The research is aimed at finding out whether the exemption for agricultural industries in the competition laws in Unites States of America and European Union is fully or partially granted. In addition, the study examines whether the competition law in Indonesia also regulates exemption for agricultural industries. The research method is normative juridical with a legal comparison approach. The result shows that the exemption for agricultural industries in the United States of America mentioned in the antitrust law was regulated by the Congress through Clayton Act 1916 and confirmed in Capper-Volstead Act 1922. In European Union, the exemption is regulated in the Treaty Establishing the European Community. The regulations in the United States and European Union are the same, in which farmers are allowed to establish agricultural cooperatives that aim to meet the needs of its members, such as collective processing, preparation for markets, merchants, and marketing. Although Indonesia does not have a specific law for exemption, several stipulations in Article 50 and 51 of Law No. 5 Year 1999 can be interpreted as exemption for agricultural industries in the competition law.


ABSTRACT The System Usability Scale (SUS) is a short, survey-based approach used to determine the usability of a system from an end-user perspective once a prototype is available for assessment. Individual scores are gathered using a ten-question survey with the survey results reported in terms of central tendency (sample mean) as an estimate of the system's usability (the SUS study score), and confidence intervals (CIs) on the sample mean are used to communicate uncertainty levels associated with this point estimate. When the number of individuals surveyed is large, the SUS study scores and accompanying confidence intervals relying upon the central limit theorem for support are appropriate. However, when only a small number of users are surveyed, reliance on the central limit theorem falls short, resulting in CIs that suffer from parameter bound violations and interval widths that confound mappings to adjective and other constructed scales. These shortcomings are especially pronounced when the underlying SUS score data is skewed, as it is in many instances. This paper introduces an empirically based remedy for such small-sample circumstances, proposing a set of decision rules that leverage either an extended bias-corrected accelerated (BCa) bootstrap confidence interval (Cl) or an empirical Bayesian credibility interval about the sample mean to restore and bolster subsequent Cl accuracy. Data from historical SUS assessments are used to highlight shortfalls in current practices and to demonstrate the improvements these alternate approaches offer while remaining statistically defensible. A freely available, online application is introduced and discussed that automates SUS analysis under these decision rules, thereby assisting usability practitioners in adopting the advocated approaches.


BACKGROUND
The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of ezetimibe combined with atorvastatin in treatment of carotid artery plaque in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus complicated with coronary heart disease (CHD).

METHODS
A total of 100 patients with carotid atherosclerosis (CAS) confirmed by ultrasound and diagnosed with type 2 diabetes mellitus and CHD were randomly assigned to atorvastatin group (atorvastatin 20 mg/day) or combined treatment group (ezetimibe 10 mg/day and atorvastatin 20 mg/day). All those patients were followed for 12 months. Serum lipid, ALT, AST, and CK were measured before and after treatment. Ultrasonography was used to evaluate the stability of carotid artery plaques.

RESULTS
After 12 months of treatment, the level of TC, TG, LDL-C, hs-CRP, FPG and HbA1c decreased in both groups compared with before treatment. TC, TG, LDL-C and hs-CRP in the combined treatment group were much lower than that in the atorvastatin group (P<0.05). The IMT and plaque area in the two groups were lower than that before the treatment (P<0.05). IMT and plaques area in the combined treatment group is much lower than that in the atorvastatin group after treatment. There was no significant difference in two groups on the level of ALT, AST, CK compared with baseline after treatment.

CONCLUSIONS
The effect of combined use of atorvastatin and ezetimibe was better than atorvastatin alone, which can effectively reduce the blood lipid levels in diabetic patients with CHD and improve plaque stability. Both treatment regimens were safe and well tolerated.


This work presents the hydraulic evaluation of the bridge over the creek Atarigua at the junction with the trunk 7 of Lara state, which is characterized by mixed flow. This analysis was performed considering live bed, in order to evaluate the bridge from a broader and more real context. Two mathematical models were used, the HEC HMS for hydrologic analysis of the watershed contributing to the study site and the HEC-RAS for hydraulic analysis of the bridge. It was concluded according to the results of the model that the creek presents aggradation and degradation of the channel. The reach of the river with more erosion was obtained immediately downstream of the bridge. This is controlled by the existing energy-dissipating structure.


Abstract Visitors to an art museum are traditionally introduced to the collections and the individual works of art through art historical knowledge although it is well known that this kind of information rarely leads to a proper art experience. An experiment with four different kinds of introductions to the same work of art is described in this article. Before they entered the gallery in which the work of art was exhibited, participants were asked to choose between recordings of a musical introduction, a poetic introduction, a child's response to the work of art in question, or a dialogue between two art historians. Phenomenological analyses of the following interviews reveal a number of influential qualities of each of the four introductions. Personal factors such as spontaneity and expressiveness seem to facilitate personal involvement, whereas instructions and guidelines, especially when presented with authority, inspire cognitive activity and inhibit an existential perspective.


This article is a summary of the results observed on the Thyrotropin releasing hormone (TRH) stimulation test done on 118 subjects since 1976. The responses are classified into four groups: normal response, active response, low response and no response.Thirty normal medical workers received the two doses of TRH respectively, 0.5 and 1.0 mg and 17 out of 21 cases of Grave's disease untreated all showed no responses. 4 cases treated with antithyroid drugs gave active response, 2 of them presented manifestations of hypothyroidism, but in the other 2 cases no response was seen during the test. One case of autonomous hyperfunctional adenoma with Tg-hypertoxioosis gave low response. 12 of the 13 untreated cases of primary hypothyroidism gave active responses, one case gave normal response and 2 cases of the primary hypothyroidism in the course of substitution therapy with desioated thyroid gave no responses. In 13 cases secondary hypothyroidism, 3 cases gave normal responses, one low response and the remaining 9 cases gave no responses.Effect on TRH test by drugs was also observed. Among the 14 oases treated with adrenal glucooorticoids 6 cases gave no responses and 4 each gave normal and low responses; 6 out of 9 cases of parkinsonism treated with L-dopa showed no responses, 2 with normal responses and one with low response; Among 15 women receiving steroid contraceptive (compound quinestrol)10 showed active responses and 5 normal responses.Finally, clinical significance, dosage, and side effects of thyrotropin releasing hormone stimulation test and factors influencing the test were discussed.


Underwater radiated noise is one of the important performances related to stealth of the naval vessel. However, the evaluation can't be performed frequently due to the cost. Therefore, the estimation method of the underwater radiated noise with average hull vibration is suggested in this paper assuming that the hull of the ship is infinite plate which consists of various unit plates. Through the experiment, the estimated noise is verified from the comparison to the measured data. In addition the difference of underwater radiated noise according to the operating equipments is estimated with measured vibration velocity.


As the production of palm oil has been increased, the generation of oil palm biomass is also increased and the utilization of the oil palm biomass become more significant topic. One third of the oil palm biomass is empty fruit bunch (EFB) and the other two thirds are oil palm trunks and fronds. However, the effective use of oil palm biomass has not been developed and most of it is discarded near oil palm plants. In this study, we investigated the applicability of EFB to the paperboard mills, as an organic filler. The new organic filler was manufactured in a laboratory by grinding and fractionating dried EFB powder, and its properties were analyzed. The particles of EFB organic filler were larger and more spherical than those of the commercial wood powder. The use of EFB organic filler resulted in a higher bulk of the handsheets with similar trends of physical strength, compared to those made with wood powder. It was concluded that EFB could be used as a raw material to manufacture organic filler for paperboard production.


Background The biological agents (BAs) have revolutionized the care and have improved the prognosis of juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA). Effectiveness and short-term tolerance was well established in randomized clinical trials (RCTs), initially in JIA. However, there is an insufficient evidence for the long-term tolerance1. The serious adverse events (SAEs) include infections, malignancies and drug induced auto-immune diseases (e.g. uveitis). Objectives To assess the benefit/risk balance of BAs assessed by RCTs vs placebo or vs standard treatment in JIA, using meta-analysis (MA) technique. Methods All RCTs in JIA comparing BAs to placebo or standard treatment (e.g. methotrexate) published between 1950 and February 2016 were eligible. Data source: Cochrane, Medline, ClinicalTrial.gov register. The ILAR classification for JIA2 was used and the clinical efficacy of treatment was measured by the ACR pediatric score3. Efficacy was analyzed considering the design of study. Effectiveness (ACRpedi30) was estimated as the measure of the benefit of the BAs and SAEs as a measure of risk by random effect models. The benefit/risk balance was analyzed using the net efficacy adjusted for risk (NEAR)4. An OR >1 indicates that the treatment has a beneficial effect and OR <1 a deleterious effect. Subgroups analyses were made to account the heterogeneity of JIA. We explored potential heterogeneity by subgroups analysis according with BAs and JIA subtypes. Results We included 20 RCTs conducted in JIA encompassing 1533 children. The disease duration, at the inclusion of RCTs, varies between 2 and 6 years for most studies. The maintenance of the therapeutic effect was estimated in the studies using withdrawal design in 6 studies. The maintenance of clinical response showed a large heterogeneity. Sub-groups analyses showed that the heterogeneity is marked in the systemic JIA5. The global NEAR OR was in favor of BAs in parallel (OR 3.83, CI 1.49–9.82) and withdrawal (OR 2.75, CI 1.51–5.01) trials. The efficacy of BAs in JIA was superior to the placebo in parallel (OR 5.46, CI 2.26–13.21) and withdrawal (OR 3.52, CI 2.15–5.77) trials. In RCTs (parallel and withdrawal design), SAEs did not differ between BAs and control (OR 1.18, CI 0.73–1.9). No death occurred at follow-up. Conclusions This is the first MA assessing all BAs used in all JIA categories combined. This MA in patients with JIA shows that the benefit/risk ratio of BAs in JIA is favorable. References Klotsche, J. et al. Long-term safety of etanercept and adalimumab compared to methotrexate in patients with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA). Ann. Rheum. Dis. 75, 855–861 (2016). Petty, R. E. et al. International League of Associations for Rheumatology classification of juvenile idiopathic arthritis: second revision, Edmonton, 2001. J. Rheumatol. 31, 390–392 (2004). Consolaro, A. et al. Optimisation of disease assessments in juvenile idiopathic arthritis. Clin. Exp. Rheumatol. 32, S-126–130 (2014). Boada, J. N. et al. Net efficacy adjusted for risk (NEAR): a simple procedure for measuring risk:benefit balance. PloS One 3, e3580 (2008). Tarp, S. et al. Efficacy and safety of biological agents for systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized trials. Rheumatol. Oxf. Engl. 55, 669–679 (2016). Disclosure of Interest None declared


Deep-sea robot operations demand a high level of safety, efficiency and reliability. As a consequence, measures within the development stage have to be implemented to extensively evaluate and benchmark system components ranging from data acquisition, perception and localization to control. We present an approach based on high-fidelity simulation that embeds spatial and environmental conditions from recorded real-world data. This simulation in the loop (SIL) methodology allows for mitigating the discrepancy between simulation and real-world conditions, e.g. regarding sensor noise. As a result, this work provides a platform to thoroughly investigate and benchmark behaviors of system components concurrently under real and simulated conditions. The conducted evaluation shows the benefit of the proposed work in tasks related to perception and self-localization under changing spatial and environmental conditions.


Iran and the U.S. have been in apolitically and economically costly fight for decades. During this period all mediations to resolve their differences have failed. This is because instead of resolving all their differences in an all-encompassing agreement, they have instead opted to resolve their problems separately. These problems stem from the fact that since the end of the Cold War, the U.S. has mostly been acting as the sole arbiter and judge of international affairs. Also, since then the U.S. has shown less tolerance towards lesser states such as Iran. The two countries hold sharply different perspectives, among others, as how to maintain and manage the security of the Persian Gulf region, the humiliation that each has suffered at the hand of the other; the clash of cultures, as each country claims the status of being 'exceptional 'has led to the long-held estrangement between them.


Bone defects have become universal health care difficulty. Bone regeneration involves the differentiation of new cells and the formation of new bone tissues that results in an overall increase in volume of new skeletal tissues. Medical treatments for bone defects have been largely focused on replacing the lost bone with bone grafts materials. Aim of the study: is to evaluate the effect of local application of melatonin on healing of induced bone defect by histological and histomorphometric analysis.  Materials and methods: Twenty four adult male rats divided into control and melatonin  groups(8 animals) for  each  healing periods (1,2, and 4 weeks ).Two  holes induced in each rat femur ( one hole in right for melatonin application and one in left femur bones). Results: Histological findings indicated that bone defects in the melatonin group showed early bone formation, mineralization and maturation as compared to control ones. Mean values of studied (bone trabecular area and number) were higher in melatonin group and values of (bone marrow area) decreased in 2 and 4 weeks durations. Osteoblasts, osteocytes mean values were higher in melatonin group, osteoclasts highest values shown in 2weeks in control group. Conclusion: The application of melatonin was   effective in   bone healing process by   enhancement of earlier bone formation. Keywords: Bone defect, Melatonin, Histomorphometric analysis.


The effects of finasteride, a potent 5α‐reductase inhibitor, were assessed in 750 patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) in a multicenter, double‐blind, placebo‐controlled study. Patients were randomized to finasteride, 1 or 5 mg, or placebo, daily for 12 months. The following changes were seen with finasteride 5 mg after 12 months: (1) Serum dihydrotestosterone decreased by 62% compared to no change with placebo (P < 0.001); (2) serum prostate‐specific antigen (PSA) decreased by 46% compared to no change with placebo (P < 0.001); (3) prostate volume was reduced by 22% compared to a 5% decrease with placebo (P < 0.001); (4) maximum urinary flow rate increased by 1.7 ml/sec compared to a 0.4 ml/sec increase with placebo (P < 0.025); (5) total urinary symptom scores decreased by 3.3 points compared to a 2.0 point decrease with placebo (P = 0.005), and (6) obstructive symptom scores decreased by 2.1 points compared to a 1.4 point decrease with placebo (P = 0.017). The effects of finasteride 1 mg were similar to 5 mg, except in urinary symptoms, where no significant differences between 1 mg and placebo were seen. Patients treated with 5 mg finasteride demonstrated significantly greater improvements in urological status (assessed by the investigator) and the troublesome symptom score, compared to placebo. Treatment with finasteride was well tolerated. We conclude that finasteride is an effective medical therapy for a significant proportion of patients with BPH. © 1993 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


A regular approach for realizing high performance industrial or technical systems rests upon the development of better performing components with a controller acting with its specific features. As this implies the mastery of a larger frequency domain than the present coverage of actuators, robustification of controllers is required, as for modern ones with improvement over classical PID to better split the frequency band into a lower range for power input and a high gain for performance, and a higher range with small gain for robustness. However, as stability is only simple, the limit is often reached for moderate performance even with high quality components for partly known and/or intrinsically too noisy systems, where performance level and power requirement cannot be simultaneously met. Reassessing the problem, another controller giving asymptotic stability is proposed, and further improvement by distributing the controller's location in an optimum design view of the system is analyzed on a general nonlinear split n-dimensional dynamical system.


A vital application of game data mining is to predict player behaviour trends such as disengagement, purchase, etc.. Several works have been done by quantitative methods in the last decade. Generally, predicting player behaviour trends is a classification problem where class labels of instances are decided by predefined definitions. However, as the majority of current definitions distribute players into classes only by satisfying specific conditions, a highly biased class distribution may be led to if few (or most) players can satisfy these conditions. In this work, a new definition named trend over varying dates that can create balanced class distribution will be introduced and, as an example, disengagement prediction will be used to show how the definition works. Experiments on three commercial mobile games will show how this definition can be applied to games of various genres. Finally, the performance of this definition towards predicting disengagement will be compared with another disengagement concept called churn'. Both game-specific and event frequency based data representation (introduced in previous work) will be applied to represent the datasets for predictions. Results indicate that the definition of 'trend over varying dates' can improve the predictive performance by balancing the class distributions in most cases.


Abstract In this study, differently sized particles of wheat flour (from 52.36 μm to 108.89 μm) were obtained by adjusting the distance between the rolls (0.02, 0.04, 0.06, 0.08, and 0.1 mm) of a heart mill. Results showed that reducing the particle size significantly increased the damaged starch (DS) content. Uniaxial tensile measurement of dough showed that reducing the particle size of wheat flour can effectively increase the maximum tensile resistance, but the extensibility reaches the maximum in samples at medium particle diameter (78 and 66 μm). Additionally, the ratio of dynamic moduli (G″/G′) decreased with a reducing particle size. The results of disulfide bond content, gluten microstructure, showed that finer flour granulation can strengthen the gluten network. The steamed bread (SB) making test showed that SB made from wheat flour of a smaller particle size had a significantly smaller specific volume than that made from a larger particle size. The texture profile analysis showed that with a decrease of wheat flour particle size, the hardness, chewiness of SB increased, the resilience decreased, and there was no significant difference in adhesiveness. Overall, the quality of SB made flour of medium particles (78 μm) is better.


This article suggests that research in the field of human rights, especially when it is legal in nature, tends to devote surprisingly little attention to questions of methodology. This may be a result of the fact that human rights scholars often are (former) human rights activists. Dispensing with methodological constraints enables researchers to engage in wishful thinking and to reach the conclusions they were hoping to find in the first place. The article makes some suggestions for those who wish to avoid this pitfall, including carefully spelling out a research method, discussing which alternative methods have been rejected, and avoiding the label "emerging" human right.


Lightweight cryptography has recently emerged as a strong requirement for any highly constrained connected device; encryption/decryption processes must strike the balance between speed, area, power efficiency, and security robustness. The aim of this paper is to study the potential gains of the lightweight cryptography algorithms compared to the classic ones in hardware implementation. Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) as the standard, PRESENT and the very recently published GIFT are considered along with several optimized hardware versions of each one. Low- and high-security levels with 80- and 128-bit key length respectively are compared. They are all implemented on a Xilinx Kintex-7 FPGA, exploiting different slice configurations to evaluate their performances. The results show the expected benefits in terms of throughput and area, which allows selecting the best lightweight crypto-ciphers depending on the target device or application. In addition, correlation power analysis is performed on each cipher to estimate their resistance against side-channel analysis.


OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this research was to investigate the hazards of lightning for participants in outdoor athletics and to determine the existence of, and assess the nature of, lightning safety policy at the collegiate level.

DESIGN AND SETTING
We used data from the National Severe Storms Laboratory in Norman, Oklahoma, and from a survey of Division I institutions.

SUBJECTS
The 48 National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I (football) universities in Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and New York.

MEASUREMENTS
Athletic trainers at all of the selected 48 Division I institutions responded to the telephone survey.

RESULTS
Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and New York led the country in lightning deaths and injuries from 1959-1994. Only 8% (n = 4) of the institutions surveyed in these states have a written policy regarding lightning safety.

CONCLUSIONS
This study demonstrated the lack of lightning safety policy in the surveyed universities and the need for a systematic plan of action to make fields safer for all who are involved in outdoor sport activities.


Infrastructure in Australia is under strain from two influences. First, the existing limited infrastructure is unable to keep pace with economic growth and, secondly, the demand for health and welfare infrastructure because of an ageing population. Yet, there are no special rules for the taxation of infrastructure in Australian taxation law, except in very limited circumstances. However, taxation impacts on infrastructure in two important ways. First, accessing the early stage tax losses in infrastructure projects and, secondly, the number of anti tax avoidance rules that it has attracted This paper proceeds by discussing the general tax rules that apply to typical infrastructure project financing such as leasing, managing pre-completion losses and transferring depreciation deductions to financiers. Next is a discussion of the two Government initiatives that have offered investors early access to tax losses from interest and capital allowance deductions and the methods now used by investors to obtain those losses. It also asks the question whether there is a need for new incentives to be reintroduced. Finally, the paper considers the anti tax avoidance rules that have grown up around some of the unique aspects of infrastructure financing.


Among the linguistic resources formalizing a language, morphological rules are among those that can be achieved in a reasonable time. Nevertheless, since the construction of such resource can require linguistic expertise, morphological rules are still lacking for many languages. The automatized acquisition of morphology is thus an open topic of interest within the NLP field. We present an approach that allows to automatically compute, from raw corpora, a data-representative description of the concatenative mechanisms of a morphology. Our approach takes advantage of phenomena that are observable for all languages using morphological inflection and derivation but are more easy to exploit when dealing with concatenative mechanisms. Since it has been developed toward the objective of being used on as many languages as possible, applying this approach to a varied set of languages needs very few expert work. The results obtained for our first participation in the 2010 edition of MorphoChallenge have confirmed both the practical interest and the potential of the method.


Abstract : The National Exercise Program serves as the primary means for training national leaders and department and agency staff members. Additionally, it serves in promoting collaboration among stakeholders and partners at all levels of government with homeland security missions. Although the National Strategy for Homeland Security directs a National Exercise Program and DHS codifies this program in doctrine, it is continually a work in progress. This paper identifies and discusses four key areas which must be addressed in order to improve the National Exercise Program. These four key areas are Interagency Participation, Stability and Predictability, Funding, and Corrective Actions. These four areas are inter-related in that actions occurring in one area can have an impact in any one of the other three areas. Although DHS has established a framework for administering the NEP, many challenges remain before the NEP is fully integrated and institutionalized.


Purpose:The natural courses of prenatally diagnosed hydronephrosis(HN) are diverse. Our purpose was to determine if the findings of renal ultrasonography(USG) in patients with prenatal HN at 1 month of age can predict the 1 year follow-up results and determine the guideline of follow-up study. Methods:Among 462 hydronephrotic patients registered between 1996 and 2004, 153 unilateral hydronephrotic renal units were enrolled in this study, bilateral HN, vesicoureteral reflux and other associated anomaly were excluded. These were classified into four groups respectively, according to anterior posterior pelvic diameter(APPD) or Society for Fetal Urology(SFU) grading by USG findings at 1 month after birth. Renal USG and Tc99m-mercaptoacetyl triglycerine(MAG3) scan were done according to a set protocol. Results:Most cases improved or remained stationary. No one underwent an operation SFU grade 1,2 groups and only one case of SFU grade 3 group was operated. Thirty two cases(64 percent) were operated on among the 50 cases of SFU grade 4 group. 0/2(0 percent), 5/11(45.5 percent), 11/ 17(64.7 percent) and 16/20(80 percent) were operated on in each group with APPD 30 mm, and the operation risk is higher as the APPD is increased. Conclusion:In group with SFU grade below 3 and APPD below 10 mm, we can delay the follow- up study beyond existing set protocol. Operations are recommended immediately if diuretic renogram show the obstructive pattern or decreased renal function in SFU grade 4 group with APPD over 10 mm.


BACKGROUND
Gentamicin is a potent aminoglycoside antibiotic that targets gram-negative bacteria, but nephrotoxicity limits its clinical application. The cause of gentamicin-induced AKI has been attributed mainly to apoptosis of the proximal tubule cells. However, blocking apoptosis only partially attenuates gentamicin-induced AKI in animals.

METHODS
Mice treated with gentamicin for 7 days developed AKI, and programmed cell death pathways were examined using pharmacologic inhibitors and in RIPK3-deficient mice. Effects in porcine and murine kidney cell lines were also examined.

RESULTS
Gentamicin caused a low level of apoptosis in the proximal tubules and significant ultrastructural alterations consistent with necroptosis, occurring predominantly in the collecting ducts (CDs), including cell and organelle swelling and rupture of the cell membrane. Upregulation of the key necroptotic signaling molecules, mixed lineage kinase domain-like pseudokinase (MLKL) and receptor-interacting serine/threonine-protein kinase 3 (RIPK3), was detected in gentamicin-treated mice and in cultured renal tubule cells. In addition, gentamicin induced apical accumulation of total and phosphorylated MLKL (pMLKL) in CDs in mouse kidney. Inhibiting a necroptotic protein, RIPK1, with necrostatin-1 (Nec-1), attenuated gentamicin-induced necrosis and upregulation of MLKL and RIPK3 in mice and cultured cells. Nec-1 also alleviated kidney inflammation and fibrosis, and significantly improved gentamicin-induced renal dysfunction in mice. Furthermore, deletion of RIPK3 in the Ripk3 -/- mice significantly attenuated gentamicin-induced AKI.

CONCLUSIONS
A previously unrecognized role of programmed necrosis in collecting ducts in gentamicin-induced kidney injury presents a potential new therapeutic strategy to alleviate gentamicin-induced AKI through inhibiting necroptosis.


Relationships between extended high-frequency (EHF) thresholds and speech-in-spatialized noise were examined in firefighters with a history of occupational noise and airborne toxin exposure. Speech recognition thresholds were measured for co-located and spatially separated (±90° azimuth) sentences in a competing signal using the Listening in Spatialized Noise-Sentences test. EHF hearing was significantly correlated with the spatial advantage, indicating that firefighters with poorer EHF thresholds experienced less benefit from spatial separation. The correlation between EHF thresholds and spatial hearing remained significant after controlling for age. Deficits in EHF and spatial hearing suggest firefighters may experience compromised speech understanding in job-related complex acoustic environments.


The long-range organization of arrays of alpha satellite DNA at the centromeres of human chromosomes was investigated by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis techniques. Both restriction-site and array-length polymorphisms were detected in multiple individuals and their meiotic segregation was observed in three-generation families. Such variation was detected in all of the alpha satellite arrays examined (chromosomes 1, 3, 7, 10, 11, 16, 17, X, and Y) and thus appears to be a general feature of human centromeric DNA. The length of individual centromeric arrays was found to range from an average of approximately 680 kilobases (kb) for the Y chromosome to approximately 3000 kb for chromosome 11. Furthermore, individual arrays appear to be meiotically stable, since no changes in fragment lengths were observed. In total, we analyzed 84 meiotic events involving approximately 191,000 kb of alpha satellite DNA from six autosomal centromeres without any evidence for recombination within an array. High-frequency array length variation and the potential to detect meiotic recombination within them allow direct comparisons of genetic and physical distances in the region of the centromeres of human chromosomes. The generation of primary consensus physical maps of alpha satellite arrays is a first step in the characterization of the centromeric DNA of human chromosomes.


Party politics across Central and Eastern Europe has become less structured. Many of the divides that anchored political competition have waned in recent years, weakening the attachment of voters to the existing palette of parties and making them more likely to be attracted to new and non-traditional electoral vehicles. But for such parties to succeed at the ballot box, they need to be able to frame elections and campaign effectively. Drawing on data from a specially commissioned survey, we find that the success of Ordinary People and Independent Personalities (OĽaNO) led by Igor Matovič in the 2020 parliamentary elections in Slovakia owed much to the crafting of an anti-corruption appeal combined with an effective campaign. Both mobilization and conversion of voters, particularly through television and the leaders' debates, in the months leading up to election day ensured OĽaNO won a quarter of the vote. OĽaNO stands in stark contrast to other parties whose leaders failed to craft as effective a message, miscalculated the impact of electoral rules and in some cases were unable to distance themselves enough from their past actions. The success of OĽaNO underlines that themes related to anti-corruption and good governance have become central to party politics and political contestation. More broadly, the election and its aftermath continued a general trend of forward movement of voters from old parties to new to newer still, indicating the churn of party politics in Slovakia is likely to continue.


Abstract This study shows the ef fect of production variables on assimilation of foods by golden shin ers, Notemigonus crysoleucas, in ponds was ex am ined in con cur rent 8-week feed ing tri als at the Uni versity of Ar kan sas at Pine Bluff (UAPB) and Texas A&M Uni ver sity (TAMU). Ten 0.04-ha ponds per site were fer til ized with defatted rice bran and stocked with golden shin ers (ini tial weight = 1.3 g) at a rate of 750,000/ha (UAPB) or 375,000/ha (TAMU). Fish in five ponds per site were fed a nu tri tion ally com plete pre pared diet at 4% of body weight, while fish in the re main ing ponds were not fed. As sim i la tion of nat u ral foods by "unfed" fish was com pared to that of fish fed the pre pared diet at each site. Stan dard pro duc tion data (weight gain, Secchi depth, dissolved ox y gen [DO]) were com pared to sta ble car bon iso tope ra tio (d1 3 C) data as an in dex of fish per for mance (weight change or fish d13 C, re sult ing from as sim i la tion of var i ous food sources). Fish weight change and fish iso tope ra tio were re gressed sep a rately against in de pend ent vari ables (feed amount, Secchi depth, DO, fed/unfed dummy vari able, and study site dummy vari able) to de ter mine their re la tion ships. Nat u ral pro duc tiv ity was con sis tently lower at TAMU than at UAPB, while temper a ture and min i mum DO were sim i lar be tween sites. Weight gains of fed and unfed fish at TAMU were higher than those of fed and unfed fish at UAPB. The d13 C of fed and unfed fish at UAPB changed lit tle dur ing the study and did not al low dis crim i na tion among their food sources. The d13 C of fed fish at TAMU ap proached that of the pre pared diet, while that of unfed fish re sem bled that of the plank ton and rice bran. Pre pared diet quan tity and the study site sig nif i cantly (P > 0.1) af fected fish weight change, but Secchi depth and min i mum DO did not. Weight gain increased with in creas ing diet in put up to a max i mum value, then de clined with ad di tional in puts. Min i mum DO, plank ton iso tope ra tio, and the fed/unfed and site vari ables sig nif i cantly af fected fish iso tope ra tio.


Prostate cancer (PCa) is a malignancy with the highest morbidity rate in 105 countries worldwide and was a major cause of cancer‑associated death in men in 2018. Accumulating evidence suggests that microRNAs (miRNAs/miRs) have important functions in the carcinogenesis of PCa, and may provide novel treatment targets. Previous studies have indicated that miR‑16‑5p is associated with PCa. However, the relevance and importance of miR‑16‑5p in PCa carcinogenesis are still not completely understood. In the current study, we aimed to investigate the role and mechanism of miR‑16‑5p in PCa carcinogenesis. The results showed that miR‑16‑5p was markedly downregulated in PCa cells, and MTS assay, colony formation, flow cytometric analyses demonstrated that miR‑16‑5p inhibited PCa cell survival, regulated cell cycle distribution and induced apoptosis. Moreover, luciferase reporter assay and western blot analysis showed that miR‑16‑5p directly targets AKT3 (AKT serine/threonine kinase 3), which is associated with PCa carcinogenesis, and the effects of the downregulation of AKT3 were similar to the effects of upregulation of miR‑16‑5p in PC‑3 cells. In conclusion, our data clarify that miR‑16‑5p has anticancer functions in PCa cells, and our findings provide experimental evidence to highlight the potential value of miR‑targeting treatment strategies for PCa.


In this paper, a disposal maneuver which complies the space debris mitigation guideline was analysed for KOMPSAT-2 as an example of LEO satellite. Definition of disposal altitude which comply the '25 year rule', re-entry survivability analysis of KOMPSAT-2 parts inside and casualty area analysis were performed using STK and ESA's DRAMA. Finally, assuming that there were several survival objects during uncontrolled re-entry stage, the re-entry initial orbit elements which show the low casualty probability were found even if there were various uncertainties about the initial orbit. As a result, KOMPSAT-2 should be descended its altitude at least 43km or up to 105km to comply '25 year rule' and there were heavy or heat resistant survival objects which generated 4.3141  casualty area. And if RAAN of re-entry initial orbit was 129 degree, total casualty probability was lower than standard value of space debris mitigation guideline even if there were uncertainties about the initial orbit.


A common optimisation used in most Dynamic Binary Modification (DBM) systems is trace generation as these traces improve locality and code layout. We describe an optimised code layout for traces as well as present how to adapt the runtime algorithm to generate it. In this way, we manage to reduce the overhead on all the Arm systems evaluated; 5 different microarchitectures. A major source of overhead for DBMs comes from handling indirect branches. Indirect Branch Inlining (IBI) is a mechanism that attempts to avoid this overhead by using predictions about the target of the indirect branch. We analyse the behaviour of the indirect branch inlining and propose a new predictor, Trace Restricted IBI (TRIBI), and how to optimise IBI given the new trace generation algorithm. Our evaluation shows a geometric mean overhead for SPEC CPU2006 of 9% for a Cortex-A53 (in-order core), and for out-of-order cores 11% on an X-Gene-2, 10% on a Cortex-A57, 7% on a Cortex-A72 and 8% on a Cortex-A73, when compared to native execution. This is a reduction of the overhead between 30% to 50% compared to the publicly available DBM systems MAMBO, and, even higher, against DynamoRIO. Using PARSEC 3.0, we evaluate the scalability across threads on the X-Gene-2 system (server machine with the highest number of cores) and show a geomean overhead between 6--8%.


In India more than 70% of the population use biomass fuels for cooking. Women, who traditionally carry out the cooking in this culture, experience the highest lifetime Carbon Monoxide (CO) exposure due to the burning of such fuels in traditional stoves. CO levels were measured in this study in the breathing zone atmosphere of cooks during the cooking cycle, using different fuels such as LPG, wood, crop residues and dung cakes, in a rural area of the National Capital Region (NCR) of India. The exhaled breath CO levels of the non-smoking female cooks were also measured before and after cooking. A high degree of correlation was obtained between CO levels during the cooking cycle and exhaled breath CO levels. The study suggests that the enhanced exhaled breath CO levels of the cooks were largely due to the burning of biomass fuels. A high value of R^2 (0.79) was obtained during the model fitting exercise, which suggests the usefulness of fuel-type and cooking location (i.e., indoor/outdoor) as explanatory variables for predicting exhaled breath CO levels among cooks. The prevalence of CO poisoning symptoms was found to be significantly higher among the biomass fuel users. The study demonstrates the potential of the exhaled breath CO technique as a non-invasive, easy and economical alternative for predicting CO exposure due to the burning of biomass fuel in rural settings, where it may not always be possible to collect CO exposure data using the conventional invasive techniques.


Abstract Titanium that has been anodised to develop a nanotubular titanium oxide film is gaining interest as a dental implant material. In the present work, the corrosion behaviour of the nanotubular titanium has been investigated and compared with that of the mechanical polished titanium in artificial saliva containing bovine serum albumin (BSA, 5 g L−1). The results indicate that the diameter of TiO2 nanotube plays an important role in controlling the potentiodynamic polarisation behaviour, and the existence of TiO2 nanotube enhances the corrosion resistance and reduces the corrosion current density, which is more beneficial to the adsorption of BSA compared with the mechanical polished titanium, leading to a notable increase in the corrosion resistance of the outer TiO2 nanotubular layer.


A three-year old spayed female Domestic Shorthair was diagnosed with chronic plasmacytic stomatitis involving the mandibular gingiva caudal to the canine teeth. The cat presented with excessive drooling and bleeding from the gums. The definitive diagnosis was made on oral tissue samples obtained by biopsy and submitted for histopathology. The management included bilateral extraction of the mandibular and maxillary premolars and molars with closure of the defects utilizing a single mucosal flap in each quadrant. Preoperative laboratory evaluation and negative feline leukemia virus and/or feline immunodeficiency virus testing were performed. Following surgical removal of the teeth, the inflammation improved for eight months before returning. The cat now maintains comfort with parenteral injections of corticosteroid approximately every three to five months. Compounding pharmacists play a vital role in the treatment of felines due to their small size concerns with toxicity and sensitivity to certain medications and their reluctance to be dosed. Even in medical cases where a surgical procedure is the final resolution to an issue, compounded preparations are often required prior to surgery, during surgery, and post surgery for the purpose of eliminating pain and discomfort in the feline patient.


Abstract. This paper combines the prism and single camera and puts forward a method of stereo imaging with low cost. First of all, according to the principle of geometrical optics, we can deduce the relationship between the prism single-camera system and dual-camera system, and according to the principle of binocular vision we can deduce the relationship between binoculars and dual camera. Thus we can establish the relationship between the prism single-camera system and binoculars and get the positional relation of prism, camera, and object with the best effect of stereo display. Finally, using the active shutter stereo glasses of NVIDIA Company, we can realize the three-dimensional (3-D) display of the object. The experimental results show that the proposed approach can make use of the prism single-camera system to simulate the various observation manners of eyes. The stereo imaging system, which is designed by the method proposed by this paper, can restore the 3-D shape of the object being photographed factually.


This study explores how female professionals engage in starting their own businesses, known as professional entrepreneurship. In particular, this study specifies what factors foster the likelihood of self-employment of female professionals. Drawing upon the push and pull theories of entrepreneurship, we argue that individual capabilities (as a pull factor) make the self-employment of female professionals less likely, while discrimination experiences (as a push factor) make the self-employment of female professionals more likely. Given such bifurcated effects of these factors, we examine the combinatory effects of individual capabilities and discrimination experiences (which are specified as attribute-based and family-based discrimination experiences) on the rate of self-employment of female professionals. With a sample of 1356 female lawyers in the U.S., we test our hypotheses predicting the rate of self-employment with respect to prior salary and discrimination experiences. Our results reveal that prior salary (a pull factor) motivates female lawyers to stay at the traditional law firms, whereas attribute-based discrimination experiences (a push factor) motivate them to open their own office. Furthermore, we find that such a push effect is pronounced only among the female lawyers with lower salaries. Then, the empirical findings are discussed to elaborate the process of female professionals' entrepreneurship.


The TREC Deep Learning (DL) Track studies ad hoc search in the large data regime, meaning that a large set of human-labeled training data is available. Results so far indicate that the best models with large data may be deep neural networks. This paper supports the reuse of the TREC DL test collections in three ways. First we describe the data sets in detail, documenting clearly and in one place some details that are otherwise scattered in track guidelines, overview papers and in our associated MS MARCO leaderboard pages. We intend this description to make it easy for newcomers to use the TREC DL data. Second, because there is some risk of iteration and selection bias when reusing a data set, we describe the best practices for writing a paper using TREC DL data, without overfitting. We provide some illustrative analysis. Finally we address a number of issues around the TREC DL data, including an analysis of reusability.


To produce high quality recommendations and achieve high coverage in the face of data sparsity in recommender systems, we explore category-based adjusted conditional probability similarity (CACPS) collaborative filtering technique in this paper. CACPS technique firstly analyzes the user-item matrix to identify relationships between different items, and then uses these relationships to indirectly compute recommendations for users. For the rating of forecasting used in recommendations, we use a weighted average in measuring the k-nearest neighbor ratings. Finally, we experimentally evaluate our results and compare them to the k-nearest neighbor approach with correlation similarity, cosine similarity and adjusted cosine similarity. Our experiments suggest that CACPS algorithms provide a better performance than the other item-based algorithms, while at the same time providing better quality than the other item-based algorithms.


A laparoscopic technique was used to observe in situ the ovaries of llamas and alpacas. Use of this technique results in minimal surgical stress and allows repetitive observation of various reproductive stages in the same animal. Ovarian follicular activity before and after breeding, time of ovulation, corpus luteum formation and regression, early embryo death, failure of ovulation, and the early events of pregnancy can be assessed quickly and safely. For 1,291 laparoscopies performed, postsurgical disturbance was not observed, and animals were released from the clinic 1 hour after laparoscopy.


Corrosion in steel reinforced concrete structures has prompted researchers to work on alternative material to steel that are resistance to corrosion. This paper looked at the use of bamboo and rattan cane as alternative materials to steel in reinforced concrete struts. Fifteen (15) short concrete struts of dimension 150 mm × 150 mm × 300 mm were designed for a 50 KN load. The samples were subjected to axial load. The results after crushing showed that all the struts failed in the same manner with average compressive strength of bamboo and rattan reinforced struts being 78.18% and 63.48% that of steel reinforced struts respectively. Average crack width generated in bamboo reinforced struts was about 16.30% lower than steel, while rattan reinforced struts was 58.90% greater than that of steel. This paper concluded that bamboo and rattan cane can be effectively used as reinforcement in struts of low load bearing structures.


Background Medications that relax the lower oesophageal sphincter may promote acid reflux, a known contributor to oesophageal adenocarcinoma development. Aim We investigated the association between lower oesophageal sphincter relaxing medications and oesophageal cancer (OC) risk. Method A retrospective cohort study of participants within the UK Biobank from 2006 and 2014 was performed. Age-dependent Cox-regression analysis was used to calculate adjusted HR and 95% CI for OC risk in individuals prescribed benzodiazepines, calcium channel blockers, nitrates, respiratory sympathomimetics and xanthines. Results Of 4 75 768 study participants, 409 were diagnosed with OC during 8 years of follow-up. There was a significant direct association with OC in participants using respiratory sympathomimetics (HR 1.71, 95% CI 1.20–2.42), with similar increased risk of oesophageal adenocarcinoma with use of these respiratory medications (HR 1.68, 95% CI 1.10–2.54) and xanthines (HR 4.82, 95% CI 1.16–20.10). Participants taking respiratory sympathomimetics or any lower oesophageal sphincter relaxing medication were also at greater risk of oesophageal squamous cell cancer (HR 2.51, 95% CI 1.29–4.87 and HR 2.03, 95% CI 1.01–4.09, respectively). There was no significant association between OC and the other medications investigated. Conclusions Respiratory sympathomimetics were associated with greater risk of OC overall, and both adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma subtypes. Individuals using lower oesophageal sphincter relaxing medications are at increased risk of squamous cell carcinoma, and as this tumour is not associated with excessive acid reflux, an alternative pathway to this cancer with these medications may exist.


The Fitz-Hugh-Curtis syndrome is a peri-hepatitis following a genital infection. It usually occurs in young women. Chlamydia trachomatis is the most frequent causal agent. Clinical signs include acute or recurrent pain in the right hypochondria. Liver tests are not modified and the sonographic examination is normal. Diagnosis can be suspected on the basis of serology, and formally established by laparoscopy showing violin string-like adhesions. Prolonged antibiotic treatment is effective.


The paper deals with the calculation of differential pressure on sieves after a loss of coolant accident (LOCA) in boiling water reactors. One of the main features in reactor safety research is the safe heat dissipation from the reactor core and the reactor containment of light-water reactors. In the case of loss of coolant accident the possibility of the entry of insulation material into the reactor containment and the building sump of the reactor containment and into the associated systems to the residual heat exhaust is a serious problem. This can lead to a handicap of the system functions. To ensure the residual heat exhaust it is necessary the emergency cooling systems to put in operation which transport the water from the sump to the condensation chamber and directly to the reactor pressure vessel. A high allocation of the sieves with fractionated insulation material, in the sump can lead to a blockage of the sieves, inadmissibly increase of differential pressure, build-up at the sieves and to malfunctioning pumps. Hence, the scaling and retention of fractionated insulation material in the building sump of the reactor containment must be estimated. This allows the potential plant status in case of incidents to be assessed. The differential pressure is the essential parameter for the assessment of allocation of the sieves.Copyright © 2009 by ASME


The purpose of the article is to systematize the scientific achievements of Ukrainian researchers in the field of modern hotel and restaurant complexes with an emphasis on the socio-cultural component of their service. The methodology is based on general scientific methods (analysis, synthesis, generalization) and the principles of objective analysis of facts and reliability. Content analysis of the scientific literature made it possible to solve the main research problem. Structural-system method - to systematize the obtained results. The interdisciplinary of scientific methodology has prompted the use of methods integrated from a number of disciplines - economics, culturology, art history, and others. The scientific novelty lies in the identification, analysis and systematization of dissertation research of Ukrainian scientists in the field of modern hotel and restaurant complexes with an emphasis on cultural and leisure and recreational and relaxation component of their service. Conclusions. In Ukrainian science, attempts to study the cultural and leisure and recreational and relaxation component of the service of hotel and restaurant complexes are embodied only in some publications. At the same time, science only affirms the complex concept of "hotel and restaurant" complex. The activities of the latter, as centers of culture and leisure, remain on the margins of modern research interest. As an important component of modern service, socio-cultural activities are usually reduced to logistical and sectorial production aspects. However, the cultural and leisure and recreational component of modern complexes affects the transformation of the traditional basis of society, which indicates its focus on meeting the needs and interests of man, which best characterizes its compliance with the requirements of the time, focused on humanizing all realities of life.


Magnetoresistance ( Delta rho / rho ) measurements for Au87Fe13 are reported in the temperature range 4.2-200 K and for magnetic fields (H) up to 45 kOe. The remarkable feature of the experimental observations is the rapid decrease of mod Delta rho / rho mod below 15 K at low fields. This behaviour is associated with the breaking up of large clusters into smaller ones as a result of the dominating RKKY interaction in the system at low temperatures. The observed behaviour corroborates the neutron depolarization studies carried out earlier.


Delivering systems that are consistent across the enterprise represents a challenge all organizations deal with today. The authors present a case study with a survey research strategy for the notion of the "enterprise user interface (EUI) architecture". It describes how one organization utilized this architecture to take advantage of today's technology, coupled with its pre-existing legacy applications, to deliver updated systems that end users could quickly use to take control of information across the organization. In addition, this study presents the findings of an empirical study of factors affecting the acceptance of such an architecture by its end users. Based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), two essential variables were used to examine determinants of EUI acceptance: usefulness and ease of use. The findings indicate that ease of use has the larger influence on EUI acceptance. Implications of the findings, from both a research and a managerial perspective, are discussed.


Introduction: Filarial penoscrotal elephantiasis is a chronic lymphangitis with hypertrophy of the external genital organs (EGO) and still exists in countries with endemic filarial diseases. Case Report: We report a penile-scrotal elephantiasis case in a 20-year-old patient. He consulted for a scrotal mass reaching the knees with low urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) due to the burial of the penis. Excision followed by a scrotal skin plasty was performed. The aesthetic and the long-term functional results were satisfactory. Conclusion: The elephantiasis of external genital organs is becoming less and less frequent as a condition and surgery always occupies a place of choice in its management.


An empirical expression is proposed to describe the K-shell ionization cross sections by electron impact over a wide range of atomic numbers (i.e. ) and overvoltages U (i.e. ) defined as being the ratio between the incident electron energy and the ionization energy of the electrons in the K shell. The study is based on the analysis of existing experimental databases for atoms. Agreement is obtained with an accuracy of 10% over the entire atomic number and overvoltage ranges including the near-threshold region. Results are compared with those obtained with other analytical expressions.


The wireless communication channel around/in the human body is a difficult propagation environment. This paper presents measurement and simulation results to characterize such a channel. A fluid human body model is employed to emulate the inside of a human body. The paper details the fluid human model and path loss model parameters at 400 MHz (MICS band). It is shown that the simulated and measured results are in a close agreement, for instance at a distance of 20 cm and a implant depth of 10 cm, the measurement results in a path loss of -42.1 dB and the simulation in -43.0 dB. The effect of human model shape on measured path loss is analyzed. Furthermore, simulations are employed to characterize this effect. Using the path loss model a top-level link budget is evaluated to determine the feasibility of a given implant device compliant to IEEE802.15.6-WBAN-400 MHz standard.


This article presents a 3D geographic information systems (GIS) modeling and simulation of water flow in a landscape defined by a digital terrain model, provided by some available geolocation APIs. The proposed approach uses a cellular automata based algorithm to calculate water flow dynamic. The methodology was tested on a case study area of 27kmx19km located in Tangier, north of Morocco. In fact, we aim to detect flood zones in order to prevent problems related to space occupation in urban and rural regions. Some indices can be deduced from the stream shape using Cellular Automata (CA) based approach that can reduce the complexity related to space structures with multiple changes. A spatiotemporal simulation of the runoff process is provided using 3D visualization that we can pair with geographical information system tools (GIS). The 3D GIS modeling approach that was developed for the analyses of flood zones detection using a runoff model based on cellular automata was comprised of three main steps: Input (collection of data), calculation (CA tool) and visualization (3D simulation).


Liver regeneration is impaired in mice with hepatocyte-specific deficiencies in microRNA (miRNA) processing; yet the roles of individual miRNAs or their combinatorial effects in this process are largely unknown. In this study, we sought to identify miRNAs that regulate hepatocyte repopulation following toxic liver injury in a high-throughput manner using the Fah−/− mouse. We constructed plasmid pools encoding over 30,000 tough decoy (TuD) miRNA inhibitors designed to target hepatocyte miRNAs in a pairwise manner. Plasmid libraries were delivered to hepatocytes of Fah−/− mice at the time of liver injury via hydrodynamic tail vein injection and integrated transgene-containing transposons were quantified following repopulation via high-throughput sequencing. Changes in polysome-bound transcripts following miRNA inhibition were determined using translating ribosome affinity purification followed by high-throughput sequencing. Analysis of TuD abundance in hepatocyte genomic DNA and input plasmid pools identified several thousand miRNA inhibitors that were significantly altered following repopulation. We classified a subset of miRNA-binding sites (MBSs) as having strong effect on liver repopulation, thus implicating the targeted hepatocyte miRNAs as regulators of this process. Furthermore, we generated a high-content map of pairwise interactions between 171 MBSs and identified both synergistic and redundant effects. Our study highlights the power of higher-order screens to uncover miRNA functions that would go undetected by individual miRNA perturbations, and provides a new paradigm for the study of epistasis of miRNA activities.


The Portage model and its benefits to families are outlined. The application of the model to two four year old children with behavioural difficulties is presented in case studies. In the first, a mother successfully coped with her daughter's behaviour problems and their relationship was much improved. In the second, a boy's feeding problems were resolved and the attitudes of the child and his mother to his diet benefitted. The advantages of using a structured behavioural programme to develop parents' skills are highlighted.


In recent years, security in MANET is anticipated as the pre-establishment of specific information among the participating nodes, so that the future communications can be secured through a newly designed protocol, which deploys cryptographic mechanisms over the pre-established information. In this paper, we suggest three dimensions to secure the communications in wireless mobile ad hoc networks. Then we demonstrate the issues that might creep out in the security design, when a cryptographic technique alone is involved. Also, we suggest how to counter those issues through the combination of trust management with cryptographic mechanisms. Moreover, we propose the need to introduce the notion of heterogeneity resource management in the security design to address the divergence among the nodes, which can be taken advantage to diminish the packet drop attacks.


AbstractSeasonal prediction of extratropical climate (e.g., the East Asian climate) is partly dependent upon the prediction skill for rainfall over the Maritime Continent (MC). A previous study by the authors found that the NCEP Climate Forecast System, version 2 (CFSv2), had difference in skill between predicting rainfall over the western MC (WMC) and the eastern MC (EMC), especially in the wet season. In this study, the potential mechanisms for this phenomenon are examined. It is shown that observationally in the wet season (from boreal winter to early spring) the EMC rainfall is closely linked to both ENSO and local sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies, whereas the WMC rainfall is only moderately correlated with ENSO. The model hindcast unrealistically predicts the relationship of the WMC rainfall with local SST and ENSO (even opposite to the observed feature), which contributes to lower prediction skill for the WMC rainfall. In the dry season (from boreal late summer to fall), the rainfall over the...


Traditionally, mandatory exploration was the rule for managing penetrating abdominal trauma, but this has begun to change in the recent era. The change first affected stab injuries, in which the conservative approach in appropriate cases has gained wide spread acceptance. Relatively recently, the management of gunshot injuries to the abdomen has been similarly affected, and several reports appeared describing the success of such treatment in selected cases.


OBJECTIVE: To report a case of fatal angioedema associated with the use of lisinopril, a long-acting angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor. DATA SOURCES: Case reports, review articles, short reports, and pertinent information from the patient's medical record. DATA EXTRACTION: Data was collected from contemporary medical journals and reviewed by both authors. DATA SYNTHESIS: Angioedema associated with ACE inhibitors (captopril and enalapril) is well documented in the literature. With increased prescribing of newer, longer-acting agents, this potentially lethal adverse reaction is of even greater concern. Because angioedema associated with ACE inhibitors is a class-related event, the number of reported cases would be expected to increase with increasing numbers of prescriptions written for these drugs. This report, describing a patient who developed angioedema following therapy with lisinopril, illustrates the severity of this adverse reaction. PATIENT: A 66-year-old man presented to the emergency room complaining of increased swelling of the back of his throat and difficulty breathing. Despite treatment with epinephrine, antihistamines, and corticosteroids, the patient's condition progressed from that of severe laryngeal edema to total laryngospasm and complete airway obstruction. Emergency measures to intubate the patient were complicated by severe swelling of his neck and oropharynx, forcing the physician to perform a grossly traumatic tracheotomy. The difficulty encountered during intubation deprived the patient of oxygen for a significant amount of time, precipitating cardiopulmonary arrest. The anoxic episode resulted in hypoxic, ischemic encephalopathy and, ultimately, death. CONCLUSIONS: Angioedema is a serious, potentially life-threatening adverse effect associated with the use of ACE inhibitors. Clinicians need to be aware of this effect when prescribing ACE inhibitors to treat hypertension and congestive heart failure, and when assessing patients presenting to the emergency room with complaints of tongue or pharyngeal swelling. Patients should be instructed to report immediately to an emergency room for medical attention if they experience any unexplained shortness of breath or swelling of the throat or tongue.


Visual servoing has played an important role in automated robotic manufacturing systems, of which there is a challenge on how to choose proper image features to enhance system performances. This paper addresses such a challenge by proposing a method consisting of an ameliorative image pre-processing algorithm and an improved Image Based Visual Servoing (IBVS) using image moments algorithm. Comparing with traditional IBVS, choosing image moment as the image features can efficiently increase the stability of the visual servoing system and extend the applied range of objects. The obtained image features will then be used to generate the control signals for the robot to track the target object. The Jacobian matrix describing the relationship between the motion of camera and velocity of image features is also discussed. In order to decouple the obtained Jacobian matrix for controlling the motion of camera with individual image features, a sequence control strategy is also introduced.


Large impacts simultaneously reset both the surface age and the magnetization of the entire depth of crust over areas comparable to the final size of the resulting craters. These properties make large impact craters (>300 km in diameter) ideal "magnetic markers" for constraining the history of the Martian core dynamo. However, the relationship between crustal magnetization and magnetic field measured in orbit is nonunique, making the measured magnetic field signature of an impact crater only a proxy for the magnetization (or lack thereof) below. Using Monte Carlo Fourier domain modeling of subsurface magnetization, we calculate probability distributions of the magnetic field signatures of partially and completely demagnetized craters. We compare these distributions to measured magnetic field signatures of 41 old impact craters on Mars larger than 300 km in diameter and calculate probabilities of their magnetization state. We compare these probabilities to cratering densities and absolute model ages and in this manner arrive at a robust time history of Martian large‐crater magnetization and hence of the Martian dynamo. We conclude that the most likely scenario was a Mars dynamo active when the oldest detectable basins formed, ceasing before the Hellas and Utopia impacts, between 4.0 and 4.1 Ga (in model age) and not thereafter restarting. The Mars atmosphere was thereafter exposed directly to erosion by the solar wind, significantly altering the path of climate evolution. Further improvements to the history of the Martian dynamo will require better crater age estimates and lower altitude magnetic field data.


This paper first presents the occurrence of Hopf bifurcation and chaos in a practical synchronous reluctance motor drive system. Based on the derived nonlinear system equation, the bifurcation analysis shows that the system loses stability via Hopf bifurcation when the -axis component of its three-phase motor voltages loses its control. Moreover, the corresponding Lyapunov exponent calculation further proves the existence of chaos. Finally, computer simulations and experimental results are used to support the theoretical analysis.


Tuberculosis (TB) is the major opportunistic infection of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) in developing countries. The objective of this paper is to exemplify and review the findings associated with TB in patients with AIDS. 80 TB/AIDS-focused articles from latest internet and literature, including 3 leading Bangladesh daily newspapers between 1999-2009 were analyzed. According to the data provided by a Bangladesh Sheikh Mujib University, the number of detected people living with HIV/AIDS reached 204 as of December 2002. Most of them died of TB indicating the relationship between AIDS and TB. Measures needed in the future, if TB and HIV/AIDS are to be eliminated in Bangladesh. Tuberculosis (TB) is at least as old as human kind, one of the world's deadliest diseases and the history of the disorder is intertwined inevitably with the history of civilization. Break down in health services, the spread of HIV/AIDS and the emergence of multi drug resistant TB causing organisms are contributing to the worsening impact of this disease. Physicians say TB is one of the major syndromes of HIV infection. About 74,000 Bangladeshi people go abroad for jobs every year, which might be the sources of spreading HIV/AIDS, when they come back to the country. It has been known for some time that TB and AIDS are bedfellows. But as the government and civil society still seem impervious to this state of affairs, when the pandemic hits our shores. The AIDS program in Bangladesh and possibly others elsewhere, could consider adapting this experience, to support NGOs serving communities at highest risk towards greater funding for and co-ordination of the national NGO response. Given the link between TB and AIDS, such TB program could also work more closely with AIDS program to absorb some of the HIV surveillance responsibilities of the AIDS program, integrate clinical training and build in cross-referral systems. TB and AIDS target the marginalized; we should all be able to visualize the scale of the problem we would face. If TB and HIV/AIDS are not taken seriously soon, it will ravage our society.

 Key words: TB and HIV/AIDS, governmental policy and research.


In this paper we explore the concepts that form the framework for the different research projects that are reported in this special issue. All projects were part of the international Pedagogy, Education and Praxis research network. The main goal of this paper is to set the theoretical 'mis-en-scène' for the other papers in the issue. First, based on literature, we explore different meanings of concepts such as 'Education for All', 'social justice', 'praxis' and 'pedagogy'. Secondly, we explain why we rely on these concepts and, finally, we investigate the consequences of these decisions for the profession, including professionals in schools as well as in universities.


BACKGROUND
Several reproductive factors appear to affect a women's risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis. This study's purpose was to determine whether use of non-contraceptive hormones is among them.

METHODS
A population-based case-control study was conducted in King County, Washington and Group Health Cooperative of Puget Sound, a prepaid health plan. New cases of rheumatoid arthritis in peri- or postmenopausal women (n = 135) were verified through clinical examination and compared with 592 controls. Both groups were interviewed in person about hormone use and demographic and reproductive factors.

RESULTS
The age-adjusted relative risk (RR) among women who had ever used non-contraceptive oestrogens was 1.04 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.70-1.55), and among women who had ever used progestins it was 0.66 (95% CI: 0.40-1.08). For current users of oestrogen only, the RR was 0.97 (95% CI: 0.62-1.53), and among current users of oestrogen plus progestin it was 0.81 (95% CI: 0.45-1.45). Multivariate analyses yielded similar results. There was little evidence of a dose-response relationship with duration of use or with frequency of progestin use.

CONCLUSIONS
Use of non-contraceptive oestrogens appears to have little effect on the risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis in menopausal women. There may be a modest reduction in risk among progestin users.


When tests or portions of tests are scored subjectively by raters, a rescor- ing will yield a change in the ratings of some examinees. In a test with a fixed passing score a rescoring will result in the change of some pass/fail decisions. The number of changes depends on: the reliability of the rating system, the number of raters, the variability in examinee abilities, the proportion of examinees that ini- tially pass, and the policy used to incorporate the rescore into the pass/fail decision. In this study, we provide a model that facilitates the evaluation of various rescoring strategies. We consider and compare the efficiency of three rescoring strategies: (1) rescore everyone, (2) rescore failures only, and (3) rescore within some range of the passing cutoff. These rescoring strategies are evaluated by direct simulation. Additionally we consider the optimal allocation of rescores where the probability someone asks to be rescored is inversely proportional to the distance from their initial score to the cutscore. This allocation is evaluated via numerical integration. A further generalization of the basic model is also considered in which a test is comprised of a mixture of objectively and subjectively scored items.


Aim An accurate understanding of trends in incidence and prevalence as well as disease burden of paediatric-onset inflammatory bowel disease (PIBD) within a large region are essential to plan services and unravel possible aetiological factors. We aimed to delineate these trends together with numbers of PIBD cases requiring surgery and immunomodultory/biological therapies. Methods Incident and prevalent cases of PIBD in South-East Scotland were prospectively collected from service establishment in August 1997 to April 2011. All cases of Crohn's disease (CD), ulcerative colitis (UC) and IBD-unclassified (IBDU) were diagnosed by standard criteria and detailed demographic information and both medical and surgical therapies were recorded on a departmental database. Date of first attendance and of discharge from paediatric services was also recorded, allowing calculation of incidence and yearly point prevalence (1st April). To allow for accrual of cases during the establishment phase of the PIBD service, only data from 2000-2010 was used for incident and prevalent rates. Rates were sex-adjusted and statistical analysis carried out using GraphPad Prism and R. Results A total of 318 children with IBD were cared for during the 14 year period. The cohort comprised of 206 CD (65%), 73 UC (23%) and 39 IBDU (12%) cases. The median age at diagnosis was 11.6 years (IQR 9.1-13.4 years) with an overall preponderance of males. Overall incidence of IBD in the period 2000-2010 was 6.4/100,000/year with a significant rise from 5.6/100,000/year to 7.2/100,000/year between the periods of 2000-2004 and 2005-2010 (p=0.002). This was mainly driven by an increase in the incidence of CD in males from the earlier (4.0/100,000/year) to the later (5.5/100,000/year) epoch (p=0.002). The overall rates of UC (1.5/100,000/year) and IBDU (0.9/100,000/year) remained relatively stable. The point prevalence of IBD rose from 23.1/100,000 (2000-2004) to 48.7/100,000 (2005-2010). During the total follow up time of 1432 patient years, 68% of patients required azathioprine, 27% methotrexate, 18% biologicals and 21% needed IBD-related surgery. Conclusion Evaluating a well defined paediatric population over a 14 year period gives a clear indication of the rising trend in the incidence and prevalence of PIBD. In addition, knowledge of the requirement for medical and surgical therapies allows for the tailoring of local service provision.


Turkey is divided into nine agro-ecological regions with mountainous terrain in the periphery, a relatively flat central plateau and a narrow coastal strip. This country has diverse environment with mountains, valleys, plains and numerous rivers and lakes. Over a quarter of the country is covered with forests and woodlands. This results in marked variations in climate and vegetation around the country. Turkey and Iran (Iran Plateau) are centers of origin and diversity of many fruit species, such as apple, pear, cherry, rose, walnut, cornelian cherry, almond and more. Stone fruits comprise 20.0% of the total fruit production in Turkey, and apricot ranks first among stone fruits. Apricot can be grown in all regions of Turkey, except in the Eastern Black Sea Region and in the high plateaus of the East Anatolian Region. Turkey is a leading producer in both in fresh and dried apricots in the world. Although the percentage share of the fresh apricot trade is not significant, Turkey can enlarge this potential in the near future.


We have constructed and experimentally tested a half waveplate based on the dispersive birefringent properties of a bulk two-dimensional photonic crystal away from its band gap. A polarization contrast better than 200:1 was measured.


Climate change exacerbates the challenges that water management nowadays has to deal with. This highlights the need for a legal framework that promotes adaptation by addressing the ecological value of water and the risks of flooding and drought. This paper analyzes to what extent the European legal framework meets this need. This is evaluated by analyzing to what extent the Water Framework Directive, the Floods Directive and the Water Scarcity and Drought Strategy build resilience. Resilience is an important concept in the adaptation to climate change discourse. It refers to the capacity of a social-ecological system to absorb disturbance and reorganize while undergoing change so as to still retain essentially the same function, structure, identity and feedbacks. This paper uses five criteria to measure this: (1) the flexibility of rules and (2) the adaptiveness of such rules (3) openness, public participation and access to the courts (4) multilevel governance at the bioregional scale and (5) effectiveness. The European legal framework partly meets these criteria. It offers a river basin approach and both the setting of goals and objectives and their achievement is a multilevel, cyclical process, which includes public participation. However, the achievement of the goals is not easily enforceable and coordination within international river basins is legally weak. This detracts from the expected effectiveness of the EU legal framework in promoting adaptation by protecting the aquatic ecosystem and reducing flood and drought risks.


Ionic nutrition is essential for plant development. Many techniques have been developed to image and (or) measure ionic movement in plants. Nevertheless, most of them are destructive and limit the analysis. Here, we present the development of radioisotope imaging techniques that overcome such restrictions and allow for real-time imaging of ionic movement. The first system, called macroimaging, was developed to visualize and measure ion uptake and translocation between organs at a whole-plant scale. Such a device is fully compatible with illumination of the sample. We also modified fluorescent microscopes to set up various solutions for ion uptake analysis at the microscopic level. Both systems allow numerical analysis of images and possess a wide dynamic range of detection because they are based on radioactivity.


We introduce a new technique that allows us to make progress on two long standing conjectures in transcendental dynamics: Baker's conjecture that a transcendental entire function of order less than 1/2 has no unbounded Fatou components, and Eremenko's conjecture that all the components of the escaping set of an entire function are unbounded. We show that both conjectures hold for many transcendental entire functions whose zeros all lie on the negative real axis, in particular those of order less than 1/2. Our proofs use a classical distortion theorem based on contraction of the hyperbolic metric, together with new results which show that the images of certain curves must wind many times round the origin.


Few researches pay attention to prediction about analog circuits. The few methods lack the correlation with circuit analysis during extracting and calculating features so that FI (fault indicator) calculation often lack rationality, thus affecting prognostic performance. To solve the above problem, this paper proposes a novel prediction method about single components of analog circuits based on complex field modeling. Aiming at the feature that faults of single components hold the largest number in analog circuits, the method starts with circuit structure, analyzes transfer function of circuits, and implements complex field modeling. Then, by an established parameter scanning model related to complex field, it analyzes the relationship between parameter variation and degeneration of single components in the model in order to obtain a more reasonable FI feature set via calculation. According to the obtained FI feature set, it establishes a novel model about degeneration trend of analog circuits' single components. At last, it uses particle filter (PF) to update parameters for the model and predicts remaining useful performance (RUP) of analog circuits' single components. Since calculation about the FI feature set is more reasonable, accuracy of prediction is improved to some extent. Finally, the foregoing conclusions are verified by experiments.


Candida is a yeast of economic importance as it causes infections of the esophageal, oral, anorectal, vaginal mucosa; eyes, nails as well as life threatening fungemia.They are among emerging opportunistic pathogens especially due to HIV / AIDS. Emerging resistance to commonly used antifungal drugs has further complicated their management resulting in increased morbidity and mortality. The present study analyzed phenotypic and molecular characteristics of Candida strains from clinical sources in Nairobi. Drug susceptibility profiles of all the Candida isolates were also analyzed. A total of one hundred and fifty (150) Candida species isolated since 1997 at Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI), Mycology laboratory were characterized. Preliminary identification was done using germ tube test, CHROMagar Candida, Corn meal agar, and confirmed using Analytical profile index (API 20 C aux). Genotypic analysis was done using primer pairs that span the site of the transposable intron in the 25S rDNA. Antifungal drug susceptibility to Fluconazole, Nystatin, Clotrimazole and Amphotericin B was performed using broth microdilution techniques.The isolates were recovered from swabs 37.3 %, urine 33.3 %, sputum 16.7 %, aspirates 8 %, blood 3.3 %, CSF and others 0.7 %. Out of the 150 isolates 86.7 % were Candida albicans whereas 13.3 % were non albicans Candida as confirmed by API 20 C aux. Non albicans Candida included; C. parapsilosis 4 %, C. tropicalis 2.7 %, C. krusei 2.7 %, C. guilliemondii 1.3 %, C. glabrata 1.3 % and C. famata 1.3 %. Germ tube positive C. albicans were 96.1 % whereas only 3.8 % were germ tube negative. All the 130 isolates identified as C. albicans formed chlamydospores and all grew at both 37 C and 45 C ruling out the possibility of Candida dubliniensis. Genotypic analysis indicated that most of the C. albicans were genotype A (60 %) with one band of 450 base pairs followed by genotype C (16 %) with two bands of 4503and 650 base pairs and B (8 %) with 1 band of 650 base pairs. In this study 4 % of the C. albicans isolates were categorized as genotype F that had one band of 550 base pairs.The isolates were fairly susceptible to commonly used antifungal drugs. C. albicans susceptibility to Fluconazole (MIC ≤ 8 μg/ml) was 73.1 %, susceptible dose-dependent (MIC 16-32 μg / ml) 14.6 % and resistant (MIC ≥ 64 μg / ml) 12.3 %. The MIC50 and MIC90 to Fluconazole were 1 μg / ml and 64 μg / ml respectively. At 1 μg / ml of Amphotericin B, most of the isolates were inhibited with 90.3 % having an MIC of ≤ 1 μg / ml. The MIC50 and MIC90 to Amphotericin B were 0.25 μg / ml and 1.0 μg / ml respectively. Elevated MIC ≥ 4 μg / ml to Clotrimazole and Nystatin were demonstrated in 80.5 % and 90.5 % respectively. The MIC50 and MIC90 of Clotrimazole and Nystatin were 1.0 μg / ml, 0.29 μg / ml and 16 μg / ml, 18.5 μg / ml respectively. The rest (20) non-albicans Candida were fairly susceptible to all the four drugs with reduced susceptibility reported on very few isolates.From the study C. albicans was the most prevalent and hence the most common cause of candidiasis. The result has demonstrated some evidence of emerging resistance to commonly used antifungal drugs. For management of Candida infection, there is need to identify all the yeast from clinical sources as some have intrinsic resistance to commonly used antifungal drugs. There is also need to constantly carry out in-vitro antifungal susceptibility testing in order to establish any emerging resistance. This is essential in the management of Candida infections especially in HIV / AIDS where recurrent candidiasis is common.


ABSTRACT Signal peptides (SP) are key determinants for targeting glycoproteins to the secretory pathway. Here we describe the involvement in particle maturation as an additional function of a viral glycoprotein SP. The SP of foamy virus (FV) envelope glycoprotein is predicted to be unusually long. Using an SP-specific antiserum, we demonstrate that its proteolytic removal occurs posttranslationally by a cellular protease and that the major N-terminal cleavage product, gp18, is found in purified viral particles. Analysis of mutants in proposed signal peptidase cleavage positions and N-glycosylation sites revealed an SP about 148 amino acids (aa) in length. FV particle release from infected cells requires the presence of cognate envelope protein and cleavage of its SP sequence. An N-terminal 15-aa SP domain with two conserved tryptophan residues was found to be essential for the egress of FV particles. While the SP N terminus was found to mediate the specificity of FV Env to interact with FV capsids, it was dispensable for Env targeting to the secretory pathway and FV envelope-mediated infectivity of murine leukemia virus pseudotypes.


This paper presents an exercise in applying the bacterial foraging algorithm (BFA) optimisation method on a
proportional—integral-derivative controller (PID) of a DC motor circuit. The paper presents the system description of
the DC motor transfer function and the simulation of the close loop system using MATLAB. The BFA algorithm is
described and discussed with the simulation results presented to illustrate the enhancement of the system response
that in result enhances the operation of the DC motor system.


Zomia, in the sense exulted by James C. Scott (2009) as an abode of purposeful political anarchy and anti-stateism, is not an emic conceptualization, not a particular place or an incantation of a collective identity referred to or professed by particular populations of humans. As a spatial and social reality, or as a word-concept, Zomia, then appears an exercise in scholarly magical realism (evidence is 'thin', 'limited', and 'ambiguous', as Victor Lieberman (2010: 339) puts it more discreetly). It is a form of geographical and historical imagination that nevertheless has begun to 'escape' the narrow corridors of the academy and into public discourse where it now lives a life of its own. It is an original imagination no doubt – an optic that stimulates fresh scholarship – but one simultaneously cannot escape that Zomia-disciples are letting their imagination run away with them.


Understanding how different factors mediate the resistance of communities to climatic variability is a question of considerable ecological interest that remains mostly unresolved. This is particularly remarkable to improve predictions about the impact of climate change on vegetation. Here, we used a trait‐based approach to analyse the sensitivity to climatic variability over 9 years of 19 Mediterranean shrubland communities located in southwest Spain. We evaluated the role of functional diversity (FD) and soil environment as drivers of community stability (assessed as changes in plant cover, species diversity and composition). The studied shrubland communities were strongly sensitive to inter‐annual variability in climate. First, colder and drier conditions caused remarkable decreases in total plant cover but increased FD, likely because the reduction of plant cover after harsh climatic conditions promoted the expansion of functionally dissimilar species in the new open microsites; although communities returned to their initial values of plant cover after nine years, changes in FD and structure persisted over time. Second, drier and colder conditions favoured the predominance of shrubs with a conservative resource‐use strategy (i.e. with higher dry matter content in leaves, stems and roots), bigger seeds and a more efficient use of water. The most functionally diverse communities were the most stable over time in terms of species diversity, likely because a higher number of functionally dissimilar species allowed compensatory dynamics among them. Communities inhabiting more acidic and resource‐limited environments were less variable over time, probably because they were mainly constituted by slow‐growth, stress‐tolerant species that are potentially better adapted to harsh climatic conditions. Synthesis. This study highlights the utility of a trait‐based approach to evaluate how plant communities respond to climatic variability. We could infer that the increased frequency of extreme climatic events predicted by climatic models will alter the functional structure of shrubland communities, with potential repercussions for ecosystem functioning. Our results also provide new insights into the role of FD and soil environment as buffers of the climate impact on woody communities, as well as potentially useful information to be applied in ecologically based management and restoration strategies.


This report documents the program and the outcomes of Dagstuhl Seminar 14031 "Randomized Timed and Hybrid Models for Critical Infrastructures". Critical Infrastructures, such as power grid and water and gas distribution networks, are essential for the functioning of our society and economy. Randomized Timed and Hybrid Models appear as a natural choice for their modeling, and come with existing algorithms and tool support for their analysis. However, on the one hand, the Critical Infrastructures community does not yet make full use of recent advances for Randomized Timed and Hybrid Models. On the other hand, existing algorithms are not yet readily applicable to the special kind of problems arising in Critical Infrastructures.

This seminar brought together researchers from
these fields to communicate with
each other and to exchange knowledge, experiences and needs.


This research has been performed within the project "prediction, measurement, and analysis of composite electromagnetic field of artificial radiation sources," funded by the Ministry of Science and Technology of the Republic of Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina. The ultimate goal of the project is the installation of a monitoring network for continuous measurement and recording of nonionizing electromagnetic (EM) radiation levels in the wider area of Banja Luka city centre covering about 10 km2. For this reason it was necessary to make an optimal choice from a dozen of measurement points with the maximum value levels of total EM field. It was a difficult task, because in this case, with the resolution of 5m × 5m, approximately 400,000 points should be examined. Therefore, the pedestrian zones, areas, and routes with significantly smaller surfaces but with the largest flow of people have been examined, so the time required for their mapping with values of total EM field has been reduced to a more realistic framework. In this paper, in the volume allowed by the defined criteria, a fast and reliable experimental method has been described, which has been examined at one of the studied areas in the named project, with surface of 0.008 km2.


The aim of this thesis is to investigate the effects and benefits of different ways of structuring conferences in Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) environments for learning. To this end, the thesis uses two studies of a conventional distance learning course in undergraduate computer science which was supplemented with a structured CMC environment. The research was undertaken over a period of twenty months. Tile first theme of the thesis is an investigation of the possibilities of using conference structures to improve navigation and organisation. The second theme of the thesis investigates the likely benefits of such structuring. Categorical analysis was used to find out the extent to which this structure was beneficial to students. The effects and benefits of various CMC structures were assessed through analysis of data collected using a variety of techniques- observation, user opinions, and interpretation of naturally occurring online interactions. Categorical analysis was undertaken with rich data on actual behaviour obtained from online conferences and compared with students' perceptions gathered through open responses in interviews and questionnaires. The categorical analysis used an approach influenced by grounded theory. The pilot study revealed the need for a new staff role to support the structured CMC. This role, called the Interactive Media Facilitator (IMF), was created during the course of the study to design the CMC structure and monitor activity within the structure. A conceptual framework consisting of a three-dimensional taxonomy was created and used to guide the IMF in the development of the broad conference structure in the main study. The framework was also used to organise the fine detail of the different discussion areas within the CMC structure. This taxonomy, developed from elements of online interaction types found in the CMC literature, is a generalisable framework, applicable in a distance learning context to any electronically supplemented course.


We propose a Directed Sparse Graphical Model (DSGM) for multi-target tracking. In the category of global optimization for multi-target tracking, traditional approaches have two main drawbacks. First, a cost function is defined in terms of the linear combination of the spatial and appearance constraints of the targets which results a highly non-convex function. And second, a very dense graph is constructed to capture the global attribute of the targets. In such a graph, It is impossible to find reliable tracks in polynomial time unless some relaxation and heuristics are used. To address these limitations, we proposed DSGM which finds a set of reliable tracks for the targets without any heuristics or relaxation and keeps the computational complexity very low through the design of the graph. Irrespective of traditional approaches where spatial and appearance constraints are added up linearly with a given weight factor, we incorporated these constraints in a cascaded fashion. First, we exploited a Hidden Markov Model (HMM) for the spatial constraints of the target and obtain most probable locations of the targets in a segment of video. Afterwards, a deep feature based appearance model is used to generate the sparse graph. The track for each target is found through dynamic programming. Experiments are performed on 3 challenging sports datasets (football, basketball and sprint) and promising results are achieved.


The anatomy of the temporal bone is complex, and postoperative imaging evaluation of this bone can be challenging. Surgical approaches to the temporal bone can be categorized didactically into tympanoplasty and ossicular reconstruction, mastoidectomy, and approaches to the cerebellopontine angle and internal auditory canal (IAC). In clinical practice, different approaches can be combined for greater surgical exposure. Postoperative imaging may be required for follow-up of neoplastic lesions and to evaluate unexpected outcomes or complications of surgery. CT is the preferred modality for assessing the continuity of the reconstructed conductive mechanism, from the tympanic membrane to the oval window, with use of grafts or prostheses. It is also used to evaluate aeration of the tympanic and mastoid surgical cavities, as well as the integrity of the labyrinth, ossicular chain, and tegmen. MRI is excellent for evaluation of soft tissue. Use of a contrast-enhanced fat-suppressed MRI sequence is optimal for follow-up after IAC procedures. Non-echo-planar diffusion-weighted imaging is optimal for detection of residual or recurrent cholesteatoma. The expected imaging findings and complications of the most commonly performed surgeries involving the temporal bone are summarized in this review. Online supplemental material is available for this article. ©RSNA, 2021.