We introduce a set of techniques that allow for efficiently generating many independent random walks in the Massive Parallel Computation (MPC) model with space per machine strongly sublinear in the number of vertices. In this space-per-machine regime, many natural approaches to graph problems struggle to overcome the Θ(logn) MPC round complexity barrier. Our techniques enable breaking this barrier for PageRank—one of the most important applications of random walks—even in more challenging directed graphs, and for approximate bipartiteness and expansion testing. In the undirected case, we start our random walks from the stationary distribution, which implies that we approximately know the empirical distribution of their next steps. This allows for preparing continuations of random walks in advance and applying a doubling approach. As a result we can generate multiple random walks of length l in Θ(log l) rounds on MPC. Moreover, we show that under the popular 1-vs.-2-Cycles conjecture, this round complexity is asymptotically tight. For directed graphs, our approach stems from our treatment of the PageRank Markov chain. We first compute the PageRank for the undirected version of the input graph and then slowly transition towards the directed case, considering convex combinations of the transition matrices in the process. For PageRank, we achieve the following round complexities for damping factor equal to 1−ǫ: • in O(log logn+ log 1/ǫ) rounds for undirected graphs (with Õ(m/ǫ) total space), • in Õ(log logn+ log 1/ǫ) rounds for directed graphs (with Õ((m+ n)/poly ǫ) total space). The round complexity of our result for computing PageRank has only logarithmic dependence on 1/ǫ. We use this to show that our PageRank algorithm can be used to construct directed length-l random walks in O(log logn+log l) rounds (with Õ((m+n)poly l) total space). Namely, by letting ǫ = Θ(1/l), a length-l PageRank walk with constant probability contains no random jump, and hence is a directed random walk.


Studies of the sources of innovations have recognized that many innovations are developed by users. However, the fact that firms employ communities of users to strengthen their innovation process has not yet received much attention. In online firm-hosted user communities, users freely reveal innovations to a firm's product platform, which can put the firm in a favorable position (a) because these new product features become available to all users through sharing on a user-to-user basis, or (b) because it allows the firm to pick up the innovations and integrate them in future products and then benefit by selling them to all users. We study the key personal attributes of the individuals responsible for innovations, namely the innovative users, to explain creation of value in this organizational context. The main question is why such users contribute to firm-hosted user communities. Analyzing data derived from multiple sources (interviews, a Web-log, and questionnaires), we find that innovative users are likely to be (i) hobbyists, an attribute that can be assumed to (positively) affect innovators' willingness to share innovations, and (ii) responsive to firm recognition as a motivating factor for undertaking innovation, which explains their decision to join the firm's domain. In agreement with earlier studies, we also find that innovative users are likely to be lead users, an attribute that we assume to affect the quality of user innovation. Whether or not a firm-hosted user community can be turned into an asset for the firm is to a great extent conditional on the issues studied in this paper.


This article develops the warranty cost analysis of a two-component in-series system with stochastic dependence. From the perspectives of both the manufacturer and the consumer, the short-run total profits and costs under the non-renewing free replacement (non-renewing free replacement warranty) policy and the renewing free replacement warranty policy are derived, respectively. Numerical examples are given showing the impact of the failure dependence to both the consumer and the manufacturer.


How can smartphones apps enrich the learning of mathematics in vocational education? This article examines how mathematics teaching can be enriched by apps using smartphone sensors such as gyroscope, compass, camera, and touch screen in a gaming context. An iterative and participatory design process involving two classes of carpentry students from different vocational colleges resulted in two highly successful and course-relevant games based on trigonometry. Each game consists of quests and missions whose successful completion unlocks more theoretical multiple-choice exercises for the classroom. The combination of competition to unlock exercises, competition for placing on the high-score list, and physical activity proved very motivating for the students and was also approved by their teachers. In this article we describe our design principles, the overall game architecture and the games themselves. We talk about our experience in implementing our design process and subsequently summarize the pros and cons of the application and the smartphone platform and how the app developed contributes to vocational mathematics teaching.


According to the National Institute of Health, a genome-wide association study is defined as any study of genetic variation across the entire human genome that is designed to identify genetic associations with observable traits (such as blood pressure or weight), or the presence or absence of a disease or condition. Whole genome information, when combined with clinical and other phenotype data, offers the potential for increased understanding of basic biological processes affecting human health, improvement in the prediction of disease and patient care, and ultimately the realization of the promise of personalized medicine. In addition, rapid advances in understanding the patterns of human genetic variation and maturing high-throughput, cost-effective methods for genotyping are providing powerful research tools for identifying genetic variants that contribute to health and disease. This burgeoning science merges the principles of statistics and genetics studies to make sense of the vast amounts of information available with the mapping of genomes. In order to make the most of the information available, statistical tools must be tailored and translated for the analytical issues which are original to large-scale association studies. This book will provide researchers with advanced biological knowledge who are entering the field of genome-wide association studies with the groundwork to apply statistical analysis tools appropriately and effectively. With the use of consistent examples throughout the work, chapters will provide readers with best practice for getting started (design), analyzing, and interpreting data according to their research interests. Frequently used tests will be highlighted and a critical analysis of the advantages and disadvantage complimented by case studies for each will provide readers with the information they need to make the right choice for their research. Additional tools including links to analysis tools, tutorials, and references will be available electronically to ensure the latest information is available. This title offers easy access to key information including advantages and disadvantage of tests for particular applications, identification of databases, languages and their capabilities, data management risks, frequently used tests. It provides extensive list of references including links to tutorial websites. It offers case studies and tips and tricks.


OBJECTIVE
To test the hypothesis that long-term lead accumulation, as reflected by levels of lead in bone (as opposed to blood which reflects recent lead exposure), is associated with an increased odds of developing hypertension.

DESIGN
Case-control study of participants in the Veterans Administration (now Department of Veterans Affairs) Normative Aging Study, a 30-year longitudinal study of men.

PARTICIPANTS
Of 1171 active subjects who were seen between August 1991 and December 1994, 590 (50%) participated in this investigation and had data on all variables of interest.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Hypertension was defined as taking daily medication for the treatment of hypertension or systolic blood pressure higher than 160 mm Hg or diastolic blood pressure of 96 mm Hg or higher during the time of examination. Levels of lead in the tibia (representing cortical bone) and the patella (representing trabecular bone) were measured in vivo with a K x-ray fluorescence (KXRF) instrument. Levels of lead in blood were measured by graphite furnace atomic absorption spectroscopy.

RESULTS
Blood lead levels were low, ranging from less than 0.05 to 1.35 micromol/L (<1 to 28 microgram/dL), with a mean (SD) of 0.30 (0.20) micromol/L (6.3[4.1] microgram/dL). Bone lead levels were similar to those described in other general populations. In comparison to nonhypertensives, mean levels of lead in blood and both tibia and patella bone lead levels were significantly higher in hypertensive subjects. In a logistic regression model of hypertensive status that began with age, race, body mass index, family history of hypertension, history of ethanol ingestion, pack-years of smoking, dietary sodium intake, dietary calcium intake, blood lead, tibia lead, and patella lead, the variables that remained after backward elimination were body mass index, family history of hypertension, and level of lead in the tibia. An increase from the midpoint of the lowest quintile to the midpoint of the highest quintile of tibia lead from 3 to 37 micrograms per gram of bone mineral was associated with an increased odds ratio of hypertension of 1.5.

CONCLUSION
Our findings suggest that long-term lead accumulation, as reflected by levels of lead in bone, may be an independent risk factor for developing hypertension in men in the general population.


The current perception of the United Nations as the only institution charged with governing international security issues was neither intended nor required. Although the historical development of the World Trade Organization (WTO) caused a significant shift in its governance focus, the WTO is uniquely situated to remedy several of the governance failures suffered by the United Nations and to act as an effective governor of national security in the economic sphere. need for such an alternative governance mechanism is especially acute when nation-states refuse to recognize the authority of the United Nations over a security dispute or when a veto-holding Security Council member is the subject of international concern. I first examine the historical development of the international security governance system and uncover the substantive authority of the WTO to govern the economic aspects of national security issues. I then use the parallel proceedings brought by Nicaragua before the International Court of Justice and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade dispute settlement system to dispel common objections to WTO governance in the national security arena. Finally, I demonstrate how U.S. imposition of unilateral economic sanctions on Iran presents an opportunity for WTO governance in the global war on terror.


I. Introduction. The new industrial revolution in Asian economies (M. Abidin, R. Hooley). II. Macroeconomic Policy and productivity Performance. Reflections on economic growth in Asia and the Pacific (A. Harberger). The new industrial revolution in Asian economies: its limits (M. Dutta). Miracle or myth in Asian NIC growth: the irony of numbers (F. Hsaio, M. Hsaio). The role of Korea in Asia Pacific economic cooperation with special reference to strategic alliances (Y.T. Lim). Inflation and exchange rate management in Indonesia (R. Sirigar). Explaining Malaysia's economic growth (W.B. Gan, L.Y. Soon). III. Liberalization of Trade in Services. Implications of GATS on the service sector: Malaysian perspectives (S. Ling, M. Abidin and L. Heng). Thailand's liberalization of trade and investment in services within APEC (C. Suthiphand). Services and development in an open economy (N. Mehta). Effects of interest rate liberalization: the case of S. Korea (S. Kwack, C. Lee). IV. Foreign Investment. The role of foreign investment in the success of Asian industrialization (P. Lloyd). Foreign direct investment and economic growth (K. Marwah, L. Klein). AFTA, AIA and U.S. direct investment in ASEAN (R. McCullough, M. Plummer). Sources of technology inflow to malaysia: U.S. firms vs, Japanese firms (S. Narayanan, L.Y. Wah). Trade, investment and conflict between the U.S. and Asia (M. Noland). V. Sectoral and Institutional Change. Agriculture in the new Asian industrialization (R. Bautista, D. DeRosa). Investment in human capital in South Asian economies (S. Khan). Business groups in Japan, Korea and Taiwan: a comparison (J. Liu, J. Choi and H. Wang). The Japanese employment practice revisited (M. Ahmed). The myth of the effect of industrial policies in industrializing countries: the case of Taiwan (T.S. Yu). China's choice for the industrialization road: China's township and village enterprises (H. Fanzhang). On the relationship between Vietnam's economic renovation and its possible participation in regional and world economic organizations (D.L. Diep). Burmese seaman in search of freedom from poverty: a study of the effects of foreign exchange controls and economic mismanagement (M. Maung).


Point – pathos – totality Two situations are possible when two fragments are confronted in montage. First, we can have a continuity corresponding to some established narrative codes. For instance, a character crosses the right border of the frame and reappears from behind the left side of the next frame. Such a figure will be read as a representation of continuity, but shown not in its integrity. The gap in spatial continuity is compensated here by the continuity of a story. On the other hand, we can have a junction that has no support by any code and that opens up opportunities for the display of metaphors, metonyms and allegories. There are also possibilities for violent conflicts and shocks as in Godard. We do not really know how all these non-codified figures of montage work. There is no generally accepted theoretical model that could explain how we are able to synthesize two heterogeneous pieces. All his life Sergei Eisenstein was fascinated by montage and tried to understand its way of functioning. He was particularly interested in solving the mystery of interaction between elements belonging to two different media such as sound and image and in their way of creating unity. This article focuses on Eisenstein's late writings in which he used the idea of pathos and Hegelian dialectics for the analysis of montage as a dynamic process. According to Eisenstein, montage fuses different pieces of footage but also triggers the whole mechanism of the evolution of culture. Cinema, from this point of view, is not simply an art of modernity but a highest stage in the development of culture somewhat similar to the stage of the absolute knowledge that the spirit reaches in Hegel.


Summary Ammonites that preserve evidence of their soft anatomy or gut contents are exceedingly rare. An example of the Toarcian ammonite, Dactylioceras , with tightly packed fish scales in the supposed position of the stomach, plus further scales and three articulated fish vertebrae in the approximate position of the crop, is described. The body-chamber is largely filled with fine sedimentary rock, but shows several thin areas now lined with diagenetic calcite where the sediment was unable to penetrate. These are interpreted as the positions of ammonite soft tissue because they line parts of the body-chamber, which is consistent with the idea that the stomach and crop remained intact long enough for their contents to be preserved in place. Inquilinism is thought unlikely as an explanation because the fish remains are largely disarticulated and packed together in the rear of the body-chamber, but the fish debris could represent food of an animal that sheltered within the dead ammonite shell. Equally, passive fill of the body-chamber with sediment containing fish scales seems unlikely due to the local concentration at the rear of the body-chamber. Possibly this Dactylioceras ate fish either as a predator or scavenger.


It has been hypothesized that as individuals become attached to a place, they are more likely to protect that place. Managers of natural area tourism destinations may be able to use this relationship to assist in sustainably managing such places. An on-site visitor survey was administered at Ningaloo Marine Park, Australia, to examine the effect of a multi-dimensional place attachment construct on pro-environment behavioral intentions. The behaviors encompassed three categories based on the perceived level of commitment and where the behaviors physically occurred. They included on-site actions by visitors, visitors telling others how to act on-site, and off-site actions to conserve the Marine Park. Structural equation modeling revealed place identity directly affecting all three behavioral categories, the effect increasing with the level of commitment required to undertake the pro-environment behaviors. This suggests that a sophisticated understanding of place identity is essential for the management of natural area tourism destinations.


Cross-situational learning is a basic mechanism that enables people to infer the correct referent for a novel word by tracking multiple hypotheses simultaneously across exposures. Previous research has shown that adults are capable of exploiting cross-situational information, but recently this gradual statistical learning mechanism has been put under debate by researchers who argue that people learn via a fast mapping procedure. We compared the performance of adult participants on a word learning task in which information was manipulated cross-situationally with the performance of simulated learning strategies. Experimental evidence indicates that adults use cross-situational learning, which appears to be a robust mechanism that facilitates word learning even under cognitively demanding circumstances.


Very rapid initial convergence of the equalizer tap coefficients is a requirement of many data communication systems which employ adaptive equalizers to minimize intersymbol interference. As shown in recent papers by Godard, and by Gitlin and Magee, a recursive least squares estimation algorithm, which is a special case of the Kalman estimation algorithm, is applicable to the estimation of the optimal (minimum MSE) set of tap coefficients. It was furthermore shown to yield much faster equalizer convergence than that achieved by the simple estimated gradient algorithm, especially for severely distorted channels. We show how certain "fast recursive estimation" techniques, originally introduced by Morf and Ljung, can be adapted to the equalizer adjustment problem, resulting in the same fast convergence as the conventional Kalman implementation, but with far fewer operations per iteration (proportional to the number of equalizer taps, rather than the square of the number of equalizer taps). These fast algorithms, applicable to both linear and decision feedback equalizers, exploit a certain shift-invariance property of successive equalizer contents. The rapid convergence properties of the "fast Kalman" adaptation algorithm are confirmed by simulation.


In this thesis, modeling and optimization in the field of storage management under stochastic condition will be investigated using two different methodologies: Simulation Optimization Techniques (SOT), which are usually categorized in the area of Reinforcement Learning (RL), and Nonlinear Modeling Techniques (NMT). For the first set of methods, simulation plays a fundamental role in evaluating the control policy: learning techniques are used to deliver sub-optimal policies at the end of a learning process. These iterative methods use the interaction of agents with the stochastic environment through taking actions and observing different states. To converge to the steady-state condition where policies and value functions do not change significantly with the continuation of the learning process, all or most important states must be visited sufficiently. This might be prohibitively time-consuming for large-scale problems. To make these techniques more efficient both in terms of computation time and robust optimal policies, the idea of Opposition-Based Learning (OBL-Type I and Type II) is employed to modify/extend popular RL techniques including Q-Learning, Q(λ), sarsa, and sarsa(λ). Several new algorithms are developed using this idea. It is also illustrated that, function approximation techniques such as neural networks can contribute to the process of learning. The state-of-the-art implementations usually consider the maximization of expected value of accumulated reward. Extending these techniques to consider risk and solving some well-known control problems are important contributions of this thesis. Furthermore, the new nonlinear modeling for reservoir management using indicator functions and randomized policy introduced by Fletcher and Ponnambalam, is extended to stochastic releases in multi-reservoir systems. In this extension, two different approaches for defining the release policies are proposed. In addition, the main restriction of considering the normal distribution for inflow is relaxed by using a beta-equivalent general distribution. A five-reservoir case study from India is used to demonstrate the benefits of these new developments. Using a warehouse management problem as an example, application of the proposed method to other storage management problems is outlined.


OBJECTIVES: Alcoholic hepatitis (AH) develops in approximately 30% of chronic heavy drinkers. The immune system of patients with AH is hyperactivated, yet ineffective against infectious diseases. Mucosal-associated invariant T (MAIT) cells are innate-like lymphocytes that are highly enriched in liver, mucosa, and peripheral blood and contribute to antimicrobial immunity. We aimed to determine whether MAIT cells were dysregulated in heavy drinkers with and without AH and the effects of alcohol abstinence on MAIT cell recovery. METHODS: MR1 tetramers loaded with a potent MAIT cell ligand 5-(2-oxopropylideneamino)-6-d-ribitylaminouracil were used in multiparameter flow cytometry to analyze peripheral blood MAIT cells in 59 healthy controls (HC), 56 patients with AH, and 45 heavy drinkers without overt liver disease (HDC) at baseline and 6- and 12-month follow-ups. Multiplex immunoassays were used to quantify plasma levels of cytokines related to MAIT cell activation. Kinetic Turbidimetric Limulus Amebocyte Lysate Assay and ELISA were performed to measure circulating levels of 2 surrogate markers for bacterial translocation (lipopolysaccharide and CD14), respectively. RESULTS: At baseline, patients with AH had a significantly lower frequency of MAIT cells than HDC and HC. HDC also had less MAIT cells than HC (median 0.16% in AH, 0.56% in HDC, and 1.25% in HC). Further, the residual MAIT cells in patients with AH expressed higher levels of activation markers (CD69, CD38, and human leukocyte antigen [HLA]-DR), the effector molecule granzyme B, and the immune exhaustion molecule PD-1. Plasma levels of lipopolysaccharide and CD14 and several cytokines related to MAIT cell activation were elevated in patients with AH (interferon [IFN]-α, interleukin [IL]-7, IL-15, IL-17, IL-18, IL-23, IFN-γ, and tumor necrosis factor α). Decreased MAIT cell frequency and upregulated CD38, CD69, and HLA-DR correlated negatively and positively, respectively, with aspartate aminotransferase level. MAIT cell frequency negatively correlated with IL-18. HLA-DR and CD38 levels correlated with several cytokines. At follow-ups, abstinent patients with AH had increased MAIT cell frequency and decreased MAIT cell activation. However, MAIT cell frequency was not fully normalized in patients with AH (median 0.31%). DISCUSSION: We showed that HDC had a reduction of blood MAIT cells despite showing little evidence of immune activation, whereas patients with AH had a severe depletion of blood MAIT cells and the residual cells were highly activated. Alcohol abstinence partially reversed those abnormalities.


With explosive growth of Android malware and due to the severity of its damages to smart phone users, the detection of Android malware has become increasingly important in cybersecurity. The increasing sophistication of Android malware calls for new defensive techniques that are capable against novel threats and harder to evade. In this paper, to detect Android malware, instead of using Application Programming Interface (API) calls only, we further analyze the different relationships between them and create higher-level semantics which require more effort for attackers to evade the detection. We represent the Android applications (apps), related APIs, and their rich relationships as a structured heterogeneous information network (HIN). Then we use a meta-path based approach to characterize the semantic relatedness of apps and APIs. We use each meta-path to formulate a similarity measure over Android apps, and aggregate different similarities using multi-kernel learning. Then each meta-path is automatically weighted by the learning algorithm to make predictions. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work to use structured HIN for Android malware detection. Comprehensive experiments on real sample collections from Comodo Cloud Security Center are conducted to compare various malware detection approaches. Promising experimental results demonstrate that our developed system HinDroid outperforms other alternative Android malware detection techniques.


Three kinds of results have been described in this paper. Firstly, an experimental study of the Rossby vortex meridional drift on the rotating shallow water has been carried out. Owing to the stringent physical analogy between the Rossby vortices and drift vortices in the magnetized plasma, the results obtained have allowed one to make a conclusion that the transport rate of the plasma, trapped by the drift vortices, across the magnetic field is equivalent to the "gyro-Bohm" diffusion coefficient. Secondly, a model of big vortices of the type of the Great Red Spot of Jupiter, dominating in the atmospheres of the outer planets, has been produced. Thirdly, the rotating shallow water modeling has been carried out of the hydrodynamical generation mechanism of spiral structures in galaxies. Trailing spiral waves of various azimuthal modes, generated by a shear flow between fast rotating "nucleus" and slow rotating periphery, were produced. The spirals are similar to those existing in the real galaxies. The hydrodynamical concept of the spiral structure formation in galaxies has been substantiated. Strong anticyclonic vortices between the spiral arms of the structures under study have been discovered for the first time. The existence of analogous vortices in real galaxies has been predicted. (This prediction has been reliably confirmed recently in special astronomical observations, carried out on the basis of the mentioned laboratory modeling and the prediction made – see the paper by A. Fridman et al. (Astrophysics and Space Science, 1997, 252, 115.)


The Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) in developing countries is generally badly controlled and badly managed. Because of the environmental problems bound to this problem, many countries established their national legislation to determine types of reuse, recycling and treatment of waste, to apply the appropriate solutions. In this study, alternate schemes are examined and analysed aiming at the improvement of MSW management in Morocco. These schemes are estimated by developing and applying the Preference Ranking Organisation Method for Enrichment Evaluation (PROMETHEE) method consisting in a multi-criteria analysis of the parameters and the constraints bound to the financial, technical, environmental and social aspects. Thus, 18 alternate management schemes were compared and ranked according to their performance and their efficiency. The obtained results will certainly help the Decision- Makers (DMs) to make a decision for the best waste management scheme, which hold in account particularities of every region, commune or municipality in Morocco.


Phosphorus (P) is 2 most important macronutrient for the growth of plants. The soils of Pakistan are alkaline and calcareous in nature which causes precipitation of P and making it less available to the plants. To overcome this issue, excessive P fertilization is used, some part of fertilizer is used by plants while remaining is either fixed as unavailable form or lost due to runoff. So deficiency of P affects the plant growth while runoff of excess fertilizer may result in eutrophication of our aquatic systems. Use of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) may be an appropriate method to enhance the P uptake efficiency of plants and reduce the use of P fertilizers. Plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) are also well known for solubilization of P. Therefore, a pot experiment was conducted in 2019 at Research Farm of Institute of Soil and Environmental Sciences, University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Pakistan to check the efficiency of compost, PGPR and AMF to enhance availability of P in onion. The impact of PGPR and AMF were evaluated separately and in combination. At harvest, data regarding plant fresh and dry weight, onion bulb circumference, bulb fresh and dry weight, chlorophyll a and b, carotenoids, and P concentration in plants were analyzed. Results showed that combined inoculation of endomycorrhizae and rhizobacteria improved plant fresh and dry weight, onion bulb circumference, bulb fresh and dry weight, chlorophyll a and b, carotenoids. Overall, integrated application of endomycorrhizae and rhizobacteria enhanced P uptake by 77% as compared to control treatment.


Diabetes control is poor in children in the UK compared with most European countries; only 17% of children achieve HbA1c levels below the target value of 7.5%.1 Historically, we have tended to use insulin regimens requiring twice-daily injections (before breakfast and before the evening meal), meaning that children did not generally require an insulin injection or blood glucose check during the school day. However, the majority of large centres in this country and most in Europe are now using multiple injection therapy (MIT) and continuous subcutaneous insulin infusions (insulin pumps) which are more physiological and have the potential of improving glycaemic control when used intensively. Both require much greater input throughout the day as insulin is required at every meal-time, and, in order to improve control further, the dose of insulin must be related to the carbohydrate content of the meal and to the prevailing blood glucose level.

Diabetes management during the day has thus become far more complex. Parents have learned the new skills well, particularly when these regimens are started from diagnosis, but there are often huge obstacles to setting appropriate support in place in schools. For children over the age of about 10–11 years, who are largely able to carry out their own injections reliably, schools will still have minimal input in most cases. The greater problem comes when doctors and parents wish to use these regimens in children who are too young to perform their own injections and blood glucose testing, even under supervision. So how should we move forward? Do children have the right to help in school or should we adjust the daily regimens so that insulin injections are not required at school?

The landmark Diabetes Control and Complications Trial showed beyond doubt that intensive insulin regimens (and this trial was carried out …


The possibility of translation depends on prior notions of a distinction between languages. The notion of a language and its distinction from another language is often taken for granted in the task of translation. Languages are generally distinguished based upon their syntax and membership in linguistic families. However, what makes a system of communication and expression a language or a dialect is far more than the linguistic and syntactic factors alone. We argue that the notion of translation is already present in any notion of language and look at transliteration and creation of languages as illustrations. As an example, we will look at Kannada and its relationship to Sanskrit. When a language like Kannada has borrowed a considerable amount of its lexicon from Sanskrit, how and why should we distinguish between the two languages? What are the implications of such a distinction for the activity of translation?


Amine functionalised and consequently cationic linear polymers, Newkome-type dendrons and PAMAM dendrimers can efficiently form electrostatic complexes with negatively charged cowpea chlorotic mottle viruses (CCMVs). The complexes have been characterised by dynamic light scattering (DLS), gel electrophoresis, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), which describe in detail how the size and structure topology of the polyamine controls the complex formation with the virus. DLS results show that the complexes are approximately 1–2 µm in diameter, and their size can be tuned with the charge valency of the polymer and the ionic concentration of the media. TEM images and SAXS measurements demonstrate that individual virus particles can adopt hexagonal close packing within the complex and the observed distance between lattice points (27.9 nm) corresponds to the diameter of the native virus, which is 28 nm. Also the empty viral capsids and capsids loaded with Prussian blue nanoparticles can be assembled, which suggests that by controlling the assembly of the virus, it is possible to control the assembly of any material that is held inside the virus.


Water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) is one of the fastest growing aquatic weed known to man. They are free-floating perennial aquatic plants with broad, thick, glossy, ovate leaves with long, spongy and bulbous stalks. The feathery, freely hanging roots are purple-black. In India, water hyacinth is largely found in the Kerala Backwaters. But, this natural beauty can be quite deceiving. It chokes waterways, blocks sunlight from reaching native aquatic plants, starves the water of oxygen, killing fish (or turtles) and is a habitat for disease causing vectors. Attempts to curb its fast spread have proved to be futile. However this deleterious weed is a potential source of biomass to produce biogas, which is an eco-friendly biofuel. In this study, primary sludge, obtained from sewage treatment plant was used as inoculum at mesophilic conditions. A series of laboratory experiments using 0.25l bio-digesters were performed in batch operation mode and modified Gompertz equation was fitted. The kinetic parameters, biogas yield potential (P), the maximum biogas production rate (Rm) and the duration of lag phase (λ) were estimated in each case. The results show that Primary Sludge Inoculum (PSI) improved biogas yield significantly and nearly two times when compared to water hyacinth substrate without PSI.


An understanding of first-order pressure-induced structural transitions is relevant to many research areas in geological and planetary sciences because it involves the study of materials exposed to high pressures. For example, solid-solid transitions in silicates are responsible for the seismic discontinuities in the earth's mantle (Chudinovskikh and Boehler 2001) and may play a role in plate tectonics and deep earthquakes (Kirby et al. 1991). In geological applications, models of structural transition kinetics simulate rock formation taking place over millions of years (Shekar and Rajan 2001). Despite their importance in earth science applications, the microscopic processes of solid-solid phase transitions are difficult to study in the bulk solid for several reasons (Putnis 1992). In extended solids, the transformation nucleates at defects, which are present at equilibrium even in the highest quality crystals. As a transformed region of the crystal grows larger, mechanical forces generate new defects, which in turn act as new nucleation sites. The difficulties in bulk are compounded by the irreversibility of the kinetics, which depends strongly on the preparation of the sample and its history. The study of first-order phase transitions can be greatly simplified in nanocrystal systems because small crystals can behave as single structural domains and reproducibly cycle through multiple transitions (Wickham et al. 2000). To illustrate the advantages of the simple kinetics in nanoscale systems in exploring fundamental questions of structural phase transitions, this chapter focuses on the CdSe nanocrystal system. Nanocrystalline solid-solid transitions in geologically relevant material such as Fe2O3 nanocrystals are also now being studied (Rockenberger et al. 1999), and a comparable understanding of these materials is a current research goal.

The CdSe nanocrystals are a particularly well-controlled and characterized test system (Tolbert et al. 1995). The nanocrystals consist of hundreds to thousands of covalently bonded atoms, synthesized as nearly …


"People in America don't realized how funny I can be. When I was in China, I was known as quick-witted. I was always the first to make a funny joke about an ironic situation. Now, when these situations arise, I am trying to translate from Chinese to English what might be funny, but by the time, I do this, someone else has already made the witty joke. People around me here don't think I have a sense of humor. I feel I have lost a part of me when I moved here." Abstract The most significant challenge for the minority immigrant is learning a new language. They arrive in a new culture and community hoping to master English quickly in order to achieve their academic and career goals. However, many immigrants have mentioned general barriers resulting from being unable to communicate with peers outside their cultural and linguistic group. Recent research has identified several cognitive variables such as vocabulary, reading aloud, and grammatical judgment related to second-language learning in immigrants; however, little attention was given to sociocultural factors such as acculturation, motivation, and cultural learning because learning a language is a necessary aspect of being socialized into a particular culture. This chapter reviews research of sociocultural models in relation to second-language learning of immigrant youth in Canada. We address this paradigm for research by incorporating both acculturation and sociolinguistic approaches, as well as more traditional cognitive-linguistic approaches, to models of second-language learning in immigrants.


Context: Neonatal severe primary hyperparathyroidism (NSPHPT) is an extremely rare autosomal recessive disorder, requiring a high index of suspicion. Infants affected with this disorder present with severe life-threatening hypercalcemia early in life, requiring adequate preoperative medical management followed by surgery. Aims: We report four newborns with NSPHPT who were managed over 10 years. Subjects and Methods: Demography, clinical presentation, treatment, and follow-up data were retrospectively studied with descriptive analysis to highlight the utility of long-term medical management, surgery, and genetic testing reported in the literature. Statistical Analysis Used: Descriptive Analysis. Results: We had three males and one female infant with a mean age of diagnosis at 28.7 days, calcium 29.2+/-2.8 mg/dL, and parathormone (PTH) 1963+/-270.4 pg/mL. All four infants presented with failure to thrive, hypotonia, and respiratory distress. All infants were treated medically followed by total parathyroidectomy plus transcervical thymectomy, with an additional hemithyroidectomy in one of them. Imaging was negative in all four cases. Three babies became hypocalcemic while the fourth infant had a drop in PTH and is on the tab. cinacalcet 30 mg/day. CaSR mutation was positive in three infants. Conclusions: Diagnosing NSPHPT needs expert clinical acumen. It requires emergency medical management to control calcium levels. The crisis may present later, necessitating parathyroidectomy in these cases once the child is fit for surgery. Surgery offers a cure for this unusual lethal hypercalcemia while the role of cinacalcet needs a special mention. Sound knowledge in endocrinology with parathyroid embryology and morphology is of paramount importance. Our case series might add a few insights into managing this unusual genetic disorder.


In this paper, we investigate the effectiveness of multiprocessor architectures with ISA-different cores for executing HPC workloads. Our envisioned design point in the heterogeneous architecture space is one with multiple cache-coherency domains, with each domain hosting cores of a different ISA and no coherency between domains. We prototype such an architecture using an Intel Xeon x86-64 server and a Cavium ThunderX ARMv8 server, interconnected using a high-speed network fabric. We design, implement, and evaluate policies for scheduling HPC applications with the goal of maximizing workload makespan. Our results reveal that such an architecture is most effective for workloads that exhibit diverse execution times on ISA-different CPUs, with gains exceeding 60% over ISA-homogeneous architectures. Furthermore, cross-ISA execution migration can yield gains up to 38%. CCS Concepts • Computer systems organization → Heterogeneous (hybrid) systems;


Five parkinsonian patients were transplanted bilaterally into the putamen and caudate nucleus with human embryonic mesencephalic tissue from between seven and nine donors. To increase graft survival, the lipid peroxidation inhibitor tirilazad mesylate was administered to the tissue before implantation and intravenously to the patients for 3 days thereafter. During the second postoperative year, the mean daily L-dopa dose was reduced by 54% and the UPDRS (Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale) motor score in 'off' phase was reduced by a mean of 40%. At 10-23 months after grafting, PET showed a mean 61% increase of 6-L-[(18)F]fluorodopa uptake in the putamen, and 24% increase in the caudate nucleus, compared with preoperative values. No obvious differences in the pattern of motor recovery were observed between these and other previously studied cases with putamen grafts alone. The amount of mesencephalic tissue implanted in each putamen and caudate nucleus was 42 and 50% lower, respectively, compared with previously transplanted patients from our centre. Despite this reduction in grafted tissue, the magnitudes of symptomatic relief and graft survival were very similar. These findings suggest that tirilazad mesylate may improve survival of grafted dopamine neurons in patients, which is in agreement with observations in experimental animals.


Hyperconcentrated flows and mud flows exhibit properties quite dissimilar from Newtonian fluids. In order to further our understanding of such phenomena, field data have been collected both nationally and internationally in recent years. It is the purpose of this paper to describe field data collection and analysis that should be conducted to further our understanding of these type of flow phenomena. Rheological data can be input to numerical mud flow models which can be used to simulate mud flows and enhance prediction and hazard delineation. This paper is part of an ongoing investigation by the ASCE Task Committee on Laboratory and Field Sediment Data Accuracy and Availability.


Non-strategic firms with rational expectations make investment and emissions decisions. The investment rule depends on firms' beliefs about future emissions policies. We compare emissions taxes and quotas when the (strategic) regulator and (nonstrategic) firms have asymmetric information about abatement costs, and all agents use Markov Perfect decision rules. Emissions taxes create a secondary distortion at the investment stage, unless a particular condition holds; emissions quotas do not create a secondary distortion. We solve a linear-quadratic model calibrated to represent the problem of controlling greenhouse gasses. The endogeneity of abatement capital favors taxes, and it increases abatement.


This qualitative study explores clients' readiness for coaching. A grounded theory methodology is adopted and framed within an interpretivist/constructivist paradigm. The research data is generated from eighteen semi-structured face-to-face interviews and nine email interviews involving coaches, coaching clients and enquirers about coaching. All research literature is treated as another form of data for testing and refining the emerging theory and therefore the literature review was delayed until the theory emerged. Clients' readiness for coaching emerges as a multi-layered and complex concept. The study discovered enabling and hindering factors affecting clients' readiness which are incorporated into six themes: Culture and Class, Knowledge about Coaching, Access to Coaching, Psychological Interpretations, Feeling Safe and Commitment to Change. The findings inform an emerging Coaching Client Readiness Model that describes clients' readiness and can be applied in practice for discussing readiness issues both with clients and with organisations.


The rise in international migration over the past decades and particularly the recent influx of refugees to the European Union has given more audience to the economic and political consequences of immigration. A major concern in the public debate is that immigrants could take jobs from natives, reduce their wages and negatively contribute to public finances. At the same time, the rise of right-wing populist movements has brought to light that the skepticism towards immigrants and refugees may not only be based only on economic but also on cultural considerations. This report is devoted to investigating these considerations by carefully relying on the existing evidence. We thus study the vast literature on the effects of immigration on the labor market and welfare system in host societies, as well as the more recent literature on the attitudinal and political consequences of immigration. The literature on the labor market impact of immigration indicates that immigration has a negligible average impact on the wages and employment of native workers. However, because adjustments take time, particularly when immigration is unexpected, the initial and longer run impacts of immigration can differ. The average impact of immigration on public finance is also negligible, sometimes slightly positive or slightly negative. We also document that immigration can have distributional consequences. In particular, the age and educational structure of immigrants plays an important role in determining their impact on the labor market and public finances. The fact that immigration is sometimes perceived as a factor depressing economic outcomes in host countries tends to affect native attitudes and electoral outcomes. In this regard, the literature first suggests that cultural concerns is the main driving force behind the skepticism towards immigration and that fiscal or labor market concerns only play a secondary role. Second, immigration tends to reduce the support for redistribution among native workers. Third, the effect of local level exposure to immigrants and refugees on native attitudes towards immigrants and extreme voting has been found to vary by context and can be positive or negative.


Spin-polarized attractive Fermi gases in one-dimensional (1D) optical lattices are expected to be remarkably good candidates for the observation of the Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) phase. We model these systems with an attractive Hubbard model with population imbalance. By means of the density-matrix renormalization-group method, we compute the pairing correlations as well as the static spin and charge structure factors in the whole range from weak to strong coupling. We demonstrate that pairing correlations exhibit quasi-long-range order and oscillations at the wave number expected from the FFLO theory. However, we also show by numerically computing the mixed spin-charge static structure factor that charge and spin degrees of freedom appear to be coupled already for a small imbalance. We discuss the consequences of this coupling for the observation of the FFLO phase, as well as for the stabilization of the quasi-long-range order into long-range order by coupling many identical 1D systems, such as in quasi-1D optical lattices.


ABSTRACT Apatite grains in heavy-mineral separates of samples from the Statfjord Formation (Triassic-Lower Jurassic, North Sea), exhibit variably corroded detrital cores and euhedral diagenetic overgrowths. In the overlying marine deposits of the Nansen Formation, apatite grains show no evidence of either corrosion or overgrowths. Compositions of detrital apatite in both formations are indistinguishable, indicating that the source areas responsible for Statfjord and Nansen deposition included similar apatite-bearing lithologies. Apatite corrosion in the Statfjord Formation is considered to be a response to leaching by acidic groundwaters during sediment storage on the fluvial floodplain. Any variations in the degree of corrosion that may have been generated by differences in floodplain residence time have been homogenized by sediment reworking. Laser-ablation microprobe inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry and wavelength-dispersive electron microprobe analysis indicate that the authigenic apatite contains high abundances (up to 3.5% total) of the rare earth elements (REE), implying a degree of REE mobilization during diagenesis. REE profiles (NASC normalized) for the authigenic apatites are convex-upwards with enrichment of the MREE. The REE are considered to have been derived from dissolution of other REE-bearing heavy minerals (e.g., garnet) during alluvial storage, with possible contributions from dissolved feldspars (which may account for slight positive Eu anomalies) and REEs adsorbed onto clay surfaces. REE mobilization was probably enhanced by fluoride and/or phosphate complexes, although organic complexing related to pedogenic processes is also a possibility. Through the Statfjord Formation, authigenic apatite displays subtle variations in major-element, minor-element, and trace-element chemistry, which may find application as a tool for diagenetic correlation.


The polyphase deformed Pan-African Kaoko belt, Namibia, which is part of the late Neoproterozoic mobile belt system of western Gondwana, consists of pre-Pan-African basement gneisses, Pan-African volcano-sedimentary cover sequences and large granitoid intrusions. The eastern part of the Kaoko belt comprises a nearly complete Barrovian sequence of medium to high temperature/medium pressure metapelitic rocks, which range in grade from greenschist- to upper amphibolite-facies conditions. From east to west, north-northwest to northwest trending subparallel garnet-, staurolite-, kyanite-, and kyanite-sillimanite-muscovite metamorphic zones can be distinguished, whereas the western Kaoko belt is dominated by a high temperature/low pressure Buchan-type metamorphism with sillimanite-K-feldspar- and garnet-cordierite-sillimanite-K-feldspar metamorphic zones. The two metamorphic terranes are tectonically separated by the Puros shear zone. The pressure-temperature path for each metamorphic zone was inferred by using observed mineral assemblages and reaction textures, a combination of various geothermobarometers and, in particular, pseudosections. Peak metamorphic conditions of the Barrovian and Buchan zones indicate peak pressure-temperature ratios of ~20°C/km and 50°C/km, respectively. The Barrovian-type terrane is probably linked to a fold-and-thrust belt, the Buchan-type terrane may be linked to a magmatic arc setting. Similarities between the Kaoko belt in northwest Namibia and the central Ribeira belt in South America might point to a common geological history.


This PhD thesis addresses two major issues:
1) Fabricating nanometer-scale patterns of functional materials,
2) Extending the applicability of soft lithographic processes to a wide range of functional materials on conventional silicon substrates and flexible plastic substrates.
This thesis describes novel soft lithographic processes, with which it is possible to fabricate sub-50 nanometer to micrometer length scale patterns of a wide range of functional materials, including metals, nanoparticles, organosilane molecules, nanowires, semiconducting materials and conducting polymers on silicon and flexible plastic substrates.
Chapter 2 describes the patterning of oxide materials in sub-50 nm scale to micrometer scale using transfer printing metal loaded water soluble polymers. The process is a simple and low cost approach to pattern a wide range of oxide materials on the sub -100 nanometer scale that have potential applications in the fabrication of device structures.
Chapter 3 introduces a method to pattern organosilane molecules on silicon substrates on the nanometer and micrometer scale. The process is a time-controlled approach which uses the phenomena of geometry dominated condensation of organosilane molecules from a vapor phase to generate high-resolution patterns. PDMS stamps of large dimensions can be used to fabricate patterns of much smaller dimensions.
Chapter 4 extends the application possibility of the process described in the previous chapter to pattern inorganic functional materials on the nanometer to micrometer scale. The chapter shows that the gas phase pattern deposition of organosilane molecules is fully controllable. Also self-assembled molecular thin films of mercaptosilane molecules were used as thin resists for the electrodeposition of metallic and semiconducting materials.
Chapter 5 further extends the application range of the process described in chapter 3. Sequential deposition of different organosilane molecules on silicon substrate is used to fabricate substrates with multiple chemical functionalities. Multifunctional multi-length scale surfaces have been realized on the micrometer and nanometer scale. The potential application of organosilane patterns as resists for atomic layer deposition (ALD) and as template for site-selective adsorption of nanoparticles has been demonstrated.
Chapter 6 describes a novel process to pattern octadecanethiol (ODT) SAMs on gold substrate by channel diffused plasma etching. The patterned SAMs were used as templates for electrodeposition, electroless deposition and solution phase deposition of a wide range of functional materials (Ni, Ag, ZnO, and ZnO nanowires) on the nanometer and micrometer scale.
Chapter 7 describes the potential application of channel diffused plasma surface modification of plastic substrates like polycarbonate (PC), PDMS and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) to create a hydrophilic-hydrophobic contrast on these surfaces. After surface modification, subsequent material deposition processes such as electroless deposition, solution phase deposition, site selective de-wetting and site selective adsorption were used to obtain patterns of functional materials such as ZnO, ZnO nanowires, Ag , TiO2, conducting polymer (PEDOT:PSS) and Ag nanoparticles
Chapter 8 describes a novel process of electrodeposition in capillaries. The process enables bottomup micro and nano patterning of metallic and semiconducting materials by electrodeposition of an electrolyte solution inside PDMS capillaries in contact with a substrate.
The thesis closes with conclusions and outlook in chapter 9.


Nanoparticles can be thought as tailorable building blocks for fabricating new materials with on-demand, tunable properties–for example by assembling them in a controlled way. The final properties of the material will depend on the mesoscale architecture of the assembly as well as on the characteristics of the nanoparticles. I will review existing approaches and some of our laboratory's efforts for designing and realizing engineered nanoparticle architectures ("engineering nanoparticles"), as well as for utilizing them to fabricate new materials for applications in photovoltaics and biomedical-related fields ("engineering 'with' nanoparticles").


"Evidence suggests a hormone peptide named adropin, is involved in lipid metabolism, insulin resistance, and obesity. However, its role in pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is still unclear in humans. Therefore, we investigated whether adropin levels are altered in T2DM patients, and evaluated its association with diabetes- related parameters. Men with T2DM (n=40) and age-matched healthy men (n=40) were participated in case-control study. Serum adropin levels were determined by ELISA. Adropin levels were found to be significantly (p=0.004) higher in T2DM patients (median=2.5ng/ml; interquartile range=1.28ng/ml) compared to healthy controls (Median=1.9ng/ml; interquartile range =0.6ng/ml). Adropin was inversely correlated with FBG (Spearman's rho= -0.335; p=0.017) in T2DM patients and was also negatively correlated with HOMA-IR (Spearman's rho= -0.391; p=0.024). Adropin i'³ 2.25 ng/ml was the best cut-off point to differentiate T2DM patients from healthy controls (sensitivity= 57.5%; specificity= 82.5%; positive predictive value=76.67%; negative predictive value=66%). We showed that T2DM patients have higher adropin levels, and serum level of adropin is inversely associated with insulin resistance; therefore indicating a close association between adropin and T2DM. However, further studies are necessary to establish the role of adropin in diabetes."


We have found a significant relation, rp = rs(rs − cos2ϕ)/(1 − rs cos2ϕ), between Fresnel's interface complex-amplitude reflection coefficients rp and rs for the parallel (p) and perpendicular (s) polarizations at the same angle of incidence ϕ. This relation is universal in that it applies to reflection at all interfaces between homogeneous isotropic media collectively and, of course, throughout the electromagnetic spectrum. We investigate the properties of this function, rp = f(rs), and its inverse, rs = g(rp) conformal mappings between the complex planes of rs and rp. A related function, ρ = (rs − cos2ϕ)/(1 − rs cos2ϕ), which is a bilinear transformation, is also studied, where ρ = rp/rs is the (ellipsometric) ratio of reflection coefficients. Several previously described reflection characteristics come out readily as specific results of this work. Simple explicit analytical and graphical solutions are provided to determine reflection phase shifts and the dielectric function from measured p and s reflectances at the same angle of incidence. We also show that when rp is real, negative, and in the range −1 ≤ rp ≤ −tan2(ϕ − 45°), rs is complex and its locus in the complex plane is an arc of a circle with center on the real axis at sec2ϕ and radius of | tan2ϕ |. Under these conditions, we also find the interesting result that |rs| = |rp|1/2.


Objective To measure self-reported inpatient experience in Hong Kong. Design Data were derived from the 2005 Thematic Household Survey. Setting and participants 24 364 non-institutional and 3390 institutionalised respondents aged at least 18 years systematically drawn to represent the Hong Kong adult population, 6.9% of whom were admitted at least once as an inpatient during the previous 12 months. Data from this group was analysed. Main outcome measure Picker Patient Experience Questionnaire-15. Results Overall, respondents scored their last inpatient episode 39.6 (range=0–100, the lower the score, the better the patient experience). Patients who sought care from private hospitals reported a lower Picker Patient Experience Questionnaire-15 score than those cared for in public facilities (31.1 vs 41.8 respectively, p<0.001). We observed substantial differences between public hospital geographic clusters that were confirmed by multivariable regression. When benchmarked against the UK, Germany and the USA, Hong Kong patients tended to report a significantly higher number of problems. Conclusions We found systematic differences between the level of satisfaction and type of problems reported by Hong Kong Chinese compared to those in Euro-American settings. The observed heterogeneities among different public hospitals, between the private and public sectors, and among subgroups of inpatients should provide an evidence based on which quality improvement initiatives can be designed and evaluated.


Problem statement: Sociability is one of the crucial concepts in multifunctional urban spaces to establish appropriate social relations among people. One of the basic human needs is to communicate with others. Meeting social needs of a person and the occurrence of social relationships requires a defined place and space which can establish a set of social and cultural relationships among different groups of people in a particular place. It is essential to pay attention to the social dimension of space in buildings and to find the link between spatial qualities and social concepts, including socialization, in the success of these spaces. Bazaars have been among the community spaces with high social cohesion potential in urban society, so that the life of city and Bazaar have always been interconnected, and in many cases, cities gain meaning and notion by Bazaars. Today, due to the change in the structure of urban space and patterns of people's lives, the impact of people's lives and the lack of proper adaptation to the traditional physical environment, Bazaar is at the risk of becoming a museum-Bazaar place, paying no attention to the physical and functional aspects. Research objective: The purpose of this study is to measure the level of socialization in the market, recognizing its social context and factors affecting its social quality, by analyzing the structure, coherence, market cohesion and prioritizing physical-functional aspects. Attention to the social quality of Bazaar and the restoration of social life in it requires the recognition of its social context and effective factors. Research method: The research method in this article is descriptive-analytical and uses UCL Depth Map software and Space Syntax's Technique in order to measure the degree of Bazar socialization, understanding its social context and factors affecting the social quality of the Bazar, by analyzing structure, integration, Bazar solidarity, and prioritizing physical-functional aspects. Conclusion: The results show that the spatial values of Space Syntax in different parts are fundamentally different so that the structure and social cohesion of Bazaar have significantly been reduced and the measure of the interconnectedness of the newly constructed streets has increased. As a result, the necessity of paying attention to the changes and consequences of urban development is evident from the physical and functional aspects to enhance the Bazaar's social characteristics.


CONTEXT
Educating healthcare practitioners to understand, critically evaluate, and apply evidence to the clinical practice of complementary and alternative medicine has been an important initiative for the National Institutes of Health National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine.

OBJECTIVE
To determine the self-assessed research skills and interest of faculty at Pacific College of Oriental Medicine (New York campus) and their likely support of, and participatory interest in, an evidence-based medicine (EBM) training program.

DESIGN
The survey was administered in Survey Monkey. All questions were close-ended with 5-point Likert answers, except for one open-ended question at the end of the survey.

SETTING
One of three campuses of Pacific College of Oriental Medicine (PCOM), the largest Chinese medicine college in the United States.

PARTICIPANTS
102 faculty employed at PCOM.

RESULTS
The response rate was 88.7%. Responses illustrated a generally high degree of interest and support for research, EBM, and institutional participation in research activities. Faculty who responded to the open-ended question (19.6% of respondents) expressed concerns about the relevance of research to Chinese medicine and the possibility of co-option by biomedicine.

CONCLUSIONS
While faculty were overall supportive and interested in research and EBM, the results are consistent with the hypothesis that success of EBM training programs could be enhanced by soliciting and addressing faculty concerns and by being inclusive of approaches that honor the traditions of Chinese medicine and its own forms of clinical evidence.


During recent decades, there has been a trend among biblical scholars towards applying methods borrowed from literary studies to the familiar texts of the Old and New Testaments. A major reason for this reorientation is the search for a meaningful and interpretable text; hence, it can be seen as a protest against the historical-critical school and its ambition to reconstruct an authentic text by means of a diachronic analysis. Synchronic scholars argue for a new understanding of the biblical text, claiming that the object of interpretation is the text in its present form, regarded as a literary production. Consequently, they can study texts that are commonly considered to be patchworks or conglomerations as meaningful literary works regardless of their pre-history or authorship. In this thesis I do not focus on studies that concern individual narratives or poems but on those that apply a synchronic approach to large units of texts such as books or collections of books. My example is the book of Judges, and the fundamental issue is whether the synchronists' description of its structure and of the relationship between the individual narratives and the larger text is sustainable. Through analyses of the book's introduction and the stories about Ehud, Deborah, Jephthah and Samson, I argue that the scholars under consideration are often compelled to form interpretations that are in conflict with a "natural" or "intuitive" reading. I hence claim that they are not reading these stories in accordance with the conventions that are generally applied to narratives. The arguments in which they refer to implicit devices, allusions and the structure of the larger text are assessed as unconvincing.I argue that that these scholars make two common theoretical mistakes. Firstly, they do not consider the specific restrictions that apply to "the literary point of view". Secondly, they disregard the fact that narratives are autonomous and hence resistant to reworking. If several independent narratives are put together, they are not thereby transformed into a larger single narrative even though they may contain common patterns and motifs. Hence, the individual story represents the primary level of meaning and discrete elements are understood as motifs within aliterary construction. The stories of the book of Judges are therefore texts within a text. This explains why the book lacks a coherent ideology or morality. The tensions and ambiguities in the book cannot be resolved by classifying it as a literary production and studying it synchronically: on the contrary, doing this confirms and explains the difficulties in the book – that is, the inconsistent character of both the book and its narratives and the bizarre events that are recounted therein – and its polyphonic character.


Parylenes are used for a wide range of applications in microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) devices. However, their poor adhesion in a harsh liquid environment can limit the fabrication processes of complex MEMS and bioMEMS devices. Potassium hydroxide (KOH) wet etching is particularly challenging and was used to evaluate the adhesion of Parylene C on silicon, silicon nitride, and silicon dioxide substrates. Using a number of characterization procedures, this paper shows that the delamination is the result of liquid penetrating both at the Parylene-substrate interface and through the polymer layer. The combination of an adhesion promoter and a thermal treatment improves the adhesion of the layer. The treatment is evaluated in two case studies, where the Parylene is used as: 1) a biocompatible coating, and 2) as a mask to block the entrance of a microfluidics channel. In the first case, it is shown that the treatments, including the KOH exposure, do not influence the growth and proliferation of SaOS-2 cells, as compared to a generic Parylene layer. In the second case, the results show that Parylene can be used efficiently to block the entrance of the channel, and that it can be removed afterward.


Performance assessment and authentic assessment are recurrent terms in the literature on education and educational research. They have both been given a number of different meanings and unclear definitions and are in some publications not defined at all. Such uncertainty of meaning causes difficulties in interpretation and communication and can cause clouded or misleading research conclusions. This paper reviews the meanings attached to these concepts in the literature and describes the similarities and wide range of differences between the meanings of each concept.


Objective Stillbirth remains amongst the most challenging areas in obstetric practise. In Ireland, consultant obstetricians are ultimately responsible for care provided to mothers following stillbirth. This study explores the impact of stillbirth on consultants working in an Irish tertiary maternity hospital (9,000 births per annum) where the stillbirth rate is 4.6/1000. Study design Semi-structured qualitative interviews lasting 30–60 minutes were conducted in 2012 with a sample of 8 consultant obstetricians and gynaecologists. The study explored how consultants care for parents following stillbirth and the impact of stillbirth on them personally and professionally. The data were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Results Stillbirth was identified as one of the most difficult experiences for most consultants. Most consultants described it as amongst 'the most devastating news'. Two felt stillbirth was not the worst outcome. The human response and the weight of responsibility were the dominant personal and professional themes. All felt that bereaved parents should receive direct care from a consultant. The possibility of a medico-legal challenge was a significant factor-mostly for those who are primarily gynaecologists resulting in the question "what have I missed?". The personal impact of stillbirth is considerable: most participants were emotional during interview. Conclusion Despite the impact and importance of stillbirth care, none of the obstetricians received any formal training in perinatal bereavement care. This study highlights a gap in training and the impact of stillbirth on obstetricians professionally and personally. Medico-legal concerns following stillbirth potentially impact on the depth of care and warrants further research.


"Social enterprise" is an umbrella term that covers a broad range of organisations, which differ to a greater or lesser extent in their visibility, scope and dissemination, in the various countries, but which share the explicit pursuit of social objectives, in the world of business and in an on-going manner, by directly producing goods and services that benefit disadvantaged persons and the community at large. The aim of this paper is to investigate one of the first, if not the very first, social enterprise in Europe, the Italian social co-operative. It begins with a survey of the economic and social environment of the 1970s giving rise to this form of co-operative. The paper then outlines its original features and the legislation adopted to regulate it: social co-operatives, in fact, were not part of the tradition of the co-operative movement and, therefore, were not recognised by the Italian law. This is followed by a statistical analysis, beginning with the first survey carried out to monitor this phenomenon and ending with the more recent statistical data. Finally, an overview is provided of the social enterprises launched in the major European countries and based on the Italian "prototype". ABSTRACT


The objectives of this study are to evaluate the validity and reliability of contingent valuation method (CVM) and the validity of transferring contingent valuation estimates from a developing to a least developing country. To evaluate the impact of additional information on the willingness to pay (WTP) of the respondents, different sub samples were presented with contingent valuation scenarios offering different levels of information. One sub-sample was given the cause of ill health episodes and the policy to be implemented to remedy the cause of the ill health episodes (context version). Another sub sample was asked to value the avoidance of episodes of ill health, but was not given any details of the cause of the episodes nor the policy that would be implemented to remedy the cause of ill health episodes (non-context version).

The study has found that the CVM estimates are internally valid in both context and non-context versions since the WTP values of the respondents to avoid the ill-health episodes due to air pollution increase with the increase in some socio-economic and health variables such as income, education, asthma attack and duration of ill health episodes. The study also found that the inclusion of additional information in the presentation of scenarios in contingent valuation exercises significantly influenced the WTP values of the respondents to avoid the ill-health episodes. The average mean value of WTP of the respondents for the context version was higher than that of the non-context version i.e. RM154 for the context version and RM134 for the non-context version. After this survey, a similar non-context survey was conducted in Bangladesh and the validity of transferring WTP estimates was evaluated. The results of the study suggested that on average the mean WTP values of the respondents were US$39.59 for Malaysia and US$5.64 for Bangladesh to avoid the ill-health episodes due to air pollution. This could be explained by high income and education and stronger sensitivity to environmental problems in Malaysia. The respondents in Malaysia were willing to share 9.96 percent of their income whilst in Bangladesh the respondents were willing to share 7.17 percent of their income. The respondents with higher income were willing to pay higher share of their income than the respondents with lower income. To evaluate the validity of different approaches of benefit transfer method, several hypotheses were tested by parametric and non-parametric tests. The results of this study suggested that it was not valid to transfer the WTP estimates to avoid the ill health episodes from a developing country, Malaysia to a least developing country, Bangladesh both in terms of unit value transfer and value function transfer because of distinctive socio-economic backgrounds.

The study also evaluated the validity and reliability of contingent valuation method. This was done through split and paired sample surveys using three different question formats i.e. open ended (OE), dichotomous choice (DC) and payment card (PC). The split sample was used for external scope test and the paired sample was used for internal scope test. The results of the study suggested that the WTP values of the respondents do not differ across different question formats i.e. 10.84 Sen for OE, 14.50 Sen for DC and 13.33 Sen for PC. Results of the study suggested that the WTP values of the respondents using the DC format were the highest. In the external scope test, there was significant difference between the mean WTP values for level A (i.e. 10 percent reduction in the concentration of PM10) and level B (i.e. 20 percent reduction in the concentration of PM10) between the samples. This means that the split sample passed the external scope test. On the other hand, the results of the internal scope test indicated that there was no significant difference between the mean WTP values for level A and level B between the samples. Hence the paired sample did not pass the scope test. The aggregate WTP values of the respondents was RM0.91 billion for level A air quality improvement and RM1.16 billion for level B air quality improvement in Klang Valley.

The study has great implication for the application of contingent valuation method and benefit transfer method. Since, WTP to avoid the ill health episodes cannot be shown to be independent of the context in which it is valued, the validity of transferring benefits of avoided ill health episodes from one country to another must be called into question and the results of the study will not allow decision makers to apply the estimated values for the avoidance of ill health episodes in the consideration of policies with very different context. This has also great implications to works done by international organizations who intend to transfer benefit estimates from one country to another country. The results of the study indicated that there is no significant difference between the mean values of WTP for different question formats. However due to the nature of the question format, the mean WTP values using the DC method would normally be higher than those of OE and PC. Although the DC method has some limitations, this study recommends using the DC method to be used in contingent valuation survey in developing country because it is relatively easier for the respondents to answer. This study also indicates that since the split sample method has passed the scope test, it would be a recommended approach for CVM survey. Since the results of paired samples did not pass the scope test, the survey method should be taken into caution and if possible should be avoided to reduce sampling bias. Finally, the approach used and results presented in this study would be useful for efficient formulation of policies on air quality management in Malaysia.


The 1300-km-long California coast receives output from watersheds that range from ∼10 km 2 within the coastal mountain ranges to ∼120 000 km 2 for the drainage basins of the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers. Results from a combination of field and remote-sensing data, modeling, and digital techniques show that during the El Nino winter of 1998, the impact of sediment and water transport on nearshore waters from coastal watersheds was spatially extensive, varied with depth, and was comparable to the impact of output from large rivers. The mass of sediment estimated from SeaWiFS data for 25 discrete and coalesced buoyant river plumes emanating from 110 watersheds was 2.2 × 10 6 t. Although the mass of all of the plumes represents only 1%–2% of the total sediment output from the rivers, the plumes covered an area of 29 500 km 2 of coastal waters. An important cautionary note is that the surface plumes visible in the remote-sensing data (even though nearly coincident with flooding) do not represent mass output from the rivers.


SUMMARY: Some hypotheses are considered which describe the aetiology of a fatal infection in a partially resistant host; i.e. a host which does not invariably die after inoculation with one bacterium. The hypothesis of independent action postulates that the mean probability per inoculated bacterium of multiplying to cause (or help to cause) a fatal infection is independent of the number of bacteria inoculated and, for a partially resistant host, is less than unity (1>p>0). It predicts: (1) that the slope, b, of the probit-mortality/log-dose curve will be 2·0 or less at the LD 50 point; (2) that, while hosts dying after inoculation with many LD50 die as a result of the multiplication of many of the inoculated bacteria, most of those dying from 1 LD50 or less do so following the multiplication of only one of the inoculated bacteria, regardless of the total number of bacteria inoculated. When a mixture of several equally virulent, distinguishable variants of a given pathogen are inoculated, fatal infections caused by the growth of one bacterium should result in the predominance of only one variant at post mortem. The hypotheses of maximum and of partial synergism postulate that inoculated bacteria co-operate so that the value of p increases as the size of the dose increases. They predict: (1) that the slope of the dose-response curve may be more than 2·0 at the LD50 point; (2) that all observed fatal infections will be initiated by more than one bacterium and that consequently the inoculation of a mixed inoculum will lead to the predominance of several variants at post mortem.
Variants of Salmonella paratyphi-B which carried one of the three flagellar antigens, b, i, or e, h, were prepared by transduction. Variants of S. typhimurium which either fermented or did not ferment xylose were also prepared. In each case, the variants did not differ detectably in growth rate in vivo, or in virulence. The value of b was 1·8 for mice inoculated with S. paratyphi-B by intraperitoneal injection (LD50 = 7·7 × 106 organisms). As predicted by the hypothesis of independent action, the relative frequencies of the variants in samples of heart blood obtained post mortem varied greatly from mouse to mouse when the dose was 1 LD50 or less, and became progressively more uniform (and similar to the inoculum) as the size of the dose increased. The value of b was 0·66 for mice challenged by S. typhimurium by subcutaneous injection (LD50 = 2 × 103 organisms); and challenge with a mixed inoculum gave similar results.
Despite this general conformity with prediction, far fewer mice than expected yielded only one variant at post mortem. This discrepancy possibly resulted from a terminal breakdown in resistance, which was demonstrated by experiment. It is concluded that these results are most economically explained by the hypothesis of independent action and that this hypothesis is probably applicable to many other infective systems.


In systems that handle confidential information, the security policy to enforce on information frequently changes: new users join the system, old users leave, and sensitivity of data changes over time. It is challenging, yet important, to specify what it means for such systems to be secure, and to gain assurance that a system is secure. We present a language-based model for specifying, reasoning about, and enforcing information security in systems that dynamically change the security policy. We specify security for such systems as a simple and intuitive extensional knowledge-based semantic condition: an attacker can only learn information in accordance with the current security policy. Importantly, the semantic condition is parameterized by the ability of the attacker. Learning is about change in knowledge, and an observation that allows one attacker to learn confidential information may provide a different attacker with no new information. A program that is secure against an attacker with perfect recall may not be secure against a more realistic, weaker, attacker. We introduce a compositional model of attackers that simplifies enforcement of security, and demonstrate that standard information-flow control mechanisms, such as security-type systems and information-flow monitors, can be easily adapted to enforce security for a broad and useful class of attackers.


A goal for enterprise applications has been to provide "exactly once" execution regardless of system failures. This has classically required "stateless" applications that manage their states explicitly via transactional resource managers. Support for "stateful" applications requires the system to do more to manage state, which has been considered too difficult and costly. The Phoenix/App system manages application state transparently by logging interactions between components to guarantee "exactly once" execution. But logging for availability and scalability requires that the log be accessible by multiple processors. For middle tier sessionoriented components, interactions need not be logged in order for them to be recoverable. Because there is no logging, performance of failure-free execution is excellent and no log need be moved to relocate the application on a different processor. Functionality has been restricted however to only idempotent interactions with backend servers. Here we show how such logless components can execute non-idempotent reads and yet be recoverable, by exploiting "faithless replay" where the original execution path might not be re-executed. The result is highly capable recoverable session-oriented components that are easily redeployed within an enterprise application system that requires high availability and scalability.


Given the increasing efforts at improving waste management in developing countries, this study aimed to analyze factors that influence participation in household waste sorting. It thereby is the first review that extends the published literature on this topic. A meta-analysis was conducted that analyzed twelve influencing factors. A moderate correlation was found for the most strongly influential factors—attitude, moral norm, subjective norm and perceived behavior control—which indicates that people's perception of waste sorting is most influencing in prompting participation in household waste sorting in developing countries. The results of this meta-analysis indicate that knowledge, situational factors, such as physical conditions, and governmental incentives can influence participation in household waste sorting in developing countries but the relationship between those factors and other factors with high correlations should be studied further. Notably, socio-demographic factors have the weakest influence on the participation in waste sorting in developing countries despite a large body of research on such factors. It can be constructive to take the relationship across the identified factors and the participation in waste sorting into consideration when aiming to implement measures to increase the participation in waste management schemes through waste sorting. The outcome of this study may contribute to recommendations and policy suggestions regarding the promotion of sustainable waste management through household waste sorting in developing countries.


Lightning is a physical phenomenon, which is often seen as a source of destruction causing millions of dollars in losses annually. over voltages due to lightning is a great challenge for the transmission system designer and researchers. The researchers almost have to keen to mitigate overvoltage problems. Since, lightning causes significant damages to life and property its prediction is very necessary., Due to prediction of lightning at least we know the probability of lightning in the form of low, medium and high range by using fuzzy logic system. This system provides idea behind the prediction of lightning hazards.


This paper presents a new efficient parallel implementation of neural networks on mesh-connected SIMD machines. A new algorithm to implement the recall and training phases of the multilayer perceptron network with back-error propagation is devised. The developed algorithm is much faster than other known algorithms of its class and comparable in speed to more complex architecture such as hypercube, without the added cost; it requires O(1) multiplications and O(log N) additions, whereas most others require O(N) multiplications and O(N) additions. The proposed algorithm maximizes parallelism by unfolding the ANN computation to its smallest computational primitives and processes these primitives in parallel.


This study investigated the maternity services, particularly those in county hospitals and rural areas, to explore the contributing factors to birth outcomes, especially maternal deaths, in Shanxi Province, China. The study was linked to a larger study: Improving Birth Outcomes in China: Consequences and potentials of policy, state and professional interactions jointly funded by the Australian Research Council, The Second Hospital of Shanxi Medical University and Western China Second Hospital Sichuan University between 2004 and 2007. A combination of quantitative and qualitative data was collected from nine hospitals in nine counties, ranging across high, medium and low maternal mortality ratios. Data collected included medical records (n=1,067), obstetricians and midwives interviews (n=17), personnel file audits (n=52), interviews with postpartum women (n=92), interviews with hospital leaders (n=12), interviews with maternal and child health workers (n=6) and labour observations (n=8). The Chinese maternal deaths reporting and review system was carefully examined with a case study of 40 maternal deaths undertaken analysing secondary data. The study found that the obstetricians and midwives in the hospitals were poorly trained with insufficient skills and knowledge and minimal on-going professional development. Some of the maternity practices in the hospital were not evidence based and the absence of Chinese language evidence based textbooks or protocols were contributing factors. The antenatal care women received was poor, with excessive ultrasound scanning but insufficient physical assessment. Contrary to the previous studies, interview data found that women did not avoid hospital services because they had an illegal birth but because of financial difficulty. Women who had illegal births however, gave birth at home, and had a much higher risk dying in childbirth. Unskilled birth attendants, combined with poor quality emergency obstetric care when transferred to county hospitals, were the underlying reasons for those deaths. The bottom tier of maternal and child health care, within the three-tiered Chinese system, is severely challenged. An increase in human resources with appropriate skills and knowledge, is necessary as part of a system wide investment. The new health insurance and other subsidies for rural women were still insufficient to allow many to obtain a hospital birth. Expenditure on excessive ultrasounds would be better spent on hospital cost. Further research on strengthening the bottom tier of care to ensure skilled attendance throughout pregnancy, childbirth and post partum period is desirable. Evidence based practice should be introduced into all levels of the system.


Extensive use of the sulphonamide drugs against the bacterium Neisseria meningitidis has resulted in drug resistance development. Sulphonamide resistance in N. meningitidis is caused by alterations in the chromosomal folP gene, coding for DHPS (dihydropteroate synthase). One type of resistant DHPS has high sequence divergence compared to DHPS from susceptible strains. This divergent DHPS has a duplication of two amino acids, crucial for resistance, and an altered amino acid in position 68, important for both resistance and substrate binding. When introduced into a susceptible DHPS, these two alterations did not incur resistance and resulted in abnormal substrate binding properties. This indicated that the divergent DHPS was not directly developed by mutations, but rather had been acquired by horizontal transfer of folP from another species.Commensal Neisseria species are implied as the origin of the horizontally transferred resistance. Sulphonamide-resistant commensal Neisseria isolates were detected in throat swabs from healthy individuals not exposed to these drugs; however, transformation of resistance from these commensals to N. meningitidis was restricted in the laboratory. A comparison of the genomic region surrounding folP revealed differences in gene organisation and in the DNA uptake sequence between N. meningitidis and distantly related commensals. These differences are likely to restrict transformation between distantly related Neisseria species.DHPS participates in the folate biosynthesis pathway. The enzyme preceding DHPS in the pathway, HPPK (hydroxymethyl-dihydropterin pyrophosphokinase), from N. meningitidis was characterised and a method for studying substrate channelling from HPPK to DHPS was developed. The information gained could be exploited in the search for new antibiotics.In conclusion, well-adapted sulphonamide-resistant strains of N. meningitidis and commensal Neisseria are established in the bacterial population and resistance can be horizontally spread by natural transformation. This may explain the abundance of sulphonamide-resistant N. meningitidis, although these drugs are no longer used against this bacterium.


This study portrays the financial intermediation functions of microfinance banks in Nigeria from 1992-2014, econometrically it measures the relationship between the total funds mobilized by MFBS and the allocation of funds to deficits sectors of the economy. In analyzing the data, the researchers applied vector autoregressive and multivariate econometrics tools. The result of the analysis of the correlation showed a clear indication of a weak relationship between the ratio of loans and advances to GDP, ratio of total fund mobilized to GDP, as against the negative nexus between the ratio of total investments to GDP. Furthermore the result shows no evidence of long run equilibrium relationship between the variables under study. The causality test reveals the presence of a unidirectional causality running from RGDP to microfinance bank intermediation variables. Finally, the study recommends that there need to deepen the capacity building strides of NDIC by include both staff and directors of microfinance banks to help bridge the skills gap, the government should provide the infrastructure needed such as power and telecommunications to boost financial inclusion, because technology drives financial innovation, multilateral and bilateral funds be sourced to support the development of microfinance sector, the regulation of microfinance banks in Nigeria be strengthened.


This paper extends the work of Weiss and Berney (2004), Clarke et al., (2003), Chambers (1980; 1999) and Schuetze, (2001) by developing the argument further that the current Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) are a fundamental obstacle to producing reliable corporate information. Specifically, it is argued that the accounting profession may continue to evade accountability for corporate financial statements unless it responds to the intellectual issues in accounting. The paper shows that significant opportunities arose in the past in the early part of the 1900s (during the aftermath of the US Securities Market Collapse), the debates of normative versus positive accounting (1930s – 1970s) and the audit expectations gap (1970s – 1990s) and finally during the aftermath of recent corporate collapses for bringing intellectual solutions to accounting and auditing problems. However, instead of fulfilling its key obligations by introducing constructive solutions to the debated issues, the profession has continued to defend its abilities to serve the public interest and has promoted the notion of independence (again) as a means of both silencing its critics and arresting possible misrepresentations of corporate financial statements. Yet the real challenge is an intellectual one and the paper questions the ability of the accounting profession to control the intellectual aspects of its subject matter. Consequently, critics of accounting are likely to construe this failure as a clear signal of the inability of the profession to maintain control over its discipline. Addressing this challenge therefore is of paramount importance for convincing critics that the profession is, in fact, able to self-regulate its affairs.


In the framework of the doctoral dissertation, it is presented a
development of control, modeling and optimization of the casting
process, based on application of artificial i.e. computational
intelligence methods. Improving of production processes in
foundries, in the framework of researches that contains doctoral
dissertation consist of modeling of metal melting process,
optimization of sand casting system and control of gravity
casting process.
The first part of research deals with modeling of melting
metal in furnaces. It is a complex process due to dynamics of
non-linear chemical reactions. Conventional mathematical and
thermodynamical models, which are certainly helpful, are not
fully reliable due to complex interactions of process variables.
Neural networks, as one of the key techniques of computational
intelligence, are able to identify internal relationships through
training examples. As such, they are used as an effective tool in
defining the needed chemical composition of the molten metal by
providing alloying process improvement.
Proper and complete mold filling is the main objective of the
sand casting process, which ensures high quality of the casting
part. To this end, the designs of the gating system and feeding
system is of major importance, as improper designing of the
system results in a number of defects in the casting process, e.g.
low quality of the casting part. Тherefore, the gating system aims
at providing a smooth, uniform and complete filling of the mold
with pure, molten metal. Smooth filling eliminates turbulence,
uniform filling ensures continuous mold filling, whereas
complete filling allows the molten metal to reach minor, end
cavities of the mold. During cooling casting part comes to the
volume metal shrinkage, ie. reducing the volume of casting part.
The importance of feeders is in their function to compensate the
lack of molten metal in the casting part due to volume shrinkage.
The second part of research is an optimal construction of gating
system and feeders, which satisfy the requirements with high
quality casting part and savings of materials. The combination of
global optimization method and CAD/CAM software has
provided the possibility of effective optimization, design and
verification of optimal solutions by numerical simulation.
Unlike some other industrial processes, many casting plants
have not benefited from the advanced automation therefore the
process of filling the mold cavity is still manually performed.
Automated systems that minimize the participation of workers
and enhance the precision of casting, are also the subject of
research in this doctoral dissertation. The part of research, which
is dedicated to the development of casting process control,
contains a proposal of an automated system in casting plants,
development of laboratory simulator of the casting process and
the development of possibility of application of intelligent
control of mold filling.