: Estimation and analysis of energy consumption for machine tool is the basis of energy efficiency improvement. The existing researches of energy model focus on the static modelling of energy consumption, and a few study of dynamic energy consumption model focus on the dynamic characteristics of operating states of machine tool, the study of dynamic characteristics of energy sources, especially multi energy sources of a CNC machine tool is scarce. Based on the characteristics of CNC machine tool (e.g. multi-energy sources, dynamically changed machining tasks and process parameters), a method for modeling the dynamic energy characteristics of multi-energy sources in CNC machine tool is proposed. The dynamic characteristics of energy consumption process of machine tool are analyzed. On this basis, the colored timed object-oriented Petri net (CTOPN) integrated with virtual component method is applied to model the dynamic energy consumption of machine tool. The CTOPN model is used to describe the dynamic characteristics of operating states of machine tool and multi-energy sources. The virtual component method is used to describe the dynamic characteristics of multi energy sources which is influenced by process parameters. The virtual component model is driven by the information of activity transitions in CTOPN model. The case study shows that the proposed energy model is effective and can provide fundamental support for dynamic energy consumption forecasting, comprehensive depiction of the energy profile and quantitative analysis of influencing factors and so on during the operation of a CNC machine tool, which has significance in practice.


Abstract The proprietary immediate and extended drug delivery technology LiquiXR™ utilizes an ion-exchange resin that complexes with amphetamine or any other active moiety that can be protonated and is water-soluble. The active drug product forms a complex with ion-exchange polymers contained in the resin, which is then formed into micron-sized particles. Some of these particles are coated with an aqueous, pH-independent polymer designed to provide immediate or sustained release of active drug product. The polymer coating applied to the ion-exchange resin particles is of varying thickness, allowing for programmed, extended release of active drug product. Solid, coating-free particles provide for immediate release of active drug product. The micron-sized particles are formulated into an appropriate dosage form (solid or chewable tablet, liquid suspension, orally disintegrating tablet, film, or capsules). Active drug product is subsequently released from the dosage form in millions of particles, with the release driven by a combination of ion exchange and diffusion. After drug release, the ion-exchange resin is excreted in the feces. The release characteristics of LiquiXR™ are programmable and allow for a customized, sustained release of active drug product for up to 24hours post-dose. Mechanistically, drug particles enter the gastrointestinal tract. As positively-charged ions from gastrointestinal (GI) fluids diffuse across the coating, ionically-charged drug product diffuses through the coating and into the GI fluids for absorption. As the coating is of variable thickness, some drug product takes longer to diffuse and absorb, providing for the programmable delayed drug release characteristic. The LiquiXR™ drug delivery technology is utilized in Dyanavel® XR (amphetamine extended-release oral suspension; AMPH EROS), which is indicated for the treatment of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. It comprises 2.5mg/mL amphetamine base complexed with LiquiXR technology to provide an immediate release component followed by an extended-release profile. The efficacy of AMPH EROS was established in children ages 6 to 12 years in a Phase 3, placebo-controlled laboratory classroom study. In that study, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms in children on an individually optimized dose of amphetamine (range 10–20mg/day) were statistically significantly improved compared with symptoms in children treated with placebo. For children treated with AMPH EROS, onset of effect was demonstrated at 1hour after dosing, and efficacy was observed through 13hours post-dose. The effect size was comparable to effect sizes demonstrated for other psychostimulants tested in studies using a similar design. The efficacy data reported for AMPH EROS provides an excellent example of the potential utility and clinical application for other active drug products requiring an immediate release and extended release profile. Funding Acknowledgements: This work was funded by Tris Pharma, Inc.


Glenoid exposure for total shoulder replacement can be challenging and represents the most difficult part of the procedure. Exposure requires both humeral and glenoid-based releases. We prefer a lesser tuberosity osteotomy instead of a subscapularis takedown. The osteotomy offers significant advantages for glenoid visualization by decreasing the encroachment of anterior humeral bone. Specific glenoid-based releases are then performed in this sequential fashion: 1) the rotator interval including the coracohumeral and superior glenohumeral ligament is released, 2) the middle glenohumeral ligament is divided in an inferior direction, 3) the inferior glenohumeral ligament is then divided as the inferior extension of the above dissection, and 4) posterior glenoid retractors are placed and the axillary nerve is directly visualized. An inferior capsular release then is performed dependent on the necessity of further exposure.


Evaluation of different substrates in the physiological quality of caroa melon (Sicana odorifera (Vell.) Naudim) seeds. Caroa melon is a curcubitaceae found in its native form in the Reconcavo Region of Bahia, where it is used by popular medicine for many diseases. However, this species is little explored in research. The objective of the present work was to study different substrates in order to evaluate the germination index and seed vigor in caroa melon (Sicana odorifera) during seedling production. The following substrates were used: washed sand, sand washed with worm humus (2:1) and commercial substrate, Plantmax ® .The following evaluations were carried out: germination test, speed of germination index (SGI), stem diameter, plant height, root length and root, stem and leaf dry matter. The commercial substrate Plantmax ® presented the best performance compared to the others; however, the most adequate and least costly in seedling production using caroa melon (Sicana odorifera) seeds, was the mixture of washed sand and worm humus in the 2:1 ratio.


ABSTRACT Complex topography, the free-surface boundary condition, and anelastic properties of media should be accounted for in the frame of onshore geophysical prospecting imaging, such as full-waveform inversion (FWI). In this context, an accurate and efficient forward-modeling engine is mandatory. We have performed 3D frequency-domain anisotropic elastic wave modeling by using the highly accurate spectral element method and a sparse multifrontal direct solver. An efficient approach similar to computing the matrix-vector product in the time domain is used to build the matrix. We validate the numerical results by comparing with analytical solutions. A parallel direct solver, the sparse direct multifrontal massively parallel solver (MUMPS), is used to solve the linear system. We find that a hybrid implementation of message passing interface and open multiprocessing is more efficient in flops and memory cost. The influence of the deformed mesh, free-surface boundary condition, and heterogeneity of media on MUMPS performance is negligible. Complexity analysis suggests that the memory complexity of MUMPS agrees with the theoretical order [Formula: see text] (or [Formula: see text] with an efficient matrix reordering method) for an [Formula: see text] grid when nontrivial topography is considered. With the available resources, we conduct a moderate scale modeling with a subset of the SEAM Phase II Foothills model, where 60 wavelengths in the [Formula: see text]-axis are propagated. Computing one gradient of FWI based on this model using the frequency-domain modeling is shown to require similar or fewer computational resources than what would be required for a time-domain solver, depending on the number of sources, while larger memory is necessary. An estimation of the increasing trend indicates that approximately 20 Tb of memory would be required for a [Formula: see text] wavelength modeling. The limit of MUMPS scalability hinders the application to larger scale applications.


A point source interferometer (PSI) is a device where atoms are split and recombined by applying a temporal sequence of Raman pulses during the expansion of a cloud of cold atoms behaving approximately as a point source. The PSI can work as a sensitive multi-axes gyroscope that can automatically filter out the signal from accelerations. The phase shift arising from the rotations is proportional to the momentum transferred to each atom from the Raman pulses. Therefore, by increasing the momentum transfer, it should be possible to enhance the sensitivity of the PSI. Here, we investigate the degree of enhancement in sensitivity that could be achieved by augmenting the PSI with large momentum transfer (LMT) employing a sequence of many Raman pulses with alternating directions. We analyze how factors such as Doppler detuning, spontaneous emission, and the finite initial size of the atomic cloud compromise the advantage of LMT and how to find the optimal momentum transfer under these limitations, with both the semi-classical model and a model under which the motion of the center of mass of each atom is described quantum mechanically. We identify a set of realistic parameters for which LMT can improve the PSI by a factor of nearly 40.


Persian orthography, which is a modified version of the Arabic script, is used for transcribing the Persian
(Farsi) language, which is the major language spoken in Iran. Persian is also one of the two (Farsi and
Urdu) major languages spoken in Afghanistan, and the main language in Tajikestan, a former central Asian republic of the former Soviet Union. However, the Persian spoken in these countries and the script used to transcribe the spoken language, particularly in Tajikistan, have been influenced by local factors and borrowed words. The focus of this chapter is on the Persian spoken in the present-day Iran and its relationship with the orthography, henceforth referred to as Persian orthography. In particular, the emphasis is on how literacy acquisition by Persian beginner (and skilled) readers may be affected by peculiarities of Persian orthography. Arguably, very little systematic research has been conducted on cognitive processes involved in the reading of Persian. It is hoped that this article will stimulate such research. After presenting factors that influence literacy acquisition in Persian, we take up the question of whether there should be changes to Persian orthography.


BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVE
Survivin, a member of the inhibitors of apoptosis protein family (IAPs), is overexpressed in many cancers, but not in normal differentiated adult tissues. It is related to poor prognosis and resistance to chemotherapy and radiotherapy in many cancers. This study was designed to detect the expression of Survivin in bone marrow of healthy people, newly diagnosed and relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma (MM) patients, and MM cell line KM3, to explore its correlation to drug resistance and prognosis of MM patients.

METHODS
Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and Western blot were used to detect mRNA and protein expression of Survivin in bone marrow samples of 17 newly diagnosed MM patients, 12 relapsed /refractory MM patients, and 9 healthy people, and myeloma cell line KM3.

RESULTS
KM3 cells expressed Survivin strongly. The positive rates and the expression levels of Survivin mRNA were significantly lower in healthy people than in newly diagnosed patients and relapsed/refractory patients (22.2 % vs. 70.5 % and 83.3 %, 0.06+/-0.04 vs. 0.31+/-0.14 and 0.69+/-0.24, P<0.01), and were significantly lower in newly diagnosed patients than in relapsed/refractory patients (P<0.05). Survivin protein were not detected in all of the healthy people; while the positive rates of Survivin were 41.4% in newly diagnosed patients and 58.3% in relapsed/refractory patients (P>0.05), and its expression levels was significantly higher in relapsed/refractory patients than in newly diagnosed patients (0.21+/-0.12 vs. 0.11+/-0.07, P<0.05). Among the 7 Survivin-positive newly diagnosed patients, 4 achieved partial remission (PR), 1 achieved MR, and 2 showed no change (NC); among the 10 Survivin-negative newly diagnosed patients, 2 achieved complete remission (CR), 4 achieved PR, 2 achieved MR, and 2 showed NC. The effective (CR+PR+MR) rate was slightly higher in Survivin-negative patients than in Survivin-positive patients (80.0% vs. 71.4%).

CONCLUSION
High expression of Survivin may be relates to drug resistance in some patients. Since Survivin only expressed in bone marrow cells of multiple myeloma, but not in healthy people, it can be a new target to reverse drug resistance in myeloma cells.


The use of prosthetic hands is limited in part by the lack of sensory feedback to the wearer. In order to provide sensory feedback, an adequate number of sensors must be integrated with the prosthesis. The WiseSkin project targets the use of artificial skin embedding ultra-low power wireless sensor nodes. This presentation provides an overview of the WiseSkin project and the current status of the developments.


Pattern recognition techniques form the heart of most, if not all, incoherent linear shift-invariant systems. When an object is recorded using a camera, the object information is sampled by the point spread function (PSF) of the system, replacing every object point with the PSF in the sensor. The PSF is a sharp Kronecker Delta-like function when the numerical aperture (NA) is large with no aberrations. When the NA is small, and the system has aberrations, the PSF appears blurred. In the case of aberrations, if the PSF is known, then the blurred object image can be deblurred by scanning the PSF over the recorded object intensity pattern and looking for pattern matching conditions through a mathematical process called correlation. Deep learning-based image classification for computer vision applications gained attention in recent years. The classification probability is highly dependent on the quality of images as even a minor blur can significantly alter the image classification results. In this study, a recently developed deblurring method, the Lucy-Richardson-Rosen algorithm (LR2A), was implemented to computationally refocus images recorded in the presence of spatio-spectral aberrations. The performance of LR2A was compared against the parent techniques: Lucy-Richardson algorithm and non-linear reconstruction. LR2A exhibited a superior deblurring capability even in extreme cases of spatio-spectral aberrations. Experimental results of deblurring a picture recorded using high-resolution smartphone cameras are presented. LR2A was implemented to significantly improve the performances of the widely used deep convolutional neural networks for image classification.


The luxury goods industry has experienced evolving consumer preferences, emerged from innovation and growth in the sharing economy and driven by digital technologies. On one side, the sharing economy has disrupted traditional luxury brands by providing or sharing access to goods and services through online platforms. On another side, the entire value chain of luxury goods, from procuring raw materials, design and production, delivery, product co-creation, up to customer service, in-store experience, and even consumption are transformed by digital technologies. The purpose of this study is to explore the role of digital technologies including the Internet of Things (IoT), blockchain and platform models, to disrupt the luxury industry. This paper suggests a novel and practical framework to transform handmade carpet to smart carpet and co-create value with potential customers in order to build trust and influence their buying behavior. The framework illustrates, for the first time, how the unmatched power of a brand story can be leveraged and authenticated by digital technologies and through active contribution of customers. Keywords–Smart Carpet; Luxury goods; The Sharing economy, Disruption; Digital technologies; Start-up; Brand Story; Co-creation; IoT; Blockchain; Platform models.


We demonstrated the first 30Tb/s (350 × 85.74Gb/s) optical transmission over 10,181km using bidirectional C/L-bands, 121.2km hybrid fiber spans, DP-QPSK modulation and EDFAs. Achieved 306Petabit/s•km capacity × distance product is the highest reported to date for WDM transmission.


With the purpose of commercializing polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA), a biosynthetic and biodegradable plastic, a considerable effort has been dedictated to reducing the production cost, through the development of bacertial strains and more efficient fermentation/recovery processes from cheap carbon sources. Since the discovery of phb genes, many genes encoding enzymes from the PHA pathway have been cloned from different organisms. The broad variety of PHA-producing microbes would prepresent a vast spectrum of intracellular conditions to which these enzymes would have to be adapted. The present work is within this purpose and had as goal to study the polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHB) production, from Escherichia coli AF1000 strain transformed with plasmid pCJY02 harboring, phbA, phbB genes from Ralstonia eutropha and phaC gene from Pseudomonas stutzeri 1317, cultivated in minimal medium supplemented with glucose.The maximum amount of PHB obtained was 0,917 gr.L-1, PHB content of 4,6% and cell mass of 19,8 gr.L-1, through fed-batch cultivation. In order to improve these results, further work on the strain metabolism and plasmid construct is necessary, therefore a set of different approaches to achieve the required improvements are discussed throughout this work.


The sequence of Paleozoic rocks on the north and west sides of the Uinta Basin ranges in age from Cambrian to Permian. On the west side of the Basin, in the southern part of the Wasatch Mountains, the Paleozoic section is nearly 40,000 feet thick and probably contains the most complete sequence of Carboniferous and Permian rocks in the Rocky Mountain region. This thick section is present only in an overthrust block. North and east of the thrust fault, in the central Wasatch Mountains and the Uinta Mountains is a much thinner section of Paleozoic rocks. The thinner section is only about 8,000 feet thick and apparently large segments of the thick section on the south and west are unrepresented. Cambrian formations in the Wasatch Mountains include the light brown-weathering Tintic quartzite of Lower Cambrian age, overlain successively by olive-green and brown shale and sandstone and mottled gray limestone of the Lower and Middle Cambrian Maxfield limestone. Locally, the Maxfield is absent at the top of the Cambrian. In the Uinta Mountains, the Cambrian rocks are represented only by a sequence of shale, like that of the Ophir formation with subordinate sandstone. This unit is about 3,000 feet thick near the Duchesne River but decreases in thickness eastward. Fossils from the uppermost beds of the unit near the Duchesne River are of Middle or, more probably, Upper Cambrian age. A persistent dark gray to nearly white vuggy dolomite 150-265 feet thick in the Wasatch Mountains overlies the Cambrian and is provisionally correlated with the Jefferson dolomite of Devonian age. It may be present in the Uinta Mountains near the Duchesne River, but is not recognized farther east. The Madison limestone of lower Mississippian age and the Deseret and Humbug formations of upper Mississippian age maintain fairly constant lithologic character along the west and north sides of the Uinta Basin, but the aggregate thickness of the three formations decreases from about 1,800 feet in the Wasatch Mountains to 900 feet or less near Vernal. The dark gray cherty limestone and dolomite of the Madison and Deseret limestones are lithologically similar. Brown-weathering sandstone interbedded with gray cherty limestone characterizes the Humbug formation which commonly shows extensive brecciation. Post-Humbug Mississippian rocks south of the thrust fault in the Wasatch Mountains have an aggregate thickness of about 4,000 feet and include the Great Blue limestone, which consists of lack to dark gray thin-bedded limestone with some dark shale, and the greater part of the overlying Manning Canyon shale which consists of dark shale with some dark limestone and gritty sandstone. North of the thrust fault, the post-Humbug Mississippian is represented in the Wasatch Mountains by about 100 feet of dark shale at the base overlain by 400 to 500 feet of dark gray limestone and along the Uinta Mountains mainly by dark shale 100-300 feet thick. This thin shale and limestone unit is tentatively correlated with the basal part of the Great Blue limestone. Pennsylvanian and Permian rocks in the southern Wasatch Mountains include the upppermost part of the Manning Canyon shale overlain successively by the Oquirrh, Kirkman, Diamond Creek, and Park City formations. The black shale of the Manning Canyon intergrades with the limestone at the base of the Oquirrh formation. The Oquirrh formation, about 25,000 feet thick, is mainly quartzitic sandstone with some interbedded limestone. Fusulinids of Atoka, Des Moines, Missouri, Virgil, and Wolfcamp age are recognized in the Oquirrh. The gray to black thinly laminated limestone of the overlying Kirkman has a maximum thickness of 1,600 feet, but the formation is absent locally. The Diamond Creek sandstone overlying the Kirkman is a gray to buff calcareous to quartzitic crossbedded sandstone 800-1, 00 feet thick, tentatively correlated with the Coconino sandstone. The Park City formation about 1,800 feet thick, consists of three members: an upper and a lower member of light gray cherty limestone with some sandstone separated by a middle black phosphatic shale member. Fossils suggest at least partial equivalence of the lower member with the Kaibab limestone and the remainder of the formation with the Phosphoria formation. This sequence of Pennsylvanian and Permian rocks with a total thickness of nearly 30,000 feet in the southern Wasatch Mountains, is End_Page 1161------------------------------ represented on the opposite side of the thrust fault by about 3,000 feet of strata including the Morgan formation at the base overlain by the Weber and Park City formations. The Morgan from 400 to about 1,400 feet thick, consists of a lower limestone unit and an overlying interbedded gray to red limestone and sandstone unit. The Morgan contains fusulinids of Lampasas or Morrow age in the lower part and of Des Moines age in the upper part, thus indicating correlation with the lower part of the Oquirrh formation. The unfossiliferous Weber sandstone, 1,000-1,500 feet thick, in the Uinta Mountains, is correlated with the Pennsylvanian Weber quartzite of the central Wasatch Mountains and tentatively with a lower part of the Oquirrh formation. A stratigraphic break representing a large part of late Pennsylvanian and early Permian time is inferred between the Weber sandstone and the overlying Park City formation. The lower member of the Park City extends a short distance east of the Duchesne River beyond which the middle phosphatic shale member rests on the Weber sandstone. The upper member varies in thickness and apparently intertongues eastward with red and gray beds lithologically inseparable from the overlying rocks of Triassic age.


Ultrafiltration failure is the most frequent alteration of peritoneal transport in peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients, and is a frequent cause of technical withdrawal. At the beginning of the therapy, there is a great functional diversity, but alter the third or fourth years the 20% of patients develop progressive ultrafiltration failure and an increase of the small solute transport. In parallel to this functional alteration, the peritoneum of PD patients shows morphological alterations, such as loss or transformation of mesothelial cells, basal membrane reduplication, submesothelial fibrosis, hyalinazing vasculopathy and neoangiogenesis. There are scant comparative studies of morphofunctional correlation. Most of them have been reported on long-term PD patients and showed a progressive increase of fibrosis and vasculopathy with time on PD, specially in patients with ultrafiltration failure and in those with sclerosing peritonitis. The peritoneal vessel number do not always increase with time on PD, and it is associated with advanced ultrafiltration failure. Some short-term studies have demonstrated that the initial lesion related to the high small solute peritoneal transport is the epithelial to mesenchimal transition of the mesothelial cell (the transformation of mesothelial cell into fibroblastic cell). The higher secretion of extracellular matrix and vascular endothelial growth factor by the transformed mesothelial cells should participated on later development of fibrosis and high peritoneal permeability, not always in relation with higher number of peritoneal vessels.


Introduction Acute ischemic stroke (AIS) and lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) are associated with some of the highest morbidity and mortality rates worldwide. Despite reports on their strong correlation, the causal relationship is not fully understood. The study aimed to identify and annotate the biological functions of hub genes with clinical diagnostic efficacy in AIS and LUAD. Methods Transcriptome and single-cell datasets were obtained from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) and The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). We identified the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) upregulated in AIS and LUAD and found 372 genes intersecting both datasets. Hub genes were identified using protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks, and the diagnostic and prognostic utility of these hub genes was then investigated using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves, survival analysis, and univariable Cox proportional hazard regression. Single-cell analysis was used to detect whether the hub genes were expressed in tumor epithelial cells. The immune microenvironment of AIS and LUAD was assessed using the CIBERSORT algorithm. The protein expression of these hub genes was tracked using the Human Protein Atlas (HPA). We calculated the number of positive cells using the digital pathology software QuPath. Finally, we performed molecular docking after using the Enrichr database to predict possible medicines. Results We identified the molecular mechanisms underlying hub genes in AIS and LUAD and found that CCNA2, CCNB1, CDKN2A, and CDK1 were highly expressed in AIS and LUAD tissue samples compared to controls. The hub genes were mainly involved in the following pathways: the cell cycle, cellular senescence, and the HIF-1 signaling pathway. Using immunohistochemical slices from the HPA database, we confirmed that these hub genes have a high diagnostic capability for AIS and LUAD. Further, their high expression is associated with poor prognosis. Finally, curcumin was tested as a potential medication using molecular docking modeling. Discussion Our findings suggest that the hub genes we found in this study contribute to the development and progression of AIS and LUAD by altering the cellular senescence pathway. Thus, they may be promising markers for diagnosis and prognosis.


Recurrent bacterial vaginosis is a challenge for those affected by it, and their physicians. Our inability to prevent relapse after treatment, may be because of the flawed approach of using antibiotics to treat a condition that is an imbalance rather than an infection. The maintenance of a healthy lactobacillus population offers an approach to preventing relapse: the problem is how best to do this. Physiological approaches such as the use of hydrogen peroxide, lactic acid, and exogenous lactobacilli need to be explored further. The role of bacterial vaginosis as a risk factor for acquisition of HIV and other STIs is a further impetus to attempting to prevent bacterial vaginosis from recurring.


The authors describe a child with Williams syndrome who developed Burkitt lymphoma with a t(8;14). Williams syndrome is a contiguous gene syndrome that is not associated with a predilection for cancer. However, the management of a child with Williams syndrome and a malignancy is complicated by underlying disease in multiple organs. In 2001, the American Academy of Pediatrics published health care guidelines for children with Williams syndrome. These guidelines were adopted in the treatment of this child. Disease-specific guidelines should be applied to other children with multisystem disorders such as Down syndrome that require treatment of a malignancy.


An accurate and efficient eye detector is essential for many computer vision applications. In this paper, we present an efficient method to evaluate the eye location from facial images. First, a group of candidate regions with regional extreme points is quickly proposed; then, a set of convolution neural networks (CNNs) is adopted to determine the most likely eye region and classify the region as left or right eye; finally, the center of the eye is located with other CNNs. In the experiments using GI4E, BioID, and our datasets, our method attained a detection accuracy which is comparable to existing state-of-the-art methods; meanwhile, our method was faster and adaptable to variations of the images, including external light changes, facial occlusion, and changes in image modality.


Early diagnosis of pathological invasiveness of pulmonary adenocarcinomas using computed tomography (CT) imaging would alter the course of treatment of adenocarcinomas and subsequently improve the prognosis. Most of the existing systems use either conventional radiomics features or deep-learning features alone to predict the invasiveness. In this study, we explore the fusion of the two kinds of features and claim that radiomics features can be complementary to deep-learning features. An effective deep feature fusion network is proposed to exploit the complementarity between the two kinds of features, which improves the invasiveness prediction results. We collected a private dataset that contains lung CT scans of 676 patients categorized into four invasiveness types from a collaborating hospital. Evaluations on this dataset demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposal.


In an attempt to reduce the uncertainties in quantitative ultrasonic C-scanning, it has been found that the effects of nonlinear propagation in water cannot be ignored. Nonlinear propagation has been studied for many years in the medical ultrasonic field and other areas of acoustics. However, the subject has not been addressed in relation to non-destructive testing (NDT) because conventional bandwidth-limited NDT equipment filters out the characteristic fingerprint—a distorted waveform. In many ultrasonic fields nonlinear propagation is not important because low amplitudes and short propagation distances are used. However, it has been found that several popular commercial flaw detectors can produce large waveform distortions in water at the standard frequencies and amplitudes used for C-scan inspections. The presence of this phenomenon explains why increasing the voltage to the transmitting transducer does not always result in a proportionate increase in the received signal—it is possible to saturate the ...


An intelligent PV power smoothing control using probabilistic fuzzy neural network with asymmetric membership function (PFNN-AMF) is proposed in this study. First, a photovoltaic (PV) power plant with a battery energy storage system (BESS) is introduced. The BESS consisted of a bidirectional DC/AC 3-phase inverter and LiFePO4 batteries. Then, the difference of the actual PV power and smoothed power is supplied by the BESS. Moreover, the network structure of the PFNN-AMF and its online learning algorithms are described in detail. Furthermore, the three-phase output currents of the PV power plant are converted to the dq-axis current components. The resulted q-axis current is the input of the PFNN-AMF power smoothing control, and the output is a smoothing PV power curve to achieve the effect of PV power smoothing. Comparing to the other smoothing methods, a minimum energy capacity of the BESS with a small fluctuation of the grid power can be achieved by the PV power smoothing control using PFNN-AMF. In addition, a personal computer- (PC-) based PV power plant emulator and BESS are built for the experimentation. From the experimental results of various irradiance variation conditions, the effectiveness of the proposed intelligent PV power smoothing control can be verified.


We previously showed that endothelin-1 (ET-1) and prostacyclin (PGI(2)) similarly attenuate increases in microvascular permeability induced by platelet-activating factor (PAF). This led us to hypothesize that ET-1 attenuates trans-endothelial fluid flux during PAF through PGI(2) release. We tested this hypothesis in three phases. First, bovine pulmonary artery endothelial cells were exposed to 0.008-8 μM ET-1 and assayed for PGI(2) release. Second, to determine whether increased transmonolayer flux after PAF could be attenuated by ET-1 or PGI(2) and reversed by PGI(2) synthesis inhibition or PGI(2) receptor blockade, we measured endothelial cell transmonolayer flux after cells were exposed to 10 nM PAF plus 10 μM PGI(2) or 80 pM ET-1, with or without 500 μM tranylcypromine (PGI(2) synthase inhibitor) or 20 μM CAY-10441 (PGI(2) receptor blocker). Finally, hydraulic conductivity (L(p)) was measured in rat mesenteric venules in vivo after exposure to 10 nM PAF and 80 pM ET-1 with or without tranylcypromine (100 and 500 μM) or CAY-10441 (2 and 20 μM). We found that in vitro, ET-1 stimulated a dose-dependent increase in PGI(2) production (from 126 to 217 pg/ml, P < 0.01). Compared with PAF alone, PGI(2) plus PAF and ET-1 plus PAF decreased transmonolayer flux similarly by 52 and 46%, respectively (P < 0.01), while tranylcypromine and CAY-10441 reversed these effects by 92 and 47%, respectively (P < 0.05). In vivo, PAF increased L(p) fourfold (P < 0.01) and ET-1 attenuated this effect by 83% (P < 0.01). Tranylcypromine and CAY-10441 reversed the ET-1 attenuation in L(p) during PAF by 55 and 45%, respectively (P < 0.01). We conclude that ET-1 may stimulate endothelial cell PGI(2) release to attenuate the increases in transmonolayer flux and hydraulic conductivity secondary to PAF.


Is the emotionally disturbed person a victim of forces beyond his awareness, over which he has no control? This is the belief on which neuropsychiatry, psychoanalysis, and behaviour therapy are all based. But what if this premise is wrong? What if a person's psychological difficulties stem from his own erroneous assumptions and faulty concepts of himself and the world? Such a person can be helped to recognize and correct distortions in thinking that cause his emotional disturbance. Now one of the founders of cognitive therapy has written a clear, comprehensive guide to its theory and practice, highlighting such important concepts as learning the meaning of hidden messages - listening to your automatic thoughts - the role of sadness, anger and anxiety - understanding and overcoming phobias and depression.


We performed a series of density functional theory + U (DFT + U) calculations to explore the energetics of various defects in UO{sub 2}, i.e., noble gases (He, Ne, Ar, Kr, Xe), Schottky defects, and the interaction between these defects. We found the following: (1) collinear antiferromagnetic UO{sub 2} has an energy-lowering distortion of the oxygen sublattice from ideal fluorite positions; (2) DFT + U qualitatively affects the formation volume of Schottky defect clusters in UO{sub 2} (without U the formation volume is negative, but including U the formation volume is positive); (3) the configuration of the Schottky defect cluster is dictated by a competition between electrostatic and surface energy effects; (4) the incorporation energy of inserting noble gas atoms into an interstitial site has a strong dependence on the volume of the noble gas atom, corresponding to the strain it causes in the interstitial site, from He (0.98 eV) to Xe (9.73 eV); (5) the energetics of each of the noble gas atoms incorporated in Schottky defects show strong favorable binding, due to strain relief associated with moving the noble gas atom from the highly strained interstitial position into the vacant space of the Schottky defect; and (6) formore » argon, krypton, and xenon, the binding energy of a noble gas impurity with the Schottky defect is larger than the formation energy of a Schottky defect, thereby making the formation of Schottky defects thermodynamically favorable in the presence of these large impurities.« less


Abstract Binary fluid mixtures with a negative separation ratio heated from below exhibit steady spatially localized states called convectons for supercritical Rayleigh numbers. With no-slip, fixed-temperature, no-mass-flux boundary conditions at the top and bottom stationary odd- and even-parity convectons fall on a pair of intertwined branches connected by branches of travelling asymmetric states. In appropriate parameter regimes the stationary convectons may be stable. When the boundary condition on the top is changed to Newton's law of cooling the odd-parity convectons start to drift and the branch of odd-parity convectons breaks up and reconnects with the branches of asymmetric states. We explore the dependence of these changes and of the resulting drift speed on the associated Biot number using numerical continuation, and compare and contrast the results with a related study of the Swift–Hohenberg equation by Houghton & Knobloch (Phys. Rev. E, vol. 84, 2011, art. 016204). We use the results to identify stable drifting convectons and employ direct numerical simulations to study collisions between them. The collisions are highly inelastic, and result in convectons whose length exceeds the sum of the lengths of the colliding convectons.


Acute coronary syndromes are due to rupture or erosion of an atherosclerotic coronary artery plaque with superimposed platelet aggregation and coronary thrombosis. Complete thrombotic occlusion of a coronary artery generally causes acute ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI), whereas incomplete occlusion will usually cause some myocardial necrosis (as shown by a rise in a cardiac-specific serum biomarker such as troponin) and is termed 'non-ST elevation myocardial infarction' (NSTEMI). When myocardial ischaemia is present without evidence of myocardial necrosis the clinical syndrome is described as unstable angina (UA). Hospital Episodes Statistics data for England suggest that there may be as many as 100 000–150 000 admissions with UA or NSTEMI per year (Green S, Personal communication, 2010). Although very early mortality (first few days) is lower for NSTEMI than for STEMI, over a longer period (6 months) their risk of death is comparable.1

The recently published NICE clinical guideline on the early management of UA and NSTEMI (CG94) examines selected aspects of in-hospital management, including risk assessment and its impact on patient management, antiplatelet and antithrombin therapy, the role of coronary angiography, revascularisation and intra-aortic balloon counterpulsation, testing for myocardial ischaemia and left ventricular function, specialist versus non-specialist care, rehabilitation and discharge planning. Detailed discussion of the evidence for the guideline can be found in the full version (http://guidance.nice.org.uk/CG94/Guidance/pdf/English, accessed August 2010), and this article summarises the most important conclusions. CG94 assumes that a firm diagnosis of UA or NSTEMI has already been established, and the differentiation of cardiac from non-cardiac chest pain is dealt with in separate NICE guidance (http://guidance.nice.org.uk/CG95/Guidance/pdf/English, accessed August 2010).

An appreciation of an individual's risk of an adverse outcome following UA or NSTEMI is important when assessing which treatment strategies are most appropriate. For instance, antithrombotic agents may reduce further ischaemic events, but increase bleeding complications, and this …


Hydrocephalus is an excess of fluid in the cavities deep within the brain.It can lead to disturbances of the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) flow in the hollow places of the brain. This paper presents a Mathematical model based on the principles of biofluid dynamics also this model predict the velocity of fluid flow along with its pressure and the amount of fluid tunneledtoanother body part using lumbar puncture throughout the brain ventricular pathways consistent with intracranial pressure measurements. We analyse the flow of hydrocephalus through porous medium of cerebrospinal fluid. Analytical results with respect to various parameters are presented graphically using MATLAB


A Pareto-efficient, goal-driven, and distributed power control scheme for wireless networks is presented. We use a noncooperative game-theoretic approach to propose a novel pricing scheme that is linearly proportional to the signal-to-interference ratio (SIR) and analytically show that with a proper choice of prices (proportionality constants), the outcome of the noncooperative power control game is a unique and Pareto-efficient Nash equilibrium (NE). This can be utilized for constrained-power control to satisfy specific goals (such as fairness, aggregate throughput optimization, or trading off between these two goals). For each one of the above goals, the dynamic price for each user is also analytically obtained. In a centralized (base station) price setting, users should inform the base station of their path gains and their maximum transmit-powers. In a distributed price setting, for each goal, an algorithm for users to update their transmit-powers is also presented that converges to a unique fixed-point in which the corresponding goal is satisfied. Simulation results confirm our analytical developments.


Combretum micranthun G. Don (Combretaceae) is reputed in folk medicine for its anti-infective properties. In this study, we screened aqueous and methanol extracts of Combretum micranthun for antibacterial activities against nosocomial bacterial isolates. The methanolic and aqueous extracts of the leaves, root-bark and stem-bark were screened against the 25 different nosocomial isolates each of Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Proteus mirabilis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Enterococcus faecalis, Streptococcus pyogenes and Streptococcus pneumoniae isolated from patients presenting with various ailment at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Enugu using the agar well diffusion technique. The extracts of Combretum micranthun exhibited antimicrobial activities against both Gram-negative and the Gram-positive isolates including Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureaus. Generally, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Streptococus pyogenes showed the highest level of susceptibility to the extracts of Combretum micranthun. The hot aqueous, the methanol and the cold aqueous extracts were more effective than other extracts in inhibiting all the isolates tested. The extracts of the plant C. micranthum G. Don showed high antimicrobial effectiveness against the different 200 clinical isolates of both Gram positive and Gram negative isolates screened and could therefore be harnessed as a potent antibacterial agents or could possibly provide leads for the synthesis of novel anti-infective agents.


Hybrid systems with hepatocyte cultures in bioreactors are in development for therapeutical liver assistance. Here, a culture model with a special bioreactor construction was developed: Capillary membrane systems create a three dimensional artificial framework for hepatocyte adhesion, aggregation and reorganization of tissue structures. Many of small parallel capillary membrane units perfuse a few hepatocytes. Different capillary materials enable different functions. Cell perfusion between independent plasma inflow and outflow capillaries, independent oxygen supply and carbon dioxide removal as well as a co- culture with sinusoidal endothelial cells are possible. An in vitro study with bioreactors (n = 9), containing 2.5 x 10(9) pig hepatocytes was performed, measuring external metabolism of the cells: cytochrome P450-activity (midazolam metabolism, lidocaine/MEGX-test), synthesis (albumin), liver function test (galactose elimination) and cell alteration (LDH, GOT, GLDH, GPT, gamma GT) were investigated. The results demonstrate that external function of primary hepatocytes can be maintained over a period of at least three weeks.


Background and Purpose Given the diverse phenotypes including combined non-dyskinetic symptoms in patients harboring mutations of the gene encoding proline-rich transmembrane protein 2 (PRRT2), the clinical significance of these mutations in paroxysmal kinesigenic dyskinesia (PKD) is questionable. In this study, we investigated the clinical characteristics of PKD patients with PRRT2 mutations. Methods Familial and sporadic PKD patients were enrolled and PRRT2 gene sequencing was performed. Demographic and clinical data were compared between PKD patients with and without a PRRT2 mutation. Results Among the enrolled PKD patients (8 patients from 5 PKD families and 19 sporadic patients), PRRT2 mutations were detected in 3 PKD families (60%) and 2 sporadic cases (10.5%). All familial patients with a PRRT2 gene mutation had the c.649dupC mutation, which is the most commonly reported mutation. Two uncommon mutations (c.649delC and c.629dupC) were detected only in the sporadic cases. PKD patients with PRRT2 mutation were younger at symptom onset and had more non-dyskinetic symptoms than those without PRRT2 mutation. However, the characteristics of dyskinetic movement did not differ between the two groups. Conclusions This is the first study of PRRT2 mutations in Korea. The presence of a PRRT2 mutation was more strongly related to familial PKD, and was clinically related with earlier age of onset and common non-dyskinetic symptoms in PKD patients.


Even though railway systems are becoming a more preferred transportation concept regarding high speeds, punctuality, safety, availability, which are appealing for passengers; cost-effectiveness, environmentally friendliness and less soil occupation corresponding to other transportation modes, which attracts the governments and operators, it still suffers from two major drawbacks: first investment and high maintenance costs. Life cycle costs analyses show that maintenance costs have significant effects on the total value as well as early investment costs. The reason for high maintenance costs in railway systems is that critical components (i.e. turnouts), which are the weak points of a railway system, require frequent detailed inspection and maintenance associated with high safety standards. For instance, it is widely known for a turnout that European countries have conducted a series of projects such as Innotrack, IN2Rail, S-code in order to lower the maintenance costs. Moreover, turnouts also restrict the design limits of a railway system, which results in lower operational speeds. Consequently, studies on turnouts have been increasing. In general, the studies focus on track stiffness along the turnout, environmental effects on configuration, conversion problems and the contact problem. Among these issues, the issue regarding contact is the most premature problem due to its nonlinear nature, which could not be solved analytically. Having increased computational power, sophisticated methods for the contact problem have been developed. The problem regarding the contact patch, forces and positions are of considerable interest. From the aspect of turnout crossing noses, there is a contact patch evolution on crossings from single to double and double to single contact patch, which affects the vehicle dynamics to a large extent. Numerous studies have been presented for the problem. However, these studies, commonly, consider one type of turnout, mostly standard turnouts. Regarding the absence of collective study, in this study, the aim is to review the contact conditions depending on turnout types from a wider perspective. As result of the study, it has been found that crossing nose types such as fixed and movable have significant effects on lateral and vertical movements of the contact patches. Moreover, different layouts of turnouts have different effects on the contact conditions.


Past reading research with English Language Learners (ELLs) in elementary school suggests that a number of component factors contribute to reading comprehension performance. Although comprehensive models of reading comprehension have been proposed, such as the Simple View of Reading (SVR), which explains reading comprehension as the combination of decoding and linguistic comprehension, further research is required to determine if these models adequately describe reading performance for ELLs. The purpose of the present study was twofold. First, seeing as a recently developed version of a sentence repetition task would be used in the present study as a potential predictor of reading comprehension, the researcher aimed to closely examine the roles that working memory and oral language play in English and Spanish versions of this sentence repetition task. Second, the sentence repetition task was incorporated, along with a comprehensive measure of English Language Proficiency (ELP), decoding, and working memory, to determine whether these predictors could combine to explain greater variance in reading comprehension than the SVR did alone. Eighty-four firstand second-grade ELL students were administered measures for all potential predictive variables, as well as reading comprehension. Results suggested that both working memory and oral language contributed to performance on the English sentence repetition task, but that only working memory was a significant contributor to performance on the Spanish sentence repetition task. When investigating the SVR, findings indicated that although the SVR was an adequate reading comprehension model, adding ELP and working memory significantly improved the percentage of variance in reading comprehension that was explained. These findings have implications for development of universal screening and progress monitoring tools utilized within schools for ELLs struggling with reading comprehension. Additionally, these findings emphasize the importance of ELP and working memory in reading comprehension outcomes for ELLs. INDEX WORDS: English Language Learners, Reading, Comprehension, Simple view of reading, Language proficiency, Children EXPLORING PREDICTORS OF READING COMPREHENSION FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS


In this paper we study the dynamics of a 5D bulk space-time with our universe as a "test 3-brane" located in the bulk, an idealized model of a topological object whose physical properties is negligible in comparison with that of the bulk. Our universe experiences acceleration and its equation of state parameter crosses the phantom divide line due to the geometry of the bulk space-time.


Understanding how neural circuits underlie behaviour is challenging even in the era of the connectome because it requires a combined approach encompassing anatomical and functional analyses. This is exemplified in studying the circuit underlying the light-avoidance behaviour displayed by the larvae of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. While this behaviour is robust and the nervous system relatively simple, only bits and pieces of the circuit have been delineated1. Indeed, some studies resulted in contradicting conclusions regarding the contributions of various neuronal types to this behaviour2,3. Here we devise trans-Tango MkII, a new version of the transsynaptic circuit tracing and manipulation tool trans-Tango4. We implement trans-Tango MkII in anatomical tracing and combine it with circuit epistasis analysis. We use neuronal inhibition to test necessity of particular neuronal types for light-avoidance. We complement these experiments by selective neuronal activation to examine sufficiency in rescuing light-avoidance deficiencies exhibited by photoreceptor mutants. Together, our studies reveal a four-order, linear circuit for light-avoidance behaviour connecting the light-detecting photoreceptors with a pair of neuroendocrine cells via two types of clock neurons. Our combined approach could be readily expanded to other larval circuits. Further, this strategy provides the framework for studying more complex nervous systems and behaviours.


OBJECTIVES
Intermediate echogenic plaque without acoustic shadow on intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) imaging has been recognized as fibrous plaque. Such echogenic plaque with ultrasonic attenuation may have higher risk for distal flow disturbance (slow flow/no-reflow) during percutaneous coronary intervention. However, histological evaluation of plaque with ultrasonic attenuation has not been performed. This study evaluated the histological characteristics of plaque with ultrasonic attenuation assessed by IVUS.

METHODS
By using IVUS, 36 samples of human cadaveric coronary arterial echogenic plaque (percentage plaque area > 40%) without calcium were selected, and classified into the attenuation group; plaque with ultrasonic attenuation, and the non-attenuation group; plaque without attenuation. These plaques were classified for fibrous, fibrofatty, calcium, and necrotic core areas by histological examination.

RESULTS
True fibrous plaque was found in 91.7% of the non-attenuation group, but only 68.0% of the attenuation group (p < 0.01) . On the other hand, the percentage fibrofatty and necrotic core plaque areas in the attenuation group were significant larger than those in the non-attenuation group (fibrofatty: 16.3 +/- 13.8% vs. 2.7 +/- 3.1%, p < 0.01; necrotic core: 13.0 +/- 19.4% vs. 3.9 +/- 8.0%, p = 0.03). CONCLUSIONS. Plaque with ultrasonic attenuation contains more fibrofatty tissue and necrotic core compared to fibrous plaque without attenuation.


OBJECTIVES We evaluated the time-behavior of changes in collateral circulation after successful percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) with drug-eluting stents (DES) in chronic ( 1 month) total occlusions (CTO), and assessed their relationship with myocardial ischemia. BACKGROUND It has been hypothesized that the immediate reduction of collateral flow after PCI of CTO could expose the patients to a higher risk of future ischemic events in the case of vessel reocclusion. METHODS In 42 patients with CTO, two consecutive balloon inflations and final DES deployment were performed after positioning of a pressure guidewire. Minimal lumen diameter (MLD), diameter stenosis (DS), angiographic collateral grading (Rentrop score), myocardial (FFRmyo), coronary (FFRcor), and collateral fractional flow reserve (FFRcoll) were evaluated. Chest pain and the sum of ST-segment elevation ( ST) were analyzed to document the occurrence and extent of myocardial ischemia. RESULTS Percutaneous coronary intervention induced a progressive improvement of indexes of stenosis severity (MLD, DS, Thrombolysis in Myocardial Infarction flow, FFRmyo, and FFRcor) and a rapid reduction in collateral circulation (FFRcoll and Rentrop score). A progressive worsening of ischemia at each balloon inflation occurred, concomitant with the reduction of collateral circulation. At linear regression analysis, an inverse relationship of FFRcoll with ST (R 0.352, p 0.001) and angina pain score (R 0.247, p 0.001) was observed. CONCLUSIONS In CTO, collateral circulation, which provides most coronary flow at baseline, rapidly declines after successful stent implantation and the restoration of an antegrade flow. This rapid de-recruitment of collaterals is likely to put such patients at risk of future ischemic events. (J Am Coll Cardiol 2006;48:59–65) © 2006 by the American College of ublished by Elsevier Inc. doi:10.1016/j.jacc.2005.12.079


53 patients presenting with post-prostatectomy obstructive complications above the verumontanum were treated in a single session by means of guided dilatation of the stricture followed by transurethral resection of the stenosing fibrotic tissue. The results obtained in cases of vesical neck stenosis were very encouraging. Unsatisfactory results were observed in cases of cervicoprostatic fibrosclerosis where resection was insufficient for resolution of the obstruction. No failures or complications with the guided dilatation technique have been observed.


Based on physiological and psychophysical data, it has been suggested that the neural code for threshold detection in the P channel, mediated by Pacinian corpuscles (PCs), may be 2-4 neural impulses/stimulus (Bolanowski et al., 1988). To further test the efficacy of this code, responses from PCs were measured at different vibratory burst durations. Since it is known that the P channel has the capacity to summate vibratory stimuli temporally within the central nervous system, the effect should also be present in the physiological results. Temporal summation predicts a decrease in threshold at a rate of -3 dB/doubling of stimulus duration. Responses from single PCs were integrated by counting neural spikes over the entire burst duration. Furthermore, real-time responses were integrated with a low-pass filter, more accurately modeling the central process. For the spike-counting scheme, a criterion of 4 impulses/stimulus showed a decrease in stimulus amplitude for increases in duration similar to that obtained psychophysically. The amplitude-duration function obtained with the low-pass filter, however, resulted in a function which did not follow that obtained psychophysically, regardless of the number of impulses/stimulus. Since the P channel is known to have a central integrator, it has been concluded that activity of a single PC afferent probably is not sufficient to signal threshold in the P channel.


Water and wastewater systems are significant energy consumers with an estimated 3%-4% of total U.S. electricity consumption used for the movement and treatment of water and wastewater. Water-energy issues are of growing importance in the context of water shortages, higher energy and material costs, and a changing climate. In this economic environment, it is in the best interest for utilities to find efficiencies, both in water and energy use. Performing energy audits at water and wastewater treatment facilities is one way community energy managers can identify opportunities to save money, energy, and water. In this paper the importance of energy use in wastewater facilities is illustrated by a case study of a process energy audit performed for Crested Butte, Colorado's wastewater treatment plant. The energy audit identified opportunities for significant energy savings by looking at power intensive unit processes such as influent pumping, aeration, ultraviolet disinfection, and solids handling. This case study presents best practices that can be readily adopted by facility managers in their pursuit of energy and financial savings in water and wastewater treatment. This paper is intended to improve community energy managers understanding of the role that the water and wastewater sector plays in a community's total energy consumption. The energy efficiency strategies described provide information on energy savings opportunities, which can be used as a basis for discussing energy management goals with water and wastewater treatment facility managers.


In this thesis, we study modern variational and partial differential equation (PDE)-based methods for three image analysis applications, namely, image denoising, image segmentation, and surface reconstruction from point clouds. A common feature these applications have is the use of novel variational formulations.

For image denoising, we focus on higher order variational functionals in which the regulariser incorporates second order derivatives or is a sophisticated combination of first and second order derivatives. We study seven representative first and/or second order functionals, implement them using the efficient split Bregman algorithm, and compare their performances. With the knowledge of the main properties of each of the denoising approaches, we can then select and adapt them for image segmentation.

For image segmentation, we are in particular interested in images of three types: red blood cell (RBC) images, histology images of the microglial cells, and optical coherence tomography (OCT) images of the retina. For RBC images we develop an automated and accurate image analysis framework for an image-based cytometer that uses variational total generalised variation, adaptive thresholding and support vector machine. The framework can 1) detect and numerically count malaria parasite infected RBCs acquired from Giemsa-stained smears; 2) classify all parasitic subpopulations by quantifying the area occupied by the parasites within the infected cells; 3) predict if the RBC image has been infected by malaria parasites. We show the effectiveness of the framework by quantifying and classifying both RBC and infected RBC images.

For histology images of the microglial cells, we introduce an automated image segmentation method that is capable of efficiently extracting microglial cells from the images. The method uses variational Mumford-Shah total variation and split Bregman for image denoising and segmentation and is fast, accurate and robust against noise and inhomogeneity in the image. We evaluate the method on the image data from wild type mice and transgenic mouse models of Alzheimer's disease. The method is scalable to large datasets, allowing microglia analysis in regions of interest and across the whole brain.

For OCT images of the retina, we propose a novel and accurate geodesic distance method to segment healthy and pathological OCT images, in both two and three dimensions. The method uses a weighted geodesic distance by an exponential function, taking into account horizontal and vertical intensity variations. The fast sweeping method is used to derive the geodesic distance from an Eikonal equation, a special case of Hamilton-Jacobi equations that belongs to the family of nonlinear PDEs. Segmentation is then achieved by solving an ordinary differential equation using the resulting geodesic distance. The proposed method is also extensively compared with the parametric active contour model and graph theoretic methods.

Finally, we study surface reconstruction from point clouds. We treat this reconstruction problem as an image segmentation problem and hence develop a novel variational level set method. Th method is capable of reconstructing implicit surfaces from unorganised point clouds while preserving fine details of the surfaces. A distance function, derived from the point cloud using the fast sweeping algorithm, is used as an edge indicator function and to find an initial image enclosed by the point cloud. A novel variational segmentation functional is then proposed that effectively integrates the initial image and edge indicator. Gradient descent optimisation finally minimises the functional and ensures an accurate and smooth reconstruction.


Many ideas presented in elementary numerical analysis do not lend themselves well to traditional "by the clock" examination questions. Students are often given theoretical and/or applied projects to investigate advanced ideas. Examples include case studies of numerical methods applied to specific problems and mathematical derivations or proofs. By thinking about complicated problems over time, it is hoped that students gain some "sense" of how numerical analysis works. Problems can arise in the assessment of these projects. Students have a natural tendency to talk to one another about homework assignments, and it is often not clear when healthy discussion crosses the line to unauthorized collaboration. Instructors can change assignments from term to term, but an increasing number of solved problems have appeared on the Web and in solution manuals, further complicating the task of assessment. The presenter will outline a strategy in which collaboration on homework assignments is encouraged, and insight gained (from whatever source) is welcomed. In- class examinations are structured to pinpoint individual thinking and initiative. This approach to assessment in numerical analysis has been used for several years at a large state university with positive results. Several examples of examination questions, and guidelines on how to grade them, will be given. Comparisons with other popular approaches are also made.


Oscillator strengths of transitions into high-lying Rydberg states of the Sr I principal series have been determined on an absolute scale. By applying a saturation technique the photoionization cross section at the first ionization threshold was measured to and was used to calibrate the f-values of the Rydberg transitions Sr I ( for quantum numbers n = 30 - 60. The results are compared with recent literature data. In addition, we show photoabsorption spectra near threshold with forbidden one-photon transitions from the ground state to excited states of the same parity.


The authors describe two male patients with prolactinomas which were incidentally found either during the course of a complete work up for headache or after minor head trauma. Since these tumours were located mainly in the sphenoid bone and did not show any upward growth to the suprasellar region, they were initially thought to be a primary skull base tumour; however, the serum prolactin levels of these patients were 1,179 ng/ml and 3,260 ng/ml, respectively. The authors thus emphasise the need to recognise this peculiar infrasellar growth pattern of prolactinoma.


Cloud computing is a promising development, deployment and delivery model in information technology sector across the globe. The burgeoning cloud computing model attempts to tackle the hotheaded growth of web-connected devices and handles gigantic amount of data. Security factor plays a key role in cloud computing. There is a critical need to securely store, manage, share and analyze huge amounts of complex data to resolve patterns and trends in order to improve the quality of realistic applications. Because of the critical nature of the applications, it is vital that clouds be secure. The major security confront with cloud computing is that the end user may not have control over the data and doesn't know where the data is actually stored. Providing security is quite complex in cloud because it comprises of various technologies, storage devices, platforms and so on. In this paper we discuss the major security issues for the data stored in cloud and its concerns, services and finally solutions for the security


The development of special, active physical sensor systems for the direct 3D measurement of environment geometry is gaining more and more importance, as it is the basis for realising many applications in the area of automation technology. The basis for the realisation of such tasks is an image of the environment in 3D, which reflects as accurately as possible the "as-built" condition of the object or environment. A visual laser radar is used for a non-contact and accurate survey of an area which is completely measured in three dimensions and visually imaged within a few seconds. This information forms the basis for the generation of real models of the 3D environment. This paper describes the design and function of the developed visual laser radar in detail, adapted to an environmental survey at medium ranges.


Estimating the 3D pose of desktop objects is crucial for applications such as robotic manipulation. Many existing approaches to this problem require a depth map of the object for both training and prediction, which restricts them to opaque, lambertian objects that produce good returns in an RGBD sensor. In this paper we forgo using a depth sensor in favor of raw stereo input. We address two problems: first, we establish an easy method for capturing and labeling 3D keypoints on desktop objects with an RGB camera; and second, we develop a deep neural network, called KeyPose, that learns to accurately predict object poses using 3D keypoints, from stereo input, and works even for transparent objects. To evaluate the performance of our method, we create a dataset of 15 clear objects in five classes, with 48K 3D-keypoint labeled images. We train both instance and category models, and show generalization to new textures, poses, and objects. KeyPose surpasses state-of-the-art performance in 3D pose estimation on this dataset by factors of 1.5 to 3.5, even in cases where the competing method is provided with ground-truth depth. Stereo input is essential for this performance as it improves results compared to using monocular input by a factor of 2. We will release a public version of the data capture and labeling pipeline, the transparent object database, and the KeyPose models and evaluation code. Project website: https://sites.google.com/corp/view/keypose.


WEHI‐231 and CH31 are phenotypically immature sIgM+ murine B cell lymphomas whose growth is inhibited by anti‐immunoglobulin (Ig) antibodies. These lines have therefore been used as models for studying the role of surface Ig receptors in the induction of B cell tolerance. We show here that anti‐γ antibodies induce DNA cleavage into oligonucleosomal fragments characteristic of programed cell death (apoptosis) in both cell lines, although WEHI‐231 cells are less susceptible than CH31. This effect was reversed by lipopolysaccharide, in agreement with the known effects of lipopolysaccharide on anti‐Ig‐induced growth inhibition. These results therefore indicate that these lymphomas afford a potentially interesting model to study the mechanisms of programed cell death induced by ligation of the antigen receptors on normal B cells.


The electrochemical performance and electrode reactions using ordered mesoporous β-MnO2 modified with Pd as a cathode catalyst for rechargeable Li-air batteries was reported. Well-ordered mesoporous β-MnO2 was prepared using mesoporous silica KIT-6 as a template under hydrothermal synthesis of Mn(NO3)2 ·H2O. The obtained mesoporous β-MnO2 shows narrow pore size distribution of 1 nm. With the dispersion of small amounts of Pd to β-MnO2, mesoporous β-MnO2 exhibited a high initial discharge capacity of 817 mAh/g-cat. with high reversible capacity. Charging potential is suppressed at 3.6 V vs. Li/Li+, which is highly effective for preventing the decomposition of organic electrolyte. The mesoporous β-MnO2/Pd electrode shows good rate capability and cycle stability. Ex-situ and in-situ XRD results suggested that the observed capacity comes primarily from the oxidation of Li+ to Li2O2 followed by Li2O after discharge to 2.0 V vs. Li/Li+. Electron spin resonance measurements suggest that the formation of superoxide anion radicals contributs to the oxidation of Li+ and the radicals were recovered during charge. Ex-situ FTIRmeasurement suggested that no electrolyte decomposition was observed and no Li2CO3 was formed during discharge when ethylene carbonate (EC)-diethyl carbonate (DEC) (3:7), which is highly stable for Li-air battery, was used as the electrolyte. © 2011 The Electrochemical Society. [DOI: 10.1149/2.090112jes] All rights reserved.


ABSTRACT Booster seat use for 4–9 year olds remains the lowest of all age groups in many countries. The objective of this study is to examine whether parents' decision-making patterns, as measured by the Melbourne Decision Making Questionnaire, relate to car booster seat use. Israeli parents of 4–7 years old children (n = 398) answered a questionnaire about car safety and decision-making habits. Ninety per cent of parents reported having a booster seat; 70.5% reported consistent booster seat use in general and on short drives during the last month (booster seat use compliance index). Greater compliance index was positively related to a vigilant decision-making pattern, passenger compliance with rear seat belts and families with fewer children. Lower booster seat use compliance index was associated with buck-passing decision-making pattern. Health professionals and policy-makers should take into account parents' habitual decision-making patterns when designing interventions for car booster seat compliance.


Fear of Pain and Dental Care-Related Fear: Associations with the MC1R Gene Cameron L. Randall, M.S. Fear of pain is experienced in acute and chronic pain populations, as well as generally, and impacts numerous aspects of the pain experience, including pain intensity, pain-related disability, and pain behavior (e.g., avoidance). A related but separate construct, dental care-related fear, also is experienced in the general population, and impacts dental treatment-seeking behavior and oral and systemic health. Very minimal work has addressed the role of genetics in the etiologies of fear of pain and dental care-related fear. Limited available data suggest that variants of the melanocortin-1 receptor (MC1R) gene may predict greater levels of dental care-related fear. The MC1R gene also may be important in the etiology of fear of pain. This study aimed to confirm that MC1R variant status predicts dental care-related fear and to determine, for the first time, whether MC1R variant status predicts general fear of pain. Participants were 817 Caucasian adults (62.5% female, M age = 34.7 years, SD = 8.7) who were part of a larger, cross-sectional project that sought to identify determinants of oral diseases at the community-, family-, and individual levels (Center for Oral Health Research in Appalachia, cohort 1; COHRA1). Participants were genotyped for SNPs on MC1R and completed self-report measures of fear of pain and dental care-related fear. Variation on MC1R predicted higher levels of dental carerelated fear and fear of pain. Importantly, fear of pain mediated the relation between MC1R variant status and dental care-related fear, B = 1.60, 95% CI [0.281, 3.056]. MC1R variants may influence orofacial pain and, in turn, predispose individuals to develop fears about pain. Such fears influence the pain experience and associated pain behaviors, as well as fears about dental treatment. This study provides support for small genetic contributions to the development/maintenance of fear of pain and dental care-related fear. These findings suggest directions for future research to identify potential targets for intervention in the treatment of fear of pain and dental care-related fear.


Purpose: The purpose of this study was to develop and validate an image‐guided robotic needle delivery system for accurate and repeatable needle targeting procedures in mouse brains inside the 12 cm inner diameter gradient coil insert of a 9.4 T MR scanner. Many preclinical research techniques require the use of accurate needle deliveries to soft tissues, including brain tissue. Soft tissues are optimally visualized in MR images, which offer high‐soft tissue contrast, as well as a range of unique imaging techniques, including functional, spectroscopy and thermal imaging, however, there are currently no solutions for delivering needles to small animal brains inside the bore of an ultra‐high field MR scanner. This paper describes the mechatronic design, evaluation of MR compatibility, registration technique, mechanical calibration, the quantitative validation of the in‐bore image‐guided needle targeting accuracy and repeatability, and demonstrated the system's ability to deliver needles in situ. Methods: Our six degree‐of‐freedom, MR compatible, mechatronic system was designed to fit inside the bore of a 9.4 T MR scanner and is actuated using a combination of piezoelectric and hydraulic mechanisms. The MR compatibility and targeting accuracy of the needle delivery system are evaluated to ensure that the system is precisely calibrated to perform the needle targeting procedures. A semi‐automated image registration is performed to link the robot coordinates to the MR coordinate system. Soft tissue targets can be accurately localized in MR images, followed by automatic alignment of the needle trajectory to the target. Intra‐procedure visualization of the needle target location and the needle were confirmed through MR images after needle insertion. Results: The effects of geometric distortions and signal noise were found to be below threshold that would have an impact on the accuracy of the system. The system was found to have negligible effect on the MR image signal noise and geometric distortion. The system was mechanically calibrated and the mean image‐guided needle targeting and needle trajectory accuracies were quantified in an image‐guided tissue mimicking phantom experiment to be 178 ± 54 μm and 0.27 ± 0.65°, respectively. Conclusions: An MR image‐guided system for in‐bore needle deliveries to soft tissue targets in small animal models has been developed. The results of the needle targeting accuracy experiments in phantoms indicate that this system has the potential to deliver needles to the smallest soft tissue structures relevant in preclinical studies, at a wide variety of needle trajectories. Future work in the form of a fully‐automated needle driver with precise depth control would benefit this system in terms of its applicability to a wider range of animal models and organ targets.


This article engages with current debates about linguistic usage but in a new way. It examines linguistic change, the shifts in frequency of usage of 'aristocracy,' both qualitatively and quantitatively, at specific moments and over time, in print of the period 1700 to 1850. Digital resources are utilized to provide broad quantitative evidence not previously available to historians. The potential use and value of digitized sources is also explored in calculating the volume and frequency of keyword appearance within a broad set of genres. This article also examines qualitatively usage of 'aristocracy' by contemporaries and historians and concludes that historians have often used the term anachronistically. It reveals that for much of the eighteenth century 'aristocracy' was entirely a political term confined primarily to the educated elite but that by 1850 it had become a common social descriptor of an elite class. It also compares the trajectory of usage of 'aristocracy' with that of 'democracy' and accounts for the divergence in such usage. It is argued here that analyzing the prevalence and usage of 'aristocracy' in contemporary contexts reveals an important narrative of linguistic changes that parallel shifts in political and social culture. UNDERSTANDING A LANGUAGE OF 'ARISTOCRACY', 1700-1850* The 'linguistic turn' has stimulated controversy among historians about the role of language in politics for over thirty years. Yet recent works show that the study of political language continues to evolve. In his 2010 book, researching such terms as 'modern', 'society', and 'commonwealth', Phil Withington argued that studying linguistic usage is an essential way to understand societies in the past. Indeed, he confirmed that 'culture-specific words are conceptual tools that reflect a society's past experience of doing and thinking about things in certain ways'. Stephen Lee has noted that political agents 'operate within a paradigm, a set of linguistic and behavioural conventions', and that such paradigms are flexible, created and changed by 'men's actions and ideas'. Moreover, debate has developed over the potential for anachronistic and teleological use of terminology, in particular the term 'radicalism'. Jonathan Clark and others have claimed that adopting 'radicalism' to describe any political movement before the term was invented in the 1820s is inappropriate. By so doing historians run the risk of misrepresenting earlier ideas, constructing false traditions, and inappropriately attributing current vocabulary and mores to people in the past. Another study disagreed with such an approach, arguing that even if 'radicalism' as a term did not exist, the concepts it embodied can be found in comparable alternative contemporary terms. It remains useful as 'an explanatory category' provided there is 'sensitivity to context and consequentially the situational, episodic and variegated nature of radicalism'. This article examines the shifts in frequency of usage and meaning of the term aristocracy ('aristocracy') both quantitatively and qualitatively, at specific moments and over time in England during the period 1700 to 1850. 'Aristocracy' has a long antecedence, stretching back to the ancient world and with clear meaning as 'government by the few' until the late eighteenth century. Thereafter it has been through vicissitudes both at the hands of contemporaries and historians, adopted and adapted within various political and social contexts. The analysis of language is approached with caution here. It is clear that language is constantly evolving and contemporaries in the eighteenth century were not always consistent in their use of terms which was often experimental, particularly at times of flux. Pinpointing precise meaning to a term at any particular moment can be tricky. Indeed, seeking 'meaning' in past language is fraught with difficulty as Quentin Skinner and others have warned. The importance of context to establishing meaning is widely recognised although what constitutes context is also the subject of debate and has been broadly interpreted. 8 Joan Scott and others have argued that language is complex and multi-dimensional, often constructed through differentiation, it develops relationally and oppositionally between different political or social groups in specific contexts or discourses. And, whilst confirming that language plays an important part in adversarial politics, Dror Warhman has warned against slipping into the trap of linguistic determinism. It is important therefore to explore linguistic usage in the past with care and, as far as possible, applying terms appropriately within the context or contexts of their time. Mark Philp and Joanna Innes have recently instigated an exploration of the term 'democracy' through their project Re-imagining democracy 1750-1850. The project aims to track the use and meaning of the term and explore how usage changed. Of course democracy, in common with aristocracy, has its roots in ancient Greek political language. Yet, as this article shows, whilst 'democracy' reflects a fairly consistent trajectory, from generally negative usage in 1700 to something positive and desirable by 1850, 'aristocracy' follows a much less clear trajectory. One reason for this is that in England 'democracy' has remained an entirely political term whereas 'aristocracy' also acquired social connotations. Indeed, 'aristocracy,' reflects a reverse trajectory to that of 'democracy'; a shift in use and meaning from a primarily positive term in 1700 to a distinctly negative one by 1792. As a result of the French Revolution aristocracy became the antonym of democracy. 'Aristocracy' appears to have recovered, at least partially, from this denigration by the mid-nineteenth century to become a term of social description in common language. It is argued here that the prevalence of 'aristocracy', in contemporary writings reveals important shifts in attitudes to, ideas about, and understanding of, political rights, who should rule, the role of the people in politics and social structures and hierarchies. Methodologically the availability of digitized primary sources enables historians to search particular words and phrases within a document and whole databases of documents. Where visits to the traditional archive enabled analysis of a few hundred documents, digitized databases allow access to thousands or hundreds of thousands with new tools for making searches in a number of different ways. This allows a quantitative analysis of linguistic usage not previously possible and will inevitably change the way historians define and use terms. Indeed digitization enables a new approach to semantics. Of course, digital resources present a new set of problems and may prove difficult to manage when attempting analysis of a term that has developed broad and imprecise usages. It is also important that large scale digital searches are combined with close textual analysis. This research involved conventional textual analysis both in the traditional archive and in digitized resources plus keyword searches for 'aristocracy' and derivatives in selected digitized databases. 13 Google Ngram and Bookworm graphs are also provided to show trajectories of usage over time. These systems enable representation graphically of a far greater number and breadth of sources than were previously available. Such digital research provides new evidence as to how frequently 'aristocracy' was used in print in the past. Moreover, those who have written on the advantages and pitfalls of such digitized sources have tended to be producers rather than users, and so the potential use and value of digitized sources for historians is also examined briefly here. I But first, a review of the historiography suggests that the use of 'aristocracy' to date does on the whole reflect the sort of adoption by historians criticized by Clark and others. A number of historians of the eighteenth century have ignored the specific political usage of 'aristocracy' and adopted it anachronistically and interchangeably with 'nobility' and other terms such as 'the great landowners' the 'landed elite' or 'the gentry'. In a social context Davidoff and Hall, describe an eighteenth century 'aristocracy' and the 'middling ranks'. Clark himself is no exception in English society describing, the eighteenth century famously as Anglican, aristocratic, and monarchical, an 'aristocratic society' which invoked aristocratic mores. Indeed, historians adopt 'aristocracy' to describe various, often non-defined, groups of the elite and when the term is not so used in the sources they quote. 'Whig aristocracy' is another term commonly adopted by historians, to describe members of the Whig governments in power, particularly between 1714 and 1760. Indeed, J.G.A. Pocock declared that 'aristocracy in midGeorgian rhetoric is explicitly or implicitly preceded by the word 'Whig', although he provided no examples of such explicit usage of 'Whig aristocracy'. Yet, as we shall see below, 'Whig aristocracy' did not appear in print at that time. Moreover, within this anachronistic usage, historians disagree as to how 'aristocracy' should be defined, in terms of titles, membership of the peerage, land ownership or wealth, and extended to life peers, and/or the gentry. Wasson declared that 'there is no consensus' on the issue and there is confusion amongst historians and consequently a diversity of definitions of 'aristocracy' abound. The discussion here is not intended to castigate (or alienate) fellow historians, but merely to highlight how their use of the term has tended to obscure rather than reveal the usage of 'aristocracy' in contemporary discourse. In particular, innovative tools in digitized resources enable historians to approach this issue anew. The contemporary evidence counters the blanket definition of the elite as 'aristocracy' adopted by historians. The eighteenth-century English elite n


Unexpectedly strong winds/shears and fast meridional transport above the mesopause have been revealed from previous rocket and satellite observations. Using Richardson number criteria for dynamic stability, we estimate the maximum wind shears allowable by the background static stability, which peaks above the mesopause. These maximum shears are in general agreement with the large wind shears inferred from the rocket measurements at low and mid‐latitudes, indicating the close relationship between the latter and the stability constraint set by the background atmosphere. Diagnostic calculations also indicate that the meridional transport in this region may not be well understood solely by examining the mean meridional circulation, and large amplitude tides/planetary waves can play an important role in the bulk transport of tracers. Strong stochastic winds, presumably due to gravity waves, do not seem to significantly change the large scale pattern of the transport but may extend the range of the tracer movement.


Hilum of an organ is a depression, pit or slit like opening through which vital structures enter or leave the organ. In addition to the kidney, hilum is also observed in the cerebellum, lung, ovary, spleen and suprarenal gland. Laparoscopic nephron-sparing surgery for solid renal masses can be achieved successfully both transperitoneally and retroperitoneally if a comprehensive knowledge of both normal and variant hilar anatomy of the kidneys is in the mind of the operating surgeon. Documented text is available on various aspects of the kidneys but an observation on variations in hilar arrangement is infrequently cited. In standard text from anterior to posterior the structures at the renal hilum are renal vein, renal artery and the renal pelvis.


A comparative analysis of two closely spaced Nevada Test Site explosions, PERA and QUESO, is made to study the effects of near-source phenomena on regional-wave excitation. Although the two explosions were of similar size, burial depth, and only separated by 4 km, the 1 to 2 and 6 to 8 Hz regional-wave spectral ratio for QUESO is anomalously low (a factor of 10 smaller than that of PERA). Examination of the regional and close-in spectra for each event shows a remarkable similarity and suggests that QUESO has less low-frequency and more high-frequency energy than PERA. These observations may be caused by a 564 m3, funnel-shaped region filled with unconsolidated sand and a possible void directly above the QUESO detonation point. Close-in observations suggest that this region may have partially decoupled the up-going energy from QUESO, resulting in a reduction of the low-frequency energy. The high-frequency enhancement for QUESO may be due to the rapid loss of energy to nonlinear effects such as greater pore collapse and fracturing in the anomalous region. This resulted in the radiation of more impulsive, shorter-duration waveforms producing a higher corner frequency and less-rapid high-frequency spectral decay for QUESO. For PERA, the loss of energy to a two-wave system occurred more slowly and over a larger volume, resulting in a broader source pulse typical of explosions in porous materials. Comparison of shock radius versus time data suggests that the shock wave was strongly affected in the anomalous zone a few meters above the QUESO device. One-dimensional finite-difference calculations with and without a partial decoupling region within 8 m of the device are consistent with the observations. Although spallation was reduced for QUESO, simulations using a finite spall model indicate that the spall spectral peak should be centered at about 3 to 7 Hz and probably did not significantly contribute to the reduced spectral ratio. The remarkable similarity of the PERA/QUESO spectral ratios taken at distances of 90 m and 400 km suggests that the spectral characteristics of explosions are established in close proximity to the source. Although depth-dependent effects of attenuation acting at small strains may enhance the differences in spectral ratios between NTS explosions and western U.S. earthquakes, these effects are probably secondary to the high-pressure, high strain-rate dynamic material response to the radiated explosion shock wave. These observations point out the importance of up-going energy on the generation of regional phases from explosions. Because of reduced overburden pressures above the detonation point, large nonlinear deformations predominate in this region and appear to affect all of the signals except perhaps the very initial part of the Pn waveform.


Tanah Lot Tourism Attraction (TLTA) is located on the South Coast of Bali Island precisely in the area of Beraban Village, Kediri District, Tabanan Regency, Bali. This research is quantitative descriptive method which sample is chosen based on purposive sampling technique, foreign and also domestic tourists who visit at time total 337 respondents. The statistical analyzed indicated that the domestic visitor segment is higher than the foreign visitor segment, this also indicate that domestic visitor is a potential target market for the products produced by local entrepreneurs in TLTA. Survey based on demography variable shows that the number of female visitor are more compared to male, dominantly by age group from 21 to 30 years old and most of them are students, and respondents educational level visit to TLTA are dominantly bachelor graduates. The geography variable shows that tourists visit to TLTA dominantly by domestics, followed by South Korea, Australia, and other countries.The psychograph variable, shows that dominant tourist visit because sunset and the nature of beauty view offered by Tanah Lot and mostly are repeater guests, received information from many sources. Their visit duration mostly between one to two hours, mostly they visit by rented car in the afternoon for sunset and the total amount of money spent between fifty thousand to one hundred thousand Rupiah, also the total amount of money spent during their visit is dominantly between five hundred to one million Rupiah per day. Chi-Square Tests indicated that there is correlation between group age, tourist occupation, and education level toward the motivation of visit to TLTA.


CONTEXT: Costing enables administrators in planning for future expansion, evaluates cost-effectiveness, and helps in mobilization of resources. Costing of services like blood banking and transfusion is complex, more particularly in a service-oriented (not for profit) setup. Activity-based costing (ABC) helps in identifying all the resources involved at every step. AIM: The aim of the study was to analyze the cost of processing blood components in the blood transfusion services (BTS) department (blood center) of a private trust-funded tertiary care teaching hospital in South India. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: This was a retrospective study and an economic evaluation. METHODOLOGY: Cost an activities data was collected by observation and unstructured interviews of Blood Centre staff. The costing model was created based on the activities, cost heads and the costs were apportioned appropriately followed by calculation of the final costs. RESULTS: An ABC model with nine steps, which identified fifty substeps modeling the activities, was used to estimate the cost. The manpower cost (direct and indirect) was the highest cost driver followed by the direct material cost of the blood bag. ABC analysis revealed that component separation was the most expensive process step followed by cross-matching, specialized packed cells preparation, storage, and infection testing. CONCLUSIONS: Despite excluding fixed costs related to land, infrastructure, building, and equipment capital and depreciation, the ABC model costing was higher than the Government of India released costing. A homogenized ABC model helps in identifying and refining methods to adopt cost efficiency measures at the institutional level but also raises the question whether cost-efficiency requires a policy-level intervention. Additional data collected across the country and analyzed in a standardized manner can aid in the same.


The process of removal of a liquid paraffin film from a water surface irradiated by 40 — 270-μs pulses from a CO2 laser is studied experimentally and theoretically. It is found for the first time that the mass of removed paraffin can exceed that of paraffin located in the region irradiated by the laser pulse. A theoretical model is proposed which explains the results obtained.


Guinea pigs were immunized with either alpha or beta pili from Neisseria gonorrhoeae P9 before the inoculation of subcutaneous chambers with a mixture of variants having alpha, beta, gamma, or delta pili. Animals immunized with alpha pili showed significant protection, but those immunized with beta pili did not. The degree of protection could be correlated with the cross-reactivity of the antibodies produced to the heterologous pilus types.


There has been a vast increase in the efforts on the automation of crystal growth in the last few years. Crystallisation robots are capable of producing thousands of images per day and the number of functional crystallisation facilities worldwide is rapidly increasing. One main issue to be addressed at these facilities is to automatically determine as to whether the crystallisation drops contain crystals suitable for an X-ray diffraction experiment. Thus the optical properties of the crystallisation images are subject of active research [1,2]. Here we present a solution for this problem with a novel approach for classification and time series analysis of the images generated by a robot at a particular imaging event. The approach is based on a use of feature vectors generated with Gabor filter banks (harmonic functions modulated by a Gaussian distribution) within a window centred over the information points. For the latter we use the so-called two-dimensional features, which are well suited for a description of object's edges or corners. They have the advantage that no segmentation of the image content into well, drop, etc. is required. Gabor filters with different orientations are used in order to represent the neighbourhood information in the image. The feature vectors based on these filters are fed into a support vector machine for further texture classification. The preliminary results indicate overall 77% success of correct classification over 12 classes. The experimental reproducibility of the success rate requires thorough investigation. The method is being tested on the images obtained from different largescale crystallisation facilities. The classification is complemented by a time series analysis of all images corresponding to a particular crystallisation well will be carried out.