrics, with particular emphasis on their suitability for high performance network switches for use within a datacenter. The key requirements for large port count optical switch fabrics are addressed noting the need for switches with substantial port counts. The design options for a 16 × 16 port photonic switch fabric architecture are discussed and the choice of a Clos-tree design is described. The control strategy, based on arbitration and scheduling, for an integrated switch fabric is explained. The detailed design and fabrication of the switch is followed by experimental characterization, showing net optical gain and operation at 10 Gb/s with bit error rates lower than 10-9. Finally improvements to the switch are suggested, which should result in 100 Gb/s per port operation at energy efficiencies of 3 pJ/bit.