Chest Hospital now is almost ageriatric unit. This situation has arisen from the application of the modern treatment of tuberculosis, with a consequent reduction in the number of circulating tubercle bacilli in the community, and from a diligent search for active cases. B.C.G. vaccination, so far as possible, has been most carefully avoided. It could be argued that fewer children and young adults in County Tyrone are contracting primary infections, and, although no large-scale tuberculin survey has been carried out, there' is no reason to doubt that we have now many more negative tuberculin reactors than there were in 1948. Nevertheless, occasional primary infections must still be occurring, and, since there are so many more apparently vulnerable young people than there used to be, the individual case ought to be the same as before. But exactly the opposite is true: not only has tuberculosis become rare in children and young adults, it has also become less severe. Tuberculous meningitis has virtually disappeared and has been replaced by pleural effusions and minimal pulmonary lesions. On the other hand, tuberculosis in the middle-aged and elderly remains just as destructive as it has always been and is the main therapeutic difficulty. The great paradox of the recent behaviour of tuberculosis is its rapid disappearance from, and amelioration in, what has always been thought to be the most vulnerable section of the community, and its persistence unchanged in the middle-aged and elderly, who, by virtue of having overcome a childhood primary infection, have been traditionally regarded as being relatively immune. The acquisition of resistance has never been a guarantee, or even a modestly efficient protection, against tuberculosis, and far too much importance has been attached to primary infection and the age at which it occurs. What is important is that infection should occur at all, and even the most fervent believer in B.C.G. would not attempt to say that vaccination can prevent infection. It is becoming increasingly obvious, therefore, that it is the tuberculin-positive and not the tuberculinnegative population which is in need of attention and that the dangerous tuberculous lesions of adolescence and early adult life, which formerly were common, were the result of repeated exposure to infection and not to any especial hazard of primary disease. These facts have made nonsense of mass vaccination of children wherever it has been practised. The Danes believe that mass vaccination has controlled tuberculosis in their country, but in the Netherlands it has been controlled just as well without it. In Sweden the wisdom of applying mass vaccination is at last being questioned,' and this is not only because there is now little childhood tuberculosis in Sweden but because any beneficial effect of the hundreds of thousands of vaccinations which have been performed there cannot be clearly demonstrated. If the policy which Dr. Pollock recommends is adopted, no immediate damage will be done, apart from the usual crop of tuberculous lesions which B.C.G. notoriously provokes and which the devotees of vaccination so notoriously ignore. The main danger of advocating the mass vaccination of children is that it directs attention to a problem which no longer exists and postpones the solution of the real problem, which is the presence of destructive, infectious ttuberculosis in the middle-aged and elderly. It would be unfortunate if a method of preventing tuberculosis which has never proved effective elsewhere, and which is already falling into disrepute in Scandinavia, were applied on a wide scale in Britain. If, in fact, tuberculosis in children and young adults is still common in Britain, it ought not to be any more-difficult to eradicate than it has been in County Tyrone.-I am, etc.,


The establishment of the International Criminal Court provides an opportunity to re-think international criminal law and procedure, and to develop a more coherent theory of international criminal justice. This article argues that increasingly the demands placed upon international criminal trials go beyond the process of securing convictions. There is an increasing expectation that such trials will contribute to broader processes of social recovery and reconciliation. Claims are also made for their having a pedagogical and documentary role. To this end, the author proposes the recognition of an historical function of international criminal trials. This is suggested as best forming part of the variety of policy rationales which underpin the processes of international criminal law. It is conceded that overemphasising the role of history could be dangerous and infringe upon the rights of the accused, but it is argued that underemphasising the role of theory and history is unsatisfactory. The article concludes that recognition of an historical function for international criminal trials involves tensions, but will provide a framework and rationale for a more narrative-based and victimfocused system of international criminal law which might provide an important discursive beginning for victims and affected communities, whilst balancing due process concerns.


The collective actions of epithelial cells drive tissue shape changes, whether these are tightly organized during development or disorganized as during cancer invasion. In both cases, the motility of the bulk tissue is determined by the signaling and mechanical properties of its constituent cells. Decades of careful study have coalesced into detailed models that describe how individual cells move through their environment. Motility relies on the dynamics of lamentous actin, which cells use to maintain their shape and adhere to their surroundings during migration. Precisely connecting single cell properties with tissue behaviors to which they contribute would furnish critical advances to the understanding of of cancer invasion and tissue development. This thesis describes the application of model epithelial tissues toward bridging these scales, focusing on the formin family of actin lament nucleators. We employ Madin Darby Canine Kidney (MDCK) cells, as a model for tissue shape changes to study its requirements in a controlled 3D environment. Both MDCK cells and mouse tumor explants require the activity of formin proteins to undertake tissue migration into prepared collagen gels. We analyzed separately cell motility within the 2D plane of the epithelium from invasive motility into the collagen gel. These modes of cell motility are distinguished by the depletion of the formin protein Dia1. We show that invasive motility requires Dia1, which regulates cell adhesions to individual collagen brils. Finally, we capitalize on a simple mathematical model describing cell shape for epithelial monolayers. Applying this model to MDCK acini reveals that under quiescent conditions Dia1 enforces an immobile\"jammed" state within epithelia. This immobile state is released upon growth factor stimulation or loss of Dia1. Overall this work forges novel connections between cytoskeletal regulators at the single- and multi-cell scales, and prompts new hypotheses to test how cell behaviors contribute to tissue functions in health and disease.


Mixed Cryoglobulinemia (MC) is the most frequent extrahepatic manifestation of Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. MC is an autoimmune /B-cell lymphoproliferative disorder characterized by circulating immune-complexes, named cryoglobulins. MC patients exhibit symptoms due to a systemic vasculitis of small/medium size vessels (mixed cryoglobulinemia syndrome, MCS) in a percentage going from 5 to 30%. The first-line therapeutic option in MCS patients is the etiologic treatment and, in the past fifteen years, antiviral therapy with Pegylated-Interferon (Peg-IFN) plus Ribavirin (RBV) represented the standard of care. Lately, the arrival of direct acting antivirals (DAAs) significantly modified the cure of HCV infection, consenting the use of IFN-free regimens. Here we report a review of the literature about the role of antiviral treatment, following its evolution, in treating HCVrelated MC. Furthermore, we report the results, after 8 weeks of treatment, of a preliminary pilot prospective study, counting 17 patients with HCV-related MC with or without MCS, treated with new generation DAAs in IFN-free regimens. After 8 weeks of DAA administration, all the subjects were HCV RNA negative. Moreover, in 6/17 (35%) patients cryoglobulins disappeared and, on the whole, in all patients a decrease of the cryocrit values was observed (p<0.05). Furthermore, three MCS-HCV patients (30%) resulted to be complete clinical responders and 5 subjects (50%) partial clinical responders. Therefore, IFN-free anti-HCV treatment appears to be safe and effective in MC patients from virological and clinical points of view, thus supporting the importance of HCV eradication in leading MC remission.


or impaired glucose tolerance) are at increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Evidence supports intensive lifestyle management to help prevent or delay the progression to diabetes. Metformin has also shown benefit but is not approved for this indication in Australia. Prediabetes is a commonly used term to describe patients with elevated blood glucose levels that do not exceed the threshold to satisfy the diagnostic criteria for diabetes mellitus. It represents a state of impaired glucose regulation that may progress to diabetes. The prevalence of prediabetes and diabetes is rising in Australia, in line with global trends. Australian predictions suggest that in adults over the age of 25 years, the prevalence of diabetes will increase from 7.4% in 1999–2000 to 11.4% in the year 2025, with associated implications for reduced quality of life and increased healthcare expenditure.1 People with non diabetic levels of hyperglycaemia have a risk of premature death that is intermediate between the risk of people with normal glucose tolerance and that of people with diabetes.2 This is consistent with the concept that there is a continuous relation between increasing blood glucose levels and increased risk of cardio vascular disease and premature mortality.


This study was designed to evaluate a new drug delivery system. The authors undertook to determine if microdroplets prepared by encapsulating volatile anesthetics with a membrane of lecithin could be used for local anesthesia. Local anesthesia was determined by monitoring the response of the rat to tail clamping and electrical stimulation of the skin following the intradermal injection of the microdroplets. Microdroplets were prepared from isoflurane, enflurane, halothane, methoxyflurane, diethyl ether, chloroform, and heptane. Although all microdroplet preparations produced local anesthesia, only methoxyflurane microdroplets produced an ultra-long duration of local anesthesia (approximately 24 h). Further characterization of the methoxyflurane microdroplets revealed two important differences from conventional local anesthetics. First, the local anesthetic effect of methoxyflurane reached a plateau that did not change significantly for 20 h while the injection of lidocaine and bupivacaine resulted in a peak effect that returned to baseline within 1 and 3 h, respectively. Second, the anesthetic effect of methoxyflurane remained essentially localized to the site of injection, while the anesthetic effect of lidocaine and bupivacaine migrated 15 cm in less than 1 h. The toxicity and safety of methoxyflurane were evaluated. When administered over the dosage range 1–16% (v/v) intradermally, or by injections into muscle, or by repeat injections every 4 days for 16 days, all animals regained their pre-treatment response to painful stimulations, and there was no evidence of gross injury to tissue. Deliberate intravenous injection of 0.8 ml of 6.7% (v/v) methoxyflurane microdroplets had no apparent anesthetic or toxic effect. The present study demonstrates that methoxyflurane microdroplets produce an anesthetic effect that is highly localized, stable in intensity, ultra-long in duration, and reversible.


Providing accurate seasonal (1-6 months) forecasts of streamflow is critical for applications ranging from optimizing water management to hydropower generation. In this study we evaluate the performance of stacked Long Short Term Memory (LSTM) neural networks, which maintain an internal set of states and are therefore well-suited to modeling dynamical processes.

Existing LSTM models applied to hydrological modeling use all available historical information to forecast contemporaneous output. This modeling approach breaks down for long-term forecasts because some of the observations used as input are not available in the future (e.g., from remote sensing and in situ sensors). To solve this deficiency we train a stacked LSTM model where the first network encodes the historical information in its hidden states and cells. These states and cells are then used to initialize the second LSTM which uses meteorological forecasts to create streamflow forecasts at various horizons. This method allows the model to learn general hydrological relationships in the temporal domain across different catchment types and project them into the future up to 6 months ahead.

Using meteorological time series from NOAA’s Climate Forecast System (CFS), remote sensing data including snow cover, vegetation and surface temperature from NASA’s MODIS sensors, SNOTEL sensor data, static catchment attributes, and streamflow data from USGS we train a stacked LSTM model on 100 basins, and evaluate predictions on out-of-sample periods from these same basins. We perform sensitivity analysis on the effects of remote sensing data, in-situ sensors, and static catchment attributes to understand the informational content of these various inputs under various model architectures. Finally, we benchmark our model to forecasts derived from simple climatological averages and to forecasts created by a single LSTM that excludes all inputs without forecasts.


It is certainly important to get 3D geometric shape models of unknown objects. We try throughout this paper to make humanoid robots construct such models themselves. To reach this objective, we propose a method consisting in observing objects from multiple view points with re-grasping in order to get non-occluded model. In this paper, we especially focus on the selection algorithm of the next grasp position from computed candidates. This problem is expressed through a graph search problem. The nodes represent grasp positions, and they are connected when robots can re-grasp from one grasp position to the other. Of cource when the shape of an object is unknown, it is difficult to solve this problem. This is why we propose a heuristic method to select next grasp position only using grasp position information, so to be able to adapt to objects which 3D shape information is updated online. We compare the result with this method with the optimal solution available when 3D shape information is given. Finally we show the validity of this heuristic method in real time observation by comparison between these two solutions from the standpoint of the acquired 3D shape percentage and the number of regrasping.


This paper describes the design, construction and operation of an electronic network providing an analogue of the behaviour of up to twelve coupled, second-order, linear differential equations. It was designed specifically for the solution of problems in aircraft flutter investigations but can be used for other associated problems or where a problem can be expressed in similar form. Section 1. 2.


Patient specific pretreatment measurement for IMRT and VMAT QA should preferably give information with a high resolution in 3D. The ability to distinguish complex treatment plans, i.e. treatment plans with a difference between measured and calculated dose distributions that exceeds a specified tolerance, puts high demands on the dosimetry system used for the pretreatment measurements and the results of the measurement evaluation needs a clinical interpretation. There are a number of commercial dosimetry systems designed for pretreatment IMRT QA measurements. 2D arrays such as MapCHECK® (Sun Nuclear), MatriXXEvolution (IBA Dosimetry) and OCTAVIOUS® 1500 (PTW), 3D phantoms such as OCTAVIUS® 4D (PTW), ArcCHECK® (Sun Nuclear) and Delta4 (ScandiDos) and software for EPID dosimetry and 3D reconstruction of the dose in the patient geometry such as EPIDoseTM (Sun Nuclear) and Dosimetry CheckTM (Math Resolutions) are available. None of those dosimetry systems can measure the 3D dose distribution with a high resolution (full 3D dose distribution). Those systems can be called quasi 3D dosimetry systems. To be able to estimate the delivered dose in full 3D the user is dependent on a calculation algorithm in the software of the dosimetry system. All the vendors of the dosimetry systems mentioned above provide calculation algorithms to reconstruct a full 3D dose in the patient geometry. This enables analyzes of the difference between measured and calculated dose distributions in DVHs of the structures of clinical interest which facilitates the clinical interpretation and is a promising tool to be used for pretreatment IMRT QA measurements. However, independent validation studies on the accuracy of those algorithms are scarce. Pretreatment IMRT QA using the quasi 3D dosimetry systems mentioned above rely on both measurement uncertainty and accuracy of calculation algorithms. In this article, these quasi 3D dosimetry systems and their use in patient specific pretreatment IMRT/VMAT QA will be discussed.


Virtual memory T (TVM) cells are a recently described population of conventional CD8+ T cells that, in spite of their antigen inexperience, express markers of T cell activation. TVM cells exhibit rapid responsiveness to both antigen-specific and innate stimuli in youth but acquire intrinsic antigen-specific response defects in the elderly. In this article, we review how the identification of TVM cells necessitates a re-evaluation of accepted paradigms for conventional memory T (TMEM) cells, the potential for heterogeneity within the TVM population, and the defining characteristics of TVM cells. Further, we highlight recent literature documenting the development of TVM cells as a distinct CD8+ T cell lineage as well their biological significance in the context of disease.


Cleidocranial dysplasia (CD) is an autosomal dominant syndrome which is characterized by several skeletal malformations such as non-closed fontanelles, skeletal abnormalities of the maxilla and mandible and absence of clavicles. Mid-facial hypoplasia and mandibular prognathism are mostly seen jaw abnormalities in CD. In this study, the combined orthodontic-surgical treatment of a patient with CD with class III malocclusion and multiple unerupted primary and deciduous teeth is presented.


We focus on input-buffered packet switches, which are traditionally controlled slot-by-slot with heuristic approximations (such as iSLIP) of maximum weight or size matching algorithms. We consider instead a frame-based control strategy, in which f slots are grouped in a frame, and contentions are solved only at frame boundaries. A number of frame-based heuristics is described, and simulation is used to show that our approach provides performance advantages over a slot-by-slot control in a number of traffic scenarios.


The Klaipeda Geothermal Demonstration Plant (KGDP), Lithuania, exploits a hypersaline sodium-chloride (salinity c. 90 g/L) groundwater from a 1100 m deep Devonian sandstone/siltstone reservoir. The hydrogen and oxygen stable isotope composition is relatively undepleted (δ18O=c. -4.5‰), while the δ34S is relatively "heavy" at +18.9‰. Hydrochemical and isotopic data support the existing hypothesis that the groundwater is dominated by a hypersaline brine derived from evapoconcentrated seawater, modified by water-rock interaction and admixed with smaller quantities of more recent glacial meltwater and/or interglacial recharge. The injectivity of the two injection boreholes has declined dramatically during the operational lifetime of the KGDP. Initially, precipitation of crystalline gypsum led to a program of rehabilitation and the introduction of sodium polyphosphonate dosing of the abstracted brine, which has prevented visible gypsum precipitation but has failed to halt the injectivity decline. While physical or bacteriological causes of clogging are plausible, evidence suggests that chemical causes cannot be excluded. Gypsum and barite precipitation could still occur in the formation, as could clogging with iron/manganese oxyhydroxides. One can also speculate that inhibitor dosing could cause clogging of pore throats with needles of calcium polyphosphonate precipitate.


Raccoons (Procyon lotor) were livetrapped and marked during 1989–1993 in an agriculturally dominated landscape in Brown County, west-central Illinois. Densities averaged 4.5 per km with males dominating in the younger age classes (< 2 yrs) and females in older raccoons. Breeding rates averaged 46% for yearling females and 87% for adult females, with yearlings contributing about 20% of annual production. Juvenile survival rate averaged 74% between birth and 6 months. Both sexes continued to gain body weight into their 3 year with males consistently heavier (P < 0.03) than females. Males lost body condition in winter while females remained in a more stable condition throughout the year. Dispersal behavior was more pronounced in males. Females of all age classes remained on the study area somewhat longer (P > 0.05) than males. Males were more likely to die from hunting and trapping causes while females were more likely than males to die of disease. Seasonal home ranges were similar for both sexes (P < 0.05) but male ranges averaged somewhat larger areas. We found no evidence that west-central Illinois raccoons were territorial as a paired removal experiment showed no attempt by the remaining member of each pair to make directed movements into a vacated range. Our study animals appeared to be above average in weight and condition, to be breeding at a level consistent with a healthy condition and to be generally under-harvested.


Effect of turbulence in one arm of a laser amplitude division interferometer on the visibility of fringes is studied. It is shown that the visibility is strongly dependent on the magnitude of turbulence.


Research following the "selective exposure" model has focused on avoidance of political messages with which a person might disagree. But positive attention to such "counter-attitudinal" messages is worthy of study, in part because normative theories of democracy value exposure to information that might disturb citizens' political predispositions. Surveys of youth (N = 417) and parents (N = 430) examine attention to newspaper, television, and Web messages about candidates. While there is somewhat more attention to messages about and for a person's favored political candidate or party, forms of political involvement (knowledge, curiosity, and discussion) that predict this "attitude-consistent" attention also predict counter-attitudinal attention at least as strongly. Parents' education and students' exposure to civics lessons also predict both kinds of attention. These results suggest that attention to counterattitudinal political messages is worthy of further study as an important goal of political socialization and a criterion of citizen performance in democracy.


This special issue presents a collection of papers covering the environmental fate, effects, and risk of pesticides in tropical environments, which is expected to facilitate improved management of pesticides. Environmental monitoring programs of surface and ground waters in the tropics, including areas of high ecological value, have detected several relatively polar pesticides at concentrations that are of ecological concern. Novel monitoring techniques have the capacity to reveal the spatial and temporal extent of such risks. To best manage these pesticides, their sorption, dissipation rates, leaching, and runoff potential need to be better understood. On these aspects, important insights have been provided by several studies within this issue. Improved understanding of the environmental fate, effects, and risks through studies presented in this special issue is crucial for minimizing the nontarget impacts of pesticides on biodiversity-rich tropical regions.


A genome mining study led to the identification of a previously unrecognised siderophore biosynthesis gene cluster in the nitrogen-fixing bacterium Cupriavidus taiwanensis LMG19424. Based upon predicted structural residues, a convenient strategy for an NMR-assisted isolation of the associated metabolite was designed. The structure of the purified siderophore, taiwachelin, was fully characterized by spectroscopic methods and chemical derivatisation.


ABSTRACT The enzyme catalyzing the hydrolytic cleavage of 2,6-dihydroxypseudooxynicotine to 2,6-dihydroxypyridine and γ-N-methylaminobutyrate was found to be encoded on pAO1 of Arthrobacter nicotinovorans. The new enzyme answers an old question about nicotine catabolism and may be the first C—C bond hydrolase that is involved in the biodegradation of a heterocyclic compound.


Generally, the study examines the effect of dry season tomato farming on poverty alleviation among women farmers in Niger State, Nigeria. Specifically, it examines the demographic and socio-economic characteristics of the women dry season tomato farmers, their major sources of resources for tomato farming, marketing and marketing channels for tomato produced as well as the monthly income generated from the sales of harvested tomatoes and the effect on poverty alleviation in terms of provision for food, clothing, housing, health care and children's education. Three Local Government Areas (LGAs), from each of  the three geo-political zones of the State were purposively selected .A total of 15 villages were randomly selected from these LGAs and based on the  preponderance of women tomato farmers, respondents were purposively selected to give a total of 233 . Findings showed that over one-half of the respondents (52.4%), had formal education and married (53.2%), with majority (91.3%), of them having four and more people in their households.Morever,41.6% of the women practiced farming as their major occupation. Furthermore, over two-thirds of them cultivated 0.5ha of tomato farm, while only 2.1% of them cultivated above 1ha. Findings indicated that majority of them had more than four years tomato farming experience and access to farm land was never a problem but many of them (51.9%), relied mostly on family labour. Niger State Agricultural Development (NSADP) plays a leading role in the provision of relevant technical information to most of the women farmers especially, in the areas of improved seed varieties among others. Results showed that many of the women (61.7%),usually sold their produce at the village markets ,mostly every week either in retails or in bulks or both(47.6%) with an estimated monthly income of between N6,000 and N15,000 by many of them (63%).In view of this, their expenditure performances indicated that many of the women farmers were above average in meeting the following basic  needs; food (52%), clothing (48.1%), housing (57%),health care (39.9%) and children's education (19.4%).Generally the effect of dry season tomato farming  on poverty reduction as indicated by majority of  the women farmers was on the high side. Chi-square tests showed significant relationships between some independent variables and the effect of dry season tomato farming as strategy for poverty reduction; household size ((Χ2=246.29,P<0.05), children's education  (Χ 2= 353.3,P<0.05) and tomato farming experience (Χ 2 =121.7, P<0.05 ) as well as correlation between income generated and the effect of dry season tomato farming (r=0.85, P<0.05).Cobb-Douglas multiple regression analysis model  showed a significant relationship between contributions to household expenditures and the effect of dry season tomato farming (F=6.54,P<0.05). Housing (t= -3.85,P<0.05), clothing (t=-3.56,P<0.05) and food(t=-2.31,P<0.05) were inverse but significant in explaining 62% variation in the effect of dry season tomato farming on poverty reduction. This implies that the more the income realized to meet these basic needs the less the effect of poverty and vice – versa. Analysis of Variance also showed a significant difference between household size, income generated and the effect of dry season tomato farming on poverty alleviation (F=172.5, P<0.05).Conclusively, income generated from dry season tomato farming, to certain extent  helped in poverty reduction among women farmers. lt is recommended that  improved credit assistance and labour saving devices should be put in place to further empower women economically , while special attention is being paid to health care and children's education


Attosecond chronoscopy is central to the understanding of ultrafast electron dynamics from gas to condensed phase with attosecond temporal resolution. It has, however, not yet been able to determine the timing of individual partial waves, and steering their contribution has been a substantial challenge. Here, we develop a polarization-skewed attosecond chronoscopy to reveal their roles from the angle-resolved photoionization phase shifts in rare gas atoms. By scanning the relative polarization angle between an extreme-ultraviolet attosecond pulse train and a phase-locked near-infrared laser field serving as a partial wave meter, we break the cylindrical symmetry and observe an emission direction dependent phase shift in the photoionized electron momenta. The experimental observations are well supported by numerical simulations using the R-matrix with time-dependence method, and by analytical analysis using the soft-photon approximation. Our symmetry-resolved, partial-wave analysis identifies the transition rate and phase shifts of each individual ionization pathway in the attosecond photoelectron emission dynamics. Our findings provide critical insights into the ubiquitous attosecond optical timer and the underlying attosecond photoionization dynamics, thereby offer new perspectives for the control, manipulation, and exploration of ultrafast electron dynamics in complex systems.


Although many researchers explore disaster resilience as an ongoing process or as a measurable property with indicators, few study whether disaster resilience policies are likely to lead to outcomes that are adaptive over the longer term. Some measures intended to increase local resilience may actually decrease the ability to cope with large-scale disasters. In the context of flood management, this work looks at activities supported in the name of resilience and whether they will result in long-term adaptive outcomes. It is proposed that the interpretation of "resilience" in emergency management has been influenced by pre-existing disaster management concepts, such as the prevent-prepare-respond-recover (PPRR) framework. These have not been adequately reassessed in the light of resilience theories. Disaster resilience was examined using the PPRR framework as a lens. With a focus on flooding, national disaster resilience policy documents from four countries and the global arena were studied to find out which activities were linked to resilience and whether this varies between countries. Subnational policies were also examined in areas that had recently experienced major flooding. Resilience interpretations in some countries were found to support resistance strategies while others were more accommodating. The continued development of floodplains, facilitated by structural mitigation, is an example of a highly resilient but maladaptive feedback loop. This results in risk accumulation and higher consequences during extreme floods. Research explores ways interventions could alter feedbacks and transform to more desirable resilience regimes. It is proposed that negotiating long-term adaptation pathways should be the ultimate aim for planners and emergency managers rather than resilience, which tends to support the status quo. Emergency management concepts and frameworks need to be amended in the light of resilience theories to make it easier to achieve adaptive outcomes.


A theoretical development of the evapotranspiration estimation method in forests without shrub strata, using daily soil moisture variation of root horizon to estimate evapotranspiration, is presented. Since the incrop coefficient of forests is unknown, the use of the estimation of evapotranspiration incrop coefficient of natural prairies is proposed. The coefficient values are rectified iteravely, till the anomalous variation curve of soil moisture changes form and fulfils two requisites, first: the values of estimated moisture contents are statistically the same as the data records of the forest soil, and second: the curve fulfils the principle of equality in minimum soil moisture contents of the year. The rectified Kc value will be the forest's incrop coefficient. The methodology uses the HIDROSUELO simulation model to estimate the daily soil moisture variation by means of the daily evaluation of the universal water balance formula. A water balance formula for the forest its proposed.


Light-induced ESR (LESR) in undoped hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) excited simultaneously with band-gap light (1.75 eV) and infrared (IR) light of either photon energy E < 0.99 eV (IR1) or E < 0.7 eV (IR2) was studied. Both the IR1 and IR2 lights decrease all three components (the narrow, broad and neutral dangling bond components) of the 1.75 eV LESR signal, but the IR1 light has a stronger effect than the IR2 light. While the IR2 light decreases the spin density of both the broad component (N b) and the narrow component (N n), which means the N b/N n ratio remains approximately constant and independent of the IR2-light intensity, the IR1 light decreases the broad component more markedly so that the N b/N n ratio decreases with increasing IR1-light intensity. The illumination of a-Si:H films with IR light alone gives an LESR signal only in the case of IR1.


In this paper, a new closed form expression is developed to accurately estimate the resonant frequency of an equilateral triangular patch. The proposed computation is also extended to the two-layer structure in order to define the air-gap tuning effect on the resonant frequency. The theory established in this paper is compared with the experimental and theoretical results available in the literature. The results of this study show a considerable improvement achieved over the previous theories within very small percentage errors for almost all cases.


Background: Peer victimization is an established risk factor for youth suicidal thoughts and behavior (suicidality), yet most peer-victimized youth are not suicidal. More data are needed pertaining to factors that confer resilience to youth suicidality. Aim: To identify resilience factors for youth suicidality in a sample of N = 104 (Mean age 13.5 years, 56% female) outpatient mental health help-seeking adolescents. Methods: Participants completed self-report questionnaires on their first outpatient visit, including the Ask Suicide-Screening Questions, a battery of risk (peer victimization and negative life events) and resilience (self-reliance, emotion regulation, close relationships and neighborhood) measures. Results: 36.5% of participants screened positive for suicidality. Peer victimization was positively associated with suicidality (odds ratio [OR] = 3.84, 95% confidence interval [95% CI] 1.95–8.62, p < 0.001), while an overall multi-dimensional measure of resilience factors was inversely associated with suicidality (OR, 95% CI = 0.28, 0.11–0.59, p = 0.002). Nevertheless, high peer victimization was found to be associated with a greater chance of suicidality across all levels of resilience (marked by non-significant peer victimization by resilience interaction, p = 0.112). Conclusions: This study provides evidence for the protective association of resilience factors and suicidality in a psychiatric outpatient population. The findings may suggest that interventions that enhance resilience factors may mitigate suicidality risk.


Objective We assessed the feasibility of introducing an intervention (children's Pill School—PS) within a UK hospital to provide swallowing training for children, identified the proportion of children who can be switched from oral liquid medicines to pills and assessed children/parents' opinions about the PS training. Methods 30 inpatient children (aged 3–18 years; taking oral liquid medicines; their liquid medications assessed suitable for switching to pills; can (and their parents) speak/understand English were included. Training sessions were delivered using hard sweets of different sizes. Results 87% (26) of children successfully learnt how to swallow pills after one training session (mean duration 14.5 min), and 92% (24) were discharged on pills. 75 prescribed oral liquid medications were deemed suitable for switching to pills. Of these, 89% (67) were switched successfully. Conclusion Children as young as 3 years were successful in swallowing pills after training. Providing children PS training session within hospital is feasible and acceptable to children and their parents.


This paper describes the Peruvian experience which proposed a change on the curricula of the career of Civil Engineering at the Ricardo Palma University of Lima, Peru; and specifically on the teaching-learning of the Geotechnical Engineering by the development of field survey workshops and seminars with the students of the courses of Engineering Foundations and Geotechnical Design, in addition to the theoretical classes. The experience was based on the highlighting of the Geotechnical Design and effective field practice, workgroups development, organizational maintenance and oral and written communication skills; and it focuses on the application of the Geotechnical Engineering in the seismic prevention and geotechnical risk. This experience was carried out on the popular human settlements of Metropolitan Lima, where the effects of an earthquake with Magnitude 8.7 (Mw) or higher, would originate a very considerable amount of human and economic losses. This paper summarizes some important surveys accomplished by the students on the visited places, which show precarious foundations, most of them built without any technical or expert advice on loose granular soils, not compacted landfills and soft geotechnical materials. Finally, this paper discusses the on-going research about these precarious on loose materials made of original rocks from the site.


In this paper, we consider the problem of decoding network coded correlated data when the decoder does not receive sufficient information for exact decoding. We propose an iterative decoding algorithm based on belief propagation that efficiently exploits the data correlation and provides approximate reconstruction of the sources when conventional decoding methods fail. The dependencies among the sources are captured by means of a factor graph. A simple noise model is used in order to describe the pairwise source relationships. The decoding decision is based on MAP estimates that are inferred by message passing over the underlying factor graph. Performance evaluation of the proposed decoding algorithm on correlated data sets consisting of video sequences confirms the efficiency of the proposed algorithm. Simulation results show that high quality reconstruction can be achieved even if significant amount of network coded information is missing at the decoder.


Missile guidance systems using the Proportional Navigation (PN) guidance law is limited in performance in supporting wide class of engagement scenarios with varying mission and target parameters. For surpassing this limitation, an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) to substitute the PN guidance is proposed by the authors. The ANN based system enables learning, adaptation, and faster throughput and thus equips the guidance system with capability akin to intelligent biological organisms. This improvement could remove the barrier of limitations with allowable mission scope. In this paper, a Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP) has been selected to implement the ANN based approach for replacing PN guidance. Attempts to replace PN guidance using MLP are limited in the literature and warrant greater attention due to significant theoretical development with the MLP field in recent times. It is shown in this paper, that the MLP based guidance law can effectively substitute PN for a wide range of engagement scenarios with variations in initial conditions. A foundational argument to justify using an MLP for substituting PN is provided. Besides this, the design, training and simulation based testing approach for an MLP to replace PN has been devised and described. The potential for faster throughput is possible as the MLP nodes process information in parallel when generating PN like guidance commands. The results clearly demonstrate the potential of MLP in future applications to effectively replace and thus upgrade a wide spectrum of modern missile guidance laws.


Abstract In antitrust practice, it is often argued that independent distributors of goods have an incentive to supply lower levels of brand-specific promotional services than a vertically integrated supplier. This paper outlines the conditions under which this claim is correct. Independent distributors have lower incentives to engage in promotion (i) if economies of scale exist in the provision of promotional services and (ii) if consumers with lower willingness to pay over-proportionally respond to promotional activity. When these conditions do not hold, independent distributors may actually supply more promotional services than integrated distributors.


Prioritize risk monitoring to address the "update problem" As use of artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) in medicine continues to grow, regulators face a fundamental problem: After evaluating a medical AI/ML technology and deeming it safe and effective, should the regulator limit its authorization to market only the version of the algorithm that was submitted, or permit marketing of an algorithm that can learn and adapt to new conditions? For drugs and ordinary medical devices, this problem typically does not arise. But it is this capability to continuously evolve that underlies much of the potential benefit of AI/ML. We address this "update problem" and the treatment of "locked" versus "adaptive" algorithms by building on two proposals suggested earlier this year by one prominent regulatory body, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) (1, 2), which may play an influential role in how other countries shape their associated regulatory architecture. The emphasis of regulators needs to be on whether AI/ML is overall reliable as applied to new data and on treating similar patients similarly. We describe several features that are specific to and ubiquitous in AI/ML systems and are closely tied to their reliability. To manage the risks associated with these features, regulators should focus particularly on continuous monitoring and risk assessment, and less on articulating ex-ante plans for future algorithm changes.


Your next patient is Mrs A, an older lady you know well who has chronic heart failure, diabetes, and a long list of medications. There's so much to do in the next 10 minutes. Your task is even harder because she can't hear you clearly. You keep having to repeat yourself. She has a hearing aid but it makes a whistling noise and she frowns while she fiddles with it. You don't know much about hearing aids, and in any case there are more pressing medical issues to tackle today. Hearing loss drops off your agenda until next time. Understandable; but hearing may be near the top of Mrs A's agenda. Better hearing could transform her day-to-day quality of life, from talking on the telephone to buying her shopping or watching the TV. She won't have to worry about not hearing her name called in the surgery waiting room, nor will she need to book another appointment because she didn't hear everything you said to her.

GPs will be familiar with patients like Mrs A. It's estimated that for the average GP about four consultations a day are related to hearing loss;1 from earwax or infection, more permanent hearing loss related to ageing or noise, underlying pathology such as middle ear disease, or as part of a systemic illness such as autoimmune or neurological disease. A new National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guideline on the management of hearing loss in adults has important, practical messages for GPs and primary care teams, which should make a real difference for our patients with this common and distressing condition.2 In this article we outline the scale of the problem, some of the key guideline recommendations relevant to GPs, and consider how we can improve GPs' awareness and training …


The previous encryption methods of hospital financial data have the problem of overburden. Therefore, a research study on hybrid encryption of hospital financial data based on Noekeon algorithm is proposed. From the basic principles of the Noekeon algorithm and the application and implementation of the Noekeon algorithm, a hybrid encryption scheme for hospital financial data based on the Noekeon algorithm is designed. In order to improve the security of the encryption system, the RSA algorithm is used to encrypt the encrypted content twice. The hybrid algorithm realizes the hybrid encryption of the hospital's financial data. Finally, a hybrid encryption system for hospital financial data based on Noekeon algorithm is designed. Experimental results show that this method has a higher success rate and better comprehensive performance. It not only improves the encryption efficiency of hospital financial data but also enhances the security of hospital financial data, which has greater application value.


In this work we demonstrate a method for producing low-loss, non-squinting, directive leaky-wave antennas (LWAs) for millimeter-wave frequencies. The scanning behaviour of the radiation pattern arises from the dispersive nature of the waveguide mode, which is leaking out when opening the wave guiding structure. We propose a method to cancel the dispersive behaviour, by allowing the leaked waves to refract in a dispersive prism-lens. The proposed method allows for fully metallic implementation of the antenna, resulting in low losses. Furthermore, high directivity is easily achieved with a simple feeding. The corresponding theory is outlined, and the proposed method is used to design an antenna operating at 60 GHz. The obtained bandwidth, with less than 1° beam scanning, is 20% in simulations and the realized gain of the antenna is 17 dB across the entire bandwidth. The design is proposed as an alternative to obtain high gain antennas for 5G applications, in which low losses and narrow beams are expected to be key features for mm-waves.


Fragile watermarking is designed to protect content integrity of digital data, meaning to detect any change in the content as well as localize areas that have been changed. In this paper, we propose a fragile watermarking scheme which embeds dual watermarks (one is naturally fragile and the other is actually robust) in JPEG-2000 compressed images with ROI (region of interest) selection. In this scheme, the fragile watermark is embedded in ROI coefficients at the first decomposition layer, while the robust watermark embedded in ROB (region of backgrounds) coefficients at the third decomposition layer. The combinational working of them is not only capable of detecting malicious changes precisely and flexibly but also estimating the degree of alteration to discriminate intended attacks from unintended ones (e.g., such normal image processing as compression, low-pass filtering, sharpening, etc). Experiments show that our functionally fragile watermarking scheme is scalable in view of detecting attack's intension as well as accuracy in localizing the tampered areas.


This paper provides evidence that hedge funds are a critical source of private fundamental information in currency markets. We analyze the most disaggregated database of currency transactions to date, with ten different categories of market participants including six categories of end users. Our analysis of the information content of individual trades indicates that only one category of end user has information, specifically hedge funds. Orders placed by institutional investors, broker-dealers, central banks and government agencies, large corporations, and middle-market corporations provide little information about upcoming returns. Orders of banks in every size category carry information, consistent with now-standard theory that banks gather information from observing customer trades. Theory does not indicate whether banks should be better informed than their customers. Our results suggest that banks are better informed than their individual customers, possibly because they aggregate information from many customers.


In a collection of Escherichia coli isolates, we discovered a new mechanism leading to frequent and high-level tigecycline resistance involving tandem gene amplifications of an efflux pump encoded by the tet(A) determinant. Some isolates, despite carrying a functional tet(A), could not evolve high-level tigecycline resistance by amplification due to the presence of a deletion in the TetR(A) repressor. This mutation impaired induction of tetA(A) (encoding the TetA(A) efflux pump) in presence of tetracyclines, with the strongest effect observed for tigecycline, subsequently preventing the development of tet(A) amplification-dependent high-level tigecycline resistance. We found that this mutated tet(A) determinant was common among tet(A)-carrying E. coli isolates and analysed possible explanations for this high frequency. First, while the mutated tet(A) was found in several ST-groups, we found evidence of clonal spread among ST131 isolates, which increases its frequency within E. coli databases. Second, evolution and competition experiments revealed that the mutation in tetR(A) could be positively selected over the wild-type allele at sub-inhibitory concentrations of tetracyclines. Our work demonstrates how low concentrations of tetracyclines, such as those found in contaminated environments, can enrich and select for a mutation that generates an evolutionary dead-end that precludes the evolution towards high-level, clinically relevant tigecycline resistance.


Median arcuate ligament syndrome is a rare disorder resulting from luminal narrowing of the celiac artery by the insertion of the diaphragmatic muscle fibers or fibrous bands of the celiac nervous plexus. The syndrome is characterized by weight loss, postprandial abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, and an epigastric bruit. Surgical management entails complete division of the median arcuate ligament. The video demonstrates the laparoscopic release of the median arcuate ligament in a patient with median arcuate ligament syndrome. The patient is a 22-year-old male with a 6-month history of epigastric abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, a 140-lb. weight loss, and an epigastric bruit on physical exam. Aortography demonstrated a >or=90% extrinsic compression of the celiac artery. A full laparoscopic skeletonization of the celiac artery and branch vessels was performed. Intraoperative duplex U/S demonstrated flow rate reduction after the median arcuate ligament release. A postoperative CT angiogram demonstrated no residual stenosis. The patient was discharged on postoperative day 3 and remained asymptomatic after 7 months of follow-up. Laparoscopic release of the median arcuate ligament is a novel approach to the management of celiac artery compression syndrome. The role of minimally invasive techniques to manage median arcuate ligament syndrome is evolving but they appear to be a safe alternative to open surgery.


The aim of this study was to evaluate the anti-fatigue effect of quercetin in mice. Three-week-old male BALB/c mice, fed with/without 0.005% quercetin for 6 weeks, were randomly divided into two experimental sets (loaded swimming and non-loading swimming tests). Our data indicated that dietary quercetin supplementation prolonged the exhaustive swimming time. In addition, lactic acid (LD) and blood urea nitrogen (BUN) levels, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and creatine kinase (CK) activities in serum were significantly decreased, while the levels of non-esterified free fatty acids (NEFA) in serum and the content of liver glycogen and muscle glycogen were significantly enhanced in dietary quercetin supplementation group. Furthermore, dietary quercetin supplementation significantly enhanced the glutathione peroxidase (GPx) and catalase (CAT) activities in serum, liver and gastrocnemius muscle and enhanced the total superoxide dismutase (T-SOD) activity in gastrocnemius muscle, but decreased the malondialdehyde (MDA) content and reactive oxygen species (ROS) level. Meanwhile, dietary quercetin supplementation affected the mRNA expression of regulators factors involved in muscle damage and inflammation, glucose metabolism and gluconeogenesis, muscle mitochondrial fatty acid β-oxidation and antioxidant related genes. Together, our data confirm that dietary quercetin supplementation can promote anti-fatigue capacity by promoting the antioxidant capacity and glycogen storage, as well as enhancing muscle function. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: Quercetin is a natural polyphenolic flavonoid substance. Here we confirm that quercetin has anti-fatigue activity. Our study indicates that quercetin may be used as natural anti-fatigue functional food or drugs.


UV-curable polyurethane dispersions (UV-PUDs) have applications in coatings for a variety of materials. Historically, the neutralization and dispersion steps of the UV-PUD production process have been performed in batch. However, continuous processing might reduce capital and operating costs, improve the dispersion characteristics, and facilitate scale-up. Static mixers and inline high-shear mixers are able to provide the necessary shear forces to obtain miniemulsions. The production of a UV-PUD is therefore studied in a continuous setup, whereby the neutralization step is performed in static mixers and the dispersion step is performed either in static mixers or in a high-shear mixer. The influence of the prepolymer temperature, mixing energy, and feed flow rate on the particle size and stability of the UV-PUD particles in water is explored. The results show that the neutralization step is mixing-sensitive, and the temperature of the neutralized prepolymer influences the particle size in the dispersion process. The amount of shear force applied during the dispersion step has a limited effect on the particle size. UV-PU dispersions with an average particle size below 80 nm and PDI below 0.1 are obtained with static mixers or in an inline rotor-stator mixer, at flow rates of 5.2 and 7.2 L/h, respectively. This research demonstrates that continuous processing using static mixers and high-shear mixing is a viable option for the neutralization and dispersion of UV-PUDs.


A key aspect of text-to-image personalization methods is the manner in which the target concept is represented within the generative process. This choice greatly affects the visual fidelity, downstream editability, and disk space needed to store the learned concept. In this paper, we explore a new text-conditioning space that is dependent on both the denoising process timestep (time) and the denoising U-Net layers (space) and showcase its compelling properties. A single concept in the space-time representation is composed of hundreds of vectors, one for each combination of time and space, making this space challenging to optimize directly. Instead, we propose to implicitly represent a concept in this space by optimizing a small neural mapper that receives the current time and space parameters and outputs the matching token embedding. In doing so, the entire personalized concept is represented by the parameters of the learned mapper, resulting in a compact, yet expressive, representation. Similarly to other personalization methods, the output of our neural mapper resides in the input space of the text encoder. We observe that one can significantly improve the convergence and visual fidelity of the concept by introducing a textual bypass, where our neural mapper additionally outputs a residual that is added to the output of the text encoder. Finally, we show how one can impose an importance-based ordering over our implicit representation, providing users control over the reconstruction and editability of the learned concept using a single trained model. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach over a range of concepts and prompts, showing our method's ability to generate high-quality and controllable compositions without fine-tuning any parameters of the generative model itself.


In the "battle of committees" which has raged over the foreign policy of the United States in recent months, the committees which have played the most active and most publicized rôles have been such propaganda groups as the Committee to Defend America by Aiding the Allies, the America First Committee, and the No Foreign War Committee. Such groups have left untouched an important task: careful, sober research into the problems which the organization of peace presents to the American people. This latter task, however, has not been wholly neglected. A Commission to Study the Organization of Peace, initiated by Professor James T. Shotwell of Columbia University in the fall of 1939, has undertaken at least a part of the task. Its methods of functioning, its work, and its objectives are of current interest to political scientists, and the present note is intended to call attention to the more important features of the Commission's work.


The selection of patients for supervised analysis by candidates involves special tasks in evaluation and prediction. A number of problems emerge when the entire faculty of an institute participates in evaluating such patients. These include the different ways in which the initial consultant and the Admitting Psychoanalyst view their roles; insufficient consideration given to the specific criteria of suitability for analysis by a candidate; and the tendency to emphasize oedipal pathology while overlooking relevant ego capacities.


Abstract Black corals (Anthozoa: Antipatharia) are an anthozoan lineage in the class Hexacorallia that occur across a wide range of habitats from the tropics to the poles and from surface waters to depths deeper than 8000 m. A new species of black coral, Aphanipathespuertoricoensissp. nov., collected with a remotely operated vehicle 357 m deep off Puerto Rico is recognized in the family Aphanipathidae. The new species is characterized by very long and loosely coiled primary branches and up to 0.5 mm tall spines with as many as 40 or more small conical tubercles. A phylogeny composed of 13 taxa that are closely related to the new species was reconstructed from 793 nuclear loci to show their systematic relationships. Our study integrated morphological and genomic data to show that this new species is distinct from other species in the genus Aphanipathes. Furthermore, our results add to the growing knowledge of black coral diversity, while further demonstrating the need for exploration in deep waters of the Caribbean Sea.


In order to study the heat transfer characteristics of changeable cross-section micro-channels, 9 kinds of the micro-channels with different geometrical dimensions were designed, and the heat transfer characteristics of them and its difference from the conventional channel were all obtained. The influence factors of the aspect and the outlet-inlet width ratio on the heat transfer characteristics in changeable cross-section micro-channels were studied. By the test results, the non-dimensional correlatives for the heat transfer characteristics of the micro-channels were obtained.


This paper proposes a new approach to object searching in video databases, SoftCBIR, which combines a keypoint matching algorithm and a graduated assignment algorithm based on softassign. Compared with previous approaches, SoftCBIR is an innovative combination of two powerful techniques: 1) An energy minimization algorithm is applied to match two groups of keypoints while accounting for both their similarity in descriptor space and the consistency of their geometric configuration. The algorithm computes correspondence and pose transformation between two groups of keypoints iteratively and alternately toward an optimal result. The objective energy function combines normalized distance errors in descriptor space and in the spatial domain. 2) Initial individual keypoint matching relies on Approximate K-Nearest Neighbor (ANN) search. ANN achieves much more accurate initial keypoint matching results in the descriptor space than K-means labeling. Experiments prove the e! ectiveness of our approach, and demonstrate the performance improvements rising from the combination of the two proposed techniques in the SoftCBIR algorithm.


The topic of work safety is a very relevant and multifaceted problem for workers, firms and policy makers. Differing from other narrow-scope studies, this article aims to enrich the understanding of workplace safety as a whole by applying econometric techniques on data from the Italian Labour Force Survey. Findings show poor working conditions are the most significant determinants of accidents and illnesses occurring at work, while having a fixed-term (temporary) contract is not significant. Other significant determinants of work safety are: not being new to the workforce; dissatisfaction with the current job; gender; and a latent proneness observed with occurrence of accident on the way to work. This article also highlights that work related accidents and illnesses are two deeply correlated phenomena and that there is a structural break after three years on the job.


PURPOSE
High-quality radiation therapy using highly conformal dose distributions and image-guided techniques requires optimum machine delivery performance. In this work, a monitoring system for multileaf collimator (MLC) performance, integrating semiautomated MLC quality control (QC) tests and statistical process control tools, was developed. The MLC performance monitoring system was used for almost a year on two commercially available MLC models. Control charts were used to establish MLC performance and assess test frequency required to achieve a given level of performance. MLC-related interlocks and servicing events were recorded during the monitoring period and were investigated as indicators of MLC performance variations.

METHODS
The QC test developed as part of the MLC performance monitoring system uses 2D megavoltage images (acquired using an electronic portal imaging device) of 23 fields to determine the location of the leaves with respect to the radiation isocenter. The precision of the MLC performance monitoring QC test and the MLC itself was assessed by detecting the MLC leaf positions on 127 megavoltage images of a static field. After initial calibration, the MLC performance monitoring QC test was performed 3-4 times/week over a period of 10-11 months to monitor positional accuracy of individual leaves for two different MLC models. Analysis of test results was performed using individuals control charts per leaf with control limits computed based on the measurements as well as two sets of specifications of ± 0.5 and ± 1 mm. Out-of-specification and out-of-control leaves were automatically flagged by the monitoring system and reviewed monthly by physicists. MLC-related interlocks reported by the linear accelerator and servicing events were recorded to help identify potential causes of nonrandom MLC leaf positioning variations.

RESULTS
The precision of the MLC performance monitoring QC test and the MLC itself was within ± 0.22 mm for most MLC leaves and the majority of the apparent leaf motion was attributed to beam spot displacements between irradiations. The MLC QC test was performed 193 and 162 times over the monitoring period for the studied units and recalibration had to be repeated up to three times on one of these units. For both units, rate of MLC interlocks was moderately associated with MLC servicing events. The strongest association with the MLC performance was observed between the MLC servicing events and the total number of out-of-control leaves. The average elapsed time for which the number of out-of-specification or out-of-control leaves was within a given performance threshold was computed and used to assess adequacy of MLC test frequency.

CONCLUSIONS
A MLC performance monitoring system has been developed and implemented to acquire high-quality QC data at high frequency. This is enabled by the relatively short acquisition time for the images and automatic image analysis. The monitoring system was also used to record and track the rate of MLC-related interlocks and servicing events. MLC performances for two commercially available MLC models have been assessed and the results support monthly test frequency for widely accepted ± 1 mm specifications. Higher QC test frequency is however required to maintain tighter specification and in-control behavior.


Background: Feeding is the cornerstone in the management of sick or preterm neonates and early initiation of breastfeeding is the single most effective intervention associated with reduced neonatal mortality. Alternative routes for early breast milk administration are either oropharyngeal colostrum or minimal enteral nutrition. However, enteral feeding is often delayed due to haemodynamic instability and the perceived risk of necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC). One strategy to overcome delays in enteral feeds is the implementation of standardized feeding guidelines.Methods: This study was conducted in three regional hospitals in Dar es Salaam, consisting of a historical control group at baseline and an intervention group after implementation of co-created and locally adapted feeding guidelines. Neonates were consecutively recruited and followed to a maximum of 28 days of life. The controls received routine standard care, while the intervention group received early enteral feeding. The outcomes measured were NEC, time to regain birth weight and neonatal mortality. Odds ratio was used to determine the association between feeding and outcomes, statistical significance was considered when p-value ≤0.05.Results: 292 neonates were enrolled in this study, 163 (55.8%) controls at baseline and 129 (44.2%) after the intervention. Study participants comprised of 130 (44.5%) neonates with very low birth weight and 162 (55.5%) with hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy. The mean age of initiating feeding was 45.34 ± 21.58 SD hours amongst the controls and was significantly reduced to 8.43 ± 3.02 SD hours in the intervention group. Overall, 1.4% (4 cases) of the neonates were diagnosed with NEC, 1.8% (3 cases) in the control group and 0.8 % (1 case) in the intervention group (P=0.4; 95% CI: 0.25-23.3). The mean duration of regaining birth weight was significantly reduced from 11.26 ± 4.34 SD days among controls to 8.25 ± 2.96 SD days in the intervention group (p=0.000; 95% CI: 1.61 - 4.41, n = 110). Mortality in these high-risk groups of neonates remained high (40.8%, n = 119), without significant difference between the control (41.7%) and intervention group (39.5%). Conclusions: After implementation of co-created and contextualized feeding guidelines the mean duration of initiating mother's milk was significantly reduced. Neonates in the intervention group who received early breast milk feeding significantly regained birth weight earlier. However, the study was underpowered to detect a small difference in important outcomes, including NEC and mortality. A randomized study with a large sample size and high power is recommended to further confirm the safety of early provision of mother's milk among high-risk neonates in a low resource setting.Trial registration: The study was registered on October 3, 2018 to the Pan African Clinical Trial Registry (www.pactr.org) under the identification number PACTR201810856025709.


This research is concerned with the adsorption and desorption of Cu and As(V) on/from different soils and by-products. Both contaminants may reach soils by the spreading of manure/slurries, wastewater, sewage sludge, or pesticides, and also due to pollution caused by mining and industrial activities. Different crop soils were sampled in A Limia (AL) and Sarria (S) (Galicia, NW Spain). Three low-cost by-products were selected to evaluate their bio-adsorbent potential: pine bark, oak ash, and mussel shell. The adsorption/desorption studies were carried out by means of batch-type experiments, adding increasing and individual concentrations of Cu and As(V). The fit of the adsorption data to the Langmuir, Freundlich, and Temkin models was assessed, with good results in some cases, but with high estimation errors in others. Cu retention was higher in soils with high organic matter and/or pH, reaching almost 100%, while the desorption was less than 15%. The As(V) adsorption percentage clearly decreased for higher As doses, especially in S soils, from 60–100% to 10–40%. The As(V) desorption was closely related to soil acidity, being higher for soils with higher pH values (S soils), in which up to 66% of the As(V) previously adsorbed can be desorbed. The three by-products showed high Cu adsorption, especially oak ash, which adsorbed all the Cu added in a rather irreversible manner. Oak ash also adsorbed a high amount of As(V) (>80%) in a rather non-reversible way, while mussel shell adsorbed between 7 and 33% of the added As(V), and pine bark adsorbed less than 12%, with both by-products reaching 35% desorption. Based on the adsorption and desorption data, oak ash performed as an excellent adsorbent for both Cu and As(V), a fact favored by its high pH and the presence of non-crystalline minerals and different oxides and carbonates. Overall, the results of this research can be relevant when designing strategies to prevent Cu and As(V) pollution affecting soils, waterbodies, and plants, and therefore have repercussions on public health and the environment.


The article is devoted to the uncovering and analysis of the cause-effect relations determining common factors of the origin, prevention, prophylaxis of the road traffic accidents with the participation of children of the preschool age and the primary school age.


A G-quadruplex is a four-stranded DNA structure featuring stacked guanine tetrads, G-quartets. Formation of a G-quadruplex in telomere DNA can inhibit telomerase activity; therefore, development of G-quadruplex-ligands, which induce and/or stabilize G-quadruplexes, has become an area of great interest. Phthalocyanine derivatives have substantial potential as high-affinity G-quadruplex-ligands because these planar chromophores are similar in size and shape to the G-quartets. Here, we focus on the latest findings on phthalocyanine derivatives as G-quadruplex-ligands, and discuss the mechanisms by which phthalocyanines bind to G-quadruplexes with high affinity and selectivity. We also discuss potential biomedical and organic electronic applications of phthalocyanines that are dependent on their photophysical properties.


The paper presents new current approaches to surgically treating the lower thoracic and lumbar spinal injuries. By using new procedures for spinal stabilization, the authors propose algorithms for surgical treatment of spinal injuries in relation to the neurological symptomatology and the severity of fracture and its pattern. The study was performed in the clinical setting. Seventy patients with lower thoracic and lumbar spinal injuries were operated on. The outcomes of their surgical treatment are analyzed. Indications for nerve structural decompression, for approaches to vertebral bodies are defined.


Endotoxemia is associated with increases in a number of humoral mediators including vasopressin, thromboxane and leukotrienes (LT), all of which may participate in the pathophysiologic responses to endotoxemia. Previous studies from our laboratory demonstrated that endotoxin-induced hemoconcentration was attenuated with a peptidoleukotriene receptor antagonist, SK & F 104353. The purpose of this study was to investigate further the mechanism of endotoxin-induced hemoconcentration. Injection of LTD4 (51 nmol/kg, i.v.) produced an increase in the hematocrit of conscious male Sprague-Dawley rats: administration of SK & F 104353 (2 mg/kg, i.v. + 10 mg/kg/h, i.v. infusion) blocked completely this response to exogenous LTD4. Injection of Salmonella enteritidis endotoxin (30 mg/kg, i.v.) increased the hematocrit from 41 +/- 1 vol% to 55 +/- 1 vol%. Following pretreatment with SK & F 104353 (2 mg/kg, i.v. + 10 mg/kg/h, i.v.), the hemoconcentration was attenuated to 46 +/- 1 vol% (p less than 0.01). Simultaneous determination of plasma drug concentrations over a range of doses indicated that inhibition of the hemoconcentration produced by SK & F 104353 was concentration-dependent (IC30 = 0.5 microgram/ml). The IC30 for the stereoisomer, SK & F 104373, was 50 micrograms/ml. The 5-lipoxygenase/cyclooxygenase inhibitors, SK & F 86002 and BW 775C, also attenuated the endotoxin-induced increase in hematocrit, whereas indomethacin, heparin, daltroban, or the selective V1 vasopressin receptor antagonist [d(CH2)5Tyr(Me)]AVP did not significantly affect the endotoxin-induced hemoconcentration. The endotoxin-induced hemoconcentration was inhibited in a concentration-dependent, stereoselective manner with a peptidoleukotriene receptor antagonist, and by 5-lipoxygenase inhibitors, indicating that this response is mediated by peptidoleukotrienes.


In the case of far field earthquakes, structural failure often results from accumulated damage caused by cyclic effects and gradual accumulation of energy. (is paper proposes an energy-based seismic design method for steel eccentrically braced frames (EBFs) with two shear links at every story according to the energy balance concept. (e proposed method is theoretically supported by hysteretic energy spectra and accumulated ductility ratio spectra according to the Chinese soil classification. Furthermore, the method can be used to clarify the relationship between cumulative hysteretic energy and one-way pushover energy. For developing the method, it is assumed that all the hysteretic energy is dissipated by the shear links, column bases, and beam ends of the frames at both sides. (erefore, the parts outside the links, including beam segments, braces, and columns, are specially designed to perform elastically during an earthquake. Furthermore, a V-scheme steel EBF with ten stories and three spans is designed. (e seismic performances of the designed structure, such as story drift and energy dissipation, are evaluated by nonlinear static analysis and time-history analysis. Finally, the reliability and accuracy of the proposed seismic design method are validated.


The way drivers operate in-car systems is rapidly changing as traditional physical controls, such as buttons and dials, are being replaced by touchscreens and touch-sensing surfaces. This has the potential to increase driver distraction and error as controls may be harder to find and use. This paper presents an in-car, on the road driving study which examined three key types of input controls to investigate their effects: a physical dial, pressure-based input on a touch surface and touch input on a touchscreen. The physical dial and pressure-based input were also evaluated with and without haptic feedback. The study was conducted with users performing a list-based targeting task using the different controls while driving on public roads. Eye-gaze was recorded to measure distraction from the primary task of driving. The results showed that target accuracy was high across all input methods (greater than 94%). Pressure-based targeting was the slowest while directly tapping on the targets was the faster selection method. Pressure-based input also caused the largest number of glances towards to the touchscreen but the duration of each glance was shorter than directly touching the screen. Our study will enable designers to make more appropriate design choices for future in-car interactions.


Specific food intolerance SIR,-Farah et al (February issue) report a proven incidence of food allergy in 6% of patients in whom food intolerance was suspected as a cause of unexplained gastrointestinal symptoms and attribute symptoms in the remaining 94% to psychogenic causes. 1 They suggest that the lower positive diagnostic yield recorded in their study than in comparable studies by other workers is due largely to inter-study variation in criteria for selection of patients. It is also possible, however, that the discrepancy is a result of basic flaws in the design of their trial protocol. Initially all patients were placed on a 'low allergenicity diet'. From our reading it would appear that all foods are potentially allergenic, and of the 19 foods permitted in the early stages of this trial we could find only four salt and vinegar, prunes and apricot which had not previously been observed to cause allergic responses in some subjects.2 3 A standardised exclusion diet is therefore impossible as one hallmark common to all previously published work in this field is the range and combinations of foods to which patients can be shown to respond. In more rigorously controlled studies patients are given a severely restricted diet for two weeks consisting typically of one meat (lamb or chicken), one carbohydrate (potato or rice), one fruit (banana or apple), one vegetable (brassica), water and a vitamin supplement the so called oligoantigenic diet. Patients who do not improve on this diet are offered a second such regime with no foods in common with the first diet. The failure of Farah et al to offer an alternative diet to those patients who did not respond to the initial dietary screening (73%) casts doubt on the adequacy of their trial protocol and on their conclusion that most forms of adverse food reaction can be attributed to psychogenic causes. We note that the results of this trial have already appeared in print4 in abstract form and that after publication similar criticisms of the initial screening diet were made.5 It is commonly assumed that the controlled clinical trial provides a careful and critical evaluation of the efficacy of new treatment regimes. However, inadequate trials, particularly in controversial areas of medicine, serve only to promote scepticism among clinicians and to lead patients to seek help from 'alternative' practitioners. A P BURFORD-MASON and J M T WILLOUGHBY Departments of Pathology and Medicine, Lister Hospital, Stevenage, Herts.


Building models of the structure in musical signals raises the question of how to evaluate and compare different modeling approaches. One possibility is to use the model to impute deliberately-removed patches of missing data, then to compare the model's predictions with the part that was removed. We analyze a corpus of popular music audio represented as beat-synchronous chroma features, and compare imputation based on simple linear prediction to more complex models including nearest neighbor selection and shift-invariant probabilistic latent component analysis. Simple linear models perform best according to Euclidean distance, despite producing stationary results which are not musically meaningful. We therefore investigate alternate evaluation measures and observe that an entropy difference metric correlates better with our expectations for musically consistent reconstructions. Under this measure, the best-performing imputation algorithm reconstructs masked sections by choosing the nearest neighbor to the surrounding observations within the song. This result is consistent with the large amount of repetition found in pop music.


Abstract Two bottom-up methods based on the turbulence closure and bulk model were utilised to estimate drag coefficients at high wind speeds based on ocean current and temperature profiles observed by two subsurface buoys during Typhoon Megi in the South China Sea. A numerical experiment was conducted using the turbulence closure model to test the impact of missing measurements in the upper mixed layer on the wind stress estimate and reconstruction of the upper ocean current. The results were sufficiently robust after several time steps. The wind stresses derived from the two methods were consistent with each other. Wind stress increased quickly with increasing wind force, and then was constant. A parametric typhoon wind model was applied to obtain the wind field and estimate the corresponding drag coefficient. The results showed that the drag coefficient increased to a maximum at a critical wind speed of about 30 m s−1, and then levelled off with increasing wind speed. The uncertainty of the maximum drag coefficient was about ±0.5 due to neglect of nonlinear terms, the uncertainty of the model wind speeds and the drag coefficient. The critical wind speed for the maximum drag coefficient varied by at least ±5 m s−1. The uncertainty of the drag coefficient parameterisation was about 24% due to wind speed. These results indicate that a bottom-up method can be used to estimate drag coefficients at the forced stage during the passage of typhoons or hurricanes.


The advantages of detaching adherent cells from thermoresponsive platforms over conventional cell detachment protocols has been well documented. This study focuses on the development of an alternative method to produce thermoresponsive surfaces for cell and cell sheet regeneration to already established techniques which are complex and expensive and may be inaccessible to many laboratories. A photcrosslinkable poly-N-isopropylacrylamide (pNIPAm) copolymer was synthesised and thin films of the copolymer were deposited using the operationally simple spin coating technique which were subsequently crosslinked upon exposure to ultraviolet (UV) irradiation. Characterisation of hydrogel properties and behaviour was achieved using UV spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy (AFM), advancing contact angle, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and white light interferometry analyses. Results indicate that 3T3 fibroblast cells adhere and proliferate to confluence on hydrogels of 30 nm was comparatively poor. Confluent cell sheets were harvested from the sub 30 nm ultra-thin hydrogels upon temperature reduction within 10 min. Spin coating allows for the facile control of film thickness via variation of the depositing polymer solution concentration and therefore the routine fabrication of ultra-thin hydrogels capable of hosting cells to confluence is easily achievable.


OFDM-SDMA systems are intended to allow multiple users to communicate simultaneously with a base station in the same frequency band. In these systems, each user signal may be distorted by an independent carrier frequency offset (CFO), which will result in a severe degradation of the system performance if no CFO compensation is carried out. The standard compensation algorithms known from single-user SISO systems do not apply in this context, hence novel compensation techniques have to be introduced. We analyse the influence of multi-users' CFOs on the OFDM-SDMA signal transmission and develop a scheme for their compensation with low complexity. Due to a disturbance of the inherent structure of the OFDM system, the scheme is not capable to compensate for all the effects generated by the CFOs. The remaining interferences may be treated as additional noise, thus setting tight limits for the size of the CFOs which are supported by the system.


This paper identifies the opportunity costs in effluent allocation over sugarcane crop acres located more than 2Km away from the agroindustry plant JB, during the harvest season. The optimization problem described herein explains why these opportunity costs are usually missed. Actually, these costs derive from the marginal values associated to the decision-making variables concerning an economic benefit maximization problem resolved using the General Algebraic Modeling System (GAMS) and from the dual analysis of the linearized problem therein. Besides, different effluent transportation and effluent treatment cost coefficients were considered in simulating possible impacts and benefits regarding effluent allocation. This approach supports the optimal definition of charging and/or subsidizing schemes best suited to allocate effluents over sugarcane crops located farther away from hub agroindustry plants, not just for more disseminated productivity gains, but also for best compliance with river water quality constraints.


The aim of this paper is to show that the observation of the external effort and the sensor-less control of a system is limited by the mechanical system. First, the model of a one-joint robot with a prismatic joint is presented. Based on this model, two different procedures were performed in order to identify the mechanical parameters of the system and observe the external effort applied on it. Experiments have proven that the accuracy of the force observer, based on the DC motor current, is limited by the mechanics of the robot. The sensor-less control will be limited by the accuracy in estimation of the mechanical parameters and by the maximum static friction force, that is the minimum force which can be observed in this case. The consequence of this limitation is that industrial robots without specific design are not well adapted to perform sensor-less precision tasks. Finally, an efficient control law is presented for high effort applications.


The author presents a discussion of the original paper ("Gaming and price spikes in electric power markets", X. Guan et al.), stating that the analytic framework outlined provides an interesting premise that could very well be extended potentially in many directions including transmission, reserve, entry decisions, etc. The authors seeks further elaboration on several parts of the paper and the original authors' responses to these discussions are also included.


A novel two-variable modularized fast polynomial transform (FPT) algorithm is presented. In this method, only fast polynomial transforms and fast Fourier transforms of the same length are required. The modularity, regularity, and easy extensibility of the proposed algorithm make it of great practical value in computing multidimensional discrete Fourier transforms (DFTs). >


The role of different CFx-radicals in plasma polymerization in fluorocarbon mixtures has not been determined yet. Therefore spectroscopic investigations of dielectric barrier discharges (DBDs) in argon/fluorocarbon mixtures at atmospheric pressure were conducted with the focus on measurement of the concentration of CFx-radicals. The following diagnostic procedures were applied: FTIR absorption spectroscopy to diagnose stable compounds in the discharge, optical emission spectroscopy of the DBD in the UV and visible range and measurement of the CF2 concentration by UV absorption spectroscopy. The DBD was running in argon with the following admixtures: CF4, C2F6, C2H2F4, C3F8, C3HF7, c-C4F8. The relative concentration of the CF3-radical and the absolute concentration of CF2 in Ar/fluorocarbon mixtures were measured by emission spectroscopy and by absorption and emission spectroscopy, respectively. Emission and absorption spectroscopy were performed simultaneously in combination with electrical measurements of the discharge characteristics. The influence of small amounts of hydrogen or oxygen added to the argon/fluorocarbon mixtures was investigated.


Although a general lockdown was never implemented in Iceland during the pandemic of SARS-COV-2 some lenient versions of lockdowns were put in place. Restrictions on gatherings, restrictions on businesses, testing and house arrests of people entering Iceland and prohibition of entry into Iceland of citizens of non-EEA/EFTA countries were among the measures put into effect by the authorities. These measures were never debated in parliament. Instead, they were stipulated in regulations issued by the respective government ministers, referring to legislation in force, mainly the very general broad terms of the Act on Health Security and Communicable Diseases.
Almost one year into the period of these restrictive measures the parliament approved amendments to the Act on Health Security and Communicable Diseases, addressing some of the main restrictive measures that had been in force for many months and defining concepts that had become key ingredients in the numerous decrees of the executive branch.
In one incident a court has ruled unlawful a regulation of the Minister of Health that ordered a forced confinement of travellers in a special facility by the State and demanded their immediate release. Other measures stipulated in regulations of the executive branch are not beyond reproach.


The researchers of this study designed a new virtual reality (VR)-assisted training system, IFOREAL, for gynecology students at their university and introduced it to potential trainees. Two versions of IFOREAL, each employing different devices, were developed. The consumer version uses a traditional LCD display and computer mouse, whereas the professional version utilizes a head-mounted display (HMD) and joystick controller for the virtual learning. Trainees watched simulated videos and interacted with the system to accomplish tasks. IFOREAL consists of several major learning modules of gynecology. This study used the normal spontaneous delivery module to research user experience and perceptions of the IFOREAL VR training system. The results suggested that most of the trainees' user experiences and perceptions of IFOREAL, using both the types of VR-assisted technology, were positively reported. Trainees who used the consumer version of IFOREAL perceived a stronger internal control, whereas trainees using the professional version perceived a better sense of virtual presence. Overall, trainees perceived the usefulness of the IFOREAL system which predicted their future intention to use the system and other similar VR-assisted training systems for learning. Furthermore, whether the virtual content of IFOREAL grabbed the trainees' attention predicted their future intenon to use professional devices of HMD/joysck for learning other subjects. The gender difference was also explored in the study. Generally speaking, female trainees gave better evaluations of IFOREAL compared to their male counterparts. They perceived a better internal control while using the consumer version than the professional version. Male trainees believed that the gadgets used in the professional version provided a better virtual presence and met their expectation of a virtual experience better. This study suggested that different versions of IFOREAL could serve trainees' different needs. Technology developers and trainers should tailor the application of different VR devices to assist with the training/learning in accordance with different conditions/trainees.


We present and analyze a perfectly matched absorbing layer model for the velocity-stress formulation of elastodynamics. This layer has the astonishing property of generating no reflection at the interface between the free medium and the artificial absorbing medium. This allows us to obtain very low spurious reflection even with very thin layers. Several experiments show the efficiency and the generality of the model.


REVIEW QUESTION
The review question is: what are the types of formal and informal social and academic integration strategies that have been explored to influence nursing student persistence and increase retention in nursing programs? A secondary review objective is to address how the described strategies have specifically been implemented with minority nursing students.


Clinical laboratories currently estimate low-density lipoprotein cholesterol using the Friedewald formula, which requires fasting specimens and is subject to error with increasing triglyceride levels. We describe a rapid method for isolating low-density lipoproteins using the Direct LDL Immunoseparation Reagent for subsequent measurement of cholesterol by conventional assay. This method meets current guidelines for precision with within-run and run-to-run coefficients of variation of less than 3%. Results are in good agreement with the beta quantification reference method (Direct LDL-C = 1.03 [beta quantification] -0.06 mmol/L, [2.4 mg/dL] r = 0.980), there is minimal bias associated with increasing triglycerides or high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and patient fasting is not required for accurate analysis. The Direct LDL Immunoseparation Reagent overcomes drawbacks of the Friedewald formula and appears to be suitable for accurate quantitation of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol in the routine laboratory.


The use of natural compounds as an alternative to synthetic molecules has become a significant subject of interest in recent decades. Stilbenoids are a group of phenolic compounds found in many plant species and they have recently gained the focus of a multitude of studies in medicine and chemistry, resveratrol being the most representative molecule. In this review, we focused on the research that illustrates the therapeutic potential of this class of natural molecules considering various diseases with higher incidence rates. PubChem database was searched for bioactivities of natural stilbenoids, while several keywords (i.e., "stilbenoids", "stilbenoid anticancer") were used to query PubMed database for relevant studies. The diversity and the simplicity of stilbenes' chemical structures together with the numerous biological sources are key elements that can simplify both the isolation of these compounds and the drug design of novel bioactive molecules. Resveratrol and other related compounds are heterogeneously distributed in plants and are mainly found in grapes and wine. Natural stilbenes were shown to possess a wide range of biological activities, such as antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antihyperglycemic, cardioprotective, neuroprotective, and antineoplastic properties. While resveratrol is widely investigated for its benefits in various disorders, further studies are warranted to properly harness the therapeutic potential of less popular stilbenoid compounds.


The quality of alternatives is crucial for making good decisions. The process of generating high-quality alternatives can be enhanced by using decision makers' objectives as prompts. This paper examines empirically the impact and interrelation of experience and the prompting with objectives on decision makers' ability to create alternatives for an important decision. The study confirms with high significance that both experience and prompting with objectives enhance the quality of alternatives. We are able to show that all participants, irrespective of their experience, enhance the quality of their alternatives when they are prompted with objectives; i.e., the relationship between being prompted with objectives and the quality of alternatives is not moderated by experience. In contrast to gaining experience, prompting a participant with objectives can be utilized immediately without a long learning phase and is able to substitute for experience in certain decision contexts. Furthermore, we analyze how prompting with objectives affects the creation of alternatives. We find evidence that the relation between being prompted with objectives and the quality of alternatives is partially mediated by the number of objectives considered while creating alternatives.


: After a first report on the nutrient composition and the digestibility of some newly bred varieties of cereals, information on the apparent digestibility of the amino acids in growing female pigs ascertained with the same test material is given. These data serve the evaluation of the quality of such cultivation products and the completion of the data in of feedstuffs tables and tables of the amino acid content. The newly bred barleystrains meet the requirement of digestible protein of pigs, wheat exceeds it whereas the maize samples fall short of it. The content of digestible lysine in the newly bred barleystrain approximate the requirement of growing pigs. There is ample digestible methionine + cystine in all samples. This again proves that newly cultivated barley and wheat rich in protein and lysine if accordingly supplemented with the limiting amino acid lysine can be used as sole feed for fattening pigs. Moreover, it becomes again obvious that the apparent digestibility of the amino acids can, for practical purposes, be sufficiently exactly evaluated with the help of the apparent digestibility of the crude protein of the respective feedstuff.


Nowadays we are in the big data era. The high-dimensionality ofdata imposes big challenge on how to process them effectively andefficiently. Fortunately, in practice data are not unstructured.Their samples usually lie around low-dimensional manifolds andhave high correlation among them. Such characteristics can beeffectively depicted by low rankness. As an extension to thesparsity of first order data, such as voices, low rankness is alsoan effective measure for the sparsity of second order data, suchas images. In this paper, I review the representative theories,algorithms and applications of the low rank subspace recoverymodels in data processing.


A preemption scheme, called Resource Consumption Based Preemption (RCBP), is proposed in order to reduce unfairness in an OBS network. In RCBP, the network operator can select any parameters to represent the cost of network resource consumption, and this makes the RCBP flexible to solve complicated fairness problems. We evaluate the performance of the RCBP in reducing unfairness among bursts with different numbers of hops between source and destination in a simulated ring network. The numerical results show that RCBP can enhance fairness in the OBS network.