Electron transport through a constriction in a thin metallic film of finite thickness is simulated by numerically solving the Boltzmann transport equation (BTE) within the relaxation time approximation under linear response conditions. Such a structure closely represents vias connecting metal levels of different widths. Predicted reduction in effective electrical conductance due to electron surface scattering, which is significant when the dimensions are of the order of carrier mean free path, is compared with that for a constriction between semi-infinite spaces available in the literature. A simple expression for the size effect on conductance is fit to the simulated results applicable for constriction in a finite size thin film. The results could enable better estimate of effective resistance of next generation on-chip interconnections.


Abstract Realist and Marxist critiques of humanitarian intervention are distinctively materialistic in scope. The IR literature has already described this scepticism as a 'hermeneutics of suspicion', a term associated with the work of Paul Ricoeur, which aims to unearth the intervenors' material and geopolitical interests hypocritically hidden behind the pretext of humanitarianism. The article first notes the decontextualised misappropriations of the term as an iconic and omnipotent instrument of doubt, as well as the limitations of the social constructivist response on the matter. By contextualising Ricoeur's hermeneutics of suspicion as developed in his life work, the article then calls for an extension of critique from a hermeneutics of suspicion to a hermeneutics of naïveté. Applied in the critique of the ideology of humanitarian intervention, the article thus calls for a shift of focus from the examination of the distorting (Marxism, realism) and legitimising (social constructivism) functions of this ideology to its integrating function that has allowed the evocation of humanitarian principles as international norms, and uncritically vindicates this arrangement. The article proposes that this hermeneutical detour could allow critique to proceed to a greater analytical depth, opening up a set of critical questions.


Background and Aims This study evaluated dynamic balance, quadriceps, and hamstring strength in individuals with Covid 19 compared with healthy control ones. Methods A total of 30 people were divided into two groups, including healthy people (n=15) and people with Covid-19. Dynamic balance was measured using the star excursion balance test. A dynamometer performed lower limb muscle strength measurements. An independent t-test was used to compare the two groups statistically. The significance level was considered 0.05. Results Quadriceps and hamstring muscle strength were similar in both groups (P>0.05). The results showed that the values of dynamic balance in the lateral (P=0.001), medial (P=0.001), and posterior medial (P=0.001) directions were significantly lower in the group with Covid-19 than that in the healthy group. Conclusion In general, the balance of people with Covid-19 was significantly lower than the healthy group. Decreased balance due to this disease can increase the risk of injury. There was no significant difference in lower limb muscle strength in patients with Covid-19 compared with healthy individuals. Perhaps more research is needed in the future to prove this better.


OBJECTIVE
Despite the additional complications associated with alcohol misuse in bipolar populations, it is generally the case that studies exploring neurocognitive aspects of bipolar disorder specifically exclude patients with alcohol abuse or dependence. Given the role of cognitive dysfunctions in overall illness outcome, this study addressed the neurocognitive functioning of patients with a history of alcohol abuse or dependence as compared to bipolar patients without such a history and healthy controls.

METHOD
The study sample included 100 subjects: 65 bipolar patients, 30 of whom with a history of alcohol abuse or dependence and 35 without a previous history of alcohol abuse or dependence, based on DSM-IV criteria, and a control group of 35 healthy subjects. Comprehensive neuropsychological tests were carried out during strictly defined clinical remission. Differences between groups were analyzed and a linear regression analysis was undertaken to establish predictors of psychosocial functioning as measured using the Global Assessment of Functioning. Data were collected from September 2006 to July 2007.

RESULTS
Bipolar patients with a history of alcohol abuse or dependence obtained lower scores in the interference task of the Stroop test compared to the control group. Both patient groups showed a poorer performance in some verbal memory and executive function measures than healthy controls. Verbal learning impairment was significantly associated with poor psychosocial functioning.

CONCLUSIONS
Cognitive dysfunctions appeared to be more strongly associated with bipolar disorder than with the "history of alcohol abuse or dependence" factor. Bipolar patients with history of alcohol misuse may have greater difficulties of inhibitory control, probably due to higher impulsivity.


Muscle tissue of adult mice has been shown to contain stem cells with hematopoietic repopulation ability in vivo. To determine the functional characteristics of stem cells giving rise to this hematopoietic activity, we have performed hematopoietic reconstitution experiments by the use of muscle versus marrow transplantation in lethally irradiated mice and followed the fate of transplanted cells by Y-chimerism using PCR and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) analysis. We report here that transplantation of murine muscle generate a major hematopoietic chimerism at the level of CFU-C, CFU-S, and terminally-differentiated cells in three generations of lethally irradiated mice followed up to 1 year after transplantation. This potential is totally abolished when muscle grafts were performed by the use of muscle from previously irradiated mice. As compared to marrow transplantation, muscle transplants were able to generate similar potencies to give rise to myeloid, T, B, and natural killer (NK) cells. Interestingly, marrow stem cells that have been generated in primary and then in secondary recipients were able to contribute efficiently to myofibers in the muscle tissue of tertiary recipients. Altogether, our data demonstrate that muscle-derived stem cells present a major hematopoietic repopulating ability with evidence of self-replication in vivo. They are radiation-sensitive and similar to marrow-derived stem cells in terms of their ability to generate multilineage hematopoiesis. Finally, our data demonstrate that muscle-derived hematopoietic stem cells do not lose their ability to contribute to myofiber generation after at least two rounds of serial transplantation, suggesting a potential that is probably equivalent to that generated by marrow transplantation.


Examination of models of nutrient-limited growth and uptake, nutrient patchiness, resource competition, and rand K-selection with respect to marine and freshwater phytoplankton indicates that organisms from both habitats are ecologically similar. However, there are differences in the physiology and ecology of phytoplankton within a given habitat (either marine or freshwater) during the course of succession. Even though the identity and basic ecology of organisms that are present early and late in successional sequences are generally known, little is known about their physiology. Marked differences in uptake ability, storage capacity, and growth and loss rates will be found for phytoplankton that can be ranked along an rthrough K-selection continuum. This continuum can serve as a unifying concept in phytoplankton ecology. There are numerous similarities between marine and freshwater phytoplankton, but papers and reviews that deal with their ecology often restrict coverage to organisms from one habitat or the other. In this paper we will examine a variety of topics currently of interest to phytoplankton ecologists in order to determine similarities or differences between phytoplankton from each environment. These topics include models of nutrient-limited uptake and growth, nutrient patchiness, resource competition, and rand K-selection. Several books on the ecology of marine (Morris 1980; Platt 198 1; Carpenter and Capone 1983) and freshwater (Reynolds 1984) phytoplankton have appeared recently, and they should be consulted for detailed information. In this review we will also contrast and compare the ecology and physiology of marine and freshwater phytoplankton that can be found along gradients of resource availability (e.g. varying nutrient levels) in either environment. There are substantial differences in the proportions of phytoplankton species representing the major divisions of algae in marine and freshwater environments, and sev' An international travel award from the National Science Foundation supported travel to the Symposium on the Comparative Ecology of Freshwater and Coastal Marine Ecosystems in Nairobi, Kenya. era1 important groups (classes and orders) are representative of one habitat or the other. The marine phytoplankton is dominated by numerous species of Chrysophyta (diatoms, coccolithophores, and silicoflagellates: Bold and Wynne 1985) and Pyrrhophyta (dinoflagellates). Several other groups of algae are at times either conspicuous or abundant, but they are represented by very few species. These include the Cyanophyta [=cyanobacteria; e.g. very small-celled species of Synechococcus or large bundles of Oscillatoria (Trichodesmium) filaments]. Another characteristic member of the marine phytoplankton is Halosphaera (division Chlorophyta, class Prasinophyceae), which has spherical green cells. Freshwater phytoplankton is well represented by species of most of the major divisions of algae that have a planktonic component. Therefore, a plankton sample from a lake may contain Cyanophyta, Chlorophyta, Chrysophyta, and Pyrrhophyta. Euglenophyta, which can usually be found in small ponds, are not common members of the freshwater phytoplankton (Round 198 1). A large number of species of Chlorophyta and Cyanophyta are found in freshwater, but not in seawater. Coccolithophores, which are characteristic of marine plankton, are rarely observed in freshwaters. Marine and freshwater ecologists generally approach the study of phytoplankton


By measuring the pharmacokinetics of dexamethasone in 48 patients with various degrees of disturbances in liver function, we could demonstrate a decrease in the metabolic clearance of this steroid by 53% if the activity of the plasma cholinesterase was lowered to less than 2 kU/l. Results suggest that the dosage of dexamethasone given for diagnostic or therapeutic purpose needs to be adjusted in such patients.


Superficial cervical plexus block in association with laryngeal mask for the airways control has improved the postoperative outcome, in comparison with a previous group in general anaesthesia, performed by the same equipment. The local anaesthetic infiltration as a preemptive analgesia give us good evidences in pain control. The laryngeal mask contributes to a good surgical field and avoid the neck hypertension.


In recent years, Senegal's developed a program of index insurance to cover farmers from economic losses due to drought. I investigate this emerging market in light of Jane Guyer's question: "What is a 'risk' as a transacted 'thing'?" To grasp the social practices required to make "rainfall deficit" a transferable risk, I explore the climate and market infrastructure that brings it into existence and follows actors who function as brokers allowing the risk to circulate from Senegalese fields to the global reinsurance industry. I show that the strategies set up to convince farmers to integrate a green and rational capitalist management of climate risks are very fragile, and the index insurance program only endures because it is embedded in the broader political economy of rural development based on debt and international aid.


Two groups of nurses were investigated during the course of two different types of night-shift rota. The purpose was to define, if possible, the optimum shift pattern for hospital night staff. The mental alertness of two groups of nurses was assessed, both subjectively and objectively, at the beginning and end of each night-shift of a set of nights being worked. Alertness was assessed subjectively by means of a visual analogue scale, and objectively by means of a computer generated test, the unprepared simple reaction time task. One group worked permanent nights and the other rapidly rotating nights. Subjectively the nurses felt they were more alert at the beginning than at the end of a night-shift, and also at the beginning of a span of nights than at the end. With computer testing, performance was broadly worse at the beginning of a shift than at the end. It was worse at the beginning of a span of nights, improving to a peak at around the fourth day, and then in the case of permanent nights, remaining about the same or deteriorating slightly towards the end of the span. The improvement by day 4 could be a practice effect or it may be that it takes this long to adjust to the new pattern of working as some authors have described. Debate centres around whether nurses should cease working nights just as they have become accustomed to them as in the rapid rotation, or continue for longer to gain benefit from this acclimatization as in permanent nights.


In 2000–2003, the Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health published a series of articles that gave an overview of some common statistical concepts and methods, such as standard errors, confidence intervals and hypothesis tests including the t-test, aimed at a clinical audience. In this paper, we continue in the same vein and present an introduction to linear regression, a commonly used technique to assess the association between two or more variables. The previous articles used the example of a comparison of verbal IQ at age 5 years between a group of children who were born with extremely low birthweight (<1000 g) and another group of children with birthweight 1000–1500 g (see fig. 3 in Carlin and Doyle). Another natural question that arises from these data is how to represent the relationship between IQ at age 5 years and birthweight without categorising the latter. This article introduces the concept of linear regression, where we fit a straight line to represent the relationship between two continuous variables, specifically addressing the question of how one variable may be predicted from the other. We describe the process of fitting a linear regression model and the interpretation of the parameters used to define the regression model. We also explain the close connection between linear regression and the t-test described in the previous series of papers when the exposure variable (birthweight in the above example) is a binary variable, such as birthweight categorised as <1000 g and 1000–1500 g. We begin with the simple scenario in which we are interested in the relationship between the outcome variable and just one 'independent' exposure or predictor variable, although later in the paper we discuss the concept of multivariable regression, where we are interested in the relationship of the outcome to multiple predictors, for example IQ at age 5 years predicted by both birthweight and gender.


Abstract Activator and inhibitor roles for the 88-kDa-secreted glycoprotein progranulin (PGRN) have been demonstrated in ovarian cancer cells. Here, we investigated the effects of PGRN in breast cancer migration. Testing MCF7, MDA-MB-453, and MDA-MB-231 human breast cancer cells and the MCF10A breast epithelial cell line, we demonstrate that LPA-induced PGRN stimulation led to a significant increase in cell invasion of MDA-MB-453 and MDA-MB-231 cells only (p < 0.05). Moreover, incubation with an anti-PGRN antibody, an inhibitor of the ERK pathway (PD98059) or both in combination inhibited the ability of MDA-MB-231 cells to invade. Furthermore, the expression of focal adhesion kinases promoted by LPA-induced PGRN was also inhibited by PD98059 alone or in combination with an anti-PGRN antibody (p < 0.05). Taken together, these results suggest that the LPA activation of PGRN involving the ERK pathway is critical to promote MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cell invasion.


HYDROLOGICAL ENVIRONMENT OF THE CASAMANCE ESTU~RY The general setting of the catch.ment of the Casamance river is described: the "sudanese" climate has a single, hot, rainy season and a cool, dry season with high evaporation, the flat, and often muddy, banks are covered rvith mangrove in the clown-stream part. The present drought has converted actively sulphnterednci~lg soils into highly acidic, saline soils. Underground n~ater is also salttainted, We furfher describe the main characteristics of the river itself: the overall slope of the river is pra.ctically nil; only tide currents are measurable, up to 240 km from the sea, from the present salinity pattern, the Casamance river is an inverse estuary, with an increasingly hyperhaline character (salinity peak of 172 x0 in June 86), phyfoplankton biomass and production testify the confined, and naturally eutrophic, state of the river, especially in its upper reaches.


. Significant reductions in carbon footprint can be achieved by increasing the use of biogenic materials in construction. In biogenic materials, carbon is embedded as long as the materials are not biologically degraded, and they consequently act as carbon reservoirs that keep CO 2 out of the atmosphere. The reservoirs of carbon are maintained if the biogenic materials during maintenance and renovation are replaced by similar ones. Buildings containing more wood, straw, and other biogenic materials and less concrete, steel, and mineral wool are therefore part of the way forward for a sustainable restructuring of the construction industry. Until now, the main focus has been on reducing energy consumption of buildings, while less focus has been on energy consumption and the climate impact from the production of materials and the construction process itself. This paper examines the potential carbon reservoir in the building stock in Denmark for the next 100 years. In detail the paper describes potential building components made from biogenic resources, outlines the necessary amounts and qualities of biogenic materials, and summarizes the available biogenic resources. The article is based on the conditions for construction in Denmark and the opportunities Denmark has as an industrialized agricultural country with a long coastline, which can be utilized in the production of biogenic resources for manufacturing of building materials.


We study the values produced by equivariant Artin L- functions at zero. We begin with three preliminary chapters providing the requisite background. In the fourth chapter, we derive expressions for the norms of the values of Artin L-functions attached to cyclic extensions of degree $2}m}p}n}$, where p is an odd prime number, m > 1 , and n > 0. We propose hypothetical expressions for the values themselves in terms of the Fitting ideals of two arithmetic modules over the ring of integers in a cyclotomic field, and validate the expressions and their local variants in several cases. In chapter five, the formulas from chapter four are used to study the Brumer- Stark conjecture and its local variants in several new cases. Our methods are similar to those used in the study of degree $2p$ extensions by Greither, Roblot, and Tangedal, excepting the use of the formulas from chapter four that enable proofs in our more general setting. Some results deal only with the annihilation statement of the p -primary part of the conjecture for degree 2p extensions. They hint that something deeper is happening with the p- primary part of the conjecture in the cases where general proofs cannot yet be given. In chapter six, the expressions from chapter four are used to study a new conjecture of Hayes concerning the precise denominators of the values of the equivariant L-functions at zero. A variant of this conjecture is proved for extensions of degree $2}m}$ using the formulas from chapter four. Following that, it is shown that the truth of the conjecture is preserved under lowering of the top field. We then prove the conjecture for extensions where both fields are absolutely Abelian of prime conductor. Lastly, a counterexample is provided to a stronger conjecture posed by Hayes in an unpublished manuscript


The late stages of the Variscan orogeny in western and central Europe are characterized by the emplacement of numerous Carboniferous granitic intrusions. In the southern part of the Armorican massif, volcanic and plutonic rocks occur within the Carboniferous series of the Ancenis basin. Chemical analyses indicate that they belong to the same magmatic high-K calc-alkaline association of peraluminous composition, which likely derives from crustal melting of an igneous source. A LA-ICPMS U-Pb/zircon age of 319.3 ± 3.1 Ma dates, for the first time, this magmatic event and, by there, constrains the maximum age of both the end of the sedimentation and the northward tilting of the sediments in the Ancenis basin. This magmatic event is coeval with the sedimentation of the coal-bearing Namurian basins located along the Nort-sur-Erdre fault. These intrusions are interpreted as the feeding conduits of the volcano-sedimentary layers encountered in these basins. This would imply a minimal dextral displacement of ca. 20-25 km along the Nort-sur-Erdre fault.


The Muon Collider is a possible option for the next generation of high energy collider machines. It would permit to achieve the energy frontier in lepton collisions, without occurring in significant synchrotron radiation losses as in electrons rings.Among the technological challenges in the realization of such a machine, the treatment of the beam-induced background is one of the most critical issues for the detectors.Beams with intensity of the order of $10^{12}$ muons per bunch are necessary to obtain the desired luminosity, therefore the muons decay rate is very high. Beam decay products and subsequent particles from secondary interactions with the machine elements can reach the interaction point, limiting the physical performance of the detector. A study of the beam-induced background is presented together with possible strategies for its reduction. Preliminary results on the reconstruction of a benchmark process, $\mu^+\mu^-\to H\nu\bar{\nu}\to b \bar{b}\nu\bar{\nu}$, including the beam-induced background are illustrated as demonstration of physics measurements feasibility in this harsh environment.


BACKGROUND
The finding of an elevated level of maternal serum alpha-fetoprotein during the second trimester of pregnancy may indicate that the fetus has died or is about to die. It is uncertain, however, whether the finding is associated with an increased risk of fetal death later in gestation independent of known causes of elevation, such as the presence of neural-tube defects or multiple gestation.

METHODS
To address this question, we performed a case-control study of 612 women whose pregnancies ended in fetal death and 2501 women who gave birth to live infants, using reports from California vital statistics for 1987. All the women had signleton pregnancies and alpha-fetoprotein screening in the second trimester.

RESULTS
Women with elevated levels of serum alpha-fetoprotein in the second trimester of pregnancy had an increased risk of fetal death, and the risk was increased until term. Women with the highest levels of serum alpha-fetoprotein--greater than or equal to 3.0 times the median value--had a very high risk of fetal death (odds ratio, 10.4; 95 percent confidence interval, 4.9 to 22.0) as compared with women who had normal levels of alpha-fetoprotein. Maternal serum alpha-fetoprotein levels that were 2.0 to 2.9 times the median were also associated with an elevated risk of fetal death (odds ratio, 2.4; 95 percent confidence interval, 1.7 to 3.4). Elevated levels of alpha-fetoprotein were especially likely to be associated with fetal death in cases in which maternal hypertension or placental infarction was also present. CONCLUSIONs. An unexplained elevated level of maternal serum alpha-fetoprotein in the second trimester of pregnancy is associated with an increased risk of subsequent fetal death, up to four to five months after alpha-fetoprotein screening.


The current cellular standardization for 5G is working towards wireless advances to enable further productivity for industrial automation. However, this development will take several years. Meanwhile, the capabilities of the currently available standards should be pushed to their limits. To this end, in this work, we present results from the first inter-slot successive interference cancellation testbed using commercial off the shelf IEEE 802.15.4 sensors. Through our implementation, we have measured a throughput of 0.72 packets per slot which doubles the currently used contention-based access, Slotted ALOHA, with a limit of 0.36 packets per slot. The hardware effects of the boards, which degrade the successive interference cancellation performance from the theoretical limit of 1 packet per slot, are modeled and validated through measurements. We also propose a model that can be used to calculate the expected successive interference cancellation throughput with the specific hardware available in a factory. Furthermore, our proposed model should replace the perfect physical layer assumptions for researchers to design new MAC algorithms taking practical limitations into account.


SIGNIFICANCE
Successful matching of cardiac metabolism to perfusion is accomplished primarily through vasodilation of the coronary resistance arterioles, but the mechanism that achieves this effect changes significantly as aging progresses and involves the contribution of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Recent Advances: A matricellular protein, thrombospondin-1 (Thbs-1), has been shown to be a prolific contributor to the production and modulation of ROS in large conductance vessels and in the peripheral circulation. Recently, the presence of physiologically relevant circulating Thbs-1 levels was proven to also disrupt vasodilation to nitric oxide (NO) in coronary arterioles from aged animals, negatively impacting coronary blood flow reserve.

CRITICAL ISSUES
This review seeks to reconcile how ROS can be successfully utilized as a substrate to mediate vasoreactivity in the coronary microcirculation as "normal" aging progresses, but will also examine how Thbs-1-induced ROS production leads to dysfunctional perfusion and eventual ischemia and why this is more of a concern in advancing age.

FUTURE DIRECTIONS
Current therapies that may effectively disrupt Thbs-1 and its receptor CD47 in the vascular wall and areas for future exploration will be discussed. Antioxid. Redox Signal. 27, 785-801.


Integrated passive devices (IPDs) have been widely used in advanced packaging of semiconductor chips, to improve their power integrity and impedance matching. There is a growing demand in guaranteeing signal and power integrity for the chips used in safety-critical products, such as those used in automotive, aviation, industrial, and defense systems, where IPDs help improve quality and reliability of the chips. Therefore, IPD testing and screening itself is essential. Note that the cost of replacing failed IPDs is much higher than the cost of manufacturing them, so screening bad IPDs before mounting is also crucial. In this work, we propose a machine learning (ML) based screening methodology to identifying the IPDs that have potential reliability issues. Based on the parametric data of 360,000 IPDs collected from the wafer probing test, the proposed Semiconductor Quality Net (SQnet) is trained to predict the IPDs which have low breakdown voltage, i.e., low reliability. Keeping the overkill rate below 10%, our method can screen out 6 to 15X more bad dies than the existing industrial methods, i.e., DPAT and GDBC.


Accurate performance prediction for cloud applications is an essential component to support many cloud resource management and auto-scaling policies. However, most existing studies on performance prediction for cloud applications in multitenant clouds are at the system level and may require access to performance counters in hypervisors. In this work, we propose uPredict, a user-level profiler-based performance predictive framework for single-VM (virtual machine) applications in multitenant clouds. We designed three micro-benchmarks to assess the contention of CPUs, memory and disks in a VM, respectively. Based on the measured performance of an application and micro-benchmarks, the application and VM-specific predictive models are derived by exploiting various regression and neural network based techniques. These models can then be used to predict the application's performance using the in-situ profiled resource contention with the micro-benchmarks. We evaluated uPredict extensively with representative benchmarks from PARSEC, NAS Parallel Benchmarks and CloudSuite, on a private cloud and two public clouds. The results show that the average prediction errors are between 10.4% to 17% for various predictive models on the private cloud with high resource contention, while the errors are within 4% on public clouds. A smart load-balancing scheme powered by uPredict is presented and can effectively reduce the execution and turnaround times of the considered application by 19% and 10%, respectively.


The "Kuznets curve" suggests that economicinequality first increases and then decreases during times of rapid economicgrowth.As influenced by the Kuznets curve, this research examines thecorrelation between entrepreneurial activity and wealth inequality by analyzinghistorical data from nineteenth century Massachusetts. The data for this study were collected from a variety of sources, includingMassachusetts' federal census data between 1820 and 1910 and property taxrecords.The limitations and advantages of each data set werediscussed.The development of wealth inequality is analyzed according tothree measures, which are the shares of total wealth possessed by the toppercentiles of the wealth distribution, the Gini coefficient, and the Theilentropy measure.The relationship between wealth inequality andentrepreneurial activity is examined, and an operational definition andexamples of entrepreneurial activities are included in thestudy.Additionally, the link between entrepreneurship and thedistribution of wealth is examined. The results of the data analyses indicate that entrepreneurial activity wasincreasing toward the end of the century, coinciding with the growth ofindustry and with the growth of wealth inequality.However, this increasein equality was indicated to be a result of changes within the non-entrepreneurpopulation.The implications of fluctuating rates of self-employment arealso discussed. (AKP)


One of the development goals is still to improve the level and quality of life of citizens through the use of financial market instruments. For this purpose the Ministry of Finance has issued the special bonds (OFZ-n) in 2017 intended for citizens (ISIN code − RU000A0ZYXW7). These bonds should have interested citizens as an investment object, becoming an alternative to bank deposits. Data on the placement of the latest issues OFZ-n indicate a decline in interest to them from investors. The article discusses the details of the structure of OFZ-n bonds, which determine their investment qualities. It has concluded that the emergence of OFZ-n did not fundamentally affect the investment behavior of Russian citizens, as a result of which the quality of citizens' savings portfolios remained at the same level.


The demands of taller structures are becoming imperative almost everywhere in the world in addition to the challenges of material and labor cost, project time line etc. This paper conducted a study keeping in view the challenging nature of high-rise construction with no generic rules for deflection minimizations and frequency control.

The effects of cyclonic wind and provision of outriggers on 28-storey, 42-storey and 57-storey are examined in this paper and certain conclusions are made which would pave way for researchers to conduct further study in this particular area of civil engineering.

The results show that plan dimensions have vital impacts on structural heights. Increase of height while keeping the plan dimensions same, leads to the reduction in the lateral rigidity. To achieve required stiffness increase of bracings sizes as well as introduction of additional lateral resisting system such as belt truss and outriggers is required.


Current technologies for acquiring spatial transcript information from tissue sections rely on either RNA probes or spatial barcodes. The former methods require a priori knowledge for probeset formulation; the latter have yet to achieve single cell resolution and/or transcript capture efficiencies approaching dissociative, single-cell methods. Here, we describe a novel spatial transcriptome assay called polony (or DNA cluster)-indexed library-sequencing (PIXEL-seq). It improves upon other spatial barcoding methods by employing "continuous" polony oligos arrayed across a customized gel surface. In terms of assay performance, PIXEL-seq attains ≤ 1 µm resolution and captures >1,000 unique molecular identifiers/10×10 µm2. In other words, this global, naive platform achieves subcellular spatial transcriptome mapping while maintaining high transcript capture efficiencies.


Electronics packaging (packaging) the method using an insulating protective resin layer made from one or more of the resin composition (1) to (3): (1) a polysiloxane 100 parts of an organic solvent-soluble resin having a skeleton and a polar group, an epoxy equivalent of 800 than the epoxy compound of 0.5 to 30 parts, and an organic solvent; (2) the polysiloxane framework and an organic solvent-soluble resin 100 parts of the epoxy equivalent of the epoxy compound, 0.1 to 10, 100 to 800 parts of polyisocyanate compound 2 to 30 parts, and an organic solvent having a polar group; And (3) a polysiloxane framework and an organic solvent-soluble resin 100 parts of an epoxy compound, 0.1 to 20 parts of an epoxy equivalent of 800, greater than 2 to 30 parts of polyisocyanate compound, and an organic solvent having a polar group.


The present study was designed to evaluate the relationship between serum leptin and infertility in obese young and old men and women. The groups of infertile obese men (n=66) and women (n=30) compared with control obese fertile men (n=60) and women (n=30) with same ages to find the contribution of serum leptin level in causation of fertility. The results revealed that serum leptin were significantly raised in infertile male and female with p<0.001. BMI was also found to be significantly higher (p<0.001) in infertile men and women. Moreover a strong positive correlation was found between BMI and leptin level, and serum leptin and age in both fertile and infertile men and women. The values of correlation coefficients between serum leptin and BMI, and serum leptin and age are statistically significant (r=0.3-0.6, p<0.01-p<0.05). This study has concluded that obesity is associated with infertility in men and women. Sex hormonal imbalance may also be associated BMI and serum leptin in infertility. However further studies are required to determine the exact match by which enhanced BMI and serum leptin levels to female and male infertility.


Transcriptional dysregulation is a central mechanism of Huntington's disease (HD) pathogenesis. Gene expression changes are extensive, particularly in the striatum, but specific, defining a transcriptomic signature enriched in neuronal genes. Epigenetic mechanisms control transcription, suggesting that epigenetic alterations might contribute to HD transcriptional dysregulation. To address this question, we combined RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq) and chromatin-immunoprecipitation followed by massively parallel sequencing (ChIP-seq) on the striatum of HD R6/1 transgenic and control mice. ChIP-seq experiments were performed using antibodies to RNAPII and H3K27ac, a histone modification marking active enhancers. Integrated analysis of RNA-seq and ChIP-seq data shows that H3K27ac and RNAPII are specifically decreased at down-regulated genes in R6/1 striatum relative to controls. Further data analysis reveals that genes targeted for down-regulation in R6/1 striatum exhibit a specific RNAPII and H3K27ac signature. This signature defines neuronal genes and identifies genes with elevated levels of RNAPII at gene body relative to transcription start site (e.g. RNAPII non-paused genes). H3K27ac occupancy parallels that of RNAPII and is elevated and spread throughout the body of the genes exhibiting the signature, suggesting that the signature delineates genes regulated through super-enhancers. Together, our results indicate that striatal RNAPII non-paused genes are under control of super-enhancers, regulate neuronal genes and are preferentially down-regulated in HD striatum. We anticipate that specific targeting of RNAPII non-paused genes might be a promising therapeutic avenue for HD.


The Japanese government has set a power sector goal for photovoltaic (PV) power usage to reach 53 million kW by 2030. To achieve the large-scale introduction of PV, a large storage capacity, in the form of pumped storage systems or batteries, is needed to store surplus electricity from PV plants. At the same time, in the transport sector, the electric vehicle (EV) is being developed as an environmentally friendly vehicle. To promote the diffusion of EVs, we need infrastructure that can charge EVs in a short time; a battery-switch station is one solution to this problem. This study 1) proposes the use of the station batteries as a countermeasure for surplus electricity from PVs and 2) conducts two relevant analyses. In the first analysis, we calculate the marginal value of a battery and an inverter using the Optimal Generation Mix Model (OPTIGEN). In the second analysis, we set the annual lease fee for the inverter and the battery, and calculate the optimum installed capacity of these devices. The results showed that the marginal value of the inverter/battery decreases with increasing inverter/battery capacity. The optimum installed capacity of the inverter/battery is derived from the intersection of the line of marginal value with the line of the annual lease fee. The stations gain an additional profit by leasing batteries to utilities.


Polymer networks undergoing cross-linking reactions are studied using molecular dynamics simulations to investigate how the stress is influenced by the coupling between cross-linking and deformation. For networks cross-linked in the undeformed state, the modulus increases linearly with the cross-link density as expected from rubber elasticity theory. When cross-links are added to a network that was uniaxially deformed, the stress remains constant in accordance with the independent network hypothesis of Tobolsky. When the deformed network is subsequently released, permanent set is observed. Using the independent network hypothesis, together with the affine theory of rubber elasticity, a constitutive model is developed that accounts for the effect of the coupling between the cross-link density and strain histories of the network. The permanent set predictions from the affine model are higher than found from MD simulations.


We find that the Raman G band for individual double wall carbon nanotubes is split when the two walls are closely spaced or strongly coupled. We show that agglomeration of tubes into bundles leads to line broadening and overlapping of the G bands from the inner and outer tubes. This demonstrates that the observed broadening is not due to defects in the tube walls. We identify the tube helicity of an individual double wall tube. The consequence of our finding is that mapping of the Raman G band allows us to access the dispersion state of carbon nanotubes in a composite matrix.


Employees spend at least one-third of their day at their work place. Since most of the time is spent at the work place, excess in working hours can cause the employees to feel burned out at the end of the week. These high emotional exhaustion and less personal time will cause the employees to adjust their own time in order to achieve preference hours of work. The utility company involves in this study practices 5.5 working days. Feeling overemployed, this will lead the employees to adjust their behaviour into choosing to be absent from work. Thus, this study focus on to examine: (i) whether working 5.5 days in a week currently implemented by the company has stimulated the employees to be absent from work as one of their effort to achieve a balance in their work-life style (ii) the relationship of Work-Life Balance and absenteeism in a utility company in Malaysia. A survey was conducted among the employees to explore their response towards absenteeism and work-life balance. The findings of this study highlighted the understanding of the work-life balance and absenteeism concept from the employees' perspective. Based on the findings of this research, working excessive hours stimulated the employees to be absent on the last working day of the week. The findings of this study also offer new perspectives which the company may need to consider in order to have employees who are more efficient.


Cohesive and adhesive bonding within the asphalt—aggregate system are directly related to the surface energy of the asphalt. The thermodynamic changes in the surface energy of adhesion and cohesion are related to the de-bonding of the interface between asphalt and aggregate and to cracks that may occur within the mastic, respectively. However, it is also true that thermodynamic changes in the surface energy are required to heal a fracture between the surfaces of the asphalt and the aggregate or within the mastic. The methodology and testing protocol for measuring the surface energy of asphalt are presented. Both the surface energy of dewetting (fracture) and the surface energy of wetting (healing) can be obtained from the contact angle measurement with the Wilhelmy plate method. Ten asphalts were tested; surface energies varied substantially as a function of asphalt composition and the level of aging to which the asphalt was subjected. By using thermodynamic theory, the adhesion and cohesion bonding energy within the asphaltaggregate systems were further analyzed. This analysis has the potential to select the most compatible asphalt—aggregate combination for mixtures. The surface energy is also a very important parameter in the fatigue and healing analysis of the asphalt pavement.


There is increasing recognition that clinically-derived measures of surgical outcome must be reconciled with patients' own perception of their post-treatment condition. Recently developed quality-of-life and symptom-score measures of outcome have drawn upon patients' own reports of functional status, in contrast to traditional, clinically-derived observations or technical measurements. Patient satisfaction research has been an independent growth industry whose focus has been patient feedback on quality of care received. This paper proposes that the research designs of neither tradition take full account of the personal significance, value or social meaning of a treatment for the patient, although the subject straddles both effectiveness and satisfaction. This begs the question of the value to clinicians of feedback on how worthwhile patients feel a procedure has been in their own cost-benefit terms? If this is also an important dimension of outcome assessment, the range of measures currently available cannot account for it. This paper explores possible reasons why existing patient-oriented measures address what is important to the clinician rather than the patient.


Efficient computations of pairings with Miller Algorithm have recently received a great attention due to the many applications in cryptography. In this work, we give formulae for the optimal Ate pairing in terms of elliptic nets associated to twisted Barreto-Naehrig (BN) curve, Barreto-Lynn-Scott(BLS) curves and Kachisa-Schaefer-Scott(KSS) curves considered at the $128$, $192$ and $256$-bit security levels, and Scott-Guillevic curve with embedding degree $54$. We show how to parallelize the computation of these pairings when the elliptic net algorithm instead is used and we obtain except in the case of Kachisa-Schaefer-Scott(KSS) curves considered at the $256$-bit security level, more efficient theoretical results with $8$ processors compared to the case where the Miller algorithm is used. This work still confirms that $BLS48$ curves are the best for pairing-based cryptography at $256$-bit security level \cite{NARDIEFO19}.


The nuclear factor of kappa light polypeptide gene enhancer B-cells inhibitor-alpha (NFKBIA) gene encodes a member of the nuclear factor-kappa-B inhibitor family. Polymorphisms in this gene might be associated with a susceptibility to acute rejection episodes following liver transplantation, as they may cause an increased activation level of the proinflammatory transcription factor nuclear factor of kappa light polypeptide gene enhancer in B-cells (NFκB). The aim of this study was to evaluate whether the NFKBIA polymorphisms -297 C/T (rs2233409), -826 C/T (rs2233406) and 126 G/A (rs696) affect the incidence of acute liver graft rejection. A total of 199 liver transplant recipients was analyzed, 100 without (NAR) and 99 with early acute rejection (AR). Thirty-two individuals with multiple acute rejections (MAR) were analyzed as a subgroup of AR. Polymerase chain reaction-allele specific restriction enzyme analysis (PCR-ASRA) and allele-specific hybridization with fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) were used for genotyping. We identified the genotype NFKBIA 126 AA (P = 0.002) as well as the haplotype NFKBIA-126A-297T-826T (P = 0.002) as a potential risk factor for the occurrence of recurrent acute rejections. Furthermore, we assessed an association between the 126 A allele and susceptibility to recurrent acute rejections (P = 0.027). Our data suggest that the NFKBIA 126 G/A polymorphism might be potentially helpful to identify liver transplant recipients with an increased susceptibility to develop recurrent acute rejections.


Prostate cancer has many treatment options. In addition to open retropubic and perineal approaches to radical prostatectomy, laparoscopic robotic prostatectomy is available as a newer surgical option. Potential advantages of robotic surgery include reduced pain and trauma, less blood loss, reduced infection risk, shorter hospital stay, faster recovery, and less scarring (Intuitive Surgical, 2005). A variety of nursing care considerations involving pre-operative education and preparation, intra-operative and immediate postoperative care issues, and long-term followup must be understood to meet the needs of a robotic surgical patient. Patient selection is very important to optimize a positive surgical outcome. Just as certain criteria make a good surgical candidate, there are factors that could complicate the surgery or adversely affect recovery.


The goal of this work is to provide a viable solution based on reinforcement learning for traffic signal control problems. Although the state-of-the-art reinforcement learning approaches have yielded great success in a variety of domains, directly applying it to alleviate traffic congestion can be challenging, considering the requirement of high sample efficiency and how training data is gathered. In this work, we address several challenges that we encountered when we attempted to mitigate serious traffic congestion occurring in a metropolitan area. Specifically, we are required to provide a solution that is able to (1) handle the traffic signal control when certain surveillance cameras that retrieve information for reinforcement learning are down, (2) learn from batch data without a traffic simulator, and (3) make control decisions without shared information across intersections. We present a two-stage framework to deal with the above-mentioned situations. The framework can be decomposed into an Evolution Strategies approach that gives a fixed-time traffic signal control schedule and a multi-agent off-policy reinforcement learning that is capable of learning from batch data with the aid of three proposed components, bounded action, batch augmentation, and surrogate reward clipping. Our experiments show that the proposed framework reduces traffic congestion by 36% in terms of waiting time compared with the currently used fixed-time traffic signal plan. Furthermore, the framework requires only 600 queries to a simulator to achieve the result.


The tropical dry forest (BTS) of Yucatan Peninsula has been managed for
centuries, but the relationship between these management efforts and their effects on trees diversity has not been
fully understood. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of forest management (thinning, harvesting
and enrichment of species), in the structure of secondary vegetation derived from dry tropical forests, in two
communities in Calakmul, Campeche, Southeast Mexico. We analyzed changes in the composition, species
richness, species diversity, and structure in secondary vegetation subject to following types of management: (1)
secondary vegetation with beekeeping management (MA), secondary vegetation with forest management (MF),
natural secondary vegetation (SM) and tropical dry forest (BTS). The species composition was similar between
secondary vegetation managed and unmanaged. On the other hand, between managed secondary vegetation and
BTS there were differences in species composition. Species richness was not different between all conditions.
MA showed the lowest species diversity and presented higher average density (5 413±770.26 ind.ha-1).MF had
lowest average density (3 289 ± 1 183.60 ind.ha-1). BTS showed the highest average basal area (24.89 ± 1.56
m2.ha-1) regarding the other conditions. We concluded that is necessary to keep monitoring the managed areas
to detect effects of management that may be adverse or favorable to conservation of floristic diversity of BTS.


Abstract. In order to explore planet Mars in detail and search for extra-terrestrial life the observation from orbit is not sufficient. To realize complex exploration tasks the use of automatic operating robots with a robust fault-tolerant method of navigation, independent of any infrastructure is a possibility. This work includes a concept of rotary-wing Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs) for Martian exploration in a swarm. Besides the scenario of Martian surrounding, with a small number of distinctive landmarks, the challenge consists of a Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) concept using laser data of all swarm members.


The article is organized in five parts. First part is introduction. In this part the research problem, the aim of this work and objectives are formulated. The aim of this work is as follows: after having analyzed an integrative model of determinants of key relationship marketing outcomes, to perform confirmatory factor analysis of the scale in order to assess if the same dimensions structure exists for parcel delivery services. The objectives of this work are: 1) to analyze T. Hennig-Thurau et al. (2002) model of determinants of key relationship outcomes, 2) to do survey of Lithuanian parcel delivery services consumers and to measure relationship quality using this instrument, 3) to perform confirmatory factor analysis in order to determine if dimensions structure of the model is the same for Lithuanian parcel delivery services. The problem solved in this paper is as follows: an integrative model of determinants of key relationship marketing outcomes was developed using a wide variety of services to expand the generalization therefore it is possible to examine context-specific relationships of a single service type. Moreover, it is not known if the same relationship quality dimensions exist in other than North-American cultural context such as Lithuanian culture. In the second part of this article relationship quality model suggested by T. Hennig-Thurau et al. (2002) is analyzed and research hypotheses are formulated. Hypotheses are formulated in order to test relationships between dimensions and their discriminant validity. In the third part of this work research methods are described. Confirmatory factor analysis process is analyzed. In the fourth part of this article the results of study are analyzed. Various goodness of fit statistics such as degrees of freedom and chi-square test, RMSEA, NFI, NNFI, PNFI, CFI, IFI, RFI, standardized RMR, GFI, AGFI, PGFI, D2, Fornell-Larcker test is analyzed in order to accept or reject hypotheses and to assess relationships between dimensions and discriminant validity of these dimensions. Nested models are compared with the original model and differences in goodness of fit statistics are examined. In the fifth part of this work final conclusions are formulated about model's reliability and validity in parcel delivery services setting.


This study examines financial performance and physician productivity in Veterans Affairs teaching hospitals following the elimination of a separate payment for the indirect costs of medical education. Financial performance of teaching hospitals in the VA system was no worse than nonteaching peers even without a teaching subsidy. Residents were found to provide patient care but this contribution to output was offset by indirect teaching costs of resident training. Physicians were less productive in teaching hospitals, possibly reflecting the time spent in training and supervising residents, while nurses were more productive. Finally, as staff size increases, the indirect costs of medical education decrease. Future downsizing of residency programs would financially benefit smaller-staffed VAMCs; larger-staffed facilities would lose.


In the atomic laser isotope separation process, the laser beams propagate through the atomic vapor over a long distance. It has been shown that the laser-atom interactions significantly modify the laser pulse shape and propagation velocity, resulting in degradation of the isotope separation efficiency. These propagation effects have been analyzed quantitatively, and a simple scaling formula has been derived to estimate the necessary laser energy for such optically thick atomic vapor. The optimum conditions of incident laser pulse have also been discussed.


We theoretically propose and demonstrate that chalcogenide waveguide is a more energy efficient platform for Raman-assisted wavelength conversion than silicon waveguide. In spite of its smaller Raman gain, ultra-high Stokes to anti-Stokes conversion efficiency of 5.5dB is observed for chalcogenide waveguide Raman wavelength converter, 10dB higher than its silicon counterpart. Linear phase match can be achieved in chalcogenide waveguide Raman wavelength converter by compensating the large normal material dispersion with waveguide dispersion along. However, nonlinear dynamic phase shift can cause significant fluctuation from the perfect phase match condition, resulting in 20dB efficiency reduction. In addition, we explore the influence of waveguide length on conversion efficiency for future device miniaturization.


The purpose of this paper is to explore the reception of George Berkeley in a particular corner of 20th-century Danish psychology and philosophy. In contrast to philosophers, such as Peter Zinkernagel and David Favrholdt, Danish experimental psychologists, including Edgar Rubin and Edgar Tranekjær Rasmussen, made highly appreciative reference to the methodology and experimental observations of Berkeley and David Hume. This paper focuses on these psychologists' interest in Berkeley's ideas. I will first present Rubin's path from a mosaic-like understanding of psychological phenomena (elemental psychology) to a holistic view, detailing what he termed adspective psychology and its method. I then turn to Rubin's embrace of certain experimental observations made by Berkeley and, in particular, by Hume concerning the minima visibilia. The second part of the paper deals with Tranekjær Rasmussen's interpretation of Berkeley's work, and in particular of his immaterialism, his notion of God, and his critique of abstract ideas.


For autogenic ecosystem engineers, body size is an aspect of individual performance that has direct connections to community structure; yet the complex morphology of these species can make it difficult to draw clear connections between the environment and performance. We combined laboratory experiments and field surveys to test the hypothesis that individual body size was determined by disparate localized physiological responses to environmental conditions across the complex thallus of the intertidal kelp Hedophyllum sessile, a canopy‐forming physical ecosystem engineer. We documented substantial (> 40%) declines in whole‐thallus photosynthetic potential (as Maximum Quantum Yield, MQY) as a consequence of emersion, which were related to greater than 10‐fold increases in intra‐thallus MQY variability (as Coefficient of Variation). In laboratory experiments, desiccation and high light levels during emersion led to lasting impairment of photosynthetic potential and an immediate > 25% reduction in area due to tissue contraction, which was followed by complete loss of structural integrity after three days of submersion. Tissue exposed to desiccation and high light during emersion had higher nitrogen concentrations and lower phlorotannin concentrations than tissue in control treatments (on average 1.36 and 0.1x controls, respectively), suggesting that conditions during emersion have the potential to affect food quality for consumers. Our data indicate that the complex thallus morphology of H. sessile may be critical to this kelp's ability to persist in the intertidal zone despite the physiological challenges of emersion and encourage a more nuanced view of the concept of "sub‐lethal stress" on the scale of the whole individual.


Mobility as a Service (MaaS) is a relatively new domain where new types of knowledge systems have recently emerged. It combines various modes of transportation and different kinds of data to present personalized services to travellers based on transport needs. A knowledge-based framework based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) is proposed in this paper to integrate, analyze, and process different types of mobility data. The framework includes a knowledge acquisition process to extract and structure data from various sources, including mobility experts and add new information to a knowledge base. The role of AI in this framework is to aid in automatically discovering knowledge from various data sets and recommend efficient and personalized mobility services with explanations. A scenario is also presented to demonstrate the interaction of the proposed framework's modules.


Yeast protein sequence-based homology search for glutathione (GSH) metabolic enzymes and GSH transporters demonstrated that Aspergillus nidulans has a robust GSH uptake and metabolic system with several paralogous genes. In wet laboratory experiments, two key genes of GSH metabolism, gcsA, and glrA, encoding γ-l-glutamyl-l-cysteine synthetase and glutathione reductase, respectively, were deleted. The gene gcsA was essential, and the ΔgcsA mutant required GSH supplementation at considerably higher concentration than the Saccharomyces cerevisiae gsh1 mutant (8-10 mmol l-1 vs. 0.5 μmol l-1). In addition to some functions known previously, both genes were important in the germination of conidiospores, and both gene deletion strains required the addition of extra GSH to reach wild-type germination rates in liquid cultures. Nevertheless, the supplementation of cultures with 10 mmol l-1 GSH was toxic for the control and ΔglrA strains especially during vegetative growth, which should be considered in future development of high GSH-producer fungal strains. Importantly, the ΔglrA strain was characterized by increased sensitivity toward a wide spectrum of osmotic, cell wall integrity and antimycotic stress conditions in addition to previously reported temperature and oxidative stress sensitivities. These novel phenotypes underline the distinguished functions of GSH and GSH metabolic enzymes in the stress responses of fungi.


This article re-claims and invigorates the debate on 'New Materialism' as it is unfolding within Marxist political economy specifically. We choose this site to make our intervention in the debate because, while Marxism claims to makes visible the poor, dispossessed and those 'left behind' in the contemporary global capitalist economy, we discern, in contributions made thus far, a marked tendency to sideline the rich tradition of feminist historical materialist scholarship. We contend that feminist analyses are vital in elucidating the 'gendered face' of global financial crisis and austerity. Accordingly, after first mapping the contours of current discussion, we briefly revisit feminist critiques of Marxism; interrogate the inter-relationship between neoliberal capitalism, the gendered nature of labour markets, the 'patriarchal' state and social reproduction and unpaid care work; and, finally, we further develop our argument through an analysis of the gendered impacts of current austerity measures in the United Kingdom.


Author(s): Nafissi, Maryam | Advisor(s): Johnson, Reid C | Abstract: In order to translate an mRNA into a protein, the ribosome has to proceed through initiation, elongation, and termination steps guided by mRNA signals and auxiliary protein factors. Translation initiation is highly regulated in prokaryotes and requires the step-wise assembly of ribosomal subunits, mRNA, initiator tRNA, and initiation factors. Even though binding between the 16S rRNA (anti-Shine Dalgarno) and its complementary sequence on the mRNA (Shine Dalgarno) is thought to be the major interaction driving translation initiation, additional cis- or trans-acting factors can also provide control. In the current work, we describe novel mRNA elements important for efficient translation initiation of the fis mRNA, which encodes a highly abundant Escherichia coli DNA binding protein. The fis mRNA is part of a bicistronic message that contains dusB at the 5f end encoding a tRNA modifying enzyme. Even though the cellular mRNA levels are comparable, Fis protein levels are much higher than DusB. Moreover, the translation of the downstream fis coding region does not depend on translation of dusB. Rather than relying on a SD sequence, fis translation requires upstream RNA elements located within the 3Oe end of dusB. These noncanonical elements include a conserved AU-rich sequence (AU) and a putative RNA stem-loop structure (SL). We propose that the AU element is involved in recruiting the 30S ribosome to the translation start site, whereas the SL indirectly enhances translation initiation via an anti-inhibitory mechanism. Previous studies have shown that cellular Fis levels are determined by multiple mechanisms of transcriptional regulation, and the present work now demonstrates that multiple and unusual mechanisms of translational control are also operating.Fis functions as a global transcriptional regulator and has also been proposed to play a role in chromosome organization and compaction. To investigate Fis binding to the E. coli chromosome in vivo, genome-wide ChIP-chip binding studies were performed under different growth and mutant conditions. Fis was found to bind prolifically throughout the chromosome, and as expected, genome-wide Fis binding decreases under growth conditions that reduce fis expression. Surprisingly, Fis binding was found not to be generally influenced by other abundant nucleoid-associated proteins like HU and H-NS. We analyzed Fis binding in vitro to subclasses of Fis binding regions identified by the ChIP-chip profiles. Narrow Fis binding peaks (l500 bp) were found to primarily consist of a single high-affinity Fis binding site in vitro whereas broad binding peaks (g1.5 kb) often contained 3-4 localized high-affinity Fis binding sites. These broad Fis binding regions are good candidates for chromosome organizing centers. In summary, work in this thesis advances our understanding of noncanonical translation initiation in prokaryotes and the targeted binding of the nucleoid-associated protein Fis to the E. coli chromosome.


In the univariate case, we show that by comparing the individual complexities of univariate cause and effect, one can identify the cause and the effect, without considering their interaction at all. In our framework, complexities are captured by the reconstruction error of an autoencoder that operates on the quantiles of the distribution. Comparing the reconstruction errors of the two autoencoders, one for each variable, is shown to perform surprisingly well on the accepted causality directionality benchmarks. Hence, the decision as to which of the two is the cause and which is the effect may not be based on causality but on complexity.
In the multivariate case, where one can ensure that the complexities of the cause and effect are balanced, we propose a new adversarial training method that mimics the disentangled structure of the causal model. We prove that in the multidimensional case, such modeling is likely to fit the data only in the direction of causality. Furthermore, a uniqueness result shows that the learned model is able to identify the underlying causal and residual (noise) components. Our multidimensional method outperforms the literature methods on both synthetic and real world datasets.


The performance of LIM is degraded due to the influence of the end effects. LIM is analyzed using the Fourier series expansion to throw light on this problem. However, when we want to obtain the high-accuracy in this technique, the number of times for calculation is increased. In the case of the wavelet transform technique, as the wavelet coefficients converge rapidly to zero, this technique has been applied to analyze the end effects of LIM. In this paper, we investigated the method for determining mother wavelet.


Mastoid Fistula treated by Insertion of Temporal Muscle Graft.—HAROLD KISCH. D.B., a boy, aged 9 years, was admitted to hospital 15.10.35 with a large left mastoid fistula. A mastoid operation had been performed three years previously, and the mastoid re-opened eighteen months ago. There was no discharge from the meatus, but a slight one from the fistula. The operation was performed on 22.10.35, and healing took place by first intention.


Introduction Pediatric hematology/oncology patients require numerous transfusions during myelosuppressive chemotherapy which may lead to red cell (RC) alloantibody formation. However, transfusion related alloimmunization in children has not been studied except in the neonatal and hemoglobinopathy populations. Variability of RC alloimmunization rates by cancer diagnosis has not been described and the immunosuppressive effect of chemotherapy on alloimmunization is unknown. One study has shown a reduction in IgM and IgG in pediatric leukemia patients receiving chemotherapy (Martin Ibanez et al Allergol Immunopathol 2003); hence, one could hypothesize that chemotherapy could suppress the alloimmune response. This study aimed to: 1) report the rate of alloimmunization in children receiving RC transfusions, 2) compare these rates between oncology and non-oncology patients, and 3) compare these rates based on cancer diagnosis and stage.

Methods TRACE-EC was a retrospective observational study using a large database containing patient blood utilization information from 3 academic hospitals. Patient inclusion criteria included: age ≥ 4 months and ≤ 17 years old at the time of receiving ³ 1 non-autologous RC transfusion between April 2002 and November 2011. Diagnoses were identified using ICD10 codes. Patients with immune disorders were excluded. Study patient cohort included patients with malignancies and recipients of hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) to treat a malignancy; control cohort included non-oncology patients who met the inclusion criteria. Patient and blood utilization data were extracted from the database, and chemotherapy data were obtained by retrospective review of patient medical records. Study patients were stratified for analysis based on cancer diagnosis and stage (surrogate for chemotherapy intensity). Cancer stage was categorized as low level (I, II, standard risk) and high level (III, IV, V, high risk). Control patients with hemoglobinopathy were analyzed separately due to their high alloimmunization rate (Aygun et al. Transfusion 2002).

Results There were 1253 patients in the study: 944 in control group; 309 in study group. Females made up 49% of control group and 43% of study group. Mean age was 8.6 years (SD 6.4) in control group, and 7.2 years (SD 5.5) in study group. The frequency of alloimmunization and RC utilization by diagnosis in control and study groups is summarized in [Table 1][1]. Overall, a statistical difference in the frequency of alloimmunization was not demonstrated between control patients (4.3%) and study patients (5.5%), p=0.40. When hemoglobinopathy patients were removed from the control group, frequency of alloimmunization decreased to 3.8% (p=0.19). Alloimmunization occurred in 5.4% (10/186) and 5.7% (7/123) of patients with a high level and low level cancer stage respectively, p=0.91. HSCT recipients had a higher rate of alloimmunization than non-HSCT but this was not statistically significant (11.4% vs. 4.5% respectively, p=0.07). Alloimmunization occurred in 4.9% of patients with hematologic malignancies and 7.1% of patients with solid tumors (p=0.44).

View this table:

Table 1
Frequency of alloimmunization in control and study group by diagnosis.

Conclusions This is the first study that has looked at the frequency of alloimmunization in transfused pediatric patients by diagnostic category and cancer stage. The study confirmed high alloimmunization rates in hemoglobinopathy patients. No difference in the frequency of alloimmunization was observed based on cancer diagnosis, stage, or HSCT status. Further studies are needed to assess the effect on alloimmunization of the high RC utilization rate shown in cancer patients and HSCT recipients.

Disclosures: Heddle: Health Canada: Research Funding; Canadian Blood Services: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding; CIHR: Research Funding.

 [1]: #T1


Inorganic phosphate (Pi) is an important polyanion needed for ATP synthesis and bone formation. As it is found at millimolar levels in plasma, it is usually incorporated as a constituent of artificial CSF formulations for maintaining brain slices. In this paper, we show that Pi limits the extracellular zinc concentration by inducing metal precipitation. We present data suggesting that amino acids like histidine may counteract the Pi‐induced zinc precipitation by the formation of soluble zinc complexes. We propose that the interplay between Pi and amino acids in the extracellular space may influence the availability of metals for cellular uptake.


The objective of this study was to determine whether brow elevation occurs as a result of paralysis of brow depressors after botulinum toxin A injection. The study's design was a prospective case series with pretreatment and posttreatment outcome evaluation with statistical analysis at a university-based division of facial plastic surgery private clinic. Twenty-two patients of a consecutive sample desiring a cosmetic enhancement underwent injection of botulinum toxin A directed to brow depressors. Injections consisted of 7 to 10 units of botulinum toxin A (Botox, Allergan, Irvine, Calif.) into selected brow depressor muscle (lateral orbicularis oculi) bilaterally. No patients withdrew for adverse effects. All patients were evaluated 2 weeks after treatment. The outcomes were measured by change in brow elevation along vertical axis extending from both midpupil and lateral canthus to the caudal row of brow hairs with eyes at neutral gaze and the head at Frankfort plane. Preintervention and postintervention brow height was measured by the primary clinical investigator. The average brow elevation from the midpupil observed after selected injection of brow depressors with botulinum toxin A was 1.02 mm (p = 0.038). The average brow elevation from the lateral canthus observed after selected injection of brow depressors with botulinum toxin A was 4.83 mm (p < 0.0001). Significant temporal brow elevation occurs as the result of paralysis of brow depressors by using botulinum toxin A injection. This procedure may be considered an alternative to surgical brow elevation.


The number of chemicals in our society and in our daily lives continues to increase. Accompanying this is an increasing risk of human exposure to and injury from hazardous substances. Chemical hazards can range from those present in industrial manufacturing processes, to those under the kitchen sink of the average household. Performing regular, structured surveillance of chemical exposures and events allows a greater situational awareness with respect to the common chemical hazards causing injury and the frequency of their occurrence as well as providing a better understanding of exposures. This information can be used to introduce measures to better protect public health from hazardous chemical exposures. This chapter aims to give an overview of surveillance for chemical events, including some of the sources which may be used, examples of the types of chemicals involved in exposures and the rationale for conducting regular surveillance and implementing a structured surveillance strategy.


*Corresponding author: email@example.com doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/njtd.v17i3.8 ABSTRACT: Roads are essential necessity of every nation and it is possible that even with proper designs, the roads might not be constructed to the design standard due to poor quality assurance and control resulting in poor pavement quality. This study presents experimental results carried out on various hot mix asphalt (HMA) samples obtained across different Asphalt plants in South West Nigeria. This was done to determine the extent to which the HMA used in the construction and rehabilitation of Nigerian roads affect their service life. Six samples of the asphalt binder (bitumen) were obtained from each plant over a period of six months and tested. The tested properties were assessed based on the level of conformance with the specifications and requirements from the FMWH General Specification (Roads and Bridges). The results revealed that HMA from plant B had a specific gravity of 1.01, penetration of 65.00 mm, softening point of 53 C, flash point of 237.00 C, peak Marshall Stability of 18.25 kN, flow of 3.87 mm and voids in total mixture peak value of 5.08 %. HMA from plant E had a specific gravity of 1.03, penetration of 65.00 mm, softening point of 51 C, flash point of 239.00 C, peak marshall stability of 18.26 kN, flow of 3.67 mm and voids in total mixture peak value of 4.99 % and these were adjudged the best in conformance with the FMWH specifications. Adequate monitoring of HMA quality for either binder or wearing courses by carrying out quality control and assurance tests is thereby recommended as it affects pavement durability and performance.


The Lambert guidance method has been widely used to steer the ballistic missile in the boost phase. However, only the two-body dynamics-based Lambert algorithm is valid in most practical applications due to the high requirement for computing efficiency. To deal with this problem, an analytical state deviation prediction model of missile subject to J2 perturbation term is proposed in this paper. The differential equation with respect to state deviation vector of missile is built in the Local-Vertical-Local- Horizontal (LVLH) frame, and the state transition matrix of this differential equation obtained in previous work is used to derive the analytical state deviation prediction model based on the linear system theory. The J2 term gravitational acceleration is regarded as perturbing term in this differential equation and is also expressed in the LVLH frame by using the knowledge of spherical trigonometry to satisfy the conditions of analytical solution derivation. By using this analytical model, the impact deviation of missile caused by the J2 term can be calculated in each guidance cycle. Then the velocity required to hit the target is modified by a feedback algorithm. Simulations conducted in this paper have verified the accuracy of this analytical model and its effectiveness in the missile guidance applications


The objective of this study is to evaluate, by means of
BHI Agar diffusion method, the anti-microbial action of
four calcium hydroxide-based formulations as intracanal
medication. Therefore, three microbial groups were
used: Enterococcus faecalis, Bacillus subtilis and Candida
albicans. Based on the analysis of the results, by means
of the Kruskal-Wallis statistical test, complemented
by the multiple comparisons test, to a significance level
of 5%, it was found that the Calen™ , with or without
PMCC and Hydrocal™ without iodoform, showed no
antimicrobial activity against the 3 cultures used, not
showing statistical difference. The Hydrocal™ with iodoform
did not act against the cultures of Candida albicans
and Enterococcus faecalis, but against Bacillus
subtilis only.
Key words: Endodontics. Drug resistance. Microbial.
Calcium hydroxide.


BACKGROUND
Intraluminal nutrients increase superior mesenteric artery (SMA) blood flow. Little is known about the effect of circulating nutrients.

METHODS
The effect of a commercially available mixed amino acids solution, given either intravenously (IVAA) or intraduodenally (IDAA), on SMA hemodynamics was investigated in five healthy volunteers (three men, two women; 20-30 years old). Amino acids were given at a rate of 250 mg protein/kg/h for 2 h. Saline was used as control solution. Doppler ultrasound measurements of SMA hemodynamics were performed after 0, 30, 60, and 120 min.

RESULTS
IVAA had no significant effect on SMA hemodynamics. In contrast, IDAA significantly (P < 0.05) increased SMA flow volume by 60-80% over basal and the IVAA experiment. This increase in SMA flow volume during IDAA resulted primarily from a significant (P < 0.05) increase in time-averaged velocity. During IDAA both the peak systolic velocity and the end-diastolic velocity increased significantly (P < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS
In healthy subjects intraduodenal, but not intravenous, amino acids significantly increase SMA blood flow.


Many biological structures of interest are beyond the diffraction limit of conventional microscopes and their visualization requires application of super-resolution techniques. Such techniques have found remarkable success in surpassing the diffraction limit to achieve sub-diffraction limited resolution; however, they are predominantly limited to fluorescent samples. Here, we introduce a non-fluorescent analogue to structured illumination microscopy, termed structured oblique illumination microscopy (SOIM), where we use simultaneous oblique illuminations of the sample to multiplex high spatial-frequency content into the frequency support of the system. We introduce a theoretical framework describing how to demodulate this multiplexed information to reconstruct an image with a spatial-frequency support exceeding that of the system's classical diffraction limit. This approach allows enhanced-resolution imaging of non-fluorescent samples. Experimental confirmation of the approach is obtained in a reflection test target with moderate numerical aperture.


We study the effect of b to s sbar s scalar/pseudoscalar operators, originating from penguin diagrams of neutral Higgs bosons in the MSSM, in B to K eta(') and B to phi K^* decays. These operators can be Fierz-transformed into tensor operators, and the resultant tensor operators could affect the transverse polarization amplitudes in B to phi K^* decays. We find that only when the weak annihilations in B to phi K^* into account, the polarization puzzle can be resolved, so that new physics effects are strongly suppressed and no more relevant to the enhancement of the transverse modes in B to phi K^* decays.


The order of the chiral phase transition of lattice QCD with unimproved staggered fermions is known to depend on the number of quark flavours, their masses and the lattice spacing. Previous studies in the literature for Nf ∈ {3, 4} show first-order transitions, which weaken with decreasing lattice spacing. Here we investigate what happens when lattices are made coarser to establish contact to the strong coupling region. For Nf ∈ {4, 8} we find a drastic weakening of the transition when going from Nτ = 4 to Nτ = 2, which is consistent with a second-order chiral transition reported in the literature for Nf = 4 in the strong coupling limit. This implies a non-monotonic behaviour of the critical quark or pseudo-scalar meson mass, which separates first-order transitions from crossover behaviour, as a function of lattice spacing.


Image super resolution is the process of combining a set of overlapping low-resolution images to produce a single high-resolution image. In this paper, a novel real-time super-resolution system is presented which is based on a weighted mean super-resolution algorithm combined with the existing fast and robust multi-frame super-resolution algorithm. The resource requirements of the proposed architecture scale linearly with the targeted image quality, making it ideally suited for a variety of real-time applications such as HDTV. Simulation results demonstrate a speed-up of three orders of magnitude over optimized software implementations with negligible loss to image quality.


Intrapulmonary aberrant needles are relatively rare in clinical practice. An aberrant needle can be transported via the following four routes: transcutaneous, transbronchial, transesophageal, or hematogenous (1,2). Patients with intrapulmonary aberrant needles may have symptoms such as cough, bloody sputum, chest pain, or respiratory distress, but there are also asymptomatic cases that are found accidentally (3). Bronchoscopic removal may be attempted; however, in cases where the needle penetrates into the lungs transbronchially, it may be necessary for patients to undergo surgery (3). We report a case of an intrapulmonary aberrant needle that was removed surgically.


Due to the very limited ability of cardiac tissue to self-regenerate, the replacement of damaged cardiomyocytes and the repair of damaged extracellular matrix (ECM) are highly sought-after therapeutic strategies. Cell transplantation in ECM scaffolds has been shown to improve retention, phenotype, and function in vascular and muscle repair. In addition to cellular patches that involve the use of biomaterial scaffolds in combination with cells, acellular patches may have a role in intrinsically recruiting cells to damaged areas. This review focuses on the clinically relevant ECM scaffolds, their interactions with cells to stimulate functions such as adhesion, migration, proliferation, and differentiation, and their intrinsic role in ECM remodeling leading to vascular and possibly myocardial repair.


The cell arrangement is one of the most crucial rules for designing an efficient cooling system of the lithium-ion battery pack in electric vehicles (EVs). This study focused on the decreasing of the temperature of the battery pack with simple arrangements that utilized the space and the turbulent airflow passing the battery pack was considered. Furthermore, this paper aims to comparative analysis of different arrangements (aligned, staggered) with an increasing number of columns and adjusting the gaps between the cells to reduce the temperature of the battery. Parametric analysis effected on the cooling performance is studied on a cylindrical battery pack with a forced air-cooling system in axial-flow configuration based on computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The results showed that the increase in the number of columns leads to reduce the air velocity and lower the heat dissipation of the battery. Furthermore, the aligned arrangement has the best cooling performance. After adjusting the gaps between the center of battery cells found that the temperature decreased by increase the gaps between cells due to the gaps lead to improve the turbulent flow which was larger heat transfer and the gap at 13 mm is the best option in this study.


Export can play a vital role in contributing to a nation's economic wealth. Therefore in order to develop and increase export performance the assessment of the determinants of export performance is an important step toward achieving sustainable economic growth of a nation. Moreover while the overall importance of exporting is acknowledged the differences between regional and metropolitan exporters have received little attention even though improving the export performance of SMEs in regional locations has become an area of emerging importance to governments and researchers alike. The contribution to knowledge of this thesis is the finding that regional exporters do have inherent challenges specific to their location however, location does not significantly impact on their export performance when compared with their metropolitan counterparts. Thus, this thesis answers the research question: What are the factors that contribute to successful export performance of regional and metropolitan SME exporters? Whilst reviewing the extant literature, several variables were identified that have a direct association with a firm's export performance such as firm location, firm resources, capability development and export market environment. It was proposed in this research that a firm's location influences a firm's resources and therefore their ability to develop capabilities which in affect will impact on export performance. Furthermore, the direct association of firm resources and capabilities on export performance was considered. Finally, this research also suggests that the export market environment has a direct association with the ability of the firm to develop resources and capabilities and also a direct relationship with a firm's export performance. The research design adopted for this study comprised three distinct stages, firstly a review of the existing literature, secondly, an exploratory stage consisting of eleven depth interviews and finally, a quantitative survey of SME exporters was conducted. ii Two export performance models derived from the literature review and the exploratory research were developed for testing and comparison. The first model (referred to as RBV Model A) is based on the Resource Based View (RBV) and suggests that a firm's resources and capabilities provide the platform for export success. The model also considers the relationship of firm location and the export market environment on resources and capabilities. This research also further develops the model (referred to as referred to as RBV Model B) proposed by Morgan, Kaleka and Katsikeas (2004) which assumes that resources available to a firm in fact impact on a firm's ability to develop capabilities. In this instance, the Competing Model also includes the impact on export performance of firm location and the export market environment. The two models were tested with data from one hundred and fifty SME export ventures originating from Queensland, Australia. The data was collected through an online survey with a 14 percent response rate and was analysed using structural equation modeling (AMOS). Variables from both models proved to be significantly related to export performance which was measured in terms of "Strategic Goals Achieved" and "Satisfaction with Export Venture". The RBV Model A reported a positive relationship from a firm's location to firm resources and then a positive relationship to export performance. It was also found that changes in the export macro environment had a positive association with a firm's resources and the export micro environment influenced a firm's product development activities. The RBV Model B did not achieve an adequate model fit but the results did highlight that there was a moderate relationship between a firm's location and resources and that a firm's capabilities did partially predict export performance. In summary, the findings indicate that a firm's location does impact on firm resources but the results of this research revealed that there was no significant difference between regional and metropolitan exporters in terms of export performance. Furthermore this study contributes to theory development by examining the mediating affects of multiple export market environmental influences iii on export performance. This study also makes important theoretical contributions to export performance, suggesting that the Resource Base View incorporating export market environmental factors is a valid framework within which to study the export performance of SMEs. Future research could consider the specific characteristics of the export market environment and the domestic environment and their influence on export performance. This could lead to a greater precision in delineating and understanding the impact of different environmental forces on export performance.; ; Submitted in the fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, University of the Sunshine Coast, 2009.


The actions of 5-HT, bradykinin and adrenaline on the isolated human umbilical artery (HUA) were examined in paired isometric and isotonic preparations and in paired isometric and perfused preparations at both low (approximately 20 mmHg) and high (approximately 120 mmHg) oxygen tensions. The response to each agonist was potentiated by the higher oxygen tension in all test systems. The relative potency of the three agonists studied was similar using each of the experimental techniques. The contractions to stepped increments in oxygen tension were compared in isometric and isotonic preparations. The thresholds were found to be 20 and 28 mmHg respectively. The maximum contraction occurred at 234 and 199 mmHg respectively. In the perfused (constant flow rate) preparations, oxygen did not evoke any increase in perfusion pressure unless the vessel was held under longitudinal tension, in which case the pressor responses were similarly concentration dependent as for isometric and isotonic preparations. Responses to 5-HT, bradykinin and adrenaline in the perfused preparation were similar with or without application of longitudinal tension. It is concluded that oxygen may contract only the longitudinal muscle whereas 5-HT, bradykinin and adrenaline act on both longitudinal and circular muscle. The possible roles which these agonists may play in the regulation of umbilical blood flow are discussed.


Purpose: To study the effect of metformin on polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) and insulin resistance (IR) in rats, and the mechanism involved. Methods: Eighty healthy female SD rats, aged 6 weeks, were selected. Three groups of rats were used: model, metformin + PI3K inhibitor, and metformin groups, with 20/group. Testosterone, leutenizing hormone (LH), and follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) were assayed by enzyme-linked assay (ELISA), while HOMA-IR was calculated from fasting blood sugar (FBG); the effect of metformin on the IR of PCOS rats was determined. The expressions of PI3K and AKT in ovaries and liver of rats in each group were assayed by Western blotting. Results: Fasting blood glucose, fasting insulin, and insulin resistance index were markedly higher in model than in control rats, and also significantly higher in inhibitor-treated rats than in metformin rats (p < 0.05). Relative to control, FSH level was higher, while levels of LH, LH/FSH ratio and testosterone in the metformin group were significantly lower (p < 0.05). The expression levels of PI3K and AKT in the ovary and liver were reduced in the inhibitor group, relative to the levels in metformin-treated rats (p < 0.05). Conclusion: Metformin mitigates PCOS-linked ovarian changes and IR in rats via PI3K/AKT route. These findings may be useful in the design of new drugs.


This paper reviews the developments, challenges and issues in e-commerce in Southeast Asian countries. Given its implications for public policy, it focuses on e-commerce using the Internet. The review covers the developments in transaction values, the state of infrastructure (communication systems, payment systems, distribution and delivery systems), socioeconomic, cultural and legal environment and the regional and national initiatives. It also discusses the benefits and impacts as well as the emerging challenges and issues in e-commerce using the Internet. It then summarizes by identifying the main opportunities and challenges in e-commerce for countries in the region.


IntroductionAs a psychiatrist, I frequently realize these days that there are many ways in Buddhist path to keep mind healthy, to keep oneself balanced at adversities and to help heal mental agonies or ailments. If they are well analyzed and used in day to day practice, we will be able to enjoy and regain health in case we fall sick and make our life meaningful through our own and familiar strategies. It is a great achievement for modern medicine to be accepted by people with local flavor, culture and oneness. To be sought help only during compelled situations by needy people is not the real fame and regard for a field including medicine. It needs to be available, acceptable and affordable to be popular; but here, I am not going to discuss on this line. My intension is to express my imagination, wish and concern about how we can make our service more familiar, culture friendly and acceptable among our service users. I find the example from Thailand relevant here. Buddhist monks are actively involved in the treatment of a great problem there, i.e. Opiate and other psychoactive substance use disorders; the approach has proved its effectiveness. My hearty wish is that may such types of approach of mental health service win the heart of people of our society which is yet largely to understand and accept mental ailments as diseases/ disorders, and to seek help from health service providers. When people heartily accept and utilize, only then the services established with a great resources will achieve the objectives of both the service providers and seekers. This is the need of the current psychiatry in Nepal.


Anatoly Breslavsky — Research Fellow, Institute for Mongolian, Buddhist and Tibetan Studies, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Science. Address: 6, Sakhyanovoi St., Ulan-Ude, 670047, Russian Federation. E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com paper reviews the field of suburban studies in Russia and abroad. It shows that the geographical expansion of these studies beyond developed countries has emphasized the limited applicability of Anglo-American approaches and Western suburbanization theories. Following this argument the paper further assesses the state of suburbanization research in Russia. In particular, it shows that this research remains underdeveloped in spite of offering rich analytical prospectives. The first part of the article discusses the diversity of suburbanization processes in the modern world, including the countries of the Global North (USA, UK and others), where suburbanization has had a long history, and developing countries of Latin America, Africa and Asia, where the processes of suburbanization started to expand massively only in 1980–1990. Particular attention is paid to the processes of suburbanization in modern Russia, characterized by the rapid and massive development of suburban areas around major cities. By reviewing the studies conducted by Russian and international scholars, several basic models and directions of suburbanization in Russia and other post-Soviet countries, are outlined and compared with the processes of suburbanization in other regions of the world. The second part of the article presents findings from research conducted in the suburbs Ulan-Ude, the capital of the Buryat Republic (Eastern Siberia). This case study shows that the formation of the suburban zone near Ulan-Ude was largely driven by rural migrants. Since most of them have low economic resources, this has emphasized the problems of poverty in the suburbs and the formation of squatter settlements. This bears certain resemblance with how suburbanization proceeds in many other developing countries of the modern world.


Rate Adaptation (RA) is a fundamental mechanism in 802.11 systems. It allows transmitters to adapt the coding and modulation scheme as well as the MIMO transmission mode to the radio channel conditions, to learn and track the (mode, rate) pair providing the highest throughput. The design of RA mechanisms has been mainly driven by heuristics. In contrast, we rigorously formulate RA as an online stochastic optimization problem. We solve this problem and present G-ORS (Graphical Optimal Rate Sampling), a family of provably optimal (mode, rate) pair adaptation algorithms. Our main result is that G-ORS outperforms state-of-the-art algorithms such as MiRA and Minstrel HT, as demonstrated by experiments on a 802.11n network test-bed. The design of G-ORS is supported by a theoretical analysis, where we study its performance in stationary radio environments where the successful packet transmission probabilities at the various (mode, rate) pairs do not vary over time, and in non-stationary environments where these probabilities evolve. We show that under G-ORS, the throughput loss due to the need to explore sub-optimal (mode, rate) pairs does not depend on the number of available pairs. This is a crucial advantage as evolving 802.11 standards offer an increasingly large number of (mode, rate) pairs. We illustrate the superiority of G-ORS over state-of-the-art algorithms, using both trace-driven simulations and test-bed experiments.


Statistics indicators specific chronological series to permit the establishment of the average efficiency of a portfolio of tools for a defined period of time and compare it with the return on other financial instruments or portfolios of securities. It also provides a number of valuable information for the investor of capital, the latter having such an opportunity to diversify its portfolio by attracting financial instruments with a radament higher.