Nanocrystalline materials have experienced a great deal of attention in recent years, largely due to their impressive array of physical properties. In particular, nanocrystalline mechanical behavior has been of interest, as incredible strengths are predicted when grain size is reduced to the nanometer range. The vast majority of research to this point has focused on quantifying and understanding the grain size-dependence of strength, leading to the discovery of novel, grain boundary-dominated physics that begin to control deformation at extremely fine grain sizes. With the emergence of this detailed understanding of nanocrystalline deformation mechanisms, the opportunity now exists for studies that explore how other structural features affect mechanical properties in order to identify alternative strengthening mechanisms. In this thesis, we seek to extend our current knowledge of nanocrystalline structure-property relationships beyond just grain size, using combinations of structural characterization, mechanical testing, and atomistic simulations. Controlled experiments on Ni-W are first used to show that solid solution addition and the relaxation of nonequilibrium grain boundary state can dramatically affect the strength of nanocrystalline metals. Next, the sliding wear response of nanocrystalline Ni-W is investigated, to show how alloying and grain boundary structural state affect a more complex mechanical property. This type of mechanical loading also provides a strong driving force for structural evolution, which, in this case, is found to be beneficial. Mechanically-driven grain growth and grain boundary relaxation occur near the surface of the Ni-W samples during sliding, leading to a hardening effect that improves wear resistance and results in a deviation from Archard scaling. Finally, molecular dynamics simulations are performed to confirm that mechanical cycling alone can indeed relax grain boundary structure and strengthen nanocrystalline materials. In all of the cases discuss above, our observations can be directly connected to the unique deformation physics of nanocrystalline materials. Thesis Supervisor: Christopher A. Schuh Title: Danae and Vasilios Salapatas Professor of Metallurgy


The article substantiates the effectiveness of the systems approach in solving tasks of rational nature management in the integrated development of peat resources. The effectiveness of applying the end-to-end energy-ecological analysis of peat production modes is theoretically substantiated and experimentally confirmed, taking into account energy costs and environmental impact by minimizing technological fuel and technological environmental numbers as comprehensive process indicators. A three-level topological model of the peat products production and consumption system is proposed, which includes the following subsets: "Raw resources", "Raw materials extraction and processing" and "Graded peat fuel consumption". Technological fuel numbers (TCH) and technological environmental numbers (TEC) are calculated at each level within the framework of an end-to-end energy-ecological analysis. This calculation allows for a comprehensive analysis, assessment of the enterprise efficiency in terms of environmental pollution damage. The algorithm for selection of technology and composition of peat products is considered in the article. This algorithm utilizes the calculated technological fuel-ecological number (TTEC) for the purpose of the integrated assessment of energy-ecological costs for production in kg of fuel equivalent/t of products. Knowledge of TTEC helps make a choice in favor of certain formulations of the technological mixture, production technologies and properties of the finished product. Based on the systems approach, it is possible to interlink the solution of various tasks – technical, engineering, ecological, economic, information, and organizational ones. The proposed model of the peat products production and consumption system is of practical importance and serves as one of the prerequisites for increasing output and expanding the range of peat composite products due to the selection of optimal technology and composition.


The concept of sustainability was re-examined from the perspectives of intra and inter-generational fairness. Case studies revealed that the apparent sustainable development of a city may turn out be the cause of un-sustainability of other cities or regions. Moreover, the notion that each generation should be entitled to environmental quality comparable to that enjoyed by previous generations was challenged with historical facts. Finally, a refined definition of sustainability was proposed.


INTRODUCTION To reach the goal of eliminating tuberculosis as a public health problem in Cuba, the epidemiological evolution of the disease and of strategies designed to prevent and manage it to date must be well understood. In this context, in 1970, changes were introduced in Cuba's National Tuberculosis Control Program. OBJECTIVE Review background and evolution of Cuba's strategy for tuberculosis control, the changes implemented in the 1970 revision of the Program, and their impact on the subsequent evolution of the disease in Cuba. METHODS Published articles on the history of tuberculosis control in Cuba were reviewed, along with archival documents and medical records. Documents concerning the situation of pulmonary tuberculosis in Cuba, including measures adopted to address the disease and its extent, were selected for study, with an emphasis on the period of the Program. Interviews with key informants were conducted. RESULTS Cuba's fight against tuberculosis began in Santiago de Cuba, with the creation of a local Anti-Tuberculosis League in 1890. Strategic changes introduced by Cuba's public health sector, stressing health promotion and disease prevention, led to the 1959 creation of the Tuberculosis Department, which implemented Cuba's first National Tuberculosis Control Program in 1963. This Program was completely reorganized in 1970. The National Tuberculosis Control Program (1963) covered a network of 27 tuberculosis dispensaries, 8 sanatoriums and 24 bacteriology laboratories. Diagnosis was based on radiographic imaging criteria. Incidence was 52.6/100,000 in 1964 and reached 31.2 in 1970. The Program was updated in 1970 to include two major changes: the requirement for bacteriological confirmation of diagnosis and directly-observed outpatient treatment fully integrated into health services. By 1971, incidence was down to 17.8/100,000, and further reduced to 11.6 in 1979. The decrease is interpreted as the result of the greater specificity of microbiologic diagnosis. Tuberculosis control continued to make progress, reaching an incidence rate of 6.1/100,000 in 2012 and mortality rate of 0.3/100,000 in 2013. CONCLUSIONS Changes introduced in the National Tuberculosis Control Program in 1970 led to the successful results achieved in later decades, reducing tuberculosis incidence and mortality. These results also allowed health authorities to propose elimination of the disease in Cuba as a current objective. KEYWORDS History of medicine, tuberculosis, epidemiology, communicable disease control, public health, Cuba.


Increasing advances in information technology has led to significant growth in sciences. One of the fields in which significant changes has occurred is the medical field. Using data- mining techniques in this branch of science has helped physicians in all subjects, in particular diagnosis of sicknesses. Hepatitis diagnosis is highly difficult due to limited clinical diagnosis of the disease in its early stages. To this end, this paper tries to introduce and recommend the best way to diagnose hepatitis as well as to compare common clustering methods such as decision trees, neural networks, and SVM. Evaluation criteria of classification methods are the accuracy of each of methods and Clementine software along with data base in the University of California has been used to test each method. Obtained results show that neural network algorithm enjoys higher accuracy in comparison with other algorithms. Using neural network algorithm can accurately predict 89.74% hepatitis.


Aqueous extract of Diospyros mespiliformis leaves and stem bark in Nangere Local Government area of Yobe State were analyzed for its elemental and photochemical constituents. The Elemental analysis which was carried out with Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer (AAS) showed that the plant contains calcium [Ca], manganese [Mn], magnesium [Mg], lead [Pb], copper [Cu] and Zinc [Zn] in moderate quantity while cadmium [Cd] and cobalt [Co] were not detected. Qualitative method was used for the phytochemical analysis and the result revealed the presence of alkaloids, anthraquinones, carbohydrates, flavonoids, phlobatannins, saponins, steroids, tannins and terpenoids in both the leaves and the stem bark extracts of the plant while glycosides are present in the leave extract but absent in the stem bark extract. The phytochemical and the elemental constituents of the plant may account for its varied enthnobotanical uses in traditional medicine in Nigeria.


This paper presents the findings analysis of categories and functions on vague language used in disaster news articles on Thejakartapost.com based on the theory of Channell (1994). In the journalism context, especially in disaster news article, the information often contains vague language that has imprecise statement since it is harmful. Therefore, to avoid wrong statements, the reporters often use vague language in presenting information accurately. The study employed a qualitative descriptive method. All data were 24 news articles. There were 12 news articles of natural disasters and 12 news articles of human-caused disasters. The period was from April 2018 until March 2019. The findings of this study showed that there were three categories of vague language, namely vague additives to numbers that were realized by approximators and adjectives. The others were vagueness of choice of vague words that were realized by nouns, and vagueness by scalar implicatures that were realized by quantifiers, numbers, and exaggerations. In addition, they also have its functions of vague language. Firstly, giving the right amount of information, it is used since the reporters just shared the right number of information although the exact number was not available. Secondly, filling in lexical gaps of uncertainty, it is used since the reporters wanted to cover the imprecise information with another word, and generalized word that was difficult to identify. Last but not least, self-protection. It is used since the reporters wanted to protect and hedge their statements from imprecise information. Keywords: Vague Language, Categories, News Articles, Disasters, implicature


This study was conducted to observe intracellular antioxidant cooper,zinc-superoxide dismutase (Cu,Zn-SOD) in liver tissue of rats under hypercholesterolemic condition by using immunohistochemical technique. A total of twenty male Wistar rats were used for this study. Those rats were divided into two groups; (i) control group and (ii) hypercholesterolemic group, which were fed died containing 1% cholesterol for eight weeks. Rat livers were taken at the end of treatment, and processed by using paraffin embedding standard method. The tissues were stained immunohistochemically to Cu,Zn-SOD. Observation of Cu,Zn-SOD content in the tissue was performed qualitatively in the cytoplasm and quantitatively in the nucleus of hepatocytes based on colour intensity of enzyme reaction product. The profile of antioxidant-Cu,Zn-SOD decreased (P Key words: Superoxide dismutase (SOD), hypercholesterolemia, liver, rat


Risk-taking persists across the lifespan, but we know it is not ubiquitous across all adults. As goals and motivations vary across individuals and age groups, so too does risk behavior. Although risk is often considered in the context of maladaptive behaviors, risks can also be positive, allowing individuals to pursue meaningful goals in a socially accepted way. In this study, we were interested in examining positive and negative risk-taking in adults. The first aim of the study was to test associations among future time perspective, tolerance to ambiguity, and sensitivity to reward and punishment with positive and negative risk-taking in adults (N = 275, ages 19–71 years). The second aim of the study was to explore profiles of adult risk-takers using cluster analysis. Results indicated that greater future time perspective and reward sensitivity, but lower punishment sensitivity, were associated with greater positive risk-taking while higher reward sensitivity was associated with greater negative risk-taking. Further, cluster analysis yielded three groups of adult risk-takers: (1) oldest average age and lowest overall risk-taking, future time perspective, and reward sensitivity; (2) medium age, highest overall risk-taking, future time perspective, tolerance to ambiguity, and lowest punishment sensitivity; (3) youngest average age and average levels of all key variables. The knowledge gained from the study can lay the foundation for future work on how positive risk-taking may be cultivated across multiple domains of adults' lives.


Abstract Introduction  Considerable attention is focused on preoperative templating of radiological images in patients undergoing total knee arthroplasty to obtain optimal alignment and outcome. Several radiological measurements have been described. Purpose  In this study, we illustrate a new linear measurement: The linear coronal knee offset (LCKO) that can be used to analyze the coronal configuration on long leg alignment radiographs commonly undertaken during preoperative templating. Methods  A retrospective search was performed of our Picture Archiving and Communication System and Radiology Information System to identify 100 lower limbs anteroposterior, weight bearing, long leg alignment view radiographs of patients referred to knee clinics over 1 year with knee pain. Demographic details, clinical indication, standard radiological measurement of the anatomical tibiofemoral angle, and the LCKO were measured and data were analyzed using Student's t -test. In addition, intraclass correlation coefficient was used to analyze for intraclass reliability. Results  The average age of patients was 36.3 years (range: 12–80 years) with a male predominance. The LCKO was statistically significant between the three cohorts of patients. The mean LCKO in normal cohorts was 0.24 cm, varus was −0.6 cm, and valgus was 1.72cm. There was good inter and interobserver reliability (Kappa of 0.8 and 0.8, respectively). Conclusion  The novel LCKO measurement provides a simpler method in assessing coronal lower limb malalignment and can easily identify a normal, varus, or valgus knee deformity.


Note: This profile is a comprehensive list of pests that may be encountered by New England strawberry growers and the approved pesticides that may be used to control them. Only a few pests actually require treatment on an individual farm in a single year. For each pest all of the available effective options are listed. If treatment is needed, only one of those options would be used per application. Some pests require multiple applications for control; others only require a single application.


In Programming by Example, a system attempts to infer a program from input and output examples, generally by searching for a composition of certain base functions. Performing a naїve brute force search is infeasible for even mildly involved tasks. We note that the examples themselves often present clues as to which
functions to compose, and how to rank the resulting programs. In text processing, which is our domain of interest, clues arise from simple textual features: for example, if parts of the input and output strings are permutations of one another, this suggests that sorting may be useful. We describe a system that learns the reliability of such clues, allowing for faster search and a principled ranking over programs. Experiments on a prototype of this system show that this learning scheme facilitates efficient inference on a range of text processing tasks.


The genus Metadinophysis was proposed by Nie & Wang (1941) based on their description of the new species Metadinophysis sinensis Nie & Wang, from collections in Ching-lan Bay, Hainan Province, China. In addition to the Pacific Ocean, coastal waters of Japan, Thailand, and Vietnam, the genus was recorded for the southern coast of Myanmar (Su-Myat et al. 2012) and more recently in New Caledonia (Chomérat 2016).  The present study constitutes the first record of Metadinophysis sinensis for the tropical Atlantic Ocean, from collections made in five coastal systems located in the coast of Bahia (13°01'30" S and 038°34'40" W, 13°52'44" S and 038°57'58" W), northeastern Brazil (Fig. 1).


Detection/non-detection data are widely collected by ecologists interested in estimating species distributions, abundances, and phenology, and are often subject to imperfect detection. Recent model development has focused on accounting for both false positive and false negative errors given evidence that misclassification is common across many sampling protocols. To date, however, model-based solutions to false positive error have largely addressed occupancy estimation. We describe a generalized model structure that allows investigators to account for false positive error in detection/non-detection data across a broad range of ecological parameters and model classes, and demonstrate that previously developed model-based solutions are special cases of the generalized model. Simulation results demonstrate that estimators for abundance and migratory arrival time ignoring false positive error exhibit severe (20-70%) relative bias even when only 5-10% of detections are false positives. Bias increased when false positive detections were more likely to occur at sites or within occasions in which true positive detections were unlikely to occur. Models accounting for false positive error following the site confirmation or observation confirmation designs generally reduced bias substantially, even when few detections were confirmed as true or false positives or when the process model for false positive error was misspecified. Results from an empirical example focusing on gray fox (Urocyon cinereoargenteus) in Wisconsin, USA reinforce concerns that biases induced by false positive error can also distort spatial predictions often used to guide decision-making. Model sensitivity to false positive error extends well beyond occupancy estimation, but encouragingly, model-based solutions developed for occupancy estimators are generalizable and effective across a range of models widely used in ecological research.


Brain - computer interface (BCI) enables communication between the user and the computer directly using the electrical signals generated in the brain. It usually involves recording of the electroencephalogram (EEG) of the subject when he/she is performing a mental task assigned by the experimenter. The relevant information is then extracted from the EEG signal and the desired output is achieved.
BCI offers people suffering from serious brain diseases like amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) or paralysis a way to express themselves and communicate with the society. A P300 signal based speller allows the subject to convey a character by simply concentrating on its position on the screen.
P300 signal is a type of an event related potential (ERP) which arises as a response to a less probable event in a train of normal events. To generate a visually evoked P300 signal experimenters use special models called oddball paradigms. In this case, the subject is asked to concentrate on a character in a 6x6 grid of characters displayed on the screen. The rows and columns of the grid are then flashed randomly. The subject is instructed to count the number of times a particular character gets flashed. The EEG signal is acquired using 8 channels during the whole process. An ensemble of Support Vector Machines (ESVM) is used to correctly classify the signals and arrive at the character that the subject was concentrating on.
The accuracy of the ESVM classifier was tested on both the data acquired in the laboratory and the data set II of the third BCI Competition. The results were contrasted to determine the integrity of the acquired data.


In the 2000s, radiocarbon in dissolved inorganic carbon was measured during 7 revisit cruises along the lines of the World Ocean Circulation Experiment in the Pacific Ocean. Comparison of 14C data along these lines from the 1990s and 2000s revealed decadal changes of 14C concentration in the thermocline, most of which were due to temporal changes in the bomb-produced 14C. Vertical profiles and vertical-integrated inventories of the bomb 14C in the subarctic and equatorial regions did not change appreciably. In the southern subtropical region, 14C decreased in the upper thermocline from the surface to ~500 m depth. In contrast, 14C increased in the lower thermocline below ~500 m depth. The opposing directions in 14C change resulted in small temporal changes in the total inventory of bomb 14C. On the other hand, the water-column inventory significantly decreased in the northwestern subtropical region due to the 14C decrease in the upper thermocline. These decadal changes in bomb 14C indicate that the turnover time of thermocline circulation in the northwestern subtropical region is faster than that in the southern subtropical region, and imply an interbasin transport of bomb 14C from the North Pacific to other basins.


At the outset of the 2008 Russia-Georgia war, Western newspapers were harshly criticized for taking a pro-Georgian perspective and initially portraying the crisis as an unprovoked Russian invasion. Russians protested against the story line, reminiscent of the Cold War, that Russia was implementing a premeditated plan to exert control over Georgia, and accused Westerners of promoting anti-Russian propaganda. On the other hand, the United States and Western Europe have some of the freest and most independent media in the world, so what explains this alleged anti-Russian slant? This paper examines the experience of Western journalists from major publications, and the process by which news articles on the crisis were created, by presenting the results of over fifteen interviews with American, British, and French journalists who covered the conflict. These interviews show that Western news coverage of the war was marked more by particular structural obstacles than by the preconceived inclinations of these journalists. Structural obstacles to balanced coverage included (i) the logistical challenges that accompanied the unique timing and complexity of the war, (ii) the role of decisions made by editors and other home office reporters, and most importantly (iii) limited access to South Ossetia. This paper shows that what best explains the alleged anti-Russian coverage in the Western press is not the personal attitude of Western correspondents on the ground, but rather the lack of access to the Russian and South Ossetian perspectives, which resulted from security threats and the intransigence of the Russian army in South Ossetia.


Abstract The effect of a base-excess seasonal pricing plan on pattern of production and the role played by various factors related to management and to breeding practices on seasonality of production were investigated. A mail survey of a randomly selected group of farmers in New York State provided the data; 1061 farmers responded to the questionnaire. Seasonality coefficient (difference between spring and fall production as a proportion of fall production) was used as a measure of seasonal production pattern. Three major conclusions were: 1) the use of a base-excess plan in addition to the Louisville plan reduced seasonality when compared with the Louisville plan alone; 2) seasonality was associated with region, type of housing, and herd production; and 3) farmers' perceptions that spring milk production is more profitable than production in other seasons was an important cause of seasonality.


Vegetable and grain amaranths represent a vital source of micronutrients and protein in Asia and Africa. However, various foliar lepidopteran pests and stemmining weevils hinder amaranth production. Insect-resistant cultivars can enhance the productivity of this crop. Here, we report on the performances of amaranth varieties screened for their resistance to insect pests under the field conditions at The World Vegetable Center stations in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. We conducted two preliminary screening trials with a total of 263 entries from around the world in Taiwan and a third preliminary screening trial with 49 African-indigenous entries in Tanzania. Promising entries from these preliminary trials were collectively evaluated in an advanced screening trial in Tanzania, to identify lines resistant to foliar and stem-boring pests in East Africa. Four entries exhibited moderate resistance to foliar pests: TZ51 and TZ53 (Amaranthus cruentus), TZ34 (A. dubius) and TZ39 (Amaranthus sp.). Five entries showed moderate resistance to stem weevils: TZ06 and TZ27 (A. cruentus), TZ52 (A. graecizans), TZ59 (A. palmeri) and TZ07 (Amaranthus sp.). Lepidopteran pests affecting leaves were reared to adulthood and identified as Spoladea recurvalis (Crambidae), Spodoptera exigua (Noctuidae) and Spodoptera littoralis (Noctuidae). Stem weevil larvae were also reared and identified as: Neocleonus sannio Herbst, Gasteroclisus pr. rhomboidalis Boheman, Hypolixus pr. haerens Boheman and Baradine sp. (Curculionidae). These results highlight key amaranth pests in East Africa and identify insect-resistant entries that will be useful in breeding programmes and resistance studies.


This paper presents the results of an experiment on physical Human-Human Interaction (pHHI), where human dyads cooperate on a one dimensional comanipulative task. The results of this experiment confirm the existence of an haptic communication between humans during low-impedance tasks. Data from the pHHI experiment is used to design a virtual partner which can collaborate with humans on the same task. The virtual partner behavior is based on the observation that initiative is highly correlated to decision-making in pHHI. The virtual agent is then evaluated in a physical Human-Robot Interaction (pHRI) experiment. The results of the second experiment show that the virtual partner is able to perform the task without compromising the performances of the dyad, and that a similar role distribution is observed in human-human and human-robot dyads. Moreover, the knowledge of the partner's nature does not seem to influence the performances. The results obtained with the virtual partner are encouraging and could be used to design efficient haptic communication protocol in pHRI settings.


The authors reviewed the data acquired in ELISA technique for serological diagnosis of parasitosis. They reviewed the literature on Schistosomisis, Fasciolasis, Cestode infections (hydatidoses and cysticercoses) and nematode infections. They described their adaptation of the technique for detection of antimicrofilaria Loa loa antibodies and concluded that ELISA technique is reliable in the diagnosis of parasitic diseases even in areas where they are endemic.


Polymer exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells have multifunctional properties, and bipolar plates are one of the key components in these fuel cells. Generally, a bipolar plate has a gas flow path for hydrogen and oxygen liberated at the anode and cathode, respectively. In this study, the influence of iodine applied to a bipolar plate was investigated. Accordingly, we compared bipolar plates with and without iodine coating, and the performances of these plates were evaluated under operating conditions of 75oC and 100% relative humidity. The membrane and platinum-carbon layer were affected by the iodine-coated bipolar plate. Bipolar plates coated with iodine and a membrane-electrode assembly (MEA) were investigated by electron probe microanalyzer (EPMA) and energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDS) analysis. Polarization curves showed that the performance of a coated bipolar plate is approximately 19% higher than that of a plate without coating. Moreover, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) analysis revealed that charge transfer resistance and membrane resistance decreased with the influence of the iodine charge transfer complex for fuel cells on the performance.


With the escalation over environment concern, more hotels had started to engage with environmental practices. Various studies later paid their attention on the EMS implementation in the hotel settings. Despite huge emphasis made on literature pertaining the EMS, little has been known of its impacts from the perspectives of the end users. This study wants to fill this research gap. Therefore, this paper attempted to discover the EMS awareness of green customers and its relation towards intention to revisit. A total of 270 cases were gathered from three certified green hotels in Kuala Lumpur. Research findings reveal that customer's awareness on EMS practiced by the hotel does have an impact towards their intention to revisit with full mediation effect of green satisfaction is found. New framework is proposed aligning with study result. The implication and limitation of this study are presented and discussed.


The problem of over-dependence on the nonrenewable and fast-depleting fossil fuels is one the world of science needs not wink at any longer. In Nigeria, the level of dependence on these fossil fuels has created a great disparity in the sourcing, harnessing, exploration and exploitation of these natural endowments vis-a-vis other energy sources. Virtually all other sources of energy are neglected, untapped, unutilized and/or underutilized. This research work was necessitated by the burden to create awareness on the quantity of energy lost as occasioned by this insensitive attitude of the society to these other forms of energy and the possible implications to the environment and economy. Diversification of our energy consumption is a potent panacea to the usual power shortages and high cost of energy in Nigeria. The research findings show that about 20.52% of domestic energy requirements of South-eastern region of Nigeria could be met through proper harnessing of biomass (biodegradable materials) for the production of biogas.


Our spacetime is filled with gravitational wave backgrounds that constitute a fluctuating environment created by astrophysical and cosmological sources. Bounds on these backgrounds are obtained from cosmological and astrophysical data but also by analysis of ranging and Doppler signals from distant spacecraft. We propose here a new way to set bounds on those backgrounds by performing clock comparisons between a ground clock and a remote spacecraft equipped with an ultra-stable clock, rather than only ranging to an onboard transponder. This technique can then be optimized as a function of the signal to be measured and the dominant noise sources, leading to significant improvements on present bounds in a promising frequency range where different theoretical models are competing. We illustrate our approach using the SAGAS project which aims to fly an ultra stable optical clock in the outer solar system.


Abstract A sample of 114 subjects, 23 with predominantly left hemisphere brain damage, 25 with predominantly right hemisphere brain damage, 26 with diffuse brain damage, and 40 with adult learning disability were administered the Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery (LNNB). The clinical scale data were cluster analyzed and subjected to an ipsative analysis of the cluster profiles. A four cluster solution was utilized. It was found that while stable clusters were produced, they were relatively unrelated to actual diagnoses. The first cluster had a normal mean profile, the second reflected speciflc language impairment, the third, nonverbal skill, memory, and intellectual impairment and the fourth, generalized impairment. The results were discussed in terms of the capacity of the LNNB to generate meaningful neuropsychological profiles.


Recovery Camp is an innovative work-integrated learning (WIL) approach. Bringing together healthcare students and consumers with lived experience of mental illness, it is intentionally designed whereby each participant has a role that facilitates the educational experience. Student learning is developed through their involvement in activities, interactions with consumers and reflective practices. Consumers assume the role of educator, sharing their unique and personal experiences of mental illness with students. Recovery Camp challenges traditional healthcare WIL settings, by offering a setting that is both autonomy-supportive and provides the provision of structure. After attending Recovery Camp, students have shown themselves to be more self-determined toward working in the area of mental health, as well as displaying resilience and positive attitudes.


This paper addresses the use of the continuous wavelet transform (CWT) in the study of power system low-frequency electromechanical oscillations (LFEOs). Based on a modified complex Morlet mother-wavelet function, an approach is proposed to exploit the relationship between system low-frequency oscillation features and the Morlet CWT of a system ringdown signal for detection of modal parameter changes as well as for modal frequency and damping computation. Also, several guidelines for selecting the center frequency and bandwidth parameters, the scaling factor and the translation factor, are proposed in order to provide reliable modal identification estimates. The efficiency of the proposed approach is confirmed by applying it to synthetic, simulated and measured signals.


The issue of combining work and eldercare is currently a priority for social policy. This problem is gaining importance, mainly is due to changes in the demographic structure. The increase in the share of oldest old people causes, in one hand, increase in demand for care services, and on the other hand the need for professional activation of different groups, including women, who are natural caregivers for the elderly. In this situation it is necessary to create solutions that allow effective combining work and care responsibilities.The purpose of this article is to present the main issues related to working people caring for elderly family members, as well as actions taken to reduce these problems.


To determine whether the angiotensin II-like immunoreactivity (AII-IR) previously reported in rat gonadotrophs is generated locally, we stained for AII-IR in neonatal rat pituitary explants and dispersed adult pituitary cells maintained in serum-free medium. In both preparations, AII-IR was found in cells with the morphological characteristics of gonadotrophs. In the anterior pituitaries of adult male rats, AII-IR and LH beta immunoreactivity were found by electron microscopy to be located in the same secretory granules. Pituitary tissue was also extracted, and the AII content was measured by RIA. The gland contained 300 times more AII than could be accounted for by the extracellular fluid in the gland. On HPLC, the pituitary AII-IR comigrated with synthetic Ile5-AII. Thus, it appears that the AII-IR in rat pituitary gonadotrophs is AII and that it is likely to be produced within these cells.


This paper discusses the role of the active anti-roll bar system in order to enhance the roll stability of cars, thereby preventing rollover phenomenon in high speed emergency situations. First, an integrated full car model is proposed including the longitudinal, lateral, vertical motions and an electro-hydraulic actuator model. In this full car model, the control signal being the input current which is supplied to the actuators to create the active torques to improve the car's stability. This is the most general model in theory to study this active roll control system and is a big step forward compared to previous related studies. The optimal LQR control method has then been used to synthesize the controller based on the integrated model with 26 degrees of freedom. The criteria used to assess the vehicle roll stability are the sprung mass roll angle and the interactive force between the wheels and the road surface. The simulation results in the frequency domain and the validation in the time domain through the CarSim software's nonlinear car model clearly show the advantages of this active system with an optimal LQR controller in preventing vehicle rollover.


The age of the Springville Shale has long been in doubt, and the formation has been assigned at different times to either theValmeyer or the Kinderhook Series. This report, based on study of outcrops and conodont faunas, correlates the two lowermost units of the Springville, as it was originally defined, with the Hannibal Shale and the Chouteau Limestone, both of Kinderhook age, and restricts the name Springville to beds overlying the Chouteau. A unit of soft shale at the base of the redefined Springville is proposed as the State Pond Member, and conodont faunas establish its early Valmeyer age. Because the Springville Shale is overlain by the Burlington-Keokuk Formation, it is considered equivalent to lower Osage


Over the past decade, there has been awave of high-quality evidence supporting omission of radiation therapy (RT) for earlystage breast cancer. The arguments have centered around the absence of a survival benefit with RT over best medical therapy, which has made the argument for omitting RT persuasive, particularly for elderly patients whose expected lifespan does not typically justify the long-term benefits of RT over the shorter-term risks. The most prominent recent trials have been the Cancer and Leukemia Group B (CALGB) 9343 trial (studying women age $70 years with estrogen receptor–positive [ER1], clinical stage I breast cancer), the Postoperative Radiotherapy inMinimumRisk Elderly (PRIME) II trial (studying women age $ 65 years with ER1 tumors # 3 cm), and the Austrian Breast and Colorectal Cancer Study Group (ABCSG) Study 8A (women with tumors , 3 cm, ER or progesterone receptor positive, and negative lymph nodes were studied). These trials have built upon the foundation of older trials such as the National SurgicalAdjuvantBreast andBowelProject B-21 trial (studying women with ER1 tumors# 1 cm regardless of age) and Fyles et al. (studying woman age $ 50 with ER1 tumors up to 4 cm), which were among the first to assess the necessity for RT in early-stage breast cancer for appropriately selected patients. An unexplored aspect of these recent seminal trials is their applicability to patients regardless of race or ethnicity, particularly regarding nonwhite patient representation commensurate with their demographic distribution in the United States and the United Kingdom, respectively (Table 1). Although the typical socioeconomic profile of a patient likely to receive RT favors white patients, this should not result in the obfuscation of nonwhite patients from consideration when interpreting the relevance of these trials to these populations. Although genetic differences in tumor behavior by race have been documented, often manifesting as more aggressive tumor biology in underrepresented minorities, data demonstrating racial differences in outcomes despite similar access to optimal care are largely lacking. PRIME II and ABCSG 8A originated in the United Kingdom and Austria, respectively, where there are no federal mandates requiring representative portions of minorities to be included in high-quality clinical trials; in fact, neither study even reported the racial and ethnic demographics of their combined 2,195 patients. The same excuse cannot be made for studies originating in the United States (such as CALGB9343),where theNational Institutes of Health (NIH) Revitalization Act of 1993 has required that members of minority populations be adequately represented in


Introduction Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) represents the most malignant primary brain tumor characterized by pathological vascularization. Mutations in isocitrate dehydrogenases 1 and 2 (IDH1 and IDH2) were observed in GBM. We aimed to assess the intra-tumor hypoxia, angiogenesis and microvessel formation in GBM and to find their associations with IDH1 mutation status and patients prognosis. Methods 52 patients with a diagnosis of GBM were included into the study. IDH1 R132H mutation was assessed by RT-PCR from FFPE tumor samples obtained during surgery. The expression of markers of hypoxia (HIF2α), angiogenesis (VEGF), tumor microvascularity (CD31, CD34, vWF, CD105), and proliferation (Ki-67) were assessed immunohistochemically (IHC). IDH1 mutation and IHC markers were correlated with the patient survival. Results 20 from 52 GBM tumor samples comprised IDH1 R132H mutation (38.5%). The majority of mutated tumors were classified as secondary glioblastomas (89.9%). Patients with IDH1 mutated tumors experienced better progression-free survival (P = 0.037) as well as overall survival (P = 0.035) compared with wild type tumors. The significantly lower expression of VEGF was observed in GBM with IDH1 mutation than in wild type tumors (P = 0.01). No such association was found for microvascular markers. The increased expression of newly-formed microvessels (ratio CD105/CD31) in tumor samples was associated with worse patient's progression-free survival (P = 0.026). Summary No increase in HIF/VEGF-mediated angiogenesis was observed in IDH1-mutated GBM compared with IDH1 wild type tumors. The histological assessment of the portion of newly-formed microvessels in tumor tissue can be used for the prediction of GBM patient's prognosis.


The competitions for the Nebraska State Capitol (1920) and Kansas City Liberty Memorial (1921) are interpreted as landmark architectural debates about the viability of the traditional symbols and styles of American civic architecture. The innovative competition programs that spurred these debates are shown to be part of an effort by the American Institute of Architects to reform postwar professional practice.


Balanced graph partitioning is a well known NP-complete problem with a wide range of applications. These applications include many large-scale distributed problems including the optimal storage of large sets of graph-structured data over several hosts-a key problem in today's Cloud infrastructure. However, in very large-scale distributed scenarios, state-of-the-art algorithms are not directly applicable, because they typically involve frequent global operations over the entire graph. In this paper, we propose a fully distributed algorithm, called JA-BE-JA, that uses local search and simulated annealing techniques for graph partitioning. The algorithm is massively parallel: there is no central coordination, each node is processed independently, and only the direct neighbors of the node, and a small subset of random nodes in the graph need to be known locally. Strict synchronization is not required. These features allow JA-BE-JA to be easily adapted to any distributed graph-processing system from data centers to fully distributed networks. We perform a thorough experimental analysis, which shows that the minimal edge-cut value achieved by JA-BE-JA is comparable to state-of-the-art centralized algorithms such as METIS. In particular, on large social networks JA-BEJA outperforms METIS, which makes JA-BE-JA-a bottom-up, self-organizing algorithm-a highly competitive practical solution for graph partitioning.


User scheduling in multiuser multiple-input-multiple-output (MU-MIMO) systems is fundamentally different with single-user systems1, in the sense that without spatial multiplexing, users in single-user systems are sharing the time-frequency degree-of-freedoms (DoFs), whereas in MU-MIMO systems, due to the fact that the number of spatial DoFs scales with the number of users (assuming sufficient base station (BS) antennas), users are not sharing the DoFs, but rather creating additional DoFs for their own use. However, instead of limited by the available DoFs, the number of simultaneous users are limited by the channel state information (CSI) acquisition overhead in pilot-assisted MU-MIMO systems. In this paper, we investigate the user scheduling scheme in pilot-assisted time-division-duplex (TDD) MU-MIMO systems. Leveraging the Lyapunov optimization techniques, we derive the throughput-optimal scheduling policy which serves as a performance bound due to its non-causality and high complexity. We then propose a heuristic scheme, which is causal and substantially decreases the complexity. Moreover, it performs fairly close to the optimum.


Transformers exhibit great advantages in handling computer vision tasks. They model image classification tasks by utilizing a multi-head attention mechanism to process a series of patches consisting of split images. However, for complex tasks, Transformer in computer vision not only requires inheriting a bit of dynamic attention and global context, but also needs to introduce features concerning noise reduction, shifting, and scaling invariance of objects. Therefore, here we take a step forward to study the structural characteristics of Transformer and convolution and propose an architecture search method—Vision Transformer with Convolutions Architecture Search (VTCAS). The high-performance backbone network searched by VTCAS introduces the desirable features of convolutional neural networks into the Transformer architecture while maintaining the benefits of the multi-head attention mechanism. The searched block-based backbone network can extract feature maps at different scales. These features are compatible with a wider range of visual tasks, such as image classification (32 M parameters, 82.0% Top-1 accuracy on ImageNet-1K) and object detection (50.4% mAP on COCO2017). The proposed topology based on the multi-head attention mechanism and CNN adaptively associates relational features of pixels with multi-scale features of objects. It enhances the robustness of the neural network for object recognition, especially in the low illumination indoor scene.


In Korean language, a large proportion of word units are pronounced differently from their written forms due to an agglutinative and highly inflective nature having severe phonological phenomena and coarticulation effects. This paper reports on an ongoing study of Korean pronunciation modeling, in which the mapping between phonemic and orthographic units is modeled by a Bayesian network (BN). The advantages of this graphical model framework is that the probabilistic relationship between these symbols as well as additional knowledge sources can be learned in a general and flexible way. Thus, we can easily incorporate various additional knowledge sources from different domains. In this preliminary study, we start with a simple topology where the additional knowledge only includes the preceding and succeeding contexts of the current phonemic unit. In practise, this proposed BN pronunciation model is applied on our syllable-based Korean large-vocabulary continuous speech recognition (LVCSR) system, where we construct the speech recognition task as a serial architecture composed of two independent parts. The first part is to perform standard hidden Markov model (HMM)-based recognition of phonemic syllable units of the actual pronunciation (surface forms). By this way, the lexicon dictionary and out-of-vocabulary rates can be kept small, while avoiding high acoustic confusability. In the second part, the system then transforms the phonemic syllable surface forms into the desirable Korean orthography eumjeol of a recognition unit, by utilizing the proposed BN pronunciation model. Experimental results show that the proposed BN model can successfully map the phonemic syllable surface forms to eumjeols transcription with more than 97% accuracy on average. It also revealed that it could help to enhance our Korean LVCSR system, and gave about 25.53% absolute improvement on average with respect to baseline orthographic syllable recognition.


A "circular type" interferometric system for quantum key distribution is proposed. The system, which adopts a Sagnac loop, is highly stable and simple. The stability derives from its self-alignment and compensation for birefringence and the system's simplicity allows it to achieve an extremely fast bit rate. Moreover, it is easily applicable to multiparty setup. Key creation with 0.1 photon per pulse at a rate of 1.2 kHz with a 5.4% quantum bit-error rate over a 200-m fiber was realized.


Recent developments in field of column and plate buckling; column-buckling problem has been solved for entire elastic and inelastic range; linear buckling theory is considered unable to predict static strength of plate girders.


In future automotive crashes that involve advanced safety vehicles or autonomous vehicles, the number of minor or moderate injuries may increase because of vehicle slowing by safety systems such as autonomous emergency brakes. Recent studies suggest that pre-crash muscle activity of occupants could have significant effects on the kinematics of occupants in such situations. In previous studies, we developed a human body finite element (FE) model with whole-body muscles and a muscle controller with posture control to predict relaxed occupant kinematics during deceleration. However, the controller could not predict tensed-occupant kinematics. The objective of this study is to develop a muscle controller for more accurate prediction of relaxedand tensed-occupant kinematics and to validate it in low-speed frontal crash situations. Total HUman Model for Safety (THUMS) version 5, including 262 one-dimensional Hill-type muscle models, is used and a new muscle controller using proportional-integral-derivative (PID) control is developed. The controller has two feedback controls involving three-dimensional angles of 16 joints and reaction forces using a steering wheel and pedals. The control of each joint angle works to return to the initial joint angle in order to maintain overall body posture. The control of each reaction force works to achieve a pre-determined target force. The controller is validated using a series of experimental data from cadaver and volunteer tests reproducing low-speed frontal impacts with peak sled accelerations of 2.5 G and 5.0 G, which are obtained from the literature. Simulation results demonstrate that head excursions predicted without any control and when using only posture control are similar to excursions from cadaver and relaxed volunteer test data, respectively. Head excursions predicted by a total controller with the two feedback controls of posture and force show a tendency similar to that for tensed volunteers. The forces predicted by the total controller are similar to those for the tensed volunteer test data for the pedals but not for the steering wheel. Further studies on optimization methods are needed in order to determine valid PID gain parameters in various dynamic environments. THUMS using the developed controller shows the potential for representation of both relaxedand tensed-occupant kinematics during low-speed impact decelerations.


Phase scintillation caused by propagation through solar wind, ionospheric, and tropospheric irregularities is a noise process for many spacecraft radio science experiments. In precision Doppler tracking observations, scintillation can be the dominant noise process. Scintillation statistics are necessary for experiment planning and in design of signal processing procedures. Here high‐precision tracking data taken with operational spacecraft (Mars Observer, Galileo, and Mars Global Surveyor) and ground systems are used to produce temporal statistics of tropospheric and plasma phase scintillation. The variance of Doppler frequency fluctuations is approximately decomposed into two propagation processes. The first, associated with distributed scattering along the sight line in the solar wind, has a smooth spectrum. The second, associated principally with localized tropospheric scattering for X‐band experiments, has a marked autocorrelation peak at the two‐way light time between the Earth and the spacecraft (thus a cosine‐squared modulation of the fluctuation power spectrum). For X‐band data taken in the antisolar hemisphere the average noise levels of this process are in good agreement with average tropospheric noise levels determined independently from water vapor radiometer observations and radio interferometic data. The variance of the process having a smooth spectrum is consistent with plasma noise levels determined independently from dualfrequency observations of the Viking spacecraft made at comparable Sun‐Earth‐spacecraft angles. The observations reported here are used to refine the propagation noise model for Doppler tracking of deep space probes. In particular, they can be used to predict propagation noise levels for high‐precision X‐ and Ka‐band tracking observations (e.g., atmosphere/ionosphere/ring occultations, celestial mechanics experiments, and gravitational wave experiments) to be done using the Cassini spacecraft.


This article looks at the problems presented by admitting statements made by young children at trial. Over time, presumed chronological thresholds for incompetence have all but disappeared in favor of general rules of competence that are agnostic about the reality of children9s susceptibility to develop false memories. While the standard of competence requires a witness to understand the burden to tell the truth of what was witnessed, it does not adjust to accommodate the suggestibility of young children and their susceptibility to rumor, which has been shown in numerous studies in the field of developmental psychology. Especially troubling is a common rule which allows leading questions to be asked of children to elicit specific witness statements. Instead of widening the scope of incompetence to react to social science understandings of the reliability of children9s statements which poses too high of an administrative burden, expert witnesses and jury instructions—which speak to credibility instead of competence—should be available to address social science findings.


The purpose of this research project was to evaluate attitudes of the janitorial workforce in La Consolacion University Philippines of S.Y. 2020-2021 in order to ascertain whether there is a direct relation to their performance.
An attitude is a psychological state of mind. It is the way a person thinks about situations, and it ultimately determines a person's behavior. In the workplace, employees can have either a positive or negative attitude about specific work tasks, products or services, co-workers or management, or the company as a whole. Positive attitudes among employees make workdays more enjoyable. Tasks are performed to a higher standard and without complaint. An example of a positive employee attitude occurs when an employee views a negative customer service call as an opportunity to change the narrative for the customer from a bad experience to a good one. However, bad attitudes result in apathy to daily tasks. Employees are easily agitated by minor problems. Tasks are completed at substandard levels (Leonard, 2018).
Job attitudes such as satisfaction and involvement are criterion for establishing the health of an organization; rendering effective services largely depends on the human resource. Job satisfaction experienced by employees will induce the people to give their best to the organization. Both the attitudes required to enhance the performance of employees. Current study is based on the effect of attitude on employee performance. This study include the attitude related factors (behaviors of employees and leaders, job satisfaction, job commitment, motivation and training) to investigate their impact on employee performance.
 This study utilized descriptive method of research. An instrument was developed by the researcher with 8 statements to measure the perceived level of satisfaction, involvement, and performance and then distributed among the respondents with the five- point Likert scale

In the totality, respondents rated majority of the janitors with an approval rating of VERY GOOD to the four janitors and GOOD to the Five Janitors while three of the Janitors got an average rating of FAIR. Result shows that all attitude related factors positively affect the employee performance. Motivation and job commitment has highly significant impact of performance of employees. As a result, organizations should value their experienced personnel and devise effective retention policy by giving competitive salary, experienced base pay and experienced based promotion. That will increase the overall performance of the organization.
Janitors have to change their poor attitudes and must exhibit more dedication towards their job. Other employees have to make effort to correct these attitudes that is affecting the work. The following are recommendations to improve values and attitudes and to increase the individual performance:

Let the janitors feel the sense of total belongingness and importance not to let them feel that they are categories into the lower level of the organizations, let them be involved and participate in all institutional activities to establish camaraderie.
Identifying the negative of bad attitudes of the janitors and provide corresponding trainings and seminars to correct their attitudes resulting to poor performance at work.
Motivating employees to achieve the high level of satisfaction and performance by giving appropriate awards and incentives.
Ensure feedback is specific – Don't just tell the employee their poor attitude needs to improve. Point out exactly what negative traits they have and the impact each has on their performance and monitor their action periodically for expected change to positive attitude towards work performance.

Generally, workers with good attitudes have stronger performance, and workers with poor attitudes exhibit less-than-superior performance. It is up to managers to monitor employee attitudes and address attitude problems such as negativity and laziness.


Elevated ploidy is a common phenomenon among plants regenerated from tissue culture. Contributors to this effect include cells of elevated ploidy present within normally diploid or polyploidy explant tissues, endoreduplication by individual cultured cells, and effects of in vitro environmental factors on cell division. Because polyploidization can result in morphological changes and thus, different adaptabilities, the determination of ploidy in transgenic regenerants plants is recommended when evaluating phenotypes and conducting mutant screens subsequent to genetic transformation.


In order to reveal the nature of dark matter, it is crucial to detect its non-gravitational interactions with the standard model particles. The traditional dark matter searches focused on the so-called weakly interacting massive particles. However, this paradigm is strongly constrained by the null results of current experiments with high precision. Therefore there is a renewed interest of searches for heavy dark matter particles above TeV scale. The Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO) with large effective area and strong background rejection power is very suitable to investigate the gamma-ray signals induced by dark matter annihilation or decay above TeV scale. In this document, we review the theoretical motivations and background of heavy dark matter. We review the prospects of searching for the gamma-ray signals resulted from dark matter in the dwarf spheroidal satellites and Galactic halo for LHAASO, and present the projected sensitivities. We also review the prospects of searching for the axion-like particles, which are a kind of well motivated light pseudo-scalars, through the LHAASO measurement of the very high energy gamma-ray spectra of astrophysical sources.


A time domain subspace iteration technique is presented to compute a set of normal modes from the measured complex modes. By using the proposed method, a large number of physical coordinates are reduced to a smaller number of modal or principal coordinates. Subspace free decay time responses are computed using properly scaled complex modal vectors. Companion matrix for the general case of nonproportional damping is then derived in the selected vector subspace. Subspace normal modes are obtained through eigenvalue solution of the [MN] "1[KN] matrix and transformed back to the physical coordinates to get a set of normal modes. A numerical example is presented to demonstrate the outlined theory.


We characterized clinical manifestations and the risk to develop AIDS in a cohort of 32 patients infected with human immunodeficiency virus without AIDS A multivariate analysis was performed to determine association between the progression of infection and control variables (socioeconomic level, age, sex and sexual preferences) and causal variables (psycho-social changes, significant clinical events, stress scoring and sexual activity). The cumulative AIDS incidence, defined as a CD4 lymphocyte count below 200 cells/cm3 was 50% at 6.5 years and 82% at 8 years. Using clinical criteria to define AIDS, 50% developed the disease at 8 years of follow up. Among studied factors, only age (faster progression at higher age) and time of evolution were associated with progression in stages before AIDS, the most frequent diseases were acute diarrhea, sexual transmission diseases, oral candidiasis, sinusitis and varicella zoster infections. The reduction; of CD4 lymphocytes-below 200 cells/cm3 always preceded the symptoms of the disease. Two patients have remained more than eight years without clinical or immunological deterioration.


Obesity is a burden to global health. Non-shivering thermogenesis of brown adipose tissue (BAT) and white adipose tissue (WAT) is a novel strategy for obesity treatment. Anmyungambi (AMGB) decoction is a multi-herb decoction with clinical anti-obesity effects. Here, we show the effects of AMGB decoction using high-fat diet (HFD)-fed C57BL6/J mice. All four versions of AMGB decoction (100 mg/kg/day, oral gavage for 28 days) suppressed body weight gain and obesity-related blood parameters in the HFD-fed obese mice. They also inhibited adipogenesis and induced lipolysis in inguinal WAT (iWAT). Especially, the AMGB-4 with 2:1:3:3 composition was the most effective; thus, further studies were performed with the AMGB-4 decoction. The AMGB-4 decoction displayed a dose-dependent body weight gain suppression. Serum triglyceride, total cholesterol, and blood glucose decreased as well. In epididymal WAT, iWAT, and BAT, the AMGB-4 decoction increased lipolysis markers. Additionally, the AMGB-4 decoction-fed mice showed an increased non-shivering thermogenic program in BAT and iWAT. Excessive reactive oxygen species (ROS) and suppressed antioxidative factors induced by the HFD feeding were also altered to normal levels by the AMGB-4 decoction treatment. Overall, our study supports the clinical use of AMGB decoction for obesity treatment by studying its mechanisms. AMGB decoction alleviates obesity through the activation of the lipolysis–thermogenesis program and the elimination of pathological ROS in thermogenic adipose tissues.


BACKGROUND
Heat-shock protein70 (HSP70) are intracellular protein chaperones, with emerging evidence of their association with various diseases. We have previously reported significantly elevated plasma-HSP70 (pHSP70) in pancreatic cancer. Current methods of pHSP70 isolation are ELISA-based which lack specificity due to cross-reactivity by similarities in the amino-acid sequence in regions of the protein backbone resulting in overestimated HSP70 value.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
This study was undertaken to develop a methodology to capture all isoforms of pHSP70, while further defining their tyrosine and serine phosphorylation status.

RESULTS
The methodology included gel electrophoresis on centrifuged supernatant obtained from plasma incubated with HSP70 antibody-coupled beads. After blocking non-specific binding sites, blots were immunostained with monoclonal-antibody specific for human-HSP70, phosphoserine and phosphotyrosine.

CONCLUSIONS
Our novel immunocapture approach has distinct advantages over the commercially available methods of pHSP70 quantification by allowing isolation of molecular aggregates of HSP70 with additional ability to precisely distinguish phosphorylation state of HSP70 molecules at serine and tyrosine residues.


During the times of pandemics, faster diagnosis plays a key role in the response efforts to contain the disease as well as reducing its spread. Computer-aided detection would save time and increase the quality of diagnosis in comparison with manual human diagnosis. Artificial Intelligence (AI) through deep learning is considered as a reliable method to design such systems. In this research paper, an AI based diagnosis approach has been suggested to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic. The proposed system employs a deep learning algorithm on chest x-ray images to detect the infected subjects. An enhanced Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) architecture has been designed with 22 layers which is then trained over a chest x-ray dataset. More after, a classification component has been introduced to classify the x-ray images into two categories (Covid-19 and not Covid-19) of infection. The system has been evaluated through a series of observations and experimentation. The experimental results have shown a promising performance in terms of accuracy. The system has diagnosed Covid-19 with accuracy of 95.7% and normal subjects with accuracy of 93.1 while it showed 96.7 accuracy on Pneumonia.


Introduction: Thiourethane addition to methacrylate of resin cements improves properties of flexural strength, toughness modulus, and fracture toughness. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of experimental silanes based on thiourethane in the adhesion of fiberglass posts to the root canal submitted to thermal and mechanical cycling. Materials and Methods: Two oligomers were synthesized with catalytic amounts of triethylamine. Multifunctional thiol–pentaerythritol tetra-3-mercaptopropionate was combined with difunctional isocyanates – 1,6-hexanedioldiissocyante (aliphatic) or 1,3-bis (1-isocyanato-1-methylethyl) benzene (aromatic). Human dental root canals were treated with conventional and experimental silanes, establishing six experimental groups (n = 10) endodontically rehabilitated with fiberglass posts. The specimens were submitted to 1.2 x 106 mechanical cycles and 500 thermal cycles (5°C and 55°C). One slice from each root region (cervical, middle, and apical) was submitted to the push-out bond test, and the fracture pattern evaluated. Scanning electron microscopy micrographs were obtained from the marginal gaps occurred in the adhesive interfaces. Data were analyzed with two-way ANOVA followed by Tukey's test at α = 0.05 confidence level. Results: Conventional and experimental silanes improved bond strength (P < 0.001) with similar values among the root regions (P = 0.199), decreased the occurrence of adhesive failures in dentin-cement bond, and increased the cohesive failures in dentin and the mixed failures. The marginal gaps showed in scanning electron microscopy micrographs were similar, except for the Angelus conventional silane, showing greater slit. Conclusions: Conventional and experimental silanes provided greater adhesive strength, reduced dentin-cement failures, and the marginal gaps were similar, except for the control group Angelus, showing greater slit.


The preferences of organisms faced with changing conditions in food delivery situations have been studied under the rubric of risk-sensitivity. Optimal Foraging Theory often applies the energy budget model to explain the preferences shown by organisms, but in this paper we suggest a different approach, one based on the study of individual differences. A sample of rats was classified as high and low novelty-seeking. Afterwards, they were maintained at 75% or 90% of their body weight and exposed to a risk-sensitivity procedure. The results show that the novelty-seeking model is associated with different patterns of preference under a risk-sensitivity procedure, but that these patterns do not correlate with the level of food deprivation employed. Furthermore, we found that the spontaneous alternation between options in a choice situation correlates with the organism's preference during a risk procedure. Considering recent findings in the area of animal and human decision-making, our results are explained in terms of altered behavioral processes.


Forest resources of Northern Bukovyna and Khotyn County have long played an important role in the life of the local population. During 1918–1940, the forest branch of the region occupied one of the leading positions in all industry. In particular, during the investigated period there was an expansion of production and an increase in the number of enterprises (from 32 to 48).Among the most important enterprises in the logging, sawmilling, furniture, pulp and paper subsectors of Northern Bukovyna and Khotyn region, which operated between the two world wars were: Joint-Stock Company f. Wood Industry «Goetz», «Forestiera», E.H. Friedmann, Engel & Glasberg Sawmill, a furniture factory «Ant», «Nikolaus Zajacskowski & Sons, Barrels Factory with Electric Power», a factory for the production of wooden nails «Astra», a paper factory «Biedermann and Kindler», Wallpaper and Paper Bags Factory «Tapa» Limited Liability Company in Chernivtsi.


The role and importance of mechanical properties of cells and tissues in cellular function, development as well as disease has widely been acknowledged, however standard techniques currently used to assess them exhibit intrinsic limitations. Recently, a new type of optical elastography, namely Brillouin microscopy, has emerged as a non-destructive, label- and contact-free method which can probe the viscoelastic properties of biological samples with diffraction-limited resolution in 3D. This has led to increased attention amongst the biological and medical research communities, but also to debates about the interpretation and relevance of the measured physical quantities. Here, we review this emerging technology by describing the underlying biophysical principles and discussing the interpretation of Brillouin spectra arising from heterogeneous biological matter. We further elaborate on the technique's limitations as well as its potential for new insights in biology in order to guide interested researchers from various fields.


An efficient synthesis technique has been developed to obtain the Cu2Ba2(Y, Ca)Cu2O8±δ (Cu-2212 or `124') phase in a reasonably short firing period under ambient or `semiambient' pressure. The Cu-2212 phase forms in a single-phase, highly crystalline form from a stoichiometric mixture of CuBa2(Y, Ca)Cu2O7-δ (Cu-2212 or `123') and CuO at 850-880 °C in 24 h by encapsulating the precursor mixture together with Ag2O2 in a fused-quartz ampoule. Under these conditions, Ag2O2 decomposes into Ag2O/Ag acting as an efficient excess-oxygen source in the synthesis. By changing the amount of Ag2O2 added it is possible to control the partial pressure of oxygen inside the synthesis ampoule up to ~40 atm. The Ca-free Cu-2212 phase forms even without Ag2O2, but obtaining the 10% Ca-substituted phase in a single-phase form requires 20 mol% Ag2O2. The synthesized superconductive phases are found to be free from Ag contamination within the detection limit of EDX analysis. The obtained Cu2Ba2YCu2O8±δ and Cu2Ba2(Y0.9Ca0.1)Cu2O8±δ samples showed a single-step superconductivity transition at 81 and 90 K, respectively.


Purpose: The onus of this study was to find out the role played by virtual learning environment factors on students' satisfaction during the COVID-19 period in Nigeria. A survey was carried out on students in higher education institutions in Nigeria to actualize this purpose. Design/methodology/approach: Simple random sampling techniques with the aid of Krejcie and Morgan's (1970) sample determinant and the Snowball sampling technique were adopted to sample 270 students in higher education institutions in Nigeria. An adapted questionnaire was used. Cronbach alpha coefficients were calculated for the two sections of the independent and dependent variables. Virtual learning environment factors yielded 0.89, while students' satisfaction yielded 0.87. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson product–moment correlation, two-way ANOVA and linear regression analysis. Findings: The results of the ANOVA, F (df 4, 265) = 50.905, p < 0.000, indicate a statistically significant relationship (stronger than 0.05) between the independent variables (virtual learning environment factors) and the dependent variable (students' satisfaction). It was found among others that instructors' support and collaboration factors predicted students' satisfaction with virtual learning experiences during the COVID-19 period. Originality/value: Virtual learning during COVID-19 caught both lecturers and students unprepared. Most developing countries especially Africans were used to the traditional face-to-face learning, more so, the use of virtual means to learn was still at a nascent stage. This study, therefore, contributed to the role of the learning environment in virtual learning satisfaction. © 2022, Sulaimon Adewale and Muyideen Babatunde Tahir.


Abstract · Zusammenfassung Schmerz 2012 · DOI 10.1007/s00482-012-1168-y© Deutsche Schmerzgesellschaft e.V. Published by Springer-Verlag - all rights reserved 2012B. Zernikow · K. Gerhold · G. Burk · W. Hauser · C.H. Hinze · T. Hospach · A. Illhardt · K. Monkemoller · M. Richter · E. Schnobel-Muller · R. Hafner Definition, diagnosis and therapy of chronic widespread pain and so-called fibromyalgia syndrome in children and adolescents. Systematic literature review and guideline Abstract Background. The scheduled update to the German S3 guidelines on fibromyalgia syn-drome (FMS) by the Association of the Scien-tific Medical Societies ("Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Wissenschaftlichen Medizinischen Fach-gesellschaften", AWMF; registration num-ber 041/004) was planned starting in March 2011.Materials and methods. The development of the guidelines was coordinated by the Ger-man Interdisciplinary Association for Pain Therapy ("Deutsche Interdisziplinaren Ver-einigung fur Schmerztherapie", DIVS), 9 scien-tific medical societies and 2 patient self-help organizations. Eight working groups with a total of 50 members were evenly balanced in terms of gender, medical field, potential con-flicts of interest and hierarchical position in the medical and scientific fields.Literature searches were performed using the Medline, PsycInfo, Scopus and Cochrane Library da-tabases (until December 2010). The grading of the strength of the evidence followed the scheme of the Oxford Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine. The formulation and grad-ing of recommendations was accomplished using a multi-step, formal consensus pro-cess. The guidelines were reviewed by the boards of the participating scientific medi-cal societies.Results and conclusion. The diagnosis FMS in children and adolescents is not estab-lished. In so-called juvenile FMS (JFMS), mul-tidimensional diagnostics with validated measures should be performed. Multimod-al therapy is warranted. In the case of severe pain-related disability, therapy should be pri-marily performed on an inpatient basis.The English full-text version of this article is avail-able at SpringerLink (under "Supplemental").


Objectives: To clarify the underlying molecular mechanism of corticosterone methyl oxidase type II (CMO II) deficiency, Japanese patients newly diagnosed with CMO II deficiency were investigated. Methods: We analyzed the patients' genomic DNA sequence on all 9 exons of the CYP11B2 gene. In addition, restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis and expression studies were performed. Results: The analysis showed that the patients homozygously retained a missense mutation, GGC[435Gly]→AGC[Ser], in the CYP11B2 gene. Expression studies indicated that the steroid 18-hydroxylase/oxidase activities of the mutant enzyme were substantially reduced. Conclusion: These results support the hypothesis that this mutation causes CMO II deficiency in the patients, and are in accordance with our theory that the partial loss of P-450C18 activities causes CMO II deficiency.


In wireless sensor networks, an energy efficient data gathering scheme is one of core technologies to process a query. The cluster-based data gathering methods minimize the energy consumption of sensor nodes by maximizing the efficiency of data aggregation. However, since the existing clustering methods consider only uniform network environments, they are not suitable for the real world applications that sensor nodes can be distributed unevenly. To solve such a problem, we propose a balanced multi-hop clustering method in non-uniform wireless sensor networks. The proposed scheme constructs a cluster based on the logical distance to the cluster head using a min-distance hop count. To show the superiority of our proposed scheme, we compare it with the existing clustering schemes in sensor networks. Our experimental results show that our proposed scheme improves about 48% lifetime over the existing methods on average.


Abstract This work aimed to determine the best late season peaches profile via a Best Worst Discrete Choice Experiment. The survey was performed in the city of Zaragoza - Spain, in October 2008. In total, 316 people stated their preferences towards late season peaches. On average, a peach produced in the Calanda area with Protected Designation of Origin (PDO), weighting around 254 g and conditioned in normal packaging or in bulk, may be considered the best late season peach. Among different types of analyzed consumers, all preferred peaches with PDO, produced in the Calanda area. Regarding to fruit size, for many types of consumers, the bigger the better. Only for women and consumers over 50 years old, medium size peaches are preferable to the largest ones. In addition to the fruit size, market segmentation should consider the different kinds of packaging.


We recently described a novel basal bacterial promoter element that is located downstream of the –10 consensus promoter element and is recognized by region 1.2 of the σ subunit of RNA polymerase (RNAP). In the case of Thermus aquaticus RNAP, this element has a consensus sequence GGGA and allows transcription initiation in the absence of the –35 element. In contrast, the Escherichia coli RNAP is unable to initiate transcription from GGGA-containing promoters that lack the –35 element. In the present study, we demonstrate that σ subunits from both E. coli and T. aquaticus specifically recognize the GGGA element and that the observed species specificity of recognition of GGGA-containing promoters is determined by the RNAP core enzyme. We further demonstrate that transcription initiation by T. aquaticus RNAP on GGGA-containing promoters in the absence of the –35 element requires σ region 4 and C-terminal domains of the α subunits, which interact with upstream promoter DNA. When in the context of promoters containing the –35 element, the GGGA element is recognized by holoenzyme RNAPs from both E. coli and T. aquaticus and increases stability of promoter complexes formed on these promoters. Thus, GGGA is a bona fide basal promoter element that can function in various bacteria and, depending on the properties of the RNAP core enzyme and the presence of additional promoter elements, determine species-specific differences in promoter recognition.


Legal tenure and related property rights are relevant and important in forest landscape restoration (FLR), although the assumption that ensuring legal tenure with full property rights is a decisive incentive in and of itself for forest restoration is not supported by empirical evidence. Legal tenure status over forest lands, and property rights derived from legal tenure, are diverse between countries, and even within countries. Case studies from China, Vietnam and Nepal show that even when legal tenure is held over forest land, the property rights derived from tenure may be severely constrained and not necessarily widely recognized, respected or protected. Legal tenure may be a less desired option in terms of rights that are granted, and other arrangements, that is, customary arrangements or other forms of non-statutory enforced arrangements, may result in more secure rights. When FLR is desired, legal tenure needs to be addressed, but what kind of tenure is provided to forest users, what rights the tenure implies, and what constraints are the most appropriate depend on the wider legal, political and social context in which forest restoration is being pursued.


Ionospheric scintillations are created by diffraction when the transmitted propagating waves encounter a medium made of irregular structures with variable refraction indexes. The recombination of the waves after propagation can be constructive or destructive and the resulting signal at output of the receiver antenna may present rapid variations of phase and amplitude. The carrier phase is traditionally tracked in the GNSS receivers using PLL, potentially aided by FLL. Phase Loops are known to be less robust than code tracking loops, and the GNSS receivers may thus suffer from phase tracking loss. This strongly impacts the positioning service availability, as well as the capability to demodulate the navigation message data, in situations where ionospheric scintillations affect the received signal. One thus has to implement innovative techniques and receiver architectures to provide robust carrier phase tracking. The aim of this paper is therefore to present the development of a GPS L1 phase tracking technique based on a Kalman Filter PLL [10] improving the tracking robustness in presence of ionospheric scintillations, and to present results of its performance using simulations. This paper is related to the paper presented at ION GNSS 2012 by C. Macabiau [1].


A study of sound levels and spectral distribution as well as people\'s reactions to aircraft noise in three Nigerian international airports have been conducted. The study comprised physical measurements and social survey. Results show that maximum octave band pressure levels (BPLs) for Margaret Ekpo, Port Harcourt and Murtala Mohammed International Airports were 88 dB(A), 94 dB(A) and 99 dB(A), respectively with corresponding the deafening levels recorded as 102.5dB(A), 122.5 dB (A) and 123.5 dB(A). Maximum sound level (L) wasas high as 116 dB(A) in each case. The Day-night level (L), weighted equivalent continuous perceived noise level (WECPNL), noise and number index (NNI), noise exposure forecast (NEF), A-weighted sound level (L), and noise pollution level (L) were also obtained based on acoustical data generated at the airports under study, and were found to exceed the recommended doses of 55, 60, 20, 24, 45 and 60dB (A), respectively. From these results it is clear that octave band pressure levels exceed the recommended 85 dB(A). Octave band pressure levels obtained tend to be Gaussian and the spectra were flat. Percentage responses correlated well with NNI with power law relationships between it and the latter in all the cases considered. Results clearly show that people resident near Nigerian airports are exposed to psychological and physiological damage as a result of excessive aircraft noise with serious activity interference. Keywords : Noise levels, spectra, aircraft noise, damage risk and activity interference. Nigerian Journal of Physics Vol. 19 (2) 2007: pp. 223-227


Transport of sodium and potassium cations has been determined through chloroform liquid membrane containing glycols and glymes as carriers and their stability constants were determined by conductometric method. Thiocyanate was used as anion. K + shows stronger complexing ability than Na + . K + selective ion transport was observed with tetra and diethylene glycol, tetra, tri and diglyme. Na + was transported only with triethylene glycol. Diethylene glycol and diglyme show higher transport values with K + . Glycols show slightly better transport than glymes.


We present a probabilistic model of pairwise-comparison outcomes that can encode variations over time. To this end, we replace the real-valued parameters of a class of generalized linear comparison models by function-valued stochastic processes. In particular, we use Gaussian processes; their kernel function can express time dynamics in a flexible way. We give an algorithm that performs approximate Bayesian inference in linear time. We test our model on several sports datasets, and we find that our approach performs favorably in terms of predictive performance. Additionally, our method can be used to visualize the data effectively.


Access to land is crucial for food systems to address the challenges caused by habitat and biodiversity loss, land and water degradation, and greenhouse gas emissions. Sustainable food production requires land security upstream for agricultural production. Land security emanates from the land law implemented in-country by government policy. In the span of a decade (2007–2017), three different land reforms have been adopted in Benin. This paper aims to investigate the land rights and land tenure security for sustainable food production according to land law and the factors that influence agricultural entrepreneurial activities in North Benin. The study was carried out in the Borgou department, mainly in five communes that are beneficiaries of the Responsible Land Policy Project of GIZ (Promotion d'une Politique Foncière Responsible: ProPFR/GIZ). A multistage sampling procedure was used to select the agricultural entrepreneur respondents. A total of 102 agriculture entrepreneurs were interviewed in 25 villages. According to land law in Benin, the results highlight the different levels of land tenure security and land rights represented by types of land documents: type contract (use right), certificates of customary ownership (ADC), and land title. The research reveals that 44.3% of the land of agriculture entrepreneurs' respondents possessed the certificates of customary ownership and 18% possessed the land title. The facilitation of access to legal land documents such as certificates of customary ownership and land titles can protect agricultural entrepreneurship for sustainable food production.


For many years, fuel switching between natural gas and residual fuel oil kept natural gas prices closely aligned with those for crude oil. More recently, however, the number of U.S. facilities able to switch between natural gas and residual fuel oil has declined, and over the past seven years, U.S. natural gas prices have been on an upward trend with crude oil prices but with considerable independent movement. Natural gas market analysts generally emphasize weather and inventories as drivers of natural gas prices. Using an error-correction model, we show that when these and other additional factors are taken into account, movements in crude oil prices have a prominent role in shaping natural gas prices. Our findings imply a continuum of prices at which natural gas and petroleum products are substitutes.


Objective : This study established determinants for readiness to renew the NHIF (national hospital Insurance fund) among informal sector national scheme members in Kenya for universal health coverage (UHC). Methods : This was a cross sectional survey on 394 purposively sampled national health insurance members in Kajiado County. Data was collected through questionnaires rated on a 5-point Likert scale. Binary logistic regression was used to establish the significant determinants associated with the willingness to renew the insurance covers. P-values of less than 0.05 were considered statistically significant. Results : Majority of the participants were male (n=266, 67.5%), over 36 years of age (n=330, 83.7%), married (n=200, 50.8%) and lived in large households of over 3 people (n=358, 90.9%). Overall, respondents showed high willingness to continue paying the insurance premiums and renew their insurance covers for health services (Median: 3.86, IQR 0.75). Controlling for all factors, married (AOR 15.6, 2.3-106.4), large household sizes with more than 3 people, low household income per month (less than KSh. 5000), awareness of NHIF fund services (AOR 13.2, 3.1-55.5), service provider factors (AOR 109, 14.8-803.8) and adverse selection on willingness to renew (AOR 0.043, 0.009-0.202) were significant determinants of willingness to renew the insurance cover (p<0.05). Conclusion : Individual factors - married, belonging to larger household, and lower income group, awareness of NHIF services and system/external factors - service provider's factors and adverse selection on the other hand influenced willingness to renew insurance covers. There is need to increase the community's awareness on the health insurance risk-benefits through member education and improve access to quality health services in the health facilities to enhance renewal of the NHIF covers by members.


Anaplastic carcinoma of the thyroid is a highly malignant disease with few survivors over one year. Radical surgery and laryngectomy are usually considered contraindicated. A 50‐year‐old woman with a history of papillary carcinoma treated with external radiation developed anaplastic giant‐cell carcinoma of the thyroid invading the soft tissues of the neck including the larynx. Since surgery was felt to represent her only chance for survival, she underwent laryngopharyngectomy, right radical‐neck dissection, and pharyngeal reconstruction. Three years after the surgery was performed, she is living an active life with only minor handicaps. Nevertheless, multiple nodules were noted in her lungs on recent tomographic examination. Our experience with this woman suggests that there is a role for radical surgery and laryngectomy in selected cases of anaplastic carcinoma.


Previously, Aeromonas sobria and A. salmonicida were identified to be the most prevalent species in salmonid farms in Korea. In this study, we evaluated the biochemical characteristics, antibiotic susceptibility and pathogenicity of A. salmonicida (3 isolates) and A. sobria (8 isolates) isolated from salmonids, and further investigated efficacy of A. salmonicida vaccine. In antibiotic susceptibility test, all of A. sobria isolates were resistant to amoxicillin and ampicillin. Six A. sobria and two A. salmonicida isolates were resistant to oxytetracycline. In challenge test, A. sobria isolates exhibited low pathogenicity in rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) while one A. salmonicida isolate showed high pathogenicity with LD50 of 6.4 × 103  CFU/fish in rainbow trout and coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch). Among virulence factors, secretion apparatus (ascV and ascC) and transcription regulatory protein (exsA) of type 3 secretion system and A-layer protein genes were differentially detected in DNA or cDNA of A. salmonicida isolates, indicating their contribution to the pathogenicity. A formalin-killed vaccine of highly pathogenic A. salmonicida isolate exhibited a protective effect with relative survival rate of 81.8% and 82.9% at 8 weeks and 16 weeks post-vaccination, respectively, in challenge test.


With the ongoing sea-level rise associated with climate changes, coastline protection is among the top priorities of national interest for many countries across the globe, and particularly those in Southeast Asia with extended shorelines, and submerged horizontal plate breakwaters (SHPB) have been proposed as a possible measure for shoreline protection in the literature. Most of the earlier research works considers the material for the SHPB to be either rigid or elastic sheets (with and without perforations) (Patarapanich, 1984, Heins 1950). The wave modulation due to the presence of such structures is thus predominantly due to wave interactions, edge reflection and turbulence. In this paper, we extend the earlier works and consider the viscoelastic properties for the flexible SHPB (which can better represent the possible damping introduced in the field conditions) both experimentally and analytically.Recorded Presentation from the vICCE (YouTube Link): https://youtu.be/l92umh2KnYY


Background. Human Bocavirus (HBoV), which is an ssDNA virus of the family Parvoviridae, is responsible for 21.5 % of childhood respiratory tract infections (RTIs) annually. Among the four genotypes currently known, HBoV-1 has been associated with acute RTI. Although there have been studies on HBoV in some countries, there is limited information on this virus in sub-Saharan Africa where there is the highest burden of RTI. This study aimed to characterize the circulating strains of HBoV in Ibadan, Nigeria. Methods. Nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal swab samples were collected from 333 children ≤5 years old presenting with RTI attending hospitals in Ibadan, whose parents assented, from 2014 to 2015. Twenty-three HBoV isolates were sequenced after a nested PCR and phylogenetic analysis was carried out using mega 6 software. Results. A total of 27 children tested positive for the HBoV-1 genotype by PCR and 23 of the 27 isolates were successfully sequenced. The 23 HBoV-1 isolates from this study have been assigned GenBank accession numbers KY701984–KY702006. Phylogram analysis indicated that the isolates belong to the same clades. Six isolates aligned closely to the reference strains ST1 and ST2, while 17 isolates showed a high level of divergence to the reference isolates. Conclusion. This study highlights the contribution of HBoV to RTIs in Nigeria and that HBoV-1 strains are associated with the infection.


In the automotive industry dimensional quality control is an important part of the production process, often carried out using coordinate measuring machines (CMMs). However, CMMs used in conjunction with touch probes have a relatively low measurement speed. There is also a close link between the cost of measurement and the number of discrete points captured, leading to a trade-off between the number of points that can be measured and the measurement time. Laser scanners offer a faster alternative to touch probe measurement, but have certain limitations. A number of studies have considered the accuracy of laser scanning using small artefacts; however, little work has been done on the verification of on-CMM laser scanning systems for large volume, industry-relevant measurement applications. In this research, a nominal representation of a vehicle body was used and 104 standard features were measured. The results show that the laser scanning sensor and CMM used in this study would, for the majority of measurements, provide a level of accuracy and repeatability better than which is typically required by automotive manufacturers for body shell quality inspection applications.


Research has shown that cryptographic APIs are hard to use. Consequently, developers resort to using code examples available in online information sources that are often not secure. We have developed a web platform, named CryptoExplorer, stocked with numerous real-world secure and insecure examples that developers can explore to learn how to use cryptographic APIs properly. This platform currently provides 3 263 secure uses, and 5 897 insecure uses of Java Cryptography Architecture mined from 2 324 Java projects on GitHub. A preliminary study shows that CryptoExplorer provides developers with secure crypto API use examples instantly, developers can save time compared to searching on the internet for such examples, and they learn to avoid using certain algorithms in APIs by studying misused API examples. We have a pipeline to regularly mine more projects, and, on request, we offer our dataset to researchers.


Two hundred and eighteen urine specimens were cultured in duplicate to compare the reliability of a miniature culture technique with a more standard, calibrated loop-method for quantitative urinary bacteriology. The new method appears to be reliable: the rate of false negative results was 2.5 percent and of false positive 3.6 percent. The correlation with the standard method was best in the ranges of 0 to 10,000 and greater than 100,000 colonies per milliliter. The technique is simple, quick, and easily applicable to the physician's office laboratory.


Political observers often criticize the news media 's focus on scandalous activities of candidates as distracting voters from the "real issues. " However, the extent to which such a fondness for scandal influences voters remains unclear. The present study examines whether exposure to scandalous information about a candidate interferes with memory for policy-related information. Two possibilities are considered. One possibility is that scandalous information attracts substantial attention and processing from individuals thereby interfering with previously stored campaign information. A second possibility argues that conceiving of memory as organized in associative networks suggests that scandalous information facilitates, rather than interferes with, recall of policyrelated campaign information. Based on data from a longitudinal experiment, I conclude that exposure to scandalous information is less hazardous to voters than is often suggested by political observers.


Lightweight devices, such as radio frequency identification tags, have a limited storage capacity, which has become a bottleneck for many applications, especially for security applications. Ciphertext-policy attribute-based encryption (CP-ABE) is a promising cryptographic tool, where the encryptor can decide the access structure that will be used to protect the sensitive data. However, current CP-ABE schemes suffer from the issue of having long decryption keys, in which the size is linear to and dependent on the number of attributes. This drawback prevents the use of lightweight devices in practice as a storage of the decryption keys of the CP-ABE for users. In this paper, we provide an affirmative answer to the above long standing issue, which will make the CP-ABE very practical. We propose a novel CP-ABE scheme with constant-size decryption keys independent of the number of attributes. We found that the size can be as small as 672 bits. In comparison with other schemes in the literature, the proposed scheme is the only CP-ABE with expressive access structures, which is suitable for CP-ABE key storage in lightweight devices.