The purposes of this project were to gain a better understanding of the benefits of providing in-vehicle congestion information and to determine whether any detectable congestion level changes resulted from providing this information. The project tested an in-vehicle traffic map device (TrafficGauge) using 2,215 participants from the Puget Sound region. Three rounds of surveys (Entry, Daily and Exit) took place between November 2007 and May 2008 in which participants used the TrafficGauge for six months. The project also analyzed a roadway corridor to determine, in instances of unusual freeway congestion, how traveler's behavior affects congestion on alternative roadways. The analysis looked for correlations between the performance of the study corridor's three freeways and four arterials using conditional probability tables. Most of the survey participants were young to middle-age males, well educated with middle or high incomes. The entry survey demographic data indicated that the participants were not representative of the general population but they were probably representative of those most likely to seek and pay for traveler information, particularly information delivered by an in-vehicle congestion map device. On half the occasions when participants reported changing routines in the daily surveys, they reported not receiving any benefits. For the entire study, 25 percent of participants reported not benefiting at all from the device. Participants who changed routines saved time a mean number of 1.6 times. The mean amount of time saved on those instances was a little over 30 minutes. Thirty-two percent of participants indicated that they did not save any time by using the device. Over 59 percent of the participants indicated that the information provided by the device reduced their level of stress. The study participants could be divided into three groups. One (about 20 percent) thought highly of the device, were confident that it had saved them considerable time and stress, and would purchase the device. Another (between 21 percent and 26 percent) saw little value in either the device or the information that it conveyed and would not purchase the device. The third, and largest, group saw value in the device and occasionally benefited from the information it provided. They did not, however, think that these benefits warranted purchasing the device. The corridor analysis indicated that even without arterial performance information, some travelers seek alternative routes when the freeway becomes congested. The corridor analysis confirmed that many travelers diverted either on the basis of what they see on the roadway or what they get from en-route traffic information sources. Even the modest levels of diversion observed in this study increased arterial congestion, especially near freeway ramps. This visible arterial congestion near the freeway discouraged diversion. Consequently, providing arterial performance information on the entire arterial via in-vehicle devices is likely to increase initial diversion, thereby degrading arterial performance. Roadway agencies will, therefore, need to make traffic management of the ramps and arterial segments that connect the alternate routes a priority.


This diploma seeks to explore the potential to preserve and re-use existing barn structures through minimal architectural interventions. The barns all over the Norwegian countryside reveal a rich agricultural and historical heritage. Sadly, the rate of decay in both used and abandoned barns is increasing, due to costs of maintenance and preservation. The programme is developed through a concept of "minimal luxury", enabling an exploration of the existing structure and character of the barns without necessitating complete refurbishment and climatic control. I use the term "minimal luxury" to describe a moment when you have a good snack, find a good camping spot, take a quick bath in a lake, or tuck into a warm sleeping bag. My approach focuses on translations from drawing to building: exploring the sense of a real scale, materialism and detailing.


Covariate adjustment is common in the analysis of randomised trials, and can increase statistical power without increasing sample size. Published research on covariate adjustment, and guidance for choosing covariates, focusses on trials where individuals are randomised to treatments. In cluster randomised trials (CRTs) clusters of individuals are randomised. Valid analyses of CRTs account for the structure imposed by cluster randomisation. There is limited published research on the effects of covariate adjustment, or guidance for choosing covariates, in analyses of CRTs. I summarise existing guidance for choosing covariates in individually randomised trials and CRTs, and review the methods used to investigate the effects of covariate adjustment. I review the use of adjusted analyses in published CRTs. I use simulation, analytic methods, and analyses of trial data to investigate the effects of covariate adjustment in mixed models. I use these results to form guidance for choosing covariates in analyses of CRTs. Guidance to choose covariates a priori and adjust for covariates used to stratify randomisation is also applicable to CRTs. I provide guidance specific to CRTs using linear and logistic mixed models. Cluster size, the intra-cluster correlations (ICCs) of the outcome and covariate, and the strength of the relationship between the outcome and covariate influence the power of adjusted analyses and the precision of treatment effect estimates. An a priori estimate of the product of cluster size and the ICC of the outcome can be used to assist choosing covariates. When this product is close to one, adjusting for a cluster level covariate or a covariate with a negligible ICC provide similar increases in power. For smaller values of this product, adjusting for a cluster level covariate gives minimal increases in power. The use of separate withincluster and contextual covariate effect parameters may increase power further in some circumstances.


This Paper considers the historic weakness of the American mayoralty and recent reform efforts designed to strengthen it. The mayoralty's weakness has two grounds. First, the office's lack of power is a product of elite skepticism of urban democracy. That skepticism manifested itself in Progressive-era reforms that almost entirely eliminated the mayor's office in favor of a city council and professional city manager; the mayoralty continues to be a ceremonial office in most small and medium-sized cities. Second, the mayoralty's weakness is a result of a federal system that devalues city — and by extension, mayoral — power. American-style federalism privileges regional governments rather than local ones: states, not cities, are the salient sites for constitutionally-protected "local" governance. This structural fact has political consequences: The city's limited capacity to make effective policy reinforces the parochialism of its leaders; their parochialism, in turn, reinforces the city's subordinate status. The challenge for urban reformers is to alter this "constitutional" weakness of the mayoralty. I argue that the strong mayoralty is a potential instrument for democratic self-government to the extent that it is able to amass power on behalf of the city.


Background: Foodborne botulism (FBB) is a rare paralyzing disease caused by ingestion of foods contaminated with botulinum neurotoxin (BoNT). It is still a health concern in many countries. This study aimed to investigate the epidemiology of FBB in West Azerbaijan Province, Iran. Methods: Botulism surveillance data of the Health Deputy of Urmia Medical Sciences University, northwestern Iran was used in this retrospective survey from 2010 to 2014. Demographics, clinical features, bioassay results, implicated foods and outcome were analyzed. Clinically, patients were classified to three groups (mild, moderate, and severe). Results: During the five years, 57 cases of FBB were identified involving 36 men (63.2%) and 21 women (37.8%). Mean age was 22.35±17.84 yr. Most events were sporadic (86%). Bioassay confirmed serotype A of BoNT in 19 patients (33.3%). The most implicated food was locally-made cheese (n=10). Average incubation period was 24.35±12.35 h. Clinically, mild, moderate and severe forms were observed in 68.4%, 19.3% and 12.3% of patients, respectively. All cases were hospitalized and treated with trivalent antitoxin. Mean hospital stay was 7.71±3.94 days Eight patients (14%) required mechanical ventilation and three of them deceased (5.3%). Median annual incidence rate of FBB was 0.37 cases per 100,000 population in this study. Conclusion: Comparing other part of the world, FBB has a medium incidence rate in our province. Unpasteurized dairy products are the main causative foods and BoNT/A is the most commonly recognized toxin type. Promoting correct preservation and appropriate cooking are recommended for preventing FBB.


Introduction United States legislative changes, such as those described by federal laws such as Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEIA) reauthorized in 2004 (Pub. L. No. 108-466) and the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001 (Pub. L. No. 107-110), require that students with increasingly diverse learning characteristics have access to and achieve high academic performance in the general education curriculum. The changing demographics of the United States have also played a role in diverse learning characteristics of the American learners in classrooms today. With an educational system that serves approximately 76,355,000 students, 30,982,000 or 40.58% are of an ethnically diverse background and 5% of school age children have a disability (U.S. Census Bureau, 2008). These changing legal requirements and student demographics in United States educational systems combine pointing to the need for increased collaborative planning and teaching among school personnel attempting to comply with these legal mandates to serve all students fairly and equitably in general education classrooms. Co-teaching is an approach that helps educators meet both IDEIA and NCLB mandates, and is defined as "two or more people sharing responsibility for teaching some or all of the students assigned to a classroom" (Villa, Thousand, & Nevin, 2008, p. 5). In schools within the United States, co-teaching often involves general education and special education teachers working together in one classroom and used as a supplementary aid and service that can be brought to general education to serve the needs of students with (and without) disabilities through IDEIA. Co-teaching requires a re-conceptualization and revision for traditional teacher preparation. Recent studies show the benefits of co-teaching arrangements for students, teachers, and school organizations (Nevin, Cramer, Salazar, & Voigt, 2008; Villa, Thousand, & Nevin, 2008; Schwab Learning, 2003). At the secondary level, co-teaching has been found to be effective for students with a variety of instructional needs including learning disabilities (Rice & Zigmond, 1999; Trent, 1998); high-risk students in a social studies class (Dieker, 1998) and in a language remediation class (Miller, Valasky, & Molloy, 1998). This research indicates that co-teachers can structure their classes to use more effectively the research-proven strategies required of the NCLB Act of 2001. For example, Miller et al. (1998) described how a co-teacher team (a special educator, a general educator, and two paraprofessionals) blended whole-class and small-group instruction, peer teaching, and small cooperative learning groups to provide language remediation strategies and activities within the general education curriculum resulting in increased literacy achievement for their students. Positive student learning outcomes such as these encourage administrators, advocates, and state departments of education to adopt cooperative models such as co-teaching for the effective education of students with disabilities as well as students with differentiated learning needs based on ethnicity, culture, and language barriers (e.g., Arguelles, Hughes, & Schumm, 2000). Other researchers are cautious about the claims for effectiveness of co-teaching methods. For example, Zigmond (2004), reporting on preliminary results of co-teaching in inclusive science classrooms at six high schools, found little difference in the amount of time students spent working on task, interacting in small groups, or interacting with the teachers. Rarely have researchers or practitioners analyzed the impact of co-teaching on other variables. Because the primary focus of this paper is on meeting teaching standards in the United States, international literature is not addressed. Interested readers are referred to UNICEF which has funded several international projects on inclusive schools and the Teaching and Learning Research Programme in the United Kingdom with its inclusive education component. …


Abstract Postinstitutionalized children frequently demonstrate persistent socioemotional difficulties. For example, some postinstitutionalized children display an unusual lack of social reserve with unfamiliar adults. This behavior, which has been referred to as indiscriminate friendliness, disinhibited attachment behavior, and disinhibited social behavior, was examined by comparing children internationally adopted from institutional care to children internationally adopted from foster care and children raised by their biological families. Etiological factors and behavioral correlates were also investigated. Both groups of adopted children displayed more disinhibited social behavior than the nonadopted children. Of the etiological factors examined, only the length of time in institutional care was related to disinhibited social behavior. Disinhibited social behavior was not significantly correlated with general cognitive ability, attachment-related behaviors, or basic emotion abilities. However, this behavior was negatively associated with inhibitory control abilities even after controlling for the length of time in institutional care. These results suggest that disinhibited social behavior might reflect underlying deficits in inhibitory control.


Shaped ultrafast laser pulses were used to study and control the ionization dynamics of electronically excited pyrazine in a pump and probe experiment. For pump pulses created without feedback from the product signal, the ion growth curve (the parent ion signal as a function of pump/probe delay) was described quantitatively by the classical rate equations for internal conversion of the S2 and S1 states. Very different, non-classical behavior was observed when a genetic algorithm (GA) employing phase-only modulation was used to minimize the ion signal at some pre-determined target time, T. Two qualitatively different control mechanisms were identified for early (T < 1.5 ps) and late (T > 1.5 ps) target times. In the former case, the ion signal was largely suppressed for t < T, while for t ≫ T, the ion signal produced by the GA-optimized pulse and a transform limited (TL) pulse coalesced. In contrast, for T > 1.5 ps, the ion growth curve followed the classical rate equations for t < T, while for t ≫ T, the quantum yield for the GA-optimized pulse was much smaller than for a TL pulse. We interpret the first type of behavior as an indication that the wave packet produced by the pump laser is localized in a region of the S2 potential energy surface where the vertical ionization energy exceeds the probe photon energy, whereas the second type of behavior may be described by a reduced absorption cross section for S0 → S2 followed by incoherent decay of the excited molecules. Amplitude modulation observed in the spectrum of the shaped pulse may have contributed to the control mechanism, although this possibility is mitigated by the very small focal volume of the probe laser.


Objectives: World wide about 1,000,000 patients undergo cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) related procedures every year. Anaesthetic vapors, such as Sevoflurane and Isoflurane, have shown neuroand cardio-protective effects and are used widely during CPB. Modern oxygenators are using different types of hollowfibers and the question arises, if vapor molecules effectively travel through these membranes to be delivered to the patient blood during CPB. Methods: An artificial CPB circuit study (human blood, hematocrit 30, 30°C) is presented. An oxygen-mixture with 2% vapor at 1l/min is delivered to the oxygenator. The vapor concentration in the reservoir is recorded over time until a stabile concentration is obtained, then the gas stream is switched to vapor free room air. Results: The Quadrox D, Maquet (dense polymethylpentene membrane) as compared to the Synthesis, Sorin (micro-porous polypropylene membrane) shows relative limited performance in delivery of vapors (Sevoflurane < Isoflurane). Conclusions: An artificial CPB circuit is used to test physico-chemical properties of different membranes. The oxygenator model using a plasma-tight (as compared to porous) membrane shows relative limited performance in delivery of vapors through the membrane, suggesting a limited use of plasma-tight membranes for clinically relevant and cost-effective delivery of vapors during CPB to achieve neuroand cardio-protection.


We examine a novel two-stage mechanism for selling government securities, wherein the dealers underwrite in the first stage the sale of securities, which are auctioned in stage 2, via either a Discriminatory Auction (DA) or a Uniform Price Auction (UPA). Using proprietary data on auctions during 2006-2012, we find under DAs (a) The underwriting commissions are higher and exhibit more volatility, (b) Stage 1 award concentrations are higher, and (c) Stage 2 bid-shading and the degree of underpricing are higher. Stage 1 outcomes are powerful in explaining Stage 2 auction outcomes including the likelihood of devolvement, and bid shading.


The histone demethylase KDM5B is considered to be a promising target for anticancer therapy. Single-chain antibodies from llama (nanobodies) have been raised to aid in crystallization and structure determination of this enzyme. The antigen-binding properties of 15 of these nanobodies have been characterized. The crystal structure of one of these (NB17) has been determined to a resolution of 1.85 Å. NB17 crystallizes in space group P4322 with six molecules in the asymmetric unit. The six molecules in the asymmetric unit pack as an entity with approximate D3 symmetry with interactions mediated by the CDR loops, which could act as a crystallization nucleus. NB17 does not bind to monomeric KDM5B residues 1-820, but is found to bind to aggregates formed after incubation at 310 K.


In this paper an effective technique for speaker adaptation on the feature domain is presented. This technique starts from the well known maximum-likelihood linear regression (MLLR) auxiliary function to obtain the constrained MLLR transformation in an iterative fashion. The proposed approach is particularly suitable to be implemented on the client side of a distributed speech recognition scheme, due to the reduced number of iterations required to reach convergence. Extensive experimentation using the CMU Sphinx 4 ASR system along with a preliminarily trained speaker-independent acoustic model for the Italian language, in a setting designed for large-vocabulary continuous speech recognition, demonstrates the effectiveness of the approach even with small amounts of adaptation data.


This study is placed in the context of current pragmatic research on public news group Internet communication as well as Watts' notion of 'emergent networks' in the context of linguistic politeness. It investigates the functions and use of 'disagreement' in public news group Internet interaction in English and German. The paper starts with an analysis of the specific frame conditions holding in an English and a German discussion group including the development of 'emergent networks'. Part two deals with the communicative functions of disagreement in the data and investigates their distribution, strategies of mitigation, preference organization, and communicative effects. Finally two closed discussion threads are analyzed in detail, with regard to their developing 'emergent networks' and their interactional effects.


Transforming growth factor β (TGFβ) type I (RI) and type II (RII) receptors are essential for TGFβ signal transduction. A human colon carcinoma cell line, designated GEO, is marginally responsive to TGFβ and expresses a low level of RI mRNA relative to colon carcinoma cells, which are highly responsive to TGFβ. Hence, the role of RI as a limiting factor for TGFβ sensitivity and the contribution of low RI levels to the malignant phenotype of GEO cells were examined. Stable transfection of a tetracycline-regulatable rat RI cDNA increased TGFβ1 binding to RI and resulted in increased growth inhibition by exogenous TGFβ1. In contrast, although stable transfection of an RII expression vector into the same GEO cells increased TGFβ1 binding to RII, growth inhibition by exogenous TGFβ1 was not altered. This indicated that the low level of RI is a limiting factor for the growth-inhibitory effects of TGFβ in GEO cells. RI-transfected cells were growth-arrested at a lower saturation density than GEO control cells. They also showed reduced growth and clonogenicity in plating efficiency and soft agarose assays, whereas RII-transfected cells did not show any differences from the NEO control cells in these assays. Tetracycline repressed RI expression in transfected cells and reversed the reduction in plating efficiency of RI-transfected clones, confirming that growth effects were due to increased RI expression in transfected cells. TGFβ1 neutralizing antibody stimulated the proliferation of RI-transfected cells but had little effect on GEO control cells, indicating that increased autocrine-negative TGFβ activity also resulted from increased RI expression. Tumorigenicity in athymic nude mice was significantly delayed in RI-transfected cells. These results indicate that low RI expression can be a limiting factor for response to exogenous TGFβ, as well as TGFβ autocrine-negative activity, and that reduction of RI expression can contribute to malignant progression.


In this paper, initial simulations are presented showing that the upcoming IEEE 802.11p standard is not suitable for traffic safety applications requiring reliable, low-delay communication between vehicles. The medium access control procedure is one of the most important parts in the design of delay-constrained communication systems, and emerging vehicle safety applications put new stringent demands on timely and reliable delivery of data packets. The medium access procedure used in 802.11p is carrier sense multiple access, which is inherently unsuitable for time-critical data traffic since it is contention-based and cannot provide a finite upper bound on the time to channel access. The simulation results indicate that with IEEE 802.11p, channel access cannot be granted in a manner that is sufficiently predictable to support reliable, low-delay communications between vehicles on a highway.


Scareware is a recent type of malicious software that may pose financial and privacy-related threats to novice users. Traditional countermeasures, such as anti-virus software, require regular updates and often lack the capability of detecting novel (unseen) instances. This paper presents a scareware detection method that is based on the application of machine learning algorithms to learn patterns in extracted variable length opcode sequences derived from instruction sequences of binary files. The patterns are then used to classify software as legitimate or scareware but they may also reveal interpretable behavior that is unique to either type of software. We have obtained a large number of real world scareware applications and designed a data set with 550 scareware instances and 250 benign instances. The experimental results show that several common data mining algorithms are able to generate accurate models from the data set. The Random Forest algorithm is shown to outperform the other algorithms in the experiment. Essentially, our study shows that, even though the differences between scareware and legitimate software are subtler than between, say, viruses and legitimate software, the same type of machine learning approach can be used in both of these dissimilar cases.


Intrauterine growth restriction causes impaired growth and development of mammalian fetus, and leads to long-term negative effect on postnatal growth. Among domestic animals, pigs exhibit the most severe naturally occurring IUGR and reduced postnatal muscle growth. The objectives of this research project were to: 1) determine muscle stem cell characteristics in IUGR pigs; 2) determine how intrauterine growth restriction alters protein deposition in skeletal muscle; 3) investigate whether branched-chain amino acids (BCAA) are able to enhance protein synthesis in intrauterine growth restricted (IUGR) pig muscle. Newborn piglets were considered normal body weight (NBWT) or IUGR when birth weight was within ± 0.5 SD and -2 SD of litter average respectively. Muscle satellite cell numbers, believed to be the major nuclei source for postnatal muscle growth, were lower in newborn IUGR pigs which could result in reduced muscle hypertrophy potential. In addition, cultures derived from IUGR muscle satellite cells had a lower fusion percentage. Fewer satellite cells and impaired differentiation ability may contributor to impaired muscle growth in these pigs. Protein synthesis rate was significantly lower in IUGR pig hindquarter in the first hour after feeding, but BCAA supplementation had no effect on protein synthesis in IUGR pigs. Further, eukaryotic translation initiation factor 4E (eIF4E) expression is down regulated in IUGR pig muscle. These results suggest that impaired translation initiation may provide a plausible explanation for the lower protein synthesis rates observed in IUGR pigs. Overall, reduced muscle stem cell number and changes in their activity, as well as impaired translation initiation may be important explanations for compromised postnatal muscle growth in intrauterine growth restricted pigs.


Self−similarity is a conspicuous feature of many plants. Geometric self−similarity is commonly expressed in terms of affine transformations that map a structure into its components. Here we introduce topological self−similarity, which deals with the configurations and neighborhood relations between these components instead. The topological self−similarity of linear and branching structures is characterized in terms of recurrence systems defined within the theory of L−systems. We first review previous results, relating recurrence systems to the patterns of development that can be described using deterministic context−free L−systems. We then show that topologically self−similar structures may become geometrically self−similar if additional geometric constraints are met. This establishes a correspondence between recurrence systems and iterated function systems, which is of interest as a mathematical link between L−systems and fractals. The distinction between geometric and topological self−similarity is useful in biological applications, where topological self−similarity is more prevalent then geometric self−similarity.


Objective: Potentilla species have been used in traditional medicine for their antidiarrhoeal, antiviral, antidiabetic, anti-inflammatory, wound healer, coagulant and anticancer activities. We investigated the radical scavenging and cytotoxic activities of P. recta and P. astracanica which grown widely in Turkey to provide scientific contribution towards their traditional usage as well as to find a new candidate for natural antioxidant product. Materials and Methods: Different extracts were prepared from the aerial parts of P. recta and P. astracanica. DPPH, SO2 •– and NO radicals scavenging assays conducted to assess antioxidant activity. Cytotoxic activity of extracts in Hep-2 cell line were tested by MTT method. In order to evaluate phytochemical content of the species; total phenolic, total flavonoid and total flavonol contents of the extracts were estimated. Results: All samples were tested at 50, 100 and 250µg/ml concentrations for DPPH, SO2 •– and NO radicals scavenging activities. All the extracts showed statistically significant radical scavenging activity dose-dependently. In general, P. recta was found to be more active than P. astracanica. According to the results, butanol extract of P. recta (2) exhibited very strong scavenging effect for SO2 •– radical. Butanol extract of P. astracanica (5) scavenged 56% of the NO radicals at 50µg/ml. The cytotoxic effects of the extracts were determined at 10, 25, 50, 100 ug/ml concentrations and ethyl acetate extracts of both plants showed cytotoxic effect at 100µg/ ml. Conclusion: Potentilla species are good candidates to be promising possible sources for future novel antioxidants in food and pharmaceutical formulations. The strong scavenging activity partly explain the beneficial effects of Potentilla species for the treatment of degenerative diseases like cancer. Due to their active contents it seems that these plants are worth investigating for further studies.
Key words: Potentilla, antioxidant, cytotoxicity


&NA; Because of the trend toward shorter hospital stays, family caregivers of stroke survivors are expected to accept more responsibility for helping survivors during the subacute recovery process. The caregiver role is associated with negative health outcomes, yet existing literature differs on whether work status is a contributor. The purpose of this secondary analysis was to examine how caregiving affects employment and to compare characteristics of working and nonworking caregivers. Baseline data of family caregivers (N = 132) caring for stroke survivors 3‐9 months after stroke and enrolled in a national multisite study were used. Caregiver characteristics of physical health, depression, fatigue, family functioning, and family conflict were measured. A total of 36% of caregivers reduced their work hours, resigned, or retired from their jobs to care for their family member. A larger proportion (n = 25, 66%) of minority caregivers were employed (full time or part time) compared to white caregivers (n = 43, 46%). Caregivers employed full time were younger and in better physical health but were at higher risk for depressive symptoms than nonworking caregivers. Family function and conflict were similar between the groups, but working caregivers received more assistance from other family members. Healthcare professionals and employers can use these findings to assist them with recognizing the needs of employed caregivers and offering support measures to facilitate their dual role.


This article is an extension of a research article published in the July 2010 issue
of the Construction Law Journal in which the findings of seven face-to-face
structured interviews, conducted in Hong Kong, on the perceptions of key risk
factors and risk mitigation measures for Guaranteed Maximum Price (GMP)
contracts and Target Cost Contracts (TCC) were reported. Further to this previous
research undertaken in Hong Kong, five similar in-depth structured interviews
were conducted in the United Kingdom. The interviewees perceived the change in
scope of work, quality and clarity of tender documents, selection of competent
subcontractors and unforeseen ground conditions as key risk factors encountered
in GMP/TCC construction projects. They also considered a basket of measures
including: the adjudication of bids in risk assessment; total reflection on potential
risks in tender documents; use of risk registers; and development of a proper risk
management process, as being effective in risk mitigation. The UK findings were
compared and contrasted with those from Hong Kong. It was found that the key
risk factors associated with GMP/TCC contracts between the two jurisdictions are similar by nature in general. However, differences in perceptions on risk
mitigation measures are also observed, which may be due to the disparities in the
implementation of GMP/TCC methodology between the two regions.


In this paper we report some specific features of the numerical technique used to study the dynamic evolution of massive white dwarfs following the explosive ignition of nuclear fuel under degenerate conditions. We focus on three important points: (1) how to construct a stable initial model for white dwarfs with a central density ρc > 109 g cm-3 in the context of smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH); (2) the procedure devised in the numerical handling of combustion fronts and thermal discontinuities; and (3) a proposed method based on techniques of analysis of dynamic sets of points to characterize the flame front structure. As we will show, the combination of these methods along with the standard SPH technique makes the study of deflagrations in massive white dwarfs feasible even in three dimensions. After explaining in detail the numerical scheme, we show the results of several calculations, in three dimensions, addressed to checking the ability of the hydrocode to handle deflagrations in massive white dwarfs in two density regimes. First, several tests were carried out under the physical conditions that characterize Chandrasekhar-mass models for Type Ia supernovae, and some of the results were compared with standard one-dimensional calculations. We also explored the consequences of deflagrations at very high densities, where electron captures play a fundamental role in the further evolution of the white dwarf, and where collapse to a neutron star instead of an explosion is expected. Our calculations support the idea that the SPH method and various fractal analysis techniques can successfully be used to model the gross features of deflagrations in white dwarfs provided that the nuclear energy injected at the first stages of the explosion is sufficient to dominate the numerical noise. An extensive number of calculations for both Type Ia supernovae explosions and accretion-induced collapse of a white dwarf to a neutron star are in progress and will be reported in future publications.


Leprosy or Hansen's disease is a chronic infectious disease caused by an acid-fast bacillus, Mycobacterium leprae (M. leprae). The bacilli proliferate in macrophages infiltrating the skin and gain entry to the dermal nerves via the laminar surface of Schwann cells where they replicate. After entry, the Schwann cells proliferate and then die. Conclusive identification of M. leprae DNA in a sample can be obtained by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) for the heat shock 65 gene (hsp65). Molecular epidemiology will make it possible to study the global distributions of M. leprae, explore the relationship between genotypes-incidence rates, mode of transmission, and the type of disease (tuberculoid vs. lepromatous). We amplified DNA using PCR for the hsp65 gene from 24 skin lesions from patients diagnosed with various types of leprosy. Fifteen out of 24 were positive for the hsp65 gene. Digestion with HaeIII-PAGE for the RFLP confirmation of the presence of M. leprae DNA showed the typical pattern in 5 out of 24 and 2 novel patterns in 10 out of 24 patients. We confirmed the presence of M. leprae DNA by sequencing the genes for gyraseA or B and folP, which contained only M. leprae specific single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). Thus, we describe novel hsp65 RFLPs for M. leprae found in a high frequency making them ideal for future epidemiology and transmission studies.


This paper deals with caste system and its implication in contemporary India. It begins with the origin of caste, religious sanction and justification made by ancient Hindu scriptures. How the role of caste which was originally followed on the basis of function among people turned out to be a discriminating element of 'Untouchability". It highlights various factors influencing the stabilization and destabilization of caste in the lives of people. Finally, it takes us to understand the process of Dalitization in India which gives future orientation to Dalit struggles. Certainly, their victory is found on the battle ground than visualizing it in the future. In this process at this juncture the political democracy of India is really at stake.

 Key words: Dalit, untouchability, identity assertion, discrimination, Dalitization, dignity of labour,  transformation.


Results are presented from a search in the dijet final state for new massive narrow resonances decaying to pairs of W and Z bosons or to a W/Z boson and a quark. Results are based on data recorded in proton-proton collisions at √ s = 13 TeV with the CMS detector at the CERN LHC. The data correspond to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb−1. The mass range investigated extends upwards from 1.2 TeV. No excess is observed above the estimated standard model background and limits are set at 95% confidence level on cross sections, which are interpreted in terms of various models that predict gravitons, heavy spin-1 bosons, and excited quarks. In a heavy vector triplet model, W′ and Z′ resonances, with masses below 3.2 and 2.7 TeV, respectively, and spin-1 resonances with degenerate masses below 3.8 TeV are excluded at 95% confidence level. In the case of a singlet W′ resonance masses between 3.3 and 3.6 TeV can be excluded additionally. Similarly, excited quark resonances, q∗, decaying to qW and qZ with masses less than 5.0 and 4.7 TeV, respectively, are excluded. In a narrow-width bulk graviton model, upper limits are set on cross sections ranging from 0.6 fb for high resonance masses above 3.6 TeV, to 36.0 fb for low resonance masses of 1.3 TeV. Published in Physical Review D as doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.97.072006. c © 2018 CERN for the benefit of the CMS Collaboration. CC-BY-4.0 license ∗See Appendix A for the list of collaboration members ar X iv :1 70 8. 05 37 9v 2 [ he pex ] 1 1 A pr 2 01 8


Blevins and Garrett (1998) investigate in detail the origins of CV/VC metathesis in a number of languages and identify two types of metathesis and a "pseudometathesis". For them, "pseudometathesis" is a synchronic process that does not originate through the historical process of metathesis. They analyze languages in which "pseudometathesis" originates through epenthesis and deletion (1998) or through reinterpretation and generalization of other processes in the language (Garrett and Blevins 2009). I argue here that metathesis in Batsbi originates as a result of grammaticalization, together with regular phonological processes. When a function word, such as an auxiliary, grammaticalizes as an affix on a base, affixes trapped between the base and new affix are often lost (Harris and Faarlund 2006). However, in Batsbi some trapped affixes were not immediately lost, and I argue that this is the source of the variable position of the present tense marker, and that its variable position was reanalyzed as metathesis. I argue further that the reanalyzed process is true metathesis synchronically.


This article bears on VFD (Verb Fronting with Doubling) constructions in Haitian, whose left periphery contains a bare homonym of the lexical verb and which trigger a Verb-Focus effect. We seek to update the description of VFD and to reach a satisfactory analysis providing empirical support for addressing the theoretical issues central to the present volume. Our study leads us to conclude that: (i) The syntactic operations involved in the derivation of VFD are available independently of reiteration; (ii) The semantic effect of VFD is not 'intensive' but contrastive, and arises from restrictive modification, a form-meaning relation hardly analysable as 'iconic'; (iii) Haitian VFD may have arisen from a regular recombination of features partaking in focus effects in French, Gbe, and Universal Grammar.


This guide is intended to connect neonatal and perinatal residents and clinicians with the resources relevant to your clinical practice.


This thesis aims at contributing to the literature on industrial policy by investigating patterns of 'association' between trade and industrial policies, the country's national pharmaceutical policy (including pricing), the pre-January 2005 intellectual property rights
regime, productivity and productivity growth in the Egyptian generics pharmaceutical sector. This thesis presented evidence that positive total factor productivity (TFP) growth can be observed under the auspices of a protectionist regime, however, there is a need to revisit pharmaceutical regulatory protectionism, as it impacts negatively on export growth and on fair pharmaceutical prices. Under the auspices of what can be categorised as a protectionist regulatory regime, this thesis examined trends in TFP growth in 13 of Egypt's pharmaceutical generics firms, which account for 50 percent of the generics market by value. Empirical results indicated that the best-practice firm in terms of TFP change belonged to the private sector, while the laggard firm belonged to the state-owned public business sector. Empirical results indicated that mean TFP change for the sample firms throughout the study period 1993-2005 (1.01)
exceeded the mean TFP change for all Egyptian industries (0.75), and that there was evident disassociation or weak correlation -at best- between productivity growth and the
degree of export orientation. In light of both the absence of significant generics import competition in Egypt, it has been found that prices of generics were atypical in terms of exceeding standard worldwide generic-to-originator price ratios. Generic diffusion did not significantly bring down
average prices, while an evident wedge was observed between the market shares of the most sold generics versus the least-priced generics to the advantage of the former. As a result of enforcing pharmaceutical product patent protection as of January 2005, the price-related impact of the TRIPS Agreement in the domain of Egypt's top 42 therapeutic
classes by market value (50 percent of the market), has been put in the range of LE 479 million.


In the 19 century, several scholars in the Netherlands worked on a standardization of spelling of words. Only just after World War II, a uniform spelling was codified. Nobody, however, seemed to care about, or even to think of, an adaptation of the spelling of surnames. In the first decades of the 19 century, due to Napoleon's enforcement of implementing his Civil Code, all inhabitants were registered with a surname, which from then on never formally changed. This means that the final stage of surname development took place in a period which may be considered as orthographically unstable. For this reason, many names still have many variations nowadays. This often leads to insecurity about the spelling of names. Even someone with an uncomplicated name, such as Brouwer, will often be asked, if the name is written with -auor with -ou-, although this name is identical with the word 'brouwer' (= brewer) and 29,000 individuals bear the name Brouwer with -ou-, while only 40 people bear the name De Brauwer (Brauwer without an article doesn't even exist). But we easily accept this kind of inconvenience, because people do not expect names to be treated as words. A surname has a special meaning, particularly when it shows an antique aura.


This study focuses on older Chinese migrants aged 65 years old and over, and explores their experiences of accessing health and support services. The research was informed by guidelines in interpretive phenomenology, and elicited themes related to the health system and service providers, based on participants' lived experiences. Ten participants in this study, four men and six women, were recruited from two community centres in Auckland, New Zealand. Their time of arrival in New Zealand ranged from 2001 to 2012, and they had encounters with health or support service providers within the past three years. As the methodology requires rich data from participants, semistructured interviews were employed to carry out in-depth conversation. Interview data were transcribed verbatim and translated by the researcher, and were further rewritten as anecdotes according to recurring themes. Findings of this study revealed main themes as "being sick" and "being vulnerable", which demonstrated older Chinese participants' risks and sources of support in their daily lives. The subthemes under "being sick" were participants' feelings and barriers when accessing health services, which comprised participants' experiences with General Practitioners, publicly funded hospitals, emergency departments and other primary healthcare services. The subthemes under "being vulnerable" revealed health conditions and accidents which participants were at risk of Participants' experiences with government services, nongovernment organisations, family members, acquaintances, and strangers were also discussed.


Abstract: The Black Caiman (Melanosuchus niger) experienced a dramatic population decline in the mid-20th century, becoming extinct or locally rare over most of its range due to habitat destruction and the commercial value of its hide. As the success and re-establishment of the species is now dependent on conservation efforts throughout the Amazon basin, Black Caimans require continuous monitoring despite extensive current legal protection. Although such efforts have mitigated the threat of human harvesting, a key issue facing the species today is ecological competition from sympatric Spectacled Caimans (Caiman crocodilus). In this study, we investigated this inferred competition by detailing the dietary overlap between Black Caimans and Spectacled Caimans in the Pacaya Samiria National Reserve in 2009. Using an adaptation of the hose-Heimlich technique, we collected and then compared the stomach contents of several individuals of each species. We found that although the proportions of prey items in their stomach contents varied seasonally, the dietary overlap between the two species remained high, suggesting intense competition for food resources. In addition to seasonal changes, the diet composition of Black Caimans also shifted ontogenetically. Young Black Caimans primarily ate insects and crustaceans, whereas larger individuals mostly preyed on fish, reducing intraspecific competition between crocodilian adults and young. Our findings suggest that Spectacled Caimans will continue to hinder the recovery of the Black Caiman population.


A novel method for online correction of light intensity fluctuation in a practical tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy (TDLAS) system with wavelength modulation is presented. The proposed method is developed according to the linear relation between peaks at multiple frequencies of sine modulation in the power spectral density of the demodulated second-harmonic (2f) signal and the incident light intensity. Those peaks are demonstrated experimentally and explained as residual power at the first-harmonic and third-harmonic frequencies after 2f demodulation of the residual amplitude modulation signal due to the limited integrating time constant of the lock-in-amplifier. This method can achieve real-time correction of light intensity fluctuations with only little calculation. It can work well in a very large range of light intensity and has great potential applications in the wavelength modulation spectroscopy system.


Most pineapple (Ananas comosus var. comosus, Family: Bromelieceae) varieties produced fruits with low sugar content quality which affects the agronomical and breeding potential of pineapple. Thus, a better knowledge of the genetic and molecular basis underlying fruit quality
would benefit pineapple breeding programmes. Isolation and
identification are the essential steps for the development of molecular markers to be used in marker assisted selection for plant breeding programmes. Hence, two analyses, the Bulked Line Analysis (BLA) and the Differential Gene Expression Analysis were employed in this study.
Genomic DNA (leaf) and total RNA (fruit tissue) were isolated and grouped into two groups "Acid" «11% Brix) and "Acidless" (>17% Brix) prior to polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and reverse transcriptionpolymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). In the DNA study, the Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) assay and the Direct Amplified Length Polymorph isms (DALP) assay were used in conjunction with Bulked Line Analysis to identify sugar-content linked markers in
pineapple. The experiments showed no polymorphism was observed between the "Acid" and "Acid less· groups of pineapples. This showed that both the RAPD and the DALP methods were unable to differentiate the desired characteristic within clonally propagated individuals. However with the limited number of primers used, it was difficult to conclude that DNA based markers are not suitable in this particular investigation. In the RNA study, newly synthesized double stranded cDNAs were subjected
to PCR using three different sets of primers from Amplified Differential Gene Expression (ADGE), Differential Gene Expression Based Annealing Control Primer analysis (DEG-ACP) and specific markers linked to sugar content from peach and tomato. Differential gene expression analysis indicated five markers linked to the sugar content in pineapple. Three of the markers (M1, M3 and M4) were from ADGE, marker HK1 was from specific primer linked to sugar content and one
marker (TYN4) was from DEG. A comparison of the differential
expression between the cDNA from the "Acid" and M Acidless" groups of pineapple revealed differences in markers M1, M3, M4, and the markers HK1 and TYN4. These markers can be used in marker assisted selection (MAS) to aid in identifying Quantitative Trait Loci since the majority of quantitative traits in crop plants are controlled by polygenes. Selection of quantitative trait loci for crop improvement such as sweetness in pineapple, will result in significant reduction in the time taken for reducing the productivity of low sugar content pineapples and increasing the productivity of high sugar content pineapples.


A traditional discrete network design problem (DNDP) always assumes transportation infrastructure projects to be one-time events and ignores travelers' delays caused by construction work. In fact, infrastructure construction usually lasts for a long time, and the impact on traffic can be substantial. In this paper, we introduce time dimension into the traditional DNDP to explicitly consider the impact of road construction and adopt an overtime policy to add flexibility to construction duration. We address the problem of selecting road-widening projects in an urban network, determining the optimal link capacity, and designing the schedule of the selected projects simultaneously. A time-dependent DNDP (T-DNDP) model is developed with the objective of minimizing total weighted net user cost during the entire planning horizon. An active-set algorithm is applied to solve the model. A simple example network is first utilized to demonstrate the necessity of considering the construction process in T-DNDP and to illustrate the trade-off between the construction impact and the benefit realized through capacity extension. We also solve the T-DNDP model with data from the Sioux Falls network, which contains 24 nodes, 76 links, and 528 origin-destination (O-D) pairs. Computational results for the problem are also presented.


The detection of moving objects like vehicles, pedestrians or bicycles from a mobile platform is one of the most challenging and most important tasks for driver assistance and safety systems. For this purpose, we present a multi-class traffic scene segmentation approach based on the Dynamic Stixel World, an efficient super-pixel object representation. In this approach, each Stixel is assigned either to a quantized maneuver motion class like oncoming, or left-moving or to static background. The formulation integrates multiple 3D and motion features as well as spatio-temporal prior knowledge in a probabilistic conditional random field (CRF) framework. The real-time capable method is evaluated quantitatively in various challenging, cluttered urban traffic scenes. The experimental results yield highly accurate segmentation of urban traffic scenarios without the need for any manual parameter adjustments.


We present a phase-space noncommutative extension of Quantum Cosmology in the context of a Kantowski-Sachs (KS) minisuperspace model. We obtain the Wheeler-DeWitt (WDW) equation for the noncommutative system through the ADM formalism and a suitable Seiberg-Witten map. The resulting WDW equation explicitly depends on the phase-space noncommutative parameters, θ and η. Numerical solutions of the noncommutative WDW equation are found and, interestingly, also bounds on the values of the nonommutative parameters. Moreover, we conclude that the noncommutativity in the momenta sector lead to a damped wave function implying that this type of noncommutativity can be relevant for a selection of possible initial states for the universe.


The present work proposes the use of social media as a tool for better understanding the relationship between a journalists' social network and the content they produce. Specifically, we ask: what is the relationship between the ideological leaning of a journalist's social network on Twitter and the news content he or she produces? Using a novel dataset linking over 500,000 news articles produced by 1,000 journalists at 25 different news outlets, we show a modest correlation between the ideologies of who a journalist follows on Twitter and the content he or she produces. This research can provide the basis for greater self-reflection among media members about how they source their stories and how their own practice may be colored by their online networks. For researchers, the findings furnish a novel and important step in better understanding the construction of media stories and the mechanics of how ideology can play a role in shaping public information.


Grand hotels had first been a metropolitan phenomenon before they emerged in remote regions of the Alps between the 1880s and the 1930s. This essay explores how these semi-public spaces and early places of modernity engaged with alpine scenery and shaped the very industry of mountain tourism. It analyses the relationship between elite tourism and the natural and social environment of the Alps.
The success of mountain grand hotels was tied to increasing industrialization and a new understanding of travel. Their thoughtful detachment from space, time, and society was an expression of a business as much as of social philosophy. Throughout the fin-de-siècle, mountains served as a backdrop for the narrative of the époque's scientific and technical progress and became subject to rational interpretation and economic exploitation. Mountain grand hotels were not only a key component of tourism infrastructure, but also the bold expression of a presumptuous occupation of spaces set away for tourism. Natural space had widely been turned into social space for visual and leisurely consumption, raising questions of authority, priority, appropriation, and imposition.
By mapping the perception of mountains along the history of mountain grand hotels, this essay studies the sites, gazes, and environments of mountain tourism at the fin-de-siècle. It examines how the history of the mountain grand hotel conflates with the forces of colonialism, and capitalism and showcases how these spaces reflect the socio-economic transformations that ultimately paved the way for mountain mass tourism.


The examination of a collection of benthic macroinvertebrates from the Gulf of Thailand led to the erection of two new species of cumaceans (Crustacea), namely Pseudosympodomma carinatum sp. nov. (Vaunthompsoniinae, Bodotriidae) and Paradiastylis capillata sp. nov. (Diastylidae). Among the four species of the genus Pseudosympodomma , P. carinatum sp. nov. is related to P. indicum by having the first uropodal endopod article shorter than the second, but differs from it in lacking spines on the articles of the third maxilliped, as well as in having a high number of setae on the mandible and a more developed median carina on pedigerous somites two to four. The genus Paradiastylis is characterized by the absence of an exopod on the third maxilliped of females. Among the species of the genus, P. capillata sp. nov. is related to P. bathyalis by lacking folds in the carapace and having a long telson with a cylindrical pre-anal part. However, the two species may be differentiated by the relative length of the uropod endopod (longer than the exopod in P. capillata ) and the basis of the third maxilliped (non-distally produced in P. bathyalis )


More than ten years ago, cookbook author and teacher Marion Cunningham and professional baker Amy Pressman met occasionally to talk about the wonders and mysteries of baking. They chatted, exchanged ideas, offered suggestions, and ended up solving some of their difficult baking problems. Slowly a concept took shape. Suppose groups of like-minded bakers were to meet to exchange ideas and solve baking problems?At the first meeting of The Baker's Dozen, forty people showed up with forty lemon meringue pies. The topic of the meeting was weeping and shrinking meringues and how to prevent them from happening. (The solution: Heat the egg whites and sugar while beating to avoid weeping; use more egg whites to solve the problem of shrinking.)The word spread quickly, and The Baker's Dozen has grown to more than ten times the original number -- there are now more than four hundred members in the Bay Area. The groups continue to have two simple goals: Share what you know about baking and learn from one another.Now you can share the collective experiences and favorite recipes of The Baker's Dozen in "The Baker's Dozen Cookbook, " with recipes selected and tested by some of the most respected and most accomplished bakers in the business.Lindsey Shere, co-founder and pastry chef of Chez Panisse, shares the secrets of tarts. Authors Carol Field and Fran Gage and baker Peter Reinhart offer their collective wisdom on yeast breads and flatbreads. John Phillip Carroll teaches about easy quick breads, coffee cakes, and muffins. Renowned author and baker Flo Braker and her team share their years of cake-baking experience. Carolyn Weil and her group offer the ultimate advice and techniques for pies and piecrusts. Robert Morocco and Julia Cookenboo divulge their trade secrets of making foolproof cookies equal to those of any quality bakeshop."The Baker's Dozen Cookbook" goes far beyond recipes. You'll benefit from what these bakers learned on their field trips. You'll learn tricks such as using dental floss to cut neat slices of creamy cheesecake. You'll learn the differences between a pastry bag and a parchment cone; between a pAte brisEe, a "broken dough," and a pAte sablEe, a "sandy dough"; between butter and shortening in determining the flakiness of a crust; and so much more.So whether you simply want to become a better baker yourself or to form a Baker's Dozen group with others, all you need is "The Baker's Dozen Cookbook." It puts four hundred of America's best bakers and everything they know right by your side.For baking tips, recipes, and information on starting your own Baker's Dozen, visit www.bakersdozen.org


A model for the yield stress of particulate suspensions is presented that incorporates microstructural parameters taking into account volume fraction of solids, particle size, particle size distribution, maximum packing, percolation threshold, and interparticle forces. The model relates the interparticle forces between particles of dissimilar size and the statistical distribution of particle pairs expected for measured or log-normal size distributions. The model is tested on published data of sub-micron ceramic suspensions and represents the measured data very well, over a wide range of volume fractions of solids. The model shows the variation of the yield stress of particulate suspensions to be inversely proportional to the particle diameter. Not all the parameters in the model could be directly evaluated; thus, two were used as adjustable variables: the maximum packing fraction and the minimum interparticle separation distance. The values for these two adjustable variables provided by the model are in good agreement with separate determinations of these parameters. This indicates that the model and the approximations used in its derivation capture the main parameters that influence the yield stress of particulate suspensions and should help us to better predict changes in the rheological properties of complex suspensions. The model predicts the variation of the yield stress of particulate suspensions to be inversely proportional to the particle diameter, but the experimental results do not show a clear dependence on diameter. This result is consistent with previous evaluations, which have shown significant variations in this dependence, and the reasons behind the yield stress dependence on particle size are discussed in the context of the radius of curvature of particles at contact.


Although much effort has been made to explore the characteristics of composite lattice truss core sandwich structures, little work has been undertaken into non-destructive evaluation (NDE) and structure health monitoring (SHM). This paper presents a baseline-free NDE method to determine the debonding of truss bar in composite lattice truss core sandwich structures. The method is proposed based on the uniform load surface (ULS) curvature and developed according to the combination of gapped smoothing method (GSM) and Teager energy operator (TEO), which is denoted as GSM-TEO method. The effects of truss bar on the vibration and wave motion characteristics of composite lattice truss core sandwich structures are firstly investigated, and then, experiment and numerical simulation are conducted to assess the performance of the proposed method. Results verify the method is reliable and applicable for damage localization in composite lattice truss core sandwich structures. doi: 10.12783/SHM2015/74


Several wearable technologies for the prevention of diabetic foot ulcers have been developed by the scientific community. However, they are often very invasive and normally just one parameter between pressure loads or temperature is acquired. Moreover the amount of thermal reading points is lower than 5 and the accuracy of thermal sensors is greater than 0.5 °C. This work presents a low invasive and accurate smart insole in which both temperature and pressure data are acquired in 8 reading points and then transmitted to a gateway, through a wireless protocol, in order to communicate the foot health status to the caregiver.


OBJECTIVE
To ascertain the causes of sudden death (SD) by autopsy examination.

METHODS
All cases of sudden death were subjected to a postmortem examination. In addition previous postmortem reports of sudden death over a two years were also included. Postmortem findings were correlated to clinical state and the cause of death was ascertained. The information was analyzed to find out the cause of sudden death in our patients.

RESULTS
Out of a total of 130 autopsies there were 13 cases of SD. All were males (age 23 to 50 years). Death was within one your of onset of symptoms in five (38.5%) cases and within 24 hours in eight (61.5%) cases. Death was due to coronary artery disease (CAD) in 10 (76.93%) cases, aortoarteritis, cardiomyopathy and cerebrovascular accident (CVA) in (7.69%) case each. Amongst CAD patients triple vessel disease (TVD) was seen in eight cases (which included one case of cardiomyopathy), two vessel disease (DVD) in two and single vessel disease (SVD) in one. No specific preponderance of right or left coronary artery was seen. One patient of 21 year who died following exertion showed anomalous origin of coronary arteries. His right and left coronary artery originated from aortic arch 1.5 cm above the aortic valve. Right coronary artery was ill developed and had atheromatous plaque. The case of cardiomyopathy also had TVD. In the case of aortoarteritis all vessels were affected (carotids, renal and coronary). In one case of CVA bleeding was from an arterio-venous malformation in right temporal lobe. Nine out of 11 cases of CAD had atheromatous plaque without coronary thrombosis.

CONCLUSIONS
Coronary artery disease (Triple vessel disease) contributed to maximum number of cases of SD. Aortoarteritis, cardiomyopathy and cerebrovascular accident (CVA) was the cause of death in one case each. Postmortem identified the cause of death in all cases.


Long‐term (1977–2000) ecological biomass data for total phytoplankton, diatoms, and cyanobacteria, based on plankton samples from Himmerfjärden Bay (Baltic proper), were compared to the historical sediment record using diagnostic plant pigment biomarkers. Radionuclides (210Pb and 137Cs) were used to determine chronology, sedimentation, and carbon burial rate. Despite high resolution sampling, using crust‐freeze sampling, of sediment layers representing annual varves, no significant correlations between pigments preserved in sediments and phytoplankton biomass in plankton samples were detected for periods of 1–4 yr. This lack of correspondence was probably at least partly due to the importance of resuspension events in Himmerfjärden. When sedimentary pigments were averaged over longer time intervals (5 yr) averages of annual diatom biomass in the Himmerfjärd inlet were positively correlated to down‐core concentrations of fucoxanthin (r2 = 0.98) and diatoxanthin (r2 = 0.62). This indicates that pigment biomarkers can still be used to interpret longer term development of eutrophication‐related blooms in such estuarine systems. In contrast, zeaxanthin concentrations were not significantly correlated (p > 0.05, r2 = 0.05) to cyanobacterial biomass as a 5–yr average. Using fossil pigments to determine relative differences in phytoplankton biomass composition in the absence of historical ecological patterns of phytoplankton composition can be misleading due to selective losses of pigments such as the epoxy‐carotenoids. However, while the use of fossil pigments in laminated sediments alone may not allow for detailed interpretations of past phytoplankton communities, it does allow for the simple determination of the presence of significant biomass of phytoplankton classes, for which unique biomarker pigments exist.


Partial transmit sequence (PTS) is a distortion less method used in the Peak-to-Average Power Ratio (PAPR) reduction of Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) signal. But PTS suffers from high computational complexity with increase in sub-blocks, because of exhaustive search of phase factors over all possible combinations. Modified PTS scheme has reduced this complexity by using neighbourhood search algorithm to find the optimum set of phase factors. In this paper, it is proposed to investigate the performance of OFDM receiver using Least Square (LS) channel estimation method. The Bit Error Rate (BER) analysis of the OFDM receiver using LS channel estimation method is made for PAPR reduced OFDM signal using PTS and Modified PTS. Simulation results show that BER increases with PAPR reduction.


Introduction
Little is known on how to communicate messages on tobacco constituents to tobacco users. This study manipulated three elements of a message in the context of a theory-based communication campaign about tobacco constituents: (1) latency of response efficacy (how soon expected health benefits would accrue), (2) self-efficacy (confidence about quitting), and (3) interrogative cue ("Ready to be tobacco-free?").

Methods
Smokers (N = 1669, 55.4% women) were recruited via an online platform, and were randomized to a 3 (Latency of response efficacy) × 2 (Self-efficacy) × 2 (Interrogative cue) factorial design. The dependent variables were believability, credibility, perceived effectiveness of the communication message, and action expectancies (likelihood of seeking additional information and help with quitting).

Results
Latency of response efficacy influenced believability, perceived effectiveness, credibility, and action expectancies. In each case, scores were higher when specific health benefits were said to accrue within 1 month, as compared to general health benefits occurring in a few hours. The interrogative cue had a marginal positive effect on perceived effectiveness. The self-efficacy manipulation had no reliable effects, and there were no significant interactions among conditions.

Conclusions
Smokers appear less persuaded by a communication message on constituents where general health benefits accrue immediately (within a few hours) than specific benefits over a longer timeframe (1 month). Additionally, smokers appeared to be more persuaded by messages with an interrogative cue. Such findings may help design more effective communication campaigns on tobacco constituents to smokers.

Implications
This paper describes, for the first time, how components of tobacco constituent messages are perceived. We now know that smokers appear to be less persuaded by communication messages where general health benefits accrue immediately (within a few hours) than specific benefits over a longer timeframe (1 month). Additionally, including an interrogative cue ("Ready to be tobacco free?") may make messages more effective, whereas the self-efficacy manipulation designed to increase confidence about quitting had no effect. While messages were universally impactful across smoker subpopulations, everyday smokers and smokers with less trust in the government may be less receptive to communication campaigns.


This article addresses a gap on hegemonic masculinity/emphasized femininity and essentialism/constructivism within the Environmental New Social Movement (eNSM). Utilizing my interviews with Australian women members of environmentalist New Social Movement Organisations (eNSMOs), including eNGOs, academic institutions and the Greens party, I adopt a constructivist approach towards emphasized femininity, arguing that women-led strategies, strengthened through agentic competence contributes to global peace, whilst challenging the patriarchal control of environmental governance (Cockburn 1988, 2012). My feminist sociopolitical model is framed by resistance to ruling class masculinity, emphasizing participants' gender performativity, advocating anti-nuclear agendas (Warren 1999, Gaard 2001, Butler 2013). Constructivism is relayed by the way women activists' resist patriarchy as a barrier, in terms of 'hierarchy', 'man-made decisions' and 'power…terrible nasty stuff'. Moreover, women accommodate emphasized femininity as an empowering enabler, framed by women-led strategies, described as 'revolutionary', 'mother and child', 'social responsibility' and 'environmental protection', whilst advocating sustainability (Leahy 2003, Connell 2005, Culley and Angelique 2010, Maleta 2012).


Online discussions forums, known as forums for short, are conversational social cyberspaces constituting rich repositories of content and an important source of collaborative knowledge. However, most of this knowledge is buried inside the forum infrastructure and its extraction is both complex and difficult. The ability to automatically rate postings in online discussion forums, based on the value of their contribution, enhances the ability of users to find knowledge within this content. Several key online discussion forums have utilized collaborative intelligence to rate the value of postings made by users. However, a large percentage of posts go unattended and hence lack appropriate rating.
 In this paper, we focus on automatic rating of postings in online discussion forums. A set of features derived from the posting content and the threaded discussion structure are generated for each posting. These features are grouped into five categories, namely (i) relevance, (ii) originality, (iii) forum-specific features, (iv) surface features, and (v) posting-component features. Using a non-linear SVM classifier, the value of each posting is categorized into one of three levels High, Medium, or Low. This rating represents a seed value for each posting that is leveraged in filtering forum content. Experimental results have shown promising performance on forum data.


This paper discusses ongoing research into the role of design and technology education in emerging post industrial economies. Previous work (Hughes et al., 2010) focused on the changing characteristics of textiles technology in modern times and discussed how this could inform a design and technology curriculum related to the needs of a modern textile technology workforce. This current paper reports on the second stage of the grounded theory programme in which theoretically sampled data from the first phase provides the direction and purpose for the work presented here. Within this context, this research explores practising teachers' perceptions of textile technology associated with the emergent STEM agenda. Data gathered supports the view that technological aspects of design and technology closely linked to the STEM agenda are needed to provide a firm foundation for the design aspects of the subject. Without a STEM focus, the subject may lose its hard won importance in the UK schools and colleges' curriculum. This is especially the case in an economic climate in which curriculum design
stakeholders may be forced to review the content of the national curriculum across all key stages as a whole.


Over the last decade, memristive devices have been widely adopted in computing for various conventional and unconventional applications. While the integration density, memory property, and nonlinear characteristics have many benefits, reducing the energy consumption is limited by the resistive nature of the devices. Memcapacitors would address that limitation while still having all the benefits of memristors. Recent work has shown that with adjusted parameters during the fabrication process, a metal-oxide device can indeed exhibit a memcapacitive behavior. We introduce novel memcapacitive logic gates and memcapacitive crossbar classifiers as a proof of concept that such applications can outperform memristor-based architectures. The results illustrate that, compared to memristive logic gates, our memcapacitive gates consume about 7x less power. The memcapacitive crossbar classifier achieves similar classification performance but reduces the power consumption by a factor of about 1,500x for the MNIST dataset and a factor of about 1,000x for the CIFAR-10 dataset compared to a memristive crossbar. Our simulation results demonstrate that memcapacitive devices have great potential for both Boolean logic and analog low-power applications.


In a linguistic context where it seems the entire world is only interested in learning English, it is worth considering the idea of whether French still has a place in Mexico. In spite of the predominance of English, there is nevertheless a feeling that French remains alive in Mexico, and indeed in certain areas has retained its strength and appeal. This hypothesis was to put to the test by exploring the current linguistic environment prevalent in the state of Veracruz. An investigation in the form of questionnaires and interviews of all those connected to the teaching of French (including students, teachers and employees and directors of language schools) shows that the desire of the Mexican government of promoting English for everyone is not necessarily consistent with the desire and expectations of the general populace. This in turn suggest the need of adopting a policy that enables us not only to take into consideration what people seem to be telling us regarding the learning of foreign learning but also of what they are not telling us. If the teaching and learning of French as a foreign language remains strong in Veracruz, it is explained much more by the long and friendly relationship that people in the state have had with French people (and their culture) than it is by any instrumental needs of learning their language. This is seen in the fact that students here consistently describe their motivation for learning French from an emotional or affective standpoint rather than from professional one. It seems that the ties between the Mexican and French people remain solid. Another interesting characteristic of students of French in Veracruz is the positive attitude they seem to have regarding languages in general, which in turn enables them to take further advantage of the benefits made available from globalization. In reality, there exists no rivalry between French and English and therefore it is unnecessary to adopt measures that would address such struggle. It is however a matter of great urgency that authorities in the arenas of politics and academia take a closer look at the policies they design regarding the study of foreign languages in general, and that they consider, specifically, a wholly alternative to the one language model of teaching and learning of foreign language – in this case English-, a model that for all intents and purposes has failed. In the midst of a globalized world, and during this current period of increased linguistic activity, the aforementioned assertions serve not only to support my initial hypothesis, but also to help shake off the dust of some out-dated belief systems and lay down the framework for a new, better informed and well thought-out policy of foreign languages planning.


There are number of techniques for opinion mining. But, mining the most frequent features from online reviews is the biggest task. If we use a single domain then it gives poor results. Using two or more domains is very difficult for feature mining process. In this paper, we proposed a novel technique for selecting and identifying most frequent features by using two similar or different domains (Main Domain and Sub Domain) which is based on two statistics. We first extract the features from Main domain by using some rules. For each feature (aspect) we then estimate its Domain Relevance Score which is called as Intrinsic Domain Relevance (IDR). Features those are having the less score (IDR score less than threshold) will be pruned and only those features get extracted which is having High IDR score. In the final step we use our proposed EDR method. The features extracted from main domain having high IDR will be search out in sub domain. At the time of searching it will remove those features which are not available in sub domain. Hence, DR will be compute only for available features. Which known as EDR. Finally, get the most relevant features from sub domain or both the domains. Experimental results based on two different Worldreview domains show the improved EDR approach. KeywordsOpinion Mining, Opinion Feature Mining, Online Reviews, OpenNLP.


We conducted studies with high‐molecular‐weight (HMW) and low‐molecular‐weight (LMW), hydrophobic, and hydrophilic dissolved organic matter (DOM) from an oligotrophic alpine river, the Tagliamento River (Italy), to assess the effect of light on DOM utilization by riverine bacterioplankton. Immediately after the exposure of the DOM fractions to simulated or natural sunlight, short‐term (1 h) bacterial utilization of all DOM fractions decreased by up to 80%, compared with the uptake of the corresponding nonirradiated fractions. The addition of scavengers suggests that reactive oxygen species caused this bacterial growth inhibition. After the long‐term growth of bacteria on irradiated DOM, uptake was unchanged for HMW DOM, considerably lower for LMW and hydrophilic DOM, and much higher for hydrophobic DOM, compared with the nonirradiated fractions. These results suggest that the phototransformation of HMW, LMW, hydrophobic, and hydrophilic DOM results in contrasting effects on their bioavailability. Size‐exclusion chromatography showed that bacteria preferably used the larger molecular sizes of all nonirradiated fractions. Light induced no significant shifts in the apparent molecular weight distribution of the four DOM fractions. However, the highly bioavailable LMW DOM (especially the portion ~5 kDa) was no longer taken up after irradiation. We conclude that light overall leads to a strong decrease in microbial DOM transformation during hydrological transport in the Tagliamento River.


Partial abstract: "The study consisted of field and laboratory investigations, construction evaluation, and geotechnical and structural analyses to determine the cause(s) of distress and failure of a 2600-ft section of 12-ft 9-in. diameter concrete-lined sanitary sewer tunnel in the Detroit, Mich., area. [...] The report includes summaries of all pertinent construction records, results of all pertinent past and current field and laboratory tests on construction and geotechnical materials, and detailed geotechnical and structural analyses based on observed conditions and measured parameters."


This paper explores the possibility that unregulated FDI flows are causally implicated in the decline in labor productivity growth in semi- industrialized economies. These effects are hypothesized to operate through the negative impact of firm mobility on worker bargaining power and thus affecting wages. Downward pressure on wages can reduce the pressure on firms to raise productivity in defense of profits, contributing to a low wage–low productivity trap. This paper presents empirical evidence, based on panel data fixed effects and GMM estimation for 37 semi-industrialized economies, that supports the causal link between increased firm mobility and lower wages, as well as slower productivity growth over the period 1970–2000.


INTRODUCTION: The immune response to certain pathogens or cellular stressors is initiated and regulated by pattern recognition receptors of the innate immune system. Pattern recognition receptors are effective by utilizing either endocytic (Scavenger Receptors) or signaling receptors (Toll-like Receptors). It has been previously demonstrated that mouse dendritic cells deficient in scavenger receptor A (SRA) negatively regulated the immune response produced by Toll-like receptors when exposed to modified lipid proteins. Previously, we have shown that peptidoglycan contained in organic dust from swine barns stimulates pro-inflammatory cytokine release in bronchial epithelium. We hypothesized bronchial epithelial SRA would also have a regulatory role in the cytokine response produced by toll-like receptors. METHODS/MATERIALS: Primary and immortalized (Beas-2B) human bronchial epithelial cells were grown in serum-free media to 70% confluency. Cells were incubated with 100 100 100 μg/ml fucoidan (a known SRA ligand), μg/ml fetuin (a negative control for SRA), and μg/ml chondroitan sulfate (a known SRB ligand) for 24 hours. Each sample was then incubated with 10 μg/ml of peptidoglycan or media for 24 and 48 hours. The media was then collected and assayed for IL-8 using a standard sandwich ELISA. IL-8 production was significantly increased in cells pre-treated with fucoidan followed by peptidoglycan as compared to either RESULTS: media control (3-fold increase) or peptidoglycan only (2-fold increase). Cells treated with fucoidan, fetuin, or chondroitin sulfate demonstrated no significant increase in IL-8 production vs. media control. Cells pre-treated with fetuin or chondroitin sulfate followed by peptidoglycan produced no enhanced increase in IL-8 production when compared to peptidoglycan alone. CONCLUSIONS: These data show that peptidoglycan can stimulate IL-8 production maximally at 24 hours. When human bronchial epithelium is first treated with a SRA ligand, fucoidan, IL-8 release is increased. Increased production of IL-8 by bronchial epithelium under these conditions suggests that SRA has a co-stimulatory relationship with TLR-2. These results suggest that receptor crosstalk may have a role in the airway inflammatory response to inhaled Gram-positive bacteria.


High-grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSC) is characterized by poor outcome, often attributed to emergence of treatment-resistant sub-clones. We sought to measure the degree of genomic diversity within primary, untreated HGSC to examine the natural state of tumor evolution prior to therapy. We performed exome sequencing, copy number analysis, targeted amplicon deep sequencing and gene expression profiling on thirty-one spatially and temporally separated HGSC tumor specimens (six patients) including ovarian masses, distant metastases, and fallopian tube lesions. We found widespread intra-tumoral variation in mutation, copy number, and gene expression profiles, with key driver alterations in genes present in only a subset of samples (e.g. PIK3CA, CTNNB1, NF1). On average, only 51.5% of mutations were present in every sample of a given case (range: 10.2%-91.4%), with TP53 as the only somatic mutation consistently present in all samples. Complex segmental aneuploidies, such as whole genome doubling, were present in a subset of samples from the same individual, with divergent copy number changes segregating independently of point mutation acquisition. Reconstruction of evolutionary histories showed one patient with mixed HGSC and endometrioid histology with common etiologic origin in the fallopian tube and subsequent selection of different driver mutations in the histologically distinct samples. In this patient, we observed mixed cell populations in the early fallopian tube lesion, indicating diversity arises at early stages of tumorigenesis. Our results reveal that HGSC exhibit highly individual evolutionary trajectories and diverse genomic tapestries prior to therapy, exposing an essential biological characteristic to inform future design of personalized therapeutic solutions and investigation of drug resistance mechanisms. Citation Format: Sohrab Shah. Evolutionary dynamics of high-grade serous ovarian cancer genomes across anatomic space and time. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Special Conference on Advances in Ovarian Cancer Research: From Concept to Clinic; Sep 18-21, 2013; Miami, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Clin Cancer Res 2013;19(19 Suppl):Abstract nr IA18.


This article first examines in detail the increasing concentration of income and wealth in the top one percent, and particularly within much narrower cohorts near the top of the top one percent, that has occurred over the past twenty-five years. It demonstrates the strong Matthew effect in incomes in the United States over that period. The super-rich are pulling away from everyone by so much and at a rate so fast that the fact that incomes of many households at the bottom and in the middle have stagnated, or even fallen in constant dollars, has been obscured by ever increasing per capita income. The article then examines changing effective federal tax rates over the last two decades of the twentieth century. By the close of the twentieth century the tax system was not raising revenue as fairly and was doing less to mitigate inequality than it had in the middle of that century. Tax legislation in the twenty-first century continued this trend by providing tax cuts very disproportionately in favor of those at the top of the income pyramid with very small tax cuts going to everyone else. The article then demonstrates that economic theory does not support the argument that the tax cuts were necessary to spur incentives to save and invest and to work, and that the empirical evidence of the effect of tax cuts on savings and investment clearly contradicts the claims made by supporters of the tax cuts. It examines the rapidly growing body of economic literature supporting the thesis that economic inequality impedes economic growth rather than fostering it, and concludes that because the tax cuts increase inequality, they probably impede economic growth. After analyzing the economic issues, the article discusses the philosophical basis for a highly redistributive tax system, arguing that in a modern industrialized democracy, most of what everyone earns is attributable to infrastructure created by society acting as a whole, principally through government. The article then examines the paradox of public concern with increasing economic inequality, thinking it undesirable, and while simultaneously supporting tax cut legislation that in fact delivers vastly disproportionate benefits to the super-rich. Finally, the article suggests that its time for the tax system to address these problems by substantially increasing progressivity at the top of the income pyramid. Future tax legislation ought to mitigate the Matthew effect, rather than enhance it.


Orthopedic surgeons perform arthroscopic surgery in many joints of the extremities, most commonly the knee. Two or three incisions are routinely made, each measuring approximately 7 mm. The knee is inflated with fluid under pressure, with the assistance of a pump, to facilitate visualization. Because of advances in fiberoptics and instrumentation, many knee procedures (e.g., ligament reconstruction, meniscus excision and repair, synovectomy, and removal of loose bodies) can now be performed arthroscopically, with greater ease and accuracy and fewer complications than with an open incision. However, as with any surgical procedure, arthroscopic surgery is not appropriate for all patients with . . .


Radiofrequency (RF) radiation in the frequency
range 30 kHz to 300 GHz was evaluated in 2011 by the
International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) at WHO
to be a 'possible human carcinogen' Group 2B. The conclusion
was based on human epidemiological studies on an increased
risk of glioma and acoustic neuroma. In previous measurement
studies, we found high environmental RF radiation levels at
certain public places and also in an apartment in Stockholm,
Sweden. One such place was the Järntorget square in the
Stockholm Old Town. The EME Spy exposimeter was used for
these studies. We have now conducted a field spatial distribution measurement with a radiofrequency broadband analyser.
The maximum E-field topped at 11.6 V/m at the centre of the
square, where the antenna was focused. Järntorget's mean
value was 5.2 V/m, median 5.0 V/m, range 1.2-11.6 V/m. Of
interest is that this level can be compared to a lifespan carcinogenicity study on rats exposed to 1.8 GHz GSM environmental
radiation performed at the Ramazzini Institute (RI) in Italy. A
statistically significant increase in the incidence of malignant
schwannoma in the heart was found in male rats at the highest
dose, 50 V/m. In treated female rats at the highest dose, the
incidence of malignant glial tumours was increased, although
this was not statistically significant. On the whole, the findings
of this study showed that RF radiation levels at one square,
Järntorget, in Sweden, were only one order of magnitude lower
than those showing an increased incidence of tumours in the
RI animal study. An increased cancer risk cannot be excluded
for those working in the proximity of Järntorget for longer
time periods.


Although flash tests under standard test conditions yields lower power due to transmittance of the back sheet, bifacial modules are expected to outperform their monofacial equivalents in terms of yearly energy output in the field. We compare flash tests for bifacial modules with and without a light scattering panel directly behind the modules: 3 % more power output is obtained. We also report on the damp-heat reliability of modules with transparent back sheet. Finally we will present the results of an outdoor study comparing modules with transparent back sheet and modules with state-of-the-art AR coating on the front glass.


The basidiomycetous fungus Pseudozyma flocculosa represents a promising new host for the expression of complex recombinant proteins. Two novel heterologous promoter sequences, the Ustilago maydis glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GPD) and Pseudozyma tsukubaensis α-glucosidase promoters, were tested for their ability to provide expression in P. flocculosa. In liquid medium, these two promoters produced lower levels of intracellular green fluorescent protein (GFP) as compared to the U. maydis hsp70 promoter. However, GPD and α-glucosidase sequences behaved as constitutive promoters whereas the hsp70 promoter appeared to be morphology-dependent. When using the hsp70 promoter, the expression of GFP increased proportionally to the concentration of hygromycin in the culture medium, indicating possible induction of the promoter by the antibiotic. Optimal solid-state culture conditions were designed for high throughput screening of hygromycin-resistant transformants with the hsp70 promoter in P. flocculosa.


Supernova remnants exhibit shock fronts (shells) that can accelerate charged particles up to very high energies. In the past decade, measurements of a handful of shell-type supernova remnants in very-high-energy gamma rays have provided unique insights into the acceleration process. Among those objects, RX J1713.7-3946 (also known as G347.3-0.5) has the largest surface brightness, allowing us in the past to perform the most comprehensive study of morphology and spatially resolved spectra of any such very-high-energy gamma-ray source. Here we present extensive new H.E.S.S. measurements of RX J1713.7-3946, almost doubling the observation time compared to our previous publication. Combined with new improved analysis tools, the previous sensitivity is more than doubled. The H.E.S.S. angular resolution of 0.048∘ (0.036∘ above 2 TeV) is unprecedented in gamma-ray astronomy and probes physical scales of 0.8 (0.6) parsec at the remnant's location.
The new H.E.S.S. image of RX J1713.7-3946 allows us to reveal clear morphological differences between X-rays and gamma rays. In particular, for the outer edge of the brightest shell region, we find the first ever indication for particles in the process of leaving the acceleration shock region. By studying the broadband energy spectrum, we furthermore extract properties of the parent particle populations, providing new input to the discussion of the leptonic or hadronic nature of the gamma-ray emission mechanism.


In this Essay, I review and elaborate on Dan's Burk's On the Sociology of Patenting with three "heuristic interventions" for the study of intellectual property law. These interventions derive from sociology and anthropology, and to some extent also from critical literary theory. Unoriginal in the social sciences, these heuristic interventions remain largely original to the study of law within law schools and traditional legal scholarship (as opposed to the study of law from within the social sciences and humanities). Burk joins a small but growing group of legal scholars, reaching beyond legal doctrinal analysis and the economic analysis of law to explain intellectual property law as a social practice. The interventions he begins and this essay explains in further depth reframe the understanding or analysis of intellectual property (1) from individuals to institutions, (2) from causation to explanation and (3) in the context of the domestication of IP in contemporary social and political culture. In this way, Burk's Article and this essay demonstrate how law (not only intellectual property or patent law) is a social practice both reflecting and forming social structures, the understanding of which requires attention to organization and culture as much or more than statutes, cases, administrative filings, and economic theory.


The proliferation of embedded systems into nearly every aspect of modern infrastructure and society has seen their deployment in such diverse roles as monitoring the power grid and processing commercial payments. Software intellectual property (SWIP) is a critical component of these increasingly complex systems and represents a significant investment to its developers. However, deeply immersed in their environment, embedded systems are difficult to secure. As a result, developers want to ensure that their SWIP is protected from being reverse engineered or stolen by unauthorized parties. Many techniques have been proposed to address the issue of SWIP protection for embedded systems. These range from secure memory components to complete shifts in processor architectures. While powerful, these approaches often require the development of systems from the ground up or the application of specialized and often expensive hardware components. As a result they are poorly suited to address the security concerns of legacy embedded systems or systems based on commodity components. This work explores the protection of SWIP on heavily constrained, legacy and commodity embedded systems. We accomplish this by evaluating a generic embedded system to identify the security concerns in the context of SWIP protection. The evaluation is applied to determine the limitations of a software only approach on a real world legacy embedded system that lacks any specialized security hardware features. We improve upon this system by developing a prototype system using only commodity components. Finally we propose a Portable Embedded Software Intellectual Property Security (PESIPS) system that can easily be deployed as a framework on both legacy and commodity systems.