Abstract Given the accumulating evidence that children of parents with psychiatric disorders are themselves at risk of developing problems, recent research has begun to investigate the impact that maternal eating disorders may have upon offspring. The relevant literature is reviewed, and the possible mechanisms whereby parental eating disorders can influence child development are discussed. The clinical implications of the findings are then considered, and an approach to working with families with young children is described. This approach uses careful observation together with sympathetic and sensitive support to help parents recognize the way their own overriding attitudes and concerns about food may interfere with their perceptions of and their ability to meet their children's needs.


My research focuses on constructing and analyzing systems of intelligent, autonomous agents. These agents may include people, physical robots, or software programs acting as assistants, teammates, opponents, or trading partners. In a large class of multi-agent scenarios, the effect of local interactions between agents can be compactly represented as a network structure such as a distributed constraint optimization problem (DCOP) for cooperative domains. Collaboration between large groups of agents, given such a network, can be difficult to achieve; often agents can only manage to collaborate in smaller subgroups of a certain size, in order to find a workable solution in a timely manner. The goal of my thesis is to provide algorithms to enable networks of agents that are bounded in this way to quickly find high-quality solutions, as well as theoretical results to understand key properties of these solutions. Relevant domains for my work include personal assistant agents, sensor networks, and teams of autonomous robots.
In particular, this thesis considers the case in which agents optimize a DCOP by forming groups of one or more agents until no group of k or fewer agents can possibly improve the solution; we define this type of local optimum, and any algorithm guaranteed to reach such a local optimum, as k-optimal. In this document, I present four key contributions related to k-optimality. The first set of results are worst-case guarantees on the solution quality of k-optima in a DCOP. These guarantees can help determine an appropriate k-optimal algorithm, or possibly an appropriate constraint graph structure, for agents to use in situations where the cost of coordination between agents must be weighed against the quality of the solution reached. The second set of results are upper bounds on the number of k-optima that can exist in a DCOP. Because each joint action consumes resources, knowing the maximal number of k-optimal joint actions that could exist for a given DCOP allows us to allocate sufficient resources for a given level of k, or, alternatively, choosing an appropriate level of k- optimality, given fixed resource. The third contribution is a set of 2-optimal and 3-optimal algorithms and an experimental analysis of the performance of 1-, 2-, and 3-optimal algorithms on several types of DCOPs. The final contribution of this thesis is a case study of the application of k-optimal DCOP algorithms and solutions to the problem of the formation of human teams spanning multiple organizations. Given a particular specification of a human team (such as a task force to respond to an emergency) and a pool of possible team members, a DCOP can be formulated to match this specification. A set of k-optimal solutions to the DCOP represents a set of diverse, locally optimal options from which a human commander can choose the team that will be used.


This paper introduces the real-time flash flood detection method for stationary surveillance cameras. It can be applied for rural and urban areas and capable of working during day time. The background subtraction was used to detect all changes appear in a scene. After this step, many pixel belonging to the same moving objects may be divided. They are united by morphological closing. Too small separate objects are then removed form the scene. Color probability was calculated for all the pixels belonging to a foreground mask and connected components with low probability value were filtered out. Finally, results were improved by edge density and boundary roughness. The most time consuming step was implemented in parallel using CUDA. Real-time performance was achieved in this way. The algorithm was tested on publicly accepted video.


The new economic projections from the Congressional Budget Office show the economy remaining well below its potential level of output until 2014. The projections show the unemployment rate averaging 10.2 percent in 2010 and gradually edging down to the long-term sustainable rate of 4.8 percent by 2014. Over this 4 year period, the workforce will face a substantially higher risk of unemployment or underemployment due to insufficient demand in the economy. This paper highlights some of the main implications of CBO's new economic projections.


While the immediate dangers from the recent financial crisis have abated --much of the financial system has returned to profitability and the economy is growing, albeit slowly --the damage to the economy will linger for years. Among the many impacts is the problem that may be most acute in the United States: how state and local governments and private companies will honor their obligations under defined benefit (DB) pension plans. Institutional investors also confront new difficulties in the low-interest-rate environment that has prevailed since the onset of the crisis. East Asian economies, namely in Japan, Korea, and China, also face pension issues as their populations age. In Growing Old , experts from academia and the private sector consider the hard questions regarding the future of pension plans and institutional money management, both in the United States and in Asia. This volume is the latest collaboration between the Brookings Institution and the Nomura Institute of Capital Markets Research on issues confronting the financial sector of common interest to audiences in the United States and Japan. Contributors: Olivia S. Mitchell (Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania), Akiko Nomura (Nomura Institute of Capital Markets Research), Robert Novy-Marx (Simon Graduate School of Business, University of Rochester), Betsy Palmer (MFS Investment Management), Robert Pozen (Harvard Business School), Joshua Rauh (Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University), Natalie Shapiro (MFS Investment Management)


Treatment of Alzheimer's disease with drugs that target single mechanisms has not been successful.  Therefore, new approaches must be considered. Since late onset AD is an age-related disease it shares many of the same mechanistic processes of growing old and should benefit from a multidrug targeting approach designed to enhance healthy aging. Aging intervention drugs are available to combine as cocktails for expanding the coverage from just one to multiple aging pathways. This geroscience concept is set to replace the narrow-focused neuroscience approach of trying to identify a single magic bullet target that has seen only failure. Scientific review groups and funding agencies must recognize the opportunity to fund preclinical and clinical research before Alzheimer's disease patients can benefit from a multitargeted anti-aging approach that is currently underappreciated both clinically and scientifically. Keywords: Alzheimer's disease, aging, aging processes, drug cocktails, Alzheimer's disease intervention


Renewable electrical energy production, such as wind power or photovoltaics, faces temporal fluctuations and spatial separation of source and sink creating the need for suitable storage and conversion technologies. Furthermore, a bio-based economy needs technologies allowing the on-demand and on-site conversion of biomass to platform chemicals and chemical energy carriers. This study combines microbial and electrochemical conversions, allowing production of chemicals from biomass and electricity. Carboxylic acids (CAs) are produced by anaerobic conversion of a renewable feedstock with reactor microbiomes. CAs are subsequently electrochemically upgraded to yield energy-dense alkanes. We present a proof-of-concept based on experimental data for each step in two independent case studies at laboratory scale. During continuous CA fermentation from corn beer, mainly n-caproic and n-caprylic acid were produced yielding in total 0.638 g COD g−1 COD [CA/corn beer]. A batch system fed with corn silage yielded mainly n-butyric acid (0.207 g COD g−1 COD [CA/corn silage]), and some n-caproic acid (0.030 g COD g−1 COD [CA/corn silage]). The CAs were removed from the fermentation broth using a pertraction system. Subsequently, the CAs were electrochemically converted via Kolbe reaction and other reaction pathways. Depending on the carbon chain length of the CAs, liquid alkanes (from medium-chain CAs) or gaseous alkanes and alcohols (from short-chain CAs) were gained. Coulombic efficiencies of up to 80% were achieved despite the alkaline (pH 9) electrolysis conditions that are dictated by the pertraction system. Remarkably, CAs with a carbon chain length of six or more C-atoms were successfully converted to liquid alkanes at a high yield (in total: 0.480 g COD g−1 COD [hydrocarbon/corn beer]). This was achieved at an energy input of only 0.100 kW h per mol of converted CA (considering the electrochemical half cell reaction). Noteworthily, the electrochemical CA conversion is much faster than the CA fermentation, allowing intermittent electrolysis during periods of excess electrical power. We demonstrate that the finally gained product is suitable as a drop-in fuel without any further downstream processing. The future general potential as well as requirements for the concept are discussed.


The convergence of the two widely used parallel programming paradigms, shared- memory and distributed- shared-memory parallel programming models, into a unified parallel programming model is crucial for parallel computing to become the next mainstream programming paradigm. We study the design differences and the performance issues of two parallel programming models: a shared- memory programming model (OpenMP) and a distributed- shared programming model (BSP). The study was carried out by designing a compiler for translating BSP parallel programs to an OpenMP programming model called BSP20MP. Analysis of the compiler outcome, and of the performance of the compiled programs, show that the two models are based on very similar underlying principles and mechanisms.


Development of sustainable termite management interventions in any ecosystem requires adequate knowledge of the ecological interactions between termites and other ecosystem components, diversity and composition of termite assemblages and proper understanding of farmers' ethno-ecological knowledge of the termite problem. To this effect, a study was conducted in the rangeland ecosystem in semi-arid Nakasongola of Uganda with intention to generate information to aid in the formulation of sustainable termite management practices in the area. The objectives of the study were: (1) to investigate farmers' ethno-ecological knowledge of the termite problem; (2) to examine the termite assemblage structure and (3) to analyze the effect of ecological factors on composition and foraging intensity of subterranean termites on the grazing lands. The study involved administration of pre-tested semi-structured questionnaires on 120 randomly selected respondents to capture information on farmers' perceptions of the genesis and prevalence of the termite problem, factors enhancing termite damage on vegetation, temporal and spatial variability of damage, diversity of termite species and potential termite control strategies. The termite assemblage structure was established by collecting termite samples following a standardized direct search sampling protocol. The standardized sampling protocol that involved sampling for termite species and selected soil and vegetation variables in selected sections of the belt transects was used to analyze the effect of ecological factors on composition and foraging intensity of subterranean termites. The factor-effect relationships were analyzed using principal component and canonical correspondence analysis, and modeled by non-linear regression. Kruskal-Wallis test showed that there was a significant difference (X2= 451.5, P>O.OOOI) among farmers' ranking of factors responsible for the destructive behaviour of termites on rangeland vegetation. Overgrazing and deforestation were significantly (X2= 156, P>O.OOOI) ranked higher than other factors. Use of chemical insecticides and removal of the queen from mounds were reported as the most common control methods attempted by 74% and 30% of the farmers respectively. However, use of cattle manure and heaps of organic materials were noted as potential ecologically sustainable termite control strategies that require further evaluation and improvement. The termite assemblage in the study area constituted of 16 termite species from eight genera, three sub-families and one family. Species from the sub-family Macrotermitinae and genus Macrotermes constituted 69 and 38% of the total number of species sampled respectively. The assemblages comprised of Group II (wood, litter, dung and grass feeders) and Group IV (true soil feeders) feeding groups, with most of the species belonging to Group II. Most of the species were noted to nest in epigeal and hypogeal nests with a few species nesting in wood. Results from nonlinear regression of percentage of bait consumed with basal cover indicated that highest consumption of baits (95%) occurred within a range of 55-60% basal cover beyond which the amount of bait consumed reduced. Litter and biomass quantity, pH and bulk density were noted as the most influential environmental variables driving the variability in termite composition while basal cover was the major determinant of foraging intensity. The results from the study implied that rangeland management techniques that enhance accumulation of adequate litter and maintenance of adequate basal cover are critical in mitigating termite damage on rangeland vegetation.


We present an experimental study of nonlinearity observed in a dc driven semiconductor-gas discharge system. The plasma glow is generated using planar electrodes in a vacuum chamber filled with nitrogen gas at partial atmospheric pressure. The discharge behaves oscillatory in time, showing single and sometimes multiple periodicities in plasma current and voltage measurements. Harmonic frequency generations and period doubling cascade are investigated experimentally by varying the applied voltage. To identify the stability condition, numerical simulations are conducted using COMSOL® Multiphysics software. The discharge is modeled as a one dimensional plasma slab. Numerical results are in good agreement with the experimental measurements.


CALL practitioners do not generally use the word 'modality' when instructing their students (for instance they don't say 'make sure you carry out this interview using the audio modality', or 'share your thoughts on your partner's ideas using the commenting modality'). On the other hand many researchers do use this word, yet all too often fail to define what they mean by it (or by similar terms such as 'mode', 'tool' or 'affordance') which they also, confusingly, bring into play. The idea of 'diversity' in such a context comes close to taking on overtones of 'mix' or even 'mess'. It is the author's intention, in subjecting the notion of 'modality' to a critical examination, to show how lack of clarity in published research and lack of familiarity among the CALL practitioner community are deleterious to the future of technology-mediated language learning. The author also hopes to suggest how 'modality' can be reconceptualised so as to facilitate our understanding of the benefits to be expected from CALL, however much 'technology' changes, in its current dynamic state of development


Computational text-level discourse analysis mostly happens within Rhetorical Structure Theory (RST), whose structures have classically been presented as constituency trees, and relies on data from the RST Discourse Treebank (RST-DT); as a result, the RST discourse parsing community has largely borrowed from the syntactic constituency parsing community. The standard evaluation procedure for RST discourse parsers is thus a simplified variant of PARSEVAL, and most RST discourse parsers use techniques that originated in syntactic constituency parsing. In this article, we isolate a number of conceptual and computational problems with the constituency hypothesis. We then examine the consequences, for the implementation and evaluation of RST discourse parsers, of adopting a dependency perspective on RST structures, a view advocated so far only by a few approaches to discourse parsing. While doing that, we show the importance of the notion of headedness of RST structures. We analyze RST discourse parsing as dependency parsing by adapting to RST a recent proposal in syntactic parsing that relies on head-ordered dependency trees, a representation isomorphic to headed constituency trees. We show how to convert the original trees from the RST corpus, RST-DT, and their binarized versions used by all existing RST parsers to head-ordered dependency trees. We also propose a way to convert existing simple dependency parser output to constituent trees. This allows us to evaluate and to compare approaches from both constituent-based and dependency-based perspectives in a unified framework, using constituency and dependency metrics. We thus propose an evaluation framework to compare extant approaches easily and uniformly, something the RST parsing community has lacked up to now. We can also compare parsers' predictions to each other across frameworks. This allows us to characterize families of parsing strategies across the different frameworks, in particular with respect to the notion of headedness. Our experiments provide evidence for the conceptual similarities between dependency parsers and shift-reduce constituency parsers, and confirm that dependency parsing constitutes a viable approach to RST discourse parsing.


We report a case of Group B Streptococcus (GBS) meningitis in a 10 month old infant. He presented with a history of pyrexia for two days and vomiting for one day. He was admitted and became irritable within a few hours. Full septic screen was performed. CRP was 112 and FBC showed neutrophilia. Cloudy CSF showed a predominantly polymorph leucocytosis and gram positive cocci were seen. The provisional diagnosis was pneumococcal meningitis. He was started on IV dexamethasone and ceftriaxone. Both parents are French - the baby was born in the UK at term. His mother did not have a vaginal swab perinatally. There were no neonatal problems or previous significant illnesses. He had received vaccines per UK schedule. Clinical improvement was noted within 24 hours of starting treatment. Both CSF and blood cultures grew Group B streptococci. As per advice from the infectious diseases team, his dexamethasone course was completed, and his antibiotic treatment rationalised. GBS is a common pathogen in the neonatal period and early infancy, and the characteristics of early onset (first week of life) and late onset (7-89 days) infection have been well documented. GBS infection has also occasionally been reported in older infants and children,1 though relatively little is known about GBS infection beyond 3 months of age. It has been described as 'Ultra late GBS infection'2 or 'late late GBS infection'. The epidemiological data from a french study suggests that ultra late GBS meningitis is a same clinical and bacteriological entity as late onset GBS meninigitis.2 Ultra late GBS meningitis seems to be less severe than pneumococcal meningitis in late infancy.3 Using our case as an example, we present and discuss the relevant published literature about ultra late group B streptococcal meningitis.


Monocytes release growth factors that regulate development of the lymphatic system. Lymphatic vessels are important for immune responses and resorption of dietary fats and, although close to the blood circulatory vessels, form a completely separate system with only two exceptions where the lymphatic system connects to the venous circulatory system. In adult mice, myeloid cells are sources of the lymphangiogenic growth factors, vascular endothelial growth factors C and D (VEGF-C, VEGF-D), but the role that myeloid cells play in the embryonic development of the lymphatic system is unknown. Knockout of the receptor tyrosine kinase Syk is embryonic lethal in mice due to extensive blood vessel–lymphatic malformations and lack of proper separation. Böhmer et al. examined in detail the morphological defects of the Syk–/– embryos and found lymphatic hyperplasia resulting in extensive contact between blood vessel endothelial cells and lymphatic endothelial cells (LECs). With genetic tracing (introduction of a reporter controlled by the Syk promoter), the authors determined that Syk was not expressed by the LECs but instead was present in cells characterized by marker analysis and morphology as predominantly a specific type of monocyte, M2 monocytes. The abundance of these monocytes was increased in the skin of Syk–/– mouse embryos, and these Syk–/– skin monocytes stimulated mouse endothelial cell sprouting in vitro. Skin monocytes from the Syk–/– mice exhibited enhanced transcript abundance for multiple angiogenic growth factors, including VEGF-D. Both wild-type and Syk–/– skin monocytes exhibited lymphangiogenic activity in a skin transplant model, with the knockout cells stimulating more branch sprouting at lower cell densities. The lymphangiogenic properties of both wild-type and knockout cells were blocked by inhibiting VEGF-C and VEGF-D activity. Thus, during development, myeloid cells in the skin release angiogenic factors that stimulate lymphogenesis, and loss of Syk results in enhanced production of these factors, causing lymphatic endothelial cell overgrowth. R. Böhmer, B. Neuhaus, S. Bühren, D. Zhang, M. Stehling, B. Böck, F. Kiefer, Regulation of developmental lymphangiogenesis by Syk+ leukocytes. Dev. Cell 18, 437–449 (2010). [PubMed]


A fully updated version of the best-selling Essential Grammar in Use for Spanish learners. This version offers an answer key and new Additional Exercises for further practice. The fantastic, new CD-ROM provides a wide array of interactive activities and games for extra practice of grammar covered at this level, focusing on areas that Spanish learners find particularly difficult.


Software project scheduling in dynamic and uncertain environments is of significant importance to real-world software development. Yet most studies schedule software projects by considering static and deterministic scenarios only, which may cause performance deterioration or even infeasibility when facing disruptions. In order to capture more dynamic features of software project scheduling than the previous work, this paper formulates the project scheduling problem by considering uncertainties and dynamic events that often occur during software project development, and constructs a mathematical model for the resulting multi-objective dynamic project scheduling problem (MODPSP), where the four objectives of project cost, duration, robustness and stability are considered simultaneously under a variety of practical constraints. In order to solve MODPSP appropriately, a multi-objective evolutionary algorithm based proactive-rescheduling method is proposed, which generates a robust schedule predictively and adapts the previous schedule in response to critical dynamic events during the project execution. Extensive experimental results on 21 problem instances, including three instances derived from real-world software projects, show that our novel method is very effective. By introducing the robustness and stability objectives, and incorporating the dynamic optimization strategies specifically designed for MODPSP, our proactive-rescheduling method achieves a very good overall performance in a dynamic environment.


We study \emph{TV regularization}, a widely used technique for eliciting structured sparsity. In particular, we propose efficient algorithms for computing prox-operators for $\ell_p$-norm TV. The most important among these is $\ell_1$-norm TV, for whose prox-operator we present a new geometric analysis which unveils a hitherto unknown connection to taut-string methods. This connection turns out to be remarkably useful as it shows how our geometry guided implementation results in efficient weighted and unweighted 1D-TV solvers, surpassing state-of-the-art methods. Our 1D-TV solvers provide the backbone for building more complex (two or higher-dimensional) TV solvers within a modular proximal optimization approach. We review the literature for an array of methods exploiting this strategy, and illustrate the benefits of our modular design through extensive suite of experiments on (i) image denoising, (ii) image deconvolution, (iii) four variants of fused-lasso, and (iv) video denoising. To underscore our claims and permit easy reproducibility, we provide all the reviewed and our new TV solvers in an easy to use multi-threaded C++, Matlab and Python library.


Forests and woodlands occupy an estimated 650 million ha or 21.8 per cent of the land area in Africa (FAO 2005). These account for 16.8 per cent of the global forest cover (FAO 2005). The distribution of forests and woodlands varies from one sub-region to the other, with Northern Africa having the least forest cover while Central Africa has the densest cover. The Congo basin in Central Africa is home to the world's second largest continuous block of tropical rain forest (FAO 2003a). Africa's forests and woodlands can be classified into nine general categories including tropical rain forests, tropical moist forests, tropical dry forests, tropical shrubs, tropical mountain forest, subtropical humid forests, subtropical dry forests, subtropical mountain forests and plantations (FAO 2003a). Mangrove forests cover 3 390 107 ha (FAO 2003a). Only 32.5 million ha of forests and woodlands, or 5 per cent of the total forest area, are formally protected (FAO 2003a). The forest sector in Africa plays an important role in the livelihoods of many communities and in the economic development of many countries. This is particularly so in Western, Central and Eastern Africa where there is considerable forest cover. Africa has a high per capita forest cover at 0.8 ha per person compared to 0.6 ha globally (FAO 2002). On average, forests account for 6 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the Africa, which is the highest in the world (NEPAD 2003). In Uganda, for example, forests and woodlands are now recognized as an important component of the nation's stock of economic assets and they contribute in excess of US$546.6 million to the economy through forestry, tourism, agriculture and energy (Emerton and Muramira 1999). Forests and woodlands also contribute to the long-term social and economic development goals of New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) and can play an important role in addressing the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and meeting its targets. They provide energy, food, timber and non-timber forest products (NTFPs) and are important contributors to wealth and health at the household, community, national, sub-regional, regional or even global level. The MDGs and their targets, as well as progress towards them, are shown in Annex 1. Forests and woodlands are also key components of the environment and provide essential services that are critical to combating land degradation and climate change, as well as to conserving wetlands, coastal areas and freshwater systems. In this regard, the …


Rapid gravity filters used in the treatment of drinking water are subject to small
continuously occurring flow rate fluctuations known as surges. Large, step changes in
the rate of flow have been shown to have a detrimental effect on filtrate quality.
However, less is known about the effects of surging flow on rapid filter performance.
Measurements by previous researchers have found that surges from 2 to 10 % of the
flow rate are common and can occur as many as one hundred times per minute. It has
been suggested that surging may significantly influence rapid filter performance but
the effect has yet to be confirmed under well-controlled conditions and the
mechanisms critically examined. Measurements taken by this author at local water
treatment plants confirmed the presence of surging flow in the rapid gravity filters of
a similar nature to other researchers' findings. Evidence suggested the degree of
surging present was related to the design of the filtrate piping and some design
recommendations are made on this basis. Two rapid gravity filters were developed in
the laboratory to investigate the influence of surging flow on filter performance. The
filters were constructed from Perspex pipe and comprised 600 mm of 0.5 to 1.0 mm
filter sand. The filters were operated at 30°C at an approach velocity of 8.0 metres per
hour with a test suspension of PVC particles. Reproducible performance was
established before applying surges to one filter only. A range of surging
characteristics similar to those observed at full-scale plants was applied during the test
programme. Measurements of head loss and turbidity were taken at a range of depths
within the filter media periodically during each test. Samples were collected for
particle size distribution analysis from selected tests. The surging flow was found to
inhibit the performance of the laboratory filters. The fluctuations in flow rate were
found to reduce the removal efficiency of turbidity' and retard the rate of head loss
development. The surges were found to inhibit the removal of all particle sizes present
in the test suspension. The magnitude of the effect on filter performance was found to
be dependent on the magnitude and frequency of occurrence of the surges applied.
The experimental results obtained suggest that surging does have an effect on full-
scale rapid filter performance and has implications for drinking water quality.


The annotation noise in crowd counting is not modeled in traditional crowd counting algorithms based on crowd density maps. In this paper, we first model the annotation noise using a random variable with Gaussian distribution, and derive the pdf of the crowd density value for each spatial location in the image. We then approximate the joint distribution of the density values (i.e., the distribution of density maps) with a full covariance multivariate Gaussian density, and derive a low-rank approximate for tractable implementation. We use our loss function to train a crowd density map estimator and achieve state-of-the-art performance on three large-scale crowd counting datasets, which confirms its effectiveness. Examination of the predictions of the trained model shows that it can correctly predict the locations of people in spite of the noisy training data, which demonstrates the robustness of our loss function to annotation noise.


Using an alternative approach for evaluating the Bit-Error Rate (BER), we present a numerical and experimental investigation of the performance of phase-modulated optical communication systems in the presence of nonlinear phase noise and dispersion. The numerical method is based on the well known Karhunen-Lo;eve expansion combined with a linearization technique of the Nonlinear Schr odinger Equation (NLSE) to account for the nonlinear interaction between signal and noise. Our numerical results show a good agreement with experiments.


This thesis investigates the use of the numerical modeling tools LS-DYNA and USA in modeling general far-field underwater explosions (UNDEX) by modeling a three-dimensional box barge that is subjected to a far-field underwater explosion. Past UNDEX models using these tools have not been validated by experiment and most are limited to very specific problems because of the simplifying assumptions they make. USA is a boundary element code that requires only the structural model of the box barge. LS-DYNA is a dynamic finite element code and requires both the structural model and the surrounding fluid model, which is modeled with acoustic pressure elements. Analysis of the box barge problem results finds that the program USA is a valid tool for modeling the initial shock response of surface ships when cavitation effects are not considered. LS-DYNA models are found to be very dependent on the accuracy of the fluid mesh. The accuracy of the fluid mesh is determined by the ability of the mesh to adequately capture the peak pressure and discontinuity of the shock wave. The peak pressure captured by the model also determines the accuracy of the cavitation region captured in the fluid model. Assumptions made in the formulation of the fluid model causes potential inaccurate fluid-structure interaction and boundary condition problems cause further inaccuracies in the box barge model. These findings provide a base of knowledge for the current capabilities of UNDEX modeling in USA and LS-DYNA from which they can be improved in future work.


Targeting individual consumers has become a hallmark of direct and digital marketing, particularly as it has become easier to identify customers as they interact repeatedly with a company. However, across a wide variety of contexts and tracking technologies, companies find that customers can not be consistently identified which leads to a substantial fraction of anonymous visits in any CRM database. We develop a Bayesian imputation approach that allows us to probabilistically assign anonymous sessions to users, while ac- counting for a customer's demographic information, frequency of interaction with the firm, and activities the customer engages in. Our approach simultaneously estimates a hierarchical model of customer behavior while probabilistically imputing which customers made the anonymous visits. We present both synthetic and real data studies that demonstrate our approach makes more accurate inference about individual customers' preferences and responsiveness to marketing, relative to common approaches to anonymous visits: nearest- neighbor matching or ignoring the anonymous visits. We show how companies who use the proposed method will be better able to target individual customers, as well as infer how many of the anonymous visits are made by new customers.


BACKGROUND There is still controversy about association of Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection with coronary heart disease (CHD). This study designed to evaluate this association in a sample of Iranians Population. METHODS Medical and drug history as well as fasting blood samples of 112 consecutive patients who were candidate for coronary angiography were taken on catheterization day. Fasting blood samples were used to measure C-reactive protein (CRP), anti H. pylori immunoglobulin G (anti H. pylori IgG) and interlukine-6 (IL6). According to angiography reports, participants were divided into patients with (n = 62) or without CHD (n = 43). To compare the association between H. pylori infection with CHD, multivariate logistic regression tests were used by adjusting sex and age, age and sex plus history of diabetes mellitus (DM), Dyslipidemia (DLP), and/or hypertension (HTN), CRP status and IL-6 level. RESULTS Sixty two patients with CHD and 43 participants without CHD were enrolled in the present study. The mean ages of patients with and without CHD were 62.4 261 9.5 and 59.0 261 10.5 years respectively. Multivariate logistic regression analysis after adjusting for history of DM and/or DLP and/or HTN plus CRP status and IL-6 level showed significant association of H. pylori infection with CHD (OR 3.18, 95%CI 1.08-9.40). CONCLUSION H. pylori infection is one of the probable risk factors for CHD independent of history of DM, DLP, HTN, CRP status and IL-6 level.


Flutter stability is a dominant design constraint of modern turbines. Thus, flutter-tolerant designs are currently explored, where the resulting vibrations remain within acceptable bounds. In particular, friction damping has the potential to yield limit cycle oscillations (LCOs) in the presence of a flutter instability. To predict such LCOs, it is the current practice to model the aerodynamic forces in terms of aerodynamic influence coefficients for a linearized structural model with fixed oscillation frequency. This approach neglects that both the nonlinear contact interactions and the aerodynamic stiffness cause a change in the deflection shape and the frequency of the LCO. This, in turn, may have a substantial effect on the aerodynamic damping. The goal of this paper is to assess the importance of these neglected interactions. To this end, a state-of-the-art aero-elastic model of a low pressure turbine blade row is considered, undergoing nonlinear frictional contact interactions in the tip shroud interfaces. The LCOs are computed with a fully coupled harmonic balance method, which iteratively computes the Fourier coefficients of structural deformation and conservative flow variables, as well as the a priori unknown frequency. The coupled algorithm was found to provide excellent computational robustness and efficiency. Moreover, a refinement of the conventional energy method is developed and assessed, which accounts for both the nonlinear contact boundary conditions and the linearized aerodynamic influence. It is found that the conventional energy method may not predict a limit cycle oscillation at all while the novel approach presented here can.


This thesis aims to explore both compositional and performance techniques associated with music for the left hand and the circumstances of its performance, thereby allowing a much clearer appraisal than has previously been available of canonic works for the medium. Leopold Godowsky's transcriptions of Chopin's Etudes, op. 10 and op. 25, in which the left hand alone persuasively executes music originally written for two hands, offer a starting point for such exploration. Maurice Ravel's Concerto pour la main gauche and Benjamin Britten's Diversions, op. 21 are two major works written specifically for the left-handed pianist; using both received and recontextualised techniques, they reveal quite different approaches to the medium. The commissioner of both was Paul Wittgenstein. His alterations to the pieces reveal both his priorities as a left-handed pianist and his creative and expressive impact on the works. As the artistic identity of the solo performer is so strikingly defined in these works, such a study invites us not only to consider issues related to left-hand pianism but also the contrasting claims of performer and composer, the possible manipulation of works in the formation of a performer's persona and, ultimately, the relationship between the score and performance itself. The impact of research undertaken for this thesis on my performance is investigated using Robert Saxton's Chacony for left hand as a case study.


We study the computational difficulty of the problem of finding fixed points of nonexpansive mappings in uniformly convex Banach spaces. We show that the fixed point sets of computable nonexpansive self-maps of a nonempty, computably weakly closed, convex and bounded subset of a computable real Hilbert space are precisely the nonempty, co-r.e. weakly closed, convex subsets of the domain. A uniform version of this result allows us to determine the Weihrauch degree of the Browder-Goehde-Kirk theorem in computable real Hilbert space: it is equivalent to a closed choice principle, which receives as input a closed, convex and bounded set via negative information in the weak topology and outputs a point in the set, represented in the strong topology. While in finite dimensional uniformly convex Banach spaces, computable nonexpansive mappings always have computable fixed points, on the unit ball in infinite-dimensional separable Hilbert space the Browder-Goehde-Kirk theorem becomes Weihrauch-equivalent to the limit operator, and on the Hilbert cube it is equivalent to Weak Koenig's Lemma. In particular, computable nonexpansive mappings may not have any computable fixed points in infinite dimension. We also study the computational difficulty of the problem of finding rates of convergence for a large class of fixed point iterations, which generalise both Halpern- and Mann-iterations, and prove that the problem of finding rates of convergence already on the unit interval is equivalent to the limit operator.


Oxymetholone was given to 28 adults with chronic anemia from bone marrow disease. Changes in hematocrit and red cell mass were correlated with serial assessments of erythropoietin and erythropoiesis. Erythropoietin excretion was enhanced more than five-fold over the level expected for the hematocrit in 70% of the patients. Only 23% of the patients with an evaluable treatment trial increased their red cell mass by at least 20%. In all responders, the T ½ of 59 Fe disappearance ranged from 86-136 min and erythron iron turnover exceeded 0.25 mg/100 ml blood/day. A decline in serum iron concentration to the 50-100 µg/100 ml range after 1 mo of oxymetholone was frequently associated with a subsequent response to therapy. Patients with severe bone marrow failure, for whom frequent red cell transfusions were required, did not improve. The failure of other patients to respond was attributed to complicating factors that either impaired maximal erythropoietin production or restricted iron supply to the bone marrow. Hepatic toxicity was detected in less than 10% of treated patients. Results support the use of oxymetholone in the treatment of patients with moderate degrees of bone marrow failure and symptomatic anemia.


The origin of human ultrasociality—the ability to cooperate in huge groups of genetically unrelated individuals—has long interested evolutionary and social theorists, but there has been little systematic empirical research on the topic. The Historical Database of Sociocultural Evolution, which we introduce in this article, brings the available historical and archaeological data together in a way that will allow hypotheses concerning the origin of ultrasociality to be tested rigorously. In addition to describing the methodology informing the set-up of the database, our article introduces four hypotheses that we intend to test using the database. These hypotheses focus on the resource base, warfare, ritual, and religion, respectively. Ultimately the aim of our database is to offer a 'rapid discovery science' route to the study of the past. We believe our approach is not only highly complementary with existing traditions of enquiry in history and archaeology but will extend their intellectual scope and explanatory power.


The reliance on groundwater for irrigation is increasing in Australia and India, which is causing concerns to policy makers about energy consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Therefore, it is important to quantify the GHG emissions of all components of the groundwater‐based irrigation systems, over the entire life cycle to develop more environmentally friendly groundwater management strategies. This study identified and analysed energy use and GHG emissions associated with different components in the supply chain of groundwater‐based irrigation systems. An existing GHG emissions and energy‐accounting framework was adapted to enhance its capabilities by considering drilling techniques, water distribution and irrigation application methods. The results of this study highlighted that embodied and direct GHG emissions from drilling tube wells were higher in the Musi catchment, India, compared to South Australia. The study also highlighted that GHG emissions associated with water conveyance were higher for concrete and plastic‐lined channels than unlined channels. Drip irrigation systems in both countries were found to have more GHG emissions than gravity‐fed systems. Centre pivot systems were found to be emitting more than the drip systems in South Australia. We conclude that different components of the system have an impact on total GHG emissions and energy consumption for both countries. Any change in the most commonly used methods of drilling bore wells, water distribution in channels, and the irrigation methods, will have distinct impacts on energy consumption rates and GHG emissions. The developed conceptual framework provided a systematic complete analysis of the energy‐consuming and GHG‐emitting components associated with groundwater‐based irrigation systems. Policy makers and decision makers may use the developed framework to compare different system components to develop strategies that have minimal impact on the environment. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Abstract Houston, J.R. and Dean, R.G., 2012. Comparisons at tide-gauge locations of glacial isostatic adjustment predictions with global positioning system measurements. Glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA) is routinely used to adjust sea-level trends determined from tide-gauge data to improve estimates of worldwide sea-level rise. This adjustment may be appropriate for formerly glaciated high-latitude (referred to as FGHL) areas where vertical land motions due to GIA are large compared with motions produced by other phenomena. However, since GIA is only one component of vertical motion, does adjusting for it outside FGHL areas improve sea-level rise estimates or bias them? We compare global positioning system (GPS) gauge measurements with the vertical land-motion component of GIA predictions at 147 worldwide locations that are near tide gauges and outside FGHL areas and find remarkably little correlation. We analyze the data in several ways to determine the source of the lack of correlation. We also find that the average vertical motion for the 147 locations measured by GPS is subsidence, whereas the average GIA prediction is zero.


Asthma is an infectious condition which is heterogeneous and characterized by enhanced airway hyper response to external stimuli including irritants. Asthmatics could be more prone to environmental irritants than healthy citizens, that is, to react in lower quantities. The study also checked the empirical assistance for this speculation and analysed in what manner asthma is taken into consideration when establishing dosage limits and guideline values. The study found that experiments compared stable and asthmatic people are sometimes inconclusive. However, the available reports are underused by business and specialist committees respectively. Data for certain irritants show that asthmatics are three times more responsive than safe. The most plentiful data on sulphur dioxide found. A benchmark concentration study here showed a 9-fold intensity gap. Based on such results, when establishing exposure limits and recommendations for irritants a default measurement factor is recommended.


A simple method for designing adiabatic transitions between straight and curved waveguides is presented. This method results in lower coupling from guided to radiating modes than conventional methods based on introducing an abrupt offset at the junction point. With the new adiabatic transition design, a decrease of 5 to 10 dB in the low-level radiating light cone is found compared with the traditional method.


The aim of this paper is to study the relationship between the effective exchange rate of the dollar and the oil price dynamics from 1976 to 2013. We explore the links between financial factors (exchange rate, monetary policy, international liquidity) and the oil price volatility. Using a Bayesian time-varying parameter vector auto-regressive estimation we demonstrate that the "historical coincidence" of oil and financial crises can be explained by the specificities of the relationship between these two commodities. The results of this paper are twofold. The US Dollar effective exchange rate elasticity of crude oil prices is not constant across time and remains negative from 1989: a depreciation of the effective exchange rate of the dollar triggers an increase of crude oil prices. This paper also demonstrates the contagion of financial commodities markets development upon the global economy.


This study deals with addictive acts that exhibit a stable pattern not intervening with the normal routine of daily life. Nevertheless, in the long term such behaviour may result in health damage. Alcohol consumption is an example of such addictive habit. The aim is to describe the process of addiction as a dynamical system in the way this is done in the natural and technological sciences. The dynamics of the addictive behaviour is described by a mathematical model consisting of two coupled difference equations. They determine the change in time of two state variables, craving and self-control. The model equations contain terms that represent external forces such as societal rules, peer influences and cues. The latter are formulated as events that are Poisson distributed in time. With the model it is shown how a person can get addicted when changing lifestyle. Although craving is the dominant variable in the process of addiction, the moment of getting dependent is clearly marked by a switch in a variable that fits the definition of addiction vulnerability in the literature. Furthermore, the way chance affects a therapeutic addiction intervention is analysed by carrying out a Monte Carlo simulation. Essential in the dynamical model is a nonlinear component which determines the configuration of the two stable states of the system: being dependent or not dependent. Under identical external conditions both may be stable (hysteresis). With the dynamical systems approach possible switches between the two states are explored (repeated relapses).


There are currently only two biosimilars on the market in the US in contrast to the 21 biosimilars have been approved in Europe since 2006. Part of the reason for the lack of biosimilars is that until recently, there has been no abbreviated pathway for a biosimilar to reach the market meaning that biosimilars had to undergo the long and costly process of obtaining approval just like an innovator biologic product. After years of negotiation, however, the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act (the "Biosimilars Act") was signed into law on March 23, 2010, by President Obama as Title VII of the Patent Protection and Affordable Care Act. The Biosimilars Act established an abbreviated pathway by which the FDA could approve generic versions of previously licensed biological products. The Biosimilars Act sets forth several requirements for biosimilar applications, including the so-called "Patent Dance" which describes the process by which the biosimilar applicant and the reference product sponsor ("RPS") exchange patent-related information before the biosimilar can enter the market. In this article, we will explore what the Patent Dance is and what it means for biosimilars that are seeking market entry in the US.Â


Non binary constraints have recently been studied quite extensively since they represent real life problems very naturally. Specifically, extensions to binary arc consistency into generalised arc consistency (GAC), and forward checking that incorporates a limited amount of GAC have been proposed, to handle non-binary constraints directly. Enforcing arc consistency on the dual encoding has been shown to strictly dominate enforcing GAC on the primal encoding. More recently, modifications to dual arc consistency have extended these results to dual encodings that are based on the construction of compact constraint coverings, that retain the completeness of the encodings, while using a fraction of the space. In this paper we present results that combine the enforcement of arc consistency in these covering based dual encodings, with performing forward checking based search in the primal encoding. We demonstrate how this new scheme can be shown to strictly dominate standard non-binary forward checking, while being able to efficiently enforce extremely high levels of consistency.


What is the relation between monetary policy and inequalities in income and wealth? This question has received insufficient attention, especially in light of the unconventional policies introduced since the 2008 financial crisis. The article analyzes three ways in which the concern central banks show for inequalities in their official statements remains incomplete and underdeveloped. First, central banks tend to care about inequality for instrumental reasons only. When they do assign intrinsic value to containing inequalities, they shy away from trade-offs with the standard objectives of monetary policy that such a position entails. Second, central banks play down the causal impact monetary policy has on inequalities. When they do acknowledge it, they defend their actions by claiming that it is an unintended side effect, that it is temporary, and/or that any alternative policy would fare even worse. The article appeals to the doctrine of double effect to criticize these arguments. Third, even if one accepts that inequalities should be contained and that today's monetary policies exacerbate them, is it both desirable and feasible to make containing inequalities part of the mandate of central banks? The article analyzes and rejects three attempts on the part of central banks to answer this question negatively.


The contentious relationship between modernism and realism has powerfully influenced literary history throughout the twentieth century and into the present. In 1930s Korea, at a formative moment in these debates, a "crisis of representation" stemming from the loss of faith in language as a vehicle of meaningful reference to the world became a central concern of literary modernists as they operated under Japanese colonial rule. Christopher P. Hanscom examines the critical and literary production of three prose authors central to 1930s literary circles--Pak T'aewon, Kim Yujong, and Yi T'aejun--whose works confront this crisis by critiquing the concept of transparent or "empiricist" language that formed the basis for both a nationalist literary movement and the legitimizing discourse of assimilatory colonization. Bridging literary and colonial studies, this re-reading of modernist fiction within the imperial context illuminates links between literary practice and colonial discourse and questions anew the relationship between aesthetics and politics. The Real Modern challenges Eurocentric and nativist perspectives on the derivative particularity of non-Western literatures, opens global modernist studies to the similarities and differences of the colonial Korean case, and argues for decolonization of the ways in which non-Western literatures are read in both local and global contexts.


INTRODUCTION
Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology (FNAC) has a leading role in the assessment of breast lesions. Masood's Scoring Index (MSI) and its modification (Modified Masood's scoring index; MMSI) has been proposed to aid in sub-grouping breast lesions and to help in subsequent management.

AIM
To assess and compare the diagnostic accuracy of MSI and MMSI by subsequent correlation with histopathology.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
The study was cross-sectional in nature and was conducted in a tertiary care setting. The study included 207 cases presenting as palpable breast lump, which had undergone FNAC and subsequent excision biopsy for histopathology.

STATISTICAL ANALYSIS
The cases were grouped into four categories as suggested by Masood et al., (MSI) and Nandini et al., (MMSI) and concordance analysis with reference to histopathological diagnosis was done.

RESULTS
In comparison to MSI, MMSI showed better concordance with histopathological diagnosis and superior diagnostic accuracy in non-proliferative breast disease category (p-value = 0.046) as well as in proliferative breast disease without atypia category. The overall diagnostic accuracy of the cytological scoring was 97.5%, with 94.5% sensitivity and 100% specificity.

CONCLUSION
Though both MSI and MMSI were found effective in subcategorizing breast lesions, MMSI was found to have better concordance with histopathology. Inclusion of cellular pattern and background material may further help in increasing the accuracy.


Melanins are difficult to characterize because of their intractable chemical properties and the heterogeneity in their structural features. Melanin pigments, in fact, are composed of many different types of monomeric units that are connected through strong carbon-carbon bonds. Its high insolubility and undefined chemical entities are two obstacles in its complete characterization. The morphological characterization and particle size distribution for sepia melanin by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) on surface structure and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) to confirm the morphology obtained from SEM was done. Both results show that Sepia melanin is formed by many aggregates agglomerated together. These aggregates are formed also by small spherical granules with different size distributions that have been determined using image-J software. The small granule diameter obtained from different TEM and SEM micrographs were 100-200nm. EDS reveals that C and O were the most abundant in sepia melanin with concentration average concentrations of about 57% and 24% respectively. The major compositions of sepia melanin are C, O, Na, Cl, while the minor are Mg, Ca, K, S and N. From TEM micrograph at high resolution, it was possible to measure the distance between polymers layers of sepia melanin using image-J software and it was 0.323 nm = 3.23 A.


Tectonic reorganization induced by a rapid increase in plate motion obliquity and rate beginning at ca. 100 Ma affected California's Andean-style convergent margin, with concomitant changes in the accretionary prism of the Franciscan Complex, the Great Valley forearc basin, and the Sierran continental arc. Using facies analysis and a combined provenance approach, we suggest that this ca. 100 Ma tectonic signal is preserved in a Cenomanian (Upper Cretaceous) boulder-conglomerate outcrop along the San Luis Reservoir (SLR) in the southern Great Valley, which represents the thickest and coarsest deep-water deposit ever described in the Great Valley Group (GVG). We document a 1.8-km-thick by 4-km-long depositional-dip profile of an interpreted SE-directed (axial) submarine channel system that is part of a conglomeratic package that stretches 20 km along the east-central Diablo Range. Our facies analysis of the SLR area documents five facies associations within four aggradational channel complex sets, followed by regional abandonment. Sandstone petrography and mudrock geochemical data suggest a dissected continental Sierra Nevadan arc source. Conglomerate clast counts show abundant ophiolitic-type clasts that may be derived from the Coast Range Ophiolite and/or the Western Sierra Nevada Metamorphic Belt. Detrital-zircon geochronology data also indicate western and central Sierra Nevadan sources; however, we interpret an anomalous (relative to other Cenomanian localities) 105–95 Ma zircon population to indicate the initial erosional products from the volcanic carapace associated with the Late Cretaceous magmatic flare-up within the eastern Sierran arc. This flare-up has been linked to an increase in arc-parallel plate motion that induced deformation along shear zones in the eastern Sierra Nevada, allowing for widespread plutonism. Our provenance interpretation makes the SLR area the earliest Upper Cretaceous GVG locality to receive significant detritus from the flare-up, effectively linking tectonic plate motion changes and coarse-grained, deep-water forearc sedimentation.


Energy-efficiency is the main concern in most Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) applications. For this purpose, current WSN MAC (Medium Access Control) protocols use duty-cycling schemes, where they consciously switch a node's radio between active and sleep modes. However, a node needs to be aware of (or at least use some mechanism to meet) its neighbors' sleep/active schedules, since messages cannot be exchanged unless both the transmitter and the receiver are awake. Asynchronous duty-cycling schemes have the advantage over synchronous ones to eliminating the need of clock synchronization, and to be conceptually distributed and more dynamic. However, the communicating nodes are prone to spend more time waiting for the active period of each other, which inevitably influences the one-hop delay, and consequently the cumulative end-to-end delay. This paper reviews current asynchronous WSN MAC protocols. Its main contribution is to study these protocols from the delay efficiency perspective, and to investigate on their latency. The asynchronous protocols are divided into six categories: static wake-up preamble, adaptive wake-up preamble, collaborative schedule setting, collisions resolution, receiver-initiated, and anticipation-based. Several state-of-the-art protocols are described following the proposed taxonomy, with comprehensive discussions and comparisons with respect to their latency.


Reviews indicate that the dominant perspective in the diffusion of innovation literature contains proinnovation biases which suggest that innovations and the diffusion of innovations will benefit adopters. As a result, it is difficult to either address or begin answering the questions: when and how do technically inefficient innovations diffuse? or when and how are technically efficient innovations rejected? This article has two goals: (1) to develop a typology that focuses attention on three less dominant perspectives that can be used to guide research on these questions and (2) to suggest how organizational scientists can develop more encompassing theories of innovation diffusion and rejection by using the theoretical tensions that exist between the dominant perspective and the three perspectives developed in this article. These resolutions are important because they indicate that processes which prompt the adoption of efficient innovations may coexist with processes that prompt the adoption of ineffici...


Streptomyces species are saprophytic soil bacteria that produce a diverse array of specialized metabolites, including half of all known antibiotics. They are also rhizobacteria and plant endophytes that can promote plant growth and protect against disease. Several studies have shown that streptomycetes are enriched in the rhizosphere and endosphere of the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. Here, we set out to test the hypothesis that they are attracted to plant roots by root exudates, and specifically by the plant phytohormone salicylate, which they might use as a nutrient source. We confirmed a previously published report that salicylate over-producing cpr5 plants are colonized more readily by streptomycetes but found that salicylate-deficient sid2-2 and pad4 plants had the same levels of root colonization by Streptomyces bacteria as the wild-type plants. We then tested eight genome sequenced Streptomyces endophyte strains in vitro and found that none were attracted to or could grow on salicylate as a sole carbon source. We next used 13CO2 DNA stable isotope probing to test whether Streptomyces species can feed off a wider range of plant metabolites but found that Streptomyces bacteria were outcompeted by faster growing proteobacteria and did not incorporate photosynthetically fixed carbon into their DNA. We conclude that, given their saprotrophic nature and under conditions of high competition, streptomycetes most likely feed on more complex organic material shed by growing plant roots. Understanding the factors that impact the competitiveness of strains in the plant root microbiome could have consequences for the effective application of biocontrol strains.


This paper discusses the operation of active elements with various types of supplementary end heat sinks in a laser based on neodymium-containing crystals with end diode pumping. A comparison is made of heat sinks coupled with the active element and fabricated from an undoped crystal with the same matrix as the active element, as well as crystals with gradient variation of the dopant concentration from zero to a maximum. The types of laser devices in which such elements are suitable are determined.


Seamless communication is becoming the main aspect for the next generation of the mobile and wireless networks. Roaming among multiple wireless access networks connected together through one IP core makes the mobility support for the internet is very critical and more important research topics nowadays. Mobile IP is one of the most successful solutions for the mobility support in the IP based networks, but it has poor performance in term of handover delay. Many improvements have been done to reduce the handover delay, which result in two new standards: the Hierarchical MIP (HMIP) and the Fast MIP (FMIP), but the delay still does not match the seamless handover requirements. Finally Seamless MIP (S-MIP) has been suggested by many work groups, which combine between an intelligent handover algorithm and a movement tracking scheme. In This thesis, we show the handover delay reduction approaches, specifically the Seamless Mobile IP. The thesis studies the effects of the S-MIP in the handover delay and the network performance as well. A simulation study takes place to compare between the standard MIP and the new suggested S-MIP protocol in term of handover delay, packet loss and bandwidth requirement. The thesis concludes with the analyzing of the simulation results, evaluating the S-MIP performance and finally gives some suggestions for the future work.


In this contribution to the symposium on "The New Doctrinalism," I argue that American Legal Realists did not reject doctrine, because the Realists did not reject the idea that judges decide cases in accordance with normative standards of some kind: "doctrine" after all is just a normative standard about what should be done, but one formulated and made explicit by a statute or a court or a treatise. A judge who decides cases based on the norm "this breach of contract is efficient" still decides based on a normative standard, even if it is not one that the law necessarily endorses. But the non-legal normative standards of yesterday can become the legally binding norms of tomorrow. What the Legal Realists taught us is that too often the doctrine that courts invoke is not really the normative standard upon which they really rely. And it was central to Legal Realism to reform the law to make the actual doctrine cited by courts and treatise writers correspond to the actual normative standards upon which judges rely. Doctrine remains so important today, as many of the contributions to this symposium show, precisely because the realist law reform movement was successful in so many arenas.


Angiopoietin‐like protein 1 (ANGPTL1) has been shown to act as a tumor suppressor by inhibiting angiogenesis, cancer invasion, and metastasis. However, little is known about the effects of ANGPTL1 on sorafenib resistance and cancer stem cell properties in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and the mechanism underlying these effects. Here, we show that ANGPTL1 expression positively correlates with sorafenib sensitivity in HCC cells and human HCC tissues. ANGPTL1 significantly decreases epithelial‐mesenchymal transition (EMT)‐driven sorafenib resistance, cancer stemness, and tumor growth of HCC cells by repressing Slug expression. ANGPTL1 directly interacts with and inactivates MET receptor, which contributes to Slug suppression through inhibition of the extracellular receptor kinase/protein kinase B (ERK/AKT)‐dependent early growth response protein 1 (Egr‐1) pathway. ANGPTL1 expression inversely correlates with Slug expression, poor sorafenib responsiveness, and poor clinical outcomes in HCC patients. Conclusion: ANGPTL1 inhibits sorafenib resistance and cancer stemness in HCC cells by repressing EMT through inhibition of the MET receptor−AKT/ERK−Egr‐1−Slug signaling cascade. ANGPTL1 may serve as a novel MET receptor inhibitor for advanced HCC therapy. (Hepatology 2016;64:1637‐1651)


This study was conducted to determine that Teaching Style Preferred By Vocational Teachers in Relation to their Work Commitment in the process of teaching and learning in the classroom. This study used a descriptive survey design targeting all 104 teachers from Secondary School Vocational Matang and Kuching in Kuching, Sarawak. Data was collected using a questionnaire. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data obtained, including frequency counts, means, percentages and ANOVA. The findings shows that "Sharing my knowledge and expertise with students is very important
to me" (Mean = 4.664) as the most preferred by vocational teachers; in regard to commitment to teaching "I always enjoy teaching" (M= 4.56) and "I always try to do the best for the weak students" (M= 4.558). In regard to gender, there are significant
differences between female teachers (Mean = 4.688) with male teachers (Mean = 4,653) in terms of "Sharing my knowledge and expertise with students is very important to me" (t = 100.162 p <0.001). There are significant correlation between teaching styles and students' enrolments "What I say and do models appropriate ways for students to think about issues in the content" (F = 6.95, p < 05) were the highest. The finding also reveal that the significant correlation between teaching style and commitment to teaching work "I give students a lot of personal support and encouragement to do well in this course" with "I always enjoy teaching" (r = .499; p <01), and "I always try to do the best for the weak students" (r = .455; p < 01) were the highest. "I don 9t make full use of the time in the class allocated for teaching and learning process" (r = - .436; p < 01) showed a significant negative correlation between teaching styles and commitment to teaching work. As a conclusion, the teaching styles preferred by vocational teachers in relation to their work commitments are more female teachers preferred to more female teachers dominantly play
the role of Cluster 3 (facilitator or personal model or expert cluster) in their teaching styles as compared with the male teachers. The findings of this study would be usefiil to the interested parties in the field of teaching and learning process that is influenced by thework of teachers in school especially school leaders.


BRUNI, M. and F. M. SANTUCCI, 2016. Agribusiness at global scale and smallholders. Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., 22: 01–09 This paper explores the different dimensions of the recent dialogue about global food chains and the relevance their specific characteristics might have for the livelihoods of small-scale agricultural producers. It moves from describing positive and negative aspects of contract farming, to defining the role of corporations and their Corporate Social Responsibility strategies, and to exploring briefly the Fair Trade concept. Finally it describes the emersion of Multi-Stakeholders Global Partnerships where Civil Society Organizations can act as third parties for the establishment of win-win relationships in global value chains.


The traditional single-candidate learning model for anaphora resolution considers the antecedent candidates of an anaphor in isolation, and thus cannot effectively capture the preference relationships between competing candidates for its learning and resolution. To deal with this problem, we propose a twin-candidate model for anaphora resolution. The main idea behind the model is to recast anaphora resolution as a preference classification problem. Specifically, the model learns a classifier that determines the preference between competing candidates, and, during resolution, chooses the antecedent of a given anaphor based on the ranking of the candidates. We present in detail the framework of the twin-candidate model for anaphora resolution. Further, we explore how to deploy the model in the more complicated coreference resolution task. We evaluate the twin-candidate model in different domains using the Automatic Content Extraction data sets. The experimental results indicate that our twin-candidate model is superior to the single-candidate model for the task of pronominal anaphora resolution. For the task of coreference resolution, it also performs equally well, or better.


In situ and detrital chrome spinels from the Rum layered intrusion, Scotland, show a wide compositional range. In situ, within-seam spinels are relatively rich in Al and Mg, and poor in Ti, Cr, and total Fe. In contrast, detrital spinels have high Cr, total Fe, and Ti contents and low Al and Mg contents and were derived from spinels disseminated throughout the complex. Our data show that the widely used petrogenetic discrimination diagrams are not based on representative data and cannot, therefore, be applied in either provenance studies or the interpretation of altered ophiolitic bodies.


The largest accidental marine oil spill (4.9 million barrels) in the Gulf of Mexico (GoM) seabed (1600 m) caused by the sinking of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in 2010, put to the test once again the resilient capacity of the pelagic and benthic realms of this Large Marine Ecosystem. Many are the ecological services provided by its waters (fisheries, tourism, aquaculture and fossil fuel reserves) to neighboring countries (US, Mexico and Cuba). However, the unprecedented volumes of hydrocarbons, gas and chemical dispersants (Corexit) introduced in the system, represent ecological stressors whose deleterious effects are still the subject of civil claims and scientific controversy. Presumably, the short scale effects were confined to the Gulf's northeastern shallow waters, and the combined actions of weathering, biodegradation, and oil recovery left the system almost under pre-spill conditions. Unfortunately, surface and subsurface oil plumes were detected in the spill aftermath, and their dispersion trajectories threatened Mexico EEZ. Surface oil slicks were detected in the pristine waters of northern Yucatan, while subsurface oil plumes from the Macondo's well blowout were dangerously advancing southwest towards key fishing grounds in the northwestern GoM. This disaster prompted the Mexican government to implement an ambitious ocean monitoring program adopting a bottom-up approach focused on building a base line for more than 42 physicochemical and biological variables for water, sediment and biota from the continental shelf-slope region of the NW GoM. Technological constraints have precluded systematic observations in the vast Mexican EEZ that could discriminate natural variability and oil seep emissions from antropic disturbances. Therefore, preliminary risk analyses relied on seasonal and historical records. Two years of field observations revealed subtle environmental changes in the studied area attributed to antropic disturbances. Waters maintained oligotrophic conditions and zooplankton and benthic infaunal biomass were also poor. Biomarkers in sediments and biota did not exceed EPA's benchmarks, and sediment's fingerprinting (δ13C) indicated marine carbon sources. Geomarkers revealed an active transport from the Mississippi towards the NW GoM of phyllosilicates bearing a weathered oil coating. Consequently, shelf and slope sediment toxicity begins to show an increasing trend in the region. The complexity of hydrocarbons bioaccumulation and biodegradation processes in deep waters of the GoM seems to indicate that meso-and large-scale observations may prove to be essential in understanding the capacity of the GoM to recover its ecological stability.


In most industrialized economies, financial wealth is distributed far more unequally than income. According to Wolff (2007) more than half of the American households possess almost no productive capital while realizing about 20 percent of national income. This mismatch poses a problem for the efficient aggregation of consumer needs on capital markets. Individuals use information about their own preferences as consumers to identify profitable investments. Under certain conditions, this behaviour efficiently matches future demand with productive capacity, thus replacing future markets for consumer goods. However, when wealth is distributed too unequally, capacity cannot match consumer needs. I present some first experimental evidence in favour of consumption driven investment behaviour based on real portfolio choices and self-reported preferences about consumer goods.


During the summer of 1963 people at five villages above the Arctic Circle in Alaska were measured for accumulated radioactivity with a portable whole-body counter. Adults of the interior village of Anaktuvuk Pass showed the highest average body burden, 628 nanocuries of cesium-137. This is an increase of nearly 50 percent over the summer before. The maximum burden foundwas 1.24 microcuries.


BACKGROUND
Hospitalists are assuming an increasing role in the care of surgical patients, but the impact of this model of care on postoperative outcomes is unknown.

OBJECTIVE
To determine the impact of providing a collaborative, hospitalist-led model of care on postoperative outcomes and costs among patients having hip or knee arthroplasty.

DESIGN
Randomized, controlled trial.

SETTING
Academic medical center.

PARTICIPANTS
526 patients having elective orthopedic surgery who are at elevated risk for postoperative morbidity.

MEASUREMENTS
Length of stay, inpatient postoperative medical complications, health care provider satisfaction, and inpatient costs.

INTERVENTIONS
A comanagement medical Hospitalist-Orthopedic Team compared with standard postoperative care by orthopedic surgeons with medical consultation.

RESULTS
More patients in the hospitalist group were discharged from the hospital with no complications (61.6% vs. 49.8%; difference, 11.8 percentage points [95% CI, 2.8 to 20.7 percentage points]). Fewer minor complications were observed among hospitalist patients (30.2% vs. 44.3%; difference, -14.1 percentage points [CI, -22.7 to -5.3 percentage points]). Observed length of stay was not statistically different between treatment groups. However, when adjusted for discharge delays, mean length of stay for patients in the hospitalist model of care was shorter (5.1 days vs. 5.6 days; difference, -0.5 day [CI, -0.8 to -0.1 day]). Total costs did not differ between groups. Orthopedic surgeons and nurses preferred the hospitalist model.

LIMITATIONS
Care providers and patients were aware of intervention assignments, and the study could not capture all costs associated with the hospitalist model.

CONCLUSIONS
The comanagement medical Hospitalist-Orthopedic Team model reduced minor postoperative complication rates with no statistically significant difference in length of stay or cost. The nurses and surgeons strongly preferred the comanagement hospitalist model. Additional research on the clinical and economic impact of the hospitalist model in other surgical populations is warranted.


We investigate the role of grandparental childcare for fertility decisions of their offspring. Exploiting pension reforms in Italy, we argue that delayed retirement represents a negative shock to the supply of informal childcare for the next generation. We show that, when the maternal grandmother is not available, motherhood after age 30 is less likely. This effect persists as the woman ages, and parallels that on number of children. We argue that these are permanent changes to completed fertility for many cohorts in our data. Consistent with our interpretation, we show that results are limited to the most familistic close-knits where the role of grandparents is more important, and that are not the mechanical consequence of changes of living arrangements and labor supply. Given the Italian lowest low fertility, we conclude that pension reforms may have had unintended inter-generational effects.


For research institutes, data libraries, and data archives, RDF data validation according to predefined constraints is a much sought-after feature, particularly as this is taken for granted in the XML world. Based on our work in the DCMI RDF Application Profiles Task Group and in cooperation with the W3C Data Shapes Working Group, we identified and published by today 81 types of constraints that are required by various stakeholders for data applications. In this paper, in collaboration with several domain experts we formulate 115 constraints on three different vocabularies (DDI-RDF, QB, and SKOS) and classify them according to (1) the severity of an occurring violation and (2) the complexity of the constraint expression in common constraint languages. We evaluate the data quality of 15,694 data sets (4.26 billion triples) of research data for the social, behavioral, and economic sciences obtained from 33 SPARQL endpoints. Based on the results, we formulate several findings to direct the further development of constraint languages.


Implementation of multi-speed transmission for battery electric vehicle (BEV) is considered as one of effective methods in improving dynamic capability, reducing power consumption and downsizing the powertrain. Considering two trends of automotive technology, advanced driving assistance system (ADAS) and BEV electric powertrain, equipped with a two-speed transmission, can enhance the performance of automatic emergency braking systems (AEBS). When downshift operation is executed during regenerative braking, the multi-speed transmission in first gear can provide adequate brake force capacity for hard braking requirement, improving efficiency of energy recovery of drive motor as well as eliminating the dynamic lag of active braking booster. To ensure both the braking command and downshift requirement, a seamless clutch-to-clutch shifting control strategy based on power balance method is developed by analyzing the frictional work of two friction clutches inside the gear box and the transformation process of kinetic energy of rotational mechanical elements. To maintain the total energy balance of the powertrain as the control objective, the active power compensation of the drive motor during shifting fills the energy gap of the whole transmission system. With the estimation of clutches' friction torque and shifting stage analyzer, optimal drive motor torque command can be numerically solved and a complete shifting control flow is designed in this study. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of proposed control method in achieving seamless downshifting during regenerative braking, enhancing AEBS performance and improving energy recovery efficiency.


Background Despite the fact that swimming is often recommended for the prevention and treatment of hypertension, no study has examined the potential efficacy of regular swimming exercise for lowering the blood pressure in hypertensive humans. Objective To test the hypothesis that regular swimming exercise lowers the resting blood pressure. Design A 10-week closely supervised swimming training program compared with a non-exercising control group. Patients Eighteen previously sedentary men and women [aged 48 ± 2 years (mean ± SEM)] with stage 1 or 2 essential hypertension. Results The resting heart rate, an index of cardiovascular adaptation, decreased in the swimming training group from 81 ± 4 to 71 ± 3 beats/min (P < 0.01). The body mass and body fat percentage did not show statistically significant changes. The systolic blood pressure of patients in the seated position fell significantly (P < 0.05) from 150 ± 5 to 144 ± 4 mmHg. The seated diastolic blood pressure did not change significantly. A similar magnitude of reductions in systolic blood pressure (P < 0.05) was also found in patients in the supine position. No significant changes in plasma catecholamine concentrations, casual forearm vascular resistance, plasma volume and blood volume were observed. There were no significant changes in any of these variables in the control group. Conclusion Swimming training elicits significant reductions in arterial blood pressure at rest in individuals with hypertension. This is a clinically important finding since swimming can be a highly useful alternative to land-based exercises for hypertensive patients with obesity, exercise-induced asthma, or orthopedic injuries.


The genre of comics has had a tumultuous career throughout the twentieth century: it has careened from wildly popular to being perceived as the source of society's ills. Despite having been relegated to the lowest rung of the artistic ladder for the better part of the twentieth century, comics has been gaining in quality and respectability over the last couple of decades. My introductory chapter provides a broad, basic introduction to the genre of comics––its historical development, its different forms, and a survey of comics criticism over the last thirty years. In chapter two I clarify the nature of comics by comparing it to literature, film, and pictorial art, thereby highlighting its hybrid nature. It has elements in common with all of these, and yet it is a distinct genre. My primary focus is on Chris Ware, whom I introduce in chapter three, a brilliant creator who has garnered widespread recognition and respect. His magnum opus is Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth, the story of four generations of Corrigan men, most of whom have been negligent in raising their children. Jimmy Corrigan, as a result, is an introverted, insecure thirty–something–year–old man. Among comics creators Ware is unusual in that his story does not address socio–political issues, like most of his peers, which I discuss in chapter four. Jimmy Corrigan is an isolated tale with a very specific focus. Ware's narrative is somewhat like those of William Faulkner, whose stories have a narrow focus, revolving around the lives of the inhabitants of Yoknapatawpha county, rather than encompassing the vast landscape of national socio–political concerns. Also, in chapter five I explore the intriguing combination of realist and Gothic elements––normally at opposite ends of the generic continuum––that Ware merges in Jimmy Corrigan. This feature is especially interesting because it is another way that his work explores aspects of hybridity. Finally, in my conclusion I examine the current state of comics in American culture and its future prospects for development and success, as well as the potential for future comics criticism.


Restraint and seclusion are possible aversive responses to problematic student behavior used in some public schools, most commonly on students with a disability. Considerable recent attention has been paid to these practices both in the media and in Congress, and subsequently roughly half of U.S. states have made changes to their laws or policy statements around restraint and seclusion since 2009. In this article, we illuminate trends in restraint and seclusion across the United States in recent years to better inform policy discussions on these matters. Specifically, we examined rates of reported restraint and seclusion across U.S. districts in the 2009–2010 and 2011–2012 school years. We found that general trends persist between the data collections: Most districts report no/little use of restraint or seclusion, with a small percentage of districts reporting exceedingly high rates. Furthermore, the vast majority of variation exists within rather than between states, which may suggest the importance of local factors such as district policy, school culture, and practitioner support in determining the frequency of restraint and seclusion in schools.


This paper summarizes the work performed to examine the feasibility of manufacturing internally and externally cooled annular fuel for high-power-density pressurized water reactors (PWRs) and to demonstrate commercially viable manufacturing processes at bench scale. Five different manufacturing processes were considered, and two were selected for further development and demonstration. These are (a) the traditional press and sinter technique currently used in solid pellet manufacture and (b) the vibration compaction (VIPAC) technique, in which granulated and sintered urania fuel particles are vibration compacted into a prefabricated annular space. Two separate pellet manufacturing trials were undertaken, one at the Westinghouse, Columbia, South Carolina, plant and one at INVAP facilities in Argentina. At the INVAP plant the pellets were loaded between small and large cladding tubes and seal welded to demonstrate the entire manufacturing steps. At Atomic Energy of Canada Limited, the VIPAC approach was used to perform short test segments as well as 1219-mm (4-ft)-long fuel rods. The overall conclusion of the work is that the press and sinter technique can produce annular pellets and annular fuel elements that meet the density and dimensional needs of the annular fuel design and hence is a viable approach toward fabrication of such high-power-density fuel. This process is most like that used in current commercial fuel production and hence would pose the least disruption in any future annular fuel use in commercial PWRs. This work also demonstrated that the VIPAC approach is capable of making high-quality annular fuel elements, but not with the fuel density required for adequate performance. Addition of uranium metal powder to the vibrated compact was found to be necessary to achieve the required uranium fuel loading.


Title of dissertation: BEYOND ORIENTABILITY AND COMPACTNESS: NEW RESULTS ON THE DYNAMICS OF FLAT SURFACES Rodrigo Treviño, Doctor of Philosophy, 2012 Dissertation directed by: Professor Giovanni Forni Department of Mathematics In the first part, we prove the non-uniform hyperbolicity of the KontsevichZorich cocycle for a measure supported on abelian differentials which come from nonorientable quadratic differentials. The proof uses Forni's criterion for non-uniform hyperbolicity of the cocycle for SL(2,R)-invariant measures. We apply these results to the study of deviations in homology of typical leaves of the vertical and horizontal (non-orientable) foliations and deviations of ergodic averages. In the second part, we prove an ergodic theorem for flat surfaces of finite area whose Teichmuller orbits are recurrent to a compact set of SL(2,R)/SL(S, α), where SL(S, α) is the Veech group of the surface. In this setting, this means that the translation flow on a flat surface can be renormalized through its Veech group. This result applies in particular to flat surfaces of infinite genus and finite area, and we apply our result to existing surfaces in the literature to prove that the corresponding foliations of the surface corresponding to a periodic or recurrent Teichmuller orbit are ergodic. Beyond orientability and compactness: new results on the dynamics of flat surfaces


This paper presents the creation of a robot capable of drawing artistic portraits. The application is purely entertaining and based on existing tools for face detection and image reconstruction, as well as classical tools for trajectory planning of a 4 DOFs robot arm. The innovation of the application lies in the care we took to make the whole process as human-like as possible. The robot's motions and its drawings follow a style characteristic to humans. The portraits conserve the esthetics features of the original images. The whole process is interactive, using speech recognition and speech synthesis to conduct the scenario


In this paper we analyze disin∞ation policy when a central bank has imperfect information about private sector in∞ation expectations but learns about them from economic outcomes, which are in part the result of the disin∞ation policy itself. The form of uncertainty is manifested as uncertainty about the efiect of past disin∞ation policy on the current output gap. This difiers from other studies on learning and control in a monetary policy context (e.g. Ellison (2006) and Svensson and Williams (2007)) that assume uncertainty about the efiects of current policy actions on the economy. We derive the central bank's optimal disin∞ation strategy under active learning (DOP) and compare it with two limiting cases|certainty equivalence policy (CEP), or passive learning, and a Brainard-style cautionary monetary policy (CP). It turns out that under the DOP in∞ation stays between the levels implied by the CEP and the CP. A novel result|e.g. unlike Beck and Wieland (2002)| is that this holds irrespective of the initial level of in∞ation. At high levels of inherited in∞ation the DOP moves closer to the CEP, at low levels of inherited in∞ation the DOP resembles the CP.


This paper explores the interdisciplinary terrain of 'queer ecology' by using the example of an urban cemetery in North London as an empirical and conceptual starting point. Though the term 'queer ecology' has cropped up a few times it has yet to be addressed directly in order to consider how the seemingly disparate fields of queer theory and urban ecology might benefit from closer interaction. It will be suggested that the theoretical synthesis represented by queer ecology serves to expand the conceptual and material scope of both fields: queer theory is revealed to have only a partially developed engagement with urban nature whilst critical strands of urban ecology such as urban political ecology have yet to connect in a systematic way with queer theory, posthumanism, or new conceptions of complexity emerging from within the science of ecology itself. It is concluded that queer ecology may enrich our understanding of both urban materiality and the role of metaphors in urban theory. In particular, the idea of queer ecology illuminates the possibility for site-specific 'heterotopic alliances' in the contemporary city.


The laser flash technique allows measurement of the thermal diffusivity of solids and liquids up to very high temperatures. Various mathematical models have been developed over the past few decades to analyse the experimental data and to remove the influence of the pulse length of the laser and heat loss effects. The most sophisticated model was established by Cape and Lehman (1963 J Appl. Phys. 34 1909-1913) which considers finite pulse effects as well as facial and radial heat losses. For simplification, various assumptions were made in this work to achieve an analytical solution. Improvements of the assumptions were made by other authors such as Josell et al (1995 J. Appl. Phys. 78 6867 - 6868). Further improvements are proposed here. For accurate pulse-length correction, the original laser pulse is monitored by the hardware and used in the analysis. Furthermore, some improved approximations were integrated into the model. Finally, higher-order solutions of the mathematical description are considered in the analysis. The improved mathematical model is integrated in the nonlinear regression routine, allowing fitting of experimental data to yield thermal diffusivity values with high accuracy.


Museum professionals all over the world have always shown great interest in acquiring automatic methods to register and analyse the shape of cultural heritage artefacts. Thanks to recent advances in 3D scanning and photogrammetry techniques, it is now possible to model the surface of objects with very little effort and in a relatively short time.
The continuous adoption of these techniques in cultural institutions has generated thousands if not millions of 3D digital models. Unfortunately, after these resources are produced, very little effort is spent in making them accessible to researchers or the general public. Part of the problem is a lack of efficient computer mechanisms to search, retrieve and classify 3D data.
The conventional way to search and retrieve 3D models consists in composing a query based on text descriptions. However, textual annotations are necessarily constrained by the database application domain, ontology, etc., as well as by language and other factors. Consequently they are inadequate for shape oriented searches.
This paper presents results of an on-going project focused on developing a computer platform to automatize the search, retrieval, recognition and analysis of 3D object models. The platform processes queries based on geometric properties instead of text. Simply stated, the computer program takes a 3D surface mesh as input (i.e. the query model). Then, a search engine compares it to hundreds or even thousands of 3D scanned objects stored in a repository identifying those that approximate the shape of the query model. Next, the matching models are retrieved, ranked by degree of similarity and displayed to the final user. Afterwards, additional tools can be deployed to perform some kind of analysis on the objects retrieved.
A platform like this is much more powerful than a text search engine because it avoids mismatching situations, such as when a person queries the database looking up for "bowls" and retrieves nothing just because the bowls are labelled as "cuencos" (a Spanish term) or "cajetes" (i.e. a term common in Mesoamerican archaeology to described the same type of vessels). Moreover, the platform is able to exploit mathematical analysis algorithms for automatic classification of shapes.
During the presentation, we discuss the specific requirements that a shape recognition platform must satisfy to be useful in museums and cultural heritage research. In archaeological projects, for example, we encounter objects that are not necessarily identical in terms of geometry and yet they are considered to belong to the same class. We also intent to show the first part of this platform, namely the search engine for matching and retrieval of 3D Objects.