Using Wi-Fi signals is an attractive and reasonably affordable option to deal with the currently unsolved problem of widespread tracking in an indoor environment. History aware-based indoor tracking system (HABITS) models human movement patterns by applying a discrete Bayesian filter to predict the areas that will, or will not, be visited in the future. We outline here the operation of the HABITS real-time location system (RTLS) and discuss the implementation in relation to indoor Wi-Fi tracking with a large wireless network. Testing of HABITS shows that it gives comparable levels of accuracy to those achieved by doubling the number of access points. We conclude that HABITS improves on standard real-time location systems in term of accuracy (overcoming blackspots), latency (giving position fixes when others cannot), cost (less APs are required than are recommended by standard RTLS systems) and prediction (short, medium and longer-term predictions are available from HABITS).


The analysis of the historical reports and previous research projects allowed us to describe high-level seismic risk scenarios for the city of Catania, located on the eastern coast of Sicily (Italy). The geotechnical zonation of the subsoil of the city of Catania suggests a high seismic hazard added to a soil amplification of the ground motion. To this aim field and laboratory tests allowed the definition of a geotechnical characterisation in the city of Catania. For the site characterisation of soils deep site investigations have been undertaken. Borings and dynamic in situ tests have been performed in some selected test sites with the aim to evaluate the soil profiles of shear wave velocity and to retrieve undisturbed samples for laboratory tests. The testing programme consisted of standard classification tests, Oedometer tests, Direct shear tests, Resonant Column and Torsional shear tests. Two equations to draw the complete shear modulus degradation with strain level and the inverse variation of damping ratio with normalized shear modulus respectively have been also proposed. Shear wave velocity profiles experimentally obtained were compared with both in situ and laboratory tests.


De Profundis occupies a precarious place in Oscar Wilde's canon and for several reasons is often skirted by wary interpreters: it does not fit neatly into any single genre; it does not resemble any of the other works that made Wilde famous; it is full of irritating inconsistencies and contradictions; and it seems ambiguously aimed at a wider audience than its inscription to Alfred Douglas suggests. After all, there are the enduring plays, the fascinating novel, the engaging dialogues; why struggle with a reader-resistant text framed as a personal letter? Its handling in the recent Cambridge Companion to Oscar Wilde (1997) illustrates this critical uneasiness. De Profundis is almost completely ignored in this collection of essays. In her chapter, for example, Regenia Gagnier (a sympathetic interpreter of De Profundis in an earlier study) devotes one sentence to it, calling it "perhaps his greatest work of art" (27)--but does not elaborate. Nowhere in this volume is there a sustained effort to assess the place of De Profundis in Wilde's canon or to set it within the context of his life. Many readers disparage or dismiss De Profundis. It has been condemned as a "venomous dossier" and "obsessive piece of writing" (Julian 352), and it has been dismissed as the complaint of a very unhappy prisoner who "thereafter lost interest in" the work (Croft-Cooke 231). Even good-faith interpretive efforts run aground: Avrom Fleishman speaks of being "unprepared--even after several readings, in my own case--to believe my eyes" at its shifts of tone and attitude (285-86). There are some sympathetic interpretations, however. One is biographer Richard Ellmann's judgment that De Profundis is "one of the greatest love letters ever written," but that it suffers from a "disjointed structure" (515). Another is Gagnier's own earlier interpretation of the work as a response to the degradation of prison life; shifting between "realism and romance," "Wilde kept a positive past and created a possible future" as "romance"(Idylls 192). "He reconstructed the world," says Gagnier, "in order to show that he is above it" (Idylls 190). Both interpretations are insightful. Certainly De Profundis is a record of Wilde's deeply divided feelings for Douglas. And it is also at times a romance through which Wilde imagines a future for them both, in which he recovers aesthetic and moral superiority over Douglas. But there are significant aspects of De Profundis that are not considered in the interpretations by Ellmann or Gagnier. Neither asks why its structure appears disjointed or what might account for its subversive energies--its disconcerting shifts in tone, its abrupt swings in self-positioning, or its figurative intensity. Though Wilde creates a vision of his post-prison future, this vision entails at least as much irony as romance, because much of the time Wilde seems to be writing against himself, constructing self-representations that seem to hide as much as they reveal. Throughout much of the text Wilde seems up to something but unwilling to declare what that might be. I want to look again at the elements of De Profundis that make it unreadable for some and to propose that it has a significant place in Wilde's work. From my perspective, the disjunctions arise from irresolvable tensions lurking in Wilde's rhetorical goals as he sought both to hide and to reveal his own agency within the events of his life. These tensions are not idiosyncratic but are inherent in the sociocultural space Wilde occupied as an active homosexual. He took it as obligatory that he must displace and disguise his motives and actions even as he explained them. The tonal inconsistencies of De Profundis thus need to be read as manifestations of the tectonic pressures embedded in his life--pressures until 1895 kept more or less under control. In De Profundis Wilde was trying to demonstrate not so much that he was above the world, but that he had been--and still could be--an agent in a world that required duplicity and disguise for survival. …


Ultraviolet (UV) light produces an immunomodulatory effect on the skin and is widely used for the treatment of chronic inflammatory skin diseases. UV light emitting diodes (UV-LEDs) are a new and promising source of UV radiation. However, their mechanism of action remains largely unknown. In this study, we tested the safety and effectiveness of UV-LED irradiation for the treatment of atopic dermatitis (AD) in an NC/Nga mouse model. Mice were divided into seven groups of eight mice each. Application of Dermatophagoides faunae (Df) extract ointment for four weeks induced AD-like skin lesions. Subsequently, the mice were exposed to UV-LEDs, narrow band UVB, or UVA irradiation three times per week. We assessed the immunosuppressive effects of 310 nm (50 mJ cm^−2) and 340 nm (5 J cm^−2) UV-LED irradiation. Histological analyses using hematoxylin-eosin, toluidine blue, and immunohisto-chemical staining were performed. In addition, the serum levels of IgE, inflammatory cytokines and chemokines were measured using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs). UV-LED irradiation significantly alleviated AD-like skin symptoms, including edema, erythema, dryness, and itching, by modulating Th1 and Th2 responses, transepidermal water loss (TEWL), and scratching behavior in NC/Nga mice. These results suggest that UV-LEDs can improve the treatment of inflammatory skin diseases.


Differential coordinates as an intrinsic surface representation capture geometric details of surface. However, differential coordinates alone cannot achieve desirable editing results, because they are not affine invariant. In this paper, we present a novel method that makes the Laplacian coordinates completely affine-invariant during editing. For each vertex of a surface to be edited, we compute the Laplacian coordinate and implicitly define a local affine transformation that is dependent on the unknown edited vertices. During editing, both the resulting surface and the implicit local affine transformations are solved simultaneously through a constrained optimization. The underlying mathematics of our method is a set of linear Partial Differential Equations (PDEs) with a generalized boundary condition. The main computation involved comes from factorizing the resulting sparse system of linear equations, which is performed only once. After that, back substitutions are executed to interactively respond to user manipulations. We propose a new editing technique, called pose-independent merging, to demonstrate the advantages of the affine-invariant Laplacian coordinates. In the the same framework, large-scale mesh deformation and pose-dependent mesh merging are also presented.


Consumer behaviourble changes make "Yesterday's luxuries are today's necessaries". India is emerging as an attractive market for consumer durables. But the vibrant environmental factors and fierce competition is making it imperative to understand the dynamics of consumer durable market. Market survival depends on consumer satisfaction. Consumer satisfaction depends on their perception and brand preference of particular brand. 6 brands of consumer durables are available in the study area. The study would bring to light which consumer durable brand is most preferred by the consumers and why chose a particular consumer durable brand. Adopting a convenience sampling technique, 350 respondents of socio economic class (SEC A, B & C) were chosen among the consumer durable goods users in Lucknow City, randomly selected during the month of January and February 2014. The responses were analyzed through chi-square test and Garrett score with the help of SPSS-17. The paper has found that quality, technological innovations and multitude of brands across price points for price sensitive consumers are the three dominant factors which influence the consumer preference for consumer durable brands. The authors have found that quality has emerged as the most dominant factor influencing the consumers' preference for the consumer durable goods.


The CARINA (CARbon dioxide IN the Atlantic Ocean) data synthesis project is an international collaborative effort of the EU IP CARBOOCEAN, and US partners. It has produced a merged internally consistent data set of open ocean subsurface measurements for biogeochemical investigations, in particular, studies involving the carbon system. The original focus area was the North Atlantic Ocean, but over time the geographic extent expanded and CARINA now includes data from the entire Atlantic, the Arctic Ocean, and the Southern Ocean. Carbon data from the Pacific Ocean are being synthesized in the PICES effort.

The CARINA database includes data from 188 cruises. The salinity, oxygen, nutrient, inorganic carbon system and CFC data have been subjected to extensive quality control (QC) and adjustments have been made when necessary. The internally consistent data are available as three data products, one each for the Arctic Mediterranean Seas, the Atlantic and the Southern Oceans (CARINA Data Products). In addition, all of the individual cruise data files have been made available in WOCE exchange format in a single location (Cruise Summary Table) along with metadata and references. We strongly recommend users to employ the data products instead of the individual cruise files as the data in the latter have not been corrected for biases identified during the secondary QC. The CARINA effort is further described in the following as well as in the CARINA special issue of Earth System Science Data (ESSD) Journal.

The CARINA database is available free of charge as a numeric data package (NDP) from the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center (CDIAC). The NDP consists of the original oceanographic data files from 188 cruises, three data products and this documentation, which describes the CARINA project.


Kinematic estimations and dynamic performance assessments are fundamental theoretical issues to realize the mechanism from conceptual design to engineering application. In this paper, the closed-form dynamic formulations of a 4-DOF parallel driving mechanism are derived by combining the Lagrange method and virtual work principle. The selection principle of generalized coordinates and the steps for inverse dynamics modeling of the manipulator are proposed. Simulation results verify the correctness of the dynamic model and a physical prototype has been built. Based on the dynamic modeling, the concise algebraic expression of the operational space inertia matrix of the parallel driving mechanism is deduced. Because the translation and rotation degrees of freedom are inconsistent in the operational space, the Jacobian matrix is adopted to map the inertia matrix from the operational space to the joint space. Based on the inertia matrix in joint space, the Average Energy Transfer Efficiency (AETE) index is proposed. Finally, two control techniques for the manipulator implementable in joint space are compared. The AETE index and dynamic modeling method suggested in this paper can be further used in other manipulators for dynamic analysis and motion system design.


Evolution and Development of the Stickleback Lateral Line Margaret Grace Mills Chair of the Supervisory Committee: Professor Catherine L. Peichel Department of Biology The lateral line sensory system allows fish to sense water movement. It has been implicated in many behaviors, including schooling, prey detection and capture, and rheotaxis. The number and arrangement of neuromasts in the lateral line varies substantially between populations of the threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus). In some cases, variation in the lateral line is correlated with variation in ecological habitat, suggesting that it may be adaptive. Previous work in the Peichel lab identified differences between the adult lateral line patterns of two stickleback populations, a marine population from Japan (JP) and a freshwater benthic lake population from British Columbia (PB), as well as the genetic architecture of those differences. The most striking differences between these two populations are in the number and patterning of neuromasts in the main posterior (Mp) trunk line. For my thesis research, I investigated the developmental and genetic basis of the differences in Mp. PB fish have more neuromasts than JP in the Mp line, and this difference maps to Chromosome XXI. In Chapters 2 and 3, I used a number of techniques to try to identify the gene within the region responsible for the difference in number: recombination mapping, analysis of individual candidate genes, RNA-seq analysis of all genes in the region, and in situ hybridization. I did not identify the causative gene, but I did show that the candidate gene Eya1 is expressed in neuromasts during stickleback development. I also demonstrated that difference in neuromast number between PB and another freshwater population does not map to Chromosome XXI, suggesting that there are other loci that control neuromast number in sticklebacks. A second difference in the Mp line, the arrangement of neuromasts, correlates strongly with the presence of bony lateral plates and maps to Chromosome IV. In Chapter 4, I found that the elaboration of the neuromast pattern coincides with the growth of those plates through postembryonic development. I also used transgenesis to demonstrate that pleiotropic activity of the gene responsible for plate development, Eda, is also responsible for the difference in neuromast pattern.


Abstract Recent developments in prostate cancer diagnostics call for appropriate tools to frame the ethical assessment of diagnostic practice. The first aim is to identify ethically important features and ethical principles of key importance for prostate cancer diagnostics. Next, we need to argue which ethical theory justifies these principles and can therefore be used for ethical assessment in the field. The standard medical procedure for prostate cancer diagnostics offered by the Danish health care system is used as an example.


In mobile ad hoc networks, it is usually assumed that all the nodes belong to the same authority; therefore, they are expected to cooperate in order to support the basic functions of the network such as routing. In this paper, we consider the case in which each node is its own authority and tries to maximize the benefits it gets from the network. In order to stimulate cooperation, we introduce a virtual currency and detail the way it can be protected against theft and forgery. We show that this mechanism fulfills our expectations without significantly decreasing the performance of the network.


The subject of computational complexity theory is to analyze the difficulty of solving computational problems within different models of computation. Proving lower bounds is easier in less powerful models and proving upper bounds is easier in the more powerful models. This dissertation studies techniques for analyzing the power of models of computation which are at the frontier of currently existing methods. First, we study the power of certain classes of depth-three circuits. The power of such circuits is largely not understood and studying them under further restrictions has received a lot of attention. We prove exponential lower bounds on the size of certain depth-three circuits computing parity. Our approach is based on relating the lower bounds to correlation between parity and modular polynomials, and expressing the correlation with exponential sums. We show a new expression for the exponential sum which involves a certain affine space corresponding to the polynomial. This technique gives a unified treatment and generalization of bounds which include the results of Goldmann on linear polynomials and Cai, Green, and Thierauf on symmetric polynomials. We obtain bounds on the exponential sums for classes of polynomials of large degree and with a large number of terms, which previous techniques did not apply to. Second, we study the space complexity of undirected st-connectivity. We prove an O(log n log log n) upper bound on the space complexity of undirected st-connectivity. This improves the previous O(log 4/3 n) bound due to Armoni et al. and is a big step towards the conjectured optimal O(log n) bound. Independently of our work and using different techniques recently Reingold proved the optimal bound. Interest in this question comes from the fact that undirected st-connectivity is complete for SL, a class of problems between L and NL. It has been noticed that questions in the space context tend to be easier to answer than the corresponding questions in the iii time context. Since understanding the power of non-determinism over determinism presents a major challenge to complexity theory, studying complexity classes between L and NL, which are the smallest natural classes capturing deterministic and non-deterministic space-bounded computation, is important.


Lightning currents and electromagnetic fields associated with return strokes to elevated strike objects The aim of this thesis is the modeling of lightning return strokes impacting elevated strike objects such as towers. The theoretical and experimental work done led to the evaluation of the effect of the presence of the strike object on the spatial and temporal distribution of the current along the channel and along the strike object, as well as on the radiated electromagnetic fields associated with that current distribution. The first three chapters of the thesis contain a brief description of the lightning discharge, a review of the relevant experimental data available and an overview of the existing return strokes models for lightning initiated at ground level. The main original contributions of this thesis are presented in Chapters 4 through 6. They consist of experimental and theoretical work as follows. For the purpose of validating our theoretical models versus measurements, we participated, during the summers of 2000 and 2001, in experimental campaigns in Toronto, Canada, where we measured currents and electromagnetic fields associated with lightning strikes to the CN Tower in collaboration with the lightning research group of the University of Toronto. The CN Tower is today's tallest free-standing structure in the world (553 m). The collected data constitute the first simultaneous measurements of lightning current, electric and magnetic fields at two distances from the lightning channel, as well as optical measurements using a fast-speed camera system. The set of measurements obtained in Canada was complemented, in the framework of this thesis, with (a) experimental data of lightning return stroke currents measured simultaneously at two locations at the Peissenberg tower in Germany, provided by Prof. Fridolin Heidler, and (b) measurement results obtained using a reduced-scale model also designed, constructed, and tested in the framework of this thesis. The cumulated data allowed us to characterize the elevated strike object and to validate various theoretical expressions developed in this thesis. We generalized in Chapter 4 the so-called engineering models to include the presence of an elevated strike object. The generalization is based on a distributed-source representation of the return stroke channel, which allowed more general and straightforward formulations of these models, including a self-consistent treatment of the impedance discontinuity at the tower top, as opposed to previous representations implying a lumped current source at the bottom of the channel. We modeled the strike object as a vertically-extended, lossless uniform transmission line, characterized by reflection coefficients at its extremities. Special expressions were also derived for the case of electrically short structures. These expressions can be used to quantify the effect of grounding conditions on the current distribution along the strike object and along the channel. In Chapter 5, using the general expressions for the spatial-temporal distribution of the current in the channel and in the elevated strike object, new expressions for the electric and magnetic fields at far distances were derived. These expressions were evaluated for the cases of electrically-tall and electrically-short structures. For electrically-tall structures, it was found that the presence of the strike object enhances the radiated electric and magnetic field peaks in comparison to return strokes initiated at ground level. The enhancement was quantified through a simple multiplicative factor that depends on the return stroke speed and on the top reflection coefficient associated with the strike object. The mentioned simultaneously measured currents and fields associated with lightning strikes to the CN Tower were used to test the theoretical expressions and a reasonable agreement was found. The derived expressions could find a useful application when lightning currents are measured directly on instrumented towers to calibrate the performance of lightning location systems. In Chapter 6, we analyzed the current into the elevated strike object in the frequency domain, and we derived a closed form expression to evaluate this current taking into account frequencydependent reflection coefficients at the top and at the bottom of the elevated strike object. We derived an expression to calculate the reflection coefficient as a function of frequency at the bottom of the lightning strike object from two currents measured simultaneously at different heights along the strike object. We found that the ground reflection coefficient can be found without prior knowledge of the reflection coefficient at the top of the strike object. We showed that, unless the tower is tall enough that the current injected at the top of the object or its derivative drop to zero before the arrival of reflections, it is impossible, at least under our assumptions, to derive either the reflection coefficient at the top of the strike object or the "undisturbed" current from any number of simultaneous current measurements. We proposed two methods to estimate the top reflection coefficient. The proposed methods were applied to the experimental data obtained on Peissenberg Tower where lightning currents were measured simultaneously at two heights. It was found that the reflection coefficient at ground level can be considered as practically constant over a relatively wide range of frequencies from 100 kHz up to 800 kHz. The estimated top reflection coefficients are in good agreement with values found in the literature. Nevertheless, we found that the estimated values for the top reflection coefficient from the extrapolation method are lower than those found employing the current derivative method. The difference might be due to possible experimental errors and also to the fact that the extrapolation method provides values for the top reflection coefficient calculated from the low-frequency tail of the current waveforms, while the current derivative method uses values associated with the faster parts of the waveform. This observation suggests that the top reflection coefficient is frequency dependent. Finally, a genetic algorithm was applied to extract automatically primary lightning parameters from experimental records obtained on instrumented towers. The algorithm was first tested using theoretical waveforms obtained by assuming values for the ground and top reflection coefficients, and an assumed "undisturbed" current expressed in terms of two Heidler's functions. The algorithm was then applied to the actual, measured lightning return stroke currents obtained at the Peissenberg tower in Germany. The individuals that best satisfied the genetic algorithm's fitness function were selected and compared with the measured waveforms. A good agreement was found.


Modern pace of urbanization and globalization has a stable tendency to consolidate cities. Millionaires absorb suburbs, forming agglomerations. The development of territories in such conditions requires a change in a number of landscapes, town-planning, social and cultural systems.The European part of Russia differs from the rest of the country by a dense location of cities forming powerful agglomerations. 9 of the 15 of them created in the country are located on this territory, the largest of them being Moscow and St. Petersburg.Voronezh city agglomeration is the second largest after Moscow in the central part of European Russia. It has historical, cultural and unique natural features. Over the past 5-10 years ecological tourism has become a promising direction of development due to the region's development trends.Recreational and tourist potential of the regions of the central part of European Russia and its cultural heritage are able to a great degree to predetermine the strategy for their development. Evaluation of these components and the development of a concept based on interdisciplinary analysis resulted in evaluating the prospects of such territories and outlining the pathways of anagenesis.Based on the triplex (landscape-ecological, biogeographical and town-planning) interdisciplinary approach, the concept of the ecological framework for the development of agglomerations is substantiated as the basis for environmental management for the sustainable development of the region. Its implementation will allow preserving the biological and landscape diversity of the territory, improving the ecological situation, developing socio-infrastructure facilities, making ecological tourism a profitable source of income for the regional budget.


China has matured as a market--and the game has changed. Yesterday, multinationals grappled with fundamental strategic choices: Do we go to China? Whom do we partner with? Where should we invest? Winning in China was all about achieving approval to enter the market, picking the right joint venture partner and selling in the right few cities to the right customers. Execution didn't matter as much as privileged access--through government and partner relationships. Today, China is teeming with MNCs and local competitors. Government is no longer the main driver of deals. Barriers to entry have fallen. Regulations are less of a factor. Partners are no longer required in many industries. Winning now depends on great execution: effectively and efficiently developing, marketing, producing, and channeling goods to customers and growing and retaining a talent base. In Operation China, Jimmy Hexter and Jonathan Woetzel explain how you can achieve superior execution in China--through operations including talent management, product development, information technology, procurement, supply-chain management, manufacturing, and sales, marketing, and distribution. Based on over two decades of consulting experience for both local and multinational operations in China and extensive research on what drives success in operating in China, this book helps you get your operations right in the new competitive arena defining China today.


During the winter and spring of 2003, the Education Development Center/Center for Children and Technology undertook a preliminary formative evaluation of the Intel Teach to the Future preservice program. Intel Teach to the Future (http://www.intel.com/education) is a professional development and teacher education initiative focused on improving K-12 teachers integration of technology into their classrooms. This presentation will review findings from this evaluation, and also pose questions, based on these findings, about the opportunities and challenges presented by a coordinated program of preservice and in-service teacher training on the integration of information technologies into K-12 teaching and learning.


As far back as the 19th century, the notion of a 'social pyramid' was critiqued in the social sciences as an inadequate and simplistic model of society. The model encourages the idea that those at the bottom of the pyramid (BoP) are uniformly mediocre and the small number at the top overtly exceptional—social pyramid thinking not only tends to reflect differences in incomes but blends together other 'traits' such as talent, genius, values, practices and so on. Despite the disfavour in the social sciences throughout the 20th century about the notion of a social pyramid, the concept is now enjoying a renaissance in business, marketing and management theory in 'frontier' understandings of poverty in places such as Brazil and India. This article argues that the idea of vested 'globals' at the top of the pyramid (ToP) transgresses the concept of a social pyramid because India's ToP engages with the BoP from afar, remotely and in ways difficult to trace. Crucially, it is not those in India's BoP who are demanding of inquiry, but instead those at the ToP in terms of their stakes in India's austerity and their lived distance from these austere conditions.


—Classification of public information from microblog- ging and social networking services could yield interesting out-comes and insights into the social and public opinions towards different services, products, and events. Microblogging and social networking data are one of the most helpful and proper indicators of public opinion. The aim of this paper is to classify tweets to their classes using cross validation and partitioning the data across cities using supervised machine learning algorithms. Such an approach was used to collect real time Twitter microblogging data tweets towards mentioning iPad and iPhone in different locations in order to analyse and classify data in terms of polarity: positive or negative, and emotion: anger, joy, sadness, disgust, fear, and surprise. We have collected over eighty thousand tweets that have been pre-processed to generate document level ground truth and labelled according to Emotion and Polarity. We also compared some approaches in order to measures the performance of K-NN, Nave Bayes, and SVM classifiers. We found that the K-NN, Nave Bayes, SVM, and ZeroR have a reasonable accuracy rates, however, the K-NN has outperformed the Nave Bayes, SVM, and ZeroR based on the achieved accuracy rates and trained model time. The K-NN has achieved the highest accuracy rates 96.58% and 99.94% for the iPad and iPhone emotion data sets using cross validation technique respectively. Regarding partitioning the data per city, the K-NN has achieved the highest accuracy rates 98.8% and 99.95% for the iPad and iPhone emotion data sets respectively. Regarding the polarity data sets using both cross validation and partitioning data per city, the K-NN achieved 100% for the all


We have previously demonstrated that intratumoral injection with Ad vectors expressing IL-2 or IL-12 can induce regression in a murine breast cancer model. These IL-2- or IL-12-induced antitumor responses were mainly mediated by Ag-specific T cells. Lymphotactin is a novel lymphocyte chemokine that can cause local accumulation of CD4+, CD8+, and NK cells. We hypothesized that addition of lymphotactin may enhance the antitumor immune responses induced by locally produced IL-2 and IL-12 as we have previously shown. To this end we constructed two double-recombinant adenoviral vectors expressing lymphotactin along with either IL-2 (Ad5 Lym/IL-2) or IL-12 (Ad5 Lym/IL-12). Subcutaneous injection of polyoma middle T (PyMT) or Neu (8142) transgenically derived breast adenocarcinoma cells, in the hind flank of FVB/n mice, results in the formation of tumor nodules in 14-21 days. We show that these constructs elicit potent antitumor responses when administered intratumorally. The antitumor responses are long lasting as determined by rechallenge experiments and hence demonstrate a protective immunity. These observations indicate that by augmenting the antitumor response with adenoviral vectors expressing lymphotactin in combination with IL-2 or IL-12 is a novel way to enhance immunotherapeutic approaches.


ABSTRACT Background Evidence from epidemiological studies remains inconsistent or limited about the associations of tea consumption with incident diabetes and risk of diabetic complications and death among patients with diabetes. Objectives We aimed to investigate the associations of tea consumption with long-term risk of developing type 2 diabetes (T2D) and risks of diabetic complications and death among patients with diabetes. Methods This study included 482,425 diabetes-free participants and 30,300 patients with diabetes aged 30–79 y at study enrollment from the China Kadoorie Biobank. Tea consumption information was collected at baseline by interviewer-administered questionnaires. Incidences of diabetes, diabetic complications, and death were identified by linkages to the National Health Insurance system, disease registries, and death registries. Cox proportional hazard regression models were used to estimate HRs and 95% CIs. Results The mean ± SD age of participants free of diabetes was 51.2 ± 10.5 y and 41% were male. The mean ± SD age of patients with diabetes was 58.2 ± 9.6 y and 39% were male. Of all daily tea consumers, 85.8% preferred green tea. In the diabetes-free population, 17,434 participants developed incident T2D during 11.1 y of follow-up. Compared with participants who never consumed tea in the past year, the HR (95% CI) of T2D for daily consumers was 0.92 (0.88, 0.97). In patients with diabetes, we identified 6572 deaths, 12,677 diabetic macrovascular cases, and 2441 diabetic microvascular cases during follow-up. Compared with patients who never consumed tea in the past year, the HRs (95% CIs) of all-cause mortality and risk of microvascular complications for daily consumers were 0.90 (0.83, 0.97) and 0.88 (0.78, 1.00), respectively. Tea consumption was not associated with risk of macrovascular complications among patients with diabetes. With regard to tea consumed, the inverse associations between daily tea consumption and risks of T2D and all-cause mortality in patients with diabetes were only observed among daily green tea drinkers. Conclusions In Chinese adults, daily green tea consumption was associated with a lower risk of incident T2D and a lower risk of all-cause mortality in patients with diabetes, but the associations for other types of tea were less clear. In addition, daily tea consumption was associated with a lower risk of diabetic microvascular complications, but not macrovascular complications.


We present a conservative finite difference method designed to capture elastic wave propagation in viscoelastic fluids in two dimensions. We model the incompressible Navier‐Stokes equations with an extra viscoelastic stress described by the Oldroyd-B constitutive equations. The equations are cast into a hybrid conservation form which is amenable to the use of a second-order Godunov method for the hyperbolic part of the equations, including a new exact Riemann solver. A numerical stress splitting technique provides a well-posed discretization for the entire range of Newtonian and elastic fluids. Incompressibility is enforced through a projection method and a partitioning of variables that suppresses compressive waves. Irregular geometry is treated with an embedded boundary/volume-of-fluid approach. The method is stable for time steps governed by the advective Courant‐ Friedrichs‐Lewy (CFL) condition. We present second-order convergence results in L 1 for a range of Oldroyd-B fluids.


The theory of inhomogeneous analytic and polynomial materials is developed. These are media where the coefficients entering the equations involve analytic functions or polynomials. Three types of analytic or polynomial materials are identified. The first two types involve an integer p. If p takes its maximum value then we have a complete analytic or polynomial material. Otherwise it is incomplete analytic or polynomial material of rank p. For two-dimensional materials further progress can be made in the identification of analytic and polynomial materials by using the well-known fact that a 90◦ rotation applied to a divergence free field in a simply connected domain yields a curl-free field, and this can then be expressed as the gradient of a potential. Other exact results for the fields in inhomogeneous media are reviewed. Also reviewed is the subject of metamaterials, as these materials provide a way of realizing desirable coefficients in the equations.


A craze for foreign goods struck Latin Americans in the decades after independence that has continued to the present. People of all classes and backgrounds abandoned traditional, locally made goods that had satisfied needs and wishes for centuries: merchants in Costa Rica replaced wooden benches with sofas; Indians in the remote interior of Bolivia used imported British cottons instead of homemade cloth; wealthy and poor alike in Chile began to drink coffee rather than herbal teas.The contributors to "The Allure of the Foreign" trace instances of the demand for imported goods and their patterns of use--as well as the smaller number of cases in which local goods retained their popularity--to investigate why foreign goods became so popular only after the creation of independent Latin American republics. They find that this fascination stemmed from the cultural dilemmas of the new Latin American nations. Caught between a desire to separate themselves from their former European rulers and the wish to join in a new global modernity, Latin Americans developed ways of using European and North American goods to show off newly invented national identities.With its variety of economic, social, and cultural approaches, this book will appeal to readers in many fields, including consumption studies and economic history as well as anthropology and Latin American studies.Benjamin S. Orlove is Professor of Anthropology and Ecology in the Division of Environmental Studies, University of California, Davis.


e-mail: email@example.com This paper is focused on 3D printing of metal parts and the limitations of this method. There are numerous methods currently used for 3D printing, for example, DMLS, SLS, CLADDING, etc. This paper is limited to 3D printing using DMLS (Direct Metal Laser Sintering). The method works with metal powder, which is applied to a building platform in thin layers. The shape of a part is sintered using a laser beam in each layer. The part is built layer by layer. The material used for the experiment was maraging steel 1.2709. Laser sintering was undertaken using the EOSINT M 290. We used the process parameters recommended for this powder by the equipment manufacturer. The measurements were carried out on a Blickle Multicheck PC500 microscope. The goal of the experiment was to find the size of the overhang which does not show signs of degradation of the geometry of the overhang.


Antimony-based bismuth-doped thin film, a new kind of super-resolution mask layer, is prepared by magnetron sputtering. The structures and optical constants of the thin films before and after annealing are examined in detail. The as-deposited film is mainly in an amorphous state. After annealing at 170–370 oC, it is converted to the rhombohedral-type of structure. The extent of crystallization increased with the annealing temperature. When the thin film is annealed, its refractive index decreased in the most visible region, whereas the extinction coefficient and reflectivity are markedly increased. The results indicate that the optical parameters of the film strongly depend on its microstructure and the bonding of the atoms.


The electronic structure and magnetic properties of atomic sulfur and oxygen adsorbed on the iron (001) surface are examined using density functional theory (DFT). The sulfur/oxygen coverage is considered from a quarter of one monolayer (ML) to a full monolayer. The work function change, magnetic properties, and density of states are determined and compared. We find that the work function increases with sulfur coverage in agreement with experiment. We also find that sulfur interacts strongly with the surface layer and that the magnetic moment of the Fe surface decreases as the sulfur coverage increases. In the case of oxygen adsorption, we find that the magnetic moment of the surface Fe atoms instead increases. We show that the difference in surface magnetic moment between sulfur adsorption and oxygen adsorption can be simply explained combining the Slater-Pauling rigid band model linking d-occupation and magnetic moment with an electronegativity argument. Moreover, the work function of the Fe surface as a function of oxygen coverage is found to be very sensitive to overlayer arrangement, here seen in the cases of 0.5 ML c(2 x 2) and 0.5 ML p(2 x 1). This is shown to result from large differences in the surface dipole moment change induced by the oxygen adsorption in the two different overlayer arrangements.


We derive strong approximations to the supremum of the non-centered empirical process indexed by a possibly unbounded VC-type class of functions by the suprema of the Gaussian and bootstrap processes. The bounds of these approximations are non-asymptotic, which allows us to work with classes of functions whose complexity increases with the sample size. The construction of couplings is not of the Hungarian type and is instead based on the Slepian–Stein methods and Gaussian comparison inequalities. The increasing complexity of classes of functions and non-centrality of the processes make the results useful for applications in modern nonparametric statistics (Gine and Nickl 2015), in particular allowing us to study the power properties of nonparametric tests using Gaussian and bootstrap approximations.


This paper describes the software package DSPNexpress 2000, a tool for the quantitative evaluation of systems specified in stochastic Petri nets, the Unified Modeling Language (UML), or other specification languages for discrete-event systems. Linking the DSPNexpress software to commercial UML design packages allows the effective computation of performance measures like throughput and delay for UML system specifications. The unique feature of DSPNexpress constitute numerical solvers for transient and steady-state analysis of generalized-semi Markov processes with exponential and deterministic events, which may be concurrently active. The applicability of the DSPNexpress software for practical performance and dependability projects is demonstrated by an UML specification of an alternating bit protocol. The computational effort required by DSPNexpress for transient and steady-state analysis is plotted for varying model size. Furthermore, a performance curve for a measure of interest is presented.


Purpose To understand how individuals with profound visual impairment (ultra-low vision, ULV) use their remaining vision. Methods Forty-six participants with ULV (visual acuity ≤ 200/500 in the better seeing eye) were divided into nine focus groups (4–6 individuals per group) and met either in person (n = 2) or over the phone (n = 7). Discussions were guided by the Massof Activity Inventory. Audio recordings were transcribed and analyzed for visual activities that were then classified along two visual categorizations – functional domains and visual aspects. The latter was based on a Grounded Theory classification of participants' descriptions. Results Seven hundred sixty activities were reported. By functional domain they were classified as reading/shape recognition (10%), mobility (17%), visual motor (24%), and visual information gathering (49%). By visual aspects, they were classified as contrast (43%), luminance (17%), environmental lighting (9%), familiarity (3%), motion perception (5%), distance (7%), size (9%), eccentricity (5%), depth perception (1%), and other/miscellaneous (1%). More than one visual aspect may be critical for an activity: participants reported that contrast plays a role in 68% of visual activities, followed by luminance (27%), environmental lighting (14%), and size (14%). Conclusions Visual aspects, primarily contrast, were found to be critical factors enabling ULV individuals to perform visual activities. Translational Relevance This inventory, part of the Prosthetic Low Vision Rehabilitation (PLoVR) curriculum development study, provides a unique perspective into the visual world of the nearly blind, and can be used in the development of a Visual Functioning Questionnaire (VFQ) and visual performance measures suited for ULV populations.


Tadao Ando is the most revered Japanese architect at work today. Beloved and admired for his powerful, meditative spaces and his sensual and yet refined use of the materials of the modern trade-wood, steel, concrete, glass-Ando's work resonates with profound intelligence, unpretentious elegance, and an almost palpable sense of harmony. Tadao Ando at Naoshima: Art, Architecture, Nature showcases the latest work in an on going process of building by Tadao Ando at the acclaimed Naoshima Island Art Complex. Featured here is Ando's recently completed Chichu Art Museum, an underground facility built on the small island in the Inland Sea of Japan. With respect for the landscape and the traditional use of the land as terraced salt fields, Ando adapted the architecture to the topography, by burying much of the complex volume below the ground. Ando's Naoshima is a stunning demonstration of architectural virtuosity.


Vocational education taking place in the dual contexts of workplace and school often lacks integration of concrete experiences with theoretical knowledge. The interplay between workplace and school contexts and their often antagonistic priorities call for a specific model that transforms these divergences into learning opportunities and connects different forms of knowledge into an integrated body of knowledge that contributes to developing vocational competence. This paper presents a multidimensional pedagogical model, called the 'Erfahrraum', for the design and implementation of educational technologies as a way to foster this integration in initial dual vocational education and training (VET). The 'Erfahrraum' model informs the design of shared spaces for capturing and reflecting on experiences made in different contexts in which VET takes place. The model particularly emphasises the importance of shared reflection processes to turn concrete experiences into relevant integrated knowledge. Examples of implementations in different professions using a range of different technologies illustrate the power of the 'Erfahrraum' model.

https://infoscience.epfl.ch/record/211026/files/Schwendimann JVET 2015 (to share).pdf


Phosphorus is a naturally occurring element. It is an essential nutrient for many organisms and it develops a vital role in cellular physiology and biochemistry. Due to its nature, phosphorus in natural waters can be distinguished between inorganic phosphorus and / or organic. The inorganic form (ortofosfat) is the most bioavailable phosphorus, and it is often measured in natural waters and wastewater. Most inorganic phosphorus comes from the use of synthetic detergents, pesticides and fertilizers whereas the main source of organic phosphorus comes from food and human waste, which through biological action on the environment is finally converted into inorganic forms. The way that the phosphorus moves itself it is due to processes such as, for instance, the wind erosion, runoff and lixiviation. These are the main transport routes of the terrestrial phosphorus to the aquatic ecosystems. Too much phosphorus in the water can cause eutrophication of lakes, coastal waters and a reduction in the quality of the water. For these reasons, monitoring the concentration of phosphates is very important to maintain a good water quality and to minimize the pollution of the natural waters. This work pretends to evaluate a system of separation and preconcentration by using a device designed for this purpose and also with the use of a polymeric membrane, and two colorimetric methods such as vanadium-molybdenum or molybdenum blue method. The ideal conditions have been described for the use of a polymeric membrane PVC or CTA with Aliquat 336® as extractant. The method's parameters have been optimized and the different interferences (arsenate) have been studied. The method is applied in different natural waters and in natural fortified waters with phosphates and / or arsenates. Acceptable results are obtained from the detection system and / or quantification of phosphates in small concentrations in natural waters


In the United States, perhaps no minority group is considered as "model" or successful as the Asian American community. Rather than living in ominous "ghettoes," Asian Americans are described as residing in positive-sounding "ethnic enclaves." Writing the Ghetto helps clarify the hidden or unspoken class inequalities faced by Asian Americans, while insightfully analyzing the effect such notions have had on their literary voices. Yoonmee Chang examines the class structure of Chinatowns, Koreatowns, Little Tokyos, and Little Indias, arguing that ghettoization in these spaces is disguised. She maintains that Asian American literature both contributes to and challenges this masking through its marginalization by what she calls the "ethnographic imperative." Chang discusses texts from the late nineteenth century to the present, including those of Sui Sin Far, Winnifred Eaton, Monica Sone, Fae Myenne Ng, Chang-rae Lee, S. Mitra Kalita, and Nam Le. These texts are situated in the contexts of the Chinese Exclusion Era, Japanese American internment during World War II, the globalization of Chinatown in the late twentieth century, Vietnam War, the 1992 Los Angeles riots, and the contemporary emergence of the "ethnoburb."


Network services are provided by means of dedicated service gateways, through which traffic flows are directed. Existing work on service gateway placement has been primarily focused on minimizing the length of the routes through these gateways. Only limited attention has been paid to the effect these routes have on overall network performance. We propose a novel approach for the service placement problem, which takes into account traffic engineering considerations. Rather than trying to minimize the length of the traffic flow routes, we take advantage of these routes in order to enhance the overall network performance. We divide the problem into two subproblems: finding the best location for each service gateway, and selecting the best service gateway for each flow. We propose efficient algorithms for both problems and study their performance. Our main contribution is showing that placement and selection of network services can be used as effective tools for traffic engineering.


In this paper, we consider the problem of fast wave heights numerical evaluation of hypothetical tsunami along Pacific coast of Kamchatka Peninsula and the Kuril Islands. We focus on PC-based fast numerical calculation of tsunami wave propagation according to the classical shallow water approximation. Valuable performance gain is achieved by using the advantages of the modern computer architectures, namely the Field Programmable Gates Arrays (FPGAs). The Mac-Cormack finite difference scheme of the second order approximation to solve the shallow water system (Titov V. and Gonzalez F. 1997) has been implemented to the FPGA-based Calculator, specially designed by the authors for this task (Lavrentiev et al., 2017; Lysakov et al., 2018). Numerical tests show that it takes only a few seconds to calculate tsunami wave propagation over approximately 2000x2000 km (3120x2400 knots) water area with about 900 m step gridded bathymetry for the given realistic tsunami wave source. The FPGA calculator was also tested on the exact analytical solution obtained by Marchuk (2017) for model bottom topography. Vol. 38, No. 1, page 1 (2019)


This study presents data on all bank mergers from 1980 to 1994, including the number, sizes, locations, and types. To place the mergers in perspective, the paper also examines industrywide data on banking structure and performance, including data on branches, ATMs, stock prices, and changes in the number of organizations over the period. ; Among other findings, the data show that (1) 1980-94 was a period of record merger activity, with more than 6,300 mergers and $1.2 trillion in acquired assets; (2) several of the largest mergers in U.S. banking history, including BankAmerica-Security Pacific and Chemical Bank-Manufacturers Hanover, took place during the subperiod 1991-94; (3) the number of banks declined and nationwide banking concentration increased substantially while local market concentration changed little; and (4) the number of banking offices continued to grow even as the number of ATMs exploded. The data on ATMs and banking offices, along with other information, suggest that electronic banking is not yet close to providing a substitute for branch offices and that the branch office may be an important retail platform differentiating banks from other providers of financial services.


A comprehensive historical survey of the Jewish presence in Central Europe from the seventeenth century to the Holocaust, German-Jewish History in Modern Times is a four-volume collective project by a team of leading scholars, offering a vivid portrait of Jewish History. The series is sponsored by the Leo Baeck Institute, established in 1955 in Jerusalem, London, and New York for the purpose of advancing scholarship on the Jews in German-speaking lands. Emancipation and Acculturation: 1780-1871, the second of four volumes, focuses on a period of fundamental political, economic, and social change that permanently transformed German Jewry. The book begins in the 1780s, with Stefi Jersch-Wenzel's discussion of Christian Wilhelm Dohm's programmatic work, On the Civil Improvement of the Jews, in Prussia, and Hapsburg Emperor Joseph II's toleration edicts, two monumental events that paved the way toward Jewish civil equality. The Jews' emancipation, however, usually depended on their willingness to reeducate themselves as Germans. Michael A. Meyer traces this transformation, revealing it as an act of both political expediency and of personal desire for acculturation. Thus, Jews redefined their identity more narrowly as a religious denomination and eagerly adopted the German language and culture. This volume also explores how Jews dealt with Christianity in German culture and with German Chistianity's insistent denial of Judaism's viability; how they sustained and developed their community in the face of pressure to diminish or abandon Jewish identity; how they adapted their faith to modern sensibilities, creating new forms of Jewish belief and practice; and how leading Jewish writers and intellectuals, like Heinrich Heine and Berthold Auerbach, coped with the ambiguities of expressing Jewishness in Germany. Carefully researched and accessible to general readers, this second volume of German-Jewish History in Modern Times is an indispensable resource for understanding the complex process by which Jews became an integral part of the modern world.


Zipf's law states that the frequency of an observation with a given value is inversely proportional to the square of that value; Taylor's law, instead, describes the scaling between fluctuations in the size of a population and its mean. Empirical evidence of the validity of these laws has been found in many and diverse domains. Despite the numerous models proposed to explain the presence of Zipf's law, there is no consensus on how it originates from a microscopic process of individual dynamics without fine-tuning. Here we show that Zipf's law and Taylor's law can emerge from a general class of stochastic processes at the individual level, which incorporate one of two features: environmental variability, i.e., fluctuations of parameters, or correlations, i.e., dependence between individuals. Under these assumptions, we show numerically and with theoretical arguments that the conditional variance of the population increments scales as the square of the population, and that the corresponding stationary distribution of the processes follows Zipf's law.


Most attorneys (whether in practice or academia) assume that pharmaceutical companies' discussion and dissemination of information regarding "off-label" uses of prescription drugs (i.e., uses that have not been specifically approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)) are inherently commercial in nature. Two aspects of the speech, however, suggest that it does not cleanly fall into the category of "commercial speech" for purposes of First Amendment analysis. First, most prescribers are not, in fact, purchasing drugs for their patients, and so conversations between pharmaceutical company representatives and prescribers are not directly linked to a commercial transaction the same way they are with an advertisement or sales pitch to an end consumer. Second, prescribers are "learned intermediaries," charged by profession and law to research and weigh the range of potential risks and benefits of each product they prescribe for their patients, whether it is prescribed for an FDA-approved use or an off-label use. As a result, scientific and medical information is "inextricably linked" to any speech that would be considered merely commercial. Prior attempts to restrict speech that included both financially driven and noncommercial components have received exceptionally rigorous scrutiny when reviewed by the Supreme Court. This Article suggests that the current restrictions on some pharmaceutical company speech may be given what I shall call "enhanced intermediate" (or even strict) scrutiny, rather than the usual intermediate scrutiny given to restrictions of merely commercial speech, because of the unique professional and legal role played by prescribers.


This brief article analyses the aims of the Southern African Development Co-ordination Conference (SADCC). It looks at the historical aspects as well as the problems confronting the organisation. The legal problems concern existing import/export rules, visa requirements and varying legal regimes. Possible solutions range from the abolition of licences for imports and exports in SADCC trade, and the abolition of the visa requirement for the citizenry of the region; to the replacement of the legal regimes by the United Nations texts dealing with international trade. This would remove any uncertainties or ambiguities arising where trade is conducted in an atmosphere of varying legal regimes, and bring the organisation closer to fulfIlling one of the wishes of the Founding Fathers, viz the creating of links to create a genuine and equitable regional integration.


We propose a rapid spectral matching method by lowering number of comparisons, processing time can be saved. Firstly, 1-norm is chosen as length measure of spectrum, and with this criterion, a 1-norm database is built. Secondly, a subspace is constructed from the whole reference library by retaining the references with the most similar 1-norm values. Finally, matching operations are performed in the subspace to obtain the match result. Simulations of geological mapping with ASTER spectral library show that the proposed method can significantly reduce processing time and enhance accuracy compared with traditional and dimension reduction methods.


The Middle to Late Miocene Bodie Hills volcanic field is a >700 km 2 , long-lived (∼9 Ma) but episodic eruptive center in the southern segment of the ancestral Cascades arc north of Mono Lake (California, U.S.). It consists of ∼20 major eruptive units, including 4 trachyandesite stratovolcanoes emplaced along the margins of the field, and numerous, more centrally located silicic trachyandesite to rhyolite flow dome complexes. Bodie Hills volcanism was episodic with two peak periods of eruptive activity: an early period ca. 14.7–12.9 Ma that mostly formed trachyandesite stratovolcanoes and a later period between ca. 9.2 and 8.0 Ma dominated by large trachyandesite-dacite dome fields. A final period of small silicic dome emplacement occurred ca. 6 Ma. Aeromagnetic and gravity data suggest that many of the Miocene volcanoes have shallow plutonic roots that extend to depths ≥1–2 km below the surface, and much of the Bodie Hills may be underlain by low-density plutons presumably related to Miocene volcanism. Compositions of Bodie Hills volcanic rocks vary from ∼50 to 78 wt% SiO 2 , although rocks with 2 are rare. They form a high-K calc-alkaline series with pronounced negative Ti-P-Nb-Ta anomalies and high Ba/Nb, Ba/Ta, and La/Nb typical of subduction-related continental margin arcs. Most Bodie Hills rocks are porphyritic, commonly containing 15–35 vol% phenocrysts of plagioclase, pyroxene, and hornblende ± biotite. The oldest eruptive units have the most mafic compositions, but volcanic rocks oscillated between mafic and intermediate to felsic compositions through time. Following a 2 Ma hiatus in volcanism, postsubduction rocks of the ca. 3.6–0.1 Ma, bimodal, high-K Aurora volcanic field erupted unconformably onto rocks of the Miocene Bodie Hills volcanic field. At the latitude of the Bodie Hills, subduction of the Farallon plate is inferred to have ended ca. 10 Ma, evolving to a transform plate margin. However, volcanism in the region continued until 8 Ma without an apparent change in rock composition or style of eruption. Equidimensional, polygenetic volcanoes and the absence of dike swarms suggest a low differential horizontal stress regime throughout the lifespan of the Bodie Hills volcanic field. However, kinematic data for veins and faults in mining districts suggest a change in the stress field from transtensional to extensional approximately coincident with the inferred cessation of subduction. Numerous hydrothermal systems were operative in the Bodie Hills during the Miocene. Several large systems caused alteration of volcaniclastic rocks in areas as large as 30 km 2 , but these altered rocks are mostly devoid of economic mineral concentrations. More structurally focused hydrothermal systems formed large epithermal Au-Ag vein deposits in the Bodie and Aurora mining districts. Economically important hydrothermal systems are temporally related to intermediate to silicic composition domes. Rock types, major and trace element compositions, petrographic characteristics, and volcanic features of the Bodie Hills volcanic field are similar to those of other large Miocene volcanic fields in the southern segment of the ancestral Cascade arc. Relative to other parts of the ancestral arc, especially north of Lake Tahoe in northeastern California, the scarcity of mafic rocks, relatively K-rich calc-alkaline compositions, and abundance of composite dome fields in the Bodie Hills may reflect thicker crust beneath the southern ancestral arc segment. Thicker crust may have inhibited direct ascent and eruption of mafic, mantle-derived magma, instead stalling its ascent in the lower or middle crust, thereby promoting differentiation to silicic compositions and development of porphyritic textures characteristic of the southern ancestral arc segment.


In existing CNN based detectors, the backbone network is a very important component for basic feature1 extraction, and the performance of the detectors highly depends on it. In this paper, we aim to achieve better detection performance by building a more powerful backbone from existing ones like ResNet and ResNeXt. Specifically, we propose a novel strategy for assembling multiple identical backbones by composite connections between the adjacent backbones, to form a more powerful backbone named Composite Backbone Network (CBNet). In this way, CBNet iteratively feeds the output features of the previous backbone, namely high-level features, as part of input features to the succeeding backbone, in a stage-by-stage fashion, and finally the feature maps of the last backbone (named Lead Backbone) are used for object detection. We show that CBNet can be very easily integrated into most state-of-the-art detectors and significantly improve their performances. For example, it boosts the mAP of FPN, Mask R-CNN and Cascade R-CNN on the COCO dataset by about 1.5 to 3.0 points. Moreover, experimental results show that the instance segmentation results can be improved as well. Specifically, by simply integrating the proposed CBNet into the baseline detector Cascade Mask R-CNN, we achieve a new state-of-the-art result on COCO dataset (mAP of 53.3) with a single model, which demonstrates great effectiveness of the proposed CBNet architecture. Code will be made available at https://github.com/PKUbahuangliuhe/CBNet.


In the Silurian carbonate platform succession of Gotland, Sweden, interreef limestone and marl sequences have shallow-marine shelly assemblages dominated by brachiopods, typical of many Paleozoic benthic faunas. Locally, from similar facies, where early skeletal silicification occurred associated with bentonites, there are rich and diverse assemblages of originally aragonitic molluscs. Quantitative faunal analysis suggests that massive depletion of skeletal aragonite, chiefly molluscs, took place, and the entire molluscan fauna may generally be underrepresented by at least 100-fold. Previous workers on the Gotland succession have already shown that abundant diagenetic limestones were sourced by early aragonitic remobilization. Our findings indicate molluscs as the probable source of this diagenetic calcite, not aragonite mud as was previously thought. The taphonomic window represented by the silicified faunas illustrates the importance of aragonitic shells among the original Silurian shelf benthos, and raises the possibility that the paucity of such shells among many fossil faunas may be largely an early taphonomic effect.


We determine, using a self consistent method, the charge and spin currents in ballistic Josephson junctions consisting of ferromagnetic ($F$) layers sandwiched between superconducting ($S$) electrodes ($SFS$-type junctions). When there are two $F$ layers, we also consider the experimentally relevant configuration where a normal ($N$) nonmagnetic spacer layer separates them. We study the current-phase relationships as functions of geometrical parameters that are accessible experimentally including the angles that characterize the relative orientation of the magnetization in the $F$ layers. Our self-consistent method ensures that the proper charge conservation laws are satisfied. As we vary the phase difference $\Delta\varphi$ between the two outer $S$ electrodes, multiple harmonics in the current phase relations emerge, their extent depends on the interface scattering strength and the relative $F$ layer widths and magnetization orientations. By manipulating the relative $F$ layer magnetization orientations, we find that the charge supercurrent can reverse directions or vanish altogether. These findings are discussed in the context of the generation and long-range nature of triplet pair correlation. We also investigate the spin currents and associated spin transfer torques throughout the junction. For noncollinear relative magnetizations, the non-conserved spin currents in a given $F$ region gives rise to net torques that can switch directions at particular magnetic configurations or $\Delta\varphi$ values. The details of the spin current behavior are shown to depend strongly on the degree of magnetic inhomogeneity in the system.


A predictive architecture is presented to react on sensor data in the case of high speed motion and low bandwidth sensor data. This concept is used for the vision based control of an industrial robot to track a contour at a speed of 1.6 m/s. The vision task can be performed very fast since only 2 rows of the image are analyzed. In this way an accuracy of 0.3 mm is reached in spite of uncertainties in robot's kinematic parameters. Vision and control work asynchronously so that even delay times are tolerable during sensing as long as the time-instant of the exposure is known.


The aim of this study was to compare the outcomes of surgical versus nonsurgical treatment in the management of Diabetic Foot Ulcer. A Prospective Observational Study which was carried out in the Department of Surgery of Rajah Muthiah Medical College Hospital a tertiary health care hospital in Chidambaram, Cuddalore District, Tamilnadu in the period of November 2016 to April, 2017 (6 months). The patient demographic, disease, ulcer size, drugs and treatment prescribed were collected in a specially designed data collection form which also included bacterial culture tests. Upon enrolment for the study 65% (39) of the patients diagnosed for diabetic foot were male and 35% (21) were female. The demographic classification suggests that diabetic foot incidence has increased upon ages of people ranging between the mean ages of 45+/5 years to 60+/-5 years. The bacterial distribution over the patients showed that, out of which Escherichia coli (28.3%) and Staphylococcus aureus (15%) are the most common bacteria. The outcomes mainly depend upon the grading of infection and ulcer size. The superficial ulcers can be treated more effectively with antibiotics and regular dressings, whereas the deep ulcers and gangrene should be intervened with surgical procedures. The assessed study reports that clinical pharmacist intervention by patient education and medication counselling creates a significant influence in medication adherence


PURPOSE
SBRT requires both substantial positioning precision and accuracy. However, accurate dose delivery is challenging for prone breast SBRT due to breast deformation, lumpectomy cavity shrinkage and ineffective CT/CBCT on soft tissue. We developed a prototype in-room 3D volumetric ultrasound (US) image guidance system for prone breast SBRT.

METHODS
The designed system, set beneath a prone breast board, consists of a customized breast cup, rotational scanning water container, and a portable US scanner. The breast CT scan is converted to STereoLithographic model then 3D printed as a mold to construct a patient-specific breast cup. The holder is fabricated with liquid urethane resin and cured to a ∼1 mm thick semi-rigid polymerized cup. The US transducer is attached to the container but separated from a water compartment by a urethane resin membrane. The transverse scan is acquired by simultaneously rotating the water container and transducer every 5°. The 3D US image is constructed with multiple transverse images using a supercompounding-technique-based volumetric US reconstruction algorithm. The performance of the prototype US system was evaluated on a gelatin based breast phantom with five embedded reflective markers. Reconstructed image quality (size and geometric accuracy) was compared with MRI images of the same phantom.

RESULTS
In the evaluated plane, the five embedded markers were compared to MRI in terms of size and location. Diameter differences were 1.85, 1.71, 2.37, 1.00 and 1.85 mm between MRI and US. The 1-2 mm variations come from the different edge response the material has on the two imaging modalities. The difference in distance between adjacent marker centers between MRI and US were 0.57, 0.84, 0.75 and 0.80 mm.

CONCLUSION
The phantom study results show geometric agreement between MRI and US indicating that the proposed image-guidance system can provide precise and accurate patient setup for each SBRT fraction. CPRIT Grant R1308.


This paper deals with the experimental study of the composition of special highperformance Portland cement based composites and their resistance to de-icing salt scaling. The aim of this was to evaluate the impact of pozzolanic additive – burnt clay, the application of which is documented by several research works. Studied composites are formulated as fine-grain high performance concrete with high dose of Portland cement and silica fume and very low rate of water–cement ratio to ensure reduced permeability. Burnt clay was applied as cementitious supplementary material to reduce the environmental impact of concrete mixtures and to obtain suitable microstructure. Portland cement replacement by the above mentioned additive was gradually elevated just up to the rate of 60% of Portland cement weight. Investigation of scaling resistance was complemented by measuring surface water absorption and determination of flexural and compressive strength which exceeded the level of 100 MPa for studied mixtures. Mechanical properties were not extensively affected by burnt clay additive, but the essential impact of studied pozzolanic material was noticeable in the case of scaling and absorption tests, which means processes regulated by permeability. In this point of view, optimum rate of replacement by burnt clay seems to be about 30% of Portland cement weight. A mixture with optimal composition exhibited increased durability by more than 50% to reference mixture. Application of burnt clay contributed to good potential for practical use for all tested properties with significant production energy savings.


China's rise has elicited envy, admiration, and fear among its neighbors. Although much has been written about this, previous coverage portrays events as determined almost entirely by Beijing. Such accounts minimize or ignore the other side of the equation: namely, what individuals, corporate actors, and governments in other countries do to attract, shape, exploit, or deflect Chinese involvement. The New Great Game analyzes and explains how Chinese policies and priorities interact with the goals and actions of other countries in the region.To explore the reciprocal nature of relations between China and countries in South and Central Asia, The New Great Game employs numerous policy-relevant lenses: geography, culture, history, resource endowments, and levels of development. This volume seeks to discover what has happened during the three decades of China's rise and why it happened as it did, with the goal of deeper understanding of Chinese and other national priorities and policies and of discerning patterns among countries and issues.


For many years it has been seen that mine fires are the leading and primary cause for the loss of life and property particularly in this sector and leading to these issues, spontaneous heating or self-ignition or auto-oxidation of coal is one of the major issues. Since the properties of coal varies from place to place because of different theories of the formation of coal. Therefore, researchers, academicians, field engineers and scientists have carried out experimental investigation in India and other countries and derived various methods for finding out the susceptibility of coal to spontaneous heating. In India, various techniques like Crossing point temperature method, Olpinski index, DTA, Wet oxidation, etc. are being used to determine the coals susceptibility to spontaneous heating. Here, crossing point temperature method is commonly adopted technique to determine the rate at which coal gets to fire. Fire risk index is also being calculated from the inflection point and crossing point temperatures observed from the graph. Crossing point temperature is the temperature at which both the bath temperature and coal temperature coincides. In this method, bath is continuously heated at 1°C/min. This approach has many advantages as it is less costly and is very easy to handle. After determining various crossing point temperatures and inflection point temperatures, MR index was calculated to assess the susceptibility of Indian coals to spontaneous heating.


There is a vast selection of vector-borne diseases circulating in the world today. The latest of these
to have a globally recognised impact is the Zika Virus (ZIKV). The suggested link between
ZIKV and the recent spike in microcephaly in Brazil has put the spotlight on this previously obscure
virus. The potential for this virus to spread worldwide means that any suggested correlation
between ZIKV and negative health effects should be extensively researched in case of a future
global epidemic. This literature-review aims to assess how ZIKV is transmitted, through which
vectors, it's capacity for non-vector borne transmission, as well as highlighting the potential risks
it poses to human health.
"
ZIKV is named after the Zika forest in Uganda where it was discovered in 1947, first isolated in a
Rhesus monkey whilst studying yellow fever virus. The virus would for the next few decades go
relatively undetected, with minor activity being reported in Africa and Asia, until 2007 when an
outbreak occurred in Yap, Micronesia. Since then, epidemics have been observed in French Polynesia
in 2013 and Brazil in 2016, with the virus being linked to both microcephaly and Guillain-
Barre syndrome (GBS).
"
The Zika virus is of the Flaviviridae family, and so is related to Dengue virus, yellow fever virus
and West Nile virus. It produces very similar febrile symptoms to some more commonly diagnosed
arboviral infections such as chikungunya (CHIKV) and dengue virus (DENV), which has
been suggested as a delaying factor in diagnosis. The low number of ZIKV cases previously
recorded may be due to the occurrence of subclinical forms of ZIKV, as well as misdiagnosis as
DENV or CHIKV.
"
Transmission of ZIKV is mostly vectorial through mosquitoes of the Aedes genus. The virus reproduces
in the host vector with no effect on the host, and remains in the host until it dies. The
Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus are the species most competent of transmission and pose a
great public health concern, due to them being widely spread throughout tropical, sub-tropical
(Ae. aegypti) and temperate (Ae. albopictus) regions. Non-vector borne transmission has also
been described, with sexual, perinatal and blood transfusion-transmitted ZIKV all reported, although
much less common than vector-borne transmission.
"
As mentioned previously, ZIKV has been linked to microcephaly and Guillain-Barre syndrome.
The current ZIKV outbreak in Brazil has coincided with a spike in the number of babies born
with microcephaly. Although not yet a proven link, pregnant women in the regions are being
urged to take preventative measures against infection. Guillain-Barre syndrome has however already
been shown to be a possible result of ZIKV infection. As ZIKV is rapidly spreading across
the Americas, these countries' healthcare systems must be prepared to accommodate patients with
the potential complications that infection with the virus may lead to.


Markov chains have experienced a surge of economic interest in the form of behavioral agent-based models that aim at explaining the statistical regularities of financial returns. We review some of the relevant mathematical facts and show how they apply to agent-based herding models, with the particular goal of establishing their asymptotic behavior since several studies have pointed out that the ability of such models to reproduce the stylized facts hinges crucially on the size of the agent population (typically denoted by N), a phenomenon that is also known as N-dependence. Our main finding is that N-(in)dependence traces back to both the topology and the velocity of information transmission among heterogeneous financial agents.


The first amendment has long protected a complex and interwoven range of individual interests. Protected freedoms often involve expressive activities - religion, speech, the press, assembly, and association. The first amendment also protects an individual's freedom to refrain from expressive activity.Two distinct kinds of liberty interest support the right to refrain from expressive activity. First, individuals have an interest in not being forced to reveal information about personal beliefs or associations. Such a claim may arise in a variety of contexts: a reporter may not wish to reveal the identity of news sources for fear of discouraging future revelations; a public school teacher may not wish to reveal all organizations to which that teacher has belonged for fear of community hostility or loss of employment; or a litigant may seek to prevent disclosure of trade secrets or other private information through the discovery process. As a group, these cases are rightfully viewed as "compelled disclosure" cases.Second, individuals have an interest in not being forced to belong to any organization or to make any statements when they would rather be silent or express different views. Within this category fall the claims of schoolchildren compelled to recite the pledge of allegiance in violation of their own religious or political views, of school teachers compelled to sign an oath of loyalty to the Constitution as a condition of employment, and of nonunion employees forced to pay service fees to support union activities with which they disagree. As a group, the constitutional obligations asserted in these three situations can be described as claims based on a first amendment protection for "intellectual individualism." This Article focuses on the second group of "protected silence" interests. It traces the history and development of such claims in the jurisprudence of the first amendment through decades of sporadic Supreme Court attention. The Article explores how this distinct branch of first amendment doctrine relates to core free speech concepts and whether it is, as some have argued, a separate species appealing to a different range of interests than traditional free speech claims, or, instead, a part of traditional first amendment doctrine appealing to those same values. The Article then discusses the development of the protection against compelled expression in Supreme Court decisions in the 1970s and early 1980s. The aim of this inquiry is to determine whether later cases, taken together with earlier decisions, present a consistent and coherent doctrinal picture. To the extent that the later cases suggest the Court has taken a new turning - either consciously or inadvertently - the values motivating this doctrinal shift in focus are identified. The Article goes on to address cases from the 1983-1985 Supreme Court Terms to evaluate whether the Court has found a methodologically consistent and doctrinally sound analysis.Finally, the Article concludes with a suggested judicial analysis for cases of this type. The proposed approach accommodates mainstream first amendment doctrine in analyzing claims of interference with the freedom from compelled expression or association.


This commentary reviews some of the main findings in speech sound perception using the brain imaging techniques and comments briefly on the recent findings by the session contributors. The main emphasis is on the experimental settings used in these studies. The aim is to demonstrate how the search for the neural correlates for abstract linguistic units has resulted in various types of experimental designs and how the stimulus selection may play a crucial role in the findings. It seems that the experimental settings are becoming more and more elaborate thus offering an access to the abstract levels of representation.


This study has examined the knowledge required for the publication of an Entrepreneurship and Business Innovation (E&BI) focused teaching text. The research design was based on a constructivist, interpretive paradigm, and utilised a qualitative methodology to support the development of a framework and content for a text. Data collection occurred through formal research, discovery and exploration of knowledge rather than verification, and was subject to my interpretation arising from my participation as an academic.

The analysis of data required a conceptual framework to be developed consistent with the research paradigm, and be so designed as to provide a way for me through a participatory process, to identify and evaluate knowledge in E&BI and investigate the research questions. The study rationalised that E&BI educational programs must first be consistent with, and reflective of, the mission of the institution providing such programs, and also, must address the learning needs of students. Previous research undertaken for this thesis had clearly identified a strong demand for material on E&BI that combined theory and practice with case studies drawn from real world entrepreneurial practices.

The outcome of this study resulted in the design of a formal text that was suitable for use by secondary, community and adult education institutions within Australia, for delivery to both a digital and print audience and representative of international E&BI good practice. The text 'Entrepreneurship and Business Innovation' was published in 2005.

The published text was designed to provide new entrepreneurs and existing Small to Medium Enterprise owners with a practical guide on how to pursue business success based on established entrepreneurial and enterprise management techniques. The thesis has explicated the scholarly coherence and originality of the published work, and further places the text within a pedagogical framework.


We present a study of the El Asnam, Algeria, earthquake of 10 October 1980 from a large collection of long-period surface and body wave records. The focal mechanism of the main shock is well constrained by the P -wave first motions at teleseismic distances and field observations: it was a thrust event on a plane striking N45°E, and a dip angle of 54° to the north. It had a small component of left-lateral motion (λ = 83°) (Ouyed et al. , 1981; Gaudemer et al. , 1981).

This earthquake was very well recorded on WWSSN stations and on GDSN and IDA digital stations, with a good azimuthal distribution. From these records, we confirm the focal solution and obtain a seismic moment M o = 5 × 1026 dyne-cm.

The P -wave seismograms indicate a complex source. We show that it is not sufficient to model the source by a multiple event, but it is also necessary to include a propagation effect in order to explain accurately the waveform. With assumptions based on field observation of the surface breaks, we model the P waves, including two discontinuities of the propagation, along the fault plane and obtain a good agreement of the waveform.


This study attempts to conduct an investigation of the characteristics of the South Asian stock markets including the effects of the opening of these markets. These markets were liberalised in early 1990s as a part of the economic reforms started in the South Asian region about two decades ago. The analysis is conducted for four countries in the South Asia, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, covering the period from 1980 to 2003. The analysis is done with the help of tables, regression analysis, Event Window analysis, and Error Correction Functions. The analysis indicates significant development in stock markets indicators such as market capitalisation and trading value in the region following liberalisation measures. However, the development in stock markets in South Asia does not seem to influence the real sector and the stock markets are still playing a minor role in their respective economies. The integration analysis suggests that the markets in South Asia are integrated with major markets, that is, of USA, UK, and Japan. There is clear evidence that the markets in India and Pakistan are affected by the major as well as the regional markets in the long run. In the short run, however, the markets appear to be independent of one another


Abstract:Exegetes have long puzzled over the purported clash of eschatologies in John 5:19–30—one framed by an apparent shift between figurative and literal speech in the passage. In this article I argue that the evidence for such a shift—most of it rooted in inconsistencies in the imagery and language of verses 24–25 and 28–29—is weak. Literary-oriented studies of the Fourth Gospel have called attention to the dynamism and fluidity of its imagery. Metaphorical vehicles, once introduced into a given discourse, are often further developed, modified, or altogether reimagined in successive lines—a technique known as "metaphor shifting." I identify this technique as the best explanation for the discrepancies observed between verses 24–25 and 28–29. When the entire passage is read as a continuous stream of shifting and interpenetrating metaphors, it contains no sudden clash of eschatologies and no tensions for the interpreter to resolve. Rather, the passage reads as a coherent and more complete exposition of the gospel's realized eschatology.


Background & Aim: Aging is accompanied with biological changes in the body organs especially mouth and tooth. Lack of adequate care can lead to loss of oral and dental health in the elderly.  Due to the importance of this issue, the present study aimed at determining the oral and dental status of the elderly in urban and rural areas of Torbat Heydariyeh in 2015  Methods: This is a descriptive/analytical study conducted on 450 elderly subjects living in Torbat Heydarieh through convenience sampling. The data were collected using questionnaire and examination form and analyzed by SPSS 21 using Chi-Square test. Results: the mean age of study subjects was 70.3±8.57. 48.9% of the elderlies were male and the rest were female. Also, 55.1% of study subjects were living in rural areas. 256 study subjects (56.9%) were fully edentulous and 23.8% had problems with chewing. A few cases (16.4%) had referred to a dentist in the past year. The most (58.7%) and least (1.6%) reason for referring to the dentist was toothache and consultation/checkup, respectively. There was a significant relationship between living place and edentulous index (p=0.01). Conclusion: Being edentulous was very prevalent among the elderly. Thus, education and active care in different periods of life lead to reduce edentulous index in the elderly.


Seed size has been associated with early seedling vigor (i.e., germination rate, emergence rate, and growth) in grasses. This study was conducted to compare seedling development over a 60-d period in the field as affected by heavy seed (HS) (0.19 to 0.21 g 100 seed -1 ) and light seed (LS) (0.13 to 0.16 g 100 seed -1 ) of Blackwell' and 'Trailblazer' switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.). The experiment was conducted in 1995 and 1996 at Lincoln, NE, on a Kennebec silt loam (fine-silty, mixed, superactive, mesic Cumulic Hapludolls). The experimental design was a randomized complete block with four replicates. Seed was separated into two sizes using a South Dakota seed blower. Seed was planted into rows at a rate of 100 pure live seed per meter of row. Plants were excavated and evaluated for shoot weight, leaf area, and root weight. Shoot and root systems were morphologically staged four times during the summer. Seed size differences in switchgrass appeared to produce only slight differences in morphological development of shoot and root systems, leaf area, shoot weight, and adventitious root weight from seedling emergence to 6 wk of growth. Adventitious roots formed more quickly on seedlings from heavier than lighter seed, but the advantage to seedling establishment was minimal even when soil moisture appeared to be lacking. By 8 to 10 wk after emergence, growth and development of LS seedlings were similar to HS seedlings. Once seedlings formed two or more adventitious roots, seed size no longer affected establishment and growth. Seed size in switchgrass appears to have a minimal long-term effect on growth and development of seedlings.


Locality-sensitive hashing (LSH) is an important tool for managing high-dimensional noisy or uncertain data, for example in connection with data cleaning (similarity join) and noise-robust search (similarity search). However, for a number of problems the LSH framework is not known to yield good solutions, and instead ad hoc solutions have been designed for particular similarity and distance measures. For example, this is true for output-sensitive similarity search/join, and for indexes supporting annulus queries that aim to report a point close to a certain given distance from the query point. In this paper we initiate the study of distance-sensitive hashing (DSH), a generalization of LSH that seeks a family of hash functions such that the probability of two points having the same hash value is a given function of the distance between them. More precisely, given a distance space (X, dist ) and a "collision probability function" (CPF) f: R -> [0,1] we seek a distribution over pairs of functions (h,g) such that for every pair of points x, y ın X the collision probability is ¶r[h(x)=g(y)] = f(dist(x,y)). Locality-sensitive hashing is the study of how fast a CPF can decrease as the distance grows. For many spaces, f can be made exponentially decreasing even if we restrict attention to the symmetric case where g=h. We show that the asymmetry achieved by having a pair of functions makes it possible to achieve CPFs that are, for example, increasing or unimodal, and show how this leads to principled solutions to problems not addressed by the LSH framework. This includes a novel application to privacy-preserving distance estimation. We believe that the DSH framework will find further applications in high-dimensional data management. To put the running time bounds of the proposed constructions into perspective, we show lower bounds for the performance of DSH constructions with increasing and decreasing CPFs under angular distance. Essentially, this shows that our constructions are tight up to lower order terms. In particular, we extend existing LSH lower bounds, showing that they also hold in the asymmetric setting.


Scene-based adaptive nonuniformity correction (NUC) is currently being applied to achieve higher performance in infrared imaging systems. However, almost all scene-based NUC algorithms cause the production of ghosting artifacts over output images. Based on constant-statistics theory, we propose a novel threshold self-adaptive ghosting reduction algorithm to improve the space low-pass and temporal high-pass (SLPTHP) NUC technique. The correction parameters of the previous frame are regarded as thresholds to compute new correction parameters. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm can obtain a satisfactory performance in reducing unwanted ghosting artifacts.


We introduce a 3-D parametric active contour algorithm for the shape estimation of DNA molecules from stereo cryo-electron micrographs. We consider a 3-D filament (consisting of a B-spline skeleton and a specified radial profile) and match its projections with the micrographs using an optimization algorithm. To accelerate the evaluation of the projections, we approximate the global model locally by an elongated blob-like template that is designed to be projection-steerable. This means that the 2-D projections of the template at any 3-D orientation can be expressed as a linear combination of a few basis functions. Thus, the matching of the template projections is reduced to evaluating a weighted sum of the inner-products between the basis functions and the micrographs. We choose an internal energy term that penalizes the total curvature magnitude of the curve. We also use a constraint energy term that forces the curve to have a specified length. The sum of these terms along with the image energy obtained from the matching process is minimized using a conjugate-gradient algorithm. We validate the algorithm using real as well as simulated data.


The estimation of local thermophysical properties can be of paramount importance in the study of heterogeneous media. The volume-averaging method is used to implement an estimation method of a local thermal conductivity field of a two-dimensional heterogeneous medium. The method is tested with experimental transient temperature fields, obtained with a calibrated sample with an infrared camera. A large number of images was processed in the transient state. The same intrinsic stationary field is estimated from each image. By means of repeated estimations, this method reduces the measurement noise influence.


The plasma irregularities have been frequently observed in the F-region, at low latitude regions, due to the instability processes occurring in the ionosphere. The depletions in electron density, as compared to the background density, is a signature of the plasma irregularities. These irregularities are also known as the "equatorial plasma bubble" (EPB). These EPBs can measure by the total electron content (TEC) using GPS receiver and by images of the nightglow OI 630.0 nm emissions using all sky imager (ASI). The current chapter is based on the review on the signature of the EPBs in TEC and ASI. measurements. We have also discussed the importance of the study of EPBs.