Background Radiomic features may quantify characteristics present in medical imaging. However, the lack of standardized definitions and validated reference values have hampered clinical use. Purpose To standardize a set of 174 radiomic features. Materials and Methods Radiomic features were assessed in three phases. In phase I, 487 features were derived from the basic set of 174 features. Twenty-five research teams with unique radiomics software implementations computed feature values directly from a digital phantom, without any additional image processing. In phase II, 15 teams computed values for 1347 derived features using a CT image of a patient with lung cancer and predefined image processing configurations. In both phases, consensus among the teams on the validity of tentative reference values was measured through the frequency of the modal value and classified as follows: less than three matches, weak; three to five matches, moderate; six to nine matches, strong; 10 or more matches, very strong. In the final phase (phase III), a public data set of multimodality images (CT, fluorine 18 fluorodeoxyglucose PET, and T1-weighted MRI) from 51 patients with soft-tissue sarcoma was used to prospectively assess reproducibility of standardized features. Results Consensus on reference values was initially weak for 232 of 302 features (76.8%) at phase I and 703 of 1075 features (65.4%) at phase II. At the final iteration, weak consensus remained for only two of 487 features (0.4%) at phase I and 19 of 1347 features (1.4%) at phase II. Strong or better consensus was achieved for 463 of 487 features (95.1%) at phase I and 1220 of 1347 features (90.6%) at phase II. Overall, 169 of 174 features were standardized in the first two phases. In the final validation phase (phase III), most of the 169 standardized features could be excellently reproduced (166 with CT; 164 with PET; and 164 with MRI). Conclusion A set of 169 radiomics features was standardized, which enabled verification and calibration of different radiomics software. © RSNA, 2020 Online supplemental material is available for this article. See also the editorial by Kuhl and Truhn in this issue.


The purpose of this research is theoretical and legal analysis of historiography of concepts of national interests in legal science. The study examines the main theoretical approaches to the relationship and understanding of the categories of "interests", "legitimate interests", "national interests", their sources and significance in modern legal science, the methodological characteristics of these concepts, the features of their relationship, as well as their dialectical relationship and specificity, the role of the concepts in legal regulation. The doctrinal and conceptual features of securing national interests in the modern Russian legal system are selected and priorities of formation of the system of national interests are defined, the optimum ways of formation of system of national interests are proposed through integrated models that ensure adequate integration of a national interest's objective, establishment of legal mechanisms of their protection and implementation. We investigated and evaluated the effectiveness of the international legal mechanisms of ensuring national interests of Russia in the regional and global level, defined the priorities of international legal cooperation in the context of ensuring national security and protecting national interests.


BACKGROUND
n-3 (omega-3) PUFA has been proposed as having health-promoting effects, primarily in relation to ischemic heart disease (IHD). Whether these benefits can be achieved by both α-linolenic acid (ALA, 18:3n-3) and n-3 long-chain PUFA (LC-PUFA) is debatable.

OBJECTIVE
The objective was to examine the association between ALA intake and risk of IHD in healthy subjects and to see if this was modified by intake of n-3 LC-PUFA or linoleic acid (LA, 18:2 n-6).

DESIGN
This was a prospective cohort study of 3277 healthy Danish women and men free of known IHD.

RESULTS
Four hundred seventy-one cases of IHD were observed during a median follow-up period of 23.3 y. Higher intake of ALA was not significantly associated with decreased risk of IHD among women or men. Although the HR of IHD was stepwise decreased with increasing ALA intake in men [0.84 (95% CI: 0.62, 1.14) in the medium compared with the lowest tertile (reference) and 0.83 (95% CI: 0.56, 1.24) in the highest compared with the lowest tertile], this change was far from significant (P-trend: 0.39). No evidence of effect modification by n-3 LC-PUFA or LA was observed. High n-3 LC-PUFA intake, in comparison with low intake, was inversely associated with risk of IHD; this trend was significant in women (P = 0.04; HR: 0.62; 95% CI: 0.40, 0.97) but not in men (P = 0.15; HR: 0.74; 95% CI: 0.51, 1.06). No associations were observed between intake of LA and risk of IHD.

CONCLUSION
This study suggests that there is no association between ALA intake and risk of IHD, but a high intake of n-3 LC-PUFA had a significant cardioprotective effect in women.


In a number of studies, Kail (1986. 1988a, 1992) has shown that estimates of young children's information processing speeds using a variety of tasks and task conditions (that invoke many different processes) are perfectly correlated with older children's processing speeds. Kail has argued that this supports the view that changes in speeded task performance are due to a single global factor that influences all processes. In this paper, I challenge this claim by simulating the consequences of using specific developmental functions (for different processors) or estimated processing times for children of different ages. The simulations demonstrate that Kail's correlational technique is insensitive to differences in underlying developmental functions. Further, the correlational technique is sensitive, unfortunately, to arbitrary differences in the experimental designs used to gather the data.


Recent studies have highlighted the vulnerability of deep neural networks (DNNs) to adversarial examples — a visually indistinguishable adversarial image can easily be crafted to cause a well-trained model to misclassify. Existing methods for crafting adversarial examples are based on L2 and L∞ distortion metrics. However, despite the fact that L1 distortion accounts for the total variation and encourages sparsity in the perturbation, little has been developed for crafting L1-based adversarial examples. In this paper, we formulate the process of attacking DNNs via adversarial examples as an elastic-net regularized optimization problem. Our elastic-net attacks to DNNs (EAD) feature L1-oriented adversarial examples and include the state-of-the-art L2 attack as a special case. Experimental results on MNIST, CIFAR10 and ImageNet show that EAD can yield a distinct set of adversarial examples with small L1 distortion and attains similar attack performance to the state-of-the-art methods in different attack scenarios. More importantly, EAD leads to improved attack transferability and complements adversarial training for DNNs, suggesting novel insights on leveraging L1 distortion in adversarial machine learning and security implications of DNNs.


Background and Study Aim: Brazilian jiu-jitsu (BJJ) is a martial art with high rates of attrition. At present, little is known about the achievement goals of martial arts practitioners, particularly in BJJ. Thus, our aim was knowledge about achievement goal orientations and perceptions of the motivational climate in a BJJ academy. We hypothesized that mastery-approach goals would correlate with weekly training duration, that goal orientation scores would reflect the corresponding higher-order motivational climate score, and that white belt practitioners would perceive the motivational climate as more performance-oriented than higher belt ranks. Material and Methods: The sample comprised 42 males aged 31.9 ±6.2 years, with 5.4 ±3.8 years of training experience and a weekly training duration of 7.7 ±3.4 hours per week. The 3x2 Achievement Goal Questionnaire for Sport (3x2 AGQ-S) was used to assess achievement goal orientations. Perceptions of the motivational climate were measured with the Perceived Motivational Climate in Sport Questionnaire (PMCSQ-2). The 10-item Perceived Physical Ability (PPA) subscale of the Physical Self-Efficacy Scale was used to evaluate perceived physical ability. Results: Overall, the practitioners emphasized mastery-approach goals, which was congruous, but not significantly associated with higher-order motivational climate scores. Rank correlated both with goal orientations and perceived motivational climate. Additionally, weekly training duration and style preference were associated with task-approach goals. Conclusions: Brazilian jiu-jitsu practitioners appear to focus on mastery, making them more likely to demonstrate adaptive behaviour when facing adversity. These findings support previous observations on the compatibility of mastery goals and competitive martial arts.


For intensive academic activities, there is a need to ensure introduction of scientific research results, discussion of scientific works and spread of scientific investigation results in an interaction among scientists, scientists and scientific community, scientists and society. This kind of communication creates and fosters the persistent value of scientific work through the presentation and dissemination of results of scientific theoretical and empirical investigations. In the article, scientific communication is understood as a dissemination of scientific information of all areas of scientific research through formal and informal channels of communication. Scientific communication as a concept unites various possibilities such as science mass communication, public understanding of science, public awareness of science, scientific culture, scholarly communication aspects such as academic communication, purely scientific communication, etc. The aim of the article is to analyze formal science communication presented by scientists from the Faculty of Communication of Vilnius University. The research aims to present completeness of science communication presented by the scholars of the Faculty of Communication in dissemination of results of scientific researches and to create a knowledge dissemination map in which a flow of science communication and activities of scholars could be shown. The research is based on the quantitative variables that describe the form of science communication, from analysis of documental communication in scientific publications to formal communication such as participation in national and international conferences, expert activities, etc. Analysis of formal science communication is carried out from four main points: analysis of the science communication structure at the Faculty of Communication, Vilnius University; measurement of the geographical scope of science communication performed by the scholars of the Faculty; a set of participants and a flow of science communication; identification of institutions and individual scholars that actively participate in science communication in the field of communication and information. Results of the research stress several important aspects which present science communication at the Faculty of Communication of Vilnius University: the communication model "scientists to scientists" is dominating; dissemination of scientific information is oriented towards the Lithuanian scientific community; by active participation in international scientific networks and conferences; the map that presents the spread of scientific research results is wider than Lithuania's geographical frame. As the main means for formal science communication, scientific publications could be mentioned. "Knygotyra" and "Informacijos mokslai" are the main scientific journals where formal science communication in the area of communication and information is concentrated.


In this paper, we propose a control design method for single-link flexible manipulators. The proposed technique is based on the integral resonant control (IRC) scheme. The controller consists of two nested feedback loops. The inner loop controls the joint angle and makes the system robust to joint friction. The outer loop, which is based on the IRC technique, damps the vibration and makes the system robust to the unmodeled dynamics (spill-over) and resonance frequency variations due to changes in the payload. The objectives of this work are: 1) to demonstrate the advantages of IRC, which is a high-performance controller design methodology for flexible structures with collocated actuator-sensor pairs and 2) to illustrate its capability of achieving precise end-point (tip) positioning with effective vibration suppression when applied to a typical flexible manipulator. The theoretical formulation of the proposed control scheme, a detailed stability analysis and experimental results obtained on a flexible manipulator are presented.


Foods can affect human health beyond basic nutritional effects. In fact, foods are a source of different molecules, including nutraceuticals, i.e. health-promoting molecules, and proteins that can cause allergic reactions. The objectives of this thesis are in the framework of a research program focused on the study of allergens and nutraceuticals from plant foods and their possible effects on human health. Kiwifruit has been chosen as a model of food endowed with beneficial effects on human health and also an important source of food allergy, although for comparative purposes other foods have sometimes been included in the study. Four new allergens have been identified in plant food, namely green and gold kiwifruit, black mulberry and tomato. They belong to the family of Lipid Transfer Proteins (LTP) and three of them have already been included in the official list of allergens of the World Health Organization/International Union of Immunological Societies (WHO/IUIS) with the allergen names Act d 10, Act c 10 and Mor n 3. The structural properties of these allergens have been characterized using classical biochemical methodologies. The immunological and clinical features have been investigated using both classical methodologies, such as skin prick test, prick by prick test and DBPCFC, and emerging methodologies, such as the high throughput ISAC system allowing analysis by multiplex biochip-based immunoassay. The results obtained by comparative analysis show a heterogeneous behavior of different LTPs indicating that the biochemical grouping of allergens can be misleading in the allergy diagnosis and that an improved allergy diagnosis can be obtained by testing every single patient with the most comprehensive panel of available LTPs/allergens .
The influence of different experimental conditions on the structural properties and IgE reactivity of the kiwifruit allergen kiwellin (Act d 5) was investigated by circular dichroism, skin testing, immunoblotting and ISAC microarray system. Results obtained demonstrated that the physico-chemical features of the environment can affect the conformation and the IgE reactivity of Act d 5. This behavior suggests that the environmental conditions may affect the response of allergy diagnostic systems by modulating the pattern of exposed antigenic epitopes.
The functional characterization of kissper, a naturally occurring kiwifruit peptide, performed by immunohystochemical and ELISA experiments on human colonic mucosa deriving from biopsy carried out on subjects suffering from Crohn's desease, clearly indicated an antinflammatory effect of this molecule. This result suggests a possible use of kissper as a nutraceutical molecule in the treatment of inflammation.


Sun Life Member Services website [3] Having problems logging onto the website? Learn how to connect [4]. My Sun Life Mobile [5] Submitting a Health and Dental Claim E-Claims [6] Benefit Forms [7] Questions/Issues Regarding Claims If you have questions regarding your health and dental claims, please direct contact Sun Life and refer to our policy #82010. You can contact Sun Life by email [8] or by phone 1-800-361-6212. Coordination of Benefits [9] Many people have coverage under more than one benefit plan – for example, their own plan plus their spouse's plan or a plan offered through their professional association. If this is your situation, you can use both plans when claiming expenses. This is called coordinating your benefits, and it's a great way to cover more of your costs. Your Travel Benefit [10] A medical emergency while travelling can be a frightening and costly experience. But with your Sun Life Financial group benefits plan you'll have the protection you need and you'll have access to the expertise of our emergency travel assistance partner – Global Excel Management (GEM) 24 hours a day if you suffer an illness or injury while away from home.


Business practices in Japan inspire fierce and even acrimonious debate, especially when they are compared to American practices. This book attempts to explain the remarkable economic success of Japan in the post-war period - a success it is useful to understand in a time marked by controversial trade imbalances and concerns over competitive industrial performance. Gerlach focuses on what he calls the intercorporate alliance, the innovative and increasingly pervasive practice of bringing together a cluster of affiliated companies that extends across a broad range of markets. The best known of these alliances are the "keiretsu", or enterprise groups, which include both diversified families of firms located around major banks and trading companies and vertical families of suppliers and distributors linked to prominent manufacturers in the automobile, electronics and other industries. In providing a key link between isolated local firms and extended international markets, the intercorporate alliance has had profound effects on the industrial and social organization of Japanese businesses. Gerlach casts his net widely. He not only provides a rigorous analysis of intercorporate capitalism in Japan, making useful distinctions between Japanese and American practices, but he also develops a broad theoretical context for understanding Japan's business networks. Addressing economists, sociologists and other social scientists, he argues that the intercorporate alliance is as much a result of overlapping political, economic and social forces as traditional Western economic institutions such as the public corporation and the stock market. Most compellingly, "Alliance Capitalism" raises important questions about the best method of exchange in any economy. It identifies situations where cooperation among companies is an effective way of channelling corporate activities in a world marked by complexity and rapid change, and considers in detail alternatives to hostile takeovers and other characteristic features of American capitalism. The book also points to the broader challenges facing Japan and its trading partners as they seek to coordinate their distinctive forms of economic organization.


Primary viral infections, including primary HIV infection, trigger intense activation of the immune system, with marked expansion of CD38+CD8+ T cells. Whether this expansion involves only viral-specific cells or includes a degree of bystander activation remains a matter of debate. We therefore examined the activation status of EBV-, CMV-, and influenza virus (FLU)-specific CD8+ T cells during primary HIV infection, in comparison to HIV-specific CD8+ T cells. The activation markers CD38 and HLA-DR were strongly expressed on HIV-specific CD8+ T cells. Surprisingly, CD38 expression was also up-regulated on CD8+ T cells specific for other viruses, albeit to a lesser extent. Activation marker expression returned to normal or near-normal values after 1 year of highly active antiretroviral therapy. HIV viral load correlated with CD38 expression on HIV-specific CD8+ T cells but also on EBV-, CMV-, and FLU-specific CD8+ T cells. In primary HIV infection, EBV-specific CD8+ T cells also showed increased Ki67 expression and decreased Bcl-2 expression, compared with values observed in HIV-seronegative control subjects. These results show that bystander activation occurs during primary HIV infection, even though HIV-specific CD8+ T cells express the highest level of activation. The role of this bystander activation in lymphocyte homeostasis and HIV pathogenesis remains to be determined.


Quality of decisions based on the decision-theoretic approach depends on the quality of the underlying models. Construction of these models is outside of the realm of both probability theory and decision theory and is usually very laborious. Aiding model building in computer systems can signiicantly reduce the model construction time while increasing model quality and can contribute to a wider applicability of decision theory in decision support systems. We propose an approach to computer-aided model construction that builds on the concept of causal mechanisms. Causal mechanisms are local interactions among domain variables that are usually fairly well understood and model independent, hence can be reused in diierent models. Their algebraic descriptions are known as structural equations. A model composed of causal mechanisms is causal and intuitive for human users. It also supports predictions of the eeect of external interventions (decisions). We discuss issues related to storage and maintenance of causal mechanisms and interactive model building, including treatment of reversible causal mechanisms.


We empirically study the motivations of users to contribute content to social media in the context of the popular microblogging site Twitter. We focus on noncommercial users who do not benefit financially from their contributions. Previous literature suggests that there are two main types of utility that motivate these users to post content: intrinsic utility and image-related utility. We leverage the fact that these two types of utility give rise to different predictions as to whether users should increase their contributions when their number of followers increases. To address the issue that the number of followers is endogenous, we conducted a field experiment in which we exogenously added followers or follow requests, in the case of protected accounts to a set of users over a period of time and compared their posting activities to those of a control group. We estimated each treated user's utility function using a dynamic discrete choice model. Although our results are consistent with both types of utility being at play, our model suggests that image-related utility is larger for most users. We discuss the implications of our findings for the evolution of Twitter and the type of value firms may derive from such platforms in the future.


Background Electronic health records (EHR) from primary care are emerging in Alzheimer's disease (AD) research, but their accuracy is a concern. We aimed to validate AD diagnoses from primary care using additional information provided by general practitioners (GPs), and a register of dementias. Patients and methods This retrospective observational study obtained data from the System for the Development of Research in Primary Care (SIDIAP). Three algorithms combined International Statistical Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) and Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical codes to identify AD cases in SIDIAP. GPs evaluated dementia diagnoses by means of an online survey. We linked data from the Register of Dementias of Girona and from SIDIAP. We estimated the positive predictive value (PPV) and sensitivity and provided results stratified by age, sex and severity. Results Using survey data from the GPs, PPV of AD diagnosis was 89.8% (95% CI: 84.7–94.9). Using the dataset linkage, PPV was 74.8 (95% CI: 73.1–76.4) for algorithm A1 (AD diagnoses), and 72.3 (95% CI: 70.7–73.9) for algorithm A3 (diagnosed or treated patients without previous conditions); sensitivity was 71.4 (95% CI: 69.6–73.0) and 83.3 (95% CI: 81.8–84.6) for algorithms A1 (AD diagnoses) and A3, respectively. Stratified results did not differ by age, but PPV and sensitivity estimates decreased amongst men and severe patients, respectively. Conclusions PPV estimates differed depending on the gold standard. The development of algorithms integrating diagnoses and treatment of dementia improved the AD case ascertainment. PPV and sensitivity estimates were high and indicated that AD codes recorded in a large primary care database were sufficiently accurate for research purposes.


Background Long-range correlations in running stride interval have been proposed as an indicator of running-related injury (RRI) and found to change with running speed. They have not yet been used to distinguish running style between runners having previously sustained a RRI or not. Objectives To compare long-range correlations and stride-to-stride variability of strike index (SI) and spatiotemporal parameters in previously injured and uninjured runners over various running speeds. We hypothesized significant effects of groups and running speed for these parameters. Design Retrospective, case-control study. Setting Recreational runners. Participants 69 regular male and female runners (currently asymptomatic) either having sustained a RRI during the previous year (n=26) or not (n=43). Risk factor assessment Five 2-minute incremental running intervals were performed at 80, 90, 100, 110 and 120% of the individual typical running speed on a treadmill. SI, contact time (CT), flight time (FT), stride time (ST), duty factor (CT/ST), stride length (SL) and frequency were measured using an insole-based system. Coefficient of variance (CV) and the scaling exponent α of the detrended fluctuation analysis were calculated, and effects were analysed using repeated measures analyses of variance. Main outcome measurements RRI, defined as a pain or complaint to the lower limbs, progressive in nature and influencing running activity for >1 week. Results The RRI group displayed lower CV than the controls for CT (P=.01) and FT (P=.027). Significant differences in α between normalised speeds were found for all variables (P<.048) except SL. CV differed significantly between normalised speeds for ST and SL. No significant interactions were found. Conclusions Previously uninjured runners display significantly greater CV in CT and FT. Long-range correlations of SI and spatiotemporal parameters change according to running speed, but are not significantly different between previously injured and uninjured runners. Further prospective study to confirm these findings is warranted.


Abstract Hydrogen deformation interactions are known to control the environmental degradation effects (H and 3He embrittlement, stress corrosion cracking,...) associated with the presence of H and its isotopes in structural materials. Different types of interaction have been investigated : trapping on stress field and strain-induced defects, enhanced diffusion along dislocation networks, transport by moving dislocation. For several reasons, the quantification of these interactions is a major challenge in nuclear systems involving the presence of tritium : prevention of tritium-induced damage, tritium inventory, management of tritiated waste... This paper reports recent results on the quantitative characterization of tritium deformation interactions in fcc materials.


"Pyrene-box" cages easily crystallize from aqueous solutions and readily encapsulate compounds of biological interest. These host–guest systems can be obtained under ambient conditions from 1,3,5,8-pyrenetetrasulfonate (PTS), guanidinium derivatives (G+) and biogenic guests bearing cationic groups. Out of the many examples of synthetic molecular capsules, Pyrene box cages are completely responding to the requirements of green chemistry: non-toxic, water soluble, cheap, commercially available compounds. The "Pyrene-Box" cages have been used for the in situ encapsulation of unstable or non-crystalline biogenic compounds, allowing the complete molecular structure determination of species that do not crystallize by themselves. The encapsulated guests have a reduced motional degrees of freedom which is obtained via their anchoring to the Pyrene box cages that allows at the same time to reduce a significant amount of disorder. In this highlight we discuss the recent developments of the encapsulation chemistry of the "Pyrene box" and the strategy behind its synthesis, together with further possible developments and the limitations of this biomimetic supramolecular cage system. The "Pyrene Box" shows great potential for future applications, ranging from fundamental studies of structure determination of unstable molecules to drug delivery vehicles.


Abstract The abundance of specimens of Ichthyosaurus provides an opportunity to assess morphological variation without the limits of a small sample size. This research evaluates the variation and taxonomic utility of hindfin morphology. Two seemingly distinct morphotypes of the mesopodium occur in the genus. Morphotype 1 has three elements in the third row: metatarsal two, distal tarsal three and distal tarsal four. This is the common morphology in Ichthyosaurus breviceps, I. conybeari and I. somersetensis. Morphotype 2 has four elements in the third row, owing to a bifurcation. This morphotype occurs in at least some specimens of each species, but it has several variations distinguished by the extent of contact of elements in the third row with the astragalus. Two specimens display a different morphotype in each fin, suggesting that the difference reflects individual variation. In Ichthyosaurus, the hindfin is taxonomically useful at the genus level, but species cannot be identified unequivocally from a well-preserved hindfin, although certain morphologies are more common in certain species than others. The large sample size filled in morphological gaps between what initially appeared to be taxonomically distinct characters. The full picture of variation would have been obscured with a small sample size. Furthermore, we have found several unusual morphologies which, in isolation, could have been mistaken for new taxa. Thus, one must be cautious when describing new species or genera on the basis of limited material, such as isolated fins and fragmentary specimens.


Background: Failure to progress remains a key indication for cesarean section which caused by different factors including uterine contractions. If it is diagnosed in the primary phase of labor, a better prognosis can thus be made. The purpose of this study was to find a possible correlation between pattern of uterine contraction and progression of labor. Method: During this study, 120 women referred for delivery to an educational hospital's maternity ward in the North of Iran in 2010 were included. Uterine contractions of mothers were recorded in dilatation of 4 to7 cm for an hour. In this way, F/R ratio which means the time that a contraction needs to return from its peak to baseline (Fall) divided to the time for a contraction to rise to its peak (Rise) was calculated. All of the participants were followed until delivery, vaginal delivery or caesarean section. Results: Mean and standard deviation of fall to raise ratio was 1.54 ± 0.26 in mothers with vaginal delivery versus 1.74 ± 0.21 for others underwent caesarean section (OR = 0.44, 95% CI: 0.005- 0.42, P < 0.001). Sensitivity, specificity, and predictive values (positive and negative) of mentioned ratio were 68.32%, 70.01%, 69.55%, and 68.91%, respectively. Conclusion: By considering acceptable predictive value of uterine contractions' pattern in the active phase of labor, it could help to timely diagnosis of failure to progress and consequently suitable intervention which probably maintain better health of both mother and fetus.


ABSTRACT The Government of Botswana has pledged a nationally determined contribution (NDC) as a commitment to the Paris Agreement. For the power sector, the NDC states that the government expects renewable energy (RE) to meet 25% of peak electricity demand by 2030. However, due to high initial cost of RE technologies, the government plans to maintain a coal-based power system in the future. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to examine Botswana's national plan from an economic perspective, using scenario and cost analysis, to explore the possibility of the power sector's low carbon transition in the light of Botswana's NDC. Five scenarios are designed to reflect a range of investment cost changes of RE technologies. While most scenarios only achieve 19% (P3, P4 and P5) and 54% (P6) of the NDC's power sector target, the P7 scenario far exceeds the goal by achieving 188% of the NDC target. Furthermore, as the difference of levelized cost of electricity among the scenarios is minimal, the P7 scenario is the most attractive pathway for the government. Even for other scenarios, the government should still deploy the suggested capacity of solar photovoltaic (PV) as it is both economically and socially beneficial in the long term. However, in these cases, the government's political will to meet the NDC's power sector target and to promote the solar PV industry will be critical in designing future power sector policies. Key policy insights Model results show coal as the cheapest resource for electricity generation in Botswana up to 2030, but the cost competitiveness of solar photovoltaic (PV) against coal will continue to increase over time. It is economically and socially beneficial to adjust the current national plan and substitute some share of coal with solar PV in the future energy mix. Government support is critical in achieving the power sector's NDC target, as cost reduction of solar PV alone does not guarantee success. Encouraging independent power producers (IPP) with financial support mechanisms would be a suitable business model for developing the renewable energy industry.


We report on the electron beam induced current (EBIC) microscopy and cathodoluminescence (CL) characterization correlated with compositional analysis of light emitting diodes based on core/shell InGaN/GaN nanowire arrays. The EBIC mapping of cleaved fully operational devices allows to probe the electrical properties of the active region with a nanoscale resolution. In particular, the electrical activity of the p-n junction on the m-planes and on the semi-polar planes of individual nanowires is assessed in top view and cross-sectional geometries. The EBIC maps combined with CL characterization demonstrate the impact of the compositional gradients along the wire axis on the electrical and optical signals: the reduction of the EBIC signal toward the nanowire top is accompanied by an increase of the CL intensity. This effect is interpreted as a consequence of the In and Al gradients in the quantum well and in the electron blocking layer, which influence the carrier extraction efficiency. The interface between the nanowire core and the radially grown layer is shown to produce in some cases a transitory EBIC signal. This observation is explained by the presence of charged traps at this interface, which can be saturated by electron irradiation.


This paper presents a new method — the Timedelay Added Evolutionary Forecasting (TAEF) method — for time series prediction which performs an evolutionary search of the minimum necessary number of dimensions embedded in the problem for determining the characteristic phase space of the phenomenon generating the time series. The method proposed is inspired in F. Takens theorem and consists of an intelligent hybrid model composed of an artificial neural network (ANN) combined with a modified genetic algorithm (GA). Initially, the TAEF method finds the most fitted predictor model for representing the series and then performs a behavioral statistical test in order to adjust time phase distortions that may appear in the representation of some series. It is shown how this model proposed can boost the performance of time series prediction of both artificially generated time series and real world time series from the financial market. An experimental investigation is conducted with the TAEF method with five different relevant time series and the results achieved are discussed and compared with previous results found in the literature, according to several performance measures, showing the robustness of the proposed approach.


ABSTRACT Postdepositional dolomite occurs in the shallow subsurface of several Caribbean Islands in Tertiary and Pleistocene carbonates, e.g., on Barbados, Grand Cayman, Jamaica, and St. Croix. Recent investigations have interpreted these dolomites as relatively early-diagenetic formations from "chemically modified seawater", mainly on the basis of petrography, stratigraphic association, and stable isotope values. Interpretations of the hydrologic regimes during dolomitization vary and usually include freshwater-seawater mixing, thermal or density-driven convection of seawater, or a combination thereof. This paper offers two alternative interpretations based on the relatively low Sr isotope ratios of the dolomites (0.7085 to 0.7092) and their proximity to active plate margins. Dolomitization may have been driven by plate tectonics, i.e., either by thermal convection of pore fluids at active spreading centers or by tectonic expulsion of fluids from accretionary prisms. The dolomitizing solution was seawater that was enriched in 86Sr by magmatic-hydrothermal solutions or by interaction with siliciclastics in an accretionary prism, respectively.


The workflow language Martlet described in this paper implements a new programming model that allows users to write parallel programs and analyse distributed data without having to be aware of the details of the parallelisation. Martlet abstracts the parallelisation of the computation and the splitting of the data through the inclusion of constructs inspired by functional programming. These allow programs to be written as an abstract description that can be adjusted automatically at runtime to match the data set and available resources. Using this model it is possible to write programs to perform complex calculations across a distributed data set such as Singular Value Decomposition or Least Squares problems, as well as creating an intuitive way of working with distributed system.
 Having described and evaluated Martlet against other functional languages for parallel computation, this paper goes on to look at how Martlet might develop. In doing so it covers both possible additions to the language itself, and the use of JIT compilers to increase the range of platforms it is capable of running on.


Scientific research is performed to elucidate how the world around us is functioning. One dimension of the acquired knowledge is that it can be used to develop various sectors of society such as industry, education, governmental practices, the health system or social cohesion. A main characteristic of the so-called societal relevance of research is therefore the quest towards answering questions that society asks or to solve problems it faces. Even though modern societies highly depend on scientific research it is highly disputable how the societal relevance of academic research can (A) be measured and (B) improved. In this review these two aspects are discussed by means of existing literature. In addition and in order to further highlight recent developments new research is done on how different universities have adapted to an increasing "relevance demand" and how communication via social media could become a practical means of science communication. This work therefore intends to be an overview about recent developments and how societal relevance could be formulated in a more robust way in the future by academic institutions.


X-linked hypophosphatemia (XLH) is caused by inactivating mutations of Phex, a phosphate-regulating endopeptidase. Further advances in our knowledge of the pathogenesis of XLH require identification of the biological function of Phex and its physiologically relevant substrates. We evaluated several potential substrates using mouse recombinant wild-type Phex proteins (rPhex-WT) and inactive mutant Phex proteins (rPhex-3'M) lacking the COOH-terminal catalytic domain as controls. By Western blot analysis, we demonstrated that Phex is a membrane-bound 100-kDa glycosylated monomer. Neither casein, a substrate for the related endopeptidase thermolysin, human stanniocalcin 1 (hSTC-1), an osteoblast-derived phosphate-regulating factor, nor FGF-23 peptide (amino acid 172-186), comprising the region mutated in autosomal dominant hypophosphatemia, was cleaved by rPhex-WT. In addition, membranes expressing rPhex-WT, rPhex-3'M, and the empty vector hydrolyzed parathyroid hormone-(1-34), indicating the lack of Phex-specific cleavage of parathyroid hormone. In contrast, rPhex-WT did display an EDTA-dependent cleavage of the neutral endopeptidase substrate [Leu]enkephalin. Further studies with wild-type and mutant rPhex proteins should permit the identification of physiologically relevant substrates involved in the pathogenesis of XLH.


This study is about the grammatical errors in the application letters written by the applicants sealing for a job at UD. Damai Baru, Malang. The main focus of this study is concentrated on the errors of the applicants based on guiding of Janet. M. Bing. Concerning the analysis, the writer analyzes the data, and put them into categories based on the theory that she uses. After analyzing the data, the writer provides the correct form of the errors. At the end of the analysis, the writer finds out the most frequent kinds of error made by the applicants. The result reveals that the tendencies of errors that are produced by her subject are errors in subject verb agreement, article, tense, modal auxiliary, verb with infinitive complement, and preposition. The highest frequency of errors that the subjects have is the errors in preposition.


This paper introduces a portfolio construction framework for risk-averse investors that aim to meet or exceed a client's capital accumulation needs for a future event, such as retirement. Risk Capacity Portfolio Construction (RCPC) presents a risk-optimized alternative to Target Date Funds (TDFs). Risk Capacity Portfolio Construction is an economic sciences innovation that is validated by Skew-Risk Modeling, which was first presented in Targeted Return Portfolio Construction (Sherwood, 2019) and is detailed within this paper in its application to retirement-focused investors. Risk Capacity Portfolio Construction factors skewness and kurtosis into the risk management and asset allocation of an individual's life cycle and can optimize risk beyond simply accounting for the equity risk premium and human capital. TOPICS: Portfolio theory, wealth management, retirement, risk management, portfolio construction, options, equity portfolio management, tail risks Key Findings ▪ This paper highlights an alternative portfolio construction methodology to Target Date Funds (TDFs) in order to better prepare individuals for retirement, on both a risk-adjusted and absolute basis. ▪ This paper highlights an investor's ability to incorporate skewness and kurtosis within the asset allocation process of a portfolio that is intended to prepare an individual or group for a future dated event. ▪ This paper highlights how the implied risk probabilities within the options market, referred to herein as Tail Risk Ratios (TRR), can be incorporated in the investment process.


This thesis focuses on the the study of insider trading based on three main economic regions- the U.K, the U.S and China. This is a key aspect of corporate governance and one where the regulatory systems differ substantially in the three countries analysed. Four filters have been developed in helping the regulatory authority detect the existence of insider trading. The first filter is to analyse the Average Abnormal Return (AR) and the Cumulative Average Abnormal Return (CAAR). If there are no unusual price movements prior to the announcement date, one would expect both the AR and CAAR to fluctuate randomly about zero. However, if there is leakage of, and trading on, inside information just prior to the announcement date, this should show up in the form of positive daily average residuals as t approaches 0 and a corresponding build up in CAAR. Dummy variables are also included in the first filter. This filter captures unusual stock price run-ups on a series of days but may miss the ones on single days. As a result, more filters are developed. The second filter is the news search. Hirshleifer (1971) and Fama and Laffer (1971) found that those who possess privileged information have an inventive to take market positions on the basis of their information and then announce their information publicly. I consider two situations in this thesis-firstly, the public news released before the problematic day and secondly, the public news released after the problematic day. The investigation of outliers is used as the third filter in this thesis. The residuals which are 3.5 or 4 times greater than the standard deviation are considered as the outliers. I developed my fourth filter of detecting insider trading based on the Abnormal Turnover (AT). Apart from the four-filter approach, a day 0 AR hypothesis is also developed as a main contribution of this thesis. The day 0 abnormal return hypothesis suggests that on day 0, the day the merger is announced, there will be a substantial abnormal return for the targets due to the substantial trade volume in the stock market. But with the existence of insider dealing, the abnormal return may be partially absorbed prior to the announcement date and as a result, on day 0, the abnormal return will be expected to be lower than in the normal situation. In other words, the firms which are suspected of insider dealing activities may have a comparatively lower average abnormal return on day 0 than the firms which are not. In the conclusion we examine the implications for both corporate governance and also the regulatory regime. We do indeed find widespread evidence for insider trading and this is a matter of concern-After utilizing the three data samples of the U.K, the U.S and China, we can be fairly confident that relatively few of the clean firms will be anything other than clean. Not all of the suspected firms will be 'guilty of insider trading', but there is substantial reason to suppose that they should be examined in further detail to identify the nature of the trading which occurred.


Expensive tastes play an important role in contemporary theories of distributive justice. In particular, some suggest that individuals are not entitled to compensation for low well-being that is attributable to expensive tastes that the individuals have freely chosen. The origins of chosen expensive tastes have not been explored, but they should be. First, the reasons that individuals might choose them could bear on how moral analysis should take them into account. Second, the choice of expensive tastes is prima facie irrational, raising the question whether concern about individuals choosing expensive tastes is warranted in the first instance. This essay considers why, if ever, individuals might choose to develop or adopt what may appear to be expensive tastes, and it suggests that the normative implications of the answers may differ from those ordinarily associated with voluntary rational choice. Forthcoming, Canadian Journal of Philosophy


The Digital Video Recorder (DVR) was often considered the awaited revolution in the way people use television; however, TV recipients seem reluctant to adopt this innovation. This article suggests a new perspective in that the DVR should be interpreted as a supply-side service innovation instead of a hardware consumer innovation. Evaluating the perceived attributes of the DVR as an innovation, it turns out that the supply-side service innovation is more likely to succeed. The article discusses the possible impact of the DVR on the value chain of television and on the exploitation chain of motion picture rights. Focusing on the features of time shifting and advertising avoidance, it is shown that the relevance of broadcasters will diminish in comparison to the distributors'. Finally, the article discusses how the DVR might develop as a new profit window in the exploitation chain of motion picture rights and thereby make a lead into video distribution without a physical medium. Altogether, it is shown that the distributors will benefit more from the DVR than the recipients will, and therefore, it is indicated to change perspectives and evaluate the DVR as a supply-side innovation.

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This book provides a set of fresh and compelling interdisciplinary approaches to the enduring phenomenon of the guru in South Asia. Moving across different gurus and kinds of gurus, and between past and present, the essays collected in this volume call attention to the extraordinary scope and richness of the social lives and roles of South Asian gurus. Prevailing scholarship has rightly considered the guru to be a source of religious and philosophical knowledge and mystical bodily practices. This book goes further and considers the social engagements and entanglements of these spiritual leaders, not just on their own (narrowly denominational) terms, but in terms of their diverse, complex, rapidly evolving engagements with 'society' broadly conceived. Chapters explore and illuminate the significance of female gurus, gurus from the perspective of Islam, imbrications of guru-ship and slavery in pre-modern India, connections between gurus and power, governance and economic liberalization in modern and contemporary India, vexed questions of sexuality and guru-ship, gurus' charitable endeavours, the cosmopolitanism of gurus in contexts of spiritual tourism, and the mediation of gurus via technologies of electronic communication. Bringing together internationally renowned scholars from religious studies, political science, history, sociology and anthropology, The Guru in South Asia provides exciting and original new insights into South Asian guru-ship.


The statistical properties of inflation and, in particular, its degree of persistence and stability over time is a subject of intense debate and no consensus has been achieved yet. The goal of this paper is to analyze this controversy using a general approach, with the aim of providing a plausible explanation for the existing contradictory results. We consider the inflation rates of 21 OECD countries which are modelled as fractionally integrated (FI) processes. First, we show analytically that FI can appear in inflation rates after aggregating individual prices from firms that face different costs of adjusting their prices. Then, we provide robust empirical evidence supporting the FI hypothesis using both classical and Bayesian techniques. Next, we estimate impulse response functions and other scalar measures of persistence, achieving an accurate picture of this property and its variation across countries. It is shown that the application of some popular tools for measuring persistence, such as the sum of the AR coefficients, could lead to erroneous conclusions if fractional integration is present. Finally, we explore the existence of changes in inflation inertia using a novel approach. We conclude that the persistence of inflation is very high (although non-permanent) in most post-industrial countries and that it has remained basically unchanged over the last four decades.


The effect of salt stress on morphological and essential oil content of 10 Iranian and foreign Achillea millefolium genotypes was investigated in a pot experiment in Research Greenhouse of Isfahan University of Technology in 2014. The factorial experiment, based on randomized complete blocks design, was performed at four salinity stress levels (0, 5, 10 and 15 dS/m) andn ten Achillea millefolium genotypes with three replicates. Results revealed that salinity stress of 15 dS/m significantly decreased the plant height, leaf area and width, length of ligulate florets, flower diameter, number of florets in inflorescence, days to flowering, days to 100% flowering and dry weight of the herbs. The salinity stress at 15 dS/m increased essential oil content by 18.75% compared to control treatment. The UK, Slovenia, Spain, Japan, Kandovan (Iran) and Lorestan (Iran) genotypes were not able to produce flowers in high salt stress conditions. The interaction of salinity stress and genotype was significant for all traits except for leaf width and length of ligulate florets. The US and Canada genotypes possessed the highest essential oil content and dry matter weight. The US and UK genotypes can be suggested for green space, under salinity stress conditions, due to their low height and high flower diameter. Most of the studied traits did not show significant differences at 5 and 10 dS/m salinity stress levels. Plants had good resistnce to 10 dS/m salinity stress. Moreover, evaluated traits of plants were significantly different at 15 dS/m level. Based on the obtained results, the 10 dS/m salinity level can be suggested to cultivate this plant.


Static analysis tools can aid in software quality assessment, but are rarely used by software developers. Poor usage of quality analysis tools not only means missed opportunities for the quality of software systems, but also results in little feedback, which in turn slows the improvements of the quality rules themselves. We introduced a set of intrusive quality plugins and integrated them into the Pharo IDE. This not only triggered a feedback loop that led to improvements of the existing rules, but also encouraged removal of some rules and integration of new ones. Our analysis of changes to the rules suggests that precise rules capturing a domain-specific logic are more valuable than general ones.


The risk assessment of genetically modified (GM) crops for human nutrition and health has not been systematic. Evaluations for each GM crop or trait have been conducted using different feeding periods, animal models, and parameters. The most common result is that GM and conventional sources induce similar nutritional performance and growth in animals. However, adverse microscopic and molecular effects of some GM foods in different organs or tissues have been reported. Diversity among the methods and results of the risk assessments reflects the complexity of the subject. While there are currently no standardized methods to evaluate the safety of GM foods, attempts towards harmonization are on the way. More scientific effort is necessary in order to build confidence in the evaluation and acceptance of GM foods.


Abstract Wireless Backbone Networks (WBNs) equipped with Multi-Radio Multi-Channel (MRMC) configurations do experience power control problems such as the inter-channel and co-channel interference, high energy consumption at multiple queues and unscalable network connectivity. Such network problems can be conveniently modelled using the theory of queue perturbation in the multiple queue systems and also as a weak coupling in a multiple channel wireless network. Consequently, this paper proposes a queue perturbation and weakly coupled based power control approach forWBNs. The ultimate objectives are to increase energy efficiency and the overall network capacity. In order to achieve this objective, a Markov chain model is first presented to describe the behaviour of the steady state probability distribution of the queue energy and buffer states. The singular perturbation parameter is approximated from the coefficients of the Taylor series expansion of the probability distribution. The impact of such queue perturbations on the transmission probability, given some transmission power values, is also analysed. Secondly, the inter-channel interference is modelled as a weakly coupled wireless system. Thirdly, Nash differential games are applied to derive optimal power control signals for each user subject to power constraints at each node. Finally, analytical models and numerical examples show the efficacy of the proposed model in solving power control problems in WBNs.


This article describes a method for patterning certain solids—insoluble salts and reduced metals—in sheets of paper. Chemical reactions that produce these solids as precipitates occur when a stamp of patterned paper inked with an aqueous solution of reagent comes into contact with a paper substrate containing a second reagent. The pattern is determined by a hydrophobic barrier on the stamp that restricts delivery of the ink in two dimensions. The technique is one of the few methods available to generate two-dimensional patterns of solids within the bulk of sheets of paper. It can reliably produce features with lateral dimensions only down to 1 mm, but is convenient, inexpensive, and amenable to use in large-area patterning. The method can be used to introduce function to paper-based systems: (i) paramagnetic salts precipitated within paper allow pieces of it to be manipulated or separated from mixtures with a bar magnet, (ii) the precipitation of transition metals or enzymes can be used to position and store catalysts on paper for subsequent use, (iii) catalysts patterned in two dimensions in paper can be used to generate dynamic 3-D structures when exposed to appropriate substrates: for example, a ring of Pd0 deposited on a sheet of paper will generate a cylindrical "cage" of rising oxygen bubbles when exposed to an aqueous solution of hydrogen peroxide, and (iv) patterns of catalysts or colored precipitates can serve as deterrents to counterfeiting.


The present study is animated by the pespective that organizations can be compared to oxymorons lowered into the reality. The primary objective of this paper, therefore, is to highlight, through theoretical contributions and a case study, the role and the challenges that the companies face in the moments of the definition, and adaption, of the organizational structures in relation to the environmental changes and to the complexity, intended as a preliminary condition and opportunity. The essential thoughts animating the analysis are based on the concept of contingencies, on the new-institutionalism theory and they refer to the general framework of the complexity. The principal methodology used to perform the analyses was a process of literature review. In addition, another methodology used to identify a common thread in the existing research was the "conceptual generalization". This process has highlighted the theoretical and scientific aspects of the analysis and it has been functional to the final analysis, aimed at highlighting the repercussions on the organization of the companies and the human resources of the Jobs Act, a set of laws and legislative decrees that from the end of 2014 has defined new rules and new technical and organizational scenarios.


In this article, we discuss the importance of human assets in growing and scaling a social venture in order to achieve its objectives and attain financial sustainability. We focus on the three key dimensions of how a social enterprise's human assets contribute to the effectiveness of the company's operations and its missions: 1) human capital acquisition, 2) human capital development, and 3) human capital retention. In discussing and unpacking these three dimensions, we draw from rich insights and real- life examples from two social ventures we studied: Solar Sister of Uganda and E-Health Point of India. These inductively-generated research insights underscore the importance of productive engagement of human assets for the long-term viability of social ventures and in achieving their objectives on a broader social scale.


Today, you ll find JavaScript and jQuery used everywhere on the web, from small individual sites to the largest commercial sites like Google, Amazon, and Facebook. That s why every web developer needs to have at least a basic set of JavaScript and jQuery skills. And now, this one book presents the JavaScript and jQuery skills that every web developer needs...whether you re a web designer who s coming from a background in HTML and CSS or a server-side programmer who s coded in languages like PHP, C#, Java, and Python. Due to its unique, self-paced approach, this book works regardless of your experience. And when you re through learning from it, this book will become the best quick reference that you ve ever used. To make this all possible, section 1 presents a 7-chapter course on JavaScript that will get anyone off to a great start, with a special focus on the skills you need for getting the most from jQuery. Then, section 2 presents all of the jQuery skills that you re likely to need, including how to create slide shows, image swaps, carousels, and accordions...how to validate the data in forms...how to use plugins and widgets...and how to use Ajax and JSON to get data from a web server without reloading the web page. At that point, you ll have a solid set of JavaScript and jQuery skills. Then, section 3 lets you expand your skill set as you learn how to work with date and time objects, browser objects, web storage, arrays, your own objects, regular expressions, and more. The last chapter takes your skills to the expert level as you learn how to use modules and IIFEs to build jQuery plugins. Complete coding examples, practice exercises, and Murach s distinctive paired-pages format (each topic is presented in a 2-page spread with text and illustrations) all combine to let you tailor the pace and content to your personal learning style.


Electronic-health or E-health is a broad area of engineering that leverages transducer, circuit and systems technologies for applications to health management and lifestyle. Scientific challenges relate to the acquisition of accurate medical information from various forms of sensing inside/outside the body and to the processing of this information to support or actuate medical decisions. E-health systems must satisfy safety, security and dependability criteria and their deployment is critical because of the low-power and low-noise requirements of components interacting with human bodies. E-health is motivated by the social and economic goals of achieving better health care at lower costs and will revolutionize medical practice in the years to come.


Objective To identify important considerations for the delivery of an exercise training intervention in a randomised controlled trial to maximise subsequent participation in that randomised controlled trial and intervention uptake. Design A cross-sectional survey, with a theoretical basis derived from the Health Belief Model (HBM) and the Reach, Efficacy/Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation and Maintenance (RE-AIM) framework. Participants 374 male senior Australian Football players, aged 17–38 years. Main outcome measurements Beliefs about lower-limb injury causation/prevention, and the relative value of exercise training for performance and injury prevention. The data are interpreted within HBM constructs and implications for subsequent intervention implementation considered within the RE-AIM framework. Ordinal logistic regression compared belief scores across player characteristics. Results 74.4% of players agreed that doing specific exercises during training would reduce their risk of lower-limb injury and would be willing to undertake them. However, 64.1% agreed that training should focus more on improving game performance than injury prevention. Younger players (both in terms of age and playing experience) generally had more positive views. Players were most supportive of kicking (98.9%) and ball-handling (97.0%) skills for performance and warm-up runs and cool-downs (both 91.5%) for injury prevention. Fewer than three-quarters of all players believed that balance (69.2%), landing (71.3%) or cutting/stepping (72.8) training had injury-prevention benefits. Conclusions Delivery of future exercise training programmes for injury prevention aimed at these players should be implemented as part of routine football activities and integrated with those as standard practice, as a means of associating them with training benefits for this sport.


Details are presented for the construction of photodiode array (PDA) measurement systems from commercial components. The PDA systems described include the Hamamatsu S2304–1024Q, a Reticon 1024S using the RC1000 and RC1001 circuit boards, and a Reticon 1024S using the RC1024S circuit board. Detals are presented for computer-controlled clocking and timing circuits, ADC sub-systems, and Peltier cooling subsystems. The measurement characteristics (sensitivity and detection limits) for all arrays are intercompared with the use of analyte emission signals from an inductively coupled plasma.


BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Given the spread of environmental pollution, the development of strategies and changes in lifestyle to reduce urban environmental pollution is of great importance. One of the existing solutions is to develop and promote the use of electric vehicles. An electric vehicle is a car that uses a battery pack to store the electrical energy that powers the motor. EV batteries are charged by plugging the vehicle in to an electric power source. These days, electric vehicles are considered as one of the most modern innovations in the car business. However, the use of these vehicles has not been particularly widespread in third world countries, and this may be due to several reasons. Despite the high level of air pollution in Iran, People and the government still do not accept electric vehicles as an important way to reduce air pollution, and electric vehicles are rarely seen on the streets. The main factors that can affect the reception of electric vehicles by the Iranian people are economic, technical, access, laws, marketing, and personal. METHODS: The factors extracted from literature and identified factors were prioritized using the analytic network process technique. After data gathering with help of questionnaire which its relaiablity and validity was confirmed through inconsistency index and content validity ratio consecutively, the data analysis was performed using SuperDecision software. FINDING: The results showed that Economic with 23%, Technical with 17.8%, Accessibility with 16.4%, laws with 15.3%, marketing with 15.1% and personal with 12.2% had the most significant effect in acceptance of the Iranian people of electric vehicles. CONCLUSION:The results showed that economic factors had the most significant effect in comparison with other criteria. depreciation time, producer company, fuel subsidy, availability of repair shop, car and importance to the environment were the most significant factor in each criteria. =============================================================================================== COPYRIGHTS: ©2021 The author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, as long as the original authors and source are cited. No permission is required from the authors or the publishers. ===================================================================================================


Supersymmetry (SUSY) has been considered since long ago the leading paradigm of beyond the Standard Model (SM) physics as a framework that tackles the SM hierarchy problem, provides gauge coupling unification and a well-behaved cold dark matter (DM) candidate. Nevertheless, current experimental searches for new physics seem to have cornered the minimal versions of these models in unnatural regions of their parameter space, according to the standard Natural SUSY scenario. With the aim of formulating a general naturalness criterion for minimal supersymmetric scenarios, we have carefully re-examined the standard fine-tuning measure, which only deals with the cancellations needed to obtain the electroweak symmetry breaking (EWSB) scale, introducing several improvements such as the mixing of the fine-tuning conditions and the dependence on the low and high-energy (HE) scales. Furthermore, we have outlined a method that allow to straightforwardly derive naturalness bounds on the initial parameters and mass spectrum of any minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM) defined at any HE scale. We have applied this method to specific scenarios to compute a complete set of naturalness bounds. and also employed it to find the most natural gauge-mediated SUSY breaking model. Contrary to what was expected, we show that Natural SUSY, in general, does not demand light stops. The most stringent upper bound from naturalness is that of the gluino mass, which typically sets the level of fine-tuning, but strongly depends on the HE scale. The most robust result of Natural SUSY is by far that Higgsinos should be rather light. Besides, we have investigated other potential sources of fine cancellations in the MSSM, that if present, must be combined with that of the EWSB scale. The most important being the tuning to obtain the experimental Higgs mass and that required to reproduce the correct DM relic abundance. We have quantified them with p-value like measures that allow us to multiplicatively combine them with the electroweak (EW) fine-tuning. Regarding DM, we have considered the lightest neutralino as the DM particle and explored the various possibilities for its mass, composition and interactions that could give rise to accurate arrangements of the initial parameters to achieve the observed DM relic density. Finally, to illustrate the utility of the above stated criteria to estimate the global degree of naturalness, we have applied all of them to a specific model that features low-mass neutralinos and sleptons at low-energy. We find that these scenarios are rather unnatural when taking into account the aforementioned sources of tuning, which would have gone unnoticed, if we have only considered the EW fine-tuning.


We report on the development of hollow-core photonic bandgap fibers for the delivery of high energy pulses for precision micromachining applications. Short pulses of (65ns pulse width) and energies of the order of 0.37mJ have been delivered in a single spatial mode through hollow-core photonic bandgap fibers at 1064nm using a high repetition rate (15kHz) Nd:YAG laser. The ultimate laser-induced damage threshold and practical limitations of current hollow-core fibers for the delivery of short optical pulses are discussed.


Humans are complex and their behaviors follow complex multi-modal patterns, however to solve many social computing problems one often looks at complexity in large-scale yet single point data sources or methodologies. While single data/single method techniques, fueled by large scale data, enjoyed some success, it is not without fault. Often with one type of data and method, all the other aspects of human behavior are overlooked, discarded, or, worse, misrepresented. We identify this as two succinct problems. First, social computing problems that cannot be solved using a single data source and need intelligence from multiple modals and, second, social behavior that cannot be fully understood using only one form of methodology. Throughout this talk, we discuss these problems and their implications, illustrate examples, and propose new directives to properly approach in the social computing research in today's age.


Objectives: The objective of this study was to simulate human papillomavirus (HPV) infection in a heterosexual population and subsequently analyze the incremental costs and effects of introducing a vaccination program against HPV types 6, 11, 16, and 18 in Denmark compared with screening alone. Methods: The analysis was performed in two phases. First, an agent-based transmission model was developed that described the HPV transmission without and with HPV vaccination. Second, an analysis of the incremental costs and effects was performed. The results of prevalence estimates of HPV, genital warts, cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN1–3), and cervical cancer in the model simulations before and after introduction of HPV vaccination were extrapolated to the Danish population figures. Incremental costs and effects were then estimated. Future costs and effects were discounted. Results: Cost-effectiveness ratios for annual vaccination of 12-year-old girls, with a vaccination rate of 70 percent without a catch-up program, were estimated at approximately €1,917 per quality-adjusted life-year (QALY, 3 percent discount rate) and €10,846/QALY (5 percent discount rate), given a 62-year time horizon. Conclusions: A vaccination program would incur extra vaccination costs but would save treatment costs and improve both quality of life and survival.


Abstract This paper examines two modules within the Faculty of Social Sciences at The Open University (OU) and considers the extent to which 'passive' learning may be taking place. Both are level one modules (first year undergraduate) and use a combination of asynchronous (forums) and synchronous (Blackboard Collaborate technology, branded 'OU Live') technologies for teaching. The data reveals that student 'passive engagement' with forums (reading messages in a forum, but not 'actively' posting, colloquially known as lurking) is far higher than 'active engagement' (posting in the forum). The data also shows that participation in OU Live is very low. This initially suggests that teaching and learning strategies needs to be reconsidered, to encourage or increase 'active engagement'. However, the data, alongside literature, also suggests that some students may find value in engaging 'passively'. From the perspective of a Higher Education (HE) institute such as the OU, this may have implications for the tuition delivery strategy used to deliver the module material, as well as how staff development occurs for the tutors that deliver the material. For example, rather than focus a significant effort on encouraging students to participate in active forum use, the emphasis may need to be shifted to ensuring that appropriate/sufficient material is available to 'passive engagers'.


Banks are the primary intermediaries for the reason that in various countries of the world, they carry out financial intermediation. Through the years, different countries have gone through an unprecedented number of failures in the commercial banks internationally. These failures have prompted the need for a more serious focus on suitable methods of improving the performance of national financial systems. Further than the intermediation task, the banks' performance of banks carries a huge implication to expansion of an economy. The fall down in banks' performance has been worrying. The study examined the consequence of prudential system on performance of Kenyan banks. The explicit goal was to examine the effect of capital adequacy, liquidity and credit risk regulation on performance of Kenyan banks. Finally, the study examined the moderating effect bank size on the interlink between prudential regulations and financial performance of banks. Stakeholder Theory, Liquidity Preference and Market Power concepts was of guidance. Causal design of research was utilized in the study. The population target was 42 banks operational from 2013 up to 2018. Census was the approach of gathering data. The data to be collected was secondary in nature. The analysis involved the application of both descriptive and panel regression analysis. In analyzing, STATA software was used. Ethical concerns on the subject of this research was duly complied with. The findings revealed regulation of capital adequacy had a statistically significant influence on the financial performance of banks at p value (p=0.000<0.05). The analysis further revealed that regulation of liquidity had a statistically significant influence on financial performance of the commercial banks (p=0.035<0.05). On average non-performing loans stood at Ksh. 2496.78 million over the five-year period. Results further show that credit risk was a significant determiner of financial performance of commercials banks in Kenya (p=0.014<0.05). When it comes to bank size, the findings showed that the Kenyan banks averaged at 4.29 Billion. As a moderator, it was found that bank size did not significantly influence the relationship between prudential regulations and financial performance (p=0.289>0.05) and its interaction with capital adequacy, liquidity and credit risk did not have any significant effect on ROE. The study recommends that Central Bank of Kenya should tighten regulation on capital adequacy, to create more balance in the core capital and total assets of banks. This would bridge the huge gap identified between banks with high capital and total assets and those with minimum core capital and total assets. The Central Bank of Kenya should also put more effort to regulate the liquidity of the industry to ensure that the huge gap in liquidity is minimized to promote equal growth in the industry. Tight regulations on credit risks more so on non-performing loans should be put into effect to ensure that banks bear less risks from the NPLs


Phenylketonuria (PKU) is a metabolic disorder in which an inability to properly metabolize the amino acid phenylalanine (Phe) leads to a buildup of Phe in the blood, causing neurotoxicity and resulting in intellectual disability, delayed speech, seizures and behavior abnormalities. PKU is typically diagnosed at birth following abnormal newborn screening results. With adherence to a Phe-restricted diet, poor outcomes can be mitigated. Nonetheless, management of PKU can be difficult and onerous for the patient and the family, leading to interest in identifying new ways of managing this lifelong condition.The mainstay for treatment of PKU is a diet that restricts the intake of Phe to control the Phe concentration in the blood. In 2007 the United States Food and Drug Administration approved sapropterin dihydrochloride (Kuvan®, formerly known as Phenoptin) for the treatment of PKU under the stipulation that studies regarding the drug's efficacy and long-term safety continue. Sapropterin dihydrochloride (hereafter, BH4) is presumed to work by enhancing residual enzyme activity present in some individuals with PKU. In addition to a Phe-restricted diet and BH4, another potential treatment for PKU is large neutral amino acids (LNAAs). In theory, LNAAs decrease the brain Phe concentration by competing with Phe for shared amino acid transporters to cross the blood-brain barrier.The Vanderbilt Evidence-based Practice Center completed an Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)-funded systematic review of adjuvant treatments (BH4, LNAAs) for PKU (published February 2012). The report focused on Key Questions related to outcomes and harms of adjuvant treatment with BH4 and LNAAs in individuals with PKU, including pregnant women with PKU, and effects in subgroups (defined by demographic, clinical, genotypic, and adherence-related variables such as age, disease severity, genetic mutations, and dietary status). Key Questions also addressed evidence for optimal Phe levels for minimizing cognitive impairment.Overall, evidence was graded as insufficient to moderate to address treatment-related questions. Dietary management remains the mainstay of treatment for PKU, and maintaining control over the lifetime is an appropriate goal. Nonetheless, there is potential to support patients in achieving their clinical goals and possibly liberalizing their diet with adjuvant therapy. BH4 has been shown in two RCTs and two open label trials to reduce Phe levels in some patients, with significantly greater reductions seen in treated versus placebo groups. Overall, harms associated with the drug were minor. To date, there are no data to directly establish the potential effects of BH4 on longer term clinically important outcomes, including cognition, executive function, and quality of life. Thus, while the strength of evidence is moderate for a large, positive effect of BH4 on reducing Phe levels over the short term in some groups of patients showing initial responsiveness, evidence for the effect of BH4 on longer term clinical outcomes is low, and based on indirect associations, including a meta-analysis of the relationship of Phe levels and IQ.In theory, supplementation of a Phe-restricted diet with LNAAs might have a beneficial effect on cognition as LNAAs may competitively inhibit transportation of Phe through the blood-brain barrier, thereby offering protection by potentially decreasing brain Phe levels. However, there was insufficient evidence to suggest that LNAAs could be a viable treatment option for reducing Phe levels or increasing Phe tolerance.Increasing Phe is clearly associated with decreased IQ, with a probability of IQ less than 85 exceeding the population probability (approximately 15 percent) at blood Phe over 400 μmol/L and leveling off at about 80 percent at 2000 μmol/L (moderate strength of evidence). This finding supports the typical target goal for blood Phe levels in individuals with PKU (120 to 360 μmol/L).


Cardio-vascular specialists have witnessed and actively participated in the revolutionary developments that have occurred in their field of specialization over the last few years. Cutting-edge technologies have led to dramatic improvements in life-expectancy and quality of life. An open-mind and pioneering attitude are necessary when exploring new frontiers to improve our patients' health. However, naive indiscriminate acceptance of novel mainstream therapies is not always advisable and prudence is required in unearthing harmful, covert side effects. An objective review of contemporary vascular research was performed and industrial bias was sifted out for a fresh prospective on how to promote primary cardiovascular prevention with attainable lifestyle adjustments [1]. A comprehensive review of Pubmed, EMBASE and Cochrane review databases was undertaken for articles relating to cardiovascular primary prevention and statin side effects with the aim of harmonising their roles within contemporary clinic practice. Particular attention was paid to large-scale randomised controlled trials on contemporary cardiovascular pharmacotherapies and their specific adverse effects on metabolic pathways which feature prominently in cardiovascular primary prevention and regenerative programmes. There is a categorical lack of clinical evidence to support the use of statin therapy in primary prevention. Not only is there a dearth of evidence for primary cardiovascular protection, there is ample evidence to show that statins actually augment cardiovascular risk in women, patients with Diabetes Mellitus and in the young. Furthermore statins are associated with triple the risk of coronary artery and aortic artery calcification. Cardiovascular primary prevention and regeneration programmes, through life style changes and abstaining from tobacco use have enhanced clinical efficacy and quality of life over any pharmaceutical or other conventional intervention.


Many real-world problems can be represented as graph-based learning problems. In this paper, we propose a novel framework for learning spatial and attentional convolution neural networks on arbitrary graphs. Different from previous convolutional neural networks on graphs, we first design a motif-matching guided subgraph normalization method to capture neighborhood information. Then we implement subgraph-level self-attentional layers to learn different importances from different subgraphs to solve graph classification problems. Analogous to image-based attentional convolution networks that operate on locally connected and weighted regions of the input, we also extend graph normalization from one-dimensional node sequence to two-dimensional node grid by leveraging motif-matching, and design self-attentional layers without requiring any kinds of cost depending on prior knowledge of the graph structure. Our results on both bioinformatics and social network datasets show that we can significantly improve graph classification benchmarks over traditional graph kernel and existing deep models.


The Indonesian Throughflow (ITF) is the only low-latitude conduit for exchange of surface and thermocline waters between the Indian and Pacific Oceans; 80% of the ITF waters pass through the Makassar Strait. The flux of heat and salt through the strait is, in part, a function of the density difference between its southern and northern ends. Here the Mg/Ca and stable oxygen isotope compositions of the planktonic foraminifer Globigerinoides ruber sampled from two sediment cores collected at the northern and southern ends of the Makassar Strait are used to reconstruct surface-water temperature (SST), sea-surface salinity (SSS), and seawater density variability over the past 2000 yr. Maximum SST and SSS occurred at both sites between 850 and 700 yr ago, coinciding with the Medieval Solar Maximum and Medieval Warm Period (ca. 1000–700 yr ago). SST and SSS declined at both locations after 700 yr ago and reached minimum values during the Little Ice Age, between 300 and 100 yr ago. However, the magnitude of SST and SSS change over the past 2000 yr was distinctly different between the two sites, especially during the period between 2000 and 900 yr ago. This led to changes in the south to north density gradient within the Makassar Strait. Specifically, the time interval from ca. 2000 to 800 yr ago was marked predominantly by higher densities at the northern end relative to the southern end of the strait, suggesting reduced heat flux from the Pacific to the Indian Ocean. This is consistent with previous work showing that this time interval was also marked by frequent El Nino conditions. Conversely, the period from ca. 800 to 300 yr ago, including the LIA, was marked by frequent periods when surface density was higher at the southern end of the strait, indicative of enhanced heat flux to the Indian Ocean.


We address the challenge of managing large amounts of numerical data within computing grids consisting of a federation of clusters. We claim that storing, accessing, updating and sharing such data should be considered by applications as an external service . We propose a hierarchical architecture for this service, based on a peer-to-peer approach. This architecture is illustrated through a software platform called JuxMem (for Juxtaposed Memory), which provides transparent access to mutable data, while enhancing data persistence in a dynamic environment. Managing the volatility of storage resources is specially emphasized. As a proof of concept, we describe a prototype implementation on top of the JXTA peer-to-peer framework, and we report on a preliminary experimental evaluation.


Rudist bivalves are abundant in Upper Cretaceous Adriatic carbonate platform deposits in biostromes of varying biodiversity and density that alternate with foraminiferal wackestones to packstones. Their distribution is reviewed with respect to the sequence stratigraphic framework. The Turonian–Senonian succession of the platform comprises three third order sequences: (1) Turonian–Middle Santonian; (2) Middle Santonian–Upper Campanian; (3) Upper Campanian–Upper Maastrichtian. After the early Turonian transgression, which is recorded in all areas investigated, the Adriatic carbonate platform had a regionally varied history. Our analysis shows that hippuritid individuals here grew preferentially in relatively open, outer shelf conditions that prevailed while carbonate production was catching up with sea-level rise following platform foundering. By contrast, densely packed and laterally extensive radiolitid clusters formed in more restricted platform settings where carbonate production tended to keep up with relative sea-level rise and yielded successive shallowing-upward cycles. This pattern contrasts with that known from more northern Tethyan regions (such as the Pyrenees and SE France), where hippuritids frequently dominate the restricted platform top deposits. The difference may reflect a greater tendency to hypersalinity on the broad interiors of the pure carbonate platforms in central and southern Tethyan regions, though other possible explanations have been offered.


Strategic growth is vital to all organizations in the 21st century, therefore for a company to survive in today's competitive world they need to spread their wings and look beyond their normal way of doing business and begin to embrace growth. Kenyan banks have not been left behind in driving their growth agenda and this has led them to grow into different countries for different reasons. Some banks have decided to grow into Tanzania first; while others opted to start with Sudan, others Uganda and others Rwanda. How Kenyan banks determine which countries they should grow into first and the different reasons that lead them to start operations in one country and not another is still a mystery. On the basis of understanding this phenomenon, this research investigated the different reasons that led to KCB's growth strategy in each country it is operational in. In trying to achieve the objectives of the research, the study adopted a case study approach where in-depth interviews were conducted with the top cream management in the organization using an interview guide. The research found out that the reasons for KCB's growth were; increased profits, growth of customer base / market share, growth of bank deposits, increase revenues, stronger corporate image, following existing customers, increase investor confidence, increase shareholder value, growth of its balance sheet, increase shareholder base, building stronger brand name, presence of virgin market in other countries, favorable political
Environment, ego, to be in line with its vision, maintain their position of being the largest branch network, enhance competitiveness and large unbanked market. The study also found out that KCB indeed had different reasons for growing into Tanzania, Uganda, Sudan and Rwanda. The study also made a number of recommendations which KCB should adopt to remain competitive in the market and continue with its growth strategy. These recommendations included focusing on both home market and international market growth so that neither suffers and that the bank should focus on cost management in order to grow further. According to Keegan, (1998), the bank should focus on market leader strategy where a company wants to always remain number one. KCB boasts of having the largest branch network among other banks in Kenya and it should therefore defend and protect this position in order to remain ahead of competition.


A hands-on guide to the Java programming language, The Java™ Tutorial, Fourth Edition is perfect for any developer looking for a proven path to proficiency with Java SE. This popular tutorial "from the Source" has been completely revised and updated to cover Version 6 of the Java Platform, Standard Edition.Written by members of the Java Software team at Sun Microsystems, this book uses a tested, interactive approach and features real-world problems that help you learn the Java platform by example.New to this edition are chapters on generics, collections, Java Web Start, the platform environment, and regular expressions. Key sections, including the Threads, I/O, Object-Oriented Programming Concepts, and Language Basics chapters have been completely rewritten to reflect reader feedback and to cover new features added to the Java SE 6 platform. A new appendix contains information on how to prepare for the Java Programming Language Certification exam.As with the previous editions, you will find clear explanations of the fundamentals of objects, classes, and data structures, as well as detailed coverage of exceptions, I/O, and threads. All of the popular features that made this book a classic have been retained, including convenient summaries at the end of each section and Questions and Exercises segments to help you practice what you learn.The accompanying CD-ROM is filled with valuable resources including the latest Java SE software (the JRE, JDK, Java API spec, and the guide documentation), the code samples from this book, and solutions to the questions and exercises.The Java™ Series is supported, endorsed, and authored by the creators of the Java technology at Sun Microsystems, Inc. It is the official place to go for complete, expert, and definitive information on Java technology. The books in this series provide the inside information you need to build effective, robust, and portable applications and applets. The Series is an indispensable resource for anyone targeting the Java™ platform.


Context. Obesity is the most common health problem facing children. The most recent data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey III suggest that 22% of children and adolescents are overweight and that 11% are obese. Objective. To investigate prospectively the association between the home environment and socioeconomic factors and the development of obesity in children. Design. Prospective cohort study. Setting. The National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. Population. A total of 2913 normal weight children between the ages of 0 and 8 years were followed over a 6-year period. We examined the roles of race, marital status, maternal education, family income, and parental occupation, as well as standardized measures of the home environment (The Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment [HOME]-Short Form) on the development of childhood obesity. Primary Outcome Measure. Incidence of obesity. Obesity was defined as a body mass index >95th percentile for age and gender at the 6-year follow-up. Results. Maternal obesity was the most significant predictor of childhood obesity (OR: 3.62 [2.65–4.96]). The HOME-Short Form cognitive scores and household income were also significant predictors of childhood obesity (OR, low HOME-cognitive: 2.64 [1.48–4.70], medium HOME-cognitive: 2.32 [1.39–3.88]; low income: 2.91 [1.66–5.08], medium income: 2.04 [1.21–3.44]). Children who lived with single mothers were also significantly more likely to become obese by the 6-year follow-up, as were black children, children with nonworking parents, children with nonprofessional parents, and children whose mothers did not complete high school. Neither the child's gender nor the HOME-emotional scores contributed to the development of obesity. After controlling for the child's initial weight-for-height z-score, maternal body mass index, race, marital status, occupation, education, and HOME emotional scores, only the HOME cognitive score and family income remained significant predictors of childhood obesity. Conclusion. Children with obese mothers, low family incomes, and lower cognitive stimulation have significantly elevated risks of developing obesity, independent of other demographic and socioeconomic factors. In contrast, increased rates of obesity in black children, children with lower family education, and nonprofessional parents may be mediated through the confounding effects of low income and lower levels of cognitive stimulation.


We demonstrate that it is possible to measure metallicity from the SDSS five-band photometry to better than 0.1 dex using supervised machine learning algorithms. Using spectroscopic estimates of metallicity as ground truth, we build, optimize and train several estimators to predict metallicity. We use the observed photometry, as well as derived quantities such as stellar mass and photometric redshift, as features, and we build two sample data sets at median redshifts of 0.103 and 0.218 and median r-band magnitude of 17.5 and 18.3 respectively. We find that ensemble methods, such as Random Forests of Trees and Extremely Randomized Trees, and Support Vector Machines all perform comparably well and can measure metallicity with a Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) of 0.081 and 0.090 for the two data sets when all objects are included. The fraction of outliers (objects for which |Z_true - Z_pred| > 0.2 dex) is 2.2 and 3.9%, respectively and the RMSE decreases to 0.068 and 0.069 if those objects are excluded. Because of the ability of these algorithms to capture complex relationships between data and target, our technique performs better than previously proposed methods that sought to fit metallicity using an analytic fitting formula, and has 3x more constraining power than SED fitting-based methods. Additionally, this method is extremely forgiving of contamination in the training set, and can be used with very satisfactory results for training sample sizes of just a few hundred objects. We distribute all the routines to reproduce our results and apply them to other data sets.


Amphibole and tremolite are related forms of contaminant asbestos that are extremely toxic in nature. However, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has not specifically listed these asbestiforms in the Clean Air Act (CAA) or its implementing regulations because they are not commercially produced. This exclusion is difficult to justify in light of the well-established link between exposure to these contaminants and asbestos-related disease. This Note discusses the regulatory loophole created by the current CAA regulatory scheme and uses the pending criminal action against W.R. Grace & Company to expose the need for regulations in this area. This Note calls for EPA to promulgate explicit regulations on contaminant-asbestos. Absent regulatory action, this Note urges courts to interpret the CAA in accordance with congressional intent to ensure that the knowing emission of hazardous pollutants does not go unpunished.


Endometrial cancer is the most common gynecological cancer and the fourth most common cancer in women worldwide. In spite of its' relative importance to overall morbidity among women, molecular research in endometrial cancers lags far behind other cancers such as breast and colorectal. Nowhere is this more true than in research in the newly emergent field of posttranscriptional gene regulation by small, regulatory RNAs, primarily microRNAs (miRNAs). Here, structure, biogenesis, and mode of action of miRNAs are presented along with a brief overview of the role of miRNAs in carcinogenesis and a review of the few miRNA studies in endometrial cancer carried out to date.