Harpellales (Zygomycota: Trichomycetes) fungi are cosmopolitan obligate inhabitants of the gut of immature insects. A biweekly survey of gut fungi associated with chironomid (Chironomidae: Diptera) larvae living in the impounded water from Eryngium cabrerae (Apiaceae) phytotelmata from Punta Lara forest, Argentina, was done Jan 2003–Dec 2004. Two species of Harpellales were associated with chironomid larvae, Smittium phytotelmatum in the hindgut of Polypedilum sp. and Stachylina lentica in the midgut of both Polypedilum sp. and Metriocnemus eryngiotelmatus. No statistically significant differences were recorded in the prevalence of these Harpellales between seasons. Environmental variables (temperature, rainfall and relative humidity), impounded water volume, pH and chironomid larval density did not have an effect on the prevalence of the Trichomycetes.


There are the results of a study of the factors determining the formation and changes in the filtration properties of a heap leaching stack formed from pelletized poor sandy-clay ores. An analysis of methods of investigation of filtration properties of ore material for different stages of heap leaching plots functioning is carried out. Influence of segregation process during stack dumping on formation of zones with very different permeability parameters of ore has been established by experimental and filtration works. The construction and application of a numerical model of filtration processes in pelletized ores based on laboratory experiments is shown. By means of solution percolation simulation at different irrigation intensities the justification of optimal stack parameters is provided in terms of the geomechanical stability and prevention of solution level rise above the drainage layer.


This paper discusses the procedure for the determination of the optimum leakage inductance of a medium frequency transformer (MFT) for a quasi-two-level (Q2L) operating three-phase modular multilevel converter dual-active bridge (MMC-DAB) considering the effects of the MFT winding configuration. Three different winding configurations-namely, Y-Y, D-D, and Y-D-are considered for the connection of the MFT windings. The optimum leakage inductance requirement of the MFT, the currents total harmonic distortion (THD), and the transformer utilization factor (TUF) are compared for the three winding configurations. It is found that the Y-Y and the D-D configurations have similar optimum leakage inductance patterns, which are different from the Y-D configuration. Furthermore, it is established that an optimized leakage inductance value for a conventional DAB, can be utilized for the Q2L-operating MMC-DAB for a wide range of transition time with the Y-Y and the D-D winding configurations if less than a 5% error could be tolerated in its value. A comparison with respect to the TUF and the currents THD revealed that the Y-Y and the D-D configurations result in a higher TUF compared to the Y-D configuration; However, the Y-D configuration has approximately two times lower currents THD compared to the other two configurations.


1. Protocols for Voice Over IP and Interactive Applications. IP Telephony fundamentals. SGCP, MGCP and NCS-Overviews. H.323. An Overview of the ITU-T Approach for VoIP Telephony. SIP-Summary of Features of the Session Initiation Protocol. 2. Media Transport in Packet Networks. RTP and RTCP-Definitions for Media Transport in IP Networks. RSVP The Resource Reservation Protocol. A Quick Look at AAL2 for Voice Transport. Edge Bandwidth Management-A Look at AAL2. 3. Basic Call Control for Voice Telephony. An Overview of SS7. The Services of SSCP and TCAP. Call Control in Packet Networks. Heterogeneous Call Setup-Mapping SS7 to IP-Based Call Control. Closing Thoughts on Mixed Network Voice Telephony. 4. Metrics for Voice Quality. Voice Quality in Converging TDM and IP Networks. Auditory Perception and Testing Methodologies. Perceptual Speech Quality Measurement. Voice Quality Test Instrumentation. Echo Measurement and Control. Summary. 5. A Simple Case Study in Measurements. Objectives. From the Big Picture to the Lab. Equipment Setup and Configuration. Baseline Measurements. Testing with Connected Gateways. Observations and Conclusions. 6. Voiceband Call Considerations- A Detailed Look at Fax. A Look at a Real-Time Trace of the T.30 Protocol. Fax over Packet Networks. Real-Time Internet Fax-T.38. Basics of V.34 Fax. Group 3 Fax Error Correction Mode (ECM). Voiceband Data Transport Revisited-AAL2. Summary of the Fax Discussion and Possible Issues. References. Index.


The effects of blast furnace profile on operation are investigated. The investigation is made by use of mathematical simulation models that are able to evaluate the operational conditions as follows: pressure drop, fuel rate and stability against channeling. The considerable number of furnace profiles are evaluated under the condition that inner volume, furnace height and hearth diameter have been given. In this investigation, geometrical parameters of furnace profile on furnace condition are clarified, and the better furnace profile for the furnace condition is shown.


The action of two pyrimidine analogs, 2-thio-cytosine and 2-thio-5-methyl-cytosine has been studied on Ehrlich adenocarcinoma, sarcoma 180 and Walker carcinosarcoma. The different action induced by these substances on the tumour growth is pointed out. Particular consideration is given to the different response of the tumours to 2-thio-5-methyl-cytosine and the behaviour of its inhibiting action during experiments is pointed out. Some hypotheses on the mechanism of action of these compounds are advanced, basing upon the different responses given to the same substances by microbiologic systems and by fibroblasts cultures from chick embryos.


Spectral imaging and detection of mid-infrared (mid-IR) wavelengths are emerging as an enabling technology of great technical and scientific interest; primarily because important chemical compounds display unique and strong mid-IR spectral fingerprints revealing valuable chemical information. While modern Quantum cascade lasers have evolved as ideal coherent mid-IR excitation sources, simple, low noise, room temperature detectors and imaging systems still lag behind. We address this need presenting a novel, field-deployable, upconversion system for sensitive, 2-D, mid-IR spectral imaging. Measured room temperature dark noise is 0.2 photons/spatial element/second, which is a billion times below the dark noise level of cryogenically cooled InSb cameras. Single photon imaging and up to 200 x 100 spatial elements resolution is obtained reaching record high continuous wave quantum efficiency of about 20 % for polarized incoherent light at 3 \mum. The proposed method is relevant for existing and new mid-IR applications like gas analysis and medical diagnostics.


Objectives An evidence-based approach to clinical practice guidelines includes expressing the confidence that the desirable consequences outweigh the undesirable consequences for a particular recommendation. This is often done by expressing the strength of recommendation and the quality of evidence. The overall quality of evidence rating however is not the same thing as the confidence in the evidence that the summation of beneficial effects outweighs the summation of harmful effects. The objective of this year's workshop is to extend the concepts of last year's well-received workshop on determination of the net effect estimate and review how one can rate the certainty of net benefit. Method Members of the GRADE Working Group struggling with how to convey the concept of Overall Certainty of Evidence for a concept when fully contextualised in the guideline development process came to realise that directly expressing Certainty of Net Benefit would be clearer and more useful for guideline users. The workshop facilitators have actively developed a protocol for determining the Certainty of Net Benefit and applied it to numerous examples. The concept is currently in development within the GRADE Working Group and is not current GRADE guidance. Results The 7-step process to determine the Certainty of Net Benefit is: determine the outcomes to be combined for a net effect estimate; determine the relative importance for each outcome to be combined; determine the importance–adjusted effect estimate for each outcome to be combined; determine the net effect estimate upon combining the importance–adjusted effect estimates; consider the precision of the net effect estimate and its influence on the certainty of net benefit or harm; consider which outcomes are potential differentiators for the likelihood of net benefit and the certainty of effect estimates for potentially differentiating outcomes; and consider the range of relative importance for outcomes and if the net effect estimate across the range of relative importance changes the Certainty of Net Benefit rating. Conclusions The Certainty of Net Benefit is a clearer way of expressing the overall confidence that the benefits outweigh harms for a particular decision or recommendation. The 7-step process allows guideline developers to explicitly determine and rate the certainty of net benefit. Workshop participants will determine the Certainty of Net Benefit for a sample recommendation.


The white rot fungi Stereum ostrea displayed a wide diversity in their response to supplemented inducers, surfactants, and copper sulphate in solid state fermentation. Among the inducers tested, 0.02% veratryl alcohol increased the ligninolytic enzyme production to a significant extent. The addition of copper sulphate at 300 μM concentration has a positive effect on laccase production increasing its activity by 2 times compared to control. Among the surfactants, Tween 20, Tween 80, and Triton X 100, tested in the studies, Tween 80 stimulated the production of ligninolytic enzymes. Biosorption of dyes was carried out by using two lignocellulosic wastes, rice bran and wheat bran, in 50 ppm of remazol brilliant blue and remazol brilliant violet 5R dyes. These dye adsorbed lignocelluloses were then utilized for the production of ligninolytic enzymes in solid state mode. The two dye adsorbed lignocelluloses enhanced the production of laccase and manganese peroxidase but not lignin peroxidase.


aflpdat is a collection of R functions that facilitates the handling of dominant genotypic data. It converts data from a standard tab-separated table to the input formats of the following programs: arlequin, structure, treecon, paup and hickory. In addition, it calculates the proportion of polymorphic markers in each population, and estimates gene diversity as the average proportion of pairwise differences between individuals with confidence intervals based on bootstrapping across markers. It also produces summary tables of marker frequencies and the presence or absence of markers in each population. aflpdat can be downloaded from http://www.nhm.uio.no/ncb/.


Auditory biofeedback systems in the field of sports are increasingly adopted to provide an online guidance to the people performing actions. This paper concentrates on swimming and on producing auditory feedback intended to enhance the perception of the interaction between a swimmer's body and the surrounding water masses while swimming. The information is related to the concept of `feel-for-water', that is a key factor to produce an effective propulsion, through a correct perception of the boundary effects of body and water. The presented system is composed of pressure sensors, plastic tubes ending between the swimmer's hand fingers on the dorsal and palmar side, a microcontroller reading the sensors and sending data to a PC for further processing producing the auditory feedback through interactive sonification. We focus on the system setup and present a simple parameter-mapping sonification design as an example, along with possible extensions of the system and other sonification designs. Finally, we present video and audio examples of the system.


CD4(+) T cells in the mucosa of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract are preferentially targeted and depleted by HIV. As such, the induction of an effective anti-HIV immune response in the mucosa of the GI tract-through vaccination-could protect this vulnerable population of cells. Mucosal vaccination provides a promising means of inducing robust humoral and cellular responses in the GI tract. Here we review data from the literature about the effectiveness of various mucosal vaccination routes--oral (intraintestinal/tonsilar/sublingual), intranasal, and intrarectal--with regard to the induction of immune responses mediated by cytotoxic T cells and antibodies in the GI mucosa, as well as protective efficacy in challenge models. We present data from the literature indicating that mucosal routes have the potential to effectively elicit GI mucosal immunity and protect against challenge. Given their capacity for the induction of anti-HIV immune responses in the GI mucosa, we propose that mucosal routes, including the nonconventional sublingual, tonsilar, and intrarectal routes, be considered for the delivery of the next generation HIV vaccines. However, further studies are necessary to determine the ideal vectors and vaccination regimens for these routes of immunization and to validate their efficacy in controlling HIV infection.


Infections, tumors, nutshells, and foreign bodies may all be seen clinically as unusual lesions of the palate in children.1,2 We describe the case of an infant girl who had a palatal lesion, eventually determined to be secondary to a scald burn. We emphasize this case because the eventual diagnosis was not considered until almost 2 months after the patient was first seen, at which time additional history was elicited.
 CASE REPORT
 C.P. was a 4-month-old girl referred to our hospital for evaluation and treatment of poor weight gain with a palatal lesion. She was delivered by cesarean section for cephalopelvic disproportion after an uncomplicated fullterm pregnancy; her birth weight was 3,820 g (90th percentile).


Background: Interleukine-2 and Cyclophosphamide are known to influence the circulating T cells and are used for immune manipulation in cancer patients. We analyzed the influence on the Treg population in three different dendritic cell (DC) vaccine trials including either concurrent interleukine-2 (IL-2), combined IL-2 and metronomic Cyclophosphamide (MCy), or only MCy.Methods: Melanoma patients received treatment with autologous DCs. IL-2 was applied in trial I and II and MCy was applied in trial I and III. Flowcytometry analysis was performed on fresh drawn blood-samples measuring CD4, CD25 and CD127.Results: In the trials where IL-2 was applied a marked increase in the proportion of CD4+CD25+CD127- Tregs from baseline to the 4th vaccine was observed. This was followed by a decrease, although not to baseline values. Additional analysis showed that the inhibitory function was predominant in the CD49d- subpopulation of Tregs which only increased slightly during treatment. The absolute lymphocyte count (ALC) and the number of CD4+ T cells also increased in these trials. In the trial where only MC was applied the Tregs remained stable throughout the trial whereas \\ decrease in the ALC and CD4+ T cells were observed.Conclusion: We found that adjuvant treatment with low doses of IL-2 during DC vaccination therapy causes a significant increase in blood level of classically defined, CD4+CD25+CD127-, Tregs but far less in the CD49d- subpopulation and that the use of MC was unable to reduce Treg blood level and unable to counteract IL-2 dependent increase in the CD4+CD25+CD127- T cells.These findings have implications for the clinical use of IL-2 as well as MCy as immune modulators.


Taking over the management and ownership of a farm contributes positively to farm growth but little is known about how farmers succeed after the starting phase. We analysed how farmers that have recently started their farm enterprises are going to develop their farms and how do they differ from more experienced farmers in some key farm management areas. Data were collected by postal survey from farmers of the Salo region in South-Western Finland. Farmers were categorized into three different groups according to a combination of their age and experience. Farmers who were in the early phase of taking over a farm had better education and better networks than their older counterparts. Younger farmers considered their networks to be more important than did their senior colleagues. The early phase farmer group invested significantly more and had more liabilities than the other two groups. Moreover, early phase farmers were the most active at developing their farms. The late phase farmers were the least active, even when they knew they were going to transfer their farm to next generation within the next few years. Farms should be developed continuously in order to improve the viability of whole farming sector.


The topic of this symposium has allowed me to indulge myself in addressing a number of pet complaints, ranging from the pernicious effects of Sherlock Holmes on the self-image of forensic scientists, to the dangers of relying on fiction in the teaching of evidence. It is not often that one has the opportunity to deal with such a diverse catalogue of peeves in a single piece, and still claim that they are central to the topic set out by a symposium organizer. We owe this to the special nature of the subject for this symposium: A novel about the actual investigation of a real criminal case by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who of course is best remembered as the writer who created Sherlock Holmes, a fictional character (for those of you who were unsure). What we are to examine is art imitating life imitating art imitating life.The first ``art" in that sentence is the art brought to bear by the novelist Julian Barnes in the creation of his 2005 novel Arthur & George. This novel is a novel of a particular sort. It is based on an actual episode of crime and punishment, and is peopled dominantly with characters who had real historical existence. If all fictional art must imitate life in some broad sense, in order to be intelligible as fiction about worlds bearing on our own, such a work as Arthur & George promises to ``imitate life" in a special way not applicable to other fiction. Thus, such a novel is a creative exercise under the special constraint of staying reasonably close to the historical record, and we will have occasion to examine how well Barnes performs under this constraint.In order to know how well Barnes' art imitates life in this special way, we will have to know something about the lives being imitated, and their relevant factual details and contexts.The central characters to be examined are, of course, Arthur Conan Doyle and George Edalji, George was the elder son of an unlikely couple in Victorian rural Staffordshire. His father, Shapurji Edalji, was a Bombay-born Parsi convert to Christianity who became a minister of the Church of England, found himself essentially stranded in England after his ordination, and in 1874 married a twenty-nine-year-old Englishwoman named Charlotte Stoneham. As a wedding gift, one of Charlotte's clergyman uncles arranged for the appointment of Shapurji to be his replacement as vicar of St. Mark's parish in the village of Great Wyrley, Staffordshire, upon the uncle's retirement. Shapurji became vicar in December of 1875 when Charlotte was nearing the end of her first pregnancy. George was born in the vicarage of St. Mark's on January 22, 1876. The story of the Edalji family, from George's childhood to his conviction in connection with a series of nocturnal animal maimings in 1903, is in some ways almost literally incredible, and it is one of two main foci of Barnes' novel. Of necessity, the day-to-day details of the lives of George and his family, and the community in which they were embedded, are less well-known and well-documented than those of the much more famous Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. As might be expected, the relative paucity of information seems to have tempted Barnes to give himself wide latitude in portraying those lives and that community. Whether Barnes yielded too far to that temptation in ways that violate the special constraints of such a work, by failing to investigate and take into account the actual details of what is known, is a subject to which the article devotes considerable examination.Conan Doyle next. And Holmes. The special popular allure of the Edalji case arises from the fact that Conan Doyle decided that George had been the victim of a miscarriage of justice, and set out to right it by investigating the ``real facts" of the case. In essence, the creator of Sherlock Holmes set out to play Sherlock Holmes in real life. So if Conan Doyle's fictional Holmes himself in some way claimed to imitate life (as I have already said all fiction in some sense must), now Conan Doyle was setting out to imitate the product of his literary art, Sherlock Holmes, in real life. In order to see the significance of these characters, real and fictional, (whichever is which in the given context), the article examines at length the meaning of Holmes in late Victorian culture and thereafter, and also examines Conan Doyle at length, to see how he compares to Holmes, and to the Conan Doyle of Arthur & George.


Phospholipase A was purified 16.3-fold in terms of specific activity from the venom of Bungarus multicinctus by ion exchange chromatography on a CM-Sephadex C-25 column followed by gel filtration on a Sephadex G-75 column. The overall enzyme yield was 3.5% from the crude venom. The molecular weight and isoelectric point of the purified enzyme were estimated to be 14,000 and 7.9 by electrophoresis on SDS-polyacrylamide gel and on polyacrylamide gel for isoelectric focusing, respectively. The enzyme was a single polypeptide chain consisting of 118 amino acids. Its N- and C-terminal residues were asparagine and glutamine, respectively. The enzyme was stable in the pH range of 2--10 and retained full activity after incubation for 24 h at 37 degrees C. The optimum hydrolysis of egg yolk phosphatidyl choline was observed at pH 8.5 and the specific activity was 1,450 units per mg of the enzyme. The enzyme was inactivated by treatment with p-bromophenacyl bromide, accompanied by the loss of one of two histidine residues.


This paper aims to evaluate how the aggressiveness of each state's response to the COVID-19 pandemic affected their respective economies from Q2, 2020 through Q2, 2021. In our study, we utilize the scale developed by McCann (2020, 2021), which ranks the least aggressive state response to the most aggressive state response at three different points of the pandemic. Through this methodology, test the impact of the aggressiveness of each state governments' response with the resulting economic impact within that state. Namely, we examine how this level of response affected each state's unemployment rate, gross domestic product growth, and taxable sales growth of 27 various industries. In our analysis, we find that there was a significantly negative impact between each states response aggression and unemployment rates, GDP growth, and taxable sales for a sizable percentage of the analyzed industries. These results appear to remain consistent when we both analyze the instant quarterly impact of the restrictions imposed on a state, and when we factor in a quarter lag for each state's response.


To date, 162 asteroids are known to be binary or multiple systems. Insights, such as the size and shape of their components, the nature of their surface, their bulk density are the key to understanding how these multiple asteroidal systems formed.

We obtained 19.9h of observations using the Spitzer/IRS instrument to observe 26 known binary systems: 17 main-belt asteroids and 9 near-Earth asteroids. The low-resolution (R=100-600) thermal spectra (5-42 um) recorded by this instrument provide a powerful means of determining the asteroid size and albedo, as well as other physical properties, such as shape, spin state, thermal inertia, and surface roughness. Additionally, thermal emissivity spectra have strong silicate features (Si-O stretch and bend fundamentals at 10 and 20 um), which can be used to characterize the surfaces of asteroids and infer the best meteorite analog. To be able to recover the geometry of the binary system at the time of Spitzer observations, we initiated a large campaign of photometric observations with a worldwide network of observatories to measure lightcurves. We also recorded high S/N reflectance spectra in the visible and near-infrared using the IRTF and Lick telescopes.

This survey is currently being conducted and the thermal infrared spectra of 23 binary asteroids have been successfully recorded. We will present their analysis emphasizing how these bulk density measurements are related to their taxonomic classes. Preliminary results suggest that C-type binary asteroids are composed of lower density material (bulk density of 1.2 g/cm3), than S-type asteroids ( 2.2 g/cm3), and the M-type Kalliope ( 3.3 g/cm3, see Descamps et al., Icarus, 2008). Their bulk density is systematically lower than their meteorite analogs suggesting a significant porosity of 30-50%.

This research was supported by NASA PAST NNX07AP70G and it is based on Spitzer space telescope, which is operated by JPL under a contract with NASA.


Explaining variation in the abundance of species remains a challenge in ecology. We sought to explain variation in abundance of Neotropical forest birds using a dataset of population densities of 596 species. We tested a priori hypotheses for the roles of species traits, environmental factors, and species interactions. Specifically, we focused on four factors: 1) body mass (trait), 2) habitat type (environmental factor), 3) net primary productivity (NPP; environmental factor) and 4) species richness of competitors (species interaction). Body size explained much variation in density, although only when analyzed at higher taxonomic levels. Habitat type was a strong predictor of density. The relationship between density and productivity was weak. Densities were related negatively to the species richness of heterospecifics. This trend was particularly strong within closely related groups. Our results show that the influence of energetic factors such as body size and productivity depends on phylogeny, and that they act through indirect relations with other variables; alternative ecological factors such as habitat structure and species interactions play a more direct and stronger role in determining abundance than previously thought.


Big data analysis has gained significant popularity within the last few years. The MapReduce framework presented by Google makes it easier to write applications that process vast amount of data. MapReduce targets at large commodity clusters where failures are not exceptions. However, Hadoop, the most popular implementation of MapReduce performs poorly under failures. Hadoop implements the fault tolerance strategy at the task level, as a result, a task failure will require a re-execution of the whole task regardless of how much input has already been processed. In this paper, we present BeTL which introduces slight changes to the execution flow of MapReduce, and makes it possible to gain a finer-grained fault tolerance. Map tasks can create checkpoints so that a retrying task doesn't have to start from scratch and thus saves much time. Speculation strategy can also benefit from this. The new execution flow involves less IO operations and performs better than Hadoop even under no failures. In our experiments, BeTL outperforms Hadoop by 6.6 percent on average under no failures and 4.6 to 51.0 percent under different failure densities.


In teacher education programmes, written portfolios or text-based self-evaluations are generally used to document the development of student teachers' competence. However, such approaches do no justice to the complex nature of teaching as they tend to lead to evidence in which teacher competencies are disconnected and removed from the actual teaching practice. In one postgraduate teacher education programme, video narratives were evaluated as a valid way to assess student teachers' teaching competencies, promoting connections amongst different competencies, situating these in practice and showing their development over time. Data were gathered from self-reports of both teacher educators and student teachers as well as student teachers' completed video narratives. Most student teachers succeeded in meeting the set criteria for the video narrative assignment with connected video clips and text frames. However, student teachers also came up with only a few video episodes and loosely connected clips, reflections and other sources. Although most of the students during the programme did explicitly reflect upon their personal development towards becoming a teacher, almost none of them explicitly connected these ideas to their long-term development. We conclude that video narratives show potential to be used as a valid assessment of student teachers' teaching competence. Yet, structured guidance as well as ill-structured assignments are needed in framing assessment of student teachers in teacher preparation: the former to clarify the aims, format and criteria and the latter to enable student teachers to reflect on their teaching in a personally, meaningful way.


The World Health Organization endorsed voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) in 2007 as an effective method to provide partial protection against heterosexual female-to-male transmission of HIV in regions with high rates of such transmission, and where uptake of VMMC is low. Qualitative research conducted in east and southern Africa has focused on assessing acceptability, barriers to uptake of VMMC and the likelihood of VMMC increasing men's adoption of risky sexual behaviours. Less researched, however, have been the perceptions of women and sexual minorities towards VMMC, even though they are more vulnerable to HIV/AIDS transmission than are heterosexual men. The purpose of this paper is to identify core areas in which a gendered perspective in qualitative research might improve the understanding and framing of VMMC in east and southern Africa. Issues explored in this analysis are risk compensation, the post-circumcision appearance of the penis, inclusion of men who have sex with men as study respondents and the antagonistic relation between VMMC and female genital cutting. If biomedical and social science researchers explore these issues in future qualitative inquiry utilising a gendered perspective, a more thorough understanding of VMMC can be achieved, which could ultimately inform policy and implementation.


OBJECTIVES
To assess the efficacy of antibiotic prophylaxis for prevention of urinary infections and renal parenchymal damage in children with primary vesicoureteral reflux (VUR).

METHODS/RESULTS
A search based on MEDLINE and The Cochrane Library was performed selecting those clinical trials and meta-analysis which compared antibiotic prophylaxis (either continuous or intermittent) and placebo or no treatment at all in children with primary VUR. Three systematic reviews were chosen for assessing the efficacy of prophylaxis of urinary infections including trials with a predominant paediatric population without known VUR. Results showed that the use of antibiotics decreased the risk of urinary infection. The quality of the trials was, however, insufficient and therefore of questionable results. We also selected two randomized controlled trials in children with reflux: one had limited information as the degree of reflux was not stated; the second assessed the results in a population of 113 children with VUR grade I to III (55 receiving prophylaxis and 58 not) following acute pyelonephritis. There were no differences with regard to the risk of urinary infection or the risk of renal parenchymal damage.

CONCLUSIONS
There is not enough evidence supporting generalized use of antibiotics to prevent urinary infections. No benefit in prophylaxis has been proven for VUR grades I to III. There is no data for high grade VUR. It will be necessary to perform more trials in order to establish more accurate recommendations on prevention of urinary infections in the presence of VUR.


The Institute of Medicine (IOM) Roundtable on Population Health Improvement's workshop summary titled Business Engagement in Building Healthy Communities highlights how local and regional stakeholders can be effective community leaders for improving population health and sustainable health care delivery in their communities. 1 This commentary shares an innovative model for effective collaboration we have developed in the Nashville region. We believe this model will serve our community well and could serve as a model for other communities interested in creating community-driven solutions to improve the health and well-being of their populations.


Methods for topological link prediction are generally referred to as global or local. The former exploits the entire network topology, the latter adopts only the immedi- ate neighbourhood of the link to predict. Global methods are believed to be the best performing. Stochastic-Block-Model (SBM) is a global method believed as one of the best link predictors and widely accepted as reference when new methods are proposed.


We study classifiers operating under severe classification time constraints, corresponding to 1-1000 CPU microseconds, using Convolutional Tables Ensemble (CTE), an inherently fast architecture for object category recognition. The architecture is based on convolutionally-applied sparse feature extraction, using trees or ferns, and a linear voting layer. Several structure and optimization variants are considered, including novel decision functions, tree learning algorithm, and distillation from CNN to CTE architecture. Accuracy improvements of 24-45% over related art of similar speed are demonstrated on standard object recognition benchmarks. Using Pareto speed-accuracy curves, we show that CTE can provide better accuracy than Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) for a certain range of classification time constraints, or alternatively provide similar error rates with 5-200X speedup.


The present study considers an Hermitage piece of Hellenistic pottery from the group known as Bosporian "aquarelle" pelikai once made in the North Pontic region. This vessel with added color painting showing a half-figure of a syncretic goddess should be referred to as belonging to a local type of sepulchral pottery imitating Attic red-figure vases of the Kerch style. The author of the article discusses semantics of the painted image, which seems to be thoroughly familiar, on the one hand, from general religious tradition of the Classical world, and on the other — from that of Asia Minor in particular. The study also touches upon the technique of vase painting and the date of the group of vessels under consideration, based on its exact archaeological context.


We investigate electron transfer processes in donor-acceptor systems with a coupling of the electronic degrees of freedom to a common bosonic bath. The model allows to study many-particle effects and the influence of the local Coulomb interaction U between electrons on donor and acceptor sites. Using the non-perturbative numerical renormalization group approach we find distinct differences between the electron transfer characteristics in the single- and two-particle subspaces. We calculate the critical electron-boson coupling αc as a function of U and show results for density-density correlation functions in the whole parameter space. The possibility of many-particle (bipolaronic) and Coulomb-assisted transfer is discussed.


The Tamil Nadu government is attempting to revive the institution of kudimaramathu by leveraging a scheme sponsored by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development to rejuvenate small waterbodies in the state. How a payment for ecosystem services system can incentivise village panchayats to engage in tank management and, in turn, ensure the sustainability and longevity of the community-based programme beyond the life of the project is explored. Due to changing weather patterns, several regions in India are experiencing frequent and prolonged droughts. However, most of these regions also face devastating fl oods caused by short but intense spells of rain. Both climactic extremes affect farmers adversely. To mitigate agrarian distress while trying to double farmers' income, effective national policies are needed. This article explores how a payment for ecosystem services (PES) system can complement the efforts of the government in reviving the age-old practice of kudimaramathu, a traditional participatory water management system, and can potentially help sustain the community-based programme at the grass-roots level. Tamil Nadu, a highly water-stressed state, intends to revive the traditional institution of kudimaramathu, wherein farmers collectively contribute a percentage of capital or physical labour towards managing village waterbodies. This inc ludes desilting tanks and feeder canals, raising the existing bunds, and regular maintenance work. The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) is to sponsor this project by disbursing a signifi cant part of a `3,000 crore budget to rejuvenate 41,000 tanks by 2020. Under this scheme, the Tamil Nadu government will allocate funds for the rejuvenation work, and the benefi ciaries—mostly farmers—will contribute 10% of the project cost. Where tank management interventions during the British rule and in the post-independence period by successive governments failed to revive the institution of kudimaramathu, will the government's efforts to revive it allow people in Tamil Nadu to successfully and sustainably manage the state's waterbodies?


Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), a pneumonia-like disease with a pattern of acute respiratory symptoms, remains a major public health concern that is causing tremendous human suffering. There is no approved drug for the direct treatment of the disease, although several vaccines have been approved for use. Exploring medicinal plants and their phytochemicals has emerged as possible therapeutic alternatives since they are affordable and present minimal toxicity effects. This study sought to investigate the potential of the phytochemical compounds isolated from ethanolic leaf extract of Spondias mombin as potential therapeutic agents against SARS-CoV-2. From a select list of bioactive compounds extracted from the leaf of Spondias mombin with known antiviral properties, we identified Geraniin and 2-O-Caffeoyl-(+)-allohydroxycitric acid as potential SARS-CoV-2 inhibitors targeting SARS-CoV-2 RNA-dependent polymerase, the receptor-binding domain (RBD) of SARS-CoV-2 viral S-protein and the 3C-like main protease (3CLpro). Analysis of the binding mechanism of these compounds is characterized by the formation of high-affinity intermolecular interactions with respective binding site residues of SARS-CoV-2 RNA-dependent polymerase, 3CLpro, and RBD of viral S-protein, which subsequently contributed to favourable binding affinity. Using the Molecular Mechanics/Poisson-Boltzmann Surface Area (MMPB-SA) approach, Geraniin exhibited a binding free energy (ΔGbind) of -25.87kcal/mol and − 21.74kcal/mol, respectively, whereas 2-O-Caffeoyl-(+)-allohydroxycitric acid exhibited a ΔGbind of -32kcal/mol towards 3CLpro. Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations revealed crucial structural changes induced by the identified inhibitors, which possibly interfered with enzyme functions. The molecular insights provided regarding the inhibitory potency of the two phytochemicals warrants further experimental evaluation towards discovering novel SARS-CoV-2 therapeutics.


Sterol oxidation products derived from cholesterol and phytosterol are formed during the processing and storage of foods. The objective of the present study was to assess the potential unfavorable effects of oxysterols in mice. C57BL/6J mice were fed an AIN-93G-based diet containing 0.2 g/kg of oxycholesterol or oxyphytosterol for 4 weeks. The most abundant oxysterol in the diet was 7-ketosterol, but α-epoxycholesterol, β-epoxycholesterol, or 7α-hydroxyphytosterol, and 7β-hydroxyphytosterol were more prominent than 7-ketosterol in the serum and liver respectively. Consumption of both oxysterols resulted in an increased in 4β-hydroxycholesterol and total oxycholesterol in the liver, but the oxycholesterol-fed mice had a lower level of cerebral 24S-hydroxycholesterol and a higher level of the serum triacylglycerols than the control and oxyphytosterol groups. These results indicate that both oxysterols in the diet are accumulated in the body, but that the biological effect of oxycholesterol is different from that of oxyphytosterol.


Hotter temperature can reduce labor productivity, work hours, and labor income. The effects of heat are likely to be a joint consequence of both exposure and vulnerability. Here we explore the impacts of heat on labor income in the US, using regional wealth as a proxy for vulnerability. We find that one additional day >32 °C (90 °F) lowers annual payroll by 0.04%, equal to 2.1% of average weekly earnings. Accounting for humidity results in slightly more precise estimates. Proxying for wealth with dividend payments we find smaller impacts of heat in counties with higher average wealth. Temperature projections for 2040–50 suggest that earnings impacts may be 95% smaller for US counties in the richest decile relative to the poorest. Considering the within country distribution of vulnerability, in addition to exposure, to climate change could substantially change estimated within-country differences between the rich and poor in income losses from climate change.


Based on data triangulation, open-ended questions can be used to overcome a typical problem with data collection using surveys: Human behavior can only be captured as stated or intended, but not as real behavior. In this study on knowledge sharing in the workplace, a quantitative measure of behavioral intention was accompanied by such a qualitative, open-ended measure of behavior. The latter was used as a proxy for real instead of stated behavior. This item was coded according to the effort a participant made in answering. It is assumed that the greater the effort put into answering the open-ended question, the more likely it is that the described behavior will be performed in reality. A factorial experimental design was used to analyze the effect of rewards on employees' knowledge-sharing behavior. As a within-subject design was used, participants had to answer three open-ended questions referring to different vignettes. A strong order effect appeared, leading to longer answers on average for the first vignette (baseline) compared to subsequent vignettes, independent of treatment. Therefore, this approach to operationalizing behavior in surveys might not be useful in within-subject designs. However, it can be used in between-subject comparisons when participants are asked to answer to a single vignette.Keywords: survey design, survey experiment, real-effort design, human behavior, order effect


Many factors, including diet, race, and recurrent use of antibiotics, have been associated with an adverse outcome in breast cancer. These extrinsic factors also significantly impact the composition of commensal microbes. This is relevant, as a recent clinical trial demonstrated that patients with advanced hormone receptor+breast cancer had commensal dysbiosis, or significantly reduced composition of commensal microbes, supporting previous studies demonstrating that commensal microbes influence both the systemic immune environment and breast cancer progression. Dysbiosis was additionally shown to promote liver fibrosis in a mouse model of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. As collagen deposition in mammary tissue is known to associate with breast cancer aggressiveness and metastasis, we hypothesized that dysbiosis enhances metastatic disease in luminal breast cancer through systemic changes to the immune environment, ultimately altering the extracellular matrix of tumors and mediating metastatic disease. To investigate this, we utilized a transplantable model of luminal HR+breast cancer where tumor fragments are transplanted into recipients with or without established commensal dysbiosis. We demonstrate that although the growth of primary tumors is not affected, commensal dysbiosis increases collagen deposition and macrophage infiltration in transplanted tumor fragments. Systemically, dysbiosis amplifies the production of CCL2, a chemokine associated with macrophage infiltration and metastatic potential. These data suggest that commensal dysbiosis enhances collagen deposition in breast tumors and influences the tumor microenvironment, potentially promoting metastatic disease.


The litter size is an important trait in prolific species such as rabbits and pigs. However, selection on litter size has had limited success in these species because of its low heritabil‐ ity and sex-limited expression. The litter size is a complex physiological trait in prolific species, affected by several components that are expressed sequentially, for example, ov‐ ulation, fertilization, embryo development, and fetal survival. The selection for ovulation rate or/and prenatal survival has been proposed to improve litter size indirectly. Howev‐ er, these alternative methods have not reached the expected response rate. Implantation is also a critical point in successful gestation, one-third to one-half of prenatal mortality occurring during peri-implantation. The uterus must provide an adequate microenviro‐ ment for the growth and development of embryo and for receptivity to implantation. There are multitudes of cellular events involved in crosstalk between embryo and mater‐ nal uterus during peri-implantation. A better understanding of molecular mechanisms af‐ fecting the implantation process could help to propose new strategies for litter size improvement in prolific species.


A mixture of glycol methacrylate (GMA) and Quetol 523 was examined as an embedding medium for atrial tissue to be selectively stained for specific atrial granules. Semi-thin sections of rat atrial tissue embedded in this resin were stained with lead hematoxylin and observed under a light microscope. Atrial granules were found to be specifically stained blue black with lead hematoxylin. The same semithin sections stained with OsO4 vapor were examined electron microscopically and the atrial granules could be distinguised clearly from other cytoplasmic components. The GMA-Quetol 523 mixture is a useful embedding medium for studying the distribution of specific atrial granules by light and electron microscopy.


High-power quasimonochromatic light sources may deliver enough power into optical and fiber-optic systems to make the source noise dominant at the system output. With an RMS value proportional to light intensity, this noise limits the system sensitivity and dynamic range to levels which cannot be improved by injecting more light into the system. Source-related noise may originate not only from the source intensity fluctuations, but also from a phase-to-intensity conversion process which is characteristic of many single-spatial-mode multiple-path optical systems. The shape of the power spectral density of the source-induced noise, being critically dependent on the physical structure of the system, is analyzed for a self-homodyne Mach-Zehnder structure and for a recirculating delay line. For single-path communication systems, it is shown that source-originated noise exceeds both shot and thermal noise for a received optical power of only a few tens of microwatts. >


The mechanisms are examined by which environmentally informed business practices and technologies may diffuse through industry as a result of the 'greening' of purchasing and supply. The efforts of official bodies in the UK to raise environmental awareness among industrial purchasers are reviewed. It is then argued that the supply chain model is an important way of interpreting the industrial landscape from a green perspective and that it is in some ways a more hopeful and positive starting point for achieving industrial transformation. The results of an analysis of some UK companies practices in using their purchasing policies to 'green' their supply chains are presented and opportunities for further research indicated.


Background Risk stratification for acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in children is a must in treatment strategy. This stratification is based on cytogenetic profiles, which are needed to determine proper management to gain better outcomes and reduce side effects of treatment. There is no such risk stratification available in Indonesia until now.
Objective To evaluate the association between cytogenetic profiles of t(8,21) and inv(16) mutations with the complete response to induction phase of chemotherapy in pediatric AML.
Methods A prospective study was conducted between year 2018 and 2020, involving children with AML from 4 pediatric oncology centers in Jakarta. Subjects were evaluated for cytogenetic profiles, especially t(8,21) and inv(16), as the favorable predictors for AML. Bone marrow remission was evaluated after 2 cycles of induction phase. The results were evaluated for remission rate and survival analysis.
Results  Karyotype data of 18 subjects were obtained. Translocation t(8;21) detected in 1 subject, and inv(16) mutation in 4 subjects. These two variables had no significant correlation with complete remission after induction phase. Nevertheless, favorable group had more tendencies to achieved remission than unfavorable group. Complete remission achieved in 61% subjects, 90% of theme had a relapse period with an average time 43 weeks. The relapse period in favorable group was shoter than in unfavorable group (34 weeks and 44 weeks, respectively).
Conclusions This study shows that cytogenetic profiles of t(8;21) and inv(16) mutation can not be used as prognostic factors for complete remission after induction phase of chemotherapy in pediatric AML.


Software systems have become essential to many human activities and have proliferated thanks to various hardware innovations such as mobile computing (laptops, personal digital assistants, mobile phones) and networks (DSL, WIFI, GSM, etc.) enabling interactions between users and computer systems in virtually any place. This situation has created both a great complexity for such distributed systems to be designed and great expectations (mainly concerned with quality, time and induced costs of the software) from the users of these systems, requiring improvements in software engineering methods in order to meet these challenges. On the one hand, Model Driven Engineering (MDE), by allowing the description of software systems through abstractions and deriving useful system artifacts, harnesses inherent complexity of software systems and reduces time-to-market via model transformations. On the other hand, software product lines foster software reuse by proposing to develop applications based on a set of common assets belonging to a particular domain. Thus, when product line assets are carefully designed, both quality and time-to-market requirements can be achieved. Development methods that have resulted from the product line paradigm generally focus on defining common and variable assets to be reused by product line members. However, they hardly address the development of applications from the product line assets in a systematic way. Furthermore, those considering it propose automated but rather inflexible approaches that unnecessarily exclude products which, although addressable by product line assets, have not been explicitly envisioned during product line definition. If in some domains - in particular, those including hardware constraints and/or critical features - it is possible to fully determine the products that are part of the software product line, in the other cases, an initial set of products can only be considered assuming that the customers' requests will be met by this set. We believe that this assumption is false in general and this thesis examines the research question which consists in proposing a set of models and a product line development method to offer more flexibility while deriving products in order to seamlessly address customers' requests. The domain we consider is that of web e-bartering systems. This thesis strives to propose a trade-off between automated and unsupported product derivation by providing a model-driven product line development method that allows developers to define product line members by transforming a coherent and layered set of product line models. Moreover, constraints on the possible transformations have to be specified in order to determine which products cannot be derived both for functional and technical reasons. The first part of this thesis introduces the foundational concepts of our FIDJI method. In particular, it describes the notion of architectural framework as a set of models [...]


The article author examines the problem of architecture history associated with the evolution of castle palaces in the current territory of Lithuania in the Lithuanian Renaissance period. The article is based on research papers thematically close to the publication, other literature and archive documents. After prehistory review of castle palaces at a theoretical level and clarifying the conditions for their occurrence, significant development trends of castle palaces during the Renaissance period in current Lithuania territory is revealed. At the beginning of the sixteenth century, Italian, Flemish and Flanders Renaissance reached Lithuania and merged with the local tradition; in the light of the Lithuanian Renaissance castle palaces reached their prosperity period in Lithuania. Castle palaces were distinguished by the diversity of their structural and architectural forms, relatively meaningful connection between function and artistic expression and a sustainable link with the components of environment. Article in Lithuanian


OBJECTIVE
The author's objective was to address several pitfalls and missteps of CT angiography (CTA) with pictorial examples and ways to overcome potential misinterpretations. CTA is increasingly used for the noninvasive evaluation of the carotid and intracranial vessels. Ease of data acquisition may belie the complexity of interpreting each individual vessel and understanding myriad postprocessing techniques, each with its strengths and weaknesses.

CONCLUSION
Diagnostic yield and accuracy of CT angiography are enhanced by good data acquisition and by understanding and fully exploiting postprocessing techniques.


The general principles of ligand-binding radioassays are reviewed and a specific noncompetitive system is described for the measurement of methotrexate (MTX) using dihydrofolate reductase as the binding determinant. This type of radioassay can also be exploited to measure any antifolate compound which binds to this enzyme even if [3H]MTX is used as the tracer. The radioassay has now been used to measure MTX in all types of body fluids, tissue extracts, and rbc lysates from patients receiving this drug.


We generalize the [Formula: see text] dichotomy to doubly-indexed sequences of analytic digraphs. Under a mild definability assumption, we use this generalization to characterize the family of Borel actions of tsi Polish groups on Polish spaces that can be decomposed into countably-many Borel actions admitting complete Borel sets that are lacunary with respect to an open neighborhood of the identity. We also show that if the group in question is non-archimedean, then the inexistence of such a decomposition yields a special kind of continuous embedding of [Formula: see text] into the corresponding orbit equivalence relation.


Purpose

This study aims to explore the shift in social and cultural values in the wake of ongoing change; specifically, the degree of embeddedness of these values among farm-based entrepreneurs. The authors examine how this value-change-embeddedness continuum can further the development of theories in the field of social entrepreneurship.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors use an exploratory and a descriptive approach when interviewing eight farmers and members of their respective households. The sample encompasses almost all the providers of farm-based tourism in this particular area of rural Norway. The empirical materials form the basis for selecting our theoretical approach, one of which is a structural life-mode analysis.

Findings

The findings show that the social value of self-reliance, when taken to extremes, can hinder the growth of deeper commercial cooperation between farmers. This constitutes a challenge to efficiency and effectiveness on a larger scale, given a need for both independence and interdependence together with flexible entrepreneurial network cooperation in social entrepreneurship. The findings also indicate that social entrepreneurship does not necessarily have to include a cognitive shift in values and roles for the exclusion of a productive entrepreneurial identity.

Originality/value

By focusing on value changes in social entrepreneurship, this paper addresses a significant gap in the entrepreneurship literature relating to the process of value creation. By using the structural life-mode analysis, this study identifies the underlying value changes that are fundamental to entrepreneurial processes, allowing that process to unfold and take hold to the betterment of affected farm-based communities.


1. The action of trypsin, chymotrypsin and subtilisin on the adenosine-triphosphatase and actin-combining activities, as measured by viscometric means, of H-meromyosin were compared. 2. Subfragment 1 produced by prolonged tryptic digestion has a molecular weight of 129000. 3. The preparations isolated by gel filtration and actin combination were shown to be similar. 4. Subfragment-1 preparations possess appreciably higher adenosine-triphosphatase activities than H-meromyosin when related to total nitrogen. 5. Chromatographic and gelfiltration studies indicated that adenosine-triphosphatase activity is not distributed uniformly in all fractions of subfragment 1. 6. The Ca(2+)-activated adenosine triphosphatase of subfragment 1 was stimulated by thiol reagents in a similar fashion to myosin and H-meromyosin. 7. Subfragment 1 differed from myosin and H-meromyosin in that its adenosine triphosphatase was only slightly activated by Mg(2+) in the presence of actin. 8. A subfragment-1-like component was obtained by chymotryptic digestion of H-meromyosin. 9. The results obtained from enzymic and hydrodynamic studies and from amino acid analyses are compatible with the concept of one molecule of H-meromyosin giving rise to one molecule of subfragment 1 on proteolytic digestion.


Of late, both U.S. and International firms have increased the granting of performance-contingent equity awards to their executive officers. Beyond simple stock options, these awards frequently include accounting-based performance targets. Failure to meet or exceed these targets causes award forfeiture. While now a common component in executive pay, little is known about how to value these instruments. In this paper, we model the expected payoff from an equity award with accounting-based payout conditions. The model incorporates numerous characteristics of awards seen in practice, including the coupling of stock price and accounting targets, multiple accounting targets, sliding payout schedules, and the adoption of both "and" and "or" conditions that trigger payout. We also translate the expected payoff into an approximate present value. Given the growing prevalence of performance-contingent features in executive pay, this exercise is important to academics, board members and shareholders, along with other market participants and regulators.


Ocular flutter is an eye movement disorder characterized by purely horizontal rapid saccadic oscillations lasting for a few minutes which stops spontaneously. Postinfectious ocular flutter and truncal ataxia are a rare entity. There are reported cases of opsoclonus myoclonus ataxia in association with dengue virus infection. However, there are no reported cases of parainfectious ocular flutter and truncal ataxia in association with dengue virus infection. Hereby, we report a child with dengue fever who had ocular flutter and truncal ataxia.


We describe the survey design, calibration, commissioning, and emission-line detection algorithms for the Hobby–Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment (HETDEX). The goal of HETDEX is to measure the redshifts of over a million Lyα emitting galaxies between 1.88 < z < 3.52, in a 540 deg2 area encompassing a comoving volume of 10.9 Gpc3. No preselection of targets is involved; instead the HETDEX measurements are accomplished via a spectroscopic survey using a suite of wide-field integral field units distributed over the focal plane of the telescope. This survey measures the Hubble expansion parameter and angular diameter distance, with a final expected accuracy of better than 1%. We detail the project's observational strategy, reduction pipeline, source detection, and catalog generation, and present initial results for science verification in the Cosmological Evolution Survey, Extended Groth Strip, and Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey North fields. We demonstrate that our data reach the required specifications in throughput, astrometric accuracy, flux limit, and object detection, with the end products being a catalog of emission-line sources, their object classifications, and flux-calibrated spectra.


With Antiretroviral treatment and care, the population of children with HIV infection who grow into adolescence and adulthood will increase. The consequences of not disclosing the diagnosis to them becomes worrisome. This study tries to explore the mothers' opinion on disclosure of their child's positive HIV status to them, and also find out reasons if any, for not disclosing this status to them. Mothers of HIV infected children attending the infectious disease clinic at the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital were interviewed. Of the 223 mothers interviewed, 189(84.7%) would disclose the HIV status to their children and 96 (50.3%) would disclose at age 15–18 years. Reasons for not disclosing before this age were belief that the child would not understand 97(51.3%) and the child's inability to keep his status a secret 42(22.2%). The male gender of the child, maternal HIV sero-negativity status, and primary level of education significantly affected willingness to disclose (p=0001, 0.0000 and 0.005 respectively). 101(45.2%) would not disclose to family members including the siblings. Mothers with HIV infected children are unwilling to disclose the diagnosis to them, until the late adolescent period for fear of stigmatization, as well as inability to cope with the diagnosis and keep it secret.


Diabetic Retinopathy is an eye disease and a common complication of diabetes that can cause vision loss if left undiagnosed at the initial stage. It is the prime cause of blindness in the working age population of the world. Colour fundus images of eyes are used by ophthalmologists to study eye diseases like diabetic retinopathy. Detection method is proposed to detect dark or red lesions such as microaneurysms and hemorrhages in fundus images. This method comprises of three stages. First, the green channel of the colour retinal image is preprocessed using polynomial contrast enhancement. Second, the candidate dark lesion objects are extracted from the contrast enhanced fundus image. A novel method is developed to extract candidate dark lesions based on matched filtering and local relative entropy thresholding. The performance of this technique is compared to mathematical morphology based dark lesion detection method. A hybrid method that combines both detection schemes is also tested for better segmentation. The final stage classifies true dark lesions from dark non-lesions using knn and svm classifiers. For image based evaluation, this method has resulted with sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of 94.86% and 95.6% 95.38% respectively.


Amphibians with a unique life history are extremely sensitive to environmental changes. They are important indicator species for environmental change. The construction of Kaifeng water system affects the habitat and biodiversity of amphibians. In this study, we investigated the amphi-bians in water system of Kaifeng by setting sample points and using visual encounter method, and measured the habitat variables. We quantified amphibian biodiversity under different habitat types using the Shannon diversity index, Pielou evenness index and Simpson dominance index, and explored the responses of amphibians to microhabitat variations by cluster analysis and redundancy analysis. The results showed that the diversity, evenness, and dominance of amphibians in the natural revetment were higher than those in the artificial hardened revetment, indicating a more stable amphibian population in the natural habitat. The dominance index of amphibians on natural revetment was higher than that of the two artificially hardened revetments, indicating that amphibians preferred natural habitat. The abundance of both Palophylax nigromaculata and Bufo gargarizans had significant positive correlation with night light intensity, while the abundance of P. plancyi was positively correlated with total phosphorus, and that of Fejervarya limnocharis was positively correlated with water pH. The protection of amphibians should be considered in the construction of urban water system in Kaifeng. The presence of more natural revetment would be of great significance to enhance amphibian biodiversity.


Environmental issues are one of the current challenges for Azerbaijan. Industrial pollution emerging since the 1870s with the expansion of oil exploration operation in Baku and surrounding areas reached larger scale in some places during the following periods. During the Soviet period oil operations in the Caspian Sea increased when the scope of the problem widened, and the pollution reached an even larger scale during oil extraction and transportation. Oil refineries are located in densely populated areas of Baku and this is one of the main factors causing expansion of the scale of pollution. Oil pollution covers thousands of hectares of lands just in the Absheron Peninsula itself. Along with the industrial pollution, the pollution in agricultural areas in Azerbaijan has also emerged mainly in the Soviet period. The excessive amount of fertilizer and pesticides used in cotton fields and lack of proper irrigation are considered to be among the main factors of environmental pollution. The impact of environmental damages caused by the Gabala Radar Station built in the Soviet times is still being felt now. Effective environmental policy, providing the enterprises with purifiers, contributions of non-governmental organizations, promotion of environmental awareness and use of the best practice of developed countries can contribute to the solution of the environmental problems. The most serious environmental problems of Azerbaijan are connected with the occupation of the Azerbaijani territories by Armenia. Armenia has destroyed the forest resources in the occupied territories. Moreover, Basitchay National Reserve, which is located in the occupied Zangilan region and is unique in the world, has been destroyed, and other natural sites have been damaged in the region. Large amount of metal waste thrown from the Armenian metallurgical plants into Okhchuchay River has made its way to Araz River and become a source of serious pollution. Toxic substances thrown into Tartar River are another source of concern. In order to solve the environmental problems in Azerbaijan, it is necessary to carry out an effective state policy, undertake new scientific researches, study best practices of advanced countries, and establish new and up-to-date environmental standards.


The developments of optical methods to characterize soils and various surface contaminants require complete and reliable databases of spectral signatures of various objects, including chemical and representative background surfaces. Ideally, the databases should be acquired in the field to properly consider the chemical mixing and heterogeneity of the surfaces. Spectral characterization instruments are common in the visible and the shortwave infrared but there are few solutions in the midwave and thermal infrared regions. ABB recently developed a broad band reflectometer based on a small FTIR spectrometer. It is capable of measuring diffuse spectral reflectance from various surfaces in the infrared from 0.7 to 13.5 microns. This sensor has been developed to be operated in the field by one person. It is lightweight (about 12 kg); it is battery powered and ruggedized for operation in harsh environments. Its operation does not require sophisticated training; it has been designed to be operated by a non-specialist. The sensor can be used to generate spectral libraries or to perform material identification if a spectral library already exists. Examples of measurements in the field will be presented.


This paper investigates the dynamics of dark solitons in a Bose–Einstein condensate with a magnetic trap and an optical lattice (OL) trap, and analyses the effects of the periodic OL potential on the dynamics by applying the variational approach based on the renormalized integrals of motion. The results show that the dark soliton becomes only a standing-wave and free propagation of the dark soliton is not possible when the periodic length of the OL potential is approximately equal to the effective width of the dark soliton. When the periodic length is very small or very large, the effects of the OL potential on the dark soliton will be sharply reduced. Finally, the numerical results confirm these theoretical findings.


Pulmonary lesions resulting from Aspergillus fumigatus inoculation were assessed in convalescent turkeys and compared with those in previously noninoculated (control) turkeys. In addition, lesions observed in small Beltsville white (SBW) turkeys were compared with those in broad-breasted white (BBW) turkeys challenged with the same inoculum. Turkeys were challenged by unilateral posterior thoracic air sac (PTAS) inoculation, rechallenged via the contralateral air sac after 5 wk, and then necropsied 1 wk later. Pulmonary lesions induced by the initial challenge had resolved in 6 of 10 SBW and 9 of 10 BBW turkeys. However, convalescence did not protect against pulmonary aspergillosis subsequent to rechallenge; 10 of 10 SBW and 9 of 10 BBW developed granulomatous pulmonary lesions on the side of reexposure. A greater proportion of control SBW turkeys developed pneumonia and airsacculitis following challenge as compared with the BBW breed. Lesions were limited to the lower respiratory tract in all turkeys and were confined to the ipsilateral lung and PTAS in the singly inoculated control turkeys. This study demonstrates that convalescence from pulmonary aspergillosis does not confer protection against rechallenge but may, instead, decrease resistance to subsequent infection.


Water quality in a stream that received effluent directly from a 200-cow dairy feedlot operation was monitored during a 22-month study to determine if the stream pollution level exceeded current Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) permissible levels for raw public water supplies, and to evaluate changes in water quality at selected distances downstream from the point source of discharge. Grab samples were collected at 2-week intervals from stations located 400 m and 3 km upstream, and 100, 500, and 1200 m downstream from the point source of discharge. Samples were analyzed for biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), chlorides, dissolved oxygen, fecal coliform, fecal streptococci, nitrate nitrogen, nitrite nitrogen, orthophosphate, total solids, and pH. Mean concentration of fecal coliform exceeded the EPA permissible level of 2,000 col/100 ml at 100 and 500 m below the point source of discharge, but not at 1,200 m. All other parameter means measured were below the permissible levels. Mean concentrations increased significantly (P < 0.01 or P < 0.05) for all parameters, except BOD and pH, when downstream stations were compared with upstream stations. However, mean concentrations significantly declined (P <0.01) for fecal coliform, fecal streptococci, BOD and orthophosphate at 1,200 m below the point source of discharge, while other parameters either declined or remained unchanged. Water quality 1,200 m below the point source of discharge apparently was not different from that 400 m above. Discharge of effluent into the stream did not appear to have a great effect on water quality, and the value of controlling the discharge would be questionable in terms of improving water quality in the receiving stream.


There is currently much systems-based thinking going into understanding safety in complex socio-technical systems and in developing useful accident analysis methods. However, when it comes to complex systems without clear physical components, the techniques for understanding accidents are antiquated and ineffective. This thesis uses a promising new engineering-based accident analysis methodology, CAST (Casual Analysis using STAMP, or Systems Theoretic Accident Models and Processes) to understand an aspect of the financial crisis of 2007-2008. This thesis demonstrates how CAST can be used to understand the context and control problems that led to the collapse and rapid acquisition of the investment bank Bear Stearns in March 2008. It seeks to illustrate the technological and regulatory change that provided the context for the Bear Stearns accidents and then demonstrates how a top-down systematic method of analysis can produce more insight into the accident than traditional financial accident investigations such as congressionallymandated inquiries. Thesis Supervisor: Nancy G Leveson Title: Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics and Engineering Systems


Time-to-Contact (TTC) estimation is a critical task for assessing collision risk and is widely used in various driver assistance and autonomous driving systems. The past few decades have witnessed development of related theories and algorithms. The prevalent learning-based methods call for a large-scale TTC dataset in real-world scenarios. In this work, we present a large-scale object oriented TTC dataset in the driving scene for promoting the TTC estimation by a monocular camera. To collect valuable samples and make data with different TTC values relatively balanced, we go through thousands of hours of driving data and select over 200K sequences with a preset data distribution. To augment the quantity of small TTC cases, we also generate clips using the latest Neural rendering methods. Additionally, we provide several simple yet effective TTC estimation baselines and evaluate them extensively on the proposed dataset to demonstrate their effectiveness. The proposed dataset is publicly available at https://open-dataset.tusen.ai/TSTTC.


This study critically examines the mathematics knowledge of pre-service post-primary mathematics teachers (N = 85) on commencing their Professional Master of Education (Level 9) initial teacher education (ITE) programme across four institutions in Ireland. Given the nature of a consecutive approach to mathematics teacher education, pre-service teachers enter their ITE programme from a variety of undergraduate degree backgrounds and it is largely accepted that their mathematical content knowledge does not change during their teacher qualification programme. This study utilises a paper-and-pencil test to assess participants' cognitive and conceptual proficiency with curriculum-aligned mathematical content. Between group comparisons in relation to participants' undergraduate studies and cognitive and conceptual proficiency are also examined. The data suggest that pre-service teachers demonstrate a strong proficiency with Junior Cycle curriculum-aligned content and poor proficiency with Senior Cycle content, irrespective of the curriculum strand. In addition, significant mean differences exist between participants who had undertaken undergraduate degree studies in physics and mathematics in comparison to other degree programmes. Such investigations are essential given the increased focused on developing highly qualified teachers and policy revisions on ITE programmes. This research alerts us to issues within ITE programmes that may be addressed prior to mathematics teachers' induction into the profession.


There is much current interest in the design of molecular actuators, which undergo reversible, controlled motion in response to an external stimulus (light, heat, oxidation, etc.). Here we describe the design and synthesis of a series of cofacially arrayed polyfluorenes (MeF nH m) with varied end-capping groups, which undergo redox-controlled electromechanical actuation. Such cofacially arrayed polyfluorenes are a model molecular scaffold to investigate fundamental processes of charge and energy transfer across a π-stacked assembly, and we show with the aid of NMR and optical spectroscopies, X-ray crystallography and DFT calculations that in the neutral state the conformation of MeF nH1 and MeF nH2 is open rather than cofacial, with a conformational dependence that is highly influenced by the local environment. Upon (electro)chemical oxidation, these systems undergo a reversible transformation into a closed fully π-stacked conformation, driven by charge-resonance stabilization of the cationic charge. These findings are expected to aid the design of novel wire-like cofacially arrayed systems capable of undergo redox-controlled actuation.


Introduction To investigate the impact of intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy (ICP) with hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection on perinatal outcomes. Methods In the study, 200 pregnant women were divided into four groups, including 50 cases with ICP and HBV infection, 50 cases with ICP, 50 cases with HBV infection, and 50 healthy pregnancies. The delivery process and perinatal outcomes were analyzed among different groups. Results When compared to the healthy pregnancy group, significantly increased rates of premature rupture of membranes, meconium-stained amniotic fluid, and cesarean section were observed in cases of ICP, HBV infection, or ICP patients with HBV (P<0.05). Specifically, the rates of HBV infection in the newborn, fetal distress, neonatal asphyxia, and birth defects in the newborn, and infant Apgar scores were higher in ICP pregnancies with HBV (56%, 48%, 16%, and 48%, respectively) than in the other groups (P<0.05). Conclusion ICP combined with HBV infection has a clear influence on perinatal infant outcomes.


Abstract Objective: To study if factors at birth are associated with later development of atopic dermatitis. Design: Historical follow up by record linkage from Danish medical birth register. Children were followed up for 5.5 to 8.5 years. Second historical follow up study comprising questionnaire to mothers of singleborn children 6.5 to 9.5 years after birth. Setting: Private dermatology clinics and dermatology and paediatric departments in the municipality of Aarhus, Denmark. Subjects: 7862 singletons born in hospital between 1 January 1984 and 31 December 1986 to mothers living in the municipality of Aarhus. Questionnaires sent to 985 mothers. Main outcome measures: Gestational age, birth weight, parity, and age of mother at the time of birth. Atopy in children diagnosed by specialists in dermatology and physicians. Family size; diagnosis of atopic dermatitis, allergic rhinitis, and asthma; family predisposition; and mothers' smoking habits during pregnancy determined from questionnaires. Results: Of 7862 children, 403 were diagnosed as having atopic dermatitis by a specialist; the cumulative incidence at age 7 was 5.6%. High gestational age and low parity were associated with an increased risk of atopic dermatitis. Among 985 children atopic dermatitis had been diagnosed by any physician in 184; the cumulative incidence at age 7 was 18.7%. High birth weight, high gestational age, and family history of atopy were associated with increased risk of atopic dermatitis. Conclusion: In both studies the incidence of atopic dermatitis was associated with high gestational age and in one with high birth weight also. The causes for these associations are at present unknown but may indicate that even during gestation factors associated with atopic dermatitis influence maturation. Key messages This Danish study found that the cumulative incidence of atopic dermatitis at the age of 7 years was 18.7% in 1993 Children born after term had a significantly increased risk of developing atopic dermatitis Children whose birth weight was high for their sex and gestational age also had an increased risk of developing atopic dermatitis These findings suggest that a genetically determined predisposition to developing atopic dermatitis is expressed in utero


Europe is almost completely dependent for her energy on outside suppliers. In recent years the European Union (EU) has not succeeded in reducing the energy dependencies by diversification, a keyword in European strategic papers (see, COM 2008 781 final). This makes the European Union as a geopolitical player in the world arena rather vulnerable. Especially the countries in Central and Eastern Europe are almost completely dependent for their gas supplies on Russia. Some countries in the Central and European space are trying to modify this state of affairs. Azerbaijan, Georgia and Romania have agreed upon in April of this year to transport gas from the Caspian Sea via the Black Sea to Europe bypassing Russia. Later this year Hungary also has joined this so-called AGRI consortium. As a result, EU-member states will be less dependent on the gas pipelines that are carrying Russian gas through states that are under Russian control.


In children with growth retardation and the typical face, particularly with valvar pulmonary stenosis, the Noonan syndrome is the be suspected. In early infancy, these patients show very severe developmental retardation and muscular hypotony. Mental retardation is frequent but not compulsory. The most important diagnostic tool is the chromosomal analysis. In our patient, the syndrome was diagnosed becaused of the typical appearance and the angiocardiographic findings in connection with a normal chromosomal sequence.


Forest restoration in Brazil has gained relevance in the country's environmental agenda, due to the need for forest recovery of large liabilities of existing forests and participation in several international vegetation restoration agreements. However, forest restoration management faces challenges, it being necessary to create a database of species-level performances to increase the success of these projects. The objective was to evaluate the survival and growth of five Atlantic Forest native species (Anadenanthera macrocarpa; Ceiba speciosa; Cytharexyllum myrianthum; Hymenaea courbaril; and Peltophorum dubium) in plastic bags (1177 cm3) and tubes (180 cm3). Ninety seedlings (18 of each species) were planted per container. Plant performance in the field consisted of evaluating the increase in the diameter and height of seedlings of the native forest species. Diameter at soil level (DSL) and plant height (H) were measured at 42 months after transplanting, and the monthly periodic increments (MPI) of the DSL and H were calculated. Plant survival (SV) of seedlings was affected by the type of container, registering the highest SV rates in those planted in plastic bags. Cytharexyllum myrianthum and H. courbaril presented high SV rates in tubes. The growth rate of the species at 42 months differed according to the containers tested. Cytharexyllum myrianthum presented the lowest SV rates (16.7–27.8%), regardless of the container used in this experiment. Ceiba speciosa was sensitive to the reduction in size of the container, showing low SV in tubes (27%) compared with plastic bags (61%); i.e., this species did not tolerate conditions with root growth restriction. Anadenathera macrocarpa and H. courbaril showed no differences in SV, regardless of the container used. The results assist the production of native species of the Atlantic Forest, reinforcing the need to understand performances in the field at the species level.


[structure: see text] The aromaticity of a series of fused cyclobutadiene systems is discussed in terms of their resonance energies. While there is considerable variation in their resonance energies per pi electron, all members of the series are calculated to be antiaromatic, though to a lesser degree than the parent cyclobutadiene.


ABSTRACT During recent decades, lake levels in the Yukon Flats region of interior Alaska have fluctuated dramatically. However, prior to recorded observations, no data are available to indicate if similar or more extreme variations occurred during past centuries and millennia. This study explores the history of Yukon Flats lake origins and lake levels for the past approximately 5,500 years from sediment analyses guided by previous work on permafrost extent, thermokarst, and modern isotope hydrology. Sediments dated by 210Pb and AMS radiocarbon indicate stable chronologies following initial lake initiation. Subsequent lithology is autochthonous, and oxygen isotope ratios of endogenic carbonate reflect lake level change at multiple time scales. Sediment results indicate high lake levels between approximately 4000 and 1850 cal yr BP, which is interpreted to reflect wetter-than-modern conditions. Lower lake levels with short-lived high stands during the past approximately 800 years reflect generally arid conditions with brief wet intervals similar to the region's moisture regime today. The millennial trend is one of increasing aridity and corresponds closely with fire reconstructions and regional paleoclimatic trends. We conclude that high-magnitude lake-level fluctuations and decadal scale trends occurred before the observational period and are persistent hydroclimatic features of the Yukon Flats region.


Brain computer interface (BCI) technology connects humans with machines via electroencephalography (EEG). The mechanism of BCI is pattern recognition, which proceeds by feature extraction and classification. Various feature extraction and classification methods can differentiate human motor movements, especially those of the hand. Combinations of these methods can greatly improve the accuracy of the results. This article explores the performances of nine feature-extraction types computed by a multilayer extreme learning machine (ML-ELM). The proposed method was tested on different numbers of EEG channels and different ML-ELM structures. Moreover, the performance of ML-ELM was compared with those of ELM, Support Vector Machine and Naive Bayes in classifying real and imaginary hand movements in offline mode. The ML-ELM with discrete wavelet transform (DWT) as feature extraction outperformed the other classification methods with highest accuracy 0.98. So, the authors also found that the structures influenced the accuracy of ML-ELM for different task, feature extraction used and channel used.


The antigens recognized by CD4(+) T cells are key to rational vaccine design, but have been difficult to identify due to limitations of conventional methods. A novel strategy for identifying CD4(+) T-cell-stimulating antigen genes is described here. Using antigen-specific, lacZ-expressing T cells as single-cell probes, a DNA library was screened as recombinant Escherichia coli. An antigen gene was isolated from the E. coli clone that, when ingested by the macrophages, allowed generation of the appropriate peptide/MHC class II complex and T-cell activation. This strategy was successfully applied to the identification of a previously unknown listeria gene product with characteristics of a membrane-bound lipoprotein.


With rising cyberattack frequency and range, Quantum Computing companies, institutions and research groups may become targets of nation-state actors, cybercriminals and hacktivists for sabotage, espionage and fiscal motivations as the Quantum computing race intensifies. Quantum applications have expanded into commercial, classical information systems and services approaching the necessity to protect their networks, software, hardware and data from digital attacks. This paper discusses the status quo of quantum computing technologies and the quantum threat associated with it. We proceed to outline threat vectors for quantum computing systems and the respective defensive measures, mitigations and best practices to defend against the rapidly evolving threat landscape. We subsequently propose recommendations on how to proactively reduce the cyberattack surface through threat intelligence and by ensuring security by design of quantum software and hardware components.


Background Obesity is assuming world-wide epidemic proportions and is an independent risk factor for pancreatic cancer and surgical morbidity in general. It is essential to determine if obesity influences perioperative pancreatic surgical outcomes. Methods A thorough literature search was conducted using PubMed, Medline, Cochrane and Embase databases, using the search terms "pancreatic surgery", "pancreatoduodenectomy", "pancreaticoduodenectomy", "obesity", "body mass index", "body mass index", "surgical outcome", "postoperative complications", "complications" from January 1990 to June 2013 without restrictions. All publications from past 23 years were considered for review. Results Of the 598 articles retrieved, 22 studies were identified describing impact of obesity on perioperative outcomes following pancreatoduodenectomy. Obese individuals (with body mass index≥25) are at 2.2 times (relative risk=2.169; confidence interval=1.572-2.994) more risk for developing post-operative pancreatic fistula compared to non-obese individuals. Obese individuals had more wound infections (relative risk =1.69; confidence interval=1.225-2.274). 10 of 22 studies reported a significant increase in blood loss with increasing body mass index/visceral fat area. No evidence to suggest impact of obesity on other parameters was noted. Conclusions Obesity increases the risk of post-operative pancreatic fistula and wound infections but not operating time or development of delayed gastric emptying, post-pancreatectomy haemorrhage and intra-abdominal collections. Obesity contributes to an increase in intra-operative blood loss.


In this paper I intend to examine ways in which the problem of child poverty might be remedied by legislative reform. The legislative activity taking place at present means that this is a matter of current, as well as social, importance (1). The paper is not intended as an arid academic exercise, but as a contribution to the debate about the future direction of reform in this area. The emphasis of the paper is on the effect of legislative provisions outside the court-room. When more than 90% of divorce disputes are not resolved by judicial adjudication, it is vital to an understanding of the law to examine its out-of-court operation (2). This demands that we consider how the provisions of the Family Law Act are used in negotiations, and the effect of the relationship between parents' rights against each other, and parents' rights against the State. But therefore considering ways in which the interests of children might be protected on divorce, it is necessary to give a brief introduction to the nature of the problem of child poverty and its relationship with matrimonial breakdown.


Cooperative systems which rely on vehicle-to-infrastructure communications are designed to tackle important road transport issues, such as safety and pollution. Since the associated monetary commitment is substantial, a clear understanding of the appropriate business models and likely costs, impacts and benefits is necessary before investment decisions can be made. A tool for estimating the costs and benefits, from both business and the societal point of view, was developed in the COBRA+ project, to assist National Road Authorities (NRA) during their decision processes. This paper illustrates the application of the tool to use cases in Austria, England and the Netherlands. The study identifies some of the key aspects to focus on in order to achieve a beneficial balance between costs and positive impacts. Findings reveal that the costs are likely to be higher than the monetised benefits over the time period investigated (to 2030). The financial role of the NRA (or their Road Operator) is particularly influential for the business case.


Most countries of the world are reducing infant and child mortality too slowly to meet the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of a two-thirds reduction by 2015. Yet, some countries and regions – including the Indian state of Kerala – have achieved impressive reductions. This paper examines infant and child mortality in Andhra Pradesh (where Young Lives research is being conducted) and in Kerala, and considers the factors explaining their differential performance. Infant mortality is found to depend on biological factors, including mother's age and birth order, and also factors related to health service provision such as vaccinations and use of antenatal services. Other factors, such as income, education or environmental factors, are not found to impact infant mortality. By contrast, child mortality is significantly determined by economic well-being, but is substantially outweighed by other factors such as maternal education and knowledge of health practices and access to safe water. The data also show gender discrimination in Andhra Pradesh, notably against girls with only female siblings, which is absent from Kerala. We conclude that raising service levels across India toward the levels found in Kerala is a necessary step toward meeting the MDGs. Success in doing so can help empower women.


Abstract : The objective of this technical note is to conceptually frame the Army's requirement for land based carrying capacity and the capability being developed to address this need. Until recently, research and development (R&D) and technology infusion efforts have approached the carrying capacity need from a logical but individual pieces approach rather than from a programmatic perspective. The Army's interest in land management began with a need to manage and sustain the natural resources in its care. The notion of carrying capacity arose from the significant overlap between the responsibility to maintain natural resources, and the Army trainers' need for well maintained land for use in training exercises. This coincidence of needs has matured the concept of carrying capacity into a comprehensive programmatic approach to land management that yields both environmental and practical benefits. This technical note will document the problem of land management as related to land based carrying capacity, and historical efforts to address the problem. This will include the logical progression from exploratory and qualitative research efforts to bound the problem, to the development of more sophisticated and quantitative efforts to determine cause and effect relationships. Later efforts have focused on capturing these data and relationships within predictive simulation models. We then describe the various pieces that have been developed, evolved, and experimentally applied, how those pieces fit to become the whole, and how the whole or the pieces can be accepted and used. Finally, we identify short and long term knowledge gaps and technical issues that are or will be addressed.


In this article, a new approach to compensate both the response and reaction times of active power filters (APF) for special cases of highly time-varying harmonics and interharmonics of electric arc furnace (EAF) currents is proposed. Instead of using the classical approach of taking a window of past current samples and analyzing the data, future samples of EAF currents are predetected using a deep learning (DL)-based method and then analyzed, which provides the opportunity to make real-time analysis. This can also serve the needs of other possible APF applications. Two different methods for prediction of future samples of harmonics and interharmonics have been proposed: predetection of harmonics and interharmonics in the time domain (TD) and in the frequency domain (FD). To obtain the best possible accuracy for both methods, grid search has been employed for parameter optimization of the DL structure. Both TD and FD approaches have been tested on field data, which had been obtained from transformer substations supplying EAF plants. It is shown that the response time of the APF algorithms can be compensated using the TD-based approach, while it is possible to compensate both the response and reaction times of APFs using the proposed FD-based approach. The developed method can be considered to be a feasible candidate solution for generating reference signals for the controllers of new generation of compensation devices, which can be referred to as predictive APFs.


The pigments used in five important medieval illuminated manuscripts (Ms. Pal.6; Ms. Pal. 159; Ms. Pal. 212; Ms. Parm. 1650; Ms. Parm. 3063), all held in the Biblioteca Palatina in Parma (Italy), were analysed in situ by portable micro-Raman instruments supplied by Renishaw and Horiba Jobin-Yvon. In spite of a strong fluorescence background, different pigments were identified and important information on the pigment palette used in the manuscript illumination, helpful to clarify the history of the artworks, was obtained. Differences in the pigments used, suggesting late interventions, were found. In particular, an addition was identified in the Ms. Pal. 212 manuscript (Bruges—15th century), and late interventions were found in the coat of arms of Barbara of Brandenburg in her breviary (Ms. Pal. 6). A different origin for some rubrics and illumination was found in Ms. Parm. 3063, a 12th century Psalter, whereas common palettes for the different artists were confirmed for Ms. Parm. 1650 and for Ms. Pal. 159. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.