We propose an information theoretic waveform design algorithm for target tracking in a low-grazing angle (LGA) scenario. We incorporate realistic physical and statistical effects, such as Earth's curvature, vertical refractivity gradient of lower atmosphere, and compound-Gaussian characteristics of sea-clutter, into our model. We employ a co-located multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) radar configuration using wideband orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) signalling scheme. The frequency diversity of OFDM provides richer information about the target as different scattering centers resonate at different frequencies. Additionally, we use polarization-sensitive transceivers to resolve the multipath signals with small separation angles. Thus, we track the scattering coefficients of the target at different frequencies along with its position and velocity. We apply a sequential Monte Carlo method (particle filter) to track the target. Our tracker works in a closed-loop fashion with an integrated optimal waveform design technique based on mutual information (MI) criterion. We seek the optimal OFDM waveform at the current pulse duration to maximize the MI between the state and measurement vectors at the next pulse duration utilizing all the measurement history up to the current pulse. Our numerical examples demonstrate the importance of realistic physical modeling, effects of frequency diversity through OFDM MIMO configuration, and achieved performance improvements due to adaptive OFDM waveform design.


This essay imagines a world in which law professors tracked their work hours. It identifies some of the diagnostic attributes of the academic "billable" hour, explores the potential destructive dark side of timekeeping, and examines the nature of the relationship between the diagnostic and destructive qualities of recording academic time. Next, it introduces some of the political implications of recording academic time, and explores some of the normative discussions timekeeping might help inform.
We know little about what law professors do and how they spend their time. While we know law professors' teaching loads, we do not know how many hours they spend preparing for classes, interacting with students, or developing and grading assignments, let alone how they spend their time pursuing all of these activities. Similarly, while we know quite a bit about how much law professors publish and about the quality and impact of their scholarship, we do not know how they identify topics for inquiry, research, write, and publish. Finally, while we know a fair amount about law professors' service commitments, such as their committee assignments, we do not know how much time and how they spend their time on service activities. In short, we know very little about law professors' work habits.
What we do not know matters. Timekeeping by law professors can generate useful diagnostic insights that may inform and improve legal academia. If all law professors were to record their time teaching, serving, and researching we would know more about what law professors do and how they do it and would be able to generate benchmarks and best practices, which may inform individual decision-making by faculty members regarding how to allocate their time, as well as institutional decision-making by law schools about how to assess and allocate their human capital resources and how to effectively train and mentor junior colleagues.
Timekeeping, however, also has a dark destructive side, as it may undercut the intellectual and contemplative culture of legal academia and may help create disincentives for thinking, unintentionally triggering and contributing to a process of replacing standards of quality and professional excellence with managerial reporting of hours. Indeed, the two sides of timekeeping, the diagnostic and destructive, may be inherently intertwined such that the very act of keeping academic time may undercut the core mission and objectives of legal academia.
Lawyers' experience with the billable hour suggests some valuable lessons in terms of thinking about academic timekeeping. Unlike law practice, legal education need not and should not feature an inherent tie between recorded time and compensation. Distinguishing the diagnostic from the punitive by mandating academic timekeeping while liberating law professors from any compensation consequences attached to recorded time, may help address some of the concerns regarding the dark side of timekeeping. Thus, a time-limited, mandatory national experiment with academic timekeeping based on universal agreed upon time categories, supported by an apparatus of ethical timekeeping, and divorced from compensation consequences may avail legal academia of the diagnostic virtues of timekeeping while keeping its the destructive qualities at bay.
Admittedly, recording time may provide enemies of the academia with powerful ammunition. It may, for example, be used by critics to demand increased teaching loads and restrict investment in research. Yet continued ignorance about what law professors do may be too high a price to pay for a false sense of security. Moreover, robust knowledge about law professors' work habits may inform normative discussions about what law professors should be doing, an important contribution given mounting criticisms of law schools and legal education.


In many developing countries, timely and accurate information about birth rates and other demographic indicators is still lacking, especially for male fertility rates. Using anonymous and aggregate data from Facebook's Advertising Platform, we produce global estimates of the Mean Age at Childbearing (MAC), a key indicator of fertility postponement. Our analysis indicates that fertility measures based on Facebook data are highly correlated with conventional indicators based on traditional data, for those countries for which we have statistics. For instance, the correlation of the MAC computed using Facebook and United Nations data is 0.47 (p = 4.02e -08) and 0.79 (p = 2.2e-15) for female and male respectively. Out of sample validation for a simple regression model indicates that the mean absolute percentage error is 2.3%.We use the linear model and Facebook data to produce estimates of the male MAC for countries for which we do not have data.


This article analyzes the conceptual links between sustainability, common concern and public goods. It examines the mega-trends of the 21st century in the context of sustainability. By doing so, it brings forward the novel idea of how greater participation of citizens can be very promising in helping achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. The article also examines incentives for regional and global cooperation on decarbonizing the economy. It does so by proposing the novel idea of using mega-regional trade agreements (RTAs) to mitigate climate change and enhance sustainable energy. It proposes the argument that only a few major greenhouse gas emitters and just three mega-RTAs can make a great contribution towards climate change mitigation and the enhancement of sustainable energy. The article then explores sustainability in the context of innovation, research, technology and spirituality. The article concludes with the expression that there is a knowledge gap on the links between four major global concerns: trade, energy, climate change, and sustainability. With the threat of climate change looming, and energy increasingly important to all aspects of human and economic development, learning more about these links is extremely timely.


This Article proposes a new theory of the Constitution that argues that the central principle underlying the Constitution is governance through supermajority rules. More specifically, the Constitution embraces supermajority rules as a means of improving legislative decisionmaking in various circumstances where majority rule would operate poorly. We argue that supermajoritarianism inheres in the Constitution in at least three ways. First, the text, structure, purpose, and history of the Constitution all reveal its supermajoritarian orientation. In particular, we maintain that the three basic decisionmaking rules in the Constitution - express supermajority rules, passage of ordinary legislation by two houses and presentment to the President, and absolute constitutional limitations such as the First Amendment - despite their surface dissimilarities, are all essentially supermajoritarian. We also show that supermajority rules were a central part of the legal regimes that preceded the Constitution and were an important part of Madison's vision of a charter that would restrain majority factions while preserving representative government. Second, we examine the different supermajority rules in the Constitution and show that they largely conform to a persuasive model of when supermajority rules can improve government decisionmaking. We argue that supermajority rules can improve quality of legislation by filtering out undesirable legislation produced in circumstances when majority rule functions poorly. We then show that the different supermajority rules in the Constitution - including those governing impeachments, treaties, enactment and amendment of the Constitution, and passage of ordinary legislation - largely conform to this theory, which suggests that the Framers were implicitly following something like the theory. Finally, we explore the normative theory underlying the Constitution and argue that what makes the Constitution attractive as higher law is that it could only be enacted if it secured the support of a large supermajority. The strict supermajoritarian filter through which the Constitution and amendments had to pass produces higher quality provisions than if they had merely been enacted under majority rule and, therefore, justifies using constitutional provisions to strike down ordinary legislation. A recognition of the supermajoritarian origins of the Constitution also helps to respond to complaints about the dead hand of the Constitution, because it shows that the Framers' generation had to satisfy as strict a supermajority requirement to enact constitutional provision as does the present generation. Finally, the supermajoritarian requirement for constitutional provisions supports an originalist methodology for interpreting the Constitution, because it is the original understanding of constitutional provisions that passes through the strict supermajority process for enactment or amendment.


Laments over the decline of the manufacturing base in the United States are widespread. But while manufacturing employment has steadily declined for many decades, more direct measures of manufacturing productivity show that the growth of the US manufacturing sector has actually been strong and not simply in the subsectors affected by computer production. In the last two years, the United States has been doing much better than most of the rest of the world, including China. In addition, the Policy Brief shows that increased offshoring by US manufacturing multinational corporations (MNCs), a phenomenon criticized as contributing to domestic job losses, is actually associated with overall greater investment and increases in jobs at home. New evidence also suggests positive effects of offshoring by US manufacturers on research and development (R&D) spending in the United States. Accordingly, policies aimed at restricting global expansion by US MNCs would be misguided.


AIM
The technical principles of the hydrogen peroxide head preparation method were recently presented. This article aims to demonstrate the high quality of anatomical studies performed using these specimens, particularly for arachnoid exploration.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
Five cadaveric heads were set with a 10% formalin solution and then injected with coloured latex. Thereafter, the heads were bleached with hydrogen peroxide solution 20%. Anatomical dissection of all specimens was performed. The skull base was drilled, dura mater gradually resected and outer arachnoid membranes examined and opened. The topographical anatomy was studied.

RESULTS
All soft tissues, the brain, cranial nerves, the vasculature, the dura mater and even the arachnoid, were macroscopically intact, which enabled high-quality skull base specimens. In addition, the bone was softened, facilitating the drilling process. The topographical anatomy of anterior clinoid process was selected as an example and depicted in photos.

CONCLUSION
High-quality anatomical specimens were obtained using the hydrogen peroxide head preparation. The topographic anatomy was studied from a unique downside-up angle, as well as by following the passage of the key neurovascular structures during its course. We propose the use of this method in neurosurgical training, especially to practice extradural approaches. Moreover, this method seems promising as a complementary method for arachnoid studies.


Monitoring vegetation phonology using satellite data has been an area of growing research interest in recent decades. Validation is an essential issue in land surface phenology study at large scale. In this paper, double logistic function-fitting algorithm was used to retrieve phenophases for grassland in North China from a consistently processed Moderate Resolution Spectrodiometer (MODIS) dataset. Then, the accuracy of the satellite-based estimates was assessed using field phenology observations. Results show that the method is valid to identify vegetation phenology with good success. The phenophases derived from satellite and observed on ground are generally similar. Greenup onset dates identified by Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and in situ observed dates showed general agreement. There is an excellent agreement between the dates of maturity onset determined by MODIS and the field observations. The satellite-derived length of vegetation growing season is generally consistent with the surface observation.


Background/introduction Scottish chlamydia testing guidelines target symptomatic and high-risk asymptomatic individuals. Recent publications, indicating a low risk of progression to serious chlamydia-related outcomes, particularly tubal factor infertility (TFI), question the validity of high levels of opportunistic testing especially among asymptomatic individuals. Aim(s)/objectives To examine cost-effectiveness of current chlamydia testing to prevent TFI among those aged 15–24 in Scotland using cost per Quality-Adjusted Life Years (QALYs) gained and to consider alternative testing strategies. Methods A compartmental deterministic model of chlamydia infection in those aged 15–24 in Scotland was developed to examine the impact of testing coverage and partner notification (PN) on number and cost of TFI cases prevented. Cost-effectiveness calculations were informed by best estimates of the QALYs lost due to TFI. Results At 16.8% baseline testing coverage (laboratory data), 4.4% prevalence (NATSAL-3) and assumed PN rate of 0.4, the total testing cost is £5.4 million. This is estimated to prevent 258 TFI cases each year in young women. The cost per QALY gained is £40,034 compared with no testing, using a mid-range health state utility value (HSUV) for TFI (0.76 (±0.24)) and PID (0.9 (±0.22)). A 50% reduction in current testing would result in higher chlamydia prevalence and 84 more TFI cases. Discussion/conclusion Current chlamydia testing activities in Scotland do not appear cost-effective. However, the model is sensitive to several parameters, particularly the HSUV and there are uncertainties in the current testing costs and progression to serious sequelae. There appears potential to improve chlamydia testing cost-effectiveness by increasing PN.


Sustainability is becoming an increasing important topic for managers. One illustration is the development of the strategic sustainability management discipline. There is a growing expectation that corporations will address sustainability in some fashion. Moreover, sustainability is used to shape reputations in part through corporate social responsibility (CSR). Sustainability can be used to develop CSR and CSR is a vital component of reputation management efforts. As a result, corporations are becoming more susceptible to outside attacks that question their sustainability efforts or lack thereof. That susceptibility exists whether the challenge is simply an issue of meeting expectations or if the organisation is delivering on promised sustainability claims. This manuscript explores sustainability challenges and the implications for crisis managers. The sustainability challenges are viewed as one means by which sustainability connects with crisis management.


Delayed dispersal is a key step in the evolution of familial animal societies and cooperative breeding. However, no consensus has been reached on the ecological and social circumstances driving delayed dispersal. Here, we test predictions from the ecological constraints and benefits of philopatry hypotheses as well as the recently proposed dual benefits hypothesis to better understand the evolution of group-living and cooperative breeding. Furthermore, we consider how individual social circumstances within groups affect dispersal decisions. We examine 11 years of life-history information on a wild population of cooperatively breeding southern pied babblers Turdoides bicolor. We investigate the effects of ecological conditions, natal-group membership and individual social context on male and female dispersal delays, disperser survival and acquisition of dominance. Female dispersal decisions are generally unconstrained by ecological or social circumstances. In contrast, males disperse in response to relaxed ecological constraints, decreases in nepotistic tolerance or when low social rank in the queue for dominance decreases their likelihood of gaining a dominant breeding position. Early dispersal by end-of-queue males often leads to a head-of-queue subordinate position in a non-natal group, thereby increasing access to dominant breeding positions. However, males and females remaining in natal groups gain benefits of philopatry via increased survival and, for head-of-queue males, very high likelihood of acquisition of a breeding position. Overall, predictions from the dual benefits hypothesis best describe these results, while some predictions from each of the ecological constraints and benefits of philopatry hypotheses were supported. The benefits of living and working together (collective action benefits) in large stable groups are of central importance in shaping dispersal delays in southern pied babbler societies. In addition, position in the subordinate social queue for dominance is the key in determining access to reproduction, particularly for males. This research highlights the importance of considering the costs and benefits of individual social circumstances in dispersal decisions and illustrates how the dual benefits hypothesis offers new perspectives in understanding delayed dispersal.


The present research aims to explain within-gender differences in competitive bargaining performance by introducing an individual difference approach to the gender and negotiations literature. We propose that women in male-dominated fields who perceive their gender and professional roles as highly compatible — high on gender/professional identity integration — are more effective in competitive bargaining. In Study 1, business women's state gender/profession identity integration, but not men's, was positively associated with economic performance and the absence of social backlash. In Study 2, state identity integration among business women was linked with greater propensity to bargain due to reduced social backlash concerns. In Study 3, women in STEM fields higher on identity integration negotiated better economic outcomes in a face-to-face salary negotiation. In Studies 4 and 5, we examined the casual direction between recall of gender/profession identity compatibility and women's negotiations performance. Results revealed convergent evidence with the effects observed with state gender/profession identity integration in the quasi-field studies suggesting that gender/professional identity compatibility is a unique psychological force facilitating women's bargaining performance. We discuss the implications of the findings to social psychology theory and research and women's professional advancement.


Natural Resources and Conflict in Africa: The Tragedy of Endowment. By Abiodun Alao. Rochester Studies in African History and the Diaspora. Rochester, N. Y.: University of Rochester Press, 2007. Pp. xix, 353; 1 map, 18 tables, 5 figures. $85.00 cloth. Africa is home to some of the largest deposits of natural resources in the world. It is also the center of a disproportionate number of the globe's conflicts. Millions of people have been killed in these conflicts, millions more have become refugees or have been displaced within their own homelands, and women in particular have suffered "collateral damage" as rape is increasingly used as a weapon of war. What should be a blessing, then, is seen by many as a curse. In Natural Resources and Conflict in Africa: The Tragedy of Endowment, Abiodun Alao has undertaken an extensive survey of the links between natural resources and conflict on the African continent. Alao, a senior research fellow at the Conflict, security and Development Group, School of Social Science and Public Policy, King's College, University of London, brings years of experience to bear in this timely study. The book has two major objectives. The first is to provide a comprehensive review of Africa's natural resources and the continent's conflicts over recent decades. In a lengthy section, Alao describes the continent's key natural resources, dividing them into four categories (land, solid minerals, oil, and water) and examining the ways in which each has been linked to conflict. The author's thematic approach means that-with the significant exception of Nigeria and, to a lesser extent, the Democratic Republic of Congo-there is no particular emphasis on any particular country. Exhaustive as this section is, it suffers in places from a serious time lag. For instance, there is only one reference to the conflict in Darfur ("There are also disputes over grazing and farming rights in the ... Darfur region," [p. 109]), and the author's source is a book written in 1991. Alao neglects some pertinent issues, such as the very substantial international trade in timber that is ravaging many parts of Africa, and the consequences of the increasing Chinese presence in Africa, which is barely mentioned. Alao's second objective is to explore the relationship between governance and natural resource conflicts. The author does not place the blame for the continent's woes on either greed or grievance, but rather on "the complete defectiveness or the selective efficiency" of governance structures (p. …


Background: Despite excellent long-term outcomes, posterior stabilisation by a third condyle continues to receive unwarranted criticism regarding patellar complications and instability. Hypothesis: Complication rates with a tri-condylar posterior-stabilised implant are similar to those with other posterior-stabilised prostheses and have diminished over time due to improvements in prosthesis design. Material and methods: Post-operative complications and revision rates were assessed retrospectively in a prospective cohort of 4189 consecutive patients who had primary total knee arthroplasty (TKA) using a tri-condylar posterior-stabilised implant (Wright-Tornier) and were then followed-up for at least 24 months. The analysis included 2844 knees. The prosthesis generations were HLS1®, n = 20; HLS2®, n = 220; HLS Evolution®, n = 636; HLS Noetos®, n = 1373; and HLS KneeTec®, n = 595. Complications were compared across generations by applying Fisher's exact test, and survival was compared using the Kaplan-Meier method. Results: At last follow-up, there had been 341 (12%) post-operative complications in 306 (10.8%) knees, including 168 (5.9%) related to the implant, 41 (1.4%) infections, and 132 (4.6%) secondary complications unrelated to the implant. Re-operation was required for 200 complications (7%), including 87 (3.1%) consisting in revision of the prosthesis. Implant-related complications were stiffness (n = 67, 2.4%), patellar fracture (n = 34, 1.2%), patellar clunk syndrome (n = 25, 0.9%), patellar loosening (n = 3, 0.1%), tibial/femoral loosening (n = 15, 0.5%), polyethylene wear (n = 3, 0.1%), and implant rupture (n = 1, 0.04%). Significant differences across generations were found for stiffness (P < 0.0001), patellar fracture (P = 0.03), clunk syndrome (P = 0.03), and polyethylene wear (P = 0.004), whose frequencies declined from one generation to the next. Overall 10-year survival was 92% with no significant difference across generations (P = 0.1). Discussion: Outcomes of tri-condylar posterior-stabilised TKA are similar to those obtained using other posterior-stabilised implants. Neither patellar complications nor instability are more common, and improvements in implant design have contributed to correct early flaws. Level of evidence: IV, historical cohort, retrospective assessment of prospectively collected data. © 2016 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.


Introduction: Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is a common complication of pregnancy that is associated with fetal and maternal adverse outcomes. These women are at higher risk for development of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and metabolic and cardiovascular disease. Various results have been presented on the long term consequences of GDM. We aimed to compare the incidence of these metabolic disorders between women with previous GDM and those without any history of GDM. Materials and Methods: Three groups of non-diabetic women, aged 15-45 y who participated in first phase of Tehran Lipid and Glucose Study (TLGS) were selected; 1) women with previous GDM, 2) women with previous still birth or macrosomia and without any history of GDM, and 3) normal age-BMI matched controls. They were followed for an average of 9 years, for developing of type 2 diabetes mellitus, hypertension and dislipidemia. Results: Cumulative incidence of T2DM in the GDM group was 3-fold higher than the control. Incidence rates of T2DM were not significantly different between women in MC-ST group and their controls; however the serum concentrations of FBS were significantly different between these two groups. There was no significant difference in the cumulative incidence of hypertension and dislipidemia between the case and control groups. Conclusion: Women with previous GDM are at an increased risk of developing T2DM later in life. It seems that GDM screening in pregnancy could identify women at risk of metabolic disease.


A key aim of much climate activism is to enhance climate ambition and hold local and national governments, as well as global governance forums like the United Nations (UN), to account for the ways in which they implement and monitor climate policy across society to reverse long-term climate change. In recent years new local forms of climate activism, particularly at the urban scale, have taken a more prominent role in this. Although place-based, such local forms of climate activism are at the same time multi-scalar in orientation and strategic focus. This is particularly true in the UK where climate activism has prompted a number of local councils to declare climate emergencies, providing a mechanism by which they can become locally accountable in the delivery of their climate action plans, whilst at the same time holding national government to prior and future commitments to global climate governance. Using interview data with experts working on climate emergency declarations research across the UK, we critically discuss four key themes that have underpinned and catalysed the changing geographies of civil-state relationships within the climate emergency and what this may mean for future global climate governance under the UNFCCC Conferences of the Parties (COP). We argue that decision-makers at COP26 need to take greater heed of the significance of this new broader urban climate activism and its role in geopolitically mobilising more equitable, democratic and inclusive forms of climate governance which give citizens and civil society more credence within global climate policy decision-making processes that have been up to now, dominated by national state discourses.


In The Ethics of The Tripartite Tractate (NHC I, 5) Paul Linjamaa offers the first full length thematical monograph on the longest Valentinian text extant today. By investigating the ethics of The Tripartite Tractate, this study offers in-depth exploration of the text's ontology, epistemology, theory of will, and passions, as well as the anthropology and social setting of the text. Valentinians have often been associated with determinism, which has been presented as "Gnostic" and then not taken seriously, or been disregarded as an invention of ancient intra-Christian polemics. Linjamaa challenges this conception and presents insights into how early Christian determinism actually worked, and how it effectively sustained viable and functioning ethics. (Less)


Each of the "subjects" that commonly form the elementary school curriculum has a Technical Lexicon that defines the substance and structure of the subject. This paper describes research conducted by SWRL in the 1970's to identify TechLex for six subjects: communication skills, science, music, social science, mathematics, and art. These lexicons--lists of technical words compiled from K-6 textbooks-provide a comprehensive summary of the technical terminology used in elementary school instruction. This compilation was done in the 1970s. However, the defining terms of an academic subject change at the elementary school level change very little over time. Inspection indicates that a few terms might need to be added in science. It is important to note that TechLex does not define instruction, only the terms that are specific to the instruction. For example, teaching students how to estimate involves much more than the TechTerm, estimate.


Cow's milk has been part of the human diet for at least 8,000 years and provides a rich source of proteins, lipids, vitamins, and minerals. Despite its longstanding importance in human nutrition, questions remain about how compatible cow's milk is with our immune system. Cow's milk allergy (CMA) is the most common form of food allergy in infants and children and cow's milk has been implicated in a number of immune-mediated disorders. Reviewing current research obtained through Google Scholar and Touro's library database on CMA and the potential role of cow's milk in systemic inflammation and autoimmunity reveals a tangle of contradictory findings and competing explanations. While current research does not indicate a significant connection between cow's milk and systemic inflammation in healthy adults or to Rheumatoid Arthritis, it does provide significant, if contested evidence for the role of cow's milk in Type 1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and Behcet's disease. These evolving findings must be considered when we evaluate the current nutritional guidelines on cow's milk.


This paper presents new algorithms to solve the feature-sparsity constrained PCA problem (FSPCA), which performs feature selection and PCA simultaneously. Existing optimization methods for FSPCA require data distribution assumptions and lack of global convergence guarantee. Though the general FSPCA problem is NP-hard, we show that, for a low-rank covariance, FSPCA can be solved globally (Algorithm 1). Then, we propose another strategy (Algorithm 2) to solve FSPCA for the general covariance by iteratively building a carefully designed proxy. We prove (data-dependent) approximation bound and convergence guarantees for the new algorithms. For the spectrum of covariance with exponential/Zipf's distribution, we provide exponential/posynomial approximation bound. Experimental results show the promising performance and efficiency of the new algorithms compared with the state-of-the-arts on both synthetic and real-world datasets.


This thesis mainly deals with men?s oppression and its effect toward Firdaus which leads her to her search for self-esteem in Nawal El Saadawi?s Woman at Point Zero. I find out that Firdaus, the main female character in the novel, has experienced unbearable suffering in her life which leads her to hate men and the hatred makes her wants to find her own self-esteem in order to be respected. Therefore, this study aims to reveal the ways of the male characters? oppression toward Firdaus and how the oppression affects Firdaus in her way to find her self-esteem. To reach the purpose of this study, I use cultural approach, mainly the ideology of patriarchy, in order to help me to recognize the oppression that men use which makes Firdaus suffer and begin to look for her self-esteem. Through the topic which I present in this thesis, I see that the men in Firdaus? life make her suffer in their own way, especially through their sexual desires that need to be fulfilled. Not only that they force Firdaus with their desires, but they also try to persuade her and make up the situation as if she wants to do it by her own free will and give them the pleasure for free. This kind of treatment of men is considered as oppression toward Firdaus and this oppression makes Firdaus suffer and the suffering little by little make Firdaus realize that actually every human being has a price and she wants to have it too. She wants to be respected by others and that need of being respected has made her try to find her self-esteem, no matter what it takes, she wants to have it. Therefore, I find out that women, especially in rural world like Egypt, have to go through a lot of oppressions. However they should have courage to find their own dignity and overcome their fears in facing those oppressions and also defense their right as women.


BACKGROUND: After reports of increasing emergency department (ED) visits for unsupervised pediatric medication exposures in the 2000s, renewed efforts to improve safety packaging and education were initiated. National data on current trends can help further target interventions. METHODS: We used nationally representative data from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System–Cooperative Adverse Drug Event Surveillance project (2004–2013) to assess trends in ED visits for unsupervised medication exposures in children aged <6 years. For 2010 through 2013, the dosage form and prescription status of implicated medications were identified. RESULTS: Based on 13 268 cases, there were an estimated 640 161 ED visits (95% confidence interval: 512 885 to 767 436) for unsupervised medication exposures from 2004 through 2013. From 2004 through 2010, ED visits for unsupervised exposures increased by an average of 5.7% annually, peaking at 75 842. After 2010, this trend reversed, and visits decreased by an average of 6.7% annually to 59 092 in 2013. From 2010 through 2013, 91.0% of unsupervised exposure visits involved 1 medication, most commonly an oral prescription solid (45.9%), oral over-the-counter (OTC) solid (22.3%), or oral OTC liquid (12.4%). More than 260 different prescription solids were implicated; opioids (13.8%) and benzodiazepines (12.7%) were the most common classes. Four medications were implicated in 91.2% of OTC liquid exposure visits: acetaminophen (32.9%), cough and cold remedies (27.5%), ibuprofen (15.7%), and diphenhydramine (15.6%). CONCLUSIONS: Targeting prevention efforts based on harm frequency and intervention feasibility can lead to continued reductions in ED visits for pediatric medication exposures.


The present study was aimed to investigate the causes of COVID-19 worry and its effect on initial behaviors that observed in early stage of the COVID-19 outbreak in Bangladesh. In the online survey, participants' were asked about normative concerns, COVID-19 worry, initial behaviors, and the neuroticism personality trait. Results of the study demonstrated that (i) higher normative concerns and neurotic trait were predictors of higher COVID-19 worry; and (ii) higher normative concerns and COVID-19 worry significant predictors of buying preparatory materials, higher worry for postponing travel plan, and higher worry and neuroticism for purchasing daily commodities more than usual and difficulties in concentration.


Sodium entry during an action potential determines the energy efficiency of a neuron. The classic Hodgkin-Huxley model of action potential generation is notoriously inefficient in that regard with about 4 times more charges flowing through the membrane than the theoretical minimum required to achieve the observed depolarization. Yet, recent experimental results show that mammalian neurons are close to the optimal metabolic efficiency and that the dynamics of their voltage-gated channels is significantly different than the one exhibited by the classic Hodgkin-Huxley model during the action potential. Nevertheless, the original Hodgkin-Huxley model is still widely used and rarely to model the squid giant axon from which it was extracted. Here, we introduce a novel family of Hodgkin-Huxley models that correctly account for sodium entry, action potential width and whose voltage-gated channels display a dynamics very similar to the most recent experimental observations in mammalian neurons. We speak here about a family of models because the model is parameterized by a unique parameter the variations of which allow to reproduce the entire range of experimental observations from cortical pyramidal neurons to Purkinje cells, yielding a very economical framework to model a wide range of different central neurons. The present paper demonstrates the performances and discuss the properties of this new family of models.


Molecules based on 1,3,5-triazine are rare in nature. Most 1,3,5-triazine compounds are anthropogenic and have only existed in the last 150 years. Because it is easy to synthesize, 1,3,5-triazine is often employed as a modular scaffold in industrial applications, including the synthesis ofmedicines, resins, agrochemicals, and reactivedyes. The highly stable nature of triazine compounds leads to their persistence in the environment. Some plants have the ability to degrade these compounds into metabolic intermediates, many of which accumulate in soil and streams in agricultural areas. Although bioactivities have been reported for 1,3,5-triazines in plants, little is known, with the exception of the herbicide atrazine, about the direct targets of these compounds in plants.. Morimoto et al. (pp. 1848–1859) show that small 1,3,5-triazines selectively target ascorbate peroxidases (APXs) in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana), tomato (Solanum lycopersicum), rice (Oryza sativa), maize (Zea mays), liverwort (Marchantia polymorpha), and other plant species. One 1,3,5-triazine probe in particular, called KSC-3, selectively binds APX enzymes, both in crude extracts and in living cells. KSC-3 blocks APX activity, thereby reducing photosynthetic activity under moderate light stress, even in apx1 mutants. This suggests that APXs in addition to APX1 protect the photosystem from reactive oxygen species. Profiling APX1 with KCS-3 revealed that the catabolic products of atrazine, which are common soil pollutants, also target APX1. KSC-3 should prove to be a powerful chemical probe in studying APX enzymes in plants.


Life predictions for small cracks emanating from material inhomogeneities or small flaws caused by manufacturing or corrosion damage are becoming increasingly important for several reasons, including: concerns over widespread fatigue damage; a shift in philosophy for fatigue initiation design from stress-life (S-N) to the equivalent initial flaw size (EIFS) approach, and the greater usage of unitized structure. For these reasons, development of accurate fatigue crack growth rate (FCGR) data in the near threshold region is needed, which is not influenced by closure or residual stress. Threshold data ARE often generated from long crack specimens by load shedding as outlined in ASTM E 647. However, this data can be non-conservative and variable due to load history effects caused by crack closure. Generating closure-free short crack FCGR data requires much more sophisticated instrumentation and testing techniques than long crack testing, making it prohibitively expensive to perform on a routine basis. Small crack tests also sample only a small volume of material and typically exhibit large scatter, so multiple tests must be performed in order to determine the typical or average behavior of the material. As a result of these disadvantages, use of long crack tests to estimate short crack behavior is the preferred approach. The objective of this study was to evaluate the adjusted compliance ratio (ACR) method for obtaining residual stress and closure-free data from long crack tests and to compare the ACR method against the current ASTM opening load method. The ACR method was developed by Donald for estimating the closure-free ΔKeff FCGR curve from standard long crack tests. To evaluate the method's ability to estimate closure-free data, standard ASTM long crack tests and short corner crack tests were conducted on 7075-T651 and 2324-T39 alloys. The ΔKeff FCGR data resulting from the application of the ACR method to the ASTM long crack test results were then compared with the closure-free short corner crack data. Additionally, to assess the method's ability to account for residual stresses, long crack tests using ASTM standard middle crack and compact tension specimens, prepared from alloy 7055-T74511, were conducted, and the resulting ΔKapplied and ΔKeff FCGR data were compared.


The paper reports from an experiment studying how the aversion to lying is affected by non-economic dimensions of the choice situation. Specifically, we study whether people are more or less likely to lie when the content of the lie is personal, when they base decisions on intuition, and when they are in a market context. We also study how aversion to lying depends on personal characteristics, including age, gender, cognitive ability, personality and social preferences. Our main finding is that non-economic aspects of the choice situation are crucial in understanding aversion to lying. In particular, we find that people are less likely to lie when the content of the message is personal. We also find large effects from priming the participants to rely on intuition, but, interestingly, in this case the effect only applies to males. Finally, we find that people who are highly motivated by social preferences are more averse to lying, but there is no significant relationship between lying behavior and other personal characteristics.


Fifteen years ago, southern Afghanistan was in even greater chaos than it is now. The Russians, who had occupied the country throughout the 1980s, were long gone. The disparate ethnic and religious leaders who had united to eject the invaders - the famous mujaheddin - were at each others' throats. For the rural poor of Kandahar province, life was almost impossible. On 12 October 1994 a small group of religious students decided to take matters into their own hands. Led by an illiterate village mullah with one eye, some 200 of them surrounded and took Spin Boldak, a trucking stop on the border with Pakistan. From this short and unremarkable border skirmish, a legend was born. The students' numbers swelled as news of their triumph spread. The Taliban, as they now called themselves - taliban is the plural of talib, literally 'one who seeks knowledge' - had a simple mission statement: the disarmament of the population, and the establishment of a theocracy based on Sharia law. They fought with a religious zeal that the warring mujaheddin could not match. By February 1995, this people's revolt had become a national movement; 18 months later Kabul fell, and the country was effectively theirs. James Fergusson's fascinating account of this extraordinary story will be required reading for anyone who wishes to understand the situation in Afghanistan, now and for the future...


Over the past few years there has been a keen interest, both in the popular press and among researchers, in whether job stability and job security have declined. Anecdotal evidence suggests that stability and security declined in the 1980s and 1990s. But academic studies have been divided in their findings. This paper uses sheds additional light on this question using data from the March CPS. The main advantage to using March CPS data is that the transition variables are defined consistently over the 1975-76 through 2000-2001 period covered by my data. I find that overall job separation rates changed very little over this time period, but that there were large changes in the component transitions. Employment-to-unemployment transitions declined dramatically, indicating a significant increase in job security. For men, nearly all of the increase in job security occurred in the 1990s, while for women, the increase was more uniform throughout the period. There was an equally dramatic increase in employment-to-employment transitions (job changes with two or fewer weeks of unemployment), indicating that it has become easier to change employers. I also examine trends in these transitions treating married couples as a unit. I find that job stability fell for married couples, but that job security increased. The decrease in stability would have been smaller and the increase in security would have been larger were it not for the increase in the proportion of couples in which the wife's earnings are a significant share of total earnings.


© The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press. This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Factors affecting COVID-19 outcomes in patients with congenital heart disease


Case method teaching is not limited to larger, complex cases. It is often useful to supplement classroom discussions with short cases, ones that have been targeted for one or two discussion points that challenge student thinking beyond the usual lecture or textbook. These shorter cases are called 'minicases.' The objective of a minicase is to broaden the thinking of students by raising difficult, focused questions. Discussing shorter cases provides an opportunity to think carefully about key issues and to challenge conventional thinking without the overhead of preparing a larger case. Minicases can provide the bases for stimulating classroom discussions, with students being asked to read, analyze, and discuss them within the context of a single class. Or, they could be utilized for homework assignments. Or, minicases might even be useful as essay questions on exams or as tools in assessing student-learning outcomes. This article presents two focused minicases that an instructor can use in a typical information systems overview course. The first of these deals with a project crisis brought on by the loss of a critical software developer and the second with perplexing problems managing key technical personnel. For each case, a discussion of how to use the minicase effectively and a suggested solution are provided. This is the last in a series of three articles appearing in JISE dealing with the topic of IT Minicases.


The two fields of strategic management and entrepreneurship have been viewed as inseparable twins and the relationship has been coined strategic entrepreneurship by a number of scholars. Though the integrative studies of the two areas continue, there seems to be a dearth in the study of the two areas at business (competitive) strategy level. This is a conceptual article which aims to show how business strategy can be integrated with entrepreneurship to enhance firm competitiveness. Whether one argues that strategy subsumes entrepreneurship or that entrepreneurship subsumes strategy, an apparent intersection exists. The integrated strategy is termed entrepreneurial competitive strategy and the article presents a framework for this integration. As with any other literature based model, this model can still be improved and needs to be tested for practical application.


Ponderosa pine is one of the most sensitive species to ozone and a dominant species in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. To assess the factors controlling ozone deposition to the forest and to study the forest response, we established a research site in a ponderosa pine plantation ∼75 km northeast of Sacramento. Ozone concentration and ozone flux, along with relevant environmental variables, were measured from June to September in 1997 and from May to November in 1998. Summer of 1997 had very low soil moisture and an early budbreak, while summer of 1998 had very high soil moisture and later budbreak. Soil moisture and vapor pressure deficit exerted a strong control on ozone deposition in the dry year (1997), but the relationship was less clear in the wet year (1998). During the dry year ozone concentration and flux became decoupled owing to stomatal closure, but this did not occur explicitly in 1998. Phenology also proved to be important in controlling ozone deposition. Early in summer 1997 cumulative ozone flux was 50% higher than that of 1998: the difference can be attributed to the late budbreak in 1998. Further, the highest ozone deposition velocity in both years occurred 3–4 weeks after budbreak. Total cumulative ozone flux during the summer was 6% lower in 1998 due mainly to later budbreak even though drought stress reduced ozone flux late in summer 1997. Our results show that interannual climate variability impacts temporal patterns, physiological controls, and magnitude of ozone deposition to sensitive Mediterranean-type ecosystems.


The Society of Legal Scholars, originally the Society of Public Teachers of Law, was created in 1909, but was fortunate to survive its first half century. It had few members, lacked financial resources and was weak in influence. In comparison with other university disciplines Law enjoyed a fragile status, and was often held in low esteem by barristers and solicitors. At times the SPTL was caught up in problems of its own making, for instance refusing to admit women until the late 1940s. But there were also moments of excitement and achievement: the years between 1909 and the start of WWI were full of hope and new ideas and the establishment of the Journal of the Society of Public Teachers of Law in the 1920s was an important achievement for legal scholars. During the social revolution of the 1960s the SPTL continued to function as a rather sedate gentleman's club, gathering at its annual conference to socialise, rather than to engage in academic debate. The 1970s saw a sustained drive from its Young Members' Group to create a new, more serious organisation, with better conferences and more effective decision-making processes. The Society evolved slowly, but the process accelerated in the 1990s, with members encouraged to reinforce their intellectual contribution to the discipline and act as a central point for policy debate within the legal academic community. As we stand at the beginning of the twenty first century, the Society, with nearly 3,000 members, has come a long way from its small beginnings.


PURPOSE
To examine the effect of beta-alanine only and beta-alanine with sodium bicarbonate supplementation on 2,000-m rowing performance.

METHODS
Twenty well-trained rowers (age 23 ± 4 y; height 1.85 ± 0.08 m; body mass 82.5 ± 8.9 kg) were assigned to either a placebo or beta-alanine (6.4 g · d(-1) for 4 weeks) group. A 2,000-m rowing time trial (TT) was performed before supplementation (Baseline) and after 28 and 30 days of supplementation. The post supplementation trials involved supplementation with either maltodextrin or sodium bicarbonate in a double-blind, crossover design, creating four study conditions (placebo with maltodextrin; placebo with sodium bicarbonate; beta-alanine with maltodextrin; beta-alanine with sodium bicarbonate). Blood lactate, pH, bicarbonate, and base excess were measured pre-TT, immediately post-TT and at TT+5 min. Performance data were analyzed using magnitude based inferences.

RESULTS
Beta-alanine supplementation was very likely to be beneficial to 2,000-m rowing performance (6.4 ± 8.1 s effect compared with placebo), with the effect of sodium bicarbonate having a likely benefit (3.2 ± 8.8 s). There was a small (1.1 ± 5.6 s) but possibly beneficial additional effect when combining chronic beta-alanine supplementation with acute sodium bicarbonate supplementation compared with chronic beta-alanine supplementation alone. Sodium bicarbonate ingestion led to increases in plasma pH, base excess, bicarbonate, and lactate concentrations.

CONCLUSIONS
Both chronic beta-alanine and acute sodium bicarbonate supplementation alone had positive effects on 2,000-m rowing performance. The addition of acute sodium bicarbonate to chronic beta-alanine supplementation may further enhance rowing performance.


The oxidation protection of TiAl-alloys at temperatures above 750°C can be improved by the fluorine effect. The results of thermodynamical calculations predict a corridor for a positive fluorine effect. Ion implantation of F was performed because of giving the best results. After a high F-loss during heating a thin protective alumina scale acts as a diffusion barrier. The F-depth profiles show a distinct maximum at the metal/oxide interface. The diffusion coefficient of F in TiAl for 900°C was determined. The stability of the F-effect after long oxidation time at 900°C and 1000°C can be explained by the existence of a constant F-amount at the metal/oxide interface ensuring a slow growth of the alumina scale. The fluorine effect was also applied to Ni-base superalloys to improve their high temperature oxidation resistance by forming a dense continuous protective alumina scale.


ABSTRACT A collection of 712 Fusarium graminearum sensu stricto (s.s.) strains, predominantly gathered between 1999 and 2000 from nine states within the United States, was examined for population structure and polymerase chain reaction-based trichothecene type. Most strains belonged to a cohesive genetic population characterized by a 15-acetyldeoxynivalenol (15ADON) trichothecene type. However, using a Bayesian model-based clustering method, we also identified genetically divergent groups of strains in some sampled locations of Minnesota and North Dakota. Strains of the major group of divergent populations were of a 3ADON trichothecene type and formed a distinct cluster with a collection of previously gathered strains from Italy, which displayed all three trichothecene types (15ADON, 3ADON, and nivalenol). The co-existence of genetically divergent populations of F. graminearum s.s. in the Upper Midwest allows for the rejection of the hypothesis that F. graminearum s.s. in the United States consists of a single population. These results also suggest that recombination has been insufficiently frequent in this homothallic (selfing) fungal species to homogenize the divergent populations observed in the Upper Midwest.


This study compares and quantifies the simulated effects of noise, index errors, and photometric level errors on different optical monitoring layer termination strategies. A computer program to simulate optical thin film monitoring has been written for this work. The study looked at these termination methods: quartz crystal monitoring, photometric level cut, two types of turning point termination, and percent of optical extrema monitoring. A narrow bandpass filter and a four-layer antireflection coating design were simulated as examples.


Based on left type II censored samples from a Gumbel type II distribution, the Bayes estimators and corresponding risks of the unknown parameter were obtained under different asymmetric loss functions, assuming different informative and non-informative priors. Elicitation of hyper-parameters through prior predictive approach has also been discussed. The expressions for the credible intervals and posterior predictive distributions have been derived. Comparisons of these estimators are made through simulation study using numerical and graphical methods.


To compensate for an extremely heavy journal, jacking pockets can be added to the surface of pads in fluid film bearings. Jacking pockets can range in size and shape and will have an influence on the hydrodynamic performance of the bearing. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) was used to better understand the influence of the geometry of a rectangular/stadium-shaped, jacking pocket on the performance of bearings. First, the influence of the pocket depth on the pressure profile of the bearing was investigated. A varying profile occurred with jacking pocket depths less than 6.6 × Cb. After this threshold, the pocket depth ceased to have an influence on the pressure profile. A second study examined the circumferential length of the pocket, and the pressure profile was found to approach the smooth case as the pocket circumferential length decreased. Response surface models were created to map the influence of the jacking pocket geometry on the journal location in the bearing, power loss, and stiffness characteristics of the bearing. This is the first study on influence of the geometry of a jacking pocket on the operation and linear stiffnesses of the bearing in fluid film journal bearings.


There has been an exponential growth of information seeking behaviour (ISB) via Internet-based programs over the past decade. The availability of software that record ISB temporal patterns has provided a valuable opportunity to examine biological rhythms in human behaviour. Internet search repositories, such as Google Trends, permit the analyses of large datasets that can be used to track ISB on a domestic and international scale. We examined daily and seasonal Google Trends search patterns for keywords related to food intake, using the most relevant search terms for the USA, UK, Canada, India and Australia. Daily and seasonal ISB rhythmicity were analysed using CircWave v. 1.4. Daily ISB data revealed a robust and significant sine waveform for general terms (e.g. 'pizza delivery') and country-specific search terms (e.g. 'just eat'). The pattern revealed clear evening double-peaks, occurring every day at 19.00 and 02.00. The patterns were consistent across search terms, days of the week and geographical locations, suggesting a common ISB rhythm that is not necessarily culture-dependent. Then, we conducted Cosinor v. 2.4 analyses to examine the daily amplitudes in ISB. The results indicated a non-significant linear increased from Monday to Sunday. Seasonal data did not show consistent significant ISB patterns. It is likely that two different human populations are responsible for the daily 'early' and 'late' evening ISB peaks. We propose that the major factor that contributes to the bimodal evening peak is age-dependent (e.g. adolescent, early adulthood versus midlife and mature adulthood) and a minor role for human chronotypes (e.g. late versus early). Overall, we present novel human appetitive behaviour for information seeking of food resources and propose that Internet-based search patterns reflect a biological rhythm of motivation for energy balance.


This paper addresses the sustainable development of the Flemish greenhouse industry by investigating the optimal size, structure and location of its farms. It emphasizes the importance of a square shape of the greenhouse as optimal structure. Using Data Envelopment Analysis an optimal farm size that varies between 1.7 and 3 hectares has been found, depending on the method used. Location factors that matter in the future Flemish greenhouse industry include temperature, light, transportation costs, air pollution and land prices, while rainfall, wind, output price differences, soil and infection risk do not differentiate between regions.


A possible correlation between second-order dispersion and glucose concentration is presented for the first time. The second-order dispersions of three different glucose concentrations: hypoglycemia, normal level, and hyperglycemia are analyzed over the wavelength range from 0.55 to 0.8 micron by Fourier analysis of the interferogram. The preliminary correlation between second-order dispersion and glucose concentration is investigated by linear fitting the second-order dispersion from 0.65 to 0.75 micron. This correlation is expected to determine the different glucose concentrations by measuring the second-order dispersion, which can be considered as a potentially noninvasive method to measure glucose concentration in human eye.


Abstract Histologic studies of embryonic and perinatal longbones of living birds, non-avian dinosaurs, and other reptiles show a strong phylogenetic signal in the distribution of tissues and patterns of vascularization in both the shafts and the bone ends. The embryonic bones of basal archosaurs and other reptiles have thin-walled cortices and large marrow cavities that are sometimes subdivided by erosion rooms in early stages of growth. The cortices of basal reptiles are poorly vascularized, and osteocyte lacunae are common but randomly organized. Additionally, there is no evidence of fibrolamellar tissue organization around the vascular spaces. Compared with turtles, basal archosaurs show an increase in vascularization, better organized osteocytes, and some fibrolamellar tissue organization. In dinosaurs, including birds, vascularization is greater than in basal archosaurs, as is cortical thickness, and the osteocyte lacunae are more abundant and less randomly organized. Fibrolamellar tissues are evident around vascular canals and form organized primary osteons in older perinates and juveniles. Metaphyseal ("epiphyseal") morphology varies with the acquisition of new features in derived groups. The cartilage cone, persistent through the Reptilia (crown-group reptiles, including birds), is completely calcified in ornithischian dinosaurs before it is eroded by marrow processes; cartilage canals, absent in basal archosaurs, are present in Dinosauria; a thickened calcified hypertrophy zone in Dinosauria indicates an acceleration of longitudinal bone growth. Variations in this set of histological synapomorphies overlap between birds and non-avian dinosaurs. In birds, these variations are strongly correlated with life-history strategies. This overlap, plus independent evidence from nesting sites, reinforces the hypothesis that variations in bone growth strategies in Mesozoic dinosaurs reflect different life-history strategies, including nesting behavior of neonates and parental care.


Significance Microbial resistance to β-lactam antibiotics mediated by β-lactamase–catalyzed hydrolysis is a major global health concern. Penam sulfones, which are structurally related to penicillins, inhibit clinically important serine β-lactamases (SBLs) by forming transiently stable covalent complexes, thereby protecting β-lactam antibiotics from hydrolysis. The characterization of these complexes and mechanisms of SBL inhibition is important for development of new SBL inhibitors (SBLi). Studies on the mechanism of the new SBLi enmetazobactam employing mass spectrometry and X-ray crystallography inform on its mode of action and also lead to reevaluation of mechanisms of current clinically important SBLi. In addition to insights into the mechanisms of transient SBL inhibition by penam sulfones, the results reveal potential for penam sulfone optimization to enable irreversible SBL inhibition.


The high-affinity sodium glucose cotransporter (SGLT1) plays a critical role in glucose absorption from the gastrointestinal tract. We have developed 3-(3-{4-[3-(β-d-glucopyranosyloxy)-5-isopropyl-1H-pyrazol-4-ylmethyl]-3-methylphenoxy}propylamino)propionamide (KGA-2727), which has a pyrazole-O-glucoside structure, as the first selective SGLT1 inhibitor. KGA-2727 inhibited SGLT1 potently and highly selectively in an in vitro assay using cells transiently expressing recombinant SGLTs. In a small intestine closed loop absorption test with normal rats, KGA-2727 inhibited the absorption of glucose but not that of fructose. After oral intake of starch along with KGA-2727 in normal rats, the residual content of glucose in the gastrointestinal tract increased. In the oral glucose tolerance test with streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats, KGA-2727 attenuated the elevation of plasma glucose after glucose loading, indicating that KGA-2727 improved postprandial hyperglycemia. In Zucker diabetic fatty (ZDF) rats, chronic treatments with KGA-2727 reduced the levels of plasma glucose and glycated hemoglobin. Furthermore, KGA-2727 preserved glucose-stimulated insulin secretion and reduced urinary glucose excretion with improved morphological changes of pancreatic islets and renal distal tubules in ZDF rats. In addition, the chronic treatment with KGA-2727 increased the level of glucagon-like peptide-1 in the portal vein. Taken together, our data indicate that the selective SGLT1 inhibitor KGA-2727 had antidiabetic efficacy and allow us to propose KGA-2727 as a candidate for a novel and useful antidiabetic agent.


The modern information society depends upon an enormous variety of electronic devices in order to function on a day-to-day basis. Information and communication technology (ICT) devices are able to exchange information only if they adhere to common communication protocols, technical interfaces, and information formats. ICT standards are the blueprints enabling users to access, create, and exchange information regardless of their hardware or software choices. Increasingly, governments are establishing policies to use ICT products based on standards that adhere to principles of openness and interoperability. For example, Japan instituted a policy that government agencies and ministries should procure software products that support internationally accepted open standards. The Brazilian federal government issued an interoperability architecture establishing the adoption of open standards, such as Open Document Format (ODF), for technology used within the executive branch of the federal government. Similarly, Belgium's federal Council of Ministers approved a proposal to adopt open document standards for creating and exchanging office documents such as text files, spreadsheets, and presentations. Academic analyses of open standards policies usually address economic and technical concerns. But technological design is also political. Technologies both embody values and, once developed, have political consequences. Rationales for government procurement policies based on principles of openness and interoperability should not be viewed exclusively through an economic or a technical lens, but through the prism of the principles that provide democratic governments with their legitimacy. This paper employs democratic theory as a method of political and ethical inquiry into the implications of openness in information and communication standards. Our account describes four ways in which standards can have political implications: 1. Standards can have implications for other democratic processes; 2. Standards can affect the broader social conditions relevant to democracy; 3. The content and material implications of standards can themselves constitute substantive political issues; and 4. The internal processes of standards-setting can be viewed politically. After providing examples of each of these political implications, we examine various conceptions of openness in standards and describe maximal and minimal definitions of openness as conceptual poles that anchor each end of the spectrum of potential standards policy options. We then develop some guidelines as to the specific contexts in which democratic values require a greater degree of openness in both the substance of technical standards and their development, and consider these imperatives in the political context of electronic public documents. Finally, we describe some selected cases of government ICT procurement policies based on standards that adhere to principles of openness. Our overarching conclusion, emanating from both the theoretical and descriptive portions of this study, suggests that movements toward open standards, particularly in the context of electronic public documents, are highly beneficial for citizens who value democratic principles.


Basil of Caesarea is thought of most often as an opponent of heresy and a pioneer of monastic life in the eastern church. In this new biographical study, however, controversy is no longer seen as the central preoccupation of his life nor are his ascetic initiatives viewed as separable from his pastoral concern for all Christians. Basil's letters, sermons, and theological treatises, together with the testimonies of his relatives and friends, reveal a man beset by doubt. He demanded loyalty, but gave it also, and made it a central feature of his church. In Rousseau's portrait, Basil's understanding of human nature emerges as his major legacy.


This article explains the traditional Navajo justice process using social psychology and Navajo discourse. It identifies the nayee or monster (things that get in the way of a successful life) in disputes in light of cognitive dissonance or the state of tension when a person holds two inconsistent beliefs. It then describes an approach to the excuses people give as a result. The article identifies and discusses the excuses and shows how traditional Navajo process addresses them. It outlines the dynamics of traditional Navajo justice to show that it is a practical means to resolve conflict. It also illustrates how a traditional Indian legal method can be replicated in the new field of restorative justice to better deal with crime, violence, and conflict.


CCNA Official Exam Certification Library, Third Edition, is the newest edition of the all-time best-selling CCNA self-study preparation package. This comprehensive review and practice package is designed for the latest CCNA 640-802 exams. The two books contained in this package, CCENT/CCNA ICND1 Official Exam Certification Guide, Second Edition, and CCNA ICND2 Official Exam Certification Guide, Second Edition, present complete reviews and a more challenging and realistic preparation experience. The books are updated to cover all the new 640-802 exam objectives, such as security, wireless, IPv6, and troubleshooting.Please note that while this is the Third Edition of the Library, the two books inside are Second Editions. This is correct, and the editions align differently because of changes in the names of the exams, from the old INTRO and ICND to the new ICND1 and ICND2 formats.What can you do with the CCNA Official Exam Certification Library?Assess your knowledge with chapter-opening quizzesReview key concepts with Exam Preparation TasksPractice with hundreds of exam questions on the CD-ROMLearn about more complex topics with over one hour of video trainingCCNA Official Exam Certification Library, Third Edition, presents you with an organized test preparation routine through the use of proven series elements and techniques. Do I Know This Already quizzes open each chapter and allow you to decide how much time you need to spend on each section. Chapter ending Exam Preparation Tasks sections help drill you on key concepts you must know thoroughly and help increase your speed in answering questions, a difficult hurdle many candidates face on the new exams. Final Preparation chapters guide you through tools and resources to help you craft your final study plan. Special troubleshooting sections help you master the complex scenarios you will face on the exam.The companion CD-ROMs contain a powerful testing engine with over 400 questions that allow you to focus on individual topic areas or take complete, timed exams. The test engine also includes simulation and testlet questions, and all questions are available in study mode and test mode. The assessment engine also tracks your performance and provides feedback on a chapter-by-chapter basis, presenting question-by-question remediation to the text.The bonus DVDs contain more than 60 minutes of personal video mentoring from the author focused mainly on the topic of subnetting. These videos help bring difficult subnetting concepts to life and make learning easy.Well-regarded for its level of detail, assessment features, and challenging practice questions, this completely revised and updated edition provides you with more detailed information and more realistic practice exercises than any other CCNA study guide, enabling you to succeed on the exam the first time.Best-selling author and senior instructor Wendell Odom shares preparation hints and test-taking tips, helping you to identify areas requiring further study and to improve your conceptual and hands-on knowledge. The material is presented in a concise manner, focusing on increasing your understanding of exam topics and preparing you for the numerous challenges the exams present.These official study guides help you master all the topics on the CCNA exams, including:TCP/IP and OSI networking modelsOperating Cisco routers and LAN switchesEthernet switch configuration and troubleshootingVirtual LANs and Spanning Tree ProtocolWireless LANsIP addressing and subnettingRouting protocolsRouter configuration and troubleshootingStatic and connected routesVLSM and route summarizationIP access control listsOSPF and EIGRP configurationWAN configuration and troubleshootingFrame RelayNetwork Security and VPNsNATIPv6Troubleshooting


We present a new method for simulating volume conserving deformable bodies using an impulse-based approach. In order to simulate a deformable body a tetrahedral model is generated from an arbitrary triangle mesh. All resulting tetrahedrons are assigned to volume constraints which ensure the conservation of the total volume. For the simulation of such a constraint impulses are computed and applied to the particles of the assigned tetrahedrons. The algorithm is easy to implement and ensures exact volume conservation in each simulation step.


This Essay seeks to draw connections between race, sexual orientation, and social science in Supreme Court litigation. In some respects, advocates for racial minorities and sexual minorities face divergent trajectories. Among those asserting civil rights claims, LGBT rights claimants have been uniquely successful at the Court ever since Romer v. Evans in the mid-1990s. During this period, advocates for racial minorities have fought to preserve earlier victories in cases such as Regents of the University of California v. Bakke and have failed to overturn precedents that strictly limit equal protection possibilities, such as McCleskey v. Kemp. Nonetheless, we argue that the Court's "fear of too much justice" links race and sexual orientation cases and helps to explain victories as well as losses. Even when advocates win in a case like Obergefell v. Hodges or Grutter v. Bollinger, the Court carefully cabins its opinion so as not to destabilize the social hierarchy. We illustrate this claim through a close examination of the use of social science in Obergefell. The Court disregarded evidence suggesting that same-sex couples and parents experience positive differences, as compared to heterosexuals, such as instilling greater respect for gender and sexual orientation equality in their children. The Court also asserted the innocence of opponents of same-sex marriage, ignoring evidence linking the denial of access to marriage to homophobia. In short, a movement to upend homophobic marriage laws was itself confined by homophobia, which influenced which arguments lawyers and Justices could articulate.


Sorex hoyi share similar morphologies with various other shrew species, ranging from nose size to tail length, which makes identification between species difficult. Current species identification relies on specific morphological traits (including dentition), however due to hybridization, these techniques may be inaccurate in certain shrews. Dentition also requires lethal sampling of shrews, which would best be avoided to not impact the populations. To remedy this problem, a procedure for identifying the species using the mitochondrial D-loop sequences of Sorex hoyi, Sorex cinereus, Sorexfumeus, Cryptotis parva. and Blarina brevicauda was designed. This procedure would look for speciesspecific differences in the shrews' mitochondrial D-loop and analyze them to specify the maternal species. As opposed to dentition, the mitochondrial D-loop analysis would be able to identify the maternal parent of a specific shrew despite hybridization and does not require lethal sampling. With the shrew samples provided by Dr. Randall Fitzgerald from the New Jersey School of Conservation, mitochondrial DNA was extracted from pieces of their tails and the mitochondrial D-loop was amplified. The amplified D-loop fragments were sequenced and analyzed for conservation as well as species-specific sequence differences using Clustal Omega.


This book involves a historiographical study of the Hellenica Oxyrhynchia that defines its relationship with fifth- and fourth-century historical works and its role as a source of Diodorus' Bibliotheke. The study is supported by intertextual comparison, narratological and papyrological investigations.


Generally, there are four strategies to reduce exposure to poor urban air quality and improve the health of the inhabitants of a city: reduce overall emissions; increase the depositional sink for pollutants; relocate people and/or polluting industries or improve the ventilation of city neighbourhoods and streets. The ventilation of a city is intricately linked with urban form because urban form controls the overall aerodynamic roughness of the urban area, produces specific quasi-stationary modifications to the impinging flow and interacts with the radiative and turbulent energy transfer between the surface and the atmosphere. Surface aerodynamic roughness is a function of the spatial density, orientation and height of obstacles to the wind and plays a significant role in how air flow interacts with the urban landscape. This paper reports on changes in model performance resulting from the introduction of variable surface roughness values in ADMS-Urban (v3.1) before going on to assess whether significant reductions in pollutant concentrations can be achieved simply through local reductions in these values. ADMS-Urban was initially used to model NOx and NO2 concentrations across Birmingham City Centre, UK, using a file derived from airborne LiDAR data in which roughness values ranged from 0.4 to 3.1m. The model was then re-run with a modified surface roughness file in which selected values near the city centre were reduced to 0.1m to represent a change in landuse to urban parkland. Our results show that reducing surface roughness in the city centre would increase ground-level pollutant concentrations, both locally in the area of reduced roughness and downwind of that area. We discuss our results in terms of vertical stirring and horizontal ventilation effects and in this instance conclude that the vertical stirring effect dominates. Since the model predicts that reducing surface roughness to enhance 'urban breathability' has the unexpected effect of increasing ground-level pollutant concentrations, we caution against using this type of modelling for urban planning and design studies in which the concept of breathability is important. We expect the results from this study to be relevant for all atmospheric dispersion models with urban-surface parameterisations based on roughness.


Sall1 is a zinc finger containing putative transcription factor that is robustly expressed during mammalian embryogenesis. In humans, the developmental disorder Townes Brocks Syndrome is associated with mutations in the SALL1 gene. Sall1-deficient animals die at birth due to kidney deficits; however, its function in the nervous system has not been characterized. During embryonic development Sall1 is expressed by cortical progenitor cells. In late embryonic and postnatal stages Sall1 is expressed by oligodendrocytes and glia, as well as regions of adult neurogenesis. In the absence of Sall1 forebrain derived structures, the cerebral cortex and olfactory bulbs, were specifically decreased in size, while no gross alterations in midbrain development was observed. This study investigated the cellular mechanisms of Sall1 function in the developing cortex. Alterations in progenitor cell number and the rate of neuronal differentiation were observed during cortical development in Sall1-mutant animals compared to controls. In the absence of Sall1 more cells are committed to early-born cortical structures, at the expense of the progenitor population. In addition, from mid-neurogenesis fewer cells are committed to later-born structures. Together, these findings suggest that early in development Sall1 promotes a progenitor state, and from mid-neurogenesis Sall1 promotes a neural fate. Furthermore, I propose that Sall1 regulates the transition from an early cortical progenitor cell to an intermediate progenitor cell. These findings suggest that Sall1 regulates cortical neurogenesis and progenitor cell maturation in the developing cortex. Sall1 is also expressed by peripheral and central components of the developing olfactory system. Alterations in neurogenesis and mitral cell production were observed in Sall1-deficient olfactory bulbs. In addition, the olfactory nerve failed to extend past the ventral-medial region of the olfactory bulb in Sall1-mutant animals. Intrinsic patterns of neurogenesis were observed during olfactory development in control animals and in Sall1-mutant animals, these patterns of neurogenesis were disrupted. These findings suggest a role for Sall1 in regulating neuronal differentiation and maturation in the developing olfactory system. Together, these findings suggest a conserved role for Sall1 in regulating neurogenesis and cellular maturation in the developing cortex and olfactory bulb.


Positive Psychology emerged during a period of relatively stable economic growth. Much of its foundational research took place in this favourable climate and the benefits of Positive Psychology in the workplace seemed clear in terms of productivity, efficiency, customer service and employee well-being. However, the last few years have seen an unprecedented global recession. In the UK this has been reflected in an 'Age of Austerity', which has resulted in sustained reductions in public spending and local government budgets. Does Positive Psychology have the resilience to boost psychological well-being in the workplace under such adversity? The current study was designed to evaluate a recent workplace training programme intended to enhance the psychological well-being of local government employees. The programme, commissioned by the government, was comprised of a controlled trial using a waiting-list control protocol. Training consisted of eight two-hour weekly sessions with 12 participants in each group. The programme introduced participants to a range of established positive psychology interventions. Evaluation was conducted using validated measures of psychological well-being and quality of life pre- and post-training. Results will be presented and the value of such a workplace positive psychology programme in the current economic climate will be discussed.


Persistence of Borrelia burgdorferi DNA in tissues following antibiotic treatment was evaluated in C3H mice inoculated intradermally with 10(3) B. burgdorferi N40 or sterile medium. Half of the infected mice and all of the uninfected mice were treated with ceftriaxone 15 days after inoculation for 5 days. Ear and urinary bladder samples were collected on days 20, 30, and 60 after inoculation for culture and for extraction of DNA and amplification of specific spirochetal DNA by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). PCR primers were specific for a 280-bp portion of a highly conserved region of the gene encoding outer surface protein (Osp) A of B. burgdorferi and for a 328-bp part of the OspB gene. There was excellent concordance between culture and PCR for ears (35/36 mice) and bladders (33/36). Both tissues became uniformly negative at the earliest interval tested after antibiotic treatment. Thus, the ability to amplify B. burgdorferi DNA quickly disappeared from tissues that had become culture-negative after antibiotic treatment, suggesting that serial study of PCR-positive tissues and fluids may be useful for evaluating the efficacy of antibiotic therapy in human Lyme disease.


Background Dysphagia is a symptom whose prevalence can be higher than 30% in the older. It is related to higher disability, longer hospital stay and more malnutrition and mortality. The Eating Assessment Tool (EAT-10) is a practical, analogical and easy dysphagia evaluation instrument. Purpose Determine the prevalence of dysphagia in the older. Evaluate if it was previously detected by the physician and if he established corrective actions. Assess the nutritional status in patients with dysphagia. Materials and methods 50 patients, 18 male and 32 female, were randomly selected in an older patient unit. Medium age was 78. Dysphagia was measured with EAT-10, a 10 question questionnaire (each scored from 0 to 4). If total score is ≥3, dysphagia may be present. The type of diet as well as gelatin and thickeners intake was registered. Nutritional status was assessed by CONUT (COntrol NUTritional) system. Unlike Nutritional Risk Screening (NRS-2002) which is a screening tool based on weight loss, Body Mass Index, food intake diminution and disease severity, CONUT is an automatic validated tool that classifies nutritional status in normal, mild, moderate or serious malnutrition, based on serum albumin, cholesterol and lymphocytes. Results EAT-10 was ≥3 in 10 patients (20%) (mean =11,7; range 3-31). Average realisation time was 4 min. Four patients (40%) with EAT-10 ≥3 had corrective actions. All had crushed diet, and 3 had thickeners. None had gelatins. Eight patients out of ten with dysphagia had malnutrition (5 mild, 3 moderate). All patients with moderate malnutrition had nutritional supplements. Conclusions 20% of patients had dysphagia, but only 40% had corrective actions. Malnutrition prevalence was high (80%) in patients with dysphagia. EAT-10 is an easy and fast dysphagia detecting scale and could avoid malnutrition and other associated problems. So, it would be advisable its routine realisation in older so that corrective actions are established.


Naturally occurring composite structures like antler bone and nacre have a highly ordered structural design at the nanoscale. Nature's successful architecture has attracted widespread interest in mimicking such systems artificially, the goal being to design tough composite materials with adaptable mechanical properties. Here we report results on synthesis pathways towards fabricating such materials, including a chemical infiltration route where calcium carbonate particles nucleate and grow inside polyelectrolyte multilayers assembled via a layer-by-layer route. SEM analysis demonstrates a considerable change in the morphology of thin films upon chemical infiltration. The depth of mineralisation within the multilayer is confirmed by TOF-SIMS studies of both mineralised and non-mineralised thin films. TGA was used to calculate the overall content of CaCO3 within multilayer films. Infiltrated multilayers have shown up to 60% w/w of calcium carbonate which is comparable to structures like bones. X-ray diffraction to characterise the crystallographic structure and micromechanical testing involving nano-indentation have also been conducted. The Young's modulus of mineralised multilayer thin films significantly increased up to 10 GPa after infiltration in comparison to the non-mineralised multilayers with a modulus of only 3.8 GPa, while the increase in hardness is almost 50-fold. Thus, the synthetic composites can be compared with natural biomineralised tissues like nacre, ultimately replicating the natural strength of biomimetic materials on the nanoscale.


The uptake, storage and reduction of nitrate (NO3 - ) by Enteromorpha sp. during a NO3 - pulse was studied in the laboratory using algae collected from the Mobile Bay estuary, Alabama, USA. Peak uptake occurred when Enteromorpha sp. was initially exposed to NO3 - . As the internal NO3 - pool filled, NO3 - uptake declined. After 6 h of exposure to a 30 µM NO3 - pulse, the tissue NO3 - pool was filled and NO3 - uptake decreased to 1.64 ± 2.63 µmol NO3 - g -1 fresh wt h -1 . While tissue NO3 - increased when NO3 - became available, the size of the internal nitrite (NO2 - ), ammonium (NH4 + ), and free amino acid (FAA) pools remained roughly constant, suggesting that reduction of NO3 - to nitrite (NO2 - ) by nitrate reductase (NR) was the rate-limiting step in NO3 - assimilation. Meanwhile, there was a lag time (2 to 3 h) between exposure to NO3 - and peak NR activity (0.80 ± 0.23 µmol NO2 - g -1 fresh wt h -1 ). These characteristics, combined with a peak NR activity that was 11-fold less than the peak NO3 - uptake rate, suggest that during a NO3 - pulse the internal NO3 - pool quickly fills and uptake becomes limited by the rate at which the internal NO3 - pool is reduced by NR. Predicted levels of tissue NO3 - calculated from initial tissue NO3 - , NO3 - uptake and NR activity agreed with the measured tissue NO3 - .


Answer-Set Programming (ASP) is an expressive rule-based knowledge-representation formalism. Lazy grounding is a solving technique that avoids the well-known grounding bottleneck of traditional ASP evaluation but is restricted to normal rules, severely limiting its expressive power. In this work, we introduce a framework to handle aggregates by normalizing them on demand during lazy grounding, hence relieving the restrictions of lazy grounding significantly. We term our approach as lazy normalization and demonstrate its feasibility for different types of aggregates. Asymptotic behavior is analyzed and correctness of the presented lazy normalizations is shown. Benchmark results indicate that lazy normalization can bring up-to exponential gains in space and time as well as enable ASP to be used in new application areas.


One potential consequence of rising concentration of income at the top of the distribution is increased borrowing, as less affluent households attempt to maintain standards of living with less income. This paper explores the "keeping up with the Joneses" phenomenon using data from the Survey of Consumer Finances. Specifically, it examines the responsiveness of payment-to-income ratios for different debt types at different parts of the income distribution to changes in the income thresholds at the 95th and 99th percentiles. The analysis provides some evidence indicating that household debt payments are responsive to rising top incomes. Middle and upper-middle income households take on more housing-related debt and have higher housing debt payment to income ratios in places with higher top income levels. Among households at the bottom of the income distribution there is a decline in non-mortgage borrowing and debt payments in areas with rising top-income levels, consistent with restrictions in the supply of credit. The analysis also consistently shows that 95th percentile income has a greater influence on borrowing and debt payment across in the rest of the distribution than the more affluent 99th percentile level.


In this chapter, we present information about the design, fabrication and characteriza- tion of optical waveguides obtained by using a protocol of multiple energy ion implantations. This protocol must provide an approach to produce optical waveguides with adequate features, such as dimensions, evanescent field and optical confinement. In general, optical waveguides can be improved by widening the optical barrier or wave- guide core through multiple energy ion implantations. Design of optical waveguides must consider effects induced by the ion implantation process, such as modification of substrate density, polarizability and structure. Information will be presented about optical waveguides formed mainly in laser crystals (i.e., Nd:YAG, Nd:YVO 4 ) using light ions such as H and He+ and heavy ions such as C 2 +. In general, these ions decrease the refractive index in the implanted area, producing a barrier that permits guiding in the region near the surface. Furthermore, information about nonlinear optical properties of channel waveguides containing metallic nanoparticles is presented. Composite mate- rials containing metallic nanoparticles embedded in a dielectric matrix such as silica possess interesting properties due to surface plasmon resonance absorption features and the enhancement of the third-order nonlinear optical response. Therefore, nonlinear optical properties in composite waveguides can be used in all-optical switching devices.


The lack of standardized procedures for characterizing particle velocity sensors has triggered the development of novel calibration methods. Most current techniques use sound pressure measurements in combination with acoustic impedance models in order to estimate the particle velocity perceived at a given location. Measurements performed in a standing wave tube allow for accurate acquisition of both quantities but in a rather constrained frequency range. Alternatively, a full-bandwidth calibration method has also been proposed based on a two-step approach: high frequency calibration in free field conditions and low frequency calibration measuring sound pressure inside the source. Despite the accuracy of the latter method, it is fairly complex and has to be performed in a controlled environment. In this paper, a novel calibration method is introduced based upon surface velocity measurements of a moving, rigid enclosure while the sensor remains static. It is shown that the surface displacement of the cavity is directly related to the particle velocity perceived by the sensor providing the wavelength of the sound is far greater than the cavity dimensions. The foundations of this in-situ technique are introduced along with the experimental investigation of a prototype calibrator.


Sir, We thank Tuleasca and colleagues (2018b) for their thoughtful commentary on our manuscript, in which we acutely increased visual feedback and found this exacerbated the amplitude of tremor in patients with essential tremor. Exacerbated tremor was associated with abnormal changes in the blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) signal within the cerebello-thalamo-cortical pathway and extended to visual and parietal areas (Archer et al., 2018). This work is consistent with prior work from our group, which suggested that BOLD amplitude in visual areas was associated with tremor amplitude (Neely et al., 2015). Our findings that visual areas may play a role in the severity of tremor are complimented by several studies by Tuleasca et al. (Tuleasca et al., 2017, 2018a, c). While collectively all of the aforementioned studies point to the idea that there is a widespread functional network related to the amplitude of tremor in essential tremor, one point of departure is whether structural changes exist in essential tremor. Modulation in functional MRI activity in essential tremor


This thesis presents research and development in registration of images containing rigid structures using deformable models. In the existing methods of deformable image registration, the feature based methods using purely interpolation are often used under the assumption that all parts of the image can be deformed non-linearly. However, it is not applicable for some images, such as medical images which contain some bony structures. Therefore, it is more reasonable in image registration to treat the parts representing rigid structures differently from the remaining parts.
A novel method is proposed in this thesis that uses a flexible spring-mass system to provide a good representation of image information. Anatomical structures are represented by spring masses and their interconnecting springs located along the structure boundaries. Hence, the system can treat some pre-selected parts of an image as rigid structures, whilst it is possible to elastically deform the rest of the image. The deformation caused by the displacement of the features is modelled by the spring-mass system via the motion equation. To ensure high quality registration, the image content is introduced as external forces acting on the masses and is iteratively employed into the motion equation to achieve a better and better registration result (It should be noted that the improvement in registration quality is limited by the quality and content of original images). The performance of the proposed method is shown using simulated data, and is validated using real Computed Tomography (CT) images. Objective measures and images that enable subjective evaluation of the new technique are provided.
The proposed method is fast, robust and offers high registration accuracy. This is due to the following developments:
• Innovatory approach based on the spring-mass system for image registration.
• A new spring force formula to support the new method.
• External forces based on image content are employed and applied via an iterative approach to ensure the high quality registration.
• A fast initialisation method for the spring-mass system generation.
• A fast interpolation technique to reduce the computation time in the iterative registration stage.