In plant tissues the extracellular environment or apoplast, incorporating the cell wall, is a highly dynamic compartment with a role in many important plant processes including defence, development, signalling and assimilate partitioning. Soluble apoplast proteins from Arabidopsis thaliana, Triticum aestivum and Oryza sativa were separated by two-dimensional electrophoresis. The molecular weights and isoelectric points for the dominant proteins were established prior to excision, sequencing and identification by matrix-assisted laser-desorption ionisation time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI - TOF MS). From the selected spots, 23 proteins from O. sativa and 25 proteins from A. thaliana were sequenced, of which nine identifications were made in O. sativa (39%) and 14 in A. thaliana (56%). This analysis revealed that: (i) patterns of proteins revealed by two-dimensional electrophoresis were different for each species indicating that speciation could occur at the level of the apoplast, (ii) of the proteins characterised many belonged to diverse families reflecting the multiple functions of the apoplast and (iii), a large number of the apoplast proteins could not be identified indicating that the majority of extracellular proteins are yet to be assigned. The principal proteins identified in the aqueous matrix of the apoplast were involved in defence, i.e. germin-like proteins or glucanases, and cell expansion, i.e. β-D-glucan glucohydrolases. This study has demonstrated that proteomic analysis can be used to resolve the apoplastic protein complement and to identify adaptive changes induced by environmental effectors.


Parkour is often defined through its strikingly visual dimension with breathtaking images of leaps covering amazing distances, recordings of seemingly impossible body movements and flying bodies apparently no longer constrained by gravity. However, the basic idea behind parkour is to find the most efficient or direct path as one crosses from one point to another while overcoming all obstacles using only one's bodily capacities. No additional tools are used or are necessary. The seemingly weightless traceurs and traceuses (parkour practitioners) run, jump and climb through public and digital space. At the same time, they produce visual footage of their best movements. As in other sporting cultures, such as skateboarding, surfing or climbing, the productions of visual material and the visual representation of the sports practices are interrelated. This hints at an entangled relationship between parkour and media in its various forms and aspects. In the following article, parkour will be described as a mediatized global cultural practice with a focus on established regimes of visibility. The analysis will be conducted from a local Moroccan and gendered perspective and using an ethnographic approach.


Mobility management protocols operating from different layers of the classical protocol stack (e.g., link, network, transport, and application layers) have been proposed in the last several years. These protocols achieve different handoff performance for different types of applications. In this paper, mobile applications are grouped into five different classes, class A through class E, based on their mobility management requirements. Analytical models are developed to investigate the handoff performance of the existing mobility management protocols for these application classes. The analysis shows that applications of a particular class experience different handoff performance when different mobility management protocols are used. Handoff performance comparisons of different mobility management protocols are carried out to decide on the suitable mobility management protocol for a particular application class. The results of mathematical analysis advocate the use of transport layer mobility management for class B and class C applications, mobile IP for non-real-time class D and class E applications, and session initiation protocol-based mobility management for real-time class D and class E applications. Moreover, through analytical modeling, the parameters that influence the handoff performance of mobility management protocols are identified. These parameters can be used to design new application-adaptive techniques to enhance the handoff performance of the existing mobility management protocols.


The genesis and diffusion of innovation depends upon the density of the cognitive and market relationships among individuals, organisations and institutions at both the micro- and macro-economic level. By addressing the nature of these relationships, which include cooperation, competition and power, this book presents an important and progressive enquiry into the economic and social origins of innovation.


In the United States, property and race shape each other. This has been true since colonization and is equally true today.

First, property relationships shaped the distinct forms racism took for different racialized groups. Racism exists to explain and justify power and privilege of one group over another. But the goals of power and privilege vary across different groups, resulting in different stereotypes, legal and social barriers, and modes of control. This Article examines the racialization of African Americans, Indigenous peoples, ethnic Chinese, and racialized "off-White" ethnic groups to reveal the crucial role that a group's relationship to valued resources plays in its distinct trajectory of racism.

Second, racial relationships shaped property law for everyone in the United States. The power to foreclose for debts, the power of local governments to zone, the public goods attached to residence, the scope of the welfare state's "new property"—in these areas and many more, efforts to control, exclude, and take from racialized groups changed what property means today. This Article reveals the hidden histories of racially neutral rules and shows how they have undermined the security and equitable distribution of property for all.

Today, property law and rhetoric are often used to undermine measures that would increase the security, affordability, and autonomy that justify property in the first place. Revealing the racial roots of modern property rules, I hope, will create space for reform to achieve the liberatory and egalitarian norms that undergird our commitment to property.


In the southern sector of the Menderes Massif, north of Selimiye (Milas) augen gneisses interpreted as a deformed peraluminous granite have been dynamothermally metamorphosed and are surrounded by and intrude a regionally metamorphosed Palaeozoic 'envelope'. The granitic rocks exhibit a moderately-dipping mylonitic foliation and NNE-SSW- trending mineral elongation lineation. The progressive deformation of the granitic rocks produces a structural sequence typical of an extensional shear zone marked, from bottom to top, by a very thick extensive zone of mylonites followed in turn by brecciated mylonite and cataclasite. The kinematic indicators exhibit a top-to-the south, down-dip sense of shear. These structures are attributed to exhumation of the granitic rocks of the massif along a major, south-dipping, normal-sense shear zone that accommodated crustal extension during Late Oligocene collapse of the orogen in western Turkey. Thus, the southern Menderes Massif may be interpreted as the exhumed footwall of a major extensional shear zone, and possibly as an incipient core complex.


We describe an uncommon case of bladder calculus arising from a translocated intrauterine contraceptive devise (IUCD) in a 36-year-old female patient with a 5-year-old IUCD who consulted for recurrent episodes of cystitis. Her evaluation established a bladder calculus that warranted surgery. She underwent a cystolithotomy, which dislodged a calculus (8×6×4 cm) that was attached to the IUCD. This is very rare.


Abstract. This paper addresses droughts in the Czech Lands in the 1090–2012 AD period, basing its findings on documentary evidence and instrumental records. Various documentary sources were employed for the selection of drought events, which were then interpreted at a monthly level. While the data on droughts before 1500 AD are scarce, the analysis concentrated mainly on droughts after this time. A dry year in 1501–1804 period (i.e. pre-instrumental times) was defined as a calendar year in the course of which dry patterns occurred on at least two consecutive months. Using this definition, 129 dry years were identified (an average of one drought per 2.4 yr). From the 16th to the 18th centuries these figures become 41, 36 and 49 yr respectively, with the prevailing occurrence of dry months from April to September (73.7%). Drought indices – SPEI-1, Z-index and PDSI – calculated for the Czech Lands for April–September describe drought patterns between 1805 and 2012 (the instrumental period). N-year recurrence intervals were calculated for each of the three indices. Using N ≥ 5 yr, SPEI-1 indicates 40 drought years, Z-index 39 yr and PDSI 47 yr. SPEI-1 and Z-index recorded 100 yr drought in 1834, 1842, 1868, 1947 and 2003 (50 yr drought in 1992). PDSI as an indicator of long-term drought disclosed two important drought periods: 1863–1874 and 2004–2012. The first period was related to a lack of precipitation, the other may be attributed to recent temperature increases without significant changes in precipitation. Droughts from the pre-instrumental and instrumental period were used to compile a long-term chronology for the Czech Lands. The number of years with drought has fluctuated between 26 in 1951–2000 and 16 in 1651–1700. Only nine drought years were recorded between 1641 and 1680, while between 1981 and 2012 the figure was 22 yr. A number of past severe droughts are described in detail: in 1540, 1590, 1616, 1718 and 1719. A discussion of the results centres around the uncertainty problem, the spatial variability of droughts, comparison with tree-ring reconstructions from southern Moravia, and the broader central European context.


Object detection, object tracking and action recognition are the building blocks for understanding human behavior. Of the three, object tracking plays a vital role in focusing on the person thus enabling action recognition. In this paper, we propose a tracking framework called "Online Real Boosting", an improvement over the popular Online Boosting. Online Boosting is a learning algorithm that selects a discriminative classifiers based on the just arrived samples, in a tracking scenario occlusion or appearance changes results in errors that propagate resulting in drifts. The proposed method reduces drift utilizing Real Adaboost and a probability density function of the object and background. The proposed tracking algorithm was trained for tracking the human head, and the results were compared against an existing method, mean-shift and Online Boosting. As a result, proposed method achieved comparable or better performance, besides improvement on processing speed by reducing the number of weak classifiers by a half compared to Online Boosting. Of the many challenges in object tracking, appearance changes owing to the articulated nature of the object is the biggest. In Online Boosting based tracking, weak classifiers are selected from a pool of classifiers trained offline, and that are sensitive to appearance changes. In this paper, a new feature structure that is robust to appearance change, called the "Soft Decision Feature" is also introduced. The Online Real Boosting and Soft Decision Features were applied to snippets of humans with complex appearance changes. Experimental results show that the proposed combination tracked scenes with variations to human pose successfully while the other methods either drifted or failed.


The 700 V DC-microgrid installed at HES-SO Valais-Wallis integrating PV-production, battery storage and consumption, has been upgraded in terms of installed PV-power, stronger load variations, and an improved regulation scheme for the energy consumption over day-night cycle. The installed PV-power was raised from 10 kWp to 15 kWp. Whereas previously all PV-modules were injecting via individual DC/DC converters, this time a serial DC/DC converter has been developed. This allows the installation of serial PV-strings of standard dimension generally used in DC/AC based PV-plants. The grid management system now comprises a battery system of about 75 kWh nominal storage capacity that has been operated for solar peak shaving. It thus allows transferring the power surplus for reducing the exchange between the semi-autonomous DC microgrid and the AC mains. In addition, an electrolysis system is being tested to use and store surplus power. In terms of consumers, a 5kVA heat pump and a 22kVA electric car charging point have been added to the grid.


The distribution of C14 was studied in various parts of the rooster comb following treatment with testosterone. The value of gas-phase assay of C14 in tissue has been demonstrated and the results compared with those of autoradiographic studies on the same tissue. The results of these experiments showed that androgen treatment significantly increases the rate of incorporation of C14 in various parts of the comb. The specific activity of carbon in the comb, cornea, and liver differed, depending on which precursor, viz. glucose-6-C14, glucose-1-C14, and glucuronolactone-U-C14, was administered. The highest values were obtained after the administration of glucose-6-C14; glucuronolactone-U-C14 gave the lowest specific activity. The specific activity of carbon in different parts of the comb showed considerable variation. Carbon assay of serial sections of the comb cut at various planes showed that the specific activity of carbon was highest in the mucoid layer. Both C14 assays and autoradiograms indicate that C14 is also present in other parts of the comb. As seen in autoradiography, the concentration of C14 was highest in the epithelium, in the blood vessel walls, and in the avascular collagenous tissue. These results, and indications from previous studies, suggest that the high specific activity of carbon in the mucoid layer is due mainly to the presence of C14-labelled hyaluronic acid. Autoradiograms and PAS staining suggest that a significant amount of C14 is also incorporated into the glycoproteins associated with the collagen fibers.


We study capital allocations to managers with two mutual funds, and show that investors learn about managers from their performance records. Flows into a fund are predicted by the manager's performance in his other fund, especially when he outperforms and when signals from the other fund are more useful. In equilibrium, capital should be allocated such that there is no cross-fund predictability. However, we find positive predictability, particularly among underperforming funds. Our results are consistent with incomplete learning: while investors move capital in the right direction, they do not withdraw enough capital when the manager underperforms in his other fund.


Objectives: To determine the frequency of depression in patients with ischemic heart disease, subgroup analysis of prevalence of depression in patients with heart failure, acute STEMI and non STEMI-ACS and the effect of hospital stay and treatment of primary cardiac illness on depression scores.Methodology: All patients with heart failure, acute STEMI and non STEMI-ACS, presenting to cardiology clinics over a period of March-August, 2016 with a pre-calculated sample size were enrolled into the study by consecutive sampling. HAM-D questionnaire was administered at the time of hospital admission and discharge. SPSS was used for data analysis.Results: A total of 102 patients were included in the study out of which 47 (46%) were females and 55 (54%) were males. The mean age of the study population was 49.5±12 years. At the time of admission, 91/102 (89.2%) patients were found to be depressed, 32 (31.4%) had mild depression, 29 (28.4%) had moderate depression, 10 (9.8%) had severe depression and an alarming number (20 i.e. 19.6%) patients had very severe depression. At the time of discharge, 82/102 (80.3%) patients were found to be depressed, 35 (34.3%) had mild depression, 31 (30.4%) had moderate depression, 12 (11.8%) had severe depression and only 4 (3.9%) had very severe depression. The mean change in HAM-D score during hospital admission was -3.24±4 (Maximum +26, minimum -23). The difference in depression scores during hospital stay tended to inversely correlate with length of hospital stay. A greater proportion of patients with the diagnosis of STEMI had a severe or very severe depression.Conclusion: Depression was found to be alarmingly prevalent in acute coronary syndrome affectees and hospital stay and treatment led to a mean fall in the depression scores.


Computer Network Security: Theory and Practice introduces to the reader a complete and concise view of network security. It provides in-depth theoretical coverage of recent advancements and practical solutions to network security threats. This book can be used for a one-semester network security course for graduate and upper-level undergraduate students, as well as a reference for IT professionals. Dr. Wang has been Professor of Computer Science at the University of Massachusetts Lowell since 2001, Director of its Center for Network and Information Security since 2004,and Chairman of its Department of Computer Science since 2007.


Abstract The exceptional preservation of organisms is potentially influenced by various factors that reflect either the environmental context or aspects of the organisms' biology. There has been no systematic investigation of the relative impact of such factors upon the fidelity of preservation of an exceptionally preserved taxon. In this study, we present an integrated approach to taphonomic analysis of exceptionally preserved taxa using primarily quantitative data to analyze the taphonomy of exceptionally preserved frogs (Rana (Pelophylax) pueyoi) from the lacustrine-hosted, upper Miocene, Libros Konservat-Lagerstätte (Teruel, northeastern Spain). The frogs occur within several different laminated mudstone facies and vary in their size, degree of completeness, degree of articulation, limb positions, and the extent, type, and fidelity of preserved soft tissues. For each specimen, we coded its physical and soft-tissue taphonomy using twelve indices, and identified its lithological context. Systematic statistical analysis reveals no correlation between specimen size, any taphonomic index, and lithological context: variations in the taphonomy of the frogs are independent of centimeter-scale variations in lithology and, by inference, short-term fluctuations in environmental conditions. The consistently high fidelity of skeletal preservation and the preservation of soft tissues, therefore, ultimately reflect the general nature of the sedimentary environment, i.e., burial within laminated organic-rich muds below anoxic, monimolimnetic waters of a deep, stratified meromictic lake. The statistical analysis did, however, identify significant correlations between various taphonomic indices. These indicate that the observed variation in the fidelity of frog preservation can be attributed, in large part, to a suite of factors related to the biology of the frogs; the most important of these is the original biochemistry of specific tissues, especially the skin, and the postmortem fate of the skin.


A substantial literature on switches in linear regression functions considers situations in which the regression function is discontinuous at an unknown value of the regressor, Xk , where k is the so-called unknown "change point." The regression model is thus a two-phase composite of yi ∼ N(β01 + β11xi, σ1 2), i=1, 2,..., k and yi ∼ N(β02 + β12xi, σ2 2), i= k + 1, k + 2,..., n. Solutions to this single series problem are considerably more complex when we consider a wrinkle frequently encountered in evaluation studies of system interventions, in that a system typically comprises multiple members (j = 1, 2, . . . , m) and that members of the system cannot all be expected to change synchronously. For example, schools differ not only in whether a program, implemented system-wide, improves their students' test scores, but depending on the resources already in place, schools may also differ in when they start to show effects of the program. If ignored, heterogeneity among schools in when the program takes initial effect undermines any program evaluation that assumes that change points are known and that they are the same for all schools. To describe individual behavior within a system better, and using a sample of longitudinal test scores from a large urban school system, we consider hierarchical Bayes estimation of a multilevel linear regression model in which each individual regression slope of test score on time switches at some unknown point in time, kj. We further explore additional results employing models that accommodate case weights and shorter time series.


Abstract Absent theoretical guidance, empiricists have been forced to rely upon numerical comparative statics from constant tax rate models in formulating testable implications of tradeoff theory in the context of natural experiments. We fill the theoretical void by solving in closed-form a dynamic tradeoff theoretic model in which corporate taxes follow a Markov process with exogenous rate changes. We simulate ideal difference-in-differences estimations, finding that constant tax rate models offer poor guidance regarding testable implications. While constant rate models predict large symmetric responses to rate changes, our model with stochastic tax rates predicts small, asymmetric, and often statistically insignificant responses. Even with very long regimes (one decade), under plausible parameterizations, the true underlying theory—that taxes matter—is incorrectly rejected in about half the simulated natural experiments. Moreover, tax response coefficients are actually smaller in simulated economies with larger tax-induced welfare losses.


We suggest secure Vehicle-to-Vehicle communications in a secure cluster. Here, the security cluster refers to a group of vehicles having a certain level or more of secrecy capacity. Usually, there are many difficulties in defining secrecy capacity, but we define vehicular secrecy capacity for the vehicle defined only by SNR values. Defined vehicular secrecy capacity is practical and efficient in achieving physical layer security in V2V. Typically, secrecy capacity may be changed by antenna related parameters, path related parameters, and noise related parameters. In addition to these conventional parameters, we address unique vehicle-related parameters, such as vehicle speed, safety distance, speed limit, response time, etc. in connection with autonomous driving. We confirm the relationship between vehicle-related secrecy parameters and secrecy capacity through modeling in highway and urban traffic situations. These vehicular secrecy parameters enable real-time control of vehicle secrecy capacity of V2V communications. We can use vehicular secrecy capacity to achieve secure vehicle communications from attackers such as quantum computers. Our research enables economic, effective and efficient physical layer security in autonomous driving.


Silvopasture is the intentional combination of trees, forage, and livestock on a parcel of land to optimize multiple outputs and has been shown to have benefits for production in various parts of the world. There is strong interest in silvopasture in the Southern United States, likely driven by multiple motivations. However, silvopasture practices have not been adopted or studied widely in Virginia or surrounding states, and lack of familiarity and information is a key hurdle to adoption. Potential adopters need research in order to make sound establishment and management decisions, but researchers typically need a reasonable pool of adopters to justify the expense of research studies. Still, a team of scientists in Virginia and neighboring states has pooled resources to move forward with research on establishment methods, biophysical interactions, economics, and perceptions of stakeholders. One small research site began in western Virginia in 1995, but since 2012, the effort has expanded to include new research and extension sites in other parts of the state, outreach and support to farmers interested in establishing parcels on their land, and training and surveying of technical service providers. We will present preliminary results and practical considerations gleaned from these early activities.


Budget revenues and expenditures (budget) is a local government annual financial plan approved by parliament and confirmed by local regulations. Budgets have authorization functions, planning, supervision, allocation, distribution, and stabilization. This research is a case study on the financial performance based on the Stone City Government Budget report. Budget Report provides information onabout the realization of revenues ,expenditures ,transfers ,surplus / deficit ,and financing of a reporting entity , each of which is compared to its budget . The purpose of this study was to measure the financial Performance based on the Stone City Government Budget report. The data used in this research is secondary data that is consolidated budget in 2006-2009. The analysis tools are the financial ratios including the ratio of local financial independence, effectiveness and efficiency of local revenue, debt service coverage ratio, the ratio of growth and the contribution ratio. Based on the results of data analysis and discussion that has been done, it can be concluded that the financial performance at the Stone City Government from the year 2006-2009 are generally included in both categories of self-sufficiency ratio, efficiency ratio, the ratio of Debt Service Coverage Ratio, the ratio of revenue growth, ratio of revenue growth, capital expenditure growth, the ratio of tax contributions that it needs in the preserve. While the ratio of effectiveness, the growth of expenditure and contribution levy is less good.


Online research maps are websites that present information about certain research activities in a structured manner. Institutions like universities, states, or individual researchers use them as knowledge base to identify and communicate "who knows what" and "where can the respective information be found". Furthermore, these items are used as a research marketing measure, stressing the importance of this kind of portal. However, research maps differ in their range of functionalities, their respective naming, their target audience and so on. Thus, it is an exhausting task identifying and choosing the right set of functionalities. Our goal is to offer a template for the creation of common practice online research maps. For this purpose, we present a reference model and describe its development process. As preliminary measure, 66 research maps have been carefully analysed with respect to the formerly mentioned aspects. Derived from the results of our analysis, common practice was identified and used as basis for developing a reference model for online research maps. For development purposes, an existing language for describing internet portals was chosen and adapted to suite the requirements of describing research maps. The reference model presented in this article was then evaluated in a multi-methodical procedure.


Under Part 4 of the Corporate Law Reform Act 1992, sections 592 and 593 of the Corporations Law are replaced by sections 588G, 588U and 588Y. Both section 592 and its replacement section 588G, impose liability on a director whose company has traded whilst insolvent. The new provisions, like so many which have been introduced, are both complex and lengthy. Where previously there were two sections there are now fourteen replacements. The new section 588G is found in Divisions 3 and 4 of Part 5.7 B and interlocks with other amendments, including those establishing civil penalty provisions contained in Part 9.4 B. This part entitled 'Recovering Property or Compensation for the Benefit of Creditors and Insolvent Companies', includes matters such as 'voidable transactions' and 'the liability of a holding company for insolvent trading by a subsidiary'. In this article the new insolvent trading provisions are analysed with particular emphasis being placed on the differences between the old section 592 and the new sections. The cases dealing with section 592 will also be considered in order to determine how the new sections will be interpreted and what the legal position will be.


The establishment of Regulation No 864/2007 on the Law Applicable to Non-Contractual Obligations (Rome II) is a landmark for European Private International Law. The regulation of torts in the European Union has a history of forty years, starting with the preparation of the Rome Convention in 1967. As was the case with its thorny counterpart, the Regulation on the Law Applicable to Contractual Obligations (Rome I), negotiations have been difficult. It is also for the first time, that the efforts to develop European conflict-of-law rules and the negotiations have attracted such serious cross-Atlantic attention, especially from scholars in the United States (US). Not only have Americans and other non-Europeans bothered to publish on the (draft) Rome II Regulation, they have also interacted in the Brussels negotiations, at the invitation of the European Parliament's rapporteur for Rome II. This contribution provides an outline of the background (section 2), scope (section 3), and system of the Regulation (section 4) and an analysis of the two general conflict rules laid down in Article 4 (section 5) and 14 (section 6). The question is whether in methodology and content this Regulation stands in the European tradition, or whether it takes a new direction. Another question is whether it offers a predictable but at the same time a sufficiently flexible system of conflict rules. The Rome II Regulation proves that it is difficult to reach a satisfactory compromise between legal certainty and flexibility in order to do justice in an individual case, while fulfilling the law and economics criteria of simple and predictable rules. The Regulation provides many special rules as well as general and special exceptions that are occasionally ambiguous and make the outcome sometimes unpredictable. Nevertheless, it is concluded that the Rome II Regulation in spite of its flaws, is an acceptable instrument that furthers the harmonization of conflict of laws in Europe.


This paper considers online stochastic scheduling problems where time constraints severely limit the number of optimizations which can be performed at decision time and/or in between decisions. Prior research has demonstrated that, whenever a distribution of the inputs is available for sampling, online stochatic algorithms may produce significant improvements in solution quality over oblivious approaches. However, the availability of an input distribution, although reasonable in many contexts, is too strong a requirement in a variety of applications. This paper broadens the applicability of online stochastic algorithms by relaxing this requirement and using machine learning techniques or historical data instead. In particular, it shows that machine learning techniques can be engineered to learn the distribution online, when its underlying structure is not available. Moreover, the paper presents the idea of historical sampling which provides a simple and effective way to leverage historical data in continuous and periodic online optimization. Experimental results on packet scheduling and vehicle routing indicate the potential of machine learning and historical sampling for online scheduling.


We derive a simple equation to predict the center-wavelength shift of a Fabry-Perot type narrow-bandpass filter by using the conventional characteristic matrix method and the elastic strain model as the temperature varies. We determine the thermal expansion coefficient of substrate from the zero-shift condition of the center wavelength of the filter. The calculated shifts are in a good agreement with the experimental ones, in which the narrow-bandpass filters are prepared by plasma ion-assisted deposition on four substrates with different thermal expansion coefficients.


Over the past decade, the field of molecular biology has given rise to the development of the applied discipline of molecular medicine. Based on recent developments using recombinant gene technology, genetic mapping analysis and other investigational tools , the physician and surgeon is now ready to begin using those instruments in the diagnosis and treatment of musculoskeletal disease. This article reviews the history of scientific exploration in recombinant gene technology as it applies to bone and cartilage repair. Clinical cases are presented to show how the fruits of scientific knowledge may be brought to bear on some of the more challenging musculoskeletal problems. Although some of these examples may prove to be accurate representations of how molecular engineering will be used in specific clinical settings, the purpose of this review is to provide an orientation and philosophical approach to the applications of recombinant gene technology in traumatic and reconstructive surgery of the skeleton.


Abstract. Nitrous acid (HONO) often plays an important role in tropospheric photochemistry as a major precursor of the hydroxyl radical (OH) in early morning hours and potentially during the day. However, the processes leading to formation of HONO and its vertical distribution at night, which can have a considerable impact on daytime ozone formation, are currently poorly characterized by observations and models. Long-path differential optical absorption spectroscopy (LP-DOAS) measurements of HONO during the 2006 TexAQS II Radical and Aerosol Measurement Project (TRAMP), near downtown Houston, TX, show nocturnal vertical profiles of HONO, with mixing ratios of up to 2.2 ppb near the surface and below 100 ppt aloft. Three nighttime periods of HONO, NO 2 and O 3 observations during TRAMP were used to perform model simulations of vertical mixing ratio profiles. By adjusting vertical mixing and NO x emissions the modeled NO 2 and O 3 mixing ratios showed very good agreement with the observations. Using a simple conversion of NO 2 to HONO on the ground, direct HONO emissions, as well as HONO loss at the ground and on aerosol, the observed HONO profiles were reproduced by the model for 1–2 and 7–8 September in the nocturnal boundary layer (NBL). The unobserved increase of HONO to NO 2 ratio (HONO/NO 2 ) with altitude that was simulated by the initial model runs was found to be due to HONO uptake being too small on aerosol and too large on the ground. Refined model runs, with adjusted HONO uptake coefficients, showed much better agreement of HONO and HONO/NO 2 for two typical nights, except during morning rush hour, when other HONO formation pathways are most likely active. One of the nights analyzed showed an increase of HONO mixing ratios together with decreasing NO 2 mixing ratios that the model was unable to reproduce, most likely due to the impact of weak precipitation during this night. HONO formation and removal rates averaged over the lowest 300 m of the atmosphere showed that NO 2 to HONO conversion on the ground was the dominant source of HONO, followed by traffic emission. Aerosol did not play an important role in HONO formation. Although ground deposition was also a major removal pathway of HONO, net HONO production at the ground was the main source of HONO in our model studies. Sensitivity studies showed that in the stable NBL, net HONO production at the ground tends to increase with faster vertical mixing and stronger NO x emission. Vertical transport was found to be the dominant source of HONO aloft.


This paper explores the construction of the defendant role in the trial proceedings of the Old Bailey Corpus, 1720‐1913. The aim is to find out how defendants position themselves discursively in the courtroom and in relation to the crime they are accused of. With keyword, phrase frame and cluster tools we map linguistic patterns comparing them in time and between men and women. The usage of two keywords innocent and guilty are analysed more closely in context as they explicitly position the defendant in relation to the charges. The analyses highlight various aspects of the defendant role construction on different levels of granularity and link findings to the changing context of the courtroom and the judicial system.


Additional information is available at the end of the chapter Abstract In this work, a first-order autoregressive hidden Markov model (AR(1)HMM) is proposed. It is one of the suitable models to characterize a marker of breast cancer disease progression essentially the progression that follows from a reaction to a treatment or caused by natural developments. The model supposes we have observations that increase or decrease with relation to a hidden phenomenon. We would like to discover if the information about those observations can let us learn about the progression of the phenomenon and permit us to evaluate the transition between its states (supposed discrete here). The hidden states governed by the Markovian process would be the disease stages, and the marker observations would be the depending observations. The parameters of the autoregressive model are selected at the first level according to a Markov process, and at the second level, the next observation is generated from a standard autoregressive model of first order (unlike other models considering the successive observations are indepen-dents). A Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) method is used for the parameter estimation, where we develop the posterior density for each parameter and we use a joint estimation of the hidden states or block update of the states.


As part of the 2007 Marnaut cruise in the Sea of Marmara, an investigation of the pore fluid chemistry of sites along the Main Marmara Fault zone was conducted. The goal was to define the spatial relationship between active faults and fluid outlets and to determine the sources and evolution of the fluids. Sites included basin bounding transtensional faults and strike‐slip faults cutting through the topographic highs. The basin pore fluids are dominated by simple mixing of bottom water with a brackish, low‐density Pleistocene Lake Marmara end‐member that is advecting buoyantly and/or diffusing from a relatively shallow depth. This mix is overprinted by shallow redox reactions and carbonate precipitation. The ridge sites are more complex with evidence for deep‐sourced fluids including thermogenic gas and evidence for both silicate and carbonate diagenetic processes. One site on the Western High displayed two mound structures that appear to be chemoherms atop a deep‐seated fluid conduit. The fluids being expelled are brines of up to twice seawater salinity with an exotic fluid chemistry extremely high in Li, Sr, and Ba. Oil globules were observed both at the surface and in cores, and type II gas hydrates of thermogenic origin were recovered. Hydrate formation near the seafloor contributes to increase brine concentration but cannot explain their chemical composition, which appears to be influenced by diagenetic reactions at temperatures of 75°C–150°C. Hence, a potential source for fluids at this site is the water associated with the reservoir from which the gas and oil is seeping, which has been shown to be related to the Thrace Basin hydrocarbon system. Our work shows that submerged continental transform plate boundaries can be hydrologically active and exhibit a diversity of sources and processes.


AIDS incidences in Sudan are seldom researched with the continuous reductions in health care funds. The current share of health care in GDP is less than 2.5% which brings it in the rear of developing countries even in Sub Saharan Africa. Such deterioration has been going for the past two decades. Being in the heart of that epidemic stricken African continent it was inevitable that it would be affected. Moreover, civil strife that blows over for the past fifty years plus, the resulting displacements, poverty, hunger and famine increased factors that accelerates HIV and AIDS occurrences. However, reactions to signs that there is a true crisis were invisible or non-existent. Official data are non available or scarce. Knowledge and public campaigns are rare. The current paper analyzes AIDS incidence in Sudanese universities, depending on field collected data and considering that without proper knowledge diffusion programs the disease can form into an epidemic within the young people and future of the country. Moreover, if knowledge of such disease is minimized then other society's strata are affected and the spread is more serious. Questionnaires were improvised and data were confidentially collected from students of six national and private universities. The collected data included 30 parameters that were used in the ensuing statistical analyses. The basic impediment is that sex as a taboo, difficult to speak about and the prime cause of transmission, it proved to be widely practiced in universities. Confidential responses on the defined parameters, included relations, modes of living conditions, collective usage of utensils, original hometowns, knowledge of HIV and AIDS, sharing condominiums, routine blood checks or transfusions and sex partners. The analyses reached conclusions that there are AIDS incidences in all universities which are increasing, knowledge exist but not enough and that material needs can be a motive for practicing unsafe sex because of the lack of knowledge transmission tool, e.g., condoms or rooming facilities. Moreover, universities do not provide counseling departments or facilities. That can be either to lack of knowledge or scientific horizon, negligence, ignorance or simply hiding behind social taboos. The paper recommends that the start should be by recognizing that there is HIV and AIDS problem and that students are behaving like human being, provide counseling and checking facilities, provide social and material help for the needy students and transmission prevention tools.


The passivating solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) layer forms at the surface of the negative-electrode active material in lithium-ion cells. A continuum-scale mathematical model has been developed to simulate the growth of the SEI and transport of lithium and electrons through the film. The model is used to estimate the film growth rate, film resistance, and irreversible capacity loss due to film formation. We show that film growth at the negative electrode is faster for charged batteries than for uncharged batteries and that higher electron mobility in the film leads to faster growth. If electron mobility is low, the rate of film growth is limited by transport of electrons through the film, and the rate decreases as the thickness increases. We examine the dependence of film resistance upon both film thickness and defect concentration in the film. We also show that the concentration polarization in the film increases as it grows at open circuit, even though the concentration gradient may decrease.


Excerpt] The Trade Adjustment Assistance for Farmers (TAAF) program provides technical assistance and cash benefits to producers of farm commodities and fishermen who experience adverse economic effects from increased imports. Congress first authorized this program in 2002, and made significant changes to it in the 2009 economic stimulus package (P.L. 111-5). The 2009 revisions were aimed at making it easier for farmers and fishermen to qualify for program benefits, and provided over $200 million in funding through December 2010. Subsequently, P.L. 112-40 (enacted in October 2011) authorized $202.5 million through December 2013, but no new program activity has occurred since December 2010 for lack of appropriated funds. In June 2015, Congress passed H.R. 1295, the Trade Preferences Extension Act of 2015, authorizing TAAF through FY2021, and the President signed the bill into law on June 29, 2015, as P.L. 114-27. Any program activity would still be contingent on the appropriation of funds.


This project report covers the development of a computational 3D microscope, NoScope. Using tomographic and light field algorithms, we present a method to reconstruct 3D volumes of microscopic samples taken with a lensless sensor. Business and intellectual property strategies for commercializing NoScope are detailed in the first three sections. The remaining sections highlight the project's technical accomplishments and methods. Capstone Report Project NoScope


Boz, I., 2014. Determination of best management practices and innovations in beef cattle farming and their adoption in the Eastern Mediterranean region of Turkey. Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., 20: 552-562 The primary purpose of this study was to determine best management practices and innovations in beef cattle farming and their adoption in the Eastern Mediterranean Region of Turkey. A stratified random sample of 170 beef cattle farmers operated in the region was the participant of the study. Data were collected by administering a questionnaire filled during the face-to-face interviews conducted with each individual respondent. Results showed that adoption level was quite low and it was influenced by socioeconomic variables of cooperative membership, investments, farm size, owning improved breeds, and income; and by information-seeking variables of reading newspapers, using the Internet, contacts with extension personnel, and contacts with private veterinarians. It was concluded that governmental support for livestock sector had limited influence on the adoption of BMPs and innovations and therefore on the viability of beef cattle farming. The findings of this study are expected to provide useful information for scientists, policy-makers and extension organizations.


This paper, published in a symposium on the work of Adolf Berle, approaches the Berle-Dodd debate from the perspective that corporate managers have responsibilities beyond pursuing the interests of shareholders. Stock based executive compensation, designed to align managers' interests with those of shareholders, has, in the investment banking industry in particular, failed to avert, and may have caused, managers to take excessive risks that in the 2008 financial crisis inflicted great damage on creditors and on society as a whole. We describe here the broad outlines of a proposal that we will discuss in future publications in more detail to impose some measure of personal liability for a bank's debts on the most highly paid bankers. The proposal would revive two mechanisms that imposed such personal liability in an earlier era: general partnership, which was common for investment banks prior to the 1980s, and assessable stock, which was relatively common in corporations including some commercial banks through the 1930s. One proposal is that bankers earning over $3 million per year be required to enter into a partnership/joint venture agreement with the employing bank that would make them personally liable for some of the bank's debts. The other proposal is that compensation in excess of $1 million per year be paid to bankers only in stock that is assessable in the event of the bank's insolvency in an amount equal to the book value of the stock on the date of issue. In either case, the bankers' liability would not be unlimited: they would be allowed to shield $1 million from creditors. Imposing genuine downside risk through these or other vehicles for personal liability may be the best way to make bankers approach risk in a manner that reflects the potential for externalities of the sort the crisis has so dramatically demonstrated.


Diabetes leads to metabolic abnormalities. These abnormalities produce problems in a variety of organ systems such as ophthalmopathies, neuropathies, nephropathies, and vasculopathies. Infertility is common in diabetic patients, caused by abnormal semen.

 This study was conducted to check semen quality in diabetic Sudanese patients.

 This is a retrospective cross-sectional designed study. The data were collected in a period from January 2015 to February 2017. A total of 600 individuals was included, 300 with type 2 diabetes mellitus and 300 apparently healthy as a non-diabetic. Semen analysis was performed according to WHO criteria.

 Significant lower results were found in diabetic patients compared to non diabetic regarding the following parameters: volume of ejaculation (p = 0.047), percent motility (p = 0.001), percent normal morphology (p = 0.000), while there was no difference in the sperm count between diabetic and non-diabetic subjects.

 Semen of types 2 diabetes mellitus patients is of low volume, abnormal motility and morphology compared to non-diabetic subjects.


Rabbit antiserum and murine monoclonal antibodies were raised against a strain of Haemophilus ducreyi. The antiserum gave high immunofluorescence titres and strong dot blot reactions with all H. ducreyi strains tested and the only cross reaction was with Bordetella pertussis. Three monoclonal antibodies, all of isotype IgG2a, also gave high immunofluorescence titres with H . ducreyi but did not cross react with any other species tested. Immunoblotting showed the monoclonal antibodies to react with a single polypeptide band of mol. wt 29000 in the outermembrane fraction of H . ducreyi. These antibodies have potential for use as diagnostic reagents and for investigating the pathogenicity of H. ducreyi.


Tracking and segmentation of biological cells in video sequences is a challenging problem, especially due to the similarity of the cells and high levels of inherent noise. Most machine learning-based approaches lack robustness and suffer from sensitivity to less prominent events such as mitosis, apoptosis and cell collisions. Due to the large variance in medical image characteristics, most approaches are dataset-specific and do not generalise well on other datasets. In this paper, we propose a simple end-to-end cascade neural architecture that can effectively model the movement behaviour of biological cells and predict collision and mitosis events. Our approach uses U-Net for an initial segmentation which is then improved through processing by a siamese tracker capable of matching each cell along the temporal axis. By facilitating the re-segmentation of collided and mitotic cells, our method demon-strates its capability to handle volatile trajectories and unpredictable cell locations while being invariant to cell morphology. We demonstrate that our tracking approach achieves state-of-the-art results on PhC-C2DL-PSC and Fluo-N2DH-SIM + datasets and ranks second on the DIC-C2DH-HeLa dataset of the cell tracking challenge benchmarks.


The effects of high-intensity pulsed electric fields (HIPEF) processing (35 kV/cm
for 1,000 ms using pulses of 4 ms pulses at 100 Hz in bipolar mode) or thermal
treatment (90C for 60 s) on total phenols composition, color parameters, 5-
(Hydroxymethyl)furfural (HMF), pH, soluble solids and turbidity were assessed
in date juice for five weeks under refrigeration storage (4–5C), having as reference
the untreated date juice. After processing, HIPEF treated date juice exhibited
lower HMF concentration than pasteurized one. HIPEF treatment did not affect
color parameters with respect to other date juices after treatments. Turbidity,
soluble solids and pH were more preserved in HIPEF treated date juice compared
to heated one after processing and along storage. The content of total phenols
increased after HIPEF compared to untreated juice.
The HIPEF contributed to the maintain of quality attributes of date juice along
refrigeration storage. This process was much better than heat.


If cosmic magnetic fields are indeed produced during inflation, they are likely to be correlated with the scalar metric perturbations that are responsible for the Cosmic Microwave Background anisotropies and Large Scale Structure. Within an archetypical model of inflationary magnetogenesis, we show that there exists a new simple consistency relation for the non-Gaussian cross correlation function of the scalar metric perturbation with two powers of the magnetic field in the squeezed limit where the momentum of the metric perturbation vanishes. We emphasize that such a consistency relation turns out to be extremely useful to test some recent calculations in the literature. Apart from primordial non-Gaussianity induced by the curvature perturbations, such a cross correlation might provide a new observational probe of inflation and can in principle reveal the primordial nature of cosmic magnetic fields.


The aim of this article is to analyse some of the core conceptual and implementation issues underpinning the process of introducing gender mainstreaming strategy in Hungary. It examines the approach of Hungarian policy makers to gender mainstreaming and evaluates the political framing of some crucial aspects of gender equality. Our argument in this article is twofold. First, we observe that the concept of gender mainstreaming as a cross-sectoral and comprehensive policy tool for achieving gender equality has only been sporadically present and this has mostly been located at the rhetorical level. Hungary has no comprehensive gender equality strategy and no distinctive gender equality policy instruments currently in place. Rather, the promotion of equal opportunity on all grounds has become a powerful policy approach in the last two to three years, often neglecting the specific requirements of gender equality. Secondly, we argue that the influence of the European Union (EU) accession process has had two stages, as far as gender equality policy is concerned in Hungary. The first stage, has referred primarily to the de jure harmonization of Hungarian legislation with relevant EU directives, but has brought very little harmonization at the policy level, and brought limited de facto realization of the rights imposed by the directives. The second stage, identified from mid-2003, is coterminous with Hungary joining the different EU level policy processes. This second stage signaled a shift from legislative harmonization to a more focused policy approach. This stage may be characterized as a direct process of EU-isation on Hungarian policy concepts and tools, such as gender mainstreaming. However, it is too early to judge the practical implications of this development.


This paper, which focuses on the Brazilian Ministry of Health's agenda as the national health authority between 1990 and 2002, identifies and analyzes Ministry priorities. Three main policies were identified for the period: decentralization, establishment of a family health program, and the policy to combat AIDS. In general, the initial design of these policies was consistent with the guidelines of the Brazilian public health system (SUS). However, discrepancies were found between the universalistic agenda of the Brazilian health reform carried out in the 1980s and the hegemonic agenda of state reform that prevailed in the country in the 1990s, which had liberal roots and did not favor the expansion of government actions and comprehensive social policies. Within this unfavorable political and economic context, the development of specific health policies prioritized by the Brazilian Ministry of Health revealed unsolved problems and gaps in the public health system and limitations in the Ministry's ability to exercise its role as national health authority.


Innovation is key to ensuring sustained performance, generating economic growth, and driving progress – not only for individual organizations but also for societies as a whole. Yet, globalization, rapid technological change, and advances in information and communication technologies have turned innovation from an exclusive province of producers into a multilayered sphere that equally encompasses established manufacturing firms and entrepreneurs, as well as open collaboration communities and innovating end users. Hence, the traditional producer-led innovation paradigm is increasingly complemented and contested by a user-led counterpart. To understand the intricacies of this paradigm shift and successfully manage innovation efforts, both, from an organizational and a national level, management and policy makers are in dire need of new perspectives and differentiated insights into the two innovation paradigms, and especially their key drivers.

Scientific research has greatly contributed to this quest by extensive investigations of internal and external drivers of organizational innovation, as well as person-related drivers of user innovation. But findings of central drivers are inconclusive and key areas for drivers, for example user innovators' work environment, remain largely unexplored. Building on the conceptual distinction between producer-led and user-led innovation that frames today's scientific and managerial discourse, this thesis is dedicated to the identification of central innovation drivers and the investigation of potentially arising interactions between the two paradigms. Specifically, to follow up on research gaps and provide new insights, organizational-level and individual-level resource-based theories are employed and two empirical studies on selected drivers of producer- and user-led innovation are conducted. Both studies extend traditional views on innovation in the two innovation paradigms and advance research by introducing new perspectives that explore beyond the obvious.

First, study 1 investigates leadership as a key driver of innovation in the producer-led innovation paradigm by adopting a cross-dimensional perspective that combines innovation and efficiency performance dimensions. The study theoretically introduces and empirically analyzes newly developed scales of dual innovation leadership, a new leadership approach tailored to the unique requirements of the innovation process. Results of structural equation modeling with data from 194 executives of organizational units collected at two points in time empirically substantiate evidence that dual innovation leaders ensure sustainable organizational performance, and hence advance producer-led innovation. With regard to the user-led innovation paradigm, study 2 identifies user innovators' work environment as a key driver of innovation and adopts a cross-domain perspective that bridges user innovators' home and work sphere. Specifically, study 2 advances research by investigating a largely unexplored area and corroborating the notion of resource spillovers between different domains. Based on data of 147 work-inspired consumer innovators and three independent raters, results of structural equation modeling show that consumer innovators build job-related resources from their work environment that enhance the outcome of their household sector innovation efforts in terms of novelty, general use value, and technical feasibility.

Second, innovation is a resource-intense undertaking and resources are increasingly in short supply. Thus, resource-protecting and mutually beneficial interactions may offer a sustainable approach to manage innovation in the new era of 'dual paradigms'. Combining insights from study 1 and study 2, the thesis therefore illuminates the potential for interactions between the producer and user innovation sphere by elaborating how producer innovators may indirectly support user innovators. Moreover, the thesis exemplarily illustrates how (dual innovation) leadership targeted to producer-led innovation can foster cross-fertilization between the two paradigms by equally enhancing user-led innovation. To this end, an integrative perspective on the two paradigms is introduced.

With these comprehensive, yet differentiated insights on key drivers and their interactions in producer- and user-led innovation, the thesis extends the scientific state of knowledge and suggests important implications for future research. Moreover, the thesis provides management and policy makers with a valuable guiding framework that may support innovation initiatives targeted to the successful realization of innovation endeavors and, hence, the fostering of economic, as well as societal progress.


The purpose of this study was to investigate alterations in lower extremity kinematics during the landing phase of a countermovement jump when performed in different environments and under multiple external loads. Twenty-four NCAA Divison I collegiate female athletes performed 12 countermovement jumps on land and 12 jumps in water, submerged to the xiphoid process, for a total of 24 jumps. Within each environmental condition, four loading conditions of three jumps each were performed using a weighted vest: Unloaded, 10%, 20%, or 30% of body mass. The hip, knee, and ankle angles were measured as the smallest angles between the major body segments (trunk, thigh, shank, and foot) in the sagittal plane using the digital goniometer tool from Kinovea video analysis software at the point of maximum knee flexion. Larger angles indicated decreased joint flexion and smaller angles indicated increased joint flexion. The mean hip, knee, and ankle angles were significantly greater for the jump landings in water compared to on land, regardless of load (133.7° vs. 113.9°, 119.5° vs. 107.5°, and 91.7° vs. 85.6°, p < 0.001). Independent of environment, the loading conditions also affected the joint angles. The unloaded hip angles were significantly greater than the 10%, 20%, and 30% loaded angles (128.0° vs. 123.3°, 122.5°, and 121.6°, p < 0.001) and the unloaded ankle angle was significantly greater than the 10%, 20%, and 30% loaded angles (89.6° vs. 88.5°, 88.4°, and 88.0°, p = 0.015, p = 0.023, and p = 0.007). Increasing lower extremity joint flexion during jump landing may help minimize ACL injury. The decreases in joint flexion during the aquatic jump landings may have occurred due to the off-loading from the buoyancy characteristics of water, which may be less harmful compared to decreased joint flexion on land. The significant increases in joint flexion due to loading condition may provide evidence for use in athlete training programs to help decrease the probability of ACL injury. LAND AND AQUATIC JUMP LANDING 3


The distinction between the obligations of public and private entities, and their relation to law, is well known in classical political and legal theory. States have a duty which is undertaken through law; enterprises have a responsibility which is embedded in their governance. These fundamental divisions form part of the current international efforts to institutionalize human rights related norms on and through states and enterprises, and most notably through the U.N. Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights (UNGP). The problems of conforming to evolving norms becomes more difficult where states project their authority through commercial enterprises. These state owned enterprises (SOEs) operate where state duty and enterprise responsibility meet. This essay takes a close look at the issue of the human rights duties of states as owners of SOEs, and of the responsibilities of SOEs for their own human rights related conduct. The form and substance of these duties and responsibilities are considered in light of two recent developments. The first is the substantial change in the direction of U.S. policy in trade and globalization. The other is the maturation of Chinese outbound economic and investment policy, where its construction of an outbound nationalist globalization - the One Belt One Road policy - relies to some extent on the projection of commercial power through Chinese SOEs. After After an Introduction, Part II, "Challenging Engagement and Engagement Challenges," closely examines the emerging structures and principles of the debate through a deep analysis of the 2016 Report of the U.N. Working Group on the Issue of Human Rights and Transnational Corporations and other Business Enterprises, interrogating its conceptual framework and its implementation programs. Part III then briefly considers the consequences of these approaches and work left to be done: from conceptual lacunae to implementation. It offers a set of ten (10) challenges and recommendations for further development. These recommendations and challenges suggest that issues of corporate personality, of sovereign immunity, of asset partition, and of the mania for compartmentalization that marks certain approaches to global economic and financial regulation may well hobble the work of embedding human rights within the operation of states as owners and SOEs as public enterprises. To embed human rights more effectively in accordance with evolving international standards, it may be necessary to substantially change contemporary and backwards looking legal frameworks within which SOEs now operate. More importantly it suggests the difficulty of the current strongly held consensus that the focus of regulatory governance must be a formally constituted enterprise, the SOE, rather than economic activity irrespective of the form in which it is undertaken. Until these conceptual issues are considered the regulation of economic activates - SOEs, supply chains, multinational corporations, will remain elusive.


A pulsating combustor producing longitudinal acoustic oscillations was constructed and a mathematical model of the system developed. The combustor was a closed - open tube, combustion taking place at the closed end into which were fed air and propane. The two lowest modes of longitudinal, acoustic vibration were obtained. The fundamental occurring at low fuel flowrate up to a maximum flowrate corresponding to an energy • input of 12Kw, at which either the fundamental or first harmonic occurred and above which only the first harmonic was obtained up to the maximum flowrate of the system corresponding to an energy input of 20 Kw. The analysis of the system used the conservation equations of mass, momentum and energy from these suitably formed equations could be derived which were solved by the method of characteristics. The combustion model was governed by a simple overall-reaction rate equation. Plug flow was assumed with perfect radial mixing and no axial mixing, conduction or diffusion. The convective heat transfer coefficients were evaluated by means of the quasi-steady-state theory. The mathematical model predicted the gas temperature gradient and the distribution of pressure and velocity standing waves. Owing to the use of a much simplified combustion model, it was not possible to predict the acoustic energy required to determine the amplitude and frequency of oscillation. The amplitude was found to be highly dependent on the fuel injection system, Air/Fuel ratio and mode of oscillation. The practical results confirmed the higher rates of heat transfer associated with pulsating flow.


Incorporating in Delaware can be expensive. Corporations pay up to $180,000 annually for this simple privilege – a figure that is substantially higher than incorporation in any other state. In their controversial article, Price Discrimination in the Market for Corporate Law, Professors Marcel Kahan and Ehud Kamar show that Delaware's ability to charge a premium for incorporations, in the form of its annual franchise tax, is evidence of Delaware's market power in the jurisdictional competition for corporate charters. Beyond simply charging a premium, however, Professors Kahan and Kamar show that Delaware further increases its profits by engaging in price discrimination – tailoring its premium according to the value each firm attributes to the privilege of incorporating in Delaware. The ability of Delaware to charge a premium and to further price discriminate leads Professors Kahan and Kamar to conclude that in the competition for corporate charters, "it is evident that Delaware possesses substantial market power."This Article projects Professors Kahan and Kamar's analysis onto the world of limited liability companies ("LLCs"). To assess Delaware's market power in the jurisdictional competition for LLC charters, this Article examines the LLC analog of the corporate franchise tax. Instead of a franchise tax, every Delaware LLC is charged a flat annual tax of $250. As this Article will show, unlike its corporate franchise tax, Delaware's LLC tax does not represent a premium. Nor does it price discriminate. Delaware's failure to charge a premium price in the form of its LLC tax suggests that, in the jurisdictional competition for LLC charters, Delaware lacks the kind of market power it has long enjoyed for corporate charters. But why? This Article will present an explanation that rests on contractibility and legal indeterminacy. Specifically, this Article will argue that the high level of contractibility, and the resulting reduction in legal indeterminacy, offered by Delaware LLC law substantially diminishes the value of two of Delaware's traditional competitive advantages: (1) the network effects associated with its law and (2) its expert judiciary. Thus, contractibility and reduced indeterminacy can explain why Delaware seems to lack market power in the competition for LLC charters. Without an obviously superior product, and with several available substitutes, Delaware LLC law, unlike its corporate law, is unable to command a premium price. If the analysis of this Article is correct, then several important implications follow for Delaware, the indeterminacy in its LLC law, the regulatory competition between the corporate and LLC forms, as well as the jurisdictional competition between states for LLC charters.


The aim of dental health education is to impart knowledge on the causes of oral diseases and providing the ways and possibilities of their prevention and adequate treatment. Health education would highlight the necessity of proper nutrition, maintenance of oral hygiene with the use of fluoride products, and other regimen as well as drive attention toward the significance of regular check-ups with a dentist. Public health dentistry in India has become the only key toward future dental workforce and strategies. There have been numerous challenges which exist for expanding oral health care in India, in which the biggest challenge is the need for dental health planners with relevant qualifications and training in public health dentistry. There is a serious lack of authentic and valid data for assessment of community demands, as well as the lack of an organized system for monitoring oral health care services to guide planners. Based on the aim for sustained development, human resource planning and utilization should be used along with a system of monitoring and evaluation. Hence, both demand and supply influence the ability of the dental workforce to adequately and efficiently provide dental care to an Indian population which is growing in size and diversity.


Abstract. Water activities of a series of polyol/water systems were measured with an AquaLab dew point water activity meter at 298K. The investigated polyols with carbon numbers from n=2-7 are all in liquid state at room temperature and miscible at any molar ratio with water. In aqueous solutions with the same molar concentration, the diols with lower molecular weight lead to lower water activities than those with higher molecular weights. For diols with four or more carbon atoms, the hydrophilicity shows considerable differences between isomers: The 1,2-isomers - consisting of a hydrophilic and a hydrophobic part - bind less strongly to water than isomers with a more balanced distribution of the hydroxyl groups. The experimental water activities were compared with the predictions of the group contribution method UNIFAC: the model predictions overestimate the water activity of water/polyol systems of substances with two or more hydroxyl groups and can not describe the decreased binding to water of isomers with hydrophobic tails. To account for the differences between isomers, a modified UNIFAC parameterization was developed, that allows to discriminate between three types of alkyl groups depending on their position in the molecule. These new group interaction parameters were calculated using water activities of alcohol/water mixtures. This leads to a distinctly improved agreement of model predictions with experimental results while largely keeping the simplicity of the functional group approach.


Storage system configuration, even at the enterprise scale, is traditionally undertaken by human experts using a time-consuming process of trial and error, guided by simple rules of thumb. Due to the complexity of the design process and lack of workload information, the resulting systems often cost significantly more than necessary, or fail to perform adequately.

Our solution to this problem is to automate the design and configuration process using a tool we call Hippodrome. It can explore the design space more thoroughly than humans, and implement the design automatically, thereby eliminating many tedious, error-prone operations.

Hippodrome is structured as an iterative loop: it analyzes a workload to determine its requirements, creates a new storage system design to better meet these requirements, migrates the existing system to the new design. It repeats the loop until it finds a storage system design that satisfies the workload's I/O requirements. This paper describes the Hippodrome loop and demonstrates that our prototype implementation converges rapidly to appropriate system designs.


The electrolysis of water is considered a promising route to the production of hydrogen from renewable energy sources. Electrolysers based on proton exchange membranes (PEMs) have a number of advantages including high current density, high product gas purity and the ability to operate at high pressure. Despite these advantages the high cost of such devices is an impediment to their widespread deployment. A principal factor in this cost are the materials and machining of flow plates for distribution of the liquid reagents and gaseous products in the electrochemical cell. We demonstrate the production and operation of a PEM electrolyser constructed from silver coated 3D printed components fabricated from polypropylene. This approach allows construction of light weight, low cost electrolysers and the rapid prototyping of flow field design. Furthermore we provide data on the operation of this electrolyser wherein we show that performance is excellent for a first generation device in terms of overall efficiency, internal resistances and current–voltage response. This development opens the door to the fabrication of light weight and cheap electrolysers as well as related electrochemical devices such as flow batteries and fuel cells.


Title of dissertation: SPARSE REPRESENTATIONS AND FEATURE LEARNING FOR IMAGE SET CLASSIFICATION AND CORRESPONDENCE ESTIMATION Mohammed E. Fathy Salem Doctor of Philosophy, 2018 Dissertation directed by: Professor Rama Chellappa Department of Computer Science The use of effective features is a key component in solving many computer vision tasks including, but not limited to, image (set) classification and correspondence estimation. Many research directions have focused on finding good features for the task under consideration, traditionally by hand crafting and recently by machine learning. In our work, we present algorithms for feature extraction and sparse representation for the classification of image sets. In addition, we present an approach for deep metric learning for correspondence estimation. We start by benchmarking various image set classification methods on a mobile video dataset that we have collected and made public. The videos were acquired under three different ambient conditions to capture the type of variations caused by the 'mobility' of the devices. An inspection of these videos reveals a combination of favorable and challenging properties unique to smartphone face videos. Besides mobility, the dataset has other challenges including partial faces, occasional pose changes, blur and fiducial point localization errors. Based on the evaluation, the recognition rates drop dramatically when enrollment and test videos come from different sessions. We then present Bayesian Representation-based Classification (BRC), an approach based on sparse Bayesian regression and subspace clustering for image set classification. A Bayesian statistical framework is used to compare BRC with similar existing approaches such as Collaborative Representation-based Classification (CRC) and Sparse Representation-based Classification (SRC), where it is shown that BRC employs precision hyperpriors that are more non-informative than those of CRC/SRC. Furthermore, we present a robust probe image set handling strategy that balances the trade-off between efficiency and accuracy. Experiments on three datasets illustrate the effectiveness of our algorithm compared to state-of-the-art set-based methods. We then propose to represent image sets as a dictionaries of hand-crafted descriptors based on Symmetric Positive Definite (SPD) matrices that are more robust to local deformations and fiducial point location errors. We then learn a tangent map for transforming the SPD matrix logarithms into a lower-dimensional Log-Euclidean space such that the transformed gallery atoms adhere to a more discriminative subspace structure. A query image set is then classified by first mapping its SPD descriptors into the computed Log-Euclidean tangent space and then using the sparse representation over the tangent space to decide a label for the image set. Experiments on four public datasets show that representation-based classification based on the proposed features outperforms many state-of-the-art methods. We then present Nonlinear Subspace Feature Enhancement (NSFE), an approach for nonlinearly embedding image sets into a space where they adhere to a more discriminative subspace structure. We describe how the structured loss function of NSFE can be optimized in a batch-by-batch fashion by a two-step alternating algorithm. The algorithm makes very few assumptions about the form of the embedding to be learned and is compatible with stochastic gradient descent and back-propagation. We evaluate NSFE with different types of input features and nonlinear embeddings and show that NSFE compares favorably to state-of-the-art image set classification methods. Finally, we propose a hierarchical approach for deep metric learning and descriptor matching for the task of point correspondence estimation. Our idea is motivated by the observation that existing metric learning approaches based on supervising and matching with only the deepest layer result in features that are suboptimal in some aspects to shallower features. Instead, the best matching performance, as we empirically show, is obtained by combining the high invariance of deeper features with the geometric sensitivity and higher precision of shallower features. We compare our method to state-of-the-art networks as well as fusion baselines inspired from existing semantic segmentation networks and empirically show that our method is more accurate and better suited to correspondence estimation. SPARSE REPRESENTATIONS AND FEATURE LEARNING FOR IMAGE SET CLASSIFICATION AND CORRESPONDENCE ESTIMATION


Curators of biological databases transfer knowledge from scientific publications, a laborious and expensive manual process. Machine learning algorithms can reduce the workload of curators by filtering relevant biomedical literature, though their widespread adoption will depend on the availability of intuitive tools that can be configured for a variety of tasks. We propose a new method for supporting curators by means of document categorization, and describe the architecture of a curator-oriented tool implementing this method using techniques that require no computational linguistic or programming expertise. To demonstrate the feasibility of this approach, we prototyped an application of this method to support a real curation task: identifying PubMed abstracts that contain allergen cross-reactivity information. We tested the performance of two different classifier algorithms (CART and ANN), applied to both composite and single-word features, using several feature scoring functions. Both classifiers exceeded our performance targets, the ANN classifier yielding the best results. These results show that the method we propose can deliver the level of performance needed to assist database curation.


Introduction Formocresol is widely used in primary teeth pulpotomies; however it is known to have several side effects. The purpose of this study was to assess pulpal changes of primary teeth pulps after pulpotomy with sodium hypochlorite and formocresol. Materials and Methods In this randomized clinical trial, 22 teeth were selected. These teeth were randomly divided into 2 groups (formocresol; n=11 and sodium hypochlorite n=11). Two months post-operatively teeth were extracted and pulpal responses were evaluated by recording the degree of inflammation and extent of pulpal involvement. Dentinal bridge formation was also evaluated. Finally the data was analyzed with McNemartest. Results The formocresol group demonstrated mild inflammation in 4 cases whereas sodium hypochlorite had mild inflammation in six cases. Severe inflammation was only found in 1 case in the sodium hypochlorite group, but it was present in 4 cases in the formocresol group. In sodium hypochlorite group there were no cases of necrosis, and dentinal bridge was found in 3 cases, unlike, the formocresol group which had necrosis but no dentinal bridge formation. Conclusion Based on the results of this study sodium hypochlorite may be a suitable solution for conducting pulpotomy in primary teeth.


Report presenting a paper in two parts about transition and turbulent boundary layers. The first part reviews the current problem of the instability of laminar boundary layers. The second part reviews the current state of knowledge of the mechanics of turbulent boundary layers and of the methods now being used for fundamental studies of the turbulent fluctuations in turbulent boundary layers.


The objectives of this study were to determine the prevalence of functional asymmetry in elementary and junior high school Tarsisius Vireta Tangerang students from 9 to 16 years old, and to determine which age group has the most extensive functional asymmetry. The subjects were grouped based on the development of the first molar until the second molar, as follows: group of age 9 to 11 years old, age above 11 to 14 years old, and age above 14 to 16 years old. Functional examination was done with a modified Castaldi method. The results showed that overall, functional asymmetry was found in 18 out of 306 subjects (prevalence 5.88%) who were examined. From the age group of 9 to 11 years old, there were 8 such subjects (7.14%); from the age group of above 11 to 14 years old, 7 subjects (6.73%); from the age group of above 14 to 16 years old, there were 3 subjects (3.33%). Therefore, the age group of 9 to 14 years old was showing most frequent functional asymmetry. It was also found that most subjects that experienced functional asymmetry, especially in anteroposterior direction, were subjects with class III malocclusion. In general, subjects with functional asymmetry had crowding and premature contact – which could happen at almost any tooth, but mostly at the incisors. DOI:  10.14693/jdi.v15i1.81


AbstractQuantification of heat exchanger performance in its operative environment is in many engineering applications an essential task, and the air flow rate through the heat exchanger core is an important optimizing parameter. This paper explores an alternative method for quantifying the air flow rate through compact heat exchangers positioned in the underhood of a passenger car. Unlike conventional methods, typically relying on measurements of direct flow characteristics at discrete probe locations, the proposed method is based on the use of load-cells for direct measurement of the total force acting on the heat exchanger. The air flow rate is then calculated from the force measurement. A direct comparison with a conventional pressure based method is presented as both methods are applied on a passenger car's radiator tested in a full scale wind tunnel using six different grill configurations. The measured air flow rates are presented and discussed over a wide range of test velocities. The advantages and draw backs of both approaches are compared and discussed in detail. The proposed method is non-intrusive, leaving the heat exchanger core intact, with no need for integration of measurement points over the core region. Due to the measuring principle, the load-cell method will inherently over-predict the air-flow rate. This error is quantified and an empirical correction function is investigated. This paper shows that the corrected force based method determines the air flow rate through a heat exchanger with an accuracy similar to that of traditional pressure/velocity methods while offering a considerable number of advantages.


Among the many disruptive new technologies that have emerged recently, blockchain is the one that has the most potential to profoundly revolutionise society and the labour market. For blockchain to be socially acceptable, however, accountability and transparency in the governance of its architecture is necessary – as is giving all actors, including workers, the ability to become co-creators in its technological development and to shape its implementation.

This Foresight Brief describes blockchain technology and analyses its implications for the world of work and possible uses in certain sectors, including value chains. On a more experimental basis, it discusses whether blockchain can help to manage trade union organisations, including membership aspects, without establishing a specific 'use case'. The publication finally highlights one (r)evolution for which society needs to be prepared, namely the way blockchain and artificial intelligence will increasingly be combined in the future. It outlines four important areas that need to be considered if these technologies are to be more widely adopted: data quality; privacy and data protection; environmental sustainability; and solving issues related to 'smart contracts' and 'decentralised autonomous organisations'.


Theoretical models of competition with fixed prices suggest that hospitals should compete by increasing quality of care for diseases with the greatest profitability and demand elasticity. Most empirical evidence regarding hospital competition is limited to heart attacks, which in the U.S. generate positive profit margins but exhibit very low demand elasticity – ambulances usually take patients to the closest (or affiliated) hospital. In this paper, we derive a theoretically appropriate measure of market concentration in a fixed-price model, and use differential travel-time to hospitals in each of the 306 U.S. regional hospital markets to instrument for market concentration. We then estimate the model using risk-adjusted Medicare data for several different population cohorts: heart attacks (low demand elasticity), hip and knee replacements (high demand elasticity) and dementia patients (low demand elasticity, low or negative profitability). First, we find little correlation within hospitals across quality measures. And second, while we replicate the standard result that greater competition leads to higher quality in some (but not all) measures of heart attack quality, we find essentially no association between competition and quality for what should be the most competitive markets – elective hip and knee replacements. Consistent with the model, competition is associated with lower quality care among dementia patients, suggesting that competition could induce hospitals to discourage unprofitable patients.


Introduction:The systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) occurs frequently in critically ill patients and presents similar clinical appearances despite diverse infectious and noninfectious etiologies. Despite similar phenotypic expression, these diverse SIRS etiologies may induce divergent genotypic expressions. We hypothesized that gene expression differences are present between sepsis and uninfected SIRS prior to the clinical appearance of sepsis. Methods:Critically ill uninfected SIRS patients were followed longitudinally for the development of sepsis. All patients had whole blood collected daily for gene expression analysis by Affymetrix Hg_U133 2.0 Plus microarrays. SIRS patients developing sepsis were compared with those remaining uninfected for differences in gene expression at study entry and daily for 3 days prior to conversion to sepsis. Acceptance criteria for differentially expressed genes required: >1.2 median fold change between groups and significance on univariate and multivariate analysis. Differentially expressed genes were annotated to pathways using DAVID 2.0/EASE analysis. Results:A total of 12,782 (23.4%) gene probes were differentially expressed on univariate analysis 0 to 48 hours before clinical sepsis. 626 (1.1%) probes met acceptance criteria, corresponding to 459 unique genes, 65 (14.2%) down and 395 (85.8%) up expressed. These genes annotated to 10 pathways that functionally categorized to 4 themes involving innate immunity, cytokine receptors, T cell differentiation, and protein synthesis regulation. Conclusions:Sepsis has a unique gene expression profile that is different from uninfected inflammation and becomes apparent prior to expression of the clinical sepsis phenotype.


PURPOSE
To demonstrate how current theories regarding ultrashort laser pulse effects may apply to ocular tissue, a prospective clinicopathologic study of macular lesions from ultrashort laser pulses compared the pathologic effects with the clinical and fluorescein angiographic appearance of the laser lesions.

METHODS
Ninety-femtosecond, 3-picosecond, and 60-picosecond laser pulses, throughout a range of energies, were delivered to the retina of Macaca mulatta. Clinical examination and fluorescein angiography were performed at 1 hour in all eyes and 24 hours after exposure in selected eyes. Eyes were enucleated at 1 or 24 hours after lesion placement. The structure and extent of retinal lesions were scored for comparison with the clinical findings.

RESULTS
Focal retinal pathologic appearance correlated well with a clinically visible lesion observed 24 hours after laser delivery. Retinal lesions were small foci of retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) and retinal disruption, without choriocapillaris involvement. Lesions that contained focal RPE vacuoles or lifting of the RPE also demonstrated leakage, in fluorescein angiographic studies. Suprathreshold laser delivery frequently caused focal columns of retinal injury and intraretinal hemorrhages from retinal vessel bleeding, with no rupture of choroidal blood vessels.

CONCLUSIONS
The retinal response to ultrashort laser pulses at moderate energy followed a pattern of focal damage from laser-induced breakdown without significant thermal spread.


This paper presents a comparative analysis of the link between unionization and wage inequality in the U.S., the U.K., and Canada. Our main motivation is to see whether unionization can account for differences and trends in wage inequality in industrialized countries. We focus on the U.S., the U.K., and Canada because the institutional arrangements governing unionization and collective bargaining are relatively similar in these three countries. The three countries also share large non-union sectors that can be used as a comparison group for the union sector. Using comparable micro data for the last two decades, we find that unions have remarkably similar qualitative impacts in all three countries. In particular, unions tend to systematically reduce wage inequality among men, but have little impact on wage inequality for women. We conclude that unionization helps explain a sizable share of cross-country differences in male wage inequality among the three countries. We also conclude that de-unionization explains a substantial part of the growth in male wage inequality in the U.K. and the U.S. since the early 1980s.


Epidemiological data regarding tea and coffee consumption and risk of esophageal cancer (EC) is still inconclusive. We examined the association of tea and coffee consumption with EC risk among 442,143 men and women without cancer at baseline from 9 countries of the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition. Tea and coffee intakes were recorded using country‐specific validated dietary questionnaires. Cox regression models were used to analyze the relationships between tea and coffee intake and EC risk. During a mean follow‐up of 11.1 years, 339 participants developed EC, of which 142 were esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC) and 174 were esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). In the multivariable models, no significant associations between tea (mostly black tea), and coffee intake and risk of EC, EAC and ESCC were observed. In stratified analyses, among men coffee consumption was inversely related to ESCC (HR for comparison of extreme tertiles 0.42, 95% CI 0.20–0.88; p‐trend = 0.022), but not among women. In current smokers, a significant and inverse association was observed between ESCC risk and tea (HR 0.46, 95% CI 0.23–0.93; p‐trend = 0.053) and coffee consumption (HR 0.37, 95% CI 0.19–0.73; p‐trend = 0.011). However, no statistically significant findings were observed using the continuous variable (per 100 mL/d). These data did not show a significant association between tea and coffee consumption and EC, EAC and ESCC, although a decreased risk of ESCC among men and current smokers is suggested, but need to be confirmed in further prospective studies including more cases.


Ostensibly, nations adopt counterterrorist legislation in response to terrorist attacks and/or in an attempt to prevent future attacks. Yet, recent data on global historical trends suggest a decoupling of counterterrorist legislation and actual terrorist acts. Furthermore, previous studies of state policies demonstrate that actors often adopt policies for a variety of reasons, many of which are unrelated to the declarative purposes of these policies. In this article, I examine the factors that predict counterterrorist legislation. Analyzing national-level counterterrorist legislation in 145 countries between the years 1970 and 2011, I find limited support for actor-oriented theories of policy diffusion, but more substantial support for sociological approaches, in particular those emphasizing spatial and cultural diffusion.


Abstract:This paper examines Australian attitudes and decisions which undermined East Timorese self-determination between 1973 and 1979—beginning before the illegal Indonesian invasion in 1975 and ending in February 1979 at the commencement of Australian-Indonesian maritime boundary negotiations. During this period, key diplomats and politicians from both sides of Australian politics minimized, ignored, and overlooked human rights abuses in East Timor to advance Australian interests. This approach to East Timor was maintained for over two decades, but had been adapted from an earlier diplomatic blueprint established in the mid-1960s. The main Australian achievement from this approach was accessing East Timor's oil and gas reserves by a 1989 treaty with Jakarta. This was made possible by undermining the legal rights of the East Timorese and tacitly accepting the Indonesian occupation. In this period (1975–1979) around 84,200 Timorese from a pre-invasion population of 600,000–800,000 died as a direct or indirect consequence of the Indonesian invasion. By 1999, as many as 200,000 East Timorese had died since the 1975 invasion.


A recent report investigates the enrollment and achievement of students with disabilities and students with English language learning (ELL) needs in oversubscribed charter schools in Boston. The report concludes that Boston charters and Boston Public Schools enroll similar numbers of both special populations and that charter attendance has a positive statistically significant effect for those who enter Boston's charter school lottery and then enroll after being offered a seat. This review finds that econometric models used to estimate the effects are appropriate, but also more limited than the report would suggest. The report finds some interesting patterns that deserve further study; however the effects cannot be generalized to charter schools outside Boston or even to most students inside Boston. The study also offers no context to compare the size of reported gains and it does not adequately examine how or why the reported test score gains are realized; for example, it does not account for peer effects or spending differences. Ultimately, while this report takes an important step in studying how oversubscribed charters may affect the academic achievement of special needs students, a closer examination is needed in order to accurately inform those making education policy. Review of Special education and engliSh language learner StudentS in BoSton charter SchoolS