Lung parenchyma segmentation is the prerequisite for an automatic diagnosis system to analyze lung CT (computed tomography) images. However, traditional lung segmentation algorithms have poor adaptability and are not effectively robust regarding lung databases with blood vessels and small voids which can interfere the segmentation. The main work of this paper is as follows: Firstly, a lung dense deep convolutional neural network (LDDNet) is proposed, which adopts some popular optimizer methods, such as dense block, batch normalization (BN) and dropout. The performance of LDDNet is tested on the public lung database LIDC-IDRI which contains many cases of interference for segmentation. Secondly, the labeled with blood vessels and small voids are not contained by the public ground-truth masks of the LIDC-IDRI database, therefore these regions are labeled by us with LabelMe software. Thirdly, for the aim of exploring the effect of image preprocessing on segmenting lung CT images with deep neural network, contrast enhancing, median filtering and Laplacian filtering are used to preprocess the image as comparative experiments. Finally, dataset is classified into four classes by the geometrical shapes to test the performance of LDDNet. The accuracy of the segmentation experiment reaches over 99% and the four classes can all reach over 95%. Additionally, blood vessels and small voids are segmented out from the lung parenchyma which is not achieved by other methods. Experimental results confirm that the proposed LDDNet can segment the lung parenchymal area more accurately and has better robustness in comparison with other neural networks and most of the traditional methods.


Financialisation, or the disproportionate importance of financial considerations in economic decisions, has been a defining feature of the economic history of the last twenty-five years. The wave of deregulation that accompanied the neoliberal agenda in the US, aided by the dominance of US dollar and American economy, has resulted in the globalisation of finance. This book examines the rise of financialisation globally, while charting its drawbacks and prescribing suggestions for a definitive overhaul of the structure. Bringing together various strands of the latest research and evidence generated in recent years, empirical analysis, and views of reputed experts in the field, it presents a counter-point to the canonical ideas of analysing financial market dynamics and financial globalisation. It proposes a revision of the current monetary policy paradigm to correct its excessive focus on equity markets and their 'wealth effect', embrace a more symmetric response to the economic cycle, and a mandate to focus on financial stability as much as price stability.


at 42°C in a microaerophilic atmosphere. Plates were read at 24 and 48 hours, and positive results were reported on the basis of colonial appearance and microscopic morphology. Both laboratories participate in the UK NEQAS scheme for faecal specimens. The study period comprised the whole of 1988 and 1989, and 3287 specimens were processed in parallel. The results are shown in the table. The isolation rate of Campylobacter was significantly better (p < 0-001) from specimens processed promptly. There are several variables here, but our culture method works satisfactorily for fresh specimens in both laboratories, and the most obvious reason for the difference is the delay in culturing specimens at the large laboratory. Storage and transport of Campylobacter jejuni has been studied by Monfort et al,' who found that the organism survives in animal faeces for at least three hours at 4'C but for less than two hours at 25'C; holding atmosphere had no effect on isolation rates. Our experience is that Campylobacter sp survive for over a week at 4'C in Stuart's transport medium. The organism may be killed by toxic metabolites, and transport at ambient temperature may be the real problem. Thus centralisation would result in a significant false negative rate, whereas culture at the small laboratory would yield more positive results a day earlier. Other alternatives could include using transport medium (which would entail handling the specimen almost as much as direct culture) or enrichment (which would add another day to the delay already experienced); both would add to the cost. Our observations also have implications for provision of services or storage of specimens at weekends and Bank holidays. CJ BUTT Yeovil District Hospital, Yeovil, Somerset


Abstract A general theoretical model for particle deposition and transport in heterogeneous porous media is developed. The model can describe the transient particle deposition and the nonuniform particle coverage of porous media surfaces, resulting from surface charge heterogeneity, surface roughness, or other unevenly distributed surface properties. The model is applied to a packed-bed column with spherical collectors whose surfaces are hetero geneously charged. Results indicate that, under unfavorable chemical conditions, it is the degree of surface charge heterogeneity that mainly determines the transient (dynamic) deposition behavior. This transient behavior can be predicted by the flux-correcting function, a function strongly dependent on the charge heterogeneity of solid surfaces. It is further shown that the effect of surface charge heterogeneity on particle deposition dynamics can be quantitatively represented by a few parameters. These parameters are λ, the fraction of favorable surface sites, and α, the collision efficiency of colloidal particles with the unfavorable surface in the patchwise charge distribution model; and ψ 0 , the average surface potential, and σ, the standard deviation of surface potential in the normal charge distribution model.


As the price of energy increases and wind turbine technology matures, it is evident that cost effective designs for floating wind turbines are needed. The next frontier for wind power is the ocean, yet development in near shore waters has been slowed by aesthetic concerns of coastal residents. Going further offshore eliminates these aesthetic concerns and has the additional advantage of stronger and more consistent winds. However, the vast majority of promising locations beyond the view of land are in sufficiently deep water to make building a rigid structure to the ocean floor economically infeasible. Cost effective floating structures are needed to enable wind farm installation in deep water and increase the world's installed base of renewable energy. This thesis presents a parametric approach to the design of these floating structures for offshore wind turbines. It starts with the relevant design concepts from the offshore oil gas industry and presents appropriate combinations of structures and mooring systems that meet the requirements for a generic five mega watt wind turbine. The results of the parametric study are a number of designs that show Pareto fronts for mean square acceleration of the turbine versus multiple cost drivers for the offshore structure. These cost drivers include displacement of the floating structure and total mooring line tension. Thesis Supervisor: Paul D. Sclavounos Title: Professor of Mechanical Engineering


The Cancer Registry of Norway (CRN) has been important in registry-based research in Norway for decades. The use of CRN in combination with other population-based registries and health surveys have been the basis for numerous research projects, which has contributed to fill important knowledge gaps. Researchers at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health and CRN have a long tradition of using these data sources to address research questions of common interests such as e.g. the effect of life style and diet on cancer risk. CRN and the Medical Birth Registry of Norway have co-existed for a long period, making it possible to study cancer incidence and birth characteristics over generations. During the last decades, several new registries such as the Norwegian Prescription Database and the Norwegian Patient Registry have been established, providing opportunities for studying for example drug use and cancer risk and the influence of comorbidities on the development of cancer. In the future, the CRN will be an even more valuable data source when also other population-based registries and health surveys have existed for longer time periods.


A high-resolution positron emission tomography (PET) scanner, dedicated to brain studies, was developed and its performance was evaluated. A four-layer depth of interaction detector was designed containing five detector units axially lined up per layer board. Each of the detector units consists of a finely segmented (1.2 mm) LYSO scintillator array and an 8  ×  8 array of multi-pixel photon counters. Each detector layer has independent front-end and signal processing circuits, and the four detector layers are assembled as a detector module. The new scanner was designed to form a detector ring of 430 mm diameter with 32 detector modules and 168 detector rings with a 1.2 mm pitch. The total crystal number is 655 360. The transaxial and axial field of views (FOVs) are 330 mm in diameter and 201.6 mm, respectively, which are sufficient to measure a whole human brain. The single-event data generated at each detector module were transferred to the data acquisition servers through optical fiber cables. The single-event data from all detector modules were merged and processed to create coincidence event data in on-the-fly software in the data acquisition servers. For image reconstruction, the high-resolution mode (HR-mode) used a 1.2 mm2 crystal segment size and the high-speed mode (HS-mode) used a 4.8 mm2 size by collecting 16 crystal segments of 1.2 mm each to reduce the computational cost. The performance of the brain PET scanner was evaluated. For the intrinsic spatial resolution of the detector module, coincidence response functions of the detector module pair, which faced each other at various angles, were measured by scanning a 0.25 mm diameter 22Na point source. The intrinsic resolutions were obtained with 1.08 mm full width at half-maximum (FWHM) and 1.25 mm FWHM on average at 0 and 22.5 degrees in the first layer pair, respectively. The system spatial resolutions were less than 1.0 mm FWHM throughout the whole FOV, using a list-mode dynamic RAMLA (LM-DRAMA). The system sensitivity was 21.4 cps kBq−1 as measured using an 18F line source aligned with the center of the transaxial FOV. High count rate capability was evaluated using a cylindrical phantom (20 cm diameter  ×  70 cm length), resulting in 249 kcps in true and 27.9 kcps at 11.9 kBq ml−1 at the peak count in a noise equivalent count rate (NECR_2R). Single-event data acquisition and on-the-fly software coincidence detection performed well, exceeding 25 Mcps and 2.3 Mcps for single and coincidence count rates, respectively. Using phantom studies, we also demonstrated its imaging capabilities by means of a 3D Hoffman brain phantom and an ultra-micro hot-spot phantom. The images obtained were of acceptable quality for high-resolution determination. As clinical and pre-clinical studies, we imaged brains of a human and of small animals.


Decidual cell reaction (DCR) of the endometrium to mechanical trauma applied on the 4th day of pseudopregnancy was compared in two inbred strains KE and KP, F1 hybrids and outbred mice. There was no difference between hybrid and outbred females. Mice from the KE strain had stronger reaction than F1 or outbred animals, while KP females, which have low fertility, had significantly smaller DCR. Uterine sensitivity to trauma on the 3rd, 4th or 5th day of pseudopregnancy was compared in KE and KP females. It was concluded that the relatively low and prolonged sensitivity of the uterus to mechanical stimuli in the KP strain may indicate an oestrogen deficiency.


The exactly solvable Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev (SYK) model has recently received considerable attention in both condensed matter and high energy physics because it describes quantum matter without quasiparticles, while being at the same time the holographic dual of a quantum black hole. In this Letter, we examine SYK-based charging protocols of quantum batteries with N quantum cells. Extensive numerical calculations based on exact diagonalization for N up to 16 strongly suggest that the optimal charging power of our SYK quantum batteries displays a superextensive scaling with N that stems from genuine quantum mechanical effects. While the complexity of the nonequilibrium SYK problem involved in the charging dynamics prevents us from an analytical proof, we believe that this Letter offers the first (to the best of our knowledge) strong numerical evidence of a quantum advantage occurring due to the maximally entangling underlying quantum dynamics.


This paper argues that the myth of the burial of the Seven Against Thebes at Eleusis was not a long-standing Eleusinian tradition with a basis in cult but a relatively late innovation that perhaps appeared first in Aeschylus's Eleusinians, to which Pindar responded in Olympian 6 and Nemean 9. Euripides's Suppliants altered the myth by foregoing the burial at Eleusis and having the Seven returned to Argos instead. It is suggested that the treatments of the burial in tragedy reflect contemporary ideology and events in fifth-century Athens.


The author reports on an innovative approach, based on open-ended design questions related to bicycles, for the teaching of dynamic systems concepts in an undergraduate mechanical engineering environment. He outlines needs for improved classroom learning, pedagogical methods and underlying philosophy, how the bicycle was introduced as a main portion of the instruction, how the class was managed, supporting materials used, and a summary of major benefits achieved. The results to date show that: (1) the notion of using the bicycle in the classroom as a teaching tool and research topic is feasible; (2) the associated economics are attractive; (3) students are able to apply the abstract notions of systems theory to a concrete problem; (4) the professor can improve his or her expertise in a designated area (such as two-wheeled vehicle dynamics); (5) the percentage and quality of students electing follow-up courses in the systems area increase; and (6) students improve their professional confidence.<<ETX>>


The multiple antibiotic resistance (mar) operon in Escherichia coli is responsible for resistance to a broad range of antibacterial drugs. The mar operon is normally transcriptionally silent, but a faulty mar repressor (MarR) leads to constitutive expression of MarA (the mar activator). MarA transcriptionally regulates downstream targets leading to a mar phenotype of widespread resistance to antibiotics and other environmental stresses (e.g. oxidative stress, organic solvents and disinfectants). As the mar operon is conserved across a number of human pathogens, understanding the mechanisms through which it mediates antibiotic tolerance is essential.

A recent ChIP-seq analysis unveiled 33 targets of MarA, many of which were previously unknown. This work has characterised the regulation of one of these targets, ycgZ-ymgABC. The promoter upstream of ycgZ-ymgABC was found to be both σ70 and σ38-dependent. However, MarA activates transcription from this promoter in a σ70-dependent manner only, and was shown to act as a Class I activator. Furthermore, activation of ycgZ-ymgABC expression by MarA was shown to result in a reduction in biofilm formation, which may offer the cell alternative short-term survival strategies during antibiotic attack.

The requirements for activation of transcription at the regulatory region upstream of mlaFEDCB were investigated. Strict spacing and orientation requirements for MarA binding were observed; the MarA binding site (the marbox) only functions in the forward orientation, and cannot be moved more than 1 bp without loss of activation. Additionally, MarA was shown to require an UP element and contact with the C-terminal domain of RNAP for activation at this target.

Finally, the ChIP-seq targets, and a set of SoxS ChIP-exo targets from a separate study, were examined for binding by MarA and two related regulators, Rob and SoxS. These three proteins have an identical consensus site for DNA binding but bind non-consensus sites with hugely different affinities. It was noticed that SoxS requires a much closer match to the consensus site than MarA for optimal binding. We hypothesise here that this is due to a loss of amino acid side chains in SoxS that are key for hydrogen bonding interactions with the DNA backbone. To confirm this, we have shown here that MarA binds to the ycgZ promoter at a higher affinity than SoxS in high salt conditions only. At low salt conditions, hydrogen bonding is inhibited, significantly reducing MarA binding but not SoxS. This effect is dependent on residues E31 and Q58 of MarA, which make hydrogen bonding contacts with the DNA backbone; these contacts are lost in SoxS. Thus, this work predicts that intracellular salt conditions may influence the target preferences of these regulators.


of interest for those who want to get some first hands-on ex-perience in this field. Abstract: This article aims to show that computational chemistry is not exclusively restricted to molecular energy and structure calculations but also includes chemical process control and reaction simulation. By having fun with LEGO and a fundamental knowledge of LabVIEW, it is shown how a novice can be introduced to this exciting and challenging field of chemistry.


A possible tool to improve the efficacy and safety of managing elderly and senile patients with chronic pain may be the use of adjuvant analgesics, in particular, antidepressants. Available clinical data indicate the possibility of using antidepressants as an alternative to opioid analgesics and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. The review includes the analysis of the comparative characteristics and peculiarities of prescribing tricyclic antidepressants, selective serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors, and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors as painkillers in elderly patients. Recommendations are given on the use of various representatives of the antidepressant group in elderly patients with various types of pain, aimed at minimizing possible adverse drug reactions and improving the quality of life of this category of patients.


The authors analyse the medium access control service offered to the logical link control (LLC) sublayer by the DQDB layer. The MCF block is responsible of a segmentation process that makes the segment sources of the queue arbitrated (QA) block much more bursty than classic mathematical models for bursty data sources. The considered scenario is that of a LAN interconnected to a MAN and using a transport/network protocol suite like TCP/IP, XTP or similar protocols. Measurements on local area networks have shown that traffic distributions are far from theoretical models for packet length (such as the uniform or the exponential distribution). Their models are conformant to the IEEE 802.6 standard with 3 priority levels and bandwidth balancing. The evaluation of the DQDB layer was carried out using different traffic profile and discrete distribution that are much more similar to realistic traffic scenarios. Simulation analysis shown that not only the Access delay is deeply sensitive to the burstiness of the sources, but also the MAC delay both in underload and in slightly overload condition. The unfairness of the network in terms of access delay is also analyzed among the three active priorities.<<ETX>>


In recent years, the ultrasound division of the Fraunhofer IBMT has developed and manufactured several imaging sonar systems for different visualization purposes. For short-range high-resolution imaging, three different concepts of sonar systems have been developed and transferred into demonstrators. The first one is a 128 element multibeam echosounder with a combined transmitting and receiving aperture. The second system is a volumetric imaging sonar based on a Mills Cross antenna configuration and the third system is a real-time capable, high-resolution 3D sonar camera with a matrix antenna consisting of 32 × 32 single transducer elements. After validating these systems on various phantoms in measurement tanks, more advanced measurements on real structures and objects were performed in order to evaluate and compare the imaging capabilities of the different sonar systems. In this work we present the results of these measurements together with an analysis of the specific advantages and disadvantages of the short-range imaging systems for different visualization tasks.


Cytotoxicity, the possible selective activity upon HL60 as well as the anti-proliferation effect of local health supplement wheatgrass and mixture of fibers were investigated in vitro using various cancerous cell line and normal blood cell culture. The IC(50) of wheatgrass-treated HL60 (17.5 ± 1.1, 12.5 ± 0.3, and 16 ± 0.5 microgram/ml for 24, 48 and 72 h, respectively) and fibers-treated HL60 (86.0 ± 5.5, 35.0 ± 2.5, and 52.5 ± 4.5 microgram/ml for 24, 48 and 72 h, respectively) showed that both extracts possessed optimum effect after 48 hours of treatment. No significant cytotoxic effect was observed on other type of cells. For trypan blue dye exclusion method, wheatgrass reduced the number of viable cells by 13.5% (±1.5), 47.1% (±3.6), and 64.9% (±2.7) after 24, 48 and 72 h exposure, respectively. Mixture of fibers reduced the number of viable cells by 36.4% (±2.3), 57.1% (±3.1), and 89.0% (±3.4) after 24, 48 and 72 h exposure, respectively, indicated that necrosis is also an alternative to the apoptotic mechanism of cell death. Annexin-V/propidium iodide staining revealed that both extracts induced apoptosis where early apoptosis had been detected concurrently with the reduction of percentage of cell viability. Cell cycle analysis revealed that in HL60, the percentage of apoptosis increased with time (wheatgrass: 16.0% ± 2.4, 45.3% ± 3.4 and 39.6% ± 4.1; mixture of fibers: 14.6% ± 1.8, 45.4% ± 2.3 and 45.9% ± 1.2) after exposure for 24, 48 and 72 h, respectively at the concentration of 100 microgram/ml and showed optimum effect at 48 hours. Thus, these health products can be a potential alternative supplement for leukaemia patients.


This research examined the influenced of time pressure, audit risk, materiality, locus of control, and turnover intention to underreporting of time. Respondent in this research were the auditors who worked at Public Accounting Firm in DKI Jakarta. The respondences of this research were 120 auditors from 25 Public Accounting Firm. The sampling method in this research was purposive sampling method, while the data analysis method used multiple regression analysis. These result that time pressure, audit risk, and materiality had influence to underreporting of time. Locus of control and turnover intention had no influence to underreporting of time. Therefore, distribution of working time, condusive working environment, close supervision in field work, familial attachment auditor and auditor's prosperity need to be done in order to avoid audit reporting practice prior to the specified reporting period or underreporting of time. DOI: 10.15408/ess.v4i3.2433


An automatic tape-recorder system constructed to provide intermittent physiotherapy instruction for postoperative patients is described. Eighty patients, who had been given nitrous oxide and relaxant anaesthesia, were observed during the first 4 postoperative hours. Those who had received pre-operative physiotherapy instruction, responded well. They followed the programme and blood-gas analysis demonstrated elevations of arterial blood oxygen tensions after they had followed the instructions. The system can be recommended as a supplement to physiotherapy in a busy post-operative ward. It also protects the patient from unpleasant noises in the environment.


• Performing the development effort using known, familiar, and proven industry, organizational, and project Best Practices. None of these chapters is either "new" or "revolutionary;" instead , each chapter explains a single proven process, including recommended roles and practices, sample documents and outlines , supporting documentation and examples, and potential pitfalls. The goal, in each instance, is to better identify, understand , and document the real user requirements. Taken together, the set of processes describe a rational overall requirements management process which, if followed, will bring an organization into compliance with the Software Engineering Institute's Capability Maturity Model for Requirements Management. The book is an ideal reference manual for both the requirements manager and the program manager struggling to deal with the various issues. As this book concentrates on the processes and procedures involved in requirements collection and management, it would be a good companion to Karl Wieger's Software Requirements, which concentrates on the actual writing of individual requirements. assessed as a CMM Level 5 organization), uniquely qualifies him to prepare this guide. Leading a Software Development Team offers practical guidelines for dealing with the day-today pressures of leading a team of software developers. This book was written with the software team leaders in mind-people who make detailed decisions on the design, coding and unit testing of software products, and people who has the responsibility for the technical success of the software project. This book is uniquely organized into the kinds of questions that a team leader is likely to ask. There are 40 questions divided into nine major aspects of software team leadership: For new team leaders stepping into the role, I suggest reading all the questions related to "The New Leader" section. As you face each issue, you can read the other sections and/or specific questions. You'll find Richard Whitehead's advice practical and effective. For further information, Whitehead lists out some of his favorite books in the Bibliography section. Most of the situations a team leader will experience are discussed in this book. However, as Whitehead pointed out, leading a team is dynamic. And there are specific issues and questions that may not be answered in this book. For example, your project may need to focus on productivity and performance and this book does not directly deal with that issue. Also, the book does not cover concrete guidelines on how to give a performance evaluation for your team …


Due to the increasing demand from mobile devices for the real-time response of cloud computing services, federated edge learning (FEL) emerges as a new computing paradigm, which utilizes edge devices to achieve efficient machine learning while protecting their data privacy. Implementing efficient FEL suffers from the challenges of devices' limited computing and communication resources, as well as unevenly distributed datasets, which inspires several existing research focusing on device selection to optimize time consumption and data diversity. However, these studies fail to consider the energy consumption of edge devices given their limited power supply, which can seriously affect the cost-efficiency of FEL with unexpected device dropouts. To fill this gap, we propose a device selection model capturing both energy consumption and data diversity optimization, under the constraints of time consumption and training data amount. Then we solve the optimization problem by reformulating the original model and designing a novel algorithm, named E2DS, to reduce the time complexity greatly. By comparing with two classical FEL schemes, we validate the superiority of our proposed device selection mechanism for FEL with extensive experimental results.


This paper examines the suitability of borehole radar for near‐wellbore imaging. The maximum imaging range is primarily determined by the conductivity of the formation in which the borehole lies and the reflectivity of the targets. Under similar medium contrast, formation interfaces result in much stronger reflections than fractures. Complex horizontal borehole geometries are modeled with a 3‐D finite‐difference time‐domain (FDTD) code. Borehole effects, which are often almost insurmountable for acoustic methods, are very small for radar. As a result, the reflections in general are visually identifiable on the synthetic radar waveforms even before any signal processing. Therefore, borehole radar is a promising approach to map structures in the immediate vicinity of the borehole for a penetration depth of at least a few meters in relatively less‐conductive reservoirs (e.g., <0.03 S/m). As such, it complements borehole acoustic methods and has potential for geosteering applications.


88.1.1. Prediction with a Two-Way Error Component Regression Model— Solution? proposed by Ruud H. Konning (University of Groningen). 1. This result can be found in Wansbeek and Kapteyn [2]. They consider a more general panel-data model and deal with both fixed and random effects. Furthermore, they also derive the variances of the optimal predictors. The proof is as follows. Without loss of generality, s is taken to be 1. Write the model as


In this paper we, as part of the Sussex-Huawei Locomotion-Transportation (SHL) Recognition Challenge organizing team, present reference recognition performance obtained by applying various classical and deep-learning classifiers to the testing dataset. We aim to recognize eight modes of transportation (Still, Walk, Run, Bike, Bus, Car, Train, Subway) from smartphone inertial sensors: accelerometer, gyroscope and magnetometer. The classical classifiers include naive Bayesian, decision tree, random forest, K-nearest neighbour and support vector machine, while the deep-learning classifiers include fully-connected and convolutional deep neural networks. We feed different types of input to the classifier, including hand-crafted features, raw sensor data in the time domain, and in the frequency domain. We employ a post-processing scheme to improve the recognition performance. Results show that convolutional neural network operating on frequency-domain raw data achieves the best performance among all the classifiers.


The measurement of the gravitational lens delay time between light paths has relied, to date, on the source hav- ing sufficient variability to allow photometric variations from each path to be compared. However, the delay times of many gravitational lenses cannot be measured because the intrinsic source amplitude variations are too small to be detect- able. At the fundamental quantum mechanical level, such photometric "time stamps" allow which-path knowledge, re- moving the ability to obtain an interference pattern. However, if the two paths can be made effectively equal (zero time delay) then interference can occur. We describe an interferometric approach to measuring gravitational lens delay times using a "quantum-eraser/restorer" approach, whereby the light travel time along the two paths may be rendered unmeas- urable. Energy and time being non-commuting observables, constraints on the photon energy in the energy-time uncer- tainty principle—via adjustments of the width of the radio bandpass —dictate the uncertainty of the time delay and there- fore whether the "path taken" along one or the other gravitational lens geodesic is "knowable." If one starts with interfer- ence, for example, which-path information returns when the bandpass is broadened (constraints on the energy are relaxed) to the point where the uncertainty principle allows a knowledge of the arrival time to better than the gravitational lens de- lay time itself, at which point the interference will disappear. We discuss the near-term feasibility of such measurements in light of current narrow-band radio detectors and known short time-delay gravitational lenses. PACS: 95.75Kk (interferometry), 98.62Sb (gravitational lenses), 95.85Bh (radio observations).


A 48 year-old man is presented who died of rupture of intracranial aneurysm. Autopsy findings revealed a ruptured anterior communicating artery aneurysm associated with polycystic kidneys and polycystic liver. Epidermiological review is performed using "Annual of the Pathological Autopsy Case in Japan" (Vol. 17-20). In 92854 autopsy cases, there are 243 cases of polycystic kidney, 1542 cases of intracranial aneurysm and 10 cases of association with both of them. Several points come clear from comparing our data with foreign ones, as follows; 1) The frequency of polycystic kidney (0.25%) is almost the same between Japan and foreign country. 2) The frequency of intracranial aneurysm (1.6%) is higher in Japan. 3) The frequency of association with both (0.01%) is lower in Japan. 4) The frequency of intracranial aneurysm appears to be higher in cases suffered from polycystic kidney than in others. We suspected that cerebral aneurysm formation is caused by hypertension due to polycystic kidney, although in many reports, the association of polycystic kidney and cerebral aneurysm is explained to be maldevelopment. The operation of cerebral aneurysm with polycystic kidney is the same as that without polycystic kidney. But the control of hypertension and renal function is necessary during and after operation.


The International Physical Activity Questionnaire is known as a validated tool to measure physical activity all across the world. The questionnaire has been translated and validated in many languages however there is exists no Marathi translated version of this questionnaire till date. Hence the purpose of this study was to translate the IPAQ-SF into Marathi language and to check the validity and reliability of the translated Marathi IPAQ. A simple random sampling of 100 healthy individuals from Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam College of Physiotherapy, PIMS, Loni. The participants included were between age group of 18-65 years and were screened according to inclusion and exclusion criteria. The participants were asked to take the IPAQ Marathi. Responses were changed to metabolic equivalent task minutes per week. The validation was done using the uniaxial accelerometer watch. The data regarding the time spent doing vigorous, moderate and light activities done by the participants was collected with the help of Misfit smartphone application. The correlation between the total amount of time spent and the total IPAQ score was seen to be highly significant. (Pearson's correlation coefficient, p= 0.65) and the reliability was found to be good. (Cronbach's alpha r =0.7) The translated Marathi version of the IPAQ showed acceptable validity and reliability for the assessment of physical activity among rural area population of Maharashtra.


which has overlooked the author's non-standard English usage. Although it is often possible to extract a meaning from the text there are a few passages where this is not possible, and many more where the unusual English makes themeaning ambiguous or obscure. This is amore than usually severe shortcoming, because the style of the text – an exposition of the mathematical development of the theory which relies heavily on the manipulation of equations – requires a clear and unambiguous description. In summary, this is a technical and specialised work which will appeal to the expert reader who has the need and application to master it.


In large scale Internet of Things, centralized authentication imposes many new challenges such as vast identity management, authentication overhead, and single point of failure. The distributed identity management is envisioned as a promising method. However, performance evaluation is still not extensive. In this paper, we proposed a decentralized identity management scheme based on blockchain, which can be applied for large scale Internet of Things such as VANET. We develop smart contracts to support large scale user access and design penalty mechanism which can prevent various types of attacks in distributed identification. The experiment results justified that our scheme can be employed for the distributed management of a large number vehicles in insurance scenarios. Specifically, the system response is 'ms' level and all the functions consumes within 250ms. Also, the time consumption of query is stable with the increase of users between 80ms to 130ms.


Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is an immunologically mediated chronic intestinal disorder. Growth hormone (GH) administration enhances mucosal repair and decreases intestinal fibrosis in patients with IBD. In the present study, we investigated the effect of cellular sensitivity to GH via suppressor of cytokine signaling 2 (SOCS2) deletion on colitis and recovery. To induce colitis, wild type and SOCS2 knockout (SOCS2−/−) mice were treated with 3% dextran sodium sulphate (DSS), followed by a recovery period. SOCS2−/− mice showed higher disease activity during colitis with increased mRNA expression of the pro-inflammatory cytokines nitric oxide synthase 2 (NOS2) and interleukin 1 β (IL1-β). At recovery time point, SOCS2−/− showed better recovery with less fibrosis measured by levels of α-SMA and collagen deposition. Protein and mRNA expressions of transforming growth factor beta β1 (TGF-β1) receptors were significantly lower in SOCS2−/− mice compared to wild-type littermates. Using an in vivo bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) proliferation assay, SOCS2−/− mice showed higher intestinal epithelial proliferation compared to wild-type mice. Our results demonstrated that deletion of the SOCS2 protein results in higher growth hormone sensitivity associated with higher pro-inflammatory signaling; however, it resulted in less tissue damage with less fibrotic lesions and higher epithelial proliferation, which are markers of GH-protective effects in IBD. This suggests a pleiotropic effect of SOCS2 and multiple cellular targets. Further study is required to study role of SOCS2 in regulation of TGFβ-mothers against the decapentaplegic homolog (Smad) pathway.


Legislative gridlock is often viewed as a uniquely democratic phenomenon. The institutional checks and balances that produce gridlock are absent from authoritarian systems, leading many observers to romanticize "authoritarian efficiency" and policy dynamism. A unique data set from the Chinese case demonstrates that authoritarian regimes can have trouble passing laws and changing policies—48% of laws are not passed within the period specified in legislative plans, and about 12% of laws take more than 10 years to pass. This article develops a theory that relates variation in legislative outcomes to the absence of division within the ruling coalition and citizen attention shocks. Qualitative analysis of China's Food Safety Law, coupled with shadow case studies of two other laws, illustrates the plausibility of the theoretical mechanisms. Division and public opinion play decisive roles in authoritarian legislative processes.


Turmeric (Curcuma longa L., Zingiberaceae) has a long history of use in medicine for the treatment of inflammatory conditions. One of the major constituents of turmeric is curcumin (diferuloylmethane), which is responsible for its characteristic yellow color. In the present study, we have examined the chemoprotective effects of curcuminon dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)-induced mouse colitis. For this purpose, we pre-treated male ICR mice with curcumin (0.1 or 0.25 mmol/kg in 0.05% carboxymethyl cellulose) by gavage for a week and then co-treated the animals with curcumin by gavage and 3% DSS in drinking water for another 7 days. Our study revealed that administration of curcumin significantly attenuated the severity of DSS-induced colitis and STAT3 signaling in mouse colon. The levels of the cell cycle regulators CDK4 and cylinD1 were significantly reduced by curcumin administration. Moreover, the expression of p53, which is an upstream regulator of the CDK4-cylinD1 complex, was inhibited by curcumin treatment.


Abstract The biodiversity of transitional zones is unique, due to mixing and co-occurrence of biotic elements. Despite this, our basic knowledge on distributional patterns of soil microarthropods in areas where biogeographic regions overlap is insufficient. We studied the biogeographic patterns of Protura across three natural landforms in Ukraine within the Transcarpathia (Transcarpathian Lowland, Transcarpathian foothills, and Volcanic Ukrainian Carpathian), which are influenced by adjacent biogeographic areas (mainly Alpine and Pannonian). We hypothesised that these overlaps have brought about an increase in Protura diversity, due to inclusion of faunal elements from diverse origins and differing in geographical histories. Distinct differences in the species composition of Protura were found among lowland, foothill, and mountain sites within Transcarpathia. Mountain sites mainly have Protura species with a wide continental distribution, while species of the foothills mainly stem from the Pannonian biogeographic region. The highest number of proturan endemics was associated with the Transcarpathian foothills. We conclude that the Transcarpathian region can be defined as a biogeographical transition zone for soil microarthopods, exemplified by Protura, and that foothill sites such as the volcanic-tectonic mountain Chorna Hora is a local hotspot of diversity and endemism, representing the most valuable parts of Transcarpathia with respect to diversity and endemism.


The object of this research program has been to extend the scope of earlier work to include long-duration head impacts and to develop new scaling relationships to allow extrapolation of impact data from infrahuman primates to living humans. A series of living primate side impacts to the head and torso was conducted in parallel with a series of impacts to human cadavers. Dimensional analysis techniques were employed to estimate in vivo human tolerance to side injury. The threshold of closed brain injury to humans was found to be 76 g for a pulse duration of 20 ms and an impact velocity of 43 ft/s (13.2 m/s). The maximum tolerable penetration to the chest was found to be 2.65 in (6.72 cm) for both the left and right sides. Scaling of abdominal injuries to humans was accomplished by employing a factor that relates impact contact area, animal mass, impact force, and pulse duration to injury severity. The maximum tolerable contact pressure to the upper abdomen of a human was found to be 32 lbf/inu2 (220 kPa).


Having been able during the last summer to extend a little my knowledge of North Devon, especially in the neighbourhood of Lynton, and having, as the result of my observations, become quite convinced that the rocks of North Devon belong partly to the group called Carboniferous Slate in Ireland, and partly to the Old Red Sandstone, I propose to lay before the Society the grounds of that conviction. As I shall have to maintain that all the first geologists of the day, including Professor Sedgwick, Sir R. I. Murchison, Mr. Weaver, Sir H. De la Beche and Professor Phillips have misunderstood the structure of the country, let me hasten to avow my belief that nobody whose observations were confined to Devon and Somerset, could have arrived at any other than their conclusions. I fully admit that the rocks near Lynton appear to be the lowest, and that there appears to be a regular ascending succession of rock-groups from Lynton to the latitude of Barnstaple. I am, however, compelled to dispute the reality of this apparent order of succession, and to suppose that there is, either a concealed anticlinal with an inversion to the north, or, what I believe to be much more probable, a concealed fault running nearly east and west through the centre of North Devon with a large downthrow to the north, and that the Lynton beds are on the same general horizon as those of Baggy Point and Marwood. As my reasons for this supposition are derived


Performance is the work achieved by a person in carrying out his duties or work both in quantity and quality, namely in accordance with responsibilities and is the result of work that has been achieved by someone with predetermined standards. This research was conducted at PT. Pancaragam Toyindo Majalengka, as for the purpose of this study is to determine the effect of participatory procedural justice variables and career development on employee performance. The research method used in this research is a survey method with a descriptive verification approach. The data obtained are primary data, namely data from respondents' responses which are distributed to respondents. The population of all employees as many as 200 people and a sample taken is 100 people. The analytical tools used in this research are validity test, reliability test, classical assumption test, multiple linear regression, coefficient determination and hypothesis testing, for partial test using t-test and model feasibility test. Based on the results of hypothesis testing, participatory procedural justice has a positive and significant effect on employee performance. Career development has a positive and significant effect on employee performance.


Generating a shared secret key from physical layer is an interesting topic with practical value. Inspired by the encouraging progress on full-duplex radio, a novel mechanism aiming at high and steady key generation rate with low cost is proposed in this paper. Legitimate users simultaneously send random bit sequences to actively interfere with each other. They extract those mutually jammed bits to form a secret key. A special digital modulation scheme, called Random Manchester coding is proposed. The proposed scheme achieves three goals. The first and the most important one is to prevent a MIMO eavesdropper from separating the superposed signal; the second one is to detect denial of service and key compromise attack to defend against an active attacker; the third one is to achieve design goal on low power radiation, computational complexity and memory cost. Theoretical analysis, numerical simulations and concept-proof experiments validate the effectiveness of our proposed scheme. Our solution is promising to facilitate key generation applications of nearby wireless devices such as ubiquitous smartphones, wearable devices.


Material samples form an important portion of the data infrastructure for many disciplines. Here, a material sample is a physical object, representative of some physical thing, on which observations can be made. Material samples may be collected for one project initially, but can also be valuable resources for other studies in other disciplines. Collecting and curating material samples can be a costly process. Integrating institutionally managed sample collections, along with those sitting in individual offices or labs, is necessary to faciliate large-scale evidence-based scientific research. Many have recognized the problems and are working to make data related to material samples FAIR: findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable.
 The Internet of Samples (i.e., iSamples) is one of these projects. iSamples was funded by the United States National Science Foundation in 2020 with the following aims:

 enable previously impossible connections between diverse and disparate sample-based observations;

 support existing research programs and facilities that collect and manage diverse sample types;

 facilitate new interdisciplinary collaborations; and

 provide an efficient solution for FAIR samples, avoiding duplicate efforts in different domains (Davies et al. 2021)

 enable previously impossible connections between diverse and disparate sample-based observations;
 support existing research programs and facilities that collect and manage diverse sample types;
 facilitate new interdisciplinary collaborations; and
 provide an efficient solution for FAIR samples, avoiding duplicate efforts in different domains (Davies et al. 2021)
 The initial sample collections that will make up the internet of samples include those from the System for Earth Sample Registration (SESAR), Open Context, the Genomic Observatories Meta-Database (GEOME), and Smithsonian Institution Museum of Natural History (NMNH), representing the disciplines of geoscience, archaeology/anthropology, and biology.
 To achieve these aims, the proposed iSamples infrastructure (Fig. 1) has two key components: iSamples in a Box (iSB) and iSamples Central (iSC). The iSC component will be a permanent Internet service that preserves, indexes, and provides access to sample metadata aggregated from iSBs. It will also ensure that persistent identifiers and sample descriptions assigned and used by individual iSBs are synchronized with the records in iSC and with identifier authorities like International Geo Sample Number (IGSN) or Archival Resource Key (ARK). The iSBs create and maintain identifiers and metadata for their respective collection of samples. While providing access to the samples held locally, an iSB also allows iSC to harvest its metadata records.
 The metadata modeling strategy adopted by the iSamples project is a metadata profile-based approach, where core metadata fields that are applicable to all samples, form the core metadata schema for iSamples. Each individual participating collectionis free to include additional metadata in their records, which will also be harvested by iSC and are discoverable through the iSC user interface or APIs (Application Programming Interfaces), just like the core. In-depth analysis of metadata profiles used by participating collections, including Darwin Core, has resulted in an iSamples core schema currently being tested and refined through use. See the current version of the iSamples core schema.
 A number of properties require a controlled vocabulary. Controlled vocabularies used by existing records are kept, while new vocabularies are also being developed to support high-level grouping with consistent semantics across collection types. Examples include vocabularies for Context Category, Material Category, and Specimen Type (Table 1). These vocabularies were also developed in a bottom-up manner, based on the terms used in the existing collections. For each vocabulary, a decision tree graph was created to illustrate relations among the terms, and a card sorting exercise was conducted within the project team to collect feedback. Domain experts are invited to take part in this exercise here, here, and here. These terms will be used as upper-level terms to the existing category terms used in the participating collections and hence create connections among individual participating collections.
 iSample project members are also active in the TDWG Material Sample Task Group and the global consultation on Digital Extended Specimens. Many members of the iSamples project also lead or participate in a sister research coordination network (RCN), Sampling Nature. The goal of this RCN is to develop and refine metadata standards and controlled vocabularies for the iSamples and other projects focusing on material samples. We cordially invite you to participate in the Sampling Nature RCN and help shape the future standards for material samples. Contact Sarah Ramdeen (email@example.com) to engage with the RCN.


In the past decade or so, management of historically contaminated land has largely been based on prevention of unacceptable risks to human health and the environment, to ensure a site is "fit for use" (i.e., achieves suitability for beneficial uses). More recently, interest has been shown in including sustainability as a decision-making criterion. Sustainability concerns include the environmental, social, and economic consequences of risk-management activities themselves, and also the opportunities for wider benefit beyond achieving risk-reduction goals alone. This article provides a global roundup of progress by these initiatives and their key documentation. It reviews common themes and points of divergence. The information is based on a literature review and surveying the various networks involved, with a particular focus on recent developments in the United Kingdom. The global roundup updates a previous global roundup presented in Europe in 2013 at Aquaconsoil 2013 (Bardos et al., 2013a, 2013b). © 2014 Paul Bardos


Complete numerical description of plasma involves solving complex set of space and time dependent conservation and rate equations. Solution of this large set of equations induces a high computational load on the system. Combustion research is another branch of science that deals with the same issue. To overcome the difficulty, combustion community employs various Chemical Reduction Techniques(CRT). The CRT simply uses the fact that, due to wildly varying time scales, reaction system is not evenly sensitive to all the reactions but some reactions are fast and attain steady state in short interval of time. Hence, fast time scale variation becomes less important and the full description of the system can be given by the slow time scales without any significant loss in chemical kinetics description. The chemical reduction technique we employed is ILDM (Intrinsic Low Dimensional Manifold). This technique finds the low dimensional space inside a complete state space such that after a short interval of time the fast time scales of the system will quickly move onto this low dimensional manifold and the full system description can be given by this lower dimensional manifold. One can use these techniques of combustion research to simplify the complex chemistry in plasma simulation.


The synthesis of hosts with improved binding affinities for nitroaromatic guests is described. Association constants for several host-guest complexes were measured in chloroform solution and ranged over three orders of magnitude. Two hosts were covalently linked to silica gel to produce chemically bonded stationary phases for HPLC. The use of these phases for HPLC analysis of nitro-substituted polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons is discussed.


A new approach to investigate the circumstances relating to carbon monoxide intoxication by analysing volatile hydrocarbons in the blood of cadavers is reported. Headspace gas chromatography/mass spectrometry was used to demonstrate the hydrocarbons. The results can be characterized into four categories depending on the compounds detected. In construction fire cases where no accelerants were found at the scene benzene, toluene and styrene were detected in the blood. In cases where gasoline was found in the fire debris surrounding the victim, high levels of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylene isomers, n-hexane and n-heptane were detected in the blood. In cases where kerosene was found in the fire debris around the victim, benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylene isomers, C9-aromatics(n-propylbenzene, trimethyl-benzene isomers), n-octane, n-nonane and n-decane were detected in the blood. In cases where the victim was found inside a gasoline-fuelled automobile filled with exhaust gas, benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylene isomers, C9-aromatics were found, but no aliphatic hydrocarbons such as components of petroleum. The analyses of the combustion gases of inflammable materials, exhaust gas, gasoline vapours and kerosene vapours were also performed to evaluate the results of the blood analyses. Consequently, some compounds are proposed as indicators to discriminate between inhaled gases i.e. styrene in common combustion gas, n-hexane and n-heptane as well as benzene, toluene and C9-aromatics in gasoline cases, n-nonane and n-octane as well as benzene, toluene and C9-aromatics in kerosene cases, and benzene, toluene, C9-aromatics but no aliphatic hydrocarbons in exhaust gas cases.


Abstract Helenium virginicum (Virginia sneezeweed) is a federally listed threatened herb found at unshaded sites in seasonally inundated ponds in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia and in the Ozark Highlands of Missouri. In the Ozarks, one population of H. virginicum was discovered in the 1950s, though it was thought to be a hybrid of Helenium flexuosum and Helenium autumnale until genetics work resolved its identity in 2000. Since that time, it was the only known population outside of Virginia. In this study, we systematically identified potential H. virginicum habitat in the Ozarks by using topographic maps and aerial photographs and surveyed these areas for H. virginicum. Our objectives were to locate new populations of the plant and to better define its ecology in Missouri. By the end of the growing season of 2004, we had located 42 new populations of H. virginicum in the lower Missouri Ozarks—more populations than are currently known in the state of Virginia. The results of this study greatly expand the known range of H. virginicum in Missouri and provide important information regarding its ecology.


Groundwater discharge is an important mechanism through which fresh water and associated solutes are delivered to the ocean. Permafrost environments have traditionally been considered hydrogeologically inactive, yet with accelerated climate change and permafrost thaw, groundwater flow paths are activating and opening subsurface connections to the coastal zone. While warming has the potential to increase land-sea connectivity, sea-level change has the potential to alter land-sea hydraulic gradients and enhance coastal permafrost thaw, resulting in a complex interplay that will govern future groundwater discharge dynamics along Arctic coastlines. Here, we use a recently developed permafrost hydrological model that simulates variable-density groundwater flow and salinity-dependent freeze-thaw to investigate the impacts of sea-level change and land and ocean warming on the magnitude, spatial distribution, and salinity of coastal groundwater discharge. Results project both an increase and decrease in discharge with climate change depending on the rate of warming and sea-level change. Under high warming and low sea-level rise scenarios, results show up to a 58% increase in coastal groundwater discharge by 2100 due to the formation of a supra-permafrost aquifer that enhances freshwater delivery to the coastal zone. With higher rates of sea-level rise, the increase in discharge due to warming is reduced to 21% as sea-level rise decreased land-sea hydraulic gradients. Under lower warming scenarios for which supra-permafrost groundwater flow was not established, discharge decreased by up to 26% between 1980 and 2100 for high sea-level rise scenarios and increased only 8% under low sea-level rise scenarios. Thus, regions with higher warming rates and lower rates of sea-level change (e.g. northern Nunavut, Canada) will experience a greater increase in discharge than regions with lower warming rates and higher rates of sea-level change. The magnitude, location and salinity of discharge have important implications for ecosystem function, water quality, and carbon dynamics in coastal zones.


Overgrowth of bone tissue (hyperostosis frontalis interna, or HFI) is symptomatic for the disease called Morgagni's syndrome. The pathogenesis of this rare disorder is unknwon, but it is possible that it is caused by the malfunctions in the pituitary gland. Paleopathological diagnoses of HFI are very rare but according to some authors HFI appeared in ancient human populations with a frequency ranging from 3 to 15%. Three cases have been described in Poland, one from the north-west and two from the south-east. In the present wotk we describe the first case from the region of Lower Silesia (south-west Poland). The skull of an adult female (dated from XVIIIth century) with pathological charecteristics specific for HFI was found in a churchyard (Saint Jakub church in Wroclaw). The diagnosis was established on the basis of clearly visible gross findings, including the overgrowth of the inner table, irregularities in the structure of the bone tissue (based on the X-ray analysis), and abnormalities in histological appearance. Our investigation add a new light to the small number of reports evaluating pathological changes in such precious, historical material.


A 2-year study of four groups of women (N = 268)--addicts, prostitute-addicts, prostitutes, and female offenders--reveals that the link between female criminal activity and female drug involvement is significant. All four groups report "drug costs" as a major percentage of their monthly expenses. Prostitutes and female offenders report purchasing drugs mainly for resale. Female offenders report most of their income as coming from drugs sales, shoplifting, and larceny. For all of the women addicted to heroin, reselling drugs and prostitution were the usual means of support. There is insufficient evidence at this point in the research to link the use of a specific category of drugs to specific types of offenses. The main determinants in choice of crime for these subjects were skill and opportunity.


The objective of the study was to investigate the antioxidant effect of Chinese medicine Coriolus versicolor polysaccharide on brain tissue and its mechanism in rats. SOD, MDA and GSH-Px levels in rat brain tissues were determined with SD rats as the animal model. The results showed that Coriolus versicolor polysaccharide can reduce the lipid peroxidation level in brain tissues during exhaustive exercise in rats, and can accelerate the removal of free radicals. The study concluded that its antioxidant effect is relatively apparent.


Oscillatory structural forces caused by colloidal additives including micelles, microemulsion droplets and particles were explored between rigid and deformable interfaces using direct force measurements with the atomic force microscope. The observed oscillations from rigid surfaces become distorted when confinement occurs between deformable interfaces, giving rise to a force hysteresis between approaching and separating interfaces. Small-angle neutron scattering was used to determine the bulk structure of the colloidal additives, as a basis for comparison with their behaviour when confined in thin films. It is seen that confinement itself does not appear to significantly alter the structure of the colloidal additive when compared to the bulk; however, at small separations, interactions with the confining interfaces may become important. The combined approach uncovered an unique flocculation pathway that is available to deformable emulsion droplets, and that the strength of this flocculation can be tuned by changes in the size and concentration of the structuring colloid, the emulsion droplet size, and the ionic strength of the solution.


Attention of drivers is a key factor of road safety. Inattentive drivers are dangerous to their surroundings and cause a considerable number of accidents. However, decline of attention, especially during long rides, is natural and it is worth to know if it can be investigated from electric activity of the brain. Since there is an evidence of relationship between attention and P3 component which is widely used in design and analysis of experiments by the method of event related potentials (ERPs), the ERP experiment based on auditory stimulation was designed and performed on tested subjects, which drove a car simulator on a monotonous track. The background of the used method, experimental design, data processing, and results of the performed experiments are described in this paper.


Animals populate our artistic and philosophical discourses in critical ways. From Jacques Derrida's or Karen Barad's cat, to Donna Haraway's dog, to the fish in Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Véréna Paravel's Leviathan (2012), these animals feature heavily in discussions regarding limits – the limits of the human and thus its relation with non-humans, but also the limits of knowledge itself. Cute or dangerous, real or fantasised, dead or alive: in this article, I juxtapose the various ways that such animals confront us with what Jacques Derrida describes as "the point of view of the absolute other". Similarly, recent texts stage encounters with animals – thus distributing agency towards a larger variety of beings, carving out space for a previously excluded non-human other. Yet these encounters are mediated in profoundly different ways. In researching how encounters with the animal are differentially inflected and "defracted" respective to the medium in which they are staged, this article invokes questions of form and style within the critical dialogue that attempts to centre non-human animals. Highlighting how formal decisions are not accidental, but rather integral, to the praxis of the philosophy of animality, this article aims to draw attention to how specific forms and styles allow for a moment of contact with a non-human other. To this end, this article examines three oft-cited encounters: Derrida's encounter with his cat, an intense stare with a fish in Leviathan, and Barad's inflection of Schrödinger's cat. This juxtaposition gives insight into the (ethical) limits of certain styles of producing thought and critically reflects on these works in their discussion of non-human life and agency.


Encephalitis results in considerable morbidity and mortality in the United States and worldwide. Neurologists are often consulted or directly care for patients with encephalitis admitted to the hospital and must be able to discriminate between encephalitis and the many conditions that mimic it. Moreover, neurologists must be familiar with the myriad causes of encephalitis in order to develop a practical approach to diagnostic testing and treatment. An understanding of recent advances in management, particularly with respect to autoimmune etiologies and critical care approaches, is equally important. Here, we summarize a general approach to the care of adult patients with encephalitis.


A symmetry analysis of the cylindrical target implosion driven by a high-frequency rotating beam of heavy ions is presented. The non-uniformity generated by such a system is studied by developing an analytical model and by performing two-dimensional simulations. The results show that the asymmetry in the driving pressure depends on the number N of beam revolutions as N−n and the power index n is determined by the time variation of the power pulse. For a box pulse, it is n = 1 and for a parabolic pulse, it is n = 2. In the latter case symmetry of 1% can be achieved at the end of the pulse by using N = 10.


Since its inception, deep learning has been overwhelmingly reliant on backpropagation and gradient-based optimization algorithms in order to learn weight and bias parameter values. The Tractable Approximate Gaussian Inference (TAGI) algorithm was shown to be a viable and scalable alternative to backpropagation for shallow fully-connected neural networks. In this paper, we are demonstrating how TAGI matches or exceeds the performance of backpropagation, for training classic deep neural network architectures. Although TAGI's computational efficiency is still below that of deterministic approaches relying on backpropagation, it outperforms them on classification tasks and matches their performance for information maximizing generative adversarial networks while using smaller architectures trained with fewer epochs.


Abstract. The mass balance of many valley glaciers is enhanced by the presence of ice cliffs within otherwise continuous debris cover. We assess the effect of debris and ice cliffs on the thinning of Kennicott Glacier in three companion papers. In Part A we report in situ measurements from the debris-covered tongue. Here, in Part B, we develop a method to delineate ice cliffs using high-resolution imagery and use empirical relationships from Part A to produce distributed mass balance estimates. In Part C we describe feedbacks that contribute to rapid thinning under thick debris. Ice cliffs cover 11.7 % of the debris-covered tongue, the most of any glacier studied to date, and they contribute 19 % of total melt. Ice cliffs contribute an increasing percentage of melt the thicker the debris cover. In the lowest 4 km of the glacier, where debris thicknesses are greater than 20 cm, ice cliffs contribute 40 % of total melt. Surface lake coverage doubled between 1957 and 2009, but lakes do not occur across the full extent of the zone of maximum glacier thinning. Despite abundant ice cliffs and expanding surface lakes, average melt rates are suppressed by debris, the pattern of which appears to reflect the debris thickness-melt relationship (or Østrem's curve). This suggests that, in addition to melt hotspots, the decline in ice discharge from upglacier is an important contributor to the thinning of Kennicott glacier under thick debris.


The municipal public servant needs to be motivated to serve the citizens in order to provide a quality service, where their expectations are exceeded, for this they must have the necessary resources, the same ones that are tested by the entity; therefore, the objective was to identify the factors that influence the motivation of the public service in a municipality in Peru. The study was carried out under the qualitative approach, the interpretive paradigm, the method applied corresponded to the case study and the phenomenology, the technique applied was the interview with the respective interview guide, the reporting units corresponded to eight collaborators currently working in the institution. The four factors that include the motivation corresponding to the service vocation, the management report, the appropriate organizational climate are based on respect and loyalty to the workplace. Therefore, a weight of the opportunities in the labor market, the collaborators would not resign, because they consider that they work in the municipality for their vocation of service. Weight of the economic conditions are not encouraging, so they emphasize the homologation of their salaries, contracts according to academic achievements, and constant training to resolve cases according to current regulations and not violate the rights of


Continuous N-balances with sows (13 first litters and 118 piglets) were performed over 14 days. Milk yield was calculated using the daily gain of the suckling piglets. The amount of feed before farrowing was varied, during the trials feeding was ad libitum. In both trials reductions of milk yield were observed after 1 weak of lactation. The animals with the highest energy intake a. p. showed best performances in suckling time. There were 65 treatments with antibiotics caused by rectal temperatures of sows above 39.5 degrees C. High feeding of sows a. p. in accordance to the need is recommended with restricted and increasing amounts during the first week of lactation. Peripartal additives such as antibiotics or acids can be useful for health and performances.


: An interview with Martin S. Hirsch, planner of ACTG 175, is presented. Dr. Hirsch provides his thoughts on whether ddI monotherapy is as good as two-drug therapy; why the increase in CD4 cell counts with AZT monotherapy in treatment-naive people was less than what has been seen in other trials; whether big clinical end-point trails, like ACTG 175, can continue to be done; and whether the dropouts were consistent across arms in this trial.


Background: We investigated the longitudinal relationship between body mass index (BMI), a major vascular risk factor, and white matter lesions (WMLs) in older women. Methods: Twenty-seven Swedish women were followed from age 70 to 88. Measurements of BMI, and systolic and diastolic blood pressures were conducted at 70, 75, 79, 85, and 88 years. WMLs were measured using computerized tomography at age 85 and 88 (85/88). Results: Women with any WMLs at age 85/88 had higher BMI at age 70 (p=0.003) and 75 (p=0.006), compared to women without WMLs. Increasing severity of WMLs was related to BMI at age 70 (p<0.001), 75 (p<0.001), 79 (p=0.017), and 85 (p=0.025). After consideration of other vascular factors, BMI at age 70, 75, and 79 was most significantly related to WML at 85/88. Every 1.0 kg/m2 increase in BMI at age 70 increased risk of WMLs twofold. Conclusions: Overweight and obesity may be important contributors to the presence of WMLs in the elderly.


The SHARON (Single reactor High activity Ammonia Removal Over Nitrite) process is an innovative process that improves the sustainability of wastewater treatment, especially when combined with an Anammox process. It aims at ammonium oxidation to nitrite only, while preventing further nitrate formation. In order to optimize this process by means of modelling and simulation, parameters of the biological processes have to be assessed. Batch tests with SHARON sludge clearly showed that ammonia rather than ammonium is the actual substrate and nitrous acid rather than nitrite is the actual inhibitor of the ammonium oxidation in the SHARON process. From these batch tests the ammonia affinity constant, the nitrous acid inhibition constant and the oxygen affinity constant were determined to be 0.75mgNH3-N L −1 ,2 .04mgHNO2-N L −1 and 0.94mgO2 L −1 . The influence of pH and temperature on the oxygen uptake rate of SHARON biomass was determined, indicating the existence of a pH interval between 6.5 and 8 and a temperature interval from 35 to 45 ◦ C where the biomass activity is maximal. The kinetic parameters of the SHARON process were determined based on batch experiments. These parameters can now be implemented in a simulation model for further optimization of the SHARON process.  2007 Society of Chemical Industry


Generalized TMDs (GTMDs) of hadrons are the most general two-parton correlation functions. Upon certain projections, several GTMDs reduce to generalized parton distributions (GPDs) and transverse momentum dependent parton distributions (TMDs), respectively. Therefore, GTMDs can be considered as partonic "mother functions". Moreover, two of the GTMDs play an important role in the nucleon spin structure. We show that, by means of the exclusive double Drell-Yan process, GTMDs for quarks can in principle be measured. This is the first known process which is sensitive to these objects. Specific GTMDs can be addressed via suitable polarization observables. We also identify other processes that are directly sensitive to GTMDs.


Numerous studies have suggested that nano-TiO₂ can be translocated to the brain via the placental barrier and blood brain barrier, leading to brain damage and cognitive impairment in both mice and rat offspring. The mechanism of nanoTiO₂-induced neurotoxicity is still unclear, as is its role in the inhibition of hippocampal development. In this experiment, nano-TiO₂ was employed to investigate whether the inhibition of the hippocampal development of mice offspring involved the alterations in the Rho signaling pathway following consecutive gavage of female mice between 7-21 days postpartum. The results showed that nano-TiO₂ particles were concentrated in the hippocampus of offspring, resulting in reduced hippocampal indices and in inhibited axonal and dendritic growth. Furthermore, nano-TiO₂ downregulated expression of N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NR)1, NR2A, NR2B, RhoGTPase, Ras-related C1 botulinum toxin substrate (Rac1), cell division cycle42 (Cdc42), phosphorylated cAMP response element binding protein (p-CREB), p21-activated kinase (PAK) 3, and PAK1, LIMK (LIM kinase) 1, p-LIMK1, activated Cdc42 kinase (ACK), and myotonic dystrophic kinaseassociated Cdc42-binding kinase (MRCK) and increased expression of RhoA, Rho kinase (ROCK) 1 and cyclin dependent kinase (Cdk) 5 in offspring. In addition, nano-TiO₂ disrupted the balance of RhoA/Rac1, RhoA/Cdc42, and Rac1/Cdc42 ratios in the hippocampus of mice offspring. Taken together, these data imply that maternal exposure to nano-TiO₂ inhibited development of hippocampal axons and dendrites of offspring may be correlated with the dysfunction of the Rho pathway and that N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors (NMDAR) may also mediate nano-TiO₂-Rho pathway interactions.


In terms of music and language, the underlying networks that serve both kinds of processing may not be as separate as once believed. Broca"s area and premotor regions are elicited for both musical and linguistic processing. When chords are seen as following theoretical rules of syntax in chord sequences, violations of that syntax elicit P600s just as they do in linguistic syntactic violations. N400s are elicited in the context of linguistic semantics whereas N500s are elicited in the context of musical semantics. Surprisingly, P300s are elicited when examining linguistic and musical expectancies. All of the above evidence is compiled for a better understanding of the shared syntactic integration resource hypothesis as well as the general shared resources recruited in both music and linguistic processing.


Automated Essay Grading (AEG) or scoring systems are not more a myth they are reality. These AI systems are blessings to the educational community where teachers normally face lots of problem while correcting studentspsila essays. Valuation of huge amount of student essays within stipulated time frame, with feed back is a real challenge. But today, the human written (not hand written) essays easily evaluated by AEG systems easily. The TOEFL exam is one of the best examples of this application. The studentspsila essays are evaluated both by human and automated essay grading system. Then the average is taken. AEG might provide precisely the platform we need to explicate many of the features those characterize good and bad writing and many of the linguistic, cognitive and other skills those underline the human capability for both reading and writing. They can also provide time-to-time feedback to the writers/students by using that the people can improve their writing skill. A meticulous research of last couple of years has helped us to understand the existing systems which are based on AI & Machine Learning techniques and finding the loopholes and at the end to propose a system, which will work under Indian context, presently for English language influenced by local languages. Currently most of the essay grading systems is used for grading pure English essays or essays written in pure European languages. In India we have almost 21 recognized languages and influence of these local languages, in English, is very much here. Due to the influence of local languages and English written by nonnative English speakers (ie. Indians) the result of TOEFL exams has shown lower scores against Indian students (also Asian students). This paper focuses on the existing automated essay grading systems, basic technologies behind them and proposes a new framework to over come the problems of influence of local Indian languages in English essays while correcting and by providing proper feedback to the writers.


Introduction: Pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) multidrug resistant (MDR) is still a major global health problem. After the discovery of antimycobacterial therapy the use of therapeutic pneumothorax (TP) decreased. Increased prevalence of PTB MDR, multiple adverse effects and high cost of TB drugs have returned the attention to this old method of treatment.

Objective: The aim of this paper is to highlight the usefulness of TP induced by video assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) as adjuvant therapy in cavitary PTB MDR.

Method: A 27-year-old, male patient was diagnosed with cavitary MDR PTB. Because the individualized treatment has proved ineffective and the patient denied resection surgery, we performed repeated intrapleural air insufflations. In the absence of satisfactory lung collapse due to pleural adhesions, it was decided to associate a minimally invasive surgical procedures – VATS. Multiple adhesions localized to the right upper lobe and 6 right segment were distroyed (monopolar cautery, LigaSure) with full release of the lung. Pleural cavity was controlled with a single tube which was maintained clamped until his removal in the first postoperative day.

Results: The surgical procedure was well tolerated without major complications and with sufficient parenchymal collapse, subsequently maintained by periodic air insufflations. After 4 months the patient was smear and culture negative and the cavity was reduced in size.

Conclusions: In carefully selected cases, TP is an effective adjuvant procedure in the treatment of MDR PTB. VATS is useful for lysis of adhesions when lung collapse is insufficient.


This case–control study analyzed risk factors for symptomatic fractures in a group of 52 patients with systemic sclerosis compared with a group of 104 patients without fractures, matched for sex and age, who were attended at a single systemic sclerosis outpatient clinic from 2010 to 2020. Fractures affected predominantly vertebral (65.4%), rib (13.5%), and hip (7.7%) joints, while the mean age of fracture was 55.3 ± 9.5 years. Age at disease onset, age at diagnosis, disease duration, age at menarche, and age at menopause were similar in both groups, and 58.9% of the patients were menopausal at the time of the fracture. The presence of fractures had a significant association with densitometric osteoporosis (p < 0.001), lower weight (p = 0.032), and bone mineral index (p = 0.044), anti-RNA polymerase III (p = 0.040), use of corticosteroids (p = 0.019), and bisphosphonates (p < 0.001), as well as with densitometric T-scores of lumbar spine (p < 0.001), femoral neck (p = 0.025), and total hip (p = 0.013). Multivariate analysis showed that the variables significantly associated with fractures were high doses of corticosteroids (odds ratio = 4.10; 95% confidence interval = 1.290–13.090; p = 0.017), bisphosphonates (odds ratio = 3.91; 95% confidence interval = 1.699–8.984; p = 0.001), negative anti-Scl70 (OR = 0.34; 95% confidence interval = 0.124–0.943; p = 0.038), and lumbar T-score (odds ratio = 0.39; 95% confidence interval = 0.034–0.460; p = 0.010). In conclusion, symptomatic fractures were associated predominantly with lower bone mineral density of lumbar spine and use of high doses of corticosteroids and bisphosphonates in this cohort.


In developed nations, technological advancements rap idly are changing every aspect of our lives: how we work, how we communicate with each other, and even how we are entertained. The influence of technology is readily apparent. The subtleties of technology and its less apparent influences also are tremendous. Advances in computer technology, communications, and manufacturing are affecting all sectors, including engineering. In the arena of water resources, technological advances have helped to not only develop a better understanding of our physical systems but have allowed improved operational and institutional tools to be developed to support water management. These advances have the potential to provide large and meaningful benefits to less developed infrastructures. The objective of this paper will be to describe several technological advances in water resources, specifically in areas such as Flood W arning, Water Administration, and Multi-Objective Water Management. Examples of technologies implemented which have direct applicability to developing infrastructures are described. Important to the discussion of these advances are the ways in which implementation and use of these technologies can protect and save lives, extend and optimally use limited resources, and provide useful information to assist in the sustainab le growth and development of our natural resources.


This paper focuses on the models of science communication used to promote and support use of agricultural research outputs in Uganda. It also explores quasi-novel approaches of making agricultural research more visible to end-users through strategic communications and extension models that are hoped to increase adoption rates in Uganda. Surveys, literature review and key informants were used to evaluate the communication efforts by the National Agricultural Research Organisation (NARO) - the apex body for agriculture research in Uganda. The findings indicated that 31% of respondents perceived NARO as a source of poor products and services. This has resulted in distrust, which is largely attributed to use of ineffective models of communication used in the past. Different approaches of communication and extension are proposed as flagship models that can be implemented through NARO's projects, private extension partners and, in some cases, through partnership with the National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS). These communication and outreach strategies can improve understanding of the technologies, and consequently influence adoption of NARO technologies for improvement of the agricultural sector.Keywords: Agricultural research, Extension, NARO Uganda, Outreach


— The shortest path (SP) problem concerns with finding the shortest path from a specific origin to a specified destination in a given network while minimizing the total cost associated with the path. This problem has widespread applications. Important applications of the SP problem include vehicle routing in transportation systems particularly in the field of in-vehicle Route Guidance System (RGS) and traffic assignment problem (in transportation planning). Well known applications of evolutionary methods like Genetic Algorithms (GA), Ant Colony Optimization, Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) have come up to solve complex optimization problems to overcome the shortcomings of existing shortest path analysis methods. It has been reported by various researchers that PSO performs better than other evolutionary optimization algorithms in terms of success rate and solution quality. Further Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have emerged as key information systems for geospatial data analysis and visualization. This research paper is focused towards the application of PSO for solving the shortest path problem between multiple points of interest (POI) based on spatial data of Allahabad City and traffic speed data collected using GPS. Geovisualization of results of analysis is carried out in GIS.


A novel low-complexity iterative receiver for multiuser space frequency block coding (SFBC) system was proposed in this paper. Unlike the conventional linear minimum mean square error (MMSE) detector, which requires matrix inversion at each iteration, the soft-in soft-out (SISO) detector is simply a parallel interference cancellation (PIC)-matched filter (MF) operation. The probability density function (PDF) of PIC-MF detector output is approximated as Gaussian, whose variance is calculated with a priori information fed hack from the channel decoder. With this approximation, the log likelihood ratios (LLRs) of transmitted bits are under-estimated. Then the LLRs are multiplied by a constant factor to achieve a performance gain. The constant factor is optimized ac cording to extrinsic information transfer (EXIT) chart of the SISO detector. Simulation results show that the proposed iterative receiver can significantly improve the system performance and converge to the matched filter bound (MFB) with low computational complexity at high signal to-noise ratios (SNRs).


This paper discusses the relationship between long-term evolution evolved multimedia broadcast/multicast service and next generation broadcast television. Many of the techniques that are well known within one technology are applicable to the other. Potentially, both systems may benefit from the techniques applied in the other. Some examples are provided and discussed. The implications for long-term spectrum planning are considered. Some recommendations are made with respect to appropriate actions to maximize the efficiency of the respective systems.


Abstract 1230 Background: Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is characterized by the presence of the BCR-ABL fusion gene. Different types of BCR-ABL transcripts can be found, due to different genomic breakpoints and alternative splicing. The most frequent transcripts are the e13a2 (b2a2) and the e14a2 (b3a2), that codify for a p210 protein. Occasionally, both transcripts may be present. In the imatinib (IM) era, few data about the prognostic significance of the transcript type are available, particularly in the setting of early chronic phase (ECP): one study suggested that patients with the b2a2 transcript may be more sensitive to IM (de Lemos et al. Genet Mol Res 2005), while two larger studies suggested that patients with b3a2 transcript may have better responses to IM (Vega-Ruiz et al. ASH 2007; Lucas et al. Haematologica 2009). No systematic evaluations in the context of large prospective clinical trials have been performed. AIM: To investigate the influence of the type of BCR-ABL fusion transcript on the responses and the outcome of CML patients treated with IM in ECP. Methods: We performed an analysis of 3 concurrent clinical trials of the GIMEMA CML Working Party (Clin Trials Gov. NCT00514488, NCT00510926 and the observational trial CML/023). Response monitoring was based on conventional cytogenetic examination (bone marrow) and quantitative molecular (Q-PCR) evaluation (peripheral blood). Definitions: Complete Cytogenetic Response (CCgR): 0% Ph+; Major Molecular Response (MMR): BCR-ABL/ABL ratio Results: 559 consecutive CML patients in early CP have been enrolled from January, 2004 to January, 2007. Patients expressing rare transcript types (e1a2 and e19a2) and patients with the presence of both b2a2 and b3a2 transcripts were excluded: 493 out of 559 patients were evaluable, 203 (41%) with a b2a2 transcript and 290 with a b3a2 transcript (59%). The 2 groups were comparable (no significant difference in sex, age, Sokal and Hasford scores, clonal chromosomal abnormalities in Ph+ cells before IM and imatinib dose). The median observation time is currently 60 (extremes 2–80) months. In patients with b2a2 and b3a2 transcript, the observed 12-months CCgR rates were 77% and 80%, respectively; the cumulative incidence of CCgR was 89% and 88%, respectively (no significant differences). The time to MMR was significantly shorter for patients with b3a2 transcript (fig.1), but the cumulative incidence of MMR was not significantly different (81% and 86% in patients with b2a2 and b3a2 transcript, respectively). The probabilities of Failure-Free Survival, Progression-Free Survival and Overall Survival were 69% and 75%, 83% and 89%, 87% and 92% in patients with b2a2 and b3a2 transcript, respectively (fig. 1); no difference was statistically significant. Conclusions: In our experience, based on 493 early CP CML patients treated frontline with IM, the type of BCR-ABL fusion transcript had no relevant prognostic impact and no outcome differences have been observed so far. Acknowledgements: Work supported by European LeukemiaNet, COFIN, University of Bologna and BolognAIL. Disclosures: Castagnetti:Novartis: Honoraria; Bristol Myers Squibb: Honoraria. Gugliotta:Novartis: Honoraria. Martinelli:Novartis: Consultancy, Honoraria; BMS: Consultancy, Honoraria; Pfizer: Consultancy. Saglio:Novartis: Consultancy, Membership on an entity9s Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding, Speakers Bureau; Bristol Myers Squibb: Membership on an entity9s Board of Directors or advisory committees, Speakers Bureau. Baccarani:Novartis: Consultancy, Research Funding, Speakers Bureau; Bristol Myers Squibb: Consultancy, Research Funding; Wyeth: Consultancy, Research Funding. Rosti:Novartis: Consultancy, Honoraria, Membership on an entity9s Board of Directors or advisory committees, Speakers Bureau; Bristol Myers Squibb: Honoraria, Speakers Bureau; Roche: Speakers Bureau.


Saul Friedlander's reflection on studying and writing history referred in many aspects to understanding the difference and relation between historical worlds, both real and possible ones. He tried to preserve the meanings of these worlds in his writings while trying to situate them in a horizon of the whole. In this overall context, the problem of interpretation of the Nazi transgression becomes particularly important in the case of representation of historical world in movies, because for a historian their form seems to transform – in a more or less subtle way – the meaning of limits between fiction and reality. Insensitivity towards these limits is particularly dangerous for historical studies, because the structure of cinematographic images confuses historical thinking (especially by the illusion of immediacy) and might, in consequence, dominate our space of discourse on the past. The aim of this article is to present Saul Friedlander's considerations on the work of historical imagination in the context of dilemmas of making knowledge and meaning. In the first part, I sketched the development of the historian's methodological awareness, as he discovers a strange meaning of the Nazi anomaly, especially in movies. The second part is devoted to the diagnosis of historical self-knowledge toward the representations of the Nazi epoch, as well as their relationship to the cinematographic imagination and postmodernism. In the third part, I will try to show how the historian resolved the problem of representing the anomaly in his project of "integrated and integrative" history.


Abstract Nowadays, simulators facilitate tasks performed daily by the engineers of different branches, including coordinate metrologists. Sometimes it is difficult or almost impossible to program a Coordinate Measuring Machine (CMM) using standard methods. This happens, for example, during measurements of nano elements or in cases when measurements are performed on high-precision (accurate) measuring machines which work in strictly air-conditioned spaces and the presence of the operator in such room during the programming of CMM could cause an increase in temperature, which in turn could make it necessary to wait some time until conditions stabilize. This article describes functioning of a simulator and its usage during Coordinate Measuring Machine programming in the latter situation. Article also describes a general process of programming CMMs which ensures the correct machine performance after starting the program on a real machine. As an example proving the presented considerations, measurement of exemplary workpiece, which was performed on the machine working in the strictly air-conditioned room, was described


Background and Aim: Mental health of war veterans' spouses and martyrs' widows is expected to be more susceptible due to their specific stresses. This study aims to find the mental health situation related to different variables. Materials and Methods: This is a cross-sectional and descriptive study. One hundred martyrs' widows and the same number of war veterans' spouses were selected and divided into two groups by systematic randomized sampling from among the list of those followed up by Zahedan War Veterans Foundation. Mental health of the individuals in the study was assessed by "General Health Questionnaire" and also semi-structural interviews. The data were analyzed by ANOVA and Toky Post Hoc Test. Results: The results revealed that the mean scores of both groups and also 70% of the whole number of contributors in the study were higher than the GHQ cut-off point. Comparing the means in GHQ scores of the two groups showed no statistically significant difference. Women whose husbands had physical injuries showed a better mental health than those with mentally ill husbands (p=0.001). Conclusion: The findings of this study in concordance with other similar researches confirm that generally martyrs' widows and war veterans' spouses suffer from low level of mental health. The relationship between the type of injury and mental health of veteran' spouses calls for special cares and services for different groups.


Young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) differ from typically developing (TD) children in their overall production of gesture, producing fewer deictic gestures and supplemental gesture-speech combinations. In this study, we ask whether older children with ASD continue to differ from TD children in the types of gestures and gesture-speech combinations they produce, and whether this reflects differences in parental gesture input. Our study examined the gestures and speech produced by 42 children (20 ASD, 22 TD), comparable in expressive vocabulary, and their parents, and showed that children with ASD were similar to TD children in the amount and types of gestures that they produced, but differed in their gesturespeech combinations, using gesture primarily to complement their speech. Parents, however, did not show the same group differences in their gesture-speech combinations, suggesting that differences observed in children's gesture use may not reflect parental input, but rather the child's communicative needs. INDEX WORDS: Child gesture, Parent gesture, Autism Spectrum Disorder, Parent-child interaction, Language development, Nonverbal communication HOW CHILD GESTURES RELATES TO PARENT GESTURE INPUT IN OLDER CHILDREN WITH AUTISM AND TYPICAL DEVELOPMENT


Edge detection is one of the important preprocessing steps in image analysis. Edges characterize boundaries and edge detection is one of the most difficult tasks in image processing hence it is a problem of fundamental importance in image processing. Edges in images are areas with strong intensity contrasts and a jump in intensity from one pixel to the next can create major variation in the picture quality. Edge detection of an image significantly reduces the amount of data and filters out useless information, while preserving the important structural properties in an image. Conventionally, mathematical morphology edge detection methods use single and symmetrical structure elements. But they are difficult to detect complex edge feature, because they are only sensitive to image edge which has the same direction of structure elements. This paper proposed a novel edge detection algorithm based on multi-structure elements morphology of eight different directions. The eight different edge detection results are obtained by using morphological gradient algorithm respectively, and final edge results are obtained by using synthetic weighted method. The experimental results showed that the proposed algorithm is more efficient for edge detection than conventional mathematical morphological edge detection algorithms and differential edge detection operators.