A water extraction device that takes water from air in dry area is proposed. This device is designed to meet domestic water demand in remote rural areas, where the climate is dry and fresh water is scarce. The device can be driven effectively by low-temperature waste heat and has the characteristics of large daily water production, low energy consumption per unit of water and high water quality. Because the moisture content of air in dry area is very low, the effect of direct condensation is limited. Solid adsorbent is able to adsorb water vapor from air at a low temperature and release water vapor at under high temperature, which can be used for water extracting from air. To improve its performance under dry circumstances, the key technical point of this device is to use solid adsorbent to collect water vapor from other air to raise its dew point temperature, and then use high temperature cold source to condense water vapor from it. In this paper, configurations of the solid adsorption are proposed, which can be driven with low regeneration temperature under the same humidity increasing amount. This device uses multi-stage desiccant wheels to realize humid increasing. Desiccant wheel can be driven with high temperature to take water vapor from dehumidification air and release water vapor to regeneration air. The multi-stage configuration is good for the reduction of regeneration temperature, making applications of low temperature waste heat form heat pumps possible. Then, influencing factors of water extracting rate are analyzed. The influencing of regeneration temperature, humid reduction amount of the humidified air and cooling and heating systems, etc., are analyzed. Last, air handling processes considering cold and heat sources are recommended to reduce energy consumption. The heat pump driven scenarios are discussed in particular. Through optimization, the water extracting rate can be increased and energy consumption per unit of water can be reduced. At present, this paper only studies air water extracting processes and thermal processes, and does not involve structure of the device, water purification and power consumption of fans, etc.


This contribution outlines the special features of the Rule of Law crisis of the European Union which started in Hungary. It argues that the crisis of values is the first systemic challenge to the very essence of the process of European integration since the foundation of the project. The key features of the crisis are analyzed as well as the reasons that led to the crisis, focusing not only on the EU's powerlessness to resolve it in terms of procedures and enforcement, but also on the justice void, which looms beyond the internal market, making EU's substantive involvement – indispensable for the successful resolution of the crisis – overwhelmingly difficult. The main point is very simple: the crisis of values is something new and its importance should be realized in full, as it corrupts the core assumptions about the EU indispensable for Europe's successful functioning.


Many communities around the world have no access to an electricity grid. To supply
power to these people, stand-alone power systems are often used, the majority of
which are based on diesel generators. Rising fuel costs and environmental concerns
make the use of renewable energy in stand-alone systems increasingly attractive.
The research reported in this thesis was to demonstrate a stand-alone power system
based exclusively on renewable energy sources. To achieve this, a DC electrical
backbone is used. Power electronic converters are used to interconnect the loads
and generators and hydrogen is used as an inter-seasonal energy store.
The design and control of the DC based stand-alone power system forms the
primary focus of this research.
A demonstration system has been implemented at West Beacon Farm in the UK.
Substantial data has been collected that confirms the successful operation of the
system.


In this thesis, I present several studies aimed at determining the evolutionary states of stars and the planets that orbit them. Multiple approaches are undertaken to determine the physical parameters of stars over a wide range of masses, and in the process I evaluate current theoretical models which are commonly used to indirectly determine the properties of stars and planets. Chapter II concerns the ages of nearby stars more massive than the Sun. These stars, because they are bright and young (less than 1 Gyr) on the average, constitute attractive targets for surveys aiming to directly capture light from planets in wide orbits. The precise masses of directly imaged companions are important for constraining star and planet formation theories, but rely critically on the host star ages. I show that sky-projected rotational velocity is a vital parameter in age-determination for intermediate-mass stars. Rapid rotation induces large pole-to-equator gradients in the photospheric temperature and surface gravity, such that a star seen pole-on appears hotter and higher gravity (and thus younger) than a star with identical properties seen edge-on. I use intermediate-band photometry centered on the hydrogen Balmer series and projected rotational velocities to determine atmospheric parameters and ages for approximately 3500 nearby stars with masses in the range of 1-10 solar masses. I validate the method using four open clusters, in the process finding ages for α Persei and the Hyades that are younger at ~70 Myr and older at ~830 Myr, respectively, than canonical values. In Chapters III through V, I present orbital solutions and fundamental parameters for eclipsing binaries (EBs), newly discovered from the K2 mission, in the Pleiades open cluster (125 Myr) and the Upper Scorpius OB association (5-10 Myr). EBs, particularly those in coeval stellar populations, are valuable benchmarks for evaluating evolutionary models. Such benchmarks are particularly rare at low masses and young ages, and my work has increased the sample by 80% for stars less massive than the Sun and younger than 150 Myr. By jointly fitting eclipse observations and radial velocity measurements, one can directly determine the masses and radii of stars in an EB with percent-level precision. I use newly determined masses and radii to demonstrate a systematic temperature offset of approximately 200 K between empirical relations and model predictions. This result is in agreement with literature on the temperature suppression observed in low-mass stars, believed to be related to magnetic activity and inhibited convection. I show that stellar ages determined from the mass-radius diagram appear systematically older than those determined for the same stars in a Hertzsprung-Russell (H-R) diagram. A precise distance determination for the Pleiades EB HCG 76 is in agreement with the literature consensus and formally excludes the now discredited trigonometric measurement from Hipparcos. The orbital periods, eccentricities, and stellar spin periods determined from K2 photometry are compared with theoretical expectations from tidal dissipation. In Chapter VI, I present preliminary results on more recently discovered EBs in Upper Scorpius, and updated interpretations of previously published systems. I use the combined data to pave the way for an empirical pre-main-sequence mass-radius relation over a broad range of masses and determine an age of Upper Scorpius which is intermediate to the canonical age (3-5 Myr, as derived from low-mass pre-main-sequence stars) and a more recent estimate (9-13 Myr, as derived from intermediate-mass stars) from H-R diagram analyses. In Chapter VII, I present observations of the low-mass pre-main-sequence star RIK-210. This star shows a variable eclipse-like signature, which persisted through 78 days of K2 photometry but was apparently absent in archival photometry. Follow-up observations demonstrate that RIK-210 is a single star with no massive companion orbiting at the period of the eclipse-like signature. The flux diminutions are in phase with the stellar rotation, behavior seen in some young stars that are periodically obscured by an accretion disk, but RIK-210 lacks such a protoplanetary disk. I consider various explanations for the observations and favor a model in which charged dust is trapped in a rigidly-rotating magnetosphere. The source of such dust could be from one or more close-in planets or residual planet-forming material drifting in towards the star. In Chapter VIII I present the discovery and characterization of K2-33 b, a Neptune-sized planet closely orbiting a low-mass star in Upper Scorpius and one of the youngest exoplanets currently known. K2-33 b provides evidence that planets with substantial gaseous envelopes can be found close to their stars shortly after dispersal of the primordial protoplanetary disk. Given the planet's age (5-10 Myr), in situ formation or migration through the protoplanetary disk are the only plausible formation scenarios. K2-33 b is unusually large in size when compared to planets with similar orbital periods around low-mass field stars. I interpret this as tentative evidence that the planet is still contracting, experiencing photoevaporative atmospheric mass-loss, or both. In Chapter IX I present preliminary results from a study aimed at determining the prevalence of close-in planets at the epoch of primordial disk dispersal. Using K2 photometry for hundreds of pre-main-sequence stars in Upper Scorpius I search for transiting planets, assess survey completeness, and determine the occurrence rates or upper limits to such rates for large planets in close orbits around low-mass stars. With the singular detection of K2-33 b, I determine a rate of close-in Neptune- to Jupiter-sized planets higher than that for low-mass field stars but in closer agreement with the rate for sub-Neptune planets. Given the extreme youth of K2-33 b, I tentatively interpret these results as an indication that the planet is a progenitor of the abundant class of close-in sub-Neptunes. Considered collectively, my results highlight the importance of benchmark systems. Nearly all branches of astrophysics are reliant in some regard on stellar evolutionary models, but the magnitude and sense of any particular systematic offset contained in these models is often poorly understood. Eclipsing binaries and planets located in stellar clusters provide firm anchors to theoretical models aiming to predict the evolution of such objects. The need for benchmarks and model calibration is particularly acute at young ages, when stars and planets are rapidly evolving and where theoretical evolutionary models are highly uncertain. While statistical studies of large populations can yield far-reaching results that move fields forward, it is the detailed characterization of individual systems that often reveal salient clues about the inaccuracies of assumptions underlying larger scale studies. Benchmark systems, whether they are clusters, eclipsing binaries, or well-characterized planets, offer the best path forward in refining our understanding of the evolution of stars and planets.


Governments in Arabia today usually ignore the Ottoman Empire's history in the region, but the Ottomans from 1516 to 1918 played a key role in coastal regions, especially in the Muslim holy cities of Mecca and Medina. While Ottoman administrations intermittently ruled in Yemen and eastern Arabia, their influence was greatest in the holy Hijaz, the site of the worldwide pilgrimage. However, Ottoman rule was limited by Istanbul's distance from Arabia. Religion played a significant role in determining the nature of Ottoman control, helping to legitimize the state among its subjects. A detailed analysis of one province, the Hijaz, with a particular emphasis on the period from 1840 to 1908, shows the impact of general factors on political history. Hijazi environmental, social, and gender history were modestly influenced by the centralizing Ottoman government. The Ottoman Empire in Arabia succeeded in notably slowing the encroachment of European imperialism into the heart of Islam.


This paper investigates the capacity of appropriate Earth Observation Systems (EOS) – in situ and satellite measurements, numerical models – to deliver basic variables from which high level information relevant for Marine Renewable Energy (MRE) resource assessment can be generated. In addition, an operational solution for the production and dissemination of such information is proposed and set up. First, the parameters expected by end-users for accurate MRE resource assessment are identified. It turns out that a combination of appropriate spatial coverage and resolution, duration of time series and accuracy has to be met for the EOS data set to be relevant for the production of such parameters. Consequently, long term, high resolution hindcasts of sea states are identified as offering the best compromise over in situ and remote sensing measurements, which are best suited for models calibration and validation. Based on this analysis, a 19-year sea-state hindcast, Homere, has been selected. Homere accurately delivers relevant basic variables at appropriate time and spatial scales, over an area covering the south of the North Sea, the Channel, and the Atlantic coast of France and has been used to produce high level, end-user oriented information for the characterization of marine energy resource. Finally, dissemination tools, respecting international standards of interoperability, have been developed with a user-oriented state of mind in order to deliver the information.


SUMMARY

The Journal of Supply Chain Management is the premier journal in the purchasing and supply discipline. This article chronicles the history of the Journal, including a review of the subject categories of articles during certain time periods, types of research performed, types of research design employed, types of data analysis applied, and individual and institutional contributions. The article provides a comprehensive analysis of the Journal's past and a set of prescriptions for its future.


Objective: The subjective memory complaints (QSM) are an important clinical factor and a frequent problem in primary health care in adult and older people (Eichler et al., 2015). This study, carried out in a primary health care of the Central Region of Portugal, aimed to characterize the QSM according to sociodemographic, clinical, cognitive, emotional and quality of life variables. Methods: This longitudinal study at two time points aims to explore the process of the QSM for 18 months and which factors are associated with. It was conducted with a sample of 19 adults and older adults aged between 55 to 81 years (79.2% female). The data was collected by semi-structured interviews and whenever possible the medical records were consulted. It was used as measuring instruments the Portuguese version of the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE), the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), the Memory Complaint Scale (EQM), the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS), the Anxiety Inventory Geriatrics (GAI) or the World Health Organization Quality of Life Assessment (WHOQOL-Bref) and a sociodemographic clinical questionnaire developed for this purpose. Results: In the second assessment moment all participants had QSM, which are significantly more influenced by age. It was also observed an increase in depressive symptoms and anxiety, the amounts of glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) and the number of medications, with particular emphasis on anti-hypertensives. Conclusion: The QSM should be a matter of concern and vigilance from the family doctor, as this may be an important symptom for the early identification of individuals at higher risk for developing a dementing process.


We present a novel probabilistic programming framework that couples directly to existing large-scale simulators through a cross-platform probabilistic execution protocol, which allows general-purpose inference engines to record and control random number draws within simulators in a language-agnostic way. The execution of existing simulators as probabilistic programs enables highly interpretable posterior inference in the structured model defined by the simulator code base. We demonstrate the technique in particle physics, on a scientifically accurate simulation of the tau lepton decay, which is a key ingredient in establishing the properties of the Higgs boson. Inference efficiency is achieved via inference compilation where a deep recurrent neural network is trained to parameterize proposal distributions and control the stochastic simulator in a sequential importance sampling scheme, at a fraction of the computational cost of a Markov chain Monte Carlo baseline.


In this paper, attitude and trust are studied in the context of a food scare (dioxin) with the aim of identifying the components of attitude and trust that significantly affect how purchases are determined. A revised version of the model by MAYER et al. (1995) was tested for two types of food: salmon and chicken. The final model for salmon shows that trust is significantly determined by perceived competence, perceived shared values, truthfulness of information and the experiential attitude (the feeling that consuming salmon is positive), but trust has no impact on behavioural intentions. Consumer preferences seem to be determined by a positive experiential attitude and the perception that breeders, sellers and institutions have values similar to those of the consumer. The model for chicken gave very similar results.


We elicit individual preferences over social risk. We identify the extent to which these preferences are correlated with preferences over individual risk and the well-being of others. We examine these preferences in the context of laboratory experiments over small, anonymous groups, although the methodological issues extend to larger groups that form endogenously (e.g., families, committees, communities). Preferences over social risk can be closely approximated by individual risk attitudes when subjects have no information about the risk preferences of other group members. We find no evidence that subjects systematically reveal different risk attitudes in a social setting with no prior knowledge about the risk preferences of others compared to when they solely bear the consequences of the decision. However, we also find that subjects are significantly more risk averse when they know the risk preferences of other group members. Copyright 2013 Oxford University Press 2012 All rights reserved, Oxford University Press.


Key factors implicated in aging include reactive oxygen species, inflammatory processes, insulin resistance, and mitochondrial dysfunction. All are exaggerated in transgenic growth hormone mice (TGM), which display a syndrome resembling accelerated aging. We formulated a complex dietary supplement containing 31 ingredients known to ameliorate all of the above features. We previously showed that this supplement completely abolished the severe age-related cognitive decline expressed by untreated TGM. Here we report that longevity of both TGM and normal mice is extended by this supplement. Treated TGM showed a 28% increase (p < .00008) in mean longevity. An 11% increase in mean longevity was also significant (p < .002093) for treated normal mice, compared to untreated normal mice. These data support the hypothesis that TGM are a model of accelerated aging, and demonstrate that complex dietary supplements may be effective in ameliorating aging or age-related pathologies where simpler formulations have generally failed.


The field of natural language understanding has experienced exponential progress in the last few years, with impressive results in several tasks. This success has motivated researchers to study the underlying knowledge encoded by these models. Despite this, attempts to understand their semantic capabilities have not been successful, often leading to non-conclusive, or contradictory conclusions among different works. Via a probing classifier, we extract the underlying knowledge graph of nine of the most influential language models of the last years, including word embeddings, text generators, and context encoders. This probe is based on concept relatedness, grounded on WordNet. Our results reveal that all the models encode this knowledge, but suffer from several inaccuracies. Furthermore, we show that the different architectures and training strategies lead to different model biases. We conduct a systematic evaluation to discover specific factors that explain why some concepts are challenging. We hope our insights will motivate the development of models that capture concepts more precisely.


Get ready for academic and workplace success! This robust learning package integrates advanced word processing, document formatting and design, and communication skills within a single text, along with a strong emphasis on honing skills by competing projects in a realistic office environment. Using Microsoft Word 2016, you will format advanced business correspondence, tables, reports, mail merge files, graphics, and a broad range of common document types, including meeting, travel, news, legal, medical, and human resources/employment, as well as practicing real-time co-authoring on OneDrive. The text includes nine modular projects and two comprehensive projects to help you apply what you learn and prepare to be productive immediately when beginning your professional career. Combined with Skills Assessment Manager (SAM), the text makes learning even easier and more effective, allowing you to work independently from anywhere.


As we move discussions around publishing forward and adopt open-access models, social scientists need to consider how digital infrastructure opens and closes possibilities for scholarly production and engagement. Attention to changes in publishing infrastructure—which, like most infrastructure, is often rendered invisible—is needed, not only because it allows us to make sense of socio-technical transitions at various scales and for differently invested communities, but because we need more informed participants, users who can question the system in ways that make it more robust. This essay suggests that digital infrastructure design and development should be organized around (1) platform affordances, (2) support for labor, (3) emerging circulation practices, and (4) opportunities for collaboration. By tracing the long-term socio-technical work that made it possible for Cultural Anthropology to go open access earlier this year, this essay works to make visible some behind-the-scenes details to be considered when thinking about the future of scholarly publishing.


Spoken language (unimodal) interpreters often prefer to interpret from their non-dominant language (L2) into their native language (L1). Anecdotally, signed language (bimodal) interpreters express the opposite bias, preferring to interpret from L1 (spoken language) into L2 (signed language). We conducted a large survey study (N = 1,359) of both unimodal and bimodal interpreters that confirmed these preferences. The L1 to L2 direction preference was stronger for novice than expert bimodal interpreters, while novice and expert unimodal interpreters did not differ from each other. The results indicated that the different direction preferences for bimodal and unimodal interpreters cannot be explained by language production–comprehension asymmetries or by work or training experiences. We suggest that modality and language-specific features of signed languages drive the directionality preferences of bimodal interpreters. Specifically, we propose that fingerspelling, transcoding (literal word-for-word translation), self-monitoring, and consumers' linguistic variation influence the preference of bimodal interpreters for working into their L2.


Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) have become a very popular tool for im- plicitly learning high-dimensional probability distributions. Several improvements have been made to the original GAN formulation to address some of its shortcom- ings like mode collapse, convergence issues, entanglement, poor visual quality etc. While a significant effort has been directed towards improving the visual quality of images generated by GANs, it is rather surprising that objective image quality metrics have neither been employed as cost functions nor as regularizers in GAN objective functions. In this work, we show how a distance metric that is a variant of the Structural SIMilarity (SSIM) index (a popular full-reference image quality assessment algorithm), and a novel quality aware discriminator gradient penalty function that is inspired by the Natural Image Quality Evaluator (NIQE, a popular no-reference image quality assessment algorithm) can each be used as excellent regularizers for GAN objective functions. Specifically, we demonstrate state-of- the-art performance using the Wasserstein GAN gradient penalty (WGAN-GP) framework over CIFAR-10, STL10 and CelebA datasets.


Tophane, with its historical and cultural heritage, is acknowledged to be one of the most significant districts of Istanbul. Formerly known for its gardens, the district has acquired a different identity after the Ottoman conquest of Istanbul in 1453. Tophane-i Amire, being the imparial armory which was established in the Ottoman period did not only name the region, but also altered the social and cultural profile of the district to a great extent. The region has suffered the great fires of Istanbul and been damaged many times by them, thus the architectural texture it possesses had undergone many changes both due to these disasters as well as political and governmental adjustments of the authority. In time, the growth and continuous territorial expansion of Ottoman dominion necessitated the innovations and advancements in the military along with the construction of additional buildings to the Tophane facilities. Together with the additional buildings, the area had once again acquired a distinct identity where civil and military architectural examples coexist. Following the effects of industrialization seen in the late 19th century, the escalating growth of the city, beginning in the early 20th century, has reached levels that prevent the perception of the integrity among Tophane facilities. After 1950, the starting of customs house constructions and the expropriation policies had changed Tophane beyond all recognition. Being completed in the second half of the 19th century, Nusretiye (Tophane) clock tower is known to be the first clock tower of Istanbul. During the period of its construction, the clock tower had been in the center of the military drill field, defining a circumferential open space by itself. However, due to the expropriation policy of the 1950s, it was taken to another spot where the customs buildings had been located. With this study, a brief examination of Nusretiye clock tower has been conducted to understand its relation to the surroundings with a projection from past to present. To analyze and discuss the established relationships in depth, the Tophane Square and the Tophane Barracks, as architectural representatives of the region and era, were also included in the scope of the study. The study aimed to reveal and present the current conditions of the clock tower, to remark the significance of the surrounding architectural interactions in the perception of an architectural heritage and to discuss the effects of the changes made to the Tophane district.


The object of this analysis is to investigate mitigation effects of watershield on air blast waves. To examine the water mitigation concept, features of the free-field detonation process are studied from a series of one-dimensional simulations using a multimaterial Eulerian finite element technique. Five different shock Hugoniots for water are compared, and the most accurate data are suggested. To verify the numerical procedure, results are compared with available experimental data for UNDEX problem and analytical predictions for air shocks. For the case of contact watershield, the magnitude of peak pressure generally decreases and the shock arrival time increases with increasing thickness of watershield. The total pressure impulse is reduced significantly at near field. Non-contact watershield was also examined, and was found to provide a better design criterion based on the further decay of peak pressure.


Various applications of data analysis and their effects have been reported recently. With the remarkable progress in classification methods, one example being support vector machines, clustering as the main method of unsupervised classification has also been studied extensively. Consequently, fuzzy methods of clustering is becoming a standard technique. However, unsolved theoretical and methodological problems in fuzzy clustering remain and have to be studied more deeply. This issue collects five papers concerned with fuzzy clustering and related fields, and in all of them the main interest is methodology. Kondo and Kanzawa consider fuzzy clustering with a new objective function using q-divergence, which is a generalization of the well-known Kullback-Leibler divergence. Among different data types, they focus on categorical data. They also show the relations of different methods of fuzzy c-means. Thus, this study tends to further generalize methods of fuzzy clustering, trying to find the methodological boundaries of the capabilities of fuzzy clustering models. Kitajima, Endo, and Hamasuna propose a method of controlling cluster sizes so that the resulting clusters have an even size, which is different from the optimizing of cluster sizes dealt with in other studies. This technique enhances application fields of clustering in which cluster sizes are more important than cluster shapes. Hamasuna et al. study the validity measures of clusters for network data. Cluster validity measures are generally proposed for points in Euclidean spaces, but the authors consider the application of validity measures to network data. Several validity measures are modified and adapted to network data, and their effectiveness is examined using simple network examples. Ubukata et al. propose a new method of c-means related to rough sets, a method based on a different idea from well-known rough c-means by Lingras. Finally, Kusunoki, Wakou, and Tatsumi study the maximum margin model for the nearest prototype classifier that leads to the optimization of the difference of convex functions. All papers include methodologically important ideas that have to be further investigated and applied to real-world problems.


There has been significant recent work on the theory and application of randomized coordinate descent algorithms, beginning with the work of Nesterov [SIAM J. Optim., 22(2), 2012], who showed that a random-coordinate selection rule achieves the same convergence rate as the Gauss-Southwell selection rule. This result suggests that we should never use the Gauss-Southwell rule, as it is typically much more expensive than random selection. However, the empirical behaviours of these algorithms contradict this theoretical result: in applications where the computational costs of the selection rules are comparable, the Gauss-Southwell selection rule tends to perform substantially better than random coordinate selection. We give a simple analysis of the Gauss-Southwell rule showing that---except in extreme cases---its convergence rate is faster than choosing random coordinates. Further, in this work we (i) show that exact coordinate optimization improves the convergence rate for certain sparse problems, (ii) propose a Gauss-Southwell-Lipschitz rule that gives an even faster convergence rate given knowledge of the Lipschitz constants of the partial derivatives, (iii) analyze the effect of approximate Gauss-Southwell rules, and (iv) analyze proximal-gradient variants of the Gauss-Southwell rule.


Background and Purpose— The optimum model of physiotherapy service delivery for maximizing active task practice during rehabilitation after stroke is unknown. The purpose of the study was to examine the relative effectiveness of 2 alternative models of physiotherapy service delivery against a usual care control with regard to increasing patient activity. Methods— Substudy within a large 3-armed randomized controlled trial, which compared 3 different models of physiotherapy service delivery, was provided for 4 weeks during subacute, inpatient rehabilitation (n=283). The duration of all physiotherapy sessions was recorded. In addition, 32 participants were observed at 10-minute intervals for 1 weekday and 1 weekend day between 8:00 AM and 4:30 PM. At each observation, we recorded physical activity, location, and people present. Results— Participants receiving 7-day-week and circuit class therapy received an additional 3 hours and 22 hours of physiotherapy time, respectively, when compared with usual care. Participants were standing or walking for a median of 8.2% of observations. On weekdays, circuit class therapy participants spent more time in therapy-related activity (10.2% of observations) when compared with usual care participants (6.1% of observations). On weekends, 7-day therapy participants spent more time in therapy-related activity (4.2% of observations) when compared with both usual care and circuit class therapy participants (0% of observations for both groups). Activity levels outside of therapy sessions did not differ between groups. Conclusions— A greater dosage of physiotherapy time did not translate into meaningful increases in physical activity across the day. Clinical Trial Registration— URL: http://www.anzctr.org.au/. Unique identifier: ACTRN12610000096055.


The purpose of this study is to assess the expected response of conventional and non-conventional quench detection sensors proposed for the ITER coils. The assessment is based on simulation of thermo-hydraulic transients in the coils for various operating conditions, and a tentative definition of the transfer functions of each sensor concept. For the investigated conditions, the co-wound voltage tap shows the best performance of the six sensors which are analyzed.


The main aim of this research is to explore the argumentative and semiotic resources used in tweets related to political TV shows in Chile in 2016. To achieve this, I carried out a qualitative investigation that incorporates principles from critical discourse studies (Wodak & Meyer, 2016) for the analysis of the resources employed by Twitter users to present their political views in this type of digital media. Previous studies in political discourse and social media (KhosraviNik & Unger, 2016; KhosraviNik & Zia, 2014), and specifically the discourse-historical approach (Reisigl & Wodak, 2016), have proved to be particularly useful to explore the argumentative strategies and semiotic resources involved in the discourse on political issues in different media. This research focuses on tweets about five Chilean political TV shows which encourage their audiences to extend the debate in a social media environment, showing hashtags and tweets. The data set comprises 39,684 hashtagged tweets from three months at the beginning, middle and end of the televised season. In the first stage of this research, I identify topics and diverse semiotic features in the whole data set. Among the topics identified in the data collection, those related to ethical concerns are the most frequent, alongside tweets related to public figures and institutions. The semiotic resources found in the data set were classified into overarching semiotic categories of verbal, visual and hypertextual. In the second stage, I analysed the interaction patterns present in the data and argumentative resources in a sample of tweets. To describe interaction patterns, I draw on Goffman's (1981) model of interaction. I found that users addressed a wide variety of actors, not only among the participants of online or televised debates, but across the public sphere. The communication among these diverse actors blurred the boundaries between and within encounters, creating a new type of interaction that I called hybrid play. Regarding the diverse argumentative strategies identified in the sample, fallacies, including ad hominem, ad verecundiam, hasty generalization and straw man, were found. The other main discursive strategies analysed were topoi. There were several realizations of the topoi of burden and responsibility, related to issues of political contingency and users' claims for action. Also present were topoi of urgency, comparison, decency, justice, human rights and history. Despite the claims that social media can allow manifestations of hostility or uncivil behaviour in relation to politics, the analysis showed that digitally mediated debates related to television shows in the Chilean context can be seen as an expansion of the public sphere in which users can participate to different degrees in political debates, criticizing the status quo and proposing their own political agendas, thereby potentially generating new spaces for political deliberation.


With the development of computer science and multimedia technology, computer-based testing becomes increasingly popular, especially the intelligent test generation systems. The algorithm used for generating a test paper has a direct impact on the quality and efficiency of intelligent test generating systems. Due to the advantages of parallelism and global space search, the genetic algorithms are recommended for solving the problem of an intelligent test paper composition. However, the traditional genetic algorithm has its own shortcomings, for example, it cannot create a personalized test paper for an individual learner, and it establishes a premature and slow convergence. This paper concerns itself with each user's current knowledge level and the extent in which a learner forgets. It keeps to the basic principles of Psychology inasmuch as those principles relate to memory and natural memory loss. Utilizing the genetic algorithm, a Personalized Genetic Algorithm with Forgetting Factor (PGAFF) is proposed and used for a multi-constrained test paper composition problem. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm can support the personalized test generation which can select questions that users haven't mastered well to composite a test paper. The generated test can help testers find out those questions that they don't know well and those they may have forgotten. In this view of point, we can see that PGAFF outperforms existing simple genetic algorithm on the intelligence of test generation.


Cortez Byrd Chips, Inc. v. Bill Harbert Construction Co., 120 S.Ct. 1331, 68 U.S.L.W. 4214 (U.S. Supreme Court-March 21, 2000) Although not an insurance case as such, the United States Supreme Court's recent decision in Cortez Byrd Chips will undoubtedly affect the litigation and dispute resolution posture of insurance coverage actions and underlying bodily injury, personal injury, professional liability, or errors and omissions actions that may be subject to arbitration agreements. As most lawyers and businesspersons are aware, arbitration clauses have been used with increasing frequency in commercial transactions. The typical arbitration clause provides that any dispute "arising under" or "arising out of" or "relating to" the agreement is subject to binding arbitration rather than litigation. Since the mid-1980s, the Supreme Court has been very supportive of this movement toward privatized dispute resolution and has tended to enforce these agreements rigorously under the authority of the Federal Arbitration Act ("FAA"), originally passed in 1926, which provides that any arbitration agreement contained in a contract involving interstate commerce may be specifically enforced by court order compelling any resistant parties to the agreement to arbitrate. See 9 U.S.C. [ss][ss]1-15. By definition, arbitration agreements are contained in contracts. As a result, a substantial number of arbitration clauses will not implicate insurance because breach of contract claims are generally not covered under general liability policies. However, many of the claims arising out of contractual relations gone sour can implicate insurance through claims of defamation, advertising injury, professional negligence, dishonesty, and so on. As a result, claims implicating insurance may be involved in arbitration. Notwithstanding that the parties at the outset of a contract "consent" to arbitration, after a claim arises, one or more parties may see an advantage in seeking to avoid arbitration or to challenge an adverse arbitration decision. As a result, a good deal of litigation can attend arbitration. Generally, a party seeking to enforce an arbitration clause can seek a court order compelling cooperation from the resisting party in any court that has personal and subject matter jurisdiction over the resisting party. The FAA is not itself an independent source of federal jurisdiction. Thus, going to federal court over arbitration normally requires that the disputants be citizens of different states and that the amount in controversy exceed the federal jurisdictional minimum of $75,000. Even if federal jurisdiction is lacking, the FAA applies in state court proceedings provided that there is the requisite connection to interstate commerce, a standard met relatively easily under the Court's modern precedents about what constitutes interstate commerce. Arbitration clauses may also contain choice of law clauses governing the dispute or other agreements affecting the dispute such as waiver or certain defenses, evidentiary admissions, or expansion or limitation of remedies normally permitted under the chosen law or general commercial principles. As a result, a signatory to an arbitration clause may find itself, after the fact, less than enthused about arbitration, all of which heightens the tactical litigation surrounding arbitration. In addition, the conduct of the arbitration itself may give rise to concerns. …


Contents: J.J. McArdle, R.W. Woodcock, Introduction. Part I:Keynote Speakers. R.E. Snow, Introduction of J.B. Carroll. J.B. Carroll, Human Cognitive Abilities: A Critique. J.L. Horn, Introduction of Raymond B. Cattell. R.B. Cattell, Where Is Intelligence? Some Answers From the Triadic Theory. S.W. Porges, Introduction of E.N. Sokolov. E.N. Sokolov, Higher Mental Activity and Basic Physiology: Subjective Difference and Reaction Time. Part II:Invited Talks. J. Horn, A Basis for Research on Age Differences in Cognitive Capabilities. R.E. Snow, Abilities as Aptitudes and Achievements in Learning Situations. S. Scarr, How Do Families Affect Intelligence? Social Environmental and Behavior Genetic Predictions. R.W. Woodcock, Extending Gf-Gc Theory Into Practice. Part III:Poster Session Papers. J.J. McArdle, Contemporary Statistical Models for Examining Test-Bias. S.H. Aggen, Interbattery Convergent Measurement Models Applied to the WAIS and WJ-R. S.M. Boker, J.J. McArdle, A Psychotelemetry Experiment in Fluid Intelligence. F. Hamagami, A Developmental-Based Item Factor Analysis. P.A. Hulick, A Structural Factor Analysis of Gender and Age Differences in Cognitive Ability. J.G. Noll, J. Horn, Age Differences in Processes of Fluid and Crystallized Intelligence. T.S. Paskus, Decision Validity Methods Applied to Cognitive Assessments of Brain Disorder. Part IV:Discussions. Discussions of Human Cognitive Abilities Conference Papers.


Chronic oral anticoagulation (OAC) is necessary in patients with mechanical heart valves and in most patients with atrial fibrillation (AF). A large subgroup of these patients has concomitant coronary artery disease (CAD). When these patients have to undergo percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), additional dual antiplatelet treatment (DAPT) with aspirin and a P2Y12 inhibitor becomes indicated to prevent stent thrombosis. In a rapidly ageing community, the number of patients suffering both AF and CAD is steadily increasing. Up to 2012 these patients were treated with the so-called triple therapy that is the combination of aspirin, clopidogrel and a vitamin K antagonist (VKA). However, this triple therapy also has its downsides. There is an association with an annual bleeding risk of up to 45% and bleeding is the Achilles-heel of triple therapy because it is the associated with an increased mortality risk. This thesis is based upon the clinical problem in this high-risk patient group (AF & PCI) that we encountered in 2007-2008 when patients had a high bleeding tendency when treated with triple therapy. We set out to decrease the bleeding risk without increasing the risk of stent thrombosis. Although triple therapy is still recommend by the guidelines, these recommendations are based on expert opinion and not on randomised trials. In this thesis we provide evidence that suggests that the increased bleeding risk outweighs the efficacy (preventing stent thrombosis, myocardial infarction (MI), stroke and thromboembolism) benefit of triple therapy in these patients and we present a possible new strategy of VKA and a P2Y12 inhibitor alone. The results of this randomised WOEST trial were presented in the hot line session of the 2012 annual meeting of the European Society of Cardiology in Munich and published in the Lancet. Second, we focus on the possible pitfall of VKA as it may modify the clopidogrel drug responsiveness and efficacy. However, the clinical impact of this finding on the risk of atherothrombotic events in patients on long term OAC undergoing PCI is unclear. Further investigation on this topic is needed. Third, the optimal peri-procedural PCI strategy in patients on OAC is highlighted. In a sub-analysis of the WOEST study, uninterrupted oral anticoagulation was not associated with an increase of bleeding or MACCE compared to bridging therapy. This study supports the current guidelines to adopt a peri-procedural uninterrupted oral anticoagulation strategy in patients on long term OAC who undergo PCI. Finally, we focus on stent choice in patients on OAC who undergo PCI. For patients on OAC who need to undergo PCI, guidelines (based on expert opinion) recommend the use of bare metal stents (BMS) but a sub-analysis of the WOEST trial showed that in patients treated with OAC who undergo PCI the implantation of DES was not associated with an increase of bleeding or ischemic events compared to BMS. The use of DES was associated with a significantly lower rate of TVR and therefore the use of DES seems a reasonable option in patients on long term OAC who undergo PCI.


Plant Signaling Molecule: Role and Regulation under Stressful Environments explores tolerance mechanisms mediated by signaling molecules in plants for achieving sustainability under changing environmental conditions. Including a wide range of potential molecules, from primary to secondary metabolites, the book presents the status and future prospects of the role and regulation of signaling molecules at physiological, biochemical, molecular and structural level under abiotic stress tolerance. This book is designed to enhance the mechanistic understanding of signaling molecules and will be an important resource for plant biologists in developing stress tolerant crops to achieve sustainability under changing environmental conditions.


Bringing in acquisition data from stems that undergo morphophonemic alternation in Turkish, this study seeks to show how children's acquisition path, mostly shaped by frequency implicates rules rather than a nondecomposed route. In Turkish most stems ending in the non-velar plosives [p], [t], [tʃ] undergo voicing alternation and stems ending in the velar plosive undergo deletion. On the grounds that the presence of non-velar-ending stems that do not undergo alternation or velar-ending stems that do not exhibit deletion may obscure the extraction of a pattern and give rise to errors in acquisition, we have tested 60 children in three developmental groups. We have found that children in all age groups erred and each sound type exhibited a variant error-path that reveals an interplay between type-frequency and token-frequency.


Living coccolithophore distributions from the Gulf of Manfredonia (Southern Adriatic Sea) were investigated and comparedwith the coccolith assemblages in the underlying surface sediments. In total, 55 samples from 13 stations in four transects collected at the end of October 2000 were analyzed to determine spatial and vertical distribution of individual taxa in the coastal environment. At all stations, the maximum coccosphere densities were between 10m and 30m of water depth (maximum values were ~4x104 coccospheres per litre of seawater). Coccolithophore absolute abundances show a vertical stratification and spatial variation, as well as variable species diversity, increasing from the coast to the open sea and decreasing with depth. Different coccolithophore communities are recorded in the shallow and deep photic zone. Emiliania huxleyi, Syracosphaera spp., Rhabdosphaera spp., Coronosphaera spp., Umbellosphaera tenuis and holococcolithophores are present mainly in the surface waters, above the thermocline between 25-30m depth. In the deeper water samples, there is a significant increase in coccospheres of Florisphaera profunda. The coccolithophore cell density variability is compared with in situ measurements of environmental parameters (temperature, salinity, nitrates and phosphates). Cell densities of all dominant taxa are most highly correlated with temperature variability. The low correlations of cell densities with nitrates and phosphates may be caused by insufficient sampling resolution, nutrient levels close to detection limits, or both. The comparison of the living assemblage with surface sediment records shows significant differences in the presence and abundance of some species. The recognised fossil record in the surface sediments ismainly represented by Cretaceous-Pleistocene reworked species, showing stronger dynamic processes at the bottom, such as terrigenous input and resuspension, than phytoplankton growth. Most marked correspondence between living and fossil assemblages has been found in the deeper and open sea sediments.


Software Engineering in IS Curricula Software engineering course is taught to higher education students majoring in Computer Science (CS), Computer Engineering (CE), and Software Engineering (SE). Software engineering course is also taught in other disciplines, either as a mandatory or as an elective course, such as Information Systems (IS). IS is a broader field than CS and includes parts of CS. IS fie ld could be described as an interdisplinary field that studies the design and use of information systems in a social context. As noted in IS2002 model curricula (Gorgone et al., 2002) , IS as a fie ld of academic study exists under a variety of at least thirteen (13) different curricula, including Information Systems, Management Information Systems, Computer Information Systems, Information Management, Business Information Systems, Informatics, Information Resources Management, Information Technology, Information Technology Systems, Information Technology Resources Management, Accounting Information Systems, Information Science, and Information and Quantitative Science. The author's early experience was that teaching IS students a software engineering course in the same way as CS students was not successful. This is mainly because IS students have significantly less background in programming than CS students. This experience encouraged him to accommodate topics on project management and SE best practices lab using Rational Suite Enterprise (Rational Suite Enterprise, 2008). This new approach was relevant to IS curricula and with accordance with IS2002.10 project management and practice course guidelines. Hilburn, Bagert, Mengel, & Oexmann (2008) proposed that several computing associations including the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM), the IEEE Computer Society (IEEECS), and the Computer Sciences Accreditation Board (CSAB) have provided encouragement, support, and guidance in developing quality curricula that are viable and dynamic. However, most computing programs still devote little time to software life cycle development, software processes, quality issues, team skills, and other areas of software engineering essentials to effective commercial software development. Hence, new graduates know little about what are "best practices" in software engineering profession (e.g., practices related to use of software processes, team building, front-end development). Therefore, it is the role of faculty members teaching such courses to redesign and implement curricula that focus on "practice" of software engineering, and other related issues. This paper is organized as follows: Section 2 presents arguments for the alternative approach. Section 3 presents IS2002.10 course specifications. Section 4 presents IS software engineering body of knowledge. Section 5 presents the project component, Section 6 presents a mapping from IS2002.10 course specification onto the IS software engineering course. Section 7 presents evaluation of the proposed approach. Finally, conclusions are presented in Section 8. Why IT Systems Development Course? We have taught the IT Systems Development course to IS students for seven years, and we believe we hit upon an approach that works. Instead of trying to instruct students in theory of various techniques, we teach them what we believe of as software development. From the management side IS students are expected to deal with non-technical challenges arising from project situations, including understand project domain and requirements, how to be a team player, how to schedule work between team members, and how to cope with time pressures and hard deadlines. As indicated by (Weaver, 2004), students often have limited experience in projects management. They do not appreciate the need for planning and take more time than anticipated to complete tasks. We have developed the creation of a set of "guidelines" for accommodating topics on project management to help students deal with non-technical issues of software development. …


In March 1998 the European Union (EU) formally launched a negotiation process by which to further enlarge the EU, having, in the preceding years, invited several former Soviet-influenced countries from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), along with Cyprus, Malta and Turkey, to participate in accession to the EU if they so wished. This article is concerned with Lithuania's accession to the EU, the process of approximating EU environmental law and the legislative intricacies involved therein. The paper critiques the process of enlargement of the European Union from a largely pragmatic legal perspective through a legal case-study examination of Lithuania's efforts in approximating the environmental acquis into national law. Lithuania was an accession state from Central Europe and acceded to the EU on May 1st 2004. This paper provides insight into and guidance upon the process of the approximation of environmental law as it may relate, or has related, to other accession countries. It highlights the practical steps and the route of accession to the EU along with the legal requirements contained therein.


Co-feeding of fish larvae with live food and formulated diet has been at the focus of fish nutritionists since last decade. In this study we tried to refine the feeding practices of great beluga sturgeon ( Huso huso ) larvae using different combinations of newly hatched Artemia urmiana nauplii and trout starter diet. Three replicate groups (250 fish/replicate) of first-feeding Huso huso larvae were fed on the basis of four main feeding regimens: (1) live food (live nauplii of brine shrimp Artemia urmiana ); (2) indirect transition (5 days live food followed by gradual transition to formulated diet); (3) direct transition (using different combinations of live and formulated diet from start feeding); (4) formulated feed (FD). It was found that combining live food and manufactured diets (co-feeding) from first feeding stage (direct transition) significantly improves the weight gain in H. huso larvae followed by indirect transition, live food and FD. But survival was significantly higher in larvae fed on pure live food and direct transition regimens compared to indirect transition and FD. It was concluded that co-feeding of H. huso could be started immediately from commencement of exogenous feeding.


This study investigates which corporate governance and firm-specific characteristics lead firms to be prone to ex-post moral hazard by misallocating the funds that they specifically borrowed for financing their R&D activities. We study 106 firms that received a specially designed loan by a Turkish government to be invested only in R&D and technological innovations. We find that as the size of the loan increases firms are less prone to moral hazard. For family firms our results support the agency theory. For large shareholders, initially our results are aligned with the agency theory but after controlling for the loan size our results hold for the stewardship theory. We also find that as amount of the loans increases relative to size of firms, the performance of projects financed by these loans plummets. Finally, we show that moral hazard related to R&D and innovation activities varies across industries.


IN HARM'S WAY: WISCONSIN WORKERS AND DISABILITY FROM THE GILDED AGE TO THE GREAT DEPRESSION Karalee Surface Marquette University, 2015 During the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, the American workplace proved especially dangerous to its workers' lives and limbs. The introduction of massproduction, coupled with a lack of safeguards on mechanized equipment and a dearth of workplace safety or sanitation regulations, ensured that an ever-growing number of workers were maimed or killed. Wisconsin legislators initially sought to remedy the issue of workplace violence by issuing a series of safety laws in the late 1870s and early 1880s. This, however, failed to stem the number of accident victims. Furthermore, the common law liability system through which injured workers could seek restitution from their employers was woefully inadequate for aiding disabled workers in their time of greatest need. In the early 1900s, as communities were increasingly unable to provide financial assistance to these workers and their families, Wisconsin was among the first states to introduce a no-fault workmen's compensation law that ensured the injured parties quick and reliable reimbursement for their losses. This project explores the impact of work-related injuries on turn-of-the-century Wisconsin workers, restoring disabled workers to the narrative of nineteenth-century industrialization. At a macro-level, it recounts hazardous working conditions of the farms, lumber operations, and manufacturing enterprises of the state, giving particular attention to the havoc that working wrought on the human body. It also explores both the worker's efforts to seek legal redress and the prejudices often directed at them by their "able-bodied" peers. The study concludes with a micro-level analysis that documents the experience of industrial violence at a personal level. It draws on a wide variety of sources, including institutional records from the state's Industrial Commission and Department of Vocational Rehabilitation, newspapers, magazines, philanthropic journals, and four surveys of disabled Wisconsin workers that were conducted between 1907 and 1926. Ultimately, it reveals how disabling work injuries thrust individuals into a complex and often contradictory post-accident world, making an indelible impact—for better or for worse—on their lives.


The European Commission and scholars emphasize that the ERASMUS programme is a successful example of European integration and a symbol of construction of European identity. But because of the lack of empirical findings, this paper has been devoted to research of the impact of the ERASMUS programme on fostering European identity. The quantitative survey of 330 former, potential and non-ERASMUS students provides partly justification that the ERASMUS Programme has impact on promoting European identity. This study was implemented for the first time in [name deleted to maintain the integrity of the review process], but the results are important not only in [name deleted to maintain the integrity of the review process], but also at the EU level. EU officials should take into consideration the fact that potential ERASMUS students already have greater European self-identification than non-mobile students, therefore the European identity should be promoted in those students who do not take participation in.


Baffin Bay is the northwest extension of the Labrador Sea spreading system. The transition zone between these two areas is characterized by the sinistral Ungava transform-fault system across Davis Strait. The crustal type within Baffin Bay is considered to be oceanic based on a few refraction seismic experiments of older vintage. However, the velocity-depth profiles obtained from these experiments also indicate deviations from normal oceanic crust. A refraction profile in northern Baffin Bay indicates that spreading there was amagmatic and that serpentinized mantle is encountered beneath the sedimentary sequence. In addition, no magnetic anomalies related to seafloor spreading could be detected in Baffin Bay so far. This leaves a relative uncertainty about the geodynamic evolution of the Davis Strait and Baffin Bay region. For this reason, a geophysical study was carried out onboard the research vessel Maria S. Merian in 2008, collecting wide-angle reflection/refraction seismic data, supplemented by coincident and additional deep reflection seismic profiles, potential field measurement, swath bathymetry and high-resolution sediment profiling (Parasound). The refraction seismic data set comprises three lines running across the centre part of Davis Strait and southern Baffin Bay extending from Greenland to Baffin Island. The seismic source was an airgun array with a total volume of 7006 cubic inches and the shots were recorded by up to 25 ocean bottom seismometers (OBS) deployed along each line. Initial velocity models will be presented for line AWI-20080600 extending from the Sisimiut Basin off Greenland across the Hellefisk well, farther towards the NW and parallel to the assumed extinct spreading axis (based on gravity data) up to the Baffin Island continental margin some 60 km to the south of ODP site 645. The record sections indicate considerable lateral variations of the crustal structure and character along the line.


Recent studies at the Cancer Research Center revealed numerous mutations in Salmonella typhimurium that had been sealed in agar stab vials and stored for over forty years. The bacteria that were conserved in over 20,000 vials were all progeny of the same S. typhimurium strain. However, they were not progeny from a single colony (thus, a single parental cell), but from cultures used in genetic studies in several laboratories. To continue the evolutionary and mutational study of S.typhimurium, a new set of 100 similar agar stabs were inoculated 19 months ago from a single colony (thus, a single parental cell), and sealed. Cells from this set were assayed to see if mutations had occurred. Through motility tests, colony growth on three media, re-streaking of unique colonies, and phage spot testing, genetic variability was observed after 19 months storage. In this amount of time enough mutation did occur to display diverse phenotypes among progeny of the single strain of S. typhimurium. To confront any concerns that the mutations may have been present 19 months ago, a –80 °C stock of the parent colony was used as a control. While the phenotypic changes were significantly less then the vials stored for forty years, it is obvious that 19 months was enough time for genetic variability to occur in S. typhimurium from a single parent.


Transducers for high-power sonars, an important tool for undersea exploration and monitoring, may be required to work in deep water where pressures are higher than several tens of MPa. In contrast with the piezoelectric devices commonly used as high-power sonars for seabed resource exploration, electroactive polymers offer the benefits of high coupling efficiency, low cost, and the ability to form large area skins or other devices. One question about the use of electroactive polymers for sonar has been their ability to withstand the rigors of the deep-sea environment. In a recent experiment, we have verified that the dielectric elastomer type of electroactive polymer can maintain good operational characteristics even in an ultrahigh-pressure environment by showing that the electroactive strain response to an applied voltage was unaffected by externally applied pressures of up to 100 MPa.


Background: Schizophrenia is a pervasive and often debilitating disorder, although vulnerability is not easily assessed. Cannabis has a positive relationship with schizophrenia. To date, it is unknown whether or not this is a causal relationship. Nonetheless, those with vulnerability to psychosis have displayed a differential sensitivity to cannabis.
Aims: There were two main aims to this programme of research: 1) Contribute to discussions relating to 'causal inference' in the relationship between cannabis and psychosis. 2) Assess the reliability and validity of the Cannabis Experiences Questionnaire (CEQ) as a measure of psychotic vulnerability based on a differential sensitivity to cannabis.
Methods: Two studies were conducted. The first was a Cross-sectional investigation in which two groups of cannabis users were recruited, participants with self-reported depression (n = 85) and participants with self-reported psychotic disorder (n = 48). This investigation also considered data from a community sample recruited as part of other research studies. These consisted of cannabis users (n = 861) and non-users (n = 306). These groups were compared on measures of schizotypy and cannabis induced experience.
The second study was an experience sampling investigation, in which regular cannabis users (n = 36), submitted 7 responses per day via a mobilephone, for a period of 14 days. Participants completed measures of: psychotic-like states, stressed states, calm states, drug consumption, stressful and pleasurable events, and aversive cannabis induced experience.
Results: Cross-sectional investigation: There was no significant difference between cannabis users with reported depression and reported psychotic disorder in the disorganised or interpersonal domains of schizotypy. The cannabis-using groups of participants displayed a differential sensitivity to cannabis, with those who reported psychotic illness having significantly more aversive cannabis experiences than the community sample (U = 15106.5, z = 3.142, p = .002, r = 0.10) and participants with reported depression (U = 1241.0, z = 3.746, p < .001, r = 0.32) . The most effective means of identifying psychotic vulnerability consisted of a two-step process, firstly utilising assessments of schizotypy and secondly assessments of aversive cannabis induced experience.
Experience sampling investigation: In a dose dependent fashion cannabis predicted increases in interpersonal (b = 0.24 95% CI 0.07 to 0.42, p = .006) and disorganised psychotic like experience (PLE) (b = 0.16 95% CI 0.04 to 0.27, p = .006). However, disorganised PLE significantly increased the odds of cannabis consumption (OR = 1.245 95% CI 1.045 to 1.247, p = .003). Cannabis positively and significantly predicted 'calm' states in a dose dependent fashion (b = 0.23 95% CI 0.07 to 0.39, p = .006). Cannabis and stressed states interacted to significantly predict PLEs (b = 0.33, 95% CI 0.17 to 0.49, p < .001). Aversive cannabis induced experience significantly predicted PLEs both within (b = 0.22, 95% CI 0.10 to 0.33, p < .001) and between participants (b = 0.66, 95% CI 0.06 to 1.27, p = .033). Previously documented aversive cannabis experiences significantly predicted propensity to experience stressed states (b = 0.15, 95% CI 0.05 to 0.24, p= .002).
Conclusion: Aim 1): Within a continuum model of psychosis the results of these studies support three mechanisms of a cannabis-schizophrenia interaction; cannabis use causes schizophrenia; schizophrenia causes cannabis use; schizophrenia and cannabis use maintain one another. There is evidence to suggest psycho-social stressors interact with cannabis to induce PLEs. This may indicate that cannabis causes schizophrenia via a cross-sensitisation mechanism. At-risk groups should be warned against using cannabis as a stress coping mechanism.
Aim 2): These results confirm a differential sensitivity to cannabis in those vulnerable to psychotic disorder. This investigation has demonstrated that psychosis vulnerability can be assessed by aversive cannabis induced experience. This investigation has demonstrated concurrent, convergent, and predictive validity of the CEQ as an assessment of psychotic vulnerability. This scale could be useful for drug education programmes and risk assessment in recreational cannabis users; screening for medicinal cannabis prescription; screening for research trials with cannabinoids or other known psychotomimetics; and in the allocation of psychological intervention for cannabis dependence, and (possibly) stress-reduction in those with disorder or at ultra-high risk.


Ambiguity is one of the sex determination disorders which are caused by several genetic and hormonal factors. This study was carried out to determine the association between sex external genitalia and genetic phenotype and to find the role of SRY in ambiguity. Twenty one patients with ambiguous genitalia were involved in the study. Blood samples were used for cytogenetic analysis and for DNA extraction for PCR analysis with SRY and SMCX primers.In this study we examined 21 patients with ambigiuity and we grouped them into two groups according to their external genitalia. The first group consists of 6 patients with apparently female external genitalia and the second group consists of 15 patients with apparently female external genitalia plus micropenis. Cytogenetic and molecular analyses were preformed and the cytogentic analysis revealed that 4 patients of group-1 were with 46,XY karyotype and two with 46,XX karyotype. While 14 patients of group-2 were with 46,XX and one with mosaic karyotype. PCR analysis of the DNA extracted from patients blood of both groups with SRY and SMCX primers or with SRY primers alone showed that discordance between PCR and cytogenetic results was detected in patient no.5 from group-1 and patients no.7 and 8 from group-2 where the PCR positive to SRY while the karyotype is 46,XX. Discordance was detected between the external genitalia and cytogenetic karyotype of the patients with ambiguity. Such discordance was confirmed by PCR analysis.


In this paper, an effort was made in order to classify the European Union (EU) countries according to the quantity of the sheep meat production. In particular, the implementation of Fuzzy classification, indicated three sheep meat production classes in EU, according to their percentage of accession. Furthermore, the convergence in the sheep meat production for the same group with the application of a panel unit root test was studied. The next step involved the application of a unit root test to each time series studied. For all the I(1) time series we then proceeded the application of the Johansen cointegration technique within each group. According to the results of the aforementioned technique we confirmed one cointegrating vector in every group, indicating a relation in the long run between the domestic production of each country within each group. Finally, the application of Granger causality test confirmed in some cases that the domestic sheep meat production of a country affects and is affected by other countries within the same group.


Dental caries is one of the common hygienic problems. Salvadora persica L. Or Miswak is rich in fluorine and many anti-bacterial agents. Fluoride helps to prevent dental caries. Chewing gum as a preparation to prevent tooth decay and improve oral health can be supplied to the pharmaceutical market. This study aimed to evaluate the organoleptic, physicochemical and mechanical characteristics of the gum, the product designed to provide the consumer's optimal. The plant was prepared from Hormozgan State. Its stems and twigs were ground; then percolated at 25° C. Liquid glucose, glycerin, various sweeteners, plant extracts and flavorings have been added to the softened gum base at the proper temperature. In order to evaluate the organoleptic characteristics of the product, Latin square was designed. Weight variation and content uniformity were determined. Fluoride release has been studied by means of the mechanical chewing device in phosphate buffer with the pH adjusted at 6.8. The mechanical properties of the product were evaluated by using a tensile testing machine. The amount of fluoride per gram of extract was 0.111 ± 0.017 μg. Organoleptic properties were evaluated at 3 stages in the volunteers. The average weight of the chewing gum for F11 to F15 was 832.0 ± 2.9, 829.0 ± 2.2, 833.3 ± 3.9, 829.2 ± 3.2 and 828.0 ± 3.8 mg respectively. The mean amount of fluoride in the gums form F11 to F15 was 94.1 ± 5.7%, 92.3 ± 5.7%, 96.5 ± 4.7%, 93.9 ± 4.4% and 95.6 ± 3.8% of the claim respectively. F11 to F15 after 15 minutes released 62%, 73%, 80%, 69%, 73%, and finally 85%, 92%, 97%, 94%, 95% of their fluoride in the release medium respectively. The mechanical testing was performed. Parameters such as yield strength, ultimate strength, toughness, elongation, and modulus of elasticity are calculated. In this study S. persica L. is extracted and formulated into chewing gum with favorable taste and suitable organoleptic properties as F12. The best sweetener for persica gum is xylitol and peppermint is the best flavoring agent. It is succeeded in the content uniformity, release and mechanical tests. [Abolfazl Aslani, Alireza Ghannadi, Shiva Mortazavi and Marzieh Torabi. Design, Formulation and Evaluation of Medicinal Chewing Gum by the Extract of Salvadora persica L.. Life Sci J 2013;10(4s):47-55] (ISSN: 1097-8135). http://www.lifesciencesite.com. 7


Visualization of ice particles in a rectangular cavity and ice slurry flows in a pipe are performed. The form and size of ice particles is investigated by optical microscopy, which permits a statistical evaluation of the geometrical shapes of the ice crystals. The observed particle densities and the size distributions correspond with the theoretically determined ice fractions. A method applied to measure ice slurry velocity fields is based on ultrasound Doppler echography. The velocity profile, determined by the velocity of ice particles, is measured and several features which are related to Bingham flows are observed. With these experimental results, complete rheograms can be constructed.


There are currently 2.6 million people diagnosed with diabetes in the UK. Around 90% of these people are suffering from Type II diabetes, with more than half a million people unaware they have the condition. Exercise your way to health: Type II Diabetes will show you how to manage your diabetes by helping you to gain a better understanding of your diagnosis and how it impacts on your body and health. Type II diabetes can develop into a serious condition, but with the right lifestyle choices and exercise there is no reason why it should stop you living a full and active life. Exercise your way to health will show you how to start a simple fitness programme, while considering the specific challenges raised by diabetes. You will start to see improvements within 6 weeks, when you can re-test your baseline fitness. This will be all the motivation you need to keep your new lifestyle on track to a happier and healthier you!


Signal processing has played a major auxiliary role in medicine via the array of technologies available to physicians. Only a rapidly diminishing proportion of the population can recall medicine without computer tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, and ultrasound. In this capacity, signal processing serves only a supporting function. The future will be different. Like a factory, regulatory logic defines the cell as an operational system [1]: The roles of regulatory logic in the factory (or complex machine) and the cell are congruent because the key to the characterization of this logic lies in communication (between components) and control (of components)that is, in systems theory, which therefore determines the epistemology of the cell. Ipso facto, the mathematical foundations of biology, and therefore its translational partner, medicine, reside in the mathematics of systems theory. Hence, the roles of signal processing and the closely related theories of communication, control, and information will play constitutive functions as medicine evolves into a translational science resting on a theoretical framework.


Hydrogen production by membrane water splitting technologies is a sustainable method to synthesize hydrogen and provides an alternative to hydrogen production instead of conventional process of synthesizing hydrogen from steam methane reforming. A hybrid polymer electrolyte membrane electrolyzer operational at working temperature of above 80–200°C is advantageous for faster electrochemical kinetics, higher current exchange density, and more resistance to fuel impurities. Phosphoric acid (PA) doping onto polybenzimidazole (PBI) membrane shows significant improvement in proton conductivities, permeability, and thermal stability. PBI-based electrolyzer is relatively new to the hydrogen production technologies as compared to Nafion-based electrolyzer. However, the high cost of purchasing Nafion membrane and inability to execute electrolysis operational above 90°C has sparked new interest on PBI-based membrane, which is known for its good thermal stability.


Ion exchange membranes (IEMs) have been adopted in various environmental, chemical, and energy applications. However, the formation of ion-depletion regions, caused by concentration polarization near IEMs, often leads to significant energy and efficiency loss. While much research has been devoted to solving this challenge, complete removal of ion-depletion regions is still difficult, especially when the membrane systems are operating under near- or over-limiting conditions. This paper proposes a novel multiscale-pore (MP) IEM to reduce the effect of the ion-depletion region, by allowing a fluid flow through the MP-IEM, thereby limiting the size (and the resulting resistance) of the ion-depletion region. The electrical resistance and energy consumption in MP and conventional IEM-embedded electrochemical systems were investigated, and their performance during water desalination processes were compared. The current–voltage response suggests a secondary ohmic regime attributed to an internal flow rate through the MP-IEM. Moreover, the electrochemical desalination of seawater with MP-IEMs demonstrated up to 75% reduction of energy consumption, compared with conventional IEMs under comparable operating conditions.


Over its first two editions, this best-selling book has become the de facto standard for training and reference material at all levels of CNC programming. Used in hundreds of educational institutions around the world as the primary text for CNC courses, and used daily by many in-field CNC programmers and machine operators, this book literally defines CNC programming. Written with careful attention to detail, there are no compromises. Many of the changes in this new Third Edition are the direct result of comments and suggestions received from many CNC professionals in the field. This extraordinarily comprehensive work continues to be packed with over one thousand illustrations, tables, formulas, tips, shortcuts, and practical examples. The enclosed CD-ROM now contains a fully functional 15-day shareware version of CNC tool path editor/simulator, NCPlot(tm). This powerful, easy-to-learn software includes an amazing array of features, many not found in competitive products. NCPlot offers an unmatched combination of simplicity of use and richness of features. Support for many advanced control options is standard, including a macro interpreter that simulates Fanuc and similar macro programs. The CD-ROM also offers many training exercises based on individual chapters, along with solutions and detailed explanations. Special programming and machining examples are provided as well, in form of complete machine files, useful as actual programming resources. Virtually all files use Adobe PDF format and are set to high resolution printing. New and Updated Features of the 3rd Edition - Detailed section on CNC lathes with live tooling, including examples - Image files of many actual parts, used as examples - More programming examples (both in printed text and on the CD-ROM) - Optimized for the latest Fanuc and related control systems - Additional formulas, calculations and handy reference material - Fourth axis programming (indexing and rotary) - Improved index for better search of topics


Learn web scraping and crawling techniques to access unlimited data from any web source in any format. With this practical guide, you'll learn how to use Python scripts and web APIs to gather and process data from thousands-or even millions-of web pages at once. Ideal for programmers, security professionals, and web administrators familiar with Python, this book not only teaches basic web scraping mechanics, but also delves into more advanced topics, such as analyzing raw data or using scrapers for frontend website testing. Code samples are available to help you understand the concepts in practice.


In forest planning, the decision maker chooses for each stand a treatment schedule for a predefined planning period. The choice is based either on optimization calculations or on silvicultural guidelines. Schedules for individual stands are obtained using a growth simulator, where measured stand characteristics such as the basal area, mean diameter, site class and mean height are used as input variables. These characteristics include errors, however, which may lead to incorrect decisions. In this study, the aim is to study the sensitivity of harvest decisions to errors in a dataset of 157 stands. Correct schedules according to silvicultural guidelines were first determined using error-free data. Different amounts of errors were then generated to the stand-specific characteristics, and the treatment schedule was selected again using the erroneous data. The decision was defined as correct, if the type of harvest in these two schedules were similar, and if the timings deviated at maximum ±2 for thinning and ±3 years for clear-cut. The dependency of probability of correct decisions on stand characteristics and the degree of errors was then modelled. The proposed model can be used to determine the required level of measurement accuracy for each characteristics in different kinds of stands, with a given accuracy requirement for the timing of treatments. This information can further be utilized in selecting the most appropriate inventory method.


This contribution explores a droplet actuation mechanism which involves mixing slugs of two different liquids in a glass capillary. The resulting contrast in surface tension which arises provides the necessary propulsive power for the droplet. The conceptual idea is demonstrated for an ethanol-water system. The droplet is observed to rapidly reach a peak velocity which then gradually decreases with time as the two miscible liquids mix. A model is proposed based on Newton's second law which is able to capture the main observed flow phenomena and explain the driving and dissipative mechanisms simultaneously at play in the droplet. This passive actuation mechanism could prove an attractive alternative in digital microfluidics systems for which bulky pumping systems are often required.


This compendium Resource Productivity in 7 Steps is intended to give practical advice to designers, engineers, distributors, banks, lawmakers and others how to increase the resource productivity of goods and services (dematerialisation). The eco-innovative (re-)design of products begins with the definition/description of the benefit or service, which a product provides to its user. The use of MIPS (Material Input Per unit Service) helps to develop solutions that can provide this benefit with the least possible quantity of natural resources, from. It measures the material and energy input of a product throughout its life-cycle, from cradle to cradle (production of raw materials, manufacturing, transportation, use, disposal). Thus, material and energy consumption can be minimised while satisfying the demand and decoupling of the economic activities from resource use. The brochure describes in seven steps how to gain more resource productivity. It provides several worksheets for the innovation process and material intensity factors for the calculation of the material footprint. A translation into traditional chinese is also available.


Background Exosomes are emerging targets for biomedical research. However, suitable methods for the isolation of blood plasma-derived exosomes without impurities have not yet been described. Aim Therefore, we investigated the efficiency and purity of exosomes isolated with potentially suitable methods; differential ultracentrifugation (UC) and size exclusion chromatography (SEC). Methods and Results Exosomes were isolated from rat and human blood plasma by various UC and SEC conditions. Efficiency was investigated at serial UC of the supernatant, while in case of SEC by comparing the content of exosomal markers of various fractions. Purity was assessed based on the presence of albumin. We found that the diameter of the majority of isolated particles fell into the size range of exosomes, however, albumin was also present in the preparations, when 1h UC at 4°C was applied. Furthermore, with this method only a minor fraction of total exosomes could be isolated from blood as deduced from the constant amount of exosomal markers CD63 and TSG101 detected after serial UC of rat blood plasma samples. By using UC for longer time or with shorter sedimentation distance at 4°C, or UC performed at 37°C, exosomal yield increased, but albumin impurity was still observed in the isolates, as assessed by transmission electron microscopy, dynamic light scattering and immunoblotting against CD63, TSG101 and albumin. Efficiency and purity were not different in case of using further diluted samples. By using SEC with different columns, we have found that although a minor fraction of exosomes can be isolated without significant albumin content on Sepharose CL-4B or Sephacryl S-400 columns, but not on Sepharose 2B columns, the majority of exosomes co-eluted with albumin. Conclusion Here we show that it is feasible to isolate exosomes from blood plasma by SEC without significant albumin contamination albeit with low vesicle yield.


Longer lactations are more profitable than in the past, and daughter pregnancy rate evaluations now allow separate selection for cow fertility and longevity. Measures of productive life were compared, and updated life expectancy factors were derived to replace those estimated in 1993. Extra credits for lactations longer than 10 mo and beyond 84 mo of age are proposed, and also for each calf produced so that an extremely long lactation will not receive more credit than multiple shorter lactations with dry periods between. Maximum credits per lactation of 10 mo, 12 mo, and unlimited were compared; the latter either included or excluded a calf value equal to 2 mo of production. Days in milk beyond 305 had not been stored in early data but were estimated from the subsequent calving date assuming a 60-d dry period. Heritabilities and genetic correlations were estimated by multi-trait REML for longevity censored at various ages and for yield traits and somatic cell score in first parity. Data included records from 1,098,329 Holsteins born from 1994 through 1997 from 5109 sires, and a relationship matrix among sires was included in the model. Cows that were still alive in 2005 received credit for predicted remaining months of productive life. Lactations beyond 84 mo added little information. Heritability of productive life was 0.073 with 10-mo, 0.069 with 12-mo, and 0.067 with unlimited lactation credits. The latter increased slightly to 0.068 with calf credit included. Corresponding genetic correlations of productive life with protein yield were 0.00, 0.03, 0.12, and 0.11, all much lower than the 0.46 estimated in 1993. Phenotypic correlations and life expectancy factors were similar to 1993 estimates. Productive life censored at 36 mo is genetically correlated by only 0.87 with final productive life and is influenced more by yield traits (those correlations ranged from 0.14 to 0.27). Adjustments for yield could make correlations more consistent across time and across censoring ages. Stable properties and high economic value are desired while retaining simple interpretation.


Some people have much better memory than others, and there is compelling evidence that a considerable proportion of this variation in memory ability is genetically inherited. A form of synaptic plasticity known as long-term potentiation (LTP) is the principal candidate mechanism underlying memory formation in neural circuits, and it might be expected, therefore, that a genetic influence on the degree of LTP might in turn influence memory abilities. Of the genetic variations thought to significantly influence mnemonic ability in humans, the most likely to have its effect via LTP is a single nucleotide polymorphism affecting brain-derived neurotrophic factor [BDNF (Val66Met)]. However, although it is likely that BDNF influences memory via a modulation of acute plasticity (i.e., LTP), BDNF also has considerable influence on structural development of neural systems. Thus, the influence of BDNF (Val66Met) on mnemonic performance via influences of brain structure as well as function must also be considered. In this brief review, we will describe the phenomenon of LTP and its study in non-human animals. We will discuss the relatively recent attempts to translate this work to studies in humans. We will describe how this has enabled investigation of the effect of the BDNF polymorphism on LTP, on brain structure, and on memory performance.


The proteins, tissue plasminogen activator (t-PA) and plasminogen activator inhibitor 1 (PAI-1), act in concert to balance thrombus formation and degradation, thereby modulating the development of arterial thrombosis and excessive bleeding. PAI-1 is upregulated by the renin-angiotensin system (RAS), specifically by angiotensin II, the product of angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) cleavage of angiotensin I, which is produced by the cleavage of angiotensinogen (AGT) by renin (REN). ACE indirectly stimulates the release of t-PA which, in turn, activates the corresponding fibrinolytic system. Single polymorphisms in these pathways have been shown to significantly impact plasma levels of t-PA and PAI-1 differently in Ghanaian males and females. Here we explore the involvement of epistatic interactions between the same polymorphisms in central genes of the RAS and fibrinolytic systems on plasma t-PA and PAI-1 levels within the same population (n = 992). Statistical modeling of pairwise interactions was done using two-way ANOVA between polymorphisms in the ETNK2, RENIN, ACE, PAI-1, t-PA, and AGT genes. The most significant interactions that associated with t-PA levels were between the ETNK2 A6135G and the REN T9435C polymorphisms in females (p = 0.006) and the REN T9435C and the TPA I/D polymorphisms (p = 0.005) in males. The most significant interactions for PAI-1 levels were with REN T9435C and the TPA I/D polymorphisms (p = 0.001) in females, and the association of REN G6567T with the TPA I/D polymorphisms (p = 0.032) in males. Our results provide evidence for multiple genetic effects that may not be detected using single SNP analysis. Because t-PA and PAI-1 have been implicated in cardiovascular disease these results support the idea that the genetic architecture of cardiovascular disease is complex. Therefore, it is necessary to consider the relationship between interacting polymorphisms of pathway specific genes that predict t-PA and PAI-1 levels.


Certain human biotransformation enzymes have been implicated in the formation and scavenging of the ultimate reactive metabolites, the diolepoxides, from polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). In the present study, performed on aluminum smelter workers, we have analyzed airborne PAH, the pyrene metabolite 1-hydroxypyrene (1-OHP) in urine, and genotypes for biotransformation enzymes involved in PAH metabolism. The aim was to evaluate the correlation between external exposure and biomarkers of exposure and to investigate to what extent genetic polymorphism in metabolic enzymes can explain interindividual variation in urinary 1-OHP levels. DNA was prepared from blood samples from 98 potroom workers and 55 controls and altogether eight polymorphisms in the CYP1A1, mEH, GSTM1, GSTP1 and GSTT1 genes were analyzed. The 1-OHP excretion was found to correlate significantly (P </= 0.005) to the exposure. The interindividual difference in excretion of 1-OHP was vast (>100-fold) and univariate and multivariate regression analyses were used to find the variables that could determine differences in excretion. The variation could, to some degree, be explained by differences in exposure to airborne particulate-associated PAHs, the use of personal respiratory protection devices, smoking habits and genetic polymorphisms in the cytochrome P450 1A1, GSTM1 and GSTT1 enzymes. The part of the variance that could be explained by differences in biotransformation genotypes seemed to be of the same order of magnitude as the variance explained by differences in exposure. In the control group as well as in the occupationally exposed group, the highest 1-OHP levels were observed in individuals carrying the CYP1A1 Ile/Val genotype who were also of the GSTM1 null genotype. The results show that urinary 1-OHP is a sensitive indicator of recent human exposure to PAHs and that it may also to some extent reflect the interindividual variation in susceptibility to PAHs.


This year marks the 25th anniversary of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), the largest funding agency for basic research in the country. On this occasion, the leadership of the NSFC and the Chinese Ministry of Finance arranged for the NSFC to be reviewed by an International Evaluation Committee (IEC), which sets a new precedent for China. Part of the motivation for this review was a desire on the part of the Chinese government to determine how well their extensive efforts to boost the support of scientific research measure up to international standards. Apart from logistical arrangements, the IEC was completely independent in its operations. An "evidence-based review" (that is, an overview with extensive data) was carefully prepared by China's National Center for Science and Technology Evaluation. We were also given access to anyone with whom we wanted to speak, including those critical of the present Chinese research culture. Both the evidence-based review and the full report, with our comments and recommendations, are accessible online (www.nsfc.gov.cn/english/13rp/index.html). The process and results of this report should be useful not only for China but also for many other nations striving to produce a merit-based culture for science.


Introduction: High prevalences rates of Helicobacter Pylori in people with intellectual disabilitities have been reported in the literature. However barriers to assessment and treatment of H. pylori in this population group are numerate including lack of awareness, difficulties
with identifying signs and symptoms, lack of national guidance around screening and re-testing following treatment, as well as difficulties with gaining or completion of screening and first line treatments.
Methods: Focus groups with clinical staff working with individuals who have an intellectual disability in the National Health Service and the independent sector; explored the experiences, knowledge and beliefs
regarding the identification, treatment and preventing the spread of H. Pylori.
Results: Barriers to testing, treatment and re-testing were evident in the discourse of staff. Staff expressed a lack of appropriate guidance regarding when to test, knowledge of H. pylori and potential signs and symptoms which may be divergent in presentation than that found in
literature regarding the general population. Differences in presentation may be a result of communication barriers, diagnostic over-shadowing or medications currently prescribed masking symptomology.
Implications: Increased awareness and testing of H. pylori to improve gastric health of people with an intellectual disability and the staff teams that support them.


General-purpose robots coexisting with humans in their environment must learn to relate human language to their perceptions and actions to be useful in a range of daily tasks. Moreover, they need to acquire a diverse repertoire of general-purpose skills that allow composing long-horizon tasks by following unconstrained language instructions. In this letter, we present Composing Actions from Language and Vision (CALVIN) (Composing Actions from Language and Vision), an open-source simulated benchmark to learn long-horizon language-conditioned tasks. Our aim is to make it possible to develop agents that can solve many robotic manipulation tasks over a long horizon, from onboard sensors, and specified only via human language. CALVIN tasks are more complex in terms of sequence length, action space, and language than existing vision-and-language task datasets and supports flexible specification of sensor suites. We evaluate the agents in zero-shot to novel language instructions and to novel environments. We show that a baseline model based on multi-context imitation learning performs poorly on CALVIN, suggesting that there is significant room for developing innovative agents that learn to relate human language to their world models with this benchmark.