Abstract models are important tools to manage the increasing complexity of system design. The choice of a modeling language for constructing models governs what types of systems can be modeled, and which subsequent design activities can be performed. This is especially true for the area of embedded electronic and cyber-physical system design, which poses several challenging requirements of modeling and design methodologies. This article argues that the Formal System Design (ForSyDe) methodology with the necessary presented extensions fulfills these requirements, and thus qualifies for the design of tomorrow's systems. Based on the theory of models of computation and the concept of process constructors, heterogeneous models are captured in ForSyDe with formal semantics. A refined layer of the formalism is introduced to make its denotational-style semantics easy to implement on top of commonly used imperative languages, and an open-source realization on top of the IEEE standard language SystemC is presented. The introspection mechanism is introduced to automatically export an intermediate representation of the constructed models for further analysis/synthesis by external tools. Flexibility and extensibility of ForSyDe is emphasized by integrating a new timed model of computation without central synchronization, and by providing mechanisms for integrating foreign models, parallel and distributed simulation, modeling adaptive, data-parallel, and non-deterministic systems. A set of ForSyDe features is demonstrated in practice, and compared with similar approaches using a running example and two relevant case studies.


The book is a timeless art form, one that is as alive today as ever before, and artists continue to explore and explode the boundaries of what a book is and can be. In this beautiful collection, you will experience close-up various aspects of hand-crafted books: covers, bindings, scrolls, folded and origami structures, and books made from found objects. You will find richly illustrated and calligraphed pages as well as books created from a variety of print processes. Ingenuity and creativity abounds in this carefully curated collection of both historically important and modern works.


Games and Decision Making, Second Edition, is a unique blend of decision theory and game theory. From classical optimization to modern game theory, authors Charalambos D. Aliprantis and Subir K. Chakrabarti show the importance of mathematical knowledge in understanding and analyzing issues in decision making. Through an imaginative selection of topics, Aliprantis and Chakrabarti treat decision and game theory as part of one body of knowledge. They move from problems involving the individual decision-maker to progressively more complex problems such as sequential rationality, auctions, and bargaining. By building each chapter on material presented earlier, the authors offer a self-contained and comprehensive treatment of these topics. Successfully class-tested in an advanced undergraduate course at the Krannert School of Management and in a graduate course in economics at Indiana University, Games and Decision Making, Second Edition, is an essential text for advanced undergraduates and graduate students of decision theory and game theory. The book is accessible to students who have a good basic understanding of elementary calculus and probability theory. New to this Edition * Chapter 2 includes new sections on two-person games, best-response strategies, mixed strategies, and incomplete information * Chapter 4 has been expanded to provide new material on behavior strategies and applications * The chapter on auctions (5) includes a new section on revenue equivalence * Offers two new chapters, on repeated games (7) and existence results (9) * New applications have been added to all the chapters


Power supply noise spectra generated by CMOS digital circuits has been shifting to the higher frequency range, as the clock frequency of CMOS digital circuit is becoming faster year by year. Therefore, a new electromagnetic band gap (EBG) structure is strongly required to prevent the wide frequency noise from DC to high frequency components so as to apply to any operating frequencies of CMOS digital circuits and RF circuits. In this paper, a new EBG structure with ultra-wide stop band has been proposed by combining two kinds of EBG structures, i.e., the mushroom type and the planar type EBG structures in a printed circuits board (PCB). This EBG structure consisted of 4 conductive layers. By placing two power supply layers and two ground planes alternatively, two mushroom type EBG structures were constituted vertically in the 4 conductive layers. The unit cells with the same potential were connected each other using via holes. In addition, the top conductive layer provided the planar EBG structure with longer bridge line than the conventional EBG structure. The new EBG structure has been found to have a ultra-wide stop band property by measurement and simulation.


Accurate knowledge of traffic demands in a communication network enables or enhances a variety of traffic engineering and network management tasks of paramount importance for operational networks. Directly measuring a complete set of these demands is prohibitively expensive because of the huge amounts of data that must be collected and the performance impact that such measurements would impose on the regular behavior of the network. As a consequence, we must rely on statistical techniques to produce estimates of actual traffic demands from partial information. The performance of such techniques is however limited due to their reliance on limited information and the high amount of computations they incur, which limits their convergence behavior. In this paper we study a two-step approach for inferring network traffic demands. First we elaborate and evaluate a modeling approach for generating good starting points to be fed to iterative statistical inference techniques. We call these starting points informed priors since they are obtained using actual network information such as packet traces and SNMP link counts. Second we provide a very fast variant of the EM algorithm which extends its computation range, increasing its accuracy and decreasing its dependence on the quality of the starting point. Finally, we evaluate and compare alternative mechanisms for generating starting points and the convergence characteristics of our EM algorithm against a recently proposed Weighted Least Squares approach.


Climate change is increasing the frequency and extent of high-severity disturbance, with potential to alter vegetation community composition and structure in environments sensitive to tipping points between alternative states. Shrub species display a range of characteristics that promote resistance and resilience to disturbance, and which yield differential post-disturbance outcomes. We investigated differences in shrub patch size and stem density in response to variations in fire severity, vegetation community, and post-disturbance reproductive strategies in Sky Island forested ecosystems in the southwestern United States. Patterns in shrub structure reflect the effects of fire severity as well as differences among species with alternate post-fire reproductive strategies. Increased fire severity correlates with larger patch sizes and greater stem densities; these patterns are observed across multiple fire events, indicating that disturbance legacies can persist for decades. High severity fire produces the largest shrub patches, and variance in shrub patch size increases with severity. High severity fire is likely to promote expansion of shrub species on the landscape, with implications for future community structure. Resprouting species have the greatest variability in patch structure, while seeding species show a strong response to disturbance: resprouting species dominate at low disturbance severities, and obligate seeders dominate high severity areas. Differential post-fire reproductive strategies are likely to generate distinct patterns of vegetation distribution following disturbance, with implications for community composition at various scales. Shrub species demonstrate flexible responses to wildfire disturbance severity that are reflected in shrub patch dynamics at small and intermediate scales.


Temporally-correlated neutron counting, including the passive neutron coincidence counting (PNCC) and passive neutron multiplicity counting (PNMC) techniques, is widely used at nuclear fuel cycle facilities for the non-destructive assay (NDA) of plutonium (Pu). Correlated event rates are used to quantify mass values of spontaneously fissile nuclides and derive total Pu mass. These methods are limited in accuracy by uncertainty in the deadtime correction. A pulse train analysis method has been developed and applied to the re-evaluation of deadtime correction factors for correlated neutron counting. The Monte-Carlo transport code MCNPXTM was used to generate a time-stamped list of neutron captures in 3He. Event times were processed in software to create neutron pulse trains akin to list mode data. The action of multiplicity shift register (MSR) electronics was modeled in software to analyse these pulse trains. Prior to MSR analysis, stored pulse trains could be perturbed in software to apply the effects of deadtime. In this work, an updating (paralyzable) deadtime model was chosen to replicate existing theoretical approaches to deadtime correction. Traditional deadtime correction methods for temporally-correlated neutron counting have been found to be accuracy limiting in cases where highly correlated rates occur over a short coincidence gate width i.e. high instantaneous rates associated with high multiplicity bursts. Here, empirical results are presented which support the development of an alternative formulism for both the traditional Singles and Doubles deadtime correction factors for PNCC. Deadtime effects are found to be dependent on the level of correlation in the pulse train yet independent of gate fraction, which is set by the shift register gate structure, for Singles deadtime correction factors. Doubles deadtime correction factors were found to have a slight dependence on gate fraction. Research work was conducted at the University of Birmingham, UK in close collaboration with Canberra Industries, Inc., USA.


Airflow limitation has two well-defined components, increased resistance, which is found predominantly in the small airways, and loss of elastic recoil. Small airways contribute to the increased resistance to flow by the narrowing of the airway lumen. Morphometric studies have shown that smokers have increased epithelial abnormalities, cellular inflammatory infiltrates in the airway wall, increased muscle and fibrosis, when compared with nonsmokers. Along with these anatomical changes, an increased percentage of airways < 400 microns in diameter is found. In addition to the measured changes, other nonmeasurable, dynamic events occur in the airways of smokers, which further decrease lumen diameter. There is ample evidence to show that the airways of smokers react to nonspecific stimuli by constricting, which results in increased resistance and decreased forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1). The pathological changes found in smokers, that could be responsible for active muscle constriction and airway narrowing include: 1) airway epithelial damage, resulting in increased permeability and impairment of other epithelial function; 2) chronic airway inflammation; 3) structural changes in the airway wall; and 4) loss of alveolar attachments. However, not all smokers develop the abovementioned airway abnormalities. We describe how smokers could develop either centrilobular emphysema (CLE), or panlobular emphysema (PLE). We have found that smokers with CLE have more abnormal and narrower small airways, and flow limitation is correlated with the small airway abnormalities and not with loss of recoil. In contrast, smokers with PLE have much less severe airway abnormalities, diffuse emphysema that can be detected microscopically at a stage when FEV1 might be only mildly abnormal, and early changes in elastic recoil as evidenced by the changes in the pressure-volume curve of the lung. Furthermore, in PLE, airflow limitation is correlated with loss of recoil but not with abnormalities in the small airways. We believe that the mechanisms involved in the pathogenesis of the two types of emphysema in smokers are different; an airborne mechanism for CLE, possibly related to airway hyperresponsiveness, and a bloodborne mechanism for PLE, which may be related to dysfunction of alpha 1-antiproteases. We conclude that the separation of smokers based on their emphysema type is essential if we are to understand the pathogenesis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in these subjects.


The installments of this new column organized by the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities, as well as the thoughtful essays in the recent Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics, demonstrate that the field of bioethics is reflecting on its current status and future prospects. And yet these essays also illustrate two troubling tendencies. First, some from within and outside bioethics have tended to treat certain aspects of the field as less worthy or important than others because of their academic nature or their limited relevance for the most urgent "real world" issues. Second, some have tended to obscure the complexity, richness, diversity, and ambivalence within the field by presenting it as increasingly polarized. Any clinician will attest to the fact that thirty-odd years of bioethical discussion have not resolved the difficulties facing professionals, patients, and families. Furthermore, the moral questions raised by high-tech medicine and futuristic speculations about where it may lead are deservedly central to bioethics, including the moral status of different life forms and of human beings at different stages of development, the goals of medicine, the definition and moral significance of the family, and what it means to call for justice in health care. Leigh Turner laments that the field of bioethics has had little to say about gun violence in U.S. cities or about how persistent economic disparities affect health and health care. (1) Surely bioethicists can make manifold and unique contributions to thinking about the health care crisis in the United States and in the world. Further, it is not just a matter of noting that there are health disparities. If more of us educate ourselves as Renee Fox and Judith Swazey recommend, (2) and as Norman Daniels has done, (3) we can engage with economists, political scientists, and health administrators to better deliberate about how to increase access to high-quality health care. I concur with those who want social scientists to help us try to understand the deep personal, social, and cultural sources of "suboptimal" health practices. Insights from ethnography, medical humanities, and philosophy are invaluable as we grapple with questions of justice in health and health care. Fiction, memoir, and qualitative data describe how people experience their encounters with illness and the treatments that heal or ameliorate. Both philosophy and social science contribute to our understanding of what people think they need in order to have a life of meaning and quality; of where health and health care fit into their scheme of values; and of when, if ever, treating people fairly requires treating people differently. We can agree that the current situation is full of injustice without yet having any bioethical (much less societal or global) consensus on what "justice" would look like, or on what methods of deliberation and decision-making would get us closer to justice. Once we acknowledge that life history and experience may influence a person's evaluation of the significance of health, illness, disability, health care, or even normality, we must still do the philosophical and empirical work of determining what role majority or minority opinion should play in remaking health policy. The reports of the current President's Council on Bioethics have been attacked by many in our field as irrelevant or as helping to create an increasingly polarized bioethics. I would urge people to reconsider the Council's work and to use it as a way to deepen our collective conversation. The work should not be dismissed as either marginal or as simple-minded traditionalism. Consider Beyond Therapy, the 2003 Council report that occupied a plenary session at the ASBH conference in 2004. The Council anticipated the criticism of irrelevance by pointing out that the report was addressing questions already facing medicine and society: Some may take us to task for worrying about the excesses and abuses of biotechnology . …


Feeding high levels of palm kernel cake (PKC) has been reported to cause copper
(Cu) toxicity in sheep. The degree of Cu toxicity is generally dependent on type of
sheep breed, the form of Cu in the diets, feeding duration and interaction of Cu with
other nutrients. This study was specifically camed out to investigate the effect of
molybdenum (Mo), sulphur (S) and zinc (Zn) supplementation on the balance of
minerals and to relate the findings with the degree of toxicity in Santa In& x Malin
crossbred sheep.
Twenty male Santa In& x Malin crossbred sheep from 8 months to 1 year of age
were divided randomly into 4 groups. The animals were fed the following diets over
the 6 months experimental period, PKC (86.2%); guinea grass hay (10%)
supplemented with 30 ppm Mo (diet Mo), 20 ppm Mo +lo00 ppm S (diet Mo+S), .
500 ppm Zn (diet Zn) and the control without supplementation (diet Control).
Faecal and urine samples were collected during the digestibility trial for mineral
analysis. Mineral contents were also analyzed in blood plasma samples throughout
the experiment period as well as from liver, kidney, pancreas and bile collected at
slaughter. Mo+S or Mo alone and Zn treatments were observed to reduce the Cu
level in the liver, kidney, pancreas and bile of the sheep. But Mo+S is more
effective in reducing Cu from those tissues, especially the liver. Plasma minerals
results showed that both Zn and Mo+S treatments were more effective in reducing
Cu, Fe and Mg levels over time.
Based on the results of this study, the hepatic Cu content was found to be higher in
control group compared with other treatments. However, Mo+S treatment was
found to be more effective in controlling and lowering Cu levels.
There were significant effect of dietary supplement of Mo+S, Mo and Zn in
increasing the loss of endogenous Cu from the body via faeces and urine.


During the evolution of research from the beginning of a project to the end a large amount of information is accumulated from books, journals, articles, manuals and the internet. Managing all this information is a complex and crucial part, especially since it is important to keep track of and acknowledge the works of those who helped to formulate their ideas and also to show that their work is original. Often these references are made available to groups of researchers from websites. Unfortunately on-line bibliography databases often contain hundreds if not thousands of records. When a user visits these sites they are often overwhelmed with inappropriate information. This means Academic Staff have to consciously search through the references. Academic Staff would prefer to have documents and references automatically recommended to them by the application. The main focus of this work is to design and implement a suitable Recommender System to filter and promote the information that users really wanted, helping like researchers to collaborate together more effectively to make a further contribution to world knowledge.
A fully functional reference management system that incorporated both BibTex upload, download, and restricted security facilities has been implemented. By employing recommendation techniques that had been successfully used by commercial and publication websites like Amazon and CiteSeer we designed and implemented several suggestion systems, based on non personalized, and personalized short-term and long term user interests. The Web Based Reference Management System suggests references to the user through the Statistical Summarization, average user (ratings, reviews, and alternate) recommendations. The final recommendation system implemented provides recommendations for references based on a learned user profile, making use of both hotList and coldList user profiles using a form of incremental Hebbian and Anti Hebbian learning rule to incrementally adapt a feature vector providing a fully functional Content Based Filtering System.


Repeated exercise tests demonstrate refractoriness to the development of exercise-induced asthma (EIA). It is unclear whether it is the initial exercise per se or the resulting bronchoconstriction that causes the attenuated response to the second exercise challenge. This study was designed to determine whether the reported blocking of the refractory period by indomethacin requires a significant bronchoconstriction following the primary exercise challenge. Thirteen asthmatic teenagers (aged 12-16 yrs) were tested on four visits. Each visit included two 7 min treadmill exercise challenges at 80% maximum heart rate, separated by a 30 min rest. Conditions for the second exercise challenge (Ch2) were always thermoneutral (20-22 degrees C and 25-35% relative humidity (RH); whilst challenge one (Ch1) was completed twice in thermoneutral and twice in warm-humid breathing conditions (33-35 degrees C and 90-95% RH). A pretreatment for 3 days in a double-blind design with either placebo or indomethacin was completed. Forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) was measured before and repeatedly following each challenge. The % fall in FEV1 following Ch1 of the placebo thermoneutral trial was taken as reference. "Percent protection" at each visit was expressed as the decrease in EIA following Ch2, compared to reference. Warm-humid breathing reduced the EIA post Ch1 by 75%, whilst providing similar protection to thermoneutral conditions. Indomethacin had no significant effect on EIA after Ch1, but reduced "percent protection" for both warm-humid (from 67 to 16%) and thermoneutral (from 70 to 26%) conditions.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


Background and Objective: Since the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in December 2019 in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, it has spread around the world and become a global public health emergency. It is important to distinguish COVID-19 from other viral pneumonias in order to properly screen and diagnose patients, reduce nosocomial infections, and complement the inadequacy of nucleic acid testing. In this study, we retrospectively analysed the clinical data of COVID-19 versus non-COVID-19 patients treated at our hospital between January 17 and February 27, 2020 in order to summarize our clinical experience in the differential diagnosis of COVID-19. Methods: In this retrospective cohort study, 23 confirmed COVID-19 patients were consecutively enrolled from January 17 to February 27, 2020, while 29 confirmed non-COVID-19 patients were enrolled in West China Hospital of Sichuan University. We collected baseline data, epidemiological data, clinical characteristics, imaging findings, viral nucleic acid test results, and survival data. SPSS v22.0 was used for statistical analysis. Outcomes were followed up until March 25. Results: A total of 52 patients were included in this study, including 23 COVID-19 patients and 29 non-COVID-19 patients. No significant between-group difference was observed in age, sex, primary signs or symptoms, cellular immunity, or platelet count. Significant between-group differences were observed in clinical characteristics such as dry cough, contact with individuals from Wuhan, some underlying diseases, nucleated cell count, chest imaging findings, viral nucleic acid test result,28-day mortality, and 28-day survival. Conclusion: Epidemiological data, clinical symptoms, nucleic acid test results for COVID-19 and chest CT manifestation may help distinguish COVID-19 from non-COVID-19 cases, prevent imported cases and nosocomial infections.


Abstract As agricultural practices intensify, species once common in agricultural landscapes are declining in abundance. One such species is the monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus L.), whose eastern North American population has decreased approximately 80% during the past 20 yr. One hypothesis explaining the monarch's decline is reduced breeding habitat via loss of common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca L.) from agricultural landscapes in the north central United States due to the adoption of herbicide-tolerant row crops. Current efforts to enhance monarch breeding habitat primarily involve restoring milkweed in perennial grasslands. However, prior surveys found fewer monarch eggs on common milkweed in grassland versus crop habitats, indicating potential preference for oviposition in row crop habitats, or alternatively, greater egg loss to predation in grasslands. We tested these alternative mechanisms by measuring oviposition and egg predation on potted A. syriaca host plants. Our study revealed that habitat context influences both monarch oviposition preference and egg predation rates and that these patterns vary by year. We found higher monarch egg predation rates during the first 24 h after exposure and that much of the predation occurs at night. Overall, we documented up to 90% egg mortality over 72 h in perennial grasslands, while predation rates in corn were lower (10–30% mortality) and more consistent between years. These findings demonstrate that weekly monarch egg surveys are too infrequent to distinguish oviposition habitat preferences from losses due to egg predation and suggest that monarch restoration efforts need to provide both attractive and safe habitats for monarch reproduction.


STUDY OBJECTIVE--The aim was to investigate the effect on respiratory health of male middle tar smokers changing the tar and nicotine levels of the cigarettes they smoke for a six month period. DESIGN--This was a randomised controlled trial. Middle tar smokers were randomly allocated to smoke one of three different types of cigarette (low tar, middle nicotine; middle tar, middle nicotine; and low tar, low nicotine) in place of their usual cigarette for a six month period. Main outcome measures were assessment of respiratory health by documenting respiratory symptoms and peak expiratory flow rates, and of nicotine inhalation by measuring the urinary excretion of nicotine metabolites. SETTING--21 local authority districts of England. SUBJECTS--Participants were male middle tar smokers aged 18-44 years. MAIN RESULTS--Postal questionnaires were sent to 265,016 individuals selected from the electoral registers of 21 local authority districts of England; 64% of questionnaires were returned revealing 7736 men aged 18-44 years who smoked only middle tar cigarettes. Of these, 7029 (90%) were sent a health warning and 707 (10%) were not; the latter acted as a control group to assess the effect of the health warning. Of the 7029 men who had received a health warning and were visited at the recruitment stage, 2666 agreed and were eligible to participate in the trial although only 1541 (58% of those who agreed and were eligible) actually started smoking the study cigarettes; 643 men (24% of those willing to participate at the beginning of the trial and 42% of those who actually started smoking the study cigarettes) completed the trial smoking the study cigarettes. Of these, 213 were in the low tar middle nicotine group, 220 were in the middle tar middle nicotine group, and 210 were in the low tar low nicotine group. CONCLUSIONS--This study shows the feasibility of identifying and recruiting sufficient numbers of male middle tar smokers, with adequate numbers completing the trial, to detect any changes in respiratory health over a six month period.


The purpose of this paper is to examine the aggressiveness which is expressed by infants in kindergarten and is manifested as school bullying. More specifically, this paper is aiming in recording main bibliographic references of non verbal and vocal expression of preschoolers in anger situations and how those references are substantiated through surveys. Bibliography claims that school bullying does not occur unexpectedly, but instead there are apparent signs in behavior of preschoolers, that can be prevented before they occur. Throughout this paper however, what is in parallel aimed is the recording of the reasons that positively contribute to the expression of aggressive behavior in preschoolers. In this way, knowing the reason of causing an attitude, it could become easier and more efficient to prevent and efface that attitude. Many researchers conclude that parents and teachers have to cooperate and constantly communicate each other in order to significantly help preschoolers who, appear (show) aggressive behavior, to change its (their) behavior for the rest of their lives. Conclusions like that are under a new review in present study.


Photoinduced electron transfer reactions in organic donor-acceptor systems leading to long-lived radical ion pairs (RPs) have attracted broad interest for their potential applications in fields as diverse as solar energy conversion and spintronics. We present the photophysics and spin dynamics of an electron donor - electron acceptor - stable radical system consisting of a meta-phenylenediamine (mPD) donor covalently linked to a 4-aminonaphthalene-1,8-dicarboximide (ANI) electron-accepting chromophore as well as an α,γ-bisdiphenylene-β-phenylallyl (BDPA) stable radical. Selective photoexcitation of ANI produces the BDPA-mPD(+•)-ANI(-•) triradical in which the mPD(+•)-ANI(-•) RP spins are strongly exchange coupled. The presence of BDPA is found to greatly increase the RP intersystem crossing rate from the initially photogenerated BDPA-(1)(mPD(+•)-ANI(-•)) to BDPA-(3)(mPD(+•)-ANI(-•)), resulting in accelerated RP recombination via the triplet channel to produce BDPA-mPD-(3*)ANI as compared to a reference molecule lacking the BDPA radical. The RP recombination rates observed are much faster than those previously reported for weakly coupled triradical systems. Time-resolved EPR spectroscopy shows that this process is also associated with strong spin polarization of the stable radical. Overall, these results show that RP intersystem crossing rates can be strongly influenced by stable radicals nearby strongly coupled RP systems, making it possible to use a third spin to control RP lifetimes down to a picosecond time scale.


We calculated the energy landscape of charged molecules that is determined by electrostatic and induction interaction using the fully polarizable force field DRF90 in the bulk and at interfaces of the electron accepting material C60, and two exemplary electron donating materials pentacene and phthalocyanine. In particular, we compared the energy of a non-interacting electron–hole pair (NI-EH) without mutual electrostatic interactions to the energy of a Coulomb-bound interfacial charge-transfer state (CT). Our calculations show that due to electrostatic interactions with the environment a NI-EH state is destabilized on the phthalocyanine–C60 interface, whereas it is stabilized on the interface between pentacene and C60, even without the interaction with the counter charge. Upon adding the mutual electrostatic interaction between the opposite charges the electrostatic term overall stabilizes the CT state in both systems. This stabilization is not compensated by the reduced induction term. The resulting binding energy of the CT state amounts to several tenths of an eV, which contradicts the evidence of working solar cells based on these systems. The overestimated CT state binding energy for charges localized on a single molecule suggests that charge delocalization over multiple molecules might play an important role. Nevertheless, our results indicate clear opportunities to engineer electrostatic interactions at the interface that might lead to destabilization of NI-EH and hence to a lower binding energy of CT.


Non-nutritive sweeteners (NNSs) gained attention as dietary tools that provide a free sweet taste of energy to foods. However, its health benefits have been questioned. The aim of this review is to present and discuss the effects of NNSs on energy and glycemic homeostasis, as well as the mechanisms involved. Recent studies in animals and humans have shown that consumption of NNSs appears to have a negative effect on the energy and glycemic homeostasis, promoting body weight gain, insulin resistance, and hyperglycemia. The hypotheses proposed to explain these effects are changes in the perception of taste sweet and weakening of the cephalic response, interaction of NNSs with sweet-taste receptors in the intestinal tract, and changes in intestinal microbiota. However, the determinants of energy and glucose homeostasis are diverse, which may explain in part the unclear effects evidenced in many studies. Therefore, other studies are important to clarify the conflicts between the safety of NNSs and metabolic disorders. J Endocrinol Metab. 2018;8(6):119-125 doi: https://doi.org/10.14740/jem547


Abstract This paper reports a speaker evaluation experiment that investigated the competition between three regional accents of Standard Dutch and references to the speaker's profession as determinants of attitude formation. A stratified sample of listener-judges rated speech stimuli that were presented in two guises, a neutral guise and a teacher guise (the latter containing multiple references that revealed the speaker to be a high school teacher of Dutch). The experimental findings corroborate our earlier claim that regional flavoring is embedded in lay conceptualizations of Standard Dutch. Although teachers of Dutch may be the last "gatekeepers" of the standard in the Low Countries, they are not automatically downgraded when they have a regional accent: What matters is, clearly, which accent they have. Analysis of the ratings further suggests a hierarchical relation between accent and occupation as perception triggers: Even though regional accent clearly is the stronger attitude determinant, it does not suppress occupational information but interacts with it to generate richer social meaning.


We develop a theoretical model of foreign aid to analyse a method of disbursement of aid which induces the recipient government to follow a more pro-poor policy than it otherwise would do. In our two-period model, aid is given in the second period and the volume of it depends on the level of wellbeing of the target group in the first period. We find that this way of designing aid does increase the welfare of the poor. We also consider the situations where the donor and the recipient governments act simultaneously as well as sequentially, and find that by moving first in a sequential game, the donor country can, under certain conditions, increase the welfare of the poor and its own compared to the case of simultaneous moves.


Speech recognition systems do not usually utilize prosodic information, i.e., information signaled by segmental duration and the fundamental frequency contour of the speech signal. The acoustic manifestation of prosody is, more often than not, considered as a disturbance in current statistical approaches to the speech recognition problem. The detection and transformation of sentence accent in, e.g., spoken language translation systems, will enable stress on a certain word in one language to be transformed into a suitable representation of corresponding constituents in the other language and satisfy the same semantic goal. In this study, a system for automatic detection of sentence accents to be used in speech recognition systems, is presented. The fundamental frequency is extracted from the speech signal and an estimated frequency declination is subtracted from the actual fundamental frequency in order to give a normalized representation of the variations. These fundamental frequency variations are given ...


Abstract. Paleoclimate simulations provide us with an opportunity to critically confront and evaluate the performance of climate models in simulating the response of the climate system to changes in radiative forcing and other boundary conditions. Hargreaves et al. (2011) analysed the reliability of the Paleoclimate Modelling Intercomparison Project, PMIP2 model ensemble with respect to the MARGO sea surface temperature data synthesis (MARGO Project Members, 2009) for the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM, 21 ka BP). Here we extend that work to include a new comprehensive collection of land surface data (Bartlein et al., 2011), and introduce a novel analysis of the predictive skill of the models. We include output from the PMIP3 experiments, from the two models for which suitable data are currently available. We also perform the same analyses for the PMIP2 mid-Holocene (6 ka BP) ensembles and available proxy data sets. Our results are predominantly positive for the LGM, suggesting that as well as the global mean change, the models can reproduce the observed pattern of change on the broadest scales, such as the overall land–sea contrast and polar amplification, although the more detailed sub-continental scale patterns of change remains elusive. In contrast, our results for the mid-Holocene are substantially negative, with the models failing to reproduce the observed changes with any degree of skill. One cause of this problem could be that the globally- and annually-averaged forcing anomaly is very weak at the mid-Holocene, and so the results are dominated by the more localised regional patterns in the parts of globe for which data are available. The root cause of the model-data mismatch at these scales is unclear. If the proxy calibration is itself reliable, then representativity error in the data-model comparison, and missing climate feedbacks in the models are other possible sources of error.


There is a need for pedagogical techniques that increase student engagement among underrepresented groups in engineering. Relating engineering content to student interests, particularly through biomechanics applications, shows promise toward engaging a diverse group of students. This study investigates the effects of student interests on engagement and performance in 10th grade students enrolled in a summer program for students underrepresented in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields. The authors assessed the effects of interest-tailored lectures on student engagement and performance in a 5-week program with bioengineering workshops, focusing on the delivery of biomechanics content. A total of 31 students received interest-tailored lectures (intervention) and 23 students received only generic lectures (control) in biomechanics. In addition, the authors assessed the effects of teaching method (lecture, classroom activities, and laboratory tours) on student engagement. The authors found interest-tailored lectures to significantly increase student engagement in lecture compared with generic lectures. Students that received interest-tailored lectures had an insignificant, but meaningful 5% increase in student performance. Students rated laboratory tours higher in engagement than other teaching methods. This study provides detailed examples that can directly assist student teaching and outreach in biomechanics. Furthermore, the pedagogical techniques in this study can be used to increase engagement of underrepresented students in engineering.


Properties of transition matrices between IBD configurations are derived for four general classes of unilineal relative pairs obtained from the grand-parent/ grandchild, half-sib, avuncular, and cousin relationships. In this setting, IBD configurations are defined as orbits of groups acting on a set of inheritance vectors. Properties of the transition matrix between IBD configurations at two linked loci are derived by relating its infinitesimal generator to the adjacency matrix of a quotient graph. The second largest eigenvalue of the infinitesimal generator and its multiplicity are key in determining the form of the transition matrix and of likelihood-based linkage tests such as score tests.


Recent functional brain imaging studies in humans indicate that learning and memory involve many of the same regions of the cortex that process sensory information and control motor output. The forms of perceptual and motor learning that can occur without conscious recollection are mediated in part by contractions and expansions of representations in the sensory and motor cortex. The same regions are also engaged during the conscious storage and retrieval of facts and events, but these types of memory also bring into play structures involved in the active maintenance of memories "on line" and in the establishment of associative links between the information stored in different sensory areas. Although the picture of memory that is emerging from functional imaging studies is consistent with current physiological accounts, there are puzzles and surprises that will be solved only through a combination of human and animal studies.


In the aftermath of the Crimea annexation in March 2014, the idea of 'hybrid warfare' quickly gained prominence as a concept that could help to explain the success of Russian military operations in this conflict. Although the concept continues to enjoy widespread popularity in both scholarly and policy circles, its utility as an analytical tool is also heavily contested. This article adds to the literature critical of the 'hybrid warfare' concept. It argues that in addition to the fact that what is now described as a 'hybrid' approach to war is in fact nothing new, the problems pertaining to its utility for the study of contemporary Russia go deeper than this. 'Hybrid warfare' inadequately reflects the direction of Russian military modernisation and as such has led to a skewed understanding of Russian military capabilities. Moreover, the tendency to use 'hybrid warfare' not only to conceptualise developments in the Russian military, but in the country's foreign policy in general, can lead to serious unintended consequences.


The ability to incorporate intelligence in even small devices and to make use of contextual information from widely deployed sensors has already begun to change management paradigms. As edge computing and IoT become more prevalent, systems will increasingly consist of cooperating, heterogeneous, distributed, autonomous elements. Architectures for cognitive, collaborative systems are evolving to deal with such complex environments. Concepts from multi-agent systems and autonomic computing are being applied to cope with the scope and breadth of large collections of interacting devices and services. Technologies for security and access control must evolve as well. Policy-based mechanisms are widely used and have been very successful in protecting information and controlling access to systems and services. They tend to rely, however, on a centralized infrastructure and on the automated enforcement of directives. Newer paradigms are being investigated that allow policy structures to be more dynamic and contextual, while still preserving the desired levels of control. We will present trends in the evolution of architectures for distributed, federated systems, and the technologies for managing them.


We introduce a novel framework for image‐based 3D reconstruction of urban buildings based on symmetry priors. Starting from image‐level edges, we generate a sparse and approximate set of consistent 3D lines. These lines are then used to simultaneously detect symmetric line arrangements while refining the estimated 3D model. Operating both on 2D image data and intermediate 3D feature representations, we perform iterative feature consolidation and effective outlier pruning, thus eliminating reconstruction artifacts arising from ambiguous or wrong stereo matches. We exploit non‐local coherence of symmetric elements to generate precise model reconstructions, even in the presence of a significant amount of outlier image‐edges arising from reflections, shadows, outlier objects, etc. We evaluate our algorithm on several challenging test scenarios, both synthetic and real. Beyond reconstruction, the extracted symmetry patterns are useful towards interactive and intuitive model manipulations.


ABSTRACT The placenta relies on phenotypes that are characteristic of cancer to successfully implant the embryo in the uterus during early pregnancy. Notably, it has to invade its host tissues, promote angiogenesis—while surviving hypoxia—, and escape the immune system. Similarities in DNA methylation patterns between the placenta and cancers suggest that common epigenetic mechanisms may be involved in regulating these behaviors. We show here that megabase-scale patterns of hypomethylation distinguish first from third trimester chorionic villi in the placenta, and that these patterns mirror those that distinguish many tumors from corresponding normal tissues. We confirmed these findings in villous cytotrophoblasts isolated from the placenta and identified a time window at the end of the first trimester, when these cells come into contact with maternal blood, as the likely time period for the methylome alterations. Furthermore, the large genomic regions affected by these patterns of hypomethylation encompass genes involved in pathways related to epithelial-mesenchymal transition, immune response, and inflammation. Analyses of expression profiles corresponding to genes in these hypomethylated regions in colon adenocarcinoma tumors point to networks of differentially expressed genes previously implicated in carcinogenesis and placentogenesis, where nuclear factor kappa B is a key hub. Taken together, our results suggest the existence of epigenetic switches involving large-scale changes of methylation in the placenta during pregnancy and in tumors during neoplastic transformation. The characterization of such epigenetic switches might lead to the identification of biomarkers and drug targets in oncology as well as in obstetrics and gynecology.


TiO2 is one of the most extensively investigated materials owing to its unique properties and several promising applications. The properties of TiO2 are highly dependent on its microstructure and feature size. Herein, we report a strategy for the synthesis of hierarchical porous TiO2 with two distinguishable scales of ligament sizes, which consists of both macro-pores and meso-pores. A metallic melt dealloying process with CuTi alloy was followed to form a porous Ti precursor. Subsequently, this precursor was used as a substrate for anodization to form TiO2. By controlling the anodization potential, time and initial porous Ti ligament size, nanotubular nanotubes or nanoporous TiO2 were distributed uniformly on the ligaments of porous Ti. Both the sizes of the macropore (400 nm to 2 μm) and mesopore (10 to 30 nm) can be tuned. A core–shell structured TiO2/Ti composite with a nanoporous or nanotubular structure in the shell and un-anodized porous Ti in the core can be achieved by partial anodization. The hierarchical structure with high surface area is essential for mass transport (large pore) and functionality (small pore), which makes it a potential candidate for various applications such as in sensors and catalysts.


Botanical remains from sanctuaries and necropolises provide valuable information about ancient religious practices. The current paper discusses old and new archaeobotanical data from Bulgaria and the use of plants in ritual context from Antiquity. The time span of the 44 considered sites (sanctuaries and necropolises) is between the 6th century BC and the 3rd century AD. Most of the sanctuaries in Bulgaria, where archaeobotanical remains have been studied, date to the Bronze and Iron Ages, and a large proportion represents the so called "pit fields". Information concerning later periods is almost completely lacking. Some evidence on plant offerings is available from the necropolises of the Hellenistic and Roman periods. Although the archaeobotanical data from these sites are quite scarce, their increasing number allows the observation of some common tendencies. Cereals and pulses are most commonly identified at sanctuaries, while fruits are typical remains in the necropolises. Very often imported species (like stone pine, pistachio and olive) are found which testifies to existing contacts with adjacent regions (mainly the Mediterranean area and North Africa).


The Support Vector Machines (SVM) is a classification algorithm with many diverse applications. The SVM has many parameters associated with it which influences the performance of the SVM classifier. In this paper, we employ Genetic Algorithm based approach to find and select an appropriate kernel function and its parameters. This proposed technique combines predictive accuracy and complexity of SVM as two criteria into a fitness function for evaluating the performance of SVM. Our method is compared with grid algorithm and the experimental results validate that the proposed approach is much better than the grid method.


The main aim of this study was to investigate the game location effect on pre-competition salivary cortisol and state anxiety in professional futsal players. Fourteen male players from a U-20 futsal team were evaluated during four competitive matches played away (n=2) and home (n=2) venues. Saliva samples were collected in order to analyse the salivary cortisol concentrations (sal-C) by the ELISA assay and state anxiety was evaluated using the CSAI-2R questionnaire. All the data collection took place before the pre-match warm-up. Medium and clear increase on sal-C (ES= 0.67; CL= 0.20; 1.14) was observed from home to away venues. Trivial and unclear differences between away and home venues were observed in cognitive anxiety (ES= 0.12; CL= -0.34; 0.57); somatic anxiety (ES= 0.06; CL= -0.40; 0.51) and self-confidence (ES= 0.06; CL= -0.40; 0.51). In conclusion, the data suggested that game location affects hormonal responses; increases in sal-C suggest that playing away represents a more challenging situation in futsal athletes compared to their home venue.


Debris flows associated with rainstorms are a frequent and devastating hazard in the Southern Appalachians in the United States. Whereas warm-season events are clearly associated with heavy rainfall intensity, the same cannot be said for the cold-season events. Instead, there is a relationship between large (cumulative) rainfall events independently of season, and thus hydrometeorological regime, and debris flows. This suggests that the dynamics of subsurface hydrologic processes play an important role as a trigger mechanism, specifically through soil moisture redistribution by interflow. We further hypothesize that the transient mass fluxes associated with the temporal-spatial dynamics of interflow govern the timing of shallow landslide initiation, and subsequent debris flow mobilization. The first objective of this study is to investigate this relationship. The second objective is to assess the physical basis for a regional coupled flood prediction and debris flow warning system. For this purpose, uncalibrated model simulations of well-documented debris flows in headwater catchments of the Southern Appalachians using a 3-D surface–groundwater hydrologic model coupled with slope stability models are examined in detail. Specifically, we focus on two vulnerable headwater catchments that experience frequent debris flows, the Big Creek and the Jonathan Creek in the Upper Pigeon River Basin, North Carolina, and three distinct weather systems: an extremely heavy summertime convective storm in 2011; a persistent winter storm lasting several days; and a severe winter storm in 2009. These events were selected due to the optimal availability of rainfall observations; availability of detailed field surveys of the landslides shortly after they occurred, which can be used to evaluate model predictions; and because they are representative of events that cause major economic losses in the region. The model results substantiate that interflow is a useful prognostic of conditions necessary for the initiation of slope instability, and should therefore be considered explicitly in landslide hazard assessments. Moreover, the relationships between slope stability and interflow are strongly modulated by the topography and catchment-specific geomorphologic features that determine subsurface flow convergence zones. The three case studies demonstrate the value of coupled prediction of flood response and debris flow initiation potential in the context of developing a regional hazard warning system.


Abstract:Inside Beijing are hundreds of urban villages. Originally farming villages, now engulfed by urban expansion, they persist due to China's segregated urban-rural property system. Inhabitants are often still classed as peasants, despite being inside the city. Since most have had their agricultural land requisitioned for urban construction, they instead build multiple extensions to their houses to rent to rural migrants seeking cheap accommodation. In some cases, village populations have increased tenfold as migrants have flooded in, causing cramped conditions and overloading village infrastructure. Urban villages have in recent years emerged as key sites of ideological and political contestation. For local officials and planners envisioning gleaming world cities brimming with advanced technology and highly skilled workers, these are dirty and backward "urban cancers," enclaves of the "low-end population," and obstacles to their visions of the city as embodiment of global modernity. An opposing set of scholars and policy makers view these villages as essential to city life, channels for low-cost labor to service urban elites, and gateways to modernity for those formerly excluded. Within the urban villages, groups of migrant-activists defy the statist vision of the city. Through cultural performances and visual representations, they struggle to promote an urban modernity in which they are included as active participants. This article explores how Beijing's urban villages constitute a key site of ideological contestation over what the city should be, and whom urban life is for.


Supporting social interactions and positive peer relationships is an important element of comprehensive secondary education and transition programming. For many adolescents with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), such social connections may be fairly limited apart from intentional programming. We examined the efficacy and social validity of peer network interventions as an avenue for promoting social interactions and social skills for two high school students with ASD. The introduction of peer networks was accompanied by substantial increases in peer interactions for both students. Adult facilitators, peer partners, and students with ASD each considered the intervention to be acceptable and feasible to implement. We offer recommendations for designing social-focused interventions for adolescents with ASD and highlight future research directions.


Over the past two decades public investment analysis has increased considerably, both in theory and practice. This can be observed from the vast amount of literature which is now available in this field compared to the interwar period, and the use being made of benefit cost analysis and other related investment analysis in decision making for the allocation of public resources. Public investment analysis in the form of benefit cost analysis was first explored by a Frenchman, Jules Dupuit, towards the middle of the 19th century. The first systematic attempt to apply benefit cost analysis to public economic decisions seemed to have occurred in the United States, however. This occurred in the field of water resource development.


Nanocomposite thin films exhibit interesting optical properties which differ from those of the pure constituents. Effective medium theories are used to model the dielectric function of the nanocomposite materials. We give an introduction to the theories of Maxwell-Garnett, Bruggeman and Ping Sheng, considering spherical and ellipsoidal geometries and taking into account finite size effects. Metal containing amorphous hydrogenated carbon films (a C:H/Me), and metal containing amorphous hydrogenated silicon carbon films (a Si:C:H/Me) are of special interest regarding solar energy applications. Such films are deposited by a vacuum process combining physical vapor deposition (PVD) and plasma assisted chemical vapor deposition (PECVD), and exhibit a granular structure on the nanometric scale. In the case of noble metal doped films, nanometric noble metal clusters are embedded in an amorphous matrix, while in the case of transition metals carbide or alloy clusters can be formed. The optical properties of the nanocomposite thin films are determined experimentally by spectrophotometry, spectroscopic ellipsometry, and in-situ laser reflectometry. The comparison of the experimental results to the effective medium theories illustrates that the Maxwell-Garnett theory can only be applied in the case of small filling factors. The superiority of the Ping Sheng theory with respect to the theories of Maxwell Garnett and Bruggeman can clearly be demonstrated. The correction of the optical constants of metal clusters due to the finite size effect as well as the applicability of the effective medium theories in the case of complex alloy clusters is discussed.


Airway clearance is a foremost priority for combat medics dealing with battlefield trauma. This life saving intervention starts with inspection, clearing any obstructions from the airway, and if necessary, placement of an endotracheal tube to secure the airway. For inspecting and clearing the airway under complicated battlefield conditions, combat medics require a portable suction device that is compact, lightweight, rugged, and capable of rapidly evacuating a mix of liquid and solid particles, which may include bone fragments or broken teeth. While several portable suction devices are available on the market, none were developed specifically for the combat environment. Interviews with combat medics and other relevant personnel revealed that currently available systems are limited in utility to the point of often being intentionally omitted from their kits. In addition, these discussions identified several design specifications for a desired system, such as size (30 × 10 × 10 cm), weight (≤1 kg), fluid flowrate (1 L/min), and canister size (0.5–1 L), among others. This research focused on developing and characterizing a functional prototype within the specified design criteria. After designing and fabricating the device, evacuation of water, blood mimicking solution, and simulated vomitus solution were assessed. In addition, a comparative analysis was carried out between the five different commercially available suction catheters by assessing fluid flow rate and obstruction resistance. The results demonstrate the first proof-of-concept characterization for a novel combat-oriented suction system and provide a basis for comparing the performance of suction systems and catheters used in airway management.


One of the most challenging tasks for the database administrator is to physically design the database to attain optimal performance for a given workload. Physical design is hard because it requires the selection of an optimal set of design features from a vast search space. There have been many commercial tools available to automatically suggest the physical design, for a given a set of queries. These tools are, however, based on greedy heuristic pruning, which reduces their usefulness. Furthermore, they are not interactive, as the APIs to simulate the indexes and tables are product specific and hidden from the database administrators. Finally, all these tools are built specifically for commercial systems and there is lack of automated physical designers for open source DBMSs. In this demonstration we introduce -PARINDA - an interactive physical designer for an open source DBMS. Given a workload containing a set of queries, this tool allows the DBA to efficiently simulate various physical design features and get immediate feedback on their effectiveness. It also incorporates recent advances in non-greedy physical design techniques to provide close to optimal suggestions. Although it has been prototyped for several different DBMSs, we demonstrate the usefulness and efficiency of the tool while running on the open source DBMS---PostgreSQL--using large real-world scientific datasets and query workloads.


This paper discusses techniques that improve the performance of a case retrieval system, after it is deployed, as a result of the continued usage of the system, by remembering previous episodes of question answering. The user generates a request for information and the system responds with the retrieval of relevant case(s). A history of such transactional behavior over a given set of data is maintained by the system and used as a foundation for adapting its future retrieval behavior. With each transaction, the system acquires information about the usage of the system that is subsequently used to adjust the behavior of the system. This notion of a case retrieval system draws on a distinction between the system in isolation and the system as it is used for a particular set of cases. It also draws on distinctions between the designed system, the deployed system, and the system that emerges as it is used.


There are severe water shortages, exacerbated by overexploitation, in the region upstream of the dam at Zhang Jiakou, and in many other regions, both in China and other parts of the world. Allocating water resources equitably amongst the numerous domestic and industrial consumers in these regions, while preserving or improving the environment and meeting economic goals, is a highly complex problem. Various researchers have addressed this problem using various models, but no model that satisfactorily optimizes the complex, interacting social, economic and environmental goals has been developed as yet. To contribute towards this goal, we present a bi-level optimization model that allocates water resources rationally between all sectors, and prevents overexploitation. It is based on the optimization of comprehensive social, economic, agricultural, environment and groundwater preservation benefits. Verified results obtained with the model indicate that it is capable of resolving the multi-dimensional water allocation problems rationally, both in the focal region and more generally, according to a flexible set of ordered, prioritized objectives.


The purpose of our article is to identify the determinants of Internet Business Solutions (IBS), using a representative sample of Portuguese business sector in 2006. This article is based on a theoretical framework in which the adoption of IBS is done in two stages. At the first stage, the firm decides to adopt or not a website; at the second stage, those who adopted a website decide on the level of IBS adoption. We considered that the determinants of the adoption decisions can be internal or external and that their effect may be different at the two adoption stages. Based on these assumptions, we develop and test an integrated model of IBS adoption allowing for sample selection. Our results show that the two adoption decisions are taken sequentially and that selectivity bias is not present in our sample. Our findings also suggest that the relevant drivers of website and the level of IBS adoption are not necessarily the same.


Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a chronic debilitating disorder affecting erythrocytes, which is especially prevalent throughout Sub-Saharan Africa and among individuals of African descent. Because malaria is thought to be a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in patients with SCD, malaria chemoprophylaxis is often recommended for these patients. In SCD, malaria chemoprophylaxis reduces malaria parasite count, anaemia and the need for blood transfusion, and improves clinical outcomes. However, the effectiveness of malaria chemoprophylaxis in the setting of SCD is based on a few studies conducted prior to the emergence of widespread antimalarial drug resistance. Consequently, it is uncertain what the optimal strategy for managing patients with SCD in malarious areas should be. Despite the widespread use of hydroxyurea in non-malarious regions, little is known about its effect in malaria-endemic areas or on malaria-related outcomes. On the one hand, hydroxyurea upregulates intercellular cell adhesion molecule 1 (ICAM-1), the cell surface receptor for adhesion of Plasmodium falciparum-infected erythrocytes, and theoretically, it could enhance parasite replication. On the other hand, hydroxyurea increases levels of foetal haemoglobin, which is protective against malaria. We explore what is currently known about the interactions between SCD and malaria and review the published literature on the efficacy of malaria chemoprophylaxis in SCD. We also consider alternative strategies, including hydroxyurea, in the reduction of malaria-associated morbidity and mortality in patients with SCD.


Interview with Eugene L. Crumling, bartender and former professional ballplayer. The interview includes Crumling's personal experiences about being a professional baseball player in the U.S. during World War II. Crumling talks about his semi-pro baseball career in the late 1930s and early 1940s, the origin of his nickname, signing his first professional contract, life in the minor leagues during wartime, his draft classification as 4-F, his employment in defense-related work during the off-seasons, contrasts between life in the minors and life in the majors, individual Cardinals players, his first game and his first, and only, hit in the majors, the remainder of his minor league career, and his personal thoughts about the reserve clause, player strikes, modern-day salaries, and expansion.


Approximately two billion dollars a day of petroleum are traded worldwide, which makes petroleum the largest single item in the balance of payments and exchanges between nations. Petroleum represents the larger share in total energy use for most net exporters and net importers. While petroleum taxes are a major source of income for more than 90 countries in the world, poor countries net importers are more vulnerable to price increases than most industrialized economies. This paper has five chapters. Chapter one describes the key features of upstream, midstream, and downstream petroleum operations and how these may impact value creation and policy options. Chapter two draws on ample literature and discusses how changes in the geopolitical and global economic environment and in the host governments' political and economic priorities have affected the rationale for and behavior of National Oil Companies' (NOCs). Rather than providing an in-depth analysis of the philosophical reasons for creating a NOC, this chapter seeks to highlight the special nature of NOCs and how it may affect their existence, objectives, regulation, and behavior. Chapter three proposes a value creation index to measure the contribution of NOCs to social value creation. A conceptual model is also proposed to identify the factors that affect value creation. Chapter four presents the result of an exploratory statistical analysis aimed to determine the relative importance of the drivers of value creation. In addition, the experience of a selected sample of NOCs is analyzed in detail, and lessons of general applicability are derived. Finally, Chapter five summarizes the conclusions.


Environmental irresponsibility is one of the most prominent issues confronting host communities of transnational corporations (TNCs) engaged in the production of economic goods and, sometimes, services. Drawing mainly on stakeholder theory, combined with legitimacy theory, this article addresses how host communities in Africa combat the challenge of environmental irresponsibility of TNCs. To illustrate the dimensions and dynamics of the challenge, this paper examines the experience of despoliation of Ogoniland by the oil giant Shell in Nigeria. The analysis draws attention to the signi fi cance of the role of individuals and civil society groups in securing accountability of one of the most formidable fronts of economic globalisation. The analysis is particularly relevant to the experience of environmental irresponsibility in the context of weak governance structures.


Competitive Intelligence (CI) has been defined by many authors. These definitions do have certain differences but all of them have a main common feature: They put the accent on the analysis. The most precise definition is given by the Society for Competitive Intelligence Professionals (SCIP): "A systematic and ethical program for gathering, analyzing, and managing external information that can affect your company's plans, decisions, and operations". Business Intelligence (BI) is much broader concept than CI. It has rather technical meaning while CI is more about managerial perspective of intelligence. BI includes activities such as data mining, market analysis, sales analysis, and analysis of customer and supplier records and behavior (Bouthillier et al., 2003). However, in some European countries, such as Sweden and Denmark, BI and CI have the similar meaning (Bouthillier et al., 2003). Either way, the main feature of both concepts is the ability to analyze data and information and to deduct intelligence out of them. Currently, a large number of BI and/or CI software is available, and being developed worldwide. A simple search of the "Business Intelligence software" term in Google gives about 548.000 results. Most of these software are quite enhanced and well developed but only a few of them have a good analysis tool, and even fewer give a choice of analysis tools to their users. An extensive work has been done on BI software evaluation by Amara et al. (2009) to classify the top BI software vendors according to the extent of their analysis by using the SSAV (Solberg Soilen, Amara, Vriens) model. A number of analyses for Business Intelligence have been summed up also in Solberg Soilen (2005). The conclusion of both works was the same: BI software need robust analysis tools. In this research we pursue two goals: First we investigate what are the major obstacles for making a better analysis function in the Business Intelligence (BI) software and second we examine how those obstacles can be solved both technically and from a managerial perspective. The intention in this study is to investigate how the analysis module is functioning in the BI software and see how it could be implemented more effectively. This means that the study has two sides one Competitive Intelligence (CI) for the managerial approach and one Business Intelligence (BI) for the more technical approach. First we present a comprehensive literature review and pin point the problems and obstacles defined by many authors. Then we propose a method to solve the identified problems and finally we concentrate on advantages and disadvantages of the proposed method. The proposed technical solution is under construction in the BI software called Subsoft developed by Dr. Klaus Solberg Soilen. We investigate to what extent conclusions here can be used to develop the software further. The managerial perspective of the solutions is explored in close collaboration with two other BI companies: Sentient and Crystalloids, both based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.


Humans tell stories, and the stories they tell do many things. These stories communicate morals and norms and build morale. They establish orthodoxy and challenge it. They offer a narrative to make sense of the past and generate a vision of the future. Humans tell stories in and through the law as well. Clients provide their stories to their lawyers and the lawyers, in turn, narrate to juries. We make story-based pleas to judges and regulators. Stories inform our understanding of the law and law evolves as new stories and new narratives shape and color new visions for and versions of the law.
One of the stories in the law that is pervasive is that human nature is acquisitive and self-interested: that humans find it hard to cooperate to reach mutual ends. Because of this, we should protect ourselves from not just others, but, at times, ourselves. In property law, perhaps more than in most other areas of law, storytelling that speaks of the origins of property regimes, using phrases like the "state of nature" and the "Tragedy of the Commons," among other themes, has been used to help explain and justify private property-based systems that often accomplish many things, including the preservation of a status quo that is rife with inequities and asymmetries of power and influence, and which is, in turn, highly resistant to change. This durability is, in part, a product of the attractiveness and perhaps intuitiveness of the narrative such stories convey.
There is a possible counter-narrative, however. This counter-narrative describes humans' capacity for cooperation. It recognizes that we possess not just self-interest but also an appreciation for the value of cooperation; indeed, true self-interest, what Alexis de Tocqueville called "self-interest, rightly understood," embraces that notion that our long-term well-being is fostered by cooperation, by thinking about long-term payoffs and by working collaboratively to achieve better overall outcomes.
This Article explores two issues around the use of narratives of cooperation and non-cooperation. The first is the idea that embedded in the research, literature, and scholarship on cooperation is the notion that humans do not just compete, but they also cooperate, despite the dominant narrative that cooperation is unlikely given the stories told about the selfishness of humans. While a counter-narrative of cooperation has always existed, it has likely been suppressed by both the hegemonic power and the attractiveness of narratives of non-cooperation to dominant elites. But this dominance and the capacity for dominance may be slipping. Indeed, the second idea I will attempt to explore here is the power that now exists for non-elites to tell the counter-narrative. New technologies are placing story-telling capacities in the hands of the many, democratizing the power of narrative. This disintermediation is creating the capacity for the emergence of new narratives of mutual care and cooperation. But these new tools do so much more than simply place the means of generating new narratives in the hands of the many. They also help individuals overcome the natural impediments to cooperation in the first place, the transaction costs associated with cooperative action that can lead to self-interested, non-cooperative behavior. This Article explores whether, when we have new communication and coordination tools at our disposal, such tools can help us communicate about and coordinate our cooperative ventures. I will examine whether these tools give us not just the ability to tell counter-narratives of cooperation but also a means of overcoming barriers to collective action itself.


The extracellular matrix (ECM) is an important constituent for a variety of tissues including vascular tissue in which the ECM maintains aortic wall integrity. An important component of vascular tissue ECM is type I collagen. Type I collagen is normally a molecule composed of three collagen chains of which two are the same chain [proa1(I)] and one is distinctly different [proa2(I)]. The focus of this dissertation is to examine the role of the proa2(I) chain in determining thoracic aorta integrity and how the thoracic aortic integrity changes with age. To assess the role of proa2(I) chains we used a mouse model, termed 'oim', that produces only proa1(I) chains and evaluated thoracic aortas of our mouse model at 3, 8, and 18 months old of age. We evaluated thoracic aortic strength, stiffness, ECM content, ECM gene expression, and collagen crosslinking at each age point. Oim mice exhibited reduced aortic strength and stiffness at each age group and exhibited increased aortic strength and stiffness at 18 months of age compared to 3 months of age. Oim mice also exhibited reduced aortic collagen content, while other aortic ECM components were unchanged. However, aortic collagen content was significantly increased at 8 and 18 months of age as compared to 3 months of age. Aortic ECM gene expression demonstrated reduced expression at 18 months of age as compared to 3 months of age. In addition, oim aortas demonstrated increased collagen crosslinks at each age group, while the ratio of collagen crosslinking remained the same at each age group. Our results demonstrate that proa2(I) collagen is central for proper aortic strength and stiffness even in the presence of increased collagen crosslinking and increasing collagen content of homotrimeric type I collagen with age. This study suggests that fibrils composed of homotrimeric type I collagen are inherently weaker than fibrils composed of heterotrimeric type I collagen.


Composite materials are being used at an increasing rate in the automotive industry due to their superior mechanical properties at low densities leading to lightweight components. Continuing this trend requires the identification of manufacturing processes for these components that have short cycle times along with delivering reproducible parts. The modeling of these processes is essential in order to prevent the excessive experimentation currently required to develop the process parameters. One of the manufacturing processes currently under consideration is compression resin transfer molding (C-RTM). Recently, General Motors and ESI, NA Group have been working together in developing a state of the art computational tool for process simulation of composites in a project supported by the Department of Energy (DOE). This section of work on the development and validation of a simulation tool for the CRTM process is under the broad scope of the above DOE project. Current development for C-RTM simulation introduces two new technologies embedded into the current PAM-RTM solver: - Fluid-Solid mechanics coupling to determine the preform deformations during the compression-injection process, and - An Inter-Penetrating Mesh providing the ability to handle the vanishing gap during the closing of the mold. This paper will focus on the development and validation of the proposed simulation software using resin flow experiments in a truncated pyramid tool manufactured at General Motors Research and Development Labs.


This paper investigates some modular powering functions suitable for cryptography. It is well known that the Rabin encryption function is a 4-to-1 mapping and breaking its one-wayness is secure under the factoring assumption. The previously reported encryption schemes using a powering function are variants of either the 4-to-1 mapping or higher n-to-1 mapping, where n > 4. In this paper, we propose an optimized powering function that is a 3-to-1 mapping using a p2q-type modulus. The one-wayness of the proposed powering function is as hard as the infeasibility of the factoring problem. We present an efficient algorithm for computing the decryption for a p2q-type modulus, which requires neither modular inversion nor division. Moreover, we construct new provably secure digital signatures as an application of the optimized functions. In order to achieve provable security in the random oracle model, we usually randomize a message using random hashing or padding. However, we have to compute the randomization again if the randomized message is a non-cubic residue element---it is inefficient for long messages. We propose an algorithm that can deterministically find the unique cubic residue element for a randomly chosen element.


Abstract. Hygroscopic properties of atmospheric particles were studied in the marine tropospheric boundary layer over the Atlantic and Indian Oceans during two consecutive field studies: the Aerosols99 cruise (Atlantic Ocean) from 15 January to 20 February 1999, and the INDOEX cruise (Indian Ocean Experiment) from 23 February to 30 March 1999. The hygroscopic properties were compared to optical and chemical properties, such as absorption, chemical inorganic composition, and mass concentration of organic and elemental carbon, to identify the influence of these parameters on hygroscopicity. During the two field studies, four types of aerosol-sampling instruments were used on board the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) Research Vessel Ronald H. Brown: Hygroscopicity Tandem Differential Mobility Analyzer (HTDMA), seven-stage cascade impactor, two-stage cascade impactor, and Particle Soot Absorption Photometer (PSAP). The HTDMA was used to determine the hygroscopic properties of atmospheric particles at initial dry sizes ( Dp ) of 50, 150, and 250 nm and at relative humidities ( RH ) of 30, 55, 75, and 90%. Simultaneously, a seven-stage cascade impactor of which 3 stages were in the sub- m m size range was used to determine the molar composition of the major inorganic ions such as ammonium and sulfate ions. A two-stage cascade impactor (1 in the sub- m m size range, 1 in the sup- m m size range) was used to determine the mass concentration of organic and elemental carbon. The PSAP was used (at a wavelength of 565 nm) to measure the light absorption coefficient of the aerosol. During the two field studies, air masses of several different origins passed the ship's cruise path. The occurrence of different air masses was classified into special time periods signifying the origin of the observed aerosol. All time periods showed a group of particles with high hygroscopic growth. The measured average hygroscopic growth factors defined by the ratio of dry and wet particle diameter at 90% RH ranged from 1.6 to 2.0, depending on the dry particle size and on the type of air mass. Particles with low hygroscopic growth occurred only when continentally influenced air masses arrived at the ship's position. Distinctions in hygroscopic growth of particles of different air masses were more significant for small relative humidities (30% or 55% RH ). High concentrations of elemental carbon corresponded with high light absorption coefficients and with the occurrence of less-hygroscopic and nearly hydrophobic particle fractions in the hygroscopic growth distributions. A key finding is that clean marine air masses that had no land contact for five to six days could clearly be distinguished from polluted air masses that had passed over a continent several days before reaching the ship.


The heart is a muscular organ that pumps blood throughout the body. The human heart contracts approximately once per second, adding up to more than 2.5 billion contractions over 80 years. Failure in cardiac contraction leads to sudden cardiac death, which is one of the most common causes of death in the industrialized world. In most cases this is caused by ventricular fibrillation (VF). During VF turbulent excitation patterns occur, causing uncoordinated contraction of the ventricles. If VF is not halted by means of defibrillation, blood circulation will cease, causing cardiac death within minutes. One important tool to study the mechanisms underlying cardiac physiology, is mathematical modeling. Over the last decades mathematical models ranging from single cell dynamics to complex three-dimensional whole organ models have been used to study cardiac arrhythmias. The focus of this thesis is to gain more insight in the underlying mechanisms of VF using electrophysiological and mechanical models of the human heart. We are especially interested in mechano-electrical feedback and in the role of tissue heterogeneity in the onset of cardiac arrhythmias. In the first part of this thesis we investigated the basic effects of mechano-electrical feedback in two-dimensional systems using simple low dimensional models to describe cardiac excitable behavior. In the second part of this thesis we used anatomically based models of the human ventricles to study the mechanisms and dynamics of VF and investigated the effects of tissue heterogeneity and mechano-electrical feedback. The most important conclusions regarding mechano-electrical feedback is that local tissue deformations can lead to automatic pacemaker activity via the stretch-activated channels, and that local stretch of fibers can cause an otherwise stable spiral wave to break up. The most important conclusions regarding tissue heterogeneity is that action potential duration restitution heterogeneity is not only important for the initiation of wavebreaks and re-entry, but also affects the dynamics of ventricular fibrillation. Furthermore, different initial conditions can lead to different mechanisms of ventricular fibrillation: either mother rotor or multiple wavelet ventricular fibrillation. These results indicate that mechano-electrical feedback and tissue heterogeneity may play an important role in the initiation and dynamics of ventricular fibrillation. Hence, reducing electrophysiological heterogeneity may be a fruitful target for therapeutic intervention.


We present a brief review of time dependent quantum transport theory for analysing nanoelectronic devices. We focus on both theoretical and numerical techniques developed recently for calculating time-dependent current flowing through noninteracting phase-coherent conductors connected to external leads, in response to external time dependent bias voltages. For sharp step- and square-shaped voltage pulses, we report an exact analytical theory based on the Keldysh nonequilibrium Green's functions (NEGF), for solving the transport equations in the far from equilibrium, nonlinear response regime. We also report a numerical approach based on NEGF and the time-domain decomposition scheme. The essential feature of our theory is that it does not rely on the commonly used wideband approximation, as such they provide a way to perform practical transient transport calculations from first principles on realistic devices.


Molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) has recently emerged as a promising nanomaterial in a wide range of applications due to its unique and impressive properties. For example, MoS2 has gained attention in the biomedical field because of its ability to act as an antibacterial and anticancer agent. However, the potential influence of this exciting nanomaterial on biomolecules is yet to be extensively studied. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations are invaluable tools in the examination of protein interactions with nanomaterials such as MoS2. Previous protein MD studies have employed MoS2 force field parameters which were developed to accurately model bulk crystal structures and thermal heat transport but may not necessarily be amendable to its properties at the interface with biomolecules. By adopting a newly developed MoS2 force field, which was designed to better capture its interaction with water and proteins, we have examined the changes in protein structures between the original and refitted MoS2 force field parameters of three representative proteins, polyalanine (α-helix), YAP65 WW-domains (β-sheet), and HP35 (globular protein) when adsorbed onto MoS2 nanomaterials. We find that the original force field, with much larger van der Waals (vdW) contributions, resulted in more dramatic protein structural damage than the refitted parameters. Importantly, some denaturation of the protein tertiary structure and the local secondary structure persisted with the refitted force field albeit overall less severe MoS2 denaturation capacity was found. This work suggests that the denaturation ability of MoS2 to the protein structure is not as dire as previously reported and provides noteworthy findings on the dynamic interactions of proteins with this emergent material.


The present knowledge society requires statistical literacy-the ability to interpret, critically evaluate, and communicate about statistical information and messages (Gal, 2002). However, research shows that students generally do not gain satisfactory statistical understanding.
The research presented in this thesis is a sequel to design research carried out by Cobb, McClain, and Gravemeijer (2003) and aims at contributing to an empirically grounded instruction theory for early statistics education in which educational computer tools are used. Computer software allows users to dynamically interact with large data sets and to explore different representations in ways that are impossible by hand. The computer tools used were the Statistical Minitools (Cobb et al., 1997), which have been designed for middle school students. One important end goal of instruction was that students would gain understanding of sampling and learn to use 'shape' to reason about distributions. In line with the theory of Realistic Mathematics Education, a central tenet was that learning mathematics should be a meaningful activity. The research questions were:

1. How can students with little statistical background develop a notion of distribution?
2. How does the process of symbolizing evolve when students learn to reason about distribution?

In the latter question, 'symbolizing' refers to the reflexive process of making symbols and mentally constructing the objects which they represent.
The design research consisted of five cycles of three phases: a design phase, a teaching experiment, and a retrospective analysis. Prior to these cycles, historical and didactical phenomenological analyses (Freudenthal, 1991) were carried out as well as exploratory interviews. The historical study gave rise to hypotheses that were partially tested in the teaching experiments carried out in grades 7 and 8 (12 to 14 years old). In the design phase, a so-called hypothetical learning trajectory (Simon, 1995) was formulated, which was tested and revised in the subsequent cycles of design research. The recurring activity of discussing growing samples proved useful to support reasoning about distribution and sampling. For the analyses of students' learning, a method was used similar to the constant comparative method (Strauss & Corbin, 1998). It turned out that students conceived distributions as 'bumps' consisting of a small group of low values, a large group of 'average' values, and a small group of high values.
Peirce's semiotics proved useful for analyzing students' process of symbolizing, in particular, his notions of hypostatic abstraction and diagrammatic reasoning. Hypostatic abstraction refers to the transition from a predicate to a new abstract object ("the dots are spread out" to "the spread is large"). Diagrammatic reasoning consists of three steps: making a diagram, experimenting with it, and reflecting on the results. The research shows the importance of letting students make their own diagrams and discussing these. The computer tools seemed most useful during the experimentation phase. Remarkably, the best diagrammatic reasoning occurred only during class discussions without computers around. One recommendation is: only invest in using computer tools if all educational factors such as teaching, end goals, instructional activities, tools, and assessment are tuned to each other.


This paper presents the calculation of the state matrix A of the power system through a program developed under MATLAB. This program is called SIAM (Sistema Informático para Análisis Modal Computational System for Modal Analysis). The state matrix is obtained from the load flow solution data and from the dynamic model parameters employed. The detailed models of synchronous machines, automatic voltage regulators and power system stabilizers are linearized for the calculation. To evaluate the method proposed, there is a comparison of results between SIAM and a commercial program for a reference case published.


The contribution discusses prerequisites of linguistic representation of colors and color perception. In its first part, it points out strategies of color naming that aim at designating particular shades of colors as precisely as possible. The second part deals with descriptions of regular effects of interacting colors, for instance effects of artistic color compositions. The endeavor of painters to develop a technical language to speak about artistic and psychological effects of color compositions is analyzed. It is shown that speaking of particular shades of color and designating regular, inter-individual color effects requires established forms of categorizing them. Cultural techniques of illustrating colors and specific color effects are of crucial importance.


Abstract
A total of 269 virus strains was obtained from both male and female phlebotomine sandflies collected at two localities in Panama between 1969 and 1971. These isolates represented nine different virus types (Changuinola, VSV-Indiana, Punta Toro-CoAr 3319, Chagres, VP-175A, VP-437R, VP-161A, VP-488A and VP-118D) as well as several unidentified agents. Five of the virus types are new. Changuinola and Punta Toro-CoAr 3319 were the most frequently encountered agents and represented 52% and 19% of the isolates, respectively. Of man-biting sandflies processed by species, highest overall isolation rates were obtained from Lutzomyia trapidoi. Analysis of seasonal distribution of virus isolates indicated that activity of Changuinola, Chagres. VP-175 and VP-437R was continuous, while isolations of VSV-Indiana and Punta Toro-CoAr 3319 were intermittent. Seventeen isolates, representing six different virus types, were obtained from male sandflies. Isolation rates by sex for three of the virus types were similar in collections yielding comparable numbers of male and female insects. The frequency of virus isolations from male sandflies suggests that transovarial transmission of several of these agents occurs in nature. Neutralization tests on sera from inhabitants of seven rural Panamanian communities demonstrated a significant amount of human infection with VSV-Indiana. Punta Toro and VP-437R. Infections of caged sentinel animals, exposed at one of the collecting sites, were observed with VSV-Indiana, Chagres, VP-175A and VP-437R. The study demonstrated superiority of the Vero cell culture system over newborn mice for primary isolation of sandfly virus isolates. By using infected Vero cells as complement-fixing antigen for typing isolates, the necessity of blind passing many viruses in order to establish mouse pathogenicity was eliminated.


Background: Semantic fluency tasks are used in evaluating word retrieval in children. In addition to examining overall word output, semantic clustering is used to assess the strategic retrieval process involved during searching and retrieving exemplars from specified category. Limited research on analysis of word retrieval strategies in adolescents exists with respect to Indian context. Therefore, present study is an attempt to conduct qualitative analysis of semantic clustering in early and mid adolescence.
Method: 30 early and mid adolescent children aged 12 – 15 years were assessed on semantic fluency with participants instructed to generate as many words as possible belonging to specific semantic categories (animal, food & vehicle) in one minute for each category. Offline analysis of responses was done on total word output, semantic clusters and mean
cluster size. Mean & Standard deviation were obtained for the measures for each semantic category.
Results: Total word output produced by adolescents for the animal, food and vehicle fluency tasks were 13.13, 12.4 & 10.2 respectively. Detailed qualitative analysis on clustering revealed specific & common rules of organization pattern in terms of clustering the word output under semantic sub categories for each task. The average number of clusters and mean cluster size produced by adolescent children were approximately 3.47 & 2.12 respectively.
Conclusion: The present study revealed specific clustering pattern on specific semantic categories which does not reach adult like pattern of word retrieval. Routine evaluation of semantic clustering can provide additional insight into word retrieval strategies in adolescents with developmental neurological conditions.


Bacterial diversity among environmental samples is commonly assessed with PCR-amplified 16S rRNA gene (16S) sequences. Perceived diversity, however, can be influenced by sample preparation, primer selection, and formation of chimeric 16S amplification products. Chimeras are hybrid products between multiple parent sequences that can be falsely interpreted as novel organisms, thus inflating apparent diversity. We developed a new chimera detection tool called Chimera Slayer (CS). CS detects chimeras with greater sensitivity than previous methods, performs well on short sequences such as those produced by the 454 Life Sciences (Roche) Genome Sequencer, and can scale to large data sets. By benchmarking CS performance against sequences derived from a controlled DNA mixture of known organisms and a simulated chimera set, we provide insights into the factors that affect chimera formation such as sequence abundance, the extent of similarity between 16S genes, and PCR conditions. Chimeras were found to reproducibly form among independent amplifications and contributed to false perceptions of sample diversity and the false identification of novel taxa, with less-abundant species exhibiting chimera rates exceeding 70%. Shotgun metagenomic sequences of our mock community appear to be devoid of 16S chimeras, supporting a role for shotgun metagenomics in validating novel organisms discovered in targeted sequence surveys.