Structural Biology Using Electrons and X-Rays discusses the diffraction and image-based methods used for the determination of complex biological macromolecules. The book focuses on the Fourier transform theory, which is a mathematical function that is computed to transform signals between time and frequency domain. Composed of five parts, the book examines the development of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), which allows the calculation of the images of a certain protein. Parts 1 to 4 provide the basic information and the applications of Fourier transforms, as well as the different methods used for image processing using X-ray crystallography and the analysis of electron micrographs. Part 5 focuses entirely on the mathematical aspect of Fourier transforms. In addition, the book examines detailed structural analyses of a specimen's symmetry (i.e., crystals, helices, polyhedral viruses and asymmetrical particles). This book is intended for the biologist or biochemist who is interested in different methods and techniques for calculating the images of proteins using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). It is also suitable for readers without a background in physical chemistry or mathematics. *Emphasis on common principles underlying all diffraction-based methods *Thorough grounding in theory requires understanding of only simple algebra *Visual representations and explanations of challenging content *Mathematical detail offered in short-course form to parallel the text


Abstract. The discontinuous Galerkin (DG) finite element method is well suited for the modelling, with a relatively small number of elements, of three-dimensional flows exhibiting strong velocity or density gradients. Its performance can be highly enhanced by having recourse to r-adaptivity. Here, a vertical adaptive mesh method is developed for DG finite elements. This method, originally designed for finite difference schemes, is based on the vertical diffusion of the mesh nodes, with the diffusivity controlled by the density jumps at the mesh element interfaces. The mesh vertical movement is determined by means of a conservative arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian (ALE) formulation. Though conservativity is naturally achieved, tracer consistency is obtained by a suitable construction of the mesh vertical velocity field, which is defined in such a way that it is fully compatible with the tracer and continuity equations at a discrete level. The vertically adaptive mesh approach is implemented in the three-dimensional version of the geophysical and environmental flow Second-generation Louvain-la-Neuve Ice-ocean Model (SLIM 3D; www.climate.be/slim ). Idealised benchmarks, aimed at simulating the oscillations of a sharp thermocline, are dealt with. Then, the relevance of the vertical adaptivity technique is assessed by simulating thermocline oscillations of Lake Tanganyika. The results are compared to measured vertical profiles of temperature, showing similar stratification and outcropping events.


The accuracy of state‐of‐the‐art global barotropic tide models is assessed using bottom pressure data, coastal tide gauges, satellite altimetry, various geodetic data on Antarctic ice shelves, and independent tracked satellite orbit perturbations. Tide models under review include empirical, purely hydrodynamic ("forward"), and assimilative dynamical, i.e., constrained by observations. Ten dominant tidal constituents in the diurnal, semidiurnal, and quarter‐diurnal bands are considered. Since the last major model comparison project in 1997, models have improved markedly, especially in shallow‐water regions and also in the deep ocean. The root‐sum‐square differences between tide observations and the best models for eight major constituents are approximately 0.9, 5.0, and 6.5 cm for pelagic, shelf, and coastal conditions, respectively. Large intermodel discrepancies occur in high latitudes, but testing in those regions is impeded by the paucity of high‐quality in situ tide records. Long‐wavelength components of models tested by analyzing satellite laser ranging measurements suggest that several models are comparably accurate for use in precise orbit determination, but analyses of GRACE intersatellite ranging data show that all models are still imperfect on basin and subbasin scales, especially near Antarctica. For the M2 constituent, errors in purely hydrodynamic models are now almost comparable to the 1980‐era Schwiderski empirical solution, indicating marked advancement in dynamical modeling. Assessing model accuracy using tidal currents remains problematic owing to uncertainties in in situ current meter estimates and the inability to isolate the barotropic mode. Velocity tests against both acoustic tomography and current meters do confirm that assimilative models perform better than purely hydrodynamic models.


Abstract Although all deep mining has now ceased in the Durham coalfield of northern England, dewatering still continues (in June 1995) in the central area of the Coal Measures outcrop.Beyond the radius of influence of the dewatering pumps, the water table has already recovered, and several uncontrolled minewater discharges are found. These waters are moderately mineralized(total dissolved solids in the range 600 to 2500mg/1) and may have appreciable alkalinity. Iron loadings are typically high and give rise to thick ochre deposits on streambeds. White deposits are associated with high aluminium concentrations. Sulphate occurs in the range 130–1300mg/1, but in the receiving waters downstream from discharge points reductions in sulphate concentration are observed. Preliminary hydrochemical modelling results suggest that these observed reductions are explicable by precipitation of iron sulphates (e.g.jarosite). Existing hydrochemical classification schemesinadequately characterize these waters; therefore a new scheme is proposed which should be applicable in many areas with similar geology. Immediate practical use of the results presented here lies in predicting possible future river pollution if dewatering ends, and planning for abatement of such pollution using constructed wetland technology.


This thesis addresses two of the main challenges nowadays for computer vision: object segmentation and visual instance retrieval. The methodologies proposed to solve both problems are based on the use of object candidates and human computation in the computer vision loop. In the object segmentation side, this work explores how human computation can be useful to achieve better segmentation results, by combining users' traces with a segmentation algorithm based on object candidates. On the other hand, the instance retrieval problem is also addressed using object candidates to compute local features, and involving the user in the retrieval loop by applying relevance feedback strategies.


Debates around the sectarianisation of politics across the Middle East and Muslim world more broadly have opened new spaces of enquiry into the interrelationship between religion and geopolitics. The nature of links between Iran and Saudi Arabia and various groups in the Muslim world
 differs across time and space, shaped by a range of context specific factors. Networks are shaped by the interaction of their constituent parts and the organisation of power among their members and thus, as a consequence networks are neither fixed nor universal. Here, context is key, resulting
 in different types of relationships across spaces.Much academic and policy-oriented work on transnational religious networks has historically reflected Western governments' preoccupation with security issues vis-à-vis Islamist 'extremist' groups. This narrow prism
 distorts understanding of the roles that such networks play, and thus necessitates further exploration of the multiple levels and characteristics of transnational religious networks, be they state, sect or community-led.


The predominant secretory cargo of bloodstream form Trypanosoma brucei is variant surface glycoprotein (VSG), comprising ~10% total protein and forming a dense protective layer. Blocking VSG translation using Morpholino oligonucleotides triggered a precise pre‐cytokinesis arrest. We investigated the effect of blocking VSG synthesis on the secretory pathway. The number of Golgi decreased, particularly in post‐mitotic cells, from 3.5 ± 0.6 to 2.0 ± 0.04 per cell. Similarly, the number of endoplasmic reticulum exit sites (ERES) in post‐mitotic cells dropped from 3.9 ± 0.6 to 2.7 ± 0.1 eight hours after blocking VSG synthesis. The secretory pathway was still functional in these stalled cells, as monitored using Cathepsin L. Rates of phospholipid and glycosylphosphatidylinositol‐anchor biosynthesis remained relatively unaffected, except for the level of sphingomyelin which increased. However, both endoplasmic reticulum and Golgi morphology became distorted, with the Golgi cisternae becoming significantly dilated, particularly at the trans‐face. Membrane accumulation in these structures is possibly caused by reduced budding of nascent vesicles due to the drastic reduction in the total amount of secretory cargo, that is, VSG. These data argue that the total flux of secretory cargo impacts upon the biogenesis and maintenance of secretory structures and organelles in T. brucei, including the ERES and Golgi.


The goal of this study was to compare the relative efficacy and cost of self-monitoring of blood glucose (SMBG) with routine urine testing in the management of patients with type II (non-insulin-dependent) diabetes mellitus not treated with insulin. Fifty-four patients with type II diabetes mellitus, not treated with insulin, who had inadequate glucose control on diet aloneor diet and oral hypoglycemic agents were studied. Patients performed SMBG or urine glucose testing as part of a standardized treatment program that also included diet and exercise counseling. During the 6-mo study, both the urine-testing and SMBG groups showed similar improvement in glycemic control; within each group, there were significant improvements in fasting plasma glucose (reduction of 1.4 ± 3.2 mM, P < 0.03) and glycosylated hemoglobin (reduction of 2.0 ± 3.4%, P < 0.01) levels. Seventeen (31%) of54 patients actually normalized their glycosylated hemoglobin values, 9 in the urine-testing group and 8 in the SMBG group. Comparisons between the urine-testing and SMBG groups showed no significant differences in mean fasting plasma glucose (P > 0.86), glycosylated hemoglobin (P > 0.95), or weight (P < 0.19). In patients with type II diabetes mellitus not treated with insulin, SMBG is no more effective, but is 8–12 times more expensive, thanurine testing in facilitating improved glycemic control. Our results do not support widespread use of SMBG in diabetic patients not treated with insulin.


Evolutionary rescue occurs when adaptation prevents local extinction in deteriorating environments. Laboratory experiments with microorganisms have shown that the likelihood of evolutionary rescue is greatest in large populations that have previously experienced sublethal doses of stress. To assess this result in natural communities, we conducted a mesocosm experiment with semi-natural phytoplankton communities exposed to glyphosate, a widely used herbicide. We tested whether community biomass and pre-exposure to sublethal stress would facilitate community rescue after severe contamination. Exposure to sublethal stress, but not community biomass, facilitated rescue significantly–even though it led to biodiversity loss. Furthermore, glyphosate had modest effects on community composition, suggesting that community resistance to glyphosate was primarily driven by changes in resistance within taxa, not by community turnover. Our results expand the scope of community evolutionary rescue theory to complex ecosystems and confirm that prior stress exposure is a key predictor of rescue.


Neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) are part of the innate immune response to infections. NETs are a meshwork of DNA fibers comprising histones and antimicrobial proteins. Microbes are immobilized in NETs and encounter a locally high and lethal concentration of effector proteins. Recent studies show that NETs are formed inside the vasculature in infections and noninfectious diseases. Here we report that NETs provide a heretofore unrecognized scaffold and stimulus for thrombus formation. NETs perfused with blood caused platelet adhesion, activation, and aggregation. DNase or the anticoagulant heparin dismantled the NET scaffold and prevented thrombus formation. Stimulation of platelets with purified histones was sufficient for aggregation. NETs recruited red blood cells, promoted fibrin deposition, and induced a red thrombus, such as that found in veins. Markers of extracellular DNA traps were detected in a thrombus and plasma of baboons subjected to deep vein thrombosis, an example of inflammation-enhanced thrombosis. Our observations indicate that NETs are a previously unrecognized link between inflammation and thrombosis and may further explain the epidemiological association of infection with thrombosis.


A handheld and biocompatible mass spectrometry system provides nondestructive molecular diagnosis of cancer tissue samples. Is the pen mightier than the scalpel? Although a surgeon's goal is to remove cancer in its entirety during excision surgery, achieving negative margins (absence of cancer cells at the outer edge of the excised tumor specimen) can be challenging. To facilitate intraoperative diagnosis, Zhang et al. developed a handheld pen-like device that rapidly identifies the molecular profile of tissues using a small volume water droplet and mass spectrometry analysis. After 3 s of gentle physical contact with a tissue surface, the water droplet is transported to a mass spectrometer, which characterizes diagnostic proteins, lipids, and metabolites. The pen could be used to rapidly distinguish tumor from healthy tissue during surgery in mice, without requiring specific labeling or imaging and without evidence of tissue destruction. Conventional methods for histopathologic tissue diagnosis are labor- and time-intensive and can delay decision-making during diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. We report the development of an automated and biocompatible handheld mass spectrometry device for rapid and nondestructive diagnosis of human cancer tissues. The device, named MasSpec Pen, enables controlled and automated delivery of a discrete water droplet to a tissue surface for efficient extraction of biomolecules. We used the MasSpec Pen for ex vivo molecular analysis of 20 human cancer thin tissue sections and 253 human patient tissue samples including normal and cancerous tissues from breast, lung, thyroid, and ovary. The mass spectra obtained presented rich molecular profiles characterized by a variety of potential cancer biomarkers identified as metabolites, lipids, and proteins. Statistical classifiers built from the histologically validated molecular database allowed cancer prediction with high sensitivity (96.4%), specificity (96.2%), and overall accuracy (96.3%), as well as prediction of benign and malignant thyroid tumors and different histologic subtypes of lung cancer. Notably, our classifier allowed accurate diagnosis of cancer in marginal tumor regions presenting mixed histologic composition. Last, we demonstrate that the MasSpec Pen is suited for in vivo cancer diagnosis during surgery performed in tumor-bearing mouse models, without causing any observable tissue harm or stress to the animal. Our results provide evidence that the MasSpec Pen could potentially be used as a clinical and intraoperative technology for ex vivo and in vivo cancer diagnosis.


The β-lactamase produces by Aeromonas hydrophila which enables to hydrolyze and inactivate β- lactam ring of antibiotics. The homology modeling was used to generate the 3-D model of β-lactamase by using known template 3-D structure. The stereochemical quality and torsion angle of 3-D model were validated. Total eleven effective drugs have been selected and targeted the active amino acid residues in β-lactamase. The drugs were derivative of β-lactam ring antibiotics and screening was made by docking. Out of 11 drugs, 3 drugs (Ampicillin, Astreonam and Sultamicillin) were found to be more potent on the basis of robust binding energy between protein-drug interactions. Additionally, homology of β-lactamase of A. hydrophila resembled with other pathogenic bacteria that used for phylogeny analysis. These findings suggest a new insight for better understanding and useful for designing of novel potent drugs.


Nisan showed in 1991 that the width of a smallest noncommutative single-(source,sink) algebraic branching program (ABP) to compute a noncommutative polynomial is given by the ranks of specific matrices. This means that the set of noncommutative polynomials with ABP width complexity at most k is Zariski-closed, an important property in geometric complexity theory. It follows that approximations cannot help to reduce the required ABP width. It was mentioned by Forbes that this result would probably break when going from single-(source,sink) ABPs to trace ABPs. We prove that this is correct. Moreover, we study the commutative monotone setting and prove a result similar to Nisan, but concerning the analytic closure. We observe the same behavior here: The set of polynomials with ABP width complexity at most k is closed for single-(source,sink) ABPs and not closed for trace ABPs. The proofs reveal an intriguing connection between tangent spaces and the vector space of flows on the ABP. We close with additional observations on VQP and the closure of VNP which allows us to establish a separation between the two classes.


The attenuation rate of the electromagnetic energy in samples of fresh water has been measured at frequencies between 33 and 363 MHz. The technique employed the HP 8410A network analyzer and a broad-band transmission resonance cavity and provided reliable results which agree well with theory. The results suggest that it should be possible to develop a VHF radar system capable of sensing the depth of shallow fresh water for remote sensing applications.


Graph-logic models (GL-models) are models of fault-tolerant multiprocessor systems' (FTMS) behavior in failure flow. Basis of the model is a graph which arcs are marked by some Boolean functions and the arguments of these functions are system processors states. GL-models are tools that allow efficiency increasing of reliability calculation of FTMS. The reliability calculation is based on the method of statistic experiments with GL-models.We propose the idea and method of creating GL-model, which answers the question if the multiprocessor complex object management system is technically (functionally) safe in the case when the failure of certain components in the system occurs. In other words, if there is a dangerous condition in the system, that is a state of the management system, in which at least one management function, that causes a dangerous condition, is not performed. The model can be used to conduct statistical experiments to determine the probability of transition to a dangerous state in case of system's degradation. Keywords-Component; Functional Safety, Reliability, Fault-Tolerance, Multiprocessor Systems, Control.


Methods of measuring the thermal conductivity of materials in solid and liquid state at high temperatures are reviewed. Factors influencing the accuracy of the obtained results are examined. Special attention is paid to the role of contact resistance. Results for the thermal conductivity of sodium chloride, bismuth germanate, and germanium over a wide temperature range are presented. The behaviour of thermal conductivity during melting of these materials is analysed.


Papers from the 5th Conference of the North American Anarchist Studies Network {La Red Norteamericana de Estudios Anarquistas / Le Reseau Nord-Americain d'etudes Anarchistes} Anarchism is experiencing a remarkable resurgence in the new millenium. Not only active in the streets across Turtle Island, growing interest in anarchist scholarship is perhaps unprecedented. This is reflected in the development of the North American Anarchist Studies Network (NAASN). Drawn from papers presented at the fifth NAASN conference in Surrey (on Coast Salish Territories), this collection shows the vitality of contemporary anarchist research and writing.


Recent progress in deep learning has enabled many advances in sound separation and visual scene understanding. However, extracting sound sources which are apparent in natural videos remains an open problem. In this work, we present AudioScope, a novel audio-visual sound separation framework that can be trained without supervision to isolate on-screen sound sources from real in-the-wild videos. Prior audio-visual separation work assumed artificial limitations on the domain of sound classes (e.g., to speech or music), constrained the number of sources, and required strong sound separation or visual segmentation labels. AudioScope overcomes these limitations, operating on an open domain of sounds, with variable numbers of sources, and without labels or prior visual segmentation. The training procedure for AudioScope uses mixture invariant training (MixIT) to separate synthetic mixtures of mixtures (MoMs) into individual sources, where noisy labels for mixtures are provided by an unsupervised audio-visual coincidence model. Using the noisy labels, along with attention between video and audio features, AudioScope learns to identify audio-visual similarity and to suppress off-screen sounds. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach using a dataset of video clips extracted from open-domain YFCC100m video data. This dataset contains a wide diversity of sound classes recorded in unconstrained conditions, making the application of previous methods unsuitable. For evaluation and semi-supervised experiments, we collected human labels for presence of on-screen and off-screen sounds on a small subset of clips.


Parasitic plants utilize cell wall degrading enzymes (CWDEs) to penetrate their host plant and attach to host vasculature. Inhibition of CWDEs may confer resistance on susceptible hosts, offering a strategy for parasitic plant control. Here, exogenous application of green tea catechins, which inhibit pectin methylesterase (a CWDE), was used to delay parasitic plant attachment. Texas bluebonnet (Lupinus texensis Hook.) was grown with its naturally occurring root hemiparasite, Texas paintbrush (Castilleja indivisa Engelm.). Catechins, fertilizer (ammonium nitrate), or water were added to soil twice weekly. Parasite attachment was detected using Dragendorff reagent. Effects on growth and germination were also assessed. Parasite attachment to the host was prevented by 5 g L -1 of catechins through 20 d and reduced through 36 d after parasite seedling addition. Five grams per liter of catechins delayed germination in Texas bluebonnet but not in Texas paintbrush. To test the effects of CWDE inhibitors on aboveground parasitism, Arabidopsis thaliana (L.) Heynh. seedlings were grown with field dodder (Cuscuta pentagona Engelm.), a promiscuous shoot holoparasite. Ten grams per liter of catechins applied to the A. thaliana shoot surface inhibited field dodder attachment, although prehaustorial development was not affected. Our findings corroborate existing evidence that CWDE inhibition is a critical component of natural resistance to parasitic plants and open a new area of research into the use of exogenous CWDE inhibitors to control parasitic plant attachment.


Toll-like receptors (TLRs) play an important role in immune-surveillance and responses towards pathogenic and non-pathogenic microorganisms. They act as innate immune sensors against endogenous and exogenous danger signals by recognizing the pattern recognition molecules (DAMPs and PAMPs) and drive an adaptive immune response through their signaling pathways, which leads to NF-κB and IRF3 transactivation and induces different inflammatory cytokine genes. TLRs polymorphisms were investi gated in various cancer types studies. However, precious studies have reported that the Polymorphisms on TLR1-TLR10 cluster have been associated with increased risk of prostate cancer. However, it has known that TLRs genetic variation is associated with increased the susceptibility to gastric cancer. A same synthetically meta- analysis also confirmed the association of TLRs with increased the gastrointestinal cancer but with decreased prostate cancer risk. Our previous studies have demonstrated a strong link between TLRs polymorphisms and colon cancer and breast cancer in Saudi Arabia popu- lation. Similar studies were analyzed with Korean patients with papillary thyroid cancer and their clinic-pathologic features in age matched controls by using direct sequencing. The general objective of this chapter was to investigate the role of different TLRs (i.e., TLR2, TLR4, and TLR6) polymorphisms and their association with cancer development.


Children acquire their native language with apparent ease by observing how language is used in context and attempting to use it themselves. They do so without laborious annotations, negative examples, or even direct corrections. We take a step toward robots that can do the same by training a grounded semantic parser, which discovers latent linguistic representations that can be used for the execution of natural-language commands. In particular, we focus on the difficult domain of commands with a temporal aspect, whose semantics we capture with Linear Temporal Logic, LTL. Our parser is trained with pairs of sentences and executions as well as an executor. At training time, the parser hypothesizes a meaning representation for the input as a formula in LTL. Three competing pressures allow the parser to discover meaning from language. First, any hypothesized meaning for a sentence must be permissive enough to reflect all the annotated execution trajectories. Second, the executor -- a pretrained end-to-end LTL planner -- must find that the observed trajectories are likely executions of the meaning. Finally, a generator, which reconstructs the original input, encourages the model to find representations that conserve knowledge about the command. Together these ensure that the meaning is neither too general nor too specific. Our model generalizes well, being able to parse and execute both machine-generated and human-generated commands, with near-equal accuracy, despite the fact that the human-generated sentences are much more varied and complex with an open lexicon. The approach presented here is not specific to LTL; it can be applied to any domain where sentence meanings can be hypothesized and an executor can verify these meanings, thus opening the door to many applications for robotic agents.


This paper dwells on the scientific and technological dimensions of the national crisis. It argues that the present crisis is a symptom of the underlying, systemic weaknesses in society. These weaknesses refer to our country's scientific and technological backwardness, dependence on foreign technologies and capital, and its subordination to foreign dominance, exploitation and control. Locked in the international division of labor, the Philippines has played the role of the exporter of primary commodities and importer of production technologies. Accordingly, based on the nation's economic history, it is the acceptance of the international division of labor that has perpetuated and worsened the underdevelopment of our economy. Assessing our cycle of backwardness and dependence, the nature of science and technology, technological innovations and technological potentials as nuanced in the Philippine context, the paper maps our country's stages of technological capabilities. Despite achievements in agriculture, industry and health during the past few years, the problem remains that we do not yet have genuine endogenous industries in chemicals, metals, pharmaceuticals, automotives and electronics. The Philippines, once at par with other countries in Southeast Asia and East Asia in scientific and technological development, is now lagging behind most of its neighbors. The inadequate government support and the lack of an effective economic demand for local innovations are seen as reasons for the slow development. The national strategy the paper proposes is technological leapfrogging. As a strategy, it attempts to liberate the country from dependence and backwardness by importing selected high technologies in order to acquire adaptive, replicative, and innovative mastery of these advanced technologies. More importantly, the paper argues that it is this strategy, geared towards national technological mastery, which provides a long-range vision for designing, building and insuring of the nation's future in the 21st century.


An increase in stakeholder focus on the environmental and social impacts of large infrastructure projects has led many actors to engage in Corporate Social Responsibility. In no area is this truer than in large scale hydropower projects, where developers have often been criticised for putting profits ahead of the livelihoods of Project Affected People. To address this criticism many actors have begun adopting the International Financial Corporation's Performance Standards which amongst other things mandates livelihood restoration for Project Affected People. In order to meet this commitment however, livelihoods need to first be measured and then the restoration of these livelihoods evaluated. This thesis focuses on how the complex, diverse and qualitative nature of household livelihoods are transformed into a quantitative metric via the process of commensuration. The paper follows a case study approach with the subject being a hydropower project in Albania. the project operated by a Norwegian energy producer. I contribute to the existing social science literature on commensuration through providing rich descriptions detailing the process in a livelihood restoration context. My findings support earlier case study literature noting that commensuration is achieved through the exclusion of information deemed irrelevant or incommensurable and the simplification of the remaining information. Furthermore, I find that the process masks some of the underlying uncertainty inherent in the measurement of livelihoods. The majority of hydropower developers complying to the IFC Performance Standards are required to do so due to their project financing obligations. "HyrdoCo" has no such requirement for the current project which makes the company one of only a few international hydropower developers voluntarily adopting these standards. It is through the context of voluntary adoption that this study aims to contribute to the academic literature, given this phenomenon has not been examined in detail by other scholars. I find HyrdoCo deals with the ambiguity in the performance standards through applying industry norms and relying on management's previous experience with the IFC Performance Standards. I also find that without adequate disclosure and reporting transparency the uncertainty and embedded assumptions within the calculation of Project Affected Peoples livelihoods limits external stakeholders' ability to evaluate the success of livelihood restoration.


We demonstrate precise optical frequency-difference measurement of acetylene (C2H2) absorption lines at 1.5 μm. With an optical comb generator, the frequency difference between two lasers locked to saturated absorption dips of C2H2 rovibrational lines can be measured up to ~1 THz with a precision of better than 100 kHz. A precise frequency table of C2H2 1.5-μm lines will be useful for frequency-division-multiplexed optical communication systems and high-resolution molecular spectroscopy.


The role of real estate in investment portfolios was analysed within an Asset Liability Management Framework since 2000 (see Chun et al (2000), Craft (2001, 2005), Booth (2002)). It was found that, when liabilities are taken account of, the diversification role of real estate turns out to be more limited and accounts for the reduced exposure to this asset as witnessed in the portfolio of most institutional investors.- -Brounen et al (2010) highlighted another important issue: the choice of liability stream. They demonstrated that different definitions of liability result in different allocations to real estate. They compared results obtained when the actuarial projected benefit obligations of DB Schemes as used in Chun et al (2000) to those obtained by using the market value of the projected benefit obligations. The market values were obtained by accounting for interest rate and inflation risk. With the shift from Defined Benefit to Defined Contribution pension structures across the globe, many feel that there is no need to adopt an ALM approach in optimisation. However, the global financial crisis which occurred between 2007 and 2008 has brought to the fore the uncertainty of income that pension contributors, especially those based on defined contribution (DC) formulas. Pension legislations in some OECD countries require that DC Pension funds provide a certain minimum on pension contributions. These minimum guarantees could be absolute or relative. Relative return guarantees are set in relation to a certain benchmark synthetic investment portfolio or the average performance of pension funds in the industry. When minimum return guarantees are offered by companies that sponsor DC Plans, the plan inherently takes on DB features (OECD, 2012). In the first part of this study, we examine the long-run relationship between the various asset classes and our chosen liability benchmarks using correlation analysis and cointegration techniques. We make use of various minimum return guarantees and other potential benchmarks as our definition of liabilities: 0% nominal return; 0% real return (inflation proxies: CPI and RPI), government bond rate, risk-free rates such as t-bill and repo rates (Sharpe, 1994). In the second part of our study, we use the dynamic Asset Liability Model of Dempster et al (2002). As in Brounen et al (2010), results of our study would demonstrate how a change in definition of liability impacts on the asset allocation decision.


The United States tax classification of a "foundation" created under the laws of a foreign jurisdiction is a complicated matter. "Foundations" are not creatures of common law, but are derived from civil law. The United States follows common law and this body of jurisprudence is more familiar with the concept of a trust. A "foundation" has elements of both a trust and a corporation and determining the United States tax classification of a foreign foundation can be tricky. When Sharia law impacts the structure, the complexities can grow. My article examines all of these issues as they relate to the newest foundations regime enacted in the United Arab Emirates.

The United Arab Emirates is essentially a tax-free jurisdiction and with its free zones providing 100% foreign ownership, it is fast becoming an international business hub. The Emirates now has 3 foundations regimes in place, with the most recent being launched in the Emirate of Ras Al Khaimah. This article provides an overview of the foundations regimes available in the United Arab Emirates, with particular attention to the latest regime and how Sharia law and US tax rules affect the use, structure, and efficiency of foundations.

Proper structuring with a foundation can mean not only very favorable tax results, but strong asset protection as well as a unique opportunity for business and succession planning. The United Arab Emirates' latest foundations regime provides an excellent planning mechanism for Muslims and non-Muslims, resident or nonresident and for local and foreign assets.

This is my second article analyzing the United States tax issues and consequences when transactions involve Sharia law. This is an uncharted area of law, unaddressed by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, the U.S. courts and U.S. Congress. My first article "When Sharia and U.S. Tax Law Collide", Tax Notes International, Volume 87, No. 8, August 21, 2017 is also available on SSRN.


Interfacing organic electronics and biology offers new possibilities in biotechnology, due to the unique properties exhibited by organic conducting polymers (e.g. biological affinity, mechanical flexibility, ease of functionalization and cost effectiveness). Organic conducting polymers have been exploited as materials for cellular interfaces in several fashions as: (i) passive electrode coatings or culturing substrates, (ii) organic biosensors or (iii) actuators for neurotransmitter release and electrodes for controlled cell seeding, growth and activity detection. Very recently, an organic photovoltaic donor-acceptor blend has been exploited for neuron stimulation by a photo-electric process. With respect to previous examples with inorganic semiconductors, this system has several advantages including flexibility, no power requirement and biocompatibility. Here, we report the novel use of a single component semiconductor organic polymer for the direct control of neuronal activity. This interface, that is more efficient than the classical bulk hetero-junction interface, has the remarkable capability to evoke neuronal firing in response to illumination. We demonstrate that the polymer layer has the ability to induce action potential firing up to 20 Hz in cultured hippocampal neurons. Moreover, this interface has been exploited to restore visual response in retinal explants obtained from animal models of retinal degeneration (light-blinded albino SD rats). By recording local field potentials in the RGC layer, we demonstrated the ability of the organic conductive polymer to mimic the function of photoreceptors and induce retinal activation of retinal ganglion cells after light illumination. These results paved the way to the development of a new and disruptive technology for interfacing artificial devices with neuronal networks, with applications in neuroprosthesis and brain machine interface research.


The growing number of multinational clinical trials in which patient-level health care resource data are collected have raised the issue of which is the best approach for making inference for individual countries with respect to the between-treatment difference in mean cost. We describe and discuss the relative merits of three approaches. The first uses the random effects pooled estimate from all countries to estimate the difference for any particular country. The second approach estimates the difference using only the data from the specific country in question. Using empirical Bayes estimation a third approach estimates the country-specific difference using a variance-weighted linear sum of the estimates provided by the other two approaches. The approaches are illustrated and compared using the data from the ASSENT-3 trial.


Background: Previous studies have found that women and black patients eligible for a primary prevention implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) are less likely than men or white patients to receive one. Methods: We performed an observational analysis of the Get With The Guidelines-Heart Failure Program from January 1, 2011, to March 21, 2014. Patients admitted with heart failure and an ejection fraction ⩽35% without an ICD were included. Rates of ICD counseling among eligible patients and ICD receipt among counseled patients were examined by sex and race/ethnicity. Results: Among 21 059 patients from 236 sites, 4755 (22.6%) received predischarge ICD counseling. Women were counseled less frequently than men (19.3% versus 24.6%, P<0.001, adjusted odds ratio [OR], 0.84; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.78–0.91). Racial and ethnic minorities were less likely to receive counseling than white patients (black 22.6%, Hispanic 18.6%, other race/ethnic group 14.4% versus white 24.3%, P<0.001 for each): adjusted OR versus white, 0.69; 95% CI, 0.63 to 0.76 for black patients; adjusted OR, 0.62; 95% CI, 0.55 to 0.70 for Hispanic patients; adjusted OR, 0.53; 95% CI, 0.43 to 0.65 for other patients. Among the 4755 counseled patients, 2977 (62.6%) received an ICD or had one planned for placement after hospital stay. Among those counseled, women and men were similarly likely to receive an ICD (adjusted OR, 1.13; 95% CI, 0.99–1.29). However, black (adjusted OR, 0.70; 95% CI, 0.56–0.88) and Hispanic patients (adjusted OR, 0.68; 95% CI, 0.46–1.01) were less likely to receive an ICD. Conclusions: Up to 4 of 5 hospitalized patients with heart failure eligible for ICD counseling did not receive it, particularly women and minority patients. Among counseled patients, ICD use differences by race and ethnicity persisted.


This paper empirically analyzes the experience of East Asia f s economic growth with data both at aggregate-economy and micro-firm levels, focusing on the role of international integration through trade and direct investment. The analysis within a framework of cross-country panel regression shows that trade openness and foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows have a positive effect on GDP growth -particularly in the 1970s and 1980s- while FDI outflows appear to have a negative effect on GDP growth. Micro-level evidence based on manufacturing data in the Republic of Korea (Korea) confirms the positive effect of trade and investment integration on plant-level productivity growth. It also suggests that the relationship between FDI outflows and productivity growth depends on the characteristics of a recipient economy. We find that FDI to the People fs Republic of China tends to reduce productivity growth of firms in Korea, while FDI to the United States or Japan works in favor of productivity growth.


OBJECTIVE
To determine the diagnostic utility of a smartphone-based ECG device (Alivecor KardiaMobile) in awake bonobos (Pan paniscus).

ANIMALS
7 adult bonobos in human care.

PROCEDURES
Bonobos were trained with positive reinforcement to hold 1 finger from each hand onto the KardiaMobile sensors for 30 seconds to obtain an ECG reading. Ten ECG tracings were recorded from each bonobo and evaluated by a veterinarian, a veterinary cardiologist, and a human cardiologist for tracing quality, tracing length, heart rate, identification of P-waves, and presence and quantification of premature ventricular or atrial contractions.

RESULTS
6 of the 7 bonobos were trained within 21 weeks to allow the collection of 10 diagnostic quality ECG tracings. The average heart rate recorded was 87 bpm (range = 60 to 118 bpm). Potential abnormalities identified by the KardiaMobile included premature ventricular contractions in 2 male bonobos and 1 premature atrial contraction in another male. There was strong agreement by reviewers in all ECG parameters except for the identification of P-waves.

CLINICAL RELEVANCE
The Alivecor KardiaMobile device has diagnostic utility as a screening tool for use in bonobos in human care. The training was accomplished to yield diagnostic ECG readings of acceptable duration in awake bonobos. Given the prevalence of cardiovascular disease in great apes, this technology may identify a subset of great apes who may benefit from early intervention and treatment in an effort to delay the progression of cardiac disease.


Italo Calvino, whose works reflect the major literary and cultural trends of the second half of the twentieth century, is known for his imagination, humour, and technical virtuosity. He explores topics such as neorealism, folktale, fantasy, and social and political allegory and experiments with narrative style and structure. Students take delight in Calvino's wide-ranging and inventive work, whether in Italian courses or in courses in comparative or world literature, literary criticism, cultural studies, philosophy, or even architecture. Given the range of his writing, teaching Calvino can seem a daunting task. This volume aims to help instructors develop creative and engaging classroom strategies. Part 1, "Materials," presents an overview of Calvino's writings, nearly all of which are available in English translation, as well as critical works and online resources. The essays in part 2, "Approaches," focus on general themes and cultural contexts, address theoretical issues, and provide practical classroom applications. Contributors describe strategies for teaching Calvino that are as varied as his writings, whether having students study narrative theory through If on a winter's night a traveller, explore literary genre with Cosmicomics, improve their writing using Six Memos for the Next Millennium, or read Mr. Palomar in a general education humanities course.


Understanding customer experience and the customer journey over time is critical for firms. Customers now interact with firms through myriad touch points in multiple channels and media, and customer experiences are more social in nature. These changes require firms to integrate multiple business functions, and even external partners, in creating and delivering positive customer experiences. In this article, the authors aim to develop a stronger understanding of customer experience and the customer journey in this era of increasingly complex customer behavior. To achieve this goal, they examine existing definitions and conceptualizations of customer experience as a construct and provide a historical perspective of the roots of customer experience within marketing. Next, they attempt to bring together what is currently known about customer experience, customer journeys, and customer experience management. Finally, they identify critical areas for future research on this important topic.


This is the first, full-length biography of Dorothy Morland (1906-1999) who remains the only female Director of the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) in London. The book traces her busy private and public life throughout the 1930s up until the 1990s. It is based on unpublished letters and other archival sources, as well as interviews and personal recollections. It tells the story of one of the unacknowledged contributors to the success of the ICA and to the understanding of the international avant garde in post-war Britain. As an arts administrator and a woman, Dorothy Morland's contribution has been largely overlooked and this book aims to highlight her significant contribution to the public understanding of modernism. She was part of a network which included the Surrealist Roland Penrose, art critic Herbert Read, architect Jane Drew and wealthy philanthropists, Peter Gregory and Peter Watson. She was also the protector and advocate for the Independent Group. Dorothy Morland always mixed business with pleasure and danced with Picasso in Antibes whilst there on ICA business and tirelessly organised the chaotic organisation that was the ICA in Dover Street from 1950 until 1968. After leaving the ICA she worked hard on assembling the organisation's archives and securing their safekeeping at Tate.


In this study reproductive characteristics of the Greenback grey mullet, Liza subviridis from Parangipettai waters (Southeast coast of India) were examined; especially, the gonado somatic index (GSI), length at first sexual maturity (L50) and fecundity (volumetric method) were calculated. The gonadosomatic index (GSI) indicated that this species follows group-synchronous breeding pattern and spawns twice in a year. The peak spawning season of L. subviridis in Parangipettai waters was found to be February and March. The minimum length at first sexual maturity (L50) was found to be 131 mm and 145 mm for males and females respectively. With respect to sex ratio females were caught more in numbers than males throughout the study period. However the sex ratio analyzed month-wise indicated homogenous distribution during most of the months. The overall sex ratio (1:1.2) deviated significantly from the expected 1:1 ratio (X2 =10.97, P <0.005). The fecundity ranged from 1 to 7.9 lakhs oocytes. The relationship of fecundity with total length, body weight and gonad weight showed highly significant correlation. The average fecundity of the L. subviridis observed in the present study was 4.46 lakhs eggs. The implications from this study suggest that proper conservation of stock and substantial production for future is ensured for this species in Parangipettai waters.


In this article, we examine family influences on occupational aspirations among employed descendants of Middle Eastern immigrants. Using a qualitative approach, we conducted 21 semi-structured interviews with native-born descendants of Middle Eastern immigrants. We present and analyse their interpretations of their parents' experiences and living conditions before, during and after migration and demonstrate how these interpretations shaped their own occupational aspirations. We discuss parents' high expectations of their children in relation to ethnic-community valuations of educational and occupational achievements. These high expectations may increase the chances of social mobility but can also become a negative pressure, especially if parents set high standards but cannot help their children to meet those expectations. In these cases, older siblings who possess valuable knowledge of the educational system and labour market can function as important transferrers of resources.


Introduction: Family atmosphere perceptions and creative thinking affect on academic performance. This study aimed to predict academic performance through family atmosphere perceptions with the mediation of creative thinking at the Yazd Farhangian University. Methods: This study was a correlation research using a "causal model". The population included 1,064 students of Yazd Farhangian University in academic year 2016-2017. 405 students were selected on based Morgan table using stratified random sampling model according to gender and semester. Measurement tools included Perceptions of Parents Scale (adult version) and a questionnaire of Torrance creative thinking with 60 items. The previous semester GPA was considered as the academic performance index. Questionnaires' data have been investigated in two parts: descriptive and inferential, using SPSS and AMOS and structural equation modeling approach. Result: Independent variables of family atmosphere perceptions and creative thinking explained 29 percent of the variance in academic performance. As well as the indirect effect of family atmosphere perceptions was statistically significant (p<0.001) on academic performance. Therefore, the variable of creative thinking plays a mediating role between the perceived family atmosphere and academic performance. Conclusion: Since family atmosphere perceptions as well as creative thinking have a significant effect on academic performance, the role of parents towards their children and also creative thinking training is very important.


This study was carried out to detect the favorable mycelial growth conditions and effect of electric pulse stimulation on fruit body production of SC-1 strain of Sparassis crispa. The optimum growth in PDA was found at 25°C (67 mm colony diameter in 28 days) followed by 20°C (63 mm colony diameter in 28 days). There was no mycelial growth at 35°C. The most favourable initial media pH range was found to be 5 - 7 and colony diameter measurements were not statistically different among these pH values (p > 0.05). However, the highest growth was obtained at pH 6 (57 mm colony diameter in 28 days). A basal medium composed of 0.05 g MgSO4, 0.46 g KH2PO4, 1.0 g K2HPO4, 120 μg thiamine-HCl, 20 g agar and 1000 ml of distilled water was used to investigate growth response of S. crispato different carbon and nitrogen sources. In 28 days, fructose and glucose exhibited best growth (49.4 mm and 31.6 mm colony diameters respectively) and there was no growth on the basal medium supplemented with galactose. Basal medium supplemented with glycine and alanine as nitrogen sources resulted in best growth, 54.4 mm and 50.5 mm colony diameters respectively. There was no mycelial growth in culture medium supplemented with ammonium acetate, ammonium phosphate, arginine and histidine. Electric pulse stimulation improved the fruiting body production. The yields obtained from all bottles in which electric pulse was applied were significantly higher than the yields from the bottles in which electric pulse was not applied. The percent increases of fresh weight yield from control on 100, 120, 130, and 170 kilovolts were 36%, 44%, 75% and 81% respectively. As regard to dry weight yield, the percent increases from control on 100, 120, 130, and 170 kilovolts were 27%, 54%, 63% and 67% respectively.


PURPOSE
To account for organ motion and set up uncertainties a margin is added to the clinical target volume (CTV) to form the Planning Target Volume (PTV). There exists significant institutional variability of margins employed between CTV to PTV. The margin used has significant implication for extra tissue (PTV-CTV) dose and directly related with normal tissue complication. This study quantifies the setup uncertainties to optimize the PTV margin and its radiobiological implication for target expansion in H&N cancer.

METHODS
Nine Nine H&N patients treated with IMRT and daily IGRT with on-board-imaging (OBI) were chosen for this study. Using Eclipse treatment planning system (TPS), treatment plans were generated for different margins ranging from 0 to 10 mm subject to the same optimization criterion for PTV and OAR using 6 MV photon beam. The DVH, extra tissue volume and total MU were recorded for all these IMRT plans. NTCP was calculated using the Lyman Kutcher Burman model from DVH data. The daily setup errors from OBI for the entire treatment were also analyzed.

RESULTS
Analysis of the 9 patients setup with over 800 data points showed that 98% of the points are within ±5mm using daily IGRT. With increasing margin, the PTV volume increases linearly. There is a 4-fold relative increase in extra tissue volume for margin increase from 0-10 mm With increasing PTV margin the NTCP also increases linearly for the parotid glands. Similar patterns were noticed for all other OARs.

CONCLUSION
With OBI the setup uncertainty could be easily achieved within ±5 mm for 98% of the H&N treatments. Increase in PTV margin increases NTCP. It is concluded that PTV margin should be limited to ±5mm to reduce extra volume irradiation and also reduces NTCP of OARs.


Smart Cities and Homes: Key Enabling Technologies explores the fundamental principles and concepts of the key enabling technologies for smart cities and homes, disseminating the latest research and development efforts in the field through the use of numerous case studies and examples. Smart cities use digital technologies embedded across all their functions to enhance the wellbeing of citizens. Cities that utilize these technologies report enhancements in power efficiency, water use, traffic congestion, environmental protection, pollution reduction, senior citizens care, public safety and security, literacy rates, and more. This book brings together the most important breakthroughs and advances in a coherent fashion, highlighting the interconnections between the works in different areas of computing, exploring both new and emerging computer networking systems and other computing technologies, such as wireless sensor networks, vehicle ad hoc networks, smart girds, cloud computing, and data analytics and their roles in creating environmentally friendly, secure, and prosperous cities and homes. Intended for researchers and practitioners, the book discusses the pervasive and cooperative computing technologies that will perform a central role for handling the challenges of urbanization and demographic change. Includes case studies and contributions from prominent researchers and practitioners from around the globeExplores the latest methodologies, theories, tools, applications, trends, challenges, and strategies needed to build smart cities and homes from the bottom upProvides a pedagogy that includes PowerPoint slides, key terms, and a comprehensive bibliography


Introduction : In spite of the overwhelming evidence linking albuminuria to cardiovascular events, data on its relationship to atherosclerosis are scarce and conflicting. It is still unclear whether albuminuria is associated with a particular phase of the atherothrombotic process. Hypothesis: We assessed the hypothesis that albuminuria is associated with angiographically determined coronary atherosclerosis. Methods: The urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio (ACR) was determined and the eGFR was calculated by the quadratic Mayo Clinic equation in a large population of 907 consecutive patients undergoing coronary angiography for the evaluation of CAD. Results: From our patients, 297 had an eGFR 2 , and 212 had albuminuria (ACR ≥30 mg/g). When compared to subjects with both normal eGFR and normal urinary albumin excretion (n = 494), the prevalence of significant coronary stenoses (i.e. stenoses with lumen narrowing ≥50%) was significantly higher in patients with normal eGFR and albuminuria (n = 116) and in those with decreased eGFR and albuminuria (n = 96), but similar in those (n = 201) who had decreased eGFR but not albuminuria (52.8 vs. 65.5%, p = 0.013; 52.8 vs. 65.6%, p = 0.021; and 52.8 vs. 47.3%.; p = 0.183, respectively). Concordantly, in logistic regression analysis the ACR but not the eGFR predicted significant coronary stenoses after multivariate adjustment, with standardized adjusted odds ratios (OR) of 1.27 [95% CI 1.03 – 1.58]; p = 0.027 and 1.05 [0.89 – 1.28]; p = 0.61, respectively. The association between the ACR and significant coronary stenoses remained significant after further adjustment for eGFR (OR = 1.30 [1.04 – 1.62]; p = 0.021). Conclusions: In conclusion, albuminuria is strongly associated with angiographically determined coronary atherosclerosis, independent of conventional cardiovascular risk factors and of the eGFR.


Urbanization economies – the effects on productivity and utility created endogenously by larger cities – are a fundamental component of both the economic geography of modern societies and the perpetuation of innovation and economic growth at a national level. Cities account for vast majorities of population – and even larger proportions of production and innovation – in all advanced economies. The nature of these endogenous effects of city size is thus of considerable importance. Krupka (2008) presents a general model in which exogenous variation in local productivity ("natural advantage") and development constraints generate covariation in local incomes, housing prices and population. In that model, the strength of the correlation amongst these variables depends on the nature of the dominant urbanization economy (or diseconomy). This paper looks at the data over the last several decades and finds that the data is consistent with city size increasing consumer/resident happiness and/or reducing productivity of employers.


In patients suffering from obstructive coronary artery disease (CAD) a percutaneous therapy with fully bioresorbable scaffolds ensures for the vessel a temporary support which dissolves into inert breakdown products after a certain amount of time. These coronary prostheses have been developed with the objective of improving vascular healing and remodeling, and restoring vasomotricity of the treated segment, once the dissolution process is absolved (1). By virtue of their transient nature, fully bioresorbable scaffolds are expected to avoid the late pathophysiological processes associated with permanent drug-eluting stent (DES) platforms, which have been found responsible for an accrual of adverse events over the long term (2).


Many Enterprise Architecture programmes fail to meet expectations. While much has been written about the factors influencing the success of EA programmes, there are few empirical investigations of the role of critical success factors (CSFs) in the success of EA programmes. This study condensed the very broad literature on CSFs for EA identifying six key CSFs that share a broad consensus in the literature. A qualitative case study was conducted to test the hypothesis that the six key CSFs would distinguish between the successful and the unsuccessful programmes. Analysis of the case study data reveals that three key CSFs associated with the use of EA tools did not distinguish between successful and unsuccessful cases while three key CSFs related to the process of EA programme implementation did so. The study concludes that success in EA programmes comes more from how architecture is practiced than what is practiced. The findings have important implications for EA suggesting that the methodological skills of architects need to be supplemented with an understanding of practice.


To investigate the effects of different kinds of curriculum, the Course Experience Questionnaire (CEQ) and a short form of the Approaches to Studying Inventory (ASI) were administered to 225 2nd-year students at six different schools of occupational therapy. Their curricula were classified as problem-based, subject-based or hybrid. Their scores on the scales of the CEQ and ASI were closely related, insofar as they shared more than half of their respective variance. Problem-based curricula were associated with higher scores on the scales of the CEQ concerned with appropriate assessment and emphasis on independence. With the ASI, problem-based curricula were associated with lower scores on all of the scales concerned with a reproducing orientation, and with higher scores on the scale concerned with a deep approach. These findings suggest that the implementation of a problem-based curriculum has desirable effects on the quality of learning, and these are at least in part mediated by students' perceptions of their academic environment.


The spread and origins of hepatitis C virus (HCV) in human populations have been the subject of extensive investigations, not least because of the importance this information would provide in predicting clinical outcomes and controlling spread of HCV in the future. However, in the absence of historical and archaeological records of infection, the evolution of HCV and other human hepatitis viruses can only be inferred indirectly from their epidemiology and by genetic analysis of contemporary virus populations. Some information on the history of the latter may be obtained by dating the time of divergence of various genotypes of HCV, hepatitis B virus (HBV) and the non-pathogenic hepatitis G virus (HGV)/GB virus-C (GBV-C). However, the relatively recent times predicted for the origin of these viruses fit poorly with their epidemiological distributions and the recent evidence for species-associated variants of HBV and HGV/GBV-C in a wide range of non-human primates. The apparent conservatism of viruses over long periods implied by these latter observations may be the result of constraints on sequence change peculiar to viruses with single-stranded genomes, or with overlapping reading frames. Large population sizes and intense selection pressures that optimize fitness may be the factors that set virus evolution apart from that of their hosts.


This study consisted of evaluations of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency and the hematologic profile of 122 individuals (69 men and 53 women) with ages varying between 3 and 83 years old. The individuals, all of whom were residents of the rural and urban areas of Porto Velho, Rondonia, Brazil, were selected according to their acceptance to participate in the study. The data of this study were collected in the period from July 2003 to August 2004. The analyses consisted of using the glucose NaNO2 method and complete Blood Cell count. Four men had G6PD deficiency (5.8% among the men and 3.3% of the total cases analyzed). None of the individuals with G6PD deficiency presented malaria tested using a thick smear stained with Giemsa stain 20. Among the men, 19 individuals (27.5%) presented malaria with 15 infected by Plasmodium vivax and 4 infected by Plasmodium falciparum. Forty-eight men (69.5%) presented with haemoglobin values of less than 14.0 g/dL and 26 (37.6%) presented erythrocytary values of less than 4.5 millions/mm3. Among the women, just 2 (3.2%) presented with malaria, caused by Plasmodium vivax and 24 (45.2%) presented haemoglobin values less than 12.0 g/dL. Twelve (22.6%) presented erithrocytary values less than 4.0 millions/mm3. Eosinophilia was seen in 47 (68.1%) men and 34 (64.1%) women. The incidence of G6PD deficiency was significant among the male population who sought medical assistance due to fever. As primaquine is used in the radical treatment of malaria caused by both vivax and falciparum infections, the risk of serious intravascular hemolysis is significant among these individuals. The test used is very simple and has a low cost so we suggest its adoption in routine public service laboratories in endemic areas.


Neural Style Transfer has shown very exciting results enabling new forms of image manipulation. Here we extend the existing method to introduce control over spatial location, colour information and across spatial scale. We demonstrate how this enhances the method by allowing high-resolution controlled stylisation and helps to alleviate common failure cases such as applying ground textures to sky regions. Furthermore, by decomposing style into these perceptual factors we enable the combination of style information from multiple sources to generate new, perceptually appealing styles from existing ones. We also describe how these methods can be used to more efficiently produce large size, high-quality stylisation. Finally we show how the introduced control measures can be applied in recent methods for Fast Neural Style Transfer.


Creating and maintaining the long term structure of a constellation can be a major element of cost and risk. Both can be substantially reduced by the use of straightforward, low-cost autonomous orbit maintenance. In most cases, this can be done with the computer, sensing, and thruster hardware already required on-board the spacecraft. For most constellations, absolute stationkeeping (maintaining each satellite in a pre-defined mathematical box) has several advantages and no disadvantages compared to relative station-keeping in which only the relative positions of the satellites are maintained. These include a simpler, more robust control mechanism and less propellant usage. A secondary, but substantial, advantage of absolute stationkeeping is that the time history of the positions of all of the satellites are known in advance (i.e., before launch). This can be used to greatly simplify coverage analysis, hand-off, ground communications, and intersatellite links. Absolute stationkeeping is best implemented autonomously because it uses a large number of small thruster burns, rather than the small number of larger burns used in more traditional stationkeeping. Results of long term simulations show that in most cases position can be controlled indefinitely to within less than 0.2 sec (1σ), corresponding to an in-track position error of less than 1.5 km. The Need for Stationkeeping


Development of micro-electro mechanical system (MEMS) and micro-electro optical mechanical system (MEOMS) inertial sensors has been driven by the need for inexpensive sensing solutions in military and commercial applications. In addition to traditional attitude estimation and automobile applications, the reduced cost of MEMS/MEOMS inertial sensors has spurred new applications in personal navigation, pose estimation, audio visualization, cueing, etc. Electromechanical inertial sensors are also increasingly used in low cost attitude heading reference systems (AHRS) and backup attitude indicators, when the required accuracies are not too stringent. With the current performance levels of MEMS sensors, AHRS systems using electromechanical sensors rely on some form of external aiding to generate a better attitude solution. External aiding could come from an air data computer, global positioning system (GPS), etc., but the aiding comes at an increased cost. Aiding sources have their own set of errors and may not be available at all times. For example, air data sources suffer from problems such as icing, blocked pressure ports etc., and GPS integrity can be compromised due to interference. This dissertation addresses the problem of low cost attitude estimation using a triad of MEMS gyros and accelerometers for fixed wing and rotary wing aircrafts, under conditions when external aiding is unavailable or not useful. Using angular rate, acceleration and magnetic measures, a unit quaternion algorithm is formulated by combining a non linear attitude estimator with fuzzy logic concepts. Static and dynamic conditions of the aircraft are exploited to adaptively alter gains in correction loops used to correct input rate measures. Standard tests are simulated to assess the performance of the formulated algorithm. Real world flight data is used to compare the results of the proposed algorithm with an extended Kalman filter, and the error analysis is presented. It is shown that the fuzzy non linear estimator algorithm can be used to compute a reasonably accurate attitude solution using inexpensive MEMS sensors, even when external sources of aiding are unavailable.


Social network analysis (SNA) is a powerful tool that allows researchers to understand and quantify the structure and dynamics of animal societies. It is particularly useful for studying the transmission of disease, information and culture in groups and within populations and the evolution of cooperation, but is likely to be applicable for almost any subject that involves animals interacting with one another. Social networks can be potentially constructed using any association or interaction as long as a significant proportion of the focal group/population is individually identifiable. Once networks are constructed summary metrics can be extracted and used to answer the questions of interest. Care must be taken to make sure that the metrics used are appropriate for the hypotheses under test. The continuous advances in technology mean that SNA is becoming more and more widespread and increasingly relevant to understanding animal societies.

Key Concepts:

All animal societies can potentially be studied using social network analysis.

Social networks incorporate all the relationships among individuals within a group at the same time, rather than focussing on relationships between pairs of individuals, so are more realistic than traditional approaches.

Social network analysis has provided important insights into a wide-range of areas, from the structure of complex societies to the transmission of information and disease within groups and the evolution of cooperation.

It is possible to incorporate spatial and temporal information when analysing networks of social relationships.

Social network analysis can also be useful in conservation, for example, management of endangered species, as well as theoretical studies.

There are many ways of building networks and numerous network metrics available for describing nodes and networks, making social network analysis valuable for many research questions.

Advances in technology are making it easier to apply social network analysis to animal societies.

Keywords:

social networks;
disease transmission;
group dynamics;
social behaviour;
conservation biology;
social evolution;
wildlife management;
population ecology


To better define the interrelationships between economic growth and development, pollution control, and water resource management, TVA conducted two studies that examined how reservoir operations influenced the attainment of water quality goals and objectives. The first study involved a highly developed stream segment near Kingsport, Tennessee. The stream reach was also located immediately downstream of Fort Patrick Henry Dam. This exploratory analysis modeled various pollution control strategies to meet predetermined dissolved oxygen (DO) concentrations. The results indicated that innovative techniques, e. g. , aeration at the dam, flow augmentation, and/or in-stream aeration, had annual costs at least an order of magnitude lower than advanced waste treatment systems. The second study examined the impact of reservoir operations on economic growth and development with particular emphasis on the siting of new industries, recreation, and municipal waste treatment. Although it was not possible to quantify the value of all recreational activities and new industrial growth, it was possible to estimate the value of municipal waste treatment and fishery benefits.


This brand new dictionary, containing some 12,000 Welsh and English idiomatic phrases, is sure to be of interest to both Welsh speakers and learners. The phrases included range from those which are true idioms in both languages and cannot be translated literally - such as chwerthin yn ei dwrn: to laugh up her sleeve - to those where only the use of a preposition is different or peculiar - such as amneidio ar rywun: to beckon to somone. Many of the other phrases contain a peculiarity of vocabulary, word order or tense, which means that they cannot be translated word for word. This is a dictionary which will allow you to look up such diverse Welsh phrases as achub y blaen arnyn nhw, blwyddyn gron, corff yr eglwys, dan ei sang, elwa ar ..., Gorau oll!, mewn bri, siarad fel pwll y mor or wedi chwythu ei phlwc; or to see how to translate such English idioms as all and sundry, cat's whiskers, get a fair crack of the whip, in the nick of time, Mum's the word!, on the off chance, stick out like a sore thumb or throw down the gauntlet. An important aim of this dictionary is to help those learning Welsh to make the difficult transition from idiomatic usage in English to idiomatic usage in Welsh, and it will very quickly earn its place as an invaluable tool in that learning process. However, there is little doubt that it will be of great value to many whose first language is Welsh and to those who are studying in universities, colleges and Welsh-medium schools.


The establishment of the constitutional courts is regarded as the main demand for democratic states; the regular courts and high court of justice in Jordan have delivered many several decisions that insist on the issue of judicial review on the constitutionality of law and administrative actions. The present study comprises a number of sections. The first section, general notion on democracy and judicial controlling in Jordan, is statement of the study problems, purposes and significance of the study and the methodology applied by the researchers. Democracy under the constitution of Jordan and the main features of democracy in this constitution are undertaken in the second section. The third section aims to acquaint the reader with the structure of the judiciary and the national standers pertaining to judicial independence and rule of law in Jordan. The fourth section evaluates the judicial review under the constitution of Jordan and the national charter, while section five examines respectively the role of judiciary in defending human rights of Jordanian citizens and the norms of judicial independence and rule of law in Jordan. The sixth section highlights the issue of constitutional court and the judicial reform in Jordan. The subject of judicial review, control of the constitutionality laws and types of the constitutional review as well judiciary's attitude towards judicial review in Jordan is discussed deeply in the seventh section. Finally, section eight, conclusion and recommendation to the issue of democracy and judicial controlling in Jordan. This study suggests that the violable constitutional court in Jordan should be provided by the constitution as it is included in the national charter, 1992 which requires a new constitutional amendment. The court should be completely independent and separated from any type of controlling of other courts, either regular or administrative. It also recommends that the court should be interlay constituted from experienced, impartial and talented judges with long term of service and should exercise equally progressive role in intervening power politics and that more precautions may be taken for the court.


We study the phase diagram of an interacting lattice gas of two species of particles and holes, driven out of equilibrium by a local hopping bias (denoted by 'E'). Particles interact by excluded volume and nearest-neighbor attractions. We present a detailed Monte Carlo investigation of the phase diagram. Three phases are found, with a homogenous phase at high temperatures and two distinct ordered phases at lower temperatures. Which ordered phase is observed depends on the parameter f , which controls the ratio of the two types of particles. At small f , there is nearly a single species, and a transition is observed into a KLS-type ordered phase[1]. At larger f , the minority species are sufficiently dense to form a transverse blockage, and a sequence of two transitions are observed as the temperature is lowered. First, a continuous boundary is crossed into an SHZ-type ordered phase[2], then at a lower temperature a first-order boundary is crossed into the KLStype ordered phase. At some critical value of f is a bicritical point, where the first-order line branches from the two continuous boundaries. We also consider correlations in the homogenous phase, by constructing a continuum description and comparing to the results of simulations. Long range correlations are present in both the theoretical results and the simulations, though certain details of the theory do not fit the observations very well. Finally, we examine the beahvior of three-point correlations in the single-species (KLS) limit. Nontrivial three-point correlations are directly related to the nonzero bias E. We therefore consider the behavior of the three-point correlations as a function of E. We find that the three-point signal saturates very rapidly with E. There are some difficulties interpreting the data at small E.


The Gram negative bacterium Fibrobacter succinogenes lives anaerobically in the bovine rumen and secretes β-glucanase. Barley is a cheap food input for poultry production but it is low in nutrients due to its beta glucan content. Supplementing exogenous β-glucanase (EC 22.214.171.124) to broiler diets can decrease the viscosity of the intestinal content by hydrolyzing the β-glucan and enhancing nutrient digestibility. In the current study, β-glucanase enzymatic activity was assayed after extraction from bovine rumen fluid, and then its effect on broiler performance, carcass characteristics, duodenum microbial flora, hematological and immunological parameters was compared with a commercial enzyme. A total of 120 local broilers (Golpayegani-Ross hybrid) was allocated to 3 treatments with 4 replicates per treatment and 10 birds per replicate/pen. Over a 49-day experimental period, broilers were fed a basal diet (T1), basal diet with 10 IU of extracted β-glucanase and 20% barley (T2) and basal diet with 10 IU of commercial β-glucanase and 20% barley (T3). T2 significantly increased body weight gain and decreased feed intake over the whole experimental period. Treatments had a significant effect on hematological parameters except low density lipoprotein (LDL) concentration (P<0.01). Treatments did not affect antibody titration. The highest non-eviscerated carcass weight (P<0.05) and eviscerated carcass weight (P>0.05) were associated with the T2. The same treatment also caused a significant increase in lactobacilli and Escherichia coli in the gastrointestinal tract. Consequently, enzyme addition had a positive effect on broiler performance without any adverse effects on humoral immunity parameters.


This study examines the drivers of tenure insecurity in Mozambique using data from the National Agricultural Survey (TIA) 2014 as well as a follow-up supplemental survey with detailed land tenure gender-disaggregated data from three groups: namely, principal male, principal female, and female spouses. Perceived risk of land loss (collective tenure risk) and perceived risk of a private land dispute (individual tenure risk) are used to measure land tenure insecurity. The empirical findings reveal, overall, collective tenure risks are the real threat to women's tenure security while individual tenure risks (ownership, inheritance, border disputes, etc.) are more of a threat to the tenure security of men. However, a more gender-disaggregated analysis reveals that individual tenure risk is higher among female spouses as compared to male heads within the same household. Moreover, perceived risk of land loss is higher among non-indigenous male heads while female spouses who have no control over family land are more likely to have higher perceived tenure insecurity. Results also show that landrelated legal awareness seems to be more significant in dictating the (positively) perceived tenure security of women as compared to their male counterparts. Generally, tenure insecurity for female spouses seem to be associated with the emergence of land markets while relative land scarcity in a given community dictates tenure insecurity of the principal female (female heads). Hence, the empirical findings reinforce the need to complement ongoing efforts to enhance tenure security at the household and community level with gender-tailored/targeted programs that take into account the intra-household dimension of addressing issues of land tenure security.


ABSTRACT While there are many identities that individuals associate themselves with, none may be more powerful than sexual orientation and religious beliefs. Previous scholarship has described how lesbian, gay, or bisexual (LGB) individuals try to reconcile their sexual orientation with their evangelical theology using the framework of cognitive dissonance, yet these LGB evangelicals have never been assessed in a randomly sampled survey. Using the 2016 Cooperative Congressional Election Study this research describes how LGB evangelicals grapple with the cognitive dissonance that occurs in many facets of their lives. Two issues are analyzed that could tap into their religious identity (abortion) or sexual orientation (gay marriage). The findings indicate that LGB evangelicals are often more liberal than their evangelical counterparts but are more conservative than the LGB community.


Identifying the various factors that affect the intensity of a flood event, such as its duration and volume, is essential for strategic planning and flood management. Further, quantifying the impacts of these major factors on flood intensity using the contribution rate is essential, but technically challenging. In this study, the authors have adopted the projection pursuit model to quantify the contribution rates of peak flood stage and peak flood discharge, flood duration, and total flood volume (the maximum 12-, 24-, and 72-hour flood volumes) in the Wujiang River in Southern China. This study showed that peak flood discharge and total flood volume were the two dominant factors impacting flood intensity. Although flood duration can be a major factor for some flood events, it contributed the least to flood intensity for most of the historic flood events studied. Likewise, the maximum 24-hour and 72-hour flood volumes contributed little to flood intensity. Findings from this study not only demonstrated the successful adoption of the projection pursuit model for contribution rates, but also provided critical information for planning and managing the regional hydraulic resources in the Wujiang River.


The past two decades have witnessed an unprecedented globalisation of trade in goods and services. This process has been driven, inter alia, by technology, ideology and the availability of relatively cheap energy. By extrapolating this trend, one may expect further integration of world markets and increasingly unhindered international trade. However, there is mounting evidence of significant risks to the globalisation of free trade, at least in goods and possibly in certain services as well. Three main risk areas are identified: (1) fossil fuel depletion, in particular a possible peak in world oil production within the next five to ten years; (2) climate change, and especially its effect on agricultural production; (3) and instability in the world financial system caused primarily by the US's unsustainable twin deficits. The paper explores some possible implications of these risks for the South African economy and its foreign trade in particular. It argues that South Africa's trade policy should take due cognizance of these threats to global trade, and advocates adaptation and mitigation strategies designed to improve self-sufficiency and to protect the poor in sensitive areas, especially food and energy security.


This study explored a housing model called co-housing, giving attention to its potential to help older adults successfully age in place. The focus of this research primarily focused on housing and the obstacles that prevent older adults from remaining in their own home as they age. The population of older adults in the United States will continue to increase and older adults are often faced with a shortage of available options. The co-housing model consists of individual homes or apartments located around a shared outdoor space. Members within the community share responsibility for everyday activities and upkeep to property, reducing the overall cost of living. A qualitative exploratory research design was used to gather relevant data. Interviews were conducted with professionals working with this population and with individuals who have direct knowledge of co-housing. Themes were identified and included: the cost of current housing options, financial obligations, and the availability of and access to community supports. Cohousing was described as having the potential to address and overcome many of the obstacles to aging in place. Co-housing members supporting and trading services among each other was described as decreasing the need to hire outside agencies and the potential to save money overall. This type of housing model will not meet all levels of needs or cares but could be an alternative for some. At this time this model is limited in locations throughout the United States. Co-Housing for Older Adults to Age in Place 3


Screening patients for asymptomatic microhematuria does not appear to improve outcomes, since screening does not identify a population with increased prevalence of urologic malignancy (strength of recommendation [SOR]: A, based on prospective cohort studies) or the presence of urologic disease of any type (SOR: B, based on 1 cohort study). Asymptomatic microhematuria is sometimes associated with urologic disease that requires intervention to prevent death or disability (SOR: B, based on cohort studies). However, no studies demonstrate improved outcomes from screening for asymptomatic microhematuria.


Energy management is an acute challenge for battery powered devices. In this work, we consider a cognitive radio (CR) equipped with energy harvested finite capacity battery. The cognitive radio harvests energy from radio frequency (RF) source (primary channel) as well as from non-RF sources (ambient sources such as wind, solar, and vibration). Energy harvesting from the primary channel occurs only if the channel is found in busy state and energy of the signal is above a certain threshold. The harvested energy is consumed in channel sensing, processing and subsequent transmission. The spectrum sensing decision is controlled optimally by partially observable Markov decision process (POMDP) according to the available energy of the CR and status of the primary channel. Such decision results in an optimized utilization of energy. The cognitive radio enhances throughput by transmitting in the hybrid mode adapting the overlay or underlay mode depending on the sensing and transmission energy. Throughput improvement of the cognitive radio is shown through simulations where throughput in the hybrid mode is compared with the overlay-only mode. Simulations also show the effect of channel idle probability and harvested energy on the throughput.


In this paper, we present a computationally efficient video restoration algorithm to address both blur and noise for a Nyquist sampled imaging system. The proposed method utilizes a temporal Kalman filter followed by a correlation-model based spatial adaptive Wiener filter (AWF). The Kalman filter employs an affine background motion model and novel process-noise variance estimate. We also propose and demonstrate a new multidelay temporal Kalman filter designed to more robustly treat local motion. The AWF is a spatial operation that performs deconvolution and adapts to the spatially varying residual noise left in the Kalman filter stage. In image areas where the temporal Kalman filter is able to provide significant noise reduction, the AWF can be aggressive in its deconvolution. In other areas, where less noise reduction is achieved with the Kalman filter, the AWF balances the deconvolution with spatial noise reduction. In this way, the Kalman filter and AWF work together effectively, but without the computational burden of full joint spatiotemporal processing. We also propose a novel hybrid system that combines a temporal Kalman filter and BM3D processing. To illustrate the efficacy of the proposed methods, we test the algorithms on both simulated imagery and video collected with a visible camera.


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The combination of different item formats is found quite often in large scale assessments, and analyses on the dimensionality often indicate multi-dimensionality of tests regarding the task format. In ICILS 2013, three different item types (information-based response tasks, simulation tasks, and authoring tasks) were used to measure computer and information literacy in order to balance technological and information-related aspects of computer and information literacy. The item types differ in the cognitive processes and the type of knowledge they measure and in the strands and aspects of the ICILS 2013 framework they address. In this article, we explored which factor models that assume item type factors or type of knowledge factors fit the data. For the factors of the best fitting models, regression analyses on SES, frequency of computer use, self-efficacy, and gender were computed to work out the different meanings and the convergent and discriminant validity of the factors. The results show that three-dimensional models with correlated factors for item type or type of knowledge fit best. Regression analyses discover substantive implications of between-item and within-item models. The effects are discussed and an outlook is given.


Managing virtualized services efficiently over the cloud is an open challenge. Traditional models of software development are very time consuming and labor intensive for the cloud computing domain, where software (and other) services are acquired on demand. Virtualized services are often composed of pre-existing components that are assembled on an as-needed basis. We have developed a new framework to automate the acquisition, composition and consumption/monitoring of virtualized services delivered on the cloud. We have divided the service lifecycle into five phases of requirements, discovery, negotiation, composition, and consumption and have developed ontologies to represent the concepts and relationships for each phase. These are represented in Semantic Web languages. We have developed a protocol to automate the negotiation process when acquiring virtualized services. This protocol allows complex relaxation of constraints being negotiated based on user defined policies. We have also developed detailed ontologies to define service level agreements for cloud services. To illustrate and validate how this framework can automate the acquisition of cloud services, we have built two applications from real world scenarios. The Smart cloud services application enables users to determine and procure the cloud storage service that matches most of their constraints and policies. We have also built a VCL broker application that allows users to automatically reserve the VCL Image that will best meet their requirements. We have developed a framework to measure and semi-automatically track quality of a virtualized service delivery system. The framework provides a mechanism to relate hard metrics typically measured at the backstage of the delivery process to quality related hard and soft metrics tracked at the front stage where the consumer interacts with the service. While this framework is general enough to be applied to any type of IT service, in this dissertation we have primarily concentrated on the Helpdesk service and include the performance rules we have created by mining Helpdesk data.


Lichens are sensitive indicators of changes in environmental factors such as moisture, light intensity and air pollution. They are easily affected by forest fragmentation and by recent increases in forest edges as a result of intensive use of forest resources. The aim of this study was to describe previously unknown ecological characteristics of the Micarea globulosella lichen by (1) comparing the occupancy and cover of M. globulosella in old and young forest production stands, (2) investigating whether M. globulosella is affected by stand edges and (3) exploring the effect of high M. globulosella occupancy in old stands on lichen regeneration in young stands. The impacts of other landscape factors on M. globulosella, including altitude and latitude, were also tested. Most profoundly, M. globulosella was found in young forest stands. This contradicts current information which states that the lichen predominantly grows in old-growth forests with long tree continuity. Lichen occupancy and cover increased with stand age. M. globulosella responded to forest edges. In old South facing stands, there was a significant increase in occupancy with increasing distance from the stand edge towards the forest interior. In young North facing stands, lichen occupancy decreased significantly with increasing distance from the stand edge towards the forest interior of the young stand. In young South facing stands, contrary to expectations, there was a significant decrease in lichen occupancy with an increasing distance from the stand edge towards the forest interior of the young stand. A positive correlation between high lichen occupancy in old stands and increased lichen occupancy in the directly adjacent young stands was found. This study's findings suggest that M. globulosella regeneration and occupancy is affected by both microclimate and dispersal interactions.


Current generalized multi-protocol label switching (GMPLS) standards do not include adequate models for wavelength-switched optical networks (WSON) in recovery mechanisms. In this letter, GMPLS/path computation element (PCE) extensions are applied for the restoration of the lightpaths disrupted by collision or optical impairment. A reserved deection routing scheme is proposed to achieve fast restoration. It uses the expanded PCE component to compute and assign the backup paths for lightpath recovery. Numerical results demonstrate that this scheme is effective and low cost.


We introduce The House Of inteRactions (THOR), a framework for visual AI research, available at this http URL AI2-THOR consists of near photo-realistic 3D indoor scenes, where AI agents can navigate in the scenes and interact with objects to perform tasks. AI2-THOR enables research in many different domains including but not limited to deep reinforcement learning, imitation learning, learning by interaction, planning, visual question answering, unsupervised representation learning, object detection and segmentation, and learning models of cognition. The goal of AI2-THOR is to facilitate building visually intelligent models and push the research forward in this domain.


A formidable challenge in multi-label learning is to model the interdependencies between labels and features. Unfortunately, the statistical properties of existing multi-label dependency modelings are still not well understood. Copulas are a powerful tool for modeling dependence of multivariate data, and achieve great success in a wide range of applications, such as finance, econometrics and systems neuroscience. This inspires us to develop a novel copula multi-label learning paradigm for modeling label and feature dependencies. The copula based paradigm enables to reveal new statistical insights in multi-label learning. In particular, the paper first leverages the kernel trick to construct continuous distribution in the output space, and then estimates our proposed model semiparametrically where the copula is modeled parametrically, while the marginal distributions are modeled nonparametrically. Theoretically, we show that our estimator is an unbiased and consistent estimator and follows asymptotically a normal distribution. Moreover, we bound the mean squared error of estimator. The experimental results from various domains validate the superiority of our proposed approach.


Silicon Carbide bipolar junction transistors have been fabricated and investigated. The transistors had a maximmn current gain of approximately 10 times, and a breakdown voltage of up to 600 V. When operated at high power densities the device showed a clear self-heating effect, decreasing the current gain. The junction temperature was extracted during self-heating to approximately 150 °C, using the assumption that the current gain only depends on temperature. Thermal images of a device under operation were also recorded using an infrared camera, showing a significant temperature increase in the vicinity of the device. Physical device simulations have been used to analyze the measured data. The thermal conductivity is fitted to model the measured self-heating, and the lifetime in the base is fitted against the measurement of the current gain.