Resume The article deals with the problem of estimating the rational number and utilization rate of the vehicles' fleet. According to the analysis results of the state-of-the-art literature it has been revealed that the issue of substantiating the rational fleet size and the rate of its utilization were not fully solved. The purpose of the study was to increase the efficiency of servicing transportation orders by determining the required number of vehicles. The goal of the research was the influence of the transportation process parameters on the truck utilization rate. Originating from the probabilistic nature of the transportation process, it has been proposed to use the AnyLogic software product to develop a simulation model for vehicle orders' servicing. From the processing of the experimental results by the regression analysis methods, it has been found that the dependence of changes in the vehicle utilization rate is of a linear form. Article info Received 10 July 2021 Accepted 11 October 2021 Online 15 December 2021


Objective: To understand the guidelines on ambience and user embracement within the National Humanization Policy from the perspective of dental surgeons and users of a dental outpatient clinic. Methods: A qualitative study was carried out from December 2017 to February 2018 at the Ceara Navy Academy (Escola de Aprendizes-Marinheiros do Ceara – EAMCE) located in Fortaleza, Brazil. Data were collected by conducting semi-structured interviews with five dental surgeons and eleven users of the outpatient dental clinic and the interviews were treated using the content analysis technique. Two thematic categories emerged: Professionals' perception: humanization, ambience and user embracement; Users' perception: humanization, ambience and user embracement. Results: The dental surgeons recognized the importance of the association of ambience with tranquility and trust and of user embracement with carefully listening to patients. The users rated ambience as satisfactory and associated user embracement with trust. Both professionals and users reported a few obstacles to humanization practices, such as the poor use of the waiting room and the delay in scheduling appointments. Conclusion: There was consensus among the interviewees (professionals and clients) about their satisfaction with the ambience and user embracement at the outpatient clinic; however, humanization may be hindered by the prioritization of military activities, such as security services and military graduations.


Currently, most database management systems (DBMS) are based on the relational data model. Design methods that target relational models as the end product of logical design are generally based on the entity relationship model (ER) or semantic object model. Such methods entail developing an ER or semantic object representation followed by translation to the relational representation by the designer or by a CASE tool. However, there is no popular method that uses the relational concepts directly, that is, without an intermediate representation such as ER. Mathematically rigorous approaches using decomposition or synthesis do not seem to have been adopted by designers. When user views are complex, designers may encounter difficulty in the absence of an understandable method. This paper suggests a practical method for arriving at a normalized solution of user views.


Tera is the Hausa and English name for the Nyimatli [nimaáli] people as they call themselves, and their language. Their communities lie principally in the north and east of present-day Gombe State and in the adjoining area of Borno State in north-eastern Nigeria. There are approximately 100,000 people who speak the language as their mother tongue (Gordon & Grimes 2005: 175), many of whom also use Hausa as the local lingua franca; increasing numbers are trilingual as the result of the growing importance of English in commerce and education.


In a context in which many projects have been executed in public-private partnership (PPP) mode in recent years, it makes sense to explore the various pavement performance criteria used by agencies for recent road projects developed in Canada. After describing the various types of criteria used for pavements, such as ride quality, rutting, surface distress, skid resistance, structural capacity and frost susceptibility, their individual target values are reviewed. Adaptations of the performance criteria to enhance the effectiveness of the specifications for each of the parties concerned are suggested. Finally, the impact of the criteria and target values on the intervention cycles is analyzed in terms of technical constraints and life cycle maintenance cost aspects.


The root cause of White Etching Crack (WEC) formation dominant in SAE 52100 and SAE 4320 bearing steel is unknown by now. Despite the ongoing debate, there is a great interest to detect WEC in an early state of formation in order to install predictive and reactive maintenance particularly for remote locations, e.g. offshore wind energy plants. Magnetic Barkhausen noise (MBN) and high-frequency impulse measurements (HFIM) show a great potential to detect WEC at an early state [1][2].


Assays of splenic plaque-forming cells (PFC) for sheep red cells (SRC), done in parallel in control and methylcholanthrene (MCA)-injected mice of strains C3H/eB and C57BL/6, disclosed immunodepression, the degree of which depended on strain and sex of mice, and time elapsed between injection of MCA and performance of test. The most severe and long-lasting effects were observed in male C3H/eB mice, and the least impairment was seen in female C57BL/6 mice. After surgical splenectomy for assay of PFC, MCA-injected mice were observed for appearance of induced tumors up to 52 weeks after administration of carcinogen. In most groups of C57BL/6, but only rarely in C3H/eB mice, a correlation was found in individual mice between immunodepression and appearance of tumor. Since, however, the incidence of induced tumors was higher in C57BL/6 than in C3H/eB mice, immunodepression cannot be considered a universally obligatory step in carcinogenesis, but its involvement may be limited to particular phenotypes.


AIM: In order to understand the factors which influence the predatory activity of the Hoplias aff. malabaricus, the present study evaluated feeding habits of this species and its relation to prey availability, in addition to environmental variables. METHODS: Six samplings were conducted in the Taperoa II reservoir, semi-arid of Paraiba state, Brazil, between October 2005 and October 2006. Measures were taken: rainfall, the reservoir volume, transparency, dissolved oxygen, pH, temperature, nitrate, nitrite, ammonia and phosphate. The activity, diet and feeding habits of H. aff. Malabaricus, from the method of frequency of occurrence of food items and point methods, conjugates in IAI (Alimentary Index). Spearman correlation analysis, a glm and CCA were performed between biotic and abiotic variables, and we used the CPUE as a measure of fish abundance. RESULTS: Eleven taxa of fish were recorded, four of which were predated by adult "trahira". Insects and other items were also common in the stomachs of juveniles. According to statistical analysis, it was observed that the highest consumption of cichlids was correlated with its increase in CPUE in the environment, while no relationship was observed for A. bimaculatus, C. bimaculatum and S. notonota abundances. The environmental factors as nutrients, transparency and water volumn were related to selection of species by trahira. CONCLUSIONS: Intrinsic characteristics of preys as swimming speed, food habit and the food preference of the predator possibly be the main factors to selection of species. Other mechanisms as heterogeneity of habitat and environmental factors can also influence the consumption of prey by trahira


The need for contextually rich education environments in construction management suggests the development of a general-purpose situational simulation framework that can be used by independent developers to build effective training environments. Design and implementation of such a framework involves an understanding of the reasoning processes underlying the construction management domain. These reasoning processes can be isolated using a conceptual classification of problems in the construction management domain into constraint satisfaction and planning. Such a classification allows us to distribute the different reasoning processes to autonomous agents that comprise the foundations of a multi-agent framework for building general-purpose situational simulations. The Virtual Coach is an implementation of the proposed framework. Experimental results from preliminary studies have shown the efficacy of the Virtual Coach as an educational tool.


In this paper, we introduce novel mechanisms for measuring and evaluating the performance of a network and its devices, configured especially for voice over IP (VoIP). We study the effects of different configurations on final voice quality by enabling or changing the related equipment features. In our study we quantify quality changes based on different router configurations and discuss precisely to what extent and how much this quality is improved versus features or special configurations of network devices. These results can be used for two purposes: compare and benchmark different routers in order to know which one is proper for a typical VoIP network, and select the best configurations. We demonstrate that the highest final quality of voice is achieved in packet remarking configurations with IP precedence and DSCP.


: The research is needed more across "consumer" correlates than the "manufacturer" and "retailer" based correlates as these constitute the most significant aspects that could probably shape the market shares and success of branding across multi-tier private labels being promoted by organized food retailers. Store based offering of diverse food product categories (spices, grains, flours, ingredients, pulses, refined oils and cooking medium, tea and beverages, commodiments) seem to have brought the retailer in direct competition with manufacturer brand. In this regard the research leverages the structural equation modeling approach to ascertain the differences in propensity to adopt private labels on account of changes in grocery nature (pulses, spices, dairy, snack, oil, grain). The research study relied on Likert scale based pre validated scales to operationalize the factors. The sample size of 600 was undertaken with a valid sample size of 438. Across grocery segments, contrasting observations were reported. The impact of product attributes, consumer psychographics, store efforts and restraining forces was evident in varying proportions.Contribution: The research findings promote the earlier studies under the umbrella of "cue utilization" theory, "planned behavioral" prospects, "expected utility" prospects and "self-perception" theory. In terms of knowledge creation, the outcomes extend the resource-based theory and behavioral basis of marketing in retailing arena. In terms of theoretical consequences, the research outcomes reflect the incidence of impact of positional strategies as key to competitiveness on day to day basis.


Collective agency is resurfacing within
International Criminal Law (ICL) discourse; its genealogical traces can be
found in socio-legal contexts like in systemic theories of liability, victimization-centered
approaches and criminal policy models transforming traditional criminal law
provisions into "combat norms". At
the intersection between moral theories and law discourse, one can also trace
as similar traits the discussions on the relations between corporations' and
purely collective patterns of imputation, whereby selflessness is the main
normative characteristic of the wrongdoer. At the level of criminal law,
theorizing collective guilt can be made thematic through the methodological turn
towards collectivism, the promotion of an aggregate knowledge model as
appropriate liability form and the normative orientation towards the criterion
of concerted action as individually imputable collective wrong. The qualified
forms of co-perpetration within ICL discourse (like the "Joint Criminal Enterprise", the "Organized Structures of Power" or the "Joint Control of Crime") are then considered as slippery and
ethnocentric hermeneutic tools for translating collective imputation into legal
linguistics. Thereby recent developments in the jurisdiction of the
International Criminal Court as well as in this of the newer internationalized
courts are accordingly analyzed.


This poster discusses a new free-form modeling material called Quimo (Quick Mock-up), designed for use in spatial augmented reality environments. Quimo is a white malleable material that can be sculpted and deformed with bare hands into an approximate model. The material is white in color, retains its shape once sculpted, and allows for later modification. Projecting imagery onto the surface of the low-fidelity mock-up allows for detailed prototype visualizations to be presented.


This paper deals with the adaptive robust tracking control problem of a quadrotor under parametric uncertainties, actuator saturation and external wind disturbances. An adaptive robust control strategy is proposed to deal with this tracking problem. To solve the actuator saturation problem, an auxiliary system with adaptation law is considered. Global stability of the resulting closed loop system is analyzed using the sliding mode approach and the lyapunov theory. The proposed control strategy is developed to control the altitude system and attitude system representing the rotation angles in the presence of external perturbations, uncertainties and input saturation. The proposed control scheme is finally verified through various tests of simulation, also an experimental validation is carried on Parrot Mambo minidrone proving its effectiveness.


Epitaxial films of ferroelectric (00l)Ba0.25Sr0.75TiO3 (BSTO) and ferromagnetic half metal La0.67Sr0.33MnO3 were grown by laser ablation, forming a trilayer heterostructure with combined ferroelectric and magnetic properties, on (001)(LaAlO4)0.3 + (Sr2AlTaO6)0.7 substrates. Maxima TM in the dielectric permittivity of ϵ of the BSTO film were 30–50 K lower than in bulk and ϵ follows a Curie‐Weiss law above TM. The ϵ was suppressed up to 50% at ±2.5 V between the electrodes. Below 100 K, loss function tan δ was found to be 0.005–0.01 at 1 kHz and 100 kHz.


Abstract This paper describes a multiple image-shearing camera. By incorporating coherent light illumination, the camera serves as a multiple-shearing speckle interferometer which measures the derivatives of surface displacements with respect to three directions simultaneously. The application of the camera to the study of flexural strains in bent plates is shown, and the determination of the complete state of two-dimensional strains is also considered. The multiple image-shearing camera uses an interference phenomenon, but is less demanding than holographic interferometry with respect to vibration isolation and the coherence of the light source. It is superior to other speckle techniques in that the obtained fringes are of much better quality.


In an effort to provide affordable and reliable power and heat to the domestic sector, the use of cogeneration methods has been rising in the past decade. We address the issue of optimal operation of a domestic cogeneration plant powered by a natural gas, internal combustion engine via the use of explicit/multiparametric model predictive control. More specifically, we take advantage of the natural division of a combined heat and power (CHP) cogeneration system into two distinct but interoperable subsystems, namely, the power generation subsystem and the heat recovery subsystem, in order to derive a decentralized, two-mode model predictive control scheme that specifically targets the production of either electrical power or usable heat at a given time. We follow our recently developed PAROC framework for the design of the controllers, and we apply it in a decentralized manner. We show how the CHP system can efficiently operate in both modes of operation through closed-loop validation of the control scheme ...


Diet-related risk factors and physical inactivity are among the leading risk factors for disability and are responsible for a large proportion of the burden of chronic non-communicable diseases. Food-based dietary guidelines (FBDGs) are useful tools for nutrition policies and public health strategies to promote healthier eating and physical activity. In this paper, we discuss the process followed in developing the dietary guidelines for the Spanish population by the Spanish Society of Community Nutrition (SENC) and further explain the collaboration with primary healthcare practitioners as presented in the context of the NUTRIMAD 2018 international congress of SENC. From a health in all policies approach, SENC convened a group of experts in nutrition and public health to review the evidence on diet-health, nutrient intake and food consumption in the Spanish population, as well as food preparation, determinants and impact of diet on environmental sustainability. The collaborative group drafted the document and designed the graphic icon, which was then subject to a consultation process, discussion, and qualitative evaluation. Next, a collaborative group was established to plan a dissemination strategy, involving delegates from all the primary healthcare scientific societies in Spain. A product of this collaboration was the release of an attractive, easy-to-understand publication.


Programming (CNP). CNP has established itself as a programming approach combining declarative and imperative features. It supports powerful tools for control of the computation process; in particular, these tools allow easy, intuitive, visual development of heuristic, nondeterministic, or randomized solutions. The paper providesrigorous definitions of the syntax and semantics of the new model of computation, at the same time trying to keep the intuition behind clear. The purposely simplified theoretical model is then compared to both WHILE-programs (thus demonstrating its Turing completeness), and the "real" CNP. Finally, future research possibilities are mentioned that would eventually extend the cinnamon programming and its theoretical foundation into the directions of nondeterminism, randomness and fuzziness.


Populations and species of Sphagnum section Subsecunda are morphologically variable and it is often difficult from studying field-collected plants and herbarium specimens to delimit species. Allelic patterns at 20 microsatellite loci indicate that three distinguishable gene pools can be identified among plants from Australia and New Zealand. All three species are morphologically variable along a moisture gradient and this appears to be largely plastic, without genetic differentiation among species specific morphotypes. Sphagnum novo-zelandicum and S. comosum appear to have monoploid gametophytes, are closely related, and are endemic to Australia and New Zealand. The former usually occurs at or above water level and the latter is an aquatic plant with extensive morphological variation, ranging from simplex to branched morphotypes. Sphagnum fuscovinosum and S. simplex are synonyms of S. comosum. The third species is a highly disjunct population of the S. auriculatum/S. inundatum complex of Europe, which has not previously been reported for Australia and New Zealand. These plants appear to be polyploid and are genetically and morphologically distinct from both S. novo-zelandicum and S. comosum. All three species had duplicated loci amplified by one of the microsatellite primer pairs. Ten Sphagnum species are now reported for Australia and New Zealand, with three of these being endemic.


The temperature-sensitive dna mutants of the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae (Dumas et al. (1982) Mol. Gen. Genet. 187, 42-46) are more inhibited in DNA synthesis than in protein synthesis. These properties are also characteristic of many yeast mutations that inhibit progress through the cell cycle. Therefore we surveyed the collection of dna mutants for cell-cycle mutations. By genetic complementation we found that dna1 = cdc22, dna6 = cdc34, dna19 = cdc36, and dna39 = dbf3. Furthermore, by direct gene cloning we found that the dna26 mutation is allelic to prt1 mutations, which are known to exert primary inhibition on protein synthesis. This protein-synthesis mutation exerts a dna phenotype due to cell-cycle inhibition: prt1 mutations can block the regulatory step of the cell cycle while allowing significant amounts of protein synthesis to continue. Our non-exhaustive screening suggests that the dna mutants may house other mutations that affect the yeast cell cycle.


Background: The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between body composition, aerobic capacity and the balance in young tennis players at rest and during fatigue triggered by an endurance test. Moreover, we tried to find the correlation between the tennis ranking position and the balance. Material/Methods: Well-trained 16 young tennis players (15 and 17 years old, singles national ranking 3-39, average training experience of 9 years) took part in this study. They were assigned to two groups according to their age – 15 TG and 17 TG. Participants completed the same battery of body composition, aerobic, and body balance assessments. Body balance measurement was repeated twice – before and after the aerobic assessment. Results: The main finding of this study points out the body balance to be a motor ability influencing results achieved in the specific tennis drill. This connection was observed in both of the tested groups; however, it was particularly significant within 17 TG. Conclusions: The presented study does not point out the main factor to focus on when conducting a career of a professional tennis player regardless of the numerous tests and measurements included in the analysis observed. Interesting correlations may suggest that for the players in a developmental age it is speed and balance that ought to be more intensively developed.


Spontaneous DNA damage may occur nonrandomly in the genome, especially when genome maintenance mechanisms are undermined. We developed single-strand DNA (ssDNA)–associated protein immunoprecipitation followed by sequencing (SPI-seq) to map genomic hotspots of DNA damage. We demonstrated this method with Rad52, a homologous recombination repair protein, which binds to ssDNA formed at DNA lesions. SPI-seq faithfully detected, in fission yeast, Rad52 enrichment at artificially induced double-strand breaks (DSBs) as well as endogenously programmed DSBs for mating-type switching. Applying Rad52 SPI-seq to fission yeast mutants defective in DNA helicase Pfh1 or histone H3K56 deacetylase Hst4, led to global views of DNA lesion hotspots emerging in these mutants. We also found serendipitously that histone dosage aberration can activate retrotransposon Tf2 and cause the accumulation of a Tf2 cDNA species bound by Rad52. SPI-seq should be widely applicable for mapping sites of DNA damage and uncovering the causes of genome instability.


Background Health information technology has become common in the care of patients with chronic diseases; however, there are few such applications employed in kidney disease. Objective The aim of the study was to evaluate the use of a website providing disease-specific safety information by patients with predialysis chronic kidney disease. Methods As part of the Safe Kidney Care (SKC) study, an educational website was designed to provide information on safety concerns in chronic kidney disease. Phase I study participants were provided a medical alert accessory with a unique ID number, the Safe Kidney Care website, and an in-person tutorial on the use of the Internet and accessing the SKC website at baseline. Participants were asked to visit the website and enter their unique ID as frequently as they desired over the next 365 days or until their annual follow-up visit, whichever occurred first. Participants' visits and dwell times on specific safety modules were tracked using embedded webpage PHP scripts linked to a MySQL database, enabling the collection of website usage statistics. Results Of 108 Phase I participants, 28.7% (31/108) visited the website from 1-6 times during the observation period (median follow-up 365 days). Median access time was 7 minutes per visit (range <1-46) and 13 minutes per person (range <1-123). The three most frequently visited pages were "Renal function calculator", "Pills to avoid", and "Foods to avoid". High school education and frequent Internet use were significantly associated with website entry (P=.02 and P=.03, respectively). Conclusions Preliminary results show general interest in a Web-based platform designed to improve patient safety in chronic kidney disease. Trial Registration Clinicaltrials.gov NCT01407367; http://clinicaltrials.gov/show/NCT01407367 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/6KvxFKA6M).


Strata-bound, manto-type copper deposits of Chile are a major source of copper, and some deposits (e.g., Mantos Blancos, El Soldado) contain as much metal as do large porphyry copper deposits elsewhere. El Soldado (200 Mt @ 1.35% Cu), the largest manto-type copper deposit in the Coastal Cordillera of central Chile, is hosted by the rhyodacite-basalt upper member of the marine Lower Cretaceous Lo Prado Formation. Paragenetic studies indicate that the deposit formed in two stages. The first was a low-temperature stage (stage 1; 130–125 Ma) in which liquid petroleum migrated from underlying carbonaceous shales into the overlying host volcanic rocks and abundant framboidal pyrite developed in a paleopetroleum reservoir. A later hydrothermal stage (stage 2; ca. 103 Ma) introduced copper and replaced earlier pyrite to form chalcopyrite, bornite, and chalcocite ores. This study presents isotopic data that support bacterial sulfur reduction as the process that formed the essential precursor stage 1 pyrite, and the participation of basinal fluids in the hydrothermal second stage.

A wide range of δ 34S values for early stage 1 pyrite (–11.1 to +28.0‰) supports the hypothesis that low-temperature, incomplete sulfate reduction from connate seawater sulfate and Fe-enriched oil-field brines took place in a compartmentalized petroleum reservoir by bacterial sulfate reduction. With the exception of a small proportion of Cu-Fe sulfides with δ 34S values between –2.0 and +2.0 per mil, the bulk of stage 2 Cu-Fe sulfides replaced earlier pyrite and mimic the broad range in δ 34Svalues (–12.7 and +19.0‰) of stage 1 pyrite. Sulfur from early pyrite was recycled with no significant homogenization, fractionation, or addition of new sulfur, and indicates the essential role of hydrocarbons and bacteria in the formation of the deposit. The δ 13C values of gangue calcite vary between –4.2 and –20.2 per mil and reflect a mixing of various proportions of oxidized, pyrobitumen-derived organic and inorganic carbon from the mineralizing fluid. Pyrobitumen in the ores has δ 13C values of –30 to –26 per mil, consistent with it being a residue of the original liquid petroleum. δ 18O values of K-feldspar in both ore and barren samples are similar (12.0–12.7‰) and are compatible with the fluids being of metamorphic, rather than magmatic, origin. The similar δ 18O ranges of calcite (2.7‰) and K-feldspar (0.7‰) suggest that they formed from the same hydrothermal fluid and that the fluid was in equilibrium with the host rocks. The 87Sr/86Sr ratios in calcite of 0.7041 to 0.7051 reflect isotopic ratios inherited from the subaerial andesitic rocks that overlay the deposit where the ore-forming fluids are thought to have originated.


The paper focuses on the history and ethnology of wootz, a traditional crucible steel from India, made from the second century AD on, that is best known as the raw material for Damascus swords. Much of what has been written about wootz over the past two centuries is incorrect; when the myths have been cleared away, wootz appears in a new light. It was made in the Middle East as well as in India. More than one process existed for making it. It had a number of distinct uses, some of them having nothing to do with weapons. Contrary to the assertions of various ancient and modern authorities, there is little evidence that wootz was a supersteel. It made excellent wire and handsome display weapons, but among fighting men it had a long-standing and seemingly deserved reputation for dangerous brittleness. The author presents a critical review of the early literature with historical perspective, summarizes and evaluates eye-witness accounts of wootz-making, and, after describing the individual regional processes, states that we should temper our expectations with regard to the antiquity of wootz processes and our expectations about rediscovering ancient technological secrets that will lead to the production of supersteels on superweapons in our own day.


The author substantiate the thesis that principles of law are general norms expressing the principle of formal equality, the basis of the law-drafting in accordance with the principle of rule of law and judicial and constitutional review.


The present system of energy charge in India is error prone and conjointly time and labour intense. Errors get introduced at each stage of energy charge like human errors whereas noting down the meter reading and error whereas process the paid bills and therefore the due bills. There area unit several cases wherever the bill is paid so is shown as a due quantity within the next bill. Nowadays that every one energy meter scaning is read by manually that's, Geb person should return and he should scan the reading of energy meter and he can offer the bill for that therein bill he are giving a final date to pay the bill, if the client way pay the bill among a given last date other than keb person should return and he can take away the fuse and he can go. Some folks can plug the fuse once removing the fuse by Geb. Some can take away the seal of energy meter. And altogether cities is tough to modify ON and OFF the road lights throughout evening and already dark. As a result of there ought to be a person power. The lights area unit controlled manually. The Geb person should go every space and switch ON/OFF at explicit time. And it's tedious job to try to to this work. If that person didn't return then the road are ON 24hrs. There's waste of electricity. And within the already dark at 11pm on top of there's a no use of street lights, there the electricity is wasting. Automatic Meter Reading system (AMR) incessantly monitors the energy meter and sends information for the asking of service supplier through SMS. Automatic meter reading system helps the client and energy service supplier to access the correct and updated information from the energy meter. this technique utilizes the worldwide system for mobile communication (GSM) network to send its power usage reading victimization Short electronic communication Service (SMS) back to the energy supplier wirelessly. The interface conjointly consists of LCD that displays the number of power consumed. As a result this helps to attach to remote areas because it employs wireless technology. This technique not solely reduces the labor price however conjointly increase meter reading accuracy and save huge quantity of your time.


Bcl-2 family proteins are principal regulators of cell death during normal development as well as in many disease states. Differentiated cerebellar granule neurons are protected from apoptosis by depolarizing concentrations of potassium. Further, these cells acquire resistance to glutamate-mediated excitotoxicity when pre-exposed to subtoxic concentrations of the glutamate receptor agonist, N-methyl-D-aspartate. Here, we report that the expression of bcl-2, bcl-xL, bcl-xS, bax and bad mRNA as well as of Bcl-2, Bax, Bcl-XL, Bcl-XS and Bag-1 proteins is not modulated in these two paradigms of neuronal cell death. However, mitochondrial release of cytochrome c, which is thought to be controlled by Bcl-2 family proteins, is detected 5 h after switching the neurons to low potassium conditions. Thus, there appears to be regulation of Bcl-2 family protein bioactivity in the absence of altered protein expression during potassium deprivation-induced apoptosis of cerebellar granule neurons.


Electrodermal activity (EDA) is a psychophysiological indicator that can be considered a somatic marker of the emotional and attentional reaction of subjects towards stimuli like audiovisual content. EDA measurements are not biased by the cognitive process of giving an opinion or a score to characterize the subjective perception, and group-level EDA recordings inte-grate the reaction of an audience, thus reducing the signal noise. This paper contributes to the field of audience's attention prediction to video content, extending previous novel work on the use of EDA as ground truth for prediction algorithms. Videos are segmented into shorter clips attending to the audience's increasing or decreasing attention, and we process videos' audio waveform to extract meaningful aural embeddings from a VGGish model pretrained on the Audioset database. While previous similar work on attention level prediction using only audio accomplished 69.83% accuracy, we propose a Mixture of Experts approach to train a binary classifier that outperforms the main existing state-of-the-art approaches predicting increasing and decreasing attention levels with 81.76% accuracy. These results confirm the usefulness of providing acoustic features with a semantic significance, and the convenience of considering experts over partitions of the dataset in order to predict group-level attention from audio.


A variety of approaches have been used to reduce Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) risk in the community, including programs based in the workplace. To date, it has been difficult to draw accurate conclusions on the effectiveness of worksite CVD risk reduction programs. Typically, such programs suffer from poor participation and high attrition rates and most lack physical and biochemical validation of self-reported lifestyle changes. The present paper describes an evaluation of four health promotion worksite interventions (screening, education, incentive and lifestyle change) conducted in the NSW Ambulance Service. The study achieved very high participation and low attrition rates. Self-reported changes in lifestyle were validated with physical and biochemical measures. The results suggest greater change in some risk factors for those individuals receiving the incentive and lifestyle change programs compared to screening alone or education.


This paper summarizes the top state-of-the-art contributions reported on the MNIST dataset for handwritten digit recognition. This dataset has been extensively used to validate novel techniques in computer vision, and in recent years, many authors have explored the performance of convolutional neural networks (CNNs) and other deep learning techniques over this dataset. To the best of our knowledge, this paper is the first exhaustive and updated review of this dataset; there are some online rankings, but they are outdated, and most published papers survey only closely related works, omitting most of the literature. This paper makes a distinction between those works using some kind of data augmentation and works using the original dataset out-of-the-box. Also, works using CNNs are reported separately; as they are becoming the state-of-the-art approach for solving this problem. Nowadays, a significant amount of works have attained a test error rate smaller than 1% on this dataset; which is becoming non-challenging. By mid-2017, a new dataset was introduced: EMNIST, which involves both digits and letters, with a larger amount of data acquired from a database different than MNIST's. In this paper, EMNIST is explained and some results are surveyed.


Abstract
This study explores the role of the ubiquitous postage stamp as a messenger of health promotion and education. It examines the way that postal material has been modified to act as a medium for health education, with images and texts appropriate to the specific health problems. The methodology used included a search for all postage stamps listed in established catalogues that fitted the described criterion. Selection for further study was drawn from those stamps that covered the topics of infection, immunisation, tobacco cessation, growth and nutrition.
It was clearly recognised that by simply presenting information on a stamp, would not necessarily bring about the desired behavioural change. Thus, the currently accepted health promotion models were examined to find an appropriate explanation for/ and a rationale to explain the use of postage stamp in health promotion and education. The strategy called "media advocacy" was the nearest best fit for the bulk of postage stamps carrying health information. This finding could explain why stamps have been perceived, over many years, as being a useful and successful element in health promotion and education by their frequent and continued use over a period of some fifty years.
Postage stamps are frequently used worldwide and have a clear role in carrying health information and thus play a small, but important and unique, role in the field of health promotion.


This brief monograph is almost entirely comprised of extracts related to the topic of traumatic amnesias from twelve publications by the author and his associates, between 1932 and 1969. It also includes brief current commentaries by the author as introductions to, links between and discussions of the extracts. There is a one-page introduction. There are chapters concerned with the immediate effects of cerebral acceleration concussion, the duration of amnesia in closed head injuries, retrograde amnesia, the amnesias associated with special types of injury, and the physiology of memory. A four-page final chapter entitled "Further Comments and Suggestions" includes some reference to other publications. The approach is that of the clinical neurologist, and the extracts contain case reports and analyses of clinical data (with some repetition) on patients studied in Edinburgh before the last War and since the early 1940s at Oxford, including the Oxford data on World War II head-injured patients. An attempt is made to define and show the interrelationship between such terms as 'disturbed consciousness' and 'duration of amnesia' to enhance their clinical value as prognostic indices. This is only partially successful and the criteria for their measurement remain imprecise., The publication is free of production errors and is easily readable after one becomes accustomed to the three sizes of type which indicates case reports, other extracts from papers, and the author's current comments. There is a subject and author index and a bibliography. Although it is not specified to whom this monograph is directed, it will be of value to those interested in the development of clinical concepts of concussion and amnesia. The price appears somewhat high for a volume of this size.


The brief analysis of the development of L. V. Kantorovich's ideas in the works of his students and followers has been presented. This intellectual base can be used in solving the problems of digital transformation, digitalization, creation of digital platforms and their ecosystems in the digital economy. It has been proposed to create an active element of a new branch of knowledge economy – the digital economy – in the form of "Association of departments of applied mathematics of economic and managerial profiles of Russian Universities", the advisability of this decision has been substantiated. The Association will allow you to simultaneously conduct research on a wide range of topical issues of the digital economy, optimally form creative teams and expert groups, carry out constant scientific communication in real time, and connect talented young people to research between the postgraduate students, graduate students, and students. Working together in the structure of the Association, the departments of higher education institutions will be able to show the effect of synergy and achieve much more results in their activities. The Association has a great educational potential, which can be effectively used to improve the various levels of personnel potential of management systems. Creating associations in the field of breakthrough technologies is the best way to activate Russia's intellectual potential.


The review covers the results of studies on the reactions of iron, ruthenium, and osmium carbonyls with olefins having functional group substituents, the behaviour of which differs significantly from that of simple olefins. Such studies have made it possible to create a new aspect of the chemistry of olefin complexes. The development of this field has led to the synthesis of previously unknown mononuclear and polynuclear complexes and to the discovery of unusual rearrangements of the complex compounds. The reactions of iron carbonyls differ from those of ruthenium and osmium carbonyls. In the last case, the hapticity of the unsaturated ligands increases and the ligands are found to be capable of giving rise to extremely unexpected structures. The present review surveys mainly the results of studies by the authors, who made a significant contribution to the development of this field. The bibliography includes 73 references.


In a modern wind turbine, the gearbox is an expensive and fault-prone subsystem. Currently, condition monitoring, based on comparison of data of healthy baseline measurement and online measurement, followed by feature analysis and decision making, is the main approach of diagnosis and prognosis. Although having been employed in many practical implementations, such methods have limitations. For example, a huge database is needed when operating conditions change and normal variations are significant. Traditionally, first-principle-based modeling of gearboxes is considered very challenging, primarily due to their dynamic characteristics that exhibit time-periodicity and encompass a very wide frequency range. In this research, aiming at achieving the predictive modeling capability, a lumped-parameter model of a two-stage laboratory gearbox testbed is constructed based on the assumed mode method. This model can characterize the gearbox dynamic effects including the time-varying mesh stiffness and backlash. The Floquet theory and harmonic balance method are then applied to analytically investigate the system dynamics, where the eigenvalues of the time-periodic gearbox are extracted and correlated to the spectral analysis results of the time-domain response prediction. This modeling approach and the associated analysis lay down a foundation for establishing hybrid dynamic model of complex gearbox systems which will further be utilized in model-based diagnosis and prognosis.Copyright © 2014 by ASME


Online adaptive equalization is proposed to calibrate channel mismatch errors in time-interleaved (TI) analog-to-digital converter (ADC) arrays with a linear reference path. Code-domain filters are shown to be effective in removing interchannel as well as intrachannel nonlinearity and mismatch errors, including offset, gain, and differential nonlinearity (DNL) and integral nonlinearity (INL) mismatches. An 8-bit, 600-MS/s, 0.13- μm CMOS prototype measured a signal-to-noise plus distortion ratio (SNDR) of 31.0/47.4 dB, a spurious-free dynamic range (SFDR) of 32.8/63.6 dB, a DNL of 1.30/0.30 LSBs, and an INL of 1.70/0.23 LSBs in lab testing without/with equalization, respectively.


The use of smokeless tobacco, including both snuff and chewing tobacco, is enjoying a resurgence in popularity in the United States, particularly among teenage males. In order to assess the prevalence of these habits among young Air Force recruits, we administered a questionnaire to a random sample of 1,954 basic airmen at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, to obtain information on frequency, types, intensity, and duration of smokeless tobacco use in this population. We found that 14.9 percent of the males reported using snuff for an average of 104 minutes per day. Chewing tobacco was reported among 11.1 percent of males with an average daily exposure of 72.1 minutes. The average duration of use of both snuff and chewing tobacco prior to entry into the Air Force was four years. Highest usage for both products was seen among Caucasian males. Users of both types of smokeless tobacco products were also more likely to be cigarette smokers than those who did not use either product.


Abstract The synthesis process, X-ray diffraction analysis of its single crystal form and the structural properties of the 4,4′-oxydiphthalonitrile compound by Fourier transform infrared, nuclear magnetic resonance and ultraviolet-visible spectral methods were reported in this study. Density functional theory studies of the compound were carried out by designed modeling with the Becke three-parameter hybrid functional combined with Lee-Yang-Parr correlation functional and 6-311G(d,p) basis set. Some molecular structure parameters obtained theoretically were compared with those obtained from the crystallographic analysis. Vibrational modes and wavenumbers with the aid of the potential energy distribution analysis, carbon and proton chemical shift values with diversified approaches and absorption wavelengths using Time-Dependent Density Functional and Conductor-Like Polarizable Continuum Model in different solvent media were examined theoretically. The compatibility of spectral and theoretical results was evaluated by examining the correlation coefficients. In addition, the frontier molecular orbitals energies, global reactivity parameters, molecular electrostatic potential map, the potential for non-linear optical material and some thermodynamic parameters at different temperature values of the 4,4'-oxydiphthalonitrile compound were investigated at the same theoretical level.


e16561 Background: CheckMate 025 demonstrated favorable efficacy and safety results for nivolumab monotherapy in previously treated advanced or metastatic renal cell carcinoma (aRCC). However, real-world evidence on treatment patterns and clinical outcomes is limited. Methods: This multi-centre, retrospective cohort study examined treatment patterns and overall survival (OS) in aRCC patients treated with nivolumab monotherapy. Eligible patients who initiated nivolumab at second-line (2L) or beyond (index) between 01 March 2016 and 30 June 2018 were sampled from four UK centers. Data were extracted using an electronic case report form from index to earliest of: most recent visit; death; end of follow up (31 May 2019). Results: Overall , 151 patients were included in analyses (mean age at index 66.9 years, 72.2% male, median follow-up from index 15.2 months), with 109 (72.2%) and 42 (27.8%) receiving nivolumab at 2L and ≥ third-line (3L+), respectively. Key clinical characteristics are outlined in Table 1. All 2L nivolumab patients had received first-line (1L) tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI), pazopanib (57.8%), sunitinib (30.3%), or both in sequence (10.1%). After 2L nivolumab, 3L cabozantinib (36/52, 69.2%) was most common. Most 3L nivolumab patients received 2L TKI (31/36, 86.1%) - commonly axitinib (70.9%). After 3L nivolumab, most patients received fourth-line cabozantinib (8/12, 66.7%). Median time on line of therapy (LOT) decreased with LOT progression: from 7.8 months at 1L to 4.6 months at fifth-line (5L). The proportion of patients who discontinued treatment due to adverse events decreased by LOT, (28.6%, 22.7%, 16.0% and 0%, and 34.7%, 28.1%, 0% and 0% from 2L to 5L, overall and for nivolumab treatment, respectively). Overall, median OS from nivolumab initiation was 19.2 months [95% CI, 16.9-27.0]. Patients who received 2L nivolumab had longest median OS (23.0 months [95% CI, 17.2, not reached]), comparable to CheckMate 025 (25.8 months [95% CI, 22.2-29.8]). Median OS for 3L+ nivolumab patients was 12.4 months [95% CI, 8.8, 23.2]. Among 2L nivolumab patients, 73.9%, 46.2%, and 33.6% survived 12, 24, and 36 months, respectively. For the same respective timeframes, 52.4%, 24.7%, and 18.6% of 3L+ nivolumab patients survived. Conclusions: This study provides real-world evidence on the characteristics, treatment patterns and effectiveness of 2L or ≥ 3L nivolumab monotherapy in previously treated aRCC patients. OS results from UK routine clinical care were comparable to those found in CheckMate 025.[Table: see text]


A technically feasible method has been developed for the synthesis of variety of aryl malononitriles in high yields (70-95%) using the palladium-catalyzed coupling reaction of malononitrile with aryl bromides and chlorides, respectively. The influence a several reaction parameters such as base, ligand, solvent or temperature were investigated in some detail.


Distributed devices such as mobile phones can produce and store large amounts of data that can enhance machine learning models; however, this data may contain private information specific to the data owner that prevents the release of the data. We wish to reduce the correlation between user-specific private information and data while maintaining the useful information. Rather than learning a large model to achieve privatization from end to end, we introduce a decoupling of the creation of a latent representation and the privatization of data that allows user-specific privatization to occur in a distributed setting with limited computation and minimal disturbance on the utility of the data. We leverage a Variational Autoencoder (VAE) to create a compact latent representation of the data; however, the VAE remains fixed for all devices and all possible private labels. We then train a small generative filter to perturb the latent representation based on individual preferences regarding the private and utility information. The small filter is trained by utilizing a GAN-type robust optimization that can take place on a distributed device. We conduct experiments on three popular datasets: MNIST, UCI-Adult, and CelebA, and give a thorough evaluation including visualizing the geometry of the latent embeddings and estimating the empirical mutual information to show the effectiveness of our approach.


The materials of spacecraft external surfaces in low Earth orbit (LEO) are exposed to the various constituents of the space environment, including atomic oxygen (AO) and solar ultra violet (UV) radiation. Material degradation and erosion by LEO are simulated in ground laboratories using a variety of experimental facilities, each with their respective limitations. rf oxygen plasma is a simulation facility widely used for materials screening for LEO application. However, the complex plasma environment, which contains, in addition to the neutral oxygen atoms, excited species, electrons, and ions as well as vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) radiation, might lead to erroneous determination of materials reactivity with respect to LEO. This paper describes the development of a simple, low cost rf plasma system to produce a well-defined AO and VUV environment. The new system constrained the afterglow flow through two right-angle turns. The afterglow was characterized at three specific locations by (i) optical emission spectroscopy for assessment of electronically excited states, (ii) current measurements, and (iii) UV radiation measurements. KaptonR samples were exposed at the three specific locations in the system and characterized by mass loss for etch rate evaluation, and atomic force microscopy for surface modification. It was found that there is a significant reduction in ionic species, excited species, and UV radiation as the afterglow advances through the right-angle turns. The reduction in charged particle flux is due to recombination within the afterglow as well as neutralization by colliding with the grounded metal chamber walls; similar decrease in UV radiation flux occurs through radiation absorption by the chamber walls. Finally, it is shown that the ground state AO is the dominant reactive specie of the plasma afterglow after passing through the two right-angle turns.


By investigating information flow between a general parity-time (PT-)symmetric non-Hermitian system and an environment, we find that the complete information retrieval from the environment can be achieved in the PT-unbroken phase, whereas no information can be retrieved in the PT-broken phase. The PT-transition point thus marks the reversible-irreversible criticality of information flow, around which many physical quantities such as the recurrence time and the distinguishability between quantum states exhibit power-law behavior. Moreover, by embedding a PT-symmetric system into a larger Hilbert space so that the entire system obeys unitary dynamics, we reveal that behind the information retrieval lies a hidden entangled partner protected by PT symmetry. Possible experimental situations are also discussed.


Loss of work, furlough, and increased social isolation were prevalent for many working in the broad context of cultural and community engagement for health and wellbeing. This study set out to explore if and how regular online group interactions may foster social cohesion and provide support for these individuals during the critical time of the COVID-19 global pandemic. It was conducted in the context of the 'social cohesion chat' series led by a network called the Arts Play Health Community which was initiated in response to the pandemic as a way to bring those working in or connected to arts, play and health together during times of social isolation. Two qualitative focus groups with creative, participatory components were conducted with artists, researchers, evaluators, and arts/play managers (n = 11), and then analyzed using thematic analysis. Researcher ethnographic reflections and fieldnotes were also collected and analyzed. The authors engaged in reflexive online discussions to integrate and synthesize findings across different data. Four themes were constructed through the analysis procedure: (1) 'Building an online community as processes of communitas', spotlighting the importance of the non-hierarchical structure of the 'chats' particularly in relation to there being 'no end goal' to the online dialogues; (2) 'Individual and shared emotional experiences' that underpinned feelings of connection to others and the online space; (3) 'Psychosocial benefits' such as improving confidence and providing an opportunity to 'have a voice' in the community; and (4) 'The importance of facilitation', highlighting the opportunities the chats provided for participants to feel validated and valued as an active member of the community. The article concludes that constructing an inclusive and welcoming online community, where active participation is at the heart of regular social interactions can provide support for those working across arts and play for health and wellbeing. This was particularly important during the societal turbulence of the COVID-19 pandemic. It further concludes by noting the unique structure of these online dialogues as not being connected to institutions, with this playing a key role in allowing those in the community to 'be themselves' within it.


Restricting availability is the major response to illicit drugs in most Western countries including Australia. Prohibition may reduce harm when the drug in question is in low demand, controls are difficult to subvert, and when similar drugs are less toxic or unavailable. However, the health, social and economic costs of supply reduction are substantial and increasing for both injecting drug users and the general community. Population adjusted mortality of heroin users has doubled in Australia in the last decade. The possible impact of supply reduction policy on the spread of HIV infection among IDUs is an important but largely neglected consideration. The effectiveness of supply restriction policy in decreasing the availability of drugs or in reducing drug-related harm is unlikely to be increased significantly by more vigorous implementation of supply reduction or adoption of new technology. Conversely, on the basis of existing data, greater availability of HIV prevention measures attractive to the target population (including especially drug treatment such as methadone maintenance) is likely to be effective and cost-effective. The costs and benefits of innovative methods of providing currently illicit drugs to those who are determined to use them requires careful evaluation and comparison with existing policies. Policy on illicit drugs in most countries including Australia is still dominated by concern about drug use rather than focused on the need to reduce drug-related problems which is the agreed aim of national drug policy.


This paper analyzed the interference WCDMA signals to digital terrestrial broadcast television receiver, demonstrated that since WCDMA transmitting power control (TPC) mechanisms, in the most serious interference cases, the uplink or downlink interference will be dominant respectively, so in the interference analysis, uplink and downlink interference should be treat respectively, i.e. the case of uplink and downlink as a single interference source should get consideration priority.


Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEI) such as enalapril, captopril, and lisinopril are well established as effective treatments of arterial hypertension and congestive heart failure. They are widely used and generally well tolerated. Angioedema is a rare but serious adverse effect of ACEI therapy. Most frequently, edema involves the face, oral cavity, and the glossopharyngeal or glottic area. Visceral edema induced by ACEI has also occurred. Life threatening and even fatal cases associated with ACEI have been reported. Although angioedema typically occurs within the first weeks of ACEI therapy, some cases with latencies of several months to years have been reported. This paper reports a case of late onset and recurrent angioedema in a patient treated with lisinopril for hypertension. A discussion of ACEI angioedema follows.


Abstract Objective The aim of this study was to compare outcomes after tibial plateau levelling osteotomy (TPLO) and modified Maquet procedure (MMP) for the treatment of cranial cruciate ligament rupture (CCLR) in dogs using clinical and radiographic evaluation and treadmill-based force plate gait analysis. Study Design This study was a prospective, randomized, controlled study. Materials and Methods Sixty-one dogs (76 joints) with CCLR were treated with TPLO (n = 30 dogs, 41 joints) or MMP (n = 31 dogs, 35 joints) and compared with a control group of 16 healthy Labrador Retrievers. Outcomes after surgery were compared by clinical orthopaedic assessment, radiographic evaluation and force plate gait analysis performed preoperatively, and then at 6 weeks, 3 and 6 months postoperatively. For objective comparison of ground reaction forces, the data were compared with the control group. Major complications were reported. Results A significant improvement in ground reaction forces was reached in all surgically treated dogs. No significant difference was found between the surgical methods at any postoperative re-examination. With regard to peak vertical force (PVF), there were significantly more patients with TPLO within the reference range of healthy dogs at the 3 months re-examination than dogs with MMP. There was no significant difference in mean value comparisons between TPLO and control groups 6 months postoperatively. Compared with the control group, mean values of 93.9% (PVF) and 85.9% (vertical impulse [VI]) were reached by the TPLO group and 89.4% (PVF) and 79.9% (VI) by the MMP group, 6 months postoperatively. No significant differences were found regarding major complications or progression of osteoarthritis. Conclusions Although no significant differences were found between the surgical methods, TPLO patients showed superiority with regard to clinical outcome.


Sepsis refers to a generalized infl ammatory response of the organism to an infection or to bacterial products in circulation, rather than the development of an infection per se. Despite recent advances in clinical practice and overall medical care, sepsis remains a great health care problem and is still the most common cause of death in critically ill patients with infection. We suppose that during the course of sepsis the expression of TRAIL in different organs correlates with acute mortality and further development of multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS). It is expected that dendritic cells (DCs) might become targets for apoptotic processes in a result of elevated TRAIL expression. This hypothesis is a bias for detailed investigations for in vivo studies in animal models and for in vitro studies of septic patients. Prospective Article Dendritic cells and TNF-Related apoptosis inducing ligand (TRAIL) represent new possibilities for sepsis treatment Petya Ganova1, Lyudmila Belenska-Todorova2 and Nina Ivanovska1* 1Institute of Microbiology, Department of Immunology, Bulgarian Academy of Science, 1113 Sofi a, Bulgaria 2Medical Faculty, Sofi a University, Bulgaria *Address for Correspondence: Nina Ivanovska, Institute of Microbiology, Department of Immunology, Bulgarian Academy of Science, 1113 Sofia, Bulgaria, Email: firstname.lastname@example.com Submitted: 24 October 2017 Approved: 13 November 2017 Published: 14 November 2017 Copyright: 2017 Ganova P, et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited How to cite this article: Ganova P, Todorova LB, Ivanovska N. Dendritic cells and TNF-Related apoptosis inducing ligand (TRAIL) represent new possibilities for sepsis treatment. Insights Clin Cell Immunol. 2017; 1: 001-004. https://dx.doi.org/10.29328/journal.hcci.1001001 Background The imbalance between pro-in lammatory and anti-in lammatory cytokine activities favors the induction of acute and chronic in lammation. Many of the components of the innate immune response that normally ensure host defenses against infection can cause cell and tissue damage and can lead to multiple organ failure, the clinical hallmark of sepsis. The cells of the innate immune system play a crucial part in the initiation and subsequent direction of adaptive immune responses, as well as participating in the removal of pathogens [1,2]. These processes are related to the production of cytokines, which participate in nearly every biological process although they are not speci ic for only one tissue and most cells in the body synthesize them [3]. Moreover, in cell cultures several cytokines trigger a biological response although a visible band on gel electrophoresis was not found [4]. In sepsis the immune system goes into overdrive, and the mediators that are released into the blood to combat the infection, trigger widespread in lammation in the entire body [5-7]. Because of the high mortality of sepsis, many efforts have been made to reveal how the host protection is deregulated. As a result, new data have been accumulated about basic principles underlying bacterial-host interactions [8]. Although sepsis is a deadly, acute disease, survivors also suffer long-term consequences. Clinical data underscore subsequent high mortality rates associated with patients who are long-term survivors of the acute septic episode . This makes evident the need for new therapies with fewer side effects [9]. Dendritic cells and TNF-Related apoptosis inducing ligand (TRAIL) represent new possibilities for sepsis treatment Published: November 14, 2017 2/4 Dendritic cells originate from bone marrow stem cells and home to all tissues via the blood stream where they develope and differentiate. In response to endogenous danger signals or microbial antigens, DCs maturate and migrate into the T cell area of lymphoid tissues. They also activate effector T lymphocytes and induce Treg proliferation, thus determining the type of immune responses toward in lammation or anti-in lammation [10]. During the process of maturation, DCs upregulate the presentation of cell surface proteins involved in T cell priming, including MHC, CD40, CD80, and CD86. During the development of sepsis DCs are involved in the induction of apoptosis, reactive oxygen species generation and activation of the Wnt signaling pathway [11]. The membrane bound CD14 act as a pattern recognition receptor of the innate immune response enabling cells to produce in lammatory cytokines against bacterial infections [12,13]. It is known that Toll-like receptors (TLR) family play a cruncial role in the clearance of pathogen by promoting proin lammatory response. However, the activation of TLR during this process requires the interaction with dendritic cell coreceptor CD14 which can amplify the in lammatory signal primed by bacterial pathogen [14]. Thus, CD14 might be a potential target for skewing Th1 response in sepsis [15]. Although both the in lammatory and anti-in lammatory cytokine levels are elevated in patients with severe sepsis, the anti-in lammatory cytokine IL-10 is the main predictor of severity and fatal outcome [16,17]. Available data reported that septic DCs exhibit an aberrant cytokine secretion pattern, in which levels of pro-in lammatory cytokines, such as TNF-α, IL-1β, and IL-12 are signi icantly suppressed, while anti-in lammatory cytokines, such as TGF-β and IL-10 are enhanced [18]. Numerous studies suggest that apoptotic death of immune cells plays a vital role in contributing to the immune hyporesponsiveness and organ injury during sepsis [3,19-20]. In the early stage of cecal ligation and puncture sepsis, a signi icant increase of apoptotic and dead DCs is found in mesenteric and inguinal nodes [21-23]. More recent data indicate that substantial heterogeneity exists in septic patients, either being immuno-stimulated, whereas others appear suppressed [24-25]. Cellular changes are also relevant with the theme of heterogeneity. Some cells are too activated for an extended time such as neutrophils. Other cellular changes become accelerated including cell apoptosis which may play a crucial role in the pathophysiology of sepsis. A lot of investigations have been focused on lymphocyte apoptosis as a potential factor in the immunosuppression and mortality of sepsis [26]. Cell death is induced through two major signaling extrinsic and intrinsic pathways. In the extrinsic pathway, also termed as death receptor pathway, external proteins bind to cell-surface receptors that subsequently induce apoptosis [27]. A family of membrane TNF receptors (TNFRs), including TNFR1, Fas, DR3, DR4, DR5, and DR6 belongs to this signaling pathway. They are characterized with an extracellular cysteine-rich domain, needed for ligand binding, and an intracellular death domain, needed for apoptotic signal transduction. The ligand for these death receptors are TNF-α, Fas ligand (FasL), TRAIL (TNF-related apoptosis inducing ligand), and Apo3 ligand. Binding of TRAIL to its receptor might express immunosuppressive or immunoregulatory functions, as well as might play proviral or antiviral, and tumour immunosurveillance roles. The induction of apoptosis is a result of the interaction of TRAIL with two death receptors TRAIL-R1 (DR4) or TRAIL-R2 (DR5). Thereby, the receptors are trimerised and the death-inducing signaling complex is formed. In mice, there is only one full-length receptor mDR5, which is equally homologous to human DR4 and DR5. Also, two murine decoy receptors mDcTRAILR1 and mDcTRAILR2 which lack a death domain have been identi ied [28]. Both TRAIL and TRAIL-Rs are constitutively expressed by various cells of the immune system, including natural killer cells, activated T cells, natural killer T cells, dendritic cells and monocyte/macrophages and are up-regulated upon cell activation [29]. It is considered that TRAIL has the ability to induce apoptosis preferentially in transformed cells, while in nontransformed cells the actions of TRAIL are less investigated. Studies in animals and humans with infection proved the complicated character of this condition. TRAIL can provoke an immune suppression through inducing a massive Dendritic cells and TNF-Related apoptosis inducing ligand (TRAIL) represent new possibilities for sepsis treatment Published: November 14, 2017 3/4 death of different immune cell populations [30]. If a new infection challenge appears, the TRAIL-dependent suppressive mechanisms will prevent pathogen clearance and the organism is sensitive to the infection. Blocking TRAIL through systemic anti-TRAIL antibody administration, prevents the pathogen-induced immune suppression, keeping entire T cell-mediated immune function to clear the infection, and increase the survival. Apoptosis is responsible for the physiological removal of damaged or senescent cells, in mature tissues, as well as in tissue remodeling during development. By counterbalancing mitosis, apoptosis is important to keep tissue homeostasis during normal cell turnover, and to control tissue growth and regeneration. Apoptosis-induced loss of lymphocytes may be one of the key triggers of sepsis. The accompanying immunosuppression is thought to be mediated by two major pathways: direct apoptosis of key effector cells or indirect but apoptosis-induced anergy in surviving macrophages and dendritic cells [31]. Taken together, multiorgan apoptosis can occur during sepsis and appears to contribute to septic morbidity. Localized in the plasma membrane, TRAIL-R1 and TRAIL-R2, induce apoptosis and non-apoptotic signaling when crosslinked by the ligand TRAIL or by agonistic receptor-speci ic antibodies.


Ecological theory has focused on negative interactions, such as competition and predation, to explain species' effects on one another. This study demonstrates the importance of considering both positive and negative interactions in explaining how species influence abundances at the local scale. 2. Two experiments were conducted using the aquatic insect food web in Costa Rican bromeliad phytotelmata. Manipulations contrasted the strength of predation between trophic levels versus facilitation within a trophic level on the emergence of detritivore chironomids. 3. Predation had a strong negative effect on chironomids, reducing emergences by 81% overall. Most predation was as a result of the top predator, the odonate Mecistogaster modesta; the intermediate predator, a tanypodine chironomid, had little effect. In the absence of predators, shredder and scraper detritivores (tipulid and scirtid larvae) increased the emergence rate of chironomid larvae by 86%. The mechanism of facilitation was likely the processing, by tipulids and scirtids, of intact detritus into fine particles that the detritivore chironomids consume or use to build protective cases. 4. This study is among the first demonstrations of a processing chain in a multi- species context, and in bromeliad-insect food webs. Our finding that top-down effects are of similar magnitude to facilitative effects suggests that the relative importance of processing chains in nature will depend on food web context.


In the report the linear acceleration sensor design with three axis of sensitivity is researched. Parameterized geometry and finite element model for modal analysis are developed in the ANSYS program. Behavioral description of the study design is developed with language VHDL-AMS to simulate the sensor operation under the influence of linear acceleration along three axis of sensitivity. On the basis of research results three-axis device sensitivity, cross-sensitivity, duration transients are specified. As part of the work the experimental sensor prototypes are fabricated.


The purpose of this study was to evaluate demineralization inhibition at restoration gingival margins. The study compared the effectiveness of a fluoride-releasing restorative material and topical fluoride regimens utilized individually and in conjunction with fluoridated materials. Glass-ionomer restorations demonstrated significantly less dentin demineralization than amalgam restorations at restoration margins when the restorations were exposed to no external fluoride, when the restorations were brushed with a fluoridated dentifrice twice per day, and when the restorations were exposed to a fluoride rinse (p, 0.05). There was no significant difference in dentin demineralization adjacent to glass-ionomer and amalgam restorations when both a fluoride rinse and a fluoridated dentifrice were used on a daily basis over 30 days, in vitro.


The multiplicity of resting metabolic rate (RMR) prediction equations indicates that many variables affect RMR, making it difficult to adopt a single equation for all individuals who wish to lose, gain or maintain weight. PURPOSE: To improve the accuracy of RMR prediction equations for obese individuals and to construct a new formula to evaluate RMR after weight loss (WL). METHODS: This study examined the RMR gap in 21 men (M) and 18 women (W), 25-60 yrs, with 27< BMI< 40 kg/m and 10-20% WL after at least three months in a structured weight reduction program with a customized diet and professionally tailored exercise prescription. At entry and at follow-up visits participants' RMR, weight, height, fat-free mass (FFM), fat mass (FM),were measured with reliable instruments to ascertain the RMR change relative to FFM and FM. Pre and post RMR measurements were compared to calculated RMR using existing Harris and Benedict (HB), Ravussin and Bogradus (RB) and Johannsen et al. (J). T-test, ANOVA and χ test comparisons were analyzed using SPSS 19.0, significance level P>0.05. To improve accuracy new prediction equations were constructed through stepwise linear regression based on before (RMRb) and after (RMRa) RMR measurements: M: RMRb=132.82+28.37(W)250.595(H)+9.464(FFM)-2.871(A)-25.932(FM) M: RMRa=1862.68-7.779(W)+1716.697(H)+18.091(FFM)+1.964(A)+14.972(FM) W: RMRb=553.971+16.601(W)+1033.839(H)13.734(FFM)-10.930(A)-19.668(FM) W: RMRa=552.850+7.288(W)+340.730(H)+8.932(FFM)-5.064(A)-5.015(FM). RESULTS: In M and W there was a significant difference in WL (M: 104±13 vs. 87±11; W: 88±10 vs.75±8, P≤0.01), BMI (M: 33±3 vs. 28±3; W: 32±4 vs. 27±3, P≤0.01) and FM in kg (M: 37±7 vs. 26±9; W: 40±9 vs.27±8, P≤0.01); M only in FFM (65±9 vs.63±9, P=0.02 );W only in RMR (1802±176 vs.1684±176, P=0.04). Calculated RMR before and after WL using the J equation was closest to measured RMR in M and W before and in W after WL (M: -337±223; W: -57±256, vs. -69±128); but only accurate was W before WL (P=0.351). RMR calculations with the new equations were more accurate and closest to measured RMR before and after WL in M(-0.05±154 vs. 0.03±197) but only after WL in W (-30±116). CONCLUSION: The study illuminates the need to adopt different equations for assessment of individuals' RMR before and after weight loss.


There are more than 18,000 parks and gardens in National Capital Territory (NCT) spread in about 8000 ha in various locations throughout Delhi. These urban forests are recognized for their social, cultural recreational and aesthetic values apart from conserving the biodiversity of the region and improving local climate. As these green pockets are monitored, managed and protected strictly by Government agencies and possess moderate to high tree density hence has huge potential in contributing towards carbon sequestration. Estimate of carbon stocks and stock changes in tree biomass are necessary for reporting to UNFCCC and will be required for Kyoto Protocol reporting. Till date no data is available on the carbon stored by such green patches of utter importance in Delhi/NCR. Moreover, there is also a need to manage such areas from carbon sequestration point of view i.e. for short and long term carbon storage. In this modern world global warming and climate change has hit the centre stage and so treecarbon accounting is gaining gradual attention among scientists and experts across the globe in recent times. In this backdrop carbon quantification of trees growing in parks of East Delhi was carried out. Thirty six parks (combined area 4.48 ha) were randomly selected for the study from Mayur Vihar-1 area which comes under east Delhi. 18 tree species including 2688 trees were recorded from 4.48 ha. The biomass and organic carbon of standing live trees was estimated by non destructive method. Stocking density came out to be 600.00 stems/ha. Above Ground Biomass came out to be 444.31 Tons while Below Ground Biomass was calculated as 66.65 Tons. Total Standing Biomass was calculated as 510.96 Tons. Total Organic carbon stored was 255.49 T. Data revealed that the urban forest patch considered for the study (4.48 ha) is a young forest (Av. DBH 21.31 cm) and thus has the ability to sequester more carbon in the coming years.


Iron insufficiency has been associated with heart failure, but the impact of a reduction of hemoglobin content in the erythrocytes as estimated by mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC) to myocardial structure, performance, and long-term clinical outcomes has not been well-established. The authors examined hematologic data and long-term outcomes of 197 ambulatory patients with chronic systolic and symptomatic heart failure who underwent comprehensive echocardiographic evaluation. The authors observed that relative hypochromia (defined as low MCHC) was associated with higher natriuretic peptide levels (NT-proBNP, r =-0.40, P<.0001) and lower estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR; r = 0.45, P <. 0001) and correlated modestly with indices of left and right ventricular diastolic dysfunction (all P<.05), but were not related to left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF, r=0.17, P=.079). After 5 years of follow-up, lower MCHC levels were associated with higher risk of death, transplant, or heart failure hospitalization after adjusting for age, LVEF, eGFR, and New York Heart Association class (hazard ratio, 1.34; 95% confidence interval, 1.04-1.72; P=.025), particularly in those with above-median hemoglobin (>13.8 g/dL; hazard ratio, 2.02; 95% confidence interval, 1.44-2.81, P<.0001). Taken together, the observations imply that physicians should take notice of the presence of relative hypochromia particularly in the absence of anemia in the setting of chronic systolic heart failure.


In the domain of image-set based classification, a considerable advance has been made by representing original image sets as covariance matrices which typical lie in a Riemannian manifold. Specifically, it is a Symmetric Positive Definite (SPD) manifold. Traditional manifold learning methods inevitably have the property of high computational complexity or weak performance of the feature representation. In order to overcome these limitations, we propose a very simple Riemannian manifold network for image set classification. Inspired by deep learning architectures, we design a fully connected layer to generate more novel, more powerful SPD matrices. However we exploit the rectifying layer to prevent the input SPD matrices from being singular. We also introduce a non-linear learning of the proposed network with an innovative objective function. Furthermore we devise a pooling layer to further reduce the redundancy of the input SPD matrices, and the log-map layer to project the SPD manifold to the Euclidean space. For learning the connection weights between the input layer and the fully connected layer, we use Two-directional two-dimensional Principal Component Analysis ((2D)2PCA) algorithm. The proposed Riemannian manifold network (RieMNet) avoids complex computing and can be built and trained extremely easy and efficient. We have also developed a deep version of RieMNet, named as DRieMNet. The proposed RieMNet and DRieMNet are evaluated on three tasks: video-based face recognition, set-based object categorization, and set-based cell identification. Extensive experimental results show the superiority of our method over the state-of-the-art.


Sperm DNA fragmentation was analysed in 113 semen samples obtained from different rams over a period of one year. Semen samples were collected from: unvaccinated rams between January and June (Control group 1; CG1); vaccinated rams at least 70 days after vaccination between October and December (Control group 2; CG2); vaccinated rams 20 days after vaccination (Vaccinated group 1; VG1); and vaccinated rams 40 days after vaccination (Vaccinated group 2; VG2). Results show Miloxan, the vaccine of interest in this study, increased the percentage of sperm cells with fragmented DNA by 10-fold on average (from 6.5±7.9 to 63.4±24.2). However, the negative impact of vaccination on sperm DNA fragmentation appeared to reversible; near normal levels of sperm DNA fragmentation had been restored 40 days after vaccination (21.7±10.6). On the basis of these data, the use of semen samples from vaccinated animals should be avoided until at least one month after vaccination.


To prevent the spread of COVID-19, the Malaysian government implemented a movement control order, an emergency policy that instructed all people in the country to stay home. Being confined in a building for a lengthy period exposes individuals to the risk of having a range of symptoms known as cabin fever. Considering the negative impact of cabin fever, it is crucial to assess cabin fever symptoms among Malaysians. However, there is a lack of validated instruments; hence, this study attempts to develop an instrument for Malaysian adults, named Cabin Fever Scale (CFS). A total of 124 adults (75% females; M = 29.3 years) were recruited via the snowball sampling method to participate in an online survey. Exploratory factor analyses showed that the CFS items were pooled into two factors: behavioural symptoms (six items) and emotional symptoms (four items). Findings show that Malaysians viewed cabin fever as both behavioural and emotional symptoms. The behavioural symptoms comprise food craving, decreased motivation, difficulty waking up, and frequent naps, while emotional symptoms include anxiety, lethargy, depression, impatience, hopelessness, and dissatisfaction. Both CFS subscales demonstrated good internal reliability with Cronbach's Alpha values of .768 (behavioural symptom) and .908 (emotional symptom). The 10-item CFS is deemed a psychometrically sound instrument for measuring cabin fever in Malaysia.


A transit-time ultrasonic gas flowmeter for high-rangeability requirements, such as those encountered in flare-gas flow-metering, is presented. The concept of ray rescue angle for the orientation of the ultrasonic transducers in single-beam transit-time ultrasonic flowmeters is introduced to overcome the problem of ultrasonic beam drift in high-velocity flows. To overcome problems associated with noise at high velocities, a chirp signal is used. To preserve the accuracy of the meter at low velocities near zero flow, a combination of chirp and continuous-wave signals is used to interrogate the flow. Overall system performance is presented, based on results from extensive wind-tunnel tests.<<ETX>>


Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a leading cause of cancer morbidity and mortality worldwide. The etiology and pathogenesis of CRC remain unclear. A growing body of evidence suggests dysbiosis of gut bacteria can contribute to the occurrence and development of CRC by generating harmful metabolites and changing host physiological processes. Metabolomics, a systems biology method, will systematically study the changes in metabolites in the physiological processes of the body, eventually playing a significant role in the detection of metabolic biomarkers and improving disease diagnosis and treatment. Metabolomics, in particular, has been highly beneficial in tracking microbially derived metabolites, which has substantially advanced our comprehension of host-microbiota metabolic interactions in CRC. This paper has briefly compiled recent research progress of the alterations of intestinal flora and its metabolites associated with CRC and the application of association analysis of metabolomics and gut microbiome in the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of CRC; furthermore, we discuss the prospects for the problems and development direction of this association analysis in the study of CRC. Gut microbiota and their metabolites influence the progression and causation of CRC, and the association analysis of metabolomics and gut microbiome will provide novel strategies for the prevention, diagnosis, and therapy of CRC.


Time-use studies are designed to picture human behaviour as it is played out day by day. That behaviour has many dimensions, with the main activity usually playing the starring role. However, activity context, where people are, whom they are with, "for whom" they are performing an activity, and how they feel about it can be equally, if not more, important. In reality the experience of living is the concurrent experience of all of these. Traditional activity definitions and grouping exhibit a melange of "activity" codes developed a priory using the several dimensions based on preconceived activity expectations. Contextual dimensions are examined in a brief review of the origin and development of coding practices and major studies identifying problems at the data capture, coding, and analysis levels. A potential remedy is to be found in contextual coding, which could improve the outcome at all three stages. An alternative contextual approach, the incorporation of a "for whom" column in the diary, is recommended. Data collected from Nova Scotia teachers using two diary versions are presented to provide some insight into its use. Results differ both quantitatively and qualitatively. This approach added to both the number of work activities and the total amount of work time.


a Office of the Texas State Chemist, Texas A&M AgriLife Research, Texas A&M University System, College Station, TX 77841, USA b Texas A&M University, Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, College Station, TX 77843, USA c The University of Western Australia, School of Animal Biology, The UWA Institute of Agriculture, Crawley, Perth 6009, Australia d Department of Computer Science, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Chungbuk National University, CheongJu, Republic of Korea


Objectives : Despite the availability of many species of amaranth in Kenya, there is inadequate information on their nutritional diversity and how they can be best used in mitigation of malnutrition. Hence, this study was aimed at investigating the nutritional diversity of five leafy amaranth species grown in Kenya. Methodology and results : Amaranth vegetables were harvested 5-6 weeks after planting. They were analyzed for their nutritional and phytochemical content using standard methods. Moisture content was lowest in A.cruentus (79.29±1.26%). A.cruentus had the highest protein (4.37 ±0.02%).The fat content of A.hybridus (2.53±0.06%) and A.hypochodriacus (2.63±0.11%) was significantly higher than the other species. The crude fibre content (3.01±0.29%) was similar in all the species. A.dubius had the highest calcium (336.47±0.9mg/100g) and iron (18.64±0.23mg/100g) while A.cruentus was highest in zinc content (1.67±0.03mg/100g).The total phenols content was highest in A.cruentus (3.59±0.01GAE/100mg).Catechins were highest in A.cruentus (7.15±0.63CE/100mg) while quercetin was highest in A.cruentus (14.28±0.86QE/100mg). Conclusion and application of results : More than 50% of the Kenyan population live below the poverty line and lack access to adequate food. The food available food is of poor nutritional value, this causes malnutrition and other nutritional disorders. There is therefore a need to identify nutrient-rich foods that can be produced inexpensively to meet the nutrient requirements of everyone and especially the vulnerable groups, such as pregnant women, children and the elderly. Amaranth is drought tolerant, grows fast and is easily cultivated. This study indicates that the Amaranth species found in Kenya are a good source of key nutrients, which can be used in mitigation of malnutrition. A.dubius is a superior source of calcium and iron and can help curb the micronutrient deficiencies in Kenya, while A.cruentus is a superior source of protein and phytochemicals which are important in reducing the risk of chronic diseases which are so rampant in Kenya today. Keywords : A. dubius; A. hybridus and A. cruentus; A. albus and A. hypochondriacus;  Nutrients


This study aimed to investigate the determinants of shifting to shrimp culture from rice cultivation in coastal zones of Khulna district by using primary data collected from the four upazillas of Khulna, namely, Batiaghata, Dacope, Dumuria, and Paikgacha. Along with bivariate analysis, single-level binary logistic regression was carried out to identify the determinants of shifting. Through the bivariate analysis it had found that among all variables considered, some variables, precisely, amount of land holdings, access to credit, contact with GOs/NGOs, intrusion of saline water, perception of profitability of shrimp, and water logging had significant relation with shifting to shrimp culture. Similarly, the binary logistic regression had identified five significant determinants of shifting from rice cultivation to shrimp culture: occupation, land holding, access to credit, intrusion of saline water, and water logging.


The aim of this paper was to find out the possibility of life expectancy achievement (LEA) prognosis in open population by using epidemiological data, to improve it and to determine the differences between regions. We were using inductive learning software tool, ASSISTANT Professional, based on modified Quinlan's inductive learning method. Data from an epidemiological study of oil/fat consuming influence on diabetes incidence in different regions in Croatia, 1887 examinees, have been used. In spite of limited number of attributes that were available, an improvement in prognosis of LEA has been made by selecting the proper attributes and by changing the limiting values of attributes (values that change the meaning of attributes). We reached the absolute accuracy of 75.54%. Even after further pruning of decision tree that lowered this value, Assistant showed 13% better result than those of random selected outcome. Differences between regions were also established that could not been explained with attributes that were used. Expanding the list of attributes and analysis of their influence in particular region can make further improvement in prognosis of LEA.


This study is focused on the structure and other possible factors related to scintillators used in the Fast Neutron and Gamma-ray Radiography (FNGR) system to increase its sensitivity. The CsI(Tl) crystal scintillator (Co-60 gamma-ray detection) and the BC430 plastic scintillator (14 MeV fast neutron detection) were analyzed with the Monte Carlo simulation (MCNPX and DETEC97 codes). Each scintillator was investigated with regard to the optimum thickness (1 cm × 1 cm), reconfiguration of detector modules (a stacked-layer structure), the optimum surface treatment, and the spectral matching with customized PIN-type photodiodes. As a result, the optimum thickness of the CsI(Tl) was found to be 4.5 cm; the optimum value was 5.5 cm for the BC430. When the detector modules were stacked in a sandwich structure rather than the existing single detector structure, the light photon transmission to the surface of the photodiode was enhanced by 40% and 58% for CsI(Tl) and BC430, respectively. In the matter of scintillator surface treatment, both scintillators were simulated with unpolished and polished condition before coating. The polished condition of the scintillator surfaces showed a higher performance, more than doubling that of the unpolished condition surfaces. Then, the performance improvement of the scintillator with the paint coating was compared to the scintillator with the metal coating conditions. For CsI(Tl), the metal coating showed a 10 % higher performance than that of the paint coating, and the metal coating of BC430 showed a 6% higher performance than that of the paint coating. As a result of spectral matching between the scintillators and the customized PIN-photodiodes, PS100-6b of Silicon AG, SD445-14-21-305 of API, and FSD1010-CAL of THOLABS were compared. The spectral matching factor of PS100-6b was 0.39 with CsI(Tl) and was 0.42 with BC430; the spectral matching factors of the other samples were relatively lower (SD445-14-21-305 with CsI(Tl): 0.29; SD445-14-21-305 with BC430: 0.33; FSD1010-CAL with CsI(Tl): 0.26; FSD1010-CAL with BC430: 0.29).


Today's commercial high resolution satellite imagery such as IKONOS and QuickBird, offers the potential to extract useful spatial information for geographical database construction and GIS applications. Extraction of 3D building information from high resolution satellite imagery is one of the most active research topics. There have been many previous works to extract 3D information based on stereo analysis, including sensor modelling. Practically, it is not easy to obtain stereo high resolution satellite images. On single image performance, most studies applied the roof-bottom points or shadow length extracted manually to sensor models with DEM. It is not suitable to apply these algorithms for dense buildings. We aim to extract 3D building information from a single satellite image in a simple and practical way. To measure as many buildings as possible, in this paper, we suggested a new way to extract building height by triangular vector structure that consists of a building bottom point, its corresponding roof point and a shadow end point. The proposed method could increase the number of measurable building, and decrease the digitizing error and the computation efficiency.


An optimal coupling between perception and action is crucial for successful performance in sports. In basketball, for example, a stable fixation onto the basket helps to gain precise visual information of the target to successfully throw a basketball into the basket. In basketball-defense situations, however, opposing players cutting to the basket can be detected by using peripheral vision as less precise information are sufficient to mark this player. Those examples elucidate that to solve a given task foveal and peripheral vision can be used to acquire the necessary information. Following this reasoning, the current state of our framework will be presented that allows one to predict the functionality of one or the other or both depending on the current situation and task demands. In more detail, for tasks that require high motor precision like in far-aiming tasks, empirical evidence suggests that stable foveal fixations facilitate inhibitory processes of alternative action parameterization over movement planning and control. However, more complex situations (i.e., with more than one relevant information source), require peripheral vision to process relevant information by positioning gaze at a functional location which might actually be in free space between the relevant information sources. Based on these elaborations, we will discuss complementarities, the role of visual attention as well as practical implications.


Abstract The theoretical spectra of certain parametric time series models with relevance to the Southern Oscillation (SO) are determined and compared with those based on a frequency-domain approach. Consistent spectral estimates are found for the two models selected in our earlier studies of the SO. All these results yield larger power at low frequencies and a dominant peak around 3–4 yr. Some reasons are offered for the slightly different behavior of the spectra as derived from the time-domain and frequency-domain approaches. For the sake of comparison, the spectra of other simpler time series models are also calculated. While larger power is found at low frequencies, no spectral peak exists in these simpler models. Some implications of the quasi-periodic behavior found in the more complex models (i.e., an intermediate peak in the spectrum) are discussed in the context of the persistence and forecasting of the SO.


Today, systems and machinery usually are designed to meet only one specific customer's requirements. One reason for this is that underground automation and smart functions are often developed tightly together with a customer. This is natural, since risk and cost can be shared between the customer and the supplier. Nevertheless, when the automation product develops and the market increase this will cause problems: The highly specialized products will not fulfill the next customer's demands. In order to cope with this problem, Atlas Copco works towards a common platform. Instead of designing solutions for specific customers, we will lift the abstraction and focus on standardized modules. These modules, or function blocks, can then be combined in a large variety of configurations. The benefits of combining modules into products are, for example: increased flexibility when options are available for many machines; easier commissioning and maintenance since less different spare parts and tools are needed; and easier operation since the user interfaces have a similar look and feel. This paper will present the ongoing work towards standardized modules. We will discuss how our Rig Control System (RCS) allows for modular design at Atlas Copco. RCS has number of standardized modules that are used in different surface and underground mining and tunneling equipment. These modules are also used for optional products such as, drilling, radio-remote control, and telematics systems.