ABSTRACT In order to investigate the prevalence of tick-borne infectious agents among ticks, ticks comprising five species from two genera (Hemaphysalis spp. and Ixodes spp.) were screened using molecular techniques. Ticks (3,135) were collected from small wild-caught mammals or by dragging/flagging in the Republic of Korea (ROK) and were pooled into a total of 1,638 samples (1 to 27 ticks per pool). From the 1,638 tick samples, species-specific fragments of Anaplasma phagocytophilum (1 sample), Anaplasma platys (52 samples), Ehrlichia chaffeensis (29 samples), Ehrlichia ewingii (2 samples), Ehrlichia canis (18 samples), and Rickettsia rickettsii (28 samples) were amplified by PCR assay. Twenty-one pooled and individual tick samples had mixed infections of two (15 samples) or three (6 samples) pathogens. In addition, 424 spleen samples from small captured mammals (389 rodents, 33 insectivores, and 2 weasels) were screened for selected zoonotic pathogens. Species-specific DNA fragments of A. phagocytophilum (110 samples), A. platys (68 samples), E. chaffeensis (8 samples), E. ewingii (26 samples), E. canis (51 samples), and Rickettsia sp. (22 samples) were amplified by PCR assay. One hundred thirty small mammals had single infections, while 4, 14, and 21 striped field mice (Apodemus agrarius) had mixed infections of four, three, and two pathogens, respectively. Phylogenetic analysis based on nucleotide sequence comparison also revealed that Korean strains of E. chaffeensis clustered closely with those from China and the United States, while the Rickettsia (rOmpA) sequences clustered within a clade together with a Chinese strain. These results suggest that these agents should be considered in differential diagnosis while examining cases of acute febrile illnesses in humans as well as animals in the ROK.


The main focus of this thesis are density forecasts and the corresponding evaluation methods. A density forecast is an estimate of the probability density of predicted values. Density forecasts and the related evaluation methods have been little explored compared to point and interval forecasts, therefore we have chosen to focus on this topic. We go through a detailed description of three evaluation methods for density forecasts. To measure the performance of two of the density forecast evaluation methods we perform a Monte Carlo simulation. We simulate data sets with different data generating mechanisms to measure the size and power for the chosen evaluation methods. Based on our results from the Monte Carlo simulation, we continue with one evaluation method and apply it on empirical data, more specifically on economical, financial and insurance time series data.


Revisiting previously published data we show that upwelling filaments off Iberia and NW Africa export to the offshore system, largely as dissolved organic matter (DOM), from 35% to 58% of the net community production generated in the coastal upwelling systems. Transport by filaments accounts for 2.5 to 4.5 times the offshore carbon export driven by Ekman transport. The fate of this carbon is unknown, although conservative mass balance analysis in the subtropical Northeast Atlantic region suggests that <16% of the exported carbon may be respired in the coastal transition zone (CTZ). Thus, DOM exported by the filaments cannot fully account for the previously reported metabolic imbalance (i.e., net heterotrophy) of the surface waters of the CTZ. The remainder of exported organic matter is transported to and accumulated in the subtropical gyre, where high surface DOM concentrations have been reported. Since filaments are ubiquitous features in all coastal transition zone systems, they must represent a significant flux of carbon to the open ocean, which should be considered in global biogeochemical models.


This article attempts to develop a measure of what we call "judicial responsiveness," which, roughly stated, concerns the extent to which judicial opinions reflect the arguments made by the parties in their briefs. We applied two methods of automated content analysis to the briefs and opinion in each of a set of 30 cases decided by the First Circuit, measuring for similarity based on computations of word counts and citation percentages. We then compared the results of those methods to the results of manual coding of the same documents. The existence of statistically significant correlations among the measures supports the conclusion that our automated methodologies serve as a valid means of assessing responsiveness. We argue that these investigations can inform a range of scholarly debates, including efforts to assess judicial quality and the influence of ideology on judging, as well as debates over specific components of the judicial process, such as the use of unpublished opinions.


In this paper, the application of nanotechnology in producing light and sustainable industrial materials has been discussed. Including the important efficiency of nanotechnology in the work construction of industrial materials was reducing energy consumption, the making speed and reducing the economic cost of the building. In this study, researcher with the main goal of access to the safe and sustainable work construction, by using new technology of materials, the application of technology used in materials was determined by introducing and studying its composite materials such Nano. Due to the nature of the objectives in this research, the research method has been librarian, analytical, software and observational. Research concepts were associated with architectural spaces in relation to creativity in innovation and discovery of new industrial materials for stability and flexibility of executive materials. According to check the carried out changes and obtained results of this research, the researcher's research findings with regard to preserving traditional architectural identity, has searched in lightweight of new industrial materials such as, sandwich panels, autoclave concrete, modularity, covering the monolith, poly stone, polystyrene and fiber concrete.


Abstract It is difficult to achieve effective control of time variable and nonlinear plants such a fluidized bed boiler. A method of designing a nonlinear fuzzy controller is presented. However, its early application relied on trial and error in selecting either the fuzzy membership functions or the fuzzy rules. This made it heavily dependent on expert knowledge, which may not always available. Hence, an adaptive fuzzy logic controller such as Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS) removes this stringent requirement. This paper demonstrates the application of ANFIS a nonlinear Multi Input Single Output fuel feeding and combustion system and a fuzzy controller design for the system with optimization with Genetic Learning Automata (GLA). An ANFIS model has been developed to determine the exact amount of fuel fed to a combustion chamber. This property is impossible to measure directly, but it is required for improving combustion control. The control of the combustion base on two Takagi-Sugeno type controllers, which were optimized by GLA. The control system has been validated on experiment data obtained in a case-study power plant. The results have shown that the system is able to capture the nonlinear feature of the fuel feeding system.


To understand the relation between fluid seeps and structures, sedimentary rocks were collected with the DSRV Alvin from a vertical fault zone that transects the deformation front of the Cascadia accretionary wedge. The rocks contained diagenetic carbonate cement that was precipitated from fluids expelled during accretion. Carbon, oxygen, and strontium isotope data are consistent with a fluid source at >2 km depth. Most carbon isotopes range from -1‰ to -25‰ (PDB [Peedee belemnitel] standard) consistent with a thermogenic methane source. Oxygen isotopes show extreme 18 O depletions (-4‰ to -13‰ PDB) that are consistent with precipitation from fluids with temperatures as high as 100 °C. 87 Sr/ 86 Sr values of 0.70975 to 0.71279 may be due to strontium in fluids derived from clay-rich parts of the stratigraphic section. The ubiquity of carbonate precipitates and the isotope data indicate that the vertical fault zone is an efficient conduit for fluid dewatering from deep levels of the accretionary wedge.


During surveys of Phytophthora diversity in natural and semi-natural Fagaceae forests in Austria, Italy and Portugal, four new cryptic species were isolated from rhizosphere soil samples. Multigene phylogeny based on nuclear ITS, ß-tubulin and HSP90 and mitochondrial cox1 and NADH1 gene sequences demonstrated that two species, P. tyrrhenica and P. vulcanica spp. nov., belong to phylogenetic Clade 7a, while the other two species, P. castanetorum and P. tubulina spp. nov., clustered together with P. quercina forming a new clade, named here as Clade 12. All four new species are homothallic and have low optimum and maximum temperatures for growth and very slow growth rates at their respective optimum temperature. They differed from each other and from related species by a unique combination of morphological characters, cardinal temperatures, and growth rates. Pathogenicity of all Phytophthora species to the root system of their respective host species was demonstrated in soil infestation trials.


The European Union (EU) Drug Strategy covering the period 2005-2012, is currently undergoing its final review. Two official evaluation reports have been produced to inform discussions on how much has been achieved in the last eight years, and what adjustments need to be made in the new strategy. An early draft of the new EU Drug Strategy for 2013-2020 has been produced by the Cypriot government, which holds the EU Presidency during the crucial period for finalising the new Strategy – July to December 2012.IDPC welcomes the balanced, progressive tone of the initial draft, and of the Council Conclusions that have informed it, but considers that significant redrafting is necessary to produce a credible and coherent EU Drug Strategy for the next eight years. In this advocacy note, IDPC makes recommendations to produce a strategy that is coherent, evidence-based, and supports member states in dealing with increasingly complex drug policy challenges.


Boson-sampling is a simplified model for quantum computing that may hold the key to implementing the first ever post-classical quantum computer. Boson-sampling is a non-universal quantum computer that is significantly more straightforward to build than any universal quantum computer proposed so far. We begin this chapter by motivating boson-sampling and discussing the history of linear optics quantum computing. We then summarize the boson-sampling formalism, discuss what a sampling problem is, explain why boson-sampling is easier than linear optics quantum computing, and discuss the Extended Church-Turing thesis. Next, sampling with other classes of quantum optical states is analyzed. Finally, we discuss the feasibility of building a boson-sampling device using existing technology.


The Italian film industry was largely built upon the success of its export market with a long tradition of adaptation based on successful box office imports. From Leone's breakthrough A Fistful of Dollars (1964); adapted from Kurasawa's Jojimbo (1961) to Lado's Night Train Murders (1975); a re-imagnining of The Last House on the Left (1972). These home-grown versions would often cast with actors from the UK or US to give them a broader international appeal and were then sold back to the territories that had originally inspired them. Dubbed, repackaged and re-titled for an English speaking audience. If a film were successful domestically, there would often be numerous unrelated sequels until all opportunity for profitability had run its course.
In the late 70s and early 1980s these films became increasingly accessible via 42nd Street. Distributors like Terry Levine, who routinely imported and re-titled the most extreme cinema that Italy had to offer and screened them on this now infamous stretch in New York. Worldwide, the introduction of home video, the technology that would eventually usurp the Grindhouse introduced an international audience to Italian horror. To fully exploit the potential profits of the new market, distributors both in the UK and in the US took a creative approach to titling the films – renaming individual films from territory to territory in an effort to 'localise' their appeal and prolong their shelf-life. Nowhere is this more evident than in the realm of the zombie film. In this paper, I will examine how Italy's adaptive approach to cinema has had influenced distributors worldwide and I will explore the repercussions that can arise when film that once was considered as transitory, designed to create a fast profit, experiences a reassessment in value and longevity beyond that limited intended window of commercial appeal.


Procrastination is defined as the tendency to delay the performance of tasks that have a deadline date. Between 70 and 95% of university students procrastinate occasionally, and 20-40% do so chronically. Procrastination affects both people's health and the quality of their work. The objective of the present study was to identify whether Mexican researchers in psychology procrastinate (no similar studies were found during a literature review), and determine the academic, work-related and health effects of this behavior. A total of 221 Mexican psychology researchers participated, 91 men and 131 women, aged 20-65 years (by answering an on-line questionnaire designed ex profeso). Results showed the following: 91% of respondents reported procrastinating; the activity with the highest levels of procrastination was writing reports and/or academic articles (63%); 29% reported that procrastination generated anxiety; 42% observed that it damages their health; 18% mentioned that procrastinating reduced the quality of their work; and 17% reported that it had had many negative effects on their lives. This article discusses the importance of identifying the factors that propitiate academic procrastination given the negative effects of this behavior on researchers' health and work quality.


Indian policymakers have been slow in responding to changing metropolitan forms and have largely visualised urbanisation as city expansion. As a result, metropolitan regions, which are complex entities with multiple municipal and non-municipal institutional arrangements, have become mere creatures of state governments with neither the necessary strategic flexibility nor political legitimacy. In part, this is because the 74th constitutional amendment of 1993 has failed to visualise the dynamics of large complex urban formations. This paper suggests both a need to confront this blind spot in the 74th constitutional amendment for long-term durable solutions and to creatively work through available legislative and institutional arrangements in the short to medium term.


Quantifying patterns of temporal trends in species assemblages is an important analytical challenge in community ecology. We describe methods of analysis that can be applied to a matrix of counts of individuals that is organized by species (rows) and time-ordered sampling periods (columns). We first developed a bootstrapping procedure to test the null hypothesis of random sampling from a stationary species abundance distribution with temporally varying sampling probabilities. This procedure can be modified to account for undetected species. We next developed a hierarchical model to estimate species-specific trends in abundance while accounting for species-specific probabilities of detection. We analysed two long-term datasets on stream fishes and grassland insects to demonstrate these methods. For both assemblages, the bootstrap test indicated that temporal trends in abundance were more heterogeneous than expected under the null model. We used the hierarchical model to estimate trends in abundance and identified sets of species in each assemblage that were steadily increasing, decreasing or remaining constant in abundance over more than a decade of standardized annual surveys. Our methods of analysis are broadly applicable to other ecological datasets, and they represent an advance over most existing procedures, which do not incorporate effects of incomplete sampling and imperfect detection.


Official apologies are public statements of regret presented in the name of collectivities such as nation states, governments, or religious institutions for wrongful actions in the past. This paper argues that we need a theoretical re-conceptualization of the genre in order to better understand its role in civic life. Regarding official apologies as an instantiation of rhetorical citizenship is more productive than regarding them as analogous to interpersonal apologies because they have less to do with forgiveness than commonly assumed. Rather, one of their main functions is to confront and argue about endoxa, commonly accepted opinions, and how they have been ignored or distorted in practice. In this way, official apologies have the potential to serve as an occasion and forum for public discourse on the norms and values informing that community at a given point in time.


A new methodology for the preparation of well-defined core-shell nanoparticles was developed, based upon the employment of a multifunctional crosslinker to coincidently stabilize supramolecular polymer assemblies and imbed into the shell unique chemical functionalities. Amphiphilic diblock copolymers of poly(acrylic acid)(80)-b-poly(styrene)(90) that had been assembled into micelles and partially functionalized throughout the corona with alkynyl groups were utilized as Click-readied nanoscaffolds for the formation of shell Click-crosslinked nanoparticles (SCCs). Divergently grown dendrimers of the zero, first, second, and third generations having increasing numbers of azide terminating groups ((N(3))(2)-[G-0], (N(3))(4)-[G-1], (N(3))(8)-[G-2], and (N(3))(16)-[G-3], respectively) were investigated as crosslinkers via Click reactions with the alkynyl groups to form covalent linkages throughout the block copolymer micelle corona, thus forming a crosslinked shell. The crosslinking reactions were characterized by (1)H NMR and IR spectroscopies, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and dynamic light scattering (DLS) measurements. Only the first generation dendrimer ((N(3))(4)-[G-1]) possessed a sufficient balance of polyvalency and water solubility to achieve crosslinking and establish a robust nanostructure. The resulting SCC was further characterized with atomic force microscopy (AFM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and analytical ultracentrifugation (AU). The dendritic crosslinker is important as it also allows for the incorporation of excess functionality that can undergo complementary reactions. Within the shell of this SCC the remaining azide termini of the dendrimer crosslinker were then consumed in a secondary Click reaction with an alkynyl-functionalized fluorescein to yield a fluorescently labeled SCC that was characterized with DLS, AFM, TEM, AU, UV-vis, and fluorescent measurements as a function of pH.


In this paper we present a novel approach for the refinement of relational queries that enables so-called step-by-step refinement of a user's query. The approach is based on discovering causal relationships between queries regarding the inclusion relation between the answers of these queries. We define a formal model for these query-answering pairs and use methods from inductive logic programming for the efficient calculation of a (lattice) order between them. The approach is very suitable for modelling information retrieval tasks based on the database repositories, like searching product catalogues.


ABSTRACT The dwarf sundew (Drosera brevifolia) occurs from Uruguay to Virginia. Disjunct populations occur in the southeastern U.S. with the northernmost in Kentucky. Despite this wide distribution, relatively little is known about the biology of this species. It has been described as both annual and biennial. The endangered Kentucky population is considered biennial, but occasionally, live, mature plants have dead flower stalks in early autumn suggesting some may be perennial. In 2013, 40 sundews that germinated in the fall of 2012 were marked as they flowered in 2013. They were observed into a third growing season in 2014 until the end of July. Sixteen plants (40%) died after setting seeds in their second growing season, while nine (22.5%) remained alive, flowered, and set seeds again the following year. Seven of these were still alive at the end of July 2014. Fifteen plants were puzzling as the leaves were dead after setting seeds in their second growing season, but were alive May 2014, of which 12 flowered. This study confirms that at least a portion of the Kentucky population of D. brevifolia is perennial. This is probably facultative perenniality because some plants only survive to a third growing season when precipitation falls evenly over the growing seasons and when no hot, dry periods occur. Mild winters without extensive snow cover may contribute to facultative perenniality as well.


Sea level usually undergoes constant changes. Some of which such as tidal changes have been recognized as a part of the sea nature which possess a particular significance. In the present study, modeling of tidal variations of sea level in Persian Gulf and Oman Sea is conducted using a 22-years dataset from TOPEX/Poseidon, Jason-1 and Jason-2 altimetry missions in a conjunction with coastal tide gauge data. To do so, a time series is determined for every point of a satellite in the sea, which means that, in 772 effect points of the satellite altimetry and 7 coastal stations over sea surface, several maps, including sea level map, Datum chart map, and codomain maps of tidal components M2, S2, K1, and O1, have been presented through noise analysis and observation synthesis. In this regard, first, the structure of the functional models is investigated to examine the noise feature of satellite altimetry observations, assuming that the observations contain colored noise. It is assumed that the models are affected by combination of the following noises: 1) white-flicker-random walk, 2) white-flicker- autoregressive, 3) white-random walk-autoregressive, 4) white-flicker-random walk- autoregressive, 5) white-flicker, 6) white-random walk, 7) flicker-random walk. Here, for statistical models of 1 to 4, the variances of autoregressive and random walk noises are estimated to be negative which reveals the inappropriateness of the random model for altimetry observations. For statistical models of 5 to 7, the variances of these three models are estimated to be positive which reveals the appropriateness of these models. Accordingly, the analysis of maximum likelihood function for these three models was investigated. Our results show that the highest value of similarity function belongs to the structure of the second model, which indicates that the existing noise in the time series of satellite altimetry observations would be a combination of white and flicker noises. By obtaining an appropriate functional model for satellite altimetry observations, we analyzed and investigated two important components of the, mean sea level and datum chart. This analysis has been considered in two conditions: 1) the weight matrix of observations is of a unit matrix type, i.e. the existing noise model in observations is white noise, and 2) the weight matrix of observations is obtained by a combination of white and flicker noise. Finally, the resultant difference between two components of the mean sea level and the chart datum is presented. The obtained results suggest that using a precise noise model for observations at the highest level can lead to an approximate difference of +25 cm and -20 cm, and an approximate difference of 8 cm on average in comparison with the condition that observations of unit weight are used.


By dissecting Rush Limbaugh's and Howard Stern's unfair but culturally salient descriptions of Hillary Clinton's and Beyoncé's vocal sounds as "screeches," this essay offers a potential lens for scholarly and cultural description and analysis of the voice and its characterizations. This perspective, which I call the "genosonic lens," builds on Barthes's concept of "the grain of the voice" to argue that the voice is an extension of both body and language. I focus on the physical and affective connection forged between the speaking mouth and the hearing ear while acknowledging the power of language to shape and reshape this intimate relationship. The purpose of the genosonic lens is twofold. First, I aim to demystify the affective nature of the relationship between the speaking voice and the listening ear. By concretizing the affective nature of the voice, I work to demonstrate why vocal sound remains both illusive and powerful. Second, through my analysis, I demonstrate some possible methods for more objectively approaching the study of spoken vocal sound. In doing so, I hope to offer a possible intervention for the sexist and racially problematic adjectives used to discipline voices like Clinton's and Beyoncé's through description.


Exaggerated metabolic perturbations during the postprandial period are likely to play a role in the development of vascular and metabolic diseases. Elevated levels of postprandial triglycerides (TG) are associated with increased risk for atherosclerosis independently of other cardiovascular risk factors, and exaggerated postprandial insulin excursions are known to contribute to lipid dysmetabolism and chronic insulin resistance. This, together with the fact that free-living humans spend most of their time in the postprandial state, suggests that interventions focusing on the improvement of postprandial metabolism could play a role in the prevention and management of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases. Exercise has a potent role in improving postprandial metabolism, by effectively attenuating postprandial lipaemia and insulinemia, as well as increasing fat oxidation, all of which providing positive outcomes for the prevention and treatment of metabolic disorders. It is however unclear the extent to which these beneficial effects of exercise persist when food is consumed ad libitum. In addition, the effects of exercise on appetite regulation and food intake require further elucidation. It is possible that exercise may provoke compensatory adaptations in food intake in an effort to restore energy balance, through physiological and/or behavioural responses. This has implications for the efficacy of exercise in the regulation of a healthy body weight. Therefore, the overall aim of this thesis is to describe the effects of exercise on postprandial metabolism, appetite responses and feeding behaviour in overweight/obese men.

The first two experimental chapters of this thesis (Chapters 3 and 4) aimed to investigate the effects of single vs. repeated exercise sessions (~700 kcal per session) on postprandial metabolism, energy intake, appetite and gut peptide responses in response to ad libitum feeding. Ten sedentary, overweight/obese men underwent: i) no-exercise control; ii) one exercise session (Day 3); and iii) three exercise sessions over three consecutive days (Days 1-3); prior to a 7-h metabolic assessment day (Day 4). Energy substrate utilisation, postprandial TG, insulin, acylated ghrelin, PYY3-36 as well as appetite responses and ad-libitum energy intake (breakfast, lunch, dinner) were determined. The findings of this study showed that the beneficial effects of a single exercise session on postprandial metabolism on postprandial metabolic responses persisted when meals were consumed ad libitum, but were not augmented by inducing a larger energy deficit by exercising on consecutive days. Furthermore, while a single exercise session did not elicit compensatory responses in appetite and energy intake, exercising on consecutive days led to a partial compensation (~24%) in energy intake as well as increased hunger sensation. Gut peptide responses were unaltered by exercise.

The next chapter (Chapter 5) aimed to determine the effects of exercise timing relative to meal ingestion on postprandial metabolism, appetite responses, and ad libitum energy intake. Ten, sedentary overweight men exercised for an hour (~400 kcal) before or after consuming a standardised breakfast meal, followed by an 8.5 h metabolic assessment period. Energy substrate utilisation, postprandial TG, insulin, as well as appetite responses and ad-libitum energy intake (lunch, dinner) were determined. The findings indicated that exercise performed prior to a breakfast meal and exercise performed after a breakfast meal waas similarly beneficial in improving postprandial metabolism. Exercise timing relative to meal ingestion also did not influence appetite responses and ad libitum energy intake.

In the final experimental chapter (Chapter 6), a pilot study was designed to examine the effects of acute exercise on non-metabolic factors related to appetite using a computer-based assessment. Twenty-seven men and women walked for an hour on the treadmill or rested on a control day. Appetite-related measures were assessed before and immediately after exercise, and hourly for 2 hours post exercise. The findings showed that an acute bout of moderate intensity exercise had an anorexigenic effect; characterised by diminished hunger and lower prospective food intake (ideal portion size) compared to no exercise. Although not a primary aim, this study discovered a novel association between loss aversion and prospective food intake and food liking.

The collective findings of this thesis suggest that exercise attenuates postprandial TG and enhances fat oxidation in response to ad libitum feeding, indicating that exercise's benefits can be extended into the 'real world' setting. The beneficial effects of exercise on postprandial metabolism are also independent of its timing relative to meal ingestion. In line with evidence in the literature, an acute bout of aerobic exercise does not induce compensatory responses in terms of energy intake and increased appetite, supporting the role of exercise in weight management. Other than physiological factors, the behavioural and cognitive aspects related to feeding can play a role in mediating compensatory responses to exercise and this requires further investigation.


The advent of locking plates has brought new problems in implant removal. Difficulties include cold welding between the screw head and locking screw hole, stripping of the recess of the screw head for the screwdriver, and cross-threading between threads in the screw head and screw hole. We are describing a technique which allowed us to remove such cold-welded, jammed single screw with simple instruments at hand and complete the prescribed operation smoothly. A 32-year-old female patient reported to us with a broken clavicle locking plate, who was operated 3 years back for fracture clavicle right side. The patient had complaints of pain and deformity in the right clavicle region for 3 months following lifting heavy weight. X-ray showed broken implant with nonunion of clavicle. The patient was planned for implant removal, freshening of edges, and fixation with anatomical clavicle plate with bone grafting. All the screws were removed with standard screw driver when it was found that the second screw of medial broken plate was jammed, round headed, and cold welded. We bent both ends of broken medial plate around screw and removed screw by just rotating bent plate anticlockwise. Fracture ends were freshened and fixation was done with anatomical clavicle locking plate and bone grafting. The patient did not develop any postoperative complication. This technique is very quick, easy to perform, and inexpensive without the use of plate cutting blade, burr, hollow mill, and other instrumentation. This technique can be used in peripheral hospitals in India where advanced gadgetries may not be available. There is no problem of thermal necrosis to the bone or the surrounding soft tissue. Osteoporotic bone is a limitation of the above method as the bone may break while bending the plate and is possible only with a single locking screw.


Introduction: Aboriginal car occupants are 2.9 times more likely to die than other Australians if involved in a car crash, and Aboriginal pedestrians are 5.5 more times at risk. These figures are most likely understated as Indigenous status is not always recorded at the time of an incident. The extended nature of Aboriginal families means that a large number of people are affected by the injury /fatal injury of an Aboriginal individual. Methods: A range of methods have been used to develop this research. A literature review on what has been achieved in Aboriginal Road Safety and the issues that have been identified is presented. In a second part of the research, interviews with five Aboriginal men were conducted to investigate the needs of Aboriginal people for post-crash interventions. Participants were recruited using a snowballing technique and all worked in health or health related positions in Western Australia. Interviews were conducted using a semi structured process that allowed the respondents to provide their own views and experiences of road trauma. Results: A range of initiatives in relation to road safety were identified across Australia and in particular in Western Australia where approximately 70% of Aboriginal residents live in remote communities. In response to the information provided by Aboriginal respondents a series of vignettes were developed to present the issues that can affect Aboriginal people as a result of road trauma. Conclusion: More collaborative work needs to be undertaken within Aboriginal communities to develop an understanding of road trauma and to develop culturally appropriate interventions that reduce the effects of crashes on Aboriginal people. Aboriginal people also require culturally appropriate post-crash support.


Analogous to 'seed banks,' 'egg banks' are important for seasonal succession and maintenance of invertebrate species diversity throughout wet and dry cycles in the prairie pothole region. Further, recruitment of invertebrates from relic egg banks in the sediments and dispersal of eggs into wetlands is believed to be important for reestablishment of invertebrates in recently restored wetlands. Although tens-of-thousands of wetlands have been restored in the prairie pothole region of the United States, studies have not been conducted to evaluate the recovery of invertebrate egg banks in restored wetlands. We used taxon richness and abundance as indicators of potential egg bank recovery and compared these parameters in restored wetlands to those of non-drained and drained wetlands with a history of cultivation and also to reference wetlands with no history of cultivation. We found few significant differences among wetland categories within three physiographic regions (Glaciated Plains, Missouri Coteau, and Prairie Coteau). Most statistical comparisons indicated that restored wetlands had invertebrate egg banks similar to reference, nondrained, and drained wetlands. The one exception was drained seasonal wetlands in the Glaciated Plains, which had significantly lower taxon richness and invertebrate abundance than the other wetland categories. Trends did suggest that invertebrate egg bank taxon richness and abundance are increasing in restored seasonal wetlands relative to their drained analogues, whereas a similar trend was not observed for restored semi-permanent wetlands. Although recovery was not related to years since restoration, comparisons of restored wetlands with reference wetlands suggest that recovery potential may be inversely related to the extent of wetland drainage and intensive agriculture that varies spatially in the prairie pothole region. Our research suggests that periodic drawdowns of semi-permanent restored wetlands may be needed to promote production and development of invertebrate egg banks. Inoculation of restored wetlands may also be needed in areas where extensive wetland drainage has resulted in fewer wetland habitats to provide sources of passively dispersed eggs to newly restored wetlands.


There has been a recent trend in training neural networks to replace data structures that have been crafted by hand, with an aim for faster execution, better accuracy, or greater compression. In this setting, a neural data structure is instantiated by training a network over many epochs of its inputs until convergence. In applications where inputs arrive at high throughput, or are ephemeral, training a network from scratch is not practical. This motivates the need for few-shot neural data structures. In this paper we explore the learning of approximate set membership over a set of data in one-shot via meta-learning. We propose a novel memory architecture, the Neural Bloom Filter, which is able to achieve significant compression gains over classical Bloom Filters and existing memory-augmented neural networks.


Oculocutaneous albinism (OCA) is a disorder of melanin biosynthesis characterized by hypopigmentation of the skin, hair, and retinal pigment epithelium. We present the clinical and laboratory features of two siblings, born to consanguineous Turkish parents, who were diagnosed with autosomal recessive OCA type 7. We detected a homozygous mutation in the C10ORF11 gene (p.A23Rfs * 39) in both patients. Interestingly, the medical history revealed that both patients had suffered from recurrent respiratory tract infections since birth. The patients were investigated for suspected immunodeficiency and the results of the immune screening assays were normal. We believe these patients are noteworthy to report since presentation with infections has not been described in the prior descriptions of OCA type 7. As of this current writing, infectious problems have stopped in one of our cases since the age of five and a half years.


From the multitude of problems in this field four have been selected for consideration. The first two articles deal 'with the muchdiscussed question of the. relative efficiency of small and large schools; the third raises certain fundamental questions regarding types of local school units; the fourth presents a critical summary of studies in the analysis of the rural-school administrator's work; while the fifth shows the status of the organization of state departments for rural-school service. Lack of space has, in most cases, made it impossible to mention more than representative studies touching these problems.


When we applied for the editorship of the JME 7 years ago, we said that we considered the JME to be the most important journal in medicine. The most profound questions that health professionals face are not scientific or technical, but ethical. Our enormous scientific and medical progress already outstrips our capability (in personnel, time and physical resources) to provide treatment. Life can be prolonged at enormous cost, sometimes far beyond the point that the individual appears to be gaining a net benefit from that life. Science can tell us how to achieve something, but it cannot tell us whether we should achieve that end—whether it is good. For that, we need ethics.

Ethics grows in importance as our technology creates new possibilities. Where there are no options, there are no ethical questions. However, once there are options, there arise pressing questions about whether to pursue them. (To reverse an old aphorism, 'can' raises the question 'ought we?') We require values and principles to decide how to use medicine and science. During the last 7 years, issues like the creation of brain organoids, human non-human chimeras, mitochondrial transfer, gene editing of embryos and in vitro gametogenesis have grown in prominence. These raise deep questions about moral status and how it should be determined, the limits of modification of humans, and what is good in life.

As editors of the JME , we are proud of our small contribution to thinking about these challenges. We are grateful to the hard work of our associate editors and administrative staff, but there is still much more to do.

During our term as editors, we have published papers from diverse perspectives, on a wide range of topics. We have seen vigorous debate within the pages of the journal and have often sought to deliberately encourage that debate …


The chapter presents a review of power quality issues, measurements, monitoring, performance indices, impacts and standards associated with established PQ indices, impacts, emerging limitations and PQ future trends and challenges. The case study presented at the chapter-end presents three new designs of FACTS-based low-cost switched filter compensation devices acting as dynamic Modulated/PWM switched filters to reduce power quality THD of voltages and currents at point of common coupling. The three FACTS devices include hybrid switched power filter, switched/ MPFC and series-shunt FACTS switched power filter. The chapter is intended as a short guide and a review of power quality issues, limitations and emerging challenges due to the increasing use of renewable Energy AC-DC FACTS devices and compensating systems, mushrooming use of non-linear loads and new smart metering and interface issues with the smart grid.


This research was undertaken with an intention to contribute to the existing literature and research on issues related to struggles and support for gender diverse students in New Zealand secondary schools. Gender diversity is a classification of individuals who do not see themselves as just male or female. LGBTQIA [lesbians, gays, bisexual, transgender and Queer] has been an acronym used to describe individuals of alternative lifestyles. The main objective of this study was to investigate in-depth to understand the positive and negative experiences of gender diverse students in New Zealand Secondary schools. A qualitative research approach was utilised and pragmatics as the research paradigm, as the focus was on the experiences of the learners and view of the teachers. Semi-structured interviews were used as this is regarded as a process of in-depth inquiry which has generated detailed descriptions. The outcomes of this research have been in line with the current and existing literature related to the experiences of gender diverse students in secondary schools in New Zealand. A review of existing literature indicates that gender diverse students are subjected to negative academic and social experiences such as verbal slurs, emotional harassment and abuse. Further, the disengagement of the curriculum and the support of the teachers in schools. The positive indication of this research was the support of the heterosexual students and teachers in the school however, there is a need for more support. It is recommended from this research that the school needs to provide professional development for its teachers and design their curriculum to create equality in the school.


FUNCTION-BASED RESPONDING TO CHECK IN/CHECK OUT FOR STUDENTS WITH EMOTIONAL AND BEHAVIORAL DISORDERS IN A RESIDENTIAL FACILITY by Nicole Cain Swoszowski The Check in/Check out (CICO) strategy is a secondary tier intervention designed to address those students who are not responsive to universal tier, school-wide positive behavioral interventions and supports (SW-PBIS), and require more targeted support. The present study extended the implementation of the CICO strategy to a residential facility. In addition, the study sought to determine the relationship between the maintaining function of behavior and responsiveness to CICO when a functional behavior assessment was conducted prior to the implementation of CICO. Six students with emotional and behavioral disorders (E/BD) in a residential setting participated in the study; three with attention-maintained behavior and three with escape-maintained behavior. Results of a nonconcurrent multiple baseline across participants design indicate that the mean total composite percentage of problem behavior improved for all three students with attentionmaintained behavior, and the effect of the intervention generalized to the second most problematic classroom for two out of three. Further support of effectiveness of the intervention for attention maintained behavior is percentage of all non-overlapping data (PAND) of 90% or higher for two of three students. The mean total composite percentage of problem behavior for students with escape-maintained behavior improved for all three students, with a moderate change noted for Kevin. Only one student demonstrated generalization of effect in the second most problematic classroom and PAND above 90%. Future directions and limitations of the research also are addressed. FUNCTION-BASED RESPONDING TO CHECK IN/CHECK OUT FOR STUDENTS WITH EMOTIONAL AND BEHAVIORAL DISORDERS IN A RESIDENTIAL FACILITY by Nicole Cain Swoszowski


ABSTRACT Exotic species can threaten biodiversity by introducing parasites to native hosts. Thus, it is critical to identify if the same parasite species infects both native and exotic hosts. However, developmental- or environmental-induced morphological variation may render species identification ambiguous. Our study reports a range expansion in the southern United States of the pentastome Raillietiella indica from the Mediterranean gecko, Hemidactylus turcicus, as well as a host expansion into the green anole, Anolis carolinensis, in the anole's native range. Species identification was based on sequence data and male spicule shape. In agreement with a study from Australia, we found that much of the morphological variation in hook measurements, the primary diagnostic traits of raillietiellid pentastomes, was due to development. Here, we explicitly link this developmental variation to instar stage by incorporating experimental infection data obtained from the literature. We also show that the various hook traits are themselves highly correlated and, thus, likely not independent. Taking instar stage and correlated hook variables into account, we directly controlled for development on a composite hook size measurement. Using a large sample size from H. turcicus, we did not find any consistent effects of potential factors (host sex, host snout-vent-length, or parasite intensity) that may result in environmental-induced variation in relative hook size (corrected for body length). However, relative male spicule size tended to be negatively correlated with parasite intensity. In contrast, both pentastome body length and relative hook size significantly varied among host species whereas relative male spicule size was not significantly different among host species. Our study independently supports the conclusions that developmental- and host-induced morphological variations need to be accounted for to accurately identify pentastome species.


abstract Recent studies of structure, stratigraphy and isotope geochronology on Svalbard and East Greenland have provided a foundation for reconstructing the Laurentian margin of the Arctic segment of the North Atlantic Caledonides. The axial zone of the high Arctic, Barentsian Caledonides has been inferred to trend northwards through the Barents Shelf to the northern edge of the Eurasian margin between Kvitøya (easternmost Svalbard) and western Franz Josef Land, based on analysis of drill-cores that sampled the pre-Carboniferous basement beneath Alexandra Island. The deformation front of the Barentsian Caledonides has been inferred to trend northeastwards between Franz Josef Land and Novaya Zemlya. The North Kara Terrane, reaching from Severnaya Zemlya (SZ) and northernmost Taimyr in the east to northern Novaya Zemlya in the west, comprises the northernmost foreland to the Barentsian orogen. Four lines of independent evidence are presented here demonstrating that the North Kara Terrane is a direct northerly continuation of the Timanide domain, the latter composing the Neoproterozoic accreted margin of Baltica in the Timan-Pechora-Urals region. These lines of evidence, all from October Revolution Island (SZ), include: (1) a westerly source for Old Red Sandstones successions, with 'Caledonian' fish fauna and detrital muscovites yielding Ar/Ar ages of c. 450 Ma; (2) Ordovician igneous rocks containing c. 550 Ma xenocrysts; (3) Cambrian turbidites with c. 545 Ma detrital muscovites; (4) Cambro-Silurian fauna with many species shared with Baltica. In addition, the Neoproterozoic turbidites of northern Taimyr have been previously reported to contain c. 560 Ma zircon populations, a signature that has been recently found in similar lithologies from Bol'shevik Island (SZ). All these late Vendian ages are characteristic of the Timanide Orogen of the Timan-Pechora-Novaya Zemlya region and, together, indicate that the North Kara Terrane was not an independent 'plate' or 'microcontinent' in the Palaeozoic, as previously proposed, but an essential part of southernmost (Ordovician coordinates) Baltica. Comparability of the evolution of the Timanian margin of the North Kara Terrane with the contemporaneous Baikalian evolution of adjacent Taimyr, together with the lack of evidence of Palaeozoic oceanic rocks and Uralian collisional, high-pressure metamorphic assemblages in Taimyr, suggests that the palaeocontinents Siberia and Baltica were never separated by a major ocean in the high Arctic.


ABSTRACT Optically stimulated X-ray diffraction (OSXRD) modifies a traditional powder XRD by attaching a thermocouple, a precision temperature controller (PID control), and a thyristor power regulator firing a halogen lamp (75 w, 220 V, red-infrared) that provides up to 210°C to the sample. The included OSXRD software allows the diffractometer to be controlled and sequential profiles (ASCII files) to be obtained. These profiles are subsequently processed, obtaining new files: (1) Three-dimensional (cps versus 2 versus time-temperature), (2) peak areas and (3) maximum 2 positions. The automatic temperature control loop, using the proportional-integral-derivative control (PID) method, and the modifications of the XRD chamber are described. Some examples of hydrated minerals were examined in the OSXRD prototype: (1) the epsomite-hexahedrite phase transition in different isothermal analyses (28°C, 30°C, 32°C) and (2) the dehydration of the interfaces of a fibrous aragonite. Three-dimensional plots show the epsomite-hexahedrite phase transition in detail. However, in the case of aragonite (no phase transition) the 3D plot does not show visible changes, but the graph of peak-areas distribution versus temperature increases in sinusoidal shape, suggesting steps during the dehydration processes.


COMPUTATIONAL STUDIES OF ELECTRONIC STRUCTURE OF DOPED GRAPHENE by Yan Chu In the literature, extensive studies have been performed to study the electronic properties of doped graphene. This is due to the potentially large number of applications of graphene in p-n junctions, transistors, photodiodes and lasers. By utilizing single heteroatom chemical doping method or electric field-induced method, one can introduce a band gap, ranging from 0.1eV to 0.5eV, in graphene. A tunable bandgap is highly desirable because it would allow significant flexibility in the design and optimization of such devices, particularly if it could be tuned by adjusting the doping configurations. Here, we demonstrate the realization of a widely tunable electronic bandgap in B and N co-doped graphene, of which the dopant concentration is from 6.25% to 75%. A recent study of the impact of co-doping on the band gap and bond length of graphene, from Pooja Rani Research Group in 2013, has inspired this research to further investigate the co-doping method. Materials Studio simulation tool, based on Density Functional Theory, has been utilized in this study. The simulations show that, with up to 75% concentration, a 2.99eV wide band gap is obtained. An ascending trend line (band gap as a function of dopant atoms) is also obtained from extensive simulation results. The results of this work, i.e., heteroatoms co-doping band gap control suggests novel nanoelectronics device applications based on graphene. COMPUTATIONAL STUDIES OF ELECTRONIC STRUCTURE OF DOPED GRAPHENE


Exergames commonly use low to moderate intensity exercise protocols. Their effectiveness in implementing high intensity protocols remains uncertain. We propose a method for improving performance while maintaining intrinsic motivation in high intensity VR exergaming. Our method is based on an interactive adaptation of the feedforward method: a psychophysical training technique achieving rapid improvement in performance by exposing participants to self models showing previously unachieved performance levels. We evaluated our method in a cycling-based exergame. Participants competed against (i) a self model which represented their previous speed; (ii) a self model representing their previous speed but increased resistance therefore requiring higher performance to keep up; or (iii) a virtual competitor at the same two levels of performance. We varied participants' awareness of these differences. Interactive feedforward led to improved performance while maintaining intrinsic motivation even when participants were aware of the interventions, and was superior to competing against a virtual competitor.


Comparator circuits are a natural circuit model for studying the concept of bounded fan-out computations, which intuitively corresponds to whether or not a computational model can make "copies" of intermediate computational steps. Comparator circuits are believed to be weaker than general Boolean circuits, but they can simulate Branching Programs and Boolean formulas. In this paper we prove the first superlinear lower bounds in the general (non-monotone) version of this model for an explicitly defined function. More precisely, we prove that the n-bit Element Distinctness function requires Ω((n/ log n)3/2) size comparator circuits. 2012 ACM Subject Classification Theory of computation → Circuit complexity


The social sciences contribute in important ways to our understanding of current Christian realities, especially 'newer' or 'emerging' Christianities. Recent research by social scientists on contemporary Christian groups – in historical anthropology and more recently in the anthropology of Christianity – has yielded important insights into modes of Christian agency and identity. Those interested in the spread of Christianity today – including missiologists – should familiarize themselves with such anthropological and sociological research. For their part, those engaged in social-scientific research on newer Christianities should attend more closely to Christianity in its historical and communal dimensions by developing an historical sociology.


The present study area is located within the south-eastern segment of the Baltic Sea framed by 55 o 30'- 56 o 30' N and 19 o 00'-21 o 15'E. The area is re-visited with the aim to describe in more detail the geologic prereq- uisite for development of the palaeo-incisions as well as the timing of their subsequent infillings. The channels form distinctive features in the sedimentary bedrock along the outer limits of pre-Weichselian ice sheets, on average reaching depths into the bedrock of 50 m in the nearshore zone of Lithuania to 100 m along the slope to the Gotland depression in the west. The development of palaeo-incisions system is governed by the easily eroded late Palaeozoic to Mesozoic bedrock of the present area. Only rare occurrences of channels have been reported from the middle and lower parts of the Palaeozoic further west in the Baltic. The present investigation supports a mechanism that the channels formed below the ice near the ice sheet margin by melt water erosion under high pressure. The channels start at random where a fracture in the ice develops forming outlet of water contained be- low the central part of the ice sheet. The channels often merge together in the direction of the ice margin, possibly gradually adapting to previous fracture systems in the bedrock. The investigated incisions were infilled prior to the advance of the Weichselian ice sheet and some have been reopened and repeatedly infilled. Keywordsseismoacoustic surveyseismostratigraphypre-Quaternary topographypalaeo-incisions networkLate Palaeozoic bedrockMesozoic bedrocksouth-eastern Baltic Sea


Microporous limestones made of rhombic to sub-rhombic low-Mg calcite crystals generally smaller than 4 µm (micrites) account for many carbonate reservoirs, especially in the Middle East. However, despite their substantial economic interest, the genesis of microporous limestones is poorly understood. The main factors involved in the development of the intercrystalline microporosity, as well as the timing of this development, remain a matter of debate. In order to determine the factors and the conditions of formation of microporous limestones, five different studies were conducted: 1) bibliographic inventory of the microporous carbonate formations in the Middle East and comparison of their stratigraphic occurrence with calcite/aragonite seas periods and the relative position of sea-level, 2) study of the lacustrine microporous and tight micrites of the Madrid Basin (Late Miocene, Spain), 3) investigation of the marine microporous and tight limestone alternations in the Urgonian Formation (late Hauterivian to early Aptian, France), 4) description of core sections composed of microporous and tight limestones from the A reservoir of the Mishrif Formation (Cenomanian to early Turonian, Mesopotamian Basin) and an outcrop laterally equivalent to these cores in the Natih Formation (Cenomanian to early Turonian, Oman), and 5) analysis of the Mg distribution inside micrite crystals by using scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) combined with X-ray energy dispersive spectroscopy (X-ray EDS). This multi-approach permitted to observe important similarities in the different study objects, to highlight the main factors responsible for the development of the intercrystalline microporosity and to propose a diagenetic model explaining the formation of these microporous limestones. The mineralogical composition of the precursor mud must be dominated by low-Mg calcite crystals. Aragonite and high-Mg calcite muds constitute unstable sediments that transform during diagenesis into low-Mg calcite limestones. On the contrary, muds made up of low-Mg calcite crystals are able to resist a moderate diagenesis and can thus partly preserve their primary microfabric and intercrystalline microporosity. The formation of microporous limestones implies an early cementation of the precursor carbonate mud mainly made up of low-Mg calcite crystals rapidly after sedimentation. In the ionically active zone of a meteoric phreatic lens, the dissolution of the most unstable crystals (aragonites and high-Mg calcites coming from the disintegration of organism tests and the smallest low-Mg calcites) leads to the precipitation of calcite overgrowths around the most stable micrite crystals (the largest low-Mg calcites). The process was named "hybrid Ostwald ripening". This early and moderate cementation rigidifies the original microporous framework before burial, while partly conserving its microfabric with intercrystalline microporosity, and allows the precursor carbonate mud to resist compaction. In conclusion, two main factors are essential to create microporous limestones: 1) a precursor mud mainly composed of low-Mg calcite crystals, and 2) an early cementation of the precursor mud before burial to allow the sediment to resist compaction and to partly conserve its original microfabric with intercrystalline microporosity.


"Despite the importance of tropical moist forests for conserving biodiversity and storing carbon, forests continue to fall, because the private benefits of clearing land for agriculture far outweigh tangible economic gains from retaining forests. This report measures the financial disparity between forested and cleared land for small-scale farmers in two settlements in the western Brazilian Amazon where pastures are expanding and forests receding. Considering smallholder land use decisions—when and how much to deforest and for what purpose—the report weighs the trade-offs and complementarities among three development objectives: economic growth through agriculture, environmental sustainability, and poverty alleviation. Drawing on field data collected in the mid-1990s, it uses multivariate analysis to explore how factors such as soil quality and market access shape deforestation and use of cleared land. It introduces a farm-level bioeconomic linear programming model to illuminate how such factors influence land use over time, taking into account soil fertility shifts and exploring policy and technology options that give farmers incentives to slow deforestation without decreasing farm household income." Authors' Abstract


A simple method is described, to prove some theorems for simple hyper K-algebras and to study positive implicative hyper K-ideals, weak (implicative ) hyper K-ideals in simple hyper K-algebras . Beside, some results on positive implicative and (weak) implicative simple hyper K-algebras are presented. Finally classification of simple hyper Kalgebras of order 4, which are satisfied in conditions of Theorem 3.29, is going to be calculated .


Abstract: Near-death experiences (NDEs) entail complex and structured conscious experience during conditions known to coincide with rapid loss of consciousness often associated with decline or disruption of the neurological correlates currently held to be causative factors of visual imagery and cognition. In this study , 653 NDE reports of cardiac and/or respiratory arrest patients were analyzed for unprompted, spontaneous references to quality of conscious visual imagery and mentation during an NDE. Results indicat that in a majority of NDEs, both figurative and abstract mentation are either preserved or markedly improved during unconsciousness and unresponsiveness in the context of respiratory and cardiac arrests. These findings underscore the call to further study the mechanisms behind the 'outliving' of a conscious sense of selfhood and complex, structured visual imagery and cognition during severely deteriorating physiological function -- and perhaps especially during clinical death.


PRESSER, JACKIE (6 Aug. 1926-9 July 1988), son of labor leader WILLIAM PRESSER, was head of the 1.6 million-member Teamster Union and served as labor advisor to President Ronald Reagan. Jackie was born in Cleveland, the son of William and Faye (Friedman) Presser and attended local schools. Although his early jobs with the Teamster Union ended badly, Presser's father made him Secretary-Treasurer of Local 507, newly chartered in the mid-l960s to organize warehouse workers. By 1971 Local 507 had grown to 4,430 members scattered across northern Ohio in 121 different bargaining units, and Presser acquired more salaried positions including President and General Manager of Teamster Local 10, Hotel and Restaurant Employees; Financial Secretary of Local 19, Bakery and Confectionary Workers, and Vice President of Joint Council 41. In 1976 he was elected International Vice President for Communications where he planned innovative programs for Teamsters which attracted positive media attention. Court records showed that Presser and his father were informants for the FBI in the late 1970s and transcripts of wiretaps linked both of them to organized crime figures. Despite this, Presser was elected President of the International Union in April, 1983 and was appointed labor advisor to President Ronald Reagan in return for the union's support of his presidential campaign. Presser married Pauline Walls 31 May 1947, and they had a daughter Suzanne born 29 Sept.of that year. After their divorce in 1949, Presser was briefly married to Elaine Goeble. He and his 3rd wife Patricia, whom he married in 1952, had a daugher Bari Lynn (Joseph) and a son (Gary). They divorced in 1971, and Presser married Carmen DeLaportilla. He divorced his 4th wife in 1986 in order to marry Cynthia Jarabek. Presser died in Cleveland at age 61. James Neff. Mobbed Up: Jackie Presser' High-Wire Life in the Teamsters, the Mafia and the F.B.I. (1989).


The actin cytoskeleton is locally regulated for functional specializations for cell motility. Using quantitative fluorescent speckle microscopy (qFSM) of migrating epithelial cells, we previously defined two distinct F-actin networks based on their F-actin–binding proteins and distinct patterns of F-actin turnover and movement. The lamellipodium consists of a treadmilling F-actin array with rapid polymerization-dependent retrograde flow and contains high concentrations of Arp2/3 and ADF/cofilin, whereas the lamella exhibits spatially random punctae of F-actin assembly and disassembly with slow myosin-mediated retrograde flow and contains myosin II and tropomyosin (TM). In this paper, we microinjected skeletal muscle αTM into epithelial cells, and using qFSM, electron microscopy, and immunolocalization show that this inhibits functional lamellipodium formation. Cells with inhibited lamellipodia exhibit persistent leading edge protrusion and rapid cell migration. Inhibition of endogenous long TM isoforms alters protrusion persistence. Thus, cells can migrate with inhibited lamellipodia, and we suggest that TM is a major regulator of F-actin functional specialization in migrating cells.


There has been a debate on whether private equity affects economic growth of a region or the reverse effect. Therefore there has been need to evaluate the interrelationship between private equity and economic growth across the globe while considering the influence of the financial environment. Hence, this paper analyses these interrelationships using a theoretical approach. The key findings are that private equity tends to increase when there is economic growth in an economy as underpinned by the economic growth models which contend that for economic growth to be sustainable there should be continuous advancement in technical knowledge mainly in the form of new products, processes and markets. Furthermore, a well developed legal and regulatory framework would lead to increased financial activities in a country hence facilitating exits which would result to a more favorable legal environment that induces venture capitalists and PE funds to invest more often in the home country.


Antonio Gramsci was born in Sardinia in 1891, became the leader of the Italian Communist Party in his early thirties, was arrested by Mussolini's police in 1927, and remained imprisoned until shortly before his death ten years later. The posthumous publication of his Prison Notebooks established him as a major thinker whose influence continues to increase. Fiori's biography enlarges upon the facts of Gramsci's life through personal accounts, and through Gramsci's own writings to relatives and friends. In relating Gramsci's growth as a political leader and theorist to his private experience, it offers acute insights into his involvement in the factory councils movement. It examines his relationship with political opponents, including Mussolini, and with his comrades within the Communist Party before and during Gramsci's imprisonment. It is an approach which seeks to explicate, as well as underscore, the substantial achievement of one of the most important figures in western Marxism.


Tyrosyl-DNA phosphodiesterase 2 repairs irreversible topoisomerase II-mediated cleavage complexes generated by anticancer topoisomerase-targeted drugs and processes replication intermediates for picornaviruses (VPg unlinkase) and hepatitis B virus. There is currently no TDP2 inhibitor in clinical development. Here, we report a series of deazaflavin derivatives that selectively inhibit the human TDP2 enzyme in a competitive manner both with recombinant and native TDP2. We show that mouse, fish, and C. elegans TDP2 enzymes are highly resistant to the drugs and that key protein residues are responsible for drug resistance. Among them, human residues L313 and T296 confer high resistance when mutated to their mouse counterparts. Moreover, deazaflavin derivatives show potent synergy in combination with the topoisomerase II inhibitor etoposide in human prostate cancer DU145 cells and TDP2-dependent synergy in TK6 human lymphoblast and avian DT40 cells. Deazaflavin derivatives represent the first suitable platform for the development of potent and selective TDP2 inhibitors.


Objective To assess repeatability and reproducibility of spirometry measurements, and bronchodilator responsiveness (BDR), in healthy 3–6-year-old preschool children and those with asthma. Design Spirometry was performed before and 20 minutes after administering either inhaled placebo (for repeatability) or 400 μg salbutamol (for BDR) on two separate occasions (reproducibility) 3–23 days apart in asthmatic preschoolers and healthy controls. Settings Lung Function Laboratory, Hospital de Dona Estefania, Lisbon. Participants Healthy preschool children and those with physician-diagnosed asthma, recruited from local Health Clinics and Outpatient Clinic. Main outcome measures Paired measurements of forced expired volume in 0.75 s (FEV0.75) and forced mid-expiratory flows (FEF25–75). Results Technically successful baseline results were obtained in 86% of children assessed. Paired data were obtained in 43 asthmatic and 22 controls (median (range) age: 5.1 (3.4–6.8) years). Baseline FEV0.75 was significantly lower in asthmatic children (mean (SD): 90 (15)% predicted) than in controls (102 (13) % predicted; p<0.001). Within-occasion coefficient of repeatability following placebo was similar in both groups, being 10.4% in asthma and 13.2% in controls for FEV0.75. Following bronchodilator, FEV0.75 increased significantly more in asthmatic preschoolers (mean (SD): 15.0 (12) %) than in controls (4.5 (5) %; p<0.001), with no significant difference between groups post-bronchodilator. Between-occasion variability was similar to within-day repeatability in controls, but almost twice as high in asthmatic children. Conclusions BDR can be assessed reliably using FEV0.75 in wheezy preschoolers, provided within-subject variability and responsiveness in health are taken into consideration.


OBJECTIVE. The purpose of this study was to evaluate an artificial intelligence (AI)-based prototype algorithm for fully automated quantification of emphysema on chest CT compared with pulmonary function testing (spirometry). MATERIALS AND METHODS. A total of 141 patients (72 women, mean age ± SD of 66.46 ± 9.7 years [range, 23-86 years]; 69 men, mean age of 66.72 ± 11.4 years [range, 27-91 years]) who underwent both chest CT acquisition and spirometry within 6 months were retrospectively included. The spirometry-based Tiffeneau index (TI; calculated as the ratio of forced expiratory volume in the first second to forced vital capacity) was used to measure emphysema severity; a value less than 0.7 was considered to indicate airway obstruction. Segmentation of the lung based on two different reconstruction methods was carried out by using a deep convolution image-to-image network. This multilayer convolutional neural network was combined with multilevel feature chaining and depth monitoring. To discriminate the output of the network from ground truth, an adversarial network was used during training. Emphysema was quantified using spatial filtering and attenuation-based thresholds. Emphysema quantification and TI were compared using the Spearman correlation coefficient. RESULTS. The mean TI for all patients was 0.57 ± 0.13. The mean percentages of emphysema using reconstruction methods 1 and 2 were 9.96% ± 11.87% and 8.04% ± 10.32%, respectively. AI-based emphysema quantification showed very strong correlation with TI (reconstruction method 1, ρ = -0.86; reconstruction method 2, ρ = -0.85; both p < 0.0001), indicating that AI-based emphysema quantification meaningfully reflects clinical pulmonary physiology. CONCLUSION. AI-based, fully automated emphysema quantification shows good correlation with TI, potentially contributing to an image-based diagnosis and quantification of emphysema severity.


A new scale was developed to measure trait neuroticism and state worry about bodily signals (the BSAWS). 72 British participants were recruited to complete a heartbeat counting task and then a battery of questionnaires comprising of the BSAWS, the state-trait anxiety inventory (STAI), the emotion regulation questionnaire (ERQ) and the paranoid checklist (PC) and state social paranoia scales (SSPS). Confirmatory factor analysis supported a four-factor model of the BSAWS, with factors of 'trait neuroticism', 'trait unconcern', 'state mindfulness' and 'state worry'. These results broadly support a two–dimensional model of bodily signals' attention and worry. Correlational analyses showed concurrent validity of the BSAWS construct with other previously established measures of anxiety, paranoia and emotional regulation. Applications for the scale include measurement of attention and worry during different tasks and/or behaviours, with the potential for clinical use to study the aetiology of various body-related mental health


As the complexity of industrial processes increases, it requires the use of intelligent sensors or actuators (known as Intelligent Instruments) to allow for more comprehensive and efficient behavior of the system to be monitored. These components achieve some global goal called a service through the use of a set of elementary actions (internal services). A challenging task in networked intelligent sensors/actuators, is to allow for automated interactions between arbitrary services on networked components. To resolve this task, two successive problems emerge, first the design of consistent control systems with appropriate knowledge and second the monitoring which concerns the dynamic behavior of such distributed control systems. In this paper, we focus on the first aspect and provide an implementation of a knowledge representation model where services can be structured and related via a mereo-topological approach. The domain ontologies include a system ontology which is application-dependent, a functional ontology which relies on teleology and a behavioral mereotopology extending the functional mereology. To support the behavior representation, we propose a GUI based on a modified existing formalism (DAML-S). We discuss the knowledge representations in depth and present the design supporting system centered on the mereo-topological approach for intelligent sensors and actuators


Peter and Lotta go to live in the country with Aunt Green, Aunt Brown, Aunt Lavender and Uncle Blue. As Christmas approaches, they discover all kinds of new surprises, but best of all is finding where the presents come from. Is it from deep in the forest where the tallest fir trees grow?


Objective: Symptomatic vasospasm after subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) is associated with a high incidence of permanent disability and death. For early identification of patients who are at risk for poor outcome, we determined the predictors of outcome in patients with symptomatic vasospasm after SAH. Design: We retrospectively determined the prognostic value of clinical characteristics and computed tomographic scan both at admission and at the time of initiation of hypervolemic and hypertensive therapy. Settings: Neurosciences critical care unit at a University hospital. Patients: A total of 70 consecutive patients who developed symptomatic vasospasm after SAH. Intervention: Treatment with oral nimodipine, hypervolemic therapy, and hypertensive therapy. Angioplasty and intra‐arterial papaverine were used in patients with vasospasm resistant to standard treatment. Measurements and Main Results: Poor outcome, defined as Glasgow Outcome Scale Score of 3‐5 at 2 months or discharge, was observed in 32 (46%) patients. In the logistic regression analysis, a Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score of ≤11 (odds ratio, 11.0; 95% confidence interval, 3.6‐39.3) and hydrocephalus (odds ratio, 4.3; 95% confidence interval, 1.2‐18.2) at the time of initiation of hypervolemic and hypertensive therapy were significantly associated with poor outcome. Poor outcome was observed in 91% of the patients who had both a GCS score of ≤11 and hydrocephalus compared with 15% of patients with a GCS score of >11 and no hydrocephalus at the time of initiation of hypervolemic and hypertensive therapy. A GCS score of ≤11 was also independently associated with length of intensive care unit stay (F ratio = 18.0; p = .0011) and hospital stay (F ratio = 9.2; p = .0034) after initiation of hypervolemic and hypertensive therapy. Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that outcome in patients with symptomatic vasospasm can be effectively predicted by routinely available information, including GCS score at the time of initiation of hypervolemic and hypertensive therapy. This information can be used for selection and stratification of patients in future treatment studies of patients with symptomatic vasospasm.


Do countries with lower policy-induced barriers to international trade grow faster, once other relevant country characteristics are controlled for? There exists a large empirical literature providing an affirmative answer to this question. We argue that methodological problems with the empirical strategies employed in this literature leave the results open to diverse interpretations. In many cases, the indicators of openness used by researchers are poor measures of trade barriers or are highly correlated with other sources of bad economic performance. In other cases, the methods used to ascertain the link between trade policy and growth have serious shortcomings. Papers that we review include those by Dollar (1992), Ben-David (1993), Sachs and Warner (1995), Edwards (1998), and Frankel and Romer (1999). We find little evidence that open trade policies-in the sense of lower tariff and nontariff barriers to trade-are significantly associated with economic growth.


The inheritance and linkage relationships of Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) markers were examined
in seedlings of an interspecific hybrid between Eucalyptus gunii and E. globulus ssp. globulus. One hundred and ten
RAPD markers were scored from 71 F2, 11 F1 and 10 backcrosses to E. gumii. Nineteen percent of the RAPD markers showed disturbed segregation in the F2, with most having a deficiency of E. globuluc bands (13 out of 18). The F2 had high levels of morphological abnormalities and poor growth compared to parental controls, F1 and outcrossed F2 progenies.
Linkage analysis revealed fifteen linkage groups of three or more markers, 8 pairs and 13 unlinked markers
(LOD < 3.0). Markers with disturbed segregation were clustered together. One normally segregating marker
(U63-695) was significantly associatedw ilh abnormal leaf morphology, branching and frost tolerance. A significant
proportion (ANOVA R2=18.5%) of the variation in frost tolerance in the F2 was explained by this marker. However,
abnormal leaf morphology and frost tolerance were not correlated. While interspecitic hybridisation may be a powerful means of generating large amounts of genetic variation, the detection and exploitation of QTLs may be complicated by large and deleterious pleiotropic gene effecu and biased by distorted segregation.


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This proceedings contains the papers from both the poster and oral presentations presented at the Workshop celebrating the first year of the HETE mission. The HETE mission, launched on 9 October 2000, has dramatically quickened the pace of GRB discoveries. By disseminating accurate burst coordinates to the astronomical community within a minute of the burst onset, HETE has made possible the panchromatic observation of the early, bright phases of the relativistic fireball expansion in several GRB afterglows. The scientific program covered the rapidly expanding range of GRB research, with roughly half of the sessions being devoted to prompt burst emission, and half to burst afterglows, both from observational and theoretical perspectives. In particular, 26 papers presented in the section on the HETE Satellite Mission comprise both a tutorial on the spacecraft and its instruments, as well as a summary of early scientific results. In addition, special sessions, such as the session devoted to soft gamma repeaters, were devoted to future missions and instrumentation.


By using the World Wide Web (WWW), it has become easy to access information which is distributed over the entire Internet. However, due to the immense and rapidly growing supply of information, the Web Site may contain multiple data types in distinct heterogeneous sources, and stored under different formats. It is impossible to rely on the Web browser to access multimedia database on the Internet, and to view a variety of file formats. For many years, people have been seeking a file browser which is able to access multimedia database, and to display multiple files. In this thesis, the file browsers, which are used to represent various type of files, are reviewed and five type of file formats are presented. The thesis develops a file browser which allows the user to view the contents of a file quickly without having to run the original application that created the file. The file browser provides the user interface for viewing a file, including menu items and toolbar. Demonstrations are also given to show how the different files are displayed in the single software tool. Furthermore, a file import filter for the display of the documents created by the word processor, Ami Pro, is implemented. To further this study, a prospect of the application of the file browser are proposed and briefly described. The result shows that methodologies discussed in this thesis are both feasible and practical. There is hope that such an exploitation will lead to a more efficient file browser of dealing with the apparent flood of formats of information.


The climate-chemistry-aerosol-cloud-radiation feedbacks are important processes occurring in the atmosphere. Accurately simulating those feedbacks requires fully-coupled meteorology, climate, and chemistry models and presents significant challenges in terms of both scientific understanding and computational demand. This paper reviews the history and current status of the development and application of online-coupled meteorology and chemistry models, with a focus on five representative models developed in the US including GATOR-GCMOM, WRF/Chem, CAM3, MIRAGE, and Caltech unified GCM. These models represent the current status and/or the state-of-the science treatments of online-coupled models worldwide. Their major model features, typical applications, and physical/chemical treatments are compared with a focus on model treatments of aerosol and cloud microphysics and aerosol-cloud interactions. Aerosol feedbacks to planetary boundary layer meteorology and aerosol indirect effects are illustrated with case studies for some of these models. Future research needs for model development, improvement, application, as well as major challenges for online-coupled models are discussed.


In offline reinforcement learning (RL), we seek to utilize offline data to evaluate (or learn) policies in scenarios where the data are collected from a distribution that substantially differs from that of the target policy to be evaluated. Recent theoretical advances have shown that such sample-efficient offline RL is indeed possible provided certain strong representational conditions hold, else there are lower bounds exhibiting exponential error amplification (in the problem horizon) unless the data collection distribution has only a mild distribution shift relative to the target policy. This work studies these issues from an empirical perspective to gauge how stable offline RL methods are. In particular, our methodology explores these ideas when using features from pre-trained neural networks, in the hope that these representations are powerful enough to permit sample efficient offline RL. Through extensive experiments on a range of tasks, we see that substantial error amplification does occur even when using such pre-trained representations (trained on the same task itself); we find offline RL is stable only under extremely mild distribution shift. The implications of these results, both from a theoretical and an empirical perspective, are that successful offline RL (where we seek to go beyond the low distribution shift regime) requires substantially stronger conditions beyond those which suffice for successful supervised learning.


: Prey availability around seabird breeding colonies is often unpredictable, with prey fluctuating in both abundance and distribution. This study examined the effects of natural and experimentally altered food intake on growth and physiological condition in Atlantic puffin Fratercula arctica chicks during 3 breeding seasons. Previous studies have shown that food-supplemented chicks generally do not gain more mass than control chicks, because parents of food-supplemented chicks reduce their provisioning effort in response to the decreased food requirements of their offspring. In contrast, food-supplemented chicks in this study gained significantly more mass per day and had greater tarsus and wing growth than control chicks. Consistent with available information on capelin spawning, our results suggest that prey availability was generally so poor that parents could not reduce provisioning effort, even when extra food was provided. Corticosterone was significantly higher in control chicks compared with food-supple-mented chicks, which is consistent with some, but not all, previous studies. Chicks had lower mass when prey availability was poor, but this was associated with high corticosterone levels only when weather conditions were also poor. These results suggest that measuring multiple fitness indices can be useful for determining overall environmental conditions and can provide insight into how puffins are adjusting to changes within their ecosystem.


The aim of the present study was to understand the mechanism responsible for the exceptionally high magnetostriction exhibited by the heavy rare earths. Magnetostriction constants λ(^ɤ,2),λ(^ɑ,2) and λ(_1)(^ɑ,2) of order ȴ = 2 for gadolinium, terbium and their alloys were measured using a resistive strain gauge technique. The temperature dependence of these magnetostriction constants was observed from liquid helium temperature to close to their Curie temperatures for Gd, 90%Gd-10%Tb, 70%Gd-30%Tb, 507oGd-50%Tb, 10%Gd-90%Tb and Tb. The adequacy of theoretical predictions of the temperature dependence was tested with the results of these measurements. The observed temperature dependence of λ(^ɤ,2) over the entire range of temperature and alloy compositions except for pure Gd, was found to follow closely the variation predicted by a theory termed as a single-ion model. The same conclusion resulted from the measurements of λ(_2)(^ɑ,2) and λ(_1)(^ɑ,2) but with less reliability. The extrapolated values of the constants at OK for Gd and its experimental temperature dependence are consistent with results of other investigations on gadolinium. The magnetostriction constants of the alloys varied linearly with the terbium concentration, again showing that the single-ion magnetocrystalline interaction is principally responsible for the magnetostrictive effects due to terbium ions. Some suggestions are included for improvements to experimental and analytical techniques and for the extension to other alloy systems.


Abstract Radio frequency identification (RFID) enables everyday objects to be identified, tracked, and recorded. Because of expense, size, and lifetime requirements, some simple active RFID tags are designed with only transmitters. Transmission-only tags are unaware of each other and simply blink ID packets periodically over a common channel. The question is what really happens: a false alarm due to consecutive blink collisions or a missed object event? The authors model the access of transmission-only RFID tags as pure ALOHA and develop a mathematical analysis to identify tag blinks without prior knowledge of the number of tags in the interrogation zone. The authors estimate the tag set based on the free channel in an observation window. Simulation results and experiments with Spider tags from RFCODE are presented.


Genetic animal models are central to ongoing efforts to elucidate the pathophysiology and genetic basis of hypertension. The rat is the leading species in experimental hypertension. Several rat models of hypertension are available for research, including inbred strains, congenic lines, transgenic animals and recombinant inbred strains. Each of these models has been designed to express different phenotypes, including spontaneous hypertension, salt sensitivity, stress sensitivity and susceptibility to end-organ damage. All these models have been extremely useful in the search for the physiological mechanisms that underlie hypertension, but some of them have been specifically designed for detecting the hypertension genes. This latter task is extremely complex in spontaneous hypertension, but genetic animal models may simplify the task by enabling to focus on specific phenotypes. Despite intensive efforts over nearly 3 decades, the genetic basis of hypertension has not been unveiled so far in the rat or in other species. Recent dense mapping of the rat genome, the development of new strategies and technologies in molecular genetics including differential gene expression, expressed sequence tags and DNA biochips render hope that the formidable task of identification of new candidate genes in hypertension will move another major step forward. Once these genes are identified, their function and role in hypertension will have to be determined, utilizing functional genomic strategies and bioinformatics. Finally, the findings in genetic animal models of hypertension will have to be extrapolated to humans by homology and syntenic mapping strategies.


Zinc (Zn) deficiency has been associated with adverse behavioral outcomes in infants and children. However, Zn deficiency does not affect brain Zn concentration, suggesting that brain Zn homeostasis is tightly regulated. The recent identification of Zn-specific transport proteins allowed us to examine effects of low Zn intake on tissue Zn level, brain Zn uptake, and zinc transporter expression and localization in neonatal rat brain. Female rats were fed diets differing only in Zn content [7, moderately zinc deficient (ZD); 10, marginally zinc deficient (MZD); or 25 mg Zn/kg, control] and pups were killed on postnatal d 11. Plasma and brain Zn concentrations were measured, brain Zn uptake was assessed using (65)Zn, brain metallothionein-I and -III; LIV-1, zinc transporter ZnT-1, and ZnT-3 expression was measured by semiquantitative RT-PCR. LIV-1 localization in the brain was determined by immunohistochemistry; brain and hippocampi LIV-1 and ZnT-1 protein expressions were measured by Western blotting. Plasma Zn concentration was lower in MZD and ZD pups, whereas brain Zn concentration was not affected. Brain Zn uptake was higher in MZD and ZD rats compared with controls. Metallothionein-I and ZnT-1 expressions were lower and LIV-1 expression was higher in the whole brain of MZD and ZD pups. Metallothionein-III and ZnT-3 mRNA expressions were not affected. LIV-1 was localized to the plasma membrane of many brain cell types, including hippocampal pyramidal neurons and the apical membrane of the choroid plexus. Our results indicate that Zn deficiency results in alterations in Zn transporter expression, which facilitates increased brain Zn uptake and results in the conservation of brain Zn during Zn deficiency.


In this work, activated carbon (AC) coated by chitosan was synthesized and characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectrophotometer and scanning electron microscope (SEM) techniques. The removal of aniline from aqueous solutions by AC coated by chitosan was investigated. The factors affecting the adsorption of aniline onto AC coated by chitosan, including the ratio of AC to chitosan, adsorbent dosage, pH value of solution, initial aniline concentration, and contact time were evaluated. These results showed that the optimum operating conditions were: the ratio of AC to chitosan = 0.5, adsorbent dosage = 0.2 g, and the adsorption of aniline from aqueous solutions had better removal in the concentration range of 20–50 mg/L. This adsorbent allowed high removal toward aniline in a wide range of pH. The equilibrium time was 100 minutes. The Freundlich model exhibited better correlation of the equilibrium adsorption data. The pseudo-second-order kinetic equation could better describe the kinetic behavior of aniline adsorption.


In this paper we examine the effectiveness of using a filtered stream of tweets from Twitter to automatically identify events of interest within the video of live sports transmissions. We show that using just the volume of tweets generated at any moment of a game actually provides a very accurate means of event detection, as well as an automatic method for tagging events with representative words from the tweet stream. We compare this method with an alternative approach that uses complex audio-visual content analysis of the video, showing that it provides near-equivalent accuracy for major event detection at a fraction of the computational cost. Using community tweets and discussion also provides a sense of what the audience themselves found to be the talking points of a video.


Abstract. Urban designers collect information about a city or neighborhood, design improvements so that the city is functional and pleasant to live in, and communicate these improvements to relevant stakeholders. The use of space and the spatial relationships between physical features play a significant role in urban design, therefore much of the information that is collected and manipulated is georeferenced. We followed a scenario-based approach for collecting requirements for urban design projects. Functional and non-functional requirements were categorized into data collection, data storage and management, and data visualization. Subsequently, we reviewed and evaluated open source geospatial tools that can be used for the collection, storage, manipulation and visualization of geospatial data in urban design projects. Based on the evaluation, we propose an open geospatial toolbox for urban design projects. The results are equally applicable for researchers and professionals in other disciplines who collect data at the neighbourhood level.


One of the key challenges of the emerging cognitive radio-based IEEE 802.22 wireless regional area networks (WRANs) is to address two apparently conflicting requirements: ensuring QoS satisfaction for WRAN services while providing reliable spectrum sensing for guaranteeing licensed user protection. To perform reliable sensing, in the basic operation mode on a single frequency band (non-hopping mode), one must allocate quiet times, that is, periodically interrupt data transmission that could impair the QoS of WRAN. This critical issue can be addressed by an alternative operation mode proposed in 802.22 called dynamic frequency hopping (DFH), where WRAN data transmission is performed in parallel with spectrum sensing without interruptions. DFH community, as described in this article, is a mechanism that coordinates multiple WRAN cells operating in the DFH mode, such that efficient frequency usage and reliable channel sensing are achieved. The key idea of DFH community is that neighboring WRAN cells form cooperating communities that coordinate their DFH operations


Cerebral aneurysm progression is a result of a complex interplay of the biomechanical and clinical risk factors that drive aneurysmal growth and rupture. Subjects with multiple aneurysms are unique cases wherein clinical risk factors are expected to affect each aneurysm equally, thus allowing for disentangling the effect of biomechanical factors on aneurysmal growth. Towards this end, we performed a comparative computational fluid-structure interaction analysis of aneurysmal biomechanics in image-based models of stable and growing aneurysms in the same subjects, using the cardiovascular simulation platform SimVascular. We observed that area exposed to low shear and the median peak systolic arterial wall displacement were higher by factors of 2 or more and 1.5, respectively, in growing aneurysms as compared to stable aneurysms. Furthermore, we defined a novel metric, the oscillatory stress index (OStI), that indicates locations of oscillating arterial wall stresses. We observed that growing aneurysms were characterized by regions of combined low wall shear and low OStI, which we hypothesize to be associated with regions of collagen degradation and remodeling. Such regions were either absent or below 5% of the surface area in stable aneurysms. Our results provide groundwork for future studies in larger cohorts of subjects, to evaluate the statistical significance of these biomechanical parameters in cerebral aneurysm growth.