The Neotropical frog genus Pseudopaludicola includes 25 species distributed throughout South America. Herein we review the taxonomic status of P. parnaiba relative to P. canga and the specific identity of the population treated in previous studies as Pseudopaludicola sp. 3 from Barreirinhas in the Brazilian state of Maranhao. The lack of differentiation in advertisement call, morphology, and mitochondrial markers from topotypes and different populations rejects the status of P. parnaiba and Pseudopaludicola sp. 3 from Barreirinhas as distinct species. For these reasons, we suggest to formally consider P. parnaiba as a junior synonym of P. canga . We also found that a population previously reported as P. facureae from central Brazil (Palmeiras de Goias, Goias) corresponds to a cryptic species that we describe here as a new species. Lastly, we provide for the first time the phylogenetic positions of P. giarettai , P. llanera and P. pusilla .


Brake wear debris and its contents have been matters of concern due to their impacts on the human body and the environment, which has led to many studies being done in the brake industry. In North America, copper is a prime example of brake wear debris impacting the environment when it's exhausted to the atmosphere. The regulation of copper content in brake pads for new cars has been enacted and has led to the development of copper free friction materials which are used in the market today In Europe, micro particles such as PM2.5 and PM10 contained in the brake wear debris, which are also called BPE (brake particle emissions), are considered to affect human health and air pollution. As regulatory activities have accelerated, so has the work towards establishing measuring methods of BPE. As a brake supplier, fundamental research is necessary for understanding characteristics of BPE and reducing the amount of BPE for each type of friction material. As the first step of the research, BPE characteristics were investigated for various friction materials, such as Low Steel, Non Asbestos Organic, and Cu-Free Non Asbestos Organic. In addition, a hard coated rotor was also prototyped and investigated. In this study, a brake corner for a compact passenger car was used for testing. Particulate mass (PM2.5 and PM10) were obtained by a measurement system in accordance with JASO C470 (established in 2020). Also, the CPC (condensation particle counter) device was added to this system in order to measure the particulate number (PN) which was proposed in the WP29/GRPE/PMP/TF2 document. As a result, there were significant differences in the amount of BPE among the friction materials tested. The results also show good correlation between the amount of BPE and wear mass of the pad and rotor. In addition, it is suggested that PM2.5 account for 9-18% of wear mass, PM10 for 31-43% in this test condition.


Depressive illness is associated with sustained widespread cognitive deficits, in addition to repeated experience of distressing emotions. An accepted theory, which broadly accounts for features of the syndrome, and its delayed response to antidepressant medication, is lacking. One possibility, which has received considerable attention, is that depressive illness is associated with a specific underlying deficit: a blunted or impaired ability to respond to feedback information. Unlike healthy controls, if patients with a depressive illness commit an error, they can be at increased risk of committing a subsequent error, possibly due to a failure to adjust performance in order to reduce the risk of error. In some speeded tasks, performance adjustment in humans is reliably associated with trial-to-trial change in reaction times (RTs), such as 'post-error slowing'. Previous studies of abnormal response to feedback have not investigated RT change in any detail. We used a combination of quantitative modelling of RTs and fMRI in 15 patients and 14 matched controls to test the hypothesis that depressive illness was associated with a blunted behavioural and neural response to feedback information during a gambling task. The results supported the hypothesis. Controls responded to negative ('lose') feedback by an increase in RT and activation of the anterior cingulate, the extent of which correlated with RT change. Patients did not significantly increase their RTs, nor activate the anterior cingulate. Controls responded to positive ('win') feedback by a reduction in RT and activation of the ventral striatum, the extent of which correlated with RT change. Patients neither reduced their RT nor activated the ventral striatum. RT adjustment correlated with self-reported anhedonia for both patients and controls. This behavioural deficit, together with its associated pattern of abnormal neural activity, implies that the anterior midline cortical substrate for error correction, which includes projections from the monoamine systems, is dysfunctional in depressive illness. Many studies have reported abnormalities of the medial frontal cortex in depressive illness; however, the mechanism by which antidepressant medication acts via the monoamine systems remains elusive. Our results suggest a direct link between the core subjective symptom of anhedonia, replicated neuropsychological deficits, electrophysiological and imaging abnormalities, and hypothesized dysfunction of the error correction system.


Abstract Aim: Novel biomarkers have been proposed for identification of patients at greater risk of future adverse events among those presenting with chest pain. In this review, we aim to elucidate the ability of pregnancy associated plasma protein-A (PAPP-A) to predict mortality and other cardiovascular events in this patient population. Methods: A literature search of the electronic databases Medline, Scopus, Cochrane Library and ClinicalTrials.gov was performed in order to identify studies investigating the utility of PAPP-A to predict mortality and adverse cardiovascular events in patients with chest pain. Results: Eight studies met our inclusion criteria. Five of these studies pertained to patients with confirmed ischemic chest pain, while the rest included patients presenting with chest pain possibly due to acute coronary syndrome, irrespectively of the underlying cause. Although the results for long-term events were inconclusive in both groups of patients, higher PAPP-A concentrations were found to be a significant predictor of short-term adverse events in patients with confirmed ischemic chest pain. Conclusions: PAPP-A appears to be a potentially useful biomarker for short-term risk stratification of patients presenting with chest pain of ischemic origin. However, there is an eminent need for more standardized clinical studies investigating the prognostic value of this biomarker.


"In the subsistence-oriented, semi-arid production systems of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, India, the environment is marginal for crop growth and often there is no substitute for millet crops. Across communities, farmers grow thirteen different combinations of pearl millet, sorghum, finger millet, little millet, and foxtail millet varieties, but individual farmers grow an average of only two to three millet varieties per season. The notion of the seed system includes all channels through which farmers acquire genetic materials, outside or in interaction with the commercial seed industry. Data are compiled through household surveys and interviews with traders and dealers in village and district markets. Based on the concept of the seed lot, several characteristics of local seed markets are defined and measured by millet crop, including seed transfer rates for farmer-to-farmer transactions and seed replacement ratios. Most seed transactions appear to be based on money. Seed supply channels differ by improvement status of the genetic material. Econometric results indicate the significance of the seed replacement ratios and seed volumes traded in determining the levels of crop biodiversity managed by communities, in addition to the household, farm and other market-related factors identified by previous studies. These are interpreted as indicators of market strength." Authors' Abstract


Inspired by the principles of speed reading, we introduce Skim-RNN, a recurrent neural network (RNN) that dynamically decides to update only a small fraction of the hidden state for relatively unimportant input tokens. Skim-RNN gives computational advantage over an RNN that always updates the entire hidden state. Skim-RNN uses the same input and output interfaces as a standard RNN and can be easily used instead of RNNs in existing models. In our experiments, we show that Skim-RNN can achieve significantly reduced computational cost without losing accuracy compared to standard RNNs across five different natural language tasks. In addition, we demonstrate that the trade-off between accuracy and speed of Skim-RNN can be dynamically controlled during inference time in a stable manner. Our analysis also shows that Skim-RNN running on a single CPU offers lower latency compared to standard RNNs on GPUs.


The present study compares identity statuses among three groups of women: Iranian, Lebanese and Lebanese immigrants in Iran. The age of the samples varies from 22 to 33 years old. Persian and Arabic versions of The Objective Measure of Ego Identity Status (EOM-EIS-2) were distributed to 39 Iranian women, 40 Lebanese women residing in their home country and 39 Lebanese immigrant women in Iran chosen by convenience sampling. The data was analyzed using inferential statistical models related to independent groups, ANOVA and Post-Hoc tests. The findings showed no significant differences in identity statuses between the groups, although one sub-scale (ideological moratorium identity status) was significantly more prominent among Iranian women in comparison to local Lebanese. Furthermore, there was a significant negative correlation between one EOM-EIS subscale, interpersonal moratorium identity status, and the length of the immigrants' residency. The findings of this study indicate the role cultural factors play in psychological structures, especially in identity formation.


In this conceptual paper, we propose an heuristic to balance context-specific and generic scaffolding, as well as computer-based and teacher scaffolding, during instruction centered on authentic, scientific problems. This paper is novel in that many researchers ask a dichotomous question of whether generic or context-specific scaffolding is best, and fail to focus on what processes and cognitions each type of scaffolding excels at supporting. To arrive at the heuristic and construct the framework, we synthesized research on (a) student challenges gaining and using scientific reasoning strategies, and (b) computer-based and teacher scaffolding.


Epigenetic modifications are heritable changes in genome function that occur without a change in DNA sequence. They turn genes on or off by small chemical modifications. Thereby, they change the structure of the DNA making them accessible or not for transcription factors or other DNA binding molecules. MicroRNAs are a new class of regulatory non-coding RNAs that modulate gene expression and influences epigenetic mechanisms. miRNAs offer novel mechanisms of therapeutic strategies for cancer and autoimmune diseases. Here, we summarize which miRNAs play a role in rheumatic diseases and their biological function.


Honeybees produce honey, royal jelly, propolis, bee venom, bee pollen, and beeswax, which potentially benefit to humans due to the bioactives in them. Clinical standardization of these products is hindered by chemical variability depending on honeybee and botanical sources, but different molecules have been isolated and pharmacologically characterized. Major honey bioactives include phenolics, methylglyoxal, royal jelly proteins (MRJPs), and oligosaccharides. In royal jelly there are antimicrobial jelleins and royalisin peptides, MRJPs, and hydroxy-decenoic acid derivatives, notably 10-hydroxy-2-decenoic acid (10-HDA), with antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, immunomodulatory, neuromodulatory, metabolic syndrome preventing, and anti-aging activities. Propolis contains caffeic acid phenethyl ester and artepillin C, specific of Brazilian propolis, with antiviral, immunomodulatory, anti-inflammatory and anticancer effects. Bee venom consists of toxic peptides like pain-inducing melittin, SK channel blocking apamin, and allergenic phospholipase A2. Bee pollen is vitaminic, contains antioxidant and anti-inflammatory plant phenolics, as well as antiatherosclerotic, antidiabetic, and hypoglycemic flavonoids, unsaturated fatty acids, and sterols. Beeswax is widely used in cosmetics and makeup. Given the importance of drug discovery from natural sources, this review is aimed at providing an exhaustive screening of the bioactive compounds detected in honeybee products and of their curative or adverse biological effects.


OBJECTIVE
To identify associations between microbes and host genes in cats with feline chronic gingivostomatitis (FCGS), a debilitating inflammatory oral mucosal disease with no known cause, compared with healthy cats and cats with periodontitis (control cats).

ANIMALS
19 control cats and 23 cats with FCGS.

PROCEDURES
At least 1 caudal oral mucosal swab specimen was obtained from each cat. Each specimen underwent unbiased metatranscriptomic next-generation RNA sequencing (mNGS). Filtered mNGS reads were aligned to all known genetic sequences from all organisms and to the cat transcriptome. The relative abundances of microbial and host gene read alignments were compared between FCGS-affected cats and control cats and between FCGS-affected cats that did and did not clinically respond to primary treatment. Assembled feline calicivirus (FCV) genomes were compared with reverse transcription PCR (RT-PCR) primers commonly used to identify FCV.

RESULTS
The only microbe strongly associated with FCGS was FCV, which was detected in 21 of 23 FCGS-affected cats but no control cats. Problematic base pair mismatches were identified between the assembled FCV genomes and RT-PCR primers. Puma feline foamy virus was detected in 9 of 13 FCGS-affected cats that were refractory to treatment and 5 healthy cats but was not detected in FCGS-affected cats that responded to tooth extractions. The most differentially expressed genes in FCGS-affected cats were those associated with antiviral activity.

CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE
Results suggested that FCGS pathogenesis has a viral component. Many FCV strains may yield false-negative results on RT-PCR-based assays. Coinfection of FCGS-affected cats with FCV and puma feline foamy virus may adversely affect response to treatment.


As the first Christian emperor of Rome, Constantine the Great has long interested those studying the establishment of Christianity. But Constantine is also notable for his ability to control a sprawling empire and effect major changes. "The Justice of Constantine" examines Constantine's judicial and administrative legislation and his efforts to maintain control over the imperial bureaucracy, to guarantee the working of Roman justice, and to keep the will of his subjects throughout the Roman Empire. John Dillon first analyzes the record of Constantine's legislation and its relationship to prior legislation. His initial chapters also serve as an introduction to Roman law and administration in later antiquity. Dillon then considers Constantine's public edicts and internal communications about access to law, trials and procedure, corruption, and punishment for administrative abuses. How imperial officials relied on correspondence with Constantine to resolve legal questions is also considered. A study of Constantine's expedited appellate system, to ensure provincial justice, concludes the book. Constantine's constitutions reveal much about the Theodosian Code and the laws included in it. Constantine consistently seeks direct sources of reliable information in order to enforce his will. In official correspondence, meanwhile, Constantine strives to maintain control over his officials through punishment; trusted agents; and the cultivation of accountability, rivalry, and suspicion among them.


The skeletal material of Kotlassia prima , a primitive tetrapod from the Upper Permian of the North Dvina River in northern Russia, is described and figured in detail. The various specimens permit a nearly complete description except for the feet. Karpinskiosaurus secundus is a synonym of Kotlassia prima . The animal is definitely amphibian in nature although it may be regarded as a relict of the reptilian ancestors of the Reptilia. Kotlassia was as an adult a terrestrial form, in contrast to the contemporary Dvinosaurus. Seymouria may be an amphibian of the same kind.


The relationship between the somatic growth rate (G) and feeding level (unfed, inter- mediate, and maximum rations) of age-0 juvenile cod Gadus morhua and haddock Melanogrammus aeglefinus was quantified at different temperatures. Laboratory trials were conducted using 2 size- classes of cod (3.6 to 5.6 cm standard length (SL), and 8.1 to 12.4 cm SL) at 5, 8, 12, and 15°C, and 1 size-class of haddock (6.0 to 9.6 cm SL) at 8 and 12°C. The shape of the growth-feeding relationship was well described by a 3-parameter asymptotic function for cod and by a linear function for haddock (R 2 range = 0.837 to 0.966). The growth rate and scope for growth were maximum at 12°C, whereas growth efficiency was greatest (26.0 to 32.2%) at temperatures between 5 and 8°C. Juvenile cod held at 15°C exhibited reduced rates and efficiencies of somatic growth compared to fish at other temper- atures. Biochemical-based growth indicators for age-0 juveniles were calibrated from measurements of the amounts of RNA, DNA, and protein in white muscle samples. A multiple linear regression using RNA:DNA and temperature as independent variables explained a significant portion of the variability observed in G of juvenile cod (R 2 = 0.716) and haddock (R 2 = 0.637). This relationship may be useful in estimating recent growth of age-0 juvenile cod and haddock in the field.


Natural river floodplains are among Earth's most biologically diverse and productive ecosystems but face a range of critical threats due to human disturbance. Understanding the ecological processes that support biodiversity and productivity in floodplain rivers is essential for their future protection and rehabilitation. Fish assemblage structure on tropical river floodplains is widely considered to be driven by dispersal limitation during the wet season and by environmental filtering and inter-specific interactions during the dry season. However, the individual-level movement behaviours (e.g., site attachment, nomadism, homing) that regulate dispersal of fish on floodplains are poorly understood. We combined radio-telemetry and remote sensing to examine the movement behaviour of two large-bodied fishes (barramundi Lates calcarifer, forktail catfish Neoarius leptaspis) over the flood cycle in a tropical river-floodplain system in northern Australia to: 1) quantify movement responses in relation to dynamic habitat resources at a landscape scale; and 2) determine the extent of spatial 'reshuffling' of individual fish following the wet season. Both species altered their behaviour rapidly in response to changes in the availability and distribution of aquatic habitat, with most individuals undertaking extensive movements (up to ~ 27 km from the tagging location) on the inundated floodplain during the wet season. Although there was considerable individual variation in movement patterns, overall barramundi distributions closely tracked the extent of floodplain primary productivity, whereas catfish distributions were most closely associated with the extent of flooded area. Most individuals of both species exhibited homing back to previously occupied dry season refugia during the wet-to-dry transition, even though other potential refugia were available in closer proximity to wet season activity areas. We postulate that homing behaviour modulates temporal variation in fish assemblage composition and abundance and limits the transfer of aquatic-derived energy and nutrients into terrestrial food webs by reducing fish mortality on drying floodplains. Our study demonstrates the importance of quantifying individual-level behaviour across the three stages of dispersal (emigration, inter-patch movement, immigration) for our understanding of how animal movement influences energetic subsidies and other large-scale ecosystem processes.


This article presents a holistic approach to the engineering of an artificial robot skin for robots. An example of a multimodal skin cell is given, one that supports multiple human-like sensing modalities, and support for skin cell network is also provided; this is essential to form large-area skin patches in order to cover the surfaces of robots. The essential elements of efficiently handling a large amount of tactile data are explained. A general control framework, which supports robots commanded in position, velocity, and torque, is provided and validated. Several applications of this robot skin will be presented, demonstrating the effectiveness and efficiency of our artificial robot skin to support a wide number of robotic platforms as well as its ease of use across different domains.


OBJECTIVE After intensive insulin treatment, many obese African American patients with new-onset diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) and severe hyperglycemia are able to achieve near-normoglycemia remission. The optimal treatment to prevent hyperglycemic relapses after remission is not known. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS This prospective, 4-year, placebo-controlled study randomly assigned 48 African American subjects with DKA and severe hyperglycemia to metformin 1,000 mg daily (n = 17), sitagliptin 100 mg daily (n = 16), or placebo (n = 15) after normoglycemia remission. Hyperglycemic relapse was defined as fasting glucose >130 mg/dL (7.2 mmol/L) and HbA1c >7.0% (53 mmol/mol). Oral glucose tolerance tests were conducted at randomization and at 3 months and then every 6 months for a median of 331 days. Oral minimal model and incremental area under the curve for insulin (AUCi) were used to calculate insulin sensitivity (Si) and β-cell function, respectively. Disposition index (DI) was calculated as a product of Si and incremental AUCi. RESULTS Relapse-free survival was higher in sitagliptin and metformin (P = 0.015) compared with placebo, and mean time to relapse was significantly prolonged in the metformin and sitagliptin groups compared with the placebo group (480 vs. 305 days, P = 0.004). The probability of relapse was significantly lower for metformin (hazard ratio 0.28 [95% CI 0.10–0.81]) and sitagliptin (0.31 [0.10–0.98]) than for placebo. Subjects who remained in remission had a higher DI (P = 0.02) and incremental AUCi (P < 0.001) than those with hyperglycemia relapse without significant changes in Si. CONCLUSIONS This study shows that near-normoglycemia remission was similarly prolonged by treatment with sitagliptin and metformin. The prolongation of remission was due to improvement in β-cell function.


The first alarm system for summer smog was established in 1948 in Los Angeles. Following the tragic London Smog where several hundred people died, the Rhine-Ruhr area set up a winter smog alarm system in the early 1960s. Since that time, many industrialized countries have instituted smog-alarm systems, which have contributed to the reduction of air pollution risks to the public. Perhaps more importantly, these systems have stimulated progress in air pollution abatement technologies, since the costs of closing down industries during smog episodes is often higher than the necessary investments to reduce air pollution. Today, most countries with smog alarm systems have very infrequent air pollution episodes.

The situation is different in industrially developing countries, where serious air pollution episodes are frequent. These countries may need to institute smog alarm systems to protect public health. For this reason, the Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe asked IIASA to carry out a study that would help C&E European countries establish their own systems in collaboration with their neighbors.

This report describes experience with winter and summer smog-alarm systems in western countries and makes recommendations for the design of cost-efficient and effective systems for C&E Europe. The Study was carried out in close collaboration with experts in these countries. We hope this report is helpful in assuring that, within a few years, efficient smog alarm systems are in place within the entire C&E European region. Moreover, we hope the information in this study is useful to other regions, in particular the Russian Republic, Ukraine, other states of the former Soviet Union, and also China, India, Brazil and newly industrializing countries.


Ku80 is a component of the protein complex called DNA-dependent protein kinase, which is involved in DNA double-strand break repair and multiple other functions. Previous studies revealed that Ku80 haplo-insufficient and poly (adenosine diphosphate-ribose) polymerase-null transgenic mice developed hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) at a high frequency. The role of Ku80 has never been investigated in human HCC. Ku80 expressions in HCC and adjacent liver tissue were investigated by using immunohistochemical staining and western blot. Ku80 was transfected into a Ku80-deficient HCC cell line SMMC7721 cells, and the growth features of the Ku80-expressing cells and vector-transfected cells were studied both in vitro and in vivo. Cell cycle analysis and RNA interference were employed to investigate the mechanisms underlying the growth regulation associated with Ku80 expression. Ku80 was found frequently downregulated in HCC compared with adjacent liver tissue. Ku80 downregulation was significantly correlated with elevated hepatitis B virus-DNA load and severity of liver cirrhosis. Overexpression of Ku80 in SMMC7721 cells significantly suppressed cell proliferation in vitro and in vivo. Ku80 overexpression caused S-phase cell cycle arrest and was associated with upregulation of p53 and p21(CIP1/WAF1), and the inhibition of p53 or p21(CIP1/WAF1) expression by RNA interference overcame the growth suppression and S-phase arrest in the Ku80-expressing cells. A novel mechanism was revealed that Ku80 functions as a tumor suppressor in HCC by inducing S-phase arrest through a p53-dependent pathway.


It is widely understood that the socio-historical contexts of languages have a direct bearing on their structures and on the types of stance that communities take in relation to them. Within the discipline of linguistics these socio-historical contexts and their impacts on communities' use and understanding of language are generally referred to as sociolinguistic factors. Meanwhile within descriptive linguistics the structure of language remains core. This is evidenced in the shape of university course design, structures of textbooks, and in how linguistic knowledge is recorded. In this paper we seek to map the relationship of the socio-historical context of linguistics to the languages that we study and in doing so, shift the focus so that the socio-historical context becomes central. Through this process the shape of the languages themselves is altered.We present a case study that compares linguistic and community perspectives on language boundaries in Milne Bay Provence, Papua New Guinea, and explore the processes through which the languages are created as objects and then become emblematic of culture and identity. We discuss the strong links that communities make between language, place and spirituality and consider the opportunities that these perspectives hold for language descriptions. Finally we consider how we, as linguists, can hold multiple perspectives on language and create culturally safe partnerships with communities that result in materials consistent with speakers' goals for their language.


Software has gained an essential role in our daily life in the last decades. This condition demands high quality software. To produce high quality software many practitioners and researchers put more attention on the software development process. Large investments are poured to improve the software development process. Software Process Improvement (SPI) is a research area which is aimed to address the assessment and improvement issues in the software development process. One of the most important aspects in software process improvement is to measure the results gained from the embarked process change. Without measuring the results, it is hard to tell whether the goals have been achieved or not. However, measurement for software process improvement is not a trivial task. Furthermore, there is no common systematic methodology that can be used to help measuring the performance of software process improvement initiatives. This thesis is intended to provide basic key concepts for the effective measurement and evaluation of the outcome of software process improvement. A major part of this thesis presents the systematic review in evaluating the outcome of software process improvement. The systematic review is aimed at the identification of the major issues in software process improvement evaluation and to gather the requirements for a software process improvement measurement and evaluation framework. Based on the results of the systematic review, a measurement and evaluation model is formulated. The objective of the model is to provide the groundwork for a software process improvement measurement and evaluation framework. The model is deemed to be applicable in a broad spectrum of scenarios by providing concepts that are independent from specific SPI initiatives.


The decisions made during the design process have a critical impact both on the design solution obtained but also on the design process itself. It can be observed that while the way in which products are developed differs not only across firms but within the same firm over time, what is being decided seems to remain fairly consistent [2]. After a thorough Literature research many references addressing decision processes developed within the NPD have been found. In the paper by Krishnan and Ullrich [4] an extensively list the most common decisions made in each phase of the development process of new products is presented. While rigorous at a bibliographical level, this work has not been empirically verified yet. Therefore, an empirical study to inquire whether decisions considered usual in the literature were actually common within the framework of innovative companies in the Valencia region (Spain) has been carried out. The empirical study has covered a representative sample of innovative companies in this region. A questionnaire including all decisions identified was prepared and sent by mail to all the companies belonging to the sample, whose aim was to determine the frequency these decisions are usually made. At the same time this study has been used to find out the patterns of decision-making processes in those innovative companies. The analysis of the results obtained confirmed that the decisions identified in the literature do correspond to the decisions mostly made in innovative companies of the Valencia Region and that they all follow a specific pattern.


We compare a variety of strategies for incorporating spelling to create more robust voice-only speech interfaces. These strategies use different combinations of speaking the word, spelling the word, and spelling the word using a phonetic alphabet. For correcting a single recognition error, spelling the word or speaking and spelling the word reduced error rates substantially. Phonetic-spelling was very accurate with error rates on a 5K task approaching zero. Most importantly, multiple input strategies can be used simultaneously with only a modest degradation in performance compared to allowing only a single input strategy. Thus our work shows that spelling-based input strategies offer the potential of a simple, natural and effective way for users to both avoid and correct recognition errors.


This is a publication of the Oregon Wood Innovation Center (OWIC), Department of Wood Science and Engineering, College of Forestry, Oregon State University.


The mechanism by which convective heat transfer is augmented by freestream turbulence in the stagnation region was studied experimentally. Previous work has suggested that the primary mechanism for the observed augmentation is the amplification of vorticity into strong vortices which dominate the flow field near the surface. Therefore, two separate experimental investigations were performed to further study this phenomenon. In the first, the spatiotemporal convection from a heated surface was measured during the normal collision of a vortex ring. The convection was observed to increase dramatically in areas where vortices forced outer fluid through the natural convection boundary layer to the surface. Regions where fluid was swept along the surface experienced much smaller increases in convection. These observations led to the development of a mechanistic model which predicted the heat transfer based on the amount of time that fluid remained within the thermal boundary layer prior to reaching the surface. In subsequent testing, the model was able to accurately predict the time resolved convection based solely on the transient properties of the vortex present. In the second investigation, the model was applied to the vortices which form in a stagnating turbulent flow. Three turbulence conditions were tested which changed the properties of the vortices produced. Again, the model was successful in predicting the time resolved convection over much of the experimental measurement time. The work of designing and calibrating the heat flux sensor used is also reported. A new sensor was developed specifically for the convection research performed herein as no existing sensor possessed the required spatiotemporal resolution and underwater capabilities. Utilizing spot welded foils of thermoelectric alloys resulted in a very robust and sensitive sensing array which was thoroughly analyzed and calibrated. In the final section, the hybrid heat flux (HHF) method is presented which significantly increases the performance of existing heat flux sensors. It is shown (both numerically and experimentally) that by combining the spatial and temporal temperature measurements from a standard sensor, the time response increases by up to a factor of 28. Also, this method causes the sensor to be insensitive to the material to which it is mounted.


Surface longline gears are used to fish different species, mainly albacor e Thunnus alalung a (Bonnaterre, 1788), bluefin tun a Thunnus thynn us (Linnaeus, 1758), and swordfish Xiphias gladius Linnaeus, 1758, and are considered highly dangerous for threatened marine turtles. Loggerheads Caretta caretta (Linnaeus, 1758) can be incidentally captured by surface longlines. A number of captured individuals die during the fishing operation, which we consider direct mortality due to fishing. We analysed the relative loggerhead by-catch and direct mortality associated with each type of boat and gear from April to December during the period 1999-2004 in the Spanish surface longline fleet that fishes in the western Mediterranean Sea, an important fishing area for this fleet. We used different indices to compute the catch per unit effort (CPUE) according to the number of hooks and to the number of fishing operations for each type of boat and gear. Both by-catch and direct mortality differed significantly according to the type of boat and gear. With respect to the number of hooks, boats longer than 12 m not using a roller and targeting bluefin tuna captured the highest number of loggerheads, whereas boats longer than 12 m with a roller that targeted swordfish caused the highest direct mortality. With respect to the number of fishing operations, boats longer than 12 m without a roller that targeted albacore captured the highest number of loggerheads; the highest direct mortality was caused by this type of boat and by boats longer than 12 m using a roller and targeting swordfish.


As the global demand for energy continues to rise, the oil and gas industry investigates new opportunities for oil and gas production in more remote areas. Promising estimation of oil and gas reserves in the Arctic areas has resulted in an increased focus on oil extraction in the Higher Norths. For the logistic providers and ship yards, this area represent a new era in offshore operations and vessel design. The Arctic area offers challenges to offshore vessels but also to the offshore operation itself. Increased distances to shore and harsh environmental conditions sets new demands to the offshore supply chain. Platform supply vessels(PSVs) are an important part of the offshore logistic supply chain, providing offshore installations with necessary cargo and personnel. Accurate delivery is of high importance in order to ensure continuously production. Weather or not an offshore operation can be conducted, is restricted by environmental conditions at site. Exceedance of these limitations will affect the feasibility and duration of a voyage. In such cases, an oil operator may be forced to hire a vessel from the spot-marked. Although, offshore field logistics represent an important segment in offshore operations, the literature is scarce on the business side. It is clear that the current situation require new technological solutions, but also new and improved business models to ensure sustainability. In this paper we address the impact of the Arctic environment on PSVs. It has been investigated if a simulation model could be used to determine the operational duration and optimal fleet composition of PSVs in the Arctic environment. To determine the capability of the model, two case studies were presented.


Rampant inflation is a major economic problem in many of the less developed countries; two out of three attempts to stabilize these economies fail. Inflation Stabilization provides a valuable description and a critical analysis of the disinflation programs introduced in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, and Israel in 1985-86, and discusses the possibility of such a program in Mexico. It documents the initial steps in stabilization as well as the reasons for failure. As architects of the programs, several of the authors are in key positions to assess which aspects were critical in getting the programs accepted and where to look for difficulties and failures. In Israel, inflation was halted without recession. The challenge to policy makers today is in shifting from stabilization to the revival of sustained growth. This experience is described fully by Michael Bruno and Sylvia Piterman, who examine the critical issue of exchange rates, and by Alex Cukierman, who uses modeling to analyze the interaction of money, wages, prices, and activity under rational expectations that take the government's policy objectives into account. Endemic inflation and a sudden increase in external debt burden Argentina's economy, raising the wider issues of high inflation economies and stabilization that are discussed in the chapter by Jose Luis Machinea and that by Guido Di Tella and Alfredo Canavese. Eduardo Modiano and Mario Simonsen take up issues of wages in Brazil, particularly the problem of finding an equitable way to deal with a wage freeze; Simonsen develops an ambitious game theoretic rationalization of incomes policy as a coordinating device for imperfectly competitive economies. Bolivia did reach hyperinflation (price increases of more than 50 percent each month) before stabilizing. Juan Antonio Morales shows how stabilizing the exchange rate, in an economy where all pricing was already geared to the dollar, achieved stabilization without a wage or price freeze. And Francisco Gil Diaz asks whether an incomes-policy based program could work to control ever increasing inflation in Mexico.


Nearly 900 drivers in Port Moresby were breathalysed in a roadside survey that covered the hours of 10pm to 2am over five weekends. Only 2% of drivers stopped refused to take part in the survey. It was found that overall 24% of those drivers breathalysed had Blood Alcohol Concentrations (BACs) exceeding 80 mg%, the UK legal limit. This compares with some 1.5% of drivers in the UK and 4% of drivers in Adelaide, Australia found exceeding 80 mg% in similar roadside surveys. 7% of the drivers had BACs over 190 mg%. The percentage of drivers with BACs exceeding 80 mg% was found to be much lower on Sundays (8%) compared with Thursdays (27%), Fridays (29%) and Saturdays (24%). If those drivers who estimated that it was less than 20 minutes since their last drink were excluded from the survey, then the overall figure fell from 24% to 17% of drivers exceeding 80 mg%. There was no evidence of different age distributions between the drinking and non-drinking drivers. Only 3% of the drivers were female, but 21% of those were found to have BACs exceeding 80 mg%. In a parallel survey conducted at Port Moresby General Hospital, thirty seven casualties from road accidents that occurred during the same times of the week were either breathalysed or had blood samples analysed. It was found that nearly 50% of all the road accident casualties, and 80% of drivers had BACs exceeding 80 mg%. (A)


The advancement in Autonomous Vehicle (AV) has created an enormous market for the development of selfdriving functionalities, and has raised the question of how it will transform the traditional vehicle development process. One adventurous proposal is to open the AV platform to 3rd party developers, so that AV functionalities can be developed in a crowdsourcing way, which is supposed to provide tangible benefits to both automakers and end users. Some pioneering companies in the autonomy industry have made the move to open the platform so that developers are allowed to test their code on the road. However, such openness brings serious security and safety issues by allowing untrusted code to run on the vehicle. In this paper, we introduce the concept of Appified AV platform that opens the development framework to 3rd party developers. To further address the safety challenges, we propose an enhanced appified AV design schema called AVGUARD, that focuses mainly on mitigating the threats brought by untrusted code, leveraging theory in the vehicle evaluation field, and also program analysis techniques in the cybersecurity area. Our study provides guidelines and suggested practice for the future design of open AV platforms.


Although there has been substantial progress in understanding the neurophysiological mechanisms of stereopsis, many questions remain about how the brain solves the correspondence problem. To gain insight into how horizontal disparity signals are spatially integrated and might solve the correspondence problem, we simultaneously recorded from multiple neurons in V1 of awake, alert macaques while displaying dynamic random dot stereograms. Physical distances between neurons ranged from 1 to over 3 mm, and receptive field separation ranged from partially overlapping to 2o. We quantified the functional connectivity among neurons using the correlation coefficient integrated from normalized cross-correlograms for ±25 ms lag times. The functional connectivity between disparity tuned neurons depended on the disparity of the stimulus. The tuning based on functional connectivity was narrower and more robust than predicted by the independent firing rate tuning curves. To determine how disparity estimates might improve over time (i.e., coarse-to-fine), we examined the temporal evolution of disparity tuning. We found that the firing rate-based disparity tuning was initially very broad. The functional connectivity-based disparity tuning emerged shortly after and was much narrower. Functional connectivity continued to strengthen as the firing rate tuning became sharper. Our results suggest that a coarse-to-fine mechanism likely interacts with, and may even arise from, cooperative processing that allows the brain to converge to a correspondence solution.


Americans have long taken great pride in their presidential elections. With a proud history extending back over 200 years, the selection of a U.S. president has long been held up to emerging democracies as an example to be emulated. Power has been transferred peacefully and with widespread agreement on the legitimacy of the winner's electoral mandate. Of course, some elements of the election process were not as fair as they could be--particularly the Electoral College--but the overall sense of fairness is something most analysts of U.S. presidential elections have long taken for granted. The disputed outcome of the 2000 presidential contest between Bush and Gore changed all that. In 1996, the American National Election Studies (ANES) asked about the fairness of the election only because this question was part of a module being administered in many countries as part of the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES). Several days after the 2000 election, the ANES realized that in light of the controversy in Florida, it would be interesting to repeat this question in their post-election questionnaire. Two years later, when the ANES reinterviewed respondents from the 2000 study, they decided to see whether the controversy still simmered in the public mind. The findings from 1996 indicate that even in the face of a normal undisputed presidential election, Americans did not rate the fairness of their election particularly high compared to citizens of other established democracies. And in the shadow of the contested outcome of the 2000 American presidential race, complaints about the fairness of the election were widespread. Only the Peruvian election of 2001 was worse in this respect among the 36 national elections covered in the CSES study. One might expect that by 2002, few Americans would continue to question the fairness of Bush's election given the rise in patriotism spurred by 9/11 and the war with Iraq. However, lingering bitterness about the election remained strong, and the patterns of opinion on this question had hardened along party lines. This research note reviews and expands upon these findings. A Comparative Perspective on Election Fairness As part of the CSES, random samples of populations in various countries were asked the following question soon after a national election: "In some countries, people believe their elections are conducted fairly. In other countries, people believe that their elections are conducted unfairly. Thinking of the election we've just had, do you believe it was very fair, somewhat fair, neither fair nor unfair, somewhat unfair, or very unfair?" (1) Table 1 displays the results of how citizens responded to this question in a wide range of both established and developing democracies. Ranking the countries according to the percentage that responded that their election was very fair, the U.S. election of 1996 finishes in 15th place out of 36. The perceived fairness of the Clinton-Dole contest of 1996 pales compared to that observed in a number of parliamentary elections conducted under rules of proportional representation (PR). All of the countries in which elections were rated as very fair by at least two thirds of survey respondents employed PR. Given that the aim of PR is to distribute political power fairly according to votes received, it makes perfect sense that citizens are most likely to think an election is fair when PR is used. A presidential election, however, cannot use PR, as there is only one office to allocate. Hence, winner-take-all presidential elections are at a comparative disadvantage when it comes to being perceived as fair. Third-party voters in 1996 were the least likely to rate the election as very fair, with only 40 percent saying this, compared to 52 percent among Dole voters and 59 percent among Clinton voters. The fact that a typical Scandinavian voter was more likely to see their election as fair than even Clinton voters in 1996 indicates that perceptions of unfairness in U. …


Energy planning recently received more attention in Switzerland through the new strategy phasing out nuclear energy by 2034. Often however the energy planning is only done from the electrical side. This work takes a different angel and helps communities and energy utilities planning tomorrows energy system from a heat based perspective. After the data collection and structuring, the methodology presented here designs an energy system. Based on the quality of the collected data, the approach to define the energy demand should be chosen. In order to reduce calculation time, a data reduction approach is developed to reduce the input data without loosing significant information and precision. In particular, the methodology focuses on the integration of a stochastic resource, in this case solar thermal heat production, in combination with thermal energy storage. The thermal energy storage can be used as a short or long term thermal energy storage. The framework compares design solutions for the two storage types considering either a total cost approach or a life cycle assessment approach using the cumulative exergy demand (CExD). The proposed mathematical programming framework is based on a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) approach, that can work on different levels of detail between building to community or city level. The optimization problem can also be further simplified to a linear problem, increasing the size of problem that can be solved while reducing or keeping a constant computation time. The discussed cases show an interest in further investigating storage solution using both, the short and long term storage at once, because they allow to reduce the system's overall costs or CExD significantly. The framework is then extended to consider buildings as an energy storage. The building's internal temperature can be raised from 20 \degree C up to 23 \degree C, giving a comfort temperature range that can be used for storing heat. The integrating of both storage types, the thermal energy storage and the building as an energy storage, show no significant impact on the energy system design. However, costs or CExD can be reduced. In addition, the heat demand can be modified through the decision of optimal energy retrofitting strategy for a group of buildings. The framework decides which of the building to refurbish based the overall CExD including CExD used for retrofitting the building. Finally, a method is proposed to integrate uncertainty of the model's input parameters into the system design. A global sensitivity analysis evaluates the impact of each uncertain parameter onto the system, allowing to focusing on the outputs of interest. Robust optimization is applied with a simulation-based approach, the additional costs for a robust design are calculated, as well as the different unit sizes. The low complexity of the developed models allows for an easy integration of new data collected during the development of a project, which is often the case in urban energy planning applications.


Background The aim of this study was to provide information on patients' current service use which could inform future decisions on service planning and resource allocation. Method Individuals with a diagnosis of schizophrenia, who had received in-patient care in the previous five years, were identified from the Lothian Case Register. Information was obtained from 193 subjects. Patients' service use over a six-month period was examined. The costs incurred in service provision were determined. Results Patients differed markedly in their use of services. This was not found to be related to their mental state. Average care costs were high. In-patient care accounted for most of the overall expenditure. Conclusions There is considerable variation in the services used by patients with schizophrenia and in the costs incurred in service provision. When planning services it is therefore important that detailed information on the patient population is available if resources are to be allocated cost-effectively.


Hyperspectral instruments provide the spectral detail necessary for extracting multiple layers of information from inherently complex coastal environments. We evaluate the performance of a semi-analytical optimization model for deriving bathymetry, benthic reflectance, and water optical properties using hyperspectral AVIRIS imagery of Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii. We examine the relative impacts on model performance using two different atmospheric correction algorithms and two different methods for reducing the effects of sunglint. We also examine the impact of varying view and illumination geometry, changing the default bottom reflectance, and using a kernel processing scheme to normalize water properties over small areas. Results indicate robust model performance for most model formulations, with the most significant impact on model output being generated by differences in the atmospheric and deglint algorithms used for preprocessing.


Purpose One of the current limitations in developing novel glaucoma drugs that target the trabecular meshwork (TM) is the induced corneal toxicity from eyedrop formulations. To avoid the corneal toxicity, an alternative approach would be to deliver TM drugs through the sclera. To this end, we quantified ex vivo diffusion coefficient of a potential TM drug, ethacrynic acid (ECA), and investigated mechanisms of ECA transport in the sclera. Methods An Ussing-type diffusion apparatus was built to measure the apparent diffusion coefficient of ECA in fresh porcine sclera at 4 °C. To understand mechanisms of ECA transport, we quantified the transscleral transport of a fluorescent tracer, sodium fluorescein (NaF), that has a similar molecular weight but is more hydrophilic compared to ECA. Furthermore, we developed a mathematical model to simulate the transport processes and used it to analyze the experimental data. The model was also used to investigate the dependence of diffusion coefficients on volume fraction of viable cells and the binding of NaF and ECA to scleral tissues. Results The diffusion coefficients of ECA and NaF in the sclera were 48.5±15.1x10-7 cm2/s (n=9) and 5.23±1.93x10-7 cm2/s (n=8), respectively. Both diffusion coefficients were insensitive to cell shrinkage caused by ECA during the diffusion experiments and cell damage caused by the storage of tissues ex vivo before the experiments. Binding of ECA to scleral tissues could not be detected. The apparent maximum binding capacity and the apparent equilibrium dissociation constant for NaF were 80±5 mM and 2.5±0.5 mM (n=3), respectively. Conclusions These data demonstrated that ECA diffusion was minimally hindered by structures in the sclera, presumably due to the lack of cells and binding sites for ECA in the sclera.


The central aim of this paper is to show the similarities of some stylistic features of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man with musical code. A second purpose is to verify how these musical features are echoed in "Sirens". In order to initially describe the common properties of language and music and to define how their acoustic and rhythmic similarities are relevant in written texts, the paper will draw on the theories of the Science of Rhythm – a non-academic discipline that has influenced many modernist writings, and also studied the common rhythmic features of music and language. After detailing a musical method for the analysis of the linguistic texture of written prose, I focus on the first chapter of A Portrait. Hence, I identify the musical characteristics of the novel's style through a comparison between some Joycean scholars' theories on music in A Portrait and the principles of the Science of Rhythm. Finally, a few examples of the musical language in "Sirens" will provide a benchmark for a comparison with A Portrait.


Summary The lerp-forming psyllid, Creiis lituratus Froggatt, is the most damaging pest of Eucalyptus dunnii Maiden plantations growing in north-eastern New South Wales. During the past 10 years there have been numerous reports that stands of E. dunnii planted on low-lying areas that were prone to waterlogging were also prone to infestation by C. lituratus. The objective of this shadehouse study was to determine whether C. lituratus prefers young E. dunnii exposed to intermittent waterlogging compared with other treatments (drought, normal watering and a control using normal watering plus an insecticide). Also we assessed whether the nutritional status of E. dunnii foliage, in particular amino acid content, differed between watering treatments. Field-collected C. lituratus adults were released into the shadehouse three months after establishing the watering treatments to individually-potted E. dunnii arranged in a 14 × 6 randomised design. Three months after release of the psyllids, we counted significantly more eggs and nymphs present on the plants subjected to intermittent waterlogging compared with the other treatments. Applying general linear modelling (GLM) and Akaike's information criterion (AIC) we found that the best model included both watering treatment and plant structure (through height and diameter), with psyllid infestation (eggs+nymphs) significantly higher on the waterlogged plants and significantly lower in the drought treatment compared with the normal watering treatment. The application of the generalised estimating equations technique to foliar content of individual amino acids and nutrients did not reveal a clear association with watering treatment or psyllid infestation. Most of the significant differences in amino acid content between treatments were between plants watered normally but with or without the systemic insecticide imidacloprid applied as a soil drench. No eggs or nymphal stages were recorded on the plants treated with imidacloprid. This trial demonstrated that the psyllid C. lituratus has a preference for young E. dunnii subjected to periodic waterlogging. Plantation growers can improve their site-species match for E. dunnii by avoiding sites prone to waterlogging.


Matrix Theory-Robert Piziak 2007-02-22 In 1990, the National Science Foundation recommended that every college mathematics curriculum should include a second course in linear algebra. In answer to this recommendation, Matrix Theory: From Generalized Inverses to Jordan Form provides the material for a second semester of linear algebra that probes introductory linear algebra concepts while also exploring topics not typically covered in a sophomore-level class. Tailoring the material to advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate students, the authors offer instructors flexibility in choosing topics from the book. The text first focuses on the central problem of linear algebra: solving systems of linear equations. It then discusses LU factorization, derives Sylvester's rank formula, introduces full-rank factorization, and describes generalized inverses. After discussions on norms, QR factorization, and orthogonality, the authors prove the important spectral theorem. They also highlight the primary decomposition theorem, Schur's triangularization theorem, singular value decomposition, and the Jordan canonical form theorem. The book concludes with a chapter on multilinear algebra. With this classroom-tested text students can delve into elementary linear algebra ideas at a deeper level and prepare for further study in matrix theory and abstract algebra.


Senem Aydin Duzgit, CEPS Associate Research Fellow, finds in this Commentary that the current political tensions in Turkey date back further than the recent attempt by the Turkish judiciary to close down the governing Justice and Development Party (AKP), but are also linked to the broader issues of secularism versus Islamism in the country and may also have implications for Turkey's uniquely complex status as EU accession candidate. Whatever the outcome of the court ruling in Turkey to close down the AKP, it will certainly signal the beginning of a new era in Turkish politics. The only way out of the current political impasse seems to be the adoption of a conciliatory attitude by all parties concerned. This, however, seems to be only a remote possibility, given a governing party whose democratic credentials are now in question, an opposition that provides no credible alternative policy to the political and economic ills of the country, and a judiciary that has still not fully purged itself of the entrenched beliefs and attitudes of the state bureaucracy.


Developments in corporate law continue to give shareholders greater levels of power over public companies. Instead of using their power to seek changes within firms through such traditional means as proxy contests and litigation, shareholders are increasingly relying on private negotiations with directors as a key component of their governance activities. Regulations enacted in response to the recent financial crisis will likely trigger even more widespread use of negotiations in the years to come. In this Article, I analyze the legal and policy implications generated by the use of private negotiations as a means of corporate governance. I make two related claims. First, I contend that negotiations provide shareholders and boards with several unique benefits that will often make them a more desirable method for resolving intra-firm differences than traditional means of corporate communication. In this sense, negotiations add value by filling a governance gap. Secondly, however, I argue that board-shareholder negotiations may never realize their full potential in governance due to current restrictions on corporate speech – namely, the SEC's Regulation FD. The way in which Regulation FD impedes private negotiations stands at odds with many of the SEC's own policy goals. To address this tension, additional regulatory intervention will be required for negotiations to continue to play a valuable role in governance.


If in iconicity "form mimes meaning", then in eco-iconicity formal elements like syntax, word division, visual placement on the page, the use of white spaces, and what might be called a transformational semantics all work together to mime the dynamic processes of the ecosystem. The poet's lower-case persona inhabits insubstantial air as a voice, and then sinks in a moment of transcendence into a star. In addition, the star is iconically present within the air and on the page. Moreover, the poem ends not with the period, but with white space, resisting closure. In this paper, we will show how Cummings uses devices like these to emphasize and enact dynamic transformations in, between, and among poems, positing "meaning" as a continual process, transformation, and co- incidence of "now" moments of being. By means of a heightened iconic precision, Cummings persuades the reader to become aware again of his or her original ecological being.


In the late 19th century, F.-A. Forel led investigations of the Rhone River delta area of Lake Geneva that resulted in the discovery of a textbook example of a river-fed delta system containing impressive subaquatic channels. Well ahead of the marine counterparts, scientific observations and interpretations of water currents shaping the delta edifice for the first time documented how underflow currents carry cold, suspension-laden waters from the river mouth all the way to the deep basin. These early investigations of the Rhone delta laid the basis for follow-up studies in the 20th and 21th centuries. Sediment coring, water-column measurements, manned submersible diving, seismic reflection profiling and bathymetric surveying eventually provided a rich database to unravel the key erosional and depositional processes, further documenting the impact of human-induced changes in the catchment. With the merging of old and new scientific knowledge, today a comprehensive understanding prevails of how a delta changes through time, how its channels are formed, and what potential natural hazards may be related to its evolution. New and efficient bathymetric techniques, paired with novel coring operations, provided a time-series of morphologic evolution showing and quantifying the high dynamics of the delta/channel evolution in an unprecedented temporal and spatial resolution. Future investigations will continue to further quantify these dynamic processes and to link the evolution of the subaquatic domain with changes and processes in the catchment and with natural hazards. Its size, easy access, and large variety of states and processes will continue to make the Rhone delta area a perfect 'laboratory' in which general processes can be studied that could be upscaled or downscaled to other marine and lacustrine deltas


Abstract In large-scale cohort studies, sedentary behavior has been routinely measured using self-reports or devices that apply a count-based threshold. We employed a gold standard postural allocation technique using thigh inclination and acceleration to capture free-living sedentary behavior. Participants aged 46.8 (standard deviation (SD), 0.7) years (n = 5,346) from the 1970 British Cohort Study (United Kingdom) were fitted with a waterproofed thigh-mounted accelerometer device (activPAL3 micro; PAL Technologies Ltd., Glasgow, United Kingdom) worn continuously over 7 days; data were collected in 2016–2018. Usable data were retrieved from 83.0% of the devices fitted, with 79.6% of the sample recording at least 6 full days of wear (at least 10 waking hours). Total daily sitting time (average times were 9.5 (SD, 2.0) hours/day for men and 9.0 (SD, 2.0) hours/day for women) accounted for 59.4% and 57.3% of waking hours in men and women, respectively; 73.8% of sample participants recorded ≥8 hours/day of sitting. Sitting in prolonged bouts of 60 continuous minutes or more accounted for 25.3% and 24.4% of total daily sitting in men and women, respectively. In mutually adjusted models, male sex, underweight, obesity, education, poor self-rated health, television-viewing time, and having a sedentary occupation were associated with higher device-measured sitting times. Thigh-worn accelerometry was feasibly deployed and should be considered for larger-scale national surveys.


Purpose The aim of the study was to evaluate the effect of a late-evening protein-containing snack on nitrogen balance in cirrhotic patients. Patients and methods Thirty cirrhotic patients were divided into the following groups: group I, comprising 15 patients who received a late-evening 300-cal, 15-g protein-containing snack daily for 15 days; and group II, comprising 15 patients who received a late-evening supplement of amino acids (branched and essential) containing 22-g protein daily for 15 days. All patients were subjected to full history taking, clinical examination, and pelviabdominal ultrasound. Liver function tests, complete blood picture analysis, and estimation of blood urea and serum creatinine, urinary nitrogen loss, urea concentration in both serum and urine, and nitrogen balance were performed for all patients. Results There was a significant increase in the mean level of serum albumin and red blood cell counts. The mean nitrogen balance significantly increased in both groups but more in patients who received branched chain amino acid (BCAA) supplementation. The mean serum ammonia significantly decreased in group II patients who received a late-evening BCAA supplementation, but not in patients of group I who received a late-evening protein-containing snack. There was no statistically significant difference in the levels of serum bilirubin or fasting blood glucose in either group. Conclusion The results of the present study suggest that late-evening snacking with either a small protein-containing meal or a BCAA supplement improves the level of alanine transaminase, aspartate aminotransferase, serum albumin, nitrogen balance, ammonia, urea, and the general condition of the patient. The patients receiving BCAAs respond better than the snack group. A BCAA mixture as a late-evening snack is a favorable nutritional intervention for liver cirrhosis patients to repair hypercatabolism and sarcopenia and improve their nutritional status, such as nitrogen balance and serum albumin. These results need to be further confirmed in a larger number of patients and for a longer period of time.


Visual analytics experts realize that one effective way to push the field forward and to develop metrics for measuring the performance of various visual analytics components is to hold an annual competition. The VAST 2008 Challenge is the third year that such a competition was held in conjunction with the IEEE Visual Analytics Science and Technology (VAST) symposium. The authors restructured the contest format used in 2006 and 2007 to reduce the barriers to participation and offered four mini-challenges and a Grand Challenge. Mini Challenge participants were to use visual analytic tools to explore one of four heterogeneous data collections to analyze specific activities of a fictitious, controversial movement. Questions asked in the Grand Challenge required the participants to synthesize data from all four data sets. In this paper we give a brief overview of the data sets, the tasks, the participation, the judging, and the results.


Conventional image classification approaches may be inadequate for extraction of complex and spectrally heterogeneous land use classes from remotely sensed imagery. The integration of spatial data with remotely sensed data has the potential to improve significantly the reliability of feature classification. Thus it is informative to use contextual and textural information in the classification process. This thesis describes a methodology developed to integrate GIS and aerial imagery in a manner that allows it to be used in a knowledge-based analysis system. Using a trial site and aerial photography, the methodology was implemented and tests indicate the technique works well in mapping of roads when roads pass through a rural area where the contrast is high, but fails in urban areas where the roads are confused with man-made structures. Also, a supervised multispectral image classification of the trial site using colour aerial photography was carried out to compare the performance of a supervised multispectral image analysis with the decision tree analysis to map out roads over the trial site. A classification accuracy assessment shows that the overall classification accuracy was marginally lower than the decision tree analysis. The GIS data used in the knowledge-base included a DTM and land use covers. For this research, part of the data was already available in digital format. In practice, it may be that a DTM and land use classification would need to be created from aerial photography or satellite imagery. It is in this context that the methodology developed here is most likely to improve significantly attribute-based classification. The GIS database included geometrically rectified aerial photography, roads, land use, drainage pattern, field and vegetation boundaries, DTM, and edge detection data. A program was developed for semi-automatic linear feature detection using different edge detectors, in which the process is followed by morphological operations. The extracted edges (lines) were used as a GIS layer in a later step of the methodology. Grid raster-based processing was undertaken to build a multi-source database in the GIS to be used for knowledge-based analysis.
The multi-layer database was interfaced with decision tree software for creation of a classification tree. The independent data set comprised six variables, representing the contextual, textural, and geometrical characteristics of the knowledge-based data. In the process of decision tree analysis, the input data was recursively partitioned into mutually clustered, exhaustive subsets which define the best response variable. The resulting classification tree was used to generate generic rules for implementation of an expert system. The developed expert system was used to map out the spatial distribution of the grid data to show areas with roads (presence) and their background (absence). The output of this model is encouraging when applied over homogeneous rural scenes, but there are difficulties over heterogeneous urban areas. The results show that a framework of roads in a rural site mapped by this knowledge-based technique closely concurred with visual interpretation. This research devised a general approach to solving problems of road identification. This approach can serve as a model for practitioners who are trying to do practical work in this field. By generating a hybrid system which locates many different databases and integrates many different sources of knowledge in attempting to identify a specific (man-made) geographic feature, and by utilising current artificial intelligence (AI) techniques to perform the classification, this research provides an early example of the techniques which will be in more general use in the areas of GIS and remote sensing in the future. The methodology developed here is costly and data-intensive. Since the technique investigated in this research requires a large number of data sets to be built, construction of the data is relatively expensive over large areas. The initial costs involved in configuring a knowledge-base, such as the methodology developed in this study, are high, and this may not be justifiable in a production environment.


Portable radiation detectors are becoming widely used across various industries, particularly the security industry to roll out networks of portable detectors for illicit nuclear material detection. The capabilities of modern detectors have rapidly increased in recent years, largely with the use of advancements in photonics technology. This research program demonstrates two versatile methods of maximising the use of state of the art solid state photo multiplier technology and dual gamma neutron scintillation material, by using low power digital and analogue methods where low power consumption in portable devices is essential for longer operation times between battery charges.

A 25 million sample per second analogue to digital converter system is developed and its performance analysed for methods of gamma event energy capture using a basis of well-established principles used in radiation detection. Its architecture flexibility allows the embedding of different applications, where firstly using it similar to a traditional peak capture circuit is evaluated for gamma energy capture. Secondly, the system is evaluated when using continuous or triggered sampling of a silicon photo multiplier array output both with and without prior stages of analogue signal processing, in order to accurately capture the radiation event signal for digital processing of gamma radiation events. The results show 8-bit peak capture accuracy using generated semi – Gaussian input signals simulating scintillation requirements as fast asusing a 1 μS shaping time at 250,000 events per second. The results also show that the ADC system is able to continuously sample a scintillation event, where the captured data is re-plotted for evaluation, where further on device digital processing methods can yield radiometric information.

A low power analogue based circuit is also developed and evaluated for use with the dual gamma neutron scintillator CLLB. Current pulse shape discrimination methods rely on offline processing of pulse datasets to distinguish between a gamma and a neutron event, where the common method used relies on integration windows. This method when implemented in electronic circuitry as a timer controlled gated integrator can prove challenging to design efficiently and can consume excessive amounts of power which is a disadvantage for a battery powered product. The method used in the implemented analogue circuit relies on a combination of amplitude ratio windowing and pulse height discrimination, where successful discrimination between gamma and neutron events was achieved, and where the circuit depending on configuration and application consumes as low as 14 mW of power.


One of the tasks of personalized medicine is to build a new organizational model for providing medical care to patients, based on the selection of individual medical, diagnostic and preventive agents that are optimally suitable for the peculiarities of the body. Modern artificial intelligence methods allow you to solve problems of this type. Purpose. The aim of the study is to construct and apply predictive logistic regression models and decision tree using machine learning techniques to identify patients at high risk of hypertension without the need for invasive clinical procedures. Materials and methods. A formed data set consisting of 395 patient records of Voronezh City Clinical Clinic No. 1 is used. Each record contains patient parameters: patient sex; patient age; body mass index; waist circumference; hip circumference; tobacco smoking status; alcohol use status; systolic pressure; diastolic pressure. Machine learning methods are used to build prognostic models. Results. Two models for predicting the development of hypertension are constructed, characterized by high indicators of classification accuracy: a logistic regression model designed to calculate the patient's individual risk (accuracy 96%), and a decision tree model designed to predict the patient's possible disease with hypertension and explain the reasons why this disease can occur (accuracy 94%). Findings. The expediency of using machine learning methods in constructing prognostic models for assessing the state of patients is shown, the possibility of creating a recommendation block based on the obtained models in the remote cardiomonitoring subsystem is indicated.


This working paper offers an overview on the availability of data on irregular migration in Germany. Precisely, it critically describes the main data sources available, indicating that it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to conduct an accurate assessment of the dimensions of irregular migration as a social phenomenon in the country, the characteristics and challenges faced by this population, and the extent to which their rights are protected with the data currently available. Second, it further discusses how the lack of data on irregular migrants makes it particularly challenging to monitor specific outcomes, such as their health conditions. The final section of the document provides an overview on future prospects for the study of irregular migration in Germany, underlining the need to develop new data sources that focus on this population.


We demonstrate a method of background component suppression of synthesized pulses for flatly broadened supercontinuum (SC) generation. An adaptive pulse shaping in frequency domain achieved a 26 dB contrast between pulse center and background level in auto-correlation trace by combining two fitness functions during feedback-controlled pulse shaping. The pulse was used as a SC pump, and the spectral peak of the SC at the pump wavelength was suppressed by 5 dB using the combination scheme. Simulation results show that the phase spectra control is required to be within ± π/100 rad to suppress the spectral peak below 3 dB. The results show that adaptive pulse shaping is required to improve SC flatness due to the small mismatch tolerance.


BACKGROUND
Vocal fold hyperplastic lesions are premalignant lesions that can be treated effectively by removal of the lesions surgically.

AIMS
The aim of this study was to discuss the success of surgery in patients with vocal fold hyperplastic lesions in terms of preserving vibratory function by comparing the preoperative and postoperative videolaryngostroboscopy findings.

STUDY DESIGN
The medical charts and videolaryngostroboscopic recordings of patients diagnosed with hyperplastic lesions on the vocal folds were reviewed retrospectively.

METHODS
Twenty seven patients with unilateral lesions who underwent type1 subepithelial cordectomy were enrolled in the study. The videolaryngostroboscopic recordings were evaluated by three raters who were not the operating surgeon and who were blinded to the histology of patients. To evaluate the videolaryngostroboscopic findings, a form, which is a modification of criteria described by Hirano and Bless, was used. Preoperative and 6th month postoperative videolaryngostroboscopic recordings were compared with each other and with recordings of the control group, which included 50 healthy volunteers.

RESULTS
All videolaryngostroboscopic findings, except false cord vibration, were significantly improved after surgery.

CONCLUSION
The principle of vocal fold surgery in patients with benign lesions is to preserve the vibratory tissue. This principle also applies to patients with hyperplastic lesions that are premalignant. The hydrodissection technique may be beneficial for this purpose.


The objective of the study is to assess the level of effectiveness and impact of a civil society organization in addressing challenges of women's entrepreneurs in the informal sector in Ethiopia, particularly in the city of Addis Ababa in their efforts to grow their businesses. A qualitative case study of a civil society organization named Women in Self Employment Organization (WISE) was used. Desk reviews of the organization's strategic plans and reports including evaluation reports are made. Questionnaire was administered to the organization's executive director as a context builder. This is critically examined against theories on gender and development particularly Moser's theoretical framework, a study made by ILO on Effectiveness of Entrepreneurship Development Interventions for Women Entrepreneurs and lastly a study commissioned by International Center on Research for Women on Business Development Services for Women's Business Growth to compare practices and assess its effectiveness. Finally, organizational effectiveness is examined. The result of the study found that WISE's integrated intervention approach mainly through economic empowerment was highly effective, has changed the socio economic status of its targets both at the household level and the community. The principles and its approaches are in conformity with studies on effectiveness of interventions on entrepreneurship development and gender and development theories.


Optical-code-division multiple access (OCDMA) has been investigated as a multiple-access technique for a long time, but so far, it has not reached any practical success. We investigate the performance of low-complexity OCDMA systems with a realistic model of noise and interference; the main limitation of the system is beat noise. To improve the performance, we consider forward-error correction (FEC) and soft decoding using standard error-correcting codes. The achievable error rates are evaluated using simulations and show significant improvement when FEC is used. The results also show that frequency-hopping systems perform better than temporally coded systems when beat noise is taken into account.


In the past 40 years, many kinds of simulation methods of micro phase separation of block copolymer were proposed. Each technic has some features derived from the original theory, and has strong and weak points in each simulation. We have developed the simulation software OCTA and performed the application study of OCTA to analyze the micro phase separated structure. In this paper, these simulation technics for micro phase separation of block copolymer are explained as a showcase of those technics from the point of view of DSA analysis. The advantages and disadvantages of these methods in the application study of DSA are indicated. I hope that this paper becomes the compass to select the suitable simulation method to analyze each DSA problem.


We investigate five different problems in the field of the statistical mechanics of neural networks. The first three problems involve attractor neural networks that optimise particular cost functions for storage of static memories as attractors of the neural dynamics. We study the effects of replica symmetry breaking (RSB) and attempt to find algorithms that will produce the optimal network if error-free storage is impossible. For the Gardner-Derrida network we show that full RSB is necessary for an exact solution everywhere above saturation. We also show that, no matter what the cost function that is optimised, if the distribution of stabilities has a gap then the Parisi replica ansatz that has been made is unstable. For the noise-optimal network we find a continuous transition to replica symmetry breaking at the AT line, in line with previous studies of RSB for different networks. The change to RSBl improves the agreement between "experimental" and theoretical calculations of the local stability distribution ρ(λ) significantly. The effect on observables is smaller. We show that if the network is presented with a training set which has been generated from a set of prototypes by some noisy rule, but neither the noise level nor the prototypes are known, then the perceptron algorithm is the best initial choice to produce a network that will generalise well. If additional information is available more sophisticated algorithms will be faster and give a smaller generalisation error. The remaining problems deal with attractor neural networks with separable interaction matrices which can be used (under parallel dynamics) to store sequences of patterns without the need for time delays. We look at the effects of correlations on a singlesequence network, and numerically investigate the storage capacity of a network storing an extensive number of patterns in such sequences. When correlations are implemented along with a term in the interaction matrix designed to suppress some of the effects of those correlations, the competition between the two produces a rich range of behaviour. Contrary to expectations, increasing the correlations and the operating temperature proves capable of improving the sequenceprocessing behaviour of the network. Finally, we demonstrate that a network storing a large number of sequences of patterns using a Hebb-like rule can store approximately twice as many patterns as the network trained with the Hebb rule to store individual patterns.


During sepsis, bacterial products, particularly LPS, trigger injury in organs such as the liver. This common condition remains largely untreatable, in part due to a lack of understanding of how high concentrations of LPS cause cellular injury. In the liver, the lysosomal degradative pathway of autophagy performs essential hepatoprotective functions and is induced by LPS. We, therefore, examined whether hepatocyte autophagy protects against liver injury from septic levels of LPS. Mice with an inducible hepatocyte-specific knockout of the critical autophagy gene Atg7 were examined for their sensitivity to high-dose LPS. Increased liver injury occurred in knockout mice, as determined by significantly increased serum alanine aminotransferase levels, histological evidence of liver injury, terminal deoxynucleotide transferase-mediated deoxyuridine triphosphate nick end-labeling, and effector caspase-3 and -7 activation. Hepatic inflammation and proinflammatory cytokine induction were unaffected by the decrease in hepatocyte autophagy. Although knockout mice had normal NF-κB signaling, hepatic levels of Akt1 and Akt2 phosphorylation in response to LPS were decreased. Cultured hepatocytes from knockout mice displayed a generalized defect in Akt signaling in response to multiple stimuli, including LPS, TNF, and IL-1β. Akt activation mediates hepatocyte resistance to TNF cytotoxicity, and anti-TNF antibodies significantly decreased LPS-induced liver injury in knockout mice, indicating that the loss of autophagy sensitized to TNF-dependent liver damage. Hepatocyte autophagy, therefore, protects against LPS-induced liver injury. Conditions such as aging and steatosis that impair hepatic autophagy may predispose to poor outcomes from sepsis through this mechanism.


Introduction: Acetaminophen is a widely used analgesic and antipyretic drug. Although it is considered safe at therapeutic doses, at higher doses, might produces a centrilobular hepatic necrosis that can be fatal. In the present study, the effect of fennel seed on hepatotoxicity induced by acetaminophen was investigated. Methods: In this experimental study, forty-two adult male Wistar rats, weighing 250 to 280g, were randomly allocated into seven groups (n=6 for each group). After 24 hours of fasting, the control and control+ fennel (600, 1200mg/kg) groups, received normal saline, and the acetaminophen and acetaminophen+fennel (300, 600, 1200mg/kg) groups received acetaminophen 1000mg/kg. After 6 hours, groups control and acetaminophen were given normal saline and groups control+fennel (600, 1200mg/kg) and acetaminophen+fennel (300, 600, 1200mg/kg) were given fennel seed powder in normal saline. Twelve hours later, liver peroxidase, catalase, malondialdehyde (MDA), hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) were assayed. Results: In acetaminophen group, ALT, AST, MDA and H2O2 increased, and peroxidase and catalase activity decreased significantly compared to control. Fennel seed used in acetaminophen+fennel (600mg/kg) group returned the changes toward control group. Conclusion: The results suggest that fennel seed has a protective role in acetaminopheninduced hepatotoxicity.


The oceans have shown a recent rapid and accelerating rise in temperature with, given the close link between temperature and marine organisms, pronounced effects on ecosystems. Here we describe for the first time a globally synchronous pattern of pulsed short period (~1 year long) emanations of warm sea surface temperature anomalies from tropical seas towards the poles on the shelf/slope with an intensification of the warming after the 1976/1977, 1986/1987 and 1997/1998 El Niños. On the eastern margins of continents the anomalies propagate towards the poles in part by largely baroclinic boundary currents, reinforced by regional atmospheric warming. The processes contributing to the less continuous warm anomalies on western margins are linked to the transfer of warmth from adjacent western boundary currents. These climate induced events show a close parallelism with the timing of ecosystem changes in shelf seas, important for fisheries and ecosystem services, and melting of sea-ice.


Patents and other industrial IPRs have the potential to undermine the collective pursuit of a technical standard that might serve the common interests of the sector or industry. This tension between the individual and the collective, between the development of technology and its diffusion, is by no means new; it is an inherent feature of standard development as an institution of innovation. The premise for this article is that the scope for conflict has increased over time. The increasing prevalence of the conflict raises a set of challenges for policymakers, patent offices, standards development organizations, and businesses. The article contributes to increasing awareness in these environments.


Many countries rely heavily on energy sources to provide sustainable growth rate. Simultaneously, growth rates of these countries define applicability of variety of energy production. This paper examined association between renewable energy and growth rate with some other variables in the case of sixteen high income countries. Panel causality is applied to indicate short run and long run relationship among variables, bidirectional causality held in renewable energy and growth rate in the short term while unidirectional causality take place in the long term. Fully modified ordinary least square and dynamic least square support the idea that relationship between renewable energy and economic growth by statistical significance of panel result. Luxembourg is a country which has maximum contribution of the renewable energy to the gross national product according to the results of not only DOLS but also FMOLS.


After most moderate‐to‐strong earthquakes causing considerable damage (e.g., recent earthquakes such as those of Boumerdes in 2003, Bam in 2003, L'Aquila in 2009, Haiti in 2010, etc.), the observed losses remind local authorities and decision makers that reducing seismic risk is essential for the well‐being and safety of local populations, as well as for economic and social stability. The anticipation and simulation of the consequences of an earthquake scenario require knowledge of the probabilistic seismic hazard, as well as a representation of the capacity of structures to support the seismic ground motion: this is the objective of seismic‐vulnerability assessments. Such assessments (1) allow the estimation of probable damage at a large overall scale (country, region, town); (2) give information on the most vulnerable building categories that must benefit from priority reinforcement; (3) inform local authorities on the level of risk to which the population is exposed, compared with other natural or domestic hazards that are more frequent and therefore more easily appreciated by the population, particularly in moderate seismic‐hazard countries (Lestuzzi et al. , 2009; Dunand and Gueguen, 2012); and (4) allow anticipation of the actions and reactions for crisis management by local or wider communities (Jaiswal et al. , 2010). Coupled with real‐time seismic ground‐motion estimates (e.g., Wald et al. , 1999; Worden et al. , 2010), macroscale vulnerability data is crucial information for the early assessment of damage, as proposed for specific facilities by Wald et al. (2008).

Old structures, designed before the application of earthquake design rules and present everywhere, are certainly a critical element affecting the extent of loss and fatalities. Many empirical methods for vulnerability assessment have been published, most of them calibrated on postearthquake observations (e.g., Gruppo Nazionale per la Difesa dai Terremoti [GNDT], 1993; Hazus, 1997; Spence and Lebrun, 2006). They give the probability of reaching a …


As the National Highway System reaches the end of its serviceable life, it becomes necessary for transportation agencies to focus on the preservation, rehabilitation, and maintenance of these roads. With significant increases in the amount of work zone activity, transportation officials and contractors are challenged with finding ways to reduce the negative impacts on driver mobility. The key to addressing this challenge is to recognize these impacts well in advance. One major tool used for this purpose is computer simulation. There are many simulation models in existence, some of which are designed specifically for work zone analysis. Examples of these models include QUEWZ, QuickZone, and CA4PRS. QuickZone and QUEWZ are designed to estimate delays, queues, and delay-related costs associated with traffic impacts created by work zones. CA4PRS estimates the maximum distance of highway that can be rehabilitated or reconstructed with various project staging plans and resource constraints. This paper includes two case studies that illustrate and evaluate these models in terms of their ease of use, data requirements, and ability to simulate and assess work zone strategies along Interstate 91 in Greenfield, MA and Interstate 95 in West Greenwich, RI. The evaluation sheds light on the relative accuracy of these simulation models as well as their user-friendliness and data requirements. The results of this evaluation will be of interest to State and local transportation engineers responsible for planning and designing work zone strategies.


One-sided communication has been added to the MPI standard with MPI-2 in 1997 and has been greatly extended with the introduction of MPI-3 in 2012. Even though one-sided communication offers many use cases, from which an application could benefit, it has only sporadically been used for HPC so far. The objective of this thesis is to examine its potential use for replacing a OpenMP section with equivalent code, which only makes use of MPI. This is done based on an already existing application, named PHOENIX. This application is currently developed at the observatory of Hamburg and has been designed to be executed on HPC systems. Its purpose is, among other things, to numerically solve the equations of 3D radiative transfer for stellar objects. For utilising HPC hardware at its full capacity PHOENIX makes use of MPI and OpenMP. In the course of this thesis a test application has been constructed, which mimics the OpenMP sections and allows to benchmark diverse combinations of MPI one-sided communication operations. The benchmarks are performed on a Intel Xeon Phi Knights Corner and on a Intel Xeon Phi Knights Landing to estimate if a certain approach is suitable for HPC hardware in general. In the end each approach is discussed and assessed which kind of communication pattern might benefit most of MPI one-sided communication.


Clark, RA, Bryant, AL, and Humphries, B. An examination of strength and concentric work ratios during variable range of motion training. J Strength Cond Res 22(5): 1716-1719, 2008-Variable range of motion (ROM) training consists of partial ROM resistance training with the countermovement being performed at a different phase of the movement for each set. In this study, we assessed the effect of this method of training on peak force, load lifted, and concentric work performed. Six male subjects with resistance training backgrounds (age 20.2 ± 1.3 years, height 179.4 ± 4.6 cm, weight 89.6 ± 9.9 kg, 6-repetition maximum [6RM] bench press 92.5 ± 14.3 kg) participated in this study. Testing consisted of 6RM bench press strength tests during full (FULL), three quarter (¾), one half (½), and one quarter (¼) ROM from full elbow extension bench press performed on a Smith machine. The 6RM load, peak force (PF), and concentric work (W) performed during each ROM was examined using a one-way analysis of variance performed at an α level of p < 0.05. The 6RM load increased significantly as the ROM was decreased for all tests (FULL = 92.5 ± 14.3 kg, ¾ = 102.1 ± 14.3 kg, ½ = 123.3 ± 23.6 kg, ¼ = 160.9 ± 26.2 kg). PF during each test was significantly higher during the ¼ (1924.8 ± 557.9 N) and ½ (1859.4 ± 317.1 N) ROM from full elbow extension bench press when compared with the ¾ (1242.2 ± 254.6 N) and FULL (1200.5 ± 252.5 N) ROM exercise. Although higher force levels were evident, the restriction in barbell displacement resulted in a subsequent reduction in W as the lifting ROM was reduced. These results suggest that variable ROM resistance training results in increased force production as the ROM diminishes.