The building skin has evolved enormously over the past decades. Energy performance and the environmental quality of buildings are significantly determined by the building envelope. The facade has experienced a change in its role as an adaptive climate control system that leverages the synergies between form, material, mechanical and energy systems in an integrated design. The PowerSkin Conference aims to address the role of building skins to accomplish a carbon neutral building stock. Topics such as building operation, embodied energy, energy generation and storage in the context of envelope, energy and environment are considered. The 2019 issue of the PowerSkin Conference focuses on the digital processes in facade design and construction, showcasing presentations about recent scientific research and developments in the field. The main theme about digital tools and methods in facade design and construction is the overarching topic that combines the three subjects: Envelope: The building envelope as an interface for the interaction between indoor and outdoor environment. This topic is focused on function, technical development and material properties. Energy: New concepts, accomplished projects, and visions for the interaction between building structure, envelope and energy technologies. Environment: Facades or elements of facades, which aim for the provision of highly comfortable surroundings where environmental control strategies as well as energy generation and/or storage are an integrated part of an active skin. The three universities Technical University of Munich, TU Darmstadt, and TU Delft are signing responsible for the organization of the conference. We have to thank the authors and speakers for their contribution and our teams for doing such a good job in organizing this event. Finally we have to thank our sponsors for their support and the Messe Munchen, which is so kind to give us the platform to organize such an event at their tradeshow BAU and by that create a link between academia and practice.


extract] The PRC Law of Securities was enacted to promote financing and circulation of commodities, safeguard fulfillment of obligations and advance the development of the socialist market economy (Art 1). The Law is divided into seven chapters consisting of 96 articles. It clearly distinguishes a mortgage from a pledge and regards them as two different types of security interests. The forms of security interests provided for in the Law are guarantee, mortgage, pledge, lien and deposit (Art 2). The aim of this paper is to discuss some of the salient features of the security interests provided for in the Law. Reference will also be made to provisions in other relevant legislation recently promulgated in China.


trans-Fe(depe)2I2 (depe =1,2-bis(diethylphosphino)ethane) was employed to stepwise incorporate Fe(II) centers into a rigid-rod butadiyne based 5,10,15,20-tetraferratetracosa-1,3,6,8,11,13,16,18,21,23-decayne. The iterative synthesis first connects two Fe(II) centers via a central butadiynediyl ligand to provide I-Fe(depe)2-C4-Fe(depe)2-I (2), then extends the system by substituting the terminal halides of 2 to yield Me3SiC4-Fe(depe)2-C4-Fe(depe)2-C4SiMe3 (3). Further modification of the termini gives the deprotected and stannylated compounds RC4-Fe(depe)2-C4-Fe(depe)2-C4R (4 and 5; R = H, Sn(CH3)3, respectively). Transmetalation with two more mononuclear units furnishes the homometallic tetranuclear compound I-Fe(depe)2-C4-Fe(depe)2-C4-Fe(depe)2-C4-Fe(depe)2-I (6), to which two more butadiynyl units were attached to give Me3SiC4-Fe(depe)2-C4-Fe(depe)2-C4-Fe(depe)2-C4-Fe(depe)2-C4SiMe3 (7). All compounds were characterized by NMR, IR, and Raman spectroscopies and by elemental analyses. X-ray diffraction studies were carried out on the dinuclear complexes revealing highly symmetrical rigid-rod structures. Cyclic voltammetric studies showed that compounds 2-7 undergo reversible and well-defined oxidations with high Kc values indicating thermodynamically stable mixed valence species. While the number of the oxidation waves of compounds 2, 6, and 7 are equivalent to the number of metal centers, the dinuclear complexes 3, 4, and 5 exhibit three reversible oxidation waves, one at significantly more positive potential. Two redox waves were attributed to the oxidation of the metal centers, while the remaining one is due to the oxidation of the butadiynediyl ligand. The electronic properties of complexes 2, 3, and 7 were investigated by spectroelectrochemical measurements.


Objectives: The aim of this study was to survey interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome (IC/BPS) patients with a Web-based questionnaire to determine which consumables (foods, drinks, supplements/spices, and general food categories) truly exacerbate IC/BPS symptoms. Methods: The Interstitial Cystitis Association posted a Web link on its Web site offering its members participation in the Web-based questionnaire from April 2009 to February 2010. Members were asked questions on the effect of 344 different foods, drinks, supplements, condiments/spices, and general food categories on urinary frequency, urgency, and/or pelvic pain symptoms. Members were asked to score symptoms related to consumables on a symptom Likert scale of 0 to 5. Questions on ethnicity, education, symptom duration, seasonal allergies, irritable bowel syndrome, and specific diets were included. Results: There were 598 complete responses to the questionnaire, and 95.8% of the participants answered that certain foods and beverages affected their IC/BPS symptoms. Most items had no effect on symptoms. Items that made symptoms worse were citrus fruits, tomatoes, coffee, tea, carbonated and alcoholic beverages, spicy foods, artificial sweeteners, and vitamin C. Only calcium glycerophosphate (Prelief; AK Pharma, Inc, Pleasantville, NJ) and sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) had a trend toward improvement in symptoms. Conclusions: Interstitial cystitis diets do not have to be overly restrictive. It is recommended that patients with IC/BPS avoid citrus fruits, tomatoes, coffee, tea, carbonated and alcoholic beverages, spicy foods, artificial sweeteners, and vitamin C. The use of calcium glycerophosphate and/or sodium bicarbonate before consumption of these trigger consumables may also help reduce sensitivity.


TAlthough the current shortage of radio spectrum is usually attributed to the scarcity of spectrum, it is due to the inefficiency of legacy radio technologies and old systems of spectrum management. Regulatory reforms are being proposed to assign exclusive rights to spectrum, but such "market-oriented" allocation would be harmful because the spectrum is not a property but a protocol by which information is carried. New packet radio technologies enable efficient communications by sharing a wide band without licenses. However, it is difficult to relocate spectrum by persuading incumbents to give back their spectrum. Therefore we propose reverse auctions by which the government buys back spectrum from incumbents as an optional mechanism for spectrum relocation. The equilibrium price of this reverse auction will be much cheaper than that of ordinary spectrum auctions, because the former price will be close to the value of the band that is used least efficiently if the auction is competitive.


Zooplankton feeding formulations in plankton models have exclusively focused on the relation between food concentration and ingestion, with respiration and excretion being treated separately, despite experimental evidence for strong links among these processes. We present an optimal current-feeding model linking ingestion, respiration, and assimilation efficiency to foraging activity. The Ivlev model is a special case of our optimal current-feeding model, which applies to static feeding behaviour. We validate our model with experimental data for copepods, ciliates, and dinoflagellates. Parameter estimates suggest that phylogenetic grouping is more important than predator size in determining feeding behaviour. Respiratory costs of foraging, e.g. for generating a feeding current, may be much larger than previously thought, are larger in smaller organisms, and might explain the independent development of feeding thresholds in different micro- and mesozooplankton groups. Both preferential feeding on, and lower feeding thresholds for, larger food particles are predicted to derive from greater capture efficiency owing to enhanced detectability of larger particles. The relation between feeding threshold and prey size appears to depend on feeding strategy but not on predator size, as a common relationship seems to apply for current feeders (ciliates and copepods) spanning a vast size range. Our model exhibits an inverse relationship between ingestion and assimilation efficiency, reducing the contribution of copepods to export of organic matter relative to remineralisation at low food concentrations. Export ratio variations previously thought to require strong shifts in community composition can be generated by changes in feeding behaviour predicted by our model.


Ecology and evolution research benefits when scientists engage in meaningful collaborations. However, making time for such efforts is difficult, particularly for early-career graduate students who are often focused on an independent and self-driven research program. Here, we introduce the concept of the Research Derby, a collaborative and semi-competitive workshop where teams are given 24 hours to complete a research project. This 'pressure-cooker' environment is designed to give scientists a fun and short-term opportunity to conduct research outside their primary field, promote skills exchange within the research group, and ultimately produce high-quality scientific publications. In this manuscript we outline the goals of the Research Derby, explain how to set up such an event, and recount our experiences running a Derby within our research group at Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C., Canada. We argue that Research Derbies have the potential to achieve creative and collaborative high-impact science, and are a fun and productive research activity.


Stephen Shore is a pioneering photographer and influential teacher. From Galilee to the Negev is an intimate portrait of a multi-faceted place, exploring the landscape of Israel and the Palestinian territories of the West Bank; its complexities and its contradictions. Shore travelled the length and breadth of the region, questioning and revealing through his camera lens. His visual inquiry explores the landscape itself and the people who live in it - the daily lives and the narratives that combine to create this fascinating place - at once beautiful and ugly, safe and hostile. A selection of texts by a diverse range of writers - who have each selected one photograph as a spring board - will be interspersed amongst the photographs, offering a gathering of voices and perspectives.


There is a conflict in the design of a tropical house when it comes to
ventilation and privacy requirements. This situation is seen more acute in
modern terrace houses in Malaysia. This study seeks to find a layout
guideline that balances between the required ventilation and female privacy in
Malaysian terrace houses.
The Islamic principles have been discussed to find out the privacy
requirements. The result shows that the privacy has different degrees, and
spaces of a house can be divided into three separate areas: public area,
semi-private area and private area. The principles of planning for building in
tropical climate have been discussed to find out ventilation requirements.
Iranian traditional rural and urban houses have been studied to analyze how privacy and ventilation were considered in their design and to observe if these
results could be applied to Malaysian houses. A study of the traditional and
typical housing types of Malaysian terrace houses had been done to analyze
the adaptation to privacy and ventilation. The result shows that terrace
houses could not provide complete privacy and some factors of traditional
adaptation can be applied in new terrace house designs. A case study was
conducted to evaluate the preferences of Malay women for privacy and to find
the visual and physical space relationship in the house. The result indicates
that terrace houses are not designed according to Malay women preferences.
The result of the study shows that it is possible to have a suitable layout that
balances between the required ventilation and the female privacy in
Malaysian terrace houses by considering a review and rearrangement of
terrace house unit floor.


This study provides multi-disciplinary assessment of coronavirus pandemic transmission in Nigeria, magnitude of confirmed cases, recoveries, deaths, and inventory of infected person with recovery lags. It applied the statistical outcomes in predicting spilling over to subsequent periods. It identifies economic sectors worst hit by COVID-19 triggered recession, simulate the estimates of potential fiscal and other macroeconomic impact of the pandemic in the country in short run alongside synthesis of restoration and sustainability strategies. Secondary data relating to coronavirus infection cases, spreads, recoveries and fatalities were assessed, using the susceptible-infected-recovered" (SIR) model in absence of mass testing and probable cessation from health crisis management. It identified economic sectors/activities being devastated by COVID-19 induced recession, provides interim estimates adverse impact based on economic peak and down-turn cycle method. The study also measured the magnitude of macroeconomic shocks in Nigeria's economy using a standard global computable general equilibrium model and exploration of sustainability strategies based on synthesis of extant reports were employed. These data-sets were obtained from the Nigerian sources and partly from global sources. Furthermore, it utilized trend analysis derived from empirical data of extant daily confirmed cases, discharges and hospitalized person together with tentative projection of additional confirmed cases as from July–September, 2020. Results revealed that confirmed cases in Nigeria will increase steadily from 25694 (in June) to around 74825 by the end September and expected to reach 121000 by end of year 2020. This suggests that the pandemic is likely to persist up to the second quarter of 2021. Education, transport (aviation), hospitality, tourism and sports businesses; trade (informal sector) in the services sector; petroleum exploration in mining sub-sector are most severely contracting activities industries in the economy. Given the prevailing intensity of recession, the result indicates that a reduction of about 5-to-7% in GDP will be recorded in 2020. Result of variance analysis of fiscal budget estimates indicates adverse increase of -2% or more in overall fiscal deficit balances during the periods, which may aggravate debt burden with decline of about -5.7 percent and up to -7 percent in nominal GDP. Health, education, agriculture, petroleum exploration; petroleum refining and petrochemical industries, manufacturing (particularly pharmaceuticals), energy and power generation should be given priority in the sustainability programme.


Extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) of Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans and other leaching microorganisms mediate the attachment of cells to pyrite and other minerals. They also play a pivotal role in indirect leaching of base and precious metals via the contact mechanism. The aim of this study is to get more insight on the influence of the growth substrates iron(II) ions, pyrite, chalcopyrite and elemental sulfur on EPS formation, attachment and biofilm formation. The synthesis of EPS by cells of A. ferrooxidans strain A2 is strongely influenced by the growth substrate or attachment substratum of the cells. Cells grown with soluble iron(II) ions generally generate less EPS than cells grown with solid pyrite, chalcopyrite or elemental sulfur. Planktonic cells grown in the presence of solid substrate produce two to four times more EPS than iron(II) ion grown cells. With sessile cells, this factor is further increased to 50 to 240 depending on the specific substrate. The EPS of all the differently grown planktonic and sessile cells of A. ferrooxidans strain A2 contained neutral sugars, fatty acids, uronic acids, proteins and metal ions. The composition of these compounds varied with the growth substrate and type (planktonic or sessile). The attachment behavior of cells of A. ferrooxidans strain A2 also differed with the substrate of the pre-culture. Cells grown on iron(II) ions, pyrite or chalcopyrite attached rapidly to pyrite and chalcopyrite, while attachment to elemental sulfur was poor. On the contrary, sulfur grown cells attached well to elemental sulfur but weakly to pyrite and chalcopyrite. Attachment of EPS-free cells to all substrates was also diminished. Cells of A. ferrooxidans strain A2 cover mineral surfaces with a dense biofilm after a few days of cultivation, as visualized by fluorescence microscopy and AFM. Large amounts of EPS are formed, which eventually cover the cells and the mineral surface. Even after a few weeks of cultivation the biofilm remained monolayered on all substrates.


In this paper we propose a new change detection (CD) algorithm based on the Bayes theorem and probability assignments. Differently from any kind of likelihood ratio test (LRT) algorithms, the proposed algorithm does not present target alarms, but the probability of certain image position is a target position. In other words, the proposed method leads to quantitative estimates on the probability of a target at any pixel, whereas LRT algorithms can only be used as a figure of merit for any pixel to contain a target.


The article explores the affective consequences of the new mode of instant access to enormous levels of musical recordings in digital format. It is suggested that this "musical superabundance" might weaken the individuals ability to be affected by music in everyday life, while at the same time leading to a renewed interest in collective experience, in ways which are not limited to established notions of musical "liveness". According to a theory of affect influenced by Spinoza, what is at stake is the capacity of the body to be affected by music. The article proposes that a renegotiated relationship between collective and individual modes of experiencing music can be conceptualized with help of Spinozas distinction between two kinds of affections: actions and passions. After scrutinizing the interface of hardware like Apples Ipod and online services like Spotify, the article proceeds by discussing three musical practices which can all be understood as responses to the superabundance of musical recordings: (1) the ascetic practice of "No Music Day"; (2) the revival of cassette culture; (3) the "bass materialism" associated with the music known as dubstep. While none of these approaches provide any solution to the problem of abundance, they can still be understood as attempts to cultivate a "postdigital sensibility". The article tries to conceptualize the postdigital in a way that transcends the narrower notion of "post-digital aesthetics" that has recently been gaining popularity. Finally, it is argued that such a sensibility has a political significance in its potential to subvert the contemporary processes of commodification.


About 23 000 tracks of individual nocturnal migrants and density measurements in 131 nights were recorded by tracking radar at two sites in Israel during autumn 1991 and spring 1992. We used this data to analyse the occurrence of reverse migration in relation to weather and topography. Reverse migration was detected in all nights, on average representing a proportion of 5%. That the proportion of reverse movements was not related to weather factors, was probably due to the very stable weather conditions. Reverse migrants were not different from forward migrants with respect to their preference for flight altitudes with positive tailwinds and the species composition based on wing beat patterns. We suggest that apart from the reverse movements caused by adverse weather or ecological barriers ahead, unexpected flight directions may partly originate from the inaccuracy in orientation of the individual bird for single flight stages. Other factors influencing the scatter of flight directions may be search for appropriate stop over sites or the birds' actual physiological state.


A uniformly coated MoS2/carbon-nanocomposite with a three-dimensional hierarchical architecture based on carbonized bacterial cellulose (CBC) nanofibers is synthesized by a facile one-step hydrothermal method followed by thermal annealing at 700 °C in an Ar atmosphere. Strong hydrogen bonds between the Mo precursor and the BC nanofibers are found to be crucial for the in situ growth of MoS2 nanosheets on the nanofibers during the hydrothermal process. The fibrous structure was maintained and the connection between MoS2 and the nanofibers were strengthened in the sintering process, leading to an improved stability of the resulting nanocomposite upon electrochemical cycling. The low-cost and environmentally friendly 3D web-like structure enables binder-free and carbon-free electrodes for lithium-ion batteries, which exhibit high specific discharge capacities up to 1140 mA h g−1 at the C-rate of 1C without significant capacity fading for over 50 cycles. The porous conductive hierarchical structure of the composite endows excellent rate performance by avoiding the aggregation of the MoS2 nanosheets and by accommodating mechanical stress which appears upon electrochemical cycling.


Frequently the behaviour of an information system is functionally correct, but it does not meet some quality criteria, such as completeness, consistency, and usability. One way to enhance the capability of an information system is to consider its conceptual model quality as well as its functional behaviour. Conceptual model quality can be defined as a set of perceivable characteristics expressed with quantifiable parameters that may be objective and/or subjective. The aim of this empirical investigation is to evaluate and compare perceived and measured quality of different conceptual model versions of the same universe of discourse. This paper describes: a) a set of metrics (clarity, simplicity, expressiveness, minimality) applied to different versions of ER conceptual schemas, b) a framework enabling a comprehensive comparison of the conceptual schemas, c) an experimentation leading to the evaluation of the same schemas by information system (IS) stakeholders such as designers, end-users, and students, d) a comparison of the objective and subjective evaluations based on a sample of about 120 observations using different statistical methods. First results indicate that there exists a strong relationship between perceived and measured quality. A second result reveals a significant difference between groups of respondents in their ways to perceive conceptual schemas quality. Based on our experiment, we are able to identify quality criteria relevant to different groups of stakeholders, depending on several dimensions, such as their professional experience, and/or their specialization degree.


Sevelamer (Renagel and Renvela), is an orally administered weakly basic anion exchange resin that binds dietary phosphate in the gastrointestinal tract, and is approved for use in the US, Europe and many other countries for the treatment of hyperphosphatemia in adult patients on hemodialysis or peritoneal dialysis. Clinical evidence shows that sevelamer is at least as effective as calcium-based oral phosphate binders in controlling serum phosphate, but with a lower incidence of hypercalcemia. Whilst sevelamer hydrochloride is associated with mild acidosis, sevelamer carbonate does not have this drawback. Use of sevelamer and avoidance of calcium-based binders may slow the progression of vascular calcification in hemodialysis patients, and it also reduces serum low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol levels. There was no between-group difference in all-cause mortality between sevelamer and calcium-based phosphate binder therapy in the primary efficacy analysis of the large (n >2100), 3-year DCOR trial. In the smaller (n = 109) nonblind RIND trial in patients new to hemodialysis, data suggest there may be an overall survival benefit with sevelamer versus calcium-based phosphate binder treatment but the evidence on the efficacy of sevelamer in reducing mortality and hospitalization is not strong. The balance of evidence, however, does not strongly support the use of sevelamer over the much less costly calcium-based binders except in patients at risk of hypercalcemic episodes. Further research into cardiovascular and all-cause mortality over a longer time period would be needed to settle this issue, and the relative survival benefits and cost effectiveness of all phosphate binder therapies remains to be fully determined. Despite the relative paucity of data available, sevelamer has established itself as the most widely used binder in the United States and the most widely used noncalcium-based binder worldwide. However, affordability is a major issue for most health economies and in the light of recent economic events is likely to become more prominent.


Consumers often believe that organically farmed fruit and vegetables taste different and are preferred to conventional produce. The purpose of this study was to determine if sensory panellists could distinguish, by tasting, between organic and conventional Irish grown tomatoes (cv Amoroso) and to identify if panellists have a preference for organically farmed or conventionally produced tomatoes. Forced-choice triangle tests and paired preference tests were completed by 72 consumer panellists, who had responded positively to liking and frequently consuming tomatoes. On completion of the two sensory tests, panellists were presented with a questionnaire assessing attitudes towards the consumption of organic produce. The results of the triangle test showed that a total of 38 panellists correctly identified the different sample. The results indicated that 38 correct responses was sufficient to conclude that the two tomatoes were perceptibly different. The paired preference test results showed a preference for the conventional tomatoes. The results of the questionnaire indicated that the majority of panellists tended to hold a positive view of organic produce. The price of organic produce was considered to be the main deterrent to the purchasing of organic produce. The results of the paired preference test showed that the majority of organic buyers (81%) preferred the conventional tomato.The taste of conventional tomatoes was considered preferable to the taste of organic tomatoes due to sweetness.


Since the 18 th and 19 th Century Christianity suffered many heavy blows from all sides: The Reformation and Counter Reformation movements of post-Renaissance has brought the Church out of the so called "Dark Ages" giving the Church much thinking spaces. The Age of the Reason that followed continued to challenge the Church with its enlightenment spirit, bringing the authority of the Church to the brink of collapse. It also created an almost brand new scenario for human history; whereby man appeared to be fully emancipated and could act autonomously. General speaking, man had entered into a period of irreversible Golden Age when human reason seemed to mature without limitation. Then came the discovery of the New World and wisdom literature from the East. The two forces combined bringing yet another wave of shocks to the foundation of the Christendom: challenging its finality and absoluteness, providing fertile soils for the breeding of the rebellious spirit of disbelieve.


This study ascertained the influence of liquid passage rates on solid digesta passage rates and the possibilities of simultaneous prediction of solid and liquid passage rates in ruminants. Artificial neural networks were used to develop models of solid and solid-plus-liquid passage rates. Studies that reported fractional passage rates, class and body mass of ruminants were included in the dataset. Animal and feed factors that affect the rate of passage were identified. The database had observations of domestic and wild ruminants of variable body mass from 74 (solid using predicted liquid passage rate) and 31 (solid using observed liquid passage rate) studies. Observations were randomly divided into two data subsets: 75% for training and 25% for validation. Developed models accounted for 76% and 77% of the variation in prediction of solid passage rates using predicted and observed liquid passage rate as inputs, respectively. Simultaneous prediction accounted for 83% and 89% of the variation of solid and liquid passage rates, respectively. On validation using an independent dataset, these models attained 45% (solid using predicted liquid), 66% (solid using observed liquid), 50% (solid predicted with liquid) and 69% (liquid predicted with solid) of precision in predicting passage rates. Simultaneous prediction of solid and liquid passage rate yielded better predictions compared with independent predictions of solid passage rate. Simultaneous prediction of solid and liquid passage rates accounted for more variation compared with independent predictions of solid rates. Inclusion of liquid passage rate as an input variable gave better predictions of solid passage rates.Keywords: Fractional passage rate, prediction model, simultaneous predictions


The RF power amplifier is one of the most critical blocks of transceivers, as it is expected to provide a suitable output power with high gain, efficiency and linearity. In this paper, a 60-GHz power amplifier based on an injection locked structure is demonstrated in a standard 65 CMOS technology. The PA core consists of a cross-coupled pair of NMOS transistors with an NMOS current source. This structure can achieve large output power and high PAE, but with poor linearity performance. In order to improve the linearity, several linearization techniques are investigated, including adaptive biasing and predistortion. The results show that the adaptive biasing technique can enlarge the linear operation region, but results in poor AM-PM performance. By instead using the predistortion technique, the AM-PM performance can be improved, but the linear region only extends slightly. Considering theses two techniques different advantages, we combine them together to improve not only the linear region but also the AM-PM performance. Finally, a common source amplifier is added as the first stage. With proper bias, the linear operation region is then effectively extended by 7.3 dB. This two stage power amplifier achieves large output power, high linearity and high PAE simultaneously. It delivers a gain of 20dB, a Psat of 16.3dBm, a P1dB of 15.41dBm, and a PAE of 30%. (Less)


Many parents worry about the influence of video games on their children's lives. The game console may help to prepare children for participation in the digital world, but at the same time it socializes boys into misogyny and excludes girls from all but the most objectified positions. The new "girls' games" movement has addressed these concerns. Although many people associate video games mainly with boys, the girls games' movement has emerged from an unusual alliance between feminist activists (who want to change the "gendering" of digital technology) and industry leaders (who want to create a girls' market for their games). The contributors to From Barbie(R) to Mortal Kombat explore how assumptions about gender, games, and technology shape the design, development, and marketing of games as industry seeks to build the girl market. They describe and analyze the games currently on the market and propose tactical approaches for avoiding the stereotypes that dominate most toy store aisles. The lively mix of perspectives and voices includes those of media and technology scholars, educators, psychologists, developers of today's leading games, industry insiders, and girl gamers. Contributors: Aurora, Dorothy Bennett, Stephanie Bergman, Cornelia Brunner, Mary Bryson, Lee McEnany Caraher, Justine Cassell, Suzanne de Castell, Nikki Douglas, Theresa Duncan, Monica Gesue, Michelle Goulet, Patricia Greenfield, Margaret Honey, Henry Jenkins, Cal Jones, Yasmin Kafai, Heather Kelley, Marsha Kinder, Brenda Laurel, Nancie Martin, Aliza Sherman, Kaveri Subrahmanyam.


The fall in US labor force participation during the Great Recession stands in sharp contrast with its parallel increase in the euro area. In addition to structural forces, cyclical factors are shown to account for this phenomenon, with the participation rate being procyclical in the US from the inception of the crisis and countercyclical in the euro area. We rationalize these diverging dynamics by using a general equilibrium business cycle model, which nests the endogenous participation decisions into a search and matching model. We show that the "added worker" effect might outweigh the "discouragement effect" if real wage rigidities are allowed for and/or habit in consumer preferences is sufficiently strong. We then draw the implications of variable labor force participation rates for inflation and establish the following result: if endogenous movements in labor market participation are envisaged, then the degree of real wage rigidities becomes almost irrelevant for price dynamics. Indeed, during recessions, the upward pressures on inflation stemming from the lack of a downward adjustment in real wages are offset by an opposite influence from the additional looseness in the labor market, due to the higher participation rate associated with wage rigidities. JEL Classification: E31, E32, E24.


Abstract
Background: Diarrhoea is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality among the under-five children in low-income countries. Despite improvements in water and sanitation coverage, studies show that diarrhoea is still a major public health problem in Ethiopia. This study was designed to determine the magnitude and risk factors of diarrhoea in the agricultural and agro-pastoralist communities of the rural Sidama zone, Southern Ethiopia.
Methods: a cross-sectional study was conducted in July 2013. Interview and questionnaire were the main data gathering instruments used in the study. Data for the study was collected from 1939 mothers/caregivers of the children. The children were under five years of age during the data collection period. Structured questions were used to collect data for the study. SPSS software V 19 was used to analyze the data based on a predefined conceptual model, including interrelated determinants. Bivariate and multivariable logistic regression was computed to assess independent factors of childhood diarrhoea.
Results: Slightly over 95% of the participants were from Sidama ethnic background and about 88% of them were Participants. The number of male children in the study was slightly higher (53%) than that of the female participants. The mean and median ages of the children were 33.53 and 35 months, respectively. The prevalence of diarrhoea in the two weeks prior to the study was 25.6%.
The occurrence of diarrhea was significantly associated with household heads following traditional religion (Odds Ratio (OR): 2.40; 95% Confidence Interval (CI) =1.49-3.88)), living in rented or shared houses (OR: 2.00; 95% CI=1.14 -3.51), living in agro-pastoralist (OR: 1.84; 95% CI=1.29-2.63), and Midland agriculturalists areas (OR: 1.50; 95% CI=1.04-2.14).
In addition, storing drinking water for more than two days (OR: 1.74; 95% CI=1.27-2.37), the presence of diarrhoea in the family members other than the index child (OR: 1.35; 95% CI=1.05-1.74), children being in the age group of 6-12 months (OR: 2.459; 95% CI=1.676-3.608) and 13-24 months (OR: 1.619; 95% CI=1.103-2.377) were strongly associated with the under-five diarrhoeal morbidity (p≤0.05).
Conclusions: The study showed that diarrhoea was a major health problem of the under five among the agro-pastoralist communities. Socioeconomic, environmental, household and childcare related factors have influenced the transmission of diarrhoea in the study setting. Delivery of improved sanitation and hygiene suitable for agro-pastoralist communities may have a significant importance on the child health and survival in the study area. [Ethiop. J. Health Dev. 2018; 32(1):35-43]
Keywords: Diarrhoea, Ethiopia, Agro-pastoralist, Sanitation, Water, Under-five children


Sexing wild marine mammals that show little to no sexual dimorphism is challenging. For sirenians that are difficult to catch or approach closely, molecular sexing from tissue biopsies offers an alternative method to visual discrimination. This paper reports the results of a field study to validate the use of two sexing methods: (1) visual discrimination of sex vs (2) molecular sexing based on a multiplex PCR assay which amplifies the male-specific SRY gene and differentiates ZFX and ZFY gametologues. Skin samples from 628 dugongs (Dugong dugon) and 100 Florida manatees (Trichechus manatus latirostris) were analysed and assigned as male or female based on molecular sex. These individuals were also assigned a sex based on either direct observation of the genitalia and/or the association of the individual with a calf. Individuals of both species showed 93 to 96% congruence between visual and molecular sexing. For the remaining 4 to 7%, the discrepancies could be explained by human error. To mitigate this error rate, we recommend using both of these robust techniques, with routine inclusion of sex primers into microsatellite panels employed for identity, along with trained field observers and stringent sample handling.


The research work developed in this thesis has been mainly devoted to the observation and sensorless control problems of electrical systems. Three major contributions have been carried out using the high - gain concept and output feedback adaptive nonlinear control for online emergency power supply. In this thesis, we dealt with the synthesis of sampled high - gain observers for nonlinear systems application to permanent synchronous generators and doubly - fed induction generator. We particularly focus on two constraints: sampling effect and tracking unmeasured mechanical and magnetic state variables. The first contribution consists in a high gain observer design that performs a relatively accurate estimation of both mechanical and magnetic state variable using the available measurements on stator currents and voltages of PMSM. We propose a global exponential observer having state predictor for a class of nonlinear globally Lipschitz system. In a second contribution, we proposed a novel non – standard high gain observer design for non-injective feedback relation application to variable speed DFIGs based wind power generation systems. Meanwhile, a reduced system model is analyzed, provided by observability test to check is it possible synthesis state observer for senseless control. In last contribution, an adaptive observer for states and parameters estimation are designed for a class of state - affine systems application to output feedback adaptive nonlinear control of three-phase AC/DC boost power converter for online emergency power supply systems. Basically, the problem focused on the cascade nonlinear adaptive controller that is developed making use Lyapunov theory. The parameter uncertainties are processed by the control laws under backstepping design techniques with a capacity of adaptation.


† The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between locus of control (internal - external) and the self-efficacy beliefs of Yazd University of medical science. The research population consisted of the Yazd Central University of Medical Sciences staff 534 people using Cochran formula the sample size was 220 people. Instrument was two questionnaires self-control and self-efficacy and the validity of the questionnaires was 0.82, 0.87, and reliability 0.8260 and 0.880 respectively obtained. To investigate the hypothesis Pearson, Spearman, log-linear regression tests used. The results showed that there is a direct and meaningful relationship between internal locus of control and self-efficacy beliefs. However, there was not a meaningful relationship between external locus of control and self-efficacy. To achieve the organization's employees with high self-efficacy, locus of control considered as a factor-affecting self-efficacy.


Disability secondary to disorders of the spine is a significant problem worldwide. In the USA, there has been a recent surge in the costs associated with caring for spinal pathology; from 1997 to 2005, there was a growth of 65% in healthcare expenditures on spinal disease, totalling $86 billion in 2005. Increasingly, there has been media and public scrutiny over the rapid rise in the volume of procedures with spinal instrumentation; some have suggested that this rise has been fuelled by non-medical drivers such as the financial incentives involved with the use of instrumentation; others suggest that innovation in spine technology and devices has led to improved options for the treatment of spine pathology. In this context, we conducted a review of the literature to assess the use of instrumentation in lumbar procedures and its relationship to successful fusion and patient outcome. Our review suggests that there is data supporting the thesis that lumbar instrumentation improves rates of fusion. However, there is no consistent correlation between increased rates of fusion and improved patient outcomes.


The aim of this demonstration is to promote discussion regarding strategies that enable teachers to concentrate upon the pedagogy of e-learning design, rather than how to cope with technology. The domains of academia and technology have traditionally been separated by a technology boundary that teachers have felt they are required to cross. But, many teachers also understandably feel that do not have the time or inclination to make the journey. Most importantly, the crucial issue of developing effective pedagogy can be lost when technology concerns dominate considerations of e-learning development.
There is an important role for specialist designers and developers when creating technically demanding materials. But, requiring most learning materials to be produced by specialist teams can create bottlenecks and dependencies. In fact, the production of many learning materials in accessible formats best suited to VLEs is something that all teaching staff can accomplish. The strategy at the University of the West of England, Bristol, (UWE) is that academic colleagues should not be required to "re-skill", but to continue to use the Microsoft Office suite with which they are familiar. IT Services now provides a number of networked conversion services; for example to translate Office documents into html format, pdf format and html learning packages, together with a service that converts animated and narrated PowerPoint presentations into Flash format. The tools in question are predominantly generic business tools, not specific e-learning tools such as CourseGenieTM.
This demonstration will begin by discussing some of the characteristics of the technology boundary and the dominance this boundary can have in e-learning deliberations. It will then go on to describe the strategy at UWE and demonstrate its operation, and the use of some of the software tools. Participants will then be able to experiment with the module and the materials that constitute it.


By investigating the influence of the difference of refractive index between core and cladding
(nco-ncl), normalized frequency (V ) and core radius (?) on both the intramodal and intermodal nonlinear
coefficients (NCs) respectively, we design a novel weakly-coupled four-mode fiber with low nonlinearity. In
general, under the premise of ensuring the low NCs between two non-degenerate modes, this design can reduce
the intermodal NCs (< 0.5 W-1 \cdot km-1) between two degenerate modes and optimizes the parameters of
differential group delays (DGDs) and chromatic dispersion. The optimized few mode fiber (FMF) is eligible for
transmission and mode de-multiplexing in the receiver.


Two new species, Rinorea mezilii sp. nov. and R. letouzeyi sp. nov., are described and illustrated from Cameroon littoral forest. Both belong to the series Ilicifoliae Engl. of subgenus Tubulosae Brandt. Within the group Ilicifoliae the two species hereby described differ from others by their stamen enlarged at the base and their rudimentary connective appendage aduate to the anther summit. The first species differs from the second by its habit densely branched and its alternate leaves with cuneate base, not cordate. Rinorea letouzeyi is characterised by its slender stem, much branched, subopposite leaves, clustered at nodes and at the end of twigs. The lamina base is cordate to amplexicaul. Rinorea meziIii is relatively well widespread in the entire southern part of the plain while R. letouzeyi appears to be a narrow endemic of its littoral fringe


The 1998 reauthorization of the Higher Education Act of 1965 included a provision that reverses the long-standing federal policy of increasing access to higher education. The Drug-Free Student Aid Provision denies federal financial aid to any individual who admits to having been convicted of the possession or the sale of controlled substances. The criminalization of certain offenses and the exclusion of others seem to be accompanied by an unstated racial and socioeconomic bias. The fact that people of color and individuals of a lower socioeconomic status are more likely to be convicted of the possession and sale of controlled substances means that the adoption of this public policy will disallow college access to the very individuals who benefit the most from it. I'll walk the tightrope that's been stretched for me, and though a wrinkled forehead, perplexed why, will accompany me, I'll delicately step along. For if I stop to sigh at the earth-propped stride of others, I will fall. I must balance high without a parasol to tide a faltering step, without a net below, without a balance stick to guide. (Danner, 1997, p. 87) Many American students from economically limited and urban minority communities are at risk of losing access to student financial aid. A long-ignored provision in the 1998 Amendments of the Higher Education Act of 1965 states that: A student who has been convicted of any offense under any federal or state law involving the possession or sale of a controlled substance shall not be able to receive any grant, loan, or work assistance under this title during a period beginning on the date of such conviction. ( 484, 111) This law most dramatically affects individuals who are prosecuted for drug offensesthe poor and racial minorities. Ironically, this plank of the Higher Education Amendments serves to delimit educational opportunity and access to the coagulated population in greatest need of the liberating and transforming power of higher education. The Drug-Free Student Aid Provision is an unusually complex entanglement of federal criminal policy and educational finance practices. These two disparate conceptual and practical arenas combine to create a significant threat to educational opportunity. This policy-in-practice can be analogized by the image of a tightrope. Many students who may be impacted by this policy walk the tightrope of social discrimination, neighborhood climate, and low expectations. Likewise, the marriage of educational privilege (like the voting privilege) to criminal punishment serves as a thinly plaited tightrope that may not be able to sustain the original aims or intents of either. Walk with us as we analyze this further; but step carefully. #35: IT'S A THIN LINE BETWEEN OPPORTUNITY AND DENIAL No matter how noble the intent, there are some public policies that simply fail to demonstrate the tenets of reason or logic. The 1998 Higher Education Amendments contain such a policy. Encased in this apparently benign public law is a policy that prohibits individuals from accessing federal student aid if they have ever been convicted of possessing or selling illegal drugs. The intent of the policy was to dissuade students and other citizens from engaging in the use or trade of illicit drugs while receiving aid. The reality of the program is that it removes access to one of this nation's primary mechanisms of social mobility from those individuals who may be using higher education as a means to escape the cyclical dynamic of drugs and its concomitant companions-race, poverty, and disadvantage. There is a drug distribution strategem that has centered on poor and urban communities; this is not to suggest that wealthy and suburban communities are drug-free zones (Inciardi, 1993). Hence, the new provision disproportionately impacts a segment of society that requires federal financial aid as a means of accessing higher education. The 1998 version of the Higher Education Amendments begins a reversal of the federal government's policy on increasing access to higher education. …


This paper presents the results of a mixed-methods study examining adaptation strategies that property owners in low-income, rapidly urbanizing areas in Malawi adopt to address the limitations of pit latrines, the most common method of disposing human excreta. A particular challenge is lack of space for constructing new latrines as population density increases: traditional practice has been to cap full pits and simply move to a new site, but increasing demands on space require new approaches to extend the service life of latrines. In this context, we collected data on sanitation technology choices from January to September 2013 through 48 in-depth interviews and a stated preference survey targeting 1,300 property owners from 27 low-income urban areas. Results showed that property owners with concern about space for replacing pit latrines were 1.8 times more likely to select pit emptying service over the construction of new pit latrines with a slab floor (p = 0.02) but there was no significant association between concern about space for replacing pit latrines and intention to adopt locally promoted, novel sanitation technology known as ecological sanitation (ecosan). Property owners preferred to adapt existing, known technology by constructing replacement pit latrines on old pit latrine locations, reducing the frequency of replacing pit latrines, or via emptying pit latrines when full. This study highlights potential challenges to adoption of wholly new sanitation technologies, even when they present clear advantages to end users. To scale, alternative sanitation technologies for rapidly urbanising cities should offer clear advantages, be affordable, be easy to use when shared among multiple households, and their design should be informed by existing adaptation strategies and local knowledge.


In Foreign Fields examines the lives, decisions and challenges faced by transnational sport migrants - those professionals working in the sports industry who cross borders as part of their professional lives. Despite a great deal of romance surrounding international celebrity athletes, the vast majority of transnational sport migrants - players, journalists, coaches, administrators and medical personnel - toil far away from the limelight. Based on twelve years of ethnographic research conducted on three continents, Thomas F. Carter traces their lives, routes and experiences, documenting their travels and travails. He argues that far from the ease of mobility that celebrity sports stars enjoy, the vast majority of transnational sports migrants make huge sacrifices and labour under political restrictions, often enforced by sport's governing bodies. This unique and clearly written study will make fascinating reading for anthropologists, sociologists and anyone interested in the lives of those who follow their sporting dreams.


The primary aim of this study was to investigate the sedimentation processes within Buffalo Bay, particularly within and adjacent to the Whitianga tidal inlet, in order to ascertain reasons for the shoaling at both the inlet, and the identified shallow zone around Pandora Rock. Comparison of historic bathymetries suggests the ebb delta and ebb discharge channel of the Whitianga tidal inlet are rapidly accreting and the ebb tidal discharge channel is gradually migrating northeast towards Whakapenui Point. Accretion rates of up to 25 cm y were calculated in the ebb delta and inlet discharge channel area between 1979 and 1995 and aerial photo comparisons suggest the ebb delta area had increased by 400 % between 1990 and 2002. Results of the hydrodynamic and sediment transport modelling suggest the rapid accretion in the ebb delta vicinity is likely to be caused by a combination of catchment estuary inputs, which are deposited on the ebb tide as the ebb flow decelerates over the ebb delta, and inputs that have been moved south along Buffalo Beach by flood currents and an eddy that forms landward of the ebb tidal discharge. Residual tidal velocities further suggest a deposition zone in the ebb delta vicinity resulting from opposing currents and the deceleration of currents. Hydrodynamic modelling results indicate the isolated shallow zone around Pandora rock appears to be caused by a transient eddy in the southern section of Buffalo Bay. The eddy is formed by the ebb tidal discharge from the inlet. Accretion probably occurs in the centre of the eddy which moves north as the ebb tide progresses. Results obtained from a current meter and sediment trap deployed in northern Buffalo Bay suggest suspended sediment transport is minimal in northern Buffalo Bay, only occurring with large wave activity. Results of the hydrodynamic and sediment transport modelling further demonstrate that this area experiences low flow velocities, and has little interaction with the rest of Buffalo Bay. The minimal sediment input to this area, combined with the occasional erosion of the seafloor, primarily by wave activity, is thought to have resulted in long term erosion of northwestern Buffalo Bay between 1938 and 1979. Although the beach and nearshore is eroding, it is likely the addition of sediment would act to stabilise this section of eroding beach. Renourishment material could be provided by the ebb delta, the southern tip of Buffalo Bay or the isolated sandbar northeast of the inlet entrance.


A microscopic four-point probe (μ4PP) for resistivity measurements on thin films was designed and fabricated using the negative photoresist SU-8 as base material. The device consists of four microscopic cantilevers, each of them supporting a probe tip at the extremity. The high flexibility of SU-8 ensures a stable electrical point contact between samples and probe tip with all four electrodes even on rough surfaces. With the presented surface micromachining process, μ4PPs with a probe-to-probe spacing of 10–20μm were fabricated. Resistivity measurements on thin Au, Al, and Pt films were performed successfully. The measured sheet resistances differ by less than 5% from those obtained by a commercial macroscopic resistivity meter. Due to the low contact forces (Fcont<10−4N), the μ4PP is suitable to be applied also to fragile materials such as conducting polymers. Here the authors demonstrate the possibility of performing resistivity measurements on 100-nm-thick pentacene (C22H14) films with a sheet resistan...


baumannii is an aerobic gram negative coccobacilli, it is considered multidrug resistance pathogen (MDR) and causes several infections that are difficult to treat. This study is aims to employ physical methods in sterilization and inactivation of A. baumannii, as an alternative way to reduce the using of drugs and antibiotics.

            Cold Atmospheric Plasma was generated by one electrode at 20KV, 4 power supply and distance between electrode and sample was fixed on 1mm. A. baumannii (ATCC 19704 and HHR1) were exposed to  Dielectric Barrier Discharge type of Cold Atmospheric Plasma (DBD-CAP) for several periods of time (15, 30, 45, and 60 sec.) . After sterilization test, several methods were done to analyze the effect of DBD-CAP on bacterial morphology, proteins and DNA. Change in morphology was assessed by cover slid method. Damaged DNA was investigated by PCR technique, and DNA sequencing. The impact of DBD-CAP on the entity of proteins was detected by SDS-PAGE. The observed inactivation of bacterial colony on agar plates has been quantified by measuring the inactivation diameter.
The important conclusion that HHR1 more resistance to DBD-CAP than ATCC 17904 because it is more virulence than standard strain; thus, the growth of both strains is largely affected by plasma and this influence is increased by increasing the time of exposure, also the plasma affects the DNA especially on standard strain as it is explained in sequencing result, so it causes more deletion in DNA sequence. In addition, plasma also has been showed to damage proteins and morphology thus, the bacterial cells transform from cocco-bacillus to bacillus.


Impingement cooling is an effective cooling structure in gas turbine blades, but the downstream heat transfer will be reduced seriously by crossflow. It has been proven that equipping a crossflow diverter in impingement channel can make jet free from crossflow and enhance the downstream heat transfer. In this paper, in order to obtain a kind of crossflow diverter with advantageous heat transfer performance, the flow and heat transfer characteristics of four crossflow diverters (Semi-Circular (SC), Semi-Rectangular (SR), Semi-Diamond (SD) and Semi-Four-pointed Star (SFS)) are compared in detail. To this end, a Baseline impingement cooling configuration is considered, in which the pitches on the streamwise and spanwise directions of impingement jets are all 6D and the distance from jet to target surface is 2D. Through detailed numerical verification, SST k-ω turbulence model is finally selected, and all simulations are performed under Reynolds number ranging from 3,500 to 14,000. It is found that the crossflow diverter can change the local jet Reynolds number distribution and effectively reduce the local mass velocity ratio of crossflow to jet. Results reveal that the crossflow diverter increases the heat transfer and inevitably increases the friction loss, but all of them can improve the comprehensive heat transfer performance over the simulated flow range. When the Reynolds number is 14,000, the best heat transfer performance can be achieved, and the comprehensive heat transfer performance parameters of SC, SR, SD and SFS cases can increase by up to 11.0%, 14.3%, 12.2% and 14.7% respectively. After determining SFS-shaped crossflow diverter with the best comprehensive heat transfer performance, the influence of its streamwise position on heat transfer and friction loss is also studied. The SFS-shaped diverter is placed at 2D, 2.5D, 3D, 3.5D and 4D from the center of adjacent upstream jet, respectively. Results show that the heat transfer and friction loss change a little when the distance increases from 2D to 3D, but the heat transfer decreases sharply and friction loss increases seriously when the distance increases from 3D to 4D.


Network design problems deal with settings where the goal is to design a network (i.e., find a subgraph of a given graph) that satisfies certain connectivity requirements. Each requirement is in the form of connecting (or, more generally, providing large connectivity between) a pair of vertices of the graph. The goal is to find a network of minimum length, and in some cases requirements can be compromised after paying their "penalties." These are usually called prize-collecting Steiner network problems.
In practical scenarios of physical networking, with cable or fiber embedded in the ground, crossings are rare or nonexistent. Hence, planar instances of network design problems are a natural subclass of interest. We can usually take advantage of this structure to find better performance guarantees.
In this thesis, we develop a primal-dual clustering technique called "prize-collecting clustering," which is used to give improved approximation algorithms for several planar and nonplanar network design problems. The technique is based on a famous moat growing procedure due to Agrawal, Klein, Ravi [AKR95] and Goemans and Williamson [GW95]. It provides a paradigm for clustering the vertices of a graph according to their "budgets" such that vertices of the same cluster are close compared to their budgets, whereas distinct clusters are far compared to their budgets.
We first improve the approximation ratio of (nonplanar) PRIZE-COLLECTING STEINER TREE, PRIZE-COLLECTING TSP, and PRIZE-COLLECTING STROLL. For 17 years, the best known results for these problems were 2-approximation algorithms of Goeman and Williamson [AKR95]. We show how to get around the integrality gap of the natural linear-programming relaxation, and achieve an approximation ratio of 2 – c (for a fixed, yet small c).
Next we give a thorough complexity study of STEINER F OREST for graphs of treewidth two, three, and O(1) as well as planar and bounded-genus graphs. In particular, we provide a polynomial-time approximation scheme (PTAS) for STEINER FOREST on planar graphs. Prize-collecting clustering paradigm allows us to generalize PTASes for Euclidean STEINER T REE [Aro98, Mit99], Euclidean STEINER FOREST [BKM08], and planar STEINER TREE [BKM09]. Our algorithm builds upon the brick decomposition technique of Borradaile et al. [BKM09], in addition to a nontrivial PTAS for bounded-treewidth STEINER FOREST.
Finally, we look at several prize-collecting Steiner network problems on planar (and bounded-genus) graphs. We present a reduction from these instances to the bounded-treewidth special cases of those problems implying, in particular, that a PTAS carries over. For PRIZE-COLLECTING STEINER TREE (PRIZE-COLLECTING TSP, and P RIZE-COLLECTING STROLL) as well as MULTIPLICATIVE PRIZE-COLLECTING STEINER FOREST , we show that this leads to PTASes. However, we show that several seemingly simple problems in this area are APX-hard. As a result, we give the first provable separation between the complexity of a natural network design problem and its prize-collecting variant: a PTAS for planar Steiner Forest and APX-hardness for planar PRIZE-COLLECTING S TEINER FOREST.
We hope that the prize-collecting clustering paradigm can be used to give PTASes and improved approximation guarantees for several other network design problems.


Abstract Long-term Aqua and Terra MODIS (MODerate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) Collections 5.1 and 6.1 (c051 and c061, respectively) aerosol data have been combined with AERONET (AERosol RObotic NETwork) ground-based sun photometer observations to examine trends in aerosol optical thickness (AOT, at 550 nm) over Northern Europe for the months April to September. For the 1927 and 1559 daily coincident measurements that were obtained for c051 and c061, respectively, MODIS AOT varied by 86 and 90%, respectively, within the predicted uncertainty of one standard deviation of the retrieval over land (ΔAOT = ±0.05 ± 0.15·AOT). For the coastal AERONET site Gustav Dalen Tower (GDT), Sweden, larger deviations were found for MODIS c051 and c061 (79% and 75%, respectively, within predicted uncertainty). The Baltic Sea provides substantially better statistical representation of AOT than the surrounding land areas and therefore favours the investigations of trends in AOT over the region. Negative trends of 1.5% and 1.2% per year in AOT, based on daily averaging, were found for the southwestern Baltic Sea from MODIS c051 and c061, respectively. This is in line with a decrease of 1.2% per year in AOT at the AERONET station Hamburg. For the western Gotland Basin area, Sweden, negative trends of 1.5%, 1.1% and 1.6% per year in AOT have been found for MODIS c051, MODIS c061 and AERONET GDT, respectively. The strongest trend of –1.8% per year in AOT was found for AERONET Belsk, Poland, which can be compared to –1.5% per day obtained from MODIS c051 over central Poland. The trends in MODIS and AERONET AOT are nearly all statistically significant at the 95% confidence level. The strongest aerosol sources are suggested to be located southwest, south and southeast of the investigation area, although the highest prevalence of pollution events is associated with air mass transport from southwest.


In this article we use a core-periphery model in order to understand the general trends in the history of natural resource exploitation in the polar regions. The study focuses on whaling, hunting, and coal mining activities on the European High Arctic archipelago of Spitsbergen, from the seventeenth century to the present. We show that some of the whaling and mining stations developed a regional position and a level of permanence that is not expected in a Resource Frontier Region. The explanation is that there were not only economic reasons but also geopolitical motives for establishing and maintaining these stations, making it possible to build organizations strong enough to sustain them. This phenomenon is not accounted for in the core-periphery model because of a focus on economic driving forces in core regions. In order to understand the role of such stations in polar Resource Frontier Regions, they should be characterized as centers in the periphery.


Chlorophylls and carotenoids are two main pigments contained in microalgae. The pigments have important function as they serve as bioactive compounds with high nutritional value. In this study, chlorophyll and carotenoids contents of four microalgae strains isolated from local industry effluent were evaluated. The pigments were extracted in methanol and determined based on the absorbance of three wavelength: 470, 652.4 and 665.2 nm using Spectrophotometer UV-Vis. The results showed that three of the strains which were eukaryotic microalgae contained chlorophyll (a+b) with content of 4.037 ± 0.0875%, 4.967 ± 0.1050% and 3.880 ± 0.1866% of dry biomass for Micractinium ehime IPOME-1, Micractinium sp. CCAP IPOME-2 and Mychonastes rotundus IPOME-3 strains repectively. Under nitrogen starvation medium, chlorophyll (a+b) content of prokaryotic microalgae (Uncultured Oscillatoria sp IPOME-4 strain) decreased from 2.096 ± 0.0209% to 1.684 ± 0.0391% (decrease of 0.412%) and total carotenoid content of the strain increased with increase of 0.308%, from 0.773 ± 0.0289% to 1.081 ± 0.0390%.


To the Editor:—In the August 2005 issue of ANESTHESIOLOGY, Sandberg et al. describe an Operating Room of the Future (ORF) that includes extensive physical and workflow redesigns for "optimal support of advanced minimally invasive surgery." The ORF enhancements incorporate increased capital costs for advanced equipment and increased personnel costs as compared with their standard operating room. These costs are justified by their findings that they are more than offset by increased revenues resulting from increased efficiency in the ORF. Several points should be carefully considered before any institution attempts to replicate such a model. Insurance mix: Revenues are strongly affected by the "insurance mix" of the patient population. In California, Medi-Cal (Medicaid) covers only approximately 46% of fully allocated hospital costs, whereas some preferred provider organization plans cover as much as 120% of those same costs. Sandberg et al. do not reveal the insurance mix of their study population. Given that capital and personnel costs are entirely independent of fluctuations in insurance mix, a hospital with an unfavorable insurance mix could easily fail to offset the increased costs of the ORF model with increased revenue. Operating Room of the Future utilization: Sandberg et al. use a model for utilization that places only one surgeon working within the ORF each day. In work at our institution, we found that, using single surgeon utilization, similar daily enhancements in operating room throughput could be achieved with extensive workflow redesign. However, when multiple surgeons were scheduled within a single operating room on a given day, all time savings gained through enhanced efficiency were lost awaiting next surgeon arrival. Seventy-four percent of all delay codes during a study period were under the heading of "awaiting surgeon arrival," whereas 83% of total delay minutes were under that same heading (R. A. Dritz, M.D., Berkeley, California, unpublished data, 1997: data gathered by assigned observational nurse in the operating room). At our institution, only 8–12% of all operating rooms are scheduled with only a single surgeon on any given day. Given that Sandberg et al. further note that, even when only using a single surgeon, not all surgeons and surgical case mixes benefit from the inclusion in the ORF (see Sandberg et al., table 2); one can see that extreme care must be taken in managing operating room utilization patterns if one is to achieve the financial enhancements they describe. Capturing productivity gains: It is important that time savings resulting from increased efficiency be filled with other productive activities and not lost to downtime. For example, if a surgeon required a full 8-h shift to perform a surgical caseload in a standard operating room setting but successfully completed those same cases in 6 h in the ORF, it is essential that the 2 h saved not be squandered either awaiting another surgeon's arrival or enhancing coffee break times. Because of the increased costs per hour in the ORF, time savings lost to nonproductive activities in the ORF could make it a net loss when compared with the standard operating room. In summary, Sandberg et al. present an intriguing model to enhance operating room efficiency. However, extreme care must be exercised before choosing to replicate such a model in another hospital setting. Given the current realities of hospital economics, the Operating Room of the Future may not be economically viable in the present.


Adult-onset neuropsychiatric diseases are one of the most challenging areas of medicine. While symptomatic treatments are available, for most of these diseases the exact pathomechanism is not known, thus, disease-modifying therapies are difficult to conceptualize and find. The two most common and best studied neuropsychiatric diseases affecting higher cortical functions in humans are schizophrenia and Alzheimer's disease; both diseases have high heritability, however, the genetic architecture is not fully elucidated. Robust Single Nucleotide Variant (SNV) studies have identified several loci with modest effect sizes. While Copy Number Variants (CNV) make an important contribution to genetic variation, CNV GWAS suffer from dependence on mainly SNP arrays with underperforming genotyping accuracy. We evaluated dynamic range of the assays for three types of CNV loci, including biallelic deletion, high copy gain, and fusion gene, to assess the depth of exploration of the contribution of CNVs to disease susceptibility. Despite the suboptimal genotyping, novel mechanisms are emerging and further large-scale studies with genotyping assays optimized for CNV detection are needed. Furthermore, the CHRFAM7A human-specific fusion gene association warrants large scale locus specific association studies in AD, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and ADHD.


Identifying superior Salicaceae genotypes for afforestation and restoration activities in urban areas can greatly increase the provision of ecosystem services for long-term ecological sustainability. To address this opportunity, we collected native Populus L. (Salicaceae) and Salix L. (Salicaceae) scions from 3 sites on Staten Island, New York, and conducted a propagation study followed by greenhouse and nursery scale-up activities. Our objectives were to: 1) identify hormone treatments that enhanced root initiation and early growth of the native genotypes; 2) incorporate Salicaceae propagation methodology into phyto-recurrent selection; and 3) establish a population of genotypes that can be used for afforestation and restoration efforts throughout New York City. For Objective 1, we tested the response of 112 native genotypes and 11 common clones to 3 root hormone treatments (36-h water soak plus 12-h soak in 1% IBA + 0.5% NAA; 48-h water soak plus powder dip in 0.3% IBA; 48-h water soak plus 5-s dip soak in 20% IBA) and a water soak control. After 75 d of growth, the control treatment was more effective than the 0.3% IBA powder dip and as effective as the other treatments. Given broad clonal variation, there is a high probability of selecting genotypes for both afforestation and restoration. Although Salix exhibited greater relative propagation success than Populus, both genera should be used to increase overall genetic diversity. From a practical standpoint, scale-up activities led to establishment of a nursery population that will be used for ongoing afforestation and restoration activities in New York City.Zalesny RS Jr, Hallett RA, Falxa-Raymond N, Wiese AH, Birr BA. 2014. Propagating native Salicaceae for afforestation and restoration in New York City's five boroughs. Native Plants Journal 15(1):29–41.


A three-year study (2007-2009) was carried out on green asparagus under tunnel in Campania (southern Italy) with the purpose of verifying both the possibility to practise organic management and annual double harvest in order to extend the eco-compatible production period and to avoid expensive imports. Comparisons among eight experimental treatments were made. Treatments were obtained by factorial combination of two crop methods (conventional and organic) and four spring and summer harvest periods of 90-day total duration (75 days in spring plus 15 in summer; 60 days in spring plus 30 in summer; 45 days in spring plus 45 in summer; as a control, 90 days in spring), arranging a split plot design with three replicates. The conventional management led to the highest yield, as a consequence of the higher spear number per plant, while the organic management resulted in both spear calibre and mean weight increase. Organic spears showed a higher level of residues and sugars but a lower content of nitrate and fibre. The treatment with 75-day harvest in spring and 15 in summer proved the best double harvest combination, leading to the highest comprehensive yield (11.5 t·ha-1), not different from the control harvested only in spring for 90 days. Summer spears showed higher values of optical residue, glucose, fructose, vitamin C and some mineral nutrients; instead, spring spears attained lower nitrate and average fibre content. Asparagus annual double harvest revealed economically interesting results, but the profits are strictly related to the prices of summer spears, which were evidently higher in summer than in spring in the three years of research.


The continuous technological development and the consistent reliance on ICT, has raised the expectations towards ubiquitous connectivity to an extent that technical failures or social disconnects are a serious threat for project teams and their performance, especially when team members are scattered around the world. We analyse hypo-connectivity, the state in which users face too few connectivity to work efficiently, and focus on its impact in project teams. By applying a mixed method approach in the context of an international consulting company, we investigate the two-sided phenomenon of hypoconnectivity and aim to identify the consequences of hypo-connectivity on communication effectiveness and efficiency, as well as the role of connectivity norms in this relationship. Our results show that hypo-connectivity has a negative influence on communication effectiveness and efficiency, which consequently leads to decreased performance, increased frustration and conflicts. However, the establishment of connectivity norms in project teams can ease the effects of hypo-connectivity, sustain the communication flow and balance the negative impact. We conclude that people actually "need to talk" about the dos and don'ts that sustain their communication flow and develop connectivity norms that could help the team circumvent the negative effects of hypo-connectivity.


ABSTRACT Framed as an extension of Noddings' notion of the 'ethic of care,' the paper sets out an argument about 'Professional Love' as both a term to comprehend the reciprocal pedagogic relationship which develops in positive interactions between primary caregiver, child and parent and as a core normative component of early years educational discourse; the paper grounds this conceptualisation of Professional Love in attachment theory (both its empirical validity and its sociological shortcomings); it then posits the dynamic of child–parent-practitioner love as a Triangle of Love which is essentially complementary to the parent/child relationship as opposed to representing any risk or threat to parents' relationships with their children. The paper examines the work of theorists of care who have been particularly influential in developing the notion of Professional Love, and it considers the work of interdisciplinary scholars whose challenges to notions of love and care help problematise and clarify Professional Love beyond romanticised or other contextually inappropriate forms of love. The paper is intended as a provocative and explorative piece of critical enquiry; it highlights the prevalent devaluation of care/love in policy making and posits a semi-operationalisable prospectus for cultivating Professional Love in early childhood settings. Consistent with the author's editorial foreword, tensions between practitioner, child and parent, as well as internal encumbrances placed on practitioners to develop Professional Love in the absence of policymaker support, emerge as recurring themes.


The drag of an isolated rotating wheel sub-system including its accessories (tire, suspension, A-arms and fender) of a tricycle vehicle was studied numerically using the Star CCM+. The purpose of the present work is to optimize the wheel subsystem through drag analysis. The numerical model is validated by comparison to the wind tunnel experimental drag and pressure coefficient. Two aerodynamic shapes of A-arms are designed to perform drag reduction. Numerical simulations show a sensitive drag decrease up to 19.9% of the original wheel subsystem.


We describe atomic hydrogen diamagnetism within the framework of nonrelativistic quantum mechanics. Our theoretical studies have used three descriptions: an adiabatic description, a multichannel quantum defect theory (MQDT) description using an ab initio -R-matrix approach, and a model de scription. The analysis has conclusively demonstrated that the diamagnetic spectrum can be viewed as a perturbed Rydberg spectrum. The adiabatic analysis provides a crude but useful picture to see the overall channel struc ture and the nature of the perturbing configurations, where the quasi-Landau resonances are the lowest states in each Landau channel which will perturb high Rydberg states in lower Landau channels once the nonadiabatic cou pling is turned on. The ab initio calculation of the photoionization spectrum in the field range 103 — 104 Tesla shows that the quasi-Landau resonances are broad interlopers which perturb high Rydberg states converging to the Landau thresholds, forming complex resonances. Also in these calculations, a new partial cross section analysis has been performed to predict the rel ative electron populations in different Landau channels. The population is found to depend on the azimuthal quantum number and the parity of final states. For photoionization from the hydrogen ground state to final states with m = 1, the electron is predicted to escape predominantly in the higher Landau channels. In contrast, for the final states with m = 0, it escapes in the lower channels. This property is reflected in the shape of autoionizing resonances, which are more like peaks for m = 1, but are more like dips (window resonances) for m = 0. In studying the features of the complex viii resonances, formed by the quasi-Landau resonances perturbing the high Ryi dberg states, we developed an analytical description using a model based on three interacting Rydberg channels, identifying the key dynamical quantities which control the appearance of a complex resonance and its evolution with the varying magnetic field. The analysis predicts a ubiquitous occurrence of states with vanishing autoionization width, and of multiple ^-reversals associated with perturbing configurations. This description can be used to interpret some features of the observed diamagnetic spectrum of lithium near the zero-field ionization threshold.


Variable-frequency microwave (VFM) curing can perform the same processing steps as conventional thermal processing in minutes, without compromising intrinsic material properties. With increasing demand for novel dielectrics, there is a corresponding demand for new processing techniques that lead to comparable or better properties than conventional methods. VFM processing can be a viable alternative to conventional thermal techniques. However, current limitations include a lack of reliable temperature measuring techniques. This research focuses on developing a reliable temperature measuring system using acoustic techniques to monitor low-k polymer dielectrics cured on silicon wafers in a VFM furnace. The acoustic sensor exhibits the capability to measure temperatures from 20degC to 300degC with an attainable accuracy of plusmn2 degrees.


During the past several decades psychological research has indicated that exposure to stressful family life events is strongly associated with psychological vulnerability evidenced by maladaptive behaviors in children. The focus of the present study was to shed light on the relationship between a number and particular family life events and psychosocial functioning in learning disabled children considering child's gender. Subjects under study were primary school children attending general education schools in Vilnius. The subgroup of children with learning disabilities was drawn from the data base of Vilnius psychologicalpedagogical service where they were evaluated by multidisciplinary team because of primary learning problems in schools and diagnosed as having learning disability. The control group – average achieving children – was randomly selected by teachers' ratings on child's achievement from the classes that contained children with learning disabilities. The results revealed that family life events can be treated as reliable correlate of psychosocial adjustment problems in children with learning disabilities. Firstly, the relevance of a number of family life events must be stressed: higher number of family life events is associated with higher levels of problem behaviors in children with learning disabilities. Secondly, child's gender plays a significant role in this association: learning disabled boys responded to a number of stressful family life events with a larger spectrum of maladaptive behaviors. Thirdly, different associations for children with learning disabilities and average achieving peers with regard to particular family life events were obtained. Parent-child separation appears to have the most consistent relation to psychosocial problems in boys and girls with learning disabilities while emotional and behavioral difficulties in their peers were related to several family life events – health problems in child and other family members, alcohol abuse, unemployment and financial strains in family.


In recent months, a number of female celebrities have been awarded court orders under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 to constrain the excessive behaviour of the paparazzi. This is a novel, but unsurprising, use of the statute. Indeed, what has been most startling in this development is the fact that the statutory cause of action has never formerly been deployed in this way. The aim of this paper is to assess why this has been the case. In doing so, it reflects upon opposing perspectives on the interaction between celebrities and the media; details the origins of the 1997 Act, its requirements, and their application to the newsgathering context; reviews the jurisprudential forebears to the recent actions that suggested that the Act could be deployed in a newsgathering context come the appropriate case, and considers the operation, strengths, and putative weaknesses of alternative regulatory options (in particular, that offered in this respect by the Press Complaints Commission). The paper concludes by highlighting a combination of factors that may explain why the Act has been used only now, by musing on the ramifications for celebrities and the paparazzi, and by reflecting on the likely future interplay between the legal and regulatory avenues oriented towards combating the problem of harassment by photographers and other journalists.


Social presence has drawn great attention in the last three decades. A large number of studies attempted to prove that social presence exerted an effect on distance learning through including more interaction. This integrative review provided a comprehensive summary of current studies on social presence, identified problems in measuring social presence, and evaluated the effects of social presence on learning. Data were collected from 189 social presence studies in the area of distance education from 1976 to 2012. Data were analyzed qualitatively followed by a quantitative meta-analysis. This study revealed that social presence was still illusive and difficult to define. Due to its ambiguity, many doubts exist related to the measurement of social presence. The results of this study suggest future researchers should be cautious when advocating the importance of social presence in distance learning.


Context. Massive stars are important building blocks of the Universe, and their stellar structure and evolution models are fundamental cornerstones of various fields in modern astrophysics. The precision of these models is strongly limited by our lack of understanding of various internal mixing processes that significantly influence the lifetime of these objects, such as core overshoot, chemical mixing, or the internal differential rotation. Aims. Our goal is to calibrate models by extending the sample of available seismic studies of slowly pulsating B (SPB) stars, providing input for theoretical modelling efforts that will deliver precise constraints on the parameters describing the internal mixing processes in these objects. Methods. We used spectral synthesis and disentangling techniques to derive fundamental parameters and to determine precise orbital parameters from high-resolution spectra. We employed custom masks to construct light curves from the virtually uninterrupted four year long Kepler pixel data and used standard time-series analysis tools to construct a set of significant frequencies for each target. These sets were first filtered from combination frequencies, and then screened for period spacing patterns. Results. We detect gravity mode period series of modes, of the same degree l with consecutive radial order n, in four new and one revisited SPB star. These series (covering typically 10 to 40 radial orders) are clearly influenced by moderate to fast rotation and carry signatures of chemical mixing processes. Furthermore, they are predominantly prograde dipole series. Our spectroscopic analysis, in addition to placing each object inside the SPB instability strip and identifying KIC 4930889 as an SB2 binary, reveals that KIC 11971405 is a fast rotator that shows very weak Be signatures. Together with the observed photometric outbursts this illustrates that this Be star is a fast rotating SPB star. We hypothesise that the outbursts might be connected to its very densely compressed oscillation spectrum.


Flax stems were subjected to microwave drying at controlled temperatures. The rate of drying was then compared with conventional hot air drying. The product temperature was maintained at 40°C, 60°C and 80°C for both microwave and hot air drying. The moisture content of flax stem was about 70% (wet basis). The microwave drying was conducted in a microwave apparatus which recorded mass, product temperature, incident microwave power, reflected microwave power and inlet/outlet air temperature. The final moisture content for experiment was set to 9% (wet basis). Microwave-convective drying ensured about 30% to 70% reduction of drying time for drying flax straw as compared to hot air drying. Curve fitting with different mathematical models were carried out and all the models were fitted well for both hot air and microwave drying. The tensile strength of flax straw, measured with an Instron apparatus, increased with an increase in the processing temperature of both processes. Hot air dried flax straw showed the greatest tensile strength and modulus of elasticity at processing temperatures of 60°C and 80°C with a significant difference.


Epitaxial Co40Fe40B20 and Co55Fe45 (further – CoFe(B)) films were grown on Bi2Te3(0001) and Bi2Se3(0001) substrates by the laser molecular beam epitaxy (LMBE) technique at 200–400 °C. Structurally ordered ferromagnetic thin films were obtained on topological insulator surfaces for the first time. A body-centered cubic-type (bcc) crystalline structure of CoFe(B) with the (111) plane parallel to the (0001) plane of Bi2Te3 was observed, in contrast to the polycrystalline CoFe(B) film formed on Bi2Se3(0001) at RT using a high-temperature seeding layer. Using RHEED 3D reciprocal space mapping, the epitaxial relationships for the CoFe(B)/Bi2Te3 heterostructure were revealed. MOKE and AFM measurements showed the isotropic azimuthal in-plane behavior of the magnetization vector in CoFe(B)/Bi2Te3, in contrast to uniaxial magnetic anisotropy observed in CoFe(B)/Bi2Se3. XPS measurements showed a higher stability of CoFe(B) grown on Bi2Te3 towards oxidation, compared to that of CoFe(B) grown on Bi2Se3. XAS and XMCD measurements for both types of concerned nanostructures allowed the calculation of spin and orbital magnetic moments for Co and Fe. Additionally, we have studied the crystalline structure and magnetic properties of the CoFe(B)/BiTeI system with giant Rashba splitting.


Generating a readable summary that describes the functionality of a program is known as source code summarization. In this task, learning code representation by modeling the pairwise relationship between code tokens to capture their long-range dependencies is crucial. To learn code representation for summarization, we explore the Transformer model that uses a self-attention mechanism and has shown to be effective in capturing long-range dependencies. In this work, we show that despite the approach is simple, it outperforms the state-of-the-art techniques by a significant margin. We perform extensive analysis and ablation studies that reveal several important findings, e.g., the absolute encoding of source code tokens' position hinders, while relative encoding significantly improves the summarization performance. We have made our code publicly available to facilitate future research.


Abstract The capillary electrophoresis (CE)-mass spectrometry (MS) interface is anticipated to have pivotal roles to play in biomarker discovery, elucidation and validation, and in diagnostics, as well as in drug discovery. We are developing a CE-MS system as the natural extension of our Label-Free Intrinsic Imaging (LFiI™) platform, allowing a large increase in analytical power. One of the most powerful analytical tools in bio-analytical science applications is the mass spectrometer, allowing identification and extraordinary resolving power. However, this instrument too has shortcomings – it really needs a separation system ahead of it. Traditionally liquid chromatogaphy (LC) or 2D-gel separation have been coupled to MS with relative robustness. However LC techniques are not ideally suited to the analysis of biomolecules, with the use of denaturing solvents, expensive columns etc. while flat gel systems have serious shortcomings in sensitivity, reproducibility, dynamic range, quantification and throughput. These are largely overcome with capillary approaches, such as the Label Free Intrinsic Imaging system, the Peregrine, developed by deltaDOT Ltd of London. The CE-MS interface being developed by deltaDOT QSTP (Qatar Science and Technology Park) will be based on our real-time pattern recognition known as 'predictive trajectories' ('PT') and biomolecular switching on the LFiI platform, to allow specific protein bands, selected 'on the fly', to be separated and quantified, before they undergo trypsin digestion, injection and full MS analysis in a Waters high-definition mass spectrometer ('Synapt'). Such an interface considerably reduces the system noise by giving a switch opportunity to analyse selected bands of interest from the bulk of background buffer and highly concentrated proteins of low interest. Another significant advantage of such an approach would arise from a more coherent signal where peptide fragments of the same protein would elute together, as opposed to traditional liquid chromatography where any peptide fragments could come from any proteins from the sample, requiring heavy and slow analyses processing. Based on work in our QSTP labs, we present preliminary data of analyses undertaken with partners in Qatar University on a range of proteomic targets and other analytes. We show how the unique combination of LFiI + PT + HDMS Q-Tof can provide a significant enhancement in analytical power.


The pulp yield of orange tree wood was tested under various conditions including processing with soda-anthraquinone (soda-AQ), kraft-anthraquinone (kraft-AQ), or ethanol under different temperature, time, reagent concentration, and PFI laboratory beater beating regimes. Beating grade and stretch properties were studied, with a view to identifying the optimum operating conditions. Polynomial equations were derived that generally reproduced the dependent variables, with errors in most cases much less than 20%. Kraft-AQ pulping was the most efficient. The values of the tensile, burst, and tear indices obtained with kraft-AQ (78.04 Nm/g, 4.84 kN/g, and 2.97 mNm2/g, respectively), were in most cases higher than those found for soda-AQ and ethanol pulps. Using lower values of operational conditions than those required to maximize the studied paper properties (170 °C, 65 min, 13% active alkali, and 2700 number of PFI beating revolutions), it was possible to provide a more energy- and chemically-efficient process for industrial facilities.


Head movements during brain imaging using high resolution positron emission tomography (PET) impair the image quality which, along with the improvement of the spatial resolution of PET scanners, in general, raises the importance of motion correction. Here, we present a new design for an automatic, movable, mechanical PET phantom to simulate patients' head movements while being scanned. This can be used for evaluating motion correction methods. A low-cost phantom controlled by a rotary stage motor was built and tested for axial rotations of 1°-10° with the multiple acquisition frame method. The phantom is able to perform stepwise and continuous axial rotations with submillimeter accuracy, and the movements are repeatable. The scans were acquired on the high resolution research tomograph dedicated brain scanner. The scans were reconstructed with the new 3-D ordered subset expectation maximization algorithm with modeling of the point spread function (3DOSEM-PSF), and they were corrected for motions based on external tracking information using the Polaris Vicra real-time stereo motion-tracking system. The new automatic, movable phantom has a robust design and is a potential quality assessment tool for the development and evaluation of future motion correction methods.


PET18FDG is an imaging diagnostic technique that shows changes in glycolitic metabolism that appear at a very early phases in the tumoral process. The main limitation of PET in breast cancer is the detection of small tumor lesions and axillary micrometastases. However it offers important information in the staging of high risk patients, in clinical relapse or in therapeutic evaluation. The new PET-CT devices offer advantages over conventional techniques. It provides a greater precision in the localization of tumoral foci. In spite of current difficulties for clinical applications, fluoro-estradiol (18F-ES) offers the possibilty of studying the presence of estrogenic receptors both in the primary and in the metastases. It may prove to be a useful tool to obtain information about therapeutic management and prognosis of breast cancer.


Monitoring of tool wear in milling operations is essential for achieving the desired dimensional accuracy and surface finish of a machined workpiece. Although there are numerous statistical models and artificial intelligence techniques available for monitoring the wear of cutting tools, these techniques cannot pin point which cutting edge of the tool, or which insert in the case of indexable tooling, is worn or broken. Currently, the task of monitoring the wear on the tool cutting edges is carried out by the operator who performs a manual inspection, causing undesirable stoppages of machine tools and consequently resulting in costs incurred from lost productivity. The present study is concerned with the development of a flute tracking system to segment signals related to each physical flute of a cutter with three flutes used in an end milling operation. The purpose of the system is to monitor the cutting condition for individual flutes separately in order to determine their progressive wear rates and to predict imminent tool failure. The results of this study clearly show that signals associated with each flute can be effectively segmented using the proposed flute tracking system. Furthermore, the results illustrate that by segmenting the sensor signal by flutes it is possible to investigate the wear in each physical cutting edge of the cutting tool. These findings are significant in that they facilitate the online condition monitoring of a cutting tool for each specific flute without the need for operators/engineers to perform manual inspections of the tool. Keywords—Tool condition monitoring, tool wear prediction, milling operation, flute tracking.