We model a health insurance market where rising cure rates for a disease may paradoxically diminish welfare and even negate the desirability of health insurance altogether. In the model, rising cure rates can affect welfare in two ways: (1) directly, by improving some individuals' health, and (2) indirectly, by influencing the mode and parameters of the optimal insurance contract and, thus, ex post financial wealth distribution. ("Mode" refers to the qualitative specifications of the contract—presence or absence of indemnities and full, partial or zero coverage of treatments received. "Parameters" refers to the quantitative features of the contracts—level of nonzero indemnities, deductibles and premiums.) ; Graboyes (2000a) compares the relative efficiency of deductibles and indemnities in deterring low-benefit patients (those whom treatment is less likely to cure) from seeking expensive medical care. The current paper asks how optimal insurance and associated welfare change as curative technology improves. Deterring some but not all patients requires deductibles or indemnities because one's H/L status is known to all, but not legally verifiable. ; We find that advances in curative power may reduce welfare and even eradicate health insurance. This is because at higher cure rates, higher indemnities and deductibles are needed to deter patients from seeking treatment. Given certain population parameters, higher cure rates can only reduce welfare. The findings raise some practical, empirical, and ethical questions; some of these issues are enumerated in the conclusion.


A Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) is a standard industrial control device that provides a simple, yet robust, method of controlling manufacturing and dynamic processes. As a result of their low cost, adaptability, and reliability, PLCs are by far the most common control mechanism used by manufacturing businesses of all sizes for environment control, food processing, motion control, and automated test equipment. Yet even though PLCs are heavily used by industry, their use in teaching control theory concepts is uncommon for mechanical engineering programs. Traditional control systems engineering courses focus on the theory and mathematics of continuous-based control systems and rarely involve the use of PLCs, which provide an excellent platform to teach feedback control. Only a few programs have included a specific focus on non-continuous (on/off) control commonly used in industrial environments. In addition, learning ladder logic, a programming language for PLCs, can be difficult and seem unnecessary for those with a traditional programming background, such as C++. Recognizing the appropriate ways of how and when to use PLCs is a key factor in applying control theory effectively in an industrial or even a research environment This paper reviews the literature devoted to control systems education. It shows how academia is using PLCs in education and how it can complement the traditional focus on continuous-based control. A key objective of this paper is to review the PLC use in mechanical engineering education, which traditionally takes place in a control systems engineering course. This paper will also address a proposal by the authors that implementing PLCs into a control systems course for mechanical engineering students can enable a natural integration of continuous and non-continuous control theory.


The prevalence of obesity in industrialized countries has reached epidemic proportions, with about one in three people being obese and another one in three people being overweight and at risk of developing obesity. In recent years, obesity has gained the traditional tetrad of cardiovascular risk factors of smoking: hypertension, dyslipidemia, and dysglycemia. Attention has also focused on the importance of abdominal (or central) obesity as a determinant of cardiovascular risk, independent of the body mass index. In addition to effects on coronary artery disease, obesity has an effect on cardiovascular disease, including stroke, ventricular function, peripheral arterial disease, and venous thromboembolism. The objectives of this review are to summarize the effects of obesity on cardiovascular disease, and the possible mechanisms for these associations, and to investigate the effects of weight-loss interventions on the burden of cardiovascular disease. Large ongoing clinical outcome trials, such as the SOS study, the Look-AHEAD trial, or the SCOUT study, should provide important information on the effects of surgical and nonsurgical obesity treatment on cardiovascular morbidity and mortality.


INTRODUCTION: Appraising the quality of studies included in systematic reviews combining qualitative and quantitative evidence is challenging. To address this challenge, a critical appraisal tool was developed: the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT). The aim of this paper is to present the enhancements made to the MMAT. DEVELOPMENT: The MMAT was initially developed in 2006 based on a literature review on systematic reviews combining qualitative and quantitative evidence. It was subject to pilot and interrater reliability testing. A revised version of the MMAT was developed in 2018 based on the results from usefulness testing, a literature review on critical appraisal tools and a modified e-Delphi study with methodological experts to identify core criteria. TOOL DESCRIPTION: The MMAT assesses the quality of qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods studies. It focuses on methodological criteria and includes five core quality criteria for each of the following five categories of study designs: (a) qualitative, (b) randomized controlled, (c) nonrandomized, (d) quantitative descriptive, and (e) mixed methods. CONCLUSION: The MMAT is a unique tool that can be used to appraise the quality of different study designs. Also, by limiting to core criteria, the MMAT can provide a more efficient appraisal.


Members of editorial board of any journal frequently face a common question, what is the impact factor of your journal? Even I have faced this situation umpteen number times on various occasions. Therefore I wish to utilize this platform to discuss this important issue. Bogus impact factor agencies and predatory journals are playing on front foot as they have gone one step ahead after assessing the academic market of demand and supply. True academicians need to be cautious about the racket of valid and invalid impact factors. Authors and readers including academic faculty and especially post-graduate students may be benefited by this editorial. Aim of this activity is to make aware of academicians about true and counterfeit / fake impact factors often used by predatory publishers[1] The impact factor (IF) or Journal impact factor (JIF) is one of the most important measure of appraisal of academic faculty for the purposes of academic evaluation such as selections and promotions used by various universities or institutions in current scenario. Consulting Journal Citation Reports' master journal list can confirm if a publication is indexed by Journal Citation Reports, which is a necessary (but not sufficient) condition for obtaining an IF. Read  more . . .


Ground Reaction Forces Through a Range of Speeds in Steeplechase Hurdling James Brian Tracy Department of Exercise Sciences, BYU Master of Science The men's steeplechase event requires participants to jump over thirty-five 0.914-metertall obstacles, 4 rigid barriers and 1 fixed barrier followed by a 3.66-meter-long water pit per lap, over a 3000-meter distance. This study investigated the effect of increasing running velocity, through a range of 5.33 m/s to 6.66 m/s, on takeoff and landing ground reaction forces, for males during steeplechase hurdling using a force plate embedded under a track surface. Subjects completed 1 trial within each of 6 different pace ranges in a random order, once with a hurdle following the force plate to measure the takeoff ground reaction forces and a second time with the hurdle prior to the force plate to measure the landing ground reaction forces. Within a repeated measures linear mixed model during takeoff, peak vertical force (r2 = 0.1968, p < 0.01) and horizontal propulsive impulse (r2 = 0.0287, p = 0.02) were positively correlated with increasing velocity, and ground time (r2 = 0.1904, p < 0.01) was negatively correlated with increasing velocity. Within a repeated measures linear mixed model during landing, vertical impact force loading rate (r2 = 0.0099, p < 0.01) was positively correlated with increasing velocity and ground time (r2 = 0.2889, p < 0.01), vertical impulse (r2 = 0.1704, p = 0.02), and horizontal braking impulse (r2 = 0.0004, p = 0.05) were negatively correlated with increasing velocity. As male steeplechasers prepared to hurdle at increasing speeds, they produced a greater peak vertical force on the takeoff step while decreasing the ground time during takeoff, and increasing the horizontal propulsive impulse to carry themselves beyond the hurdle. While landing from the hurdle at increasing speeds, the athlete decreased the amount of time spent on the landing stance and the vertical impulse, and increased the magnitude of horizontal braking impulse and vertical loading rate. The relationships of these variables: takeoff peak vertical force, takeoff ground time, takeoff horizontal impulse, landing ground time, and landing vertical loading rate to increasing velocity were all comparable to overground running responses. The data differed from running by not indicating any change in hurdling takeoff horizontal braking impulse; however, the horizontal braking impulse did increase on hurdling landing. It was expected to decrease on hurdling landing due to the foot landing more underneath the center of mass after hurdling compared to running. The decrease in landing vertical impulse as speed increased also differed from normal running steps. We suggest that further research include kinematic measures to better understand the relationship between these variables as hurdling velocity increases.


Maize (2n = 40) x Tripsacum dactyloides (2n = 72) F1 hybrid plants (2n = 56) were obtained by embryo rescue and induction of somatic embryogenesis/organogenesis. Hybrid plants showed Tripsacum -like phenotypes, tolerance to stresses such as NaCl salinity and low temperatures. The more frequent meiotic configurations were 28II (24%), 24II + 2IV (19%) and 26II + 1IV (12%), with an average per cell of 0.55I + 25.18II + 1.19IV. Significant differences between plants were not observed. Pollen fertility ranged from 0% to 50%. After pollination with maize or Tripsacum , 20% of F1 plants have developed viable seeds, which originated the progeny. Thirty five percent of the progeny showed 2n = 56 chromosomes and F1 like-phenotypes, which suggests they have apomictic origin. The remaining plants were fertile and they showed maize-like phenotypes and different chromosome numbers (2n = 22, 24, 26, 28 and 30), because they kept the complete maize chromosome complement and some of the Tripsacum chromosomes. Meiotic cells showed pairing between chromosomes from both parental species, which suggests the possibility of genetic recombination between them.


3523 Background: ARQ 197 (ARQ) is a selective non-ATP competitive inhibitor of c-Met, a receptor tyrosine kinase implicated in tumor cell proliferation, invasion and angiogenesis. Preclinical data and declines in circulating endothelial cell (CEC) levels in patients (pts) receiving ARQ suggest antiangiogenic potential of c-Met inhibition.

METHODS
ARQ was administered orally twice daily (bid) to pts with advanced solid tumors. Pre and post-therapy tumor biopsies were mandated for c-Met and FAK immunohistochemical studies during dose escalation (n = 16). CEC enumeration was evaluated. 12 pts are being investigated in the maximum tolerated dose (MTD) expansion cohort with DCE and Diffusion Weighted (DW) MRI.

RESULTS
29 pts (14 F/15 M; mean 54.4 yrs) received ARQ at doses of 100 (n = 3), 200 (n = 6), 300 (n = 16), and 400 (n = 4) mg bid. 3 pts experienced dose limiting toxicities of CTCAEv3 grade (G)3 fatigue (200 mg bid); G3 hand-foot syndrome, G3 mucositis and G3 febrile neutropenia (400 mg bid). This established the ARQ MTD/recommended phase II dose (RP2D) at 300 mg bid. Other toxicities were G1-2, such as fatigue (n = 5); diarrhea, nausea and vomiting (n = 3). Mean AUC0-12h and Cmax increased linearly through the MTD. Statistically significant post-ARQ inhibition of high baseline phosphorylated c-Met and FAK expression in tumor tissue was seen in all dose cohorts confirming target inhibition. Disease stabilization (SD) was seen in 11 pts for up to 23 weeks with tumor regressions up to 12.4%. 13 of 20 pts had post-ARQ CEC declines of up to 100%. In the DCE-MRI cohort to date, preliminary analyses of ktrans histograms from pelvic lesions were consistent with antiangiogenic effects, with a ktrans median reduction of 20.1% on day 7 of ARQ (intrapatient baseline variability: 2.8%). This effect was still present (ktrans median decline: 8.3%) on day 56 of ARQ.

CONCLUSIONS
ARQ is well tolerated with MTD/RP2D of 300mg bid, linear PK and evidence of phosphorylated c-Met and FAK inhibition. CEC and preliminary DCE-MRI data support the antiangiogenic effects of c-Met inhibition with ARQ. Correlation with other DCE parameters and DW changes will be presented. [Table: see text].


The present study was to Parasitic diseases are associated with the environmental dynamics of the Brazilian Amazon. In this way each Amazonian city has peculiarities that cannot be compared with other classic endemic regions. Despite advances in understanding the cycle of parasitic diseases for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes, prevention work remains a challenge. All diagnostic strategies aimed at identification and treatment are deficient in reporting, prevention and control. In this way, it is perceived that there is a need for improvements in the information networks involved in these diseases, specifically in Amazonia, so that they can be prioritized and elaborate public policies so that they do not remain neglected tropical diseases.


We construct many examples of nonslice knots in 3-space that cannot be distinguished from slice knots by previously known invariants. Using Whitney towers in place of embedded disks, we define a geometric filtration of the 3-dimensional topological knot concordance group. The bottom part of the filtration exhibits all classical concordance invariants, including the CassonGordon invariants. As a first step, we construct an infinite sequence of new obstructions that vanish on slice knots. These take values in the L-theory of skew fields associated to certain universal groups. Finally, we use the dimension theory of von Neumann algebras to define an L 2 -signature and use this to detect the first unknown step in our obstruction theory.


Abstract The aims of this study were to evaluate community pharmacists' views about their current role, main barriers to pharmaceutical care practice and their attitudes towards continuing education and providing some services. The study was a questionnaire based cross-sectional study that was conducted among community pharmacists in the West Bank between July 2013 and March 2014. Key findings: The questionnaire was completed by 295 out of the 300 pharmacists approached giving a response rate of (98.3%). The majority of pharmacists (205; 69.5%) stated that the community pharmacists do not practice the pharmaceutical care as it should be. All of the pharmacists said that they dispense medications and write instructions of use, 224 (76.0%) claimed that they ask about allergies, 218 (74.0%) confirmed that they review the appropriateness of the doses, 200 (68.0%) said that they take medical and disease history. The majority of the pharmacists 275 (93.2%) were willing to participate in pharmaceutical care practice. The main reported barriers to practice pharmaceutical care were the poor cooperation from the patients (215; 73%), and physicians (180; 61%), having no enough time (177; 60%), and low salaries (153; 52%). The majority 92.5% (273 pharmacists) were willing to participate in continuing education activities. The majority of community pharmacists believe that they do not do their role in Palestine as it should be. Dispensing of prescriptions is the primary focus of community pharmacists. The community pharmacists have positive attitude towards pharmaceutical care and continuing education. Efforts are needed to overcome barriers.


The challenges of pain assessment in infants, children and young people are well recognised. As pain is known to be a complex and subjective phenomenon that is influenced by many factors, it is clear that both the intensity and unpleasantness or suffering due to pain can only be expressed accurately by the individual who experiences it. Therefore, self-report of pain is, and is likely to always remain, the 'gold standard' of assessment. Nevertheless, as self-report of pain is impractical in many clinical situations, a number of proxy measures of pain, including facial expressions, behaviours and 'biomarkers', i.e. changes in physiological or biological parameters, have been investigated and incorporated, where appropriate, into clinical practice. To date, no measure has emerged as superior to others in all situations and consequently they are often combined or included in composite pain measurement scales that require validation for particular groups of patients in specific clinical circumstances.

Biomarkers, such as heart rate, skin conductance, plasma levels of cortisol and stress hormones, inflammatory and genetic markers and neuroimaging have the advantage that they are relatively easy to measure and generally respond rapidly and in conjunction with the autonomic arousal that occurs in response to certain types of pain. Although they tend to broadly correlate with each other and with other pain measures including behaviours and self-reported pain, their clinical usefulness has generally been limited by their lack of specificity, low to moderate sensitivity, and tendency to 'habituate' over time due to homeostatic mechanisms.

Interest in reflex pupillary motor activity measurement (pupillometry) has recently emerged as a potential biomarker …


Abstract. Alpine valleys represent some of the most important crossroads for international heavy-duty traffic in Europe, but the full impact of this traffic on air quality is not known due to a lack of data concerning these complex systems. As part of the program "Pollution des Vallees Alpines" (POVA), we performed two sampling surveys of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in two sensitive valleys: the Chamonix and Maurienne Valleys, between France and Italy. Sampling campaigns were performed during the summer of 2000 and the winter of 2001, with both periods taking place during the closure of the "Tunnel du Mont-Blanc". The first objective of this paper is to describe the relations between PAH concentrations, external parameters (sampling site localization, meteorological parameters, sources), and aerosol characteristics, including its carbonaceous fraction (OC and EC). The second objective is to study the capacity of PAH profiles to accurately distinguish the different emission sources. Temporal evolution of the relative concentration of an individual PAH (CHR) and the PAH groups BghiP+COR and BbF+BkF is studied in order to differentiate wood combustion, gasoline, and diesel emissions, respectively. The results show that the total particulate PAH concentrations were higher in the Chamonix valley during both seasons, despite the cessation of international traffic. Seasonal cycles, with higher concentrations in winter, are also stronger in this valley. During winter, particulate PAH concentration can reach very high levels (up to 155 ng.m-3) in this valley during cold anticyclonic periods. The examination of sources shows the impact during summer of heavy-duty traffic in the Maurienne valley and of gasoline vehicles in the Chamonix valley. During winter, Chamonix is characterized by the strong influence of wood combustion in residential fireplaces, even if the temporal evolution of specific PAH ratios are difficult to interpret. Information on sources given by PAH profiles can only be considered in qualitative terms.


Go beyond the basics of Ableton Live with this book of audio making and mangling recipes, tips, and mixing/mastering techniques. Ableton Live is undoubtedly the most flexible audio application available today: Use it for sound design for music, film, theater, and games; composition; improvising with other musicians; live looping; DJing; and of course mixing and mastering music. Author, mastering engineer, certified Ableton trainer, and power-user Jake Perrine will inspire you to use Live in new ways, and to improve how you already use it. Striking a delicate balance of artistry and theory, he will expand your repertoire for both the studio and the stage. From inspiring recipes for sculpting audio magic and mayhem, to in-depth discussions of mixing and mastering that you would expect to learn in an audio production school, this book is designed to help you "out of your box" into a larger world. It will deepen, enliven, inspire, and improve and your tracks, audio, and performance skills with Ableton Live.


The identity of diamond inclusions in quartz-muscovite gneisses occurring in the Saxonian Erzgebirge near the Saidenbach reservoir was proven by laser-Raman micro-spectroscopy. The identification was additionally backed-up by graphitization of diamond inclusions as a result of irradiation with a high-energy laser beam. Enclosed microdiamonds are mostly idiomorphic and are up to 30 μm in size. They occur preferentially in garnet but were also found in zircon and kyanite. The microdiamond inclusions give evidence for ultra-high pressure metamorphism experienced by the host rock.


During the design of ABR traffic management at the ATM Forum, we performed several analyses to ensure that the ABR service will operate efficiently over satellite links. In the cases where the performance was unacceptable, we suggested modifications to the traffic management specifications. This paper describes one such issue related to the count of missing resource management cells (Crm) parameter of the ABR source behavior. The analysis presented here led to the changes which are now part of the ATM traffic management (TM 4.0) specification. In particular, the size of the transient buffer exposure (TBE) parameter was set to 24 bits, and no size was enforced for the Crm parameter. This simple change improved the throughput over OC-3 satellite links from 45 Mbps to 140 Mbps.


Ever since Friedman's (1960) contribution, there has been an ongoing controversy about whether the Treasury should auction off its government debt with a discriminatory or with a uniform price format. Many industrialized countries, the United States or Germany, for instance, use discriminatory auctions, while Switzerland applies to uniform price rule. Using recent contributions to multi-unit auction theory, we analyze data on the bids submitted to Swiss Treasury bond auctions over the last three years. We then construct hypothetical bid functions that would occur under price discrimination. Based on these bid functions, we determine which auction format minimizes the government's costs of financing its debt.


A quantum key distribution (QKD) system has been developed, using a standard telecommunications optical fiber, which is capable of operating at clock rates of greater than 1 GHz. The QKD system implements a polarization encoded version of the B92 protocol. The system employs vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers with emission wavelengths of 850 nm as weak coherent light sources, and silicon single photon avalanche diodes as the single photon detectors. A distributed feedback laser of emission wavelength 1.3 /spl mu/m, and a linear gain germanium avalanche photodiode was used to optically synchronize individual photons over the standard telecommunications fiber. The QKD system exhibited a quantum bit error rate (QBER) of 1.4%, and an estimated net bit rate (NBR) greater than 100 000 bits/sup -1/ for a 4.2-km transmission range. For a 10-km fiber range, a QBER of 2.1%, and an estimated NBR of greater than 7000 bits/sup -1/ was achieved.


The use of e-government in the public sector has created great expectations among countries. However, the degree of development and the challenges posed by the implementation of such initiatives, varies from country to country. Although much has been published on the status of e-government in Anglo Saxon countries and in Europe, little has been written on the same subject in Latin America. This workshop will provide the opportunity for both researchers and practitioners to explore the particularities of the implementation of these initiatives in Latin America and will offer the opportunity to present interesting topics for future research and collaboration.


Abstract Above 20 MeV the standard spheres of a Bonner sphere spectrometer (BSS) have similar responses, both in shape and sensitivity. The responses of the standard set also exhibit strongly diminishing sensitivities above 20 MeV. In the current work the Monte Carlo N-Particle eXtended (MCNPX) code was used to investigate different design modifications to increase the high-energy neutron response of a BSS. The cost-effective system expands upon the design of an existing, commercially available BSS system by adding concentric shells of copper, tungsten, and lead. These shells are used in various combinations with the existing spheres. The design, referred to as the Bonner sphere extension (BSE), incorporates both passive and active detection techniques including activation foils and the standard 6LiI(Eu) scintillator. Detailed models in MCNPX were used to create fine-group neutron responses from thermal to 1000 MeV. Measurements were performed with the BSE at Los Alamos Neutron Science Center, and the data were unfolded using the MXD-FC33 code and the calculated BSE response matrix. The resulting spectrum demonstrated the BSE system provided improvement in the measurement of the neutron spectra in the energy regions above 20 MeV when compared to the standard Bonner sphere system. The BSE system extends the sensitivity of the system to more than ten decades in energy while maintaining a nearly isotropic angular response.


High Pressure Processing (HPP) is a leading nonthermal food processing technology that is often cited as a major technological innovation in food preservation. Although it is very early to place this emerging technology among the list of breakthroughs in food processing, HPP has started to become a viable commercial alternative for pasteurisation of value added fruits, vegetables, meat, and seafood products to be safely enjoyed by the consumer. In a High Pressure process, the food product to be treated is placed in a pressure vessel capable of sustaining the required pressure; the product is submerged in a liquid which acts as the pressuretransmitting medium. The working pressure for any HP process is a very important parameter, not only because the capital investment of such an equipment increases steeply with increases in working pressures, but also because a decrease in working pressure can reduce significantly the number of failures, increasing the work life of the equipment (Otero et al., 2000). The objectives of this study were to model the stress profiles in a High Pressure chamber, modelling of Temperature – time plots in a High Pressure chamber using COMSOL 4.2a and understand the yield criteria for the vessel and the temperature gradient in the vessel with time in the presence of a constant heat source. Firstly, a pressure of 200 MPa was applied internally to an empty pressure vessel. Subsequent to that, a polyethylene core was introduced into the vessel's core and the same pressure of 200 MPa was applied internally. The Von Mises stress produced in both the cases was different owing to the introduction of the polyethylene core. A plot showcasing the change in the Von Mises stress with changes in operating pressure was plotted later on. Studies of the changes in the temperature of the vessel with changes in operating pressure were also made and have been depicted pictorially. The changes in the temperature of the vessel were of the order of 10K at an operating pressure of 300 MPa in a time span of about 120s. The results obtained as part of this study were primarily profiles that are time independent as well as dependent as the case maybe. The stress profiles were obtained with increase in working pressure in the vessel. The Temperature – Time plots were for a fixed working pressure applied for a time duration of 120s. The increase in the Von Mises stress in the case of an empty pressure vessel and upon the introduction of a polyethylene core was in accordance with the theoretical background of HP processing. Depending on the material used in the manufacture of the vessel, the yield point of the vessel varies. The Von Mises stress is an important parameter that is used to find the operating pressure that a certain vessel can undertake without fatigue or failure. This study emphasises the importance of such an analysis and the use of COMSOL Multiphysics for the same.


The aim of this paper is to assess the overall and pure technical efficiency of tourism in European countries in 2017 using the output-oriented Charnes, Cooper and Rhodes (1978, 1979), and Banker, Charnes and Cooper (1984) data envelopment analysis methodology. The countries were divided into two groups: European Union countries and non-European counties. We identified two input and two output variables for each group. Input variables were identified using the principal component analysis method, starting from fourteen pillars that measure the performance of countries in the field of travel and tourism, and are published in the regular reports of the World Economic Forum. Then, two output variables were defined (the total (direct and indirect) contribution of travel and tourism to gross domestic product, and the direct contribution of tourism to employment growth rate), to determine the relative efficiency of decision-making units within the formed homogeneous groups of countries, among which the group of Western Balkan countries was singled out. This analysis enabled us, based on relatively scarce potential, to propose guidelines for a tourism development strategy for the entire Western Balkans region.


The intention of this paper is to explore the relationships between leisure activities and the environment. Most research on leisure is unrelated to environmental issues, but when this research is 'read' through environmental 'glasses', it provides relevant inputs for environmental studies. The paper thus investigates the leisure literature in order to identify some of the environmentally interesting trends in the development of leisure activities. As leisure is usually conceived in terms of a specific segment of time or in terms of a certain selection of activities, the paper focuses on time use and activities rather than various categories of consumer spending.


Most works that extend workflow validation beyond syntactical checking consider constraints on the sequence of messages exchanged between services. These constraints are expressed only in terms of message names and abstract away their actual data content. We provide examples of real-world "data-aware" Web service constraints where the sequence of messages and their content are interdependent. To this end, we present CTL-FO+, an extension over computation tree logic that includes first-order quantification on message content in addition to temporal operators. We show how CTL-FO+ is adequate for expressing data-aware constraints, give a sound and complete model checking algorithm for CTL-FO+, and establish its complexity to be PSPACE-complete. A "naive" translation of CTL-FO+ into CTL leads to a serious exponential blowup of the problem that prevents existing validation tools to be used. We provide an alternate translation of CTL-FO+ into CTL, where the construction of the workflow model depends on the property to validate. We show experimentally how this translation is significantly more efficient for complex formulas and makes model checking of data-aware temporal properties on real-world Web service workflows tractable using off-the-shelf tools.


Curcuma aromatica, the herbal medicine belongs to Zingiberaceae family, is well known for anti-tumor activity through multiple pathways and a potential candidate for complementary medicine in cancer treatment. The aims of this study were to distinguish between Curcuma species based on polymorphisms of the nucleotide sequence of chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) and preliminarily analyze their potential-anticancer compounds. Totally six samples supposed C. aromatica growing in An Giang province, Vietnam were collected. The contents of curcumin, curdione, and germacrone in the six samples were analyzed and compared by using the high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method. All specimens were identified according to their trnSfMintergenic spacer sequences by Sanger sequencing. Among the six samples, three were determined as C. aromatica, two were C. longa, and one was C. zedoaria. Curcumin, curdione, and germacrone, known as anticancer compounds, were simultaneously found in sample NT3 that identified as C. aromatica by Sanger sequencing. The obtained results revealed a potential herbal candidate for complementary and alternative medicine.


The Tea Party movement presents something of a curiosity for constitutional theory because it combines originalist ideology and popular constitutionalist methods. Like minotaurs, werewolves, and other half-man, half-animal hybrids of myth and legend, the Tea Party's hybrid of originalism and popular constitutionalism serves to expose the limitations of both sources upon which it draws. Although originalists assert that interpreting the Constitution according to its original meaning would take politics out of constitutional law, the Tea Party movement shows that originalism also provides a powerful political rhetoric. Moreover, while popular constitutionalists assert that democracy would be advanced by empowering the people to effectuate their constitutional understandings through ordinary politics, the Tea Party movement shows that when a popular movement advances a narrow, nationalist understanding of the Constitution, popular constitutionalism can also serve to restrict popular democracy.


Premature infants develop hyperglycemia shortly after birth, increasing their morbidity and death. Surviving infants have increased incidence of diabetes as young adults. Our understanding of the biological basis for the insulin resistance of prematurity and developmental regulation of glucose production remains fragmentary. The objective of this study was to examine maturational differences in insulin sensitivity and the insulin-signaling pathway in skeletal muscle and adipose tissue of 30 neonatal baboons using the euglycemic hyperinsulinemic clamp. Preterm baboons (67% gestation) had reduced peripheral insulin sensitivity shortly after birth (M value 12.5 ± 1.5 vs 21.8 ± 4.4 mg/kg · min in term baboons) and at 2 weeks of age (M value 12.8 ± 2.6 vs 16.3 ± 4.2, respectively). Insulin increased Akt phosphorylation, but these responses were significantly lower in preterm baboons during the first week of life (3.2-fold vs 9.8-fold). Preterm baboons had lower glucose transporter-1 protein content throughout the first 2 weeks of life (8%-12% of term). In preterm baboons, serum free fatty acids (FFAs) did not decrease in response to insulin, whereas FFAs decreased by greater than 80% in term baboons; the impaired suppression of FFAs in the preterm animals was paired with a decreased glucose transporter-4 protein content in adipose tissue. In conclusion, peripheral insulin resistance and impaired non-insulin-dependent glucose uptake play an important role in hyperglycemia of prematurity. Impaired insulin signaling (reduced Akt) contributes to the defect in insulin-stimulated glucose disposal. Counterregulatory hormones are not major contributors.


HP-UX compilers inline mathematical functions for Itanium Processor Family (IPF) systems to improve throughput 4X-8X versus external library calls, achieving speeds comparable to highly tuned vector functions, without requiring the user to code for a vector interface and without sacrificing accuracy or edge-case behaviors. This paper highlights IPF architectural features that support implementation of high-performance, high-quality math functions for inlining. It discusses strategies for utilizing the features and developing inlineable sequences on a large scale, and it presents requisite compiler features and language extensions. Also, this paper describes compiler mechanisms that produce inlineable code and inline it.


Background: Fecal incontinence is a common disorder in old age; however, it may not threaten life, but it can cause morbidity and many problems. Sacral nerve stimulation (SNS) is a minimally invasive surgical procedure performed by chronic electrical stimulation of the nerves in the sacral plexus through a lead implanted at the S3 foramen. This study aimed to evaluate the outcomes of SNS in Shiraz. Materials and Methods: Data from patients who underwent implantation of an SNS device from 2012 to 2018 were reviewed in Shiraz. Thirty patients who had incontinence were evaluated by a committee. Pre- and postoperative assessments of the severity of incontinence were performed using Wexner Incontinence Score. Statistical analysis was performed using paired t-test. Results: Twenty-seven patients proceeded to insertion in the temporary SNS, and of these, 16 were elected to have a permanent SNS. Finally, seven patients were satisfied with their treatment. There was a significant reduction in the pre- and post-SNS Wexner Incontinence Scores from a median of 15–10, respectively (P < 0.05). Conclusion: In our study, 16 patients underwent SNS protocol, and 43.7% of them showed a good response and recovered. It is recommended as a method for the treatment of fecal incontinence. Permanent SNS is effective, showing a significant improvement in fecal incontinence scores.


The cultural production of Spanish-speaking New York is closely linked to the Caribbean and to Latin America at large, but the city also plays a pivotal role in the work of a host of authors from the Iberian Peninsula, writing in Spanish, Catalan, and English. In many cases, their New York City texts have marked their careers and the history of their national literatures. Drawing from a variety of genres, Translating New York recovers cultural narratives occluded by single linguistic or national literary histories, and proposes that reading these texts through the lens of translation unveils new pathways of cultural circulation and influence. Looking beyond representations of the city's physical space, Translating New York suggests that travel to the city and contact with New York's multilingual setting ignited a heightened sensitivity towards both the verbal and non-verbal languages of the city, garnering literary achievement and aesthetic innovation. Analyzing the novels, poetry, and travel narratives of Felipe Alfau, José Moreno Villa, Julio Camba, and Josep Pla, this book uncovers an international perspective of Iberian literatures. Translating New York aims to rethink Iberian literatures through the transatlantic travels of influential writers.


This volume is devoted to the derivation and application of simplified bioclimatic boundary conditions at vegetated land surfaces using natural selection of vegetation characteristics driven by productivity maximization. It investigates the internal control of forest growth by the vertical fluxes of light, CO2, water vapor, and heat within the canopy, as well as the external control offered by the balances of thermal energy and water. Through these means it seeks to determine how the physical characteristics and productivity of forest communities are related to the climates and soils in which they are found. Ecohydrology bridges the fields of hydrology and ecology and proposes new unifying principles derived from the concept of natural selection. It also has potential application in determining the response of vegetation to slow variations in climate and will provide fascinating reading for graduate-level students and research scientists working in ecohydrology, hydroclimatology, forest ecology, and surface water hydrology.


The changing of world in to globalization, causes a lot of competition in any kind of industry, including hospitality industry. To win the competition, the industry has to be able to attack the new customers and keep the loyal customers. Due to that situation, the industry must have a good marketing mix. One part of the marketing mix is promotion. A good promotion is very important for the industry to communicate its product and to build a good image of the industry. A good image will help the industry to increase its sales for a long-term and keep the loyal customers. Promotion is the way of the industry to communicate to their present and potential customers, retailers, suppliers, other stake holders, and the general public about their product and their presence. There are several types of promotion, which are: advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, public relation and publicity, and word of mouth. Each of that type has its own advantage and disadvantage. Base on this issue, a qualitative research has been used. The qualitative research has three parts. The first part is reviewing the literature about the main issue. In this case is about the promotion. That includes the importance of promotion, the objective of promotion, the promotional strategy, and types of promotion. The second part, there will be a case study. The case study of this thesis will describe the promotion tools which are used to build a good image in the family owned restaurant which has one star Michelin award, namely Spandershoeve Restaurant, which is located in Hilversum, the Netherlands. The third part will consist of the combination between the first part with the second part. The theory from the literature review and the result of the case study will be combined to see how far the theory works in the reality, in this case restaurant reality. In the last part, ail the opinion and the suggestion will be used as a recommendation especially for Spandershoeve Restaurant and in general for all players in the business in using the promotion tools to build a good image in order to win and survive in the business competition which is very tight now a days.


This book chapter appeared in a prestigious publication, which was very positively reviewed in journals such as Science (2011), Isis (2012) and Public Understanding of Science (2012). It was the result of a project that was highly commended in the THE 'Project of the year' awards.

Facts are often expressed as or associated with verbalised descriptions. But Valeriani's work reflects on facts – and particularly facts about technology and architecture - transmitted and recorded in material objects. Considering examples from the praxis of archaeologists, historians, conservators and museum curators, Valeriani explores how building elements and material objects can be 'embodied, multi-layered facts'. She investigates how material objects carry facts over time and space, far from the site of their original production and intended use. Books, drawings, travelling gentlemen, craftsmen and architects have, as she shows, all acted as vehicles for the travelling of technical facts.

Valeriani advances her argument through case studies, which illustrate different patterns of transmission and reveal the openness of different knowledge systems and their ability to allow for innovation. Her work draws on both written sources (including primary sources related to St Cecilia in Trastevere, Rome and St Paul's Cathedral, London) and material evidence (including that offered by the first 'archaeological' analysis of St Paul's cathedral's loft spaces during which graffiti from 1705 was found).

Valeriani was invited to present papers on this topic at the History of Science Society Conference (Pittsburgh, 2008), at the Conference of the Koldewey Gesellschaft (Regensburg 2008), at a Leverhulme Workshop at Reading and at the Maison Francaise d'Oxford (both 2010). A closely-related article in which she develops further the question of how technical knowledge travels was published in 2010 'Roger Pratt and the influence of the educational traveler in Britain' (Akten der 45. Tagung fur Ausgrabungswissenschaft und Bauforschung, Dresden, 127-135).


Abstract Lower Miocene tide-influenced deltaic deposits from the Chenque Formation, Patagonia, Argentina, contain abundant and well-preserved biogenic structures attributed to locomotion of deposit-feeder protobranch bivalves. These trace fossils, assigned to the ichnogenus Protovirgularia, consist of delicate, inclined-to-horizontal, chevronate structures, mostly symmetrical with respect to a median axis. Identification of Protovirgularia at sandstone sole beds (hypichnion) is quite straightforward. Endichnial, exichnial and epichnial preservation in heterolithic facies, however, provides a wide variety of forms that depart from the archetypal Protovirgularia and challenges ichnotaxonomic classification. Specimens in prodelta and delta-front facies display morphologic features controlled by substrate fluidity, toponomy, and sedimentation rate. Most specimens show sharp, closely spaced chevrons and occur along sandstone/mudstone interfaces of the proximal prodelta and distal delta-front deposits. These forms reflect how tracemakers experienced significant friction while advancing through the sediment, which resulted in relatively smaller increments of movements. In contrast, variants of Protovirgularia formed in muddier beds, such as in prodeltaic facies, show irregular, poorly defined and unevenly spaced chevrons, and are locally asymmetric in relation to the axis, reflecting softer, water-rich, and plastic substrates. This sediment offered relatively low friction but poor anchorage for the foot. These occurrences of Protovirgularia in tide-influenced, marginal-marine deposits suggests that protobranchs were tolerant of fluctuations in salinity, sedimentation rates, turbidity, and oxygen depletion, displaying opportunistic strategies in stressed nearshore environments. Our evaluation of taphonomic controls and appropriate identification of Protovirgularia can provide valuable information for expanding our knowledge of the ethology and paleoecology of protobranch bivalves.


Building Automation Systems (BAS) are a collection of devices and software which manage the operation of building services. The BAS market is expected to be a $19.25 billion USD industry by 2023, as a core feature of both the Internet of Things and Smart City technologies. However, securing these systems from cyber security threats is an emerging research area. Since initial deployment, BAS have evolved from isolated standalone networks to heterogeneous, interconnected networks allowing external connectivity through the Internet. The most prominent BAS protocol is BACnet/IP, which is estimated to hold 54.6% of world market share. BACnet/IP security features are often not implemented in BAS deployments, leaving systems unprotected against known network threats. This research investigated methods of detecting anomalous network traffic in BACnet/IP managed BAS in an effort to combat threats posed to these systems. This research explored the threats facing BACnet/IP devices, through analysis of Internet accessible BACnet devices, vendor-defined device specifications, investigation of the BACnet specification, and known network attacks identified in the surrounding literature. The collected data were used to construct a threat matrix, which was applied to models of BACnet devices to evaluate potential exposure. Further, two potential unknown vulnerabilities were identified and explored using state modelling and device simulation. A simulation environment and attack framework were constructed to generate both normal and malicious network traffic to explore the application of machine learning algorithms to identify both known and unknown network anomalies. To identify network patterns between the generated normal and malicious network traffic, unsupervised clustering, graph analysis with an unsupervised community detection algorithm, and time series analysis were used. The explored methods identified distinguishable network patterns for frequency-based known network attacks when compared to normal network traffic. However, as stand-alone methods for anomaly detection, these methods were found insufficient. Subsequently, Artificial Neural Networks and Hidden Markov Models were explored and found capable of detecting known network attacks. Further, Hidden Markov Models were also capable of detecting unknown network attacks in the generated datasets. The classification accuracy of the Hidden Markov Models was evaluated using the Matthews Correlation Coefficient which accounts for imbalanced class sizes and assess both positive and negative classification ability for deriving its metric. The Hidden Markov Models were found capable of repeatedly detecting both known and unknown BACnet/IP attacks with True Positive Rates greater than 0.99 and Matthews Correlation Coefficients greater than 0.8 for five of six evaluated hosts. This research identified and evaluated a range of methods capable of identifying anomalies in simulated BACnet/IP network traffic. Further, this research found that Hidden Markov Models were accurate at classifying both known and unknown attacks in the evaluated BACnet/IP managed BAS network.


During 2003–06, as part of the Arctic Sub-Arctic Ocean Flux (ASOF) experiment, an array of oceansensing instruments was deployed at 80.5N latitude to investigate the flux of seawater from the Arctic Ocean via Nares Strait, the pathway to the west of Greenland. Three-year measurements of current from this experiment provide, for the first time at periods longer than a single season, the seawater flux and its variability via this important pathway. Below 30-m depth the average flux of volume 2003–06 was 0.57±0.09 Sv (1 Sv=106 m3 s−1 ) southward over a 38-km wide section reaching 360 m in depth. A linear trend, statistically significant at the 95% confidence level, indicates an increase in the sectionally averaged flow below 30-m depth of 20 ± 10% between 2003 and 2006. The flow is dominated by mixed diurnal and semi-diurnal tidal currents with kinetic energy an order of magnitude larger than that of the subtidal flow. The range of seasonal variation is 30–50% of the long-term mean flow. Variations in flow of daily to monthly period are comparable in magnitude to the average flow. The flow through the cross-section is the net result of a larger southward flux in the deep western two thirds of the strait and a small northward flux within about 5 km of Greenland. The latter is about 5% of the former. Spectral analyses indicates that the cross-channel pressure gradient is highly correlated with the sectionally averaged flow consistent with geostrophy. Along-channel pressure gradient explains 70% of the variance at a 33-day period with a phase lag consistent with a frictional response; at 3–7 day period the response is weaker (<30%) with a phase relation suggestive of contributions by both friction and local acceleration.


The analysis of mutants is a powerful approach for elucidating the components of complex biological processes. A growing number of mutants have been isolated which affect plant gravitropism and the classes of mutants found thus far provide important information about the gravity response mechanism. The wide variety of mutants isolated, especially in Arabidopsis, indicates that gravitropism is a complex, multi-step process. The existence of mutants altered in either root gravitropism alone, shoot gravitropism alone, or both indicates that the root and shoot gravitropic mechanisms have both separate and common steps. Reduced starch mutants have confirmed the role of amyloplasts in sensing the gravity signal. The hormone auxin is thought to act as the transducing signal between the sites of gravity perception (the starch parenchyma cells surrounding the vascular tissue in shoots and the columella cells of root caps) and asymmetric growth (the epidermal cells of the elongation zone(s) of each organ). To date, all mutants that are resistant to high concentrations of auxin have also been found to exhibit a reduced gravitropic response, thus supporting the role of auxin. Not all gravitropic mutants are auxin-resistant, however, indicating that there are additional steps which do not involve auxin. Studies with mutants of tomato which exhibit either reduced or reversed gravitropic responses further support the role of auxin redistribution in gravitropism and suggest that both red light and cytokinin interact with gravitropism through controlling lateral auxin transport. Plant responses to gravity thus likely involve changes in both auxin transport and sensitivity.


Approaches for contention resolution among packets in the optical domain have been traditionally devised for distributed operation locally within individual nodes, exploiting both the time and wavelength dimensions. In this work, we focus on packet contention prevention in an optical packet-switched network, tackling the problem from the perspective of a network-wide end-to-end label-switched path (LSP) admission control and LSP-to-wavelength assignment. We present two contention-preventing wavelength assignment schemes, called minimum interference (MI) schemes, that can be implemented within a network control plane based on a generalized multiprotocol label switching (GMPLS) protocol suite. MI schemes envision that LSP-to-wavelength assignment is accomplished by a novel ranking policy utilized for the tie breaking of the GMPLS label set (i.e., the available wavelength set). Specifically, the novel GMPLS object named the suggested vector (SV) is populated during forward propagation of the path message, collecting, for each wavelength, the amount of bandwidth not interfering with already-established LSPs. During the backward propagation of the Resv message, the actual LSP-to-wavelength allocation is performed based on the preference level stored in the SV object. Numerical results show that MI schemes are effective in decreasing end-to-end packet loss and wavelength conversion probabilities, compared with the no-preference scheme that does not exploit such optimization.


Economic burden of DM was approximated $ 132 billion in 2002. 55 patients with DM were recruited. Their clinical information was analyzed for most commonly and most costly prescribed drug molecule. Three brands of both drugs were selected and laboratory analysis was done for all the selected brands to compare the bioequivalence. For the rest of drugs prescribed, the prices were compared using published resources. Metformin 500 mg was the most commonly prescribed drug. Sitagliptin 50 mg was the costliest drug prescribed. Glycomet, Glyciphage and Forson were the brands of Metformin, Januvia and Zeta were the brands of Sitagliptin, selected for lab analysis. The drug content for metformin in Glycomet (100%), Glyciphage (99.24%) and Forson (98.95%) for Sitagliptin, Januvia (100%) and Zeta (102.43%) was nearly same. The price variation of Metformin was found to be 94.83% and that of Sitagliptin was found to be 174.5%. Since it is evident that same drug molecule varying in costs has same drug strength content they would produce similar clinical outcomes. This concludes that cheaper drugs can be prescribed to patients reducing the health-economic burden on diabetic patients.


The following article examines Paule Marshall's strategies in achieving her goal of subverting the hegemonic ideology of patriarchy. It also emphasizes the importance of mythic time as opposed to linear time in her works, while retracing the journey of her African American female protagonists back to their roots. Marshall also takes heed to the powerful and appealing voice of the Ancestors in order to achieve selfhood based on a renewed identity.


ABSTRACT The island of Kaua'i, Hawaii, USA, holds a large breeding populations of the endangered Hawaiian Petrel (Pterodroma sandwichensis) and a majority of the world population of the threatened Newell's Shearwater (Puffinus newelli). We evaluated island-wide population trends of both species. For Newell's Shearwaters, we considered radar counts at 13 sites between 1993 and 2013 and annual island-wide tallies of fledglings retrieved after being grounded by light attraction in 1979–2015 (Save Our Shearwaters [SOS] program). For Hawaiian Petrels, we considered radar counts alone. Radar data indicated a 78% decline overall in numbers of Hawaiian Petrels (at an average rate of ∼6% per year) and a 94% decline overall in numbers of Newell's Shearwaters (at an average rate of ∼13% per year) during the survey period. Most (92%) radar sites showed significant declines of Newell's Shearwaters across the entire survey period, as did 62% of sites for Hawaiian Petrels. The SOS recovery effort collected 30,522 Newell's Shearwater fledglings between 1979 and 2015. When we compared this dataset in pre- and post-Hurricane Iniki (September 1992) periods, we found a significant downward trend after Hurricane Iniki, similar to the trend seen in the radar data. The large-scale declines found in this study are not surprising, considering the significant threats facing both species on Kaua'i, which include powerline collisions, light attraction, introduced predators, and habitat modification—threats which were potentially exacerbated after Hurricane Iniki. Improved conservation initiatives and an increased understanding of the various threats facing the 2 species are key to reversing these declines.


We introduce a robotic lake lander test bed that can be operated either stand-alone or as part of a Tier-Scalable Reconnaissance mission architecture to study and field test an integrated hardware and software framework for fully autonomous surface and subsurface exploration and navigation of liquid bodies. The lake lander is equipped with both surface and subsurface sensor technologies. Our particular focus is on Saturn's moon Titan with its hydrocarbon lakes with respect to future missions involving lake landers (e.g., Titan Mare Explorer (TiME) mission), potentially in conjunction with balloons/airships and orbiter-support overhead. This test bed serves as an analog to a Titan unpiloted surface vessel equipped with its own onboard realtime navigation and hazard avoidance system, surface and subsurface exploration sensor suite, and autonomous science investigation software system. As such the test bed helps map out a technical path toward true autonomy for the robotic exploration of the Solar System.


BACKGROUND
Risk factors for expander reconstruction infection are well known. However, drain use as a risk factor for the development of infection is unclear.

OBJECTIVE
To review a simple method for drain use to help reduce rates of infection in expander breast reconstruction.

METHODS
Two hundred consecutive single-surgeon (JDM) immediate first-stage expander breast reconstructions were retrospectively reviewed. The records were reviewed for history and physical examination, intra-operative technique, perioperative management, adjuvant therapy, and outcome with respect to expander infection necessitating premature explantation within the first eight weeks. Infection was defined on clinical basis, with or without culture positivity. All expanders (Mentor, USA) were the same model (textured, port-integrated and biodimensional). Two consecutive series of reconstructions were then created. The first series included 177 reconstructions while the second series included 23 reconstructions. Unlike the first series, the second series introduced a protocol in which all reconstructions received mupirocin 2% cream to the drain sites and all drains were removed at the end of the first week. Additionally, in the second series, all expanders were secluded from direct in vivo contact with the closed suction drain either by the use of an intervening Alloderm sling (LifeCell Corporation, USA, 15 of 23 breasts) or by subdermally tunnelling the drain superficial to an adequate fatty subcutaneous layer (eight of 23 breasts).

RESULTS
Patients who developed infection in the first series and all patients in the second series shared statistically the same level of aggregate risk factors (P=0.531). The infection rate (5.65%, 10 infections in 177 breasts) in the first series was statistically greater than in the second series (0%, 0 in 23 breasts, P=0.001).

CONCLUSIONS
The present study found that percutaneous closed suction drains do serve as an increased risk for expander infection. However, early results indicate that in vivo protection of the expander with Alloderm or subdermal tunnelling, topical antibiotic ointment use and early drain removal may significantly reduce expander infection.


Yttrium aluminum garnet transparent ceramics with divalent or trivalent europium ion doping were prepared by vacuum sintering at 1780 °C. Refined XRD data confirmed the pure phase ceramic with little lattice expansion. The transmittance of the 1.1 mm thick blue color divalent europium doped sample was measured to be 61% at wavelength of 900 nm. The photoluminescence spectrum exhibited the typical broad emission related to divalent europium ions. Furthermore, the photoluminescence spectra of the samples with different europium doping concentration and different annealing temperature were compared.


The study was conducted on new-born babies in whom septicemia was suspected, to determine the prevalence of bacterial strains isolated and their sensitivity to antimicrobial drugs. The study was carried out at La Paz Medical Center, Microbiology section, Malabo, Equatorial Guinea from August 2013 to October 2015. Out of 293 septicemia suspected cases, 29 (10%) blood cultures were positive, 28 with bacterial growth and 1 with growth of Candida sp. The mortality rate of neonates caused by Gram negative bacterial sepsis was 34.7%. Among the Gram negative bacteria (24 isolates), the most common types were Klebsiella pneumoniae (16 = 69.6%), followed by Escherichia coli (4 = 17.4%) and Acinetobacter species (4 = 17.4%). Four Gram positive bacteria were also isolated and identified all ascoagulase-negative staphylococci. All the Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates and Acinetobacter species demonstrated Multi Drug Resistance against different antibiotics with Extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL) activity. The most frequent causative agent of bacterial sepsis in new-born children was Klebsiella pneumoniae. An alarming level of Multi Drug Resistance (MDR) Klebsiella pneumoniae strains to the first choice antibiotic treatment was observed.


This article investigates whether self-interest as compared with values or ideological dispositions shapes individual attitudes towards the welfare state. Causal interpretations of how self-interest, values, and welfare state attitudes are linked have been difficult to sustain so far, as the research mainly relies on static, cross-sectional analyses. We address this empirical challenge using data from the Dutch Longitudinal Internet Studies for the Social Sciences panel (2008–2013) that covers the period of the international economic crisis. We investigate how individuals change their attitudes in times of economic hardship. Our findings confirm theoretical expectations that people change their support for unemployment benefits in reaction to changes in their individual material circumstances. Job loss leads to an increased support for public provision of unemployment benefits. The analysis also suggests that this attitude change is persistent. After the temporarily unemployed have found a new job, they do not return to their pre-unemployment attitude. In contrast, individual support for life course-related domains of the welfare state such as health care or pensions is not affected by changes in individual material circumstances. Our results show that individual material circumstances and thus self-interest have a sizable effect on how individuals change their welfare state attitudes.


Harris, NK, Cronin, JB, Hopkins, WG, and Hansen, KT. Squat jump training at maximal power loads vs. heavy loads: effect on sprint ability. J Strength Cond Res 22(6): 1742-1749, 2008-Training at a load maximizing power output (Pmax) is an intuitively appealing strategy for enhancement of performance that has received little research attention. In this study we identified each subject's Pmax for an isoinertial resistance training exercise used for testing and training, and then we related the changes in strength to changes in sprint performance. The subjects were 18 well-trained rugby league players randomized to two equal-volume training groups for a 7-week period of squat jump training with heavy loads (80% 1RM) or with individually determined Pmax loads (20.0-43.5% 1RM). Performance measures were 1RM strength, maximal power at 55% of pretraining 1RM, and sprint times for 10 and 30 m. Percent changes were standardized to make magnitude-based inferences. Relationships between changes in these variables were expressed as correlations. Sprint times for 10 m showed improvements in the 80% 1RM group (−2.9 ± 3.2%) and Pmax group (−1.3 ± 2.2%), and there were similar improvements in 30-m sprint time (−1.9 ± 2.8 and −1.2 ± 2.0%, respectively). Differences in the improvements in sprint time between groups were unclear, but improvement in 1RM strength in the 80% 1RM group (15 ± 9%) was possibly substantially greater than in the Pmax group (11 ± 8%). Small-moderate negative correlations between change in 1RM and change in sprint time (r ≈ −0.30) in the combined groups provided the only evidence of adaptive associations between strength and power outputs, and sprint performance. In conclusion, it seems that training at the load that maximizes individual peak power output for this exercise with a sample of professional team sport athletes was no more effective for improving sprint ability than training at heavy loads, and the changes in power output were not usefully related to changes in sprint ability.


AIM
To examine quality of life outcome for persons who self-report chemical sensitivity, often referred to as multiple chemical sensitivity.

BACKGROUND
Multiple chemical sensitivity is poorly understood with few providers specialising in its treatment. This lack of treatment and the ubiquity of chemicals engender severe life impacts such as job loss, financial loss, social isolation and even homelessness for persons who experience these sensitivities.

DESIGN
Survey.

METHOD
We examined chemical incitants, symptoms and sickness-related behavioural dysfunction as measured by the Sickness Impact Profile in 254 persons self-identified with multiple chemical sensitivity.

RESULTS
Chemicals rated as causing the most symptomatology in respondents were pesticide, formaldehyde, fresh paint, new carpet, diesel exhaust, perfume and air fresheners. The five highest rated symptoms in this sample were tiredness/lethargy, difficulty concentrating, muscle aches, memory difficulties and long-term fatigue. Overall mean Sickness Impact Profile score was 25.25%, showing serious impairment, with the most serious dysfunction in the categories of work (55.36%), alertness behaviour (53.45%) and recreation and pastimes (45.20%).

CONCLUSION
Multiple chemical sensitivity is an important health care issue because it often includes serious dysfunction, is poorly understood by providers and poses extensive financial and treatment obstacles for those who experience it.

RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE
Persons with multiple chemical sensitivity seek medical treatment in a variety of contexts and informed providers can both avoid iatrogenic harm due to medical exposures and provide any possible treatment for the chemical sensitivities. Understanding the impact of the health condition is crucial to communicate with and treat persons who experience the sensitivities.


In recent years, courts and commentators have routinely assumed that the desegregation era caused white flight and contributed to the deterioration of urban schools. Cleveland is often cited as a prototypical example of this misguided policy. The empirical basis for this belief, however, has been assumed rather than proven. This article uses the critical case study method to assess how the 1976 Cleveland desegregation order altered pre-existing demographic patterns within the Cleveland metropolitan area. Specifically, the article draws upon the social science literature to construct two theories of central city decline: (1) studies that link increased rates of white flight to court-ordered desegregation (desegregation/white flight model); and (2) research on the general cycle of middle-class outmigration spurred by an attractive suburban lifestyle and the declining social and economic conditions of the central city (economic and social conditions model). To assess the relative importance of these two mutually compatible theories of central city decline, the analysis considers evidence from a wide variety of sources, proceeding chronologically from the early 1900s to the present. The article concludes that the economic and social conditions model provides the most robust explanation of not only the failure of the Cleveland public schools, but also the failure (and success) of dozens of suburban districts in the region. Further, the author generated several GIS maps, which permit a spatial analysis of race, socioeconomics, and school performance for the seven-county Cleveland metropolitan area. At least in Cleveland, these maps demonstrate the enormous predictive power that social and economic isolation has on education outcomes. (The maps in the article are in gray scale; color maps in Word format can be obtained by contacting the author.) Freed from the historical baggage of the Cleveland desegregation order, the article considers the potential of racial and socioeconomic integration as an educational reform. It examines the mounting evidence that such an approach has a profoundly positive effect on the life chances of poor and minority students. Further, this article identifies specific examples where racial or socioeconomic integration has been shown to be politically viable. Finally, it directly addresses the complex theoretical issue of racial tipping in schools as opposed to neighborhoods and offers a legal and practical roadmap to a legislative solution.


We present experimental and theoretical results obtained from the study of the effects of optical feedback in low-cost Fabry-Perot laser diodes due to the presence of an external cavity created by an external reflective or diffusive vibrating target. Experimental results show that a change in the length of the external cavity produces the well-known amplitude modulation of the optical output power and, depending on the amount of optical feedback, a subperiodicity appears in the amplitude modulation of the output power. The experiments show that the subperiodicity appears independently of the length of the external cavity and is due to mode hopping between different longitudinal laser modes. Numerical analysis focused on the effects observed support that the mode hop occurs between modes whose round-trip phase delay along the external cavity is out of phase, thus producing a subperiodicity of the total amplitude modulation.


In real gas turbine engines, a gap/step interface commonly exits between upstream of the inlet guide vane endwall and combustor, called upstream endwall misalignment, due to the errors of assembly and the thermal expansion. This endwall misalignment, commonly being presented as the gap/step geometry with different heights, has a significant effect on the endwall heat transfer and film cooling coverage distributions.
 This paper presents a detailed experimental and numerical study on the effects of upstream endwall misalignment (step geometry) on the vane endwall heat transfer and film cooling in a transonic linear turbine vane passage. The experiment measurements were performed in a blowdown wind tunnel at simulated realistic gas turbine operating conditions (high inlet freestream turbulence level of 16%, exit Mach number of 0.85 and exit Reynolds number of 1.7 × 106. Three types of upstream step geometry were tested at design blowing ratio (BR = 2.5) for the same vane profile: I) baseline geometry with zero-step height of ΔH = 0 mm; II) forward-facing step geometry with negative step height of ΔH = −5 mm; III) backward-facing step geometry with positive step height of ΔH = 5 mm. The endwall thermal load and film cooling coverage distributions were measured using transient infrared thermography, being presented as endwall Nusselt number Nu and adiabatic film cooling effectiveness η, respectively.
 Detailed comparisons of experiment measurements with numerical predictions were also presented and discussed for three types of upstream step configurations with ΔH = −5, 0, 5 mm, respectively. The numerical simulations were performed by solving the steady-state Reynolds Averaged Navier Stokes (RANS) with Realizable k-ε turbulence model, based on the commercial CFD solver ANSYS Fluent v.15. The effects of upstream step geometry were numerically studied, at the same design blowing ratio BR = 2.5, by solving the endwall Nusselt number, film cooling effectiveness and secondary flow field for various upstream step heights: three forward-facing step heights (from −8 mm to −3 mm), a baseline step height (0 mm), and four backward-facing step heights (from 3 mm to 10 mm).
 The results show the upstream forward-facing step geometry is beneficial for the endwall thermal load and film cooling, though the improvement is weak for all step heights (less than 10% decrease in endwall heat transfer and less than 10% increase in endwall film cooling). However, the upstream backward-facing step geometry is pernicious for the endwall heat transfer and film cooling, and the influence increases with the increasing upstream backward-facing step height. The backward-facing step geometry obviously alters near endwall flow field, leading to an enhancement (up to 20%) in endwall heat transfer and significant reduction (up to 60%) in endwall film cooling effectiveness.


Increasingly, mobile devices are becoming the preferred platform for computation for many users. Unfortunately, the resource limitations, in battery life, computation power and storage, restricts the richness of applications that can be run on such devices. To alleviate these concerns, a popular approach that has gained currency in recent years is {\em computation offloading}, where a portion of an application is run off-site, leveraging the far greater resources of the cloud. Prior work in this area has focused on a constrained form of the problem: a single mobile device offloading computation to a single server. However, with the increased popularity of cloud computing and storage, it is more common for the data that an application accesses to be distributed among several servers. This paper describes algorithmic approaches for performing fine-grained, multi-site offloading. This allows portions of an application to be offloaded in a data-centric manner, even if that data exists at multiple sites. Our approach is based on a novel partitioning algorithm, and a novel data representation. We demonstrate that our partitioning algorithm outperforms existing multi-site offloading algorithms, and that our data representation provides for more efficient, fine-grained offloading than prior approaches.


This report was published by the Center for Research on the Education of Students Placed At Risk (CRESPAR), a national research and development center supported by a grant (No. R117D40005) from the Institute of Education Sciences (IES, formerly OERI), U.S. Department of Education. The content or opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the views of the Department of Education or any other agency of the U.S. Government. Reports are available from: Publications Department, CRESPAR/Johns Hopkins University; 3003 N. Charles Street, Suite 200; Baltimore MD 21218. An on-line version of this report is available at our website: www.csos.jhu.edu.


World Bank Group client governments as well as donors often ask about the effects of business entry reforms and the persistence of those effects. Four clear findings emerge from existing research. First, more firms enter the market when registration procedures and costs are cut. Second, a large percentage of new firms survive and grow. Third, new firms increase competition, forcing incumbents to become more efficient or to exit the market and boosting overall productivity and investment. Finally, entry reforms have greater impacts when coupled with other investment climate reforms.


Gallium nitride nanowires (GaN-NWs) are systems of interest for mechanical resonance-based sensors due to their small mass and, in the case of c-axis NWs, high mechanical quality (Q) factors of 10,000–100,000. We report on singly-clamped NW mechanical cantilevers of roughly 100 nm diameter and 15 m length that resonate near 1 MHz and describe the behavior of GaN-NW resonant frequencies and Q factors following coating with various materials deposited by atomic layer deposition (ALD), including alumina (Al2O3), ruthenium (Ru), and platinum (Pt). Changes in the GaN-NW resonant frequencies with ALD deposition clearly distinguish conformal film growth versus island film growth. Conformal films lead to a stiffening of the NW and typically increase resonant frequency, whereas island films simply increase the NW mass and cause decreased resonant frequencies. We find that conformal growth of ALD alumina leads to stiffening of ∼4 kHz per nm of alumina, in agreement with previously measured material properties. Conformal growth of Ru and Pt, respectively, qualitatively confirm our analytical predictions of positive and negative resonant frequency shifts. Island growth of ALD Ru has demonstrated a decrease in resonant frequency consistent with mass loading of ∼0.2 fg for a 150 ALD-cycle film, also consistent with analytical predictions. Resonant Q factors are found to decrease with ALD film growth, offering the additional possibility of studying mechanical dissipation processes associated with the ALD-NW composite structures. © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.


AIM
It has been suggested that periodontitis may be associated with increased oxidative stress. The objective of this study is to evaluate the possible differences in antioxidant status between chronic periodontitis (CP) and aggressive periodontitis (AP), by assessing the concentrations of antioxidants with total antioxi-dant status (TAS) and lipid peroxidation status in serum and gingival crevicular fluid (GCF) of these patients.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Forty-six patients with CP, 32 patients with AP, and 50 healthy controls were included in this study. The level of enzymatic antioxidant, superoxide dismutase (SOD), nonenzymatic antioxidant uric acid, and TAS with lipid peroxidation measured in serum and GCF of patients suffering from CP and AP were compared with the healthy controls.

RESULTS
The TAS is decreased and malondialdehyde (MDA) level is increased in both serum and GCF in CP and AP compared with healthy controls (p < 0.001). Superoxide dismutase activities in GCF and serum are found to be low in both the groups of periodontitis (p < 0.001). The uric acid levels are found to be inconsistent in GCF and serum in both the groups of periodontitis.

CONCLUSION
Lipid peroxidation and TAS were affected at systemic level in serum and in GCF of the periodontal pockets, in CP and AP. Similar comments may be made for the decrease in SOD activities and inconsistent uric acid levels.

CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE
Increased oxidative stress may have a role in the pathogenesis of periodontal disease activity.


During the colonial period in India, European scholars, British officials, and elite Indian intellectuals—philologists, administrators, doctors, ethnologists, sociologists, and social critics—deployed ideas about sexuality to understand modern Indian society. This book shows how deviant female sexuality, particularly the concept of the prostitute, became foundational to this knowledge project and became the primary way to think and write about Indian society. The book reveals that deviant female sexuality was critical to debates about social progress and exclusion, caste domination, marriage, widowhood and inheritance, women's performance, the trafficking of girls, abortion and infanticide, industrial and domestic labor, indentured servitude, and ideologies about the dangers of Muslim sexuality. British authorities and Indian intellectuals used the concept of the prostitute to argue for the dramatic reorganization of modern Indian society around Hindu monogamy. The book demonstrates how the intellectual history of modern social thought is based in a dangerous civilizational logic built on the control and erasure of women's sexuality. This logic continues to hold sway in present-day South Asia and the postcolonial world. Reframing the prostitute as a concept, the book overturns long-established notions of how to write the history of modern social thought in colonial India, and opens up new approaches for the global history of sexuality.


We tried the decontamination of surface soils for three types of agricultural land at Nagadoro district of Iitate-mura (village) in Fukushima Prefecture, which is highly contaminated by deposits of radionuclides from the plume released from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. The decontamination method consisted of the peeling of surface soils solidified using a polyion complex, which was formed from a salt solution of polycations and polyanions. Two types of polyion complex solution were applied to an upland field in a plastic greenhouse, a pasture, and a paddy field. The decontamination efficiency of the surface soils reached 90%, and dust release was effectively suppressed during the removal of surface soils.


This paper investigates the usefulness of segmental phonemedynamics for classification of speaking styles. We modeled transition details based on the phoneme sequences emitted by a speech recognizer, using data obtained from a recording of 39 depressed patients with 7 different speaking styles normal, pressured, slurred, stuttered, flat, slow and fast speech. We designed and compared two set of phoneme models: a language model treating each phoneme as a word unit (one for each style) and a context-dependent phoneme duration model based on Gaussians for each speaking style considered. The experiments showed that language modeling at the phoneme level performed better than the duration model. We also found that better performance can be obtained by user normalization. To see the complementary effect of the phoneme-based models, the classifiers were combined at a decision level with a Hidden Markov Model (HMM) classifier built from spectral features. The improvement was 5.7% absolute (10.4% relative), reaching 60.3% accuracy in 7-class and 71.0% in 4-class classification.


The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to explore factors related to foreign-born Mexican women's understanding, utilization and adherence to preventive health screening recommendations using the Interaction Model of Client Health Behavior (IMCHB) as a guiding framework. Specifically, this study examined the following client singularity variables: demographic characteristics (age and marital status); social influences (acculturation, marianismo); environmental resources (education, health insurance status); cognitive appraisal (blood pressure knowledge); affective response (fatalism, cultural cancer screening beliefs); and the client-professional interaction variables affective support (trust in provider) and professional/technical competencies (perceived communication) as they related to the health outcomes utilization and adherence to national recommendations for preventive health screenings. The preventive health screenings were Papanicolaou exam, clinical breast exam (CBE), mammogram, diabetes screening and blood pressure screening. A total of 97 foreign-born Mexican-immigrant women living in central and western North Carolina participated in this study. The majority of the women were married/partnered, had a low level of acculturation, limited education, no health insurance, and income levels at the poverty threshold. Most women had a usual source of care through utilization of community health centers or health departments. The majority of the women met adherence guidelines for the Papanicolaou exam and blood pressure screening. More than three-fourths of the women met adherence guidelines for a CBE and diabetes screening; more than half were adherent to mammography guidelines. Multiple linear regression analysis was used to assess the association between demographic characteristics, social influences, environmental resources, cognitive appraisal, affective response, affective support, professional technical competencies and utilization of nationally recommended preventive health screening exams. Similarly, a multiple linear regression analysis was performed with the same predictor variables and adherence to preventive health screening recommendations. A lower level of educational attainment was related to meeting all of the screening recommendations. Trust was associated with a higher total number of screening exams in the previous five years. Cultural cancer screening beliefs were associated with higher utilization of screening exams over the five year period. Blood pressure knowledge was related to the number of specific types of health screening exams obtained at least once in the previous five years. Women reported receiving insufficient health information concerning the exams. New knowledge was learned about women's perception of their healthcare provider and its relationship to utilization and adherence to preventive health screening recommendations. Findings from this study were used to enlighten implications for practice, education, research, health policy and health systems regarding foreign-born Mexican women.


In 1928, a young Lebanese woman, Nazira Zeineddine al-Halabi, wrote a book called "Unveiling and Veiling", an indictment of patriarchal oppression in which she boldly stated that the veil was un-Islamic, directly challenging the teachings of wiser" male scholars. Considered by many an attack on Islam, it rocked the Muslim world and was banned by many clerics, although it quickly went into a second edition and was translated into several languages. In this latest addition to Makers of the Muslim World series, Miriam Cooke offers an intimate portrait of the life and work of this pioneering champion of Islamic feminism.


Dynamic time warping (DTW) is a fundamental technique in time series analysis for comparing one curve to another using a flexible time-warping function. However, it was designed to compare a single pair of curves. In many applications, such as in metabolomics and image series analysis, alignment is simultaneously needed for multiple pairs. Because the underlying warping functions are often related, independent application of DTW to each pair is a sub-optimal solution. Yet, it is largely unknown how to efficiently conduct a joint alignment with all warping functions simultaneously considered, since any given warping function is constrained by the others and dynamic programming cannot be applied. In this paper, we show that the joint alignment problem can be transformed into a network flow problem and thus can be exactly and efficiently solved by the max flow algorithm, with a guarantee of global optimality. We name the proposed approach graphical time warping (GTW), emphasizing the graphical nature of the solution and that the dependency structure of the warping functions can be represented by a graph. Modifications of DTW, such as windowing and weighting, are readily derivable within GTW. We also discuss optimal tuning of parameters and hyperparameters in GTW. We illustrate the power of GTW using both synthetic data and a real case study of an astrocyte calcium movie.


We assessed injuries to the forearms of 17 species of microchiropteran bats marked for ecological stud- ies and banded under the auspices of the Australian Bird & Bat Banding Scheme. Serious injuries were recorded in 16 of the 17 species, but injury rates varied between species according to band type, band size and metal type. Sur- vival estimates were calculated for three species. In Nyctophilus geoffroyi mean annual survival was significantly lower for animals marked with bat bands that caused major injuries to 7.1% of recaptured animals than that for an- imals marked with bird bands that produced negligible injury rates. The results of this study have led the Australian Bird & Bat Banding Scheme to adopt a precautionary principle and impose a moratorium on the banding of bats belonging to the families Vespertilionidae, Molossidae and Emballonuridae. Applications to band microchiropteran bats are now considered on a case-by-case basis. Rigorous trials on target species are required to evaluate the effi- cacy of the marking technique proposed before banding approval is granted. Banding of potentially sensitive species is limited to studies in which the impacts of banding can be evaluated directly, such as at known roost sites. There is a need to develop alternative methods for marking insectivorous bats for ecological studies of wild populations.


Migration and Freedom is a thorough and revealing exploration of the complex relationship between mobility and citizenship in the European area. Drawing upon over 170 interviews, it provides an original account of the opportunities and challenges associated with the rights to free movement and settlement in Croatia, Italy, Slovenia, Spain and Russia. It documents successful and unsuccessful settlement and establishment cases and records how both official and informal restrictions on individuals' mobility have effectively created new categories of citizenship.


This study intends to determine the relationship between cultural factors and customization strategy of a global controversial product using Playboy magazine as a research target. Through a content analysis of four nation editions, the relationship between Hofstede's cultural dimensions and articles of Playboy magazine are hypothesized and tested. Result found that femininity significantly influences the type of written article on the magazine.


Across the countries of the world, annual GNI/capita varies by a factor of almost 100, from $440 in Sierra Leone to $41,230 in Luxembourg (in 1999.) Past literature has often associated country wealth with culture, geography, history and religion, but nothing can be done about such influences over a short horizon, and probably little can be done over generations. We seek instead to uncover the "deep" determinants of wealth; i.e., those macroeconomic, structural, political and in stitutional conditions realistically amenable to change. We find surprisingly good news; more than 80 percent of the international variation in GNI/capita can be explained by mutable determinants. Fourteen candidate determinants are examined over five recent years (1995-99 inclusive) utilizing a principal components approach to minimize the effects of interdependence. Property rights (+) and black market activity (-) have the highest levels of significance. Also contributing to the explanation are regulation (-), inflation (-), civil liberties (+), political rights (+), press freedom (+), government expenditures (+) and trade barriers (-) (but not trade levels). To check that these variables represent causes and are not the effects of high income, we also trace the trajectories of GNI/capita before and after political liberalizations or dictatorial retrenchments over the past half-century. Liberalizations are, on average, followed by dramatic improvement in country income, while substantial reductions in growth typically follow anti-democratic events. We conclude that countries can develop faster by enforcing strong property rights, fostering an independent judiciary, attacking corruption, dismantling burdensome regulation, allowing press freedom, and protecting political rights and civil liberties. These features define a healthy environment for economic activity.


This study is an attempt to investigate the effectiveness of the early Byzantine limes in the northern Balkan region and its possible connection to stability and settlement development in the hinterland. Although this topic has been widely discussed in the past by a number of scholars, reconsideration of some theses and ideas, seen through the results of recent archaeological excavations, is needed. We believe that a detailed examination of the problems associated with existence, structure, permeability and security of the border will contribute greatly to asking the right questions about the overall fall and disintegration of the early Byzantine system of government and administration. Additionally, questions about the evident cultural decline are considered. Most of the issues concerning the limes are connected with the strategic reorganization of the defense of the Balkans. This is made for the better security of the local communities during their struggle for survival in a time of natural disasters, depopulation, constant barbarian raids and limited settlement of a foreign population. In the second half of the sixth and the seventh centuries, almost everything came down to self-sufficiency and survival through decentralization and local management of resources, production, and defense. Byzantium only formally retained authority over a part of the Balkan provinces, primarily through a number of strategic strongholds, mostly located offshore, on the islands and rarely inland. Only there the last remains of the urban elite and the military aristocracy survived. Purely formal authority over a large part of the territories conquered during Justinian`s reign indicates an economic downturn, complete disintegration of the administrative system and a collapse of the military and administrative organization in a great part of the Balkans. All the problems to be considered will be seen through the prism of the complex cultural, historical and socioeconomic framework of the period.


The Gaza Strip suffers from high pressure imposed on its water resources. There is a deficit of about 50 MCM (million cubic meters) every year, which has led to a declination of groundwater level and deterioration of groundwater quality. The Agricultural sector in the Gaza Strip consumes around 75-80 MCM of water annually. Water used for this purpose comes mainly from groundwater wells. New water resources are sought to fulfill the water deficit; among them is the artificial recharge of treated wastewater to groundwater by the mean of spreading basins. Recovery of the infiltrated treated wastewater is envisaged as a mean to support the agricultural sector in Gaza. In order to investigate the performance of the infiltration system in terms of quantity and quality, field experiments were performed. In addition to that, modeling of the unsaturated zone using theGreen-Ampt model (1911) was performed in order to predict the existing andenhanced infiltration rate. The results showed that the infiltration rate is affectedby the soil type, and its permeability, also with the quality of the effluent water to the basin. Removing the upper 2.0 meters of soil layer at IB1 and replacing it with new sand martial with high permeability introduced an efficient solution for the enhancement of the infiltration rate. Also penetrating the lower soil layers with 60 piles and filling the piles with gravel fine media with high permeability will increase the infiltration rate for whole of the basin according to the study.Performing 35 cycles of wetting and drying during the year with 2 days of wetting in summer and winter and 7 days of drying in summer and 12 days of drying in winter, will help to reach the optimal infiltration rate. Soil plowing after each drying cycle for the basin will maintain good infiltration rate and prevent accumulation of the organic matter (OM) in the top soil layer.


The reading comprehension task, that asks questions about a given evidence document, is a central problem in natural language understanding. Recent formulations of this task have typically focused on answer selection from a set of candidates pre-defined manually or through the use of an external NLP pipeline. However, Rajpurkar et al. (2016) recently released the SQUAD dataset in which the answers can be arbitrary strings from the supplied text. In this paper, we focus on this answer extraction task, presenting a novel model architecture that efficiently builds fixed length representations of all spans in the evidence document with a recurrent network. We show that scoring explicit span representations significantly improves performance over other approaches that factor the prediction into separate predictions about words or start and end markers. Our approach improves upon the best published results of Wang & Jiang (2016) by 5% and decreases the error of Rajpurkar et al.'s baseline by > 50%.