BACKGROUND & AIMS
It has been reported that some patients develop functional digestive disorders, particularly irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), after acute gastroenteritis (AGE). However, the presence of dyspepsia has not been specifically addressed. We prospectively evaluated development of dyspepsia and IBS during a 1-year follow-up in a cohort of adult patients affected by a Salmonella enteritidis AGE outbreak.

METHODS
Questionnaires were sent to 1878 potential participants at baseline and 3, 6, and 12 months; 677 had experienced a Salmonella enteritidis AGE on June 23, 2002, and 1201 had not (randomly selected controls, matched for village of residence, age, and sex). At 12 months, 271 patients and 335 controls returned the questionnaires. Data permitted the establishment of dyspepsia and IBS diagnosis by Rome II criteria.

RESULTS
Before the AGE outbreak, the prevalence of dyspepsia was similar in cases and controls (2.5% vs 3.8%); the prevalence of IBS was also similar (2.9% vs 2.3%). At 3, 6, and 12 months, the prevalence of both dyspepsia and IBS had increased significantly in exposed compared with unexposed subjects. Overlap between dyspepsia and IBS was frequent. At 1 year, the relative risk for development of dyspepsia was 5.2 (95% confidence interval, 2.7-9.8) and for IBS was 7.8 (95% confidence interval, 3.1-19.7). Prolonged abdominal pain and vomiting during AGE were positive predictors of dyspepsia. No predictive factors for IBS were found.

CONCLUSIONS
Salmonella gastroenteritis is a significant risk factor not only for IBS but also for dyspepsia; at 1 year of follow-up, 1 in 7 and 1 in 10 subjects developed dyspepsia or IBS, respectively.


As a novel computing paradigm, e.g., cloud computing, become popular, researchers proposed various resource sharing techniques and resource provision techniques. However, very limited literatures pay attentions to the reliability of dynamically provided resources. In this paper, we propose a failure rules aware node resource provision policy for heterogeneous services consolidated in cloud computing infrastructure. We evaluate our proposed policy with simulation approach, i.e., implement a simulator of heterogeneous service consolidation platform, which take characteristics of heterogeneous services (both characteristics of resource utility and failure rules), into consideration, and use two production traces to synthesize inputs. The results of evaluation indicate that our proposed resource provision policy is effective for providing robust nodes for heterogeneous services, i.e., our policy can mask more potential node reboot failures from services and leave less chances of unplanned failures, e.g., service failure or node reboot, compared with baseline fault re-provided policy. Meanwhile, our policy involves no negative impact on service performance and no negative impact on node's resource utility, compared with baseline policy.


Word learning in a supported-learning context is described for 30 preschoolers with SLI and 30 age- and sex-matched children without SLI. Daily production probes assessed number of words learned to criterion, and daily posttests assessed comprehension of the words. Number of words produced to criterion differed between groups; however, the majority of children with SLI performed within the range of the children without SLI. Children typically comprehended words they did not produce to criterion. The relation between vocabulary-test and word-learning findings was not significant (p < .05). Findings for children with SLI indicate that (a) comprehension does not ensure same-word production, (b) word-learning potential cannot be inferred from test scores, and (c) a clinically significant variability in word-learning skills characterizes the disorder.


The emerging global problems of our world have led to the development of the concept of sustainable development. Sustainable development today no longer deals only with the effects of human activities on the environment, but also, more broadly, with issues of social equality and responsibility. Sustainable development issues are integrated into the teaching and learning process through the Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) initiative. The subject of geography can be a pioneer in the implementation of sustainable development and sustainability topics in schools. The study aims to examine the role of geography in teaching sustainable development in Hungary and England. It examines the emergence of the Sustainable Development Goals, launched by the United Nations in 2015, in the geography curricula. It also analyzes the appearance of the components of skill development and attitude formation related to the topic. The study was performed using the MAXQDA 2020 software.


Present communication deals with two simple and economical methods requiring no prior separation for simultaneous analysis of phenylpropanolamine hydrochloride, chloropheniramine maleate and dextromethorphan hydrobromide in combination in pharmaceutical formulations. The methods employ multicomponent analysis procedure and simultaneous equations after spectral manipulation for quantification. In 0.1 N hydrochloric acid, phenylpropanolamine hydrochloride has an absorbance maxima at 257 nm, chloropheniramine maleate at 265 nm and dextromethorphan hydrobromide at 278 nm. All three drugs obey Beer's law in the concentration range employed for these methods. The linearity was validated by Least Squares method. The results of analysis have been validated statistically and by recovery studies. Both methods are simple, accurate, reproducible and rapid.


Study Design. Case report with review of the literature. Objective. Symptomatic spinal cord herniation through ventral aspect of dura is frequently misdiagnosed because this condition is rare. The most frequent misdiagnosis was that of dorsal arachnoid cyst. The purpose of this article is to provide insight on clinical presentation, diagnosis, and surgical treatment of this entity. Results of our cases were compared with that of the reported literature. Summary of Background Data. Eighty-six cases reported in the literature were reviewed and data are presented in this article. Methods. We had 3 patients diagnosed with spinal cord herniation through the ventral aspect of the dural sac. All 3 cases were misdiagnosed initially and later successfully operated. The dura was repaired primarily with suture in 1 case and with surgical graft in the other 2 cases. Results. Reduction of spinal cord herniation reverses some of the signs and symptoms that have been present for years. Two of our patients had remarkable recovery in motor strength and bladder function. The third patient improved but remained with residual myelopathy. Conclusion. Ventral herniation of the thoracic spinal cord is a partially treatable cause of myelopathy, when recognized promptly and treated surgically. Recognizing this infrequent cause of myelopathy prevents misdiagnosis. Delay in diagnosis may impair recovery at a later date.


The relationship between climate changes and transportation could be separated by two approaches. One of methods was to find how climate changes affected transportation, and the other way was how transportation affected climate changes. In this study, we reported from the former standpoint, how climate changes affected transportation fields. When there is a lot of snowfall in Seoul, it starts ripple effect through the travel patterns. They can be explained by travel time and operating cost. The travel costs were calculated in this paper for analysing the effect of disbenefit by climate changes. Snow Melting System was also studied for relieving negative influences under the unpredictable weather condition. As a result, the system was effective for minimizing disbenefit by climate changes.


The epithelium of the adult prostate contains 3 distinct cell types: basal, luminal, and neuroendocrine. Tissue-regenerative activity has been identified predominantly from the basal cells, isolated by expression of CD49f and stem cell antigen-1 (Sca-1). An important question for the field is whether all basal cells have stem cell characteristics. Prostate-specific microarray databases were interrogated to find candidate surface antigens that could subfractionate the basal cell population. Tumor-associated calcium signal transducer 2 (TACSTD2/Trop2/M1S1/GA733-1) was identified because it was enriched after castration, in prostate sphere cells and in the basal fraction. In the murine prostate, Trop2 shows progenitor characteristics such as localization to the region of the gland proximal to the urethra and enrichment for sphere-forming and colony-forming cells. Trop2 subfractionates the basal cells into 2 populations, both of which express characteristic basal cell markers by quantitative PCR. However, only the basal cells expressing high levels of Trop2 were able to efficiently form spheres in vitro. In the human prostate, where Sca-1 is not expressed, sphere-forming progenitor cells were also isolated based on high expression of Trop2 and CD49f. Trop2-expressing murine basal cells could regenerate prostatic tubules in vivo, whereas the remaining basal cells had minimal activity. Evidence was found for basal, luminal, and neuroendocrine cells in prostatic tubules regenerated from Trop2hi basal cells. In summary, functionally distinct populations of cells exist within the prostate basal compartment and an epithelial progenitor can give rise to neuroendocrine cells in vivo.


A low dose of dopamine (DA; 1 microgram/kg.min for 3 h) was infused into 10 normal subjects to determine whether vasodilator prostaglandins might be involved in the vascular action of this vasoactive hormone. Although this DA dose did not alter blood pressure, pulse, or cardiac index, it significantly increased renal blood flow (RBF), as estimated by para-amino-hippurate clearance [1.40 +/- 0.10 (+/- SE) to 1.93 +/- 0.18 L/min.1.73 m2; P less than 0.02]. This increase was due to DA receptor action since it was blocked by metoclopramide, a DA antagonist, and was not altered by prazosin, an alpha-adrenergic antagonist. DA simultaneously increased the urinary excretion rate of 6-keto-PGF1 alpha, a stable metabolite of prostacyclin [PGI2; 79 +/- 16 to 154 +/- 32 ng/g creatinine (2 +/- 0.40 to 3.88 +/- 0.78 pmol/mumol creatinine); P less than 0.02], but there was no change in PGE2 excretion. This dose of DA increased urinary Na+ and K+ excretion and slightly increased creatinine clearance from 0.12 +/- 0.01 to 0.16 +/- 0.02 L/min.1.73 m2 (P less than 0.05). Metoclopramide also blocked the increase in PGI2 excretion, indicating that this increase was due to DA. The relationship between RBF and PGI2 was supported by studies in which either indomethacin or ibuprofen, both cyclooxygenase inhibitors, blocked the increase in both RBF and PGI2 excretion rate. Since some DA actions may be mediated through calcium flux, we also administered nifedipine, a calcium channel-blocking drug, and found that the DA effect on RBF and PGI2 was significantly reduced. These studies suggest that the DA effect on RBF is mediated by calcium flux, which probably activates renal vascular phospholipase, leading to release of arachidonic acid and synthesis of PGI2, a potent vasodilator.


The nature of non-dispersive solitary waves is studied using examples from Einsteinian gravity. The structure and non-perturbative properties of these waves are elucidated.


R-R intervals and R-R interval variation were measured in 2 selected groups of diabetic subjects; 1 group was selected because vagal control of the heart appeared normal, the other group was selected because they lacked vagal control of the heart. The means of the R-R intervals for the 2 groups were not significantly different under various conditions (sleeping, lying, during deep breathing, sitting, standing, and during upright activity). The standard deviations of the R-R intervals for the 2 groups were only significantly different during deep breathing and upright activity. It is suggested that cardiac vagal function is not reliably assessed by measurement of R-R interval variation during quiet standing, but useful information may be obtained during deep breathing.


The ubiquity of the various cheap embedded sensors on mobile devices, for example cameras, microphones, accelerometers, and so on, is enabling the emergence of participatory sensing applications. While participatory sensing can benefit the individuals and communities greatly, the collection and analysis of the participators' location and trajectory data may jeopardize their privacy. Existing proposals mostly focus on participators' location privacy, and few are done on participators' trajectory privacy. The effective analysis on trajectories that contain spatial-temporal history information will reveal participators' and the relevant personal privacy. To propose a trajectory privacypreserving framework, named TrPF, for participatory sensing. Based on the framework, improve the theoretical mix-zones model with considering the time factor from the perspective of graph theory. It analyze the threat models with different background knowledge and evaluate the effectiveness of proposal on the basis of information entropy, and then compare the performance of proposal with previous trajectory privacy protections. Finally, the results prove that the proposal can protect participators' trajectories privacy effectively with lower information loss and costs than what is afforded by the other proposals.


We thank Singh et al 1 for their letter commenting on our recent paper.2 The authors briefly summarised current evidence regarding the chemopreventive effects of statins on hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and noted the lack of analyses on the role of statins in HCC in our study.

We agree that the use of statins was found to be associated with a reduced risk of HCC according to previous studies.2 However, not only statins but also non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), aspirin, thiazolidinediones, antiviral agents, etc, were all reported to be associated with a lower …


Simultaneous determination of quinapril (QA) and hydrochlorothiazide (HCT) in tablets were accomplished by ratio spectra first order derivative spectrophotometry (graphical method) and chemometric method (numerical method). Both methods do not require any chemical separation step. In the application of two analytical methods, the absorption spectra in the working range of 4.0-20.0 µg/mL QA and 2.5-12.5 µg/mL HCT were plotted in the wavelength range of 210-350 nm. In the graphical approach, the absorption spectra of QA and its binary mixtures in the selected spectral range of 210-280 nm were divided by the standard spectrum of 10 µg/ mL HCT and their absorption spectra were obtained. In the similar way, the ratio spectra of HCT in the wavelength region of 210-350 nm were also obtained by using the standard spectrum of 12 µg/mL QA. First derivative of the ratio spectra obtained in the above steps were calculated by ∆λ =5 nm interval for both drugs. Calibration equation functions were obtained by measuring the ratio spectra derivative amplitudes of the minima at 219.9 nm for QA and 283.2 nm for HCT in the above mentioned spectral ranges for each drug. In the numerical method, the critical wavelengths corresponding to maximum points at 213.0 nm for QA and 220.0 nm for HCT in the zero-order absorption spectra were selected to construct the least squares calibration (CLS). Both graphical and numerical methods developed in this study were completely validated and applied to the quantitative analysis of tablets containing QA and HCT. The results obtained from the developed methods were compared with each other as well as to those obtained by classical derivative spectrophotometry, which have different experimental conditions than the previous derivative method, and the difference was not observed statistically significant.


We report a 40 Ar/ 39 Ar whole rock age of 491±11 Ma for the hypabyssal facies, diamondiferous, Kodomali diatreme from the Mainpur kimberlite field (MKF) located 135 km SE of Raipur city, within the Bastar craton, Central India. This age is well supported by the available stratigraphic evidence and also by the recently published Nd isotopic data of the pipe. This study provides the first radiometric evidence for Palaeozoic kimberlite activity of Pan-African age in the Indian shield and recognizes a new and important diamondiferous kimberlite emplacement epoch in this part of the Gondwanaland. Our results also highlight the fact that kimberlite and lamproite emplacement in various Indian cratons occurred over a large time interval and was not essentially contemporaneous during Mesoproterozoic (~1090Ma) as suggested by some earlier workers. If the Pan African age of the Kodomali kimberlite corresponds to a collision with the craton, then the amalgamation of the Indian craton into the Indo-Antarctic supercontinent indeed took place considerably much later than previously assumed.


Two-dimensional black phosphorus (2D BP), a novel 2D photoelectric material with excellent near-infrared optical absorption, biocompatibility, and degradability, has shown enormous potential in biomedical field. However, under the action of light, oxygen and water, 2D BP is easily degraded to phosphate and phosphonate. In this work, trastuzumab (Tmab) as a positively charged protein was used to modify 2D BP through electrostatic interaction to form BP-Tmab. The Tmab layer on the surface of 2D BP can effectively protect BP from water, which significantly enhanced the water stability of BP. PEGylated 2D BP (BP-PEG) as a control was also prepared. After 7 days in air-exposed water, the attenuation value of BP-Tmab was only 6.62 ± 2.72% at room temperature, which was much lower than that of naked 2D BP (52.47 ± 2.26%) and BP-PEG (25.84 ± 2.80%) under the same conditions. The result was further confirmed by the temperature changes at different time points under laser irradiation, suggesting that the degradation of BP was effectively reduced by Tmab modification. In addition, BP-Tmab displayed satisfactory biocompatibility and can effectively destroy cancer cells under laser irradiation, showing an excellent photothermal therapy effect.


Purpose: It is well established that cancer cells exploit aberrant synthesis of mucin 1 (MUC1) and hyaluronan (HA) synthesis along with HA's physiological cell surface receptor CD44. However, their role in irradiated oral tissue has not been reported previously. We, therefore, aimed to study MUC1, CD44 and HA immunohistochemically in irradiated oral mucosa and their role in the long-term effects after radiotherapy. Materials and Methods: Oral mucosal biopsies were obtained from healthy subjects as controls and from patients after radiotherapy for head and neck cancer (irradiated group) during dental implant surgery. The presence of MUC1, CD44, and HA in oral mucosa was studied by immunohistochemical methods. The differences in the localization and intensity in the oral epithelium between control and irradiated tissue were analyzed. Results: The staining intensity of MUC1 was confined to the superficial epithelial layer, whereas HA and CD44 were found in the cell membranes in the epithelial basal and intermediate layers of control specimens. In irradiated epithelium, MUC1 staining was distributed throughout all the layers of the oral epithelium, with significant staining in the basal and intermediate layers. Accordingly, HA and CD44 staining extended to involve the superficial cells of the irradiated epithelium. The staining pattern of MUC1 and CD44 showed significant changes in irradiated samples. Conclusions: Our results showed that the staining intensities of MUC1, CD44, and HA were significantly elevated in irradiated tissue compared to controls. MUC1, CD44, and HA are important markers and take part in long-term changes in the oral mucosa after radiotherapy.


Many chemical companies in the Netherlands were built after the 2nd World War and put into operation, and nowadays many chemical installations have reached the (near-)end of their life. In 2017, to prevent ageing problems of all kinds, Seveso inspectors and specialists (Dutch: BRZO inspectors) started inspecting Lower-tier and Upper-tier establishments (250 respectively 170 establishments) on the ageing theme. Ageing, such as degradation of mechanisms which affect the vitality, reliability and safety of process installations, is an important inspection theme since Seveso III Directive 2012/18/EU. Companies are responsible for safe processes, and according to the law they should "take all measures to comply". When they don't comply, the government will protect the people and environment by enforcing compliance. But what exactly is compliance with respect to the ageing theme? This article introduces the current situation of ageing processes and makes recommendations on physical, obsolete and obsolescence and organizational ageing.


F-DOPA PET/CT but not Ga-DOTA-TOC PET/CT revealed the cause of ectopic Cushing syndrome in a 61-year-old man. The patient presented with rapid weight gain, swollen legs, and sleep disturbances. Plasma potassium level was 2.7 mM (reference range, 3.3-4.9 mM), 24-hour urinary cortisol level was 13,124 nmol (reference range, 30-144 nmol), and plasma adrenocorticotropin level was 61 ng/L (reference range, <48 g/L). CT demonstrated prominent lymph nodes in the left lung hilus and hyperplastic adrenals but no primary tumor. Ga-DOTA-TOC PET/CT, which is recommended as the first-line PET imaging, was performed, but it was not diagnostic. Imaging with F-DOPA PET/CT revealed the underlying cause.


A new trend gaining momentum in recent years is companies' use of mobile devices as an integral part of their IT infrastructure for both employees and customers. Although similar to early Web-based products, mobile services have technical and physical limitations. However, they also enjoy the advantage of location independence, whereas existing PC-based solutions can offer, at best, a nomadic context. Corporate employees as well as consumers can clearly perform tasks more efficiently when stationary, but they can execute a growing number of functions with acceptable or even superior efficiency using mobile devices. This capability usually evolves in a three-stage process. In the first stage, a given task cannot be performed using a general-purpose mobile device, although the desire exists and dedicated single-purpose mobile devices are available. In the second stage, general-purpose mobile devices start providing the ability to perform the task in mobile contexts, but this choice remains secondary to a stationary solution. In the third stage, users prefer to carry out the task with a mobile device even if a stationary option is available.


Established on September 9, 1915, the theme for this year is Civil Rights to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, [NOTE: Some of the links in this guide will require you to put in your McKendree username/password].


This issue of Translational Andrology and Urology focuses on the controversies surrounding the use of sperm DNA fragmentation testing in the armentarium of the male infertility specialist. My general approach to patient care is: I only order a test if it will change my management of the patient or couple. On the other hand, there are some situations when more information may sway the couple on how to proceed towards differing treatment options.


Glutamine uptake is decreased in isolated perfused rat liver when the extracellular pH is lowered. This is also observed in the presence of ammonia concentrations nearly 20-fold above that required for half-maximal stimulation of glutaminase, indicating that the effect is not explained by a submaximal ammonium activation of the enzyme. In livers perfused with a physiological glutamine concentration (0.6 mM), the tissue glutamine but not glutamate content is strongly dependent on the extracellular pH and increases from 2.9 mumol/g to 4.7 mumol/g liver when the extracellular pH is increased from 7.3 to 7.5. Subfractionation of the livers revealed that the mitochondrial glutamine concentration increases from about 15 mM to 50 mM, when the extracellular pH is raised from 7.3 to 7.7, whereas the cytosolic glutamine concentration increases only slightly. Simultaneously the cytosolic and mitochondrial pH values are largely unaffected, being 7.25 and 7.7 respectively. Thus, the pH gradient between mitochondria and cytosol remains unchanged when the extracellular pH varies. Amiloride (2 mM) inhibits glutamine uptake by the liver and abolishes the extra/intracellular pH gradient. With amiloride present, tissue glutamine levels are no longer dependent on extracellular pH and are only about 2 mumol/g liver. It is concluded that pH control of glutaminase flux is also mediated by variations of the mitochondrial glutamine concentration pointing to a regulatory role of the glutamine carrier in the mitochondrial membrane for hepatic glutamine breakdown.


86 high school students considering entering a health care profession indicated that they would not likely choose to work in a nursing home even though they found them in general to be more pleasant than expected.


Background: The rising cost of health care and dwindling economic resources necessitate the need to encourage cost-effectiveness in patient care. Cancellation of cases on the scheduled day of surgery leads to inefficient utilization of theatre space, waste of valuable manpower and scarce resources for patients and hospital. Avoidance of unnecessary cancellations of cases may therefore be an important way of ensuring efficient utilization of resources.
Methods: This is a prospective study. Record was taken of all patients whose names appeared on the routine elective surgical operation lists. The names of all those who could not have their surgery done were compiled. The age, sex, diagnosis, specialty of surgery, proposed surgery and reasons for cancellation were collated and analysed.
Results: Out of the 1,175 patients scheduled for surgery during the study period, 272(23.15%) were cancelled for various reasons. The highest incidence of cancellation 130(11.06%) was recorded in orthopaedic specialty, even though it ranked second to General Surgery in the total number of cases booked. Cardiothoracic unit recorded the lowest incidence of cancellations (1.84%), but it also had the lowest number of cases scheduled for surgery. The commonest cause of cancellations was time constraints (22.59%). Patients absconded from surgery for personal reasons not communicated to the Surgeons in 13.60% of cases, while unanticipated logistic problems accounted for another 9.93%. Other causes of cancellations included industrial action embarked upon by members of the hospital community staff auditing exercise, uncontrolled medical illness and unresolved laboratory abnormalities.
Conclusion: The incidence of cancellation of cases on the scheduled day of surgery is still high in our hospital. Most of the causes of the cancellations are preventable. In order to enhance cost-effectiveness, efforts should be made to prevent unnecessary cancellations through careful planning and closer interactions between surgeons and patients, and amongst members of the surgical team.
Keywords: Elective surgery, Cancellation, Causes, Cost-effectiveness.
Nig. J. of Surgical Research 4(1-2) 2002: 28-33


OBJECTIVE
To study the chemical constituents in the roots of Pueraria lobata.

METHOD
Various chromatographic methods were employed to separate of chemical constituents and the spectroscopic methods were used to elucidate the structure.

RESULT
Twenty-two compounds were isolated and characterized as beta-sitosterol palmitate (1), beta-sitosterol (2), lupeol (3), lupeone (4) , puerarol (5), diisobutyl phthalate (6), bis(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (7), sophoracoumestan A (8), coumestrol (9), allantion (10), dadzein (11), formononetin (12), 3'-methoxy daidzein (13), ononin (14), 3'-hydroxy dadzein (15), genistin (16), dadzin (17), 8-methoxy ononin (18), sissotorin (19), (-)-puerol B 2-O-glucopyranoside (20), (6S,9R)-roseoside (21) and sucrose (22), respectively.

CONCLUSION
Compounds 1, 5-8, 15, 18, 21 and 22 were isolated from P. lobata for the first time, and componds 1, 5-7, 15, 18, 21 and 22 were isolated from the genus Pueraria for the first time.


Photoreception
Imagine having a whole-body-surface visual system. The brittle star Ophiocoma wendtii and its relatives are decorated with a surface layer of calcite hemispheres. Although these have been implicated in light focusing, there has been little anatomical evidence of an underlying photoreceptor network. Sumner-Rooney et al. found a comprehensive network connecting opsin-containing cells across the entire body surface of the stars. However, these cells project past the calcite structures, which apparently are not acting as microlenses, as previously thought. The projecting photoreceptors are thus not eyes in the sense of image-forming vision. Rather, the opsin-containing cells detect high-contrast light changes, evidently to coordinate shade-seeking, predator avoidance, and color-changing reflexes.

Proc. R. Soc. B 285 , 20172590 (2018).


In his article "About the Concept of 'Gnosticism' in Fiction Studies" Fryderyk Kwiatkowski notices that in the twentieth-century humanities the concept of Gnosticism has become a popular term for labelling tendencies in modernity and postmodernity. Kwiatkowski argues that the majority of scholars in fiction studies base their research on outdated methodologies. In consequence, Kwiatkowski presents an overview of contemporary approaches in Gnostic studies and discusses how they can be adapted in studies of literature, film, video games, comic books, etc. By outlining advantages and disadvantages of methodological approaches, Kwiatkowski posits that in studies of fiction with Gnostic components it is advantageous to adhere to precise methods, terminology, and explanation including their limitations and the purposes of application. Fryderyk Kwiatkowski, "About the Concept of 'Gnosticism' in Fiction Studies" page 2 of 8 CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 18.3 (2016): <http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/clcweb/vol18/iss3/2> Fryderyk KWIATKOWSKI About the Concept of "Gnosticism" in Fiction Studies In the twentieth century the religious phenomenon known as Gnosticism has gained much interest (see, e.g., Brakke; King; Williams). Gnosticism as a category has been used not only by scholars in religious studies, but also by researchers from other fields including cultural studies, political philosophy, literary studies, etc. The problematic nature of the subject affected the research of scholars who have tried to propose several theories of modernity based on the idea of Gnosticism (see, e.g., Blumenberg; Jonas; Voegelin) or to broaden our understanding of various phenomena in Western culture (see, e.g., Bloom; Filoramo; Hanegraaff). Unfortunately, in many cases their research lead to ineffectual outcomes. Ioan P. Culianu summarized these efforts by writing that "Once I believed that Gnosticism was a well-defined phenomenon belonging to the religious history of Late Antiquity ... I was to learn soon, however, that I was a naif indeed. Not only Gnosis was gnostic, but the catholic authors were gnostic, the neoplatonic too. Reformation was gnostic, Communism was gnostic, Nazism was gnostic, liberalism, existentialism and psychoanalysis were gnostic too, modern biology was gnostic, Blake, Yeats, Kafka, Rilke, Proust, Joyce, Musil, Hesse and Thomas Mann were gnostic. From very authoritative interpreters of Gnosis, I learned further that science is gnostic and superstition is gnostic; power, counter-power and lack of power are gnostic; left is gnostic and right is gnostic; Hegel is gnostic and Marx is gnostic; Freud is gnostic and Jung is gnostic; all things and their opposite are equally gnostic" (290-91). In my view, Culianu exhibits oversimplifications and pitfalls made by scholars who used terms Gnostic and Gnosticism too loosely and not much has changed since he wrote his words. The way I see it, most scholars who are not in the field of Gnostic studies still reproduce many stereotypes on Gnosticism. This problem, however, stems mainly from the fact that scholars in Gnostic studies themselves have not come to the consensus whether the concept of Gnosticism should be abandoned, narrowed only to one group of early Christians, or reformulated. The objective of my study is to discuss contemporary methodological approaches in Gnostic studies which can be applied in fiction studies (especially literary studies, film studies, and video game studies). By outlining the advantages and disadvantages of each method I show their possible use for scholars in fiction studies. This, I hope, should make their prospective examinations of fictional narratives more precise and up-to-date with new trends in Gnostic studies. Before proceeding to examine whether some ideas expressed in a fictional text can be read as Gnostic, a scholar should clearly expose the methodological perspective from which she/he is willing to provide an interpretation. In contemporary scholarship we can outline at least three possible approaches towards Gnosticism. I do not hold that this list should be seen as perfectly reflecting all the methods available in the contemporary scholarship on Gnosticism, but for the purposes of this article I find it the simplest and most informative: 1) Typological: a) Gnosticism as single religion b) Gnosticism as interpretive or heuristic category 2) Self-designation 3) Identity formation. The typological model a) assumes that Gnosticism was a distinct religion, independent from Christianity which manifested itself in various currents and schools, for example in Sethianism or Valentinianism, but nonetheless it comprised a homogenous movement describable by a set of common features. This approach became influential and popular in defining Gnosticism also outside scholarship. It is understandable owing to the clarity of the results that this method yields. Many scholars followed Hans Jonas's work and developed a typological approach he proposed (see, e.g., Pearson; Rudolph). However, after the Nag Hammadi Library had been found scholars have begun to realize that the very concept of Gnosticism should be either abandoned or completely reformulated. Many scholars pointed out that typological approach is ineffective, gives oversimplifying view on the phenomenon and does not capture the diversity of positions among the socalled Gnostics. Karen L. King in her What Is Gnosticism? exposed that twentieth-century scholarship on Gnosticism stems from the discourse of orthodoxy and heresy. The term and concept of Gnosticism "was substituted for heresy as the object of the discourse. The functions of this object were transformed, at times working ... Yet the function of this discourse has remained unchanged: to represent the other" (What Is Gnosticism? 219). King argues that by positing a single religion behind the category of Gnosticism modern scholars have reproduced the discourse of orthodoxy and heresy which was not established in the second and third century. Jonas "contributed to the reification of Gnosticism as an independent religion and a singular monolithic phenomenon" (see King, What Is Gnosticism? 135). King's critique of typological approach that presupposes Gnosticism as the monolithic movement is hard to ignore. Drawing conclusions from such a method might easily lead to distortion of the meaning of examined material and contribute to developing stereotypes. Thus, we might ask how it can be fruitful for a scholar in fiction studies to employ this approach and to argue that several motifs presented in a fictional work refer or resemble certain ideas manifested in Gnosticism. Firstly, by applying this approach a scholar makes it more suitable for a reader, who is unfamiliar with ancient Gnostic thought, to learn some basic knowledge on manifold religious currents which flourished especially in the Middle East in the second and third centuries. Typological approach towards Gnosticism, understood as a single religion, gives a clear understanding of this movement and Jonas's work still comprises "the classic starting point for exploring this topic" (King, What Is Gnosticism? 135). However, a scholar who provides an interpretation of a selected fictional work should clearly depict the limitations of this method and highlight the introductory character of the analysis. Unfortunately, the majority of scholars both in the fields of literary studies and film studies have unwittingly based their Gnostic examination of fictional works on typological approach in its a) version (see e.g. Landess; Mawby; Mackey). In most cases, they indiscriminately referred to works of Hans Jonas (The Gnostic Religion) and Kurt Rudolph (Gnosis) to depict what Gnosticism "is" without discussing problems of the use of this method, persuasively highlighted by King and other scholars. Having said that, it could be interesting if a scholar used this approach to depict Fryderyk Kwiatkowski, "About the Concept of 'Gnosticism' in Fiction Studies" page 3 of 8 CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 18.3 (2016): <http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/clcweb/vol18/iss3/2> some fictional work as displaying Gnostic motifs in the way that it reproduces the discourse of orthodoxy and heresy. For instance, in one of his interviews Czesław Miłosz said that his interests in Gnosticism and Manichaeism had begun with studying the textbook on the history of the Church, Roman Archutowski's Historia Kościoła Katolickiego w zarysie ("An Overview of the History of The Catholic Church"). Archutowski described beliefs of Gnostics and Manichaeists from a theological point of view which inspired Miłosz to express his personal experience of dualistic attitude towards the world (Miłosz qtd. in Kaźmierczyk, Dzieło demiurga 8-9, 15-16). Moreover, Miłosz revealed in his interview that he was later inspired by Hans Jonas's The Gnostic Religion: "Frankly, when I was giving lectures at the university about Manichaeism, then as a course book I gave to students the book of Hans Jonas, a German professor, on Gnosticism. He cites in there some texts, for instance the classic of Gnostic literature, that is ... Hymn of the Pearl" (Miłosz qtd. in Gorczyńska, Podróżny Świata 55; unless indicated otherwise, all translations are mine). Therefore, it is no surprise that typological approach, represented by Hans Jonas or Gilles Quispel, was shared by Miłosz (Kaźmierczyk 43-47). Not only can we find Gnostic motifs in the literary works of Miłosz but, according to Zbigniew Kaźmierczyk, he also used them to interpret and express his own personal experience (19). For this reason, it is tempting to assume that since Miłosz's knowledge on Gnosticism was built on books whose authors reproduced the discourse of orthodoxy and heresy he also could do the same in his literary works. I will not try to examine this issue further. My aim is only to show that there might be few possible ways of adapting typological approach to fic


The nuclear matrix is the nonchromatin scaffolding of the cell nucleus that confers nuclear shape, organizes the nuclear chromatin, and regulates many important intranuclear biochemical events. Although our understanding of the nuclear matrix and its proteins is still evolving, it is clear that nuclear matrix proteins (NMPs) hold considerable promise as diagnostic tools for pathologists. Early evidence suggests that NMPs may be useful biomarkers of neoplastic disease in serum, body fluids, and tissues. NMPs are also potential candidates for use as tumor prognostic factors and targets of anticancer drugs. Moreover, NMPs may hold the key to understanding important cellular events, such as neoplastic transformation, steroid hormone binding, and apoptosis. Despite impressive gains made by cellular biologists and biochemists toward understanding the structure and function of the nuclear matrix, many of the potential applications of NMPs to diagnostic pathology are largely unexplored. Thus, NMPs should prove an exciting and fruitful area of investigation for experimental and clinical pathologists who are interested in developing diagnostic tests for detecting, quantitating, and characterizing these proteins in human tissues and body fluids and translating these applications into the clinical pathology laboratory.


The Stateline fault system is a 200-km-long zone of active right-lateral shear along the California-Nevada border, United States. Recent identification of 30 ± 4 km of dextral offset since 13.1 Ma on the southern segment of the fault requires significant displacement to extend farther south than has been commonly considered in the past. However, major structures exposed where the fault projects to the south reveal predominantly dip-slip extensional faulting, suggesting that displacement is transferred into substantial northwest-oriented extension in eastern Ivanpah Valley. New (U-Th)/He apatite data from Proterozoic orthogneiss in the southern McCullough Range and northern New York Mountains support this model by recording dates as young as 5 ± 1 Ma in the structurally deepest parts of the footwalls to the range-bounding normal faults. This age is distinctly younger than both the ages of regional extension in surrounding areas and the youngest (U-Th)/He apatite dates reported from the immediately adjacent Colorado River extensional corridor. Late Miocene–Pliocene extension in Ivanpah Valley, contemporaneous with that elsewhere in the Eastern California shear zone, provides an independent line of support that the eastern margin of the Eastern California shear zone extends to the California-Nevada border. If this age marks the onset of deformation on the State-line system, then long-term slip rates on the southern segment may be as high as 5 mm/yr, significantly higher than the present-day estimate of 0.9 mm/yr derived from geodetic observations across the northern segment of this fault system.


This article examines the relationship between a strong nineteenth-century welfarist expansion between the 1860s and early 1940s, in Kerala, India, under indirect British rule, and the "exceptional" antipoverty regime that democratically elected Communists implemented during the postcolonial (post 1947) era in the state. While much attention has focused on Kerala as a model of social development and on postindependence state policies in creating it, no single work has attempted to understand the significance of its prior legacy of welfare. This article uses methods of comparative historical sociology to trace the historical making of Kerala's "exceptionalism." It argues that the early welfare policies in Kerala were implemented in a dependent colonial context and aimed at warding off annexation by the British, but their unintended consequences were to stimulate what they were precisely designed to avoid—radical caste and class movements. The analysis suggests that the form and content of welfare policies are shaped by the exigencies of state formation, as state autonomy theorists would argue; however, it shows that political struggles are the decisive determining factors of the former.


An as yet unsolved problem in space radiation protection is the necessary relation between the external cosmic ray heavy ion fluence and the resultant environment within the spacecraft. Such a relation involves the transport of such ions through extended materials. Presented is a derivation of the solution of the transport equation for heavy ions in the straight ahead approximation for directed beam applications. An iterative scheme for the solution of the inhomogeneous integral transport equations is applied to a neon ion beam in water. The iterative scheme requires transport coefficients as input, which are determined from the available data on ion nuclear reactions. The iteration converged for the neon beam in water. Thus this iterative scheme appears to be a suitable approximation of heavy ion transport.


Development of marginal hydrocarbon fields is becoming the topic of interest among oil
and gas industry players. In Malaysia, Risk Service Contract (RSC) is used for development of
marginal fields. This paper will investigate the viability of Malaysian RSC implementation. The
objectives of this research are to conduct comparative analyses between conventional PSC and
RSC, between local RSC and foreign RSC; to evaluate current fiscal agreements for marginal
fields; and to recommend methods to improve the economics of marginal fields to atrract
investors. The scope of study of the project includes the implementation of PSC and RSC in
Malaysia, economic modeling, and competencies of local companies. The methodology used for
this project is conducting critical analysis on PSC and RSC implementation and also analyzing
the local companies' competencies to be marginal field operators. The finding of the project
conclude that RSC implementation in Malaysia still needs further assessment and PETRONAS
should reveal more on the RSC model to allow more in-depth and research to be conducted.


Fragmentation dynamics of ligated coinage metal clusters reflects their structural and bonding properties. So far methodological challenges limited probing structures of the fragments. Herein, we resolve the geometric structures of the primary fragments of [Ag29L12]3-, i.e. [Ag24L9]2-, [Ag19L6]- and [Ag5L3]- (L is 1,3-benzene dithiolate). For this, we used trapped ion mobility mass spectrometry to determine collision cross sections of the fragments and compared them to structures calculated by density functional theory. We also report that following two sequential [Ag5L3]- elimination steps, further dissociation of [Ag19L6]- also involves a new channel of Ag2 loss and Ag-S and C-S bond cleavages. This reflects a competition between retaining the electronic stability of 8e- superatom cluster cores and increasing steric strain of ligands and staples. These results are also of potential interest for future soft-landing deposition studies aimed at probing catalytic behavior of Ag clusters on supports.


A reduced system is a smaller system derived in the process of analyzing a larger system. In solving for steady state probabilities of a Markov chain, generally the solution can be found by first solving a reduced system of equations which is obtained by appropriately partitioning the transition probability or rate matrix. Following Lal Lal, R. 1981. A unified study of algorithms for steady state probabilities in Makov chains. Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Operations Research and Engineering Management, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX 75275., a Markov chain can be categorized as standard or nonstandard depending on the location of an invertible submatrix necessary for an efficient solution in a transition probability or rate matrix. In this paper, algorithms for the determination of steady state probabilities are developed by using i a backward recursion which is efficient for standard systems and ii a forward recursion which is efficient for nonstandard systems. It is also shown that the backward recursion can be used for finding the first passage time distribution and its mean and variance.


The article describes an open model for the independent assessment of the competencies of the digital economy developed and implemented by the Russian Academy of National Economy and Civil Service under the President of the Russian Federation (RANEPA)


Ophthalmic plastic surgery, a sub-specialty within ophthalmology, encompasses diagnosis and treatment of diseases and abnormalities of the eyelids, orbit, and lacrimal systems. Eyelid carcinoma is a more common entity as well as blepharoptosis seen in children and adults. It can usually be corrected by surgery involving the levator palpebrae superioris or a tarsofrontalis suspension using synthetic material or human tissue. Retraction of the upper eyelid, the opposite of blepharoptosis, may be seen in patients with thyroid eye (Graves') disease. Treatment by recession of the levator aponeurosis and Muller's sympathetic muscle yields excellent results. Blepharoplasty and other procedures frequently performed by the ophthalmic plastic surgeon can be done for cosmetic or functional (correction of vision) reasons and often in conjunction with other eyelid surgery such as ptosis repair.


This paper will present an overview of pain problems associated with lesions, disorder or dysfunction of the central nervous system (CNS). The incidence, qualities of the pain experience, associated sensory abnormalities, and other characteristics will be discussed. Particular attention will be paid to central pain (CP) associated with stroke as the most prominent and best studied of the many CP problems. In general, there is poor understanding of the pathophysiology of CP, problems are often severe and intractable, and treatment is typically difficult. The concept of CP is increasingly being invoked to account for various presentations not traditionally considered, e.g. fibromyalgia. It is suggested that processes associated with CP might also contribute to the presentation in psychiatric Pain Disorders or other atypical pain problems. Finally, although perhaps not as problematic, a number of CNS disorders or lesions may be associated with reduced sensitivity to pain.


Biometrics, described as the science of recognizing an individual based on her physiological or behavioral traits, is beginning to gain acceptance as a legitimate method for determining an individual's identity. Multimodal biometric system utilizes two or more individual modalities, e.g., face, gait, iris and fingerprint, to improve the recognition accuracy of conventional unimodal methods. Multimodal biometric systems overcome problems such as noisy sensor data, non-universality or lack of distinctiveness of the biometric trait, unacceptable error rates, and spoof attacks by consolidating the evidence obtained from different sources. In this paper, we have developed an efficient technique for multimodal biometric recognition using the face and iris images. In our proposed technique, features from face and the iris images are extracted and the features from both the modalities are concatenated to form a combined feature vector, which also contains the number of irrelevant pixels in the iris image. The extraction process is done utilizing both the local Gabor patterns and the LBP to form LGXP (Local Gabor XOR Patterns). For recognition, the combined feature vector of a face and iris image are extracted and is compared with the database. The average matching score is calculated, which is based on the distance measure and also on the given weightage based on the irrelevant pixels. Based on the average matching value, the decision is to be made whether the test image is recognized or not. For experimental evaluation, we have used the face and iris image databases and the results clearly demonstrated that the proposed technique provided better accuracy in biometric recognition. Keywords:- Biometrics, Multi-modal biometrics, Face Recognition, iris recognition, Gabor feature, LBP operator (Local Binary Pattern), Local Gabor XOR Patterns.


The medical treatment of gastro-oesophageal reflux disease is accomplished with the appropriate use of anti-secretory therapy, principally H(2)-receptor antagonists and proton pump inhibitors. In fact, there is a direct correlation between the length of time, in terms of the number of hours per day that the intragastric pH is above 4, and the healing of the oesophagitis. Nowadays, H(2)-receptor antagonists are of limited use as primary treatment, being inferior to proton pump inhibitors in both healing and symptom relief. Although the majority of patients can be effectively managed with carefully titrated doses of proton pump inhibitors, a small number will continue to show difficulty in the management of their disease, principally because of inadequate nocturnal acid control. These patients may benefit from a combination of proton pump inhibitors twice daily with an H(2)-receptor antagonist at bedtime. This article reviews the use of H(2)-antagonists, proton pump inhibitors and their combination in the management of the patient with gastro-oesophageal reflux disease.


The long-standing insistence that Internet-Drafts carry expiration
dates is a concept that is no longer necessary. This document removes
requirements for expiration for Internet-Drafts from RFC 2418/BCP 25.
Note to Readers Discussion of this document takes place on the
GENDISPATCH Working Group mailing list (email@example.com), which
is archived at https://mailarchive.ietf.org/arch/browse/gendispatch/
[1]. Source for this draft and an issue tracker can be found at
https://github.com/martinthomson/no-expiry [2].


In grapevine chrome mosaic and tomato black ring viruses (GCMV and TBRV), as in many other nepoviruses, the 3' non-translated regions (3'NTR) are identical between the two genomic RNAs. We have investigated the structure of the 3'NTR of two recombinant isolates which contain GCMV RNA-1 and TBRV RNA-2. In these isolates, the 3'NTR of RNA-1 was transferred to RNA-2, thus restoring the 3' identity. The transfer occurred within three passages, and probably contributes to the spread of randomly appearing mutations from one genomic RNA to the other. The site of recombination is near the 3' end of the open reading frame.


The bioinformatics research community has a demand of enormous compute resources to run bioinformatics tools. Next generation sequencing technologies have further increased the overall demand for computational analysis. The traditional Cluster and Grid computing are having their own complexities to program and use while there is a silver-line in cloud for on-demand high-performance infrastructures with the advent of cloud computing era and its advantages. We have adopted the technology so that it can prove its mandate with more benefits to the community. We are able to bring out a private cloud using BRAF which is a high end cluster facility dedicated for bioinformatics. Open source equivalents to prominent commercially available solutions are used as the cloud middle-ware stack. In this paper we will summarize our implementation of a virtualized private cloud environment using Eucalyptus.


Expansion of the Denver metropolitan area has resulted in substantial residential development in the foothills of the Rocky Mountain Front Range. This type of suburban growth, characteristic of much of the semiarid intermountain west, often relies on groundwater from individual domestic wells and is exemplified in the Turkey Creek watershed. The watershed is underlain by complexly deformed and fractured crystalline bedrock in which groundwater resources are poorly understood, and concerns regarding groundwater mining and degradation have arisen. As part of a pilot project to establish quantitative bounds on the groundwater resource, an outcrop-based geologic characterization and numerical modeling study of the brittle structures and their controls on the flow system was initiated. Existing data suggest that groundwater storage, flow, and contaminant transport are primarily controlled by a heterogeneous array of fracture networks. Inspections of well-permit data and field observations led to a conceptual model in which three dominant lithologic groups underlying sparse surface deposits form the aquifer system—metamorphic rocks, a complex array of granitic intrusive rocks, and major brittle fault zones. Pervasive but variable jointing of each lithologic group forms the "background" permeability structure and is an important component of the bulk storage capacity. This "background" is cut by brittle fault zones of varying structural styles and by pegmatite dikes, both with much higher fracture intensities relative to "background" that likely make them spatially complex conduits. Probabilistic, discrete-fracture-network and finite-element modeling was used to estimate porosity and permeability at the outcrop scale using fracture network data collected in the field. The models were conditioned to limited aquifer test and borehole geophysical data and give insight into the relative hydraulic properties between locations and geologic controls on storage and flow. Results from this study reveal a complex aquifer system in which the upper limits on estimated hydraulic properties suggest limited storage capacity and permeability as compared with many sedimentary-rock and surficial-deposit aquifers.


The Open Radio Access Network (RAN) paradigm is transforming cellular networks into a system of disaggregated, virtualized, and software-based components. These self-optimize the network through programmable, closed-loop control, leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) routines. In this context, Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) has shown great potential in addressing complex resource allocation problems. However, DRL -based solutions are inherently hard to explain, which hinders their deployment and use in practice. In this paper, we propose EXPLORA, a framework that provides explainability of DRL-based control solutions for the Open RAN ecosystem. EXPLORA synthesizes network-oriented explanations based on an attributed graph that produces a link between the actions taken by a DRL agent (i.e., the nodes of the graph) and the input state space (i.e., the attributes of each node). This novel approach allows EXPLORA to explain models by providing information on the wireless context in which the DRL agent operates. EXPLORA is also designed to be lightweight for real-time operation. We prototype EXPLORA and test it experimentally on an O-RAN-compliant near-real-time RIC deployed on the Colosseum wireless network emulator. We evaluate EXPLORA for agents trained for different purposes and showcase how it generates clear network-oriented explanations. We also show how explanations can be used to perform informative and targeted intent-based action steering and achieve median transmission bitrate improvements of 4% and tail improvements of 10%.


Gustave (1804–1886) et Adolphe (1805– 1895) were part of a large Ashkenazim Bavarian banking dynasty. In 1812 their father, Baron Louis d'Eichthal, converted his family to Catholicism and French nationality by moving from his wife's home, Nancy, to Paris. Louis's wealth increased massively, as did his overbearing temper, of which his wife and Gustave bore the brunt. Both brothers were destined for banking; Adolphe aceded, but Gustave was the family's black sheep, constantly wracked by selfdoubt. Generously cushioned by his father's money, he became a leading Saint-Simonian and a self-defined intellectual, much of whose work remains unpublished. As a Saint-Simonian, Gustave was psychologically swamped by the leader, Prosper Enfantin, but drew strength from the other Jewish adherents, notably the Rodrigues, a Sephardic Jewish family, into which he married and rediscovered his Jewish roots. This book is a fascinating reflection of Jewish family networks, the links between the Ashkenazim (German origin) and Sephardic (Portuguese origin) groups and the massive role they took in the growth of the French economy. Adolphe married an Anglican and converted. He became a Regent of the Bank of France, participated in the Crédit mobilier and helped found similar banks elsewhere in Europe. Gustave became interested in ethnography. He maintained links with other former Saint-Simonians, particularly Thomas (Ismaÿl) Urbain, illegitimate son of a Marseille merchant and a black descendent of a former Guyanese slave. Saint-Simonism is attracting renewed interest in France and the author, a descendent of Gustave, is a leading member of the Saint-Simonian society, founded a generation ago by descendents of the original sect, a fascinating reflection of how persistently the original ties between members subsist. The value of this substantial and thoroughly researched biography (it was originally a doctoral thesis) for specialists in the history of Saint-Simonism is its solid base in, and numerous lengthy quotations from, Gustave's Saint-Simonian archives, housed in the Arsenal library in Paris. The book and this resource will be of value to future scholars, particularly those interested in Gustave's insertion of Judaic thought in his interpretation of Saint-Simonism.


Sleeper populations of non-native species can remain at low abundance for decades before irrupting. For over a century, fallow deer ( Dama dama ) in the island state of Tasmania, Australia, remained at low abundance and close to the region in which they were released. Recently, there are indications the population has increased in abundance and distribution. Here, we spatially quantify the population change using a time series of annual spotlight counts from 1985 to 2019 (up to 172 transects annually, totalling of 5756 transect counts). Next, we predict the potential for further range expansion, using global occurrences to characterise the species' climatic niche, and remote-camera surveys (3225 camera sites) to model fine-grained habitat suitability. Spotlight counts of fallow deer increased by 11.5% annually, resulting in a 40-fold increase from 1985 to 2019. The core distribution increased 2.9-fold during this 35-year period, and now spans c. 27% of Tasmania's land area. Satellite populations have established in locations where farmed deer have escaped or been released, suggesting that humans have facilitated range expansion via new introduction events. Based on climate and habitat suitability, our models predict that 56% of Tasmania is suitable under the current climate. This suggests range expansion is likely to continue unless the population is actively managed, which could include the eradication of satellite populations and containment of core populations. This case study cautions that despite over a century of slow population growth, sleeper populations of non-native species can abruptly increase.


The mechanics of the final collapse of large slope failures are still poorly understood, and have constituted a challenge to scientists over the last 40 years. The reasons why some observed catastrophic landslides moved so fast and so far cannot always be explained using standard analyses. Much better understanding is needed to facilitate risk assessment and hazard mitigation measures. In this book, a new model is proposed accounting for temperature rise in the slip zone due to the heat produced by friction, leading to thermoplastic collapse of the soil skeleton and subsequent increase of pore water pressure. This in turn drastically decreases the shear resistance and allows the overlying mass to move downslope ever more freely. The model is validated by back-analysing two case histories, and is then employed in a parametric study to identify the most influential parameters in promoting catastrophic collapse. The results are relevant both for consulting engineers, to better design mitigation measures, and to the research community, by providing a background model through which the interpretation of past landslides can be attempted and more refined landslide models can be developed.


Ellipsis is very common in language. It's necessary for natural language processing to restore the elided elements in a sentence. However, there's only a few corpora annotating the ellipsis, which draws back the automatic detection and recovery of the ellipsis. This paper introduces the annotation of ellipsis in Chinese sentences, using a novel graph-based representation Abstract Meaning Representation (AMR), which has a good mechanism to restore the elided elements manually. We annotate 5,000 sentences selected from Chinese TreeBank (CTB). We find that 54.98% of sentences have ellipses. 92% of the ellipses are restored by copying the antecedents' concepts. and 12.9% of them are the new added concepts. In addition, we find that the elided element is a word or phrase in most cases, but sometimes only the head of a phrase or parts of a phrase, which is rather hard for the automatic recovery of ellipsis.


The present study evaluated the effectiveness of a Mental Toughness Education and Training Program (MTETP) in elite football officiating. The MTETP consisted of four individual and two group-based workshops designed to develop mental toughness (MT) and enhance performance in three English Football League (EFL) referees. Adopting a single-subject, multiple-baseline-across-participants design, MT and referee-assessor reports were evaluated. Self and coach-ratings of MT highlighted an instant and continued improvement in all three referees during the intervention phases. Performance reports of all referees improved throughout the intervention phases compared with the baseline phase. Social validation data indicated that an array of strategies within the MTETP facilitated MT development. Discussions acknowledge theoretical and practical implications relating to the continued progression of MT interventions in elite sport.


Particle attenuated backscatter and depolarization ratio at 532 nm from the WALES (Water Vapor Lidar Experiment in Space) instrument are used in combination with the radar reflectivity from the 35 GHz MIRA35 cloud radar in order to perform an aerosol-cloud target classification on the lidar/radar collocated observations carried out with the High Altitude and LOng-range research aircraft (HALO), in high temporal and spatial resolution.
The methodology is applied to the measurements conducted during the North Atlantic Waveguide and Downstream Impact Experiment (NAWDEX) in fall 2016. Here, we present one case study to show the feasibility and information context of the aerosol-cloud discrimination, which can serve as a good complement to the Cloud target categorization applied already in the measurements. Our results demonstrate that the developed mask is capable to identify complex stratifications with different aerosol and cloud types and even aerosol layers of low signal.


The entrapment of mixed microbial cell was accomplished by using a porous material, such as cellulose triacetate, to confine the migration of microorganism. Synthetic glucose, phenol, carbaryl and nitrate wastewater was used as substrate to evaluate this process. Applying entrapped microbial cell techniques for biological water/wastewater treatment was previously investigated mainly by using the pure culture system. For the past six years, the University of Hawaii has investigated this technology for biological wastewater treatment by using a mixed culture approach. It was found that the developed carrier, using cellulose triacetate, is the most suitable for providing the necessary mechanical strength and durability under both the aerobic and anaerobic conditions. It also provides many advantages, such as a short start-up period, high effluent quality in terms of COD, NO3-N concentrations and removal efficiency, low effluent suspended solid concentration, and high SRT with low HRT. The process has potential to replace or upgrade the existing biological processes for water and wastewater treatment. A pre-engineered and packaged plant can be easily developed for a small wastewater treatment system for toxic or hazardous wastewater.


The study assesses regional and gender equity in healthcare coverage under two different healthcare policies – the Medium-Term Health Strategy (MTHS) and the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) – among 10 regions in Ghana. The Afrobarometer survey round 1, conducted in 1999; round 2, conducted in 2004; round 4, conducted in 2008; and round 5, conducted in 2012, as well as data from the Ministry of Health were used in the study. Using annual growth rates of the proportion of the respondents who had access to healthcare from various regions in Ghana – based on 1999, 2004, 2008 and 2012 equities – the healthcare coverage in 2025 (a post MDG era) was estimated. There were significant regional inequities for the National and Gender levels for all the four rounds of the survey. Among the respondents who always had healthcare access, between 1999 and 2012 there were 32%, 29% and 36% significant percentage increases for the whole Nation pertaining to Male and Female respondents respectively. Based on annual healthcare coverage growth rates, most of the south-western and forest regions such as Western, Ashanti, Brong-Ahafo, Central and Eastern regions will achieve more than 85% coverage by the year 2025, while other regions such as the Northern, Upper East, Upper West and Volta regions may attain less than 60% coverage by 2025. It is therefore strongly recommended that other African countries, especially those struggling with universal healthcare coverage, adopt and implement the principle of health insurance for all, as it is currently done in Ghana.


The authors numerically investigate the fraction of nonhyperbolic parameter values in chaotic dynamical systems. By a nonhyperbolic parameter value they mean a parameter value at which there are tangencies between some stable and unstable manifolds. The nonhyperbolic parameter values are important because the dynamics in such cases is especially pathological. For example, near each such parameter value, there is another parameter value at which there are infinitely many coexisting attractors. In particular, Newhouse and Robinson (1983) proved that the existence of one nonhyperbolic parameter value typically implies the existence of an interval ('a Newhouse interval') of nonhyperbolic parameter values. They numerically compute the fraction of nonhyperbolic parameter values for the Henon map in the parameter range where there exist only chaotic saddles (i.e., nonattracting invariant chaotic sets). They discuss a theoretical model which predicts the fraction of nonhyperbolic parameter values for small Jacobians.


Social media and content-sharing platforms provide new opportunities for the circulation of not only professional and amateur porn productions but also "pornographic self-representation". This study examines the interactions that occur when male pornographic self-representation is shared in an inclusive space that welcomes both straight and gay men to post dick pics and gaze/comment on them. Focusing on the Reddit forum, Massive Cock, we conducted a discourse analysis of a selection of posts, comments and account profiles collected over a seven-month period. Based on our findings, we contend that Massive is a homosocial space where homoerotic dick gazing reaffirms and disrupts the heterosexual–homosexual binary. Our findings point to an uneven dynamic in which the majority of the posters perform a straight identity, whereas the majority of commenters perform a gay identity. Their comments serve to disrupt hegemonic masculinity and, in turn, create a space that welcomes mostly straight and bi-curious performances of masculinity. Such performances are possible due to recent cultural shift away from homo-hysteria and towards a more inclusive heteromasculinity. Collectively these performances produce an inclusive "fraternity of the cock", but it is one which maintains a heterocentric focus and function.


Global users of electrical power equipment are increasingly given the option of using equipment that implements either the National Electrical Manufacturer's Association (NEMA)/the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) or the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) standards. In many parts of the world, either set of standards may apply. IEC and IEEE standards have come substantially closer over the last decade. However, differences remain. In this article, the authors will explain the differences in the applicable standards and what those differences might mean to a user. The intent is to provide the user with an analytical basis upon which to understand the tradeoffs that may be made in choosing one set of standards over the other.


Lung adenocarcinoma is the most common subtype of non-small cell lung cancer, and platelet receptor-related genes are related to its occurrence and progression. A new prognostic indicator based on platelet receptor-related genes was developed with multivariate COX analysis. Prognostic markers based on platelet-related risk score perform moderately in prognosis prediction. The functional annotation of this risk model in high-risk patients shows that the pathways related to cell cycle, glycolysis and platelet-derived related factors are rich. It is worth noting that somatic mutation analysis shows that TTN and MUC16 have higher mutation burdens in high-risk patients. Moreover, the differential genes of high- and low-risk groups are regulated by copy number variation and miRNA. And we provide a free online nomogram web tool based on clinical factors and the risk score (https://wsxzaq.shinyapps.io/wsxzaq_nomogram/). The score has been verified among three independent external cohorts (GSE13213, GSE68465 and GSE72094), and is still an independent risk factor for lung adenocarcinoma. In addition, among the other 6 cancers, the OS prognosis of high and low-risk groups of PRS is different (P < 0.05). Our research results have screened multiple platelet differential genes with clinical significance and constructed a meaningful prognostic risk score (PRS).


The development and theoretical foundation of the aesthetic and creative dimensions of Gestalt therapy are presented. Special consideration is given to the reflection of the theoretical and practical significance of art and creativity for the founders of Gestalt Therapy, in particular Laura Perls. Contributions from the "pioneers" in this field in the United States are discussed. A number of principles suited for a timely appreciation and practice of art and creative process in Gestalt therapy are suggested.


This booklet is the second in a series summarizing the main points of full-length World Bank books. This is a reference book that addresses the health policy choices facing decision makers in developing countries as lower fertility and child mortality combine to produce great diversity in the patterns of disease. Noncommunicable disease is rapidly increasing in developing countries while, at the same time, the battle against communicable disease is still far from won. This means that policymakers face hard choices in the allocation of scarce resources for health. Disease Control Priorities in Developing Countries reviews the public health consequences of about thirty conditions prevalent in the developing world and measures the cost-effectiveness of existing methods of control. The analysis covers major infections such as tuberculosis and malaria, nutritional deficiencies and conditions affecting reproductive health, and emerging health problems such as AIDS, cancer, and cardiovascular disease. Tobacco is discussed as possibly the single greatest threat to health in the developing world. The authors judge the cost-effectiveness of alternative approaches to prevention and case management and, in a concluding chapter, provide a set of policy recommendations.


IT@School Project is termed the single largest simultaneous deployment of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) based Information and Communication Technology (ICT) education in the world. It was setup in 2001 as a project of Department of General Education, Government of Kerala to foster Information Technology (IT) education in schools. Capacity Building in ICT is one of the prime objectives of IT@School Project; it also integrates diverse activities such as content development, infrastructure deployment, satellite based education and e-Governance initiatives in a holistic manner. We believe that the innovative experiment happening in Kerala has important lessons for both the developing and the developed regions. Concerns centre on the sustainability of the FOSS-based Kerala model and whether the FOSS advocates and activists are able to extract from governments a commitment to policy continuance.


In a recent paper, Stoffa et al. (1990) presented a split‐step Fourier migration method. It takes laterally varying migration velocities into account by splitting the reference slowness into an average slowness, constant within the migration interval, and a perturbation term which accounts for the lateral variations. The method works accurately only if the lateral slowness variations are smooth and angles of propagation are near‐vertical. The restriction to steep propagation angles stems from the fact that the wavefield is accurately propagated with respect to the reference slowness but a five‐degree approximation is used to accommodate the lateral variations. This note presents a theory that avoids the five‐degree assumption and thus generalizes the split‐step algorithm.


This paper concerns applying statistical methods to investigate underpricing in VC-backed technology Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) since the great recession. In particular, firm, market, and IPO-specific variables were explored to determine if there were any significant relationships to underpricing. The paper focused on the Bank Preference theory of underpricing, where underpricing is said to occur because investment banks running IPO processes are incentivized to underprice to decrease the risk that they will not be able to allocate all the issuance to price-sensitive public markets investors.


Abstract Basic hematological indices, such as platelets count (PLT), platelet distribution width (PDW), mean platelet volume (MPV), and plateletcrit (PCT), are readily accessible and commonly tested indicators. As platelets play a significant role in many physiological and patho- logical pathways, the abnormalities in these indices inference about irregularities within the organism, such as homeostatic disorders or inflammation. Recent studies revealed a significant impact of MPV on the course and prediction in different types of neoplasms. This review summarizes the most important studies on the impact of MPV levels on outcome and prognosis in different types of cancer conducted in recent years. MPV levels have a significant impact on the length of progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) in many types of solid tumors, such as colorectal carcinoma, gastric cancer, pancreatic cancer, esophageal cancer, non-small cell lung cancer, breast cancer, and thyroid cancer. They also affect the prognosis in some lymphoproliferative diseases, such as diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, acute lymphoblastic leukemia, or primary and secondary myelofibrosis.


This project examines recent and ongoing misconduct in the financial sector and implications for corporate governance and accountability. The misconduct ranges from abusive mortgage trades and misreporting on derivatives losses to manipulation of commodity markets. Major corporations, such as JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley, have paid billions of dollars to regulators in penalties. The research project reviews the events from the perspectives of corporate governance, specifically whether shareholders are penalized for wrongdoing of corporate managers, and how far the regulatory practice of making settlements with the companies promotes accountability and corporate governance. The penalties diminish shareholder wealth and the question is whether shareholders end up as "helpless victims." The research herein has combined theoretical and empirical methods. The theory part of research includes discussion of various regulatory methods and their efficacy, the justification for the settlements concluded by the corporations with governments, grounds for proposed personal liability against executives, and possible class action lawsuits in the future. The empirical element consists of review of investigative reports, disclosures by the companies, and settlement orders made by regulatory agencies. This helps form an opinion on the culpability of executives and the related issue about whether the costs of misconduct in the form of penalties are passed on to shareholders.


Eulogy is one of the oldest and most frequent themes of poetry in Persian literature. Indeed, it can be considered as a fundamental theme that arose at the beginning of the formation of poetry. Originally, it comes from Arabic literature. In eulogy, the purpose of the poet is to praise a person to expresses his or her request to that person. Eulogy is a literary genre that, due to exaggerated descriptions of some poets, is criticized for exploiting literature. However, it should be noted that it has goals other than receiving rewards, gaining reputation, and so on in the works of some poets. Anvari is one of the most outstanding Persian poets who is considered as one of the prophets of Persian poetry. Anvari's divan (poetry collection) consists of two volumes and the first volume includes eulogies. Abu Tayyeb Mutanabbi is one of the most renowned Arabic poets and, like Anvari, is considered as one of the prophets of Arabic poetry. He has written odes in praise of Seif-o-Doleh. This article, which is a descriptive-analytical study, aims at comparing the first volume of Anvari's divan with Mutanabbi's odes in the framework of American comparative literature. It tries to compare them in terms of their purpose of praise and their rhetoric. The findings reveal that there are similar themes such as bravery and generosity in their poetry. However, they differ from each other in that Anvari praises the appearance, the estate, and other worldly belongings of the object of his praise, while such praise is cannot be found in Mutanabbi's poetry. Besides, has a high self-respect and shows great arrogance in the major parts of his poetry. Thus, the most important difference between them is Mutanabbi's narcissism. The analysis of these commonalities and differences is one of the objectives of this comparative research.


This paper presents a research strategy for studying how members of Third World communities think about "development." I propose that the structures of reasoning about development is a significant factor co-determining the prospects for empowerment to pursue successful self-managed development processes. Cognitive-developmental theory is used to formulate a number of dimensions for analysing how the notion "development" is constructed. The proposed study involves semi-structured interviews with community members using a specific methodology derived from constructive-developmental psychology.


Klippel-Trenaunay syndrome is a rare congenital malformation characterized by a large angiomatous nevus, hypertrophy of soft tissue and/or overgrowth of bone, and venous varicosities. Orthopaedic surgeons are often consulted about limb hypertrophy and associated leg-length inequality, associated finger and toe anomalies, or a myriad of associated rare skeletal abnormalities. Orthopaedists must be aware of the intricacies of this syndrome and of its proper evaluation and treatment. The diagnosis, classification, etiology, and treatment of Klippel-Trenaunay syndrome are summarized in this review.


The volume and scale of mountain-block groundwater circulation plays an important role in watershed hydrologic function; carbon, geochemical and nutrient budgets; and response to climate change. However, mountain block groundwater remains one of the least understood components of the hydrologic cycle. In this project, we investigate the role of bedrock groundwater circulation on groundwater age and isotopic tracer concentration on soil-mantled mountainous hillslopes. We perform numerical modeling of variably saturated soil, saprolite and bedrock groundwater flow, groundwater age, and transport of a suite of environmental tracers including stable isotopes of water, tritium, dissolved CFC's and SF 6 . We use these models to investigate patterns of bed-rock groundwater circulation, and the distribution as well as integrated discharge of groundwater age and tracer concentration. We identify first order processes controlling the spatial distribution and volume of groundwater circulation on hillslopes, the partitioning between slope parallel through-flow versus bedrock recharge, and the resulting hillslope age and tracer dynamics. Monte-Carlo simulations are used to evaluate the relative role of topography, soil characteristics, underlying lithology and antecedent moisture conditions in governing the age and tracer distribution. The basic relationships derived provide new insight into the role of bedrock groundwater recharge and discharge on hillslope age and tracer distribution. Model results are compared with observed patterns of water level and stable isotopes measured in soil and bedrock groundwater on hillslopes in west-central Montana, United States. These results can be used to help hydrogeologists develop better conceptual models and estimates of bedrock groundwater circulation in upland catchments and its role in watershed hydrologic and biogeochemical function.


This research was conducted to examine the effect of working in Covid clinics on anxiety-depression and family-work conflict of healthcare professionals. In a study conducted with 103 health personnel, a positive and significant relationship was found between work-family conflict scale scores and depression and anxiety scale scores (1* = 481, p < .01, 1 = 483, p < .01, respectively). As a result, employees in the Covid-19 clinic are faced with problems such as fear of transmitting the infection to their families, difficulty in carrying the burden of their children, increased levels of anxiety and depression, and social and family life being affected.


Abstract A pilot-scale study was conducted to evaluate the inactivation by ozone against Cryptosporidium oocysts, Giardia cysts, poliovirus, and B. subtilis endospores spiked into Ohio River water. The indigenous Ohio River populations of total coliform bacteria, heterotrophic plate count bacteria and endospores of aerobic spore forming bacteria were also evaluated. Endospores were the only organisms found to be more resistant to ozone than Cryptosporidium oocysts. Endospores may serve as an indicator of microbial treatment efficiency. Cryptosporidium oocysts were more resistant than Giardia cysts or poliovirus. Although HPC bacteria were less resistant than Cryptosporidium oocysts, variability limits their usefulness as an indicator of treatment efficiency. Ozone inactivation data generated in a pilot-scale study employing natural surface waters were comparable to inactivation data derived from previously published bench-scale studies using laboratory waters. The ozone requirements for inactivation of Cryptosporidium oocysts may produce elevated levels of bromate and ozone byproducts.


It is impossible to discuss what shamans are and what they do, contends Gregory G. Maskarinec, without knowing what shamans say. When Maskarinec took an interest in shaman rituals on his first visit to Nepal, he was told by many Nepalis and Westerners that the shamans he had encountered in the Himalayan foothills of western Nepal engaged in "meaningless mumblings." But in the course of several years of fieldwork he learned from the shamans that both their long, publicly chanted rituals and their whispered, secretive incantations are oral texts meticulously memorized through years of training. In The Rulings of the Night, he shows how the shamans, during their dramatic night-long performances, create the worlds of words in which shamans exist. Maskarinec analyzes several complete repertoires of the texts that the shamans use to diagnose and treat afflictions that trouble their clients. Through these texts, they intervene to manipulate and change the world, replacing its unbalanced, inexpressible chaos with orderly, balanced, grammatical, and eloquently expressible states. They negotiate the relations between language, action, and social realities, providing a well-constructed and thoroughly consistent intentional universe-and only in that universe can all shaman actions and beliefs be fully comprehended.


Wireless sensor networks have attracted much attention because of many applications in the fields of industry, military, medicine, agriculture, and education. In addition, the vast majority of research has been done to expand their applications and improve their efficiency. However, there are still many challenges for increasing the efficiency in different parts of this network. One of the most important parts is to improve the network lifetime in the wireless sensor network. Since the sensor nodes are generally powered by batteries, the most important issue to consider in these types of networks is to reduce the power consumption of the nodes in such a way as to increase the network lifetime to an acceptable level. The contribution of this paper is using topology control, the threshold for the remaining energy in nodes, and two metaheuristic algorithms, namely SA (Simulated Annealing) and VNS (Variable Neighbourhood Search), to increase the energy remaining in the sensors. Moreover, using a low-cost spanning tree, an appropriate connectivity control among nodes is created in the network in order to increase the network lifetime. The results of simulations show that the proposed method improves the sensor lifetime and reduces the energy consumed.


ABSTRACT It is often assumed that children go through a stage in which they systematically overapply irregular past tense patterns to inappropriate verbs, as in wipe-wope, bring-brang, trick-truck, walk-has walken. Such errors have been interpreted both as reflecting over-use of minor grammatical rules (e.g. 'change i to a'), and as reflecting the operation of a connectionist pattern associator network that superimposes and blends patterns of various degrees of generality. But the actual rate, time course, and nature of these errors have never been documented. We analysed 20,000 past tense and participle usages from nine children in the CHILDES database, looking for overapplications of irregular vowel-change patterns, as in brang, blends, as in branged, productive suffixations of -en, as in walken, gross distortions, as in mail-membled, and double-suffixation, as in walkeded. These errors were collectively quite rare; children made them in about two tenths of one per cent of the opportunities, and with few stable patterns: the errors were not predominantly word-substitutions, did not occur predominantly with irregular stems, showed no consistency across verbs or ages, and showed no clear age trend. Most (though not all) of the errors were based closely on existing irregular verbs; gross distortions never occurred. We suggest that both rule-theories and connectionist theories have tended to overestimate the predominance of such errors. Children master irregular forms quite accurately, presumably because irregular forms are just a special case of the arbitrary sound-meaning pairings that define words, and because children are good at learning words.


Braking systems have a direct impact on the safety of road users. That is why it is crucial that the performance of brakes be dependable and faultless. Unfortunately, the operating conditions of brakes during their operating time are affected by many variables, which results in changes in their tribological properties. This article presents an attempt to develop a methodology for studying how the operating time affects the value of the coefficient of friction and the abrasive wear factor. The Taguchi method of process optimization was used to plan the experiment, which was based on tests using the ball-cratering method. The results clearly show that the degree of wear affects the properties of the friction material used in the production process of brakes.


This research to investigate the effect of Pomacea Canalikulata Lamarck powder addition in the process of carburization box to physical (microstructure) and mechanical properties (hardness test) of AISI 1018 after heat treatment. In this research used a material of low carbon steel cylinder (AISI 1018). The process of making the specimen is done with to cut into several pieces, cutting done to ease in placing the specimen in the carburizing box, then wood charcoal powder and shell powder were weighed in accordance with the desired composition by mixing powder of 5 wt%, 10 wt%, and 15 wt%. The specimen was done heat treatment at a temperature of 9500C with the holding time at 2, 4 and 6 hours. Then, the specimen was done the Vickers hardness test, microstructure and composition test. From this research it can be concluded that the highest hardness value was obtained at 15 wt% addition of shell powder it was 262.26 kg/mm2 and the initial material hardness value was 144.08 kg/mm2. From microstructure observation and composition test show that it subjected surface hardening because carbon diffusion into specimen.


In this article, we will try to describe and explain the relationship between the Nitra canon Andrej Cvinček (1880 – 1949) and Jan Šrámek (1870 – 1956), the chairman of the Czechoslovak People's Party (ČSL). It must be said at the outset that this is a rather complex topic, because there are not enough archival sources regarding their cooperation. In particular, sources of a letter nature are absent, which are of key and irreplaceable importance for the analysis of personalities' relationships. However, the correspondence from the first two years of operation of the Slovak ČSL was preserved. Although the letters are mainly of a formal nature, they also tell about the opinions and plans of both politicians. They reveal their character, human qualities, work commitment and approach to party problems, thanks to which we also gain a better clarification of the beginnings of the ČSL in Slovakia. It is a set of seventeen letters from the period 1927 – 1929, which have not been the subject of deeper reflection in either Slovak or Czech historiography. According to the preserved correspondence, Cvinček and Šrámek met from December 27, 1926 in Brno and worked on the party's Slovak program. Cvinček was gradually profiled as the spiritus movens of the party in Slovakia. In addition to the creation of the political program, personal matters also rested on his shoulders, which increased his authority. He became the manager of the ČSL in Slovakia. The article shows how Canon Andrej Cvinček was an important and necessary support for the party chairman Jan Šrámek in the beginnings of the Slovak ČSL.


In recent years, optimization in the learned latent space of deep generative models has been successfully applied to black-box optimization problems such as drug design, image generation or neural architecture search. Existing models thereby leverage the ability of neural models to learn the data distribution from a limited amount of samples such that new samples from the distribution can be drawn. In this work, we propose a novel image generative approach that optimizes the generated sample with respect to a continuously quantifiable property. While we anticipate absolutely no practically meaningful application for the proposed framework, it is theoretically principled and allows to quickly propose samples at the mere boundary of the training data distribution. Specifically, we propose to use tree-based ensemble models as mathematical programs over the discrete latent space of vector quantized VAEs, which can be globally solved. Subsequent weighted retraining on these queries allows to induce a distribution shift. In lack of a practically relevant problem, we consider a visually appealing application: the generation of happily smiling faces (where the training distribution only contains less happy people) - and show the principled behavior of our approach in terms of improved FID and higher smile degree over baseline approaches.


Optimization of cutting parameters is important to achieve high quality in the machining process, especially where more complex multiple performance optimizations are required. The present investigation focuses on the multiple performance optimizations of machining characteristics of unidirectional glass fiber reinforced plastic (UD-GFRP) composites. The cutting parameters used for the experiments, were carried out according to Taguchi's L18, mixed-level orthogonal array. The parameters chosen are tool rake angle, tool nose radius, feed rate, cutting speed, cutting environment (dry, wet and cooled) and depth of cut. Statistical model based on second order polynomial equations were developed for the two responses. The Distance – Based Pareto Genetic Algorithm (DPGA) tool was used to optimize the cutting conditions.


The economic growth of Pandeglang Regency is represented on the superior sector. Therefore, it is important for Pandeglang Regency to identify their superior sector which must be suitable for the economic growth in the current situation. Although, nowadays the superior sectors at Pandeglang Regency have identified yet and there is no analysis about whether or not the superior sector could push the stability of economic growth. Referring to this case, this research determined to analyze the superior sectors of Pandegang Regency which is intended to push the stability of the economic growth regional sector, with the combine of method of Shift-Share Analysis, LQ Analysis, and Klassens Typology analysis. The implication about this study is the regional economic growth can be represented by all activities of sectors basis economic in the region.JEL codes: O10; O17; R11