The link between decentralization and inflation as one of the key aspects of macroeconomic stability has been surveyed by a number of studies and the findings are generally inconclusive. Using sample data of developing and developed countries, the study found that decentralization correlates with lower inflation in developed countries and vice versa, it correlates with higher inflation in developing countries. The key question is what factors play a role in controlling inflation in a decentralized system. This paper is to argue that the coordination problem is the main issue in controlling inflation in a decentralized system, particularly in developing countries. The empirical analysis is to determine the effect of decentralization on regional inflation in Indonesia and whether institutions play a role in the recent downward trend of inflation in Indonesia. A panel data that includes 33 observations of the Indonesian regions (provinces) is constructed with a dummy variable representing the existence of institution. In addition, this study analyzes whether decentralization supports the convergence in regional inflation and also the pattern of spatial correlation in regional inflation. The assumption is that there are some degrees of collective institutional coordination and cooperation with the establishment of Regional Inflation Task Force (RITF).


Therapeutic efficacy and the treatment days for cure of imipenem/cilastatin sodium (IPM/CS) in treatment of pulmonary infections were prospectively determined in comparison with those of beta-lactams other than carbapenems mainly ceftazidime (CAZ) or sulbactam/cefoperazone (SBT/CPZ). The overall response rate was 84.9% (62/73) in the IPM/CS group and 74.7% (56/75) in the beta-lactam group, the difference not being significant. In the subjects having underlying respiratory diseases, the response rate was 91.1% (41/45) and 73.9% (34/46) in the IPM/CS and beta-lactam groups, respectively. In patients with infections secondary to chronic respiratory disease, the rate was 91.2% (31/34) in the former group and 66.7% (24/36) in the latter group, respectively. The differences were significant for both stratified analyses. The treatment days for cure judged by the attending physician were 12.9 +/- 0.6 days in the IPM/CS group, and 14.5 +/- 0.7 days in the beta-lactam group. The difference was not, however, significant. In patients with mild to moderate infections, the treatment days for cure was 12.0 +/- 0.6 days (n = 64) in the IPM/CS group and 14.3 +/- 0.7 days (n = 70) in the beta-lactam group. In patients with underlying respiratory disease, the treatment days for cure were 11.8 +/- 0.7 days (n = 45) and 14.7 +/- 0.9 days (n = 46) in the IPM/CS and beta-lactam groups, respectively. In patients with infections secondary to chronic respiratory disease, the days were 11.1 +/- 0.7 days (n = 34) and 14.7 +/- 1.1 days (n = 36), respectively. Thus, IPM/CS therapy significantly reduced the number of treatment days until cure. There was, however, no significant difference between the two therapy groups in treatment of the patients with severe infections, those without underlying respiratory disease, or those with pneumonia and/or lung abscess. The treatment days for cure were also assessed by the members of review committee taking into consideration of body temperature, leukocyte count, and C-reactive protein. As the result, it was 6.9 +/- 0.5 days in the IPM/ CS and 10.3 +/- 0.7 days in the beta-lactam groups; respectively, and the difference was significant. Time (days) until cure was also compared between the two groups using survival time analysis, confirming a more rapid response in the IPM/CS group. Although IPM/CS therapy was associated with a shorter response time as assessed by both the attending physicians and the review committee, there were considerable differences between the results of these judgements. Thus, the duration of treatment with injectable antibiotics requires reevaluation in the future. No significant differences were observed between the groups with respect to parameters indicating side effects and laboratory abnormalities. There were no severe symptoms or laboratory findings, and symptoms and changes in laboratory values, if any resolved during the course of therapy or after the withdrawal of treatment. In conclusion, IPM/CS seems to be very useful as first-line therapy for respiratory tract infections and for shortening the duration of treatment.


In recent years we've experienced a proliferation of laptop orchestras and ensembles. Linux Laptop Orchestra or L2Ork founded in the spring 2009 introduces exclusive reliance on open-source software to this novel genre. Its hardware design also provides minimal cost overhead. Most notably, L2Ork provides a homogenous software and hardware environment with focus on usability and transparency. In the following paper we present an overview of L2Ork's infrastructure and lessons learned through its design and implementation.


IDP is a knowledge base system based on first order logic. It is finding its way to a larger public but is still facing practical challenges. Adoption of new languages requires a newcomer-friendly way for users to interact with it. Both an online presence to try to convince potential users to download the system and offline availability to develop larger applications are essential. We developed an IDE which can serve both purposes through the use of web technology. It enables us to provide the user with a modern IDE with relatively little effort.


A new procedure for efficient compression of digital information for storage and transmission purposes involves a discrete wavelet transform subband decomposition of the data set, followed by vector quantization of the wavelet transform coefficients using application-specific vector quantizers. The vector quantizer design optimizes the assignment of both memory resources and vector dimensions to the transform subbands by minimizing an exponential rate-distortion functional subject to constraints on both overall bit-rate and encoder complexity. The method is applicable to the compression of other multidimensional data sets possessing some degree of smoothness. The authors discuss the use of this technique for compressing the output of supercomputer simulations of global climate models. The data presented here comes from Semtner-Chervin global ocean models run at the National Center for Atmospheric Research.<<ETX>>


Spontaneous osteonecrosis of the knee (SONK) causes knee pain and joint motion limitation. Ischemia or insufficiency fracture may be the cause, but no consensus has been developed. Proximal fibular osteotomy (PFO) has been reported to relieve pain from osteoarthritis through medial compartment decompression. We reviewed the effect of this procedure on medial compartment SONK patients and explored clinical and radiological results. Since January 2018 to January 2020, the data of 12 knees (8 right and 4 left) from 11 SONK patients (9 women and 2 men) who received PFO were analyzed. The average age was 61.5 years. The diagnosis of SONK was established through weight-bearing anterior–posterior radiographs or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Visual analog scale (VAS) scores, Oxford knee score (OKS), Femorotibial angle (FTA), medial joint space, and lateral joint space were documented preoperatively and at follow up visits. Outcome assessment for the clinical and radiographic data was reviewed at 12- and 24-month follow-up visits. The mean follow up period was 33 months. All patients were able to walk with or without cane assistance the day after surgery. Both VAS score and OKS (preoperative: 6.6 ± 0.9 and 24.7 ± 3.8, respectively) improved significantly at the 12-month follow-up, and to 24-month follow-up (3.6 ± 1.3 and 35.6 ± 4.5, respectively, P < .05). Medial joint space ratio increased from 0.36 to 0.50 (P < .05). Changes of FTA were insignificant at any point of follow up. Four patients underwent follow-up MRI, and a decrease in the osteonecrotic area was clearly observed in 2 patients. By achieving medial knee decompression, PFO allowed quick weight-bearing recovery, pain relief, and improvement in knee function in SONK patients.


Leaf blight disease caused by Alterneria solani is one of the prime diseases of tomato and is pervasive in almost all the tomato growing countries. The fungicidal phenomenon of the botanical extracts against leaf blight disease of tomato was evaluated under laboratory and greenhouse conditions. Extracts of Eucalyptus obliqua, Calotropis procera, deoiled cakes viz., Neem (Azadirachta indica), Mustard (Sinapis arvensis), groundnut (Arachis hypogaea), Karanj (Millettia pinnata), Mahua (Madhuca longifolia), Castor (Ricinus communis), Salmeal (Shorea robusta) and cow urine were evaluated singly or in combined form to examine the efficacy for inhibition of the fungal pathogen. The treatments were done on various isolates of A. solani in the different concentrations of 5%, 10%, 15%. Extracts in the combined form viz. Eucalyptus obliqua (10%) + Neem cake (Azadirachta indica) (10%) + cow urine (0.5%) showed the maximum inhibition of 85.3% in the laboratory experiments and 78 % in the greenhouse conditions as compared with untreated control. The minimum inhibition of 61.6% in percent disease index was exhibited by Calotropis procera + Karanj cake (Millettia pinnata) + cow urine (0.5%) in greenhouse conditions. Environmental suitable techniques could prove to be promising approach against the harmful and expensive chemical fungicides. The use of such crop yielding organic extracts can be suggested to farmers for inhibition of A. solani.


This paper describes the Tackle system and its model-based approach for analysis and correlation of fault- and performance-related problems in wireless networks. The Tackle system is intended to operate over tactical networks to help uphold communication requirements in the network that are critical to the success of a mission. It does this by producing and reasoning over executable models that adapt to changing network topologies and communication requirements. The Tackle modeling approach allows reasoning about network state to be distributed throughout the nodes in the network, and to be able to operate at different perspectives at multiple levels of aggregation based on the layers in the network hierarchy. Each perspective at each layer of the hierarchy is represented in a correlation domain. During operation, each Tackle Correlator reasons over its own correlation domain. Tackle Clearinghouses reconcile network state that is shared by multiple correlation domains. This approach supports the eventual goal of consistent and informed root cause analysis across the network. We have implemented and rigorously tested a correlation engine that executes the models in a simulated environment with multiple nodes in multiple subnets. We present our testing results and analysis at the end of this paper.


email@example.com ABSTRACT As a fundamental task in natural language processing, Chinese Grammatical Error Correction (CGEC) has gradually received widespread attention and become a research hotspot. However, one obvious deficiency for the existing CGEC evaluation system is that the evaluation values are significantly influenced by the Chinese word segmentation results or different language models. The evaluation values of the same error correction model can vary considerably under different word segmentation systems or different language models. However, it is expected that these metrics should be independent of the word segmentation results and language models, as they may lead to a lack of uniqueness and comparability in the evaluation of different methods. To this end, we propose three novel evaluation metrics for CGEC in two dimensions: reference-based and reference-less. In terms of the reference-based metric, we introduce sentence-level accuracy and char-level BLEU to evaluate the corrected sentences. Besides, in terms of the reference-less metric, we adopt char-level meaning preservation to measure the semantic preservation degree of the corrected sentences. We deeply evaluate and analyze the reasonableness and validity of the three proposed metrics, and we expect them to become a new standard for


Introduction In February 1933 Mr R. C. Cowan noticed an exposure of igneous rock laid bare during excavations at the paper factory at the corner of Arthur Street and Dumbiedykes Road, Edinburgh. He brought specimens for identification to the Geological Survey Office. The author made a microscopical examination of the rock, which proved to be of an unusual type, and of exceptional interest. On the most recent Geological Survey maps the locality concerned lies directly on the line of strike of the extreme northern outcrop of the St Leonard's Sill, which is only 100 yards away, but cut off both by the St Leonard's Fault and the St Margaret's Fault. In order to ascertain the mode of occurrence of the rock discovered by Mr Cowan, a re-examination of all local outcrops, including those of the St Leonard's Sill, was carried out by Mr D. Tait and the author. Subsequently microscopic sections of the igneous rocks were studied. The results of our investigation involve local alterations in the geological mapping and provide new data regarding the petrology of St Leonard's Sill. Previous Research. The St Leonard's or Heriot Mount Sill has long been a well-known feature of the geology of the city of Edinburgh. The most recent observations on the intrusion are those made by the late Mr T. Cuthbert Day,1 and by Prof. E. B. Bailey.2 Prof. Bailey in his paper referred briefly to earlier work of Hay Cunningham, Charles Maclaren, Sir Archibald Geikie, Judd, Bonney, Goodchild and Peach. He


In any country, the number of religions evolve according to the number of people who identify with the various religions and the number of people who deviate. In the United States, this type of evolution is particularly dependent on immigration resulting in significant changes in the religious distribution of the population.


Lamina‐forming processes of moderately thermophilic (∼55°C) unicellular cyanobacteria were identified for the carbonate travertine in the Myoken Hot Spring, Kagoshima Prefecture, southwestern Japan. Continuous 28‐h monitoring of surface textures clearly showed a diurnal pattern in sub‐millimeter order lamination, comprised of daytime dark colored aragonite layers, and night‐time light colored calcite layers. The layering was controlled principally by daily cycles of unicellular cyanobacteria closely related to Thermosynechococcus elongatus BP‐1. During a day, cyanobacteria migrated to the surface, and formed a dark green biofilm, in which CaCO3 is precipitated as radial aggregates of needle aragonite. After sunset, calcite precipitation formed dendritic aggregates of rhombic crystals that cover the biofilm. Physicochemical conditions of the ambient water were stable throughout a day; therefore CaCO3 polymorphs (aragonite/calcite) were controlled by the presence/absence of certain microbial effects, such as extracellular polymeric substances secreted by cyanobacteria. When travertine growth reached the water level, a yellow‐green microbial mat developed on the subaerially exposed surface. Here, filamentous cyanobacteria joined in the microbial community under lowered temperature (∼40°C). Aragonite crystal precipitation occurring in the microbial mat supported the microbial effects on CaCO3 polymorphs. Geomicrobiological processes, effects, and the environmental conditions demonstrated in this travertine provide insights into a further understand of microbial textures in ancient carbonate sediments.


Abstract : This is a final report submitted to effect a change of institution by the author. The report reflects progress at Baylor College of medicine on the project which is being continued at The University of Texas Medical Branch. The human neuronal GABA transporter, hGAT-1, has been cloned and functionally expressed in mouse fibroblasts. The cloned transporter exhibits all of the properties anticipated based on studies done with the rodent transporter. Chemicals that inhibit GABA transport are potent anticonvulsants that many have utility as counter measures against the convulsive effects of organophosphorus anticholinesterases. In order to elucidate the molecular mechanism of GABA transport and pharmacological inhibition of the transporter, we have constructed mutations to probe structural features thought to be important to function. These include the hydrophilic portions of the amphipathic helices, evolutionarily conserved peptide sequences, and sites of N-linked glycosylation. The effect of these mutations is currently being studied by expression in mouse fibroblasts. Early results indicated that Ser-543 and Tyr-551 of the transmembrane helix XII are important to function. Elimination of potential N- linked glycosylation sites at positrons 176, 181, and 184 does not totally abolish transport function.


Although environmental issues we face have changed over time, the need for environmental education has only intensified. Unfortunately, most schools do not offer a stand-alone environmental course. Subject teachers, particularly science teachers, have the responsibility to integrate environmental education in their daily teaching. Responding to the wide call for environmental education, teacher education programs usually offer a series of workshops or an elective course to develop teachers' knowledge and skills in environmental education. However, given its hybrid nature, the environment-related pedagogical content knowledge cannot be effectively developed through such a quick-fix approach. The author proposes a conceptual framework to promote the relevant discussion among researchers and educators: Environmental Pedagogical Content Knowledge (EPACK). EPACK requires teachers to be able to answer what environmental issues, why such issues and how to teach these issues in school classes. To address the need of teacher development in EPACK, teacher education programs need to consider an integration approach. Such approach calls for the integration of environmental issues with teacher education courses besides a possible standalone environmental education course. For example, science methods courses provide a meaningful context where learning to teach environmental issues can be pedagogically situated in the teaching of subject matters. This paper will draw evidence from the literature and, as well, from the author's teaching and research experience to advocate a blended model of teacher development for environmental education proficiency, which ensures that environmental education becomes one of the fundamental components for the design of teacher education curriculum.


The objective stress rates used in most commercial finite element programs are the Jaumann rate of Kirchhoff stress, Jaumann rates of Cauchy stress, or Green–Naghdi rate. The last two were long ago shown not to be associated by work with any finite strain tensor, and the first has often been combined with tangential moduli not associated by work. The error in energy conservation was thought to be negligible, but recently, several papers presented examples of structures with high volume compressibility or a high degree of orthotropy in which the use of commercial software with the Jaumann rate of Cauchy or Kirchhoff stress leads to major errors in energy conservation, on the order of 25–100%. The present paper focuses on the Green–Naghdi rate, which is used in the explicit nonlinear algorithms of commercial software, e.g., in subroutine VUMAT of ABAQUS. This rate can also lead to major violations of energy conservation (or work conjugacy)—not only because of high compressibility or pronounced orthotropy but also because of large material rotations. This fact is first demonstrated analytically. Then an example of a notched steel cylinder made of steel and undergoing compression with the formation of a plastic shear band is simulated numerically by subroutine VUMAT in ABAQUS. It is found that the energy conservation error of the Green–Naghdi rate exceeds 5% or 30% when the specimen shortens by 26% or 38%, respectively. Revisions in commercial software are needed but, even in their absence, correct results can be obtained with the existing software. To this end, the appropriate transformation of tangential moduli, to be implemented in the user's material subroutine, is derived.


OBJECTIVE
Lost dentures can be a frustrating scenario for both patients and clinicians. This study aimed to find out where dentures were being lost and the level of assistance patients received with denture care.

RESULTS
The results showed most dentures were lost in the hospital environment, and in many cases patients were not provided with pots in which to store their dentures or offered help or advice on denture care. The provision of new dentures to this patient group is complicated by the fact that in many cases the dentures were over ten years old and many of the patients were over eighty five years old. This makes adaptation to new dentures difficult.

CONCLUSIONS
It is imperative that protocols are developed and staff trained to minimise the risk of lost dentures and improve the standard of denture care.


Objectives: To investigate if low-dose lithium may counteract the microstructural and metabolic brain changes proposed to occur in individuals at ultra-high risk (UHR) for psychosis. Methods: Hippocampal T2 relaxation time (HT2RT) and proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-MRS) measurements were performed prior to initiation and following three months of treatment in 11 UHR patients receiving low-dose lithium and 10 UHR patients receiving treatment as usual (TAU). HT2RT and 1H-MRS percentage change scores between scans were compared using repeated measures ANOVA and correlated with behavioural change scores. Results: Low-dose lithium significantly reduced HT2RT compared to TAU (p=0.018). No significant group by time effects was seen for any brain metabolites as measured with 1H-MRS, although myo-inositol, creatine, choline-containing compounds and NAA increased in the group receiving low-dose lithium and decreased or remained unchanged in subjects receiving TAU. Conclusions: This pilot study suggests that low-dose lithium may protect the microstructure of the hippocampus in UHR states as reflected by significantly decreasing HT2RT. Larger scale replication studies in UHR states using T2 relaxation time as a proxy for emerging brain pathology seem a feasible mean to test neuroprotective strategies such as low-dose lithium as potential treatments to delay or even prevent the progression to full-blown disorder.


We consider the classical cyclic polling model with Poisson arrivals and with gated service at all queues, but where the local scheduling policies are not necessarily First-Come- First-Served (FCFS). More precisely, we study the waitingtime performance of polling models where the local service order is Last-Come-First-Served (LCFS), Random-Orderof- Service (ROS) or Processor Sharing (PS). Under heavytraffic conditions the waiting times turn out to converge to products of generalized trapezoidal distributions and a gamma distribution.


Four traditional models linking public opinion with government policies are found to form one combined, historical chain with opinion and policies intertwined over time. The traditional simple majority rule model takes a short-term approach to representation. A reverse linkage, with policies shaping opinion, extends the causal model backwards in time, as does an incrementalism and institutional lag model. The importance of this historical chain model is demonstrated in explaining crossstate differences in death penalty sentencing rates in the 1990s. Current public opinion does influence death penalty sentencing rates, but so does political culture. Past public opinion has an indirect influence on current punishment rates through the influence of past opinion on past policies. The presence of a prior capital punishment law provides a legitimization effect, resulting in greater support for the death penalty among a state's population. Without an extended causal chain approach, the interrelationships between public opinion and government policies cannot be fully appreciated.


Verifying real-world programs often requires inferring loop invariants with nonlinear constraints. This is especially true in programs that perform many numerical operations, such as control systems for avionics or industrial plants. Recently, data-driven methods for loop invariant inference have shown promise, especially on linear loop invariants. However, applying data-driven inference to nonlinear loop invariants is challenging due to the large numbers of and large magnitudes of high-order terms, the potential for overfitting on a small number of samples, and the large space of possible nonlinear inequality bounds. In this paper, we introduce a new neural architecture for general SMT learning, the Gated Continuous Logic Network (G-CLN), and apply it to nonlinear loop invariant learning. G-CLNs extend the Continuous Logic Network (CLN) architecture with gating units and dropout, which allow the model to robustly learn general invariants over large numbers of terms. To address overfitting that arises from finite program sampling, we introduce fractional sampling—a sound relaxation of loop semantics to continuous functions that facilitates unbounded sampling on the real domain. We additionally design a new CLN activation function, the Piecewise Biased Quadratic Unit (PBQU), for naturally learning tight inequality bounds. We incorporate these methods into a nonlinear loop invariant inference system that can learn general nonlinear loop invariants. We evaluate our system on a benchmark of nonlinear loop invariants and show it solves 26 out of 27 problems, 3 more than prior work, with an average runtime of 53.3 seconds. We further demonstrate the generic learning ability of G-CLNs by solving all 124 problems in the linear Code2Inv benchmark. We also perform a quantitative stability evaluation and show G-CLNs have a convergence rate of 97.5% on quadratic problems, a 39.2% improvement over CLN models.


Recently wireless sensor networks featuring direct sink access have been studied as an efficient architecture to gather and process data for numerous applications. We focus on the joint effect of clustering and data correlation on the performance of such networks. We propose a novel cluster-based data collection scheme for sensor networks with direct sink access (CDC-DSA), and provide an analytical framework to evaluate its performance in terms of energy consumption, latency, and robustness. In our scheme, CHs use a low-overhead and simple medium access control (MAC) conceptually similar to ALOHA to contend for the reachback channel to the data sink. Since in our model data is collected periodically, the packet arrival is not modeled by a continuous random process and, therefore, our framework is based on transient analysis rather than a steady state analysis. Using random geometry tools, we study how the optimal average cluster size and energy savings vary in a response to various data correlation levels under the proposed MAC. Extensive simulations for various protocol parameters show that our analysis is fairly accurate for a wide range of parameters. Our results suggest that despite the tradeoff between energy consumption and latency, both of which can be substantially reduced by proper clustering design.


A new class of operators, larger than C - symmetric operators and different than normal one named C - normal operatorsis introduced. Basic properties are given. Characterizations of this operators in finite dimensional spaces using relations with conjugate normal metrices are presented. Characterizations of Toeplitz operators and composition operators as C - normal operators are given. Bunches of examples are presented.


The development of unwanted deposits in any water distribution system is unavoidable under standard conditions. Knowing the composition of such deposits will help to establish the causes of deposit formation and consequently to be able to keep water quality as high as possible. This paper presents the results of an extensive study of deposits found in a water distribution system of a tropical city. Characterization of materials collected across the system was made by infrared spectroscopy (IR), X ray diffraction (XRD), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Analysis of the samples taken at several sites of the system reveals the presence of three predominant deposits: a brown coloured deposit, tubercles and white deposits. Aluminosilicates and humic acids were found to be main constituents in brown deposits. Tubercles were mostly mixtures of magnetite, goethite and in some cases lepidocrocite. White deposits were formed by calcite, aluminosilicates and quartz. Organic matter as volatile solids were 14.0 ± 5.0% for brown deposits and 11.2 ± 2.0% for tubercles.


Background: Gastric cancer (GC) is one of the conspicuous causes of cancer-related death worldwide. Considering the mounting incidence of this cancer in developing countries such as Iran, determining the influential factors on the survival of involved patients is noteworthy. Hence, we aimed to ascertain the survival rates and the prognostic factors in our GC patients. Materials and Methods: In this retrospective cohort study, data of 314 patients with GC in a referral cancer center in Hamadan province of Iran were studied. The outcome of our study was survival time and the influential factors were gender, age at diagnosis, tumor history, tumor grade, surgery history, radiotherapy history, stage of disease, metastasis history, and lymph node involvement. Kaplan − Meier method and log-rank test were used for the calculation and comparing the survival curves and Cox-proportional hazard model was used for the multivariable analysis of prognostic factors. Results: In a total of 314 GC patients, the median age at the diagnosis was 63 years (range: 21–92) with most patients (74.84%) being males. The median follow-up time was 2.42 years, and the median survival time was 2 years. The multivariable cox analysis of overall survival (OS) indicated that having distant metastasis increased the hazard of death by about 2.5 times (P < 0.0001, heart rates [HR]: 2.53, 95% confidence interval [CI]: [1.71, 3.75]), and receiving surgery as treatment, decreased the hazard of death up to 36% (P = 0.02, HR: 0.64, 95%CI: [0.46–0.89]). The other variables did not have any significant effects on the OS. Conclusion: The results of this study showed that lower survival (greater hazard of death) strongly and significantly associated with having distant metastasis in patients with GC and receiving surgery could significantly decrease the hazard of death in these patients instead.


Micro-scale cantilevers such as those used in the atomic force microscope are now being applied to the accurate measurement of novel forces such as the Casimir force. The measurements are done in dynamic mode and higher sensitivity can be achieved by using cantilevers with lower force constants. One method to produce a low force constant cantilever is to reduce the thickness of a conventional AFM cantilever by focused ion beam (FIB) milling. Here we show that this method leads to a typical reduction of the resonance quality factor by 40–50%. Reduction of the thickness by FIB milling therefore does not necessarily result in improved force sensitivity, with a decreased quality factor negating any improvement from the lower force constant. If the increased loss is due to the FIB damage layer then it is shown that this layer is ∼30 nm thick and the complex part of Young's modulus of the layer is in the range 205–270 MPa. In the measurements reported here no trend in the quality factor has been observed with either dose rate of the milling or with the total mill depth.


Motorcyclists are over-represented in traffic crashes (Department for Transport, 2008) and research shows that the commission of speed violations significantly increases motorcyclists crash risk (Horswill & Helman, 2003). This study therefore aimed to identify potentially modifiable cognitive variables that underpin motorcyclists speeding intentions (ie, variables that are likely to represent useful targets for safety interventions), using selected predictors from the theory of planned behaviour (affective attitude and perceived controllability), identity theory (self-identity) and social identity theory (perceived in-group norm and group identification). Participants (N=110 motorcyclists) completed online questionnaire measures of all theoretical constructs, operationalised with respect to speeding on both 30 mph urban roads and 70 mph dual carriageways/motorways. The cognitive predictors together accounted for large amounts of variation in intentions to speed on both road types (in excess of 44%). The independent predictors of intentions to speed on 30 mph urban roads were affective attitude and perceived controllability. For 70 mph roads, the independent predictors of speeding intentions were affective attitude and each identity construct. Additionally, and in line with social identity theory, it was found that the effect of perceived in-group norm on intention increased with group identification. The findings demonstrate that the cognitive variables examined in this study together constitute a useful model for predicting motorcyclists speeding intentions. They also demonstrate that interventions (eg, road safety education) need to be carefully targeted at the different predictors of intentions to speed on different road types.


The success of deep neural networks (DNNs) in real-world applications has benefited from abundant pre-trained models. However, the backdoored pre-trained models can pose a significant trojan threat to the deployment of downstream DNNs. Existing DNN testing methods are mainly designed to find incorrect corner case behaviors in adversarial settings but fail to discover the backdoors crafted by strong trojan attacks. Observing the trojan network behaviors shows that they are not just reflected by a single compromised neuron as proposed by previous work but attributed to the critical neural paths in the activation intensity and frequency of multiple neurons. This work formulates the DNN backdoor testing and proposes the CatchBackdoor framework. Via differential fuzzing of critical neurons from a small number of benign examples, we identify the trojan paths and particularly the critical ones, and generate backdoor testing examples by simulating the critical neurons in the identified paths. Extensive experiments demonstrate the superiority of CatchBackdoor, with higher detection performance than existing methods. CatchBackdoor works better on detecting backdoors by stealthy blending and adaptive attacks, which existing methods fail to detect. Moreover, our experiments show that CatchBackdoor may reveal the potential backdoors of models in Model Zoo.


Consider a single processor and a software system. The software system comprises components and interfaces where each component has an associated interface and each component comprises a set of constrained-deadline sporadic tasks. A scheduling algorithm (called global scheduler) determines at each instant which component is active. The active component uses another scheduling algorithm (called local scheduler) to determine which task is selected for execution on the processor. The interface of a component makes certain information about a component visible to other components; the interfaces of all components are used for schedulability analysis. We address the problem of generating an interface for a component based on the tasks inside the component. We desire to (i) incur only a small loss in schedulability analysis due to the interface and (ii) ensure that the amount of space (counted in bits) of the interface is small; this is because such an interface hides as much details of the component as possible. We present an algorithm for generating such an interface.


The purpose of the study was to investigate the effects of lipid-coated ZnO (LCZ) and the level of LCZ compared with ordinary zinc oxide (ZnO) on antioxidant defense system in the intestine and liver of piglets. A total of forty piglets (n=8) were fed a diet supplemented with 100 ppm Zn with ZnO (ZnO-1), 2,500 ppm Zn with ZnO (ZnO-2), 100 ppm Zn as LCZ (LCZ-1), 200 ppm Zn as LCZ (LCZ-2), or 400 ppm Zn as LCZ (LCZ-3) for 14-d, respectively. The LCZ-3 group resulted in higher (P<0.05) mRNA expressions and activities of CuZn-superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GPX), catalase (CAT), and glutathione S-transferase (GST) in jejunal mucosa compared with the ZnO-1 and LCZ-1 groups, while no difference was observed in the mRNA level of antioxidant genes between the ZnO-1 and ZnO-2 groups. Within the LCZ groups, the LCZ level linearly and quadratically (P<0.01) increased antioxidant enzymes in the jejunum. The maximum response of jejunal antioxidant enzymes to Zn supplementation was achieved by 400 ppm of LCZ. Hepatic mRNA expression of antioxidant enzymes was unaffected by Zn source and level, while hepatic SOD and GST activities were greater (P<0.05) in the LCZ-3 group than in the ZnO-1 group. No difference was observed in lipid peroxidation of the jejunum and liver and the total antioxidant power of plasma among groups. In conclusion, a supplementation with 400 ppm of LCZ resulted in a maximum increase in antioxidant enzymes, indicating that LCZ may affect antioxidant defense system more profoundly than ZnO.


PURPOSE
This study was carried out to determine the effect of high school students' perception of risk of COVID-19, wearing masks and social distance behavior on stress during the COVID-19 pandemic.

METHOD
This descriptive study was performed on 1034 participants between the ages of 15 and 18 between June 21 and July 2, 2021. "Descriptive Questionnaire," "COVID-19 Risk Perception Form," "Mask Wear Behavior Form," "Social Distance Behavior Form," and "Perceived Stress Scale" were used in data collection.

RESULTS
It was determined that 81.4% of the students used disposable medical masks, and 50.6% of them used the mask they wore for one day. In the characteristics of the risk perception of COVID-19, 31% have a risk perception, 45% are afraid to contact people returning from abroad, 58.8% avoid going to crowded places, 66.8% are afraid of contacting people with flu symptoms. It was found that they always kept sufficient distance while communicating with others. As a result of the multiple regression, it was determined that gender, mask type, mask usage frequency, risk perception, social distance behavior, and mask-wearing behavior had a statistically significant effect on the perceived stress level (p < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS
These results provide theoretical inferences for public health policies targeting the high school students to develop accurate risk perception and protective behaviors.


In Morning, Paramin (2016), 51 new poems by Derek Walcott are in dialogue with 51 paintings by Peter Doig. Walcott, also an accomplished painter, has often engaged with the visual arts, but this is the first volume in which every poem "cor-responds" to a painting, offering unique opportunities to examine Walcott's ekphrastic practices and the way in which they might offer alternatives to current paradigms. Rejecting the paradigm of a paragonal struggle for dominance, I will argue that Morning, Paramin is shaped by an ekphrasis of Relation (resonating with Glissant's poetics of Relation) in which the verbal and the visual interact in complex ways, exercising mutual reclaimings of agency and transformative dialogues that engender new composite works of art governed by a noncompetitive, nonexploitative approach; as otherness is reconfigured, the right to "opacity" is upheld, and each image and word contribute to a whole bigger than the sum of its parts.


The mineralogical and geochemical characteristics of calamines developed from chemical weathering within two different tectonic settings (tectonic horst and graben) are described. Calamines collected from the Olkusz-Pomorzany and the Boleslaw zinc and lead mines were analysed geochemically by means of EMP and SEM-EDS and their mineralogical composition was identified by using reflected light microscopy and XRD analysis. The calamines from the Olkusz-Pomorzany mine are composed of marcasite, galena, cerussite, sphalerite, hemimorphite, smithsonite and goethite. Hemimorphite prevails over smithsonite and occurs in the vicinity of primary sulphides. The mineralogical composition of the calamines from the Boleslaw area is less diverse. These are primarily composed of goethite and smithsonite, with a minor content of marcasite and remnant sphalerite. The mineral composition of weathering sites in the Olkusz-Pomorzany and Boleslaw areas may reflect different geochemical conditions (from slightly acidic to alkaline pH values, from lower to higher CO2 partial pressure and solutions of different silica saturation) that could have changed over time. The mineralogical compositions of the calamines differ quantitatively and this could reflect the tectonic setting of the primary ore affecting the rate of chemical weathering.


The subtitle given this book suggests its approach. It is a comprehensive and detailed examination of the problems posed by "motivational phenomena". Although the experiments studied deal for the most part with behaviour at the infrahuman level, the approach to motivation is one that may be usefully applied to the study of human behaviour, as is aptly shown by the author in the last chapter. Motivation is dealt with in relation to such activities as "eating, drinking, approaching, escaping, attacking, exploring, copulating, and material care of the young". Bindra does not believe that motivational phenomena are discrete psychological or physiological entities. Thus, to him, the concept of instinct, traits, needs and motives postulated by many psychological theorists, gives expression only to futile circular reasoning. He advocates careful definition of the class of an activity to be studied, without reference to cause or subjectively described state; study of the development of the particular activity in terms of constitution and experience; and study of the factors which call it forth. Many will not agree that in order to eliminate or modify a response it is more important to know the factors which determine its occurrence than it is to know the circumstances under which it was first elicited. However, all who are interested in motivational phenomena will find this book well worth while. M. A. HUGHES, Montreal


This research aims to improving the thinking creativity and the learning achievment of the students in Grade XI of State Vocational High School 2 of Surakarta in the subject matter of Electrical Systems through the use of the Problem Based Learning Model. This research used the Classroom Action Research with three cycles. Each cycle included planning, implementation, observation, and reflection. The subjectsof research were the students as many as 32 in Grade XI of TKRD of State Vocational High School 2 of Surakarta. The data sources of research were a teacher and students. The data of research were collected through in-depth interview, observation, documentation, and test and validated by using the content and dialog. The data analysis was carried out using qualitative and comparative descriptive The results of this research show the application of the model problem based learning can improve the students' thinking creativity. Prior to the treatment, the percentage of the students' thinking creativityis 71,76%. Following the treatment, it becomes 77,78% in Cycle I and 84,04% in Cycle II respectively. The indicators of thinking creativity include fluency, flexibility, elaboration, sensitivity, originality, novelty, and use of new approachuse. The application of the model problem based learnig canimprove the students' learning achievment. Prior to the treatment, the percentage of the students' learning result is 68,26%. Following the treatment, it becomes 72,40% in Cycle I and 82,55% in Cycle II respectively.


An Internet-of-Things (IoT) cellular network is considered in which IoT devices communicate with an IoT base station using IoT sub-bands placed between long-term evolution (LTE) bands. Due to spectral leakage, inter-band interference exists among IoT sub-bands and also between LTE and IoT bands. It is assumed that the IoT cellular network is responsible for reducing its interference to the LTE network to a certain threshold level. Under such interference regulation to LTE bands, we establish a joint sub-band assignment and power allocation optimization in order to maximize the sum rate of the IoT cellular network. A novel two-stage suboptimal algorithm that sequentially performs sub-band assignment and power control is proposed, reflecting the impact of spectral leakage in its optimization procedure. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm considering the impact of spectral leakage outperforms the conventional optimization algorithms without considering spectral leakage. It is further shown that it provides almost the same sum rate achievable for a stand-alone network as if there were no LTE networks.


In this essay we put forth nested arguments about the way that racialization remains a powerful force in contemporary society, contending that intersections with space and nature offer important lessons about the (de)construction of race. We argue that the pernicious character traits of racial constructs develop through spatial practices and intersect with ideas about "nature" and belonging. We trace these concepts through recent conversations in geography and environmental studies, and we call for a persistent, critical, and prominent engagement with racialization in the spatial social sciences. Finally, we introduce the papers that constitute this symposium, which engages these questions from a range of perspectives and across a variety of landscapes. We hope to spur the conversation about "race and geography", broadly conceived, beyond studies conceptualized around race alone. We are hopeful that this work, and the larger body of work it contributes to, travels beyond academic conversations to engage broader social justice debates about the "nature" of racial inequality—to ultimately participate in its dismantlement.


The elderly have traditionally been a segment of the population that is treated with respect and veneration. Numerous societal changes, however, have raised practical concerns about the rights of the elderly and how to best care for an aging population without overburdening younger and future generations. Necessities and structures that many take for granted - employment, medical care, and housing - are often difficult for the elderly to obtain. Government programs, such as the Social Security Act and Medicare, are constantly threatened by privatization. As baby boomers continue to retire, questions surrounding the rights of the elderly become more and more pronounced. "Rights of the Elderly" provides an overview of the history of this timely topic and the opinions surrounding it - from the Social Security Act of 1935 to the current activism of groups such as AARP and the Gray Panthers. Examining recent court cases such as Kathi Cooper et al. v. IBM Personal Pension Plan and IBM Corporation and documents such as The Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, this new volume provides multiple perspectives and decisions surrounding this issue while also plotting a course for the future of legislative action. A comprehensive and up-to-date overview essay, capsule biographies, a large annotated bibliography, a chronology of significant events, organization and agency listings, and a glossary provide useful information for students, teachers, librarians, older persons, activists, policy makers, and the general reader interested in this controversial issue. Coverage includes: whether or not the systems devised to protect the elderly - including Social Security and Medicare - will be sustainable; whether or not it is fair that younger workers must contribute to funds that will probably be depleted by the time they retire; who will take care of the aging population and guarantee their safety as reports of nursing home scandals and medical malpractice emerge; and whether or not elderly individuals have too few rights and whether these rights infringe on others.


In this work, the simple modification of a pyrene group on the labile ligand gives the resultant complex 1 versatility, for example, "turn-on" fluorescence after photo-dissociation, dual PDT and PACT activity, and a large two-photon absorption cross section.


Many colleges face the challenge of recruiting examinees for institutional assessment programs. Unfortunately, students recognize these programs as low-stakes, and therefore may not have high performance motivation. This study examined the interrelationships between students' preferred incentives for taking the test, their performance motivation, and their observed performance on the Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA). Results reveal that freshmen stated a preference for cash and prizes over recognition and feedback as incentives. However, preferred incentives bore no practically significant relationship with test performance. For individual students, motivation was a significant predictor of CLA scores even after controlling for entering academic ability, but this effect was not apparent when schools were the units of analysis. Thus, schools should be attentive to motivation when results are used for individual-level assessment, but motivation is less of a concern when interpreting average scores relative to other schools with students of similar entering academic ability.


Klinefelter syndrome (KS) is a well-documented abnormality of the sex chromosome, with an incidence of 1 in 600 newborn males. It is characterized by a 47, XXY or a mosaic karyotype, hypergonadotrophic hypogonadism, infertility, reduced body hair, gynecomastia, and tall stature. Different neoplasms such as breast, testicular, and lymphoreticular malignancies may occur in 1% to 2% of the cases with KS. Herein we describe a case of mediastinal mixed germ cell tumor (GCT) in a 40-year-old male with KS. Interestingly, this case also had mitral valve prolapse, and an incidental papillary microcarcinoma of the thyroid gland. In view of the presence of pulmonary nodules, antemortem differential diagnoses considered were mycobacterial infection, lymphoma, thymic carcinoma, and a primary/metastatic neoplasm of the lung. As GCT was not considered, the serum markers of a GCT were not performed. The diagnosis of this rare mediastinal mixed GCT with KS was made at autopsy.


In previous implementation studies, the relationships between influence factors and information systems (IS) performance under the level of IS evolution were not empirically examined. The studies did not consider the evolution level of IS in examining influence factors of IS performance. They have tried to identify critical influence factors without considering the state of the IS and the IS department, that is, the levels of IS evolution.The objectives of this study are to examine the direct relationships between influence factors and performance of accounting information systems (AIS), and to identify the moderating effect of evolution level of IS on the relationships. In this study, the direct relationships and the moderating effect of evolution level of IS were hypothesized.The results of the empirical test suggested that there are significant positive correlations between the performance of an AIS and the influence factors such as user involvement, capability of IS personnel and organization size. It was also proved that the relationships between performance of AIS and influence factors are significantly influenced by the evolution level of IS. Hence, for the success of AIS, each influence factor should be considered differently in the degree of importance according to the level of IS evolution.


The project focuses on 'shared listening' from a structured developmental framework of 'sound/no sound awareness' to basic 'phonological awareness' linking it to the Foundation Curriculum: Early Years Goals (Department for Education and Employment 2000) and National Literacy Framework (Department for Education and Employment 1998). The project is based around parents borrowing topic bags where their children have been identified by speech and language therapy/specialist language and communication support teachers as having listening/phonological difficulties. Following a simple screening assessment parents borrow the bags weekly for a potential 30 weeks. These have been shown to have an effect on both parental attitudes to helping listening (practically-based and focused) and their children's listening skills.


This paper studies the role of visiting delay in crowdsourcing contests – the time elapsed between the start of a contest and a solver's first visit to the contest. Because crowdsourcing platforms often host multiple contests parallelly, solvers may not be aware of contests when they open for participation. This creates heterogeneity among solvers in terms of their visiting delay and awareness of contest details. We theorize that visiting delay may impact solvers' submission behavior and performance through two countervailing forces: a deadline effect – an increased intention to participate induced by a tighter deadline, and a time-disadvantage effect – a decreased intention to participate due to the limited time available in the contest. Using a novel dataset from an established crowdsourcing platform, we show the heterogeneous effects of visiting delay on the submission behavior, namely, the time to first submission and the number of submissions, through various empirical analyses. We demonstrate that when solvers have higher levels of visiting delay, the deadline effect dominates the time-disadvantage effect, resulting in a faster submission time initially. However, after the first submission, the time-disadvantage effect dominates the deadline effect, resulting in fewer and slower submissions. Additionally, the deadline (time-disadvantage) effect is amplified (attenuated) by the average contest prize amount in a non-linear manner. Finally, we show that these dynamics affect the solvers' likelihood of developing an acceptable submission and a winning submission. Our results provide implications for seekers and platform designers in scheduling contests and in designing incentives for managing the effects of visiting delay.


Abstract Objective. Micromegaly describes a subgroup of patients with clinically evident acromegaly and elevated insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I) with apparently normal basal growth hormone (bGH) and often a glucose-suppressed growth hormone (GH) of <1 ng/mL at diagnosis. It is controversial whether this condition is a distinct clinical entity or a classic acromegaly in early stages. The aim of the present article was to characterize the prevalence, clinical and biochemical characteristics, and therapeutic outcomes of micromegaly. Methods. A retrospective study of patients with an acromegaly followed ≥1 year at a tertiary center from 1995 to 2019. Patients without IGF-I or GH measurements at diagnosis were excluded. At diagnosis, bGH was considered normal if <2 ng/mL. Results. From 74 patients with acromegaly, 6 (8.1%) had normal bGH levels. There was no difference in the gender distribution, median diagnostic delay, and follow-up time between patients with normal bGH and elevated bGH. Patients with normal bGH were significantly older at time of the first acromegalic manifestation and diagnosis they had significantly lower nadir post-glucose GH and IGF-I levels, and tended to have a higher prevalence of obesity than patients with the elevated bGH. The frequency of acromegalic symptoms, signs, and other comorbidities than obesity was similar between groups. Five patients (83.3%) with normal bGH presented microadenomas. Post-operative remission and outcomes at last visit were comparable between patients with or without normal bGH. Conclusions. Normal bGH acromegaly is relatively uncommon in our patients. These patients showed differentiating characteristics from the classical acromegaly with elevated bGH. Further studies are needed to extend the knowledge about its clinical behavior, therapeutic outcomes, morbidity, and mortality.


In 2011, the Office for Civil Rights issued a "Dear Colleague Letter" instructing universities to take action regarding sexual assault on college campuses. Specifically, universities must better educate students on the prevention of sexual assault, in the hope of reducing violence against women. Previous research is mixed on the involvement of intercollegiate student-athletes in incidences of sexual assault; however, recent high-profile cases of sexual misconduct at universities indicate that student-athletes are not immune to this issue. The purpose of this study was to explore how sexual assault is viewed within the culture of intercollegiate athletics, including education, occurrence, and prevention. Through interviews with former intercollegiate athletes, three main findings emerged: (1) Participant Knowledge, (2) Sexual Assault Within the Context of College Athletics; and (3) Creating Change in Athletic Department Culture. Using grounded theory, these themes were combined to create the Sexual Assault Prevention Paradigm for Athletic Departments.


In this paper, we consider a novel Three Hierarchical decomposition approach for Multi-Player Pursuit Evaders (MPPE) game. In multi-player pursuit evasion game, hierarchical framework is applied widely in order to decompose the original complicated multi-player game into multiple small scale games. In this paper, we first study the number of pursuers which necessitates; the capture condition and the time of all evaders have been captured. Then, describe the Distributed Task Assignment Stage Based on dynamic Coalition Formation. Last, a novel multi-agent Q-learning approach based on Evolutionary Game Theoretic model is used for pursue. Experimental results obtained on two different environments of a well-known pursuit domain show the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed Hierarchical architecture and learning approach.


In Germany, most distribution systems are run without disinfectant residuals. To allow an adequate judgement of coliform-positive samples, it was important to know if growth of coliform bacteria is to be expected also under the conditions present in German drinking water distribution systems. Therefore, the growth conditions for coliform bacteria in drinking water were characterized in a DVGW-funded project.
Pure cultures of coliform bacteria (e.g. Citrobacter freundii, Enterobacter cloacae) required mostly elevated temperatures of 20°C in order to show growth in the water. A coliform strain directly isolated from a drinking water sample however showed growth at lower temperatures (12°C). Thus, in principle coliform bacteria can grow even with the low nutrient content present in drinking water.
Yet, if bacteria of the natural biocenosis were present in the water they successfully outcompeted the coliform bacteria and no growth of the coliform strains could be detected. Thus, under the conditions usually present in German drinking water distribution systems (aerobic, low temperature, low nutrient content, presence of a natural biocenosis) growth of coliform bacteria within the water body is not to be expected.
However, under anaerobic conditions growth of coliform bacteria was detected even in the presence of a natural biocenosis. Such anaerobic conditions can be present in sediments of drinking water reservoirs or in the pipes. Hence, anoxic sediments within a drinking water distribution system can serve as potential habitat for coliform bacteria and therefore account for a high percentage of positive samples in sediments and flushing waters.


Aerodynamic design of a forebody geometry has a significant effect on aircraft performance and stability. Although the studies conducted on aircraft performance so far, mostly, focus on optimization of wing-like structures, the contribution coming from an effective forebody design to the aircraft performance could be as high as the contribution coming from wing-like structures. A proper forebody design can reduce the wave drag and provide better lateral characteristics at high angles of attack. The reduced drag may enable the aircraft to achieve higher speeds and consume less fuel which eventually results in higher endurance and range to be achieved. On the other hand, achieving better lateral characteristics at high angles of attack may enable aircraft to withstand higher gust loads during take-off and landing phases. In addition to that, it may provide improved spin characteristics. In this paper, the forebody optimization of a jet trainer aircraft is studied. While doing so, two objectives are considered. Turbulent flow solutions are obtained with SU2. Response surface methodology is used as database generator and Pareto-optimal solutions are searched by using non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm–II. The optimization study improves the aircraft performance in the aspects of the wave drag and the lateral stability.


According to the dynamic range of measurement, linearity and sensitivity, the optimal range of working wavelengths and the corresponding bandwidths were determined by numerical calculation. Combined with practical factors, two working wavelengths of 1.4 μm and 1.55 μm were selected, whose bandwidths both being 0.03 μm.


In 1988, the Education Reform Act enabled all parents in England and Wales to express a preference for any school for their child. This created a market-like situation within which school survival depended on a regular supply of students. Previous studies in the United Kingdom have suggested that this would lead to increasing socioeconomic segregation between schools. In contrast, the investigation reported here found that segregation has declined in several respects since 1988. The study uses school-level data relating to free school meals (FSM), ethnicity, first language, and special needs for every school in England and Wales. All indicators at each level of aggregation are in agreement. Student segregation between schools has decreased over time. There is little evidence that this powerful social movement is related to market forces, and some indications are presented here that although markets have not caused segregation, they do not seem to be causing the desegregation either


The definition generation task can help language learners by providing explanations for unfamiliar words. This task has attracted much attention in recent years. We propose a novel task of Simple Definition Generation (SDG) to help language learners and low literacy readers. A significant challenge of this task is the lack of learner's dictionaries in many languages, and therefore the lack of data for supervised training. We explore this task and propose a multitasking framework SimpDefiner that only requires a standard dictionary with complex definitions and a corpus containing arbitrary simple texts. We disentangle the complexity factors from the text by carefully designing a parameter sharing scheme between two decoders. By jointly training these components, the framework can generate both complex and simple definitions simultaneously. We demonstrate that the framework can generate relevant, simple definitions for the target words through automatic and manual evaluations on English and Chinese datasets. Our method outperforms the baseline model by a 1.77 SARI score on the English dataset, and raises the proportion of the low level (HSK level 1-3) words in Chinese definitions by 3.87%.


This communication presents a Ka-band multibeam substrate-integrated waveguide (SIW) horn array implemented in a single-layer planar substrate. By conforming the array into a circular shape, the horn array covers full 360° azimuth range with 12 beams. Every adjacent beam overlaps each other at the half-power beam shoulders. A wideband matching is obtained with −10 dB reflection coefficients from 27.5 to 38 GHz. By suppressing the side-lobe levels to be lower than −20 dB, the mutual coupling between each SIW horn is less than −45 dB from 28 to 38 GHz. With a thin radiating aperture of 0.1 $6\lambda$ , a stable realized gain of each beam is achieved around 9.5 dBi, whereas it increases to 12.9 dBi when there is a conducting reflector closely beneath it. Due to the reflector, the main radiation directions tilt 30°, which enables the proposed multibeam antenna to be mounted on the ceiling while maintaining the communication for multiple users below. Results with a manufactured prototype well demonstrate the multibeam performance both in simulation and measurement with good agreement. In addition, it is compact and easy to be fabricated with common printed circuit board (PCB) techniques, also suitable to be integrated into microwave systems. It is promising for the application in beam-switched, multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO), and omnidirectional systems.


Objectives Rates of chlamydia and gonorrhoea have been rising in urban centres in Canada, particularly among HIV-positive men who have sex with men (MSM). Our objective was to identify behavioural risk factors for diagnosis with chlamydia and gonorrhoea in this population, with a focus on the HIV status of sexual partners. Methods The OHTN Cohort Study follows people in HIV care across Ontario. We restricted the analysis to 1997 MSM who completed questionnaires in 2010–2013 at one of seven clinics that submit all chlamydia and gonorrhoea tests to the provincial public health laboratory; we obtained test results via record linkage. We estimated cumulative incidences using Kaplan–Meier methods and identified risk factors for diagnosis of a composite outcome (chlamydia or gonorrhoea infection) using Cox regression. Results At follow-up, there were 74 new chlamydia/gonorrhoea diagnoses with a 12-month cumulative incidence of 1.7% (95% CI 1.1% to 2.2%). Risk factors for chlamydia/gonorrhoea diagnosis were: 5+ HIV-positive partners (HR=3.3, 95% CI 1.4 to 7.8; reference=none) and recreational drug use (HR=2.2, 95% CI 1.2 to 3.9). Conclusions Heightened risks with recreational drug use and multiple HIV-positive partners suggest that chlamydia/gonorrhoea may have achieved high prevalence in certain sexual networks among HIV-positive MSM. Interventions to promote safer sex and timely testing among MSM are needed.


RISK ANALYSIS AND WATER MARKET ACTIVITY presents an analytical framework to analyze the factors that explain water rights transactions in the context of an economy with a water rights market and a spot market for water volumes. Main hypothesis is that risk heterogeneity among farmers can explain transactions in the former market. Investment decisions on water rights are modeled under output risk and uncertainty generated by future water availability and price. Using farmer micro-level data from a two-round survey conducted on a sample of farmers in the northern part of Chile, the hypothesis of homogeneous preferences among farmers is rejected. This evidence also suggests that better educated and more experienced farmers are less risk- averse. Results also show that water, labor and fertilizers have a positive impact on mean output per hectare but their effect on yield variability implies that those inputs are risk increasing.


This paper examines the relationship between modernisation, consumption, and society, challenging received ideas about the distinction betweenmodern' andpremodern' geographies of food consumption. While conventional accounts posit a historical progression from premodern to modern forms of consumption, associated with the rise of the supermarket and the demise of the corner store, we argue that such distinctions may, in fact, refer less to a historical process of transition than to a contrast between different forms of contemporary sociality, experienced simultaneously in different sites of consumption. By drawing critically on the work of Augeand his contrast between places and nonplaces, these ideas are then put to work empirically in an examination of contemporary food shopping in Germany, focusing particularly on notions of consumer trust. A practice-based and ethnographically informed account of food shopping in Germany shows how distinctions between `traditional' andmodern' forms of consumption involve historicised accounts of contemporary con- sumption spaces and their associated socialities rather than referring to historical differences per se.


Rapid growth of software usage enforces us to access the software reliability, a critical task in the development of a software system. Various models are adopted to assess the software reliability. In this paper a well known test procedure of statistical science called as Sequential Probability Ratio Test (SPRT) is adopted for Pareto Type IV model in assessing the reliability of developed software. It requires considerably less number of observations when compared with the other existing testing procedures. In Classical Hypothesis first of all testing volumes of data is to be collected and later the conclusions are to be drawn which may take more time. Hence Sequential Analysis of Statistical Science could be adopted to decide upon the reliable / unreliable of the developed software very quickly. Besides the present paper proposes the performance of SPRT on Interval domain data using Pareto type IV model and analyzed the results by applying on 6 data sets. The Maximum Likelihood Estimation is used for estimation of parameters.


Introduction During medical investigation, occupational health physicians collect huge amounts of scattered data about their patients. Recently, these data have been integrated into a single data warehouse. In the current study, this data warehouse has been addressed to study the evolution of BMI, and investigate how this trend is effected by the occupation of the employee, controlled for gender and age. Methods Around 78 000 employees were followed-up from 1993 onwards, with following variables: BMI, age, sex, and isco encoded occupation. Multilevel analyses was performed to study the evolution of BMI, with time and time 2 as time-varying variable, and sex, age at start of measurement and occupation as time-independent variables. Including time 2 allows for modelling curvilinear trends over time. Random effects were allowed for the intercept and time-varying variables. Result Over the 23 years of follow-up, we observed a high drop-out of around 90%. Nontheless, all occupations were still represented at the last measurement. 52.8% was male, mean age was 34.34 years (SD=9.43) at the start of the study. Analyses showed that BMI increases curvilinear with age: the younger, the steeper the curve; Males have higher BMI than females. Occupation also has an effect: Highest BMI was observed with Service personnel of machinery and installations assemblers; the increase of BMI was highest for Leading functions. Random effects showed large inter-individual differences in BMI at starting point and on effect of time. Discussion We've illustrated how the data warehous can be accessed to answer substantive research questions. Differences in evolution of BMI seems to be related to occupation. The strong curvilinear effect probably indicates healthy worker effect. The high dropout might be explained by employees changing companies, companies changing external service, and/or the reach of retirement age.


: Cirrhosis is a serious and irreversible disease. It is end result of hepatocellular injury that lead s to both fibrosis and nodular regeneration. Sub-acute bacterial peritonitis is an important complication. Objective: To determine the frequency of spontaneous bacterial peritonitis (SBP) in cirrhotic patients presenting with hypoalbuminemia. Subject and Methods: This was a Cross sectional study that was conducted at out patient department at DHQ Mandi Bahaudin, BHU Toba and BHU Lurka during July 2018 to December 2018, in which 200 cases selected by non-probability, consecutive sampling were selected. The diagnosis of SBP was made according to standard criteria. Results: Out of total 200 patients in present study, there were 114 males and 94 females with mean age of 49.19±6.671 years. There were 110 cases falling in Child Pugh class C and 90 in Class B. SBP was seen in 60 cases (30%). It was seen in 36 males (31.58%) and 24 females (16.44%) out of their respective groups with p value of 0.69. When SBP was compared with respect to age groups, it also did not reveal any significant difference (p= 0.68). However, significant difference was seen when SBP was seen in different child pugh classes; where out of total 60, there were 44 (40%) in Class C and 16 (17.78%) in class B having p value of 0.02. in low socioeconomic countries like Pakistan. Sub-acute bacterial peritonitis is an important complication and child Pugh class C has a significant association with this.


Wireless in vivo actuators and sensors are examples of sophisticated technologies. Another breakthrough is the use of in vivo wireless medical devices, which provide scalable and cost-effective solutions for wearable device integration. In vivo wireless body area networks devices reduce surgery invasiveness and provide continuous health monitoring. Also, patient data may be collected over a long period of time. Given the large fading in in vivo channels due to the signal path going through flesh, bones, skins, and blood, channel coding is considered a solution for increasing the efficiency and overcoming inter-symbol interference in wireless communications. Simulations are performed by using 50 MHz bandwidth at Ultra-Wideband frequencies (3.10-10.60 GHz). Optimal channel coding (Turbo codes, Convolutional codes, with the help of polar codes) improves data transmission performance over the in vivo channel in this research. Moreover, the results reveal that turbo codes outperform polar and convolutional codes in terms of bit error rate. Other approaches perform similarly when the information block length is increased. The simulation in this work indicates that the in vivo channel shows less performance than the Rayleigh channel due to the dense structure of the human body (flesh, skins, blood, bones, muscles, and fat).


The purpose of this study was to determine the cause of lens cataracts in hatchery trout fed diets containing white fish meal. After preliminary investigations, three experiments were conducted with fry of rainbow trout (Salmo gairdneri) that were fed practical-type diets containing either 40% herring meal (control diet) or 40% white fish meal with and without various mineral supplements. In all experiments, the trout fed herring meal grew well and had normal lenses. Those fed the diet containing white fish meal without supplement grew slowly and developed bilateral cataracts determined by using a slit-lamp biomicroscope. The severity of cataracts was increased by supplementing the diet with a mixture of minerals (phosphates and carbonates of calcium, sodium and potassium). Cataracts were prevented, however, with supplemental Na2EDTA or zinc but not by supplements of manganese, copper, iron or various other minerals. The metabolic alterations responsible for the zinc-deficiency cataract were not determined.


Following the change of Iraqi political system in 2005, Iraqi Kurdistan has been granted autonomous region within unified Iraq. Since then, Iraqi Kurds have sought to bring the old dream of independence into reality through political stability. Politically, it was the most stable period. However, these period of prosperity and stability have been dramatically changed into upheaval and crisis. KRG's politically they are in disputes. The unilateral Kurdish referendum in September, 2017 has brought almost the Kurdish dream of independence into unthinkable by losing most the political privileges they have. While the referendum has encouraged Iraqi government to take action against the KRG, it cannot be alone accounted for the political the KRG is in now. The KRG was in deep crisis even before the referendum. Thus, the main purpose of this research is to answer the question, "What accounts for the KRG's political upheaval?" How can we understand the political change?  The study aims at achieving the following goals : First, understanding what has gone done in relations to state building in the Iraqi Kurdistan. Second, assessing the political system in IK by dealing with the administrative system, especially political parties to understand their relationship and the impact of this relation on the political system in IK.  The objectives of the study are: The research attempts to clarify the political structure of IK. And what accounts for the dramatic change?   The rationale of the research can be justified by numerous reasons . First, it is the desire of the Kurdish people to establish an independent democratic political system in the region where authoritarianism and dictatorship is a model of the political system. Secondly, the study is significant because of the on-going Kurdish issue in Iraq, Turkey, Iran and Syria.  Methodology , the study will draw on the existing literature about the political system in countries to explain the political stability in IK. Therefore, the research will use the conceptual approach. The methodological approach used in this research is a qualitative argument, drawing on indication from policy literature and scholarly, non-governmental reports and governmental databases in order to gain a wide-ranging and accurate understanding of the research question which is what accounts for the political upheaval? Keywords : Iraq, Kurdistan, Political upheaval. DOI: 10.7176/JLPG/96-05 Publication date: April 30 th 2020


Abstract Molecular phylogenetic analyses of hornworts were performed on a nucleotide data set consisting of mitochondrial nad5, chloroplast rbcL and nuclear 18S gene regions. Thirty-seven hornworts representing most of the named generic segregates and morphological diversity in the group were sampled for the three gene analysis while an additional 25 samples were included in an analysis of rbcL alone. Results of these analyses confirm the relationships observed in prior molecular studies but also reveal a number of previously unrecognized yet highly supported clades. On the basis of this and continued morphological and ultrastructural investigations we propose a revised classification of the hornworts. At the highest levels, five well-supported clades are demonstrated and they include: 1) Leiosporoceros, which in most analyses is sister to the remaining hornworts; 2) Anthoceros, Folioceros and Sphaerosporoceros; 3) Notothylas and Phaeoceros; 4) Phymatoceros, a recently described genus that contains two species previously included in Phaeoceros; and 5) the remaining hornwort genera: Megaceros, Dendroceros, Nothoceros and a new genus, Phaeomegaceros. Challenges for continued studies that focus on hornwort systematics include obtaining live specimens worldwide and sorting through the chaotic taxonomy within the group. Morphological studies are hindered by poor preservation of existing collections, and the lack of background data and expertise in hornwort biology. Likewise, molecular sequence data are challenged by the deep divergences and potential effects of extensive RNA editing on phylogenetic reconstruction. Future directions for hornwort systematic studies include accumulating gene sequence data that resolve interspecific relationships and comparative anatomical/ultrastructural work that further elucidates biodiversity in the group. Our ongoing, interdisciplinary studies will culminate in a comprehensive analysis that combines molecular and morphological data for a total evidence approach.


Purpose – This chapter provides the reader with a discussion of a peer-conferencing component, called "cadre conferencing," which was incorporated into undergraduate and graduate reading clinics. University students were placed into cadres based on the grades of the children they were tutoring. Cadres met during scheduled class time to discuss assessments, strategies, and materials.

Design – Graduate and undergraduate students were asked to provide feedback about the cadre conferencing model. They identified what they liked about the peer conferencing and what changes they would make. The feedback was used as a way for the faculty member to evaluate an instructional change in existing courses.

Implications – Both graduate and undergraduate students reported benefits to the cadre conferencing component. Graduate students were in-service teachers who reported that they benefited most from sharing ideas about strategies and materials. Undergraduate students reported that they benefited from sharing ideas, but also from the personal support they experienced from members of their cadre. Both groups recommended that cadre conferencing continue to be included in the two courses.

Practical and social implications – Observations of the cadres in their meetings and feedback from a course survey indicate that peer conferencing can be a powerful tool for groups of educators. The model would transfer best into programs that are designed to include shared decision-making and peer collaboration. Schools that adopt a professional learning communities model or team-teaching approach could integrate the cadre conferencing into their existing group structures.


This research investigated the protective effects of Ganoderma atrum polysaccharide (PSG-1) on acrylamide (AA) induced intestinal injury in rats. Our results showed that PSG-1 pretreatment effectively reduced the levels of malondialdehyde (MDA), but increased the activity of catalase (CAT), superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione (GSH) and the total glutathione (T-GSH), and significantly reduced oxidative stress in AA treated rats. Furthermore, PSG-1 pretreatment down-regulated pro-inflammatory cytokines i.e. interleukin 2 (IL-2), interleukin 1β (IL-1β) and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and increased the amounts of anti-inflammatory cytokines i.e. interleukin 4 (IL-4) and interleukin 10 (IL-10), significantly reducing an inflammatory response in the intestines of rats. In AA induced intestinal injury, the tissue uric acid (UA) level and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity and the serum level of d-lactic acid (d-lactate), nitric oxide (NO) and endothelin-1 (ET-1) decreased significantly after treatment with PSG-1 and N-acetylcysteine (NAC). Histological observations of the small intestine confirmed the protective effects of different doses of PSG-1. These findings suggested that PSG-1 pretreatment could alleviate AA-induced oxidative stress, reduce inflammatory response, and inhibit AA absorption by protecting the intestinal barrier. Therefore, Ganoderma atrum polysaccharide has the potential to be a dietary supplement ingredient that provides protection against AA-induced gut injury.


OBJECTIVE
To study the diagnostic value of diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) in cervical spondylotic myelopathy.

METHODS
Twenty healthy volunteers and fifty patients with cervical spondylotic myelopathy underwent DTI in the Affiliated Hospital of Medical College of Ningbo University from January 2014 to April 2015. Healthy volunteers served as controls. Fifty patients were divided into three groups (group A , B, C) according to cervical MRI scan standard. Group A (17 cases) had only the dura mater spinalis compressed; Group B (23 cases) showed the cervical spinal cord compressed, but no high signal in it; Group C (10 cases) had the cervical spinal cord compressed with high signal in the same level. The average apparent diffusion coefficients(ADC) and fractional anisotropy (FA)values in these examinee were analyzed and all subjects were performed fiber tracking.

RESULTS
There was no statistically significant differences in ADC and FA values in C2/C3, C3/C4, C4/C5, C5/C6, C6/C7 of control group (P>0.05). The average ADC and FA values in control group were (0.875 +/- 0.096) x10(3) mm2/s and 0.720 +/- 0.051, respectively; compared with group A,there was no statistically significant difference; compared with group B and C, there was significant difference; comparison among group A, B, C, there was significant differences.

CONCLUSION
DTI can early and accurately quantify the changes of microstructure in cervical spondylotic myelopathy. Fiber tracking can show the damage range of spinal cord lesions.


Background: Vintafolide (V) is a folic acid-vinca alkaloid small molecule drug conjugate that targets tumors that over-express the folate receptor (FR). 99mTc-etarfolatide (EC20) is a folate-targeted molecular imaging agent being developed to identify FR-positive tumors. Data suggest that triple negative breast cancers (TNBCs) expressing high levels of FR are likely to benefit from treatment with vintafolide. Trial design/Patient eligibility: This is a multicenter, randomized, open-label, Phase IIa trial in subjects with advanced TNBC. Patients will be evaluated for tumor specific expression of the FR using a EC20 SPECT/CT scan and classified as FR(100%) if 100% of RECIST 1.1 target lesions are FR-positive. Only FR(100%) patients are eligible for treatment and will be randomized in a 1:1:1 ratio to V alone, V + paclitaxel (P) or P alone. V will be administered at 2.5 mg IV 3x/week for 2 weeks on Days 1, 3, 5, 15, 17 and 19 of a 28-day cycle. P will be administered at 80 mg/m2 IV on Days 1, 8, 15, and 22. Specific aims: The primary endpoint for the trial is centrally assessed progression free survival (PFS). Secondary objectives include: assess the frequency of target tumors expressing FR(100%) vs FR(20-80%) vs FR(0%) in subjects with TNBC using EC20 SPECT scans; compare the clinical activity in subjects with advanced TNBC of V alone vs P and V + P vs P alone as measured by objective response rate (ORR), (complete response [CR] + partial response [PR]), clinical benefit rate (CBR; CR + PR + stable disease for ≥6 months), and overall survival; and assess the safety and tolerability of V alone vs P alone and V + P vs P alone in subjects with advanced TNBC. Statistical methods and target accrual: PFS and overall survival will be assessed in the intention to treat population using a stratified Cox model with Efron9s tie handling method, and Kaplan-Meier method for PFS and OS curve estimation, respectively, in each treatment group. Inferential comparisons between the arms will be tested using the stratified log-rank test at one sided alpha level of 5%. This study will randomize 34 subjects into each treatment group with total study duration of ∼16-17 months. The study has 80% power to demonstrate that either patients treated with V or patients treated with V + P combination have a higher median time to an event of PFS than subjects treated with P at an unadjusted one-sided, 5% alpha-level, if the underlying constant hazard ratio between treatment groups is 0.5 and median survival time of 2.6 months. First patient enrollment is targeted for October. Citation Information: Cancer Res 2013;73(24 Suppl): Abstract nr OT2-6-15.


Abstract We introduce a logic BI in which a multiplicative (or linear) and an additive (or intuitionistic) implication live side-by-side. The propositional version of BI arises from an analysis of the proof-theoretic relationship between conjunction and implication; it can be viewed as a merging of intuitionistic logic and multiplicative intuitionistic linear logic. The naturality of BI can be seen categorically: models of propositional BI's proofs are given by bicartesian doubly closed categories, i.e., categories which freely combine the semantics of propositional intuitionistic logic and propositional multiplicative intuitionistic linear logic. The predicate version of BI includes, in addition to standard additive quantifiers, multiplicative (or intensional) quantifiers and which arise from observing restrictions on structural rules on the level of terms as well as propositions. We discuss computational interpretations, based on sharing, at both the propositional and predicate levels.


Extended subtotal petrosectomy as a treatment for stubborn cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) otorrhea is presented. Nine patients were successfully operated on by this technique, all previously having undergone surgery for brain or base of skull lesions, other interventions used had failed to seal the fistula. The retrosigmoid cells, facial cells, and internal auditory canal were found in our study to be the most commonly involved during pervious neurosurgery and so constituted the usual path for CSF leakage. Total exenteration of middle ear and mastoid cell tracts, skeletization of sigmoid sinus, jugular bulb and facial nerve, drilling out of the semicircular canals, vestibulum, and cochlea, and skeletization of the internal auditory canal are the main steps of this approach.


Physical parameters and performance of a new brain-dedicated tomograph (CERASPECT) were measured and compared to those of a state-of-the-art single-headed rectangular rotating gamma camera. Spatial resolution, sensitivity, scatter fraction, contrast, uniformity and image quality of the two systems were evaluated using the same radioactive source geometry. The CERASPECT's spatial resolution was 23% higher and its sensitivity was three times greater than those of the gamma camera. The contrast measured with a 15 mm cold lesion was 60% for the CERASPECT and 45% for the gamma camera. Tomographic nonuniformities were measured as the percentage integral and differential uniformity of a cylindrical uniform phantom. At low-statistics counts per slice the integral uniformity was comparable and at high-statistics counts per slice it was equal to 11% and 20% for CERASPECT and the gamma camera, respectively. Image quality is generally superior with the dedicated brain system. The use of new devices with improved physical performance allows more accurate quantitative SPECT functional brain studies.


The paper addresses the quality of the continuing training and vocational education for the construction inspector job and the harmonized European recognition of this qualification. It is the result of a survey realized in 5 EU countries (Greece, Hungary, Poland, Portugal and Romania) within the fame of the project entitled "Analysis and Comparative Study on construction inspection job performance regulations. European comparative study – KNOWLEDGE". The general objective was to give recommendations for improving the qualification of civil construction inspectors by identifying the gap between the existing vocational education / training systems, and people/companies' expectations and needs, as resulted from current literature, in-depth interviews and questionnaire surveys. The conclusions are related to the necessity of developing a training/certification program for the construction inspector, the magnitude and European dimension of such training and certification program, and the thematic areas that the program will cover to meet the construction industry requirements. Courses approaching New Construction Materials, Quality Control Procedures, Legislation on Town Planning, Private Constructions and Public Works, Legislation on Safety Issues in the Construction Industry, and the EU directives were identified as being necessary for updating the knowledge of the construction inspectors. Relevant graphs presenting the continuing training needs of the construction inspectors resulted from the in-depth interviews are presented. It results as a LLL European policy requisite the development of a European Certification for construction inspector.


Received Jun 14, 2019 Revised Aug 10, 2019 Accepted Aug 23, 2019 Top-quality maternal health care requires midwifery and medical students to work together in multidisciplinary interprofessional education (IPE). Achieving IPE learning competencies requires interprofessional assessment methods; one such is portfolio. Study on portfolio as interprofessional assessment is limited. To evaluate interprofessional core competencies illustrated by IPE portfolios. A qualitative design using content analysis to evaluate portfolios of midwifery and medical students attending three weeks' interprofessional learning in an Indonesian university. Sixty portfolios were analyzed for four IPE core competencies. Fifteen open-ended questionnaires were collected to confirm the data and further explore issues. Four interprofessional core competencies were illustrated in portfolios. While only three portfolios contained objective evidence of learning, over two-thirds of students could plan appropriate, concrete work based on interprofessional learning. The results indicate that the portfolio assesses interprofessional learning with student reflections that illustrate the achievement of four IPE core competencies. The validity of this competency achievement is also supported and confirmed by the evidence of learning and subsequent learning plans. Furthermore, portfolios also can encourage the students to prepare a concrete and appropriate work plan or study plan for students' interprofessional learning.


The interleukin 2 (IL-2) and interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) activities of regional lymph node mononuclear cells (LNMC) were studied in 22 patients with gastric cancer. Regional LNMC could produce high levels of IL-2 and IFN-gamma independent of the disease extension or the location of the lymph nodes. The activities of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from cancer patients were decreased especially in advanced disease compared to controls. The lymph node CD4+ cells were responsible for the bulk of IL-2 activity, whereas both CD4+ and CD8+ cells were equally capable of producing IFN-gamma. The proportion of T cells in LNMC was similar to that seen in PBMC, however, CD4+ cells predominated over CD8+ cells in the lymph nodes, contributing to higher activities of IL-2 and IFN-gamma in LNMC. Furthermore, significant cytotoxic activity could be induced from PBMC using the culture supernatant derived from autologous LNMC in cancer patients. This study suggests that regional lymph nodes are strategically located near the tumor and the local cells are capable of producing high levels of IL-2 and IFN-gamma.


Clinical excellence can be divided into three defining categories: procedures, systems, and communications. Six steps have been introduced to guide our journey. New systems will produce less stressful, more profitable dentistry, and with this commitment to clinical excellence, patient care will improve automatically. Evaluating our practices and making the necessary changes will bring significant rewards. In Designing the Future, Visions and Strategies, I state, "Maximum efficiency, profitability, and security, the rewards of business momentum, come only to those who start paddling early. To avoid dead water, we must view business strategies in the context of social, technological, and economic currents. It's the difference between actively engaging trends and being destroyed by them."


This is an exciting time for our understanding of the origin of our species. Previous scientific consensus saw human evolution as defined by adaptive differences (behavioural and/or biological) and the emergence of Homo sapiens as the ultimate replacement of non-modern groups by a modern, adaptively more competitive one. However, recent research has shown that the process underlying our origins was considerably more complex. While archaeological and fossil evidence suggests that behavioural complexity may not be confined to the modern human lineage, recent paleogenomic work shows that gene flow between distinct lineages (e.g. Neanderthals, Denisovans, early H. sapiens) occurred repeatedly in the Late Pleistocene, likely contributing elements to our genetic make-up that might have been crucial to our success as a diverse, adaptable species. Following these advances, the prevailing human origins model has shifted from one of near-complete replacement to a more nuanced view of partial replacement with considerable reticulation. Here we provide a brief introduction to the current genetic evidence for hybridization among hominins, its prevalence in, and effects on, comparative mammal groups, and especially how it manifests in the skull. We then explore the degree to which cranial variation seen in the fossil record of Late Pleistocene hominins from Western Eurasia corresponds with our current genetic and comparative data. We are especially interested in understanding the degree to which skeletal data can reflect admixture. Our findings indicate some correspondence between these different lines of evidence, flag individual fossils as possibly admixed, and suggest that different cranial regions may preserve hybridisation signals differentially. We urge further studies of the phenotype in order to expand our ability to detect the ways in which migration, interaction and genetic exchange have shaped the human past, beyond what is currently visible with the lens of ancient DNA.


Specialty contractors have knowledge to contribute to the early design of architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) products. In current practice, however, they are seldom involved in early design, but evidence suggests that their early involvement is increasing. Lean construction theory advocates such involvement. The practice of involving suppliers in product development efforts and manufacturing has proven to be highly successful. The paper reports on empirical research that identi®ed the contributions of specialty contractor (SC) knowledge to early design, which led to gains in process ef®ciency and improvements in product quality. These contributions are categorized and illustrated by means of examples that stem from current practice or present potential opportunities for improvement. Reasons are given why SC knowledge is often ignored in design. Changes in AEC practices nevertheless suggest that organizations are creating conditions to increase interaction between designers and SCs. Such interactions will help AEC organizations to retain and share the knowledge of individuals as well as learn to develop new knowledge.