We investigated the actions of endothelin in anesthetized rats and cultured mesangial cells. Intravenous infusion of endothelin (10 pmol/min) decreased renal blood flow by 44% at 20 min without changing arterial pressure, which subsequently rose significantly from 124 +/- 3 to 133 +/- 4 mmHg over 60 min. Micropuncture during the nonhypertensive period revealed increases in afferent (65%) and efferent (82%) arteriolar resistances, thereby reducing nephron plasma flow rate. The glomerular ultrafiltration coefficient (Kf) fell from 0.097 +/- 0.035 to 0.031 +/- 0.011 nl/(s.mmHg) as did single nephron filtration rate (41 +/- 3 to 19 +/- 3 nl/min). Addition of 5 nM endothelin to mesangial cells plated on a silicone rubber substrate increased the intensity and number of tension-generated wrinkles, and caused their reappearance in forskolin prerelaxed cells. 20-30 s following exposure of fura-2 loaded mesangial cells to 10 nM endothelin, single cell intracellular calcium concentration ([Ca]i) increased from a mean baseline value of 66 +/- 11 (SE) to a peak of 684 +/- 250 nM (P less than 0.05) followed by a sustained elevation at 145 +/- 42 nM. Anion exchange HPLC revealed rapid (15 s) and dose-dependent stimulation of inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate (IP3) generation following exposure of [3H]myoinositol preloaded mesangial cells to 10-100 nM endothelin. Endothelin also led to intracellular alkalinization of 2'7'-bis(2-carboxy-ethyl)-5(and-6)carboxyfluorescein (BCECF)-loaded mesangial cells and its addition was associated with dramatic augmentation of mitogenic activity. Thus, endothelin exerts potent constrictor effects on renal arterioles which precede its systemic hypertensive action. It lowers Kf and contracts mesangial cells, likely through stimulation of IP3 generation and elevation of [Ca]i. It is a potent mesangial cell mitogen. These studies define functional responses and signal transduction pathways for endothelin in the rat kidney and propose a potential role for this peptide in the control of mesangial cell function, glomerular filtration rate, and renal vascular tone.


HIV-1 infects brain cells, and this results in damage to the functioning of both the central and peripheral nervous systems. Progressive decline in communication behaviours can be seen from early stages of infection. Among the communication problems observed in those infected with HIV are speech, language, cognition and swallowing. This study was undertaken with the aim of creating a profile of the vocal impairments in individuals affected with HIV/AIDS, which would in turn support evidence-based practices in the assessment and management of such individuals. Eight participants were included in the study. Subjective analysis was carried out by a speech pathologist and objective analysis of acoustic parameters, by the use of Kay Elemetrics MDVP software. The results of the study reveal that all participants had affected parameters in the voice analysis, which ranged across subjects from one parameter to all parameters. Even in the absence of direct pathology to the voice production mechanism, almost all of the parameters of voice are affected in HIV-infected persons. As this is a preliminary study, it is too early to conclude that there is a correlation between vocal deviancies and medical conditions.


Identifying contact angles in porous media is essential for characterizing multiphase flow of fluids in reservoirs. Traditional methods to measure contact angles assume a homogenous structure of reservoir rock; however, microscale pictures by Scanning Electron Microscopes (SEM) show that rock composition varies even inside a single pore. In addition, the preferentiality of oil layer formation is different according to the minerals constituting the reservoir rock. As a result, contact angles have heterogeneous behavior at the pore-scale. For the purpose of this research, contact angles are measured on the pure minerals that make up the main components of a Bakken reservoir rock. Investigations of different minerals show that each mineral has a different contact angle from the other minerals at the same medium properties. Altering medium properties also shows different contact angle behavior according to the mineral tested. The results from the experimental work shows that contact angles decrease with low salinity media. In addition, these results were used in a pore-scale network model to study the behavior of these minerals combined with each other. In general, this research gives more attention to mineral properties of reservoir rock which leads to a better understanding and characterization of the reservoir. It became clear that the mineralogical content plays a significant role in low salinity flooding where contact angles generally decreases with water compared to contact angles measured in brine. The pore-scale network model is built to simulate the flow of fluids in heterogeneous rock formation. This work has allowed the calculation of relative permeability curves, which are difficult to obtain for unconventional reservoirs. These results will lead to better understanding of heterogeneous reservoir behavior, as well as the effect of Improved Oil Recovery (IOR) projects, such as waterflooding, on oil production in shale formations.


A novel and simple multi-wavelength fiber ring laser has been developed to implement an optical source of a fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensor array in which respective wavelength component of the oscillation output provides an optical source of one of the wavelength-division multiplexed (WDM) FBG vibration sensors. The laser consists of a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) as a gain medium and of FBGs as wavelength selection elements. Since an SOA is an inhomogeneous gain medium, stable multi-wavelength oscillation can be realized to serve an optical source for the FBG vibration sensor array. In the experiment, a dual-wavelength fiber ring laser has been fabricated and tested, and simultaneous two-point vibration measurement has been successfully demonstrated.


In order to contribute to the improvement of sanitation conditions in order to prevent health and environmental risks related to the discharge of household wastewater, household wastewater samples from four districts of Brazzaville were analysed in their physico-chemical and microbiological quality. The physicochemical parameters were determined according to the methods defined by the AFNOR standards and the Rodier technique. Microbiological quality has been determined by conventional microbiological methods consisting of isolation, identification and enumeration. The isolation of the germ was done using specific and/or selective media. The identification was done by determining the cultural and biochemical parameters. The count was done using the liquid method by dilution and then sowing using the Rodier technique. The results of the physico-chemical analyses showed pH values ranging from 8.12 to 9.34; water temperatures ranged from 22.35 to 23.40 0C ; turbidity from 288.75 to 440.87 NTU, electrical conductivity from 1062.54 to 2370.93 µs/cm, TSS from 264.75 to 1483.25 mg/l, total hydrometric titre from 30.52 to 33 mg/lCaCO3, the complete alkalimetric titre from 114.03 to 156.39 mg/lCaCO3, the alkalimetric titre from 36.57 to 70.49 mg/lCaCO3, bicarbonate ions from 21.16 to 86.79mg/l and oxidability at KMnO4/H+ from 0.065 to 0.14 mg/lO2. Microbiological analyses allowed us to isolate one hundred and two (102) microorganisms, including ninety-nine (99) (97.05%) bacteria and 3 (2.95%) yeast. The isolated bacteria consisted of: 51 Enterobacteria (51.51%), 16 Staphylococcus (16.16%), 16 Bacillus (16.16%), 8 Clostridium (8.08%), 8 Pseudomonas (8.08%).


With heightened tensions mounting in the Cold War, President Dwight Eisenhower's request for more accurate intelligence information on the Soviet Union was the spark that ignited the U-2 project. Modified USAF bombers began overflights of the Soviet Union in 1951, but existing lower flying aircraft in the US inventory were vulnerable to anti-aircraft fire and a number of cross-border flights were shot down. To meet the challenge and improve the survivability, the Lockheed Corporation received approval for their revolutionary design of a new recon aircraft on December 9, 1954. The company began work under a heavy veil of secrecy with only 81 people, including 25 engineers. A test pilot flew the first flight on August 1, 1955, after only eight months of production, a record-breaking result for rollout of a new project, especially one this complex and innovative. A dedicated and inventive group of contractors came together to support the project with partial pressure suits for pilots, high-resolution cameras, and an engine that could carry the aircraft to altitudes of 70,000 feet and higher. Nicknamed the Dragon Lady, the U-2 has flown over Cuba, Alaska, North and South poles, Vietnam, Australia, Sweden, New Zealand, and Afghanistan. The U-2 is as relevant today as it was 50 years ago. More recently it flew over the hurricane-ravaged US Gulf Coast to collect imagery of the destruction over a 90,000 square mile area. First-person memoirs of many of the men who supported the early US spy plane project are included in this book. They include pilots, maintenance specialists, a flight surgeon, photographic specialists and some family members. The US also trained U-2 pilots from Taiwan and the UK and some of their photos and memoirs are in this collection. Maintenance technicians recalled working long hours to prepare aircraft for historic flights over Cuba. Photographic specialists remembered the difficult conditions in Vietnam, and the care required to download the exposed film of North Vietnamese targets from the cameras in the aircraft. All of these experiences were achieved under Top Secret security conditions and on a"need to know" basis.


The objective of the present study is to identify completely submerged rice areas due to tropical cyclones using remotely sensed data. The Kendrapara district of Orissa state hit by a tropical cyclone on 30th October 1999 is considered as study area and for this area, pre event (October 11, 1999) visible- near IR image and pre (October 11, 1999) and post event (November 2, 1999 and November 4, 1999) Radarsat images were procured. The pre event IRS ID LISS III (resolution = 22 m) image of Kendrapara district was geometrically corrected and classified into several landuse and landcover classes. Supervised classification technique was used for landuse/landcover classification. This landuse/landcover map is assumed to be accurate and is used as a base map in the present study. Pre and post event Radarsat-SAR images were also geometrically corrected. Further preprocessing included speckle noise removal, data calibration and incidence angle adjustment. Based on literature, a threshold of -16.5 db (DN value =100) was chosen to classify each pixel in pre Radarsat-1 SAR image as water or non-water. The landuse/landcover map was used to identify the rice regions in the pre and post-event Radarsat images. Application of the threshold allows for the determination of the submerged rice areas. To determine the validity of a single threshold, water pixels in pre event Radarsat-1 SAR images were extracted corresponding to the base map. A histogram of these values suggests that a single value threshold approach may not be fully accurate. To overcome these limitations, two alternative approaches, namely image histogram and change in db were formulated. For both approaches, the rice pixels in pre and post event Radarsat- SAR images were extracted corresponding to base map rice pixels. In case of image approach, a histogram was plotted for the DN values of the pre and post Radarsat-1 SAR rice pixels. This allows the qualitative identification of the submerged rice areas. Using change in db approach, pixel-to-pixel change in db in pre and post event Radarsat-1 SAR images in rice pixels was calculated. Analysis of these values allows for the identification of different effects of submergence on the rice area. This type of analysis will help policy makers in determining the extent of submergence and could serve as a tool for rapid assessment of damage and help expedite release of relief funds and aid proper allocation of funds to the affected areas/people.


ABSTRACT Biofilms were cultivated on polycarbonate strips in rotating annular reactors using South Saskatchewan River water during the fall of 1999 and the fall of 2001, supplemented with carbon (glucose), nitrogen (NH4Cl), phosphorus (KH2PO4), or combined nutrients (CNP), with or without hexadecane, a model compound representing aliphatic hydrocarbons used to simulate a pollutant. In fall 1999 and fall 2001, comparable denitrification activities and catabolic potentials were observed in the biofilms, implying that denitrifying populations showed similar activity patterns and catabolic potentials during the fall from year to year in this river ecosystem, when environmental conditions were similar. Both nirS and nirK denitrification genes were detected by PCR amplification, suggesting that both denitrifying bacterial subpopulations can potentially contribute to total denitrification. Between 91.7 and 99.8% of the consumed N was emitted in the form of N2, suggesting that emission of N2O, a major potent greenhouse gas, by South Saskatchewan River biofilms is low. Denitrification was markedly stimulated by the addition of CNP, and nirS and nirK genes were predominant only in the presence of CNP. In contrast, individual nutrients had no impact on denitrification and on the occurrence of nirS and nirK genes detected by PCR amplification. Similarly, only CNP resulted in significant increases in algal and bacterial biomass relative to control biofilms. Biomass measurements indicated a linkage between autotrophic and heterotrophic populations in the fall 1999 biofilms. Correlation analyses demonstrated a significant relationship (P ≤ 0.05) between the denitrification rate and the biomass of algae and heterotrophic bacteria but not cyanobacteria. At the concentration assessed (1 ppb), hexadecane partially inhibited denitrification in both years, slightly more in the fall of 2001. This study suggested that the response of the anaerobic heterotrophic biofilm community may be cyclic and predictable from year to year and that there are interactive effects between nutrients and the contaminant hexadecane.


The Commission on Social Determinants of Health, sponsored by the World Health Organization, has identified measuring health inequities and evaluating interventions to reduce them as important priorities. We examined whether an unconditional prenatal income supplement for low-income women was associated with reduced population-level inequities in birth outcomes. We identified all mother-newborn pairs from the period 2003-10 in Manitoba, Canada, and divided them into the following three groups: low income exposed (received the supplement); low income unexposed (did not receive the supplement); and not low income unexposed (ineligible for the supplement). We measured inequities in low-birthweight births, preterm births, and breast-feeding initiation among these groups. The findings indicated that the socioeconomic gap in birth outcomes between low-income and other women was significantly smaller when the low-income women received the income supplement than when they did not. The prenatal income supplement may be an important driver in attaining population-level equity in birth outcomes; its success could inform strategies seeking to improve maternal and child health.


Short date palm tree lignocellulosic fibers were used as a reinforcing phase in a polyepoxy thermoset commodity resin. Unmodified fibers as well as counterparts chemically oxidized using TEMPO catalyst mediation were used as fillers for composite materials prepared in a Resin Transfer Molding process. The preparation was facilitated in the case of the composites based on oxidized fibers. During the process, the front displacement of injected resin was more regular, more homogeneous, and faster in the case of oxidized fibers. The morphology, thermal and mechanical properties of the resultant composites were characterized by SEM, DSC, DMA, as well as three-point bending and Charpy impact tests. An elevated reinforcing capability of the oxidized fibers as compared to their unmodified counterparts was demonstrated, particularly by a high strain test in the glassy state. This confirmed the enhanced filler/matrix interface observed in such materials during the process and in the final composite as analyzed by SEM. No significant difference in reinforcing capability of the two kinds of filler was observed in the DMA analysis.


In situations in which an entire population is affected by war and great political-economic transformations, as was the case in Bosnia and Herzegovina, generational differences exist regarding the extent to which people experience these events as disruptions to their lives. Even in a nationally divided city like Mostar after the 1992–1995 war, generational experiences—of past and present times as well as of future prospects (or the lack thereof)—are crucial for the way people rethink the past and (re)position themselves in the present. In the case of the generation of the "Last Yugoslavs", I argue that the disruption of their life course and the resulting loss of future prospects prevent people from narrating the local past and their lives in a meaningful and coherent way.


INTRODUCTION
Diabetes mellitus is a common disorder associated with a number of metabolic abnormalities such as insulin resistance, dyslipidaemia and high blood pressure. These abnormalities are recognised risk factors for cardiovascular diseases. Insulin-sensitising drugs exert an effect on these cardiovascular risk factors. The present study was done with the objective of elucidating the differences in glycaemic control, plasma lipid levels and blood pressure in diabetic patients who were prescribed glitazones in combination with sulphonylureas.

METHODS
Patients were randomly assigned to receive either pioglitazone or rosiglitazone in addition to glimepiride in an open-labelled study. Fasting and postprandial blood glucose levels, glycosylated haemoglobin, fasting lipid profile and blood pressure were recorded at baseline and at various intervals until the end of the study period at 12 weeks.

RESULTS
A total of 56 patients (28 in the pioglitazone group and 28 in the rosiglitazone group) completed the study. There was no significant difference in the baseline values of various parameters between the two treatment groups. The efficacy of the two treatment groups was similar in terms of the maintenance of blood glucose levels (fasting blood glucose, p-value is 0.10; postprandial blood glucose, p-value is 0.95; glycosylated haemoglobin, p-value is 0.30) and the effect on blood pressure (systolic blood pressure, p-value is 0.45; diastolic blood pressure, p-value is 0.95), while the pioglitazone group showed significantly better efficacy in improving the lipid profile compared to the rosiglitazone group (total cholesterol, p-value is 0.002; triglycerides, p-value is 0.002; low density lipoprotein, p-value is 0.005; and high density lipoprotein, p-value is 0.43).

CONCLUSION
The two drugs showed a similar effect on blood glucose levels and blood pressure. However, the pioglitazone group was superior to the rosiglitazone group in improving the lipid profile.


Simple runoff models with a low number of model parameters are generally able to simulate catchment runoff reasonably well, but they rely on model calibration, which makes their use in ungauged basins challenging. In a previous study it has been shown that a limited number of streamflow measurements can be quite informative for constraining runoff models. In practice, however, instead of performing such repeated flow measurements, it might be easier to install a stream level logger. Here, a dataset of 600+ gauged basins in the USA was used to study how well models perform when only stream level data, rather than streamflow data, are available. A runoff model (the HBV model) was calibrated assuming that only stream level observations were available, and the simulations were evaluated on the full observed streamflow record. The results indicate that stream level data alone can already provide surprisingly good model simulation results in humid catchments, whereas in arid catchments some form of quantitative information (e.g. a streamflow observation or a regional average value) is needed to obtain good results. These results are encouraging for hydrological observations in data scarce regions as level observations are much easier to obtain than streamflow measurements. Based on runoff modelling, it might even be possible to derive streamflow time series from the level data obtained from loggers, satellites or community‐based approaches. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


BACKGROUND
Heparin-induced thrombocytopenia (HIT) is a hypercoagulable state caused by a transient antibody to heparin-bound platelet factor 4 (PF4). Treatment involves discontinuing heparin and administering a nonheparin anticoagulant. Procedures requiring heparin, such as cardiopulmonary bypass, are preferably delayed until the offending antibody is no longer detectable. For patients with a high-titer anti-PF4-heparin antibody and who require exposure to heparin, therapeutic plasma exchange (TPE) has been used to remove the antibody. Recent work indicates that a functional assay for detecting platelet-activating antibodies in HIT patients, the serotonin release assay (SRA), is preferable to ELISAs for anti-PF4-heparin antibodies for following the effectiveness of plasma exchange.

METHODS
Two cases of acute heparin-induced thrombocytopenia managed with plasma exchange before emergent cardiac surgery were evaluated with SRAs using a range of heparin concentrations that included those used in cardiopulmonary bypass.

RESULTS
We observed that a single round of plasma exchange led to greater reduction in platelet reactivity at heparin concentrations between 1 and 3 U/mL than at lower concentrations, consistent with the impression that heparin-PF4-antibody complexes form optimally within a limited heparin concentration range.

CONCLUSIONS
The findings suggest there may be a range of heparin concentration in which cardiac surgery may be safely performed in HIT patients, and that a single TPE in an emergent setting may lower antibody concentration sufficiently to lower platelet reactivity in the presence of heparin.


A group of British doctors has called for a boycott of the Israeli Medical Association (IMA) and its expulsion from the World Medical Association (WMA) in a letter published in the Guardian newspaper. The petition, signed by 130 doctors, argues that by refusing to criticise Israeli policies in the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel, the IMA is failing to uphold international medical ethical standards.

The Israel Defense Forces "have systematically flouted the fourth Geneva convention guaranteeing a civilian population unfettered access to medical services and immunity for medical staff," the letter says, citing reports of soldiers attacking ambulances; patients and essential drugs obstructed at checkpoints, and bombing of the public health infrastructure.

"The Israeli Medical Association has a duty to protest about war crimes of this kind but has refused to do so," it continues. "Eighteen leading Palestinian health organisations have appealed to fellow professionals abroad to recognise how the IMA has forfeited its right to membership of the international medical community."

Derek Summerfield of the Institute of Psychiatry, one of the letter's organisers, said a boycott was the only remaining option when all normal channels have been exhausted. "We've sent exhaustive reports, with evidence carefully documented by leading human rights organisations, to the IMA, the World Medical Association, and the BMA, but they've been ignored."

Dr Summerfield said that the BMA …


Consent permeates both our law and our lives — especially in the digital context. Consent is the foundation of the relationships we have with search engines, social networks, commercial web sites, and any one of the dozens of other digitally mediated businesses we interact with regularly. We are frequently asked to consent to terms of service, privacy notices, the use of cookies, and so many other commercial practices. Consent is important, but it's possible to have too much of a good thing. As a number of scholars have documented, while consent models permeate the digital consumer landscape, the practical conditions of these agreements fall far short of the gold standard of knowing and voluntary consent. Yet as scholars, advocates, and consumers, we lack a common vocabulary for talking about the different ways in which digital consents can be flawed.

This article offers four contributions to improve our understanding of consent in the digital world. First, we offer a conceptual vocabulary of "the pathologies of consent" — a framework for talking about different kinds of defects that consent models can suffer, such as unwitting consent, coerced consent, and incapacitated consent. Second, we offer three conditions for when consent will be most valid in the digital context: when choice is infrequent, when the potential harms resulting from that choice are vivid and easy to imagine, and where we have the correct incentives choose consciously and seriously. The further we fall from these conditions, the more a particular consent will be pathological and thus suspect. Third, we argue that out theory of consent pathologies sheds light on the so-called "privacy paradox" — the notion that there is a gap between what consumers say about wanting privacy and what they actually do in practice. Understanding the "privacy paradox" in terms of consent pathologies shows how consumers are not hypocrites who say one thing but do another. On the contrary, the pathologies of consent reveal how consumers can be nudged and manipulated by powerful companies against their actual interests, and that this process is easier when consumer protection law falls far from the gold standard. In light of these findings, we offer a fourth contribution — the theory of consumer trust we have suggested in prior work and which we further elaborate here as an alternative to our over-reliance on consent and its many pathologies.


Destination branding is an important focus of tourism marketing research and
a cornerstone activity for many destination marketing organizations. National
Tourism Branding is the specific activity of destination branding a nation to
encourage tourism. This study examines National Tourism Branding from two
perspectives. National Tourism Branding is examined from the perspective of
the National Tourist Office (NTO) operating in the United States. The thesis
also examines the National Tourism Brand (NTB), and the role of the National
Tourism Office, from the perspective of commercial stakeholders in the brand
development process. The study examines the attitudes of both tourism
product and wholesalers to the branding process.
This thesis began by exploring the phenomenon and process of branding with
particular focus on the way branding is applied to nations and destinations in
tourism marketing. The literature review examined the complex nature of
destination brands noting that destination brands typically exist within a
hierarchy of "place brands" and that destination brands exist in portfolios of
brands due to the composite nature of destinations themselves.
The role of stakeholders in the destination branding process was also
reviewed in detail. Tourism Destinations, as composite entities with
component products, have stakeholders concerned in the development of
effective master branding of the destination. In addition, distribution channel
members, reliant on the destination for business, are also stakeholders in the brand development process. In addition to "market driven" stakeholders
destination marketers must also engage with "non-market driven"
stakeholders including local residents, government and politicians. The
literature review identified National Tourist Offices (NTOs) as the key drivers
in the development of National Tourism Brands (NTB) and examined the
activities of these organizations in the destination marketing and branding
process. The process of destination branding was reviewed and compared to
the general process of branding undertaken by consumer products. The
development of brand strategy requires an assessment of the destination's
image, the development of a destination brand identity and the creation of a
positioning strategy designed to meet brand and communications objectives.
These activities are undertaken in the context of a specific target market.
Destination brands are developed for the purpose of delivering benefits to the
destination. The destination branding process is designed to increase the
"brand equity" of the destination brand. Destination Brands can be described
as public assets shared by the community and the tourism industry. As such
the development of brands, while critical to National Tourist Offices is also an
important issue to other users of the asset including tourism product and
tourism intermediaries, both of which invest funds to promote the destination
as part of their commercial offerings. The measures for assessing the value of
the destination brand and its effectiveness in the market place are examined
in the literature review. Chapter 2 examines the development of "Brand Australia" in the United States
and reviews the Australian Tourist Commission's marketing campaigns during
the period 1996-2004. The thesis explored the way ATC used the Olympic
Games held in Sydney in 2000 as both a catalyst for the development of
Australia's National Tourism Brand and as a brand partner, effectively cobranding
Australia with the Olympics. The second section of Chapter 2
examined how the ATC engaged with partners in the development of the
brand during this period. As a result of the literature review a series of key
study areas were developed to address the nature of National tourism
branding with particular focus on the activities of US based National Tourist
Offices and the impacts on commercial stakeholders of National Tourism
Activity. Within this framework three studies were undertaken to better
understand the role of National Tourist Offices in the United States. Chapter 3
examines the results of these studies which focus on destination marketing
and branding activities.
As a result of the studies it was noted NTOs operating in the United States
are relatively small operations, with modest levels of resources – both human
and financial. Nevertheless, these organizations are tasked with significant
goals and are committed to marketing to consumers in the largest most
complex marketplace in the world. These NTOs consider destination branding
an important activity that raises the profile of their countries, increases their
marketing efficiency and effectiveness as well as those of their commercial
stakeholders. These NTO operations in the United States have considerable
freedom to interpret their brands in the market. They leverage their partners through both the use of industry input into strategy development and
cooperative marketing. The NTOs perceive the greatest benefit of their brand
activity is to provide a focused message to consumers while allowing partners
to focus attention on sales/conversion activity.
In order to better understand the impact of destination branding on the NTO
and commercial stakeholders three additional studies were conducted. Study
4 was a two part content analysis which included analysis of ATC motivational
brochures to examine the execution of brand positioning and an examination
of tour wholesaler's brochures. This analysis revealed that the NTO was able
to devote both imagery and written copy to develop a brochure that provided
both specific detail as well as a "holistic" impression that was consistent with
brand values. The commercial brochures however relied heavily on images of
the destination to convey brand values and so were limited in their ability to
communicate the brand.
Study 5 examined in detail the experience of two "market driven" stakeholder
groups involved in the Australian branding process. As Australia's NTO, the
Australian Tourist Commission has government authority to promote
Australia's tourism brand and the ATC is committed to the success of the
tourism industry. It was therefore instructive to examine the perceptions of
Australia's tourism providers and their channel partners of the Australian
tourism brand, and it's utility in generating passengers. This study found that
both tourism product and their distribution partners, the travel wholesalers, are
relatively small organizations with limited resources to achieve their marketing objectives. These organizations value the contribution of "Brand Australia"
and consider their individual company's performance is tied to the
effectiveness of the brand Australia. These organizations perceive the
greatest benefit they receive from Australian tourism branding is the ability to
allocate resources to sales messages about their specific product offerings
rather than to "back ground" information on the destination itself. Interestingly,
despite their enthusiasm for Brand Australia these organizations perceive
factors other than the ATC's marketing activity drive the consumer buying
process. In particular they attribute the greatest impact on raising awareness
of the destination and creating desire to travel to "word of mouth" factors.
The brand hierarchy of the National Tourism Brand often includes state and
regional branding. In order to explore issues that occur when different
destination marketers work with the same brand hierarchy a survey (Study 6)
of leaders of Australia's State Tourism Organizations (STOs) was conducted.
This study revealed general alignment of branding objectives but concern that
the various organizations involved in marketing Australia in the United States
should invest greater energy in developing complementary brand strategies.
In addition to the findings of the research several key insights have been
generated in the development of this thesis. Firstly, it was noted NTB plays a
variety of roles the in the brand architecture of the destination including
"master brand", "umbrella" brand and "driver brand". It notes that due to the
composite nature of destinations, destination brands can be considered as
both a single brand and as a portfolio of component brands. The thesis also noted that the variety of stakeholders involved in the development of the
brand as a public asset requires a that valuation of the benefits of the brand
include not only benefits that accrue to the DMO or to the consumer but to the
broader group of beneficiaries including the distribution network, the
destination's component products and the community to name a few. Finally it
has also been noted that sustainable destination branding, despite the
tendency of research to focus on only marketing issues, requires both
marketing communication strategies and destination development strategies.
Topics from this study were presented at the International Conference on
Destination Branding and Marketing for Regional Tourism Development,
2005.


John Goodwin [1594-1665] was one of the most prolific and controversial writers of the English Revolution; his career illustrates some of the most important intellectual developments of the seventeenth century. Educated at Queens' College, Cambridge, he became vicar of a flagship Puritan parish in the City of London. During the 1640s, he wrote in defence of the civil war, the army revolt, Pride's Purge, and the regicide, only to turn against Cromwell in 1657. Finally, repudiating religious uniformity, he became one of England's leading tolerationists. This richly contextualised study, the first modern intellectual biography of Goodwin, explores the whole range of writings produced by him and his critics. Amongst much else, it shows that far from being a maverick individualist, Goodwin enjoyed a wide readership, pastored one of the London's largest Independent congregations and was well connected to various networks. Hated and admired by Anglicans, Presbyterians and Levellers, he provides us with a new perspective on contemporaries like Richard Baxter and John Milton.It will be of special interest to students of Puritanism, the English Revolution, and early modern intellectual history. JOHN COFFEY is Professor of Early Modern History at the University of Leicester.


Invariant Causal Prediction (Peters et al., 2016) is a technique for out-of-distribution generalization which assumes that some aspects of the data distribution vary across the training set but that the underlying causal mechanisms remain constant. Recently, Arjovsky et al. (2019) proposed Invariant Risk Minimization (IRM), an objective based on this idea for learning deep, invariant features of data which are a complex function of latent variables; many alternatives have subsequently been suggested. However, formal guarantees for all of these works are severely lacking. In this paper, we present the first analysis of classification under the IRM objective$-$as well as these recently proposed alternatives$-$under a fairly natural and general model. In the linear case, we show simple conditions under which the optimal solution succeeds or, more often, fails to recover the optimal invariant predictor. We furthermore present the very first results in the non-linear regime: we demonstrate that IRM can fail catastrophically unless the test data are sufficiently similar to the training distribution$-$this is precisely the issue that it was intended to solve. Thus, in this setting we find that IRM and its alternatives fundamentally do not improve over standard Empirical Risk Minimization.


ABSTRACT Candida albicans is a normal resident of the human gastrointestinal and urogenital tracts and also a prevalent fungal pathogen. During both commensalism and infection, it must match the immunological defenses of its host while adapting to environmental cues and the local nutrient status. C. albicans regularly colonizes glucose-poor niches, thereby depending upon alternative carbon sources for growth. However, most studies of host immune responses to C. albicans have been performed on fungal cells grown on glucose, and the extent to which alternative physiologically relevant carbon sources impact innate immune responses has not been studied. The fungal cell wall is decorated with multifarious pathogen-associated molecular patterns and is the main target for recognition by host innate immune cells. Cell wall architecture is both robust and dynamic, and it is dramatically influenced by growth conditions. We found that growth of C. albicans cells on lactate, a nonfermentative carbon source available in numerous anatomical niches, modulates their interactions with immune cells and the resultant cytokine profile. Notably, lactate-grown C. albicans stimulated interleukin-10 (IL-10) production while decreasing IL-17 levels, rendering these cells less visible to the immune system than were glucose-grown cells. This trend was observed in clinical C. albicans isolates from different host niches and from different epidemiological clades. In addition, lactate-grown C. albicans cells were taken up by macrophages less efficiently, but they were more efficient at killing and escaping these phagocytic cells. Our data indicate that carbon source has a major impact upon the C. albicans interaction with the innate immune system.


We first met around a workshop table at the queer Internet studies (QIS2) in Philadelphia in February 2017. This conversation began when we realized that we all had some disciplinary knowledges, training and practice that can bear upon queer Internet studies, but simultaneously we felt unprepared for the methodological-ethical challenges posed by the Internet as a queer research environment. Michelle was trained in ethnography as an anthropologist and Jasmine and TL were trained in humanities perspectives — mostly through literature, performance studies and art history, though about five years ago they had begun to retrain in the fields of online archives, pedagogies and networks, which has led to a new collaborative research project on digital research ethics. We had all been trained in dyke/queer/feminist methods and critical theory, and continue to work in this area. And we all were experiencing some gut feelings about the need for better understandings of disciplinary practices — what we are doing, how do we apply what we know how to do, and why are we doing it — across disciplines as we enter the Internet as researchers, in a research situation. What follows is a conversation the three of us had over email and videoconference between July–October 2017, which revolved around the question of what ethnographic methods can bring to Internet research, and what might queer and feminist research ethics look like in the context of digital research environments.


We study efficiency and incentive costs of social insurance and redistribution when retirement is endogenous. We characterize Pareto optima, show the forces determining optimal retirement ages, and derive the properties of optimal retirement distortions. It is optimal for a pension system to reward later retirement independent of whether efficient retirement ages increase or decrease in productivity. When individual heterogeneity and the parameters of status-quo policies are calibrated to U.S. income taxes, Social Security, individual earnings, hours, and retirement ages, optimal pensions generate not only significant welfare gains but also aggregate output gains.


BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVE
Diabetes and neurodegenerative diseases (ND) are progressive morbidities and represent a major public health burden. A growing body of evidence points towards the comorbidity of diabetes and NDs with a possible exacerbation of latter by former. Considering the high prevalence of both morbidities in aging world population, even a modest impact of diabetes on NDs could lead to significant public health implications. Several hypotheses and mechanistic evidence were proposed linking altered glucose metabolism to the risk of progressive dementia. Unregulated production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and resultant oxidative stress (OS) are the common features of diabetes as well as NDs.

CONCLUSION
This review explores the concept of altered glucose metabolic pathways leading to ROS increase and its possible link to NDs, with a special emphasis on Alzheimer's diseases (AD). We also discuss the detailed mechanistic link between hyperglycemia, ROS generation, and neurodegeneration to highlight potential therapeutic avenues for better prevention and treatment.


Introduction Much of lower back pain (LBP) is thought to be mechanical in origin and lower limb amputees have an increased prevalence. There is also evidence that a large proportion of them also have altered spinal posture and it is commonly thought that the movement between the vertebrae (kinematics) may be affected. The current study was designed to explore the kinematics of the lumbar spine segments in trans-tibial amputees and compare it to a similar population with intact lower limbs using quantitative fluoroscopy (QF). The study also investigated possible relationships between lumbar spine stability and the motion between the prosthetic socket and residual limb. It is hoped that these investigations will improve understanding of the importance of limb-socket fit to the functional integrity of the lumbar spine in lower limb amputees Methods A literature review and three preliminary QF studies were carried out; one to the determine the best plane of motion and orientation of participants during QF imaging of the spine, a second to inform the optimal imaging protocol for the limb-socket interface and the third to validate a QF measurement of inter-vertebral stability. This phase determined the measurement parameters and investigative protocols. Given the complexity of the technique, 12 male below knee amputees and 12 healthy male controls of similar age and body mass index were recruited and received passive recumbent coronal QF imaging of their lumbar spines. This was followed immediately by anterior-posterior QF imaging of their limb-socket interfaces during three different forms of simulated gait. Differences between amputee and control spine kinematics and relationships between limb-socket motion and inter-vertebral kinematics in amputees were investigated. Results Passive recumbent coronal plane QF appears to be a valid method for measuring inter-vertebral stability. Although there were no systematic differences between the magnitude of inter-vertebral kinematics variables of amputees and controls, there was a trend towards greater variability in both inter-vertebral range and symmetry of motion in amputees and a significantly higher proportion of correlations in attainment rate between levels among amputees than controls (2-sided p <0.04). There was also a substantial, statistically significant inverse linear relationship between passive inter-vertebral motion symmetry and limb-socket telescoping in amputees. Conclusions This thesis provides evidence that the kinematics of the lumbar spine may be affected by lower limb amputation – particularly in respect of socket fit. The importance of consistency and symmetry of restraint by the intrinsic spinal holding elements in trans-tibial amputees has been highlighted. An indication of a relationship between limb socket telescoping and spine kinematics was identified, suggesting the need for replication of this part of the study in a larger amputee population. The variables of interest and the basis for this have been identified. Finally, inter-vertebral motion pattern variation has been associated with chronic low back pain in the literature. It was discovered that there was more interdependence in passive inter-vertebral motion between and across levels in below knee amputees than controls in terms of laxity, but not range of motion. The apparent relationship between this and socket fit in amputees suggests a possible mechanism and diagnostic subgroup in this population.


PURPOSE
To assess in vitro the effect on enamel erosion (ERO) and erosion followed by abrasion (ERO+ABR) of varnishes with different fluoride concentrations, supplemented or not with sodium trimetaphosphate (TMP).

METHODS
Bovine enamel blocks were randomly divided into six groups according to the type of varnish used: placebo (no F), NaF 5%, NaF 2.5%, NaF 2.5% plus TMP 3.5%, NaF 2.5% plus TMP 5%, NaF 2.5% plus TMP 10%. Varnishes were tested for ERO and ERO+ABR, separately for 3 and 5 days. ERO was done by immersion in Sprite Zero (5 minutes, 4x/day), while ERO+ABR was performed by brushing for 15 seconds after each erosive challenge. Enamel wear (microm) and cross-sectional hardness (AKHN) were assessed after the experimental periods. Data were analyzed by ANOVA, Tukey's test and Pearson's correlation coefficient (P< 0.05).

RESULTS
Varnishes supplemented with TMP promoted significantly lower wear and hardness loss when compared to the other treatments in all conditions studied (P< 0.05). Similar wear rates were observed for the placebo, NaF 2.5% and NaF 5% varnishes (P> 0.05). Greater wear was observed after 5 days of ERO and ERO+ABR when compared with 3 days (P< 0.05). Positive and significant correlations were found between enamel wear and AKHN. No dose-response relationship was found between TMP concentration and wear and hardness. It was concluded that fluoride varnishes supplemented with TMP had a higher protective effect against ERO and ERO+ABR, which was associated with a reduction in enamel softening.


The Catalogue of Endangered Languages, phase 1, was launched in June 2012 at www.endangeredlanguages.com. This paper puts the Catalogue in context, explaining how it was developed, its relationship to the Endangered Languages Project website, what these two offer, a brief report of what has been achieved so far, and goals and procedures for phase 2 of the project. This presentation also provides context for other papers and posters submitted to ICLDC related to the Catalogue of Endangered Languages.

Not just a website, the Catalogue of Endangered Languages and the Endangered Languages Project together represent an extensive network of individuals and organizations. Through the efforts of the University of Hawaii at Mānoa (UHM) and the Eastern Michigan University (EMU) teams, the project's Regional Directors, Google, and website users, only two months after launch we can report the following:

• 3,142 languages have been entered into the Catalogue, with information from multiple sources;
• Over 10,000 website visitors have created user profiles;
• Hundreds of suggestions have been sent in by users contributing information to the site;
• Hundreds of examples of language materials (video, audio, text) have been uploaded by users, doubling the number at the time of launch.

In an NSF- sponsored workshop in 2009, the Catalogue of Endangered Languages was designed. Teams of students and faculty at EMU and the UHM compiled the data upon which the Catalogue is based, the central feature of the Endangered Languages Project website developed by Google. The project's structure and function are unique, offering fields of information and samples of language materials not provided by other sources. By compiling data from multiple sources, the Catalogue provides details on what is known about the world's endangered languages and for the languages for which data are lacking or the existing information is outdated, or for which there are conflicting claims. The kinds of information provided include but are not limited to the number and age speakers, intergenerational transmission, speaker number trends, domains of use of the language, locations where it is spoken, etc. The site also invites users to make suggestions and to contribute language both information and language materials (called "samples"). All suggestions for the catalogue undergo rigorous review, explained in this paper.

Phase 2 begins now; it focuses on obtaining current data for the languages, filling in missing information and correcting errors in the sources.


Building on the previously established Millennium Development Goals, which ran from 2000-2015, the 2015 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provide the UN with a roadmap for development until 2030. This topical book explores the associated legal and normative implications of these SDGs, which in themselves are not legally binding. The 17 goals and 169 targets of the SDGs cover areas as crucial as poverty reduction, climate change, clean water and access to justice. Combining both thematic and goal-specific analysis, expert contributors establish the relevance not just of international law, but also of a broader range of normative frameworks including constitutional norms, domestic regulatory law and human rights. Connecting the SDGs to wider debates in international law and politics, this book ultimately demonstrates that law has an important constitutive and instrumental role to play in both implemention and analysis. The first of its kind to offer a specific focus on the relationship between law and the SDGs, this much-needed book will prove invaluable for scholars in the field of international sustainable development. Its insightful observations will also provide food for thought for both related international organisations and national government officials.


The pronouncements of Madlanga J in the recent Constitutional Court case of Paulsen and Another v Slip Knot Investments 777 (Pty) Ltd 2015 (3) SA 479 (CC) got me thinking about the in duplum rule, which is largely what the case was about, but also about what happens if a court can no longer pass judgments on the facts but only on the law? And what if, as in this case, it is not the debtor who is impoverished by the conduct of the debtor, but the creditor? If a court can only consider the law and not the facts, then how does the court distinguish cases from one another and make the most proportionate and reasonable finding - and this despite the clear statement by the presiding judge that: 'In any given case this court has to make a value judgment on whether the point of law is indeed "arguable"' (Paulsen at para 23).


SYNOPSIS: Once Web 2.0 luddites, more and more utilities are now adopting social media. Whether it's a company profile and job postings on LinkedIn, a Facebook page with tips about energy efficiency, or a Twitter stream disseminating information about recent outages, utilities are undeniably serious about adding digital real estate to their service territory. Yet even as the utility march towards Web 2.0 gathers momentum, the heavily regulated nature of the utility industry presents challenges in the naturally free-flowing world of social media. In addition to the traditional issues that all businesses face when engaging social media - from workplace concerns related to employee abuses of social media and appropriate discipline to copyright and IP protection - utilities must also ensure that their participation in social media does not run afoul of affiliate codes of conduct, SEC regulation, and a host of other compliance issues. This article provides an exhaustive summary of the legal and regulatory issues potentially implicated by utility engagement in social media, and proposes best practices and guidelines for development of a social media policy that reduce the risks of social media for utilities. THE POWER OF SOCIAL MEDIA Increasingly, utilities are harnessing the power of social media for a variety of business purposes, including educating consumers, implementing regulatory initiatives like demand response and smart grid, coordinating stakeholder proceedings, and communicating power outages and safety issues to the public. Yet even as utilities hop aboard the social media bandwagon, they remain subject to the same regulatory and legal requirements that apply to their traditional activities. Though social media changes the media for communicating with consumers or carrying out a required function, it does not change the message. Thus, commonly prohibited activity like utility endorsement of an affiliate is not transformed into permissible conduct merely because that endorsement comes in the form of a 140-character tweet. This article describes the regulatory and legal issues potentially triggered by a utility's use of social media. Part I briefly defines what social media is, and describes the ways that utilities currently use social media. Part II describes the distinct legal issues triggered by utility use of social media from the perspective of the utility as (1) an employer, (2) a corporate entity, (3) a regulated entity, and (4) for public power, a government body. Part III highlights best practices for utility use of social media, with emphasis on development of a formal social media policy. I. OVERVIEW OF UTILITY ENGAGEMENT OF SOCIAL MEDIA A. What Is Social Media and Why Does It Matter? Part of the new generation of Web 2.0 applications, social media is a catch phrase that describes technology that facilitates interactive information, user-created content and collaboration.1 Social media sites are growing fast and furiously, becoming indispensable to consumers. In August 2010, for the first-time, Facebook surpassed Google as the number one site where internet users spend the majority of their online time - 41 million hours for Facebook users versus 39.9 million hours for Google. A recent Nielsen report showed that overall, users spend a quarter of their online time using social media applications.2 And it's not just kids, either: a Pew Research report released in August 2010 showed that social media use of sites like Facebook and LinkedIn by adults aged fifty to sixty-four grew by a whopping 88% between April 2009 and May 2010.3 Bottom line: if a company seeks to get a customer's attention online, a social media presence is indispensable. Given the dozens of social media platforms available (with new ones emerging each year), it's best to categorize social media tools in terms of the functions that they serve. The chart below lays out categories of social media, along with some of the best-known examples correlated with their respective functions, and potential utility use: B. …


This study examines the love of money and work‐related attitudes and identifies four money profiles based on a sample of citizens in the Republic of Macedonia. Achieving Money Worshipers (the highest scores on Factors Success, Motivator, and Budget and the lowest on Evil) had the highest active involvement in work activities. Careless Money Admirers (the lowest score on Factor Budget) had the highest external locus of control, the highest involvement, and lowest success avoidance. Apathetic Money Managers (the lowest scores on Factors Success and Motivator) had the highest internal locus of control and the lowest involvement. Money Repellent Individuals (the highest score on Factor Evil) had the lowest competitiveness and the highest success avoidance. Results provide the validity of the Love of Money Scale and the four money profiles.


AN INCREASE IN THE NUMBER OF WAR-ORPHAN STUDENTS AND STUDENTS WITH WAR-DISABLED FATHERS AT HUNGARIAN UNIVERSITIES IN THE 1930S. he thematic focus of the present study is a somewhat neglected phenomenon: the sudden rise in the number of war-orphan university students and students with war-disabled fathers in the irst half of the 1930s. During and immediately after World War One institutions of higher education were called upon to accept the enrollment of a large number of veterans who returned from the war with physical injuries and psychic scars: often these "veterans" were returning war-disabled students. By the beginning of the 1930s the focus of relief of disabled servicemen shifted to those whose father had either died or became war-disabled in the Firsts World War. As early as the academic year of 1929/30 this shift was well discernible, by the 1934/35 academic year, however, there came a steep rise in their relative number. he present study ofers a glimpse at those natural causes and administrative measures that will make it more understandable to sort out the factors at work. It will also ofer an insight into the life and social circumstances of war-orphan students and the ones who had a war-disabled father.


of the Dissertation Quantitative Computational and Biophysical Investigation of Multivalent Proteins by Vadim Patsalo Doctor of Philosophy in Applied Mathematics and Statistics Stony Brook University 2012 The valency of a biological molecule is the number of interactions that it is able to make with other molecules. Multivalency arises in proteins which oligomerize or contain tandem repeats, and commonly involves the binding of carbohydrates. Biological processes which rely on multivalency include surface interactions (e.g. virus–cell adhesion and cell–cell binding) or de-mixing phenomena. The energetics of multivalent interactions can be significantly enhanced relative to their monovalent counterparts, and numerous multivalent inhibitors of viral infection have been identified. In this dissertation, we present computational and biophysical investigations of several multivalent proteins related to human viral pathogens. The bivalent lectin Cyanovirin-N inhibits HIV infection by binding the high-mannose glycans on the surface of the viral glycoprotein gp120. We performed Poisson–Boltzmann calculations and identified adjacent serines sequestered in the protein core which form a bridging interaction. We showed that this interaction does not overcome the desolvation penalty for burying the two groups, and went on to design and characterize a series of stabilized protein variants. The tetravalent lectin MVL also neutralizes HIV, but recognizes a glycan substructure different from Cyanovirin-N. An unresolved question regarding MVL and other HIV-neutralizing agents is whether multivalency is necessary for efficient viral neutralization. We biophysically characterized individual monovalent domains of MVL. The C-terminal domain was folded and populated a monomer/dimer equilibrium at micromolar concentrations. HIV neutralization experiments revealed that the Cterminal domain alone was able to neutralize three of four viral strains with efficacy near that of the wild type protein, suggesting that multivalency is not necessary for nanomolar inhibition by this protein. The adenoviral protein E4–ORF3 forms a heterogeneous polyvalent nuclear fiber and inactivates several host responses to the infection. Using biophysical techniques we characterized a nonfunctional variant of E4–ORF3, revealing that a homodimer is the building block of the nuclear web. Based on a subsequently-solved X-ray structure, we propose mechanisms of how the mutation abrogates function, and how E4–ORF3 is able to capture a diverse panel of host cellular proteins.


Sewage sludge is a serious problem due to the high treatment costs and the risks to environment and human health. Looking to the future the question arises of which sludge research and development issues are most important. Based on a brief evaluation of current sludge treatment systems and research results it can be concluded that land application of sewage sludge remains one of the most attractive options. However, more research into the health risks is necessary to make this method worldwide more acceptable. Recovery of energy from sludge is becoming more and more attractive. High thermal processes are interesting if sludge does not satisfy the guidelines for land application. Integration of these high thermal processes with existing industrial activities or other thermal waste treatment processes can be very attractive. Research into dewatering and drying can make the energy recovery more efficient. Processes for recovery of valuable products from sludge such as aquatic worms and P-compounds are potentially very attractive but their feasibility strongly depends on the marketing and market value of these products. It is expected that supercritical sludge treatment and direct production of electricity require still a long research and development path.


The purpose of the study is to investigate reasons students with an immigrant background in one Swedish high school gives for their failure in some subjects at the end of their compulsory education. An interview with 18 students with an immigrant background is used as a method. According to the students, schools' employment of substitute teachers without subject knowledge, reducing and firing competent teachers and less time for Swedish language lessons are reasons for failure in relation to schools. Other reasons given that affect results relate to family issues; leaving their country of origin, having many siblings and not getting enough attention from parents, parents inability to help them with school work, limited family financial resources and social obligations to support family members in their country of origin. In their residential area; not meeting persons with Swedish origin, lack of recreational facilities and meeting place, higher unemployment and crime rate are emphasized as affecting their lives and influencing their results. Based on the research findings and reviewed literature, students' failure is mainly related to school, family and residential areas. The problems vary to a great extent, hence, the solutions should also be multi-dimensional.


Virus host shifts are generally associated with novel adaptations to exploit the cells of the new host species optimally. Surprisingly, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has apparently required little to no significant adaptation to humans since the start of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and to October 2020. Here we assess the types of natural selection taking place in Sarbecoviruses in horseshoe bats versus the early SARS-CoV-2 evolution in humans. While there is moderate evidence of diversifying positive selection in SARS-CoV-2 in humans, it is limited to the early phase of the pandemic, and purifying selection is much weaker in SARS-CoV-2 than in related bat Sarbecoviruses. In contrast, our analysis detects evidence for significant positive episodic diversifying selection acting at the base of the bat virus lineage SARS-CoV-2 emerged from, accompanied by an adaptive depletion in CpG composition presumed to be linked to the action of antiviral mechanisms in these ancestral bat hosts. The closest bat virus to SARS-CoV-2, RmYN02 (sharing an ancestor about 1976), is a recombinant with a structure that includes differential CpG content in Spike; clear evidence of coinfection and evolution in bats without involvement of other species. While an undiscovered "facilitating" intermediate species cannot be discounted, collectively, our results support the progenitor of SARS-CoV-2 being capable of efficient human–human transmission as a consequence of its adaptive evolutionary history in bats, not humans, which created a relatively generalist virus.


Automatic generation of code starting from lightweight modeling languages such as UML is by now a widely adopted approach. In particular generation of executable SystemC models starting from StateCharts and other UML diagrams represents a promising research field. While RTL SystemC appears better suited for matching the StateCharts formalism (being intrinsically clocked), performances of the generated code suffer from the heavy overhead induced by time management, specially when the number of concurrent processes is high. In this paper we present a methodology that allows applying a solution mixing event based and clock-driven approach. More specifically, clock-driven simulation is activated only when the configuration of the system is identified to be evolving. When no events are present this fact is also detected (together with the interval of absence of events) so that no simulation is performed although the clock runs on. This solution is particularly suited for low duty cycle systems, as, e.g. when simulating Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN); in such instances, speedup of the generated code has been found to be well over two orders of magnitude. Application of the technique to the generation of a power simulator for the IEEE 802.15.4 networking protocol is used as a test case.


The most effective way to treat clinical pain is to target the subpopulation of primary afferent neurons responsible. However, clinical pain is heterogeneous, reflecting, in part, differences in the relative contribution of different subpopulations of afferents. The functional heterogeneity of primary afferents is reflected in the heterogeneous regulation of intracellular Ca2+ ([Ca2+]i). Because the regulation of [Ca2+]i contributes to neuronal function, injury-induced changes in neuronal function may be due to dysregulation in the regulation of [Ca2+]i. Thus, the persistent inflammation-induced increase in the magnitude and duration of depolarization-evoked Ca2+ transient in a subset of putative nociceptive cutaneous DRG neurons served as the focus of this thesis. I first ruled out the contribution of Ca2+-induced Ca2+ release to the inflammation-induced increase in the evoked Ca2+ transient. Results of these experiments also indicated the presence of tightly segregated Ca2+ regulatory domains where Ca2+ transients evoked via Ca2+ influx and release from intracellular stores are functionally isolated. Parametric analysis demonstrated that inflammation-induced changes in evoked Ca2+ had a high threshold for activation, thus I focused on low affinity Ca2+ extrusion mechanism, Na+/Ca2+ exchanger (NCX). I demonstrated that NCX regulates the decay of the evoked transient in the same subset of putative nociceptive afferents modified by inflammation, and can influence axonal [Ca2+]i levels, resting membrane potential, and nociceptive threshold. Finally, I confirmed a role for NCX in response to persistent inflammation, such that the increase in the duration of the evoked transient is due to a loss of NCX in the cell body due to an increase in unidirectional NCX3 trafficking to the peripheral terminals. These observations serve as the basis for my current working hypothesis that the inflammation-induced changes in trafficking of NCX3, underlie three major aspects of the inflammatory response: an increase in transmitter release from the central terminal to contribute to inflammatory hyperalgesia, a change in gene expression secondary to altered Ca2+ transients in the cell body, and a decrease in the neurogenic inflammatory response in the periphery secondary to a decrease in transmitter release. Increasing NCX function may be a potentially novel therapeutic strategy for treatment of inflammatory pain.


Although a widely used concept in health care, person-centred care remains somewhat ambiguous. In the field of palliative care, person-centred care is considered a historically distinct ideal and yet there continues to be a dearth of conceptual clarity. Person-centred care is also challenged by the pull of standardization that characterizes much of health service delivery. The conceptual ambiguity becomes especially problematic in contemporary pluralistic societies, particularly in the light of continued inequities in healthcare access and disparities in health outcomes. Our aim was to explicate premises and underlying assumptions regarding person-centred care in the context of palliative care with an attempt to bridge the apparently competing agendas of individualization versus standardization, and individuals versus populations. By positioning person-centredness in relation to the hermeneutics of the self according to Paul Ricœur, dialectics between individualization and standardization, and between individuals and populations were constructed. The competing agendas were related in a dialectic manner in the way that population health is of importance for the individual, and standardization is of importance for the population. The analysis suggests that person-centred care is an ethical stance, which gives prominence to both suffering and capability of the individual as a person. The dialectic analysis points towards the importance of extending person-centred care to encompass population and societal perspectives and thereby avoiding a problematic tendency of affiliating person-centred care with exclusively individualistic perspectives. Considerations for person-centred palliative care on micro-, meso- and macrolevels conclude the paper.


Background and Aim: Fascia iliaca compartment block(FICB) provides excellent analgesia to patients with proximal femur fractures, especially required during positioning to regional anesthesia. Use of ultrasonography (USG) helps in direct visualisation of the anatomy and with suprainguinal approach single injection of drugs administered. We compared the efficacy of Magnesium sulphate (MgSO4) and Dexamethasone as additives to 0.2% ropivacaine for FICB for better pain relief and post op analgesia. Methods: This is a comparative, randomised, double blind, controlled prospective study included 50 patients with 18-90 years of age group, belonging to ASA I to III, undergoing proximal femur fracture surgeries. Patients were divided into two groups of 25 each. Group M (magnesium sulphate) patients received 0.2% ropivacaine 28ml with 2ml of 25% MgSo4 (500mg). Group D(dexamethasone) patients received 0.2% ropivacaine 28ml with 2ml of dexamethasone (8mg) for USG guided FICB. Time for onset of analgesia using numerical rating scale (NRS <5), time for complete analgesia (NRS is 0) on passive movement of the limb, duration of post op analgesia, patient satisfaction, ease of positioning were assessed for first 24 hrs. Descriptive and inferential statistical analysis has been carried out in the present study. Student t test has been used for quantitative data analysis. Chi square tesrt/ Fisher Exact test has been used for qualitative data analysis. Results: Time for onset of analgesia (NRS <5) was decreased with MgSO4 (P value < 0.001). Time for complete analgesia (NRS 0) was also decreased with MgSO4 (P value < 0.001). Post op analgesia was more with Dexamethasone group ( P < 0.001). Patient satisfaction, and ease of positioning was good in both the groups. Conclusion: Addition of MgSO4 and Dexamethasone to Ropivacaine for FICB provides better analgesia coverage with MgSO4 reducing onset of analgesia and time for complete analgesia. Dexamethasone provides increased duration of analgesia.


Increased exposure to the flame retardants known as polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) may be expected to occur during the recycling of polyurethane foam containing these chemicals. To date, no studies in the United States have investigated occupational exposure to these flame retardants during recycling processes. The objective of the present study was to determine if individuals working in foam recycling facilities, and/or carpet installers who may install carpet padding manufactured from recycled foam, possess significantly higher PBDE serum levels relative to that of the general U.S. population. As a control group, serum was collected from four spouses and one clerical worker. In addition, levels in workers were also compared to the recently published national health and nutrition examination survey (NHANES) data set on PBDEs in the general U.S. population. Serum samples were collected in duplicate and analyzed by two different laboratories as quality control. Total PBDE levels were found to be significantly higher (p < 0.05) in the individuals recycling foam and installing carpet (n = 15) relative to the control group (n = 5). Median sigmaPBDE levels in the foam recyclers, carpet layers, and control group were 160, 178, and 19 ng/g lipid, respectively. In contrast, concentrations of a polybrominated biphenyl (BB-153) and a polychlorinated biphenyl (CB-153) were equivalent among all groups tested. The PBDE congeners BDE-47, 99, 100, and 153 contributed 90% of the sigmaPBDE concentration in serum and no differences in congener patterns were apparent among the different groups. Relative to concentrations measured in the NHANES, foam recyclers and carpet layers have body burdens that are an order of magnitude higher. These data suggest individuals recycling foam-containing products, and/ or using products manufactured from recycled foam (i.e., carpet padding), have higher body burdens of PBDEs, and thus may be at higher risk from adverse health effects associated with brominated flame retardant exposure.


A method for continuing Fourier spectra applicable to spectra given by the discrete Fourier transform is presented. From the principle of minimizing the sum of the square of the negative values of the restored function, a set of simultaneous nonlinear equations is obtained. The only means of solution at present is iterative, but computational time is comparable with that for noniterative methods. Excellent restoration is obtained for the sharply attenuated spectrum of deconvolved infared peaks. The numerical procedure developed here lends itself easily to the inclusion of additional constraints to enhance resolution further. The constraints of minimum negativity and finite extent may both be enforced together on pertinent data with only slight modification of the procedure.


Rain attenuation is among the major impairments for satellite systems operating in the K-band and above. In this paper, we investigate the impact of spatially correlated rain attenuation on the performance of a multibeam satellite return link. For a comprehensive assessment, an analytical model for the antenna pattern that generates the beams is also proposed. We focus on the outage capacity of the link and obtain analytical approximations at high and low signal-to-noise ratio. The derived approximations provide insights into the effect of key system parameters such as the interuser distance, the satellite beam radius, or the rain intensity, and simulation results show that it fits tightly with the Monte Carlo results. Additionally, the derived expressions can be easily particularized for the single-user case, providing some novel insights.


A significant challenge for the control of a robotic lower extremity rehabilitation exoskeleton is to ensure stability and robustness during programmed tasks or motions, which is crucial for the safety of the mobility-impaired user. Due to various levels of the user's disability, the human-exoskeleton interaction forces and external perturbations are unpredictable and could vary substantially and cause conventional motion controllers to behave unreliably or the robot to fall down. In this work, we propose a new, reinforcement learning-based, motion controller for a lower extremity rehabilitation exoskeleton, aiming to perform collaborative squatting exercises with efficiency, stability, and strong robustness. Unlike most existing rehabilitation exoskeletons, our exoskeleton has ankle actuation on both sagittal and front planes and is equipped with multiple foot force sensors to estimate center of pressure (CoP), an important indicator of system balance. This proposed motion controller takes advantage of the CoP information by incorporating it in the state input of the control policy network and adding it to the reward during the learning to maintain a well balanced system state during motions. In addition, we use dynamics randomization and adversary force perturbations including large human interaction forces during the training to further improve control robustness. To evaluate the effectiveness of the learning controller, we conduct numerical experiments with different settings to demonstrate its remarkable ability on controlling the exoskeleton to repetitively perform well balanced and robust squatting motions under strong perturbations and realistic human interaction forces.


Abstract This Opinion Note highlights the international humanitarian law (IHL) provisions mandating dissemination of the Geneva Conventions and the Additional Protocols to the civilian population. In referencing three dilemmas concerning contemporary challenges to international law in armed conflict and how each of those dilemmas may result in a "breaking point" or a "turning point", the author argues that it is vitally important not only for armed forces but also for the general public to learn – and actively engage with – IHL both during war and in (relative) peacetime.


Basketball games are currently played across 48 and 40 minutes; however, little is known about the influence of game duration on team statistics. Therefore, we examined (i) differences in game-related statistics between 48- and 40-min games; (ii) statistical measures discriminating winning and losing teams relative to game duration; and (iii) the ability of statistical models to predict team success relative to game duration. Overall, 1,084 Australian professional men's basketball games were analysed. Ball possessions (·min-1) had the largest difference (rpb = -0.30; P < 0.001), between 48- (1.92 ± 0.12) and 40-min games (1.79 ± 0.26), while offensive efficiency and defensive statistics were significantly (P < 0.001) greater during 40-min games. Most statistical measures significantly discriminated winning from losing teams, with larger disparities evident during 48-min games. Offensive rating (32.3-43.0% vs. 22.4-29.8%, P < 0.001) and Four Factors (32.3-43.0% vs. 22.4-29.8%, P < 0.001) each explained a greater proportion of variance in game outcome during longer games. A reduced duration slowed game pace and increased offensive efficiency, possibly due to greater maintenance of defensive pressure slowing opposition transitions and promoting controlled offensive structures. The ability of game-related statistics to discriminate winning teams and predict game outcome diminished with reduced game duration.


Migratory birds are important carriers and reservoirs for a variety of pathogens, with a great potential of their spreading. The Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve is one of the most important migration stopover for a great diversity of migratory birds where they feed and recover the energy supplies towards the African wintering grounds. Knowledge about the circulation of pathogens, parasites included, in different areas and different bird gatherings contributes to a better understanding of the epidemiology of some parasitic diseases which are responsible for changing in host population dynamics and the potential risks for vector-borne diseases, including zoonoses. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the occurrence of ectoand endoparasites in some migratory birds at the hotstop in the Danube Delta (Southeastern Romania). For this, a total number of 260 birds (Passeriformes and Pelecaniformes), belonging to five families (Sylviidae, Turdidae, Laniidae, Paridae, Ardeidae) and 12 species were investigated, during of a ringing session, in August 2016. All birds were examined for external parasites. Additional, 23 birds were also subjected for endoparasite infections using flotation method and microscopic examination. Overall, out of the total birds 22.30% (58/260) were found positive for ectoparasites (feather mites, chewing lice), while 12 of the 23 investigated (52.17%) were positive for internal parasites. As ectoparasites, were detected feather mites in 21.53% (56/260), belonging to Trouessartiidae and Proctophyllodidae families; chweing lice in 0.38% (1/260), belonging to the genus Menachantus (Phtiraptera), and fowl mite Ornithonyssus spp. (Mesostigmata) (0.38%; 1/260). The most common endoparasite infection was with coccidia (Apicomplexa) (39.13%; 9/23), represented by Eimeria spp. and Isospora spp. The prevalence of internal and external parasites found in the present study highlight the need for further investigation of parasitofauna in wildbirds considering the fact that, parasites might have a negative effects on population dynamics of birds.


This paper studies private saving decisions in La tin America in the 1990s, with special focus on corporate saving. We investigate the puzzling omission of corporate saving in private saving studies, and afterwards we calculate, in several cases for the first time, gross saving and sources of funds of the corporate sector in seven Latin American countries over the period 1990-1996. Also, we conduct a preliminary econometric exploration on the macroeconomic determinants of private and corporate saving, and private investment. Particularly, the effect of capital-market imperfections and the relationship between corporate and personal saving are analyzed.


A theoretical model describing crop yield response to water quantity and quality under irrigation conditions is generalized to obtain soil-water-salt regimes, water requirement, and salt tolerance curves. Theoretical results show that under continuous irrigation conditions steady water and salt regimes may be achieved only when application water quantities exceed seasonal class A pan evaporation (E₀) by >50%. The effects of water quantity and soil salinity on crop yield and the shape of the response curves to electrical conductivity of saturated paste extracts are similar for measured data and simulated results. In both, salt tolerance curves of wet irrigation regimes (irrigation quantity >E₀) have maximum relative yield (YR) of one, while for dry irrigation regimes (irrigation quantity <0.8. E₀), YR <1.0. Explanation of salt tolerance curves is attempted.


Disturbances in melatonin—the neurohormone that signals environmental darkness as part of the circadian circuit of mammals—have been implicated in various psychopathologies in humans. At present, experimental evidence linking prenatal melatonin signaling to adult physiology, behavior, and gene expression is lacking. We hypothesized that administration of melatonin (5 mg/kg) or the melatonin receptor antagonist luzindole (5 mg/kg) to rats in utero would permanently alter the circadian circuit to produce differential growth, adult behavior, and hippocampal gene expression in the male rat. Prenatal treatment was found to increase growth in melatonin-treated animals. In addition, subjects exposed to melatonin prenatally displayed increased rearing in the open field test and an increased right turn preference in the elevated plus maze. Rats administered luzindole prenatally, however, displayed greater freezing and grooming behavior in the open field test and improved learning in the Morris water maze. Analysis of relative adult hippocampal gene expression with RT-PCR revealed increased expression of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) with a trend toward increased expression of melatonin 1A (MEL1A) receptors in melatonin-exposed animals whereas overall prenatal treatment had a significant effect on microtubule-associated protein 2 (MAP2) expression. Our data support the conclusion that the manipulation of maternal melatonin levels alters brain development and leads to physiological and behavioral abnormalities in adult offspring. We designate the term circadioneuroendocrine (CNE) axis and propose the CNE-axis hypothesis of psychopathology.


We start from the intensity distribution of a standing wave (SW) laser field and deduce the classical equation of atomic motion. The image distortion is analyzed using transfer function approach. Atomic flux density distribution as a function of propagation distance is calculated based on Monte-Carlo scheme and trajectory tracing method. Simulation results have shown that source imperfection, especially beam spread, plays an important role in broadening the feature width, and the focus depth of atom lens for real atomic source is longer than that for perfect source. The ideal focal plane can be easily determined by the variation of atomic density at the minimal potential of the laser field as a function of traveling distance.


Parsing natural language questions in specific domains is crucial to a wide range of applications from question-answering to dialog systems. Pre-trained parsers are usually trained on corpora dominated by non-questions, and thus perform poorly on domain-specific questions. Retraining parsers with domain-specific questions labeled with syntactic parse trees is expensive, as these annotations require linguistic expertise. In this paper, we propose an automatic labeled domain question generation framework by leveraging domain knowledge and seed domain questions. We evaluate our approach in two domains, and release the generated question datasets. Our experimental results demonstrate that auto-generated labeled questions indeed lead to significant (4.9% − 9%) increase in the accuracy of state-of-the-art (SoTA) parsers on domain questions.


CONTEXT
Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is associated with widespread cognitive impairments, but it is not known whether the apparent multiple impairments share etiological roots or separate etiological pathways exist. A better understanding of the etiological pathways is important for the development of targeted interventions and for identification of suitable intermediate phenotypes for molecular genetic investigations.

OBJECTIVES
To determine, by using a multivariate familial factor analysis approach, whether 1 or more familial factors underlie the slow and variable reaction times, impaired response inhibition, and choice impulsivity associated with ADHD.

DESIGN
An ADHD and control sibling-pair design.

SETTING
Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Spain, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.

PARTICIPANTS
A total of 1265 participants, aged 6 to 18 years: 464 probands with ADHD and 456 of their siblings (524 with combined-subtype ADHD), and 345 control participants.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Performance on a 4-choice reaction time task, a go/no-go inhibition task, and a choice-delay task.

RESULTS
The final model consisted of 2 familial factors. The larger factor, reflecting 85% of the familial variance of ADHD, captured 98% to 100% of the familial influences on mean reaction time and reaction time variability. The second, smaller factor, reflecting 13% of the familial variance of ADHD, captured 62% to 82% of the familial influences on commission and omission errors on the go/no-go task. Choice impulsivity was excluded in the final model because of poor fit.

CONCLUSIONS
The findings suggest the existence of 2 familial pathways to cognitive impairments in ADHD and indicate promising cognitive targets for future molecular genetic investigations. The familial distinction between the 2 cognitive impairments is consistent with recent theoretical models--a developmental model and an arousal-attention model--of 2 separable underlying processes in ADHD. Future research that tests the familial model within a developmental framework may inform developmentally sensitive interventions.


Michael Walzer has made great contributions to the appreciation of both moral and cultural pluralism in political theory. Nonetheless, there are ways in which Walzer's arguments appear anti-pluralistic. The question of this essay is: why is there so little pluralism in Walzer's political theory, or why does its pluralism run out so soon? Focusing on Spheres of Justice and Nation and Universe, it examines the effect of Walzer's nationalism/statism on his theory, and the constraints his theory faces in considering multiculturalism or political pluralist regimes such as federalism within a state.


A new spinicaudatan (clam shrimp), Hardapestheria maxwelli gen. et sp. nov., is described from the Jurassic Kalkrand Formation of central Namibia. Specimens were collected from a sedimentary interbed within a succession of flood basalts. These are the first spinicaudatans to be described from the Jurassic of south‐western Africa. The new taxon is assigned to the family Eosestheriidae based on the combination of punctae and radial ornamentation on the carapace. Ornamentation on the growth bands in H. maxwelli differs from other eosestheriid genera because the punctate ornamentation is not restricted to the dorsal region of the carapace. Instead, all growth bands include a proximal region with punctae even though the distal portion of each growth band may exhibit anastomosing lirae. Among well‐documented Mesozoic spinicaudatan genera, Hardapestheria is most closely related to Carapacestheria from the contemporaneous Kirkpatrick Basalt of Antarctica and Yanjiestheria from the Early Cretaceous of China. Hardapestheria maxwelli displays sexual dimorphism, which can be definitively related to a dioecious mating system with discrete male and female individuals. Review of additional early members of the Eosestheriidae suggests that the maintenance of two discrete sexes was the ancestral state for the clade. The ability to discriminate sexual mating system type unambiguously is rare in fossils, and this new species sheds light on the relationship between environmental stability and mating system evolution.


State and federal policymakers grappling with the aftermath of the Great Recession sought ways to spur job creation, in many cases adopting hiring credits to encourage employers to create new jobs. However, there is virtually no evidence on the effects of these kinds of counter-recessionary hiring credits – the only evidence coming from much earlier studies of the federal New Jobs Tax Credit in the 1970s. This paper provides evidence on the effects of state hiring credits on job growth. For many of the types of hiring credits we examine we do not find positive effects on job growth. However, some specific types of hiring credits – most notably including those targeting the unemployed, those that allow states to recapture credits when job creation goals are not met, and refundable hiring credits – appear to have succeeded in boosting job growth, more so during the Great Recession period or perhaps recessions generally. At the same time, some credits appear to generate hiring without increasing employment or to generate much more hiring than net employment growth, consistent with these credits leading to churning of employees that raises the costs of producing jobs via hiring credits.


The image of a brand is the first word or image that is evoked in the mind of costumers immediately after hearing the brand name. The purpose of paying attention to the brand image is to ensure the proper mentality of consumers toward the brand. The components such as suitability, services, brand, variety, quality, and atmosphere form the brand image. The relationship between the brand image and other fields such as brand trust has been considered by researches and can play an effective role in improving the behavioral tendencies of costumers. This study is aimed to examine the relationship between foreign brand image and brand trust among buyers of foreign sports brands. The statistical population of this study consisted of 279 male and female athletes in city of Qom who were buying foreign sports brands. The data collection tool was brand image questionnaire and brand trust questionnaire with Cronbach's alpha of 0.87 and 0.88, respectively. The results of Pearson's correlation test showed a significant relationship between image and brand trust (r=0.68). The components of brand image (brand, services, suitability, variety, quality, and atmosphere) with the coefficients of 0.39, 0.53, 0.45, 0.55, 0.51, and 0.54, respectively, had significant correlation with brand trust. The results of simultaneous regression analysis demonstrated that the components of services, variety, quality, and atmosphere could predict the significance of the brand trust among the buyers of foreign sports brands. Based on the results of this study, it seems that the focus on improving the components of services, variety in sale, attention to the quality of products and services, as well as developing a positive atmosphere for customers in providing sale services can have an effective impact on increasing brand trust and improving the behavioral tendencies of costumers.


ABSTRACT The northeastern Brooks Range of northern Alaska is an active, north-directed fold-and-thrust belt that is advancing on the Barrow arch and the north-facing passive margin of the Arctic Basin. Density logs, leak-off tests, and mud-weight profiles from 57 wells from the northeastern North Slope were used to determine the magnitude of the present-day in situ stresses and document significant regional lateral and vertical variations in relative stress magnitude. Preliminary analysis of the in situ stress magnitudes indicates two distinct stress regimes across this region of Alaska. Areas adjacent to the eastern Barrow arch exhibit both strike-slip and normal stress regimes. This in situ stress regime is consistent with fault patterns in the subsurface and with north–south extension along the Barrow arch and the northern Alaska margin. To the south in and near the northeastern Brooks Range thrust front, in situ stress magnitudes indicate that an active thrust-fault regime is present at depths up to 6000 ft (1829 m). This is consistent with the fold-and-thrust structures in surface exposures and in the subsurface. However, at depths greater than 6000 ft (1829 m), the relative in situ stress magnitudes indicate a change to a strike-slip regime. This observation is consistent with the few earthquake focal mechanisms in the area and suggests deep north-northeast–oriented strike-slip faults may underlie the western margin of the northeastern Brooks Range.


Low-density parity check (LDPC) codes have gained much attention due to their use of various belief-propagation (BP) decoding algorithms to impart excellent error-correcting capability. The BP decoders are quite simple; however, their computation-intensive and repetitive process prohibits their use in energy-sensitive applications such as sensor networks. Bit flipping-based decoding algorithms, especially implementation-efficient, reliability ratio-based, weighted bit-flipping (IRRWBF) decoding; have shown an excellent tradeoff between error-correction performance and implementation cost. In this paper, we show that with IRRWBF, iterative re-computation can be replaced by iterative selective updating. When compared with the original algorithm, simulation results show that, decoding speed can be increased by 200 to 600 percent , as the number of decoding iterations is increased from 5 to 1,000. The decoding steps are broken down into various stages such that the update operations are mostly of the single-instruction, multiple-data (SIMD) type. In this paper, we show that by using Intel Wireless MMX 2 accelerating technology in the proposed algorithm, the speed increased by 500 to 1,500 percent. The results of implementing the proposed scheme using an Intel/Marvell PXA320 (806 MHz) CPU are presented. The proposed scheme can be used effectively in real-time LDPC codes for energy-sensitive mobile devices.


How to choose a heating system for a residential building? That is an important question for builders and owners of the buildings in Lithuania. The heating season in Lithuania starts by October 15th and ends on April 15th. During this period, the average outdoor air temperature is about 0°C. Many of the new single-family buildings in Lithuania are sold not completed as the new owners want to be free in choosing interior materials and engineering equipment. For this reason, many engineering decisions must be taken by the owner of the building, who is usually not a professional in the field of engineering. When choosing a heat source, it is always necessary to distinguish between many "for" and "against" arguments. Every heating option has both advantages and disadvantages. There is also a striking balance: the same heating method can never be either very comfortable and at the same time very cheap. When making a final decision, it is always recommended to compare the ratio of heat to the price and comfort, of course, taking into account energy and fuel price forecasts. The article provides information that helps the building owner to navigate in the field of different engineering solutions that affect the future maintenance costs, efficiency, environmental aspects and comfort level of the building. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.sace.23.2.21359