Wnt growth factors activate a signaling cascade that plays a key role in animal development, stem cell biology, and human cancer. Although many of the cascade components have been identified, how they come together to transmit the signal from the plasma membrane inside the cell is not clear. Bilić et al. show that Wnt ligands induce formation of large, ribosome-sized complexes, termed the low-density lipoprotein receptor-related protein 6 (LRP6) signalosome at the plasma membrane. The large protein assemblies contain activated Wnt receptors and cytoplasmic adaptor proteins. The scaffold protein Dishevelled and the Wnt co-receptor LRP6 play a central role in LRP6-signalosome formation, triggering subsequent molecular interactions that regulate the level of nuclear β-catenin. J. Bilić, Y.-L. Huang, G. Davidson, T. Zimmermann, C.-M. Cruciat, M. Bienz, C, Niehrs, Wnt induces LRP6 signalosomes and promotes Dishevelled-dependent LRP6 phosphorylation. Science 316, 1619-1622 (2007). [Abstract] [Full Text]


In the analysis of epidemiologic data in which exposure has been measured on a continuous scale, cutpoints can be defined to delineate categories or exposure can be modeled as a continuous covariate by assuming a special functional shape of the effect on disease status. Rules for classifying exposure into two or more categories range from a priori selection of cutpoints to data-oriented rules. The risk estimates may vary, however, with the choice of cutpoint. If the cutpoint selected is that for which the most impressive effect of exposure on outcome is observed, the final result must be qualified by adjustment. In this paper, the authors propose a method for adjusting results which are derived by varying the cutpoint on a specified selection interval. Adjustment is derived from the null distribution of the maximally selected test statistic. The method should be applied to correct p values if the cutpoint used to define different levels of exposure is selected in such a way that the measure of difference between two risk groups, such as the odds ratio or relative risk, is maximized. No method is yet available for adjusting the resulting risk estimate and the corresponding confidence limits. The authors illustrate the statistical method by applying it to data from a case-control study of the association between exposure to magnetic fields and risk of cancer in children which was conducted recently in Denmark.


BACKGROUND
low balance confidence is a major health problem among older adults restricting their participation in daily life.

OBJECTIVES
to determine what interventions are most effective in increasing balance confidence in older adults.

DESIGN
systematic review with meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials including at least one continuous end point of balance confidence. Studies, including adults 60 years or older without a neurological condition, were included in our study.

METHODS
the standardised mean difference (SMD) of continuous end points of balance confidence was calculated to estimate the pooled effect size with random-effect models. Methodological quality of trials was assessed using the Physical Therapy Evidence Database (PEDro) Scale.

RESULTS
thirty studies were included in this review and a meta-analysis was conducted for 24 studies. Interventions were pooled into exercise (n = 9 trials, 453 subjects), Tai Chi (n = 5 trials, 468 subjects), multifactorial intervention (n = 10 trials, 1,233 subjects). Low significant effects were found for exercise and multifactorial interventions (SMD 0.22-0.31) and medium (SMD 0.48) significant effects were found for Tai Chi.

CONCLUSION
Tai chi interventions are the most beneficial in increasing the balance confidence of older adults.


Today, third parties that have not traditionally been subject to trademark law increasingly find themselves as defendants in trademark infringement law suits. Whether the culprit or not, strong international trademark protection has unevenly influenced national trademark regulation and the lack of emphasis and clear reference to limits on the acquired right have left courts struggling with how to balance conflicting interests in the use of marks. This note goes back to the source, i.e. international trademark law, in an attempt to locate the limits of trademark law, expressed or implied, and ascertain whether there exists a common understanding of when trademark protection is legitimately afforded and when it is not. After conducting a theoretical and practical comparison of alternative approaches to balancing competing rights, this note argues that an international common core of trademark protection is inherent in existing international rules. However, the author concludes that this common core mandates a re-evaluation of the traditional approach to trademark interpretation. To this avail the author introduces a systemizing tool designed to aid judges in securing the realization of no more and no less than the international common core of trademark protection in the national application of trademark law. Re-evaluation is necessary to avoid the harmful results that the traditional categorical approach produces in relation to this new group of defendants, as well as to repair the doctrinal damage incurred from forceful attempts to fit these cases into existing doctrine. The proposed systemizing framework introduces the flexible analytical tools needed to service the global market place in striking an adequate balance between equally important conflicting interests in society.


Many studies show that fish and fisheries management can be important to freshwater nutrient dynamics, but similar reports from marine environments are scarce. In the Baltic Sea, we estimate the removal of nutrients by the fishery to be 1.4% and 7% of the total nitrogen and phosphorus load to the Baltic Sea. Moreover, compared with the anthropogenic load of nutrients that reaches the open sea, the fishery removes 2.4% and 18% of the nitrogen and phosphorus. In addition, we show that the summer increase of fish biomass can explain up to one third of the summer decrease in "total phosphorus" in the upper 40 m of the water column. This suggests that fish may compete with primary producers (particularly cyanobacteria) for phosphorus. The fish and the fishery can thus influence nutrient dynamics in marine systems substantially, and this should be considered in ecosystem oriented fisheries management.


Urban renters in the US face fast-rising housing prices, especially in coastal metropolitan areas. Price increases are in part due to restrictive land-use regulations. Minimum off-street parking requirements, a central component of land-use regulation in the US, warrant detailed study and policy reform. In most cities today, municipal regulation requires developers to provide on-site parking. Renters or buyers then pay for this parking as part of their monthly rent or purchase price; the price of parking is thus "bundled" with the price of the housing unit. While many households might have chosen to pay for on-site parking in a free market, this proportion is surely lower than what has been mandated. Moreover, the historical effect of minimums and bundled parking hides a transportation cost burden in housing prices, leaving households unable to choose. Minimum parking requirements force developers to build costly parking spaces that drive up the price of housing. Urban policymakers have recently taken an interest in reforming parking regulations and allowing unbundled parking based on social equity and environmental sustainability rationales.


A unique three dimensional (3D) hierarchical microcapsule structure (NiSx@NCV) has been put forward, which is realized by the ensemble of N-doped carbon vesicles encapsulating dual-NiSx (α-NiS/NiS2) nanoparticles via an in situ nanospace-confined pyrolysis strategy. The NiSx@NCV shows a high pseudocapacitance of 1600 F g−1 at 1 A g−1 and impressive rate performance (a capacitance retention ratio of 84.5%, from 1 to 25 A g−1). Benefiting from this intriguing configuration, a kind of high performance asymmetric supercapacitor (ASCs) has been fabricated, using 3D NiSx@NCV microcapsules and nanoporous carbon (NPC) as positive and negative electrodes, respectively. Remarkably, the fabricated ASCs achieve a capability of 135.06 F g−1 at 1 A g−1 and exhibit an outstanding rate capability at 32 A g−1. More importantly, a high capacitance retention ratio of 87% is still achieved even at current densities from 32 to 300 A g−1, which exhibits well the ultrahigh rate performance of the NiSx@NCV//NPC ASCs. In addition, the NiSx@NCV//NPC ASCs deliver an attractive energy density of 48.02 W h kg−1 at a power density of 800 W kg−1, and still maintain 30 W h kg−1 even at an ultrahigh power density of 240 kW kg−1. This is attributed to the rich redox reaction and interface effect of dual-NiSx nanoparticles, abundant active sites and high electrical conductivity from N-doped carbon vesicles.


Proving software free of security bugs is hard. Programming language support to ensure that programs correctly enforce their security policies would help, but, to date, no language has the ability to verify the enforcement of the kinds of policies used in practice— dynamic, stateful policies which address a broad range of concerns including forms of access control and information flow tracking. This paper makes two main contributions. First, we present FINE, a new source-level security-typed language that, through the use of a simple module system and dependent, refinement, and affine types, can be used to check the enforcement of dynamic security policies applied to real software. Second, we define DCIL, a small extension to the type system of the .NET Common Intermediate Language, and show how to compile FINE in a type-preserving manner to DCIL. Our approach allows FINE programs to run on stock .NET virtual machines and to interface with .NET libraries. Additionally, our type-preserving compiler allows code consumers to download DCIL programs and check them for security while relying on a small trusted computing base. We have proved our source and target languages sound, our compilation type-preserving, and have made a prototype implementation of our compiler and several example programs available.


[Excerpt] Employer concerns about labor shortages for entry-level positions in the suburbs and outlying city neighborhoods prompted county planners to ask Cornell ILR to conduct this study. We organized a series of focus groups with low-income inner-city residents who commute to the suburbs or outlying city neighborhoods and work in health services, hospitality, or warehousing; we also spoke with several supervisors and a transportation planner. We found four major transportation challenges: limited service at non-standard times; out-of-synch schedules; off-schedule and off-route buses; and poorly located bus stops. We highlight several transportation initiatives that have been tried in other communities and propose a series of recommendations that transit planners, the transit company, and employers might consider in order to mitigate the reverse-commute challenges in ways that would benefit all stakeholders.


A total of 78 samples comprising different types of street foods, sold in different locations in Malaysia, were examined for the presence of Enterobacter cloacae. E. cloacae contamination was recorded in 9% of the samples examined. Tests for susceptibility to 12 different antibiotics showed that all were resistant to six or more antibiotics, but susceptible to chloramphenicol and gentamicin. Plasmids of four different sizes were detected from the three plasmid positive isolates. RAPD analysis using four primers yielded completely different banding patterns for all E. cloacae studied. In Malaysia, no published information on street foods in the epidemiological investigation of E. cloacae related disease is available. However, their occurrences have provided compelling evidence that the risk of disease transmission caused by E. cloacae through street foods is moderate.


Inorganic soil arsenic (As) in three soils was fractionated adopting phosphorus fractionation schemes. Among these fractions, iron-bound arsenic (Fe-As) was found highest, followed by aluminium-bound arsenic (Al-As). The freely exchangeable arsenic was relatively small compared to the arsenic held by internal surfaces of soil aggregates. The arsenic fractions exhibited positive correlation with phosphorus content presumably due to the fact that high P in soil releases more arsenic from soil adsorption sites owing to the competition for the same adsorption sites. Predominantly, negative correlation of arsenic with organic carbon confirms the fact of lowering of arsenic mobility in presence of organics in soil.


Abstract Dwarf galaxies in the Local Group (LG) represent a distinct as well as diverse family of tracers of the earliest phases of galaxy assembly and the processing resulting from galactic harrassment. Their stellar populations can be resolved and used as probes of the evolution of their host galaxy. In this regard, we present the first reconstruction of the star formation history (SFH) of them using the most evolved AGB stars that are long period variable (LPV). LPV stars trace stellar populations as young as ∼ 30 Myr to as old as the oldest globular clusters. For the nearby, relatively massive and interacting gas-rich dwarf galaxies, the Magellanic Clouds, we found that the bulk of the stars formed ∼ 10 Gyr ago for the LMC, while the strongest episode of star formation in the SMC occurred a few Gyr later. A peak in star formation around 0.7 Gyr ago in both Clouds is likely linked to their recent interaction. The Andromeda satellite pair NGC147/185 show different histories; the main epoch of star formation for NGC 185 occurred 8.3 Gyr ago, followed by a much lower, but relatively constant star formation rate (SFR). In the case of NGC 147, the SFR peaked only 6.9 Gyr ago, staying intense until ∼ 3 Gyr ago. Star formation in the isolated gas-rich dwarf galaxy IC 1613 has proceeded at a steady rate over the past 5 Gyr, without any particular dominant epoch. Due to lack of sufficient data, we have conducted an optical monitoring survey at the Isaac Newton Telescope (INT) of 55 dwarf galaxies in the LG to reconstruct the SFH of them uniformly. The observations are made over ten epochs, spaced approximately three months apart, as the luminosity of LPV stars varies on timescales of months to years. The system of galactic satellites of the large Andromeda spiral galaxy (M31) forms one of the key targets of our monitoring survey. We present the first results in the And I dwarf galaxy, where we discovered 116 LPVs among over 10,000 stars.


In this paper, we revisit the macroeconomic foundations and political economy of national growth models. We challenge the Kaleckian framework underpinning the emergent growth model literature in comparative political economy, which focuses primarily on the functional income distribution (wages versus profits), while ignoring personal income distribution (inequality across private households). Using the examples of the "export-led" and "debt-led" growth models of Germany and the United States, we show how institutional differences can help explain why different countries developed different patterns of income distribution and how income distribution and institutions interacted to generate financial imbalances in different sectors of the economy (i.e., the private household sector, the private corporate sector, and the government sector).


This case study was done in order to have an in-depth knowledge of
ethical issues in training program. The aims of the studies are related to
understand the perception of ethics held by the trainers and how they come to
make decision base on ethical calculation. The studies also aims at looking into a
deep understanding of the role of values in relation with ethical practice and the
way trainers deals with their clients. Methods to gain access to the information
were done through interviews with the trainers involved. From the interviews data was analyzed according to their themes. Telekom Training College being an
established training institution for Telekom Malaysia Berhad was chosen to be the
sample of study. Trainers in TTC have long been engaged in technical, skill and
motiyational training program serving the parent company. However, in the
findings, ethical issues are still in vague to the perception of the trainers. It's
trainers perceived ethical issues on the surface of it, not in the depthness and the
intensity of the problem. It was also found that TTC's trainers were dedicated to
their work in pursuance of quality and professionalism. Ethics in the findings has
close association with being professional. The relationship of the two bears the
same characteristic, the only different is that being professional is driven strongly
by the organizational rule and procedures whereby being ethical is strongly driven
by intuition, integrity and values that one held as esteem.


LiDAR(Light Detection And Ranging) is a device, which works in a similar way as radar, but instead of radio waves, it uses light. We can use it as a mean to detect particles in the air (mainly air polution particles) or for measuring weather conditions. LiDAR with other supporting elements forms LiDAR system. In our example LiDAR system will be used remotely, in particular by remote user.
Goals:
a) To plan and project protocol for exchanging messages between client (user, costumer) and LiDAR system (server).
b) To develop software for remote control of LiDAR device. This includes sending measurements programmes, capturing, presenting and storing measurements programmes and data in standard exchange format for this type of data (LAS format).
Methods:
Software development is based programming language Java including graphical user interface, which is using Java's Swing library. Communication between server and client is arrenged with costum developed protocol, which is based on SOAP protocol (Simple Object Access Protocol). Other Web Services technologies are also used.
Results:
The outcome of project is GUI based software gateway (application) for using mobile LiDAR system. With this application user is able to prepare program of measurements, which is later send to the LiDAR device (server) as a request. Programme contains all the data needed for the LiDAR device, to carry out capturing data from its environment. LiDAR device on the specific place and time carrys out measurements, according to received programme. Captured data, as a result of this measurements, are send back to the remote user, which can further manipulate with them. Application enables him to store data in standard LAS format and he can also visualize captured data with various graphical widgets.
Applicaton is meant to controll mobile LiDAR system, which will be installed in car or trailer. In this way the application will become part of mobile control environmental system.
LiDAR system will be primarly used as a mean to capture different kinds of weather data and data related to the quality of air. The purpose of this collecting is to accurately detect origins of pollution and to qualitatively evaluate collected data.


The shapes of typical Hawaiian volcanoes are simply parameterized, and a relationship is derived for the dependence of lava accumulation rates on volcano volume and volumetric growth rate. The dependence of lava accumulation rate on time is derived by estimating the eruption rate of a volcano as it traverses the Hawaiian plume, with the eruption rate determined from a specified radial dependence of magma generation in the plume and assuming that a volcano captures melt from a circular area centered on the volcano summit. The timescale of volcano growth is t = 2 R/ν_plate where R is the radius of the melting zone of the (circular) plume and νplate is the velocity of the Pacific plate. The growth progress of a volcano can be described by a dimensionless time t′ = tν_plate/2R, where t′ = 0 is chosen to be the start of volcano growth and t′ = 1 approximates the end of "shield" growth. Using a melt generation rate for the whole plume of 0.2 km^(3)/yr, a plume diameter of 50 km, and a plate velocity of 10 cm/yr, we calculate that the lifetime of a typical volcano is 1000 kyr. For a volcano that traverses the axis of the plume, the "standard" dimensions are a volume of 57,000 km^3, a summit thickness of 18 km, a summit elevation of 3.6 km, and a basal radius of 60 km. The volcano first breaches the sea surface at t′ ≈ 0.22 when it has attained only 5% of its eventual volume; 80% of the volume accumulates between t′ = 0.3 and t′ = 0.7. Typical lava accumulation rates start out over 50 m/kyr in the earliest stages of growth from the seafloor, and level out at ∼35 m/kyr from t′ ≈ 0.05 until t′ = 0.4. From t′ = 0.4 to t′ = 0.9, the submarine lava accumulation rates decrease almost linearly from 35 m/kyr to ∼0; subaerial accumulation rates are about 30% lower. The lava accumulation rate is a good indicator of volcano age. A volcano that passes over the plume at a distance 0.4R off to the side of the plume axis is predicted to have a volume of about 60% of the standard volcano, a lifetime about 8% shorter, and lava accumulation rates about 15–20% smaller. The depth-age data for Mauna Kea lavas cored by the Hawaii Scientific Drilling Project are a good fit to the model parameters used, given that Mauna Kea appears to have crossed the plume about 15–20 km off-axis. The lifetime of Mauna Kea is estimated to be 920 kyr. Mauna Loa is predicted to be at a stage corresponding to t′ ≈ 0.8, Kilauea is at t′ ≈ 0.6, and Loihi is at t′ ≈0.16. The model also allows the subsurface structure of the volcanoes (the interfaces between lavas from different volcanoes) to be modeled. Radial geochemical structure in the plume may be blurred in the lavas because the volcanoes capture magma from a sizeable cross-sectional area of the plume; this inference is qualitatively born out by available isotopic data. The model predicts that new Hawaiian volcanoes are typically initiated on the seafloor near the base of the next older volcano but generally off the older volcano's flank.


This paper presents a novel GPU-based algorithm for smoke animation. Our primary contribution is the use of Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) compressed space for efficient simulation. We show that our method runs an order of magnitude faster than a CPU implementation while retaining visual details with a smaller memory usage. The key component of our method is an on-the-fly compression and expansion of velocity, pressure and density fields. Whenever these physical quantities are requested during a simulation, we perform data expansion and compression only where necessary in a loop. As a consequence, our simulation allows us to simulate a large domain without actually allocating full memory space for it. We show that albeit our method comes with some extra cost for DCT manipulations, such cost can be minimized with the aid of a devised shared memory usage. CCS Concepts • Computing methodologies → Physical simulation; Graphics processors;


RainIDF, a software tool for derivation of rainfall intensity–duration–frequency (IDF) relationship is developed as an Excel add-in by using Visual Basics for Applications (VBA). The tool is integrated with two of the most widely used statistical distributions for determination of IDF relationship: the generalized extreme value (GEV) distribution for annual maxima series, and the generalized Pareto (GPA) distribution for partial duration series (PDS). It provides automated distribution fitting for rainfall data in the form of annual maxima or PDS for multiple intervals, solving and plotting of rainfall IDF curves. RainIDF uses the Solver add-in function in Excel to solve the coefficients of the empirical IDF formula in one step. The methodology built into RainIDF is discussed and rainfall IDF relationships for several stations in Peninsular Malaysia are derived and compared. RainIDF is available for download on GitHub (http://github.com/kbchang/rainidf) as an Excel add-in.


The present study describes how three now almost forgotten mid-20th-century logicians, the American Paul Jacoby and the Frenchmen Augustin Sesmat and Robert Blanche, all three ardent Catholics, tried to restore traditional predicate logic to a position of respectability by expanding the classic Square of Opposition to a hexagon of logical relations, showing the logical and cognitive advantages of such an expansion. The nature of these advantages is discussed in the context of modern research regarding the relations between logic, language, and cognition. It is desirable to call attention to these attempts, as they are, though almost totally forgotten, highly relevant against the backdrop of the clash between modern and traditional logic. It is argued that this clash was and is unnecessary, as both forms of predicate logic are legitimate, each in its own right. The attempts by Jacoby, Sesmat, and Blanche are, moreover, of interest to the history of logic in a cultural context in that, in their own idiosyncratic ways, they fit into the general pattern of the Catholic cultural revival that took place roughly between the years 1840 and 1960. The Catholic Church had put up stiff resistance to modern mathematical logic, considering it dehumanizing and a threat to Catholic doctrine. Both the wider cultural context and the specific implications for logic are described and analyzed, in conjunction with the more general philosophical and doctrinal issues involved.


I explore the interactions between behaviour and physiology, using invertebrate model systems. For example, I study how and why animals change their behaviour due to infection. In some cases the change in behaviour is produced by the host to help it overcome its infection, in some cases the pathogen manipulates the host's behaviour for its own ends. I also study how and why immune function is influenced by factors such as stress and reproduction. The ability to resist disease is partly determined by behaviour. We use a range of techniques including behavioural studies, physiological methods, biochemical assays (e.g. HPLC) and molecular techniques.


Abstract Policy to protect river ecosystems has changed rapidly in Australia, and the mechanisms to both establish and manage environmental water are still evolving. Policy has moved from providing a fixed environmental target (albeit varying between years) to one in which the environment can actively participate in the market, with the possibility of better fulfilling variable water requirements. However, the inherent nature of the sustainable diversion limit (SDL), established under the Water Act 2007, is that it represents a fixed allocation to the environment. This paper considers the interaction of the new SDL for the Murray-Darling Basin and potential issues arising from the interaction with the government buyback initiative. While both the SDL and buyback have been discussed extensively, the interaction between the two policies has received little debate. Pairing these two policy initiatives will have implications for the flexibility of management of the environmental water, and the ability for on-going trade between the environment and consumptive water users. Our position is that the SDL, or preferably rules-based water, should reflect an absolute minimum limit on environmental water requirements, while the buyback should provide the environmental water as tradable water rights with the flexibility to respond to shifts in the environmental water demand curve by providing environmental water over and above the SDL. If both a buyback and minimum flow rules are in place, the SDL will provide little additional benefits but increase administrative costs and reduce flexibility. This has significant implications for the way the SDL and buyback strategy are structured.


The Red Sea is characterized by its high seawater temperature and salinity, and the resilience of its coastal ecosystems to global warming is of growing interest. This high salinity and temperature might also render the Red Sea a favorable ecosystem for calcification and therefore resistant to ocean acidification. However, there is a lack of survey data on the CO2 system of Red Sea coastal ecosystems. A 1‐year survey of the CO2 system was performed in a seagrass lagoon, a mangrove forest, and a coral reef in the central Red Sea, including fortnight seawater sampling and high‐frequency pHT monitoring. In the coral reef, the CO2 system mean and variability over the measurement period are within the range of other world's reefs with pHT, dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC), total alkalinity (TA), pCO2, and Ωarag of 8.016±0.077, 2061±58 μmol/kg, 2415±34 μmol/kg, 461±39 μatm, and 3.9±0.4, respectively. Here, comparisons with an offshore site highlight dominance of calcification and photosynthesis in summer‐autumn, and dissolution and heterotrophy in winter‐spring. In the seagrass meadow, the pHT, DIC, TA, pCO2, and Ωarag were 8.00±0.09, 1986±68 μmol/kg, 2352±49 μmol/kg, 411±66 μatm, and 4.0±0.3, respectively. The seagrass meadow TA and DIC were consistently lower than offshore water. The mangrove forest showed the highest amplitudes of variation, with pHT, DIC, TA, pCO2, and Ωarag, were 7.95±0.26, 2069±132 μmol/kg, 2438±91 μmol/kg, 493±178 μatm, and 4.1±0.6, respectively. We highlight the need for more research on sources and sinks of DIC and TA in coastal ecosystems.


This paper presents a theoretical and experimental study of the long-standing fluid mechanics problem involving the temporal resolution of a large localised initial disturbance into a sequence of solitary waves. This problem is of fundamental importance in a range of applications, including tsunami and internal ocean wave modelling. This study is performed in the context of the viscous fluid conduit system – the driven, cylindrical, free interface between two miscible Stokes fluids with high viscosity contrast. Owing to buoyancy-induced nonlinear self-steepening balanced by stress-induced interfacial dispersion, the disturbance evolves into a slowly modulated wavetrain and further into a sequence of solitary waves. An extension of Whitham modulation theory, termed the solitary wave resolution method, is used to resolve the fission of an initial disturbance into solitary waves. The developed theory predicts the relationship between the initial disturbance's profile, the number of emergent solitary waves and their amplitude distribution, quantifying an extension of the well-known soliton resolution conjecture from integrable systems to non-integrable systems that often provide a more accurate modelling of physical systems. The theoretical predictions for the fluid conduit system are confirmed both numerically and experimentally. The number of observed solitary waves is consistently within one to two waves of the prediction, and the amplitude distribution shows remarkable agreement. Universal properties of solitary wave fission in other fluid dynamics problems are identified.


To meet challenging 5G capacity requirements, operators are densifying their cellular networks by deploying additional small cells to cover hot spots, and such an increase in the number and density of cells may result in excessive numbers of handovers. In this study, we propose a handover reduction mechanism implemented in a cloud radio access network (CRAN) by exploiting the high capacity of an optical access network serving as a "fronthaul." CRAN has been proposed as a 5G radio access network architecture, where the digital unit (DU) of a conventional base station (BS) is separated from the radio unit (RU) and moved to the "cloud" (DU-cloud) for better mobility management and cost saving. Separating RUs and DUs requires a low-latency and high-bandwidth 5G transport network to handle "fronthaul" traffic, for which optical access is an excellent choice. Here, we present a new 5G architecture, called virtualized-CRAN (V-CRAN), moving toward a cell-less 5G mobile network architecture. We leverage the concept of a "virtualized-BS" (V-BS) that can be formed by exploiting several enabling technologies such as software-defined radio and coordinated multipoint transmission/reception. A V-BS can be formed on a per-user basis by allocating virtualized resources on demand so that common signals can be jointly transmitted from multiple RUs to the user without triggering handover. We first model the handover reduction optimization problem for a scenario where future mobility information is known, and then propose a suite of algorithms for a scenario where future information is unknown. Simulation results show that V-CRAN can enhance the throughput of users at the cell-edge, as well as significantly reduce the number of handovers, handover delay, and failure rate.


The aim of the paper is to describe the issue of public exclusion of seniors aged 65+ living in home environment in the Czech Republic. Given the demographic aging of the population, social exclusion is a topical issue that can take various kinds and forms (spatial; economic; cultural, social and political exclusion and symbolic exclusion). The authors will focus on the interest of seniors in politics, elections and social life of seniors. This is often limited due to several factors related to social background and its shrinking or due to the impaired physical condition of the target group of 65+ seniors, where live in their home environment. It is not common for seniors to make new social contacts in a targeted way, so public social events are important for seniors. They can serve as a space for targeted meetings of seniors or as an opportunity to meet people from the locality and make acquaintances. Involvement in public life is primarily a personal choice where seniors can attend social events for the sake of interest, but primarily larger social events are refused (unless it is a local event) and their interest is directed more towards events aimed at the elderly. In particular, the associations are very stimulating, but in places the need for such events is reflected and supported by the municipal administration. The contribution was supported from the project "Social exclusion of seniors 65+ living in the home environment in the CZ", no.LTC18066, Ministry of Education (CZ), INTER-EXCELLENCE program, INTER-COST sub-program.


Recent developments in off-the-shelf wireless embedded computing boards and the increasing need for efficient health monitoring systems, fueled by the increasing number of patients, has prompted R&D professionals to explore better health monitoring systems that are both mobile and cheap. This work investigates the feasibility of using the ZigBee embedded technology in health-related monitoring applications. Selected vital signs of patients are acquired using sensor nodes and readings are transmitted wirelessly using devices that utilize the ZigBee communications protocols. A prototype system has been developed and tested with encouraging results.


Background: Red cell distribution width (RDW) is a routine laboratory measure that could be used as a predictor of mortality in critically ill patients. Identification of patients at risk for mortality early in the course of PICU admission is an important step in improving the outcome. We aimed to assess the use of RDW as an early biomarker for outcome in pediatric critical illnesses. Methods: A retrospective study by extracting administrative and laboratory data from patients admitted to PICU of an academic pediatric teaching hospital was accomplished. After exclusion of 64 patients according to our exclusion criteria, 304 pediatric patients with PICU admissions over the 6 months of study period were included in the study. Results: The mean RDW for all patients was 14.9%±2.5%. PICU mortality was 13.3%. The rate of mortality in the quartile of RDW>15.7% was 20.1%. Elevated RDW was associated with longer duration of PICU admission (P<0.001). Tracheal intubation and ventilator support was needed in 34.2% of the patients. This was also correlated with elevated RDW (P=0.043). Conclusion: We observed that higher RDW was strongly linked to higher mortality risk in pediatric patients admitted in PICU. Higher RDW was associated with longer duration of PICU admission.


The Political Issues Analysis System (PIAS) project sought to investigate how citizens in Melbourne, Australia used the Internet to seek political information about key political issues. It also sought to understand how citizens contacted their elected representative about these issues. Through workshops, case studies, and the development and testing of a prototype, the research uncovered some notable trends in terms of engagement with components of the formal political system online. Email remains the favoured means of contacting elected representatives. There are a number of systems being developed to assist online politics yet individuals still report having great difficulty discovering policies from the major parties in key policy-debate areas. Furthermore, many of the policies published by the parties exist as political advertisements and do not necessarily aid balanced or deliberative debate. This suggests that further research examining online engagement with formal political processes in key policy areas is needed. In addition, pressure needs to be placed on the parties to provide machine-readable information and to allow open-access to structured policy material that can be aggregated into third-party systems that will aid voter decision making. Authors: Dr Craig Bellamy, Victorian eResearch Strategic Initiative (VeRSI); Dr Martin Gibbs, Department of Information Systems, University of Melbourne; Dr Andy Williamson, Future Digital, Europe; Prof Sean Cubit, Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton


Speech signals are often degraded by additive interference over single channel communication systems. For stationary and well deened noise sources, eeective solutions exist. However, it is often diicult to formulate a model for non-stationary and speech-like noise sources such as cross-talk or multi-speaker babble, which exist in real scenarios. In this paper, we propose a solution to this problem under the assumption that we have access to the clean speech signal prior to transmission. A novel method for tracking transmission noise characteristics is described. Based on this noise estimate , a new speech enhancement technique is proposed. The enhancement method is evaluated for multi-speaker babble noise, and shown to substantially improve both the quality and intelligibility of the processed speech signal.


OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to determine the efficacy and safety of omega-3 fatty acids for children with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD).

METHODS
This was an open-label pilot study. Ten children aged 4-7 years old with ASD according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4(th) edition (DSM-IV), were given 1 gram daily of omega-3 fatty acids for 12 weeks. The main outcome measure used was the Autism Treatment Evaluation Checklist (ATEC). These data were collected between July, 2006, and June, 2007.

RESULTS
Of the 9 subjects who completed the study, 8 showed improvement of about 33% on the Autism Treatment Evaluation Checklist (ATEC). None worsened and no side effects were reported.

CONCLUSIONS
Omega-3 fatty acids appear to be safe and might be helpful for children suffering from ASD. Further study is needed with a larger number of children in a double-blind design and with various doses of omega-3 fatty acids.


Murdoch University is planning a new mixed use campus development on undeveloped university land which is designed to expand research activities and education programs. The inclusion of a decentralised wastewater treatment plant has the ability to reduce demand on local resources, minimise resource waste and provide multiple educational and research opportunities for Murdoch University.

The aim of this report is to provide a conceptual framework for water recycling and reclamation for Murdoch University Eastern Precinct and its expansion and integration with South Street core campus by way of:

Literature review of concepts relating to decentralised recycled water systems and the current legislative frameworks.

Assessing suitable wastewater recycling technologies using Multiple Criteria Decision Analysis; and
Technology and economic assessment.

Review of literature found that South-West of Western Australia is increasingly facing challenges to water supply due to a drying climate and increased water demand due to rapid population growth. There is a need for demonstration projects to facilitate an increase in the uptake of decentralised wastewater recycling systems in Western Australia. Demonstration projects will contribute to the improvement of current regulatory processes and support a shift towards more sustainable urban water practices.

The inclusion of a decentralised wastewater treatment plant in the Murdoch University Eastern Precinct development has the ability to reduce demand on local resources, minimise resource waste and provide multiple educational and research opportunities for Murdoch University.

Multiple Criteria Decision Analysis was used to determine wastewater recycling technologies suitable to the Murdoch University Eastern Precinct. Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket Reactor (UASB) was found to be the optimal option for anaerobic technology and Intensified Constructed Wetlands (ICW) ranked higher than activated sludge, biofilm and membrane technologies.

Discounted payback period for UASB & ICW combination was 29 years and 6 months. For MBR and SAF the discounted payback periods were 26 years and 11 months and 22 years and 3 months respectively.

The conceptual design with the use of combined UASB and ICW showed that this configuration delivers high quality water with the addition of energy recovery benefits. It is estimated that the system would produce 117m3 of biogas per day providing 123.2kWh/day in electricity production.

The conceptual design also provides additional benefits such as energy recovery, the potential for stormwater reuse and the potential for reuse of the sludge with a composting process that makes use of the university greenwaste as a bulking agent.


Purus is a Peruvian Amazonian province with little information on its biodiversity, especially on small mammals. This work aims to document the bats diversity in the region by developing intensive inventories at the Rio La Novia Conservation Concession, located on the right bank of the La Novia River, Purus, Ucayali Department. We surveyed the study area in the wet and dry seasons of 2015 using mistnets set on the ground and canopy, achieving a total sampling effort of 725 NN (12-m mist nets/night). As result, we recorded 32 bat species that include four new records for Purus province, and two new records for the Ucayali department (Eumops cf. delticus and Molossops temminckii). The seasonal accumulation curves were adjusted to the Clench model; however, the asymptotes were not reached, suggesting that more fieldwork is needed. Non-surprisingly, Phyllostomidae was the most diverse family (24 species). Also, we found that Carollia perspicillata and Artibeus planirostris have the higher relative abundance and that the frugivorous bats were the most abundant trophic guild. Our results suggest that the abundance and composition of bats in the Rio La Novia are probably related to seasonal changes, as seen in other primary forests. Considering that Purus maintains one of the few pristine forests in western Amazonia, we suggest that more surveys are needed for a better understanding of bat´s diversity and bat assemblage patterns in tropical forests.


The literature review of prior heat straightening research indicated that significant research has been conducted on the development of: (i) heat straightening repair techniques and their field implementation, (ii) guidelines and recommendations for heat straightening repair, (iii) empirical procedures for estimating plastic rotations achieved during heat straightening, (iv) empirical procedures for predicting residual stresses caused by heat straightening, and (v) the effects of heat straightening on the structural properties of repaired bridges. Currently, there is a need for additional research on: (a) the fatigue performance of heat straightened beams, (ii) the effects of single and multiple heat straightening on the fracture toughness and microstructure of steel beams, (iii) the development of guidelines for evaluating and replacing steel beams subjected to single or multiple damage-repairs, and (iv) investigating the effects of realistic heat straightening with imperfections on the properties and serviceability of steel beam bridges. The literature review of existing heat treatments indicates that heat straightening with maximum temperature limited to 1200°F is relatively similar to the process annealing heat treatment. Heat straightening with maximum temperature limited to 1400oF is similar to the normalizing annealing heat treatment. Both these heat treatments repair plastically deformed microstructure by the phenomenon known as recovery and recrystallization. Normalizing annealing is more efficient and faster than process annealing in repairing the plastically deformed microstructure by recrystallization. Heat treatment and repair of the material microstructure is incidental to the heat straightening repair process. The heat straightened beam can be further heat treated to complete the repair of the material microstructure (recrystallization etc.). The practical and economic feasibility of additional heat treatment using electrically powered and controlled radiant heaters was evaluated and found to be reasonable.


There has been much discussion recently about the future of postcolonial theory. Some suggest that it is on the wane, while others defend its continued capacity for transformative critique. This paper contributes to these debates by considering postcolonial geography's future through the prism of 'Rising Asia'. Rising Asia presents challenges to the spatial matrices underpinning current thinking in postcolonial geography, particularly the global South/North distinction and the histories of colonialism. What is the constituency of, and the emerging collectivities around, Rising Asia? What are the tensions between past, present and future in thinking about Rising Asia? We route our response to these questions by conceptualizing postcolonial geography as a disciplinary performance that draws on its subdisciplines. The argument is developed through three conceptual hooks—field, constituency and temporality—drawn from a reading of Edward Said's works Beginnings: Intention and Method (1975) and On Late Style: Music and Literature against the Grain (2007). Ultimately we do not seek to set an agenda for postcolonial geography; instead we suggest that greater attentiveness to the indeterminacies of postcolonial theory as it passes into postcolonial geography might allow more generative responses to the questions posed by Rising Asia.


Gesture recognition pertains to recognizing meaningful expressions of motion by a human, involving the hands, arms, face, head, and/or body. It is of utmost importance in designing an intelligent and efficient human-computer interface. The applications of gesture recognition are manifold, ranging from sign language through medical rehabilitation to virtual reality. In this paper, we provide a survey on gesture recognition with particular emphasis on hand gestures and facial expressions. Applications involving hidden Markov models, particle filtering and condensation, finite-state machines, optical flow, skin color, and connectionist models are discussed in detail. Existing challenges and future research possibilities are also highlighted


Unemployment rates differ dramatically across European regions. This article analyses these differences by integrating institutional and spatial perspectives into a unified dynamic framework distinguishing between slow and fast processes of change. The framework forms the basis for an econometric model that is used to analyse labour market differences among European Nomenclature des unites territoriales statistiques 2 regions. The results of random-effects models indicate that four key factors—all of which are of the slowly changing type—explain a large part of the variation in unemployment as well as employment rates. Flexible labour market regulations and above-average levels of interpersonal trust are institutional factors that reduce unemployment. Accessibility factors such as inter-regional transport connectivity and local access to skilled workers have similarly substantial effects. Whether a region belongs to the Eurozone or not seems to be less important.


Quaternary magnetic studies have provided the conceptual framework to bridge magnetic studies into ancient systems. In cases where environmental materials have been subjected to diagenetic alteration two questions come to mind: 1) What part of the magnetic signal is preserved in the rocks; and 2) can the preserved signal be used to infer/identify magnetic patterns that are characteristic of the depositional, post-depositional, and/or diagenetic environment. Analyses of multi-parameter magnetic experiments conducted on upper Mississippian and lower Pennsylvanian continental successions reveal that distinct depositional, pedogenic, and diagenetic magnetic patterns can be separated and identified. Evidence for a primary depositional signal in several of the upper Mississippian lithofacies is identified by a detrital remanence component attributed to source-area-derived magnetite/titanomagnetite. Red and gray vertisols preserve a Mississippian pedogenic signal characterized by magnetic enrichment, depletion, and amalgamation patterns that are associated with the removal and transport of Fe-rich clays as well as vertical mixing by shrink-swell mechanisms. These well-developed vertisols are interpreted to reflect significant hiatuses in sedimentation associated with prolonged exposure on interfluve/floodplain surfaces that may be correlative with incised valleys (lowstand surface of erosion). Similarly, in lower Pennsylvanian quartz arenite facies, early siderite cementation zones as well as conglomerate lags with distinctive magnetic characteristics are thought to reflect periods of prolonged exposure and to define unconformities within compound valley fills.


The justice literature, to date, shows that changes in fairness perceptions over time are consequential for job attitudes. However, few studies have been directed at explicating how fairness perceptions change over time or individual differences in patterns of change. The present research attempts to fill this gap by exploring patterns of temporal changes in fairness perceptions toward the selection process during a hiring process and potential determinants for such change. In a 3‐wave longitudinal study of the entire hiring process (pre‐, in‐, and post‐process) using a latent growth mixture modeling approach, different patterns of change in perceived fairness were modeled. In addition, the role of Big Five personality factors to predict classes of temporal patterns was examined. Results suggest that, on average, fairness perceptions declined in a non‐linear way over time, with high initial levels of fairness perception corresponding to a lower rate of decline, and vice versa. Four unique classes of applicants exhibiting different initial scores and growth of fairness perceptions were identified, which were predicted by the personality factors of extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness. Findings are discussed in terms of their implications for fairness theory and future research.


: The study investigated if rurality, area deprivation, access to outside space (Study 1), and frequency of visiting and duration in green space (Study 2) are associated with mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic and examined if individual demographics (age, gender, COVID-19 shielding status) and illness beliefs have a direct association with mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic. A serial, weekly, nationally representative, cross-sectional, observational study of randomly selected adults was conducted in Scotland during June and July 2020. If available, validated instruments were used to measure psychological distress, individual demographics, illness beliefs, and the following characteristics: Rurality, area deprivation, access to residential outside space, frequency of visiting, and duration in green space. Simple linear regressions followed by examination of moderation effect were conducted. There were 2969 participants in Study 1, of which 1765 (59.6%) were female, 349 (11.9%) were in the shielding category, and the median age was 54 years. There were 502 participants in Study 2, of which 295 (58.60%) were female, 58 (11.6%) were in shielding category, and the median age was 53 years. Direct effects showed that psychological distress was worse if participants reported the following: Urban, in a deprived area, no access to or sharing residential outside space, fewer visits to green space (environment), younger, female, in the shielding category (demographics), worse illness (COVID-19) representations, and greater threat perception (illness beliefs). Moderation analyses showed that environmental factors amplified the direct effects of the individual factors on psychological distress. This study offers pointers for public health and for environmental planning, design, and management, including housing design and public open space provision and regulation.


This paper presents a theoretical study on distributed contention window control algorithms for achieving arbitrary bandwidth allocation policies and efficient channel utilization. By modeling different bandwidth allocation policies as an optimal contention window assignment problem, we design a general and fully distributed contention window control algorithm, called GCA (general contention window adaptation), and prove that it converges to the solution of the contention window assignment problem. By examining the stability of GCA, we identify the optimal stable point that maximizes channel utilization and provide solutions to control the stable point of GCA near the optimal point. Due to the generality of GCA, our work provides a theoretical foundation to analyze existing and design new contention window control algorithms.


Chromosomal alterations can arise from numerous events, including errors during cell division or repair of damaged DNA. Of these errors, segregational defects such as anaphase bridges and multipolar spindles play a major role in chromosomal instability, leading to tumorigenesis. Bridges can theoretically be produced by several mechanisms including telomere-telomere fusion, persistence of chromatid cohesion into anaphase or repair of broken DNA ends. DNA damage can induce anaphase bridges following exposure to agents such as hydrogen peroxide or ionizing radiation (IR). Our hypothesis is that while the majority of double strand breaks (DSBs) are repaired, to restore the original chromosome structure, incorrect fusion events also occur leading to bridging and that bridge formation allows cells to bypass the apoptotic pathways that are activated in response to DNA damage. To test this, we set out to determine what pathways the cells use to heal the damage and form bridges. Our data suggest that neither of the two major pathways used by the cell for repair of double strand breaks, homologous recombination (HR) and non-homologous end joining (NHEJ), is required for bridge formation. In fact, the NHEJ pathway seems to play a role in the prevention of bridges. When NHEJ is compromised, the cell appears to use HR to repair the break, resulting in increased anaphase bridge formation. Moreover, intrinsic NHEJ activity of different cell lines appears to be correlated with induction of bridges from DNA damage. Our preliminary data also suggest that cell lines with high levels of bridging are capable of apoptosis, yet further experiments are required to see if blocking bridging can enhance cell death.Multipolar spindles are aberrant mitotic figures when a cell divides into two or more poles, which can lead to uneven segregation of the chromosomes. In our studies, we found that IR treatment can lead to an increase in multipolarity shortly after treatment and changes the distribution of spindle pole components. Initial observations on the splitting of centrosomal proteins following IR treatment are presented.


Between 2014 and 2023, the United States expects to spend $355 billion to modernize its nuclear arsenal. In subsequent decades, even higher expenditures are envisioned. But Washington is far from alone in modernizing its nuclear weapons. According to researchers from the Federation of American Scientists, "all the nuclear-armed states have ambitious nuclear weapon modernization programs…that appear intended to prolong the nuclear era indefinitely." Disarmament advocates believe such modernizations are fundamentally at odds with the goal of eliminating nuclear weapons—while weapon states argue that, as long as nuclear weapons exist, arsenals must be modernized in order to keep them safe, secure, and effective. Here, Eugene Miasnikov of Russia (2015), Matthew Kroenig of the United States (2015), and Lu Yin of China debate how—in a world where complete disarmament is nearly every nation's stated goal but disarmament seems by no means imminent—nuclear-armed countries should approach the maintenance and modernization of their arsenals.


Over the past few decades, new digital platforms such as China's Alibaba, Japan's Rakuten and the U.S.'s eBay have grown from startups into multinational giants. With a few clicks of the keyboard, these online marketplaces bring together a seller and a buyer from anywhere in the globe.
This study examines the transformative impact of online marketplaces on economic, social and environmental sustainability. It finds great opportunities. Platforms promote growth, break down barriers of distance and leap over rigid class structures, bringing marginalized outsiders into the mainstream. The study also identifies dangers stemming from the growth of e-commerce, from the reduction of labor protection to an explosion of shipping waste.
What are the responsibilities of platforms? How can they promote sustainability? Policymakers are asking these questions, but struggling to find the correct balance between the opportunities against the dangers. Until now, these questions have received little attention from scholars. This study fills a much-needed void by providing some initial answers and recommendations for improvement.


New laboratory studies employing the Engineering Unit (EU) of the Galileo Probe Mass Spectrometer (GPMS) have resulted in a substantial reduction in the previously reported upper limit on the ammonia mixing ratio derived from the GPMS experiment at Jupiter. This measurement is complicated by background ammonia contributions in the GPMS during direct atmospheric sampling produced from the preceding gas enrichment experiments. These backgrounds can be quantified with the data from the EU studies when they are carried out in a manner that duplicates the descent profile of pressure and enrichment cell loading. This background is due to the tendency of ammonia to interact strongly with the walls of the mass spectrometer and on release to contribute to the gas being directly directed into the ion source from the atmosphere through a capillary pressure reduction leak. It is evident from the GPMS and other observations that the mixing ratio of ammonia at Jupiter reaches the deep atmosphere value at substantially higher pressures than previously assumed. This is a likely explanation for the previously perceived discrepancy between ammonia values derived from ground based microwave observations and those obtained from attenuation of the Galileo Probe radio signal.


Crystal structures of helical columnar pi-conjugated systems, namely helicene-bisquinone and dendronized perylene bisimide derivative as well as of a biodegradable aliphatic polyester, namely poly-9-hydroxynonanoate, have been resolved by means of fibre X-ray diffraction.
Enantiopure and racemic helicene-bisquinones are found to be organized into columnar liquid crystalline phases. The internal structure of the columns is 132 hollow helix with the asymmetric unit comprised of six-molecules, hence of 78 molecules and two turns in a period of 112 A. The long-range order among the columns is found to be laterally high but longitudinally - low. This is the first atomic-level determination of a helical columnar liquid crystalline phase.
The crystal structure of N,N'-di-(3,4,5-dodecyloxy-oxyphenylethyl)-perylene bisimide is approximated by distorted helical columns arranged within an orthorhombic unit cell with lattice parameters a = 70.2 ± 0.02 A, b = 41.1 ± 0.02 A, and c = 45.5 ± 0.02 A. The space group is determined to be P212121. The internal structure of the columns is approximated by 61 helices. The structure is based on four-molecule repeat units (tetramers). There are 24 molecules and two turns in a 45.51 A period of the distorted 6-fold helix. The tetramer is comprised of 2 dimers (two boat-shaped molecules placed side-by-side) facing each other in the tetramer. The rotation angle between the dimers within the tetramer is 100°. Charge mobility along the columns has been found to depend critically on the detailed molecular packing.
The crystal structure of poly-9-hydroxynonanoate is established to be polyethylene-like except that the ester groups are randomly distributed throughout the lattice. The molecular chain of poly-9-hydroxynonanoate is determined to possess planar zigzag conformation with two such chains arranged within an orthorhombic unit cell with lattice parameters, a = 7.47 ± 0.02 A, b = 5.00 ± 0.02 A and c = 2.47 ± 0.02 A. The space group is determined to be Pnam. The angle between the C-C-C... zigzag plane of poly-9-hydroxynonanoate and the b-axis is determined to be 32.7°. Torsion of carbonyl group at this particular angle between the C-C-C... zigzag plane of poly-9-hydroxynonanoate and the b-axis is determined to be 0°. Hitherto this is the first time that a space group for aliphatic polyester of the type [-(CH2)n-CO-O-]x with even number of methylene units between successive ester groups is determined because poly-9-hydroxynonanoate is the first to show Bragg reflections on the non-equatorial layer line.


HIV prevention research in developing countries has resulted in increased attention to and discussion of ethical issues, particularly the issue of the quality of informed consent. We present a conceptual framework for an enhanced informed consent process, drawing on experiences garnered from domestic and international studies conducted by the HIV Prevention Trials Network, funded by the National Institutes of Health. This framework guides the development of an informed consent process designed to help ensure initial and continued comprehension of research participation, with an emphasis on HIV prevention research. Attention is focused at the individual and community levels and on 3 study phases: preenrollment, enrollment, and postenrollment.


k-Nearest Neighbor (k-NN) is very simple and powerful approach to conceptually approximate real-valued or discrete-valued target function. Many researchers have recently approved that k-NN is a high prediction accuracy for variety of real world systems using many different types of datasets. However, as we know, k-NN is a type of lazy learning algorithms as it has to compare to each of stored training examples for each observed instance. Besides, the prediction accuracy of k-NN is under the influence of K values. Mostly, the higher K values make the algorithm yield lower prediction accuracy according to our experiments. For these issues, this paper focuses on two properties that are to upgrade the classification accuracy by introducing Regional Distance-based k-NN (RD-kNN) and to speed up the processing time performance of k-NN by applying multi-threading approach. For the experiments, we used the real data sets, wine, iris, heart stalog, breast cancer, and breast tissue, from UCI machine learning repository. According to our test cases and simulations carried out, it was also experimentally confirmed that the new approach, RD-kNN, has a better performance than classical k-NN.


In this symposium jointly sponsored by the World Molecular Imaging Society (WMIS) and the AAPM, luminary speakers on imaging metabolism will discuss three impactful topics. The first presentation on Cellular Metabolism of FDG will be given by Guillem Pratx (Stanford). This presentation will detail new work on looking at how the most common molecular imaging agent, fluoro-deoxy-glucose is metabolized at a cellular level. This will be followed by a talk on an improved approach to whole-body PET imaging by Simon Cherry (UC Davis). Simon's work on a new whole-body PET imaging system promises to have dramatic improvement in our ability to detect and characterize cancer using PET. Finally, Jim Bankson (MD Anderson) will discuss extremely sophisticated approaches to quantifying hyperpolarized-13-C pyruvate metabolism using MR imaging. This technology promises to compliment the exquisite sensitivity of PET with an ability to measure not just uptake, but tumor metabolism.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Understand the metabolism of FDG at a cellular level. 2. Appreciate the engineering related to a novel new high-sensitivity whole-body PET imaging system. 3. Understand the process of hyperpolarization, how pyruvate relates to metabolism and how advanced modeling can be used to better quantify this data. G. Pratx, Funding: 5R01CA186275, 1R21CA193001, and Damon Runyon Cancer Foundation. S. Cherry, National Institutes of Health; University of California, Davis; Siemens Medical SolutionsJ. Bankson, GE Healthcare; NCI P30-CA016672; CPRIT PR140021-P5.


This paper presents an innovative approach, within the framework of distributional semantics, for the exploration of semantic similarity in a technical corpus. In complement to a previous quantitative semantic analysis conducted in the same domain of machining terminology, this paper sets out to discover fine-grained semantic distinctions in an attempt to explore the semantic heterogeneity of a number of technical items. Multidimensional scaling analysis (MDS) was carried out in order to cluster first-order co-occurrences of a technical node with respect to shared second-order and third-order co-occurrences. By taking into account the association values between relevant first and second-order co-occurrences, semantic similarities and dissimilarities between first-order co-occurrences could be determined, as well as proximities and distances on a graph. In our discussion of the methodology and results of statistical clustering techniques for semantic purposes, we pay special attention to the linguistic and terminological interpretation.


Aims: This retrospective case-control study was aimed at identifying potential independent predictors of severe/lethal COVID-19, including the treatment with Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme inhibitors (ACEi) and/or Angiotensin II Receptor Blockers (ARBs). Methods and Results: All adults with SARS-CoV-2 infection in two Italian provinces were followed for a median of 24 days. ARBs and/or ACEi treatments, and hypertension, diabetes, cancer, COPD, renal and major cardiovascular diseases (CVD) were extracted from clinical charts and electronic health records, up to two years before infection. The sample consisted of 1603 subjects (mean age 58.0y; 47.3% males): 454 (28.3%) had severe symptoms, 192 (12.0%) very severe or lethal disease (154 deaths; mean age 79.3 years; 70.8% hypertensive, 42.2% with CVD). The youngest deceased person aged 44 years. Among hypertensive subjects (n=543), the proportion of those treated with ARBs or ACEi were 88.4%, 78.7% and 80.6% among patients with mild, severe and very severe/lethal disease, respectively. At multivariate analysis, no association was observed between therapy and disease severity (Adjusted OR for very severe/lethal COVID-19: 0.87; 95% CI: 0.50-1.49). Significant predictors of severe disease were older age (with AORs largely increasing after 70 years of age), male gender (AOR: 1.76; 1.40-2.23), diabetes (AOR: 1.52; 1.05-2.18), CVD (AOR: 1.88; 1.32-2.70) and COPD (1.88; 1.11-3.20). Only gender, age and diabetes also predicted very severe/lethal disease. Conclusion: No association was found between COVID-19 severity and treatment with ARBs and/or ACEi, supporting the recommendation to continue medication for all patients unless otherwise advised by their physicians.


A suite of 51 pyroxenes from a wide range of geological environments was examined with infrared spectroscopy. Small amounts of OH occur in nearly all the samples, suggesting
that OH groups are a minor component of most pyroxenes. The OH concentrations vary (0.002-0.12 wt% OH) as a function of geological setting with the greatest amounts occurring in mantle-derived samples. The intensities of certain OH absorption bands are somewhat correlated with pyroxene composition, in particular with the presence of trivalent
cations. This suggests that crystal chemical or compositional factors also control the OH incorporation. The OH incorporated in the pyroxene structure is easily distinguishable from OH owing to amphibole lamellae, which usually occur in diopsides and often in orthopyroxenes. OH in pyroxene is probably a function of the activity of hydrous components during crystallization but may also depend on postcrystallization changes in the geological environment.


In literature, about 40% of the cases of acute surgical abdomen are represented by acute appendicitis. From this finding, we have evaluated the situation in the Clinic of Surgery and Pediatric Orthopedics in "St. Mary" Iași Hospital and we found that 40% to 60% (in the summer months) of the cases of acute surgical abdomen are determined by acute appendicitis. Taking into account the weight of this pathology, in this article we have resumed particular forms of presentation of appendicitis, depending on age and sex, and we have reviewed the surgical and non-surgical pathologies, as elements of differential diagnosis of acute appendicitis.


Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death worldwide. The role of cardiac markers in the diagnosis, risk stratification, and treatment of patients with chest pain is vital. Patients with elevated cardiac troponin levels but negative CK-MB who were formerly diagnosed with unstable angina or minor myocardial injury are now reclas-sified as non–ST-segment elevation MI (NSTEMI) even in the absence of diagnostic ECG changes. CK-MB is both a sensitive and specific marker for myocardial infarction. Cardiac troponin T is a cardio-specific, highly sensitive marker for myocardial damage. Cardiac troponin I is a contractile protein exclusively present in the cardiac muscle. The absolute cardiospecificity of cTnI allows the diagnosis of myocardial infarction distinct from muscle lesions and non-cardiac surgery. In 2000, the European Society of Cardiology and the American College of Cardiology redefined AMI with a particular advocacy on troponin. The 2002/2007 American College of Cardiology (ACC) and the American Heart Association (AHA) Guideline Update for the manage- ment of these patients strongly recommend to include cTnI. Specifically, with rare exception, the diagnosis cannot be made in the absence of elevated biomarkers of cardiac injury.


The study aims to know the implications of audit internal to good corporate governance. It is known that audit internal plays a vital role in every entity or an organization. Audit internal helps achieve organizational objectives while good corporate governance emphasizes on how performance is monitored and optimized. This paper used descriptive method wherein data were gathered through questionnaires. Research questionnaires were distributed to 20 respondents who were working in Internal Audit Unit of PT. Telekomunikasi Indonesia. Internal audit as the independent variable has four (4) indicators, independence, professional competence, scope of work, and Implementation of audit activities. Good corporate governance as the dependent variable has four (4) indicator, these are, fairness, transparency, accountability, and responsibility. Data gathered were processed and concluded. Based on the result of the research, it is known that internal audit is related to good corporate governance with an r = 0.661, this means that the relationship of both variable is strong and positive. It is also known that audit internal affects good corporate governance with an α = 5%, it is known that it affects significantly. Also, the result shows that tvalue of 3.574 is > ttable value of 1.734, which is means that Ho is rejected.


Accurate predictions of customers' future lifetime value (LTV) given their attributes and past purchase behavior enables a more customer-centric marketing strategy. Marketers can segment customers into various buckets based on the predicted LTV and, in turn, customize marketing messages or advertising copies to serve customers in different segments better. Furthermore, LTV predictions can directly inform marketing budget allocations and improve real-time targeting and bidding of ad impressions.
One challenge of LTV modeling is that some customers never come back, and the distribution of LTV can be heavy-tailed. The commonly used mean squared error (MSE) loss does not accommodate the significant fraction of zero value LTV from one-time purchasers and can be sensitive to extremely large LTV's from top spenders. In this article, we model the distribution of LTV given associated features as a mixture of zero point mass and lognormal distribution, which we refer to as the zero-inflated lognormal (ZILN) distribution. This modeling approach allows us to capture the churn probability and account for the heavy-tailedness nature of LTV at the same time. It also yields straightforward uncertainty quantification of the point prediction. The ZILN loss can be used in both linear models and deep neural networks (DNN). For model evaluation, we recommend the normalized Gini coefficient to quantify model discrimination and decile charts to assess model calibration. Empirically, we demonstrate the predictive performance of our proposed model on two real-world public datasets.


Abstract. The paper presents a methodology that gives insight into the performance of ensemble streamflow-forecasting systems. We have developed an ensemble forecasting system for the Biala Tarnowska, a mountainous river catchment in southern Poland, and analysed the performance for lead times ranging from 1 to 10 days for low, medium and high streamflow and different hydrometeorological conditions. Precipitation and temperature forecasts from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts served as inputs to a deterministic lumped hydrological (HBV) model. Due to a non-homogeneous bias in time, pre- and post-processing of the meteorological and streamflow forecasts are not effective. The best forecast skill, relative to alternative forecasts based on meteorological climatology, is shown for high streamflow and snow accumulation low-streamflow events. Forecasts of medium-streamflow events and low-streamflow events under precipitation deficit conditions show less skill. To improve performance of the forecasting system for high-streamflow events, the meteorological forecasts are most important. Besides, it is recommended that the hydrological model be calibrated specifically on low-streamflow conditions and high-streamflow conditions. Further, it is recommended that the dispersion (reliability) of the ensemble streamflow forecasts is enlarged by including the uncertainties in the hydrological model parameters and the initial conditions, and by enlarging the dispersion of the meteorological input forecasts.


Global Imbalances and Financial Capitalism Jacques Mazier 2020-05-07 The past few decades have witnessed the emergence of economic imbalances at the world level and within the euro zone. The failure of mainstream economics to accurately predict financial crises, or model the effects of finance-led growth, highlights the need for alternative frameworks. A key text, Global Imbalances and Financial Capitalism: StockFlow-Consistent Modelling demonstrates that Stock-Flow-Consistent models are well adapted to study this growth regime due to their ability to analyse the real and financial sides of the economy in an integrated way. This approach is combined with an analysis of exchange rate misalignments using the Fundamental Equilibrium Exchange Rate (FEER) methodology, which serves to give a synthetic view of international imbalances. Together, these models describe how global and regional imbalances are created, as well as suggest appropriate tools through which they may be reduced. The book also considers alternative economic policies in the euro zone (international risk sharing, fiscal federalism, eurobonds, European investments, a multispeed euro zone) alongside alternative monetary policies. In particular, it examines the possibilities of using SDR (Special Drawing Rights) as a reserve asset to be issued to fight a global recession, to support the development of low-income countries, or as an anchor to improve global monetary stability. This text will be of interest to students, scholars, and researchers of economic theory and international monetary economics. It will also appeal to professional organisations who supervise international relations.


The wine industry needs solutions for wastewater treatment, as environmental legislation for its disposal is increasingly being enforced due to non-compliance. The feasibility of re-using diluted winery wastewater was assessed in a pot experiment under a rain shelter over four simulated irrigation seasons. Four soils varying in parent material and clay content, viz. aeolic sand from Lutzville containing 0.4% clay, alluvial sand from Rawsonville containing 3.3% clay, granite-derived soil from Stellenbosch containing 13% clay, and shale-derived soil from Stellenbosch containing 20% clay, were irrigated with wastewater diluted to 3 000 mg/L COD (chemical oxygen demand), whereas the control received municipal water. Irrigation with diluted winery wastewater increased the pH(KCl) in the shale- and granite-derived soils into the optimum range for P availability. Although pH(KCl) in the aeolic sand was initially above the optimum range, relatively high Na+ levels also caused available P to increase as the pH(KCl) increased. The pH(KCl) in the alluvial sand increased beyond the optimum range, thereby causing a reduction in the available P. This indicates that irrigation with diluted winery wastewater may only enhance P absorption if the pH(KCl) shift is towards the optimum. It must be noted that the results represent a worst-case scenario, i.e. in the absence of rainfall or crops.


Changes in gene expression were investigated in axotomized CNS neurons under conditions that inhibit or permit regrowth of their damaged axons. Levels of mRNA encoding beta-tubulin, the 150 kDa neurofilament subunit (NF-M), and glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) were examined by quantitative in situ hybridization of adult rat retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) after axotomy in the optic nerve or during regeneration in a peripheral nerve (PN) graft. Soon after optic nerve section beta-tubulin, NF-M, and GAPDH mRNA levels decreased and remained low during the 1 month studied. In these retinas beta-tubulin mRNA fell to approximately 50% of normal controls. However, in the PN- grafted retinas, where approximately 20% of the surviving axotomized RGCs regenerate their axons, there were "hot spots" of beta-tubulin mRNAs where neuronal levels were nearly 300% higher than in controls. By retrograde neuronal labeling these hot spots were shown to correspond to the injured RGCs that regrew their axons into the PN graft; beta-tubulin mRNA levels in nonregenerating RGCs of the same retinas averaged 63% of controls. We suggest that interactions of RBC axons and components of the grafts' non-neuronal environment play a key role in the over fourfold differences in beta-tubulin mRNA levels observed between injured and regenerating RGCs.


This thesis is concerned with the development and laboratory assessment of an electrochemical sensor for the detection and measurement of the volatile inhalation anaesthetic, forane. Investigations were therefore based on the heterogeneous and homogeneous reduction of this agent in non-aqueous electrolyte. Preliminary experiments at a mercury and other rotating disc electrodes (RDEs) revealed that the direct reduction of forane was not possible and therefore the use of an electron transfer mediator was examined. To this end, the radical anion of the polyaromatic compound, fluoranthene, (F), was investigated as a possible electro-reduction catalyst and the mediated reduction of the anaesthetic, via a catalytic process, demonstrated. Theory was presented for the calculation of chronoamperometric and steady state responses at the RDE resulting from one electron transfer and coupled (catalytic) homogeneous kinetic processes. The latter enabled a precise mechanism to be assigned to the F + forane process, while a comparison of the former theory with experimental chronoamperometric results was used, in conjunction with AC impedance studies, to investigate the adsorption of F at the mercury/acetonitrile interface. A polymer modified electrode, based on the polymer poly-(11-vinylfluoranthene) was demonstrated to be effective in the heterogeneous reduction of forane but displayed only a limited lifetime. Therefore, a Clark-type membrane electrode was constructed and the detection and measurement of forane, in the absence of oxygen, demonstrated using this device. However, the sluggish response of this sensor, together with interference problems from oxygen encouraged the development of a device which utilised a channel electrode (ChE) sensing approach. Theory was presented for the deduction of steady state currents at the ChE resulting from coupled catalytic kinetics and this was used to demonstrate that the same mechanism for the F + forane system operated at the ChE as the RDE. The conventional ChE was then modified by the incorporation of a membrane and this sensor, which was shown to operate successfully in the presence of high concentrations of oxygen and nitrous oxide, responded linearly to forane, while displaying an excellent response time of under ten seconds. The device should find application in clinical monitoring.


This thesis finds that vortex instabilities are not necessarily a barrier to their potential as sites for planetesimal formation. It is challenging to build planetesimals from dust within the lifetime of a protoplanetary disc and before such bodies spiral into the central star. Collecting matter in vortices is a promising mechanism for planetesimal growth, but little is known about their stability under these conditions. We therefore aim to produce a more complete understanding of the stability of these objects. Previous work primarily focusses on 2D vortices with elliptical streamlines, which we generalise. We investigate how non–constant vorticity and density power law profiles affect stability by applying linear perturbations to equilibrium solutions. We find that non–elliptical streamlines are associated with a shearing flow inside the vortex. A 'saddle point instability' is seen for elliptical–streamline vortices with small aspect ratios and we also find that this is true in general. However, only higher aspect ratio vortices act as dust traps. For constant–density vortices with a concentrated vorticity source we find parametric instability bands at these aspect ratios. Models with a density excess show many narrow bands, though with less strongly growing modes than the constant–density solutions. This implies that dust particles attracted to a vortex core may well encounter parametric instabilities, but this does not necessarily prevent dust–trapping. We also study the stability and lifetime of vortex models with a 2D flow in three dimensions. Producing nearly–incompressible 3D models of columnar vortices, we find that weaker vortices persist for longer times in both stratified and unstratified shearing boxes, and stratification is destabilising. The long survival time for weak, elongated vortices makes it easier for processes to create and maintain the vortex. This means that vortices with a large enough aspect ratio have a good chance of surviving and trapping dust for sufficient time in order to build planetesimals.


Biological movement is built up of sub-blocks or motion primitives. Such primitives provide a compact representation of movement which is also desirable in robotic control applications. We analyse handwriting data to gain a better understanding of primitives and their timings in biological movements. Inference of the shape and the timing of primitives can be done using a factorial HMM based model, allowing the handwriting to be represented in primitive timing space. This representation provides a distribution of spikes corresponding to the primitive activations, which can also be modelled using HMM architectures. We show how the coupling of the low level primitive model, and the higher level timing model during inference can produce good reconstructions of handwriting, with shared primitives for all characters modelled. This coupled model also captures the variance profile of the dataset which is accounted for by spike timing jitter. The timing code provides a compact representation of the movement while generating a movement without an explicit timing model produces a scribbling style of output.


BACKGROUND:In creating the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System, Congress has mandated pay-for-performance (P4P) for all physicians, including anesthesiologists. There are currently no National Quality Forum–endorsed risk-adjusted outcome metrics for anesthesiologists to use as the basis for P4P. METHODS:Using clinical data from the New York State Cardiac Surgery Reporting System, we conducted a retrospective observational study of 55,436 patients undergoing cardiac surgery between 2009 and 2012. Hierarchical logistic regression modeling was used to examine the variation in in-hospital mortality or major complications (Q-wave myocardial infarction, renal failure, stroke, and respiratory failure) among anesthesiologists, controlling for patient demographics, severity of disease, comorbidities, and hospital quality. RESULTS:Although the variation in performance among anesthesiologists was statistically significant (P = 0.025), none of the anesthesiologists in the sample was classified as a high- or low-performance outliers. The contribution of anesthesiologists to outcomes represented 0.51% of the overall variability in patient outcomes (intraclass correlation coefficient [ICC] = 0.0051; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.002–0.014), whereas the contribution of hospitals to patient outcomes was 2.90% (ICC = 0.029; 95% CI, 0.017–0.050). The anesthesiologist median odds ratio (MOR) was 1.13 (95% CI, 1.08–1.24), suggesting that the variation between anesthesiologist was modest, whereas the hospital MOR was 1.35 (95% CI, 1.25–1.48). In a separate analysis, the contribution of surgeons to overall outcomes represented 1.76% of the overall variability in patient outcomes (ICC = 0.018, 95% CI, 0.010–0.031), and the surgeon MOR was 1.26 (95% CI, 1.19–1.37). Twelve of the surgeons were identified as performance outliers. CONCLUSIONS:The impact of anesthesiologists on the total variability in cardiac surgical outcomes was probably about one-fourth as large as the surgeons' contribution. None of the anesthesiologists caring for cardiac surgical patients in New York State over a 3+ year period were identified as performance outliers. The use of a performance metric based on death or major complications for P4P may not be feasible for cardiac anesthesiologists.


BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES
Diagnosis of acute myocardial injury with biomarkers is difficult in patients with advanced renal failure. Circulating microRNAs are promising new biomarkers of myocardial injury. It is unknown whether levels of microRNAs are affected in patients undergoing hemodialysis.

DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS, & MEASUREMENTS
High-sensitivity cardiac troponin T (hsTnT) and cardiac-enriched miR-499 were measured in 41 patients with ESRD undergoing hemodialysis and 41 controls.

RESULTS
Levels of hsTnT and miR-499 were highly elevated in patients with ESRD compared with controls (>80-fold increase; P<0.001). Among patients with ESRD, 98% had positive hsTnT levels and 46% had positive miR-499 levels. Levels of troponins were not affected by hemodialysis. However, miR-499 levels were decreased after hemodialysis (6.5-fold decrease; P=0.002).

CONCLUSIONS
Both miR-499 and troponins are elevated in patients with advanced renal failure. However, whereas levels of troponins are unaffected by hemodialysis, this is not the case for miR-499. Therefore, these observations mitigate the potential of miR-499 as a marker of myocardial injury in patients with ESRD.


Background: Vitamin D deficiency (low plasma 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25D] concentration) is often reported in tuberculosis. Adjunctive vitamin D has been tested for its potential to improve treatment outcomes, but has proven largely ineffective. To better understand vitamin D in tuberculosis, we investigated determinants of 25D and its immunologically active form, 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D (1,25D), their inter-relationship in tuberculosis, longitudinal changes and association with outcome. Methods: In a prospective observational study of adults with smear-positive pulmonary tuberculosis in Sabah, Malaysia, we measured serial 25D, 1,25D, vitamin D-binding protein (VDBP), albumin, calcium, parathyroid hormone, chest x-ray, week 8 sputum smear/culture and end-of-treatment outcome. Healthy control subjects were enrolled for comparison. Results: 1,25D was elevated in 172 adults with tuberculosis (mean 229.0 pmol/L, 95% confidence interval: 215.4 242.6) compared with 95 controls (153.9, 138.4-169.4, p < 0.001), directly proportional to radiological severity (p < 0. 001), and fell rapidly within one week of treatment commencement. Tuberculosis patients with higher baseline 1,25D achieved significantly higher percentage weight gain over time, including when controlling for baseline weight, however persistently elevated 1,25D was associated with worse residual x-ray changes and lower end-oftreatment BMI. 1,25D was inversely associated with PTH (p < 0.001), consistent with the extra-renal origin of the 1,25D. 25D did not differ between tuberculosis patients (mean 63.9 nmol/L, 95% CI: 60.6 67.3) and controls (61.3, 57.265.3, p = 0.24), and was unassociated with outcomes. Among tuberculosis patients in multivariable analyses, sex, age and VDBP were associated with 25D, and age and albumin with 1,25D. 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin was not significantly asscociated with 25D. Vitamin D deficiency <25 nmol/L was uncommon, occurring in only five TB patients; 1,25D was elevated in three of them. Conclusions: In an equatorial setting, high extra-renal production of 1,25D was seen in tuberculosis, including in individuals with 25D in the deficient range; however, severe 25D deficiency was uncommon. Baseline elevation of 1,25D, a marker of macrophage activation, was associated with better weight gain but persistent elevation of 1,25D was associated with worse radiological and BMI outcomes. 1,25D warrants testing in larger datasets including TB patients less responsive to treatment, such as multi-drug resistant TB, to test its utility as a marker of tuberculosis severity and treatment response.


Ischemic heart disease represents 1 in 4 of total global deaths worldwide. Myocardial intercellular cross-talk regulate simultaneously the tissue homeostasis between neighboring cardiac cells in response to acute or chronic ischemic insult. Different studies have suggested that the heterocellular communication of adult myocardium is mainly based on the release of several free soluble biofactors into the extracellular milieu and on the spreading of different ions through selective channels. In light of these findings, the past few decades have witnessed incessant research aimed at protecting the adult myocardium against ischemic injury, but the development of effective cardioprotection is still a desirable achievement. Nowadays, the rapidly evolving nanoscience is offering the opportunity to tailor new reliable therapeutic targets at ultrastructural level in order to prevent or attenuate the progressive myocardial trimodal response (cell death, matrix degradation and reactive cell hypertrophy) against ischemic injury occurring in infarcted heart. All cardiac cell types release nanovesicles termed "exosomes" (size 40-100 nm), which contain different cargo under normoxic and hypoxic microenvironment. In particular, we and other investigators have demostrated that cardiac fibroblasts and cardiac progenitor cells/stem cells interact with ischemic cardiomyocytes through the release of exosomes. Our review provides current insights into the role of nanovesicles in the modulation of injury and repair responses under ischemic microenvironment.


In robotics research, grid-based maps are widely used not only for localization and SLAM, but also as a prerequisite for navigational tasks such as path planning. Depending on the task, the utilized sensor, the chosen tradeoff between accuracy, runtime and memory requirements, and the exact map representation, a low grid resolution may be required. However, due to the involved discretization, occupancy grid maps suffer from aliasing effects and they are susceptible to sensor errors, especially if the resolution is low. In this work, we discuss different sub-pixel resolution methods, which improve the map quality without adapting the grid resolution. Therefore, we examine a grid traversal method inspired by antialiasing, which we use to apply weights to the grid cell updates in order to model straight beams more precisely. Further investigations include implicitly modeling the beam's width and shape. Finally, we inspect methods developed for ONDT maps and conduct extensive experiments to evaluate the discussed techniques.


A novel approach to the determination of steroid entrapment in the bilayers of aerosolised liposomes has been introduced using high-sensitivity differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Proliposomes were dispersed in water within an air-jet nebuliser and the energy produced during atomisation was used to hydrate the proliposomes and generate liposome aerosols. Proliposomes that included the steroid beclometasone dipropionate (BDP) produced lower aerosol and lipid outputs than steroid-free proliposomes. Size analysis and transmission electron microscopy showed an evidence of liposome formation within the nebuliser, which was followed by deaggregation and size reduction of multilamellar liposomes on nebulisation to a two-stage impinger. For each formulation, no difference in thermal transitions was observed between delivered liposomes and those remaining in the nebuliser. However, steroid (5 mole%) lowered the onset temperature and the enthalpy of the pretransition, and produced a similar onset temperature and larger enthalpy of the main transition, with broadened pretransition and main transitions. This indicates that BDP was entrapped and exhibited an interaction with the liposome phospholipid membranes. Since the pretransition was depressed but not completely removed and no phase separation occurred, it is suggested that the bilayers of the multilamellar liposomes can entrap more than 5 mole% BDP. Overall, liposomes were generated from proliposomes and DSC investigations indicated that the steroid was entrapped in the bilayers of aerosolised multilamellar vesicles.


Accra, the capital of the West African country of Ghana, is technologically marginalized by any measure. But over the past ten years, the introduction of the Internet, wireless technology and freer radio broadcasts have vastly expanded communications and information. The Internet is widely available. E–mail usage is soaring. Wireless telephony is growing rapidly. Radio stations are proliferating. Once mired in information poverty, the people of Accra, Ghana now face the challenge of using information and connectivity to their best advantage. In examining how Accra adapts to technological change, we gain a better understanding of how people in poor African cities use technology and what they want from it. Debates over the so–called "digital divide" can be enriched by close studies of lived experience in parts of the world where the revolution in information technology remains more prospect than reality.


The area of automotive fuel, or fuel components, which can be produced from biomass also includes dimethyl ether, otherwise known as DME. The issue of the use of DME as a fuel is one which has been monitored until recently. Biomass can also be used as the raw material for the production of DME. DME has therefore replaced the previously-used CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons), which are now banned for their role in dangerous levels of ozone depletion. With regard to its physical properties and combustion characteristics, it is currently expected that DME will soon apply significantly as a fuel in the municipal sector and in households, and as an alternative fuel for motor vehicles with diesel engines. DME is a suitable fuel for diesel engines and can be considered as one of the most promising diesel fuel replacements. DME is a suitable fuel for diesel engines mainly due to its low self-ignition temperature and good cetane figures. It is well miscible with most organic solvents and because the polar solvent is water-immiscible. The advantage is its high levels of purity, and its being free of sulphur, nitrogen, or metals. The physical properties of DME are very similar to the physical properties of LPG. DME requires relatively complex and costly fuel accessories, but the original compression ratio of the diesel engine is maintained. A diagram of the fuel system is illustrated in the paper. The paper analyses the dependence of vapour pressure on temperature, the dependence of the density on temperature, kinematic viscosity, the flash point, the boiling point, and the solubility of water. The objective is to evaluate this interesting energy source for applications in diesel engines.