BACKGROUND AND AIM
The aim of this study was to evaluate the characteristics of synovial fluid (SF) white cell count (SWCC) and neutrophil/lymphocyte percentage in the diagnosis of prosthetic joint infection (PJI) for particular threshold values.

METHODS AND RESULTS
This was a prospective study of 391 patients in whom SF specimens were collected before total joint replacement revisions. SF was aspirated before joint capsule incision. The PJI diagnosis was based only on non-SF data. Receiver operating characteristic plots were constructed for the SWCC and differential counts of leukocytes in aspirated fluid. Logistic binomic regression was used to distinguish infected and non-infected cases in the combined data. PJI was diagnosed in 78 patients, and aseptic revision in 313 patients. The areas (AUC) under the curve for the SWCC, the neutrophil and lymphocyte percentages were 0.974, 0.962, and 0.951, respectively. The optimal cut-off for PJI was 3,450 cells/μL, 74.6% neutrophils, and 14.6% lymphocytes. Positive likelihood ratios for the SWCC, neutrophil and lymphocyte percentages were 19.0, 10.4, and 9.5, respectively. Negative likelihood ratios for the SWCC, neutrophil and lymphocyte percentages were 0.06, 0.076, and 0.092, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS
Based on AUC, the present study identified cut-off values for the SWCC and differential leukocyte count for the diagnosis of PJI. The likelihood ratio for positive/negative SWCCs can significantly change the pre-test probability of PJI.


Background: Corruption can refer to a wide variety of actions and/or behaviours, which makes establishing a clear definition difficult. Corruption is an inherently multi-level phenomenon. It can operate at Individual, group, organizational and industry level. This study defines corruption as "a process which perverts the original nature of an individual or group from a more pure state to a less pure state�?. In order to standardize the notion of morality, we'd consider 'appropriate' as what 'appropriate' is under law. And unethical, vice versa. Paper: The objective of the paper is to study the various psychological processes that underlie corruption and attempts to find solutions to the same by altering these very processes, using the principles of learning. The various approaches to motivation and classical, operant, social and cognitive schools of learning have been applied so as to understand the underlying causes of corruption. Various psychological processes, like compliance phenomenas, self serving biases, escalation of commitment that operate to determine corrupt behaviour have been captured through the course of research. Corruption today has become a lifestyle and it not only requires a macro level change in the system, it also requires an alteration in the psychological processes that underpin corruption. The application-based research is solution centric and proposes various anti-corruption strategies, based on learning principles, which can be implemented in india. Conclusion: A theoretical analysis, indicates that corruption is a widespread phenomenon which is increasingly a normative behaviour and can be curbed through effective implementation of various schedules of reinforcements, punishments, transparency, accountability, awareness, modelling, and psychological strategies to understand and combat corruption. The real problem of corruption is not political; it is psychosocial.


Abstract. One of the main challenges for meteorological and hydrological modelling is accurate rainfall measurement and mapping across time and space. To date, the most effective methods for large-scale rainfall estimates are radar, satellites, and, more recently, received signal level (RSL) measurements derived from commercial microwave networks (CMNs). While these methods provide improved spatial resolution over traditional rain gauges, they have their limitations as well. For example, wireless CMNs, which are comprised of microwave links (ML), are dependant upon existing infrastructure and the ML' arbitrary distribution in space. Radar, on the other hand, is known in its limitation for accurately estimating rainfall in urban regions, clutter areas and distant locations. In this paper the pros and cons of the radar and ML methods are considered in order to develop a new algorithm for improving rainfall measurement and mapping, which is based on data fusion of the different sources. The integration is based on an optimal weighted average of the two data sets, taking into account location, number of links, rainfall intensity and time step. Our results indicate that, by using the proposed new method, we not only generate more accurate 2-D rainfall reconstructions, compared with actual rain intensities in space, but also the reconstructed maps are extended to the maximum coverage area. By inspecting three significant rain events, we show that our method outperforms CMNs or the radar alone in rain rate estimation, almost uniformly, both for instantaneous spatial measurements, as well as in calculating total accumulated rainfall. These new improved 2-D rainfall maps, as well as the accurate rainfall measurements over large areas at sub-hourly timescales, will allow for improved understanding, initialization, and calibration of hydrological and meteorological models mainly necessary for water resource management and planning.


Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching Third edition is an extensive revision of this highly successful book. As in previous editions, both major and alternative approaches and methods are surveyed, with the section on current communicative approaches updated to include new material on CLIL, text and genre-based teaching. The book seeks not only to clarify the assumptions behind these approaches, and their similarities and differences, but also to help teachers explore their own beliefs and practices in language teaching. Further new material deals with other directions in language teaching, such as outcomes-based initiatives, to make this edition fully up-to-date.


A simplified dynamic thermal analysis approach is proposed for the estimation of the peak junction temperature in power IGBT transistors operating in pulse-width modulation (PWM) controlled DC/AC converters. This approach can be used for the rating of electron devices or heatsink systems in power circuit design, as it provides a direct analytical link, in terms of electrical and thermal device parameters and converter operating conditions between the case and the peak junction temperatures. In this way, by imposing a given upper limit on the junction temperature, indirect constraints on device size or load current or heatsink efficiency can easily be obtained. The approach is based on mild, pessimistic approximations on both the spectrum of dissipated power and on the dynamic thermal behavior of the device. The validity of such approximations has been verified by comparison with the results of accurate numerical simulations carried out by using measurement-based loss models. Possible ways of using this approach in a converter rating context are outlined in the paper, by considering different design scenarios.


The production of (1) silt size debris, a peculiar (2) single grain morphometry, and (3) the enrichment of quartz grains in the silt fraction with respect to feldspar occurrence serve as indicators of Siberian frozen ground conditions. The proxy data reflect thaw and freeze dynamics in the active layer resulting in a selective grain break-up. We use the Elgygytgyn Impact Crater, central Chukotka, to trace back frozen ground conditions beyond the Quaternary glacial cycles, since the basin is archiving sediments back to 3.6 Myr BP, the time of the meteor impact. In Elgygytgyn Crater deposits accumulate at piedmont settings and in a lake basin that partially fills the crater. A set of surface samples and two five-meter-sections extracted from slope deposits serve as a reference for the modern and the Holocene situation. Sediments cored in the neighbouring Crater Lake allow extending the geologic time. Recent deep drilling into the permafrost margin of Elgygytgyn recovered a core 140 m in length and ongoing lake sediment drilling will provide a core that covers the full sediment fill. The presentation sums up current results of both permafrost and lake sediment records when displaying the sediment-mineralogical properties. They illustrate the persistence of cryogenic weathering at least back to about 220,000 yrs BP, the time our study covers up to now.


textabstractThe rise of Data Science has caused an influx of new usersin need of data management solutions. However, insteadof utilizing existing RDBMS solutions they are opting touse a stack of independent solutions for data storage andprocessing glued together by scripting languages. This is notbecause they do not need the functionality that an integratedRDBMS provides, but rather because existing RDBMS im-plementations do not cater to their use case. To solve theseissues, we propose a new class of data management systems:embedded analytical systems. These systems are tightlyintegrated with analytical tools, and provide fast and effi-cient access to the data stored within them. In this work,we describe the unique challenges and opportunities w.r.tworkloads, resilience and cooperation that are faced by thisnew class of systems and the steps we have taken towardsaddressing them in the DuckDB system.


Abstract Study design: Inter-rater reliability study. Background: Physiotherapists (PTs) use clinical tests including movement tests to identify faulty movement patterns. Aims: To investigate the inter-rater-reliability of active movement tests in the cervical spine, shoulder joint and scapulo-thoracic joint, and to describe the reasons for judgment of a positive test. Methodology: Four PTs, two experienced and two recently educated (novice), rated performance of five movement tests for 36 participants. Twenty-one of the participants were patients under treatment because of neck and/or shoulder problems, while 15 participants declared no problem from this region of the body. All tests were video recorded and the ratings were done by observing the video recordings. First, the PTs judged the tests as negative (the movement being ideally performed) or positive (the movement not being ideally performed). Then, the PTs described why the movements that they judged positive were not being ideally performed, using a predefined protocol, which represented different movement quality aspects. The inter-rater reliability was calculated for each test using Kappa statistics between the two experienced and the two novice PTs, respectively, and between each of the experienced and each of the novice PTs. Major findings: The experienced PTs had a higher inter-rater reliability than the novice PTs. The reasons for considering a movement test being positive differed highly between the (novice) PTs. Principal conclusion: This study supports previous studies concluding that the observation of active movement tests is reliable when assessed by experienced PTs. Novice PTs might benefit from further supervision.


A new approach for retrieving aerosol properties from extinction spectra is extended to retrieve aerosol properties from lidar backscatter measurements. In this method it is assumed that aerosol properties are expressed as a linear combination of backscatters at three or fewer wavelengths commonly used in lidar measurements. The coefficients in the weighted linear combination are obtained by minimization of the retrieval error averaged for a set of testing size distributions. The formulas can be used easily by investigators to retrieve aerosol properties from lidar backscatter measurements such as the Lidar In-Space Technology Experiment and Pathfinder Instruments for Clouds and Aerosols Spaceborne Observations.


In the clinical study researchers want to answer the most important question whether a new therapy is better than the old one. Many researchers continue to frame the question in terms of null hypothesis and answer the question in terms of P value. The null hypothesis itself is typically not plausible, and even in a study where the null hypothesis was plausible, our concern is typically not only limited to the issue of whether or not the treatment has any effect but we also want to know how much the impact. In the study which the researcher pressed the P value into service as an indicator of effect size, it, lends itself to misinterpretation because it combines information about the magnitude of an effect with information about the precision with which that effect is estimated. By contrast, confidence intervals (Cis) focus one's attention on an estimate of a more meaningful parameter (e.g. the rate difference) and, as a separate matter, on the precision of the estimate. The CI is a range of values that is likely to cover the true but unknown value (the extremely low up to the extremely high value of e.g. rate difference, mean difference, and Odds Ratio) if we measure the value many times on samples using the same method. Cis in a clinical trial where the result is statistically significant we might find that it is of no clinically Importance (in a very large sample). On the other hand, the effect of a treatment might be statistically not significant but In fact it is of clinical importance (in a small sample). Cl Is affected by sample size: the larger the sample size the narrower the interval of Cl. The interval Is also affected by the standard error and hence by standard deviation and the confidence level we claim. The higher the confidence level (90%, 95% or 99%, arbitrarily 95% Cl is commonly used) the wider the confidence interval. In case that the 95% Cl does not include zero value (in mean or proportion difference) or one (in Odds ratio or relative risk) it also reflects statistical significance (p<0.05) with a = 5%. A sample size that is enough in terms of power might not be enough in terms of precision due to the confidence Interval level we choose. Key Words : P value - confidence interval - clinical importance - sample size - statistical significant


The article revisits the relationship between culture and human rights through the analysis of one traditionally condemned cultural practice known in human rights law as female genital mutilation. The analysis draws on anthropological and medical literature and demonstrates the importance of interdisciplinary analysis to any inquiry within the area of relationship between culture and human rights. An analogy between the traditional practice of female genital mutilations and the less widely publicized female genital aesthetic surgeries practiced in many Western countries serves as a methodological tool. Laws and attitudes towards both practices are compared, demonstrating many similarities and thus the difficulty of drawing a clear-cut line between a cultural and an a-cultural practice. In this light, human rights' insistence on condemnation of the practices of the Other exclusively appears as hegemonizing, racializing, and, ultimately, discriminatory in its effects. Some suggestions as to what a more adequate human rights approach could look like are made as well, as the constant necessity for interdisciplinary inquiry in human rights law is emphasized.


ABSTRACT Autophagy, a pathway for lysosomal-mediated cellular degradation, has recently been described as a regulator of cell migration. Although the molecular mechanisms underlying autophagy-dependent motility are only beginning to emerge, new work demonstrates that selective autophagy mediated by the autophagy cargo receptor, NBR1, specifically promotes the dynamic turnover of integrin-based focal adhesion sites during motility. Here, we discuss the detailed mechanisms through which NBR1-dependent selective autophagy supports focal adhesion remodeling, and we describe the interconnections between this pathway and other established regulators of focal adhesion turnover, such as microtubules. We also highlight studies that examine the contribution of autophagy to selective degradation of proteins that mediate cellular tension and to integrin trafficking; these findings hint at further roles for autophagy in supporting adhesion and migration. Given the recently appreciated importance of selective autophagy in diverse cellular processes, we propose that further investigation into autophagy-mediated focal adhesion turnover will not only shed light onto how focal adhesions are regulated but will also unveil new mechanisms regulating selective autophagy. Summary: Discussion of emerging roles for selective autophagy in adhesion and migration through regulation of focal adhesion turnover, cellular tension and integrin trafficking.


One of the main problems of microsurgery for lymphedema consists of the discrepancy between the excellent technical possibilities and the subsequently insufficient reduction of the lymphoedematous tissue fibrosis and sclerosis. Appropriate treatment based on pathologic study and surgical outcome have not been adequately documented. Over the past 25 years, more than 1000 patients with peripheral lymphedema have been treated with microsurgical techniques. Derivative lymphatic micro‐vascular procedures has today its most exemplary application in multiple lymphatic‐venous anastomoses (LVA). For those cases where a venous disease is associated to more or less latent or manifest lymphostatic pathology of such severity to contraindicate a lymphatic‐venous shunt, reconstructive lymphatic microsurgery techniques have been developed (autologous venous grafts or lymphatic‐venous‐Iymphatic‐plasty ‐ LVLA). Objective assessment was undertaken by water volumetry and lymphoscintigraphy. Subjective improvement was noted in 87% of patients. Objectively, volume changes showed a significant improvement in 83%, with an average reduction of 67% of the excess volume. Of those patients followed‐up, 85% have been able to discontinue the use of conservative measures, with an average follow‐up of more than 7 years and average reduction in excess volume of 69%. There was a 87% reduction in the incidence of cellulitis after microsurgery. Microsurgical lymphatic‐venous anastomoses have a place in the treatment of peripheral lymphedema and should be the therapy of choice in patients who are not sufficiently responsive to nonsurgical treatment. Improved results can be expected with operations performed earlier at the very first stages of lymphedema. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc. Microsurgery 26: 65–69, 2006.


Beta-alanine is a non-essential amino acid typically obtained in the diet via high-protein foods (beef, chicken, pork, and fish) and produced in the confines of the liver. BA is a precursor to the cytoplasmic dipeptide carnosine (beta-alanylhistidine). Carnosine is found in high concentrations in human skeletal muscle where it plays a key role in intracellular pH buffering. Research indicates BA supplementation increased punch power, punch frequency, and lactate concentrations in male amateur fighters after 28-day supplementation. There are currently no studies evaluating the effects of BA on boxing performance variables in women. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the longitudinal effects of exogenous supplementation of BA on punch power, punch frequency, fatigue, and lactate accumulation in female amateur fighters. Twelve females (age = 23.25 ± 3.84) with at least three months of training volunteered to participate in this randomized double-blind study. Each participant was supplemented with either beta-alanine (800 mg + 8 g of dextrose) or placebo (8 g of dextrose) 4 times per day (at least three hours apart) over the course of 28 days. Participants took part in a simulated boxing contest at three time points (pre supplementation, day 14, and day 28). Participants completed three, 3-minute rounds of continuous punching on a punching bag, a one minute punch frequency test, and finished the trial with a 10-second maximal punch power test. Punch power, punch frequency, RPE, and fatigue were all assessed during the trials. Blood lactate measures were taken prior to exercise, immediately post exercise, and after 20-minutes of seated passive recovery. Repeated measures ANOVA revealed there were no significant differences preto post-supplementation on any of the boxing performance (punch power, punch frequency, and fatigue index), perceived variables (RPE), or lactate measures (p ˃ .05). Previous results evaluating the effects of beta-alanine supplementation on punch power, punch frequency, and blood lactate measure in men demonstrated significant increases for each variable. However, the results from the current study indicate that there were no significant differences in performance in female fighters. Keyword: ergogenic aids, beta-alanine, boxing, exercise performance


MEASURING OUTCOMES IN COMPETENCE AND CONFIDENCE IN CLINICAL SKILLS THROUGH THE USE OF STANDARDIZED PATIENTS Jennifer W. Cuchna Old Dominion University, 2017 Director: Dr. Bonnie L. Van Lunen Limited literature is available concerning the use of standardized patients (SPs) in physical therapy education related to outcomes which are assessed. The purpose of our study was to investigate the effects SP implementation had on first year, doctor of physical therapy (DPT) student's communication and patient interviewing skills and their confidence in those skills. Our study utilized a comparison group, repeated measures design with the collection of four survey instruments at pre-test and two posttest time points. The instruments for our study measured general self-efficacy (GSE), task-specific self-efficacy (Self-Perceived Communication Competence (SPCC) and Froehlich Communication Competence (FroCom) and confidence (Standardized Patient Learning Outcomes Assessment Tool for Confidence (SPLOAT). Both groups completed the survey instrument packet at all three time points, however, only the experimental group received SP encounters prior to the second and final instrument collections. General linear model repeated measures analysis was utilized and the results indicated baseline differences for the GSE, SPCC and FroCom with the experimental group having higher average scores, thus making comparisons of the groups for these measures less meaningful. Significant improvements in average overall confidence scores (SPLOAT) were evident at each collection time point for the experimental group with significant main effects for time and group. Additionally, there was a significant interaction effect between time and group indicating the experimental group increased in their average overall scores ranging from moderate to substantial for all time points. The experimental group performed significantly higher on the second SP encounter compared to the first. The comparison group received no SP encounters throughout the entire study, however also showed significant increases in average overall scores from the pre-test to posttest1 collections but did not indicate significance at the pre-test to posttest2 or for the posttest1 to posttest2 collections. The increases seen in both groups could be attributed to normal maturation through the curriculum and experience over time. SPLOAT score increases were evident in both groups, however only initially for the comparison group. The SP use of the experimental group supports previous research suggesting that multiple exposures to simulation activities, such as SP, aids in the confidence improvements.


Text detection in color images has become an active research area in the past few decades. In this paper, we present a novel approach to accurately detect text in color images possibly with a complex background. The proposed algorithm is based on the combination of connected component and texture feature analysis of unknown text region contours. First, we utilize an elaborate color image edge detection algorithm to extract all possible text edge pixels. Connected component analysis is performed on these edge pixels to detect the external contour and possible internal contours of potential text regions. The gradient and geometrical characteristics of each region contour are carefully examined to construct candidate text regions and classify part non-text regions. Then each candidate text region is verified with texture features derived from wavelet domain. Finally, the Expectation maximization algorithm is introduced to binarize each text region to prepare data for recognition. In contrast to previous approach, our algorithm combines both the efficiency of connected component based method and robustness of texture based analysis. Experimental results show that our proposed algorithm is robust in text detection with respect to different character size, orientation, color and language and can provide reliable text binarization result.


The argument of this thesis is that Finnegans Wake is a peculiarly appropriate text for an investigation of the academic discipline of English, and that the issue of readership is the best way to approach the Wake. The thesis, which is organised into three main sections, shows that both Finnegans Wake and the discipline of English Studies are similarly engaged in problems of defining audiences. The opening section shows that the Wake has long been seen as a limit to literature, and as a defining text of literary study. Reception theory proves unable to cope with a study of historical audiences. Finnegans Wake was written over a period roughly concomitant with the rapid professionalisation of English studies and underwent a loss of audiences except for its critical reviewers. The extended third chapter sets out in some detail the growth of English studies, both in itself and more specifically as a context for the name of Joyce in the 1930s and beyond. This also includes analysis of the passage of the Wake in university syllabi. The second section considers post-structuralist claims that the Wake disrupts or subverts the space of the academy. It analyses a wide range of poststructuralist and other reactions to the Wake, and proceeds to a study of inscriptions of readership in the work of Derrida, and explores Derrida's idea of audiences for Joyce. The third section presents two readings of key elements of Finnegans Wake. Analysis of the letters, and of some of Joyce's sources, stresses the important role of the professor figures, which is indicative of the extent to which Joyce's last work was influenced by the professionalisation of literary study. Textual analysis proceeds with the Four, who function as an internal interpretive community. A brief conclusion sums up the argument of the thesis.


Introduction In recent years, research and theory on socio-economic development have given rise to two contending schools of thought. One school emphasizes the convergence of values as a result of "modernization". This school predicts the decline of traditional values and their replacement with "modern" values depicted by rationality, tolerance, trust and participation. The other school of thought emphasizes the persistence of traditional values despite economic and political changes. This school assumes that values are relatively independent of economic conditions. Consequently, it predicts that convergence around some set of "modern" values is unlikely and that traditional values will continue to exert an independent influence on the cultural changes caused by economic development. This paper adopts the latter perspective and critically examines the persistence of aso ebi practice as a cultural tradition that has endured despite modernization, among the Yoruba ethnic group in Nigeria. Aso ebi originally refers to uniform dress worn by family members during social events in Nigeria. However, this practice now includes a larger network of unfamiliarity, transcended the Yoruba ethnic group and is gradually becoming an integral part of a national culture. This practice is currently enjoying appreciable transformations in term of its contents and scope due to the dynamic nature of culture. Pelto, 1966 writing on cultural dynamism states: "each new generation reshuffles and changes the systems of ideas, meanings and rules so that the social tradition is never fixed and unchanging in any society". In line with above assertion, a cursory look at the Nigerian contemporary social milieu reveals that while some cultural practices are declining and some even going into extinction, there are yet others that are experiencing increased acceptance and popularity with some level of modifications. These transformations, modification or actual rejection of some practices are predicated upon both external and internal exigencies. Clothing has remained an integral part of everyday life. In human history, cloth has evolved from being an object designed to cover nudity among humans or as an article for 'looking good' to an instrument for the display of cultural identity and solidarity amongst families and friends. Through clothing, individuals establish their sense of self as well as their place in society. Despite the presence of a rich literature on dress appearing across the scientific and popular board and highly profile international conferences on themes ranging from clothing and imperialism to fashion and consumption show casing dress scholarship, clothing seems to be a neglected topic of sociology. Because of the importance of dress as a component of our daily lives, the connections between dress and both individual and collective identities requires a renewed attention of scholars and practitioners in the world of fashion and dress. The topic of clothing is predominantly classified under 'fashion" in sociological literature and dealt with as ongoing scene of competition and struggle, as ostentatious consumption, which primarily indicates the social status of those buying, owning and dressing in specific garment (Bohn 2004). Fashion in Sombart's (1902) theory of modern demand creation is an excellent example of luxurious consumption. Barber and Lobel (1953) give a rehabilitating account of the fashion habits of American middle-class women, calling it quite rational if interpreted as a representation of status considered in its latent functionality for the reproduction of the American social structure. For Bourdieu (1975, 1980) the fashion designers and their various brands are symbols of distinction in the magic of the social field of fashion where in a manifold struggle, primary positions, the definition of the rules of the game and the legitimate construction of reality are fought out (cited in Bohn 2004) . …


In this study, planar spiral electrodes for triboelectric contact and proximity detection are investigated. The spiral electrodes are created using liquid metal in a soft elastomer in order to make the sensor flexible and stretchable. When the metallic object to be detected comes in contact with the silicon elastomer surrounding the electrodes, charge transfer occurs, and this can be utilized for contact and noncontact sensing of the metallic object in flat or curved geometries. An equivalent electrical circuit model for the noncontact system is proposed and found to be in good agreement with the experimental data. A comparison between triboelectric proximity detection and eddy current resonance frequency proximity detection, using the same electrode geometry, shows that the two methods have comparable sensitivity. An added advantage of the triboelectric system is that it transforms mechanical into electrical energy and thereby allows one to monitor the triboelectrical signal upon impact of a metal object, and the experimental data show that the generated current scales with the impact force.


Single atom catalysts (SACs) possess unique catalytic properties due to low-coordination and unsaturated active sites. However, the demonstrated performance of SACs is limited by low SAC loading, poor metal-support interactions, and nonstable performance. Herein, we report a macromolecule-assisted SAC synthesis approach that enabled us to demonstrate high-density Co single atoms (10.6 wt % Co SAC) in a pyridinic N-rich graphenic network. The highly porous carbon network (surface area of ∼186 m2 g-1) with increased conjugation and vicinal Co site decoration in Co SACs significantly enhanced the electrocatalytic oxygen evolution reaction (OER) in 1 M KOH (η10 at 351 mV; mass activity of 2209 mA mgCo-1 at 1.65 V) with more than 300 h stability. Operando X-ray absorption near-edge structure demonstrates the formation of electron-deficient Co-O coordination intermediates, accelerating OER kinetics. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations reveal the facile electron transfer from cobalt to oxygen species-accelerated OER.


Racial segregation remains a persistent problem in U.S. schools. In this article, we examine how social psychological factors—in particular, individuals' perceptions of schools with varying demographic characteristics—may contribute to the ongoing structural problem of school segregation. We investigate the effects of school racial composition and several nonracial school characteristics on white parents' school enrollment decisions for their children as well as how racial stereotypes shape the school choice process. We use data from a survey-based experiment we designed to test ''pure race'' and ''racial proxy'' hypotheses regarding parents' enrollment preferences. We also use a measure of pro-white stereotype bias, both alone and in combination with school racial composition (percentage black). Using logistic regression analysis, we find support for the ''pure race'' hypothesis. The proportion of black students in a hypothetical school has a consistent and significant inverse association with the likelihood of white parents enrolling their children in that school net of the effects of the included racial proxy measures. In addition, higher levels of pro-white stereotype bias further inhibit enrollment, particularly in schools with higher proportions of black students. We discuss the implications of this research for policies aimed at mitigating racial segregation in U.S. schools.


We present the first radiocarbon dates from previously unrecorded, secondary burials in the Cardamom Mountains, Cambodia. The mortuary ritual incorporates nautical tradeware ceramic jars and log coffins fashioned from locally harvested trees as burial containers, which were set out on exposed rock ledges at 10 sites in the eastern Cardamom Massif. The suite of 28 14C ages from 4 of these sites (Khnorng Sroal, Phnom Pel, Damnak Samdech, and Khnang Tathan) provides the first estimation of the overall time depth of the practice. The most reliable calendar date ranges from the 4 sites reveals a highland burial ritual unrelated to lowland Khmer culture that was practiced from cal AD 1395 to 1650. The time period is concurrent with the 15th century decline of Angkor as the capital of the Khmer kingdom and its demise about AD 1432, and the subsequent shift of power to new Mekong trade ports such as Phnom Penh, Udong, and Lovek. We discuss the Cardamom ritual relative to known funerary rituals of the pre- to post-Angkorian periods, and to similar exposed jar and coffin burial rituals in Mainland and Island Southeast Asia.


Author(s): Huang, Furong; Anandkumar, Animashree; Borgs, Christian; Chayes, Jennifer; Fraenkel, Ernest; Hawrylycz, Michael; Lein, Ed; Ingrosso, Alessandro; Turaga, Srinivas | Abstract: Cataloging the neuronal cell types that comprise circuitry of individual brain regions is a major goal of modern neuroscience and the BRAIN initiative. Single-cell RNA sequencing can now be used to measure the gene expression profiles of individual neurons and to categorize neurons based on their gene expression profiles. While the single-cell techniques are extremely powerful and hold great promise, they are currently still labor intensive, have a high cost per cell, and, most importantly, do not provide information on spatial distribution of cell types in specific regions of the brain. We propose a complementary approach that uses computational methods to infer the cell types and their gene expression profiles through analysis of brain-wide single-cell resolution in situ hybridization (ISH) imagery contained in the Allen Brain Atlas (ABA). We measure the spatial distribution of neurons labeled in the ISH image for each gene and model it as a spatial point process mixture, whose mixture weights are given by the cell types which express that gene. By fitting a point process mixture model jointly to the ISH images, we infer both the spatial point process distribution for each cell type and their gene expression profile. We validate our predictions of cell type-specific gene expression profiles using single cell RNA sequencing data, recently published for the mouse somatosensory cortex. Jointly with the gene expression profiles, cell features such as cell size, orientation, intensity and local density level are inferred per cell type.


Banking is an important contributor to the economic growth around the world. The benefits of understanding consumer selection decisions will provide bankers with a competitive advantage as it has the ability to influence the marketing mix. With rising overheads and price competition, the profit margins earned from bank services are being narrowed. Banks will have to capture a sizeable customer base to sustain their profitability and turnover. Malaysia was chosen for this study as banks have been consolidating in recent times and the diversity of ethnicity, culture and demographic factors prevalent in this country would certainly have an impact of the bank selection behaviour in Malaysia. To accomplish this purpose, data for this study was obtained via a survey. The survey results indicated no attribute obtained was an outright determinant of bank selection choices. This was attributed to the diverse needs of respondents as revealed by this survey. While some determinants such as location was of prime importance when selecting a bank, other factors that emphasize of better social interaction between banker and client, is gaining prominence partly due to the influence of Asian culture. It also revealed the use of the consumer decision making model when selecting bank choices. As a whole, this study was able to achieve its objective in understanding and providing a snapshot of the important determinants in bank selection based on the feedback from survey respondents. How a larger sample over a greater length of time is deemed to provide a better understanding of trends in Malaysia.


A MANET is a collection of mobile nodes communicating and cooperating with each other to route a packet from the source to their destinations. A MANET is used to support dynamic routing strategies in absence of wired infrastructure and centralized administration. In this paper, we propose a routing algorithm for the mobile ad hoc networks based on fuzzy logic to discover an optimal route for transmitting data packets to the destination. This protocol helps every node in MANET to choose next efficient successor node on the basis of channel parameters like environment noise and signal strength. The protocol improves the performance of a route by increasing network life time, reducing link failure and selecting best node for forwarding the data packet to next node.


The incremental frequency distribution of Martian crater diameters larger than 20 to 30 kilometers follows an inverse-square law, with density equal to that of craters on the lunar continents. This finding accords with the prediction that lunar continents and the Martian surface carry an equilibrium density (saturation) of craters originating in meteoroidal impact. Therefore crater statistics alone cannot be used for estimation of the age of the Martian surface.


The most basic economic theory suggests that rising incomes in developing countries will deter emigration from those countries, an idea that captivates policymakers in international aid and trade diplomacy. A lengthy literature and recent data suggest something quite different: that over the course of a "mobility transition", emigration generally rises with economic development until countries reach upper-middle income, and only thereafter falls. This note quantifies the shape of the mobility transition in every decade since 1960. It then briefly surveys 45 years of research, which has yielded six classes of theory to explain the mobility transition and numerous tests of its existence and characteristics in both macro- and micro-level data. The note concludes by suggesting five questions that require further study.


The increasing environmental concern on global warming has triggered intensive research on sustainable utilization of greenhouse gases. CO2 (dry) reforming of methane (DRM) is one of the most effective means since it can transform two major greenhouse gases, CO2 and CH4, together into the more valuable synthesis gas. Silica-based micro- and mesoporous materials turned out to be one promising class of catalysts due to their wide availability, high thermal stability and high specific surface area. In this article, we have overviewed the background and key problems lying in DRM as well as the strength and weakness of silica-based materials used for DRM. Recent developments on these silica-based micro- and mesoporous catalysts including Ni-based catalysts, bimetallic catalysts, perovskite catalysts, Ni-based catalysts doped with promoters and core–shell catalysts for DRM have then been presented by summarizing the synthesis methods and reasons leading to the high catalytic performance and carbon resistance. Finally, key challenges and possible strategies to improve these silica-based catalysts for DRM have been discussed.


Abstract

Objective – To compare the usage of print and ebooks received on University of Manitoba's e-preferred YBP approval plan as well as to examine cost per use for the approval print books and ebooks.

Methods – Usage data was compiled for books received on approval in 2012/2013 to December 31, 2014. Counter reports were used to determine use and non-use of ebooks, while vendor reports from EBL and ebrary were used for the cost per use analysis. Print usage information was drawn from SIRSI and then ALMA when UML switched systems at the beginning of 2014.

Results – Ebooks received more use than p-books overall, but when examined by subject discipline, significant differences could not be found for the "STM" and "Other" categories. With ebooks, university press books tended to be used more than those from other publishers, but the same result was not found for print books. Ebrary ebooks tended to be used more often than EBL, EBSCO, and Wiley ebooks, and single-licence books tended to be somewhat more used than multi-user ones. Cost-per-use data was much lower for print books, though the comparison did not look at staffing costs for each medium.

Conclusions – This study finds that of approval books matching the same profile, ebooks are used more, but print books receive more substantial use. Both formats are needed in a library's collection. Future comparisons of cost per use should take into account hidden labour costs associated with each medium. Usage studies provide evidence for librarians refining approval plan profiles and for budget managers considering changes to monographic acquisition methods and allocations.


The topic of this thes is to understand and support creativity in design. While the interdisciplinary field of Human-Computer Interaction has been described as a 'design-oriented field of research', it has been argued that our understanding of design is relatively poor. The process of design has been described as involving a certain 'mystical element'. The 'mystical element' of the process of design has been described using terms such as 'creativity'. With a poor understanding, it is hard to know how best to support creativity. This could impact the processes and outcomes of design. This thesis attempts to increase our understanding of creativity in design, thereby increasing our knowledge of how best to support the creative design process. The thesis develops an understanding of creativity in the forms of a definition of creativity, metrics and measures of creativity and an understanding of the creative process as it is expressed in the activity of design. These contributions are developed throughout the thesis building upon theoretical work and are refined reflecting upon our practical studies. Furthermore, we develop an understanding of how to support creativity in design by eliciting requirements for creativity support tools, based upon our theoretical work and practical studies. The application of these requirements are reflected upon and illustrated through the evaluation of an existing support tool and the design, development and evaluation of our own creativity support tool: Public Social Private Design (PSPD).


The new occurrence of Three species of bivalves from Pinnidae family  is recorded for the first time from Palk Bay area based on a live and dead shells collected from the Intertidal area . All the three species are under the family of  Pinnidae, Pinna bicolor, Pinna deltodes and Pinna incurva . In seagrass bed of Thondi Coast, all the species of Pen shells Pinna bicolor, Pinna deltodes and Pinna incurva  were embedded in muddy sand and found associated with seagrasses at inter-tidal area. It was also found buried in hard substratum associated with living zoanthids and soft coral. The collected specimens were identified as , (1) Pinna bicolor , (2) Pinna deltodes and (3) Pinna Incurva by using both morphometric and meristic characters. The paper described the taxonomic status and the description of the three species of bivalves collected from Palk Bay areas.


We explore value-based solutions for multi-agent reinforcement learning (MARL) tasks in the centralized training with decentralized execution (CTDE) regime popularized recently. However, VDN and QMIX are representative examples that use the idea of factorization of the joint action-value function into individual ones for decentralized execution. VDN and QMIX address only a fraction of factorizable MARL tasks due to their structural constraint in factorization such as additivity and monotonicity. In this paper, we propose a new factorization method for MARL, QTRAN, which is free from such structural constraints and takes on a new approach to transforming the original joint action-value function into an easily factorizable one, with the same optimal actions. QTRAN guarantees more general factorization than VDN or QMIX, thus covering a much wider class of MARL tasks than does previous methods. Our experiments for the tasks of multi-domain Gaussian-squeeze and modified predator-prey demonstrate QTRAN's superior performance with especially larger margins in games whose payoffs penalize non-cooperative behavior more aggressively.


In an open letter to the President of the European Council in the run-up to the December meeting that will deliberate on new rules of economic governance, a team of expert economists from CEPS and EuropEos expresses serious doubt that the proposals under consideration are a sufficient cure for the economic plight of the European Union. They fear that they will not resolve the competitive and payment imbalances that are undermining the credibility of the budgetary consolidation programmes and the euro itself and further argue that there is an urgent need to lift the growth rate of the Union, and budgetary consolidation, as important as it is, will not suffice. This Policy Brief outlines the elements of a comprehensive economic policy initiative at the EU level capable of matching fiscal discipline with higher growth, as well as restoring a climate of cooperation between the member states.


This Article discusses some of the inadequacies in the current ethical regulation of the legal system and proposes a new approach to crafting and contextualizing rules of legal ethics. The proliferation of specialties and subspecialties in law practice, together with the inadequacies of prevailing ethics regulation and the vagaries of ethics rules formulations from state to state have not served either the public or the legal profession well. Manipulation, motivated by politics and self-interest, of the ideology of the organized bar to adhere to ethical rules predicated on an antiquated and unrealistic model of a unified legal profession has likewise been counterproductive. Emblematic of the problem is the "one size fits all" nature of the Rules of Professional Conduct and their ill-suitedness to business law, as opposed to litigation, practice, all of which leads to an atmosphere of indeterminacy in the ethical standards applicable to business lawyers. Part I of this Article briefly traces the source and nature of the problems facing ethical regulation of the legal profession, briefly highlighting the practical shortcomings of some antidotes proposed by other scholars. Part II examines the various ethical scandals that have plagued the legal profession over the last 35 years. These scandals began with the National Student Marketing case and include the recent string of corporate scandals which brought to light the unethical behavior of corporate insiders, including lawyers and advisors, which ultimately resulted in the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. Part III of this Article endeavors to synthesize some insights from public choice theory into the structural shortcomings of the existing attorney regulatory system. From those insights, one would expect state courts and state bar regulatory agencies to be (and, indeed, they have been) co-opted by the elite bar and not adequately regulating those lawyers in corporate and federal regulatory practice - including especially those practice areas that affect public investors, public markets, and the economy as a whole. Part IV offers a critique of the current approach to attorney regulation, which has featured piecemeal attempts to federalize legal ethics. Part IV proceeds to illustrate the types of approaches to legal ethics which should be avoided. Finally, Part V concludes with a proposal for a partial federal regulation of legal ethics. The model of partial federal regulation offered is by no means the only, or necessarily the optimal, solution, but hopefully it will spark additional discourse that might lead to a workable system for providing business lawyers with the solid, thoughtful, and objective ethical guidance they need. Consistent with this proposal, Part V identifies and highlights a few areas of ethical concern specifically in need of regulatory attention.


Devout, virtuous and independent, the heroines of Old English saints' lives (one of the most popular literary genres of the middle ages) provided exemplars of personal and public inspiration for medieval Christians. The eight lives translated here are the earliest known vernacular accounts of the biographies of AEthelthryth, Agatha, Agnes, Cecilia, Eugenia, Euphrosyne, Lucy, and Mary of Egypt. They depict women escaping unwanted marriages, communicating with male relatives, acquiring an education, living autonomously as hermits, and achieving positions of leadership; such lives document not only the importance of spiritual faith to early Christian women, but also testify to how these women (and their audience) employed faith as a tool for empowerment. Each life is preceded by a brief description of the saint's cult from its early Christian origins to its presence in Anglo-Saxon culture. The translation is accompanied by an introduction establishing the general background for the genre, the conventions of women saints' lives, and women's religious culture in Anglo-Saxon England; and an interpretive essay exploring the relationships between explicit presentations of the female body and the strength of spiritual authority as exhibited in these texts completes the volume. Leslie A. Donovan is Assistant Professor at the University of New Mexico.


Main memory (DRAM) consumes as much as half of the total system power in a computer today, due to the increasing demand for memory capacity and bandwidth. There is a growing need to understand and analyze DRAM power consumption, which can be used to research new DRAM architectures and systems that consume less power. A major obstacle against such research is the lack of detailed and accurate information on the power consumption behavior of modern DRAM devices. Researchers have long relied on DRAM power models that are predominantly based off of a set of standardized current measurements provided by DRAM vendors, called IDD values. Unfortunately, we find that state-of-the-art DRAM power models are often highly inaccurate, as these models do not reflect the actual power consumed by real DRAM devices. To build an accurate model and provide insights into DRAM power consumption, we perform the first comprehensive experimental characterization of the power consumed by modern real-world DRAM modules. Our extensive characterization of 50 DDR3L DRAM modules from three major vendors yields four key new observations about DRAM power consumption that prior models cannot capture: (1) across all IDD values that we measure, the current consumed by real DRAM modules varies significantly from the current specified by the vendors; (2) DRAM power consumption strongly depends on the data value that is read or written; (3) there is significant structural variation, where the same banks and rows across multiple DRAM modules from the same model consume more power than other banks or rows; and (4) over successive process technology generations, DRAM power consumption has not decreased by as much as vendor specifications have indicated. Because state-of-the-art DRAM power models do not account for any of these four key characteristics, they are highly inaccurate compared to the actual, measured power consumption of 50 real DDR3L modules. Based on our detailed analysis and characterization data, we develop the Variation-Aware model of Memory Power Informed by Real Experiments (VAMPIRE). VAMPIRE is a new, accurate power consumption model for DRAM that takes into account (1) module-to-module and intra-module variations, and (2) power consumption variation due to data value dependency. We show that VAMPIRE has a mean absolute percentage error of only 6.8% compared to actual measured DRAM power. VAMPIRE enables a wide range of studies that were not possible using prior DRAM power models. As an example, we use VAMPIRE to evaluate the energy efficiency of three different encodings that can be used to store data in DRAM. We find that a new power-aware data encoding mechanism can reduce total DRAM energy consumption by an average of 12.2%, across a wide range of applications. We have open-sourced both VAMPIRE and our extensive raw data collected during our experimental characterization.


The existence of truthful social choice mechanisms strongly depends on whether monetary transfers are allowed. Without payments there are no truthful, non-dictatorial mechanisms under mild requirements, whereas the VCG mechanism guarantees truthfulness along with welfare maximization when there are payments and utility is quasi-linear in money. In this paper we study mechanisms in which we can use payments but where agents have non quasi-linear utility functions. Our main result extends the Gibbard-Satterthwaite impossibility result by showing that, for two agents, the only truthful mechanism for at least three alternatives under general decreasing utilities remains dictatorial. We then show how to extend the VCG mechanism to work under a more general utility space than quasi-linear (the "parallel domain") and show that the parallel domain is maximal--no mechanism with the VCG properties exists in any larger domain.


Structures in atmospheric refractivity in the moist lower troposphere can cause scintillation of GPS radio occultation (RO) signals. The RO signal scintillation is characterized by rapid fluctuations in signal carrier phase and deep amplitude fading, which prevent RO receivers from maintaining lock of the signals at low altitudes. This paper presents an initial implementation of an adaptive inter-frequency aiding carrier tracking (I-FACT) algorithm to enable improved tracking performances of the scintillating RO signals. To evaluate the performance of the algorithm, real intermediate frequency (IF) data collected during a mountain-based radio occultation experiment is processed using the I-FACT algorithm as well as a conventional phase lock loop (PLL), an open loop (OL), and a single-frequency adaptive carrier tracking (S-FACT) algorithm. The improved performances of the I-FACT over the other algorithms as well as its limitations are presented in this paper.


In his letter to liturgists meeting in Mainz, Germany, in 1964, theologian Romano Guardini asked: Is ritual a forgotten way of doing things?" That question challenged Catholics to reevaluate the roots and roles of ritual. In an ongoing response to that challenge, liturgists have sought to reinterpret the multiple meanings of ritual using insights from the social sciences. In Liturgy and the Social Sciences, Nathan Mitchell examines the responses of liturgists to Guardini's famous question. In the first chapter Mitchell focuses on Aidan Kavanagh, OSB, a noted U.S. liturgist that undertook the challenge of answering Guardini's question. He explains how Father Kavanagh's innovative call for a new discipline - a "political science" of behavior - was taken up by American liturgists in a "classical" or "high church" mode that emphasized ritual action as traditional, authoritative, repetitive, conservative, and "canonical." The second chapter examines how the "high church consensus" began to unravel as a result of critical work done on "emerging ritual" by Ronald Grimes and David Kertzer. These scholars argued that new categories were needed to understand how ritual connects with social life and explained the characteristics of "emerging ritual" as innovative, untraditional, unpredictable, playful, and short term. In the third chapter Mitchell explores some of the proposals that a new generation of anthropologists have made for interpreting ritual. He gives attention to the research of Talal Asad, who suggests that rituals are a "technology" aimed at producing "virtuous selves." Michel Foucalt's "technologies of the self" is also discussed in this chapter. Although written for directors of liturgy, Liturgy and the Social Sciences will also appeal to DREs, clergy and religious, directors of adult formation, persons working with candidates in RCIA, and students and teachers of liturgy who want to look beyond what we do to understand why we do it. Nathan D. Mitchell, PhD, is Associate Director for Research at the Center for Pastoral Liturgy, University of Notre Dame. Six times a year, he writes "The Amen Corner" for Worship. In 1998, the North American Academy of Liturgy presented him with its Berakah Award. Other books by Mitchell that have been published by The Liturgical Press include Cult and Controversy, Mission and Ministry, and Rule of Prayer, Rule of Faith. He also contributed to The Collegeville Pastoral Dictionary of Biblical Theology. "


Background: Rye ( Secale cereale L.) is the most frost tolerant cereal species. As an outcrossing species, rye exhibits high levels of intraspecific diversity, which makes it well-suited for allele mining in genes involved in the frost responsive network. For investigating genetic diversity and the extent of linkage disequilibrium (LD) we analyzed eleven candidate genes and 37 microsatellite markers in 201 lines from five Eastern and Middle European rye populations. Results: A total of 147 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and nine insertion-deletion polymorphisms were found within 7,639 bp of DNA sequence from eleven candidate genes, resulting in an average SNP frequency of 1 SNP/52 bp. Nucleotide and haplotype diversity of candidate genes were high with average values π = 5.6 × 10 -3 and Hd = 0.59, respectively. According to an analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA), most of the genetic variation was found between individuals within populations. Haplotype frequencies varied markedly between the candidate genes. ScCbf14 , ScVrn1 , and ScDhn1 were dominated by a single haplotype, while the other 8 genes ( ScCbf2 , ScCbf6 , ScCbf9b , ScCbf11 , ScCbf12 , ScCbf15 , ScIce2 , and ScDhn3 ) had a more balanced haplotype frequency distribution. Intra-genic LD decayed rapidly, within approximately 520 bp on average. Genome-wide LD based on microsatellites was low. Conclusions: The Middle European population did not differ substantially from the four Eastern European populations in terms of haplotype frequencies or in the level of nucleotide diversity. The low LD in rye compared to self-pollinating species promises a high resolution in genome-wide association mapping. SNPs discovered in the promoters or coding regions, which attribute to non-synonymous


We asked members of the Understanding Society Innovation Panel about their willingness to participate in various data collection tasks on their mobile devices. We find that stated willingness varies considerably depending on the type of activity involved: respondents are less willing to participate in tasks that involve downloading and installing an app, or where data are collected passively. Stated willingness also varies between smartphones and tablets, and between types of respondents: respondents who report higher concerns about the security of data collected with mobile technologies and those who use their devices less intensively are less willing to participate in mobile data collection tasks.


Two couples. Two love stories. One epic tale. Ninety-one-year-old Ira Levinson is in trouble. Struggling to stay conscious after a car crash, with his mind fading, an image of his adored - and long-dead - wife Ruth appears. Urging him to hang on, she lovingly recounts the joys and sorrows of their life together - how they met, the dark days of WWII and its unrelenting effect on their families. A few miles away, college student Sophia Danko's life is about to change. Recovering from a break-up, she meets the young, rugged Luke and is thrown into a world far removed from her privileged school life. Sophia sees a new and tantalising future for herself, but Luke is keeping a secret that could destroy it all. Ira and Ruth. Sophia and Luke. Two couples, separated by years and experience, whose lives are about to converge in the most unexpected - and shocking - of ways. The new love story from the multi-million-copy bestselling author of The Notebook, The Lucky One and The Best of Me. Nicholas Sparks is one of the world's most beloved authors.


Physical education should be a core subject within the National Curriculum because it is the only subject whose primary focus is on the body and, in this respect, it uniquely addresses the physical development aim of the curriculum and it also makes a significant contribution to the spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of children. In addition, it develops an interest in and patterns of physical activity which are essential for healthy development and lay the foundations for active lifestyles. This is increasingly important given growing concerns about children's health (e.g. over 75% of children do not meet physical activity for health guidelines; 20% of children experience mental health problems; and 1 in 5 secondary age children are obese). Furthermore, there are current concerns about
physical education in schools with inadequate attention paid to the subject in primary initial teacher training meaning that qualified teachers often lack the confidence and competence to teach physical education well. In addition, the well intentioned Physical Education and Sport Premium has unfortunately led to the unintended consequence of physical education in some primary schools being virtually handed over to sports coaches and instructors who generally lack the pedagogical skills to meet the needs of all children and who deliver a narrow physical education experience. There are also concerns about physical education in secondary schools where curriculum time is being reduced. Making physical education a core subject in the National Curriculum would stimulate significant health and educational attainment benefits, lead to improved physical, mental and personal well-being of
children, develop essential life skills and contribute to whole school improvements. It would also ensure that physical competence is valued as much as reading, writing and arithmetic, and that well qualified specialist teachers are employed to teach physical education in primary and secondary schools. High quality physical education in schools can also reduce the health burden of physical inactivity and contribute to the economic prosperity of the country. Elevating physical education to core subject status would build on the 2012 legacy in a sustainable way by potentially reaching all children in the country and it would demonstrate a genuine commitment by Government to addressing significant, systemic health issues amongst children.


Non-textual document elements (NTDE) like charts, diagrams, algorithms play an important role to present key information in scientific documents [1]. Recent advancements in information retrieval systems tap this information to answer more complex queries by mining text pertaining to non-textual document elements. However, linking between document elements and corresponding text can be non-trivial. For instance, linking text related to algorithmic complexity with consequent root algorithm could be challenging. These elements are sometime placed at the start or at the end of the page instead of following the flow of document text, and the discussion about these elements may or may not be on the same page. In recent years, quite a few attempts have been made to extract NTDE [2-3]. These techniques are actively applied for effective document summarization, to improve the existing IR systems. Generally, asymptotic notations are used to identify the complexity lines in full text. We mine the relevant complexities of algorithms from full text by comparing the metadata of algorithm with context of paragraph in which complexity related discussion is made by authors. In this paper, we presented a mechanism for identification of algorithmic complexity lines using regular expressions, algorithmic metadata compilation of algorithms, and linking complexity related textual lines to algorithmic metadata.


Objective. The primary objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of the food supplement Physiomanna Baby® in pediatric patients with a history of functional constipation defined by Rome III criteria; secondary objective was to evaluate the adherence to the tested product in the enrolled children. Methods. The trial was designed as an open label, non-comparative pilot trial. In 3 Romanian sites (one community hospital and two private medical practice offices) 49 children (20 males, 29 females) aged 0 - 8 years were enrolled. The study was conducted between February 2016 and April 2016. The investigational product was administered as 1 g/kg in single daily oral administration from the first day and continued for a maximum of 3 days in the first week. If the constipation symptoms persisted, the children were treated in an additional cycle of treatment for a maximum of 3 days. Results. The number of Spontaneous Bowel Movements (SBM) per week has increased to normal after Physiomanna Baby® administration (from 1.80 ± 0.41 at baseline to 6.04±1.54 at day 8) evidencing a statistically significant difference (P-value <0.0001). The efficacy was also demonstrated in the subpopulation of children <4 years where the mean values per week increased from 1.69±0.47 at baseline to 6.15±1.59 SBM at day 8 (P-value <0.0001). According to Investigator Global Assessment of Efficacy (IGAE), Physiomanna Baby® shows immediate and excellent efficacy after one or two doses for 79.60% of the children, a very good efficacy after three doses for 12.24% and good efficacy after the second cycle of administration for 6.12% of children. Both Investigator Global Assessment for Safety (IGAS) and Patient Global Assessment for Safety (PGAS) were rated as 100% excellent for all patients. Conclusions. The food supplement Physiomanna Baby® provided immediate efficacy, offering to pediatricians a safe solution in the care of mild to moderate functional constipation, even if the study design characteristics were limited (pilot trial with a small sample size and without control group).


We propose a model of vision communication that emphasizes the mediating role of follower collective possible selves—that is, self-conception in terms of what the collective (team, organization) which one is a member of may become in the future that can be held by individuals but can also be shared by multiple individuals. Our model is the first to provide an integrative account of how vision communication may stimulate the pursuit of the vision by individuals and collectives, and it complements and extends prior research in three important ways. First, in contrast to an earlier emphasis on the role of individual perceptions of the current self, our model puts perceptions of the future self at the forefront. It captures how vision communication can invite social sharedness of these perceptions, thus doing justice to visions' nature as images of a future for the collective. Second, in contrast to earlier work on vision communication focusing on general indicators of leadership effectiveness, our model puts what is arguably the most important outcome for vision communication center stage: vision pursuit, the followers' actions aimed at making the vision reality. We argue that the creation of collective possible selves by followers is crucial for vision communication because collective possible selves explain how vision communication relates to vision pursuit. Third, our model also addresses aspects of vision communication that may facilitate the processes through which visions become internalized as possible selves, and it captures the processes through which such possible selves become shared among members of a collective and lead to collective vision pursuit.


Gliomas are the most common primary brain tumors with heterogeneous morphology and variable prognosis. Treatment decisions in patients rely mainly on histologic classification and clinical parameters. However, differences between histologic subclasses and grades are subtle, and classifying gliomas is subject to a large interobserver variability. To improve current classification standards, we have performed gene expression profiling on a large cohort of glioma samples of all histologic subtypes and grades. We identified seven distinct molecular subgroups that correlate with survival. These include two favorable prognostic subgroups (median survival, >4.7 years), two with intermediate prognosis (median survival, 1-4 years), two with poor prognosis (median survival, <1 year), and one control group. The intrinsic molecular subtypes of glioma are different from histologic subgroups and correlate better to patient survival. The prognostic value of molecular subgroups was validated on five independent sample cohorts (The Cancer Genome Atlas, Repository for Molecular Brain Neoplasia Data, GSE12907, GSE4271, and Li and colleagues). The power of intrinsic subtyping is shown by its ability to identify a subset of prognostically favorable tumors within an external data set that contains only histologically confirmed glioblastomas (GBM). Specific genetic changes (epidermal growth factor receptor amplification, IDH1 mutation, and 1p/19q loss of heterozygosity) segregate in distinct molecular subgroups. We identified a subgroup with molecular features associated with secondary GBM, suggesting that different genetic changes drive gene expression profiles. Finally, we assessed response to treatment in molecular subgroups. Our data provide compelling evidence that expression profiling is a more accurate and objective method to classify gliomas than histologic classification. Molecular classification therefore may aid diagnosis and can guide clinical decision making.


The mammalian heart develops from a primary heart tube, which is formed by fusion of bilateral cardiac territories in which myocardial and endothelial cells have already begun to differentiate from splanchnic mesoderm. A population of myocardial precursors has been identified in pharyngeal mesoderm, anterior to the early heart tube. Cell labeling studies have indicated that this novel territory, called the anterior heart field (AHF), gives rise to the myocardial wall of the outflow tract. We now report that not only the myocardium of the outflow tract but also myocardial cells of the embryonic right ventricle are derived from this source. Explants of pharyngeal mesoderm or of the early heart tube were cultured from transgenic mice in which transgene expression marks different regions of the heart. Pharyngeal mesoderm from 5 to 7 somite embryos gives rise to cardiomyocytes with right ventricular and outflow tract identities, whereas the heart tube as this stage has an essentially left ventricular identity. DiI labeling confirms that the early heart tube is destined to contribute to the embryonic left ventricle and indicates that right ventricular myocardium is added from extracardiac mesoderm. Retrospective clonal analysis of the heart at embryonic day (E) 10.5 reveals the existence of a clonal boundary in the interventricular region, which appears during ventricular septation, underlining different origins of the two ventricular compartments. This study demonstrates the differences in the embryological origin of right and left ventricular myocardium, which has important implications for congenital heart disease.


Endodontic treatments consist to eliminate the vascular nervous system of the tooth. The objectives of this treatment are adequate cleaning and shaping the root canals of the tooth. The endodontic treatment is essential to the success of prosthetics therapy and the lifetime of the tooth. The difficulties of endodontic treatments lie in the abruptness of canal curvature. Ni-Ti endodontic instruments were introduced to facilitate instrumentation of curved canals. They are superelastic and flex far more than stainless-steel instruments. Despite the increased flexibility we can observe unexpected fractures of these Ni-Ti files. The purpose of this work is to understand the process history on fracture life. Our results are based on microstructural and mechanical investigations of Ni-Ti engine-driven rotary files: X-ray diffraction, SEM, DSC, microhardness and bending tests. Thus, and as we expected, endodontic files are very work-hardened: there is a high density of defects in the alloy, which will impede the phase transformation. DSC : the phase transformation A/R-Phase is predominant, the martensitic transformation is difficult to observe. The microvickers hardness confirms these observations (dislocations and precipitates). The X-rays show that the experimental peaks are broad, which is typical of a distorted lattice. Morover, machining resulted in the work hardening of files. Some thermal treatments are involved in promoting some changes in the mechanical properties and transformation characteristics. Annealing around 400°C shows good results: the recovery allows a compromise between an adequate density of defects to see the R-Phase germination and a low density to limit the brittleness of these instruments. The surface state of the endodontic files is an important factor for failures and fractures initiation. In these applications, it is very critical to predict the service life based on the theoretical modeling.


We exploit changes in the residential and social environment on campus to identify the economic and academic consequences of fraternity membership at a small Northeastern college. Our estimates suggest that these consequences are large, with fraternity membership lowering student grade point average by approximately 0.25 points on the traditional 4†point scale, but raising future income by approximately 36%, for those students whose decision about membership is affected by changes in the environment. These results suggest that fraternity membership causally produces large gains in social capital, which more than outweigh its negative effects on human capital for potential members. Alcohol†related behavior does not explain much of the effects of fraternity membership on either the human capital or social capital effects. These findings suggest that college administrators face significant trade†offs when crafting policies related to Greek life on campus. (JEL I23, J24, I12)


Electrochemical techniques like adsorptive cathodic stripping voltammetry with competitive ligand equilibration (ACSV-CLE) can determine total concentrations of marine organic ligands and their conditional binding constants for specific metals, but cannot identify them. Individual organic ligands, isolated from microbial cultures or biosynthesized through genomics, can be structurally characterized via NMR and tandem MS analysis, but this is tedious and time-consuming. A complementary approach is to compare known properties of natural ligands, particularly their conditional binding constants, with those of model organic ligands, measured under suitable conditions. Such comparisons cannot be meaningfully interpreted unless the side-reaction coefficient (SRC) of the model ligand in seawater is thoroughly evaluated. We conducted series of potentiometric titrations, in non-coordinating medium at seawater ionic strength (0.7 M NaClO4) over a range of metal:ligand molar ratios, to study complexation of the siderophore desferrioxamine B (DFOB) with Mg and Ca, for which it has the highest affinity among the major seasalt cations. From similar titrations of acetohydroxamic acid in the absence and presence of methanesulfonate (mesylate), it was determined that Mg and Ca binding to this common DFOB counter-ion is not strong enough to interfere with the DFOB titrations. Stability constants were measured for all DFOB complexes with Mg and Ca including, for the first time, the bidentate complexes. No evidence was found for Mg and Ca coordination with the DFOB terminal amine. From the improved DFOB speciation, we calculated five SRCs for each of the five (de)protonated forms of DFOB in trace-metal-free seawater, yet we also present a more convenient definition of a single SRC that allows adjustment of all DFOB stability constants to seawater conditions, no matter which of these forms is selected as the 'component' (reference species). An example of Cd speciation in seawater containing DFOB illustrates the non-trivial use of different SRCs for polyprotic, polydentate organic ligands.


ABSTRACT The biological activity of drugs on organisms is associated with the pharmacokinetic properties, such as the ability to penetrate through environments of varying polarity such as cellular organelles. In this area, particular attention is turned to the physicochemical properties that determine the potential of drugs to pass across the blood–brain barrier and thus to act on the central nervous system. In this study, special effort has been devoted to the simulation of passive diffusion of seven drugs (propranolol, ibuprofen, atenolol, promazine, chlorpromazine, imipramine, and desipramine) through the blood–brain barrier by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) using a column with an immobilized artificial membrane. Gradient reverse elution was used to develop a linear correlation model for the capacity factors kIAM and the in vivo logarithmic values of brain-to-blood drug concentration ratios (log BB) with R of 0.9851. Eleven additional pharmaceuticals were determined by the same method to predict their potential to penetrate the blood–brain barrier. The reported analytical method represents an alternative tool for rapid and noninvasive assessment of the absorption properties of chemicals, especially for the development of novel drugs. The retention of the studied compounds on the immobilized artificial membrane column was also compared with three other C18-based stationary phases. Herein, the results of the HPLC determination of drugs using an immobilized artificial membrane are briefly discussed with respect to a general application of the method for evaluating a broader spectrum of pharmaceutical compounds.


Following the success of "Sleeves of Desire," a second publication is now being devoted to the cover art of the label ECM, Edition of Contemporary Music, focusing above all on sleeve design from 1996 to the present. Since its founding in 1969, ECM has been dedicated primarily to jazz and contemporary classical music and is a leading international label in both these fields. ECM has also received acclaim for its unique cover designs, which have always been an integral part of its productions. Over the years, the collaboration between Manfred Eicher, the label's founder and producer, and designers including Barbara Wojirsch, Dieter Rehm and Sascha Kleis has produced an aesthetic of the cover that initiates a dialogue between the photographic image and the music. The search for a cover motif from a storehouse of possible images is presented in a few examples that shed light on how these visual worlds are created and trace their significance for the music. An illustrated catalog of all of ECM's releases completes this publication.


The requirements of high performance mega functional solutions are becoming important day by day. With the advancement in semi conductor devices and fabrication technology, it is possible to pack more logic in smaller area of silicon. But the implementation of these mega functional modules using common bus architecture, parallel bus architecture, pipelining are becoming ineffective and posing a bottleneck in terms of performance and throughput in this billion transistor era. To overcome these performance issues, a new paradigm in interconnect technology was proposed. The proposal is to implant the concept of data transfer in data communication networks providing advantages of low power scalable high performance architecture. This can be achieved with a small increase in silicon area, for routing resources. This paper discusses the design of a generic frame work for wormhole routing strategy for 2D mesh topology. It also discusses the data transfer operation and other aspects of this frame work.


Dedication. Foreword. Preface. List of Contributors. Part I. Host-parasite hormonal interactions: New insights: how parasites and pathogens alter the endocrine physiology and development of insect hosts-- N.E. Beckage The life history and development of polyembryonic parasitoids-- M.R. Strand, M. Grbic Schistosome parasites induce physiological changes in their snail host by interfering with two regulatory systems, the internal defense system and the neuroendocrine system M. de Jong-Brink, R.M. Hoek, W. Lageweb, and A.B. Smit Infection with Echinostoma Paraensei (Digenea) induces parasite-reactive polypeptides in the hemolymph of the gastropod host biomphalaria glabrata-- C.M. Adema, L.A. Hertel, and E.S. Loker The growth hormone-like factor from plerocercoids of the tapeworm Spirometra mansonoides is a multifunctional protein-- C.K. Phares Peptides- an emerging force in host responses to parasitism-- I. Fairweather . Part II. Parasitism and reproduction: Testosterone and immunosuppression in vertebrates: implications for parasite-mediated sexual selection-- N. Hillgarth, J.C. Wingfield Host embryonic and larval castration as a strategy for the individual castrator and the species-- J.J. Brown and D. A. Reed The role of endocrinological versus nutritional influences in mediating reproductive changes in insect host and insect vectors-- H. Hurd and T. Webb . Section III. Parasites, pathogens, and host behavior: Behavioral abnormalities and disease caused by viral infections of the central nervous system-- C.G. Hatalaski and W. I. Lipkin Effects of hormones on behavioral defenses against parasites-- B.L. Hart How parasites alter the behavior of their insect hosts-- S.A.Adamo Parasites, fluctuating asymmetry, and sexual selection-- M. Polak Hormones an sex-specific traits: critical questions-- D. K. Hews, M.C. Moore Host behavior modification: an evolutinary perspective-- A.M. Kuris The ecology of parasites in a salt marsh ecosystem-- K.D. Lafferty. Index.


Due to ever-growing investments in information systems (IS) in organizations, IS literature promotes an enterprise-wide perspective to keep local, short-term investments in line with global, long-term in-tentions. One of the central discourses in realizing an enterprise-wide perspective is the necessity of coordinating IS change and development efforts across organizational units. Notwithstanding its criti-cality, there is a lack of coherent body of theory about coordination. This study hence seeks to spot-light coordination as a lens by investigating prominently used reference theories in IS that implicitly consider coordination. Through conducting thematic analysis and synthesizing the reflection of coor-dination in IS reference theories, this study identifies four theory-grounded themes of coordination namely, informing, controlling, legitimating, and socializing. The identified themes guide prospective research in investigating IS phenomena through the lens of coordination.


Since wars have existed, there have been soldiers for hire. As the state evolved, originating during the peace of Westphalia, and matured, the definition and the business of mercenarism have gone through many mutations. Today, and particularly since the 1970s, mercenaries have banded together, incorporating themselves as private military firms, some of which are units of multinational corporations. Private Military Corporations (PMCs) offer expertise ranging from construction to logistics but a number of contractors have been accused of human rights violations, particularly in the current theatres of war in Iraq and Afghanistan. The theme of this thesis is that PMCs need to be regulated globally in order to prevent the prolongation of conflicts and the instability stemming from human rights violations. In considering this theme, this thesis employs three case studies of civil wars in which PMCs were heavily involved. It concludes that a variety of existing domestic, regional and international regulations can be expanded and strengthened in order to provide a robust regulative regime. Table of


The American yam bean (Pachyrhizus spp.) is a legume crop that is exclusively used for its storage roots. The seeds are inedible due to presence of toxic rotenone. It produces high storage root yields comparable of major root crops like cassava or sweetpotato. And flower pruning more than doubles its root yield performance. Using twenty five yam bean accessions, the current study aimed to determine root yield stability and adaptability, and presence of yam bean production mega environments in Uganda. Trials were planted at three stations, Namulonge, Serere, and Kachwekano during two consecutive seasons of 2011. Fresh storage root yields were significantly different (p < 0.05) across locations with the ideal location being Namulonge (fresh storage root yield of 10.1 t ha-1), followed by Serere (8.0 t ha-1), and Kachwekano (3.1 t ha-1). Results of AMMI analysis indicated the presence of genotype-by-environment interaction for fresh storage root yield. Through AMMI estimates and GGE visual assessment, genotype 209017 was the highest yielding with mean yield of 20.7 t ha-1. Genotype 209018 with mean yield of 15.5 t ha-1 was the most stable and adapted accession in the entire discriminating environment in Uganda. From the environmental focusing plot, the six environments were grouped into two putative mega environments for yam bean production.


• There is a growing recognition of the role that healthy ecosystems play in helping people to adapt to climate change through the delivery of ecosystem services.
• Ecosystem-based Adaptation promotes the sustainable use of biodiversity and ecosystem services to adapt to climate change.
• Ecosystem-based Adaptation is emerging on the international agenda but more evidence from the field is needed to understand the potential range of benefits.
• Examples of Ecosystem-based Adaptation show that these measures have been successfully implemented and can be cost-effective alternatives and/or complements to more traditional adaptation options.
• Challenges and future needs are discussed in order to incorporate Ecosystem-based Adaptation into national and regional adaptation policies.


The NCP1399 is a high performance current mode controller for half bridge resonant converters. This controller implements 600 V gate drivers, simplifying layout and reducing external component count. The built−in Brown−Out input function eases implementation of the controller in all applications. In applications where a PFC front stage is needed, the NCP1399 features a dedicated output to drive the PFC controller. This feature together with dedicated skip mode technique further improves light load efficiency of the whole application. The NCP1399 provides a suite of protection features allowing safe operation in any application. This includes: overload protection, over−current protection to prevent hard switching cycles, brown−out detection, open optocoupler detection, automatic dead−time adjust, overvoltage (OVP) and overtemperature (OTP) protections.


Low thermal conductivity (low-K) ceramic materials are of interest to the aerospace community for use as the thermal barrier component of coating systems for turbine engine components. In particular, zirconia-based materials exhibit both low thermal conductivity and structural stability at high temperature, making them suitable for such applications. Because creep is one of the potential failure modes, and because diffusion is a mechanism by which creep takes place, we have performed computer simulations of cation diffusion in a variety of zirconia-based low-K materials. The kinetic Monte Carlo simulation method is an alternative to the more widely known molecular dynamics (MD) method. It is designed to study "infrequent-event" processes, such as diffusion, for which MD simulation can be highly inefficient. We describe the results of kinetic Monte Carlo computer simulations of cation diffusion in several zirconia-based materials, specifically, zirconia doped with Y, Gd , Nb and Yb. Diffusion paths are identified, and migration energy barriers are obtained from density functional calculations and from the literature. We present results on the temperature dependence of the diffusivity, and on the effects of the presence of oxygen vacancies in cation diffusion barrier complexes as well. INTRODUCTION The high melting point of zirconia makes the material useful for high-temperature applications. However, zirconia undergoes two phase transitions between room temperature and the melting point; it exists in a monoclinic structure below about 1100°C, a tetragonal structure between 1100°C and 2300°C, and a cubic structure between 2300°C and the melting point. While this would seem to render the material unsuitable for such applications, the addition of substitutional aliovalent cation dopants such as Y + can stabilize the tetragonal and cubic phases. The high-temperature cubic phase can be fully stabilized, retaining the cubic structure from room temperature to the melting point. Fully stabilized zirconia exists in a cubic fluorite structure in which the cations are located on a face-centered cubic sublattice, with the oxygen ions located on a simple cubic sublattice whose lattice constant is one-half that of the cation sublattice. Yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) exhibits both thermal stability and low thermal conductivity, making it suitable for use as a component of coating systems for aerospace applications, for example, the thermal protection component of a coating system for turbine engine components. It exhibits oxygen and cation diffusive ionic conduction, both of which are generally considered to occur via the hopping of ions to nearest-neighbor vacancies on the appropriate sublattice. However, the detailed mechanisms of the two cases are somewhat different, resulting in very different dependences of the diffusivity on the cation dopant concentration. https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20150007504 2020-04-12T03:19:13+00:00Z


We present a novel system for the automatic extraction of the main melody from polyphonic music recordings. Our approach is based on the creation and characterization of pitch contours, time continuous sequences of pitch candidates grouped using auditory streaming cues. We define a set of contour characteristics and show that by studying their distributions we can devise rules to distinguish between melodic and non-melodic contours. This leads to the development of new voicing detection, octave error minimization and melody selection techniques. A comparative evaluation of the proposed approach shows that it outperforms current state-of-the-art melody extraction systems in terms of overall accuracy. Further evaluation of the algorithm is provided in the form of a qualitative error analysis and the study of the effect of key parameters and algorithmic components on system performance. Finally, we conduct a glass ceiling analysis to study the current limitations of the method, and possible directions for future work are proposed.


A highly definitive design criteria or performance specification is frequently developed for new transit systems. The criteria are intended to protect the owner's interest by identifying and addressing the myriad of potential activities which must be considered during the planning, design, and construction of a transit system. Decisions made during the course of balancing portions of these design criteria, however, may obviate much of the desired protection. This paper examines specific and general areas where design criteria have had an important impact on both design activity and guideway costs. It begins with the issue of code selection and proceeds to look at a variety of criteria details, concluding with those small details that create many cost conflicts.


Economic wealth is concentrated in a few countries in the temperate region. Biotic wealth, as expressed in the diversity of plant and animal species, is concentrated in a few tropical countries. The polarisation of economic and biological wealth creates disparate realities and aspirations for those concerned in developed countries about conservation and for the vast majority of people in tropical countries. Capital is scarce in the tropics, and tropical countries, such as Brazil, exploit their lands using techniques that consume natural rather than financial capital. In Brazil this exploitation assumes great proportions, sustained politically by the combination of a large market economy, internal polarisation of income distribution, and international commercial and financial difficulties. The preservation of tropical forests and their functions represent the immobilization of a production factor in the tropical countries. Such immobilisation is not among the priorities of tropical populations, in spite of its growing popularity among richer countries. Recognition of these differences in priority is an essential first step; the second is to define mechanisms in which the aspirations of those wealthy economically and those wealthy biologically can be harmonised.


Applications of Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (MANET) are increasing rapidly. However, MANET is susceptible to attacks due to its mobile nature. The security issue is becoming a major concern and constriction in the applications of MANET; therefore, selection of intrusion detection methods is especially important for MANET applications. This paper aims to pioneer and to assort current techniques of Intrusion Detection System (IDS) aware MANET. MANET is infrastructure-less, pervasive in nature with multi-hop routing, without any centralized authority. To support these ideas, a discussion regarding attacks and researches achievement on MANET are presented inclusively in this paper, and then the comparison among several researches achievement is evaluated based on these parameter. Index Terms—Intrusion Detection System, DoS, MANET, distributed Networks.


It has been observed that many researchers in the humanities do not use digital tools to their full extent for their research. Some of the most pressing needs of researchers in Digital Cultural Heritage (DCH) are data storage and handling and large scale computing. Linking these researchers to experienced groups will significantly improve productivity and research innovation in DCH. This work presents our efforts in enabling virtual collaboration for research in the South East and Eastern Mediterranean region and more specifically the deployment of the Clowder CMS system and the development of extraction services to handle, manage and automatically process DCH data. We give technical descriptions of the system and provide some results and discussions of our efforts to enable virtual collaboration between regional level DCH researchers in the context of the Horizon 2020 funded VI-SEEM project.


This paper explores the question of whether the market process is capable of bringing about a spontaneous monetary switch to a new currency in the presence of strong network effects of the incumbent currency. It does so by examining current happenings around Bitcoin. It finds that two mechanisms stand out: the coordinative efforts of the profit-maximizing entrepreneur as well as the ability to use the old and the new currency simultaneously. It finds that marginal decisions made by rational agents seeking to maximize net private benefit in their choice of currency, be it entrepreneurs or buyers and sellers of currency, are capable of setting in motion a switch to a new currency, even in the absence of contingencies such as extreme inflation or political instability. Whether or not these mechanisms play out fully in the case of Bitcoin still remains to be seen.