Light weight fabrics are selected for their aesthetic qualities, drape, and handle. But these fabrics are difficult to sew. Seams are the basic elements in a structure of any apparel. Seam performance affects the quality of the apparel product. In this research seam performance of two kinds of light woven fabrics differs in their construction (chiffon and satin) were studied in terms of seam strength, efficiency, and seam strain. The effect of some sewing parameters (sewing thread count, stitch density, needle size, stitch type) on seam strength, efficiency, and seam strain were investigated. Regression equations which can predict each of the previous parameters were concluded in both warp and weft directions. It was found that the stitch density and the interaction between thread count and stitch type affect warp seam strength for both chiffon and satin fabric. Sewing thread count has significant effect on seam stress in both directions for both fabrics under study. Also it affects seam strain in warp direction for satin fabric. The significant effect of sewing needle count on seam performance appears only in seam stress in warp direction for chiffon fabric.


Models for the specificity of DNA-binding transcription factors are often based on small amounts of qualitative data and therefore have limited accuracy. In this study we demonstrate a simple and efficient method of affinity chromatography-SELEX followed by a quantitative binding (QuMFRA) assay to rapidly collect the data necessary for more accurate models. Using the zinc finger protein EGR as an e.g. we show that many bindings sites can be obtained efficiently with affinity chromatography-SELEX, but those sequences alone provide a weight matrix model with limited accuracy. Using a QuMFRA assay to determine the quantitative relative affinity for only a subset of the sequences obtained by SELEX leads to a much more accurate model. Application of this method to variants of a transcription factor would allow us to generate a large collection of quantitative data for modeling protein–DNA interactions that could facilitate the determination of recognition codes for different transcription factor families.


Deep neural networks are usually trained with stochastic gradient descent (SGD), which minimizes objective function using very rough approximations of gradient, only averaging to the real gradient. Standard approaches like momentum or ADAM only consider a single direction, and do not try to model distance from extremum - neglecting valuable information from calculated sequence of gradients, often stagnating in some suboptimal plateau. Second order methods could exploit these missed opportunities, however, beside suffering from very large cost and numerical instabilities, many of them attract to suboptimal points like saddles due to negligence of signs of curvatures (as eigenvalues of Hessian).
Saddle-free Newton method (SFN)~\cite{SFN} is a rare example of addressing this issue - changes saddle attraction into repulsion, and was shown to provide essential improvement for final value this way. However, it neglects noise while modelling second order behavior, focuses on Krylov subspace for numerical reasons, and requires costly eigendecomposion.
Maintaining SFN advantages, there are proposed inexpensive ways for exploiting these opportunities. Second order behavior is linear dependence of first derivative - we can optimally estimate it from sequence of noisy gradients with least square linear regression, in online setting here: with weakening weights of old gradients. Statistically relevant subspace is suggested by PCA of recent noisy gradients - in online setting it can be made by slowly rotating considered directions toward new gradients, gradually replacing old directions with recent statistically relevant. Eigendecomposition can be also performed online: with regularly performed step of QR method to maintain diagonal Hessian. Outside the second order modeled subspace we can simultaneously perform gradient descent.


Several studies suggest that contact with natural environments enhance restoration of directed attention better than experience of other environments devoid of nature. This study attempts to validate the self-report measures of the components of a restorative environment and perceived stress through an exploratory study of the multi-stimulus Obudu mountain resort environment. Twenty-two respondents randomly co-opted at the study site had their perception of stress measured by the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) while their perceived restoration was measured by the Perceived Restorativeness Scale (PRS). Results indicate an acceptable stable and consistent coefficient alpha across the scores. We found that perceived stress is significantly related to fascination and age while being away, extent, compatibility and length of days were not significant. The results support the reliability and constructs of the PSS and the PRS in a mountain environment. The finding is a further indication of the universality of the underlying postulates behind restorative environments, human response and wellbeing.


Routine outcome measures have been introduced into mental health services throughout Australia, with the ultimate aim of developing standards for service delivery, and a means to determine the extent to which these standards are being realised in practice. Criticism that the existing measures are not reflecting the aspects of mental health care and treatment considered important by the consumers of those services is common and widespread. The aim of the current study was to explore the utility, effectiveness, and assumptions underlying routine outcome measures used by Victorian mental health services from the perspective of service users. Two focus group interviews were conducted with consumer members of a group known as Psych. Action and Training (a group of consumers and senior nurses with a commitment to consumer participation). The findings demonstrated criticism of the outcome measures routinely used in Victoria. The three main themes to emerge were: assumptions behind routine outcome measures; consumer concerns with routine outcome measures; and consumer perspective: purpose, process and principles.


Optimizing the number and placement of snake points is very crucial to the performance of the snake algorithm especially when used for object contour tracking. In this paper we address the problem by managing the insertion of new points and deletion of unnecessary points to better describe and track the object's boundary. In particular, our method uses more points in highly curved parts of the contour, and fewer points in less curved parts. The proposed algorithm can successfully define the contour of the object, and can track the contour in complex images. Performance of the proposed algorithm has been verified with a set of experiments.


Rotavirus is one of the leading causes of severe gastroenteritis in childhood, which is an infection known to be limited to the gastrointestinal system. However, a case of extra-intestinal complication developed during rotavirus gastroenteritis is presented here. Case A five years old patient with febrile convulsion, also having complaints of vomiting, diarrhea, and fever was brought to our hospital. General condition of the patient was bad; she was unconscious and severely dehydrated. Her laboratory findings showed acidosis and renal failure; coagulation tests showed impairment. During her monitoring, gastrointestinal bleeding, increase in liver function test values, hyperammonemia, neutropenia, and hypoglycemia were developed. Rotavirus antigen was found to be positive in the gaita test. Patient's general condition was improved by giving antibiotics, liquids, fresh frozen plasma, and thrombocites in the early stages after which she was discharged. Close monitoring of patients with rotavirus gastroenteritis in terms of extra-intestinal complications and applying appropriate treatment in the early stages may save lives.


Reactions of 1,3-bis(2-hydrazinophenylthio)propane (2) with formaldehyde in the presence of nickel(II) salts are reported, the first of a study of metal-ion template control of condensation reactions of aromatic hydrazines. Complexes of an unusual macrocyclic ligand result, in which the two hydrazine groups have been 'bridged' by the carbon atom of formaldehyde, and spontaneous aerial oxidation gives a novel monoanionic chelate ring containing four nitrogen atoms, (16,17-Dihydro-15H-dibenzo[f,m][1,11,4,5,7,8]dithiatetra-azacyclotetradecinato-N5,N9,S14,S18)-nickel(II) perchlorate (9) in an unsolvated monoclinic form, space group P21/c with a= 13.646(4), b= 9.374(3), c= 16.674(4)A, γ= 96.02(4)°, and Z= 4, allowed a more satisfactory X-ray structure determination (heavy-atom method, 2 299 diffractometer data, R 7.7%) than the triclinic methanol salvate previously examined.The complex shows planar co-ordination geometry with the conjugated anionic chelate ring lying close to this plane. The perchlorate counter ion is well separated from the nickel ion in both crystalline modifications [shortest Ni ⋯ O contacts 3.51(2) and 3.51(6)A].


Lung cancer is the deadliest form of cancer mainly because of the absence of reliable early diagnostic protocols. Therefore, there is increasing interest in the development of novel diagnostic noninvasive technologies that may improve the early detection of the disease. Bronchoscope-guided bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) is a minimally invasive diagnostic technique that is based on the extraction and analysis of cellular material from the bronchial epithelium of patients that present suspicious lung masses on low-dose screening X-ray-computed tomography images. Together with a novel staining technique that combines immunophenotyping of a lung cancer biomarker with fluorescent in situ hybridization of genetically abnormal DNA loci, BAL promises a powerful early diagnostic tool for lung carcinomas. The sensitivity of this method, however, is highly dependent on the pathologist's ability to reliably and repeatedly examine thousands of cells under the microscope. This is an extremely labor-intensive and error-prone task. We have developed a multiscale multidimensional integrated microscopy computer-aided detection platform that autonomously scans and analyzes BAL samples. In this paper, we describe its software architecture and validate the specific image analysis protocols that are developed for this particular application.


The authors report on a minimum of the A 1A' excited state of the H4 cluster in a Cs trigonal pyramidal geometry, which can support at least one vibrational level. This minimum is near an avoided crossing with the ground 1A' state. The non-adiabatic matrix elements of their vibronic coupling along a possible dissociation coordinate are also calculated.


This paper presents face recognition results obtained using a multi-classifier system (MCS) with Borda count voting. Experiments were conducted on complete sections of the FERET face database with 4 different algorithms: embedded HMM, DCT, EigenFaces and EigenObjects. Particular classifier ensembles yielded almost 6% of improvement over the individual techniques. In order to facilitate experiments on classifier combinations and decision rules comparison, a flexible MCS software architecture based on object oriented principles is also presented. It allows runtime modifications to the algorithms employed and dynamical selection of classifiers. This architecture can be applied to any pattern recognition problem.


Vitamin E acts as an important antioxidant against oxidative modification of low density lipoprotein (LDL) which is accepted as an initial event in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis. In spite of the numerous studies and reports, the action and role of vitamin E have not been fully elucidated yet. In this brief overview, the dynamics of action of vitamin E as an antioxidant have been discussed and it is emphasized that the total antioxidant potency is determined by the relative importance of many competing reactions which is determined by the reactivities and concentrations of substrates, radicals and antioxidant and by physical factors of the environment.


Understanding the molecular mechanisms of thermal stability is a challenge in protein biology. Indeed, knowing the temperature at which proteins are stable has important theoretical implications, which are intimately linked with properties of the native fold, and a wide range of potential applications from drug design to the optimization of enzyme activity. Here, we present a novel graph-theoretical framework to assess thermal stability based on the structure without any a priori information. In our approach we describe proteins as energy-weighted graphs and compare them using ensembles of interaction networks. Investigating the position of specific interactions within the 3D native structure, we developed a parameter-free network descriptor that permits to distinguish thermostable and mesostable proteins with an accuracy of 76% and Area Under the Roc Curve of 78%.


These volumes contain articles about knowled ge-enriched systems that are applicable to accounting and au diting. The articles advance the state-of-the-art in the fie ld, and explore methodologies and future trends. '


Aims: In 2007, Finnish authorities gave a national recommendation that schools should not sell sweet products. This study aimed to determine the effects of the national recommendation on school-level intermediary determinants (factors related to oral health inequalities) and if the changes were different according to school-level socio-economic position (SEP). Methods: This ecological and longitudinal study combined school-level data from two independent studies from Finnish upper comprehensive schools (N = 970): the School Health Promotion study (SHPS) and the School Sweet Selling survey (SSSS). The baseline data (SHPS from 2006–2007 and SSSS from 2007) and the post-intervention data (SHPS and SSSS from 2008–2009) were combined into a longitudinal school-level data set (n = 360 and response rate = 37%). The intermediary determinants were: attitudes and access to intoxicants, school health services, school environment, home environment, schools' health-promoting actions (including sweet product selling) and pupils' eating habits. Three equal-sized school-level SEP group — slow, middle and high — were formed. The changes in the intermediary determinants were analysed using Wilcoxon Signed Ranks test. Differences between school SEP groups were analysed the using Kruskal–Wallis test. Longitudinal linear mixed modelling was used to determine the contribution of intermediary determinants to the changes in pupils' eating habits. Results: The national recommendation was effective in decreasing sweet product selling at schools and the effect was equal in each school-level SEP group. Intermediary determinants contributed differently to eating habits in the three SEP groups. Conclusions: A national recommendation seems to be an effective tool in making the school environment healthier without increasing inequalities.


The quantum Hall effect allows the standard for resistance to be defined in terms of the elementary charge and Planck's constant alone. The effect comprises the quantization of the Hall resistance in two-dimensional electron systems in rational fractions of RK=h/e2=25812.8074434(84) Ω (Mohr P. J. et al., Rev. Mod. Phys., 84 (2012) 1527), the resistance quantum. Despite 30 years of research into the quantum Hall effect, the level of precision necessary for metrology, a few parts per billion, has been achieved only in silicon and III-V heterostructure devices. In this lecture we show that graphene - a single layer of carbon atoms - beats these well-established semiconductor materials as the system of choice for the realisation of the quantum resistance standard. Here we shall briefly describe graphene technology, discuss the structure and electronic properties of graphene, including the unconventional quantum Hall effect and then present in detail the route, which led to the most precise quantum Hall resistance universality test ever performed. © Societa Italiana di Fisica.


In this study, the effects of various daily feeding ratios on the growth, stomach volume and meat composition in rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) were investigated. The feeding experiment was conducted in 450 L volume fiberglass tanks with 3 × 3 factorial patterns. During the experiment, while food were given to the fish at the first group in the 0.5% (I) of ratio of their live weight, the second group at the level of 2% (II) food were given to the fish, at the third group at the level of 6% (III) food. The initial weight and size values of the groups were 76.16±0.41 g and 19.11±1.63 cm, respectively. The final weight and size values reached up to 128.89±34.21 g, 25.09±2.37 cm; 236.05±89.32 g, 24.78±2.22 cm; and 238.91±86.67 g, 21.65±1.64 cm, for groups I, II, and III respectively. The best growth performance in terms of weight was obtained in group III, while the best growth performance in terms of size was obtained in groups I and II (P < 0.05). The best feed conversion ratio was determined in the low feeding group I (P < 0.05). At the end of experiment, three of the experimental groups were different from each other. The highest stomach volume was measured in group III (P < 0.05). In conclusion, the 6% feeding ratio increased the growth and significantly increased the stomach volume, however decreased the feed conversion ratio.


Basin rubber bearings are frequently used in high-speed railway bridge or passenger special line railway bridge, lead rubber bearings (LRB) are infrequently used in those railway bridges nowdays, the study on earthquake-resistant capability of railway bridge fabricated isolation bearing - the intelligent and functional structure - would be beneficial in engineering practices. Elasto-plastic earthquake responses of high-speed railway bridges fabricated LRB are studied by means of the finite element program, earthquake responses of railway bridges under high-speed vehicles and different earthquake action fabricated and unfabricated isolation bearing are calculated respectively. The results show that: plastic hinge will develop at the bottom of piers in regard to railway bridges with mid-high and low pier; LRB can reduce displacement and inner forces of structures and improve earthquake-resistant capability of structures effectively.


The article concerns the issues related to the removal of freight trains by speed passenger trains and the influence of removal coefficients on traffic capacity, depending on the length of blocks. The results of the study are the graphs of the removal coefficients of freight trains by speed trains at different length of blocks; and the impact of removal coefficients on the capacity of single-track sections with two-track inserts. As scientific innovation, we have formulated and solved the problem of dependence of removal coefficients of freight trains by speed trains on single-track sections with two-track inserts. We have improved the mathematical model of calculation of the capacity of single-track sections with two-track inserts, which unlike existing, permits to determine the impact of speed passenger trains on the capacity, depending on operational situation. The practical significance of the developed procedures and methods can be used to create automated decision support systems for operational distribution of trains on railway lines with parallel passages under conditions of speed passenger trains, to develop automated workstation of control personnel of operational and administrative directorates and railway departments


It is often necessary to calculate frequency characteristics of a power conversion system for design and stability analysis. This paper proposes an efficient computation method which calculates a response signal component for a perturbed signal in a PE system. The proposed method is essentially reduced to repeated steady-state analysis for sampled frequency points. A fast and efficient steady-state simulation method is proposed which is based on a new extended combination of the envelope-following and the conventional shooting methods. A DC-DC converter system with a closed-loop control is adopted as an analysis example and its result is validated for accuracy and computational efficiency.


Muscle atrophy syndrome - Spinal (SMA) is one of the common diseases of muscle - nerve, with progressive paralysis is due to the alpha motor neuron in the spinal cord becomes waste. SMN1 and SMN2 gene expression in SMA by only a single nucleotide in exon 7 are different. Homozygous deletion of exon 7 in the SMN1 gene is the most common mutation observed. Compound heterozygosity small proportion of patients with a point mutation in one allele and the other allele are removed. In other cases the disease does not appear to be the result of a change in SMN1. In spinal atrophy-muscle, SMN2 unable to compensate for the shortage caused by the deletion of exon 7. The aim of the present study was to estimate the prevalence of common deletion of exon 7 in the SMN1 gene families in Tabriz, in order to determine the status of the carrier and prenatal diagnosis. 119 families with a history of child with SMA and determined that the deletion of exon 7 in the child with the parents were carriers and Also well as 42 cases of prenatal diagnosis for couples fetus was a carrier. Of the families surveyed, 127 families with a history of SMA1, 24 families with a history of type II and 11 families with a history of type III disease who have had children. In families with a history of a patient, 89 families had both parents carry the deletion of exon 7 and in 26 families, one of them was carrying. The frequencies in families with a history of type II SMA 16 and 1, respectively, and in families with a history of type III SMA was 2,3 respectively. Investigation of fetal samples showed that 11 of 63 samples (5.17%) were diagnosed. Except for two, all patients were homozygote for deletion of exon 7 (7.96% of patients). The study showed that molecular analysis of the two alleles of exon 7 SMN1 appropriate method for the removal and reliable diagnosis of patients to determine the carrier and prenatal diagnosis in families with patients with SMA is.


Sisal Fibre (SF)are natural (biological) and locally available materials in Tanzania. This materials have been also acknowledged to be used in concrete technology. However, most of existing studies in concrete technology are focused on beam, soil, and composite reinforcement and all have focused on tension. Thus, knowledge on use of SF on improving compressive strength of building materials like concrete blocks especially those recycled from construction and demolition (C&D) waste is still limited. This study aimed at investigating the extent to which the SF can be applied in concrete mix and their effects on the production of concrete blocks that use recycled C&D waste in order to meet structural and durability requirements according to Tanzanian standards. SF was physically and chemically tested and analysed in the laboratory to investigate its quality prior to using it in building material production processes. Then, the produced building materials, such as concrete blocks from recycled C&D waste were tested and analysed following standard methods. The results showed that SF had cementations properties which can contribute to hydration process and therefore improve the quality of the concrete produced like those produced from recycled aggregates. Further results showed that SF have ability to enhance the quality of the recycled concrete blocks that were produced using 100% recycled aggregates from C&D waste to meet the load bearing requirements in the Tanzanian construction industry. Therefore, SF can be used as an additive material for improving the quality of concrete blocks produced from C&D waste rather than relying on imported and synthetic additives like super-plasticizer admixtures which put quite some strain on the country's economic situation. However, further research is needed to investigate the impact of organic composition present to the SF in the produced concrete products.


Maintenance is one of the building management strategy aims to provide protection to the importance and usability of the buildings. Maintenance is also become an important approach in ensuring the building and its contents can be operate and function properly. However, based on previous studies, maintenance is always been neglected and not become the main activity in managing and protecting of the valuable and non replaceable asset. Therefore, the aim of this study is to establish the need of the implementation maintenance manual for residential building in order to assist the homeowner and tenant to correct identify any repairs or maintenance. To achieve this aim, three objectives have been delineated. The first objective is to study the need of implementation maintenance manual for residential building. The second objective is to investigate the problems regarding the maintenance faced by the homeowner or tenant and the third objective is to study the awareness on the importance of maintenance manual for residential building. Through the random sampling technique, the survey was conducted by distributing the questionnaire to 30 respondent for every case study in order to obtain the required data. So, the total numbers of respondents are 90 respondents. Then, the analysis of the data that was obtained was carried out by using the manual method with entering the information into the Microsoft Excel and generate a graph that relates for all parts of the questionnaire. The study concludes that the maintenance manual is very importance to the homeowners and tenants and it is need to be implement in the residential building in Malaysia.


The Dandaragan trough and its surrounding elements contain the known commercial hydrocarbon accumulations in the Perth basin, Western Australia. Organically rich sediments are widely distributed throughout the Permian, Triassic, and Jurassic section of the basin and the organic type is mainly humic as a result of the proximity of the Precambrian shield on the east and the predominance of continental sedimentation in the basin. Hydrocarbon accumulations are therefore mainly gas/condensate, although a secondary occurrence of light, paraffinic oil is of economic significance. Regional studies indicate a Neocomian uplift of the western flank of the Dandaragan trough centered on the Beagle ridge. The extent and magnitude of truncation appear to be reflected in systematic varia ions in sandstone porosity trends. Vitrinite reflectance data suggest that the uplift and erosion of the Beagle ridge were accompanied by higher geothermal gradients than are measured today in exploratory boreholes. Modern gradients of up to 5°C/100 m have been measured on the Beagle ridge and possibly represent this waning geothermal anomaly. In contrast, low geothermal gradients in the axis of the Dandaragan trough (< 2.0°C/100 m) mean that generative temperatures are reached in this area at relatively great depths. Producible accumulations commonly depend on a delicate balance between generative depth and the level at which porosity declines to unacceptable levels for gas production.


This study examined a wide range of variables relating to the practice patterns of 692 Ontario chiropractors (approximately 30% of all registrants in the province) who subscribed to the Ontario Chiropractic Association's Patient Management Program. It analyzed the 2000-2001 data of these chiropractors and provided important information on such factors as practitioner and patient demographics, practice profiles, and reimbursement patterns.The mean number of chiropractic treatments per patient for the year was 8.6 (sd = 3.4) and the mean treatment fee (above OHIP) per patient visit was $17.60 (sd = 5.0). Nearly one third of patient treatments were for lumbar complaints, and more than one-third of the patients were between 35 and 50 years of age.The mean annual gross income of the chiropractors in this study was $148,824 (sd = $86,391), with the male practitioners having a statistically significantly higher mean income ($161,363) than their female counterparts ($108,126). Practice location was significantly related to income, with postal code 'M' (Toronto) having the lowest mean income level. The overwhelming majority of practitioners (85%) used Diversified Technique as their primary treatment procedure, while 'modalities' was the most commonly selected adjunctive treatment procedure (29%).This study sheds new light on the associations among such factors as practitioner gender, practice location, and level of income.


This paper describes a quantitative empirical research on the factors influencing volunteers in clown-therapy. The field of the volunteering has social relevance particularly for its positive aspects on social community and on prosocial behavior. However, after a broad literature review on the topic of volunteering, the re-searcher aims to investigate the specific issue of volunteering in clown-therapy, exploring similarities and differences with voluntary activities in other settings, and analysing motivations and reasons for the choice to become a volunteer. A comparative and statistical approach is the real innovative aspect of this research in that it carried out factor analysis, comparative analysis and overcame the limits of the prior research on volunteering, which had dealt just with some dimensions of the complex phenomenon of volunteering. Finally, the research results confirm the hypothesis that volunteering in general, and volunteering in clown-therapy in particular, is an activity empowering both for the individual and for the entire community.


The electrical consumptions of Naval shore facilities for 1983 were regressed with current square footage areas for then different facility types. The data used was from the FASCO NFA/MAGIC and DEIS II data bases. The annual electrical consumption was found to vary from 2.4 kilowatt-hours per square foot for storage facilities to 34 kilowatt-hours per square foot for production facilities.


Fluctuation Analysis (FA) and specially Detrended Fluctuation Analysis (DFA) are techniques commonly used to quantify correlations and scaling properties of complex time series such as the observable outputs of great variety of dynamical systems, from Economics to Physiology. Often, such correlated time series are analyzed using the magnitude and sign decomposition, i.e., by using FA or DFA to study separately the sign and the magnitude series obtained from the original signal. This approach allows for distinguishing between systems with the same linear correlations but different dynamical properties. However, here we present analytical and numerical evidence showing that FA and DFA can lead to spurious results when applied to sign and magnitude series obtained from power-law correlated time series of fractional Gaussian noise (fGn) type. Specifically, we show that: (i) the autocorrelation functions of the sign and magnitude series obtained from fGns are always power-laws; However, (ii) when the sign series presents power-law anticorrelations, FA and DFA wrongly interpret the sign series as purely uncorrelated; Similarly, (iii) when analyzing power-law correlated magnitude (or volatility) series, FA and DFA fail to retrieve the real scaling properties, and identify the magnitude series as purely uncorrelated noise; Finally, (iv) using the relationship between FA and DFA and the autocorrelation function of the time series, we explain analytically the reason for the FA and DFA spurious results, which turns out to be an intrinsic property of both techniques when applied to sign and magnitude series.


China is now the lender of first resort for much of the developing world, but Beijing has fueled speculation among policymakers, scholars, and journalists by shrouding its grant-giving and lending activities in secrecy. Introducing a systematic and transparent method of tracking Chinese development projects around the world, this book explains Beijing's motives and analyzes the intended and unintended effects of its overseas investments. Whereas China almost exclusively provided aid during the twentieth century, its twenty-first century transition from 'benefactor' to 'banker' has had far-reaching impacts in low-income and middle-income countries that are not widely understood. Its use of debt rather than aid to bankroll big-ticket infrastructure projects creates new opportunities for developing countries to achieve rapid socio-economic gains, but it has also introduced major risks, such as corruption, political capture, and conflict. This book will be of interest to policymakers, students and scholars of international political economy, Chinese politics and foreign policy, economic development, and international relations.


Nuclear monitoring systems provide an increasing amount of realtime measurements to analyse equipment condition. Storage, retrieval, and effective use of information must therefore be made as efficient as possible in order to achieve reliability goals and additional reductions in operating costs. Combining them with other data sources like equipment characteristics, maintenance logs and previous expertise reports will help make better diagnostics while minimizing the time dedicated to an analysis hence leading to better maintenance decisions. This paper presents an overview of the project under study at EDF to develop a case based reasoning platform enabling experts to efficiently retrieve similarities between past events and the current situation. Several technical barriers are encountered such as the comparison of multidimensional time series, of textual information and the extraction of signal features. The problem is here framed as a pattern classification problem where the classes correspond to equipment faults. Similarity criteria have been defined and evaluated against nuclear power plants data for the diagnosis of abnormal patterns on critical equipment. The classification results are compared with service and expertise reports using clustering and classification algorithms. The prospect of this diagnosis is to support the adjustment of maintenance schedule by estimating the remaining useful life of critical equipment.


The crowdsourcing scenarios are a good example of having a probability distribution over some categories showing what the people in a global perspective thinks. Learn a predictive model of this probability distribution can be of much more valuable that learn only a discriminative model that gives the most likely category of the data. Here we present differents models that adapts having probability distribution as target to train a machine learning model. We focus on the Bregman divergences framework to used as objective function to minimize. The results show that special care must be taken when build a objective function and consider a equal optimization on neural network in Keras framework.


Whilst many methods for product development exist and are applied successfully in different industrial sectors, e.g. in mechanical engineering, these methods are widely unused in civil engineering and construction. The application of several methods in the planning of buildings and building parts is generally possible and reasonable, e. g. in terms of quality management and design for sustainability. Problems occur in implementing these methods into the planning process, which is often, especially in small and medium sized projects, unorganised and characterised by "information cuts" between planning, realisation and utilisation. Due to the predomination of small architecture firms and building companies, where modern forms of design (e.g. teamwork) are rarely exercised and research concentrates on solving immediate problems rather than creating general solutions for multiple projects, the implementation of methods turns out to be a difficult change project. To address the problems mentioned above, a strategy for implementation is presented. Process optimisation and the integration of methods into the design process are crucial pre-requisites for the use of methods.


Tryptophan deficiency in food will affect brain metabolism, cause nicotinic acid deficiency and lead to skin roughness disease, etc., while lysine is the first limiting amino acid of the people whose staple food is grain, which can affect the synthesis, metabolism and immunity of brain nerve regenerative cells. In this paper, the author analyzesthe nutritional function of food protein and image object recognition and simulation based on computer vision.Because of the poor contrast of the original SAR image,it is necessary to use gray stretch to improve the dynamic range of the gray level of the image. In order to suppress the influence of speckle noise on target recognition, the enhancement filtering algorithm is used to denoise. The results show that the improved depth learning model is more accurate and the effect will be further improved after feature selection.The limitation of the algorithm proposed in this paper is that as the distinction between target and background decreases, the effect of the algorithm will be weakened.


INTRODUCTION: Idiopathic clubfoot (talipes equinovarus) is a congenital deformity of the foot. The common treatment consists of serial manipulation and casting, known as the Ponseti method, which is started in the first week after birth. After an average of five cast changes and often a percutaneous Achilles tenotomy the deformity is corrected [1]. An abduction orthosis is worn for several years to prevent relapse. The application of plaster cast includes soaking the roll in lukewarm water which starts the exothermic curing reaction. After the plaster has cured the surplus water evaporates, which is an endothermic process. Heat is drawn from the surrounding but also from the patient. One case study describes observed hypothermia after the application of a plaster jacket for immobilization of the cervical spine [2]. In a survey among parents (unreported, 49 respondents) a number of parents mentioned that their child seemed to feel cold the first hours after a new cast had been applied. The aim of current study is to investigate the temperature changes underneath the cast in the treatment of clubfoot with the Ponseti method. METHODS: A 1-wire DS1825 digital thermometer (Maxim Integrated, San Jose, CA, USA) was used to measure the temperature underneath the cast. The sensor was placed underneath the sole of the foot and attached to a custom made data logger which stored time and temperature data every 10 minutes for a full week. Dip duration was calculated as the time from the moment the first maximum was reached until the temperature reached the mean value of the last 6 days. T-Tests were used to test the temperature difference for statistical significance.According to the Medical ethical evaluation committee of the UMCG the study does not fall under the Medical Research Involving Human Subjects act. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: Preliminary results of the first seven measurements in four subjects (age 2-30d, all boys, 2 bilateral) are presented in Figure 1. Figure 1: Typical measurement of the temperature underneath the cast during the first 24 hours after casting.After an initial temperature increase after the application of the plaster cast, a decrease was visible in all measurements (p < 0.000). This dip reached a minimum of 23-33°C and lasted 5.9-16h before reaching a relatively stable 34-37°C. During the ISB2017 the additional results of the remaining scheduled measurements will be presented. CONCLUSIONSA considerable decrease in skin temperature was observed after the application of long leg casts in the treatment of clubfoot. Especially in bilateral cases this might cause discomfort or even hypothermia. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: This study has been supported by the Dutch Technology Foundation.


Mastery Motivation is concerned with how children learn or master' certain tasks. Aspects of cognitive, social and language development are all important and mastery motivation is a key factor in understanding later developmental and educational achievement. Concentrating on the pre-school child, the book examines how mastery motivation is best measured and assessed. It also looks at how environmental components, such as the parent-infant relationship or the use of toys, affect the development of mastery motivation. In addition, the relation between the acquisition of longer attention span and persistence in infants, and their subsequent educational achievement, is discussed. With a broad range of international contributors Mastery Motivation will be of interest to developmental psychologists and educationalists, and advanced students in these fields.


The application of procedural guarantees of the right to a fair trial is significant for effective legal defence. Certain element of the right to a fair trial are applicable in enforcement proceedings, such the requirement for reasonable length of enforcement proceedings, cooperation between the parties, the principle of adversarial proceedings. Since enforcement proceedings are an integral part of litigation in the court, states may be liable for a failure to ensure effective enforcement proceedings.


Using an intersectional approach, we explore how parents in the Czech Republic coped with the increased demands of childcare and how their perceptions of childcare changed throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Building on Nancy Fraser's theory of the social contradiction of capitalism, we address the question of whether the pandemic situation can be viewed as an opportunity to increase recognition of care. Qualitative interviews with parents from various socioeconomic backgrounds conducted from spring 2020 to summer 2021 demonstrate ambivalent experiences of care during the COVID-19 pandemic. The first school closure in spring 2020 was perceived as a rather positive interruption to everyday affairs. As the pandemic became protracted, the long-term negative effects of care under lockdown arose, especially among mothers, which included weakening labour market position, deteriorating economic situation, and growing dependence on a male breadwinner or social welfare. Our research shows the temporality of the COVID-19 care crisis. In the first stage of the pandemic, care was (also) assessed as an opportunity, a source of purpose, and a new value. In the next period, the experiences and expectations were rather negative. Over time, gender inequality at home increased as women took on most of the increased care burden and the social inequalities deepened, with some using their resources to compensate for the risks associated with the care crisis and others facing further exhaustion and income losses. Overall, parental care did not win greater societal recognition during the pandemic.


In this letter, we present a comprehensive performance analysis of orthogonal space-time block codes (STBCs) with transmit antenna selection under uncorrelated Rayleigh fading channels. Two best transmit antennas that maximize the instantaneous received signal-to-noise (SNR) are selected. Using the well-known moment generating function-based analysis approach, we derive the exact average symbol error rate (SER) for M-ary signals. Furthermore, we provide tight upper bounds on the SER for any number of transmit antennas and receive antennas. The tightness is verified by simulation results. It is shown that the diversity order, with antenna selection, is maintained as that of the full complexity systems


The Nypha Palm Worm Namalycastis rhodochorde has been used as bait for fishing in Pontianak. Culturing the worm is one potential effort for its commercialization as well as to overcome the overexploitation of the worm which also brings about the degradation of its natural habitat. Samples of the worm were collected from mangrove forest area in Sungai Kakap, West Kalimantan. Fresh sample of gametes from coelomic fluid were observed carefully under compound microscope to determine phase of gamete development. Oogenesis consisted of three consecutive stages namely immature, submature, and mature with ≤40 μm, 40<x<120 μm, and ≥120 μm in diameter, respectively. The spermatogenesis phases consisted of, spermatogonia, spermatid tetrad and spermatozoa.


Diverse challenges of microbial infections and upsurge of multi-drug resistant microbes informed the investigation into the phytochemical and antibacterial properties of Crateva adansonii. Cold extraction was carried out using methanol solvent. The crude extract of Crateva adansonii was fractionated into the n-hexane, methanol and chloroform layers successively. The phytochemical screening indicated the presence of alkaloids, saponins, terpenoids, flavonoids and cardiac glycosides. The antimicrobial assay showed that, for Bacillus spp, the organism was sensitive to the chloroform fraction of leaf extract at 1.562 mg/ml. For Microccocus varians, result showed organism was sensitive to the crude extract at 3.125 mg/ml. According to the result of antifungal screening, the n-hexane fraction and crude extract showed activity against Aspergillus niger at 12.500 mg/ml and 3.125 mg/ml respectively. From these results, the crude extract of the leaf of Crateva adansonii shows activity against both bacteria and Fungi; hence, it may might be a good source of new drug for treating infections caused by these pathogens.


We present a novel procedure for optimization based on the combination of efficient quantized tensor train representation and a generalized maximum matrix volume principle. We demonstrate the applicability of the new Tensor Train Optimizer (TTOpt) method for various tasks, ranging from minimization of multidimensional functions to reinforcement learning. Our algorithm compares favorably to popular evolutionary-based methods and outperforms them by the number of function evaluations or execution time, often by a significant margin.


Bradykinin was converted rapidly into the fragment 1-8 by kininase I when incubated with human plasma. Kininase II inactivated bradykinin by splitting the Pro7-Phe8 and the Phe5-Ser6 bonds in it. ACE inhibitory peptide Val-Tyr and captopril did not inhibit the conversion of bradykinin in human plasma into the fragments 1-8, 1-7 and 1-5. Bradykinin was converted into the fragments 1-7 and 1-5 by dipeptidyl peptidase activity of ACE. Captopril inhibited degradation of bradykinin by dipeptidyl peptidase activity of ACE, but ValTyr did not inhibit. (Received Jul. 1, 1996)


Efficient implementation of block ciphers is critical towards achieving both high security and high-speed processing. Numerous block ciphers, including the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), have been proposed and implemented, using a wide and varied range of functional operations. Existing microprocessor architectures do not provide this broad range of support. However, the advent of intellectual property (IP) processor cores presents the opportunity to augment existing datapaths with instruction set extensions to add acceleration modules in the form of new instructions. We will present a general purpose instruction set extension to a 32-bit SPARC V8 compatible processor core that accelerates the performance of Galois Field fixed field constant multiplication, a core element of the AES algorithm. This extension will be shown to accelerate AES encryption versus pure software implementations at a small hardware cost. This matches the improvement demonstrated in previously proposed AES-specific instruction set extensions while maintaining a generalized implementation format capable of supporting other algorithms that use Galois Field fixed field constant multiplication.


This article considers the features of electronic document management at retail trade enterprises of the FMCG-segment. The paper observes the types of document flow at chain companies and examines the process of implementation of electronic document management system. The notions of "electronic document management" and "electronic data interchange" are also distinguished in the article.The paper explores positive changes caused by the introduction of electronic document management and the complexity of its implementation. The study reveals that in the Russian Federation the process of mass introduction of electronic document management in the chain retail companies of the FMCG segment has been ongoing for about ten years, though has reached the highest level of its activity in the last two years. At present day, the major part of chain retail companies in the FMCG-segment has already started to actively work with the Electronic Data Interchange system. Moreover, in recent years the number of partner-enterprises that join this system has been steadily increasing.The results of the study show that introduction of electronic document management in chain companies of the FMCG-segment allows to reduce the time spent for processing documents and to track all stages of the core business processes more effectively. It also ensures information security, improves staff discipline and the quality of service, which in its turn significantly improves management efficiency of the company in general.


Essential hypertension is 95% of cases of hypertension were there. Hypertension has been a deadly disease that many people in the developed and developing countries, called the silent killer because the disease does not have the typical symptoms that realized by the sufferer. Hypertension often ends in death. Therefore, various measures of anticipation by implementing custom-ability and a positive attitude is important to apply. To overcome the pharmacologic treatment of hypertension can be done with medications or treatment alternative (non-pharmacological therapies) include: acupressure, herbal medicine, juice therapy, massage therapy, yoga, aromatherapy, breathing and relaxation, treatment on the mind and body; biofeedback, meditation, hypnosis, home care etc.
Objective: autogenic relaxation effect is known to decrease blood pressure and anxiety levels of patients with essential hypertension in PSTW Abiyoso Pakem Yogyakarta.
This study is a quasi-experimental design with Non-Equivalent Control Group with pre and post test. The study was conducted in PSTW Abiyoso Pakem and in PSTW Budhi Luhur Kasongan Bantul with a sample of 30 in the intervention group and 30 in the control group. Sampling with purposive sampling. Sample criteria: the elderly with essential hypertension, aged at least 50 years experience minimal anxiety mild anxiety, no hearing loss, is able to communicate well and are willing to become respondents. Measurement of blood pressure and anxiety levels performed before granting autogenic relaxation techniques, then the intervention group was given the standard therapy plus autogenic relaxation and a control group given standard therapy alone. Data analysis is done by comparing the average blood pressure before and after the relaxation in each group by the Wilcoxon test and compared between groups by Mann Whitney test.
Results: Most respondents were female, namely 70% in the intervention group and 80% in the control group. Age of respondents intervention group on average 72.4 years old, the youngest 56 years old and the oldest 85 years old. The control group average of 71.6 years, the youngest 50 and the oldest 86 years old. Results of statistical test intervention group for systolic BP before and after relaxation by the Wilcoxon test values obtained significancy 0.001 (p <0.05), the control group 0005. Diastolic blood pressure intervention group and the control group 0.001 0.012. From the results of the Mann-Whitney test between the intervention group and the control group, obtained p = 0520 for systolic blood pressure, p = 0411 for diastolic and p = 0.000 for anxiety levels.
Conclusion: Relaxation Autogenic effect on lowering blood pressure and anxiety levels in patients with essential hypertension in PSTW Abiyoso Yogyakarta.

Keywords: autogenic relaxation techniques, the level of anxiety, blood pressure, essential hypertension.


In this paper we present an all-optical silicon based modulator suggested also for high power operation and for pulse picker application being used as part of fiber lasers system. The paper theoretically and experimentally investigates several new and important insights involving the dependence of the relative transmission on the pump pulse energy for different finesse values of the constructed cavity as well as the dependence of the response rate of the device to the pump wavelength due to coexistence of two physical recombination processes: fast surface effect and slow bulk recombination. To adapt the constructed silicon based cavity to be used in lasers applications, we aligned the pump and the signal beams to co-propagate through the device while the usage of a cavity allowed a low power pump to yield a significant extinction ratio at the output of the device.


COVID-19 has been found to cause neuropsychiatric symptoms which indicate brain involvement. SARS-CoV-2 may enter the brain by damaging and penetrating olfactory mucosa and via other possible routes like damaged blood–brain barrier, and hematologic spread. With SARS-CoV-2 having a higher affinity to ACE2 receptors, brain regions that have higher ACE2 receptors like the hippocampus, are more vulnerable to the effect of the viral invasion. In addition, immune cell activation, an important feature of COVID-19, leads to cytokine storm which causes neurotoxicity, neuroinflammation, and neurodegeneration. Impaired adult neurogenesis is related to many psychiatric disorders including depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorder, schizophrenia, and PTSD. It is known to be related to the depletion of neurotransmitters, dopamine, serotonin, norepinephrine, GABA, and glutamate which play a major role in adult neurogenesis. A recent study reveals that SSRI which acts by increasing serotonin is proven beneficial in COVID-19 patients. Thus, the current chapter will discuss the impact of COVID-19 on adult neurogenesis with emphasis on the role of ACE2 and neurotransmitters.


We hypothesized that the evolutionary stability of insect traits relevant to invasion risk can be used to characterize this risk and the confidence in assigning potential invasiveness. Different longhorned beetle species have biological trait combinations (diet breadth, host tree condition and adult feeding) that predispose them to different degrees of potential invasiveness if introduced outside their native range. Relevant biological information is often not available for newly introduced species; however, the approach described in the present study could rapidly allow risk to be assigned to such discoveries. To test this approach, we used a molecular phylogeny for 56 species of Cerambycidae from five subfamilies to measure phylogenetic signal associated with invasive traits. The biological traits were used to cluster species into seven hypothesized risk groups. Mapping these risk designations back onto the phylogeny allowed us to examine the risk within clades at different taxonomic levels and the stability of the risk designation. We used additional species known to be non‐native invasive problems to test our framework. Our method would have correctly predicted the risk of Anoplophora glabripennis (Motschulsky) but not Callidiellum rufipenne (Motschulsky). There was significant phylogenetic signal in both the biological traits and the risk category membership. Our approach can be modified for other groups of concern.


Headlights of vehicles pose a great danger during night driving. The drivers of most vehicles use high, bright beam while driving at night. This causes a discomfort to the person travelling from the opposite direction. He experiences a sudden glare for a short period of time. This is caused due to the high intense headlight beam from the other vehicle coming towards him from the opposite direction. We are expected to dim the headlight to avoid this glare. This glare causes a temporary blindness to a person resulting in road accidents during the night. To avoid such incidents, we have fabricated a prototype of automatic headlight dimmer. This automatically switches the high beam into low beam thus reducing the glare effect by sensing the approaching vehicle. It also eliminates the requirement of manual switching by the driver which is not done at all times. The construction, working and the advantages of this prototype model is discussed in detail in this paper.


The double-transcendental nature of the correlation function for the complex polarizability of the itinerant oscillator model indicates that an infinite number of oscillatory decay modes exist thus giving rise to an infinite number of harmonic peaks in the complex polarizability. The approximate formula for the complex polarizability given by Coffey and Walsh (1997 J. Chem. Phys. 106 7625) does not include these decay modes as this formula is based on taking the first two terms of the Taylor series expansion of the correlation function in terms of single-transcendental functions. It is demonstrated by calculating numerically the Fourier transform of the correlation function that the approximate formula provides an accurate approximation to the complex polarizability since the contribution of the higher-order decay modes is negligible. In addition, a new dimensionless set of parameters for the description of the model which also reduces the number of parameters needed to fit the model to experimental spectra is proposed. The polarizability spectra calculated with the new parameter set from the model compare favourably with the experimental spectra in methyl chloride.


GUIDELINE TITLE
Evaluation for Bleeding Disorders in Suspected Child Abuse RELEASE DATE: October 2022 PRIOR VERSION(S): 2013 DEVELOPER: American Academy of Pediatrics FUNDING SOURCE: American Academy of Pediatrics TARGET POPULATION: Children and infants with bruising or bleeding suspicious for physical abuse.


PURPOSE
Develop and evaluate the effectiveness of a T1-based correction method for errors in proton resonant frequency shift thermometry due to non-local field effects caused by heating in fatty breast tissues.

METHODS
Computational models of human breast tissue were created by segmenting MRI data from a healthy human volunteer. MR guided focused ultrasound (MRgFUS) heating and MR thermometry measurements were simulated in several locations in the heterogeneous segmented breast models. A T1 based correction method for PRF thermometry errors was applied and the maximum positive and negative errors and the root mean squared error (RMSE) in a region around each heating location was evaluated with and without correction. The method uses T1 measurements to estimate the temperature change in fatty tissues and correct for their influence. Experimental data from a heating study in cadaver breast tissue was analyzed, and the expected PRFS error computed.

RESULTS
The simulated MR thermometry had maximum single voxel errors ranging between 10 and 18% when no correction was applied. Applying the correction led to a considerable improvement, lowering the maximum error range to 2-5%. The 5th to 95th percentile interval of the temperature error distribution was also lowered with correction, from approximately 3.5 to 1°C. This correction worked even when T1 times were uniformly raised or lowered by 5-10%. The experimental data showed predicted errors of 15%.

CONCLUSIONS
This simulation study demonstrates that the T1-based correction method reduces MR thermometry errors due to non-local effects from heating in fatty tissues, potentially improving the accuracy of thermometry measurements during MRgFUS treatments. The presented correction method is reliant on having a patient-specific 3D model of the breast, and may be limited by the accuracy of the fat temperatures which in turn may be limited by noise or bias present in the T1 measurements.


PURPOSE
The effectiveness of a novel intervention for increasing health and safety behaviors of older farmers was tested. Blending didactic and readers' theater techniques, Farm Dinner Theater (FDT) engages farmers in discussions of health and safety in a nonthreatening social atmosphere supportive of potential changes.

METHODS
Through community collaborations, farmers 45 years and older were recruited in 8 communities for the FDT. For each site, 3 scripts were prepared highlighting health and safety issues especially relevant for older farmers. The brief plays were performed in a dinner theater format, with group discussion following each play. Printed educational packets (EPs) addressing the same topics were mailed to comparison groups of participants in 9 communities. In telephone interviews conducted 2 weeks and 2 months later, 870 participants (553 FDT and 317 EP) reported health and safety-related changes they had made in their farm operations.

FINDINGS
FDT participants were more likely than EP participants to report having made any changes and reported making more changes on both the 2-week and 2-month follow-up assessments. This outcome occurred when analyzing all farms and when considering only farms with at least 1 participant who spent 10 or more hours per week farming.

CONCLUSIONS
FDT is a fun, relaxing intervention; it is acceptable to farming communities; and it is more effective in producing health and safety-related changes than the common approach of providing printed materials. FDT not only had a greater impact than EP, but it has the potential to reach larger audiences due to its greater appeal.


This paper sets out to advance the concept of an 'epistemology of compassion' first proposed by Vandeyar (2013; 2016).  Utilising a single embedded case study and the theoretical mooring of post-conflict pedagogy this paper attempts to find links between Jansen's perceptions of a post-conflict pedagogy and Freirean pedagogy and to argue a case for a 'pedagogy of compassion' as a possible approach to addressing and transforming education in post-apartheid South Africa. Data capture comprised a mix of semi-structured interviews, observations and field notes. Data was analysed by means of the content analysis method. Findings were threefold. First, the implementation of a 'pedagogy of compassion' enabled the teacher to dismantle polarised thinking and to shatter the polite silence of post-apartheid South African society. Second, teachers not only need to be able to raise the critical consciousness of learners but they need to adopt an 'epistemology of compassion' in order to enable learners to become active critical citizens, imbued with a sense of common humanity and compassion. And third, becoming an agent of transformative change may challenge the very premise of teachers' identities and practices, but by empowering the learner to exert influence on her world, the teacher is in turn also changed and empowered. Â


Lung cancer is acknowledged as a common cancer with high morbidity and mortality. MicroRNAs (miRNAs), kind of non-coding single-stranded RNA molecules, can be used in cancer clinical treatments. In this research, miR-199a-5p was seen lowly expressed in NSCLC sera samples. miR-199a-5p suppressed the cell proliferation, migration and arrested cell cycle in NSCLC cell lines. The results showed that SLC2A1 (glucose transporter 1, GLUT1) was a direct target of miR-199a-5p. Downregulation of SLC2A1 could not only inhibit cell proliferation, migration and cell cycle, but also promote cell apoptosis. The data suggests that miR-199a-5p can inhibit glucose metabolism in NSCLC by targeting SLC2A1.This study proves that miR-199a-5p / SLC2A1 can play an essential role in the development of NSCLC by targeting SLC2A1. It puts forward a new approach for clinical treatments of NSCLC.


The working principle of dry micro-electro-discharge machining of vertically aligned carbon-nanotube forests is investigated by evaluating the effect of oxygen on the process. The machining experiments with controlled oxygen/nitrogen ratios indicate a correlation between the peak current of discharge pulses and the oxygen concentration, suggesting not only a vital role for oxygen in the process, but also a removal mechanism fundamentally different from that in typical electro-discharge machining based on direct melting and evaporation of the sample material. The highest surface quality and uniformity in the machined forest microstructures as well as smooth machining without short circuiting are achieved at an approximate oxygen concentration of 20% under the discharge condition of 30 V and 10 pF, revealing that air is an optimal medium for the removal process. Elemental and molecular analyses show no evidence of significant crystalline deterioration or contamination in the nanotubes processed with the tec...


In this paper, we present an integrated framework, named NaviComf, which constructs pedestrian navigation systems for comfort in varying environments by using multi-modal sensing technologies. With NaviComf we aim to systematically provide solutions to three key problems: (1) how to build the environmental data warehouse (EDW) which works as an infrastructure providing comprehensive and predictive environmental information, (2) how to integrate heterogeneous environmental information from multi-modal sensors into an aggregate value which facilitates further processing, and (3) how to determine the optimal path plans in environments which are varying continuously. In NaviComf the multidimensional data model and data prediction method are applied to build the EDW. Then a novel multi-factor cost (MFC) model is proposed as the fundamental concept to integrate the multi-modal sensor data. Based on the former two solutions, the optimal path planning (PP) problem is solved in a time-dependent network by applying a dynamic programming method. In the evaluations of NaviComf, sensor data for temperature, humidity, and pedestrian traffic flow have been gathered in real environments and a prototype system has been implemented with the data. Evaluations are conducted by using the prototype system and the results show that NaviComf can efficiently navigate pedestrians through more comfortable paths as compared to the traditional navigation method.


The sparse form of one of the most successful Variable Metric Methods (BFGS [1, 2]) is used to solve power system optimization problems. The main characteristic of the method is that the sparse factors of the Hessian matrix are used as opposed to a full inverse Hessian. In addition, these factors are updated at every BFGS iteration using a fast and robust sparsity oriented updating algorithm.


In this paper, parallel docking (parallel parking) problem for unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) is investigated. A mathematical model for an USV is constructed and a hierarchical control approach is implemented on this 6 degree-of-freedom model. At the control allocation level of the hierarchy, parameters of finite horizon model predictive controller (MPC) and cascaded PID controller are tuned to optimize path following performance of the vehicle. Two kinds of guidance law, line of sight (LOS), and pure pursuit (PP) are employed for waypoint traveling at the strategic level of the hierarchy. Guidance and control laws are implemented for parallel docking, which is treated as a waypoint generation problem. The path following performance and energy consumption of the USVs under the parallel docking manoeuvre are evaluated for different combinations of guidance laws and controller designs.


In 1998, the Government introduced the National Literacy Strategy (NLS) in all primary schools in England in a bid to raise literacy standards. The first cohort of primary schools in the northern Local Education Authority ( n = 19) implemented the project in January 1997, the second cohort ( n = 20) began in September 1997. Each cohort consisted of three different year groups (Year 2, Year 4 and Year 6). The aim of this project was to focus upon exam results from these schools and thereby identify possible predictors of success (e.g. socio-economic status, age of pupils, teaching and learning style). We looked at differences within and between each cohort. We also carried out in-depth case studies of three northern schools. Each case-study involved interviews with key staff. The wider implications of the findings for the implementation of the NLS and for the training needs of teachers are considered.


The shape transition of coherent three-dimensional ~ 3D ! islands is observed experimentally in the ~ In,Ga ! As/GaAs ~ 100 ! material system. In the molecular-beam epitaxy of a 1.8-nm-thick In 0.35 Ga 0.65 As single layer, we find that the shape of the coherent 3D islands transforms from round to elongated when increasing the growth temperature. A quantitative agreement of our experimental data with the theoretical work of Tersoff and Tromp is achieved. © 2001 American Institute of Physics. @ DOI: 10.1063/1.1428107 # For


This article arose out of the increased focus by the public, government and professions on whether parole board decisions, and the risk assessments that inform those decisions, protect the public sufficiently in the light of recent high profile inquiries into serious further offences (HM Inspectorate of Probation, 2006a, 2006b) and the Joint Thematic Inspection Report Promoting Public Protection (HM Inspectorate of Probation, 2006c). The purpose of this study was to examine whether home probation officer and seconded probation officer parole reports were helpful in terms of assessment of risk and consistent with the OASys risk assessment present in the parole dossiers. The research study revealed a number of interesting findings in terms of quality of reports, and supported other evidence noted in recent publications (Harding, 2006; HM Inspectorate of Probation, 2006c).


The aim of this study was to investigate the efficacy of various fluoride varnishes in the protection of the structural and nanomechanical properties of dental enamel. Demineralized enamel specimens were imaged using a high-resolution micro-CT system and lesion parameters including mineral density and lesion depth were extracted from mineral density profiles. Nanoindentation elastic modulus and hardness were calculated as a function of penetration depth from the load-displacement curves. The average depth of the lesion in specimens with no prior fluoride varnish treatment was 86 ± 7.19 μm whereas the varnish treated specimens had an average depth of 67 ± 7.03 μm (P < 0.05). The mineral density of enamel lesions with no fluoride varnish treatment had an average of 1.85 gr/cm3 which was 25% lower than the corresponding value in varnish treated enamel and 37% lower than sound enamel. While, in the varnish treated group, elastic modulus and hardness values had decreased by 18% and 23%, respectively, the corresponding values in the non-varnish treated specimens had a reduction of 43% and 54% compared to the sound enamel. The findings from this study highlight the preventive role of fluoride varnishes. Addition of calcium and phosphate does not seem to enhance or inhibit the prevention or remineralization performance of fluoride varnishes.


Layer-by-layer (LbL) assembly is a versatile and economical method to coat existing biomaterials with multilayered thin films for added functionality. The technique requires at least two complementary macromolecules to be deposited alternately onto a surface, forming thin multiple layers with properties that are customizable through the deposition conditions such as pH, temperature, and ionic strength. As a class of synthetic peptidomimetic polymers that have shown significant promise as therapeutic delivery agent through the ability to interact with DNA, proteins, carbohydrates, and small drug molecules, poly(amido amine)s (PAA) are promising multilayer components. This thesis describes a series of reports on the use of PAA as a component for LbL assembly. The reports describe the study on structure-function relationship of the various PAAs to the build-up profiles, and properties and functionality of the resulting multilayers. The report starts with the pairing of PAAs with DNA to yield multilayer-coated surfaces that can facilitate cell transfection. The optimization of such surface-mediated cell transfection and its successful demonstration on 2D and 3D tissue engineering scaffolds from several common biomaterials are described in the last Chapter. The PAA-multilayers were also studied as drug-eluting surfaces. For this purpose, boronic ester formation was utilized to provide multi-responsive interactions with small drug compounds. In one Chapter, boronic acid-functionalized PAAs were paired with chondroitin sulfate, a natural biopolymer, to entrap alizarin red S, a model for catechol drugs. The multilayer-coated surfaces successfully promote intracellular uptake of polymer-complexed alizarin red S in vitro. In another Chapter, PAA was paired with poly(vinyl alcohol), an FDA-approved biomaterial, to entrap bortezomib, a drug for multiple myeloma. Depending on how the multilayers were fabricated, the therapeutic efficacy could be tuned to differently affect target cells depending on their spatial location. The results in this thesis indicate great promise for poly(amido amine)-based multilayered thin films.


A World Without Words1998 What feeds the inspiration of the designer? Observation. In Jasper Morrison's collection of pictures, the icons of design history meet up with the unassuming objects of everyday life. Every picture tells a story and creates a new one in juxtaposition with its neighbor -without words, in the language of form. Morrison responds to the arbitrariness of form with simplicity and complexity, poetry and humor in a repertoire of compelling designs. A World Without Words is a pocket-sized school of seeing that addresses designers and consumers who wish to explore the universe of goods.


Ginger, also known as Z. officinale is a native medicinal plants in Southeast Asia that belonging to the Zingiberaceae family. The objective of the present study was to optimize the extraction conditions of phenolic and flavonoid contents from Z. officinale var. Bentong. In this study, three parameters used for the Soxhlet extraction were type of organic solvents, pH of the selected solvent and the extraction time. The crude extracts obtained were then analyzed for its total phenolic contents (TPC) and total flavonoid contents (TFC) by spectroscopic method. In addition, the amount of compounds consist in the crude extracts were identified by thin layer chromatography (TLC) profiling. High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) and Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectroscopy (GC-MS) were used for the quantification of the major non-volatile and volatile components, respectively, found in the crude extracts. Response surface methodology (RSM) was then applied for the optimization of extraction conditions to achieve higher yield of the total phenolic, flavonoid and major components contents from the Z. officinale var. Bentong. The Central Composite Design was employed to investigate the influence of the extraction parameters towards various responses. The optimum parameters for all the responses were concluded as using pH 10 ethanol for 3 hours for the extraction yield; using pH 7 hexane for 3 hours and 5 hours for higher total phenolic and flavonoid contents, respectively; and using pH 7 acetone for 5 hours for the five major components. The findings indicated that the extraction of major components of ginger could be improved by optimization process by using response surface methodology.


This study aims to analyze the development of e-conomy in ASEAN in terms of population use, capitalization value, e-conomy growth, consumer motivation in internet use, and fintech. This research uses descriptive qualitative by using comparative and qualitative methods, namely comparing a debate and analyzing data and matters relating to the numbers used to analyze the problem being carried out. The sample in this study was six ASEAN countries containing Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines and Malaysia. E-conomy is getting faster and faster, faster and faster can make money through the internet, growth opportunities outside Metros, and Financial Technology using the era of disruption. Keywords: E-conomy, ASEAN, Financial Technology, Growth


This article deals with the institutionalised exploitation of U.S. college basketball and football players competing in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) top conferences. It is argued that the pretentious notion of maintaining "amateurism in college sports", through the prohibition of payments to the athletes and other restrictions on outside compensation, should no longer shroud the commercial nature of this enterprise. What has been created are professional leagues with well-paid and highly expert trainers and managers. This article considers such leagues under Czech and German labour law, with the objective of characterising and highlighting the unjust treatment of the participating athletes. The article is divided into five parts. The first part provides an introduction as well as clarification of the significance of labour and social rights in Europe. The second part describes the concept of a U.S. college athletic scholarship, summarises NCAA rules regarding amateurism and eligibility, and identifies the revenue generated in U.S. college basketball and football. The third part of the paper outlines the standards for determining the meaning of "dependent work" in Czech and German labour law, and then tests the system of NCAA basketball and football under Czech and German labour law. The fourth part concerns the European Convention on Human Rights and its hypothetical implications regarding the treatment of NCAA basketball and football players. The fifth and final part is a brief conclusion.


Bovine tuberculosis is highly infectious zoonotic disease of economic and public health importance. This study aimed to detection the prevalence of bovine tuberculosis by bacteriological examination and Real time PCR. A total of 75 animals (61 cattle and 14 buffaloes) were routinely examined in the slaughterhouses of Menufia governorate, Egypt during the period of 2015 and 2016 for detection of tuberculosis. The suspected tuberculous lesions collected from cattle were from respiratory, from digestive, from head, mixed lesions and generalized lesions. While in buffaloes, the tuberculous lesions were from respiratory, from digestive, mixed lesions and from head lesions. The bacteriological examination revealed that the isolation rate of Mycobacterium bovis (M. bovis) was 86.9% and 57.1% in cattle and buffaloes, respectively. The real time PCR technique was applied to confirm the results of bacteriological examination and revealed that 90.2% and 85.7% M. bovis isolates in cattle and buffaloes respectively were positive with high sensitivity and specificity more than culture.


Recently, the digitalization of the astronomical scientific heritage has been considered an important task that can facilitate much researches in astronomy. The creation of digital libraries and databases of astronomical photographic plates brings up the problem of digitalization astronomical logbooks, since the data contained in them is crucial for the usage of the plates. An optical character recognition (OCR) system for the handwritten numerical data is needed in order to speed up the process of database creation and extension. In this paper document image binarization is considered since it is a critical stage for the subsequent steps in an OCR software system. A specific method is proposed which outmatches the state-of-the-art techniques in the case of the images of interest.


Water pollution remains a major challenge in today's world and addressing it has become a top priority for sustainable development. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development brings water quality issues to the forefront of international action by setting a specific goal (SDG 6: ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all) aiming to respond to the pressing challenges posed by water pollution. However, how does water pollution relate to the rest of SDGs? The answer to this question-which is important to identify and understand key development concerns related to water quality-is the purpose of this paper. A descriptive research is undertaken to highlight the interdependencies between water pollution and the 2030 Agenda. The findings confirm two key points: (i) there are many pathways by which water pollution can hinder the realization of various SDGs and (ii) water quality can also benefit from the achievement of SDGs. Although not exhaustive, this descriptive analysis of the links between water pollution and SDGs can provide some insight to practitioners, researchers and policy-makers addressing the water pollution challenge.


Experimental verification of Phase Shift Mask (PSM) Polarimetry is provided at numerical apertures up to 1.35. Promising initial results of periodic monitoring of a few polarized illuminators are illustrated and track with a scanner on-board technique to within a fraction of a percent. Earlier publications have introduced the concept and provided experimental validation up to 0.93NA. This paper discusses a variety of design improvements to improve the usability, flexibility and robustness of this technique at NAs up to 1.35. The specialized test reticle, which consists of a large number of polarization-sensitive chromeless phase shifting patterns, was successfully fabricated using a commercial mask shop. Polarization sensitivity has improved by up to 7x when compared to two earlier generation reticles, helping to minimize the impact of experimental noise. Various use models, the experimental flow, and details on the experimental procedure are provided. It is concluded that this resist-based method can serve as a highly sensitive polarization monitoring system for all hyper-NA applications.


A system has been developed for delivering and attaching a sensor payload to a target using a standard 40-mm grenade launcher. The projectile flight characteristics are similar to existing 40-mm rounds, with a useful range of up to 300 m. The projectile incorporates an attachment mechanism, a shock mitigation system, a power source, and a transmitter that allows sensor data to be transmitted to a receiver at up to 1/4 mile range. Impact g-loads have been limited to less than 10,000 g's, enabling sensor payloads to be assembled using Commercial Off-The-Shelf components. The GLIMPS projectile is intended to be a general purpose delivery system for a variety of sensor payloads under the Unattended Ground Sensors program, with Phase I proof-of- concept being demonstrated using a low-power CMOS camera.


Ho films of thickness varying from 100 Å up to 4000 Å and [Ho(x Å) - Zr(y Å)]n multilayers with 7 x , y 30 were grown by evaporation under ultravacuum conditions on an oxidized Si(100) substrate covered with a Zr buffer layer. The x-ray diffraction patterns recorded for the transferred momentum either along the -axis or in the basal plane of the hexagonal close-packed structure show that holmium suffers a permanent in-plane compression in films thinner than 200 Å and Ho(x Å ) - Zr(30 Å) multilayers with x 30. Low-temperature magnetization measurements indicate that the magnetic behaviour of Ho is strongly modified by epitaxial strains. The data are consistent with an enhancement of in-plane ferromagnetic order inside the Ho blocks in the Ho-Zr multilayers. A periodic dependence of the squareness of the hysteresis loop on the thickness of the Zr layers is observed in Ho(30 Å) - Zr(x Å) multilayers, which gives evidence for the existence of interlayer magnetic coupling. The out-of-plane magnetic anisotropy generated by Ho - Zr interfaces in a series of Ho(x Å) - Zr(30 Å) multilayers is found to be strong enough to compensate the in-plane anisotropy as the thickness of the Ho layers is decreased to about three monolayers. The variation of the anisotropy against the Ho layer thickness is satisfactorily reproduced with a rough crystal-field model using the point-charge approximation.


Abstract We synthesized pyrrolidino-C-nucleosides, incorporated them into oligodeoxynucleotides and investigated their pairing properties. The thermal duplex and triplex stabilities were measured. While triplex formation is destabilized in the case of pyrrolidino-pseudo-U and -T, pyrrolidino-pseudo-iso-C leads to an increase of the Tm value for third strand dissociation. Duplexes are destabilized with all pyrrolidino-C-nucleosides.


In this paper, an exact distribution of fracture strength was derived from extreme value statistics for an initial distribution of flaw size, via conversion to an exact distribution of largest flaw size. Gamma distribution was shown as a better function to approximate the initial distribution data measured by immersion liquid technique. The exact distribution of fracture strength was obtained as a function of the number of links in the weakest link theory. With increasing the number of links, the exact distribution gradually became linear on Weibull plot, and almost coincided to Weibull distribution at the number of links larger than 1000. Compared to actual distributions of fracture strength, the number of links in the specimens was estimated to be in the range from 104 to 105. The above discussion showed a verification of this theory.


The cytidine deaminases APOBEC3A (A3A) and APOBEC3B (A3B) are prominent mutators of human cancer genomes. However, tumor-specific genetic modulators of APOBEC-induced mutagenesis are poorly defined. Here, we used a screen to identify 61 gene deletions that increase A3B-induced mutations in yeast. We also determined whether each deletion was epistatic with Ung1 loss, which indicated whether the encoded factors participate in the homologous recombination (HR)–dependent bypass of A3B/Ung1-dependent abasic sites or suppress A3B-catalyzed deamination by protecting against aberrant formation of single-stranded DNA (ssDNA). We found that the mutation spectra of A3B-induced mutations revealed genotype-specific patterns of strand-specific ssDNA formation and nucleotide incorporation across APOBEC-induced lesions. Combining these three metrics, we were able to establish a multifactorial signature of APOBEC-induced mutations specific to (1) failure to remove H3K56 acetylation, (2) defective CTF18–RFC complex function, and (3) defective HR-mediated bypass of APOBEC-induced lesions. We extended these results by analyzing mutation data for human tumors and found BRCA1/2-deficient breast cancers display three- to fourfold more APOBEC-induced mutations. Mirroring our results in yeast, Rev1-mediated C-to-G substitutions are mainly responsible for increased APOBEC-signature mutations in BRCA1/2-deficient tumors, and these mutations associate with lagging strand synthesis during replication. These results identify important factors that influence DNA replication dynamics and likely the abundance of APOBEC-induced mutation during tumor progression. They also highlight a novel role for BRCA1/2 during HR-dependent lesion bypass of APOBEC-induced lesions during cancer cell replication.


Several problems in mathematical physics relating to excitons in two dimensions are considered. First, a fascinating numerical result from a theoretical treatment of screened excitons stimulates a re-evaluation of the familiar two-dimensional hydrogen atom. Formulating the latter problem in momentum space leads to a new integral relation in terms of special functions, and fresh insights into the dynamical symmetry of the system are also obtained. A discussion of an alternative potential to model screened excitons is given, and the variable phase method is used to compare bound-state energies and scattering phase shifts for this potential with those obtained using the two-dimensional analogue of the Yukawa potential. The second problem relates to excitons in a quantising magnetic field in the fractional quantum Hall regime. An exci-ton against the background of an incompressible quantum liquid is modelled as a few-particle neutral composite consisting of a positively-charged hole and several quasielectrons with fractional negative charge. A complete set of exci-ton basis functions is derived, and these functions are classified using a result from the theory of partitions. Some exact results are obtained for this complex few-particle problem.


In our age of dialogue and encounter between religions, Christians ask if they can celebrate and pray with believers belonging to other religious traditions. Both in the United States and in Europe, especially, this is a new but rapidly growing phenomenon. We cannot but note the increasing impetus for acts of interreligious prayer, multifaith celebrations, and ritual participation. As more and more Christians experience religious diversity from nearby and are touched by the vividness of other religious traditions as well as by their spiritual and moral wisdom, and as more and more people engage in dialogical encounters, they also increasingly seek to explore the possibilities of interreligious ritual participation. In the past, entering the sacred space of another religious community was simply not done, whereas today ritual participation is becoming commonplace. However, ritual participation is a complex and ambivalent phenomenon. Whilst often experienced as moving, perhaps even insightful, ritual participation may also confront believers with the question whether their participation is, religiously speaking, appropriate. This can result in a certain discomfort. What exactly is at stake and how we may understand comfort remains theoretically underdeveloped in the scholarly literature. In this article, I will shed some light on the ambiguity of ritual participation (it both attracts and causes uneasiness) by focusing on the specic nature of rituals.


An efficient numerical algorithm based on the modified Gram-Schmidt (MGS) procedure is developed in this paper to solve the electrical-field integral equation for characterizing metamaterials. The method of moments (MoM) with rooftop basis functions is implemented in the integral-equation solver. The MGS-based algorithm is implemented into the solver for decomposing the local MoM dense matrix without prior knowledge of the matrix elements. Although each element of the metamaterials is electrically small in size, the number of elements is very large so that the number of unknowns for characterizing the metamaterials is very large. Even so, this algorithm in the MoM solver has demonstrated via examples to be efficient and accurate. Numerical results on the number N of unknowns show that the CPU time per iteration and the memory requirements are both reduced from O(N/sup 2/) to O(N/sup 1.5/). After implementing this algorithm in the solver, propagation characteristics are finally presented when electromagnetic waves pass through a metamaterial prism that is synthesized using square split-ring resonators and wires in free space.


The purpose of this study was the examination of the feasibility of the retrojugular approach for carotid endarterectomy and the investigation of its safety and effectiveness. A consecutive prospective cohort of 43 patients who underwent carotid endarterectomy with the retrojugular approach was compared with a retrospective cohort of 43 patients who underwent surgery with the standard antejugular technique. Age, sex, comorbidity, diagnostic investigations, and indications for surgery were comparable in both groups. In the retrojugular group, a carotid shunt was used in 18 patients (42%) and a patch closure in 15 patients (35%), and in the antejugular group, a carotid shunt was used in 43 patients (100%) and a patch closure in 20 patients (47%). There were no perioperative deaths, strokes, nerve injuries, or 30-day postoperative neurologic events. Wound hematomas were equally distributed in both groups (5%). Transient hoarseness was present in two patients in the antejugular group. The mean operative time was 72 +/- 15 minutes for the retrojugular technique and 100 +/- 27 for the antejugular technique (P <.0001). The hospital stay was 2 +/- 1 days in both groups. In conclusion, the retrojugular approach appears to be safe and the operative time may be shorter than with the antejugular approach.


An important aspect of any constitutional theory is the state's power to punish transgressions of the law, or the ius gladii. Although Grotius never formulated a complete, comprehensive constitutional theory, traces of such a theory can be found in many of his writings not explicitly devoted to constitutional law. Punishment even plays an important role in his books on war (and peace), since to punish transgressions of the law is ranked among the just causes of war. Given the fact that a state may punish transgressions of the law - transgressions by individuals within and even outside the state, but also transgressions of the law by other states - the question may arise concerning the origin of such a right to punish. It will be shown that Grotius did not give the same answer to this question in his various works. As the right to punish is concerned, we find a theory that seems to be akin to the one of John Locke in the De iure praedae (around 1605), one akin to the theories of the Spanish late-scholastics in De satisfactione and De imperio (around 1615), and a theory coming close to what Thomas Hobbes had said on the ruler's right to punish in the De iure belli ac pacis (around 1625). Of course, Grotius can only have been familiar with the theory of the Spanish late-scholastics, since those of Locke and Hobbes were still to be written by the time Grotius had passed away.


There is good evidence that regular fish consumption can lead to a range of health benefits, and that there is high public awareness of this fact. In spite of this, Australians do not, on average, consume fish to recommended levels. An intervention is proposed, leveraging social media and mobile technology. This approach is justified on the basis of a precedence of similar initiatives and the calculation of a potential target group size of 2.8 million adult Australians.


This article aims to shed light on difficulties in rooting the tree of life (ToL) and to explore the (sociological) reasons underlying the limited interest in accurately addressing this fundamental issue. First, we briefly review the difficulties plaguing phylogenetic inference and the ways to improve the modelling of the substitution process, which is highly heterogeneous, both across sites and over time. We further observe that enriched taxon samplings, better gene samplings and clever data removal strategies have led to numerous revisions of the ToL, and that these improved shallow phylogenies nearly always relocate simple organisms higher in the ToL provided that long-branch attraction artefacts are kept at bay. Then, we note that, despite the flood of genomic data available since 2000, there has been a surprisingly low interest in inferring the root of the ToL. Furthermore, the rare studies dealing with this question were almost always based on methods dating from the 1990s that have been shown to be inaccurate for much more shallow issues! This leads us to argue that the current consensus about a bacterial root for the ToL can be traced back to the prejudice of Aristotle's Great Chain of Beings, in which simple organisms are ancestors of more complex life forms. Finally, we demonstrate that even the best models cannot yet handle the complexity of the evolutionary process encountered both at shallow depth, when the outgroup is too distant, and at the level of the inter-domain relationships. Altogether, we conclude that the commonly accepted bacterial root is still unproven and that the root of the ToL should be revisited using phylogenomic supermatrices to ensure that new evidence for eukaryogenesis, such as the recently described Lokiarcheota, is interpreted in a sound phylogenetic framework.


Many community-residing patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) have way-finding problems, particularly at twilight or on rainy days. In an attempt to understand the mechanism, we prepared pictures of street scenes, including 8 personally familiar and 8 unfamiliar, divided into Low Spatial Frequency (LSF) and Low Luminance (LL) conditions to simulate foggy or rainy days and nighttime. Each picture was presented from the most difficult (level 10) to the easiest (level 1). The participants, including 20 very mild AD patients and 20 normal controls (NC) with equal basic visual acuity, were asked to judge whether a picture was familiar or not and to describe how they came to that conclusion. The accuracy of familiar scene recognition was measured by the number of pictures successfully recognized and the ability thereof by the level needed. Compared with NC, AD patients showed poorer accuracy (2.7 ± 0.2 versus 3.6 ± 0.1, mean ± SEM, p = 0.003 under LSF; 2.8 ± 0.2 versus 3.8 ± 0.1, p = 0.001 under LL) and poorer ability (2.2 ± 0.4 versus 4.3 ± 0.4 p = 0.000 under LSF; 2.9 ± 0.3 versus 5.2 ± 0.5, p = 0.000 under LL) for both conditions. The AD patients used a global element to help judge when personally familiar scenes were displayed, which was the method NC usually adopted when presented with novel scenes. In summary, this study demonstrated poorer recognition ability in very mild AD patients when personally familiar street scenes were displayed, and the underlying mechanisms may include impaired visual search performance and efficiency. The deficits also reflect their difficulty in real life situations when their familiar environments become blurred or dark.