The software development life cycle (SDLC) starts with business and functional specifications signed with a client. In addition to this, the specifications also capture policy / procedure / contractual / regulatory / legislation / standard compliances with respect to a given client industry. The SDLC must adhere to service level agreements (SLAs) while being compliant to development activities, processes, tools, frameworks, and reuse of open-source software components. In today's world, global software development happens across geographically distributed (autonomous) teams consuming extraordinary amounts of open source components drawn from a variety of disparate sources. Although this is helping organizations deal with technical and economic challenges, it is also increasing unintended risks, e.g., use of a non-complaint license software might lead to copyright issues and litigations, use of a library with vulnerabilities pose security risks etc. Mitigation of such risks and remedial measures is a challenge due to lack of visibility and transparency of activities across these distributed teams as they mostly operate in silos. We believe a unified model that non-invasively monitors and analyzes the activities of distributed teams will help a long way in building software that adhere to various compliances. In this paper, we propose a decentralized CAG - Compliance Adherence and Governance framework using blockchain technologies. Our framework (i) enables the capturing of required data points based on compliance specifications, (ii) analyzes the events for non-conformant behavior through smart contracts, (iii) provides real-time alerts, and (iv) records and maintains an immutable audit trail of various activities.


Embezzlement and similar crimes of financial misconduct are a growing area of concern for library managers and trustees. Library budgets have increased dramatically during the past twenty years, but this has not been accompanied by a corresponding increase in financial management techniques. This study investigated a national sample of ten states and an indepth case study of one state (Indiana) using the technique of internal control (a subspecialty of auditing), both to understand how the embezzlements occurred and to suggest areas of improvement in library financial management to deter future cases of embezzlement. Libraries that experienced embezzlement tend to lack internal practices, a condition that may be common to many public libraries. Two general findings emerged from the study: embezzlement is a continuing problem in public libraries, and better training in financial management for librarians and library board members should increase awareness of the risks of embezzlement and significantly deter embezzlement.


(firstname.lastname@example.com) Background and Aims: Tooth decay has high prevalence in the world. The use of plant material for the prevention and treatment of this disease for various reasons is considered, due to the increasing resistance of bacteria to antibiotics, the high cost and adverse effects of some chemicals used in dentistry. This study was aimed to determine the antimicrobial effect of alcoholic extract of Pepper (Capsicum annuum) and eggplant skin and cap on the cariogenic streptococci. Materials and Methods: In this study, the antimicrobial activity of ethanol extract of Capsicum annuum and eggplant skin and cap on the cariogenic streptococci, including Streptococcus mutans, Streptococcus sobrinus, and Streptococcus sanguis by microtitre plate method for MIC (Minimum Inhibitor Concentration) was performed. Data were analyzed by one-way analysis of variance using Prism 5 Graph Pad software. Results: MIC for the Capsicum annuum and eggplant skin for Streptococcus mutans was 250 mg/ml (SD=0.052), and for the Streptococcus sobrinus and Streptococcus sanguis was 125 mg/ml (SD=0.027). The MIC for the cap eggplant for Streptococcus mutans and Streptococcus sobrinus was 500 mg/ml (SD=0) and for S. sanguis was getting 125 mg/ml (SD=0.159). Conclusion: This study showed that the herbal extracts of Capsicum annuum and eggplant skin and cap had beneficially antimicrobial effects on all three strains of cariogenic


Moringa oleifera Lam. (MO) is one of the most well-known and widely distributed species of the Moringaceae family in African communities, and various preparations of M. oleifera are used for the treatment of several diseases. Due to the extensive worldwide use of MO products, and the use of MO aqueous extract in traditional African medicine, the aim of the present study was to investigate the anti-proliferative, cytotoxic and pro-apoptotic activities of different aqueous extracts from leaves and seeds of M. oleifera (MOE), which have been prepared using different protocols, in lymphoid and monocytoid cells. The results of the present study demonstrated the anti-proliferative and pro-apoptotic effects of the aqueous extracts obtained from M. oleifera leaves and seeds on tumour cells; however, not on peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from healthy donors. The pro-apoptotic effect of MO seed aqueous extract (MOE-S) was correlated with decreased B-cell lymphoma 2 (BCL2) and sirtuin-1 (SIRT1) protein expression, which are involved in apoptosis. Considering the effects of plant secondary metabolites on human cells and the role of plant microRNA in cross-kingdom interactions, the presence of secondary metabolites and microRNA in MOE was characterised. In conclusion, M. oleifera aqueous extracts appeared to be able to differentially regulate proliferation and apoptosis in healthy cells and cancer cells, and this ability could be associated with the microRNA present in the extracts. These results highlighted the possible use of MOE as an adjuvant in traditional cancer therapy.


Given the numerous and widely acknowledged benefits of a well-functioning housing market, it is vital to understand the degree of competition in that market, which is the starting point for undertaking any policy tool aimed at improving its efficiency. This paper tests the extent of competition in the housing market in Santiago, Chile using a two-step methodology. In the first step, using a hedonic price model, the Santiago housing market is divided into sub-markets, which are analyzed separately. The second step is the tacit collusion test itself, which compares the industry markup with the business cycle in each sub-market using panel data regression models. Evidence of collusion is found in certain sub-markets.


This thesis deals with the parts played by the Colonial Office and colonial governments in providing medical and health services in British West Africa. The themes addressed are: the provision of medical and health services; the organization of Colonial medical research; and the recruitment of medical officers. The inter-war period saw the development of a number of medical institutions established in government centres by the various colonial administrations. The provision of health care facilities in the rural areas was the responsibility of local authorities. During world war two, the Colonial Advisory Medical Committee produced for the first time a statement of policy on medicine and health for the Colonial Empire. This emphasised not only the provision of curative facilities but also the provision of preventive health care services. Apart from the provision of medical and health facilities, efforts were also made to stimulate interest in medical research. Medical research in British West Africa before WWII was carried out as part of the routine duties of Colonial Medical Departments. However, the Colonial Medical Research Committee, set up in 1945 by the Colonial Office, was to exert considerable influence on research policy in the region. The committee, which was dominated by the Medical Research Council favoured fundamental research. However, fundamental research was considered not relevant to the immediate needs of colonial peoples. Instead, there was established a medical research organization, with emphasis on applied research and the investigation of the most prevalent diseases in West Africa. Meanwhile, between the wars, the Colonial Office tackled the problem of recruiting medical officers by creating the post of Chief Medical Adviser and by the amalgamation of the colonial medical services (CMS). Upto the outbreak of the war, however, the Office was still unable to meet the personnel requirements for the CMS. This problem was further aggravated with the creation in 1940, of the National Health Service. The end of WWII also saw an increase in international cooperation. United Nations specialised agencies such as the World Health Organization began to take an active interest in the health problems of African peoples.


The omnipresence of technology combined with the widespread embrace of online communication has undoubtedly created a subculture of 'always on'. Indeed, experts have revealed that online interaction and information invokes a 'dopamine squirt' similar in effect to that of narcotics abuse. Prior research has established that online interaction through computers and mobile devices gives the feeling of self importance and provides an illusionary short term fix for seemingly isolated individuals. This paper investigates the levels of addiction to Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games and the potential information and social based ramifications associated with such environments. The study made use of an online survey and follow-up case study evidence to assess current levels of addiction and associated security awareness amongst 362 online gamers.


Objective: To evaluate the impact of pharmacists, working collaboratively with patients, on blood pressure control, lifestyle goal setting, adherence to antihypertensive therapy, patient knowledge and satisfaction, and modification of cardiovascular risk factors.
Methods: Self-declared hypertensive patients met with the pharmacist for blood pressure monitoring, lifestyle goal setting, and education about medications and disease state on four occasions over a 6-month period.
Practice innovation: A community pharmacy partnered with an employer wellness plan to provide education and monitoring for patients with hypertension based on home blood pressure readings obtained using monitors that wirelessly transmit information to the pharmacist.
Main outcome measure(s): Percentage of patients at blood pressure goal, mean blood pressure, percentage of patients with lifestyle goals, medication adherence, patient knowledge and satisfaction, and modification of cardiovascular risk factors.
Results: Patients not at their goal blood pressure at baseline had a significant decrease in blood pressure and a significant increase in achievement of their blood pressure goals. Across the population, no significant changes were seen in the primary outcome, lifestyle goals, medication adherence or modification of cardiovascular risk factors. Patient knowledge increased from baseline and satisfaction with the service was high.
Conclusion: Blood pressure control improved in patients not at their treatment goal. All patients increased their knowledge about hypertension and reported high satisfaction with the pharmacy service. Pharmacy services should be offered to patients who are more likely to reap a benefit. Home blood pressure readings are useful to inform clinical decision making and supplement patient consultation within the pharmacy setting.

Type: Original Research


Vehicular toll roads are one component of many municipal transportation systems. Open communication windows, often used in tollbooths, facilitate essential communication and monetary transactions. However, the vehicle noise generated outside the booth is easily transmitted into the booth via the open window. Personnel working at toll collection plazas are exposed to extended, continuous traffic noise. Sustained noise levels of this nature may cause hearing loss, induce fatigue or stress, and reduce worker productivity. The annoyance and discomfort related to continuous noise exposure may create an unpleasant working condition and may affect the hospitality of the tollbooth operators and their attitude toward customers. Furthermore, the noise level may hinder communication with customers and may compromise safety. Reduction of the noise level and an improvement in speech intelligibility are highly desirable. The acoustics of a typical toll plaza and structural noise control strategies were modeled using a beam tracing technique. Noise control strategies involved the application of sound absorbing material to the overhead canopy, the construction of sound absorbing partial barriers, and the treatment of tollbooth walls with sound absorbing material. In terms of noise control, the results suggest that the direct field is more important than the reflected field. The effects of active noise control (ANC) systems to reduce traffic noise and improve speech intelligibility at the toll plaza was investigated. The ANC systems included a range of headsets and a prototype external unit designed to create a local region of attenuation. Significant noise reduction can be achieved with sealed, closed ear ANC headsets. However, the various systems seemed to have little positive effect upon speech intelligibility under traffic noise conditions. The results imply that the signal to noise ratio under toll plaza conditions is poor and that level overloading effects may further reduce intelligibility. Altered systems were modeled to improve the signal to noise ratio and reduce the noise level. The improved systems utilize a directional microphone and a sealed ANC headset. With a high order directional microphone, good speech intelligibility is achievable even in the presence of toll plaza vehicle noise.


"The Will to Change must be read whole: for its tough distrust of completion and for its cool declaratives which fix us with a stare more unsettling than the most hysterical questions...It includes moments when poverty and heroism explode grammer with their own dignified unsyntactical demands...The poems are about departures, about the pain of breaking away from lovers and from an old sense of self. They discover the point where loneliness and politics touch, where the exercise of the radical courage takes its inevitable toll."-David Kalstone in The New York Times Book Review


Tuaropaki Power Company is the first Maori geothermal power company—a successful power company that built its own power station and sells electricity to the national grid in Aotearoa, New Zealand. After wresting their lands back from government control, the people of the Tuaropaki Trust are now an inspiration for other tribes when it comes to charting an independent direction. Tuaropaki Power Company is not only celebrated for charting an independent direction, but has also been held up as evidence that an independent direction for tribes lies in using corporate structures and a particular type of entrepreneurship. But is that all that the Tuaropaki Power Company represents? I argue that using a diverse economies framework allows for broader definitions of companies like Tuaropak, and for Maori economies more generally, and provides a richer picture of what is taking place.


Wireless networks introduce new possibilities for computer networking. They also bring some new problems, while enhancing some already established ones. One new problem is a network's increased sensitivity to its environment, while the issues of failure detection, and efficient network routing, are examples of traditional problems that have been exacerbated. The possibility and severity of partition on a network is another problem that has been made worse by the use of wireless solutions. In the case of wireless partitions, there is less scope for predicting a failure than in traditional networks, or judging it correctly as such once it has happened. This is due to the current lack of experience in predicting the characteristics of the wireless medium, as well its inherent unpredictability. This document describes and evaluates solutions for a network location information dissemination protocol, and a framework for a wireless network partition anticipator that uses this location information service. The location service presents a process for relative and absolute user location tracking, network view construction, and routing table construction. The partition anticipator framework analyses the output of the location dissemination service and makes inferences for network quality based on an expert system knowledge base. Potential partitions between nodes, as well as excellent quality connections are highlighted as being interesting.


Having flexible payment options ensures that patients will have all of the motivation and information that they need to accept care in your office. The HCCC simply offers you the chance to make more expensive treatment available to those who need or want it. The small cost of using a HCCC program more than pays for itself--in fact, it costs less than one-third of what you would spend if you were to bill these patients instead. Having consistent financial policies and flexible payment options can dramatically increase your office's productivity and profitability, while expressing your commitment to customer service and high-quality dentistry.


Māori, the indigenous people of New Zealand, experience disproportionate rates of stomach cancer, compared to non-Māori. The overall aim of the study was to better understand the reasons for the considerable excess of stomach cancer in Māori and to identify priorities for prevention. Māori stomach cancer cases from the New Zealand Cancer Registry between 1 February 2009 and 31 October 2013 and Māori controls, randomly selected from the New Zealand electoral roll were matched by 5-year age bands to cases. Logistic regression was used to estimate odd ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) between exposures and stomach cancer risk. Post-stratification weighting of controls was used to account for differential non-response by deprivation category. The study comprised 165 cases and 480 controls. Nearly half (47.9%) of cases were of the diffuse subtype. There were differences in the distribution of risk factors between cases and controls. Of interest were the strong relationships seen with increased stomach risk and having >2 people sharing a bedroom in childhood (OR 3.30, 95%CI 1.95–5.59), testing for H pylori (OR 12.17, 95%CI 6.15–24.08), being an ex-smoker (OR 2.26, 95%CI 1.44–3.54) and exposure to environmental tobacco smoke in adulthood (OR 3.29, 95%CI 1.94–5.59). Some results were attenuated following post-stratification weighting. This is the first national study of stomach cancer in any indigenous population and the first Māori-only population-based study of stomach cancer undertaken in New Zealand. We emphasize caution in interpreting the findings given the possibility of selection bias. Population-level strategies to reduce the incidence of stomach cancer in Māori include expanding measures to screen and treat those infected with H pylori and a continued policy focus on reducing tobacco consumption and uptake.


Computing the semantic distance between realworld concepts is crucial for many intelligent applications. We present a novel method that leverages data from 'Wikispeedia', an online game played on Wikipedia; players have to reach an article from another, unrelated article, only by clicking links in the articles encountered. In order to automatically infer semantic distances between everyday concepts, our method effectively extracts the common sense displayed by humans during play, and is thus more desirable, from a cognitive point of view, than purely corpus-based methods. We show that our method significantly outperforms Latent Semantic Analysis in a psychometric evaluation of the quality of learned semantic distances.


This chapter focuses on practice and procedure in hearings conducted in the High Court and in the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT). It first considers the preparation for hearings, taking into account the relevant rules, namely Civil Procedure Rules (CPR) and CAT Rules, as well as case management, location of proceedings, treatment of confidential information, skeleton arguments and their publication, preparation of bundles of documents, and site visits. The discussion then turns to how hearings are conducted, focusing on factors to consider such as the venue, witnesses, time limits, and transcripts. The chapter also examines matters consequent upon hearings, such as handing down and reporting of judgments, along with their publication and costs. Finally, it explains how applications for permission to appeal in the High Court and in the CAT are made.


We investigate the impact that the four principal large‐scale patterns of Southern Hemisphere (SH) atmospheric circulation variability have on Antarctic surface air temperature (SAT): (1) the southern baroclinic annular mode (BAM), which is associated with variations in extratropical storm amplitude; (2) the Southern Annular Mode (SAM), associated with latitudinal shifts in the midlatitude jet; and (3) the two Pacific‐South American patterns (PSA1 and PSA2), which are characterized by wave trains originating in the tropical Pacific that extend across the SH extratropics. A key aspect is the use of 35 years of daily observations and reanalysis data, which affords a sufficiently large sample size to assess the signatures of the circulation patterns in both the mean and variability of daily mean SAT anomalies. The BAM exerts the weakest influence on Antarctic SAT, albeit it is still important over select regions. Consistent with previous studies, the SAM is shown to influence SAT across most of the continent throughout the year. The PSA1 also affects SAT across almost all of Antarctica. Regionally, both PSA patterns can exert a greater impact on SAT than the SAM but also have a significantly weaker influence during summer, reflecting the seasonality of the SH response to El Niño–Southern Oscillation. The SAM and PSA patterns have distinct signatures in daily SAT variance that are physically consistent with their signatures in extratropical dynamic variability. The broad‐scale climate linkages identified here provide benchmarks for interpreting the Antarctic climate response to future changes in tropical sea surface temperatures, ozone recovery, and greenhouse gas increases.


The article provides the study on causes of damage to ICE intake valves, in the course of which the intake valve heads have been overheated and deformed as a result of material creep. On the example of the failure detected in the analysed engine, it has been established that the traditionally known reasons such as the combustion process failure cannot cause the damage described. For the purpose of determining the real causes of damage to the intake valves the authors simulated the thermal state of the intake valve in the heatingcooling conditions with the impact of gas in the cylinder and the impact of air in the intake pipe as well as the contact heat exchange with the seat with regard to thermal conductivity along the stem. The calculations have shown that with the increase of rotation frequency the failure of the control system that causes the engine to run at high rotation frequencies with a small intake valve lift leads to the temperature increase higher than it is recommended for the materials used, which causes the described overheating. Based on the conducted research the authors have developed recommendations for improving the reliability of the intake valves performance in the ICEs with variable valve timing.


Decades of research has studied how language learning infants learn to discriminate speech sounds, segment words, and associate words with their meanings. While gradual development of such capabilities is unquestionable, the exact nature of these skills and the underlying mental representations yet remains unclear. In parallel, computational studies have shown that basic comprehension of speech can be achieved by statistical learning between speech and concurrent referentially ambiguous visual input. These models can operate without prior linguistic knowledge such as representations of linguistic units, and without learning mechanisms specifically targeted at such units. This has raised the question of to what extent knowledge of linguistic units, such as phone(me)s, syllables, and words, could actually emerge as latent representations supporting the translation between speech and representations in other modalities, and without the units being proximal learning targets for the learner. In this study, we formulate this idea as the so-called latent language hypothesis (LLH), connecting linguistic representation learning to general predictive processing within and across sensory modalities. We review the extent that the audiovisual aspect of LLH is supported by the existing computational studies. We then explore LLH further in extensive learning simulations with different neural network models for audiovisual cross-situational learning, and comparing learning from both synthetic and real speech data. We investigate whether the latent representations learned by the networks reflect phonetic, syllabic, or lexical structure of input speech by utilizing an array of complementary evaluation metrics related to linguistic selectivity and temporal characteristics of the representations. As a result, we find that representations associated with phonetic, syllabic, and lexical units of speech indeed emerge from the audiovisual learning process. The finding is also robust against variations in model architecture or characteristics of model training and testing data. The results suggest that cross-modal and cross-situational learning may, in principle, assist in early language development much beyond just enabling association of acoustic word forms to their referential meanings.


Legal rules severely restrict payments to fact witnesses, though the government can often offer plea bargains or other nonmonetary inducements to encourage testimony. This asymmetry is something of a puzzle, for most asymmetries in criminal law favor the defendant. The asymmetry seems to disappear where physical evidence is at issue, though most such evidence can be compelled and need not be purchased. Another asymmetry concerns advance payment for likely witnesses, as opposed to monetary inducements once the content of the required testimony is known. One goal of this Article is to understand the various asymmetries — monetary/nonmonetary, prosecution/defense, ex ante/ex post, and testimonial/physical — and another is to suggest ways in which law could better encourage the production of evidence, and thus the efficient reduction of crime, with a relaxation of the rule barring payment.


Background Threatened abortion is a common complication of pregnancy. In order to prevent miscarriage in the cases with threatened abortion, this study was conducted to determine whether progesterone suppository is effective in allowing pregnancy to proceed beyond week 20 in women with threatened abortion. Methods This single-blind clinical trial study was done on 60 pregnant women with threatened abortion. Pregnant women, who had vaginal bleeding until 20 weeks of their pregnancy, were assessed for inclusion. Participants were divided into two groups by random allocation; the control group, which did not undergo any treatment and the case group. The case group was given 400 mg of vaginal progesterone suppository (Cyclogest) each day until their bleeding stopped in less than one week. Participants were followed up until the end of their pregnancy. The treatment was considered successful if pregnancy continued beyond 20 weeks of gestation. Qualitative and quantitative variables were analyzed statistically by Chi Square and T- test respectively. The p-values of less than 0.05 were considered significant. Results There was no statistically significant difference between the case and the control groups in terms of background variables. The number of abortions in the case group (6 cases, 20%) was lower than the control group which had 10 abortions (33.3%). Conclusion The study demonstrated that the rate of abortion was reduced in women treated with progesterone suppositories. However, the difference was not statistically significant.


Separation and localisation of P300 sources and their constituent subcomponents for both visual and audio stimulations is investigated in this paper. An effective constrained blind source separation (CBSS) algorithm is developed for this purpose. The algorithm is an extension of the Infomax BSS system for which a measure of distance between a carefully measured P300 and the estimated sources is used as a constraint. During separation, the proposed CBSS method attempts to extract the corresponding P300 signals. The locations of the corresponding sources are then estimated with some indeterminancy in the results. It can be seen that the locations of the sources change for a schizophrenic patient. The experimental results verify the statistical significance of the method and its potential application in the diagnosis and monitoring of schizophrenia.


The designed practically prototype of an advanced acousto-optical radio-wave spectrometer is presented in a view of its application to investigating the Milky Way star formation problems. The potential areas for observations of the cold interstellar medium, wherein such a spectrometer can be exploited successfully at different approximations, are: 1) comparison of the Milky Way case with extragalactic ones at scale of the complete galactic disk; 2) global studies of the Galactic spiral arms; and 3) characterization of specific regions like molecular clouds or star clusters. These aspects allow us to suggest that similar instrument will be really useful. The developed prototype of spectrometer is able to realize multi-channel wideband parallel spectrum analysis of very-high-frequency radio-wave signals with an improved resolution power exceeding 103. It includes the 1D-acousto-optic wide-aperture cell as the input device for real-time scale data processing. Here, the current state of developing this acousto-optical spectrometer in frames of the astrophysical instrumentation is briefly discussed, and the data obtained experimentally with a tellurium dioxide crystalline acousto-optical cell are presented. Then, we describe a new technique for more precise spectrum analysis within an algorithm of the collinear wave heterodyning. It implies a two-stage integrated processing, namely, the wave heterodyning of a signal in an acoustically square-law nonlinear medium and then the optical processing in the same solid-state cell. Technical advantage of this approach lies in providing a direct multi-channel parallel processing of ultra-high-frequency radio-wave signals with the resolution power exceeding 104. This algorithm can be realized on a basis of exploiting a large-aperture effective acousto-optical cell, which operates in the Bragg regime and performs the ultra-high-frequency co-directional collinear acoustic wave heterodyning. The general concept and basic conclusions here are confirmed by proof-of-principle experiments with the specially designed cell of a new type based on a lead molybdate crystal.


Fluent speech production requires rapid coordination among respiratory, laryngeal, and articulatory processes and is mediated by multiple neural systems (Bohland & Guenther, 2006). Stuttering is a fluency disorder characterized by core deficits in speech motor planning. Previous research indicates people who stutter (PWS) exhibit deficits in speech motor sequence learning and are slower and less accurate over practice relative to fluent speakers (Ludlow, Siren, & Zikira, 2004; Namasivayam & VanLieshout, 2004; SmitsBandstra & De Nil, 2007; Smits-Bandstra, De Nil, & Saint-Cyr, 2006). Furthermore, the neural bases of impaired speech motor sequence learning in PWS are not well understood. We present a study in which PWS (n=18) and persons with fluent speech (PFS) (n=17) were taught phonotactically illegal (e.g. gbesb) and phonotactically legal (e.g. blerk) speech motor sequences over two practice sessions. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to investigate brain regions underlying the production of learned illegal syllables and novel illegal syllables. With practice, subjects produced syllables more accurately, which is indicative of motor sequence learning. Our findings suggest a speech motor performance deficit in PWS. Furthermore, these findings indicate speech motor sequence learning relies on a speech motor sequence learning network.


We introduce a new technique for classifying many photoreceptors simultaneously in fresh, excised primate retina on the basis of their absorptance spectra. Primate retina is removed from the pigment epithelium and illuminated under a microscope from the same direction as in the intact eye. To facilitate the guiding of light into the receptor outer segments, the optical axes of the photoreceptors are oriented parallel to the optical axis of the microscope. Photoreceptor outer-segment tips are imaged on a charge-coupled device array, which provides radiometric measurements of the light passing through each photoreceptor. These images are acquired sequentially at three wavelengths chosen to maximize the absorptance differences among the three cone photopigments. After the photopigment is bleached, a second set of three images is acquired. The ratios of the images before and after bleaching at each wavelength are photopigment transmittance maps of the retina. These are combined into a single trichromatic image showing the distribution of photopigment if the retina could be viewed directly in white light without bleaching. We have found patches of receptors in peripheral macaque retina where the measured absorptance at the wavelength of maximum absorptance is consistent with the predicted axial absorptance of th photopigment. The cones in these patches cluster into two groups corresponding to the middle wavelength- sensitive (n = 53, mean absorptance = 0.28) and the long wavelength- sensitive (n = 63, mean absorptance = 0.30) cones. The mean absorptances of 273 macaque and 183 human rods were 0.51 and 0.41, respectively.


On 29 July 2019 the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU or Court) rendered its long-awaited judgment in Pelham. This judgement was published together, but not jointly, with those on Spiegel Online and Funke Medien. A bit less than a year later, on 30 April 2020, the German Federal Court of Justice (Bundesgerichtshof or BGH), which had referred the cases to Luxembourg, rendered its judgments in all three cases. There are obvious parallels between these judgments, and their combined relevance for the interpretation of European copyright law in the light of EU fundamental rights cannot be understated.

This article focuses on Pelham, or the "Metall auf Metall" saga, as it is known in Germany. It analyses the relevant aspects and impact of Pelham in EU copyright law and examines how the BGH implemented the guidance provided by the CJEU. Where relevant, we draw the parallels to Funke Medien and Spiegel Online. Pelham gave the Court the opportunity to define the scope of the related right of reproduction of phonogram producers in art. 2(c) of Directive 2001/29/EC (InfoSoc Directive). The question whether such right enjoys the same scope of protection as the reproduction right for authorial works had made its way through the German courts for a remarkable two decades. This saga included a constitutional complaint, which in 2016 answered the question in the affirmative. The BGH's preliminary reference to the CJEU was particularly important because on the back of the reproduction question it sought to clarify issues with fundamental rights implications, in particular the scope of the quotation right or defence and its application to musical creativity in the form of sampling.

This article proceeds as follows. After this introduction, we briefly revisit the Pelham saga in its journey through the German and European courts, providing he context to the underlying legal issues (2). We then turn to the interpretation of the scope of the reproduction and distribution rights for phonograms (3) before examining the CJEU's assessment of the systematic nature of exceptions and limitations (E&Ls) (4). We then discuss the wider implications of Pelham on the role of fundamental right in copyright law (5). We conclude with some doctrinal and practical observations on the wider implications of the "Metall auf Metall"-saga (6).


Chronic liver disease (CLD) and its complications constitute a significant cause of mortality and morbidity worldwide. Most deaths are secondary to the decompensation of cirrhosis and evolution of portal hypertension (PHTN). Since disease progression reversal is hardly attainable after decompensated cirrhosis develops, it is essential to intervene early with a therapeutic agent or regimen that could prevent or slow disease evolution. Thus far, there has been no agreed-upon medication to help in the fight against the development of cirrhosis or its decompensation. While early data depicted statins as harmful agents for the liver, current evidence from preclinical and clinical studies suggests that they might have positive impact on CLD. Low-quality evidence supports the fact that statins reduce mortality in CLD. Moderate-quality evidence suggests that statins reduce the risk of hepatic decompensation, variceal bleeding, and mortality, especially among patients with compensated cirrhosis. Combining this data with the long track-record of safety and tolerability of statins and their potential benefits in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) risk reduction, hepatologists might soon rely on statins to achieve better outcomes in their CLD and cirrhotic patients without significant additional costs. This review describes the rationale behind the use of statins in patients with CLD and cirrhosis. It sheds light on the current preclinical and clinical studies that reflect beneficial effects of the use of different types and doses of statins in the treatment of patients with different types and stages of CLD and cirrhosis. It also emphasizes the need for designing and developing additional large prospective interventional randomized control trials (RCTs) to better evaluate the association between statin exposure and the risk of fibrosis progression and development of cirrhosis in patients with non-cirrhotic CLDs, the risk of progression of PHTN in patients with cirrhosis, and the mortality rates in patients with cirrhotic or non-cirrhotic CLDs.


We consider an off-line process design problem where the response variable is affected by several factors. We present a data-based modelling approach that iteratively allocates new experimental points, update the model, and search for the optimal process factors. A flexible non-linear modelling technique, the kriging (also known as Gaussian processes), forms the cornerstone of this approach. Kriging model is capable of providing accurate predictive mean and variance, the latter being a quantification of its prediction uncertainty. Therefore, the iterative algorithm is devised by jointly considering two objectives: (i) to search for the best predicted response, and (ii) to adequately explore the factor's space so that the predictive uncertainty is small. This method is further extended to consider dynamic processes, i.e. the process factors are time-varying and thus the problem becomes to design a time-dependent trajectory of these factors. The proposed approach has been demonstrated by its application to a simulated chemical process with promising results being achieved.


This paper analyzes a Question & Answer site for programmers, Stack Overflow, that dramatically improves on the utility and performance of Q&A systems for technical domains. Over 92% of Stack Overflow questions about expert topics are answered - in a median time of 11 minutes. Using a mixed methods approach that combines statistical data analysis with user interviews, we seek to understand this success. We argue that it is not primarily due to an a priori superior technical design, but also to the high visibility and daily involvement of the design team within the community they serve. This model of continued community leadership presents challenges to both CSCW systems research as well as to attempts to apply the Stack Overflow model to other specialized knowledge domains.


In analysing carceral logics in the context of the 'unholy alliance' of neoliberal and neoconservative hegemony, this paper seeks to acknowledge the central place of a distinctly moralistic, authoritarian neoconservative philosophy implicated in the crime control agenda. Thus, it is contended that carceral politics are in fact produced by a fusion of neoliberal and neoconservative ideas. Anti-carceral feminists argue that 'carceral feminism' has been co-opted by neoliberalism but fails to recognise and name these neoconservative forces, collapsing them into a confused conceptualisation of neoliberalism, lacking in theoretical clarity. In doing so, they do not see the spaces where their own politics risk appropriation by neoliberal principles. Dichotomies between neoliberalism and neoconservatism serve to produce a politics of backlash. Hence, by distancing themselves from the neoconservative forces of punitive state retribution embedded within carceral feminism, anti-carceral feminists unwittingly mobilise concepts central to neoliberal rationality. The anti-carceral position reflects a state-sceptical agenda, mirrored in the neoliberal turn to privatisation hastened in austerity, and reliant upon voluntarism in the community. This itself is dependent on a valorisation of the community, and a correspondent minimisation of its punitive drives. An erasure of nuance in the debate is indicative of the polarised backlash climate, whereby anti-carceral feminists are, understandably, keen not to give ground to the forces of the carceral state. Ironically, this approach may risk the very process anti-carceral feminists seek to avoid co-option by neoliberalism. The dominance of austerity politics, particularly following the 2008 recession, provides fertile ground for the convergence of privatisation policies. Progressive movements are unlikely to win tangible gains unless they promote a broader set of political interests. As such anti-carceral feminism could be viewed as providing a timely opportunity for states looking to cut public spending whilst simultaneously answering bi-partisan calls for criminal justice reform. The discussion focuses primarily on literature from the USA however due to similarities in their political contexts pertinent examples from the UK are used where relevant, specifically in relation to voluntarism and austerity.


Myeloid leukemia factor (MLF) plays an important role in the development of Drosophila. It is reported that MLF could inhibit white spot syndrome virus (WSSV) replication in shrimp. However, the function and mechanism of MLF in shrimp antibacterial immunity are still elusive. In this study, we found MjMLF could be upregulated by Vibro anguillarum challenge in hemocytes, gills, and intestine of kuruma shrimp. RNAi assay showed that MjMLF could facilitate bacterial clearance in shrimp, and it was beneficial for shrimp survival post V. anguillarum infection. Pull down assay showed that rMjMLF could bind to rMj14-3-3 in vitro. Some antimicrobial peptide genes could be regulated by MjMLF. The results indicated that MjMLF might participate in the anti-bacterial immune reaction of shrimp.


Companies embracing total quality must view it as an overall process, not just a product inspection. Achieving total quality often requires a major shift in corporate culture. Public relations pros can best contribute to this change when they're involved in quality initiatives from the start. Four years ago the Chicago public relations firm of Golin/Harris got the word from a major client: get up to speed quickly on "total quality management" (TQM). The client was on the brink of a major quality-improvement effort and in need of help with communications. Top executives asked several firms they'd worked with in the past to learn all they could about TQM as quickly as possible and be ready to pitch in. Golin/Harris hit the ground running. Its people devoured all the information they could get their hands on, jetted off to seminars and, ultimately, set up their own quality department. "We won the assignment," said Golin/Harris Vice President Charlene Barnard, who now bears the title director of quality. Soon other companies were beating a path to the firms door, seeking help with their own quality initiatives. These companies wanted Golin to do more than simply take management's latest theme and find ways to promote it. "More often than not we work with directors of quality and a steering team from top management," Barnard said. "We're in on the ground level of helping these companies develop a change in their cultures." Over the past decade, the total quality movement has fundamentally changed American business. More and more companies have dedicated themselves to complete customer satisfaction, vowing continual improvement of their products, processes and productivity. In many cases, the transformation has required changing the way employees think about their jobs. Public relations professionals, whether working inside or outside the company, would do well to understand the principles of TQM. And rather than merely promoting the new standards, they need to be able to help the company meet them. While many American companies claim that commitment to quality has been one of their hallmarks from the start, observers date the start of the total quality movement as June 24, 1980. That's when NBC aired the documentary, "If Japan Can, Why Can't We?" The program featured Dr. W. Edwards Deming, an American who pioneered the principles of productivity that thrust Japan into economic primacy. Executives at Ford Motor Company then asked Deming for help. He taught them statistical methods of quality management that underlie Ford's now-famous theme, "Quality is Job One." During the 80s, hundreds of companies jumped on the quality bandwagon. In 1979, only one Fortune 500 company (Westinghouse Electric Corp.) had a vice president for quality; today, more than 300 do. In 1991, more than 210,000 companies requested application guidelines for the coveted, three-year-old Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. As a result, dozens of quality consulting firms have sprung up. Build quality into process What are all these people talking about? A lot more than catching flaws before a product leaves the factory. "Quality control is only one small part of |total quality,'" said Kelly Weidman, public relations account executive with Saphar & Associates in Rochester, NY. A lot of people still think of quality in terms of product, but it needs to apply to everything," she said. That includes the cycle time between product conception and delivery, the way employees organize their work space and the number of rings it takes the receptionist to answer the phone. The idea is to build quality into the entire work process rather than just inspecting the product when all is said and done. Although TQM takes many forms, with each company following the quality guru of its choice, adherents generally embrace a cluster of principles. These include an emphasis on customer satisfaction, a goal of continual improvement, involvement of employees in decision making, conscious team building, continuous training and measuring progress through diligent recordkeeping. …


Despite the fact that it has existed for over ten years, the Competition Act has had little impact in diluting the dominance of big business in the South African manufacturing sector. This study sought to ascertain the extent of anti-competitive behaviour in two sub-sectors of the South African manufacturing sector and to determine whether the competition authorities should focus on supporting SMEs as competitors to big business. The findings indicated that SMEs in these two sub-sectors face unique difficulties in fighting anti-competitive behaviour, and that there is scope for the competition authorities to facilitate the participation of SMEs in the economy through the use of tools such as market inquiries, the Corporate Leniency Policy and structural remedies.


zz The European Union's budget negotiations are a constant source of disagreement. Spending on the Regional Policy makes up more than one-third of the budget and has the primary aim of fostering convergence between poor and rich regions within the EU. z z To assess the effectiveness of the Regional Policy, a focus on the Convergence Objective is instructive as it provides transfers to disadvantaged regions of member states and these are assigned by a clearly defined rule: NUTS2 regions, whose GDP per capita is less than 75% of the EU average, are eligible. z z The Objective 1 programme, on average, is successful at fostering growth in recipient regions, but there is considerable variation. Regions with low levels of education and poor governance fail to make good use of EU transfers, pointing to the need for a degree of conditionality when earmarking future transfers. z z For EU Structural Funds as a whole, more funds do not mean more growth. A point is reached where returns begin to decline and additional funds do not lead to higher growth. Transfers to regions should therefore not exceed maximum desirable levels if inefficiency and misuse are to be avoided.


This paper discusses some properties on isomorphism, weak isomorphism and coweak isomorphism between highly irregular fuzzy graphs and its complement. Isomorphic properties of ��− complement, self (��−) complement and self weak (��−) complement of highly irregular fuzzy graph are established. Also, isomorphic properties of busy nodes and free nodes in highly irregular fuzzy graph are discussed.


I. TELECOMMUNICATIONS: A SERVICE SECTOR AND A BACKBONE FOR OTHER SECTORS The telecommunications market is one of the largest markets in the world, second only to the financial services market. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) estimated in the mid-1990s that the telecommunications market was worth about $513 billion.(1) Although telecommunications service providers acquire most of their revenue from domestic demand, they are increasingly seeking international returns.(2) Telecommunications has a "dual role as a distinct sector of economic activity and as the underlying transport means for other ... activities."(3) In addition to financial institutions now transferring $2.3 trillion or more electronically every day, educators, researchers, politicians, and others use electronic means to exchange information.(4) The demand for telecommunications services that transmit voice and data electronically is rapidly escalating because of this interconnectedness.(5) There has been a significant shift from domestic intrasufficiency to international interdependence in both the demand and supply sides of markets generally.(6) As consumers become more sophisticated in evaluating the world market, businesses have to maintain their comparative advantage in services by globalizing research, manufacturing products with multinational components, and targeting international markets.(7) The telecommunications industry illustrates this phenomenon. All of these factors--the high demand for telecommunications services, the interconnectedness of telecommunications sector inputs and uses, and international dependence--created the need to avoid piecemeal and segmented telecommunications trade policy. Some countries have responded unilaterally to the changes in telecommunications by privatizing and deregulating their domestic markets. Through privatization, the government transforms the telecommunications sector from a state owned and operated enterprise into a private enterprise, although the private enterprise can maintain a monopolistic position. Through liberalization, the government allows many enterprises to compete effectively for consumer demand. However, the most profound impact on the global telecommunications markets will likely come from the concluded multilateral negotiations on basic telecommunications services in the World Trade Organization (WTO)(8) under the auspices of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS).(9) The results of these negotiations could be the driving force behind a wave of countries liberalizing their trade laws to ease the harshness and complexity of providing telecommunications services over national borders. The February 15, 1997 negotiations on basic telecommunications reached significant commitments. However, these commitments on basic telecommunications cannot be considered outside of the bigger framework of the GATS in the WTO. The conclusion of the GATS in 1994 set the stage for continued negotiations on various service sectors and subsectors. Thus, while the 1997 basic telecommunications commitments specifically addressed the problems faced by those wanting to offer such services, they were annexed to, and became an integral part of, GATS, which is the foundation for all trade in services. This Article begins in Part II by discussing the significance of the basic telecommunications commitments on liberalization, specifically showing why sector negotiations on telecommunications and even subsector negotiations on basic telecommunications were necessary. Part III outlines a history of the basic telecommunications negotiations in light of the services negotiations under GATS that preceded them. In Part IV, the Article explains how the obligations underlying all WTO trade agreements, namely most-favored-nation (MFN) status, national treatment, market access, and transparency, apply to services, and more narrowly, to the telecommunications services within the negotiations' scope. …


This essay discusses a set of related issues concerning the urban transition towards a knowledge-based economy. First, it deals with the uneven distribution of economic growth among various types of cities in the knowledge-based economy; second, it reflects on emerging economic and social divisions within cities. Does the knowledge economy offer opportunities to repair these social and economic divides or does it deepen them instead? Third, we deal with the alleged new role of institutions of higher education (HEIs). Cities increasingly consider them to be engines of growth in the urban knowledge economy, but is this borne out by reality? Our final topic is concerned with urban planning. Many European cities try to create "knowledge locations", aiming to promote innovation and creativity in those areas and/or increase the value of the real estate. We add some critical reflections.


BATAN is planning to build an experimental power reactor, the RDE, to complement the RSG-GAS reactor that is already operating in the Serpong Nuclear Zone (KNS). The experimental power reactor is an HTGR (high-temperature gas-cooled reactor) with 10 MWt power, while the RSG-GAS is a pool-type water-cooled reactor with 30 MWt power. According to standard regulatory practices, under normal operating conditions of the plant, radiological assessment of atmospheric releases to the environment and assessment of public exposures are considered essential . The purpose of this study is to estimate the dose acceptance in Serpong Nuclear Zone (KNS) after operate the RDE operates in KNS-2. To assess the doses, the PC-CREAM 08 computer code was used. It uses a standard Gaussian plume dispersion model and composes a suite of models and data for estimation of the radiological impact assessments of routine and continual discharges from a nuclear reactor. The input data include sourceterm from the RDE and the RSG-GAS, a stack the height of 60 m annual radionuclides release, meteorological data from the Serpong local meteorological station, and agricultural products data from Serpong site. Results show that the highest individual dose in the area around KNS for adults is 6.16×10 -3 mSv/y in the S (South) direction and 300 m distance from the stack of RSG. The highest collective dose around KNS within 3 km radius is 6.37×10 -3 man-Sv/yr. The results show that the radiological impact of the KNS on the critical groups of public and the individual effective doses satisfy the limits given by the Nuclear Regulatory Agency of Indonesia (BAPETEN). The operation of RDE in KNS-2 does not add significantly to acceptance radiation dose in the environment in KNS. It can also be concluded that the estimated effective doses are lower than the dose constraint of 0.3 mSv/y associated with this plant.


ABSTRACT As British efforts to secure the approaches to India intensified in the closing years of the nineteenth century, expert knowledge of the states bordering the subcontinent became an increasingly sought-after commodity. Particularly high demand existed for individuals possessing first-hand experience of Qajar Persia, a state viewed by many policymakers as a vulnerable anteroom on the glacis of the Raj. Britain's two foremost Persian experts during this period were George Nathaniel Curzon and Edward Granville Browne. While Curzon epitomized the traditional gentleman amateur, Browne embodied the emerging professional scholar. Drawing on both their private papers and publications, this article analyses the relationship between these two men as well as surveys their respective views of British policy toward Iran from the late 1880s until the end of the First World War. Ultimately it contends that Curzon's knowledge of Persia proved deficient in significant ways and that Anglo-Iranian relations, at least in the aftermath of the Great War, might well have been placed on a better footing had Browne's more nuanced understanding of the country and its inhabitants prevailed within the foreign policymaking establishment.


In the context of statistical analysis, elicitation is the process of translating someone's beliefs about some uncertain quantities into a probability distribution. The person's judgements about the quantities are usually fitted to some member of a convenient parametric family. This approach does not allow for the possibility that any number of distributions could fit the same judgements. In this paper, elicitation of an expert's beliefs is treated as any other inference problem: the facilitator of the elicitation exercise has prior beliefs about the form of the expert's density function, the facilitator elicits judgements about the density function, and the facilitator's beliefs about the expert's density function are updated in the light of these judgements. This paper investigates prior beliefs about an expert's density function and shows how many different types of judgement can be handled by this method. This elicitation method begins with the belief that the expert's density will roughly have the shape of a t density. This belief is then updated through a Gaussian process model using judgements from the expert. The method gives a framework for quantifying the facilitator's uncertainty about a density given judgements about the mean and percentiles of the expert's distribution. A property of Gaussian processes can be manipulated to include judgements about the derivatives of the density, which allows the facilitator to incorporate mode judgements and judgements on the sign of the density at any given point. The benefit of including the second type of judgement is that substantial computational time can be saved.


This paper makes an initial contribution towards building a polycentricity index to account for the governing of social–ecological systems. It develops three indices and an overall index, using an approach based on network science, to measure the extent to which actors develop ordered relationships to address scale mismatches in urban water governance. These indices are discussed with respect to the overarching system of rules governing actors' decisions within the Middle Rio Grande (MRG) urban watershed. The analysis and discussions herein suggest that the governance of the MRG is a predominantly monocentric governing system with elements of polycentricity. They also suggest that polycentricity in governing the MRG urban water commons could primarily be about the politics of power and resource distribution as actors reconfigure their positionalities and align themselves and their interests strategically. The paper concludes with a succinct discussion about how quantitative measures of an overarching system of rules could be incorporated into future indices.


We investigated anti-spike IgG antibody responses following second doses of ChAdOx1 or BNT162b2 SARS-CoV-2 vaccines in the UK general population. In 186,527 individuals, we found significant boosting of anti-spike IgG by second doses of both vaccines in all ages and using different dosing intervals, including the 3-week interval for BNT162b2. After second vaccination, BNT162b2 generated higher peak levels than ChAdOX1. Antibody levels declined faster at older ages than younger ages with BNT162b2, but were similar across ages with ChAdOX1. With both vaccines, prior infection significantly increased antibody peak level and half-life. Protection was estimated to last for 0.5-1 year after ChAdOx1 and >1 year after BNT162b2, but could be reduced against emerging variants. Reducing the dosing interval to 8 weeks for both vaccines or further to 3 weeks for BNT162b2 may help increase short-term protection against the Delta variant. A third booster dose may be needed, prioritised to more vulnerable people.


Nanotechnology is a science concerned with the design, construction and utilization of functional structures with at least one characteristic dimension measured in nanometres. Nanotechnology initially developed in the fields of physics and chemistry, and most fundamental developments still occur in these fields. Nanotechnology also needs to be applied in areas such as the engineering field. Obviously, the application of nanotechnology to science and engineering has increased in other fields over the years. One area which is one of the most active research areas in the field of nanotechnology is civil engineering. This paper presents a broad overview of the application of nanotechnology in the civil engineering.


This paper proposes closed-form plastic limit load solutions for elbows under in-plane bending, via threedimensional (3-D), small strain FE limit analyses using elastic-perfectly plastic materials. A wide range of elbow and thinning geometries are considered. For systematic analyses of the effect of the axial thinning length on limit loads, two limiting cases are considered; a sufficiently long wall thinning, and the circumferential part-through surface crack. Closed-form plastic limit load solutions for wall thinning with intermediate longitudinal extents are then obtained from these two limiting cases. The effect of the axial extent of wall thinning on plastic limit loads for elbows is highlighted by comparing that for straight pipes. Although the proposed solutions are developed for the case when wall thinning exists in the center of elbows, it is also shown that they can be applied to the case when wall thinning exists anywhere within the elbow.


A series of case studies conducted in Colorado, Arizona, and Utah have shown that vegetative regeneration of declining aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) can be initiated through manipulations that provide three critical elements defined as the aspen regeneration triangle: 1) hormonal stimulation, 2) proper growth environment, and 3) sucker protection. Results of the studies used to formulate this treatment model are presented along with recommendations for innovative treatments to restore aspen in landscapes where it is rare or in decline. Soils and site productivity, competition from other plants, and the potential impact of browsing animals upon new regeneration should all be considered. Choosing a course of action depends upon a careful evaluation of the size, vigor, age, and successional status of candidate aspen clones. Treatments may include doing nothing, removal of existing aspen trees, removal of competing vegetation, prescribed burning, mechanical root stimulation, and browse protection.


The second book in The Converging World series, Media, Ecology and Conservation focuses on global connectivity and the role of new digital and traditional media in bringing people together to protect the world's endangered wildlife and conserve fragile and threatened habitats. New media offers opportunities for like-minded individuals, community groups, businesses and public organisations to learn and work cooperatively for the good of all species. One of the key themes of this book explores the important issue of how new information and communication technologies mediate the natural world, and our understanding of our place in it. By exploring the role of film, television, video, photography and the internet in animal conservation in the USA, India, Africa, Australia and the United Kingdom John Blewitt investigates the politics of media representation surrounding important controversies such as the trade in bushmeat, whaling and habitat destruction. The work and achievements of media/conservation activists are located within a cultural framework that simultaneously loves nature, reveres animals but too often ignores the uncomfortable realities of species extinction and animal cruelty.


In this paper, we use economics experiment laboratory intruments to measure time, risk and ambiguity preferences, which we correlate with food choice factors (items that influence food choice) and actual food consumption measures. We find that present bias, and to a lesser extent risk preferences, are significantly correlated with the food choice factors of health, natural content, and weight control. We find these correlations to be less consistent with actual reported food chocies. This finding indicates a discrepancy between what individuals ideally would like to eat and what they actually consume. This finding suggests scope for intervention to bring the two into alignment.


Early identification of palliative care needs in hospitalized patients is essential for clinicians to provide timely and effective interventions at the specific level of palliative care required by the patient and their family. The Center to Advance Palliative Care (CAPC) developed criteria to identify patients at hospital admission that are appropriate to receive primary palliative care assessment. No study has examined the reliability of CAPC criteria. A retrospective, descriptive, exploratory study design allowed for examination of the interrater reliability of CAPC criteria to identify palliative care needs in patients at hospital admission. Nurse investigators independently reviewed medical records of 100 randomly selected patients admitted to oncology and progressive care units who received palliative care. Interrater reliability was examined with the &kgr; statistic, along with a 95% confidence interval. The nurse investigators had perfect to substantial agreement for the majority of CAPC criteria. Study findings suggest it is realistic and suitable for nurses to administer and score CAPC criteria at hospital admission. Implementation of an instrument found to have reliability among users to trigger primary palliative care assessment at hospital admission will provide the structure and process needed to ensure consistent identification of patients at risk for having unmet palliative care needs.


Current signal priority strategies implemented in various US cities mostly utilize sensors to detect buses at a fixed or preset distance away from an intersection. Traditional presence detection systems, ideally designed for emergency vehicles, usually send signal priority request after a preprogrammed time offset as soon as transit vehicles were detected without the consideration of bus readiness. The objective of this study is to integrate the already equipped Global Positioning System/Automated Vehicle Location (GPS/AVL) system on the buses in Minneapolis and develop an adaptive signal priority system that could consider the bus schedule adherence, its number of passengers, location and speed. Buses can communicate with intersection signal controllers using wireless technology to request for signal priority. Similar setup can also be utilized for other transit-related Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) applications. The City of Minneapolis recently deployed wireless technology to provide residents, businesses and visitors with wireless broadband access anywhere in the city. Communication with the roadside unit (e.g., traffic controller) for signal priority may be established using the readily available 802.11x WLAN or the Dedicated Short Range Communication (DSRC) 802.11p protocol currently under development for wireless access in vehicular environment.


The punitive psychiatric hospitalization of Soviet dissidents and nonconformists spurred the writing and circulation of memoirs of detention, transcripts of conversations with psychiatrists, copies of psychiatric files, handbooks on legal and medical aspects of psychiatric examination, works of fiction, poems, and other related documents. Rebecca Reich draws on this major body of texts to determine how politically unorthodox citizens engaged with psychiatry in life and on the page. Close reading of texts by Vladimir Bukovskii, Semen Gluzman, Aleksandr Vol'pin, and others suggests that unsanctioned accounts of hospitalization did more than expose the abuse of psychiatry; they challenged Soviet psychiatric discourse and promoted inakomyslie, "thinking differently," as the psychological norm. By depathologizing themselves and pathologizing the state during encounters with psychiatrists and in samizdat, dissidents and nonconformists engaged in self-definition and asserted their own diagnostic authority.


Large bodies of fibrous calcite, up to 400 m long and up to 20 m wide, are hosted by Mississippian carbonate units in the Uinta Mountains, Utah. Subjacent to the carbonate rocks, emerald mineralization has been recognized recently in the Neoproterozoic Red Pine Shale. Two types of fibrous calcites are recognized on the basis of appearance and geochemical characteristics. Fibrous orange calcite is translucent, similar to "Mexican calcite" commonly sold at gem-and-mineral shows, and is being mined and used in carvings and for other decorative purposes. Recently recognized fibrous brown calcite is also present in the same general vicinity. Calcite veins hosted with Mississippian carbonate rocks are located a few kilometers south of the South Flank fault zone (SFFZ) in the vicinity of a swarm of north-trending faults. Parts of the Red Pine Shale along the SFFZ contain abundant secondary pyrite. Altered shale also contains quartz and calcite veins as well as albitized feldspar in some arkosic units and is variably enriched in Cu and Zn. At least three emeralds have been discovered in altered Red Pine Shale. b 18 O VSMOW values of calcite (-10 to -13‰) would be in equilibrium with basin brines (assumed to be –3 to +5‰), suggesting precipitation in the range of 100°–300° C. Our work suggests that sulfate-bearing basinal brines from the Uinta Basin may have migrated upward along the SFFZ and interacted with the carbon-rich shale. As sulfate was reduced by organic carbon to form sulfides, emerald was produced and a CO 2 -rich fluid migrated upward and dissolved parts of the Mississippian carbonates. The fluid experienced intermittent loss of CO 2 gas, which allowed fibrous calcite with cone-in-cone textures to precipitate rapidly. This model and geologic setting have broad similarities to both Mississippi Valley and Colombian emerald deposits. The genesis of fibrous brown calcite, however, is less certain. These calcites lack critical geochemical characteristics that tie orange calcite to precipitation from hot brines; rather stable isotope data are permissive of origin from low-temperature ground water.


Bilateral corneal blindness represents a quarter of the total blind, world-wide. The artificial cornea in assorted forms, was developed to replace opaque non-functional corneas and to return sight in otherwise hopeless cases that were not amenable to corneal grafts; believed to be 2% of corneal blind. Despite technological advances in materials design and tissue engineering no artificial cornea has provided absolute, long-term success. Formidable problems exist, due to a combination of unpredictable wound healing and unmanageable pathology. To have a solid guarantee of reliable success an artificial cornea must possess three attributes: an optical window to replace the opaque cornea; a strong, long term union to surrounding ocular tissue; and the ability to induce desired host responses. A unique artificial cornea possesses all three functional attributes- the Osteo-odonto-keratoprosthesis (OOKP). The OOKP has a high success rate and can survive for up to twenty years, but it is complicated both in structure and in surgical procedure; it is expensive and not universally available. The aim of this project was to develop a synthetic substitute for the OOKP, based upon key features of the tooth and bone structure. In doing so, surgical complexity and biological complications would be reduced. Analysis of the biological effectiveness of the OOKP showed that the structure of bone was the most crucial component for implant retention. An experimental semi-rigid hydroxyapatite framework was fabricated with a complex bone-like architecture, which could be fused to the optical window. The first method for making such a framework, was pressing and sintering of hydroxyapatite powders; however, it was not possible to fabricate a void architecture with the correct sizes and uniformity of pores. Ceramers were synthesised using alternative pore forming methods, providing for improved mechanical properties and stronger attachment to the plastic optical window. Naturally occurring skeletal structures closely match the structural features of all forms of natural bone. Synthetic casts were fabricated using the replamineform process, of desirable natural artifacts, such as coral and sponges. The final method of construction by-passed ceramic fabrication in favour of pre-formed coral derivatives and focused on methods for polymer infiltration, adhesion and fabrication. Prototypes were constructed and evaluated; a fully penetrative synthetic OOKP analogue was fabricated according to the dimensions of the OOKP. Fabrication of the cornea shaped OOKP synthetic analogue was also attempted.


Soil samples from the rhizosphere of 6 months old coffee seedling were collected. Phosphate Solubilizing Bacteria (PSB) were selected based on the quantitative ability to solubilize phosphate by measuring the clear zone surrounding the colonies in Pikovskaya's agar. In total, 26 PSB were isolated. Best 8 isolates (PSB 1, PSB 2, PSB 8, PSB 10, PSB 11, PSB 14, PSB 19, and PSB 20) were selected and phenotypic and biochemical characteristics were carried out. Best four isolates were selected for germination assay, seedling growth experiment and greenhouse experiment. The effect of inoculation of PSB on germination of coffee seeds in vitro was evaluated and the result showed that all isolates (PSB 1, PSB 10, PSB 11, and PSB 20) enhanced germination by 51.72% - 58.82% over uninoculated water control. In seedling growth experiment, isolate PSB 20 isolates significantly enhanced shoot length and shoot fresh weight. In the greenhouse experiment conducted over 5 months, isolates PSB 20 and PSB 1 significantly enhanced coffee seedling shoot length, fresh shoot biomass and fresh root biomass over uninoculated water control plants. PSB 1 and PSB 10 significantly increased chlorophyll content and protein content in the coffee leaves. So, this study suggests bio-inoculants are able to stimulate plant growth, and recommends further experiments at field conditions


Establishing an accurate date for earliest Polynesian settlement in New Zealand is essential for understanding patterns of settlement and associated enviromental impacts, and the processes and rates of cultural change in Eastern Polynesia. Tephra deposits from five volcanic centres, together with exotic sea-rafted pumice, provide isochronous constraints on the timing of earliest settlement and human impacts in northern New Zealand. A local basaltic tephra from Rangitoto Island (Auckland) and locally distributed andesitic tephras from Egmont volcano directly date human occupation toc . ad 1400–1450. Distal andesitic tephras (Tufa Trig Formation) from Mt Ruapehu, Tongariro volcanic centre, help constrain the timing of earliest anthropogenic deforestation signals in Hawke's Bay. Sea-rafted Loisels Pumice(s), although of uncertain stratigraphic reliability in places, overlies cultural remains that can be no younger thanc . ad 1350 along the east coast, North Island. The regionally extensive rhyolitic Kaharoa Tephra, which erupted from Okataina volcano between c. ad 1300–1390, is the critical "settlement layer" datum for dating prehistory in the North Island: no human artefacts are recorded beneath it and the earliest inferred environmental impacts by humans are dated to c. ad 1280, just prior to its deposition. This maximum date matches the earliest radiocarbon dates derived for both settlement and human impacts from archaeological and natural sites (c. ad 1250), and implies that the onset of deforestation was essentially contemporaneous with initial settlement.

The widespread rhyolitic Taupo Tephra, which erupted from Taupo volcanoc . ad 200, provides an isochronous benchmark well before earliest settlement. The tephra may coincide approximately with a putative earlier transient contact in New Zealand based on Pacific rat-bone (Rattus exulans) dates. More precise calendrical dates on the tephras—via dendrochronology or ice-core records or other dating methods—would help refine assessment of the timing of earliest settlement, while extending the distributional range of critical tephra layers, through application of crypto-tephra analysis, could lead to a greater understanding of settlement patterns.


Acute cardiac injury is prevalent in critical COVID-19 and associated with increased mortality. Its etiology remains debated, as initially presumed causes — myocarditis and cardiac necrosis — have proved uncommon. To elucidate the pathophysiology of COVID-19–associated cardiac injury, we conducted a prospective study of the first 69 consecutive COVID-19 decedents at CUIMC in New York City. Of 6 acute cardiac histopathologic features, presence of microthrombi was the most commonly detected among our cohort. We tested associations of cardiac microthrombi with biomarkers of inflammation, cardiac injury, and fibrinolysis and with in-hospital antiplatelet therapy, therapeutic anticoagulation, and corticosteroid treatment, while adjusting for multiple clinical factors, including COVID-19 therapies. Higher peak erythrocyte sedimentation rate and C-reactive protein were independently associated with increased odds of microthrombi, supporting an immunothrombotic etiology. Using single-nuclei RNA-sequencing analysis on 3 patients with and 4 patients without cardiac microthrombi, we discovered an enrichment of prothrombotic/antifibrinolytic, extracellular matrix remodeling, and immune-potentiating signaling among cardiac fibroblasts in microthrombi-positive, relative to microthrombi-negative, COVID-19 hearts. Non–COVID-19, nonfailing hearts were used as reference controls. Our study identifies a specific transcriptomic signature in cardiac fibroblasts as a salient feature of microthrombi-positive COVID-19 hearts. Our findings warrant further mechanistic study as cardiac fibroblasts may represent a potential therapeutic target for COVID-19–associated cardiac microthrombi.


Recommendation systems are one of the main applications of machine learning (ML) used across different industries. This paper presents a new automated machine learning (AutoML) method of providing recommendations by processing data sets using ML algorithms, targeting, and offering cluster recommendations for new observations and as a new decision support method. The AutoML conducts a complete procedure and includes analysis and division of data into an efficient number of clusters. We apply the k‐means, using the elbow method to calculate costs per cluster, followed by analyzing the allocation of the data into the clusters, thus providing a method for prediction and for allocating new observations to the relevant clusters (knn). This study includes two experiments using the complete AutoML procedure conducted on a data set, with more than two million records and dozens of attributes. This was done to demonstrate how the AutoML method can be implemented and successfully run with a high‐capacity analysis procedure. The motivation was to analyze, examine, assign, and integrate new observations into existing clusters that have been defined. The results showed that the AutoML method provided efficient recommendations for new observations with an accuracy rate of 99.99%. Hence, the AutoML procedure can offer a full system for any organization to efficiently split existing data into clusters, assign to clusters, and predict the cluster allocation of new observations. The significant contribution of this study is a simple method that can achieve fast and high accuracy clustering for ongoing (new) classified data acquired by an organization.


Follow the Leader How birds migrate between wintering and breeding grounds, often over thousands of kilometers through difficult conditions, remains mysterious. The recovery of North American Whooping Cranes by release of captive-reared birds trained to migrate by following aircraft provided an opportunity for Mueller et al. (p. 999; see the cover) to analyze 8 years of data for individual birds. The presence of older birds within a group of migrating cranes significantly decreased the deviations the flock took from a straight line migration path. The lack of evidence for a genetic component indicates that social learning dominates any innate capacity in developing migratory behavior. Whooping cranes learn their annual migration routes from their neighbors. Successful bird migration can depend on individual learning, social learning, and innate navigation programs. Using 8 years of data on migrating whooping cranes, we were able to partition genetic and socially learned aspects of migration. Specifically, we analyzed data from a reintroduced population wherein all birds were captive bred and artificially trained by ultralight aircraft on their first lifetime migration. For subsequent migrations, in which birds fly individually or in groups but without ultralight escort, we found evidence of long-term social learning, but no effect of genetic relatedness on migratory performance. Social learning from older birds reduced deviations from a straight-line path, with 7 years of experience yielding a 38% improvement in migratory accuracy.


Do humans have a natural habitat? If yes, is it the original habitat of early hominids or the most optimal environment for today's humans? Are these two the same thing and, if not, what does 'optimal habitat' mean? I examine the concept of the optimal habitat from four viewpoints: 1) paradise; 2) urban design based on environmental psychology; 3) favorite places; and 4) environment as an invitation for action. I conclude that an optimal habitat is not a collection of more or less fixed elements but an environment that can be experienced as a beneficial feedback loop based on and responding to cognitive, emotional, aesthetic, and other needs. Different environments can prompt or hinder this experience of optimal habitat and consequently improve or diminish subjective well-being.


This Article addresses an increasingly important question: When, if ever, should foreign citizens be included as members of an American class action? The existing consensus holds that courts should exclude from class membership those foreign citizens whose country does not recognize an American class judgment. Our analysis begins by establishing that this consensus is flawed. Rather, to minimize the costs associated with relitigation in a foreign forum, we must distinguish between foreign claimants who are likely to commence a subsequent foreign proceeding from those who are unlikely to do so; distinguishing between those who come from recognizing and nonrecognizing countries creates needless inefficiency. Using standard tools of economic analysis, we examine the benefits and costs of the consensus rule and compare them to the costs and benefits of other possible rules. In this comparison, the consensus rule tends to perform poorly. As a matter of theory, the most efficient rule for deciding which foreign citizens to include and exclude is evident, but real-world informational constraints frustrate the application of this rule in practice. Because no rule regarding the inclusion and exclusion of foreign citizens is the most efficient in all situations, we propose that courts use rebuttable presumptions: include foreign citizens with claims that are not individually viable and exclude foreign citizens with claims that are viable.


Clocked Type Theory (CloTT) is a type theory for guarded recursion useful for programming with coinductive types, allowing productivity to be encoded in types, and for reasoning about advanced programming language features using an abstract form of step-indexing. CloTT has previously been shown to enjoy a number of syntactic properties including strong normalisation, canonicity and decidability of the equational theory. In this paper we present a denotational semantics for CloTT useful, e.g., for studying future extensions of CloTT with constructions such as path types.
The main challenge for constructing this model is to model the notion of ticks on a clock used in CloTT for coinductive reasoning about coinductive types. We build on a category previously used to model guarded recursion with multiple clocks. In this category there is an object of clocks but no object of ticks, and so tick-assumptions in a context can not be modelled using standard tools. Instead we model ticks using dependent right adjoint functors, a generalisation of the category theoretic notion of adjunction to the setting of categories with families. Dependent right adjoints are known to model Fitch-style modal types, but in the case of CloTT, the modal operators constitute a family indexed internally in the type theory by clocks. We model this family using a dependent right adjoint on the slice category over the object of clocks. Finally we show how to model the tick constant of CloTT using a semantic substitution.
This work improves on a previous model by the first two named authors which not only had a flaw but was also considerably more complicated.


Previously unknown magnetic regimes and phenomena are revealed by tuning the competition between two types of spin-orbit coupling. Van der Waals (VdW) materials have opened new directions in the study of low dimensional magnetism. A largely unexplored arena is the intrinsic tuning of VdW magnets toward new ground states. Chromium trihalides provided the first such example with a change of interlayer magnetic coupling emerging upon exfoliation. Here, we take a different approach to engineer previously unknown ground states, not by exfoliation, but by tuning the spin-orbit coupling (SOC) of the nonmagnetic ligand atoms (Cl, Br, I). We synthesize a three-halide series, CrCl3 − x − yBrxIy, and map their magnetic properties as a function of Cl, Br, and I content. The resulting triangular phase diagrams unveil a frustrated regime near CrCl3. First-principles calculations confirm that the frustration is driven by a competition between the chromium and halide SOCs. Furthermore, we reveal a field-induced change of interlayer coupling in the bulk of CrCl3 − x − yBrxIy crystals at the same field as in the exfoliation experiments.


Big Data is transforming health research into a data-intensive endeavour. This has sparked a lively discussion about how such data use should be governed by principles and rules. Moreover, the need for enhanced protection of personal data has led to a profound legislative reform of data protection law in the European Union (EU), which resulted in the adoption of the Generel Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The challenge is to allow for progress in data-intensive health research while safeguarding relevant rights and interests. This thesis adresses the question of how relevant rights and interests can be safeguarded and balanced in the EU, without disproportionately hampering data-intensive health research.


In 1953, James Watson and Francis Crick discovered the double helix structure of DNA. The discovery was a profound, Nobel Prize-winning moment in the history of genetics, but it did not decipher the messages on the twisted, ladderlike strands within our cells. No one knew what the human genome sequence actually was. No one had cracked the code of life. Now, at the beginning of a new millennium, that code has been cracked. Kevin Davies, founding editor of the leading journal in the field, "Nature Genetics," has relentlessly followed the story as it unfolded, week by week, for ten years. Here for the first time, in rich human, scientific, and financial detail, is the dramatic story of one of the greatest scientific feats ever accomplished: the mapping of the human genome. In 1990, the U.S. government approved a 15-year, $3 billion plan to launch the Human Genome Project, whose goal was to sequence the 3 billion letters of human DNA. At the helm of the project was James Watson, who resigned after only a couple of years, following a feud with National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Bernadine Healy over gene patenting. His successor was the brilliant young medical geneticist Francis Collins, who had made his name discovering the gene for cystic fibrosis. As Davies reports, Collins is a devout Christian who has traveled to Africa to work in a missionary hospital. He believes the human genome sequence is "the language of God." Just as Collins became project director, J. Craig Venter, a maverick DNA sequencer and Vietnam veteran, was leaving the NIH to start his own private research institute. Venter had developed a simple "shotgun" strategy for sequencing DNA, and his fameskyrocketed when his new institute proved his sequencing system worked by becoming the first to sequence the entire genome of a microorganism. Only 3 percent of the human genome had been sequenced by early 1998, the public project's halfway point. That same year, Venter was approached by PE Corporation to launch a private human genome project. He stunned the world when he announced the formation of a new company to sequence the human genome in a mere three years for $300 million. A war of words broke out between public and private researchers. Undeterred, Venter built Celera Genomics with the motto "Speed matters. Discovery can't wait." and an $80 million supercomputer. While the insults intensified, Celera's stock price soared, tumbled, and soared again. Negotiations for cooperation between the public and private institutes began, only to fall apart in acrimony. Then in the spring of 2000 President Clinton stepped in, telling his science adviser to restart negotiations. History was about to be made. Davies captures the drama of this momentous achievement, drawing on his own genetics expertise and interviews with key scientists including Venter and Collins, as well as Eric Lander, an MIT computer wizard who refers to the public genome project as "the forces of good"; Kari Stefansson, the genetics entrepreneur who is remaking Iceland's economy; and John Sulston, chief of the UK genome project, who led the charge against gene patenting. Davies has visited geneticists around the world to illustrate a vast international enterprise working on the frontier of human knowledge. "Cracking the Genome" is the definitive account of how the code that holds the answers to the origin of life,the evolution of humanity, and the future of medicine was broken.


Over the course of three years, journalist Thomas Laird spent more than sixty hours with His Holiness the Dalai Lama in candid, one-on-one interviews that covered history, science, reincarnation, and Buddhism. Laird brings these meetings to life in rich, vibrant, and monumental work that outlines the essence of thousands of years of civilization, myth, and spirituality. Tibet s story is rich with tradition and filled with promise. It begins with the Bodhisattva Chenrizi ( The Holy One ) whose spirit many Tibetans believe resides within the Dalai Lama. We learn the origins of Buddhism, and about the era of Great Tibetan Emperors, whose reign stretched from southwestern China to Northern India. His Holiness introduces us to Tibet s greatest yogis and meditation masters, and explains how the institution of the Dalai Lama was founded. Laird explores, with His Holiness, Tibet s relations with the Mongols, the Golden Age under the Great Fifth Dalai Lama, Tibet s years under Manchu overlords, modern independence in the early twentieth century, and the Dalai Lama s personal meetings with Mao just before His Holiness fled into exile in 1959. "The Story of Tibet" is a tenderly crafted study that is equal parts love letter, traditional history, and oral history ("Publishers Weekly")."


Many books on persuasive speaking only teach you how to speak persuasively, but they don t teach you how to also think persuasively. Debaters tend to excel when they are put on the spot, because they know how to think fast, speak well, and win audiences. Think, Speak, Win: Discover the Art of Debate provides a first-of-its-kind comprehensive introduction to the basics of debating for young students as well as interested adults, in a light-hearted and interesting style. This book breaks down the skills of debating into simple, memorable, and easy-to-follow chapters, and even covers the basics of coaching a school team and judging a debate competition. The skills of debating can help you achieve greater success at work and school, and this book guides you through a memorable 6-step process to apply Debate-Thinking to situations such as interviews, essay writing, impromptu speeches, presentations, and even leadership and management. You will never be at a loss for words again!"


Recently, spatial databases have attracted increasing interest in the database field. Because of the volume of the data with which they deal with, the performance of spatial database systems is important. The R-tree is an efficient spatial access method. It is a generalization of the B-tree in multidimensional space. This thesis investigates how to improve the performance of R-trees. We consider both parallel I/O and centralized architectures.
For a parallel I/O environment we propose an R-tree design for a server with one CPU and multiple disks. On this architecture, the nodes of the R-tree are distributed between the different disks with cross-disk pointers ('Multiplexed R-tree'). When a new node is created we have to decide on which disk it will be stored. We propose and examine several criteria for choosing a disk for a new node. The most successful one, termed 'Proximity Index' or PI, estimates the similarity of the new node to other R-tree nodes already on a disk and chooses the disk with the least degree of similarity.
For a centralized environment, we propose a new packing technique for R-trees for static databases. We use space-filling curves, and specifically the Hilbert curve, to achieve better ordering of rectangles and eventually to achieve better packing. For dynamic databases we introduce the Hilbert R-tree, in which every node has a well defined set of sibling nodes; we can thus use the concept of local rotation (47). By adjusting the split policy, the Hilbert R-tree can achieve a degree of space utilization as high as is desired.


Aerial imagery and LIDAR points are two important data sources for building reconstruction in a geospatial area. Aerial imagery implies building contours with planimetric features; LIDAR data explicitly represent building geometries using three-dimensional discrete point clouds. Data integration may take advantage of merits from two data sources in building reconstruction and change detection. However, heterogeneous data may contain a relative displacement because of different sensors and the capture time. To reduce this displacement, data registration should be an essential step. Therefore, this investigation proposes an edge-based approach to register these two data sets in three parts: (1) data preprocessing; (2) feature detection; and (3) data registration. The first step rasterizes laser point clouds into a pseudo-grid digital surface model (PDSM), which describes the relief with the original elevation information. The second step implements topological analyses to detect image edges and three-dimensional structure lines from the aerial image and PDSM. These detected features provide the initial positions of building shapes for registration. The third part registers these two data sets in Hough space to compensate for the displacement. Because each building may have prominent geometric structures, the proposed scheme transforms these two groups of edges, and estimates the correspondence by the Hough distribution. The following procedure then iteratively compares two groups of Hough patterns, which are from an aerial image and LIDAR data. This iterative procedure stops when the displacement is within a threshold. The test area is located in Taipei City, Taiwan. DMC system captured the aerial image with 18-cm spatial resolution. The LIDAR data were scanned with a 10-point density per square meter using the Leica ALS50 system. This study proposed a 50 cm spatial resolution of PDSM, which is slightly larger than the point spacing. The experiment selected two buildings to evaluate the performance of the proposed scheme. The manually edited building boundaries from the stereo aerial images are the reference data for validation. Comparisons indicated that the registration procedure could adjust the displacement within 50 cm, which relates to PDSM resolution. These preliminary results also demonstrated the possibility of providing locations for building reconstruction.