A silent process involving both neural and vascular structures in diabetic retina persists for several years before clinically detectable retinopathy. Recordings of the electroretinogram (ERG) and visual evoked potential (VEP) provide early warning of abnormalities in the visual pathway of diabetic patients and animal models. Treatment of streptozotocin-diabetic rats for 1 or 2 months with the heat-shock protein coinducer bimoclomol, a drug ameliorating experimental neuropathy, prevented and corrected the abnormal increase in latency and reduction of amplitude of ERG and VEP waves both in acute and chronic experiments. Improvements may be explained by cytoprotective effect of bimoclomol on retinal glia and/or neurons against diabetes-related ischemic cell damages. These findings suggest that bimoclomol may have future therapeutic use in diabetic retinopathy.


This paper describes a new algorithm for recovering low-rank matrices from their linear measurements contaminated with Poisson noise: the Poisson noise Maximum Likelihood Singular Value thresholding (PMLSV) algorithm. We propose a convex optimization formulation with a cost function consisting of the sum of a likelihood function and a regularization function which is proportional to the nuclear norm of the matrix. Instead of solving the optimization problem directly by semi-definite program (SD-P), we derive an iterative singular value thresholding algorithm by expanding the likelihood function. We demonstrate the good performance of the proposed algorithm on recovery of solar flare images with Poisson noise: the algorithm is more efficient than solving SDP using the interior-point algorithm and it generates a good approximate solution compared to that solved from SDP.


This article presents results of multivariate and multi-level analyses of data on hate crime victimization from 14 Western European nations. Although the ethnic composition of immigrant communities shows considerable variation across the 14 countries, in all countries self-defined immigrants are disproportionately exposed to hate crimes. The level of hate crime prevalence is positively correlated with the size of the immigrant communities. The results of a loglinear analysis of individual risks of being victimized by hate crime show that young age and migrant status are the most important independent risk factors of hate crime victimization at the individual level. Other important risk factors are residence in a capital or other large city, low income and an outgoing lifestyle. These risk factors resemble those of victimization by common contact crimes. This result suggests that, although the motivations of offenders are different, the distribution of hate crime victimization at the individual level can to some extent be interpreted through general victimological theories such as lifestyle-exposure theory. These analyses were replicated with a multi-level analysis including data at the macro level on the characteristics of 229 European regions. In this analysis, known criminogenic factors of contact crimes at the macro level, such as the proportion of young males, low income and low employment, are included in the models, besides the proportion of migrants among the inhabitants of the region. The results confirm the salience of the previously identified independent risk factors at the individual level. At the macro level, the relative size of migrant communities per region stands out as the most important factor explaining variance in hate crime prevalence. No independent relationships were found between the socio-economic or demographic characteristics of European regions and the extent of hate crime victimization. The latter results confirm findings of similar analyses of data from the USA. They suggest that in Western Europe hate crimes are driven by cultural tensions between traditional inhabitants and immigrants (community defense hypothesis), rather than by the strain experienced by the perpetrators (economic threat hypothesis). The unexpected finding that levels of educational attainment of European regions are associated with higher levels of hate crime victimization cannot be easily interpreted with either of the two hypotheses about the causes of hate crime victimization. It is tentatively interpreted as a measurement artifact resulting from heightened sensitivity to various types of hate crime victimization among better-educated minority groups.


Climate change will affect future hygrothermal performance of buildings. This could lead to higher risks regarding energy optimization, thermal comfort and historic building conservation depending on the local climate, building construction and retrofit solutions adopted. This paper explores the risks brought by climate change on a typical residential historic building of South Tyrol. The results obtained show that, although the climate warming will reduce the future heating energy demand, an improvement of buildings' energy performance will still be necessary to increase sustainability and ensure their continued use. Natural ventilation would suffice to prevent overheating in the studied location, but a further analysis is needed for warmer alpine regions. Regarding the moisture-related risks for the historic construction, mould growth should be considered when retrofitting a wooden wall and frost damage should be carefully studied in the case of sandstone walls.


Stobadine (STO) is a potential neuro- and cardioprotective drug with high antioxidative properties. The presented study investigated the effects of oral STO administration (5, 15 and 50 mg/kg/d) during pregnancy and lactation to dams on neurobehavioural development of their offspring (body growth and maturation, sensory functions, neuromotor and reflex development, levels of activity and emotional reactivity, memory and learning processes). The results of our experiments showed that long-term administration of STO had no adverse effects on the course of pregnancy and lactation in dams and on the neurobehavioural development of offspring.


To obtain slaughter weight and age and the carcass characteristics of young bulls, a feedlot study was conducted at Embrapa Pecuaria Sudeste. A total of 215 animals from Embrapa and private farms, 3 / 8 and ½ Blonde dAquitaine x Nellore; ½ Canchim x Nellore; ½ Limousin x Nellore; ½ Piedmontese x Nellore; Canchim (CA) and Nellore (NE), were used in 1994, 1995 and 1997. The slaughter weights (TRAT) of 400 (I); 440 (II) and 480 kg (III), except for NE cattle (380, 410 and 440 kg), were tested. All animals received, ad libitum, a diet based on 50% whole plant corn silage and 50% concentrate, on a dry matter basis. The live weight of the animals were obtained after fasting of 16 hours. The animals were slaughtered at a commercial packing plant. The data were submitted to the analysis of variance and the means were compared by SNK tests. The straightbred Canchim and all crossbred animals were slaughtered at 231, 252 and 273 kg of hot carcass weight with an average age of 15.4; 16.1 and 16.8 months, for TRAT I, II and III, respectively; while straightbred Nellore were slaughtered at 211.5; 219 and 228 kg hot carcass weight with an average age of 16.4; 17.2 and 17.5 months, for TRAT I, II and III, respectively. The estimated means of days on feedlot, yield of carcass, rib eye area and backfat thickness were: 70.9; 95.1 and 114.7 days; 57.2; 57.7 and 58.3%; 31.4; 30.9 and 30.2 cm 2 /100 kg carcass weight; 2.5; 3.1 and 3.6 mm, for TRAT I, II and III, respectively. The percentage of saleable meat from the hindquarter gunbit cut was similar for all three slaughter weights; while a reduction of the percentage of bones was compensated for by an increase in the percentage of trimmed excess fat with an increase of slaughter weight. There were significant interactions between genetic group and TRAT for estimated slaughter weights, percentage of hindquarter, hindquarter gunbit and forequarter cuts and the rib eye area.


Small and Medium-sized Enterprises are considered key components of economic growth, income generation, export revenues and employment creation in developing, transitional and high income countries. Their impact as a group is considered to be extremely important. The consequences of the European debt crisis, however, have created a very tough environment for SME's. This paper aims to provide an overview on the subject of SME's, and analyse their role and performance in Greece. The results showed that SMEs account for a lion's share of the enterprises operating in the Greek economy, and that the severe recession has clearly affected their ability to survive. Some positive signs have been presented, but even the slightest recovery seems fragile.


Thrombolytic efficacy of lonomin V (LV), a protein isolated from Lonomia achelous caterpillars haemolymph, administered either as a single intravenous bolus or as a continuous infusion, was evaluated in a rabbit jugular vein thrombosis model, and compared with those of single-chain tissue-type plasminogen activator (sct-PA) and two-chain urokinase-type plasminogen activator (tcu-PA). As a bolus LV, at doses of 100 000 IU/kg body weight (bw) produced an activator-induced thrombolysis (AIL) of 50.94% ± 12.4 compared with 14.4% ± 10.8 for tcu-PA at the same dose. As a continuous infusion at doses of 200 000 IU/kg bw LV produced an AIL of 45.8%, whereas sct-PA and tcu-PA produced an AIL of 69.9 and 33.7%, respectively. Fibrinogen, plasminogen and α-2-antiplasmin levels decreased significantly with the higher doses of LV, sct-PA, and tcu-PA. Factor XIII levels were significantly reduced in a dose-dependent manner only with LV. In conclusion, LV produces a dose-dependent thrombolysis in combination with a decrease in factor XIII activity.


Background Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Minority Serving Institutions are uniquely positioned to implement community-campus research partnerships based on a history of service, the pursuit of community trustworthiness and student demographics often similar to surrounding marginalized communities. The Morehouse School of Medicine Prevention Research Center collaborates with members of Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Minority Serving Institutes, and community organizations on the Community Engaged Course and Action Network. This network is the first of its kind and aims to strengthen members' ability to implement Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) principles and partnerships. Projects address public health priorities including mental health among communities of color, zoonotic disease prevention, and urban food deserts. Materials and methods To assess the effectiveness of the network, a Participatory Evaluation framework was implemented to conduct process evaluation which included review of partnership structures, operations, project implementation processes, and preliminary outcomes of the research collaborations. A focus group of Community Engagement Course and Action Network members (community and academic) was also conducted to identify benefits and challenges of the network with emphasis on key areas for improvement to further enhance the relationships between partners and to facilitate their subsequent community-campus research. Results Network improvements were tied to themes strengthening community-academic partnerships including sharing and fellowship, coalition building and collaboration, and greater connections and awareness of community needs through their current community-academic partnerships. The need to conduct ongoing evaluation during and after implementation, for determining the early adoption of CBPR approaches was also identified. Conclusion Evaluation of the network's processes, infrastructure, and operation provides early lessons learned to strengthen the network. Ongoing assessment is also essential for ensuring continuous quality improvement across partnerships such as determining CBPR fidelity, assessing partnership synergy, and dynamics, and for quality improvement of research protocol. The implications and potential for advancing implementation science through this and similar networks are great towards advancing leadership in modeling how foundations in community service can advance to CBPR partnership formation and ultimately, health equity approaches, that are local defined and assessed.


Liver cancer is a global health challenge as it is the third leading cause of cancer death worldwide. Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common type of liver cancer and is often found in liver cells, where it is associated with high morbidity and mortality rates. Recent studies have shown that extracellular vesicles (EVs) secreted by HCC cells play a critical role in HCC progression and metastasis. EVs contain proteins, nucleic acids, lipids, and metabolites as cargos. EVs derived from HCC cells can transfer oncogenic factors to surrounding cells leading to increased tumor growth, cell invasion, and angiogenesis. In this review, we summarize the roles that EVs play and the specific effects of their cargos on HCC progression and metastasis and identify potential therapeutic targets for HCC treatment.


Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) is a toxic component of cell walls of Gram-negative bacteria that are widely present in gastrointestinal tracts. Increasing evidence showed that LPS plays important roles in the pathogeneses of neurodegenerative disorders, such as Alzheimer's disease (AD). NADPH oxidase s2 (NOX2) is a complex membrane protein that contributes to the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in several neurological diseases. The NLRP1 inflammasome can be activated in response to an accumulation of ROS in neurons. However, it is still unknown whether LPS exposure can deteriorate neuronal damage by activating NOX2-NLRP1 inflammasomes. Ginsenoside Rg1 (Rg1) has protective effects on neurons, although whether Rg1 alleviates LPS-induced neuronal damage by inhibiting NOX2-NLRP1 inflammasomes remains unclear. In the present study, the effect of concentration gradients and different times of LPS exposure on neuronal damage was investigated in HT22 cells, and further observed the effect of Rg1 treatment on NOX2-NLPR1 inflammasome activation, ROS production and neuronal damage in LPS-treated HT22 cells. The results demonstrated that LPS exposure significantly induced NOX2-NLRP1 inflammasome activation, excessive production of ROS, and neuronal damage in HT22 cells. It was also shown that Rg1 treatment significantly decreased NOX2-NLRP1 inflammasome activation and ROS production and alleviated neuronal damage in LPS-induced HT22 cells. The present data suggested that Rg1 has protective effects on LPS-induced neuronal damage by inhibiting NOX2-NLRP1 inflammasomes in HT22 cells, and Rg1 may be a potential therapeutic approach for delaying neuronal damage in AD.


Percutaneous transluminal coronary arteriography is the most reliable means of investigating and quantifying the severity of coronary artery occlusive disease. Percutaneous transluminal coronary arteriography is a diagnostic procedure using fluoroscopic images of catheter delivery of contrast dye within the coronary artery system. The dye travels through the patent vessels and shows up on fluoroscopy as a depiction of the topography within the blood vessels themselves. A common cause of blood vessel distortion or occlusion is atherosclerotic disease. Atherosclerosis affects approximately 1 in every 13 Americans aged 18 years and older and approximately 85% of deaths in people 65 years of age and older are secondary to coronary artery disease (CAD). The diagnosis of CAD in millions of people all over the world has been accomplished through percutaneous transluminal coronary arteriography. This procedure was first performed in the 1920s, and it ultimately led to the development of percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty, also known as balloon angioplasty or coronary angioplasty which is a transcatheter treatment procedure that restores blood flow in the coronary arteries identified by arteriography. It is also known by other names such as percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA) or percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) or percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Balloon angioplasty has become the method of choice to treat patients with acute myocardial infarction or occluded leg arteries.


This paper examines the key issues around privacy and the secondary use of data in health research from the perspective of patients and the public. It argues that there is low public awareness and understanding of the issues around medical privacy and deep public unease over the extent to which public and private bodies have access to personal information. Quoting a recent example from the field of dementia, it challenges the notion that all research is necessarily in the public interest. It argues that a socially sustainable system for the secondary use of data that preserves the gift relationship in research is dependent on there being strong systems to enforce privacy and confidentiality. Underpinning this is a need to involve patients and their representatives in the development of any new system.


The turbulent challenges faced by Telecom companies in Kunming, China are to enhance their performance in the successful completion of projects to a level more satisfactory to clients. The main objective of this study is to investigate the relationship of HRM practices, Human capital and organizational performance with the mediating role of knowledge management on the successful completion of research task. The main aim of this study is to analyze the association among Human capital, HRM practices and organizational performance while taking Knowledge management as mediating variables. The survey of this research was conducted on managerial level employees who are working in Telecom companies in Kunming, China. It is hoped that current study resolve provide a guide and roadmap for employees to carry their services in their companies where fruitful plan of human resource management practices and human capital with the mediating effect of knowledge management capabilities to get the desired outcomes in human resource management. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) to analyze the data, Statistical tests like Cronbach's alpha to check the reliability, correlation, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) & regression to prove the hypotheses will apply on data.


The management and accessibility to information on water regime of the main agricultural crops is of great economic and social impact since it allows the definition of the role of water yield and water productivity as efficient tools in the planning, design and operation of supply water to crops. This paper is aimed at obtaining from the collection and tabulation of experimental results available at the IAgric, a database on water requirements of some crops of agricultural interest. The database includes the experimental data from 1971 to 2009, more than 22 crops, five soil types, different irrigation techniques and a wide range of irrigation treatments. And the variables: evaporation, water consumption, yields, amounts of irrigations, water applied per irrigation, rainfall reported, usable rain. This database will determine later in crops of interest potential production, agricultural productivity and water yield response factor as an expression of water-yield performance, contributing to the development of strategies that respond to problem of water scarcity and food security to a lower environmental cost. The database will be placed IAgric website as part of the Advising Irrigator System all interest for users.


Explanations for suicide attacks abound. Yet the literature remains conceptually fragmented, with different authors focusing on different attitudes, incentive structures, values, psychological processes, strategic imperatives, and cultural, historical, and personal circumstances. Curiously, however, there have been few efforts to cast suicide bombing within the extensive evolutionary literature on human altruism—in which it clearly belongs. Neither have there been more than occasional efforts to mobilize the distinction between "proximate" and "ultimate" explanations, with most proposed explanations being proximate. Here we draw on content analyses from materials written by Japanese Kamikaze pilots to propose an evolvable cognitive algorithm—by hypothesis, species typical—that (1) specifies environmental circumstances under which such "heroic" behavior is likely; (2) is consistent at the proximate level with the Japanese data; and (3) that is not inconsistent with many of the diverse proximate attitudes, values, and psychological mechanisms that dominate discussions of contemporary suicide campaigns. The evolutionary perspective is not an alternative to most of the proximate explanations offered in discussions of contemporary cases but is, rather, a paradigm around which diverse proximate explanations can be organized.


Maximizing the lifespan of the wireless sensor networks (WSNs) subject to minimum area coverage rate is a crucial issue in the design and analysis of WSNs. With the fast development of image and video technology, wireless camera sensor networks (WCSNs) have attracted a great deal of research attention, particularly in the area coverage using WCSNs for many military or battle-field applications. Compared with 2D camera WSNs-based coverage, 3D camera WSNs-based coverage can provide with more comprehensive information. However, it imposes new challenges which were not encountered in 2D WCSNs, such as the complexity of the 3D coverage design and analysis. To overcome these problems, in this paper we propose a novel 3D coverage scheme using WCSNs. It aims at maximizing the lifespan by minimizing the energy consumption subject to the minimum coverage rate specified by application requirements. Building up the system model for field of view (FOV) of our 3D WCSNs, we derive the analytical expressions which can characterize the minimum number of randomly deployed camera sensor nodes to ensure the 3D coverage rate. Also, we develop the new low energy adaptive clustering hierarchy (LEACH) architecture with the new features as follows: applying heterogeneous sensor nodes; refining the threshold for cluster head selection; employing hybrid routing algorithms. The obtained simulation results show that our proposed schemes significantly outperform the other existing schemes in terms of maximizing the lifespan of WCSNs subject to the minimum coverage rate over the 3D space.


Objective: To evaluate the safety and feasibility of using the Micro Hand S surgical robot for right colectomy by comparing the short-term efficacy of robot-assisted and laparoscopic right colectomy (LRC). Methods: Data from a total of 22 patients who underwent right colectomy from January 2018 to February 2019 in the Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, in the Third Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, were collected retrospectively. This included 10 patients who underwent robot-assisted right colectomy with the Micro Hand S surgical robot (RRC group [Shangdong Wego Surgical Robot Co., LTD, Weihai, China]) and 12 patients who underwent LRC group. The operation time, blood loss, number of lymph nodes dissected, time to first flatus, comprehensive complication index (CCI), and postoperative hospital stay were compared. Results: Compared with the LRC group, the RRC group had a lower CCI (11.7 ± 8.3 versus 19.9 ± 6.4, P < .05), shorter hospital stay (11.4 ± 3.3 versus 15.2 ± 4.7 days, P < .05). The differences were statistically significant. Conclusion: The Micro Hand S robot-assisted right colectomy is safe and feasible.


Purpose: To examine the effects of COX inhibitors on suppressing HSV-1 reactivation in a mouse model. Methods: BALB/c mice were latently infected with HSV-1 and treated by 0.1% bromfenac Na eye drops, 0.1% pranoprofen eye drops, 0.1 mg oral etodolac 4 times/day, and saline for 4 days. After reactivating the latent HSV-1, we swabbed the mouse ocular surface for the culture of the infectious virus and assessed the viral loads in the eyes and trigeminal ganglia (TGs) using real-time PCR to determine the treatment efficacies. Results: With stimulated reactivation, 10 of 24 (41.7%), 5 of 10 (50.0%), 17 of 25 (68%), and 16 of 22 eyes (72.7%) showed positive swab results in the bromfenac Na, etodolac, pranoprofen, and saline groups, respectively; and a significant difference was seen only between the bromfenac Na and saline groups (p = 0.033). None of the three drug-treated groups showed any significant difference from the saline group in the viral DNA in the eyes and TGs (p > 0.05). Conclusions: Bromfenac Na eye drops can suppress HSV-1 reactivation.


Full-thickness biopsies of haired and alopecic skin of biotin-deficient rats had less subcutaneous fat and showed lipophilic follicular plugging, vascular engorgement, epidermal hyperplasia, and abnormal keratinization. Mean activities of the three mitochondrial biotin-dependent carboxylases in the skin of biotin-deficient animals were reduced to 3-18% of control whereas the cytosolic enzyme, acetyl-CoA carboxylase, was reduced only to 38-61%. The total fatty acid content of haired and alopecic skin of deficient rats was 30% of those in the corresponding skin sites of control animals. Skin from deficient rats contained less of several long-chain fatty acids (16:0, 16:1, 18:0, 18:1, and 18:2) and more very-long-chain fatty acid, particularly 24:1 and 26:1. These alterations in fatty acids in biotin-deficient rats suggest that the skin findings in biotin and biotinidase deficiencies in humans may be due to similar fatty acid changes.


International cooperation in tax policy is deeply fractured. Inconsistencies, loopholes, and ineffective mechanisms—which could be avoided if real collaboration among countries existed—have created significant inefficiency losses for decades. This Article focuses on the institutional infrastructure underlying international cooperation in tax issues and argues that the current forums in which such cooperation is encouraged do not provide an adequate platform in which countries with similar interests can effectively make a collaborative effort. To facilitate cooperation, this Article proposes to create a new institution currently missing from the international tax policy-setting arena: an informal forum for coordination among countries that share similar interests in tax policy, inspired by the model of "Like Minded Groups" in international organizations. This forum will enable countries that share similar interests to cooperate and reach understandings about necessary policy adaptations. We identify two major projects that this forum could promote—efforts to curtail tax evasion and efforts to harmonize various aspects of tax policy. We argue that this model might have significant advantages in promoting cooperation, reducing the "competitiveness" threat, advocating coordinated policies, and overcoming external and domestic pressures. In light of the current challenges in the field of tax policy, and the difficulties in forming international cooperation within the current institutional framework, the proposed model is worth serious discussion and consideration.


BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Women with high-risk pregnancies are offered prenatal diagnosis through amniocentesis for cytogenetic analysis of fetal cells. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the rapid fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) technique for detecting numerical aberrations of chromosomes 13, 21, 18, X and Y in high-risk pregnancies in an Indian scenario. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 163 samples were received for a FISH and/or a full karyotype for prenatal diagnosis from high-risk pregnancies. In 116 samples both conventional culture techniques for getting karyotype through G-banding techniques were applied in conjunction to FISH test using the AneuVysion kit (Abbott Molecular, Inc.), following standard recommended protocol to compare the both the techniques in our setup. RESULTS: Out of 116 patients, we got 96 normal for the five major chromosome abnormality and seven patients were found to be abnormal (04 trisomy 21, 02 monosomy X, and 01 trisomy 13) and all the FISH results correlated with conventional cytogenetics. To summarize the results of total 163 patients for the major chromosomal abnormalities analyzed by both/or cytogenetics and FISH there were 140 (86%) normal, 9 (6%) cases were abnormal and another 4 (2.5%) cases were suspicious mosaic and 10 (6%) cases of culture failure. The diagnostic detection rate with FISH in 116 patients was 97.5%. There were no false-positive and false-negative autosomal or sex chromosomal results, within our established criteria for reporting FISH signals. CONCLUSION: Rapid FISH is a reliable and prompt method for detecting numerical chromosomal aberrations and has now been implemented as a routine diagnostic procedure for detection of fetal aneuploidy in India.


Introduction: Since the beginning of the pandemic in early 2020, there have been numerous reports of symptoms that have lingered due to COVID-19. However, there is a lack of data concerning these persistent symptoms in non-hospitalized patients. This study sought to examine the prevalence of persistent symptoms at 18 months and beyond following the diagnosis of COVID-19 non-hospitalized patients. Methods: A prospective cohort study comprised 212 non-hospitalized adult patients consecutively assessed from data available at tertiary care institutions through telephone interviews. During the interview, participants were routinely questioned about whether they were still experiencing any post-infection symptoms at the time of the study. Results: Total 212 took part in the 18-month or longer follow-up survey. The most commonly reported symptoms during the acute phase were fever (n=149, 70.3%), weakness (n=118, 55.7%), and sore throat (n=100, 47.2%). At the 18-month and above follow-up, 167 patients (78.7%) reported at least one symptom continuing. The most common symptom at this time point was fatigue (n=109, 51.4%), followed by joint pain (n=57, 26.8%), and exertional dyspnea (24.5%). The possibility of symptoms returning after an 18-month follow-up and beyond was significantly lower in patients who had taken the COVID-19 vaccine (OR=0.29; 95% CI: 0.112-0.749; p=0.011) and those did not infect a second time (OR=0.232; 95% CI: 0.057-0.93; p=0.04). Conclusion: The present study reveals that clinical complications persist even at 18 months and beyond during follow-up, with a prevalence similar to earlier follow-up periods, regardless of the severity of the initial COVID-19 infection.


Abstract When engaging with ethnographic research to understand symbols associated with a club and its fan base, researchers need to reflect on the role of the ethnographer and the extent to which we can or should immerse ourselves in the field, and the importance of the insider–outsider balance. This article details how we came to understand our position as American women studying a hypermasculine English sport, including how we "worked the hyphen" (Fine, 1994). For two years, we conducted research with fans and employees of Barclays Premier League side Aston Villa Football Club. While each of these characteristics (being American and being women) might individually have been a disadvantage, we found that being double outsiders helped us open doors and gain access. This experience allowed us to meaningfully understand the symbols that create, maintain, and mediate fandom within the AVFC community.


When discriminating between unknown foreign languages, infants, young children, and adult listeners are able to make same-language/different-language discrimination judgments at better than chance levels. In these studies (Lorch & Meara, 1989; Mehler et al., 1988; Stockmal, 1995), foreign language samples have often been provided by different talkers, confounding voice characteristics and language characteristics. In Experiments 1 and 2, using the same talkers for different pairs of languages, we found that listeners were able to discriminate between languages they did not know, even when spoken by the same talker. That is, listeners were able to separate talker from language characteristics. Experiment 3 used multidimensional scaling to explore the bases of listener judgments. Listeners were attentive to prosodic properties and influenced by their familiarity with the test languages.


This paper studies the optimization of zero-delay analog mappings in a network setting that involves distributed coding. The cost surface is known to be non-convex, and known greedy methods tend to get trapped in poor locally optimal solutions that depend heavily on initialization. We derive an optimization algorithm based on the principles of "deterministic annealing", a powerful global optimization framework that has been successfully employed in several disciplines, including, in our recent work, to a simple zero-delay analog communications problem. We demonstrate strict superiority over the descent based methods, as well as present example mappings whose properties lend insights on the workings of the solution and relations with digital distributed coding.


Summary Four case histories are reported in which the initial signs and symptoms were those of pulmonary infiltration and in which subsequently a diagnosis of myelodysplasia was made. The analysis of bronchoalveolar lavage fluid - demonstrating predominantly neutrophils and lymphocytes, and, occasionally blast cells as well as plasma cells - indicated that the pulmonary infiltration was related to the myelodysplastic process. As no other causes of pulmonary infiltration could be found, it seems that a pulmonary infiltrate can be the presenting symp-tom of a myelodysplastic syndrome. Although pleuropulmonary infiltrates most often are caused by infections, these cases illustrate that myelodysplasia related infiltrates should also be considered.


Messages that convey the dangers associated with consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) may be the most effective means of changing attitudes toward consumption and policy preferences. However, there is a risk that this message type also stimulates reactance, a form of resistance to persuasion. A study (N = 618) using messages from the 2012 New York City anti-SSB campaign and a sample of New York City residents showed just such effects. Reactance was heightened by prior message exposure, conservative political orientation and prior consumption of SSBs. The net message effect was still persuasive overall for attitudes, but could be improved by 17% if reactance were eliminated. In contrast, the net message effect on policy preferences was counterpersuasive, due to processes other than reactance. Anti-SSB threat appeals can change attitudes toward one's own behavior in a more healthful direction, while simultaneously eroding support for more restrictive SSB policies.


Gas–liquid interfacial pulse discharge plasmas are generated in the wide range of gas pressures, where an ionic liquid is used as the liquid electrode. By analyzing the characteristics of discharge voltage and current, the discharge mechanisms at low and high pressures are found to be dominated by secondary electron emission and first Townsend ionization, respectively. Therefore, the discharge properties at low and high pressures are mainly determined by the cathode material and the discharge gas type, respectively. Furthermore, the plasma properties are investigated by a double Langmuir probe. The density of the positive pulse plasma is found to be much smaller than that of the negative pulse plasma, although the discharge voltage and current of the negative and positive pulse plasmas are of the same order of magnitude. The positive pulse discharge plasma is considered to quickly diffuse onto the chamber wall from the radially central region due to its high plasma potential compared with that in the peri...


Anticoagulant, fibrinolytic, and fibrin-depolymerization effects were revealed during in vitro study of five proline-containing peptides (Gly-Pro, Trp-Pro, Pro-Gly, Gly-Pro-Gly-Gly, and Pro-Gly-Pro) in the concentration range 10(-9) to 10(-1) mg/ml. Intravenous injection of Trp-Pro and Pro-Gly into white rats at 250 micrograms/kg body weight significantly increased recalcification time and activated partial thromboplastin time of serum coagulation, increased fibrinolytic activity, decreased the level of serum factor XIII/(/)a and fibrinogen, and reduced thrombocyte aggregation. We propose inhibition of thromboplastin and thrombin formation in the serum by the studied proline-containing peptides both in vitro and in vivo.


Purpose –As electronic word of mouth or EWOM has turn out to be an overriding data source for customers who buy products digitally, therefore, understanding how EWOM affects customer buying behavior (CBB) becomes quite important. Despite its significance, there aren't adequate studies that have investigated EWOM and its impact on consumers' decisions to acquire good(s) orservice(s). As the earlier researchers divided EWOM to receiving and participating categories, this study set out to determine how participating EWOM affects customer behavior in the health sector. Additionally, this study looks at how doesaffective commitment mediates the relationship between the two formsof participatingEWOM (intensity and content) and consumer purchasing behavior.Design/methodology/approach –The data has been gathered via a self-administered questionnaire. There were two sections made for the questionnaire form. 164 hospitals' consumerswere asked to rate their overall perceptual outlook on 27 questions to measurethe participating EWOM constructs, as well as their beliefsregarding affective commitment, and purchasing behavior; 141 responses (86%) were deemed acceptable. The study focuses on North Cyprus hospitals' patients who searched and decided about the health services on digital media.Findings –Participating EWOM components demonstrated positive impacts on affective commitment, according to the PLS-SEM analysis. The findings alsodisclosed a positive influence of affective commitment on customer purchasing behavior.Discussion –The results of this study approved that when people welcome to participate EWOM, the benefits of EWOM become apparent. Based on this research, hospitals' managers and health sector decision makers should try to design and implement the suitable strategies for achieving further EWOM if they desire to boost their brand competitiveness.


Several structural and functional changes of the heart have often been associated with human and experimental models of obesity. Some factors have been suggested as responsible for possible cardiac abnormalities in models of obesity, among them β-adrenergic system, an important mechanism of regulation of myocardial contraction and relaxation. The objetive of present study was to evaluate the . Thirty-day-old male Wistar rats were assigned to one of two groups: control (C) and obese (Ob). The C group was fed a standard diet and Ob group was fed cycles of four unsaturated high-fat diets for 15 weeks. The body fat was measured from the sum of the individual fat pad weights and the obesity was defined by adiposity index. Isolated papillary muscle preparation was performed under basal conditions and after inotropic and lusitropic maneuvers. β-adrenergic system was evaluated by using cumulative concentrations of isoproterenol and Western Blot. After 15 weeks, the Ob rats developed higher adiposity index than C rats. Obesity promoted comorbities such as glucose intolerance, insulin resistance, hyperleptinemia, and dyslipidemia; however, were not associated with changes in systolic blood pressure. The cardiac structure results post-death showed that obesity caused cardiac hypertrophy. Furthermore, Ob muscles developed similar baseline data, but myocardial responsiveness to post-rest contraction stimulus and increased extracellular Ca2+ was compromised. There were no changes in cardiac function between groups after β-adrenergic stimulation. The obesity was not accompanied by changes in protein expression of Gsα, β1 and β2 adrenergic receptors. In conclusion, the myorcardial dysfunction caused by unsaturated high-fat diet-induced obesity, after 15 weeks, is not related to β-adrenergic system impairment.


The outdoor environment has the potential to serve as a teeming laboratory with numerous opportunities for students to study various science-related phenomena and processes. However important teachers deem outdoor experiences in science, they also bear doubts about their abilities to teach in these natural surroundings. Providing teachers with the training necessary to teach using field-based activities would help develop and strengthen the teachers' and consequently their students' interest in science, their background knowledge of basic science concepts and processes and possibly affect their behaviors towards the environment. This study was designed to measure the extent science teachers' field-based learning experiences affected their pedagogical effectiveness, the frequency of their field offerings and their students' attitudes, knowledge and behaviors relating to science and environmental education. The subjects of the study were middle school and secondary education teachers (N=lOO) and middle school and secondary level students (N=270). The teachers participated in a program entitled PLAN-IT EARTH (Pairing Learners And Nature with Innovative Technology for the Environmental Assessment of Resources, Trends and Habitats). They took part in an intense weeklong residential workshop during the summer pertaining to training techniques and activities that focused on field-based teaching techniques and innovative instructional strategies. The program design was based on a developmental framework of exploration, concept introduction and application exercises. The teachers answered a preliminary survey before beginning their training. These data were compared with questionnaires filled out after the training and five months into the program (February and March of a regular school year). Randomly selected portfolios, which all the teachers in the program were required to keep, were viewed and evaluated. Interviews were also conducted with randomly selected teachers (n=5). The middle school and secondary students completed instruments which measured their attitudes towards science, learning methods their teachers implemented, their favorite subject areas and their feelings about learning in the outdoors. Randomly selected students (n=7) were also interviewed about their favorite methods of learning science and how their perceptions of education and the environment. Results indicated that a high percentage of teachers utilized a large number of the teaching methods indicated on the survey. There was a higher ranking of "extensive" use of teaching methods on the posttest than were on the pretest. Teaching in the outdoors and using field trip excursions were both high ranking methods. It was concluded based on the results of the survey that teachers incorporated teaching in the outdoors more :frequently after their training. Also concluded by student surveys and student interviews, was that field-based activities fostered positive attitudes about the environment and the educational means on how to improve their surroundings. Students involved in the study overwhelmingly rated science as their favorite subject and ranked field trips/field activities as their most preferred method of learning.


Large crossed mixed effects models with imbalanced structures and missing data pose major computational challenges for standard Bayesian posterior sampling algorithms, as the computational complexity is usually superlinear in the number of observations. We propose two efficient subset-based stochastic gradient MCMC algorithms for such crossed mixed effects model, which facilitate scalable inference on both the variance components and regression coefficients. The first algorithm is developed for balanced design without missing observations, where we leverage the closed-form expression of precision matrix for the full data matrix. The second algorithm, which we call the pigeonhole stochastic gradient Langevin dynamics (PSGLD), is developed for both balanced and unbalanced designs with potentially a large proportion of missing observations. Our PSGLD algorithm imputes the latent crossed random effects by running short Markov chains and then samples the model parameters of variance components and regression coefficients at each MCMC iteration. We provide theoretical guarantee by showing the convergence of the output distribution from the proposed algorithms to the target non-log-concave posterior distribution. A variety of numerical experiments based on both synthetic and real data demonstrate that the proposed algorithms can significantly reduce the computational cost of the standard MCMC algorithms and better balance the approximation accuracy and computational efficiency.


We performed airborne experiments using 150- and 450-MHz radars to measure ice thickness on the Greenland ice sheet. Our objectives were to investigate to what degree surface clutter obscures the basal echo when airborne measurements are made at different elevations and at different frequencies. We also explored interferometric techniques for processing the data to form swath measurements of ice thickness. We found that surface clutter was minimal for either frequency when operated at low aircraft elevations (500 m above the ice sheet surface) or over benign regions of the ice sheet. Because signal-to-clutter ratios were favorable, we found that we could retrieve the swath measurements of ice thickness at both frequencies using an interferometric technique. At high elevation, surface clutter degraded the 150-MHz signal, but the nadir ice thickness was still retrievable. The basal return in high-elevation 450-MHz data was detectable only after additional beam-steering techniques were applied to the data to reduce the surface clutter signal. Results suggest that interferometric cross-track ice-thickness measurements can be successfully made given a sufficient number of antenna elements driven at either 150 or 450 MHz and flown at both high and low elevations over the interior ice sheet.


Finite buffer queues with service and space priorities are of great importance towards effective congestion control and quality of service (QoS) protection in high speed networks. This paper presents closed-form analytical solutions, based on the principle of maximum entropy (ME), for the performance evaluation of single server finite capacity G/G/1/N censored queues with R (R>1) distinct priority classes under preemptive-resume (PR) or head-of-line (HoL) service disciplines. Buffer management for these queues employs either partial buffer sharing (PBS) or complete buffer sharing (CBS) schemes. A vector, N, representing a sequence of thresholds (N1, N2,... ,NR) for each priority class jobs, is used to implement these buffer management schemes in order to provide quality of service constraints. Closed-form expressions for various performance metrics have been derived


Andrew Zimmerman argues that to understand racism as a form of power-knowledge we must understand it as a derivative response to some other, democratic-revolutionary thing: the rural insurgency. He shows that racism has been an important form of counterrevolution, that is, of political reactions to preserve hierarchies of power against democratic revolutions. Transatlantic uprisings of serfs and slaves created strategies and theories of killing, death and freedom. These uprisings found philosophical and political expression in the work of Hegel and the Marxist tradition his work inspired. Biological racism and physical anthropology may have been, in part, a response to this early insurgency. In the second part of the article Zimmerman deals with cultural racism pioneered by Max Weber. Weber responded to a different kind of insurgency, one of mobility and biopolitical/sexual rebellion, particularly of young Russian-Polish migrant sugarbeet workers. Identifying these workers as a "Polonizing" racial threat mirrored some of the terms of their insurgent challenge, but in a way that helped state and social science check their rebellion. Zimmerman claims that Max Weber generalized this cultural racism from migrant labor in Central and Eastern Europe to a global theory of labor, race, and culture that continues to shape the world we live in today. He thus makes clear in the concluding part of the article how weak an opposition culture provides to race, for the culture concept is already intimately connected to the race concept. Zimmerman suggests that we should make culture an object of investigations of racism and racial science, not a grounding assumption from which to conduct these investigations.


Polysemy is an important linguistic phenomenon, and it appears widely in every language. The main issue of polysemy research includes whether there is semantic ambiguity advantage and its' influencing factors. Studies of polysemy in bilingual research are few in number and are contradictory about polysemy recognition. This study, based on out-of-context condition, discussed the proficient Chinese-English bilinguals' recognition process and relative factors using masked priming paradigm. Two experiments were involved: The influence of the dominant and non-dominant translation equivalence, syntactic category information and relatedness of translation equivalence were investigated in Experiment 1 with word decision task and English ambiguous words. The experimental procedure was classical masked priming procedure. Subjects were told to decide whether the word was true or not. All the participants were tested individually on computers. Reaction times for correct responses and error rates were analyzed by subject and item variance. Results showed a significant masked priming effect and semantic relatedness effect in English polysemous word recognition. Furthermore, when words were presented with their dominant translation, the recognition process was faster than when words were presented with their non -dominant translation. Experiment 2 was exactly the same with experiment1, except for the material. The aim of experiment 2 was to discuss how the above-mentioned factors influenced the Chinese ambiguous words. Surprisingly, the results were also similar with experiment1 despite the huge difference between Chinese and English ambiguous words. That is to say, We had observed the effect of dominance of translations and semantic relatedness of multiple translations. Responses were faster when the two translations of a word were related in meaning than when the two translations of a word were unrelated in meaning. It is well known that the distributed conceptual feature model has been proposed for bilingual memory. Our findings could also be explained in the light of this model with activated semantic nods. When it is dominant translation or two translations that are semantically related, it can increase the semantic overlap between target word and its translation equivalence. The difference between this research and previous study was that the syntactic information was activated in early stage of word recognition. We think this is due to the difference of experiments paradigm which reflected different process stage. Based on this research, the authors expand the Distributed Conceptual Feature Model to syntactic level.


It has been well-documented that leukotrienes (LTs) are released in allergic lung inflammation and that they participate in the physiopathology of asthma. A role for LTs in innate immunity has recently emerged: Cys-LTs were shown to enhance FcγR-mediated phagocytosis by alveolar macrophages (AMs). Thus, using a rat model of asthma, we evaluated FcγR-mediated phagocytosis and killing of Klebsiella pneumoniae by AMs. The effect of treatment with a cys-LT antagonist (montelukast) on macrophage function was also investigated. Male Wistar rats were immunized twice with OVA/alumen intraperitoneally and challenged with OVA aerosol. After 24 h, the animals were killed, and the AMs were obtained by bronchoalveolar lavage. Macrophages were cultured with IgG-opsonized red blood cells (50:1) or IgG-opsonized K. pneumoniae (30:1), and phagocytosis or killing was evaluated. Leukotriene C4 and nitric oxide were quantified by the EIA and Griess methods, respectively. The results showed that AMs from sensitized and challenged rats presented a markedly increased phagocytic capacity via FcγR (10X compared to controls) and enhanced killing of K. pneumoniae (4X higher than controls). The increased phagocytosis was inhibited 15X and killing 3X by treatment of the rats with montelukast, as compared to the non-treated group. cys-LT addition increased phagocytosis in control AMs but had no effect on macrophages from allergic lungs. Montelukast reduced nitric oxide (39%) and LTC4 (73%). These results suggest that LTs produced during allergic lung inflammation potentiate the capacity of AMs to phagocytose and kill K. pneumonia via FcγR.


Background: Smoking among adolescents remains unacceptably high and the difference in potential risk factors for smoking initiation between male and female adolescents has been explored. Although the association between smoking initiation and dieting behaviour has been observed among girls, the mechanism of the association is unknown. Objective: To examine prospectively the association between perceived importance of being thin at baseline and smoking initiation among girls. Design: A four year prospective cohort survey including perceived importance of being thin at baseline and smoking behaviour, conducted in 1993 and 1996. Setting and participants: 273 Massachusetts female adolescents aged 12–15 years at baseline who reported having smoked no more than one cigarette by the time of the baseline survey, drawn from households sampled by random digit dialling. Main outcome measure: Progression to established smoking, defined as having smoked 100 or more cigarettes in their lifetime. Results: After adjusting for age, smoking status at baseline, and race/ethnicity, girls who valued thinness most strongly and somewhat strongly were both more likely to have become established smokers, compared to the girls who valued thinness least strongly. The odds ratios are 4.5 (95% confidence interval (CI), 1.4 to 16.7) and 3.4 (95% CI 1.04 to 10.9), respectively. Conclusions: The level of perceived importance of being thin among young female adolescents predicts future smoking initiation. Smoking prevention programmes designed for female adolescents may therefore benefit from the inclusion of content related to importance of being thin.


Daylight, or sky light, is sunlight Rayleigh scattered by the atmosphere onto the ground. This random scattering propagation through clear air is well described by "radiative transfer." Beyond the single scattering approximation, algorithms that are rather involved and ultimately numerical have been required to solve the equations. However, avoiding the use of "Stokes parameters," which are not helpful, there is no real difficulty in writing down directly the exact Rayleigh scattering series in integrals: the initial 3n-dimensional one for an n-fold scattering reducing to an n-dimensional one. The derivation of the series here, by iteration, considerably simplifies my recent probabilistic one. The next order beyond single scattering supplies a formula for the brightness and partial polarization of daylight across the sky, which captures the essential topology of the polarization direction pattern.


SUMMARY
Evidence for the role of chitinases, proteases and beta-1,3- and beta-1,6-glucanases in mycoparasitism by Trichoderma species has been well documented. Moreover, constitutive over-expression of genes encoding individual cell-wall-degrading enzymes (CWDEs) has been shown to improve the potential of biological agents. In this study, we generated transformants of T. virens in which beta-1,3- and beta-1,6-glucanase genes, TvBgn2 and TvBgn3, respectively, were constitutively coexpressed in the same genetic T. virens Gv29.8 wild-type background. The double over-expression transformants (dOEs) grow and sporulate slower than the wild-type (WT). However, the reduction in growth did not seem to affect their mycoparasitic and biocontrol capabilities, as dOEs displayed much higher levels of total beta-1,3- and beta-1,6-glucanase activity than the WT. This higher enzymatic activity of dOEs positively correlated with observed in vitro inhibition of Pythium ultimum and Rhizoctonia solani mycelia, and with enhanced bioprotection of cotton seedlings against P. ultimum, R. solani and Rhizopus oryzae. Besides effective biocontrol of all pathogens at an original inoculum level, the performance of dOEs was highly enhanced (up to 312% of WT performance) when pathogen pressure was greater (i.e. concentration of inoculum was higher or pathogens applied in combination). These results demonstrate that the strategy of introducing multiple lytic enzyme-encoding genes through transformation of a given biocontrol strain can be successfully used to achieve better biocontrol.


Abstraction is one of the methods for learning knowledge with using mental processes that cannot be obtained through experiment and observation. RBC model that is based on abstraction in the process of creating knowledge is directly related to mental processes. In this study, the RBC model is used for the high school students' processes of constructing momentum concept that were examined in an appropriate learning environment. Application was carried out with two volunteer tenth grade high school students. Two problems enabling the students to use their experiences and prior knowledge were designed and respectively used in the instruction. Observation, document review, and interviews were used as qualitative data collection methods. As a result, at the end of the implementation problems, it was observed that the students benefited from their prior knowledge in constructing new knowledge and they could construct momentum concept.


Excessive ingestion of alcohol is one of the major causes of chronic liver disease worldwide. Alcoholic liver disease (ALD) encompasses a broad spectrum of diseases ranging from steatosis (fatty liver), steatohepatitis, fibrosis, cirrhosis to hepatocarcinoma. Almost all heavy drinkers develop fatty liver; however, only up to 30% of heavy drinkers may develop more several forms of chronic liver injury such as alcoholic hepatitis, fibrosis, cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma (O'Shea et al., 2010). Despite extensive research, cellular and molecular mechanisms contributing to the pathogenesis of ALD remain to be fully elucidated. Classically, direct hepatotoxicity and production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) induced by alcohol and its metabolites (e.g. acetaldehyde, acetate) are considered the major causative factors. Nevertheless, growing evidence suggests innate immunity also plays an important role in the pathogenesis of ALD (Byun & Jeong, 2010; Gao et al., 2011; Miller et al., 2011).


The research evidence strongly suggests that the most effective form of treatment for panic disorder is cognitive therapy. It is more practical, however, to initiate treatment with alprazolam or with imipramine. Either drug will suppress symptoms and even a half of the patients will stay well.


A magnetic tunnel junction-based register with separate read and write paths is proposed in this paper. Analysis of the operation of the circuit is performed, and methods for determining the key parameters of the device are presented. The simulation of the circuit is performed in Verilog-A, and the simulation results demonstrate the operational characteristics of the circuit. This new spin-based flip flop offers a 23% reduction in the number of devices and a 23.6% reduction in its dissipated power when compared with a pure CMOS implementation with the added benefit of nonvolatility. A 4-b shifter based on the proposed spin register is presented, too.


Impact wear behaviors of Hadfield manganese steel at different impact angles were investigated. The results of impact wear tests show that there exists a critical impact load for Hadfield steel. The wear rate suddenly turns down after some impact cycles when the impact load is greater than the critical load. The critical impact load is smaller than 8.2 J in this research because the nano-sized austenitic grains embedded in amorphous delay the crack propagation in subsurface. From high resolution transmission electron microscope (HRTEM) examination of subsurface microstructure, it is found that a large amount of nano-sized grains embedded in bulk amorphous matrix are fully developed and no martensitic transformation occurs during the impact wear process. The analytical results of worn surface morphology and debris indicate that the initiation of crack, propagation and spalling are restricted in the amorphous phase, resulting in the size distribution of debris in nano-sizes, which is the reason why the wear rate of Hadfield steel is greatly decreased at high impact load.


Virtual reality and augmented reality (XR) bring increasing demand for 3D content generation. However, creating high-quality 3D content requires tedious work from a human expert. In this work, we study the challenging task of lifting a single image to a 3D object and, for the first time, demonstrate the ability to generate a plausible 3D object with 360° views that corresponds well with the given reference image. By conditioning on the reference image, our model can fulfill the everlasting curiosity for synthesizing novel views of objects from images. Our technique sheds light on a promising direction of easing the workflows for 3D artists and XR designers. We propose a novel framework, dubbed NeuralLift-360, that utilizes a depth-aware neural radiance representation (NeRF) and learns to craft the scene guided by denoising diffusion models. By introducing a ranking loss, our NeuralLift-360 can be guided with rough depth estimation in the wild. We also adopt a CLIP-guided sampling strategy for the diffusion prior to provide coherent guidance. Extensive experiments demonstrate that our NeuralLift-360 significantly outperforms existing state-of-the-art baselines. Project page: https://vita-group.github.io/NeuralLift-360/


This paper proposes a design method for a robust fractional-order PID (FOPID) controller for time-delay systems. A new Bode's ideal transfer function is introduced to tolerance the time-delay in loop. Robust stability is analyzed for the Bode's model in terms of gain and phase margins to help the parameter tuning. To simplify FOPID design from solving nonlinear equations, five unknown parameters are reduced to one in the Bode shaping by data fitting between a parametric model and the real plant. Then, the problem is simply solved by one-dimensional searching. Furthermore, the proposed FOPID controller design is extended to multi-input and multi-output (MIMO) systems by using disturbance observer (DOB). Finally, simulation results are presented to show the effectiveness of the proposed method.


We examine empirically the generalizability of internally valid micro-estimates of causal effects in a fixed population over time when that population is subject to aggregate shocks. Using panel data, we show that the returns to investments in agriculture in India and Ghana, small and medium non-farm enterprises in Sri Lanka, and schooling in Indonesia fluctuate significantly across time periods. We show how the returns to these investments interact with specific, measurable, and economically relevant aggregate shocks, focusing on rainfall and price fluctuations. We also obtain lower-bound estimates of confidence intervals of the returns based on estimates of the parameters of the distributions of rainfall shocks in our two agricultural samples. We find that even these lower-bound confidence intervals are substantially wider than those based solely on sampling error that are commonly provided in studies, most of which are based on single-year samples. We also find that cross-sectional variation in rainfall cannot be confidently used to replicate within-population rainfall variability. Based on our findings, we discuss methods for incorporating information on external shocks into evaluations of the returns to policy.


This article describes a traditional game in Zimbabwe, with special reference to nyunga, a clay figurine throwing game that is indigenous to the Kalanga speaking people of Masendu, Zimbabwe. The Kalanga are a part of an ethnic group, which has its origin closely linked to the Shona ethnic group and constitute the people and language, which is spoken in South western parts of Zimbabwe in Bulilima and Mangwe Districts. Linguistically and culturally, they belong to the main Karanga tribe of Zimbabwe. Today they are linked to the Ndebele; an ethnic group, which took over their land in the mid-nineteenth century. Data for this study were collected from a sample of the Kalanga people in the district of Bulilima, a dichotomy of two districts, Bulilima and Mangwe in the west of Zimbabwe. The information on nyunga were sought through focus group discussions and individual interviews. The interviews were then followed by demonstrations of the game by villagers who were mostly the surrogates of Kalanga culture. Observations, visual recordings and audio recordings assisted in capturing the skills, techniques and game patterns. The analysis of the game showed that nyunga is mostly a boys' game, played in summer in rivers, at pools and ponds. Players used conically / cylindrically shaped clay figurines. The aim of the game is to cause the clay figurine make a smooth trajectory until it hits the water surface with the tapered end thus creating small splashes and ripples. The game has resemblances with ndale / changamala played by the Chewa / Ngoni of Malawi. Competence is premised on power, skill and technique, from which, nyunga / ndale can be classified as a game of physical skill. Quantitative and qualitative research methods were triangulated to verify and authenticate the information. It was concluded that the game has a lot of merit and can be easily introduced as recreational and leisure resorts with little costs.


ABSTRACK figure is the first factor in winning the general election. These factors capable of delivering from PKB party seat legislative council in the district of Tuban. This study aims determine as far as of influence the PKB candidate figure legislative to give winning in district of Palang while 1999-2014. This study uses qualitative research method by study elected legislative candidate. Sources data in this study uses primary sources and secondary sources. Technical gathering data can do by serious interview with informants has determined and gathering documents are related to study material. The findings in this study that, the PKB party victory in the District Cross Rofi'udin pioneered by figures who have achievements and the idea of renewal in the art of Islam. Among them is the art of propaganda tongklek and social activities undertaken by the students MA Al-Mustofawiyah. Tongklek art is a means to draw attention to more mature voters, whereas in social service conducted targeted at first-time voters. Conclusion from this study is influence the figure Rofi'uddin selected because of there are image has given from society by means of achievement, contribution to NU along with entrusted missionary endeavor from Kiai. Meanwhile, in sphere NU still trust with the mean sendikoh dawoh marang Kiai (all of command from Kiai is doing by Santri and society). Keyword: figure, NU, legislative general election in district of Tuban 2014.


We observe incomplete synchronization of coupled chaotic oscillators over a wide range of coupling strengths and coupling schemes for which high-quality synchronization is expected. Long intervals of high-quality synchronization are interrupted at irregular times by large, brief desynchronization events that can be attributed to "attractor bubbling," clearly demonstrating that the standard synchronization criterion is not always useful in experiments. We suggest a simple method for rapidly selecting the coupling schemes that are most likely to produce high-quality synchronization. [S0031-9007(96)01028-9]


Summary: Facultatively chemolithotrophic thiobacilli. Thiobacillus perometabolis
thi 022, Thiobacillus sp. A2, Thiobacillus novellus, Thiobacillus organoparus and Thiobacillus acidophilus, had ubiquinones with 10 isoprene units (Q-10) (group I). These species also had [octadecenoic acid (18:1) + cyclopropane acid of C19 (19cyc)] as major non-hydroxylated fatty acids. The organisms, except T. novellus, contained 3-hydroxydecanoic acid (3-OH 10:0) or 3-hydroxytetradecanoic acid (3-OH 14:0) as hydroxy fatty acids. DNA base compositions of these species were 63 to 68 mol% G + C. Other facultatively chemolithotrophic thiobacilli, including T. perometabolis
thi 023, Thiobacillus delicatus and Thiobacillus intermedius contained Q-8 (group II). They had hexadecanoic acid (16:0), [hexadecenoic acid (16:1) + cyclopropane acid of C17 (17cyc)] and [18:1 + 19cyc] as major non-hydroxylated fatty acids. The species of group II had 3-OH 10:0 and some possessed 3-hydroxydodecanoic acid (3-OH 12:0). The DNA base composition of these strains was about 65 mol% G + C. Obligate chemolithotrophic thiobacilli contained Q-8 (group III). They had 16:0, [16:1 + 17cyc] with or without [18:1 + 19cyc] as major non-hydroxylated fatty acids. The species of group III contained 3-OH 12:0 and some had 3-OH 10:0 when grown at neutral pH and 3-OH 14:0 in acidophilic conditions. DNA base compositions of these organisms ranged from 51 to 64 mol% G + C. Chemotaxonomic characteristics would seem to be useful for the identification and the classification of thiobacilli.


A knowledge graph (KG) represents real-world entities and their relationships. The represented knowledge is often context-dependent, leading to the construction of contextualized KGs. The multidimensional and hierarchical nature of context invites comparison with the OLAP cube model from multidimensional data analysis. Traditional systems for online analytical processing (OLAP) employ multidimensional models to represent numeric values for further analysis using dedicated query operations. In this paper, along with an adaptation of the OLAP cube model for KGs, we introduce an adaptation of the traditional OLAP query operations for the purposes of performing analysis over KGs. In particular, we decompose the roll-up operation from traditional OLAP into a merge and an abstraction operation. The merge operation corresponds to the selection of knowledge from different contexts whereas abstraction replaces entities with more general entities. The result of such a query is a more abstract, high-level view – a management summary – of the knowledge.


The one-dimensional fluid code SOLF1D has been used for modelling of plasma transport in the scrape-off layer (SOL) along magnetic field lines, both in steady state and under transient conditions that arise due to plasma turbulence. The presented work summarizes results of SOLF1D with attention given to transient parallel transport which reveals two distinct time scales due to the transport mechanisms of convection and diffusion. Time-dependent modelling combined with the effect of ballooning shows propagation of particles along the magnetic field line with Mach number up to M ≈ 1 and supersonic transport when plasma–neutral interactions are not present. Asymmetric heat and particle fluxes are analysed for a case with poloidally asymmetric radial outflow (ballooning) and for a radial outflow with parallel momentum (rotation). In addition, parallel damping of the density and electron temperature calculated in SOLF1D is compared with the approximative model used in the turbulence code ESEL both for steady-state and turbulent SOL. Dynamics of the parallel transport are investigated for a simple transient event simulating the propagation of particles and energy to the targets from a blob passing across the flux tube at the outboard midplane and for more complex time-dependent data provided by ESEL.


Almorexant (ACT-078573) is an orally active dual orexin receptor antagonist that is being developed by Actelion Ltd, in collaboration with GlaxoSmithKline plc, for the treatment of primary insomnia. Almorexant is a first-in-class compound that targets the orexin system, which plays a key role in wake promotion and stabilization, in addition to having other regulatory functions. Decreasing orexin activity was hypothesized to have a sleep-promoting effect. Preclinical studies and phase I clinical trials have demonstrated that almorexant decreases alertness and increases sleep in healthy rats, dogs and humans when administered during the active phase of the circadian cycle, at peak endogenous orexin tone. No significant toxicological or safety concerns have been identified in studies in animals and humans, including no evidence of cataplexy, a sudden postural muscle tone weakening that is triggered by emotional stimuli and is considered unique to narcolepsy. The reported efficacy and safety data for almorexant support the continued development of the compound. At the time of publication, phase III clinical trials were underway, but no results had been reported; Actelion and GlaxoSmithKline were also investigating almorexant for other orexin-related neurological disorders. The use of an orexin receptor antagonist for the treatment of sleep disorders appears to be an approach that may provide unique benefits.


The purpose of this paper is to obtain common fixed point theorems by using a new notion of absorbing maps in fuzzy metric space. In this paper we illustrate the properties of absorbing maps. Moreover we demonstrate the necessity of absorbing maps to find a common fixed point in fuzzy metric spaces and menger spaces. Our result generalizes many known results and explore the possibility of applying the notion of reciprocal continuity and absorbing maps to the problem of finding common fixed points of four mappings or sequence of mappings satisfying contractive type conditions in fuzzy metric spaces as well as probabilistics metric spaces without being continuous even at the fixed point.


This study investigated the physical properties of warm up yarns and their knitted fabrics including the dye affinity and color fastness to washing of these knitted fabrics according to the various dyeing times and temperatures on dyeing process. The results were summarized as follows. The tenacity of Nylon/PP warm-up yarn was 4g/d and breaking strain was 4.5%. The wet and dry thermal shrinkages were higher than those of PET warm-up yarn. The maximum heat flow rate(Qmax) of Nylon/PP warm-up knitted fabric was lower than that of PET warm-up knitted fabric and heat keeping rate(a) of Nylon/PP warm-up knitted fabric was higher as 47% than that of PET warm-up knitted fabric. It was shown that the shape retention and wearing comfort of Nylon/PP warm-up knitted fabric were better than those of PET warm-up knitted fabric. The dye-affinity(K/S) of Nylon/PP warm-up knitted fabric showed maximum value at the dyeing condition of 40minute or 50minute dyeing time with 80 dyeing temperature, but PET warm-up knitted fabric showed ℃ maximum value at the 30minute or 40minute with 110 dyeing temperature. Finally, the color fastness to washing of ℃ Nylon/PP warm-up knitted fabric showed good value as between 4 and 5 grade.


This paper focuses on the development of multi-agent systems based on a model driven engineering approach. Our goal is to cope with the traceability between design and implementation models and with the always changing characteristics of such systems.


Chemists regularly exploit point group symmetry in their analyses of molecular structure and properties but they rarely utilize time reversal symmetry. The time reversal operator T reverses the momenta and spins of all particles in a system and distinguishes properties which are even under T, such as the electric dipole moment, from those that are odd, such as the magnetic dipole moment. We review the role of T in quantum mechanics and discuss its application to the properties of molecules in electric and magnetic fields. Among the properties considered are natural and magnetic optical activity, magneto-chiral effects, antisymmetric Raman scattering, optical NMR and ESR, chirality, and absolute enantioselection.


Objectives: The aim of this study is to gain a deeper understanding of the experiences of visually impaired older people living independently at home. Background: As populations are aging globally, there is now an increase in the prevalence of visual impairment. That means for ongoing and future aging-in-place strategies that seek to enable older people to remain independent for longer, more attention needs to be given to the needs of those with visual impairment. As people develop visual impairment, they use adaptive strategies including modifying long-term homes or relocating to more suitable accommodation. In the United Kingdom, aging-in-place strategies include employing statutory lifetime home standards (LTHS) in the home or relocating to sheltered housing to live independently with support available if required. Methods: To get a better understanding of the needs of the visually impaired in the home, 12 interviews with six visually impaired occupants of LTHS homes and six from sheltered accommodation were analyzed separately using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Secondly, qualitative synthesis was used to further analyze themes generated from both samples before interview results were conceptualized in two superordinate concepts, namely, "negotiating priorities" and "understanding visual impairment." Results: Participants from both groups had similar needs and were willing to compromise by living with some negative features. Those who coped well with moving utilized various resources. Conclusions: These findings will shed more understanding on providing good quality housing for those with visual impairment wanting to live either independently or within healthcare home environments.


Piezoelectric materials are modelled using finite element method. Steady thermal effects are included in the model. The model is used in piezoelectric control of flexible structures. The robustness of a piezoelectric control system consisting of a master structure and a pair of piezoelectric actuators is considered by the use of Taguchi methodology. The effects of the location, thickness and width of the actuators are investigated on the control performance of the system subjected to mechanical and steady thermal disturbances. Based on the numerical results it is concluded that the width of the actuators has the most profound effect on the control performance.


Small sacs of everted jejunum of the hamster were incubated in sugar free bicarbonate-saline solution in vitro . Both fluid and sodium chloride moved across the wall of the intestine from mucosal to serosal side. This movement of isotonic saline solution across the intestine was inhibited anaerobically. A small bicarbonate secretion was noted in the direction of serosal to mucosal side.


The BERTIM Research Project is funded by the European Commission in order to develop a system for an efficient building envelope upgrading. The main goal of this envelope upgrading consists on adding a new 2D or 3D module onto the building external layer. The modules are made out of timber, thermal insulation and waterproof layers. These modules can also host some functionalities. In a previous phase, a method for implementing an efficient, integrated, modular and customized manufacturing and installation process of the BERTIM modules has been conceived. This method was achieved based on Axiomatic Design. The goal of this method was to generate and to coordinate three main sub-systems: the parametric design and configuration of the 2D and the 3D modules (1), the automated manufacturing process (2) and the rapid robotic installation process (3). The Axiomatic Design was mainly used in order to detect the possible interferences of the disaggregated Functional Requirements regarding the Independence and Information Axiom and the main risks of a Coupled Design. The first demonstration of the manufacturing and installation process has taken part at the KUBIK experimental building. According to the Axiomatic Design Functional Requirements and the main Design Parameters defined in the previous phase, the demonstrator puts in evidence that the solutions taken don't fulfil the Independence and Information Axioms. The current system can be considered as a Coupled Design. In order to uncouple the system, the TRIZ inventive method has been used, focused on improving loss of time in all sub-systems. The solutions defined with TRIZ methods will be implemented in this three case studies carried out by three different industrial partners. The robotic and automated degree of each case will be adapted to the specifications of each demonstrator.


whichever came first. Patients were excluded if they had type-1 diabetes or were prescribed rosiglitazone or troglitazone during the study period, or had stroke, MI, or brain injury prior to index date. Cox proportional hazards model was used to estimate risk for stroke or MI controlling for demographics, baseline comorbidities, medication use and resource utilization. RESULTS: A total of 85,253 patients with T2DM were included; total of 9053 (10.62%) patients were on PIO and 76,200 on Non-TZD cohort; a total of 178 (1.97%) patients who initiated PIO were hospitalized for stroke or MI compared to 1838 (2.41%) patients in the Non-TZD cohort (P 0.001) during the follow-up period. The unadjusted incidence ratio for stroke or MI hospitalization associated with PIO relative to Non-TZD was 0.789 (95% CI: 0.677–0.921). After adjusting for baseline covariates in the multivariate analysis PIO patients were less likely to have stroke or MI hospitalization than Non-TZD patients, adjusted hazard ratio was 0.854 (95% CI: 0.732–0.997). CONCLUSIONS: T2DM patients initiated on pioglitazone were at reduced risk of having stroke or MI hospitalization than Non-TZD patients during the follow-up period. The result is consistent with clinical trial metaanalyses demonstrating lower risk of stroke or MI with pioglitazone compared to other oral antidiabetic agents.


The performance potential of a power MOSFET in cryogenic power electronic systems is discussed. Based on a simple analysis and the measured performance of scaled silicided 30-V power MOSFETs, it is shown that an order of magnitude improvement in on-state resistance can be achieved by cooling to liquid-nitrogen temperature. This performance improvement results in an order of magnitude improvement in optimum power conversion frequency for a given die size, a factor of 2 reduction in die size at a given conversion frequency, and a factor of 3 reduction in total power loss for switched-mode power converters operated at 77 K. >


Security is a critical element to the existing Internet of Things (IoT) deployment, where any user may actively or passively attack the content sharing of others reusing the same channel. As most smart devices are carried by human, we may leverage their owners' social trust to avoid being intercepted by untrusted users, which conforms to the Social Internet of Things (SIoT) paradigm. In this paper, we propose a secure content sharing (SCS) scheme to strike the trade-off between security and quality of experience (QoE) by exploring the social trust. Firstly, to dynamically extract the social trust, the random walk strategy is employed for prediction based on the proposed "User-Content-Social Group" graph which models users' preference over time. Given the social trust value, we propose a hierarchical game model to decouple the optimization problem into two sub-problems: user pairing and channel selection. More specifically, the user pairing sub-problem is formulated as a matching sub-game with peer effect, and the embedded rotation-swap matching algorithm can accommodate the dynamics caused by mutual interference. The second sub-problem can be formulated as a secure channel selection sub-game with the directed hypergraph being game space, which is proved to be an exact potential game. Then, we design an uncoupled-user concurrent learning algorithm (UUCL) to search for the optimal pure Nash equilibrium, and thereby the global optimum of this sub-game is achieved. Finally, simulation results generated on realistic social dataset verify that our proposed scheme can notably enhance the security without sacrificing users' QoE.


Waning of hyperglycemia has been shown to be closely associated with the deterioration of mechanisms supporting homeostasis during hemorrhagic shock. However, the mechanisms which link plasma glucose levels to maintenance of homeostasis during hemorrhagic shock are not clear. The goal of the present study was to evaluate the importance of glucose to maintenance of compensatory mechanisms. This was undertaken by maintaining plasma glucose levels through infusion of hypertonic glucose (2-3 M) starting at the onset of decompensation during persisting hypovolemia. Administration of glucose at a rate of between 60 and 80 mumoles/min X kg arrested the fall in glucose concentration and significantly slowed or arrested the decompensatory phase. All of the saline infused control animals (n = 6) died within 3 hours after reaching their maximum shed blood volume, averaging 145 +/- 25 minutes, while two of the eight animals in the glucose infusion group died less than 4 hours after reaching the maximum shed blood volume. The remaining six animals were sacrificed between 270 and 397 minutes (average, 340 +/- 22 minutes) after reaching the maximum shed blood volume since decompensation was arrested. Compared to the saline-infused control group, animals receiving glucose infusion exhibited a more moderate acidosis, and the hemoconcentration which normally accompanies decompensation was also prevented. Since the increase in plasma osmolality and the fraction of the total osmolality change accounted for by glucose was less in the glucose-infused animals, these results suggest that the effect is not mediated through a glucose-related maintenance of a transcapillary osmotic gradient.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


We describe the LIU systems for German-English and English-German translation submitted to the Shared Task of the Third Workshop of Statistical Machine Translation. The main features of the systems, as compared with the baseline, is the use of morphological pre- and post-processing, and a sequence model for German using morphologically rich parts-of-speech. It is shown that these additions lead to improved translations.


This guide supports research and study of film music, including courses Music 7, Music History 7 and Music History 177.


Currently there is a lot of information about power system voltage stability, most of which deal with the methodologies for the detection of the operating conditions that could lead to problems of instability and collapse. However, a
subject of great interest for power system planners and operators is the countermeasures
that can be applied to mitigate these problems. Thus, this paper presents an inventory of these counter-measures, their description, taxonomy
and current research and development areas


Current artificial bones made of metals and ceramics may be replaced around a decade after implantation due to its low durability, which is brought on by a large difference from the host bone in mechanical properties, i.e., low mechano-compatibility. On the other hand, tissue engineering could be a solution with regeneration of bone tissues from stem cells in vitro. However, there are still some problems to realize exactly the same mechanical properties as those of real bone. This paper introduces the technical background of bone tissue engineering and discusses possible methods for installation of mechano-compatibility into a regenerative bone. At the end, future directions toward the realization of ideal mechano-compatible regenerative bone are proposed.


Sarcocystis sporocysts from the intestines of 2 opossums (Didelphis albiventris) from Argentina were fed to gamma-interferon knockout (KO) and nude mice. Protozoal schizonts were seen in brain, liver, spleen, and adrenal glands of mice examined 33–64 days after feeding sporocysts. Sarcocysts were seen in skeletal muscles of KO mice 34–71 days after feeding sporocysts. Schizonts and sarcocysts were structurally similar to Sarcocystis speeri Dubey and Lindsay, 1999 seen in mice fed sporocysts from the North American opossum Didelphis virginiana from the United States.


Bangladesh produces only 5% of the cotton she needs to sustain her readymade garments industries. The country has very limited agricultural land and cotton competes with other crops for this scarce land resource. On top of that, Bangladesh is regarded as a country where agriculture is highly vulnerable to the variabilities of weather patterns that result from climate change. Against this backdrop, to better understand the potential for the sustainable expansion of cotton production in Bangladesh, we examine cotton's agricultural value chain and projected climate risks associated with different phases of the chain. We identified associated stakeholders at different phases of cotton production, engaged with them to understand climatic and non-climatic threats and developed an integrated set of recommendations for climate-risk management through improving the connection of producers to markets, increasing economic returns to small farmers, and improving efficiency along the value chain. We discussed our estimated climate projections with stakeholders to understand the challenges at different stages of production and marketing, and together explored and identified probable solutions. This research offers a new and evolving approach to assess climate change impact on agriculture utilizing a holistic approach, which could be adopted for other crops.


[1] Using global positioning system (GPS) data taken from the International GNSS Service (IGS), we investigated total electron content (TEC) perturbations associated with medium-scale traveling ionospheric disturbances (MSTIDs). We analyzed TEC data taken from four or five GPS receivers in each of six regions (Japan, Europe, eastern United States, western United States, Australia, and South America) in 3 years (1998, 2000, and 2001). To derive perturbation components of TEC (I′), we subtracted the 1-hour running average form the time sequence of TEC for each satellite–receiver pair. Standard deviation of I′ within 1 hour, δI, was calculated every hour, and MSTIDs activity were defined as δI/, where is the 1-hour average of absolute vertical TEC. We found that MSTIDs activity during daytime is different from that during nighttime with respect to seasonal, solar activity, longitudinal, and latitudinal dependences. Daytime MSTIDs activity are high in winter in all six regions. On the other hand, seasonal variation of nighttime MSTIDs activity is coupled with its longitudinal variation. In the Japanese and Australian longitudinal sector, nighttime MSTIDs are most active near the June solstice, whereas it is most active near the December solstice in the European longitudinal sector. Nighttime MSTIDs activity at the Japanese and Australian longitudinal sector shows negative correlation with solar activity, whereas solar activity dependence is not seen in daytime MSTIDs activity. These results suggest that mechanisms causing MSTIDs could be different between daytime and nighttime.


The level of concern and health complaints related to low frequency noise (LFN) seems to be increasing, not only in the Netherlands, but also at international level. There is evidence suggesting an association between LFN and symptomatic effects such as annoyance and sleep disturbances. A systematic evaluation of the literature which we recently performed, focusing on epidemiological studies on residential sources of LFN in relation to various symptoms and well-being indicators confirms these findings. However, it is still hard to make a valid estimate of the burden of disease due to LFN. Therefore, based on several Dutch datasets we estimated the prevalence of health complaints due to low frequency noise or attributed to it. The available data only concerned perceived exposure rather than actual measurements of LFN, preventing to link the exposures to these effects.
It was concluded that the number of complaints and the percentage highly annoyed has increased. Large differences were found between cities, regions and in particular neighbourhoods. This paper explored the relation between contextual, situational and personal features with the level of annoyance due to low frequency sounds, based on secondary analysis of existing data. (aut. ref.)


Human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) suppress T-cell and dendritic-cell function and represent a promising strategy for cell therapy of autoimmune diseases. Nevertheless, no information is currently available on the effects of hMSCs on B cells, which may have a large impact on the clinical use of these cells. hMSCs isolated from the bone marrow and B cells purified from the peripheral blood of healthy donors were cocultured with different B-cell tropic stimuli. B-cell proliferation was inhibited by hMSCs through an arrest in the G0/G1 phase of the cell cycle and not through the induction of apoptosis. A major mechanism of B-cell suppression was hMSC production of soluble factors, as indicated by transwell experiments. hMSCs inhibited B-cell differentiation because IgM, IgG, and IgA production was significantly impaired. CXCR4, CXCR5, and CCR7 B-cell expression, as well as chemotaxis to CXCL12, the CXCR4 ligand, and CXCL13, the CXCR5 ligand, were significantly down-regulated by hMSCs, suggesting that these cells affect chemotactic properties of B cells. B-cell costimulatory molecule expression and cytokine production were unaffected by hMSCs. These results further support the potential therapeutic use of hMSCs in immune-mediated disorders, including those in which B cells play a major role.


Shipyards and classification societies must modify the traditional design documentation and review process and enable a direct 3D digital classification process to improve the exchange of information between the different stakeholders and ultimately accelerate the classification process. The Open Class 3D Exchange (OCX) standard represents a step-change in this context. The OCX is a vessel-specific standard addressing the information needs of the classification society and is a key enabler to replace traditional 2D class drawings with a 3D model. The successful and seamless exchange of the design models exported from 4 independent 3D CAD systems to the classification society's rule calculation tool has been demonstrated. The application of the OCX models for the prescriptive rule calculations demonstrates that the OCX model can carry all the information required by the classification society's Rules for this purpose. The possibility to also display the detailed features of the design model in a neutral web-based viewer provides the necessary capability for full visual verification of the design models.


This paper presents a novel model for the Load Forecast under uncertainty specially designed for markets under permanent evolution. The proposed approach does not rely on statistic models designed to reproduce the past. Instead, we make extensive use of intelligent models able to explain consumers' behavior and its specific characteristics. This model has gained importance in the present days, where the risks associated to the economic crisis lye underneath any decision and require a reliable and complete to support every decision. A comprehensive case study with the Southeastern Brazilian market is presented and discussed, enlightening the dependencies between load consumption and international economic indices.


Adiabatic circuits and standard CMOS logic are widely employed in Low power VLSI chips to achieve high system performance. The power saving of adiabatic circuit can reach more than 90% compared to conventional static CMOS logic. The clocking schemes and signal waveforms of adiabatic are different from those of standard CMOS circuits. This paper investigates the design approaches of low power interface circuits in terms of energy dissipation. Several low power interface circuits that convert signals between adiabatic logic and standard CMOS circuits are presented. With BSIM3v3 90nm CMOS technology, the energy consumption of proposed interface circuits has relatively large power saving over the wide range of frequencies. This paper also investigates the different power delay product over the wide range of supply voltages. Power dissipation has been calculated for different values of temperature. The proposed circuits are showing the best results on various ranges of temperature. Simulation has been done on tanner EDA tool at BSIM3v3 90nm technology.


Thick description, thin description. Cultural way of understanding disability The aim of this article is to present disability from the cultural point of view. Special attention will be paid to Clifford Geertz and his thick description. The phrase thick description is borrowed from Gilbert Ryle. In the classic example one boy's eye involuntairly twitches while at the same time another boy winks. The physical phenomena are the same but the meaning is different. In understanding disability we have to take into consideration not only the medical, social or biopsychosocial model but cultural context as well.