Rankings and scores are two common data types used by judges to express preferences and/or perceptions of quality in a collection of objects. Numerous models exist to study data of each type separately, but no unified statistical model captures both data types simultaneously without first performing data conversion. We propose the Mallows-Binomial model to close this gap, which combines a Mallows' $\phi$ ranking model with Binomial score models through shared parameters that quantify object quality, a consensus ranking, and the level of consensus between judges. We propose an efficient tree-search algorithm to calculate the exact MLE of model parameters, study statistical properties of the model both analytically and through simulation, and apply our model to real data from an instance of grant panel review that collected both scores and partial rankings. Furthermore, we demonstrate how model outputs can be used to rank objects with confidence. The proposed model is shown to sensibly combine information from both scores and rankings to quantify object quality and measure consensus with appropriate levels of statistical uncertainty.


This paper considers the determination of aggregate price level under dispersed information. Central Bank sets policy in response to its noisy measure of the price level, and each agent makes its decisions by observing a subset of data. Information revealed to the agents and Bank is determined endogenously. It is shown that the aggregate state of the economy is not revealed perfectly to anybody but this economy behaves as if it is a representative-agent economy in which the representative agent has perfect information while the Bank has partial information. The Bank has information set affects fluctuations in the price level through its effect on policy.


This article is dedicated to Prof. Dr Andries van Aarde who has mentored a large number of students during his time as a lecturer at the University of Pretoria. It is written at the time when workers in South Africa are striking. Industrial psychologists are involved in mediation and aim to develop a culture of understanding between workers and management. The article analyses some causes of tension between managers and workers in the South African context and indicates how mentorship may help to foster growth amongst workers and managers. A case study explores the issue of cultural differences which often lead to misunderstandings, especially when managers do not understand the world in which workers live. The aim of the article is to contribute to existing insights that may help to create a healthy working relationship between managers and workers which will benefit both.


The southern coast of Ionian Calabria was recently recognized as the main nesting area of the loggerhead sea turtle Caretta caretta in Italy. The aim of this study was to characterize the fishing fleet in this area in terms of number of boats, economic situation, social aspects and impact on sea turtle specimens and target species. A multidisciplinary approach was essential to understand how the conservation problems of C. caretta are linked to various characteristics of the fishing fleet. Our data showed a vast discrepancy between the official census and the actual number of boats fishing in the area: 87% of the observed artisanal vessels lacked a required registration number, and thus were fishing illegally. This has caused serious social problems that worsened over the summer of 2007, when the presence of non-local registered vessels, using drift nets, generated a spatial conflict with the local artisanal fishermen. We identified 11 fishing gears used in the area and four of them were studied with on board observations: illegal drift nets, trammel nets, bottom longlines and longlines targeting swordfish. The total number of turtles caught during the summer in the area by longliners targeting swordfish was calculated to be 500 (±180 SE). In addition the presence of drift netters had a negative impact from an ecological and social point of view.


We describe a new method of aortoventriculoplasty in a patient with calcified mitral stenosis, aortic valvular stenosis, severe left ventricular outflow tract obstruction, and aneurysm of the ascending aorta. This complex pathology was successfully treated with replacement of both the valves and a tubular dacron graft. The proximal end of the dacron tube was tailored as a patch for the repair of the ventricular septum and the aortic root, and the distal end was anastomosed to the distal ascending aorta. The patient had an uneventful recovery and postoperative echocardiography showed no significant residual gradient on the left ventricular outflow tract.


Abstract This paper discusses the significance of restorative justice practices and orientations for social work education. It describes the four basic forms of restorative justice-victim-offender conferencing, community reparative boards, family group conferencing, and healing circles, with special relevance to social work. Learning about principles and practice of restorative justice is important, if social work is to provide leadership in policy innovation and program development. Following the overview, this paper provides suggestions for integrating restorative content on this timely topic throughout the social work curriculum.


The properties of a rapid scanning Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FT-IR) which permit its effective utilization in acquiring kinetics information are described. Experiments which would be lengthy and difficult to perform by conventional infrared procedures can be performed quickly and more reliably with an FT-IR system. The detection of all spectral frequencies simultaneously, inherent to the interferometer spectrometer, enables these advances to be achieved. The computer, which is essential for Fourier transformation, can also be utilized to provide absorbance profiles, differential profiles, and other display formats which can simplify the analysis and improve the reliability of kinetic measurements. Spectra and profiles obtained for a gas-solid adsorption process and a gas phase reaction of butadiene with an NO2-N2O4 mixture are presented to illustrate the potentials of an FT-IR system.


The concerns of this Master degree project are the implementations of an expert system development environment and an application to manufacturing. The environment is given the name of IDEA (Integrated expert system Development Environment with Automatic verification feature), and it integrates an expert system shell with a rule base verification facility and a rule base builder into a single program. The interface of IDEA has the look of a general purpose computer language. The knowledge bases referenced by IDEA consist of LF-THEN rules with the syntax of Object-Attribute-Value (O-A-V) triples and confidence factors. An application is developed for grinding chattering diagnosis problems using the IDEA. The verification facility of IDEA realizes the main functions of CHECK, a verification tool, developed by T. Nguyen et al, 1987, so that it can identify some major problems of inconsistency and incompleteness. Different from CHECK, IDEA uses a unique approach based on rule tree algorithm to check for some logic problems in a rule base. IDEA also has the ability to draw the rule tree on a computer screen. This report discusses the problems of inconsistency and incompleteness in detail, including the influence of introducing confidence factors. Some problems identified in this report are not reported before. The rule base builder of IDEA uses some techniques that can greatly reduce errors in a rule base during its input phase and greatly speed up the input work. First, the builder uses templates for rule input to eliminate the possible syntax errors of rules. Second, it uses an O-AV file for declared O-A-V triples. By checking the O-A-V file and the O-A-V triples used in the rule base, the problems of illegal O-A-V triples and unreferenced O-A-V triples can be identified. Finally, it has the ability to automatically generate the ask-part of the rule base, so that no errors will exists in the ask-part and the input work can be efficient. Grinding chattering is a kind of abnormal phenomenon in a grinding process, which greatly degrades the surface quality of the workpiece ground. The grinding chattering diagnosis rule base gives complete answers for the causes of chattering for external cylindrical grinding. This report describes the rule base development work and its related grinding knowledge.


Background:In many resource-limited settings monitoring of combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) is based on the current CD4 count, with limited access to HIV RNA tests or laboratory diagnostics. We examined whether the CD4 count slope over 6 months could provide additional prognostic information. Methods:We analyzed data from a large multicohort study in South Africa, where HIV RNA is routinely monitored. Adult HIV-positive patients initiating cART between 2003 and 2010 were included. Mortality was analyzed in Cox models; CD4 count slope by HIV RNA level was assessed using linear mixed models. Results:About 44,829 patients (median age: 35 years, 58% female, median CD4 count at cART initiation: 116 cells/mm3) were followed up for a median of 1.9 years, with 3706 deaths. Mean CD4 count slopes per week ranged from 1.4 [95% confidence interval (CI): 1.2 to 1.6] cells per cubic millimeter when HIV RNA was <400 copies per milliliter to −0.32 (95% CI: −0.47 to −0.18) cells per cubic millimeter with >100,000 copies per milliliter. The association of CD4 slope with mortality depended on current CD4 count: the adjusted hazard ratio (aHRs) comparing a >25% increase over 6 months with a >25% decrease was 0.68 (95% CI: 0.58 to 0.79) at <100 cells per cubic millimeter but 1.11 (95% CI: 0.78 to 1.58) at 201–350 cells per cubic millimeter. In contrast, the aHR for current CD4 count, comparing >350 with <100 cells per cubic millimeter, was 0.10 (95% CI: 0.05 to 0.20). Conclusions:Absolute CD4 count remains a strong risk for mortality with a stable effect size over the first 4 years of cART. However, CD4 count slope and HIV RNA provide independently added to the model.


PURPOSE OF REVIEW Unusual headache disorders are less commonly discussed and may be misdiagnosed. These headache disorders frequently have a benign natural history; however, without reassurance, therapeutic education, and treatment, they can negatively affect the health and function of patients. RECENT FINDINGS This article reviews the clinical features, diagnosis, workup, and proposed treatments for several unusual headache disorders including primary cough headache, primary headache associated with sexual activity, primary exercise headache, cold-stimulus headache, primary stabbing headache, nummular headache, hypnic headache, and headache attributed to travel in space. Exploding head syndrome is also discussed, which is a sleep disorder commonly confused with a headache disorder. SUMMARY Unusual headache disorders are usually benign, yet without the correct diagnosis can be very worrisome for many patients. Through greater awareness of these headache disorders, neurologists can evaluate and effectively manage unusual headache disorders, which offers significant benefits to patients and practice satisfaction to neurologists.


BACKGROUND
The aim of this paper was to identify the factors at surgical intensive care unit (SICU) admission and during the following SICU course that influence hospital mortality of patients with prolonged SICU stay (>14 days).

METHODS
This prospectively-planned study enrolled 1661 patients over 16 years old with prolonged SICU stay in a tertiary-care teaching hospital over a 4-year period. Data at SICU admission, physiologic factors on the 14th SICU day and the indications of prolonged ICU stay were collected. A multivariate logistic regression model with a least absolute shrinkage and selection operator technique was adopted to identify factors associated with hospital mortality in prolonged-stay patients at the 14th SICU day.

RESULTS
Prolonged-stay patients accounted for 9.7% of the total SICU admissions, but consumed 51.7% of total SICU days. The hospital mortality of these patients was 34%. For predicting the hospital mortality in prolonged SICU stay patients, the predictors at ICU admission included gender, longer pre-ICU days, higher Charlson comorbidity index, and not admitted from emergency. Predictors on the 14th SICU day included lower Glasgow coma scale, lower mean arterial pressure, higher dosage of inotropes required, higher serum lactate level, higher serum bilirubin level, lower platelet count, and the use of renal replacement therapy. Among the indications for prolonged SICU stay, predictors included the need for mechanical circulatory support, worsening acute encephalopathy with altered mental status, hemodynamic instability due to bleeding, and sepsis with unstable vital signs.

CONCLUSION
This validated predictive model reached clinically accurate discriminatory power, and may serve to improve patient care and resource utilization in the SICU.


The 1996 memoir All Souls: A Family Story from Southie by Michael Patrick MacDonald has been highly praised for its portrayal of a white urban underclass in South Boston. Few commentators, however, have observed that the Catholic origins of the author, and the distinctly Catholic milieu of the neighborhood he describes, shape the worldview, vocabulary, and psychological attitudes on display throughout the book. This article considers the Catholic sensibilities that inform MacDonald's narrative. When examined in light of the traditional understandings of religion as an interplay of creed, code, and cult, the Catholics of All Souls are clearly immersed in the cultic aspects of their religion. In addition, they adapt a particular trope derived from Catholic tradition, that of the Guardian Angel, to cope with the difficulties of their socioeconomic plight. Further, the author indicates that on a personal and emotional level, he conceives of his own life and his role in the family as deriving from the figure of the Guardian Angel.


This issue of the Journal of Wine Economics begins with "Modeling Global Wine Markets to 2018: Exchange Rates, Taste Changes, and China's Import Growth" by Kym Anderson and Glyn Wittwer. Their analysis employs an econometric model based on 2007–2011 data, to forecast a range of likely global wine market scenarios for the next five years. The authors compute a range of alternative simulations for different real exchange and economic growth rates. In addition to finding a continuing trend toward premium wines, all scenarios also suggest that "China's place in global wine markets is likely to become increasingly more prominent. . . . Not all segments of the industry are projected to benefit, with nonpremium producers facing falling prices if demand for their product continues to dwindle as projected above. But those exporting firms willing to invest sufficiently in building relationships with their Chinese importer/distributor – or in going into grape growing or wine making within China, may well enjoy long-term benefits from such investments."


To explore the hypothesis that mental retardations are in part genetotrophic diseases (diseases in which the genetic pattern of the afflicted individual requires an augmented supply of one or more nutrients such that when these nutrients are adequately supplied the disease is ameliorated), we carried out a partially double-blind experiment with 16 retarded children (initial IQs, approximately 17-70) of school age who wee given nutritional supplements or placebos during a period of 8 months. The supplement contained 8 minerals in moderate amounts and 11 vitamins, mostly in relatively large amounts. During the first 4- month period (double-blind) the 5 children who received supplements increased their average IQ by 5.0-9.6, depending on the investigator, whereas the 11 subjects given placebos showed negligible change. The difference between these two groups is statistically significant (P less than 0.05). During the second period, the subjects who had been given placebos in the first study received supplements; they showed an average IQ increase of at least 10.2, a highly significant gain (P less than 0.001). Three of the five subjects who were given supplements for both periods showed additional IQ gains during the second 4 months. Three of four children with Down syndrome gained between 10 and 25 units in IQ and also showed physical changes toward normal. Other evidence suggests that the supplement improved visual acuity in two children and increased growth rates. These results support the hypothesis that mental retardations are in part genetotrophic in origin.


The crack growth resistance of irradiated Zr-2.5Nb pressure tubes is controlled by the initiation of voids and their subsequent growth and coalescence. The presence of particles that contribute to void nucleation is determined by the operating conditions/history of the pressure tube and by the concentration of pre-existing species, which is a function of the manufacturing process. The susceptibility of the pressure tubes to void nucleation is determined by the number and distribution of particles, the deformation properties of the matrix, and the stress state at the crack tip. The effect of irradiation on zirconium material is to increase the yield stress but to reduce the work hardening ability of the matrix and to promote strain localization, which, in turn, leads to void nucleation. Void nucleation is also enhanced by high values of stress triaxiality at or near the crack tip. For irradiated pressure tube material, both small-scale curved compact tension specimens and large-scale burst test sections are used to characterize the crack growth resistance. However, the measured fracture toughness can depend on the specimen geometry due to differences in constraint. The present investigation uses three-dimensional finite element analyses to characterize stress triaxiality at the crack tip in these different specimen geometries. Results of the numerical analyses are compared to the experimental evidence that provide qualitative evidence of differences in stress triaxiality at the crack tip for different specimen geometries.


The management of pancreatic cancer continues to be challenging. Despite surgical, genetic and molecular advances, its overall prognosis remains poor. Surgical resection is the only modality that offers a chance for a cure, with an overall survival rate of 10–20% at 5 years. However, only 20% of the patients are surgical candidates because of locally advanced disease or systemic stage at presentation. Conventional radiotherapy, with or without chemotherapy, has been used to treat patients with advanced-stage pancreatic cancer, an approach with high rates of local recurrence. Stereotactic body radiation therapy, also known as stereotactic ablative radiotherapy has emerged as a treatment modality that allows the precise delivery of a large ablative radiation dose to a tumor volume while sparing surrounding organs and tissues. Phase I and II studies have shown good rates of local control of the disease but rates of distant metastasis remain significant. Strategies to combine novel systemic therapy and stereotactic body radiation therapy are to be explored.


Between
 1900 and 1940, tuberculosis moved from being the second highest cause of
 death in the United States to no longer being a leading cause of death. The
 historical causes of the decline in tuberculosis thus remain unclear. This
 paper examines the role of public health demonstrations in the decline in
 tuberculosis by studying the Framingham Community Health and Tuberculosis
 Demonstration, a public health demonstration conducted in Framingham,
 Massachusetts from 1917-1924. We measure the decreases in tuberculosis and
 infant mortality during the Framingham Demonstration using a linear
 regression model and the synthetic control model first used by Abadie and
 Gardeazabal (2003). The linear regression model finds that tuberculosis
 mortality decreased by approximately 22 deaths per 100,000 population and
 infant mortality decreased by approximately 11 to 14 deaths per 1,000 live
 births over the period of 1917-1923. The synthetic control model confirms
 these findings.


In the second half of the nineteenth century, many people lost their faith in the Christian God. Nevertheless, they were eager to show that this move towards a secular world picture did not mean the end of morality and that it could continue as much before. In a Darwinian age this was not possible and the Christian cherishing of the virtue of meekness was replaced by a moral respect for vigor and effort directed both towards self-realization and to the well-being of society. We compare the British moves to those promoted by the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. There are significant similarities but also differences that reflect the British industrialized notion of progress versus the German idealistic notion of progress.


Plasma resonance absorption of 633-nm photons in silver gratings produced holographically with groove spacing d = 2186 nm and corrugation amplitudes h = 9, 25, and 41 nm were studied in conical (nonplanar) diffraction geometries. Resonance absorption of p- and s-polarized incident photons were measured as a function of the ruling orientation relative to the plane of incidence by using the photoacoustic method. It was found that the relative intensities of resonance absorption for p- and s-polarized light are strongly dependent on the corrugation amplitude and that s-polarized photons are converted more efficiently to surface plasmons than p-polarized photons as the grating grooves become deeper.


Abstract Sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) and universal health coverage (UHC) are fundamental to health as a human right. One way that countries operationalise UHC is through the development of an essential package of health services (EPHS), which describes a list of clinical and public health services that a government aspires to provide for their population. This study reviews the contents of 46 countries' EPHS against the standard of the Guttmacher-Lancet Report's (GLR) nine essential SRHR interventions. The analysis is conducted in two steps; EPHS are first categorised according to the level of specificity of their contents using a case classification scheme, then the most detailed EPHS are mapped onto the GLR's nine essential SRHR interventions. The results highlight the variations of EPHS and provide information on the inclusion of the GLR nine essential SRHR interventions in low- and lower-middle income countries' EPHS. This study also proposes a case classification scheme as an analytical tool to conceptualise how EPHS fall along a spectrum of specificity and defines a set of keywords for evaluating the contents of policies against the standard of the GLR. These analytical tools and findings can be relevant for policymakers, researchers, and organisations involved in SRHR advocacy to better understand the variations in detail among countries' EPHS and compare governments' commitment to SRHR as a human right.


Background Despite advancement of our knowledge, cholera remains a public health concern. During March-April 2010, a large cholera outbreak afflicted the eastern part of Kolkata, India. The quantification of importance of socio-environmental factors in the risk of cholera, and the calculation of the risk is fundamental for deploying vaccination strategies. Here we investigate socio-environmental characteristics between high and low risk areas as well as the potential impact of vaccination on the spatial occurrence of the disease. Methods and Findings The study area comprised three wards of Kolkata Municipal Corporation. A mass cholera vaccination campaign was conducted in mid-2006 as the part of a clinical trial. Cholera cases and data of the trial to identify high risk areas for cholera were analyzed. We used a generalized additive model (GAM) to detect risk areas, and to evaluate the importance of socio-environmental characteristics between high and low risk areas. During the one-year pre-vaccination and two-year post-vaccination periods, 95 and 183 cholera cases were detected in 111,882 and 121,827 study participants, respectively. The GAM model predicts that high risk areas in the west part of the study area where the outbreak largely occurred. High risk areas in both periods were characterized by poor people, use of unsafe water, and proximity to canals used as the main drainage for rain and waste water. Cholera vaccine uptake was significantly lower in the high risk areas compared to low risk areas. Conclusion The study shows that even a parsimonious model like GAM predicts high risk areas where cholera outbreaks largely occurred. This is useful for indicating where interventions would be effective in controlling the disease risk. Data showed that vaccination decreased the risk of infection. Overall, the GAM-based risk map is useful for policymakers, especially those from countries where cholera remains to be endemic with periodic outbreaks.


Design of biomaterials and cellular scaffolds for tissue-engineering applications and regenerative medicine requires a precise understanding of the principles underlying multicellular patterning. Adhesion, migration, division, differentiation, and apoptosis are characteristic cellular behaviors, the engineering of which has the potential to allow creation of custom, multicellular structures. These cellular events occur naturally during embryonic and postembryonic development of multicellular organisms. Development thus offers the opportunity to learn about the design principles and molecular mechanisms that guide cellular patterning. A key finding in developmental biology is that a limited set of conserved molecular signaling pathways act at multiple times and locations throughout the embryo to introduce cell-fate asymmetries in homogenous populations of cells. In turn, these asymmetries serve as starting points for the patterning of new organs. These signaling pathways interact quantitatively at multiple levels, including signaling cues, post-translational regulation, and gene-regulatory networks, to guide multicellular patterning. How does the quantitative performance of these signaling networks ensure the intended phenotype pattern? How do changes in the quantitative performance of these networks, possibly over the course of evolution, give rise to new phenotypes? These are the central questions pursued in this thesis. In order to answer such questions, we used vulva formation in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans as a model system of cellular patterning. We formulated a mathematical model of the molecular network underlying cellular-fate specification in this system. Computational analysis of this molecular network reveals that cell–cell coupling through lateral LIN-12/Notch signaling amplifies the perception of the gradient in the epidermal-growth-factor-like soluble cue, LIN-3. Thus, the gradient in LIN-3 concentration produces an even steeper difference in LIN-3-mediated intracellular signals between adjoining cells. Such gradient amplification may be particularly important in converting a shallow, graded-specification signal into a spatial pattern of distinct fate choices. Through quantitative perturbations of interaction strengths between components of the vulval patterning network, we further show that our modeling approach can correctly predict phenotype patterns observed in C. elegans mutation studies. This study generated a framework for quantitative analysis of molecular networks that links quantitative molecular perturbations to patterning outcomes. This framework will prove useful in the analysis of other systems involving cellular fate decisions and in tissue engineering applications where the generation of precise cell patterns is needed. We demonstrate the generality of our approach through an application to evolutionary developmental biology. Since molecular connectivity of the vulva patterning network of several closely related Caenorhabditis species is preserved, we correctly predict the quantitative diversification that must have occurred in this network during species evolution.


This paper documents the computer code implementing the CE-SAM estimation technique in GAMS (General Algebraic Modeling System). It defines the estimation problem in a deterministic setting; extends the approach to include a stochastic treatment of errors in control totals; summarizes the equations describing CE technique for estimating a consistent SAM starting from an inconsistent data set estimated with error; and provides the GAMS code.


We have investigated the modulation instability (MI) in a nonlinear optical coupler using a generalized model describing the pulse propagation of a waveguiding structure composed of two adjacent waveguides. The model consists of a nonlinear tunnel-coupled structure consisting of right- and left-handed media. The optical coupler considered here includes a local saturable nonlinear refractive index. In particular, we discuss the impact of the saturable nonlinearity for the MI of plane waves and formation of spatial solitons. The results show that MI can exist not only in the normal group velocity dispersion (GVD) regime but also in the normal GVD regime in the nonlinear positive-negative index coupler in the presence of saturable nonlinearity. The saturable nonlinearity can increase/decrease the number of sidebands or shift the existing sidebands. The maximum value of the MI gain, as well as its bandwidth, has been also affected by the saturable nonlinearity. Moreover, the saturable nonlinearity may influence considerably the number of wave trains induced by MI.


The paper aims to analyze publications with the theme of information management (IM), cited on Web of Science (WoS). As regards the frequency of publishing about IM reaches the linear growth; from two dozen articles in five-year interval in seventies last century up to hundreds articles in the actual period. From the selected publications was subject to a detailed analysis only whose number of citations is greater than 40; it was 21 articles, published in 20 journals, oriented to informatics, economics and management, computer science, and psychology. The diversity of interest about IM in various areas of science and research, technology, and practice was confirmed. The content of selected articles was analyzed in its area of interest, in relation the text of article to IM, and whether the definition of IM was mentioned. One of the goals was to confirm the hypothesis that the concept of IM is used very loosely and usually includes part about information processing, and about the application of information and communication technologies. The hypothesis was confirmed. In analyzed articles was used concept of IM in the broader context of activities, with focus on various aspects of IM. The most frequent area of IM application was business support. The article explains the definition of IM; describes the research methodology, presents results. In detail is described the focus of selected articles and their understanding of the term IM.


Gender differentials in academic institutions are generating a high increase of studies on the female academic, the objectives are oriented to analyze and identify what are the reasons for these differences between teaching and research in higher education, especially in the representative bodies and university professors. Although there are political and institutional parameters that break the so-called "glass ceiling  ", the aim of this study has been to show clear evidence the situation of inequality and discrimination against women in the Spanish universities. The results collected, as well as numerous studies have analyzed to locate state of affairs, consistent with the evidence. The findings of this study show possible positions and attitudes that can contribute to break the academic representation of the Spanish university context. The investigations that probe the beliefs, thoughts and attitudes of female academic can be considered as a valuable resource for the social construction towards equality and essentially in promoting a genuine professional development of equity in the context of Higher Education


When refactoring production code, software developers rely on an automated test suite as a safeguard. However, when refactoring the test suite itself, there is no such safeguard. Therefore, there is a need for tool support that can verify if a refactored test suite preserves its behaviour pre- and post-refactoring. In this work we present T-CORE (Test COde REfactoring tool); a tool that captures the behaviour of Java tests in the form of a Test Behaviour Tree. T-CORE allows developers to verify that the refactoring of a test suite has preserved the behaviour of the test.


Global climate change, i.e. higher and more variable temperatures, and a gain in soil salinity are increasing plant stress with direct consequences on crop yield and quality levels. Rice productivity is strongly affected by abiotic stress conditions. The regulation of chromatin structure in response to environmental stress is poorly understood. We investigated the interphase chromatin organization from rice plants in non-stress versus stress conditions. We have used a cytogenetic approach, based on fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) with 45S, 5S rDNA and centromeric probes on rice tissue sections. The abiotic stress conditions included cold, heat and mild salinity and were applied during seed germination. In contrast to cold, saline and heat stresses caused extensive decondensation of 45S rDNA chromatin and also an increase in the distance between the 2 homologous 5S rDNA loci. 5-Azacytidine (5-AC), a DNA hypomethylating drug, greatly increased 45S rDNA chromatin decondensation and interestingly was able to induce polarization of centromeres in rice interphase nuclei. The abiotic stresses tested did not perturb the spatial position of centromeres, typically with circular arrangement around the nucleolus. The results suggest a role for chromatin plasticity in a world of climate changes.


Multi-sensor satellite imagery data promote fast, cost-efficient regional geological mapping that constantly forms a criterion for successful gold exploration programs in harsh and inaccessible regions. The Barramiya–Mueilha sector in the Central Eastern Desert of Egypt contains several occurrences of shear/fault-associated gold-bearing quartz veins with consistently simple mineralogy and narrow hydrothermal alteration haloes. Gold-quartz veins and zones of carbonate alteration and listvenitization are widespread along the ENE–WSW Barramiya–Um Salatit and Dungash–Mueilha shear belts. These belts are characterized by heterogeneous shear fabrics and asymmetrical or overturned folds. Sentinel-1, Phased Array type L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (PALSAR), Advanced Space borne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER), and Sentinel-2 are used herein to explicate the regional structural control of gold mineralization in the Barramiya–Mueilha sector. Feature-oriented Principal Components Selection (FPCS) applied to polarized backscatter ratio images of Sentinel-1 and PALSAR datasets show appreciable capability in tracing along the strike of regional structures and identification of potential dilation loci. The principal component analysis (PCA), band combination and band ratioing techniques are applied to the multispectral ASTER and Sentinel-2 datasets for lithological and hydrothermal alteration mapping. Ophiolites, island arc rocks, and Fe-oxides/hydroxides (ferrugination) and carbonate alteration zones are discriminated by using the PCA technique. Results of the band ratioing technique showed gossan, carbonate, and hydroxyl mineral assemblages in ductile shear zones, whereas irregular ferrugination zones are locally identified in the brittle shear zones. Gold occurrences are confined to major zones of fold superimposition and transpression along flexural planes in the foliated ophiolite-island arc belts. In the granitoid-gabbroid terranes, gold-quartz veins are rather controlled by fault and brittle shear zones. The uneven distribution of gold occurrences coupled with the variable recrystallization of the auriferous quartz veins suggests multistage gold mineralization in the area. Analysis of the host structures assessed by the remote sensing results denotes vein formation spanning the time–space from early transpression to late orogen collapse during the protracted tectonic evolution of the belt.


In the recent years we have witnessed massive boost to hardware graphics accelerators (graphics cards), not only in the raw performance, but also in their programmability, introducing the concept of GPGPU. However, despite this, the current architectures still favor feed-forward algorithms over recursive ones. While shading is, in this sense, a feed-forward algorithm, ray tracing, and specifically ray traversal, is a recursive rather than feed-forward algorithm. Adding a dedicated hardware ray traversal engine should therefore prove to be an interesting option. Also, with dedicated hardware, we can perform many optimizations on arithmetic units due to their fixed interaction. This can reduce the area well below a simple sum of areas of the individual units. In this paper we offer for consideration analysis of memory requirements for combination of a dedicated hardware ray traversal and intersection engine with highly parallel general purpose processor used for shading. We show results and requirements of such a combination on scenes of moderate complexity, with regard to speed, bandwidth and latency.


Recently, the climatic analysis has been widely studied with artificial intelligence tools. The importance of this topic is based on the environment impact produced for natural variations of the data on a certain ecosystem. In this paper, a first study of meteorological parameters obtained with the Automatic Network of Atmospheric Monitoring (by its abbreviation in Spanish, RAMA) of the Toluca, Mexico, is exposed. The period studied includes from 2001 to 2008 year. The RAMA-Toluca includes seven monitoring stations located in the Toluca Valley. Using clustering algorithms, the experimental results establish the base for determinate the days distribution in clusters, which could be oriented to the natural cluster that the days have in climatic seasons. However, the results show a different situation than the awaited one. With this, the bases for future work in the climatic analysis context in the Toluca Valley.

 Key words: Clustering analysis, environmental data, RAMA-Toluca, days distribution


We propose a PSA scheme employing bi-directional signal-conjugate generations and then dual-conjugate-pump FWM for phase regeneration of QPSK/8PSK and potentially 16PSK. We show effective reductions on phase noise deviation by 5.2 and 8.5 degrees for 25-Gbaud/s 8PSK and QPSK and verify its scalability at 50-Gbaud/s.


We propose and experimentally demonstrate a novel scheme to generate multichannel optical frequency-locked multicarrier by using multichannel recirculating frequency shifter (MC-RFS) loop. By using MC-RFS loop, we can generate N channels subcarriers each round trip without interference. These subcarriers of each channel are stable and frequency-locked, which can be used for a multichannel WDM source. Finally, the double channels RFS loop is carried out for demonstration in our experiment with double-carriers source. Using this scheme, we successfully generate 54 frequency-locked subcarriers with 25 GHz frequency spacing in two channels and each channel has 27 tones.


The visual system is usually simplied as a hierarchical feed-forward filtering system containing independently functioning neurons. However, interactions among visual neurons exist in neural population. The pairwise shared noise variability of spike counts, or noise correlation, is an easily accessible and potentially powerful measure of such interactions. About the role of noise correlation in a population code, the literature includes multiple, often conflicting, perspectives. This is partly due to how noise correlation is experimentally quantified (Cohen & Kohn, 2011), and partly to how its impact is evaluated. In the present study, we attempted to address these discrepancies and to more objectively assess noise correlation and its role in visual coding. We used a 32-channel semi-chronic microdrive array to record spiking activity from the foveal region of macaque area V4 in a passive viewing task. Our study differed from previous investigations in three primary respects: 1) We used complex natural images as visual stimuli, instead of artificial patterns with limited variability, to better approximate naturalistic visual experience; 2) we quantified noise correlation independently for each stimulus rather than using the mean correlation, so as to preserve the stimulus modulation of correlation that is informative for coding (Ponce-Alvarez, Thiele, Albright, Stoner, & Deco, 2013); 3) we evaluated the coding performance using the likelihood ratio of a multi-variant gaussian model, a decoder approach that provides advantages over direct estimation of information given limited data (Moreno-Bote et al., 2014). Our preliminary results suggest that the pattern of noise correlation improves discrimination of natural stimuli, providing the first evidence of synergistic processing with neurons exhibiting shared noise variability. Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2015.


In an effort to elucidate how the challenges of nonobviousness decisions affect different decision-makers, this article presents an original dataset of nonobviousness decisions throughout the patent decision process. This dataset includes nonobviousness decisions at the Patent and Trademark Office and in the federal courts for the time period subsequent to the effective date of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act's (AIA) first-to-file provisions. The results provide strong evidence that nonobviousness decisions are highly indeterminate: similarly situated decision-makers in the same cases reach differing conclusions on nonobviousness at a strikingly high rate. The data does not support the hypothesis that technologically sophisticated decision-makers are better able to make judgements from the perspective of a person of ordinary skill in the art. Finally, the analysis provides some potential support for the possibility that technologically trained individuals may exhibit slightly less of a hindsight bias than untrained decision-makers. Comparing the data reported here with earlier studies of nonobviousness decisionmaking indicates that both the district courts and the Federal Circuit reacted significantly to the Supreme Court's nonobviousness decision in KSR v. Teleflex in 2007 by establishing a higher threshold for patentees to demonstrate nonobviousness. Subsequent to the AIA of 2011, however, both judicial bodies have reverted to nonobviousness decisionmaking that is more consistent with pre-KSR outcomes.


AVX-512 is a recent x86 instruction set extension that aims to accelerate vectorizable workloads by increasing the vector size further. The on-CPU SIMD units that make efficient operation on very wide vectors possible, take up a lot of space on the chip and have high power requirements, as a result they are part of the dark silicon of a CPU. The dark silicon of a chip is circuitry that has to be turned off during normal operation, due to high power requirements. To maintain a reasonable TDP, current CPUs reduce the core frequency when those units are active. A lot of workloads benefit from vectorization despite the frequency reduction. However, the high power consumption of wide vector instructions cause additional side effects. Most workloads do not consist of only vectorizable code. To achieve good performance for non-vectorized (scalar) code that is run on the same core, the frequency needs to be increased as soon as possible. Increasing the frequency is inflicted with delays, causing non-vectorized code to run at unnecessarily low frequencies during the changing period. Slowing down the non-vectorized code on a core can result in worse overall performance, making the feasibility of AVX-512 and alike very unpredictable. In this thesis we create a framework that supports application developers in mitigating the overall system performance degradation induced by AVX-512. We build upon an existing approach that uses core specialization to isolate instructions leading to performance degradation onto a small set of cores, letting scalar parts of the system workload run unrestrained. Application developers can use our library to mark code that potentially executes AVX-512 instructions. We designed a dynamic policy that decides during runtime whether to offload marked code regions onto a set of dedicated cores to prevent them from slowing down subsequent scalar code. While our framework is focused on AVX-512, our design and theories apply to general high power instructions that require a frequency reduction. We show that our framework can reduce the performance degradation in a realistic web server benchmark from 17% to 9%. When a scalar version of the benchmark is run, our framework does not introduce significant performance penalties, making the framework a useful tool to reduce the risk of unexpected performance degradation caused by AVX-512.


Naked mole rats (NMRs) are subterranean eusocial mammals, known for their virtual absence of aging in their first 20 to 30 years of life, and their apparent resistance to cancer development. As such, this species has become an important biological model for investigating the physiological and molecular mechanisms behind cancer resistance. Two recent studies have discovered middle and late-aged worker (that is, non-breeding) NMRs in captive populations exhibiting neoplasms, consistent with cancer development, challenging the claim that NMRs are cancer resistant. These cases are possibly artefacts of inbreeding or certain rearing conditions in captivity, but they are also consistent with evolutionary theory. We present field data showing that worker NMRs live on average for 1 to 2 years. This, together with considerable knowledge about the biology of this species, provides the basis for an evolutionary explanation for why debilitating cancers in NMRs should be rare in captive populations and absent in the wild. Whereas workers are important for maintaining tunnels, colony defence, brood care, and foraging, they are highly vulnerable to predation. However, surviving workers either replace dead breeders, or assume other less active functions whilst preparing for possible dispersal. These countervailing forces (selection resulting in aging due to early-life investments in worker function, and selection for breeder longevity) along with the fact that all breeders derive from the worker morph, can explain the low levels of cancer observed by these recent studies in captive colonies. Because workers in the field typically never reach ages where cancer becomes a risk to performance or mortality, those rare observations of neoplastic growth should be confined to the artificial environments where workers survive to ages rarely if ever occurring in the wild. Thus, we predict that the worker phenotype fortuitously benefits from anti-aging and cancer protection in captive populations.


The l-lyxonate dehydratase (LyxD) in vitro enzymatic activity and in vivo metabolic function were assigned to members of an isofunctional family within the mandelate racemase (MR) subgroup of the enolase superfamily. This study combined in vitro and in vivo data to confirm that the dehydration of l-lyxonate is the biological role of the members of this family. In vitro kinetic experiments revealed catalytic efficiencies of ∼104 M–1 s–1 as previously observed for members of other families in the MR subgroup. Growth studies revealed that l-lyxonate is a carbon source for Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1; transcriptomics using qRT-PCR established that the gene encoding LyxD as well as several other conserved proximal genes were upregulated in cells grown on l-lyxonate. The proximal genes were shown to be involved in a pathway for the degradation of l-lyxonate, in which the first step is dehydration by LyxD followed by dehydration of the 2-keto-3-deoxy-l-lyxonate product by 2-keto-3-deoxy-l-lyxonate dehydratase to yield α-ketoglutarate semialdehyde. In the final step, α-ketoglutarate semialdehyde is oxidized by a dehydrogenase to α-ketoglutarate, an intermediate in the citric acid cycle. An X-ray structure for the LyxD from Labrenzia aggregata IAM 12614 with Mg2+ in the active site was determined that confirmed the expectation based on sequence alignments that LyxDs possess a conserved catalytic His-Asp dyad at the end of seventh and sixth β-strands of the (β/α)7β-barrel domain as well as a conserved KxR motif at the end of second β-strand; substitutions for His 316 or Arg 179 inactivated the enzyme. This is the first example of both the LyxD function in the enolase superfamily and a pathway for the catabolism of l-lyxonate.


The Holland and Powell internally consistent data set version 5.5 has been augmented to include pyrite, troilite, trov (Fe0.875S), anhydrite, H2S, elemental S and S2 gas. Phase changes in troilite and pyrrhotite are modelled with a combination of multiple end‐members and a Landau tricritical model. Pyrrhotite is modelled as a solid solution between hypothetical end‐member troilite (trot) and Fe0.875S (trov); observed activity–composition relationships fit well to a symmetric formalism model with a value for wtrot−trov of −3.19 kJ mol−1. The hypothetical end‐member approach is required to compensate for iron distribution irregularities in compositions close to troilite. Mixing in fluids is described with the van Laar asymmetric formalism model with aij values for H2O–H2S, H2S–CH4 and H2S–CO2 of 6.5, 4.15 and 0.045 kJ mol−1 respectively. The derived data set is statistically acceptable and replicates the input data and data from experiments that were not included in the initial regression. The new data set is applied to the construction of pseudosections for the bulk composition of mafic greenschist facies rocks from the Golden Mile, Kalgoorlie, Western Australia. The sequence of mineral assemblages is replicated successfully, with observed assemblages predicted to be stable at X(CO2) increasing with increasing degree of hydrothermal alteration. Results are compatible with those of previous work. Assemblages are insensitive to the S bulk content at S contents of less than 1 wt%, which means that volatilization of S‐bearing fluids and sulphidation are unlikely to have had major effects on the stable mineral assemblage in less metasomatized rocks. The sequence of sulphide and oxide phases is predicted successfully and there is potential to use these phases qualitatively for geobarometry. Increases in X(CO2) stabilized, in turn, pyrite–magnetite, pyrite–hematite and anhydrite–pyrite. Magnetite–pyrrhotite is predicted at temperatures greater than 410 °C. The prediction of a variety of sulphide and oxide phases in a rock of fixed bulk composition as a function of changes in fluid composition and temperature is of particular interest because it has been proposed that such a variation in phase assemblage is produced by the infiltration of multiple fluids with contrasting redox state. The work presented here shows that this need not be the case.


The ankle sprain is the most frequently found acute injury in volleyball. Aiming to prevent the occurrence of ankle injuries, prophylactic equipment as the bracing had been developed. This study had the purpose to evaluate the performance of the ankle muscles (tibialis anterior, peroneous longus, and medial and lateral gastrocnemius) by measuring the electrical activity in different volleyball activities (vertical jumping and lateral shuffling) with and without using ankle bracing. Nine young female volleyball athletes with ages ranging from 14 to 17 years (: 15.8 ± 1.3) were evaluated, all of them without previous injuries in the dominant member. Maximal voluntary isometric contractions (MVIC) of each muscle was collected, and after that, the electromyographic activity in different situations with and without using the bracing, randomly. The bracing used had two lateral supports. The electromyographic signal was quantified by the root mean square (RMS), and normalized by the MVIC. Analysis of the variance with repeated measurement was used to verify the difference of the electric activity of the muscles involved in each activity, with and without using the bracing, with 5% (p < 0.05) significance level. It was identified a statistically significant difference in phase I of the jumping in favor of the tibialis anterior (p < 0.001) and in phase II in favor of the three flexors muscles (p < 0.001; p = 0.01; p = 0.003) in both situations, with and without using the bracing. As to the lateral jump activity, a significant difference was observed in the phase of braked in favor of the tibialis anterior and the lateral gastrocnemius (p = 0.013) in both situations. It was found no statistical difference among muscles of the two groups. Results suggest that using the ankle bracing cannot influence the electrical activity of the muscles studied during the vertical jumping and the lateral shuffling.


Abstract We obtained and analyzed whole genome data for more than 160 representatives of skipper butterflies (family Hesperiidae) from all known subfamilies, tribes and most distinctive genera. We found that two genera, Katreus Watson, 1893 and Ortholexis Karsch, 1895, which are sisters, are well-separated from all other major phylogenetic lineages and originate near the base of the Hesperiidae tree, prior to the origin of some subfamilies. Due to this ancient origin compared to other subfamilies, this group is described as Katreinae Grishin, subfam. n. DNA sequencing of primary type specimens reveals that Ortholexismelichroptera Karsch, 1895 is not a female of Ortholexisholocausta Mabille, 1891, but instead a female of Ortholexisdimidia Holland, 1896. This finding establishes O.dimidia as a junior subjective synonym of O.melichroptera. Furthermore, we see that Chamunda Evans, 1949 does not originate within Pyrginae Burmeister, 1878, but, unexpectedly, forms an ancient lineage of its own at the subfamily rank: Chamundinae Grishin, subfam. n. Finally, a group of two sister genera, Barca de Nicéville, 1902 and Apostictopterus Leech, [1893], originates around the time Hesperiinae Latreille, 1809 have split from their sister clade. A new subfamily Barcinae Grishin, subfam. n. sets them apart from all other Hesperiidae.


Adder neural network (AdderNet) is a new kind of deep model that replaces the original massive multiplications in convolutions by additions while preserving the high performance. Since the hardware complexity of additions is much lower than that of multiplications, the overall energy consumption is thus reduced significantly. To further optimize the hardware overhead of using AdderNet, this paper studies the winograd algorithm, which is a widely used fast algorithm for accelerating convolution and saving the computational costs. Unfortunately, the conventional Winograd algorithm cannot be directly applied to AdderNets since the distributive law in multiplication is not valid for the l1-norm. Therefore, we replace the element-wise multiplication in the Winograd equation by additions and then develop a new set of transform matrixes that can enhance the representation ability of output features to maintain the performance. Moreover, we propose the l2-to-l1 training strategy to mitigate the negative impacts caused by formal inconsistency. Experimental results on both FPGA and benchmarks show that the new method can further reduce the energy consumption without affecting the accuracy of the original AdderNet.


: The dialectical coherence of civil religion in the moral argument of American public life runs through the development of its formulation by Robert N. Bellah over the course of his work, beginning with the heretofore unpublished draft of "Heritage and Choice in American Religion" in 1965. Seen as a cultural dimension of depth, civil religion frames modes of moral discourse and imagination to enable coherent cultural conflict in successive times of trial, which give rise to contrasting public theologies that contest the meaning of civil religion and reshape it in turn. This dialectical logic extends to the model of cultural conversation and argument across multiple moral traditions seen as continuities of conflict in Habits of the Heart and Bellah's later work, by contrast to construing civil religion as a unitary moral foundation once fundamentally fixed and then fragmented by culture wars.


Highly parallel VLSI computing structures consist of many processing elements operating simultaneously. In order for such processing elements to communicate among themselves, some provision must be made for synchronization of data transfer. The simplest means of synchronization is the use of a global clock. Unfortunately, large clocked systems can be difficult to implement because of the inevitable problem of clock skews and delays, which can be especially acute in VLSI systems as feature sizes shrink. For the near term, good engineering and technology improvements can be expected to maintain the feasibility of clocking in such systems; however, clock distribution problems crop up in any technology as systems grow. An alternative means of enforcing necessary synchronization is the use of self-timed asynchronous schemes, at the cost of increased design complexity and hardware cost. Realizing that different circumstances call for different synchronization methods, this paper provides a spectrum of synchronization models; based on the assumptions made for each model, theoretical lower bounds on clock skew are derived, and appropriate or best possible synchronization schemes for large processor arrays are proposed.


The meeting of worlds and the principle of sola Scriptura . Rather than function as a catalyst for unity, the Bible can be the cause of conflict among Christian believers. The Bible is also often the reason for strife, specifically in the Reformed tradition, even though Protestants uphold the creedal truism of sola Scriptura and though the authority of the Bible is seen as selfmandatory, transcending the normative power of ecclesiastical or confessional traditions. This article focuses on biblical interpretation as both a cause of disunity and a possible means to achieve greater unity. The point of departure is that biblical interpretation consists of a fusion of horizons; it is primarily about the fusion of two horizons, namely that of the Bible and that of the reader. However, both these horizons represent a great diversity of perspectives. A variety of readers interpret the Bible from diverse contexts. The Bible itself also communicates a diversity of ideas. Even the notion 'Jesus Christ' does not function as a unified or unifying concept. The article proposes that the idea of 'Jesus' cause' ( Sache Jesu ) could provide continuity between the world of the reader and the world of a biblical passage.


This article presents a method for passivating the communication channel of a symmetric position-position teleoperation architecture on the time domain. The time domain passivity control approach has recently gained appeal in the context of timedelayed teleoperation because passivity is not established as a design constraint, which often forces conservative rules, but rather as a property which the system must preserve during operation. Since passivity is a network property, the first design rule within this framework is to represent consistent and comprehensible circuit (i.e., network) representations of the mechanical teleoperation system. In particular, the energetic behavior of these networks is interesting because it allows straightforward conclusions about system stability. By means of so-called passivity observers (PO) and passivity controllers (PC) (Hannaford & Ryu, 2001), the energetic response of a delayed communication channel is captured and modulated over time so that the network in question never becomes nonpassive. The case analyzed in this paper tackles a communication channel that conveys position data back and forth. This type of channel does not offer intuitive network representation since only flows are actually being transmitted. Although energy clearly travels from one side to the other, port power identification, as defined by the correlated pair flow and effort, is not evident. This work first investigates how this kind of channel can be represented by means of circuit networks even with the lack of physical effort being transmitted through the channel, and identifies which networks are susceptible to become nonpassive due to the channel characteristics (i.e., time delay, discretization or package loss). Once achieved, a distributed control structure is presented based on a PC series that keeps the system at the verge of passivity (and therefore stability) independent from the channel properties. The results obtained by the simulation and by experiment sustain the presented approach.


We evaluated the potential of an investigational histone methylation reversal agent, 3-deazaneplanocin A (DZNep), in improving the chemosensitivity of pancreatic cancer to nucleoside analogs (i.e., gemcitabine). DZNep brought delayed but selective cytotoxicity to pancreatic cancer cells without affecting normal human pancreatic ductal epithelial (HPDE) cells. Co-exposure of DZNep and gemcitabine induced cytotoxic additivity or synergism in both well- and poorly-differentiated pancreatic cell lines by increased apoptosis. In contrast, DZNep exerted antagonism with gemcitabine against HPDE cells with significant reduction in cytotoxicity compared with the gemcitabine-alone regimen. DZNep marginally depended on purine nucleoside transporters for its cytotoxicity, but the transport dependence was circumvented by acyl derivatization. Drug exposure studies revealed that a short priming with DZNep followed by gemcitabine treatment rather than co-treatment of both agents to produce a maximal chemosensitization response in both gemcitabine-sensitive and gemcitabine-resistant pancreatic cancer cells. DZNep rapidly and reversibly decreased trimethylation of histone H3 lysine 27 but increased trimethylation of lysine 9 in an EZH2- and JMJD1A/2C-dependent manner, respectively. However, DZNep potentiation of nucleoside analog chemosensitization was found to be temporally coupled to trimethylation changes in lysine 27 and not lysine 9. Polymeric nanoparticles engineered to chronologically release DZNep followed by gemcitabine produced pronounced chemosensitization and dose-lowering effects. Together, our results identify that an optimized DZNep exposure can presensitize pancreatic cancer cells to anticancer nucleoside analogs through the reversal of histone methylation, emphasizing the promising clinical utilities of epigenetic reversal agents in future pancreatic cancer combination therapies.


Store-operated or capacitative Ca2+ entry is a prominent feature of many electrically nonexcitable cell types. It is due to Ca2+ ion permeation pathways in the plasma membrane that are activated after receptor-mediated Ca2+ release from intracellular stores. Despite hundreds of publications on the topic of store-operated Ca2+ entry and intense efforts by many dedicated laboratories, neither the molecular nature of the ion permeation pathway nor its activation mechanism is known. Here we review the progress made on the characterization of store-operated currents and the challenges encountered in identifying the molecular components of store-operated Ca2+ entry.


Introduction: Wound healing is a well-organized, directed process of tissue repair. The process can be expedited using topical glues and adhesives, which offer a non-invasive, easily removable alternative to suturing. Furthermore, such products have good tensile strength and involve lower application time. In particular, the Prineo® adhesive is applied to a polyester mesh that covers the wound. Method: We carried out a retrospective, cross-sectional study, with subsequent statistical analysis , involving 101 surgical procedures in which wound closure was performed using either nylon sutures or Prineo®. All the procedures were performed between 2012 and 2014. Results: Six patients had contact dermatitis after Prineo® was used, with statistical significance (p = 0.042). Furthermore, Prineo® decreased the rate of scar enlargement (p < 0.05) . There was no statistical difference between the Prineo® and suture groups in terms of scar quality (p = 0.068); in both groups, the scar result was mostly excellent (87 %) to good (27%). Conclusion: Patients whose wounds were closed using Prineo® a system involving octyl-2-cyanoacrylate and an associated polyester mesh displayed lower rates of scar enlargement, which depended on whether the thickness of the dermis was satisfactory. However, the same patients had higher rates of contact dermatitis than those whose wounds were closed using surgical sutures. Both groups showed excellent to good scar quality, with no significant difference in terms of esthetic scar results. ■ ABSTRACT


From among many competencies of a manager, the abilities of team, project and organization management become especially important. However, to make right decisions, one needs to have appropriate tools supporting effective company management. In case of companies carrying out investment, modernization or innovative projects, it is especially important. Implementation of those projects takes place in various conditions resulting from changing and turbulent environment. Thus, if the manager does not have sufficient information support, provided in time and allowing for effective decision making, which mitigates negative effects of previous actions, he is basically doomed to failure. In such a case, what decides about the situation in the project execution process is a coincidence, not intentional actions of the staff, based on their knowledge about potential risks. Such a knowledge, gained early enough, allows for taking more effective corrective actions. This paper is an attempt to define an operational model of a company along with principles of monitoring actions of an enterprise that carries out projects and functions in the current economic situation, illustrated by an example of a construction company. Its implementation is supposed to provide the managing staff with stores of information that efficiently support the company management process.


Within the cell, cytoskeletal molecular motors transport and remodel membrane-bound cargos along microtubule and actin filament tracks. Typically, there are multiple actin and microtubule motors attached to the same cargo, which must coordinate to navigate a complex cytoskeletal environment and deliver their cargos to specific locations. We used an engineering, in vitro reconstitution, approach to investigate the interplay between a processive, microtubule-based motor, kinesin-1, and a non-processive, actin filamentbased motor, Myo1c, in a simplified environment with increasing physiological complexity. First, we examined the interplay between purified motors attached to a membrane-coated bead at individual actin filament/microtubule intersections on the surface of a coverslip. We found that Myo1c is capable of initiating and terminating microtubule-based, kinesin-1-driven runs at actin filament/microtubule intersections. This ability of Myo1c to affect kinesin-1 motility at actin intersections is inhibited by the presence of nonmuscle tropomyosin Tm2 at the actin intersection. This suggests that tropomyosin may regulate Myo1c tethering of kinesin-1-driven cargo within cells by preventing termination of motility until reaching the highly dynamic actin just beneath the plasma membrane, sorting cargo to distinct subcellular domains. Next, we investigated the interplay between Myo1c and kinesin-1 on deformable giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs) at physiologically relevant micropatterned arrays of sparse microtubules crossing dense actin filaments. We found that the lipid composition of GUVs regulates its frequency of tubulation along microtubules by kinesin-1 and actin filaments by Myo1c. GUVs containing a PtdIns(4,5)P2-rich lipid composition (PIP2-GUVs) tend to deform at actin/microtubule intersections along the microtubule, yet, the BAR domain protein endophilin is necessary for robust tubulation. Alternatively, in the presence of a physiological lipid mixture (LM-GUVs), kinesin-1 can readily tubulate Myo1c-tethered cargo at actin/microtubule intersections, with no significant change upon addition of endophilin. Myo1c can also transport both PIP2-GUVs and LMGUVs along actin, yet significantly more deformation and tubulation occurs with LM-GUVs. In both cases, the presence of endophilin increases the frequency of tubulation along actin filaments by Myo1c. Overall, the ability of Myo1c and kinesin-1 to transport, sort, and deform vesicles along microtubules and actin filaments depends on the type of actin track, scaffolding-type membrane deformation-factors like endophilin, and the lipid composition of the vesicle. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Cell & Molecular Biology First Advisor E. M. Ostap This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/2463 Second Advisor Erika L. Holzbaur


The wall between computer science and electrical engineering has kept the potential of embedded systems at bay. It is time to build a new scientific foundation with embedded systems design as the cornerstone, which will ensure a systematic and even-handed integration of the two fields. The embedded systems design problem certainly raises technology questions, but more important, it requires building a new scientific foundation that will systematically and even-handedly integrate computation and physicality from the bottom up. Support for this foundation will require enriching computer science paradigms to encompass models and methods traditionally found in electrical engineering.


Necrotic enteritis (NE) is an important enteric disease in poultry production that has re-emerged as a major problem following an EU wide ban on the use of in-feed antimicrobials. Although the primary aetiological agent of disease is Clostridium perfringens type A, a commensal in the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) of chickens, numerous additional influential factors have been reported that can predispose chickens to NE. These precipitating factors mainly include diet, co-infection with other pathogens particularly coccidia, as well as environmental and management factors. Despite being first described almost more than 50 years ago, a reliable, consistently reproducible experimental model for NE induction is still lacking. Here, a series of experiments were conducted to investigate the importance of the various potential predisposing factors, in isolation and in combination, that are believed to play a role in sub-clinical NE development: feed withdrawal, dietary protein sources, co- infection with coccidia, C. perfringens dose and contact with reused litter. In addition, chicken breed sensitivity to NE was assessed, and last, but not least, blood and gut tissue samples were used to identify novel biochemical markers for sub-clinical NE.
Chapter 3 reports an experiment showing that feed withdrawal up to 24 hrs in experimentally challenged birds did not result in NE specific lesions. Chapter 4 shows that replacing dietary soyabean meal with potato protein concentrate or canola meal or adding synthetic trypsin inhibitor to the soyabean meal control diet did not induce sub-clinical NE in birds housed on reused litter, a natural source of C. perfringens challenge. Chapter 5 describes that in vitro growth of C. perfringens on in vitro digested grower diets was prolonged following the addition of fishmeal, suggesting that the role of fish meal as a predisposing factor for in vivo sub-clinical NE cannot be excluded. All subsequent diets therefore contained high levels of fish meal. When this was used in combination with high dose of coccidial vaccine, a repeated in-feed challenge for three days at 102 colony forming units (cfu) C. perfringens per g feed did not result in sub-clinical NE, though at 109 cfu/g resulted in 10% of challenged birds (3 out of 30) showing NE-specific lesions (Chapter 6). Further study is needed to determine if the two Ross birds with gross NE lesions compared to the one Hubbard bird (out of 15 birds each) was due to a lower level of NE resistance.
3
The failure to significantly induce sub-clinical NE in the previous experiments suggests that challenging the birds with C. perfringens in the isolated presence of suspected predisposing factors may not provide a suitable experimental model. Indeed, when birds were dosed twice daily with 108 cfu C. perfringens for three days in the presence of high levels of fishmeal, canola meal as main protein source, coccidial and IBD vaccinations, and feed withdrawal prior to challenge, 40.6% of the challenged birds developed lesions of sub-clinical NE without inducing mortality (Chapter 7). This concurred with reduced growth performance relative to the sham-infected control birds, and thus is a successful model for induction of sub-clinical NE.
Finally this work has, for the first time provided novel information on potential biomarkers (Chapter 8). Whilst challenge did not impact on the expression of genes previously shown to be differentially expressed upon C. perfringens toxin exposure, the serum ceruloplasmin concentration increased, suggesting that monitoring this acute phase protein may indicate the presence of C. perfringens infection in poultry. However, as such markers generally lack specificity, further research confirming its role in response to sub-clinical NE is needed to provide a fully effective diagnostic and prognostic marker for flock health and welfare, as well as ultimately helping to gain better understanding of the pathophysiology of sub-clinical NE.
Improved knowledge of the effect of different dietary components on the growth of C. perfringens may help in the formulation of broiler diets to assist in further reducing the incidence of NE particularly in the absence of antimicrobial growth promoters. It is hoped that host responses in terms of acute phase proteins, and possibley gene expression, will also provide greater insight into the pathogenesis of NE. Provided that the developed experimental sub-clinical NE model is reproducible, this will benefit the understanding of this billion dollar disease and enable further investigation of various chemical and non-chemical interventions to reduce its severity and impact on poultry production.


Abstract Objective: To assess the practice of post-abortion family planning (PAFP) counselling among Chinese abortion service providers, and identify the influencing factors. Methods: A cross-sectional questionnaire survey was conducted between July and September 2013 among abortion services providers in 30 provinces in China. Univariate and multivariable logistic regression analyses were used to identify the factors that influenced PAFP counselling. Results: 94% of the 579 service providers responded to the questionnaire in the survey. The median age was 39 years (range 20–72), and 95% were females. 92% providers showed a positive attitude and had promoted the PAFP counselling services; however, only 57% spent more than 10 min for it. The overall knowledge on PAFP was limited to the participants. After adjusting for potential confounding factors: providers from the middle region (compared with 'east region', ORadj = 3.33, 95% CI: 2.12–5.21) conducted more PAFP counseling; providers with more knowledge (ORadj = 2.08, 95% CI: 1.38–3.15) provided more counseling; and compared with 'middle school and below', providers with higher education gave more counseling [ORadj(95% CI)] for 'college', 'university' and 'master/doctor' [1.99 (1.01,3.92), 2.32 (1.22,4.40) and 2.34 (1.06,5.17), respectively]. Conclusions: The majority of providers could provide PAFP counselling to women undergone an abortion, but some of them had insufficient time to make it available. Education, knowledge about fertility and reproductive health and residence region were the main factors influencing the practice. Training of health providers and integrating family planning as a part of abortion services are essential to provide adequate PAFP to abortion seekers, thereby reducing the risk of unintended pregnancy.


OBJECTIVE
To compare the electrical and mechanical activity, and assess the effect of suramin on strips of detrusor from various species.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Bladder muscle strips from guinea-pigs, rabbits, monkeys and sheep and detrusor strips from humans (obtained at operation) were studied. The mechanical responses to nerve stimulation were recorded with a force transducer and electrical activity was recorded with the double sucrose gap.

RESULTS
In all species acetylcholine was released from the nerves and a prolonged contraction was produced. A second transmitter, possibly adenosine triphosphate, produced a rapid transient contraction, the amplitude of which varied with the species. In the rabbit and guinea-pig the phasic contraction and accompanying depolarization were large, whereas in primates they were small and in sheep were intermediate. At high concentrations, suramin reduced the contraction and accompanying depolarization in rabbit and guinea-pig muscle but not in sheep. Suramin enhanced the late cholinergic responses and increased spontaneous mechanical activity in all species. These latter effects were not seen after desensitization of the receptors with the ATP analogue alpha, beta- methylene ATP.

CONCLUSION
Although suramin reduces the excitatory effect of nerve activity in some species, it would produce little beneficial effect in the human hyperexcitable bladder as any inhibitory effect might be offset by the increase in spontaneous activity.


This is the most practical financial management text for those who need basic financial management knowledge and a better understanding of healthcare finance in particular. Using actual examples from hospitals, long-term care facilities, and home health agencies, this user-friendly text includes practical information for the nonfinancial manager charged with budgeting. New to the Third Edition: * New chapter on "Operational Budgeting" * New chapter on "The Financial Impact of Electronic Records" * New chapter on "The Financial Impact of Information Input" * An expanded explanation of typical forms and terms of financing and equity * New Mini-Case Study "A Facility's Conversion to Electronic Records" (covers the federally mandated transition to ICD-10.) * Thoroughly updated instructor supplements including PowerPoints, Excel Spreadsheets, and Instructor's Manual


Today, the world has observed a remarkable growth in the use of transportation mobile communications for road safety. While a user in a vehicle moves to a new communication cell, a wireless terminal requests a handoff for new channel in the new cell. Due to that movement, some of the challenges issues are developed such as, the increase in traffic volumes and demand for high speed transportation mobile communications call for fast, seamless and high performance handoff in mobile communications network. When a wireless user in a vehicle moves from one base station cell to another, handoff protocols reroute the existing active connections in the new transportation cell. The future challenges in next generation high speed transportation mobile networks are to minimize the packet loss and to provide efficient use of the network resources while maintaining quality of service assurances. Therefore, the performance of efficient management and a successful handoff operation in transportation mobile networks become an important issue for road safety traffic. This work shows analytical handoff management for transportation users in a high speed mobile communications network. We demonstrate the performance of handoffs with mobility consideration using several metrics including the alteration of states prior to reaching a transportation mobility cell boundary, the speed of transportation mobile terminal, and the distance between a transportation mobile terminal and a transportation cell boundary. We illustrate the performance evaluation for the factor of transportation mobility with taking into account the high speed status of a mobile vehicle user. Numerical results of the transportation performance analysis and the probability of requiring a handoff are demonstrated using Maple. Figure 1 shows a shaped region of a cellular network and the cellular handoff model with mobility. In this abstract, we modeled the cellular handoff for multimedia users with taking the high speed mobility into account in wireless mobile networks. The performance results in terms of state probabilities and the probability that a mobile terminal reached a cell boundary were investigated. The mobilized analysis involved with number of issues such as the alternation of states before a mobile unit reached a cell boundary, the distance between the mobile terminal and a cell boundary and the speed of the vehicle. Based on the assumption of the alternation of states, there were four situations for a vehicle to reach a cell boundary. Performance results were accurately analyzed based on these four situations. It was clearly showing that for a vehicle that experienced the change of states, the outcome chance of reaching a cell boundary was proportional to the distance in between the mobile terminal and a cell boundary and inversely propositional to the speed of the vehicle. References [1] J. Naylon, D. Gilmurray, J. Porter and A. Hopper, "Low-latency handover in a wireless ATM LAN," IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communication, Vol. 16, pp. 909-921, Aug. 1998. [2] A. Acharya, S. Biswas, L. French, J. LI and D. Raychaudhuri, "Handoff and location management in mobile ATM networks," Proceeding3rd International Conference Mobile Multimedia Communication, September 1996. [3] A. Acharya, J. Li, B. Rajagopalan and D. Raychaudhuri, "Mobility management in wireless ATM networks," IEEE Communications Magazine, pp. 100-109, 1997. [4] Y. Fei, V. W. Wong, V. C. Leung, "Efficient QoS provisioning for adaptive multimedia in mobile communication networks by reinforcement learning," Mobile Networks and Applications, Vol. 11, pp. 101-110, 2006. [5] J. G. Guzman, j. M. Bauset, and V. Pla, "Performance bounds for mobile cellular networks with handover prediction," Management of Multimedia Networks and Services, Springer Berlin / Heidelberg, pp. 35-46, 2005. [6] R. Zander and J. M. Kalsson, "Combining bandwidth borrowing and reservation in cellular networks," International Journal of Wireless Information Networks, Vol. 12, No. 3, pp. 187-201, 2005. [7] G. H. Ma and A. Y. Zomaya, "an efficient channel allocation scheme for cellular network using maximum channel packing," Wireless Communications and Mobile computing, vol. 4, pp. 683-692, 2004. [8] K. Q. Tian and D. C. Cox, "Mobility management in wireless networks: data replication strategies and applications," Kluwer Academic Publishers, New York, 2004. [9] A. R. Momen and P. Azmi, Stochastic vehicle mobility with environmental condition adaption capability," Wireless Communications and Mobile computing, Vol. 9, pp.1070-1080, 2008. [10] K. Ioannou, S. Kotsopoulos, and P. Stavroulakis, "Optimizing the QoS of high speed moving terminals in cellular networks," International Journal of Communications systems, Vol. 16, pp. 851-863, 2003. [11] S. S. Rappaport, "The Multiple-call hand-off problem in high-capacity cellular communication System," IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, Vol. 40, No. 3, p.p. 546-557, 1991. [12] S. Nanda, "Teletraffic models for urban and suburban microcells: cell sizes and handoff rates," IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, Vol. 42, No. 4, p.p 673-682, 1993. 0 Language: en


Abstract The study of popular music often loses something in translation. The musical categories used by scholars and musicians in different locations vary widely in meaning, complicating both analysis and disciplinary divisions. Genre classifications also create blind spots which leave styles falling between the cracks out of the picture, impoverishing analysis and even denying musicians certain benefits. This paper examines the use of terms such as folklórico, tradicional, popular and típico by both lay people and scholars in Latin America, then turns to Dominican merengue típico as a case study showing how musical categories are often intensely local. I argue that – because it relies more on notions of place than on the ideas of time, class, race or production that inform other categorisations – the concept of típico is useful in examining transnational 'roots' musics which bridge nations, classes and modes of production. In addition, using musicians' and listeners' own categories can help us to question the canons of musical scholarship, musical nationalism and music marketing, thus creating new possibilities for both scholars and musicians.


ABSTRACT Music-theoretical writings from the 13th to the 15th centuries maintained a basic distinction between two types of major sixth, customarily labeled hexachordum and deductio (or proprietas ). The term hexachordum , more frequently called tonus (or semitonus) cum diapente , designated the interval of a major of minor sixth, frequently expressed by pitch letters only (such as G-e and A-F) and discussed independently of Guidonian solmization. On the other hand, proprietas and deductio indicated a ""virtual segment"" (the set of six syllables ut-la ) that could be employed for the purpose of sight singing. Neither set challenged the conceptual primacy of the seven claves , expressed by the letters A-G. Hexachordum was routinely described as a portion of the octave, and the late-medieval notion of proprietas still reflected the principle of octave duplication, which had regulated musical practice since pre-Guidonian times. The ""two-tier"" model of diatonic space encountered in medieval music theory, based on the superimposition of Guido9s six syllables onto the seven pitch letters, came to an end in the late 15th century, when authors such as Ramos de Pareja and Franchino Gafori began describing the Guidonian deductio ——which they called hexachordum ——as the primary mode of organization of the gamut that had superseded the Greek tetrachordum .


(cid:1) -Conotoxins are small disulfide-rich peptides from the venom of the Conus species that target the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR). They are valuable pharmacological tools and also have potential therapeutic applications particularly for the treatment of chronic pain. (cid:1) -Conotoxin GID is isolated from the venom of Conus geographus and has an unusual N-ter-minal tail sequence that has been shown to be important for binding to the (cid:1) 4 (cid:2) 2 subtype of the nAChR. To date, only four conotoxins that inhibit the (cid:1) 4 (cid:2) 2 subtype have been character-ized, but they are of considerable interest as it is the most abun-dant nAChR subtype in the mammalian brain and has been implicated in a range of diseases. In this study, analysis of ala-nine-scan and truncation mutants of GID reveals that a conserved proline in (cid:1) -conotoxins is important for activity at the (cid:1) 7, (cid:1) 3 (cid:2) 2, and (cid:1) 4 (cid:2) 2 subtypes. Although the proline residue was the most critical residue for activity at the (cid:1) 3 (cid:2) 2 subtype, Asp 3 12 , and Asn 14 are also critical at the (cid:1) 7 subtype. Interest-ingly, very few of the mutations tested retained activity at the 4 (cid:2) 2 subtype indicating a tightly defined binding site. This lack of tolerance to sequence variation may explain the lack of selec-tive ligands discovered for the (cid:1) 4 (cid:2) 2 subtype to date. Overall, our findings contribute to the understanding of the structure-activity relationships of (cid:1) -conotoxins and may be beneficial for the ongoing attempts to exploit modulators of the neuronal nAChRs as therapeutic agents.


We consider one-level additive Schwarz domain decomposition preconditioners for the Helmholtz equation with variable coefficients (modelling wave propagation in heterogeneous media), subject to boundary conditions that include wave scattering problems. Absorption is included as a parameter in the problem. This problem is discretized using $H^1$-conforming nodal finite elements of fixed local degree $p$ on meshes with diameter $h = h(k)$, chosen so that the error remains bounded with increasing $k$. The action of the one-level preconditioner consists of the parallel solution of problems on subdomains (which can be of general geometry), each equipped with an impedance boundary condition. We prove rigorous estimates on the norm and field of values of the left- or right-preconditioned matrix that show explicitly how the absorption, the heterogeneity in the coefficients and the dependence on the degree enter the estimates. These estimates prove rigorously that, with enough absorption and for $k$ large enough, GMRES is guaranteed to converge in a number of iterations that is independent of $k,p$ and the coefficients. The theoretical threshold for $k$ to be large enough depends on $p$ and on the local variation of coefficients in subdomains (and not globally). Extensive numerical experiments are given for both the absorptive and the propagative cases; in the latter case, we investigate examples both when the coefficients are nontrapping and when they are trapping. These experiments support (i) our theory in terms of dependence on polynomial degree and the coefficients; and (ii) the sharpness of our field of values estimates in terms of the level of absorption required.


Random walks on dynamic graphs have received increasingly more attention from different academic communities over the last decade. Despite the relatively large literature, little is known about random walks that construct the graph where they walk while moving around. In this paper we study one of the simplest conceivable discrete time models of this kind, which works as follows: before every walker step, with probability $p$ a new leaf is added to the vertex currently occupied by the walker. The model grows trees and we call it the Bernoulli Growth Random Walk (BGRW). We show that the BGRW walker is transient and has a well-defined linear speed $c(p)>0$ for any $0<p\leq 1$. Moreover, we show that the tree as seen by the walker converges (in a suitable sense) to a random tree that is one-ended. Some natural open problems about this tree and variants of our model are collected at the end of the paper.


In architectural and mechanical engineering, man-made CAD models often have some prominent contours and regular shapes. These features are important to the visual perception. Traditional mesh simplification methods are not very suitable for this kind of models because in the simplified results some important mini structures and shape regularities are always missed. In this paper, we propose a new simplification algorithm that is tailored for man-made CAD models and can maintain the processed model's most prominent contours and the global shape features. To achieve this purpose, in the simplification process, we avoid as much as possible contracting the vertexes on those contours. At the same time, we simplify the contour curves as a whole. The algorithm proceeds as follows. Firstly, the division contours of all surfaces are detected and all component edges are subsequently classified. Secondly, targeting at minimizing the objective function of contracting vertexes along the contours, all edges are simplified by QEM (Quadric Error Metric). In this way, the missing of important mini structures can be minimized. After this step, the intermediate simplification result is obtained, and one simplified polygon is generated for each surface's division contour. Thirdly, using those polygons as starting point, an approximation polygon for each surface contour is generated by maximizing the shape similarity between each contour and the corresponding polygon and at the same time minimizing the change of the global features of the contours. Finally, the vertexes of all those simplified polygons in the intermediate result are adjusted based on the approximated polygons to form the final simplified model, in which the polygons will guarantee the maintenance of the global shape features of the original contours. The experiments and comparisons demonstrated that, our method not only can avoid the loss of important mini structures of the original model, but also can maintain global prominent shape features such as symmetry and edge equality, etc.


Aimed at the unstable output phenomenon of one type of power amplifier in the process of using, previous examinations have located the problem in internal inductance coil. To determine the reason of the fault amplifier, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) have been used to analyze the microstructure and composition of abnormal substances in the bend of coil pin. Results show the thermal stress was so large during hot dip coating tin that the boundary area of the root of lead whose insulating layer was removed suffered from damage, leading to the exposure of copper layer. Under the galvanical situation, the reaction between copper(Cu) and sulfur(S) from bonding adhesive produced copper sulfide (CuS), which stacked on the wire, caused high resistance, concentrated heat, a local temperature rise, and further promoted the growth and accumulation of CuS, resulting in wire breakage, or even rupture, causing the inductor even amplifier failure.


Abstract Triassic tetrapod footprints have a Pangaea-wide distribution; they are known from North America, South America, Europe, North Africa, China, Australia, Antarctica and South Africa. They often occur in sequences that lack well-preserved body fossils. Therefore, the question arises, how well can tetrapod footprints be used in age determination and correlation of stratigraphic units? The single largest problem with Triassic footprint biostratigraphy and biochronology is the non-uniform ichnotaxonomy and evaluation of footprints that show extreme variation in shape due to extramorphological (substrate-related) phenomena. Here, we exclude most of the countless ichnospecies of Triassic footprints, and instead we consider ichnogenera and form groups that show distinctive, anatomically-controlled features. Several characteristic footprint assemblages and ichnotaxa have a restricted stratigraphic range and obviously occur in distinct time intervals. This can be repeatedly observed in the global record. Some reflect distinct stages in the evolutionary development of the locomotor apparatus as indicated by their digit proportions and the trackway patterns. Essential elements are archosaur tracks with Rotodactylus, the chirotherian ichnotaxa Protochirotherium, Synaptichnium, Isochirotherium, Chirotherium and Brachychirotherium, and grallatorids that can be partly linked in a functional-evolutionary sequence. Non-archosaur footprints are common, especially the ichnotaxa Rhynchosauroides, Procolophonichnium, Capitosauroides and several dicynodont-related or mammal-like forms. They are dominant in some footprint assemblages. From the temporal distribution pattern we recognize five distinct tetrapod-footprint-based biochrons likened to the known land-vertebrate faunachrons (LVFs) of the tetrapod body fossil record: 1. Dicynodont tracks (Lootsbergian=Induan age); 2. Protochirotherium (Synaptichnium), Rhynchosauroides, Procolophonichnium (Nonesian=Induan–Olenekian age); 3. Chirotherium barthii, C. sickleri, Isochirotherium, Synaptichnium ('Brachychirotherium'), Rotodactylus, Rhynchosauroides, Procolophonichnium, dicynodont tracks, Capitosauroides (Nonesian–Perovkan=Olenekian–early Anisian); 4. Atreipus–Grallator ('Coelurosaurichnus'), Synaptichnium ('Brachychirotherium'), Isochirotherium, Sphingopus, Parachirotherium, Rhynchosauroides, Procolophonichnium (Perovkan–Berdyankian=Late Anisian–Ladinian); 5. Brachychirotherium, Atreipus–Grallator, Grallator, Eubrontes, Apatopus, Rhynchosauroides, dicynodont tracks (Otischalkian–Apachean=Carnian–Rhaetian). Tetrapod footprints are useful for biostratigraphy and biochronology of the Triassic. However, compared to the tetrapod body fossil record with eight biochrons, the five footprint-based biochrons show less resolution of faunal turnover as ichnogenera and ichnospecies at best reflect biological families or higher biotaxonomic units. Nevertheless, in sequences where body fossils are rare, footprints can coarsely indicate their stratigraphic age.


The paper investigates the accuracy and computational efficiency of various thermal modeling approaches for bond-wires in wire bonded packages. It recommends an improved thermal modeling technique for thermal designers that can be implemented in their work. The significance of the thermal impact of bond-wires in IC packages is also demonstrated