Micro- and nanoscale patterned monolayers of plasmonic nanoparticles were fabricated by combining concepts from colloidal chemistry, self-assembly, and subtractive soft lithography. Leveraging chemical interactions between the capping ligands of pre-synthesized gold colloids and a polydimethylsiloxane stamp, we demonstrated patterning gold nanoparticles over centimeter-scale areas with a variety of micro- and nanoscale geometries, including islands, lines, and chiral structures (e.g., square spirals). By successfully achieving nanoscale manipulation over a wide range of substrates and patterns, we establish a powerful and straightforward strategy, nanoparticle chemical lift-off lithography (NP-CLL), for the economical and scalable fabrication of functional plasmonic materials with colloidal nanoparticles as building blocks, offering a transformative solution for designing next-generation plasmonic technologies.


Both all inorganic and hybrid halide perovskites recently demonstrated undeniably remarkable characteristics for a wide range of optoelectronic applications. The perovskite fever began with 3D halide perovskites of chemical formula AMX3 with A a small organic or an inorganic cation, M a metal (Pb2+, Sn2+, Ge2+), and X a halogen (I-, Br-, Cl-), which opened a route toward low-cost manufacture of solar cells, offering currently certified conversion efficiencies over 25%.[1] Since the initial breakthrough mid-2012,[2] halide perovskites attracted worldwide efforts from the scientific community[3] leading to an extensive exploration of their structural versatility and an ever-growing diversity of structures.[3] Prior to the perovskite fever, especially in the 90's, most experimental efforts on halide perovskites focused on chemistry and optical characterizations of monolayered halide perovskites of chemical formula A'MX4, with A' a larger organic cation.[4]
Currently, many different perovskite as well as non-perovskite metal-halide networks are synthesized and their optoelectronic properties deserve to be unraveled (Figure). Among others, new compositions such as A'2An-1MnX3n+1 afford layered structures with a controlled number (n) of octahedra in the perovskite layer and thus offer an ideal platform for fundamental understanding.3,5 Here, through a couple of recent examples,[5,6] we will discuss their optoelectronic properties based on theoretical modeling. Impact of composition and structural pattern on properties will be inspected, with particular emphasis on the effect of quantum and dielectric confinements on charge carriers and excitons.
[1] https://www.nrel.gov/pv/cell-efficiency.html. [2] M. M. Lee & al. JACS 134, 17396 (2012); H.-S Kim & al. Sci. Rep. 2, 591(2012). [2] Special issue, Chem. Rev. 119, 3033 (2019). [3] C. Katan & al. Chem. Rev. 119, 3140 (2019). [4] G. C. Papavassiliou Prog. Solid State Chem. 25, 125 (1997); D. B. Mitzi Prog. Inorg. Chem. John Wiley & Sons (1999). [5] L. Mao & al. Chem, in press (2019). [6] M. Smith & al. Chem. Sci. 8, 1960 (2017); J.-C. Blancon & al. Science 355, 1288 (2017); B. Traore & al. ACS Nano 12, 3321 (2018); J.-C. Blancon & al. Nat. Com. 9, 2254 (2018); M. Kepenekian & al. Nano Lett. 18, 5603 (2018); J. Leveillee & al. PRMater. 2, 105406 (2018) and submitted. X. Li & al. Chem. Mater. 31, 3582 and JACS 141, 12880 (2019).


Seventy‐nine patients with histopathologically verified unresectable or locally recurrent rectal cancer were nonrandomly allocated to radiotherapy or regional intra‐arterial infusion of 5‐Fluorouracil (5‐FU). Fifteen patients with unresectable and 32 with locally recurrent rectal cancer were subjected to radiotherapy. The absorbed dose was 30 Gy in patients with an unresectable tumor and 45 Gy in patients with locally recurrent rectal cancer. Six patients with unresectable and 26 with locally recurrent rectal cancer received bilateral internal iliac artery infusion of 5‐FU in a median dose of 7.5 g. There was no difference in survival between the two methods of treatment. Resection of an initially unresectable tumor could be performed in 5 of 21 patients (4 after radiotherapy and 1 after chemotherapy). All except eight patients had pelvic or perineal pain before treatment. Forty of 43 (93%) patients reported pain relief after radiotherapy and 21 of 28 (75%) after infusion therapy. Ten nonresponders were subjected to alternative treatment (three to intra‐arterial infusion and seven to radiotherapy). Five of these ten patients reported complete pain relief and five partial pain relief. After radiotherapy, no significant side effects or complications were observed. The infusion chemotherapy was the cause of death in one patient. In summary, similar palliation was achieved with bilateral iliac artery 5‐FU‐infusion and radiotherapy. Owing to the complications registered with infusion therapy, radiotherapy must be considered the treatment of choice for these patients. Patients who do not respond to radiotherapy or suffer recurrence of pelvic and perineal pain may receive further palliation from intra‐arterial infusion. Cancer 58:336–340, 1986.


Abstract This article presents an environmentally friendly approach for the conversion of rapeseed oil via supercritical ethanol condition, with and without the presence of a solid catalyst, to produce biodiesel. The experiment was conducted in a batch reactor at various temperatures, reaction times, and ethanol to oil molar ratios. The evolution of process was followed by high performance liquid chromatography to determine accurately and quickly the content of final reaction mixture in a single analysis. The results show that the highest biodiesel yields of 93% (with ZnO) and 88% (with CaO) were obtained after the reaction time of 60 min at a temperature of 270°C. This process has high potential in minimizing the production cost of biodiesel due to its simplicity and technical advantage.


Abstract This paper describes how climate variation in time and space can constrain community structure on a global scale. We explore body size scaling and the energetic consequences in terms of absorbed mass and energy and expended mass and energy. We explain how morphology, specific physiological properties, and temperature dependent behaviors are key variables that link individual energetics to population dynamics and community structure. This paper describes an integrated basic principles model for mammal energetics and extends the model to bird energetics. The model additions include molar balance models for the lungs and gut. The gut model couples food ingested to respiratory gas exchanges and evaporative water loss from the respiratory system. We incorporate a novel thermoregulatory model that yields metabolic calculations as a function of temperature. The calculations mimic empirical data without regression. We explore the differences in the quality of insulation between hair and feathers with our porous media model for insulation. For mammals ranging in size from mice to elephants we show that calculated metabolic costs are in agreement with experimental data. We also demonstrate how we can do the same for birds ranging in size from hummingbirds to ostriches. We show the impact of changing posture and changing air temperatures on energetic costs for birds and mammals. We demonstrate how optimal body size that maximizes the potential for growth and reproduction changes with changing climatic conditions and with diet quality. Climate and diet may play important roles in constraining community structure (collection of functional types of different body sizes) at local and global scales. Thus, multiple functional types may coexist in a locality in part because of the temporal and spatial variation in climate and seasonal food variation. We illustrate how the models can be applied in a conservation and biodiversity context to a rare and endangered species of parrot, the Orange-bellied Parrot of Australia and Tasmania.


Introduction : Resin composites are common materials used to restore anterior teeth following root canal therapy, but are accompanied with shrinkage during polymerization. The aim of this in vitro study was to investigate the effect of the insertion method and polymerization shrinkage of resin composite on residual tooth structure. Materials and Methods : Stereomicroscopy and computerized Finite Element Modelling (FEM) were used to compare residual stresses in endodontically treated, extracted maxillary central incisor teeth, in which the access cavities were restored with resin composite. Theoretical stresses derived from the FEM were analyzed during preparation and after teeth were restored using either a "bulk" or a "wedge incremental" method. These data were subsequently compared with stresses measured directly using strain gauges. Results : Results showed that intensive stresses, which had the potential to cause fracture in dental structures and composite de-bonding, were applied to teeth during polymerization. Conclusion : According to the results of this study, the "bulk" build up led to less stress induction during restoration of teeth following root canal therapy. Key words : Finite Element, Polymerization, Resin Composite


3H-substance P binding to the membranes of rat salivary glands was studied. The Kd and Bmax values were found to be 0.34 nM and 141 fmole/mg protein respectively using established natural occurring tachykinins to displace the binding. The rank order of potency was identified as substance P > neurokinin A > neurokinin B. These natural occurring tachykinins stimulate inositol phospholipid hydrolysis in slices of rat salivary glands, and the rank order of potency was also substance P > neurokinin A > neurokinin B. When salivation was induced by natural occurring tachykinins and acetylcholine (via i.v. route) in anesthetized rats with doses eliciting equivalent salivating responses, atropine blocks acetylcholine- as well as neurokinin B-, but not substance P- or neurokinin A-induced salivation. Based on the results mentioned above, we make a tentative conclusion that multiple receptor subtypes of neurokinins may exist in rat salivary glands. The neurokinins B receptor subtype is likely located presynaptically in the cholinergic nerve endings, whereas substance P and/or neurokinin A receptor subtypes may exist in the glandular tissue. The salivation induced by these neurokinins is likely through the activation of receptors, which are coupled to phosphatidylinositol turnover pathway.


Background A cross-sectional study was performed in a population-based German sample (n=13 318 children and adolescents aged 3–17) to replicate the recently reported independent association of atopic eczema (AE) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and to further investigate the role of environmental and behavioural factors. Methods The odds ratio (OR) was calculated with allergic comorbidity and various environmental factors considered as confounders and sleeping problems hypothesised to act as a potential effect modifier. Results The lifetime prevalence of AE and ADHD was 14.7% (male 14.4%; female 14.9%) and 4.9% (male 7.8%; female 2.0%), respectively. There was an association between ADHD and AE (OR 1.54; 95% CI 1.24 to 1.93; p<0.001), which was independent of sociodemographic factors, parental smoking, breastfeeding, number of siblings, perinatal health problems, and atopic comorbidity. Further analyses of a subgroup of 6484 children age 3–11 confirmed the hypothesis that the association between AE and ADHD was modified by sleeping problems (interaction effect AE*sleep problems OR 2.02 95% CI 1.03 to 3.97; p=0.04). There was a strong association between AE and ADHD in children with SP (OR 2.67 95% CI 1.51 to 4.71; p=0.001; n=1112), but not in children without SP (OR 1.24 95% CI 0.83 to 1.84; p=0.30; n=5796). Conclusions ADHD and AE appear to be strongly and independently associated in children with sleeping problems, but not in children without sleeping problems. A substantial part of diagnoses met for ADHD might be engendered by the presence of AE and concomitant sleeping problems.


Case Western Reserve University's School of Medicine and Comprehensive Cancer Center coordinate in-depth research immersion STEM programs to engage high school students in biomedical research and encourage pursuit of careers in health-related research and clinical care. Due to COVID-19, the 2020 programs were delivered entirely virtually. Student and faculty perceptions of the virtual experience were evaluated using surveys and focus groups. Ninety percent of students felt the virtual program met expectations. Student rankings for programmatic components that could remain virtual in future years showed a preference for highly interactive activities, especially mentorship and dialogue-based activities like discussions of science in the news. Ninety-seven percent of faculty agreed students' scientific knowledge improved. Faculty commented that certain research projects (e.g., data analysis, literature reviews) were highly appropriate for a virtual program, but that the lack of hands-on laboratory activities was challenging. Increased individual attention, flexibility, and independence were hailed as strengths of the virtual program. These findings identify activities that sustain student interest in biomedical, healthcare, and cancer related research using a virtual medium and indicate mentorship and interactive discussion-based activities enhance virtual education. Moreover, the results support incorporation of interactive online pedagogical approaches to enhance student engagement virtually and in-person.


By combining a cluster of microCHP appliances, a virtual power plant can be formed. To use such a virtual power plant, a good heat demand prediction of individual households is needed since the heat demand determines the production capacity. In this paper we present the results of using neural networks techniques to predict the heat demand of individual households. This prediction is required to determine the electricity production capacity of the large fleet of microCHP appliances. All predictions are short-term (for one day) and use historical heat demand and weather influences as input.


Abstract The International Code of Marketing of Breast‐milk Substitutes (the Code) adopted by the World Health Assembly (WHA) in 1981 and regularly updated through subsequent WHA resolutions, represents the international policy framework for protecting breastfeeding against inappropriate marketing practices. By March 2016, at least 135 countries had some measures covering provisions of the Code in their legislation. The translation of the International Code into national measures was investigated in the context of the advocacy efforts undertaken by the Alive & Thrive (A&T) initiative with UNICEF and partners. A real‐time evaluation was carried out over 22 months in seven Southeast Asian countries (Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao People's Democratic Republic [Lao PDR], Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, and Timor‐Leste) and two African countries (Burkina Faso and Ethiopia). Drivers of policy change and progress were examined. Two theory‐based approaches were used: developmental evaluation and contribution analysis. Data collection methods included participant observation, key informant meetings, in‐depth interviews, reflective practice, and desk review. Overall, countries made significant progress in translating the International Code into national measures and in moving forward throughout the policy cycle. The main driver of policy change was the creation of a strategic group, which engaged key relevant actors and supported the government in the performance of 15 critical tasks, which the analysis reveals is a second driver. Those critical tasks are described in this paper and could help public health advocates to anticipate the stages and challenges of policy change and develop more effective strategies to translate the Code into their legal framework.


To the Editor. —As the article by Drs Nickens and Cohen 1 suggested, it is difficult to discuss the issues facing minorities in medicine today without also confronting the problems of affirmative action. Yet, the history of medical education in the United States suggests the examination of a far more important policy document, the Flexner Report of 1910. 2 Perhaps no document has affected the plight of minorities in medicine to a greater extent. Following the American Medical Association report on the nation's medical schools, this landmark report fundamentally shaped the course of medical education. In it, Abraham Flexner, an educator, presented findings based on his study of 135 medical schools and recommended the closing of 5 of the 7 then-existing black medical schools. Said to be "in no position to make any contribution of value," these 5 medical colleges were disbanded on the findings of the report. Chapter XIV


We describe a rapid and accurate method to measure robot-to-robot separations and headings. The method, which uses narrow bandwidth signals that are well suited for ultrasonic transducers and for dispersive acoustic environments, detects the difference in phase delay of an optical and an ultrasonic signal. A prototype system based on microcontrollers for signal generation and phase delay measurement determined the location of another robot with sub-centimeter accuracy over a 2.5 m range with a 53 ms measurement time. We also describe simple modifications that can be made to increase the range without loss of accuracy and to coordinate measurements among many robots.


As a reaction against the institutionalized top-down developmental orientation, the theory and praxis of development as an inclusive process of socio-political collective transformation has been constantly realized. At this juncture, performative activities have become increasingly instrumental strategies in engaging people more intrinsically in their various personal and social development issues. The focus of this paper lies in studying Jana Sanskriti Centre for Theatre of the Oppressed, which despite being an apolitical organisation, offers significant contribution towards searching for viable socio-political possibilities in contemporary India. The paper delves into discussing some specific ground realities of rural West Bengal, deliberating on the endeavours of Jana Sanskriti in extending onstage representations to offstage reformation. This research investigates how sustainable changes, defined as both individual psychological transformation and groups' socio-political consciousness are generated among spectators through participation in this theatrical process.


Haemodynamic (HD) parameters are important determinants of prognosis in PAH. This post-hoc analysis of SERAPHIN (NCT00660179) examined the effect of macitentan 10mg on the risk of morbidity and mortality in PAH patients with baseline HD values suggestive of impaired RV function. Criteria were: mean right atrial pressure (mRAP) >10 mmHg (Group A), cardiac index 2 (Group B), or both (Group C). Cox regression models were used to calculate unadjusted hazard ratios between treatment arms in each group. Of the patients randomised to placebo (n=250) or macitentan 10mg (n=242) q.d., 63% were on PAH-specific therapy. Patients in Groups A, B and C had worse baseline characteristics (6-min walk test, WHO functional class, NT-proBNP) than those not meeting these criteria. Interaction tests showed no evidence of a difference in the reduction of risk of morbidity and mortality with macitentan 10mg vs placebo irrespective of HD criteria (Figure). Except for a higher frequency of hypotension-related adverse events in macitentan-treated patients with elevated mRAP, the safety profile of macitentan was similar irrespective of HD criteria. Macitentan 10mg was well tolerated and significantly reduced the risk of morbidity and mortality in PAH patients irrespective of the presence or absence of RV impairment.


RATS subjected to unilateral 6-hydroxydopamine lesion of the pars compacta of the substantia nigra sustained a wide range of dopamine (DA) loss in the neostriatum. Residual DA levels of < 50% resulted in behavioural impairments which correlated with the degree of DA denervation, whereas no such effects occurred with residual DA levels of > 50%. Within 1 week after surgery the effects of the lesion on motor activation recovered whereas movement asymmetries exhibited no recovery. In addition, movement asymmetry effects were not correlated with motoric inactivation effects. This finding indicates that dopamine denervation of the neostriatum disrupts sensory/motor integration, and attentional processes rather than motor activation.


It has been widely demonstrated that haptic interaction can enrich the sense of copresence of distributed users and improve their performance in collaborative virtual environments (CVEs). However, the influence of network traffic on haptic collaboration, particularly packet loss in haptic data streams, is still largely unknown. In order to investigate this effect, we designed and conducted a series of experiments on a simulated lossy network. First, a single-user interactive task was designed to estimate the just- noticeable packet loss threshold in terms of the length of burst loss (LBL). Second, a CVE was developed in which two users are required to work together on a goal-directed task through haptic collaboration. Experiments were performed to evaluate the users' task performance at different packet loss rates and their perception using subjective measurements. Finally, the effect of packet loss combined with network latency was investigated. The findings are: (1) the threshold LBL value for haptic discontinuity to become noticeable is 60.18 ms; (2) haptic collaboration performance is sensitive to packet loss rate; and (3) while the combined effect of packet loss and communication delay adversely affects collaborative haptic interactions, the influence due to packet loss rate is dominant when the delay is below a certain threshold. These results can serve as a guiding reference for the design and development of virtual telepresence systems with rich haptic collaborations.


Proteins labeled in cultured hepatoma cells grown in the presence of radioactive amino acids and pactamycin consist primarily of growing polypeptide chains initiated before addition of the antibiotic. Nascent tyrosine aminotransferase (EC 220.127.116.11) molecules were labeled in this way, and their radioactivity after completion was measured immunologically. Cells exposed to the synthetic adrenal steroid, dexamethasone, contain 10- to 18- times as much nascent enzyme as uninduced cells. These results indicate that induction control is not at the level of polypeptide-chain elongation or release, but probably operates on either the amount of messenger RNA or the rate of specific polypeptide-chain initiation.


Partial response continuous phase modulation (CPM) schemes have a high spectrum utilization and also a high immunity to nonlinear distortion, since they have a constant envelope. Schemes with high power efficiency can also be designed when they are coherently detected with a Viterbi detector. These schemes are sometimes complex, however. In this paper two minimum-shift-keyed (MSK)type receivers are studied. The MSK-type receiver can be implemented as a serial receiver and as a parallel receiver. Both receivers are useful for binary modulation schemes with modulation index h = 1/2 . Only coherent detection of signals transmitted over an additive white Gaussian noise channel is considered. The serial receiver can be implemented with only two filters and simple decision logic. The decisions are made serially in one decision eye pattern. Two types of receiver filters are considered. Error probability results are presented for the receiver, both with and without phase and timing errors present in the receiver. It is shown that, assuming perfect phase and time synchronization, the serial and parallel receivers have equal performances. The advantages of the serial receiver over the parallel receiver are the same for partial response continuous phase modulation as for classical MSK; i.e., both in implementation aspects and in the reduced sensitivity to phase errors.


Elizabeth Edwards, Photographs and the Practice of History: A Short Primer (London, New York, Dublin: Bloomsbury, 2021), 176 pp., ISBN 9781350120658. Upon receipt of your copy of Photographs and the Practice of History, I encourage you to first read the bibliographic afterword and peruse through the section titled 'Selected Reading' of the book before delving into its substantive chapters. This is because while Elizabeth Edwards refers to her publication as a short a primer, scholars of photography, visual history and visual culture will recognise it as a culmination of not only her oeuvre at a theoretical level, but also a filtering, a synthesis and meditation on key debates that have characterised critical literature on photography and the philosophy of history in the recent past, presented in a most succinct fashion that is characteristic of the author's deceptive ease. Both the bibliographic afterword and the subsequent selected reading list at the end are a testament to this effort to coalesce and think through this past scholarship. In the preface, Edwards notes that while she hopes historians of photography and visual historians will find it interesting, the book 'is for students, the discipline's new generations, who are starting to think with photographs within historical studies' (p. x). Photographs and the Practice of History combines pertinent engagement with ease of access thus making it an excellent resource for such readers.


Prior to the 2012-2013 season, National Football League franchises had the option to significantly adjust their TV blackout policies for the first time since 1973. Using data from team policy choices and local TV blackouts during the 2007-2008 to 2014-2015 seasons, we examine whether the policy change was effective in reducing the probability of blackouts or affected attendance. Controlling for team-fixed effects, we find no evidence that policy-adopting teams experienced significantly fewer blackouts or a change in attendance following the policy implementation. Our analysis sheds light on the economic factors that are correlated with local TV blackouts and game attendance.


This paper describes a possible extension to the logical framework KARO to make it able to handle multiple agents. The KARO framework, which was initially developed by van der Hoek, van Linder and Meyer, makes use of epistemic and dynamic logics to express rational agents. These agents are capable of reasoning about their own actions and, somewhat limited, about the actions of other agents. This paper intends to extend the KARO system such that one is also able to reason about cooperation between agents.


The fatigue behavior of two high purity Fe alloys, one with 75 ppm (by mass) of both N and C and the other with 0.1% (by mass) C, has been investigated at 5 Hz. These alloys were heat treated to retain different solute concentrations, and it was found that the effect of increasing solute concentration was to increase the fatigue life and to suppress the "knee" in the S-N curve. It is shown that the flat appearance of the S-N curve is due to dynamic strain aging of the alloys. The Coffin-Manson analysis of the data shows that dynamic strain aging hardly affects the fatigue ductility of the material but produces an increase in yield stress sufficient to increase the fatigue life. Fatigue predeformation and static aging at 60°C for 16 h produces a precipitation of metastable nitrides, or carbides, both at matrix sites and dislocations and an increase in the yield stress of the alloys. On retesting at the same stress amplitude, the plastic strain is found to have been considerably reduced and the fatigue life greatly increased, with a return of a "knee" in the S-N curve. The Coffin-Manson analysis reveals a great loss in fatigue ductility, but it is found that the cumulative strain to failure remains nearly constant at each stress level. This suggests that the influence of the increased strength by strain aging on fatigue life is more important than the reduction in ductility. The dislocation substructures developed at different amplitudes both before and after aging are correlated with the formation of slip bands and the nucleation of fatigue cracks.


The load balancing techniques focus on how to find a path with less traffic load; and the data packets can be routed with a small delay. Our contribution is to improve the performances of routing protocols by the load balancing in MANET to improve the quality of service. Each mobile node in this network that receives a request RREQ calculating the number of packets in its queue and compares it with the value of the cost if it exceeds: the node is overloaded reflecting the load independently of other nodes in the network and this node will be avoided.. In this work, we integrated load of information in MANET in the most used protocol AODV and a function to calculate the cost that is based on the number of queued packets of all nodes participating in the establishment of the path by changing the routing strategy during the route discovery and in the choice of the path that will be based on the minimum cost and the shorter route selected by destination node in this way the overloaded nodes and the least congested path will be chosen. after the implementation of this new process,the results of the simulation shows the effectiveness of this method by minimizing delays to satisfy users who are interested in packet transmission delays. Key–Words: MANET, AODV,quality of service, load balancing, RREQ, cost.


In this work, we propose a novel and concise approach for semi-supervised semantic segmentation. The major challenge of this task lies in how to exploit unlabeled data efficiently and thoroughly. Previous state-of-the-art methods utilize unlabeled data by GAN-based self-training or consistency regularization. However, these methods either suffer from noisy self-supervision and class-imbalance, resulting in a low unlabeled data utilization rate, or do not consider the apparent link between self-training and consistency regularization. Our method, Dynamic Self-Training and Class-Balanced Curriculum (DST-CBC), exploits inter-model disagreement by prediction confidence to construct a dynamic loss robust against pseudo label noise, enabling it to extend pseudo labeling to a class-balanced curriculum learning process. While we further show that our method implicitly includes consistency regularization. Thus, DST-CBC not only exploits unlabeled data efficiently, but also thoroughly utilizes $all$ unlabeled data. Without using adversarial training or any kind of modification to the network architecture, DST-CBC outperforms existing methods on different datasets across all labeled ratios, bringing semi-supervised learning yet another step closer to match the performance of fully-supervised learning for semantic segmentation. Our code and data splits are available at: this https URL .


Emerging 3D memory technologies, such as the Hybrid Memory Cube (HMC) and High Bandwidth Memory (HBM), provide increased bandwidth and massive memory-level parallelism. Efficiently integrating emerging memories into existing system pose new challenges and require detailed evaluation in a real computing environment. In this paper, we propose MEG, an open-source, configurable, cycle-exact, and RISC-V based full system simulation infrastructure using FPGA and HMC. MEG has three highly configurable design components: (i) a HMC adaptation module that not only enables communication between the HMC device and the processor cores but also can be extended to fit other memories (e.g., HBM, nonvolatile memory) with minimal effort, (ii) a reconfigurable memory controller along with its OS support that can be effectively leveraged by system designers to perform software-hardware co-optimization, and (iii) a performance monitor module that effectively improves the observability and debuggability of the system to guide performance optimization. We provide a prototype implementation of MEG on Xilinx VCU110 board and demonstrate its capability, fidelity, and flexibility on real-world benchmark applications. We hope that our open-source release of MEG fills a gap in the space of publicly-available FPGA-based full system simulation infrastructures specifically targeting memory system and inspires further collaborative software/hardware innovations.


Malaria accounts for about 90% of the global clinical cases each year. It is estimated that about 9% of overall mortality in Ghana is caused by malaria infections. Among the malaria deaths, 40% occurred among infants and children under the age of five. Due to the colossal unenthusiastic impact malaria is posturing to the socio-economic lives of the inhabitants of subSaharan Africa. Stakeholders have launched special public health programmes to help salvage the situation. In view of that the study sought to find out the effect of education on demand for preventive healthcare good against malaria infection. The study used a sample size of 800 respondents across the inhabitants of Kwabre East District in Ashanti Region. The study sampled healthcare facility users of Asonomaso Government Hospital (i.e. patients from Kasaam, Ntonso, Bonwire e.t.c.). The study adopted a recursive analysis since both descriptive and quantitative methods were used for the data analysis. A random sampling method was used to solicit for malaria outpatients respondents in the study area. The study find out that education level has a positive effect on the demand for preventive healthcare good. The further find out that the social media such as radio and television stations are the main source of information. The recommended that The various stakeholders should intensify the media advert on the use of the preventive care and the need to use such care. The education curriculum should be structured in such a way that part of the physical education syllabus should give a basic knowledge on the use of


This work expands the model proposed by Krimtholz, Leedom, and Matthaei (KLM) model to account for the nonlinear effects occurring in acoustic devices due to the nonlinear stiffened elasticity. We show that a nonlinear distributed capacitance in the acoustic transmission line of the KLM model can account for the distributed nature of the nonlinear effects. Specifically, we use the nonlinear telegrapher's equation to find closed-form equations for intermodulation distortion and harmonic generation. We confirm the validity of these equations by comparing their results with those provided by a KLM equivalent circuit in which the nonlinear transmission line is implemented by cascading many L-C cells having a voltage-dependent capacitance. To further confirm the model, we show measured nonlinear effects in a thin film bulk acoustic resonator in close agreement with the equivalent circuit simulations.


Recent exposure to a number of spatial development frameworks on a broader (district and regional) scale in South Africa indicates that there is considerable confusion as to what should be the content of these plans. In addition, many fail to pay any attention to some of the most pressing developmental issues which are emerging. This article argues that regional planning in South Africa has always been based on, inter alia, four central pillars (environment, economic development, settlement and service provision), which need to be informed by insights drawn from a number of disciplinary perspectives. It identifies some of the main developmental challenges in each of these disciplinary areas which these plans should be addressing, provides some disciplinaryspecific insights into them, and then demonstrates an integrative approach to link these divergent issues.


The various materials the urban furniture objects are made of may create comfort when providing the user leisure, pleasant, dynamic or relaxing atmosphere. These materials can influence the human psychic generating various positive and negative inside conditions. Many psychologists use the virtues of materials in their therapies, the effects being carefully studied and tested. The surface texture constitutes a very important characteristic of urban furniture object materials influencing the obtaining of some physical or psycho-emotional effects. Nevertheless, the study of the texture effects is mostly ignored or neglected. As a consequence of this fact, often the textures are inadequately used, generating negative effects added to the other already existing urban pollution forms. The study aims to analyze the human perception of the furniture texture in the urban spaces and the relations with the reactions on multiple levels. The multitude of pollution forms created by the presence of inadequate urban furniture in the city areas is an alarming sign for the landscape designers. There are many patterns that can create discomfort and rejection reactions to the users. The tendency is to obtain more resistive materials but, at the same time, lighter materials, more flexible and more aesthetic, at moderate costs. The study aims as final result to guide the use of the natural and artificial textures in order to create appropriate, attractive and healthy multifunctional furniture for our urban spaces. The researches in the field of material texture represent a source of technological evolution in the field of urban furniture.


Recognizing human emotions and responding appropriately has the potential to radically change the way we interact with technology. However, to train machines to sensibly detect and recognize human emotions, we need valid emotion ground truths. A fundamental challenge here is the momentary emotion elicitation and capture (MEEC) from individuals continuously and in real-time, without adversely affecting user experience. In this first edition of the one-day CHI 2020 workshop, we will (a) explore and define novel elicitation tasks (b) survey sensing and annotation techniques (c) create a taxonomy of when and where to apply an elicitation method.


Background and Objectives: The purpose of this study is to investigate the predictive factors for intrahospital mortality in ischemic stroke patients. We will examine the association between a range of clinical and demographic factors and intrahospital mortality, including age, sex, comorbidities, laboratory values, and medication use. Materials and Methods: This retrospective, longitudinal, analytic, observational cohort study included 243 patients over 18 years old with a new ischemic stroke diagnosis who were hospitalized in Cluj-Napoca Emergency County Hospital. Data collected included the patient demographics, baseline characteristics at hospital admission, medication use, carotid artery Doppler ultrasound, as well as cardiology exam, and intrahospital death. Results: Multivariate logistic regression was used to determine which variables were independently associated with intrahospital death. An NIHSS score > 9 (OR—17.4; p < 0.001) and a lesion volume > 22.3 mL (OR—5.8; p = 0.003) were found to be associated with the highest risk of death. In contrast antiplatelet treatment (OR—0.349; p = 0.04) was associated with lower mortality rates. Conclusions: Our study identified a high NIHSS score and large lesion volume as independent risk factors for intrahospital mortality in ischemic stroke patients. Antiplatelet therapy was associated with lower mortality rates. Further studies are needed to explore the potential mechanisms underlying these associations and to develop targeted interventions to improve patient outcomes.


PURPOSE
This study aims to evaluate the fat suppression effect on images of the head and neck region using chemical shift selective (CHESS), and iterative decomposition of water and fat with echo asymmetry and least-squares estimation (IDEAL).

METHOD
A self-made phantom containing oil around the simulated bone marrow and muscle was scanned. The signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) was calculated using the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) subtraction and pixel shift methods. Thereafter, the fat suppression effect and SNR were calculated in clinical images using the pixel shift method.

RESULT
In both phantom and clinical images, the fat suppression effect was higher using IDEAL. In addition, the SNR of the NEMA subtraction method and the pixel shift method in phantom images was higher in the simulated bone marrow than in the simulated muscle. The SNR of the vertebral body was higher than that of the tongue in the clinical images using IDEAL, and the same tendency was observed in the phantom image evaluation. However, there was a difference in SNR between the phantom and clinical images.

CONCLUSION
In the head and neck region, fat-suppressed images using IDEAL showed the same higher fat-suppressing effect as that in a previous study. The SNR for the phantom and the clinical images was different. The SNR calculated using the pixel shift method for the phantom images with IDEAL and the clinical images showed the same tendency. Although there is a difference between the SNRs of phantom and clinical images calculated by the pixel shift method, it is suggested that the method can be used to compare the SNR between tissues such as the vertebral body and the tongue.


Author(s): Searle, David Mordecai | Advisor(s): Abrajano, Marisa | Abstract: Congressional candidates spend the majority of their campaign funds on television advertising to reach the highest number of voters, spending almost $300 million in 2014 alone. Yet previous research has not fully answered if advertising is associated with increased electoral success. In particular, this represents the first analysis of television advertising in elections for the United States House of Representatives. It also represents the first analysis of competitive, low information elections where voters have limited knowledge of the candidates. First, I examine U.S. House races over six electoral cycles from 2000-2012 to test how positive, negative, or contrast ads correlate with electoral success. Then, I build upon this analysis with a novel experiment that more closely models the information environment in competitive, low information campaigns by exposing respondents to one advertisement from each candidate using past television advertisements. This provides causal evidence linking the tone of an advertisement with changes in electoral support. Finally, since the 2010 Citizens United ruling interest groups are spending increasingly large amounts of money in U.S. congressional elections. Instead of advertising tone, I test whether the advertising sponsor influences how voters perceive and evaluate the candidates, comparing traditional candidate-sponsored ads with interest group-sponsored ads. The results highlight how tone and sponsor yields little effect on electoral support. The effect that does exist is not the intended effect of an ad, but rather the backlash against the candidate sponsoring a negative ad. However, candidates can avoid this issue by having interest groups air their negative ads on their behalf. I find that interest group ads are equally persuasive compared to candidate-sponsored ads and yield a smaller backlash penalty against the preferred candidate. Taken together, these findings have important consequences for the role of advertising in U.S. elections and the power interest groups are increasingly wielding to influence electoral outcomes.


Hannah Berry is a cartoonist, artist and writer who has created three graphic novels – Britten and Brulightly (Berry: 2008), Adamtine (Berry: 2012) and Livestock (Berry: 2017) – all published by Jonathan Cape. She has also contributed short works to a number of anthologies, illustrating scripts by other writers or writing scripts for other artists. These include Above the Dreamless Dead: World War I in Poetry and Comics (Duffy et al., 2014), Hoax: Psychosis Blues (Thornton et al., 2014) and IDP: 2043 (Mina et al., 2014). Her work is generally genre-based, except for a weekly cartoon strip created for the British current affairs magazine The New Statesman. The following interview is an extract from two conversations with Berry, recorded a year apart. These took place in front of audiences at Graphic Gothic – The Seventh International Conference of Graphic Novels and Comics at Manchester Metropolitan University (July 2016) and Cartoon County (July 2017), a monthly meeting for cartoonists to discuss their work in front of their peers at various venues in Brighton and Hove.


Under the Kyoto Protocol, developed countries can only tap mitigation opportunities in developing countries by investing in projects under the Clean Development Mechanism. Yet Clean Development Mechanism investments have so far failed to reach many of the high-potential sectors identified by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. This raises doubts about whether the Clean Development Mechanism can generate an adequate supply of credits from the limited areas where it has proved successful. This paper examines the current trajectory of mitigation projects entering the Clean Development Mechanism pipeline and projects it forward under the assumption that the diffusion of the Clean Development Mechanism will follow a path similar to other innovations. Projections are then compared with pre-Clean Development Mechanism predictions of the mechanism's potential market size to discern whether limits on the types of projects entering the pipeline have limited the expected supply of certified emission reductions. Parameter tests suggest that this is not the case and that currently identified Clean Development Mechanism investments will generate offsets in excess of early model predictions. In particular, under favorable circumstances, the mechanism is on track to deliver an average annual flow of roughly 700 million certified emission reductions by the close of 2012 and nearly to 1,100 million certified emission reductions by 2020.


High-energy photon diffraction is used to investigate the charge ordering previously studied by neutron diffraction in La1.48Nd0.4Sr0.12CuO4. Besides confirming the existence of superlattice peaks due to charge order, the temperature dependence of the peak intensity, width, and position has been determined with improved precision. Furthermore, we show that the scattered intensity has a sinusoidial modulation along c*, consistent with long-range Coulomb interactions between ordered charges within the CuO2 planes.


This study tittled as "A View to Suat DerviĢ"s Novels From The Aspect of Socialist Realism" consist of three main parts. At first part tittled as The Era of Socialist Realism in Which DerviĢ Lived and Novel seeks the existence of Socialist Realist Novels in 1900 – 1940. At second part tittled as Classifying Suat DerviĢ"s Novels, there is information of first and other copies, publishers and publishing dates of author were given. Besides at this part DerviĢ"s two different writing era were defined as Novels That are Written by Personal Sensitivities and Novels That are Written by Socialist Sensitivities. At last part tittled as General Character of Suat DerviĢ"s Novels, the novels are being evaluated from the aspects of action, themes and expository features. At Conclusion part it"s being concluded a general assesment about DerviĢ"s role and socialist identity with in Turkish literature through her novels.


The muscle metaboreflex activation has been shown essential to reach normal hemodynamic response during exercise. It has been demonstrated in numerous studies that patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) have impaired autonomic functions and cardiovascular regulation during exercise. However, to the best of our knowledge, no previous research to date has studied the metaboreflex in MS patients. The purpose of this study was to investigate the hemodynamic response to metaboreflex activation in patients with MS (n= 43) compared to an age-matched, control group (CTL, n= 21). Cardiovascular response during the metaboreflex activation was evaluated using the post-exercise muscle ischemia (PEMI) method and during a control exercise recovery (CER) test. The difference in hemodynamic parameters between the PEMI and the CER test was calculated and this procedure allowed for the assessment of the metaboreflex response. Hemodynamics was estimated by impedance cardiography. The MS group showed a normal mean blood pressure (MBP) response as compared to the CTL group (+6.5±6.9 vs. +8±6.8 mmHg respectively), but this response was achieved with an increase in systemic vascular resistance (SVR), that was higher in the MS with respect to the CTL group (+137.6±300.5 vs. -14.3±240 dyne·s-1·cm-5 respectively). This was the main consequence of the MS group's incapacity to raise the stroke volume (-0.65±10.6 vs. +6.2±12.8 ml respectively). It was concluded that MS patients have an impaired capacity to increase stroke volume (SV) in response to metaboreflex activation, even if they could sustain the MBP response by vasoconstriction. This was probably a consequence of their chronic physical de-conditioning.


The study of this research is a review of the ownership of land rights for husbands / wives as a result of the existence of mixed marriages, currently mixed marriages exist in various circles of Indonesian society, the cause of this legal incident is the result of the fast and easy development of the times, and is supported by international relations that continue to increase. With the occurrence of many mixed marriages in Indonesia, legal protection in mixed marriages should be accommodated properly in the legislation in Indonesia. The purpose of this research is to understand the arrangement of ownership of land rights according to Law Number 5 of 1960 concerning agrarian principles and to know the status of ownership of land rights that can be owned in mixed marriages. Researchers use normative techniques, namely normative legal research methods or library law research methods, which are methods or methods used in legal research conducted by examining existing library materials. This research illustrates that the ownership of land rights according to Law Number 5 of 1960 concerning Basic Basic Agrarian Regulations in general, land rights can be in the form of property rights, land use rights, land use rights, and finally use rights which are between one and one rights. Other rights have different meanings in terms of limitations on legal subjects of ownership and limitations on the duration of ownership. The status of ownership of land rights that can be owned in mixed marriages is attached to people who have Indonesian citizenship and in mixed marriages the problems of ownership of the rights over can be resolved by a marriage agreement made between the parties.


A retrospective survey revealed 37 cases (1.1%) of deep surgical-site infection (SSI) among 3,462 instrumented spinal surgeries between 2004 and 2008. Excluding 8 patients who were unclassifiable, we categorized 29 patients into 3 groups of similar backgrounds—thoracolumbar degenerative disease (the DEG group; n = 15), osteoporotic vertebral collapse (the OVC group; n = 10), and cervical disorders (the cervical group; n = 4)—and investigated the key to implant salvage. Final respective implant retention rates for the groups were 40, 0, and 100%, with the OVC group having the worst rate (p < 0.01). In the DEG group with early infection, those whose implants were retained had lower body temperatures, lower white blood cell counts, and a lower rate of discharge at the time of SSI diagnosis (p < 0.05). Implant retention may be affected by initial spinal pathology. In the DEG group, debridement before drainage may be advantageous to implant salvage.


This paper presents a gas turbine design and off-design model in which the difficulties due to lack of knowledge about stage-by-stage performance are overcome by constructing artificial machine maps through appropriate scaling techniques applied to generalized maps taken from the literature and validating them with test measurement data from real plants. In particular, off-design performance is obtained through compressor map modifications according to variable inlet guide vane closure. The set of equations of the developed analytical model is solved by a commercial package, which provides great flexibility in the choice of independent variables of the overall system. The results obtained from this simulator are used for neural network training: problems associated with the construction and use of neural networks are discussed and their capability as a tool for predicting machine performance is analyzed. This paper was presented at the ECOS'01 Conference in Turkey, July 4-6, 2001 and revised


Schizophrenia is a brain disorder that exhibits effects on perception, way of thinking and behavior. Often, schizophrenia patients suffer from attention deficiency. Currently clinical interview is used to diagnose schizophrenia by doctors. There is no alternative way to diagnose schizophrenia in present. Thus, an objective approach by employing transcranial magnetic stimulation combined with electroencephalogram (TMS-EEG) is proposed. The aim of the study is to quantify objectively the neural correlate of selective attention that reflected in auditory late responses (ALRs) using signal processing techniques. TMS provides a means of stimulating neuronal structures within the cortex using brief time-varying magnetic pulses generated by a coil positioned over the scalp. Integrating it with electroencephalogram provides real-time information on cortical reactivity and connectivity through the analysis of TMS evoked potentials or induced oscillations. In this project, auditory oddball paradigm was used throughout the experiment. The experiment involved three sessions; 1) without TMS, 2) single pulse TMS (sTMS) and 3) repetitive TMS (rTMS). All sessions were conducted in attended (attention) and unattended (no attention) conditions. It is found that the amplitude of the grand averaged of ALR (the N1-P2 wave) is higher in control compared to schizophrenia in without TMS session at both conditions. However, the amplitude of ALR in schizophrenia subjects is higher than control subjects in sTMS and rTMS at both conditions. The attention level measure, i.e., the Wavelet Phase Stability (WPS) was used to extract and quantify the neural correlates of auditory selective attention reflected in ALRs. In particular, Complex Morlet was implemented (scales 50-100 corresponding to 4-8Hz). There are significant differences of the ALR between schizophrenia and control groups in without TMS (p<0.05) and sTMS at the attended condition (frontal electrodes). Meanwhile at the unattended condition, Significance difference is found between two groups of the subjects in without TMS but no significant difference in sTMS (frontal electrodes). Particularly, the WPS of controls are larger than schizophrenia patients for without TMS and sTMS at attended for frontal electrodes. These results were consistent for temporal electrodes. It is worth to note that the phase stability of ALR in single pulse TMS is lower than without TMS for controls during attended but showed reversed pattern in unattended. Besides, it is found that a large phase stability difference between without TMS and sTMS in schizophrenia (frontal and temporal electrodes) at unattended compared to attended. For control subjects, this difference is small at frontal and temporal electrodes in both conditions. In a further investigation, the C4.5 decision tree algorithm was implemented to classify the N1-P2 wave of control and schizophrenia subjects elicited by sTMS and rTMS. Four features (energy, power, variance and entropy) were extracted by continuous wavelet transform (CWT). The result shows high classification accuracy which is above 83% in all three sessions at both attended and unattended conditions. In conclusion, the combined TMS-EEG approach shows a promising way to study the selective attention in schizophrenia. By successfully quantifying the neural correlates of auditory selective attention reflected in ALRs using the WPS and discriminating the control and patient groups using C4.5 decision tree provides an objective way to diagnose schizophrenia in compliment to the current subjective method.


Background The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of a hydrodynamic ultrasonic driven transcrestal sinus grafting procedure (Intralift ®, Acteon Company, Bordeaux, France) and the use of a bovine high temperature sintered grafting material in sinus sites with less than 5 mm remaining bone height with no additional autogenous bone in order to create a sufficient recipient site for implants. Material and Methods 12 patients (16 sinus) in this multicenter case study were included. Using a crestal approach, bone under the sinus was prepared with ultrasonic tips until the Schneiderian membrane was reached. With a trumpet shaped instrument, the Schneiderian membrane was elevated. In the new created subantral space a high temperature sintered bovine grafting material was introduced (Bego Oss, BEGO Implant Systems GmbH & Co. KG, Bremen, Germany). After 6 months biopsies were taken with a trephine bur and histologies were generated following histomorphometric analysis. Results The results showed new vital bone in average of 33.4% ± 17.05%, and 43.6% ± 16.70 of bone substitute material. No signs of abnormal inflammation were observed. Conclusions This procedure (Intralift ®) allows, using a bovine material with no additional autogenous bone, new bone formation in the sinus in order to allow place implant subantraly. Key words:Bone regeneration, sinus, intralift ®, xenogenic bone graft


The article proposes a mechanical DC circuit breaker (CB) based on a series LC circuit. It requires two switches (a fast disconnector and an AC circuit breaker), an inductor and a capacitor, and therefore the cost is expected to be low. A series LC circuit is analysed and it is concluded that fault current will always have natural zero-current crossings which enable use of simple AC CBs. The current commutation into a capacitor is investigated since this is important for successful operation. A number of analytical conditions are derived for the voltage stress across disconnector contacts which enable arc-less contact opening. Experimental results on a 900 V laboratory prototype LC DC CB illustrate successful DC fault clearing, with commutation of 130 A and peak DC current of 190 A. A detailed PSCAD model for 320 kV LC DC CB is developed and DC fault clearing is evaluated in order to understand the possible benefit for high-voltage direct current applications. Further comparisons with the commercialised hybrid DC CB and mechanical DC CB on 320 kV system illustrate some benefits in terms of performance and simplicity. The mechanical LC DC CB operates very fast because of early capacitor insertion, and this results in low peak current and energy dissipation.


Africa's rural population continues to expand rapidly, and labor productivity in agriculture and many rural-off farm activities remain low. This review uses the lens of a dual economy and the associated patterns of agricultural, rural, and structural transformation to review the evolution of Africa's rural employment and its inclusiveness. Many African countries still find themselves in an early stage of the agricultural and rural transformation. Given smaller sectoral productivity gaps than commonly assumed, greater size effects, and larger spillovers, investment in agriculture and the rural off-farm economy remains warranted to broker the transition to more and more productive rural employment. The key policy questions thus become how best to invest in the agri-food system (on and increasingly also off the farm) and how best to generate demand for nonagricultural goods and services that rural households can competitively produce. Informing these choices continues to present a major research agenda, with digital technologies, the imperative of greening, and intra-African liberalization raising many unarticulated and undocumented opportunities and challenges. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Resource Economics, Volume 14 is October 2022. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.


BACKGROUND/AIM
The shape of the working model is one of the major factors affecting the thickness of thermoformed mouthguards. The aim of this study was to clarify the priority of model trimming to prevent thinning during mouthguard thermoforming.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Mouthguards were thermoformed using 4.0 mm thick ethylene-vinyl-acetate sheets and a vacuum forming machine. Working models were trimmed so that the angles of the labial surface to the model base were 100°, 90°, and 80°. The posterior height was unified to 30 mm, and the anterior heights were 30 mm (A100-L), 35 mm (A90-M), and 40 mm (A80-H), respectively. When the sheet temperature reached 100°C, vacuum forming was performed. Six specimens were formed for each condition. Mouthguard thickness (incisal edge, labial surface, cusp, and buccal surface) was measured using a specialized caliper accurate to 0.1 mm. Differences in thickness reduction rate due to model shapes were analyzed by one-way ANOVA and Bonferroni's multiple comparison tests.

RESULTS
At the incisal edge, there were no significant differences in the reduction rate of the thickness of the mouthguard according to model shapes. On the labial surface, cusp, and buccal surface, the smaller the model angle, the smaller the reduction rate of thickness, and significant differences were observed between A100-L and A80-H, and A90-M and A80-H. On the labial and buccal surfaces, A80-H was more than 7.1% thicker compared with A100-L and more than 5.6% thicker compared with A90-M, and the thickness reduction rate was reduced when the model was trimmed to an acute angle. At the cusp, A80-H was more than 4.3% thicker than A100-L and A90-M.

CONCLUSIONS
It is useful to trim the model at an acute angle in order to prevent thinning during mouthguard thermoforming, even if the anterior height of the model is increased.


Objective While customised centiles bundle a set of physiological characteristics together to adjust the standard for birthweight and growth potential, the authors wanted to investigate the role which individual variables have in improving the fit, that is in predicting the expected birthweight. Method The authors studied a database of 313 285 consecutive Swedish births with complete information about maternal height, weight, parity, ethnicity and sex of the baby, as well as pathological factors including smoking, hypertension and diabetes. Gestational age was controlled for by deriving residuals of birthweight, with goodness of fit expressed as R2. To compare the effect of the variables within an optimal (central) and the more pathological (outlying) birthweight ranges, the database was divided into three equal-size tertiles. Results The RR2 is plotted against the number of variables added. The fit (RR2) was best in the middle tertile (T2), rising from 0.28 with adjustment for sex only, to 0.73 with all variables included. In the lowest tertile (T1), adjustment for physiological factors similarly increased the prediction in a stepwise manner, but to a lesser extent. The same was observed in the highest tertile of birthweight (T3), where maternal weight showed a steep increase in RR2. In each case, ethnicity added little to the overall fit, as the various ethnic groups in this database contributed less than 10% to the total population. Conclusion The stepwise improvement of birthweight prediction (RR2) provides further evidence for the advantage of using customised centiles.


Individual differences in heart rate variability (HRV) at rest are thought to represent an individual's capacity for self-regulation, but it remains unclear whether HRV predicts control over unwanted thoughts. The current study used a thought suppression paradigm in which participants recorded occurrences of a personally relevant intrusive thought over three monitoring periods. Among those instructed to suppress, higher levels of HRV were associated with greater declines in intrusions across the monitoring periods; no such relationship was found among those assigned to a control condition. Resting HRV also interacted with spontaneous thought suppression effort to predict intrusive thought frequency. In both cases, these HRV-related differences in thought suppression success predicted the generalized distress symptoms common to depression and anxiety. These findings enhance understanding of the relationships between HRV and cognitive control and highlight how individual differences in self-regulatory capacity impact thought suppression success and emotion regulation.


We present the first linear time (1+e)-approximation algorithm for the k-means problem for fixed k and e. Our algorithm runs in O(nd) time, which is linear in the size of the input. Another feature of our algorithm is its simplicity - the only technique involved is random sampling.


A Review of:
Sung, H. Y., Hepworth, M., & Ragsdell, G. (2013). Investigating essential elements of community engagement in public libraries: An exploratory qualitative study. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science 45(3), 206-218. doi: 10.1177/0961000612448205

Objective – To examine characteristics of a community engagement (CE) initiative in a public library in order to identify and describe essential elements of CE and develop a model for CE in public libraries.

Design – Case study.

Setting – A public library in a mid-sized city in England, United Kingdom.

Subjects – An unspecified number of community members, library staff, and external agency staff participating in a community news program.

Methods – There were 12 semi-structured interviews conducted with library staff, community members, and participants from 12 community news agencies operating under the umbrella of a larger community news organization. The authors directly observed an unknown number of undescribed program meetings and events. They also performed document analysis on unspecified government policies, media reports, and program publications to corroborate the information gathered from their interviews and observations.

Main Results – The data were analyzed in an inductive manner using ATLAS qualitative data analysis software. Results are described in a qualitative manner and do not correspond directly to the individual methods used. The coding of data from interviews and observations (which are not analyzed separately) resulted in the identification of seven themes related to community engagement in libraries: belonging, commitment, communication, flexibility, genuineness, relevance, and sustainability.

Conclusion – The "essential elements" model that was developed from this case study can be applied by other public libraries in their processes and practices, and can contribute to the creation of a more genuinely community-driven approach to service.


One of the most used media is television. Almost all of us have a television set at home. Television is commonly thought also to be accessible, and for most of us, it seems to be so. However, there are people who cannot enjoy televised programmes without special measures. These measures include subtitling, audio description and sign language interpretation. All these are mentioned in the in-force EU Audiovisual Media Services Directive.
In this article we look at how these are broadcast in different countries, what equipment is needed for receiving them, and how accessible the programme information (EPG) and menus to choose these accessibility options are, as they most often are not automatic, but have to be turned on in the accessibility options menu or the TV set or digital terrestrial receiver box (digibox). This article focuses on accessibility with special interest on the dual-sensory impaired perspective over four days comparing two countries: the UK where all three accessibility features mentioned above are well-established and Finland, where accessibility features concentrate mainly on subtitling.


Wang et al. claim [J. Appl. Phys. 125, 054504 (2019)] that a current-carrying wire interacting with a magnetic core represents a memristor. Here, we demonstrate that this claim is false. We first show that such memristor "discovery" is based on incorrect physics, which does not even capture basic properties of magnetic core materials, such as their magnetic hysteresis. Moreover, the predictions of Wang et al.'s model contradict the experimental curves presented in their paper. Additionally, the theoretical pinched hysteresis loops presented by Wang et al. can not be reproduced if their model is used, and there are serious flaws in their "negative memristor" emulator design. Finally, a simple gedanken experiment shows that the proposed $\Phi$-memristor would fail the memristor test we recently suggested in J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 52, 01LT01 (2019). The device "discovered" by Wang et al. is just an inductor with memory.


We examined a relation between cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP) production in thoracic aorta, as an indicator probably reflecting the vascular response, and the vascular as well as plasma levels of nicorandil administered orally to rats. Nicorandil (3 mg/kg) given orally was rapidly absorbed, reaching the maximal plasma (approximately 2,600 ng/ml) and vascular concentrations (approximately 176 ng/g) at 15 min after the dosing and thereafter decreased rapidly. Even 2 h after the dosing, the level of the vascular cGMP formation in vivo remained significantly higher (approximately 1,000 fmol/mg increase from the control level) in the nicorandil-treated group, compared with the vehicle-treated one, and was enough to develop pronounced muscle relaxation in in vitro aortic preparations. However, it seems that the vascular cGMP increase in vivo was not always correlated to the plasma concentration of nicorandil, because the plasma concentration (approximately 750 ng/ml corresponding to 3.5 microM) at 2 h after the dosing, caused only relatively low cGMP production (300-400 fmol/mg increase from the control level), when tested in in vitro aortic preparations. Our study may indicate, therefore, that the vascular cGMP elevation in vivo is due to the content of nicorandil effectively remaining at its vascular targets of action as well as the plasma nicorandil concentration.


This paper presents a new hybrid microactuator based on the combination of piezoelectric and thermal effects. The proposed actuator can perform both a high-stroke coarse positioning through the thermal actuation and a high-resolution fine positioning through the piezoelectric actuation. The microactuator structure is a unimorph piezoelectric cantilever, which also constitutes a thermal bimorph that is very sensitive to temperature variation. While electrical voltage is used to control the piezoelectric actuation, we use a Peltier module to provide the temperature variation and to control the thermal functioning. In order to understand the behavior of the hybrid actuator, a model is developed. For better precision, but at the same time for model simplicity, the thermal part is modeled with the thermal network, whereas the Prandtl-Ishlinskii (PI) hysteresis approach is used to model the nonlinearity of the piezoelectric part. Finally, a series of experimental results validate the developed model.


Introduction. Disorders of the Achilles tendon can be broadly classified into acute and chronic entities. Few studies have established chronic Achilles tendinopathy as a precursor to acute Achilles ruptures. In this study, we assessed the relationship between Achilles tendinopathy and rupture, clarifying the incidence of rupture in the setting of underlying tendinopathy. Methods. The United Healthcare Orthopedic Dataset from the PearlDiver Patient Record Database was used to identify patients with ICD-9 codes for Achilles rupture and/or Achilles tendinopathy. The number of patients with acute rupture, chronic tendinopathy, and rupture following a prior diagnosis of tendinopathy was assessed. Results. Four percent of patients with an underlying diagnosis of Achilles tendinopathy went on to sustain a rupture (7,232 patients). Older patients with tendinopathy were most vulnerable to subsequent rupture. Conclusions. The current study demonstrates that 4.0% of patients who were previously diagnosed with Achilles tendinopathy sustained an Achilles tendon rupture. Additionally, older patients with Achilles tendinopathy were most vulnerable. These findings are important as they can help clinicians more objectively council patients with Achilles tendinopathy.


This thesis explores the relationship between orthodox Christianity, quasi-religious movements, pseudo-science and the supernatural in both a pre- and post-Darwinian world, tracing it through fiction and non-fiction, and in novels, novellas and short stories by canonical authors Charles Dickens, George Eliot and Thomas Hardy, by the lesser known writers Catherine Crowe, and Arthur Machen, and in the non-Sherlock Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle. Across this variety of literary forms, these very different authors all engage with the supernatural, with quasi religious creeds and with pseudo-science. Chapter One focuses on the presence of the supernatural and the spirit world in Edward Bulwer Lytton's Zanoni (1846), and The Haunted and the Haunters; or the House and the Brain (1859), Catherine Crowe's The Night-Side of Nature (1848), and Charles Dickens' Christmas stories. Chapter two explores George Eliot's use of superstition and medieval and Jewish mysticism in The Mill on the Floss (1860), and Daniel Deronda (1876), before considering Thomas Hardy's Anglo-centric approach to similar issues in The Return of the Native (1878), and "The Withered Arm" (1888). Chapter three discusses the late nineteenth century interest in spiritualism, Egyptology, and ancient religion as represented in Arthur Machen's The Great God Pan (1894) and Arthur Conan Doyle's "The King of Thoth" (1890) and "Lot No. 249" (1894). Overall, the thesis is concerned with the way "rational" Victorian society is constantly undermined by its engagement with the supernatural: the nineteenth century desire for empirical evidence of life after death proves, paradoxically, Victorian irrationality


Intermediate-band materials have the potential to be highly efficient solar cells and can be fabricated by incorporating ultrahigh concentrations of deep-level dopants. Direct measurements of the ultrafast carrier recombination processes under supersaturated dopant concentrations have not been previously conducted. Here, we use optical-pump/terahertz-probe measurements to study carrier recombination dynamics of chalcogen-hyperdoped silicon with sub-picosecond resolution. The recombination dynamics is described by two exponential decay time scales: a fast decay time scale ranges between 1 and 200 ps followed by a slow decay on the order of 1 ns. In contrast to the prior theoretical predictions, we find that the carrier lifetime decreases with increasing dopant concentration up to and above the insulator-to-metal transition. Evaluating the material's figure of merit reveals an optimum doping concentration for maximizing performance.


Abstract. Pedicularis milosevicii Křivka & Holubec, a new species of lousewort (Orobanchaceae) from the upper Teberda River Basin in the western Russian Caucasus, is described. It mostly occurs on steep slopes in the subalpine zone, and in some features is similar to P. atropurpurea Nordm. and P. condensata M. Bieb. Both species can exceed 1 m in height, with the new species approaching 2 m when in fruit. Pedicularis milosevicii is distinguished from P. atropurpurea by the pale yellow corolla with the upper corolla lip that is red and densely hairy at the apex (vs. the purple and glabrous corolla in P. atropurpurea). The corolla is consistently yellow in P. condensata.


The world literature has accumulated a considerable amount of data to characterize the main components of the female genital system, functional relationships between them, as well as the links between this system and other systems of the organism. The relevance of the study is also due to the fact that in the structure of female infertility 6070% is occupied by a tubo-peritoneal factor. The problems associated with this pathology have been studied for more than half a century. Until now, information about the microanatomy of the fallopian tube of a human and, especially, of the female white laboratory rat is contradictory. The aim of the study was to conduct a comparative analysis of the structural organization of the uterine tube of a human and female laboratory white rat. The article and analyzes the data of research conducted on 10 sexually mature white rats in females of reproductive age. The method of preparation was used, for the study of macroanatomy of the uterine tube of females, and also standard histological methods (cuts of the wall of the fallopian tube in the thickness of 5-7 microns, stained with hematoxylin and eosin). The external structure of the fallopian tube of the female rat and man has some differences. Unlike humans, the fallopian tube of a white laboratory rat has the appearance of a thin and short tubule, spirally twisted into a compact lump. In the fallopian tube of the female white rat, it is advisable to distinguish 2 parts: the funnel and the fallopian part. The uterine part connects to the uterine horn cavity of the uterine opening of the fallopian tube, and the fallopian tube opens into the cavity of the peritoneum to the surface of the ovary by the abdominal opening of the fallopian tube. Around the funnel of the fallopian tube, its mucous membrane is gathered in folds - the fringe of the fallopian tube and the ovarian fringe (in humans - one ovarian fringe), which are attached to the ovary. The diameter of the fallopian tube of the female white rat decreases in the direction from the funnel to the uterine part. In particular, in the area of the funnel, the diameter of the fallopian tube is 0.90±0.10 mm, and the diameter of the fallopian part is 0.70±0.09 mm. The uterine tube of a laboratory white rat, like a human, has a mesentery of the fallopian tube. Both in human and in female white rat, the wall of the fallopian tube consists of three layers: the inner lining is mucous, the middle lining is muscular, the outer lining is serous. It was established that the female uterine tube of a white rat in its macroscopic structure differs from the uterine tube of a person. The microscopic structure of human and the white rat female uterine tube is rather similar and, therefore, may serve as an object of the experimental modeling of certain pathological conditions of the reproductive system.


Despite many years of struggles to get out of the malaise of underdevelopment,
the African continent is still trapped in conditions that dehumanize and
marginalize a large segment of the population, particularly women. The
motivation for writing this paper stems from our realization that exploitation
of women in politics can sometimes be camouflaged as "women's
empowerment". This is illustrated by the experience of Malawi's first female
president, Joyce Banda, who was initially used instrumentally to advance
President Bingu wa Mutharika's ambition for a second presidential term
of office. Once Mutharika had been elected, Joyce Banda was harassed,
castigated and marginalized and ultimately fired from the ruling party in
2010.


Privacy is important when dealing with sensitive personal information in machine learning models, which require large data sets for training. In the energy field, access to household prosumer energy data is crucial for energy predictions to support energy grid management and large-scale adoption of renewables however citizens are often hesitant to grant access to cloud-based machine learning models. Federated learning has been proposed as a solution to privacy challenges however report issues in generating the global prediction model due to data heterogeneity, variations in generation patterns, and the high number of parameters leading to even lower prediction accuracy. This paper addresses these challenges by introducing FedWOA a novel federated learning model that employs the Whale Optimization Algorithm to aggregate global prediction models from the weights of local LTSM neural network models trained on prosumer energy data. The proposed solution identifies the optimal vector of weights in the search spaces of the local models to construct the global shared model and then is subsequently transmitted to the local nodes to improve the prediction quality at the prosumer site while for handling non-IID data K-Means was used for clustering prosumers with similar scale of energy data. The evaluation results on prosumers energy data have shown that FedWOA can effectively enhance the accuracy of energy prediction models accuracy by 25% for MSE and 16% for MAE compared to FedAVG while demonstrating good convergence and reduced loss.


We explore various ways in which small-scale peasants in the highlands of Peru conceptualize the everyday concept of profit in the contemporary context of neoliberalism. Through a process of approximations, we use the results of a survey of potato fields in two comparable valleys in Peru to clarify the differences between a strict business accounting procedure to establish profits or losses and the procedure that peasants use to evaluate the profitability of cash crops. We suggest that peasants evaluate profits or losses of cash crops in terms of a simple cash-out and cash-in flow. We indicate that this kind of calculus carries an implicit subsidy that permits market participation but provides little or no long-run benefit under prevailing productivity conditions and price levels. We also look at how farmers evaluate the status of their subsistence crops by showing that they ignore important cash expenses that are necessary to produce them. Finally, we describe accounting procedures characteristic of Andean peasants to understand how they monitor resource flows in their household-based farms. Analysis of the data leads us to question the "subsistence first" model of peasant economies and to posit an interdependent relationship between subsistence and commercial sectors in which money plays an important but perverse role as it cycles through the market and the household.


This study aimed to determine 5 th grade students' opinions on the implementation of active learning and computer assisted language learning (CALL). In the study, survey method, which is one of the qualitative research methods, was employed. The participants of the study consisted of nine 5 th grade students. The data were collected through open-ended questions prepared by the researchers, and content analysis was performed in the analysis of the data. As a result of the study, it was determined that the students both have positive and negative opinions on English classes in general. Among the positive opinions students stated that the classes were very enjoyable, effective and included teacher support. On the contrary students expressed their negative opinions by saying that the classes were difficult, boring and there were a lot of homework. On the other hand, students stated that the implementation was enjoyable, effective and helpful. Besides, students said that they wanted to have more activities and more games. The findings showed that students liked the implementation and they mostly had positive opinions on the issue. Therefore, in the classroom environment the implementations which give more responsibilities to the students should be increased. Moreover, when considering the ages of the students, more enjoyable and game-based activities should be conducted in learning process to improve learning.


Abortion is one method to prevent unwanted births. This method was born along with the development of human life with various reasons and considerations, both legal and medical considerations. Abortion is a crucial law in health law. But abortion for several medical reasons is a legal way to provide solutions to safety problems related to pregnancy. As the executors of the abortion act, namely medical personnel who are closely related to existing regulations or policies, it is still a pro and contra polemic. Therefore, it is necessary to do an analysis to determine the clarity of the legality of the implementation of abortion on indications of medical emergencies in hospitals associated with abortion law regulations. The research design used in this study is qualitative through a descriptive analysis approach related to the legality issue of abortion regulations indicating medical emergencies between the Health Act and the Abortion Criminal Code. The sample in this study was an obstetrician with a medical team, namely midwives who worked in the delivery room. This study aims to determine the factors that influence the implementation of abortion regulations based on indications of medical emergencies in hospitals, specifically referring to Health Law No. 36 of 2009 with the Criminal Code on abortion. The factors that influence the implementation of abortion in hospitals are: the discovery of indicators or triggers that an abortion must be carried out in accordance with the Health Law Number 36 of 2009; it must be carried out as soon as possible because it endangers the patient's life; carried out according to health standards and applicable laws; and the approval of both the parties to carry out official and legal abortion procedures and mechanisms according to legal and applicable rules. Based on this, abortions with indications of medical emergencies are often carried out in hospitals and can be justified by the principle of legitime defense. Legal issues regarding the regulation of abortion indicative of a medical emergency, as long as they refer to the procedures according to the Health Law, the legal issue of the Criminal Code cannot be brought to the surface, because abortion on the indication of a medical emergency is a medical action that must be carried out.
Keywords: abortion, health law, hospital


Background: Immediate post-hospital support, using Visiting Nurse Association (VNA) services, improves self-management for patients with chronic cardiac disease. Patients who need nurse-directed coaching and symptom management in the home may benefit from complementary internet-based services. Objective: We compared usual post-hospital VNA services with technology-enhanced VNA practice (TEP) that combined nursing care with a 6 month web-based coaching and symptom management service and examined its effect on emergency service use. Methods : Patients (N=281) admitted to VNA service post-hospital for management of chronic cardiac diseases were randomly assigned to one of two groups: usual care or TEP. In both groups, VNA service ranged from two days to two months; the nurses coached patients to use self-management skills of knowledge-seeking, self-monitoring, and symptom management. Patients in the usual care group (N=135, 48%) used paper-based teaching materials such as booklets and diaries to improve self-management. Patients in the TEP group (N=146, 52%) received VNA and HeartCareII services, which included using a computer to find information, monitor symptoms, and solve symptom problems. The outcome of emergency service use was measured by patient recall and verified by medical record review when possible. Results: The typical patient was 64 years old; male (61%), post-heart surgery (64%), NYHA Class III (61%). Thirty-five percent had heart failure as the primary diagnosis. There were no baseline differences between groups on demographic and clinical variables. Patients in the TEP group used the Web resource an average of 13 times during the 6 months that it was available. Overall, emergency service use was low in this population over six months of follow-up (N=260 uses/1463 measurement points=17.8%). A total of 120 (42%) patients sought emergency care, and patients in the TEP group (N=54, 45%) were just as likely as patients in the usual care group (N=66, 55%) to use emergency services throughout the 6 months after study enrollment.(X2=.76, df=1, p=NS). Conclusions: Emergency service use was low overall. Access to coaching and self-monitoring tools provided through a patient-directed internet resource did not affect emergency service use.


BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Dengue is a common arboviral disease, which uncommonly involves the brain. There has been a recent surge in dengue cases and dengue-related deaths in tropical countries. The aim of this study was to describe brain imaging findings in patients with dengue infection having neurologic symptoms. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Thirty-five patients with positive serology for dengue with CNS symptoms undergoing imaging of the brain were included in the study. Clinical, laboratory, and imaging parameters were assessed and correlated to poor outcome. RESULTS: A Glasgow Coma Scale score of ≤12 at presentation, clinical classification of severe-type dengue, and the presence of acute renal failure were associated with poor outcome. Imaging parameters associated with poor outcome were involvement of the thalami and cerebellar peduncles and the presence of diffusion restriction and hemorrhagic foci in the brain parenchyma. CONCLUSIONS: Although not specific, dengue infection has imaging findings that can be used to narrow down the differential list and help in prognostication.


This draft specifies a Per Domain Behavior that provides the ability to Diffserv nodes located outside Diffserv domain(s), e.g., receiver or other Diffserv enabled router to detect when the resources provided by the Diffserv domain(s) are not available. The unavailability of resources in the domain is monitored and detected by proportionally marking packets whenever the current link rate exceeds some pre-configured SLS agreed throughput (bandwidth) threshold. It is considered that the SLS agreed throughput threshold is not statically but loosely defined in order to allow a more efficient utilization of the Diffserv domain(s) and a simpler network management operation. This PDB can be applied in association with either a single Diffserv domain or multiple neighboring Diffserv domains, when a trust relationship exist between these multiple Diffserv domains. This specification is denoted as Resource Unavailability (RU) PDB and it follows the guidelines given in [RFC3086].


SUMMARY Like most other spiders Cupiennius salei (Keyserling 1877) has two different eye types, one pair of principal eyes and three pairs of secondary eyes. The principal eyes have two eye muscles each, which allow movement of the retina and are mainly used for the discrimination of stationary objects. The secondary eyes without such eye muscles are supposed to detect moving objects. Masking experiments were used to analyse the role of these two eye types in motion detection. In a white arena the animals were stimulated with short sequences of moving black bars. The principal eyes move involuntarily when objects are moving within the visual field of an ipsilateral secondary eye. The eye muscle activity of the principal eyes was recorded using single channel telemetry, and activity changes were taken as an indicator for the perception of motion. Masking the principal eyes with black paint and presenting a moving visual stimulus did not modify the induced muscle activity, whereas masking the secondary eyes eliminated the increase in eye muscle activity. This suggests that the secondary eyes are responsible for movement detection. We conclude that the animals are able to detect moving targets visually only with the secondary eyes. The principal eyes, by contrast, do not seem to be involved in the detection of moving targets.


The aim of this study is to describe the experience of children in their interactions with nursing professionals while in hospital. It is a qualitative study supported by the critical incident technique. Data was collected through participant observation and semi-structured interviews with thirty hospitalized children and teenagers between 8 and 14 years old. The results showed that children positively valued nursing care at the hospital and recognized that interactions with nursing staff included social and emotional factors. It is concluded that communication established with children plays a fundamental role to comprehend their experiences while in hospital. Therefore, nurses need to evaluate their strategies and relational skills used to interact with children at the hospital.


We studied the effects of variable amounts of artificial retinal image stabilization (RIS) upon oscillopsia and visual acuity in eight patients with acquired nystagmus due to neurologic disease. We measured horizontal and vertical eye movements with the magnetic search coil technique and used these electronic signals to control the position of a visual stimulus on a screen in front of the patient. We also used an optical device to stabilize images of the real world upon the retina. During electronic stabilization, RIS was progressively increased until oscillopsia was abolished; this was achieved in all eight patients and corresponded to retinal image drift of 5 degrees/sec or less. In five patients with downbeat nystagmus, further increases in RIS caused the oscillopsia to reappear, but in the opposite direction. Electronic stabilization also improved visual acuity in four of five patients; the limitation of improvement could be related to coexistent visual system defects. Using electronic feedback, we could measure the range of RIS that any individual required to abolish oscillopsia; from this measurement, the components of the optical device that were best suited to provide a stable field of vision could be calculated.


The Europe of Nations and Freedom (ENF) group was formed in 2015 as a collaboration between Eurosceptic and anti-immigration parties in the European Parliament, including Marine Le Pen's Front National, Italy's Lega Nord, Vlaams Belang from Belgium, the Freedom Party of Austria, and Geert Wilders' Party for Freedom. Marta Lorimer writes on the first convention held by the ENF on 28-29 January in Milan, noting that while the ideas expressed by speakers offered little that was genuinely new in terms of content, the convention illustrates the extent to which parties on the far-right of the political spectrum are willing to cooperate in their opposition to the EU.


The aromatic compounds associated with aging in wood have been studied in Monastrell wines containing different quantities of tannin. Analyses were carried out before and after a six month period in wooden barrels (225 L) of American and French (Allier) medium-toasted oak. Three classes of wine were made: one from a free-run must; one to which enological tannin was added; and one to which was added the wine obtained by pressing the grape pomaces. The aromas were determined by GC-MS, and the quality was evaluated by a group of expert tasters. The aromatic compounds, some of which came from the wines themselves and others which came from the wood, all increased in concentration by the end of the aging process. The ratio between cis- and trans-whiskylactone contents in wines reflected the different types of oak wood used. The note "vanilla" used by the tasters is probably not totally due to the presence of vanillin. The wines of best quality were those with a natural tannin content which had been aged in American oak, whereas the wines to which enological tannin had been added but aged in the same wood were considered the worst. An equalizing effect on the sensorial wines qualities was seen to result from the use of French oak. The furfural, eugenol, and cis-, and in some cases trans-, whiskylactone contents identified the wines from the different classes of wood. The wood from which the barrels were made had a greater effect on wines differentiation than the tannin content.


Despite proposed increases in spending on personnel and equipment for border enforcement, the complex geography of border militarization and the violence it produces require further examination. We take a geographical perspective to determine the role of violence in both its official forms, such as the incarceration and punishments experienced by undocumented migrants, as well as through abuses and violence perpetrated by agents in shaping border and immigration enforcement. By drawing on the Migrant Border Crossing Study (MBCS), which is a unique data source based on 1,110 surveys of a random sample of deportees, as well as research with family members and return migrants in Puebla, Mexico, we provide an innovative and robust account of the geography of violence and migration. Identifying regional variation allows us to see the priorities and strategic use of violence in certain areas as part of enforcement practice. We assert that understanding the role of violence allows us to explain the prevalence of various forms of abuse, as well as the role of abuse in border enforcement strategies, not as a side effect, but as elemental to the current militarized strategies.


We study a class of Wilson Loops in N = 4, D = 4 Yang-Mills theory belonging to the chiral ring of a N = 2, d = 1 subalgebra. We show that the expectation value of these loops is independent of their shape. Using properties of the chiral ring, we also show that the expectation value is identically 1. We find the same result for chiral loops in maximally supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory in three, five and six dimensions. In seven dimensions, a generalized Konishi anomaly gives an equation for chiral loops which closely resembles the loop equations of the three dimensional Chern-Simons theory.


This paper examines the ability of greedy algorithms to estimate a block sparse parameter vector from noisy measurements. In particular, block sparse versions of the orthogonal matching pursuit and thresholding algorithms are analyzed under both adversarial and Gaussian noise models. In the adversarial setting, it is shown that estimation accuracy comes within a constant factor of the noise power. Under Gaussian noise, the Cramér-Rao bound is derived, and it is shown that the greedy techniques come close to this bound at high signal-to-noise ratio. The guarantees are numerically compared with the actual performance of block and non-block algorithms, identifying situations in which block sparse techniques improve upon the scalar sparsity approach. Specifically, we show that block sparse methods are particularly successful when the atoms within each block are nearly orthogonal.