We present infrared (IR) spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of individual star-forming regions in four extremely metal-poor (EMP) galaxies with metallicity Z ≲ Z_⊙/10 as observed by the Herschel Space Observatory. With the good wavelength coverage of the SED, it is found that these EMP star-forming regions show distinct SED shapes as compared to those of grand design Spirals and higher metallicity dwarfs: they have on average much higher f_(70μm)/f_(160 μm) ratios at a given f_(160 μm)/f_(250 μm) ratio; single modified blackbody (MBB) fittings to the SED at λ ≥ 100 μm still reveal higher dust temperatures and lower emissivity indices compared to that of Spirals, while two MBB fittings to the full SED with a fixed emissivity index (β = 2) show that even at 100 μm, about half of the emission comes from warm (50 K) dust, in contrast to the cold (∼20 K) dust component. Our spatially resolved images furthermore reveal that the far-IR colours including f_(70 μm)/f_(160 μm), f_(160 μm)/f_(250 μm) and f_(250 μm)/f_(350 μm) are all related to the surface densities of young stars as traced by far-UV, 24 μm and star formation rates (SFRs), but not to the stellar mass surface densities. This suggests that the dust emitting at wavelengths from 70 to 350 μm is primarily heated by radiation from young stars.


India is principally an agricultural country. Steady investments in technology development, irrigation infrastructure, emphasis on modern agricultural practices and provision of agricultural credit and subsidies are the major factors contributing to agriculture growth. The fishing sector has a proud place in the national economy. The significance of this sector is of three dimension: food and nutrition, employment potential and export potential. The fisheries sector has been an important source of foreign exchange resources over a period of time in the country. Sea food was seen like any form of sea life regarded as food by humans. Sea food prominently includes fish and shellfish. Shellfish include various species of mollusks, crustaceans, and echinoderms. Historically, sea mammals such as whales and dolphins have been consumed as food, though that happens to lesser extent these days. Edible sea plants are widely eaten as seafood around the world. The term "seafood" is extended to fresh water organisms eaten by humans, so all edible aquatic life may be referred to as seafood, but more specifically this study will be concerned with animal sea food only.


Tigecycline is a new therapeutic agent for treating multiple drug-resistant (MDR) Acinetobacter baumannii infections. However, recent reports have suggested the efficacy of tigecycline in fighting A. baumannii infections has been reduced. In this study we investigated the role of resistance-nodulation cell division (RND) efflux pumps in reducing the efficacy of tigecycline against clinical isolates of A. baumannii collected from hospitalized burn patients in Iran. The susceptibility of 100 isolates to 19 antimicrobial agents was determined using the disc diffusion method, with the exception of colistin and tigecycline, which were assessed using the Etest method. PCR was used to detect the prevalence of genes. Real-time PCR was used to analyze the expression levels of genes encoding RND efflux pumps. Additionally, a three loci dual assay and multiple loci variable number tandem repeat analysis (MLVA) were used to define PCR-based groups (G) and epidemiological studies of isolates, respectively. Colistin (99%), followed by tigecycline (71%) could be effective therapeutic options against A. baumannii. Forty-three percent of all isolates belonged to G variants. The high antibiotic resistance rate and over expression of RND efflux pumps were observed in G variants. MLVA identified 44 distinct types with 11 clusters and 29 singleton genotypes. The mean expression levels of AdeB in 29 tigecycline non-susceptible A. baumannii (TNAB) counterpart 71 tigecycline susceptible A. baumannii (TSAB) increased approximately 7- fold. All TNAB and TSAB isolates were shown to express adeG at higher level than adeB and adeJ, exceptionally TNAB isolates expressed adeB at a greater level than others. Four fold or greater decrease in tigecycline MIC was observed in 20% and 79% of TSAB and TNAB isolates, respectively. We observed an increasing trend in the rate of TNAB isolates and G variants in burn patients. The mechanism of their resistance was mediated by an increase in the expression of AdeABC efflux pump; AdeFGH and AdeIJK were not observed to have a direct role in tigecycline resistance. Also, this is the first study to report on the tendency of increase to spread of TNAB G variants, as the sub-clone of G1, in Iranian burn center.


Fully three dimensional fluid flow simulations are used with a simple structural model to simulate very long risers. This method overcomes many shortcomings of methodologies based on two dimensional flow simulations and can correctly include the effects of three dimensional structures such as strakes, buoyancy modules and catenary riser shapes. The method is benchmarked against laboratory and offshore experiments with model risers of length to diameter ratios up to 4,000. RMS values of vortex induced vibration motions are shown to be in good agreement with measurements. The resources needed to model ultra deep water drilling and production risers are estimated based on current computer technology.


Epidermal growth factor (EGF) initiates a wide variety of events when added to responsive cultured cells. These range from early events requiring only brief exposure to EGF, e.g., stimulation of transport of amino acids or ions, to later events such as commitment of cells to a round of DNA synthesis, a process requiring 6 h or more of continuous exposure to hormone. EGF binding is followed first by phosphorylation of EGF receptors, which can be detected in purified membranes and permeabilized cells, and then by internalization and proteolytic processing of receptors in lysosomes. Native 160,000-dalton EGF receptors contain a site that is not exposed on the cell surface and is highly sensitive to cleavage by an endogenous protease, which yields a 145,000-dalton receptor fragment that retains phosphate acceptor activity. Cleavage of receptor at a trypsin-sensitive site, also not exposed to the cell surface, yields a 115,000-dalton fragment that binds EGF, but contains no phosphorylated species. The data indicate that the phosphate acceptor sites on EGF receptors are localized on a 45,000-dalton cytosolic region.


Abstract The Palearctic-African bird migration system has fascinated ornithologists for decades and is one of the most well-known. However, there is strong spatial variation in the level of knowledge, and the South-Eastern European Flyway (which passes through the Balkan Peninsula) has been studied far less than the Western European Flyway (which passes through the Iberian Peninsula and Italy). In this study, we describe the phenology of 16 common woodland species, with a detailed analysis of the pre-migration period as well as an age-specific analysis of the timing of migration. As a general trend for species wintering in sub-Saharan Africa, adult birds migrated before first-year birds, in contrast with short-distance Mediterranean wintering species, in which we observed no difference. We also provide information comparing the timing of the migration of birds with characters of subspecies of Willow Warbler Phylloscopus trochilus and Chiffchaff Phyloscopus collybita, which have not previously been reported.


Shallot is a horticultural commodity belonging to spice vegetables. Shallot (Allium ascalonicum L.) is a perennial crop which is grown as an annual for its cluster of small cloves and bulbs. Persian shallot also is native and endemic of Iran and grows as a wild plant across Zagross mountains at high elevations. Shallot is an important source of carbohydrate, vitamin A, B, and C. Phenolic compound in Shallot consist of gallic acid, apigenin, eriodictyol, quercetin, isoquercetin, rutin, kaempferol, catechin and tannic acid. The most important health benefits of shallots are reduction of cancer risk, improve heart health, aid detoxification, help control diabetes, improve brain health, help to fight obesity and treat allergies, boost bone health, maintain vision health, boost immunity, improve skin health, increase abdominal health and keep hair healthy. The dominants medicinal properties of Persian shallot is it antibiotic, hypolipidemic, anticancer, antioxidant, hypoglycemic, kidney protective and hepatoprotective properties. This review article allowed verifying shallots as sources of compounds with valuable nutritional and bioactive properties with great ability for incorporation into foods with functional properties. Also, treatment with natural herbal medicine like shallot as non-synthetic drug is recommended.

 Key words: Medicinal properties, nutritive components, shallot.


The comic form of art has witnessed a dramatic increase in the number of readers who have chosen this medium to deepen into meaning-making processes in multimodal texts. But little has been said so far about the adaptation of certain literary genres to the comic form. This is the case of poetry, narrative poetry, in particular illustrated in this study in the celebrated ballad: "La belle dame sans merci" (1819) by John Keats and the modern sonnet: "The singing-woman from the wood's edge" (1920) by the American feminist poet Edna St. Vincent Millay. In view of two recent adaptations to the comic format of these poems, the present investigation explores from a comparative approach the semiotic processes at stake in representing women from the poets' own point of view and also from their corresponding graphic artists' in order to have a look at the changes in the depiction of women in poetry from the Romantic image of women to the view of women in the early twentieth century to the present day.


The authors report the case to understand this unusual presentation and prognosis of mucoepidermoid carcinoma following treatment. We present a case of mucoepidermoid carcinoma in a 67-year-old man. The cancer was diagnosed in the right side of his neck but the primary tumor remained unknown despite attempts at staging. The neck was treated successfully and followed up for 2 years. Metastasis of the primary lesion to the left triceps was diagnosed following a swelling noticed by the patient during the 2-year follow up period. Mucoepidermoid carcinoma can be a low, intermediate or high-grade malignancy and can metastasize to different parts of the body. However, this is the first case report of a metastasis to the triceps muscle.


Community engagement through service-learning was introduced into a graduate program in nursing education to develop student leadership skills, interest in learning, and social responsibility. With faculty expertise and guidance, students worked in partnership with underserved community agencies. The goal of sustainability was accomplished by developing faculty expertise in service-learning as a method of instruction and integrating community engagement into academic assignments within existing courses. Opportunities to reflect on the benefits of the experiences were considered crucial to bridging service to learning in the community. Evaluation findings indicate that students gained insight into community needs and resources as they moved outside traditional health care settings. Graduates increased their understanding of their role as a resource to the community, and community agencies saw the value of a nurse educated at an advanced practice level.


The frequencies of low-lying normal modes of Schwarzschild and Kerr black holes due to massive scalar perturbations are calculated using a higher-order WKB approximation. In the Schwarzschild case, for a range of scalar-field angular momenta, it is found that when the mass of the scalar field increases, the oscillation frequency increases, while the damping decreases. The convergence of the approximation is studied as a function of the mass. For the Kerr case, the same general variation with the mass of the field is found.


A total of 640 patients were studied retrospectively after surgery for colorectal cancer over a 5-year period at a district general hospital. The complications, perioperative survival figures, and 5-year survival figures were recorded with particular reference to the grade of surgeon carrying out the original operation. The number and type of complications were similar for consultants and for surgeons-in-training with the exception of operative injury to the ureters and postoperative anastomotic strictures, which were more common in cases operated on by consultants. Perioperative mortality rates were similar after elective and emergency operations, but emergency surgery was associated with a significant increase in mortality when compared with elective surgery if the operation was undertaken by a trainee. Although the 5-year survival rate rose when a consultant surgeon carried out the original operation, the difference was not significant.


Objective: To investigate the cross-sectional and longitudinal associations of 10-second heart rate variability (HRV) with various domains of cognitive function in older participants at risk of cardiovascular disease. Methods: We studied 3,583 participants, mean age of 75.0 years, who were enrolled in the Prospective Study of Pravastatin in the Elderly at Risk. From baseline 10-second ECGs, standard deviation of normal-to-normal intervals was calculated as the index of HRV. Four cognitive domains were assessed at baseline and repeated during a mean follow-up period of 3.2 years. Results: Lower HRV at baseline was associated with worse performance in reaction time (mean difference between low third vs high third of HRV = 1.96 seconds, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.20 to 3.71) and processing speed (−0.57 digits coded, 95% CI −1.09 to −0.05). During follow-up, participants with lower HRV had a steeper decline in processing speed (mean annual change between low third vs high third of HRV = −0.16 digits coded, 95% CI −0.28 to −0.04). There was no difference in annual changes of reaction time or immediate and delayed memory among HRV thirds during follow-up. All these associations remained unchanged after adjustment for medications, cardiovascular risk factors, and comorbidities. Conclusions: Participants with lower 10-second HRV have worse performance in reaction time and processing speed and experience steeper decline in their processing speed, independent of medications, cardiovascular risk factors, and comorbidities.


Ulcerative colitis (UC) is chronic, idiopathic disease that affects the colon and the rectum and the underlying pathogenesis of UC remains to be known. The clinical drugs are mainly work based on anti-inflammation and immune system. However, most of them are expensive and have severe side effects. Therefore, identification of novel targets and exploring new drugs are urgently needed. In this study, several bioinformatics approaches were used to discover key genes and further in order to explore the pathogenesis of UC. Two microarray datasets, GSE38713 and GSE9452 were selected from NCBI-Gene Expression Omnibus database. Differentially expression genes (DEGs) were identified by using LIMMA Package of R. Then, we filtered clustered candidate genes into Gene Ontology (GO) and pathway enrichment analysis with the Database for Annotation, Visualization and Integrated Discovery (DAVID), KEGG pathway based on functions and signaling pathways with significant enrichment analysis. The protein-protein interaction (PPI) network was constructed by the Search Tool for the Retrieval of Interacting Genes/ Proteins (STRING) analysis, and visualized by Cytoscape and further analyzed by Molecular Complex Detection. Lastly, 353 up-regulated and 145 down-regulated genes were than recognized. After consulting a number of references and network degree analysis, four hub genes, namely FCGR2A, C3, INPP5A, and ACAA1 were identified, and these genes were mainly enriched in complement and coagulation cascades, mineral absorption, and Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptor (PPAR) signaling pathways. In conclusion, this study would provide new clues for the pathogenesis and identification of drug targets of UC in the near future.


AIM: To evaluate the cytotoxicity of several storage media (coconut water, whole milk, isotonic solution, Hank´s Balanced Salt Solution and tap water) using a multiparametric cytotoxicity analysis employing 3T3 cells. METHODS: Plates containing confluent 3T3 fibroblasts were exposed to the various media for 24h, at 37°C with 5% CO2, and cell viability was evaluated by a multiparametric assay assessing sequentially, on the same cells, mitochondrial activity (XTT), membrane integrity (neutral red test), and total cell density (crystal violet dye exclusion test). Results from each test were compared by one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). RESULTS: Statistical analysis showed that whole milk and HBSS were the most effective media in maintaining cell viability at all tested times (p<0.05). Isotonic and tap water showed the highest cytotoxicity effects. CONCLUSIONS: This study shows that whole milk and HBSS are more efficient in maintaining the viability of 3T3 fibroblasts as demonstrated by three different cell viability tests.


Abstract Studies were conducted in 2008 and 2009 to determine the effect of S-metolachlor rate and application time on sweetpotato cultivar injury and storage root shape under conditions of excessive moisture at the time of application. S-metolachlor at 1.1, 2.2, or 3.4 kg ai ha−1 was applied immediately after transplanting or 2 wk after transplanting (WATP) to 'Beauregard', 'Covington', 'DM02-180', 'Hatteras', and 'Murasaki-29' sweetpotato. One and three d after S-metolachlor application plots received 1.9 cm rainfall or irrigation. S-metolachlor applied immediately after transplanting resulted in increased sweetpotato stunting 4 and 12 WATP, decreased no. 1 and marketable sweetpotato yields, and decreased storage root length to width ratio compared with the nontreated check. Sweetpotato stunting, no. 1 and marketable yields, and storage root length to width ratio in treatments receiving S-metolachlor 2 WATP were similar to the nontreated check. In 2008, Covington and Hattaras stunting 12 WATP was greater at 2.2 and 3.4 kg ha−1 (11 to 16%) than 1.1 kg ha−1 (1 to 2%). In 2009, S-metolachlor at 3.4 kg ha−1 was more injurious 4 WATP than 2.2 kg ha−1 and 1.1 kg ha−1. While cultivar by treatment interactions did exist, injury, yield, and storage root length to width ratio trends were similar among all cultivars used in this study. Nomenclature: S-metolachlor; sweetpotato, Ipomoea batatas L. Lam. 'Beauregard', 'Covington', 'DM02-180', 'Hatteras', and 'Murasaki-29'.


Recently a new metaheuristic called harmony search was developed. It mimics the behaviors of musicians improvising to find the better state harmony. In this paper, this algorithm is described and applied to solve the container storage problem in the harbor. The objective of this problem is to determine a valid containers arrangement, which meets customers delivery deadlines, reduces the number of container rehandlings and minimizes the ship idle time. In this paper, an adaptation of the harmony search algorithm to the container storage problem is detailed and some experimental results are presented and discussed. The proposed approach was compared to a genetic algorithm previously applied to the same problem and recorded a good results.


The adaptation of psychological instruments is a complex process that requires a high methodological rigor. Because there is no consensus in the literature about its steps, this article discuss some essential aspects regarding the cross- cultural adaptation of psychological instruments and proposes guidelines to the researchers about the different steps of this process. Some considerations regarding the validation of the adapted instrument are also presented. In this stage, we discuss some aspects regarding the factorial structure of the instrument, which might be evaluated through statistical procedures, such as exploratory and confi rmatory factor analysis. More than that, the authors provide some guidelines to the validation of psychological instruments in different cultures.


Nine new tetranuclear centrosymmetric linear complexes, [RE4(dbm)8L2(DMF)2]·nCH2Cl2·mC2H3N (RE = Y (1), Tb (2), Dy (3), Ho (4), Er (5), Lu (6)) and [RE4(dbm)8L2(C2H5OH)2]·nCH3CN (RE = Tb (7), Dy (8), Ho (9)) (HL = 2-[(2-(hydroxyimino)propanehydrazide)methyl]-8-hydroxyquinoline and dbm = 1,3-diphenyl-1,3-propanedione) have been synthesized. Complexes 1-9 are tetranuclear complexes. Magnetic studies reveal that both DyIII-based complexes (3 and 8) exhibit single-molecule magnet (SMM) behavior under a zero dc field. Furthermore, complex 3 presents one relaxation process under a zero dc field, while application of an external dc field (1500 Oe) induces multi-relaxation signals of the ac magnetic susceptibility.


Being able to learn and transfer skills from one agent to another is a fundamental feature in constructing even more intelligent behaviors. In this paper, we introduce a new kind of architecture and information pipeline that aims to enable the transmission of skills from one robot to one or several others. The Universal Notice Network (UNN) originality lies in the fact that it clearly distinguishes knowledge necessary to solve the task from the agent intrinsic perceptions and capabilities, hence increasing its reusability and its potential transmission to other agents. In various experiments, focusing on manipulation and comanipulation tasks in original environments, we demonstrate the capabilities of the proposed method that takes advantage of reinforcement learning algorithms and domain knowledge, such as forward geometric model and inverse kinematics. In particular, we show that a learned UNN through the interactions of an agent with its environment is transmissible to other agents, conserving a similar perfomance level.


PSNR and SSIM are the most widely used metrics in super-resolution problems, because they are easy to use and can evaluate the similarities between generated images and reference images. However, single image super-resolution is an ill-posed problem, there are multiple corresponding high-resolution images for the same low-resolution image. The similarities can't totally reflect the restoration effect. The perceptual quality of generated images is also important, but PSNR and SSIM do not reflect perceptual quality well. To solve the problem, we proposed a method called regional differential information entropy to measure both of the similarities and perceptual quality. To overcome the problem that traditional image information entropy can't reflect the structure information, we proposed to measure every region's information entropy with sliding window. Considering that the human visual system is more sensitive to the brightness difference at low brightness, we take quantization rather than linear quantization. To accelerate the method, we reorganized the calculation procedure of information entropy with a neural network. Through experiments on our IQA dataset and PIPAL, this paper proves that RDIE can better quantify perceptual quality of images especially GAN-based images.


Herein, a novel method is introduced to synthesize 3D hierarchically assembled BiVO4 nanosheet photoanodes. Despite the fact that the obtained photoanodes inherit the intrinsic properties of 2D and 3D structures, they generate low photocurrent under simulated solar light at 1.0 sun. Upon modification with the cobalt-phosphate (Co-Pi) cocatalyst, the photocurrent is dramatically enhanced from 0.41 to 3.32 mA cm-2 at 1.23 VRHE. Charge-transfer kinetic studies by intensity-modulated photocurrent spectroscopy indicated that the low photocurrent response is mainly due to the high density of surface states, which pin the Fermi level and suspend the band bending. The Co-Pi loading passivates these surface states, unpins the Fermi level, and thus resumes the band bending. It also greatly enhances the rate constant of charge transfer and the overall efficiency, evincing that Co-Pi exhibits a dual function (i.e., passivation and catalysis). The current results explicitly disclose the role of the Co-Pi cocatalyst in photoelectrochemical solar water splitting on BiVO4.


Soil temperature measurements from a Soil Climate Analysis Network (SCAN) monitoring site in the Ozark Highlands Major Land Resource Area (MLRA 116A) were evaluated on landscapes comprising Typic Fragiudults (Scholten series) and Typic Paleudults (Poynor series). The five soil forming factors were similarfor both soils, with the major difference between the adjacent soils being a fragipan in the Scholten series. Air and soil temperatures were collected from a weather station of the USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service near the border of the mesic soil temperature regime and udic soil moisture regime zone. The mean annual soil temperature observed in the Scholten soil (13.5° C) was0.5° C cooler than the mean annual soil temperature in the Poynor soil (14.0° C). This study showed little difference in mean soil temperatures between soiltypes from January to April and from August to December. During the months of May, June and July, the Poynor mean soil temperature was higher (by 1.1° C, 1.4° C and 1.2° C, respectively) than the Scholten mean soil temperature.According to this study, it is possible that the mean annual soil temperature of fragipan soils is cooler than adjacent soils with no fragipan properties. Thegreatest differences between mean soil temperature and mean air temperature were observed during the months of November (5.1° C for Scholten soil and 5.3°C for Poynor soil); December (5.0° C for Scholten soil and 4.9° C for Poynor soil); and January (4.5° C for Scholten soil and 4.4° C for Poynor soil). The smallestdifference was during the month of March (0° C for Scholten soil and 0.3° C for Poynor soil). This study also indicated that the mean annual soil temperature in the Ozark Highlands can vary by soil series depending on soil properties affecting heat transfer within pedons.


Difficult, long and troublesome was the journey of Albanian letters in all Albanian lands, especially in Kosovo. The marking of the 75th anniversary of the Albanian school, being commemorated this year in all Albanian lands, is a good opportunity to see the long-lasting path of Albanian education. There are many reasons, but some are more necessary to be written and spoken about. It is rare that nations had to pay dearly for the right to write on their own language compared to Albanian people. So much blood has been shed to escape assimilation. However, when World War II had spread largely over Europe, the Nazi-fascist powers had invaded other countries including all Albanian-inhabited areas. After Albania, Yugoslavia succumbed as well. At that time, the territories of today's Republic of Kosovo were also occupied. At that point, Kosovo was divided into three occupation zones: Italian, German and Bulgarian. Almost most of Kosovo's lands belonged to the Italian occupation zone. Thus, most of Kosovo and Western Macedonia joined Albania with Royal Decree and King of Vicar Decree no. 264, dated 12. VIII. 1941. In all three areas of occupation, the administration of governance was established in the service of the occupiers. The long and harsh oppression had an impact that Albanians would experience and perceive the new circumstances in every aspect as a resemblance of a real freedom, because the tyranny of the 1918-1941 period had exceeded all genocidal dimensions. With the initiative of Albanian Minister E. Koliqi, a contingent of teachers was sent to Kosovo as Kosovo lacked educational-pedagogical staff. This work set in motion the reflection of Albanian intelligence in Kosovo in order to open Albanian schools for Albanian students everywhere as soon as possible.


The main dynamic truck routing problem also presents a significant difficulty in the logistics sector, which is an unavoidable development trend of the contemporary technological changing society. A dynamic vehicle routing problem with time window model is suggested by the study in order to establish an effective and low-energy dynamic response method. The fundamental concept is to disrupt the conventional strategy of static dynamic consumers responding in time slots by dividing the dynamic time window into a static time window with several time slice intervals. The study makes use of cutting-edge ideas including dynamic attitude, before-and-after time slicing, and continuous optimisation while proposing a new method for model solution to optimise dynamic vehicle route issues effectively and affordably. The study employs the Solomon optimisation dataset and runs simulation studies on the Java platform to confirm its efficacy. The experimental findings demonstrated that the optimisation technique employed in the study reduced the cost of travelling by 83.8 miles while also considerably increasing the average vehicle utilisation by 3.6%. Because driving distance cost and vehicle number cost are typically positively connected with dynamic attitude, the study employs solutions that can increase dynamic response efficiency and save money. As a result, their robustness is higher.


The article provides an overview of the extensive and fast-moving reforms initiated by Michael Gove as the Secretary of State for Education in the years 2010–2014. These include the rapid acceleration of the academisation programme and the development of free schools. There is a more extensive exploration of the reform of the curriculum and the reformation of examination structures. This latter review is set in the context of university advice and against the backdrop of international performance. Much of the focus of the article considers the implementation of the intentions of a minster who had been in waiting for three years before taking office. However, consideration is also given to the unexpected, yet significant, issues which intersect a politician's tenure of office. The Birmingham based 'Trojan Horse Schools' situation is considered both as an issue of accountability but also its implications for the nature of schooling, state funding and societal values.


Complex networks are mapped to a model of boxes and balls where the balls are distinguishable. It is shown that the scale-free size distribution of boxes maximizes the information associated with the boxes provided configurations including boxes containing a finite fraction of the total amount of balls are excluded. It is conjectured that for a connected network with only links between different nodes, the nodes with a finite fraction of links are effectively suppressed. It is hence suggested that for such networks the scale-free node-size distribution maximizes the information encoded on the nodes. The noise associated with the size distributions is also obtained from a maximum entropy principle. Finally, explicit predictions from our least bias approach are found to be borne out by metabolic networks.


The divestment movement has sought to influence attitudes to fossil fuels by framing producer companies as pariahs and as unnecessary and redundant. In response, the fossil fuel industry has engaged in a direct and aggressive attack on the divestment movement. This article considers the relationship between the movement and the industry as a contest for legitimacy for both the organizations and the norms they advocate. Through a case study of the coal discourse in Australia from 2013 to 2016, it explores how each party has attempted to undermine the other's legitimacy and to build or defend its own. It concludes that the contest for legitimacy is complex, being conducted at multiple levels (pragmatic, moral, legal, and cognitive) and before multiple audiences. For the movement to "win" the contest, it will require more than a simple rebalancing of the legitimacy scales. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.


A longitudinal electromyographic study was carried out on fifteen shoe-industry workers (one man and fourteen women) affected with toxic polyneuropathy. The mean values of age, duration of exposure and lenght of the follow-up period were 23.2 years, 4.2 years and 12.2 months, respectively. Twelve subjects (80%) had a sensory-motor involvement of both upper and lower limbs; in the remainder, only the latter were affected. From a clinical standpoint, the polyneuropathy was classified as mild in seven subjects (46.6%), moderate in four (26.7%) and severe in four. On the basis of electromyographic criteria (maximal motor nerve conduction velocity; features of voluntary contraction tracings; existence of spontaneous activity recorded in different points of the same muscle), the polyneuropathy could be defined as mild in two patients (13.3%), moderate in three (20%) and severe in 10 (66.7%). In eight subjects (53.3%) the electromyographic abnormalities disappeared completely, through a gradual improvement in six and alternative phases of improvement and worsening in two. As for the remainder patients (7, viz. 46.6%), improvement and worsening in two. As for the remainder patients (7, viz. 46.6%), four showed a reduction of their electromyographic abnormalities, whereas no significant changes occurred in the last three. The obtained results are discussed and the following conclusions drawn: 1. the lower limbs are mostly affected, both clinically and electromyographically; 2. the clinical symptoms do not parallel the electromyographic findings; 3. the course of the disease appears to be independent of the initial electromyographic pattern; 4. recovery appears to occur in most instances within approximately eighteen months since the onset of symptoms, generally without significant residual deficit. Finally, the role of electromyography in the diagnosis and the follow-up study of the observed toxic polyneuropathy is underlined.


The Valley of the Kings (KV) is a UNESCO world heritage site with more than thirty opened tombs. Recently, most of these tombs have been damaged and inundated after 1994 flood. The Pharaonic rock-cut tombs at the valley of kings at the west bank of Luxor, were excavated mainly in the lower member I of the Thebes Limestone Formations and Esna shale Formations. These underground structures show serve degrees of damage and disintegration of supporting rock pillars, sidewalls and ceilings. In order to understand the Geo-environmental impact mainly the past flash floods in particularly the 1994 flood due to the intensive rainfall storm on the valley of kings and the long-term rock mass behavior under geostatic stresses in selected Horemheb tomb (KV57) and its impact on past failures and current stability, Remote sensing, GIS, LIDAR, 3D finite element stability analysis and rock mass quality assessments had been carried out using advanced methods and codes. Geo-environmental monitoring and numerical analysis play an important role in the tunneling and underground works, especially for archaeological underground structures are subjected to large initial stresses and high overburden geostatic stresses. These conditions yield non-reversible deviatoric shear and creep strains that develop during time at constant stress and eventually increasing the rate of strain, namely the secondary and tertiary creep stages. Neglecting time effects may lead to incorrect evaluation of deformation, which may impact the criteria for selection of proper design. In order to describe the deformation in underground structures in the valley of kings, various approaches have been established based on analytical, empirical and numerical methods. It is clear that the tomb of Horemheb (KV57) is much more susceptible to surcharge geostatic loading from the overburden rock strata, rock bursting, and structural damage of support pillars and walls induced to the water and past/recent flash floods impacts caused by heavy rain in the Valley. Since some of this tomb also makes contact with the underlying shale layers, that have high activity and the potential for swelling and shrinkage under changing moisture conditions.Our work provides environmental satellite space views via landviewer EOS Platform with passive and active sensors which includes the NDVI, SAVI, ARVI, GCI, NBR, NDSI, LIDAR images, Terrain DEM Digital Elevation Models, 3D geological maps. In other hand experimental and Numerical geotechnical evaluations and modeling of the rock mass of these underground structures and their surroundings have been executed. We estimated the rock mass quality of the different members within the Thebes limestone and Esna shale formations using the mechanical testing and Rock Mass Rating (RMR), rock quality system (Q-system) and Geological Strength Index (GSI) systems.Our analyses show that the KV57 rock- cut tomb at Luxor has been cut into poor to very poor quality marl shale masses. Rock failures of ceilings and pillars were frequently facilitated by local, unfavorably oriented persistent discontinuities, such as tension cracks and faults. Other failures were related to the disintegration of the marl limestone and Esna shale Formations into individual nodules upon weathering. Our data suggest that, in ancient Egypt monumental tomb construction, low-strength rock masses rarely resulted in modifications of the planned tomb design in order to minimise the risk of rock falls and to prevent collapses. The current flood protection measures are not enough. For this two following measures are proposed 1- to rise the current wall by 50cm. 2- to fill the depression by reshaping bathymetry.


Children with Down syndrome (DS) have an approximately 20-fold higher incidence of leukemia than the general population. The majority of leukemia cases associated with DS are acute megakaryoblastic leukemia (AMKL). Although GATA1 mutations have been found in almost all cases of transient myeloproliferative disorder (TMD) "a preleukemia" that may be present in as many as 10% of newborn infants with DS and AMKL accompanying DS (DS-AMKL), GATA1 mutation alone may not be sufficient for development of leukemia. Following identification of acquired activating JAK3 mutations in DS-AMKL, JAK3 mutations have been reported also in TMD patients. However, the frequency and functional consequence of JAK3 mutations in TMD remain unknown. To further understand how JAK3 mutations are involved in the development and/or progression of leukemia in DS, we screened TMD patients and two DS-AMKL cell lines for JAK3 mutation, and examined the functional consequences of these JAK3 mutations. In one out of the two DS-AMKL cell lines, MGS, we identified novel JAK3 mutations (JAK3Q501H mutation in the SH2 domain and JAK3R657Q mutation in the psuedokinase domain in the same allele). JAK3Q501H and JAK3R657Q each constitutively phosphorylates STAT5 and transformes Ba/F3 cells to factor-independent growth, whereas the double mutant (JAK3Q501H and JAK3R657Q) has more potent transforming activity than each mutant. Biochemichal analysis in Ba/F3 cells revealed that the degrees of phosphorylation of STAT5 in the cells transduced with each JAK3 mutant were correlated with its transforming activity. Although we previously identified a JAK3I87T mutation in one of two TMD patients, no JAK3 mutations were detected in another 9 TMD patients. Together with the previous results, we found JAK3 mutations in each of 11 TMD and 11 DS-AMKL patients. Although the number of the patients analyzed was small, these results indicate that there are no significant differences in the frequency of JAK3 mutations between TMD and DS-AMKL. In this study, we showed for the first time that the TMD patient-derived JAK3 mutation was also an activating one. JAK3I87T transformed Ba/F3 cells to factor-independent growth. Treatment with JAK3 inhibitors (WHI-P131 and WHI-P154) resulted in a significant decrease in the growth and viability of Ba/F3 cells expressing each activating JAK3 mutant. These results suggest that the JAK3 activating mutation is an early event during the development of AMKL in DS. Furthermore these results provide a proof-of-principle that JAK3 inhibitor should have therapeutic effects on the AMKL and TMD patients carrying the activating JAK3 mutations.


The British R•gime in Michigan and the Old Northwest, 1760-1796. By NELSON VANCE RUSSELL. Northfield, Minn.: Carleton College. 1939. Pp. xii, 302. ($2.00) IN this volume, Professor Russell has provided a study of the British r•gime in Michigan which is similar in scope and character to Dr. Louise Phelps Kellogg's monograph on Wisconsin, published a few years ago. Mr. Russell's study is a general history of the Michigan region during the period from the British conquest to the cession of the Western Posts: it is concerned with economic and social


The On Board Sound Intensity (OBSI) method is used by University of California Pavement Research Center (UCPRC) as well as by other researchers and consultants in the USA to perform detailed measurements of tire noise emission from road pavements. In Europe the Close Proximity method (CPX) is currently used. International experiences indicate that the temperature is a factor which has some influence on the results of measurements of road traffic noise. The objective of this paper is to analyze how the temperature affects the OBSI results. The results presented here are also relevant to the CPX method because the Standard Reference Test Tire (SRTT), which is the test tire for the OBSI, is being studied as a possibility for the CPX method. The analysis is based on a unique series of detailed noise measurements performed on the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) test sections with 5 different pavements at highway LA138 in the Mojave Desert in Southern California. The measurements were carried out in the desert within three consecutive days in the wintertime where the variation of the air temperature over the day was from to 2 to 22°C. This ensures that the primary variable parameter during these measurements is the temperature. Based on this project the air temperature correction factor of -0.027 dB/°C for asphalt pavements can be suggested for the SRTT tire used in the OBSI method and other noise measurement methods using this tire. The temperature mainly influences the noise at frequencies above 1000 Hz, therefore it could be relevant to apply frequency dependent correction factors.


BACKGROUND Chondrosarcomas of the larynx are malignant tumours that most commonly originate from the hyaline cartilage. Chondrosarcoma of the larynx, the most common type of low-grade tumour, accounts for 1% of all laryngeal neoplasms. CASE SUMMARY We present the case of a 60-year-old female patient who developed progressive hoarseness and shortness of breath over a 2-mo period. The patient had undergone resection of a laryngeal tumour 14 years before the aforementioned symptoms occurred, and histopathological analysis indicated that it was a chondroma. During the assessment of the patient, a submucosal, oval-shaped tumour was detected that was predominantly located on the left side of the larynx and was approximately 6 cm in size. The decision to perform left partial vertical laryngectomy was made. A pathohistological diagnosis of low-grade chondrosarcoma was made. Considering the results of pathohistological analysis and the positive margins of the resection, a total laryngectomy was performed. During the 12-mo follow-up, no local relapse or regional or distant metastases was detected. CONCLUSION Chondrosarcoma of the larynx must be considered in the differential diagnosis of laryngeal submucosal tumours. It is crucial to carefully sample of tumour tissue, differentiate chondroma and chondrosarcoma, and consider the possibility of malignant changes from chondroma to chondrosarcoma.


Due to the large amount of textual information available on Internet, it is of paramount relevance to use techniques that find relevant and concise content. A typical task devoted to the identification of informative sentences in documents is the so called extractive document summarization task. In this paper, we use complex network concepts to devise an extractive Multi Document Summarization (MDS) method, which extracts the most central sentences from several textual sources. In the proposed model, texts are represented as networks, where nodes represent sentences and the edges are established based on the number of shared words. Differently from previous works, the identification of relevant terms is guided by the characterization of nodes via dynamical measurements of complex networks, including symmetry, accessibility and absorption time. The evaluation of the proposed system revealed that excellent results were obtained with particular dynamical measurements, including those based on the exploration of networks via random walks.


Psycholinguistic researchers identify linguistic variables and assess if they affect cognitive processes. One such variable is letter bigram frequency, or the frequency with which a given letter pair co-occurs in an orthography. While early studies reported that bigram frequency affects visual lexical decision, subsequent, well-controlled studies not shown this effect. Still, researchers continue to use it as a control variable in psycholinguistic experiments. We propose two reasons for the persistence of this variable: (1) Reporting no significant effect of bigram frequency cannot provide evidence for no effect. (2) Despite empirical work, theoretical implications of bigram frequency are largely neglected. We perform Bayes Factor analyses to address the first issue. In analyses of existing large-scale databases, we find no effect of bigram frequency in lexical decision in the British Lexicon Project, and some evidence for an inhibitory effect in the English Lexicon Project. We find strong evidence for an effect in reading aloud. This suggests that, for lexical decision, the effect is unstable, and may depend on item characteristics and task demands rather than reflecting cognitive processes underlying visual word recognition. We call for more consideration of theoretical implications of the presence or absence of a bigram frequency effect.


Although studies have examined the association between nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) use and central nervous system (CNS) tumors risk, the results are inconclusive. Here, we conducted a dose-response meta-analysis in order to investigate the correlation between NSAIDs use and CNS tumors risk. Up to July 2017, 12 studies were included in current meta-analysis. NSAIDs use was significantly associated with a lower risk of CNS tumors. Furthermore, non-aspirin NSAIDs or aspirin use are significantly associated with a lower risk of CNS tumors. Additionally, NSAIDs use was associated with significantly a lower risk of glioma, glioblastoma but not meningioma. Subgroup analysis showed consistent findings. Furthermore, a significant dose-response relationship was observed between NSAIDs use and CNS tumors risk. Increasing cumulative 100 defined daily dose of NSAIDs use was associated with a 5% decrement of CNS tumors risk, increasing NSAIDs or non-aspirin NSAIDs or aspirin use (per 3 prescriptions increment) was associated with a 7%, 7%, 10% decrement of CNS tumors risk, increasing per 2 year of duration of NSAIDs or non-aspirin NSAIDs or aspirin use was associated with a 6%, 8%, 6% decrement of CNS tumors risk. Considering these promising results, NSAIDs use might provide helpful for reducing CNS tumors risk. Large sample size and different ethnic population are warranted to validate this association.


At the core of every system for the efficient control of the network steady-state operation is the AC-power-flow problem solver. For local distribution networks to continue to operate effectively, it is necessary to use the most powerful and numerically stable AC-power-flow problem solvers within the software that controls the power flows in these networks. This communication presents the results of analyses of the computational performance and stability of three methods for solving the AC-power-flow problem. Specifically, this communication compares the robustness and speed of execution of the Gauss–Seidel (G–S), Newton–Raphson (N–R), and Newton–Raphson method with Iwamoto multipliers (N–R–I), which were tested in open-source pandapower software using a meshed electrical network model of various topologies. The test results show that the pandapower implementations of the N–R method and the N–R–I method are significantly more robust and faster than the G–S method, regardless of the network topology. In addition, a generalized Python interface between the pandapower and the SciPy package was implemented and tested, and results show that the hybrid Powell, Levenberg–Marquardt, and Krylov methods, a quasilinearization algorithm, and the continuous Newton method can sometimes achieve better results than the classical N–R method.


The abundance of alkylphenols in the system of water, oil and rock is of great geochemistry significance. The analysis of alkylphenols in oil field water using micellar electrokinetic chromatography with UV detection is described. The different variables that affect separation were studied and optimized. The results show that better separation was obtained with the borate concentration of 47.5 mmol/L, the SDS concentration of 70.0 mmol/L, pH 9.15, separation current of 100 microA, capillary temperature 20 degrees C. The organic additive(beta-CD) could partly improve separation. Water sample was introduced into the capillary by pressure of 5 kPa for several seconds. Detection wavelength was 200 nm and reference wavelength at 350 nm for all experiments. For the oil field water sample, the reproducibility of directly injected oil field water after filtration through a membrane filter of 0.45 micron pore size was far from good and it's concentrations of alkylphenols were too low to be detected. Therefore, a method of separation and enrichment by a column packed with tributyl phosphate(TBP) extraction resin was applied for analysis of TZ4 oil field water. Qualitative analysis show that there are phenol, o-cresol, m-cresol and p-cresol in this water sample and phenol is the main component and it's quantity is more than other alkylphenols. It's recoveries from the oil field water were 91.5%-95.3%. The results were satisfactory.


Women who received a diagnosis of breast cancer often report impairments in physical and psychological wellbeing, even some years after treatments. Individual awareness about physical changes, body image, and current sensations related to their body is important to maintain a psycho-emotional balance. Virtual reality, as an advanced human–computer interface, can be an effective tool to improve breast cancer survivors' abilities to know and manage their current sensations related to their bodies. The present study protocol proposes a virtual reality intervention aiming at promoting interoception and emotional wellbeing, fear of cancer recurrence, and body perception in breast cancer survivors, according to the three data collection times. Repeated-measure analysis of variance (ANOVA) with between–within interaction will be performed. Expected results include participants' awareness of their internal feelings, the reduction of negative emotions, and the management of symptoms related to the body, clarifying characteristics for the effective implementation of VR psychological intervention in the future.


This paper presents the results of the shared tasks from the 3rd workshop on Asian translation (WAT2016) including J ↔ E, J ↔ C scientific paper translation subtasks, C ↔ J, K ↔ J, E ↔ J patent translation subtasks, I ↔ E newswire subtasks and H ↔ E, H ↔ J mixed domain subtasks. For the WAT2016, 15 institutions participated in the shared tasks. About 500 translation results have been submitted to the automatic evaluation server, and selected submissions were manually evaluated.


The RVL-CDIP benchmark is widely used for measuring performance on the task of document classification. Despite its widespread use, we reveal several undesirable characteristics of the RVL-CDIP benchmark. These include (1) substantial amounts of label noise, which we estimate to be 8.1% (ranging between 1.6% to 16.9% per document category); (2) presence of many ambiguous or multi-label documents; (3) a large overlap between test and train splits, which can inflate model performance metrics; and (4) presence of sensitive personally-identifiable information like US Social Security numbers (SSNs). We argue that there is a risk in using RVL-CDIP for benchmarking document classifiers, as its limited scope, presence of errors (state-of-the-art models now achieve accuracy error rates that are within our estimated label error rate), and lack of diversity make it less than ideal for benchmarking. We further advocate for the creation of a new document classification benchmark, and provide recommendations for what characteristics such a resource should include.


This study investigates the H∞ control problem for a class of continuous-time Markovian jump singular systems. The authors' attention is focused on the design of state and static output feedback controllers which ensure that the closed-loop system is regular, impulse-free and stochastically stable, and satisfies a prescribed H∞ performance level. To investigate the problem of H∞ performance analysis for the system under consideration, a bounded real lemma (BRL) is provided in terms of linear matrix inequality (LMI) containing equality constraints, which may not be a problem from the theoretical point of view, but may cause great big trouble in checking the conditions numerically. To solve this problem, a new version of BRL is also provided in terms of strict LMIs. Based on this, two approaches are established to solve the problem of state feedback H∞ control, and then, the problem of static output feedback H∞ control is solved, which can also be used for solving the dynamic output feedback control problems. Finally, two numerical examples are given to illustrate the effectiveness of the obtained theoretical results.


Low density lipoproteins (LDL) have been cationized using the water-soluble carbodiimide, N-ethyl-N'-(3-trimethylpropylammonium) carbodiimide iodide at a reagent: lipoprotein mole ratio of 10 000:1. This was shown to increase the innate DNA-binding capacity of LDL 10-fold. [125 I]-labeled carbodiimide-modified LDL ([125 I])-labeled ECDI-LDL) appeared to recognize the LDL receptor on normal human skin fibroblasts, although some nonspecific binding also was detected. To demonstrate the large ionic component in the lipoprotein-DNA interactions,ε-NH 2 amino groups on the apolipoprotein B-100 (apoB-100) component of LDL were acetylated with acetic anhydride. A nitrocellulose filter-binding assay revealed that acetylated LDL bound approximately 25% of the [3 H]-labeled pBR322 plasmid DNA bound by native LDL under the same conditions. ECDI-LDL- [3 H]-labeled plasmid DNA complexes were considerably more stable to NaCl challenge than complexes formed between [3 H]-labeled plasmid DNA and native LDL. Thus, the half dissociation of ECDI-LDL containing complexes was achieved at 0.28 M NaCl, whereas for LDL-plasmid DNA complexes this was reached at 0.18 M NaCl. Displacement studies with native LDL studies showed that ECDI-LDL- [3 H]-labeled plasmid DNA complexes retained the ability to recognize the LDL receptor on normal skin fibroblasts. Finally, ECDI-LDL complexes with pSV2CAT expression plasmid were shown to transfect CV-1 fibroblasts, a cell line known to specifically recognize apoB-liposome conjugates.


The zbMATH database contains more than 4 million bibliographic entries. We aim to provide easy access to these entries. Therefore, we maintain different index structures, including a formula index. To optimize the findability of the entries in our database, we continuously investigate new approaches to satisfy the information needs of our users. We believe that the findings from the ARQMath evaluation will generate new insights into which index structures are most suitable to satisfy mathematical information needs. Search engines, recommender systems, plagiarism checking software, and many other added-value services acting on databases such as the arXiv and zbMATH need to combine natural and formula language. One initial approach to address this challenge is to enrich the mostly unstructured document data via Entity Linking. The ARQMath Task at CLEF 2020 aims to tackle the problem of linking newly posted questions from Math Stack Exchange (MSE) to existing ones that were already answered by the community. To deeply understand MSE information needs, answer-, and formula types, we performed manual runs for tasks 1 and 2. Furthermore, we explored several formula retrieval methods: For task 2, such as fuzzy string search, k-nearest neighbors, and our recently introduced approach to retrieve Mathematical Objects of Interest (MOI) with textual search queries. The task results show that neither our automated methods nor our manual runs archived good scores in the competition. However, the perceived quality of the hits returned by the MOI search particularly motivates us to conduct further research about MOI.


The development of infrared optical materials is always closely related to the research and exploration of material science. The infrared optical domes bears shock and produces stress when the infrared optical domes mounted on the missile moving at a high speed is shocked by high temperature. According to aerodynamics theory and thermo shock theory, the surge current will be transferred to optical parts through holding up layer and warms the surface of optical parts when infrared optical parts are shocked by high temperature. A compress stress is formed on the hot external surface of optical parts forms and a tension stress is formed on the internal surface or optical parts under the circumstance of the edge of optical parts being fixed. The windows of optical parts become curvature radius of lens with the function of pressure difference which can cause aberration change. The brittle fracture of material will be caused if peak stress is beyond the strength which is permitted for infrared materials. Therefore, limits to design of windows thickness is proposed in this paper.


In recent years, electromagnetic interference (EMI) has raised serious issues in terms of the unintentional radiation that disrupts the near proximity equipment from working properly. One solution to reduce the effects of EMI is the use of electromagnetic shielding. Carbon fibre composite (CFC) material is a promising customised product that has entered numerous industrial areas due to its attractive properties like high strength, low weight, and the resistance to chemical substances and corrosion. CFC has started to be used as electromagnetic shields, for example modern computer cases. However, not much is known about its electromagnetic behaviour.

This research derives various models for CFC materials for the purpose of achieving better understanding to their interaction with electromagnetic waves at microwave frequencies.

Throughout this research, the electrical properties of different materials have been investigated in terms of their shielding effectiveness (SE). The modelling was performed using the transmission-line modelling (TLM) method. The digital filter (DF) technique was used for small structures that are embedded in the system under modelling. In this way, the space mesh can be turned into coarser mesh. While maintaining the same accuracy, this technique has substantially saved on computational resources and has increased the speed of the modelling process. This in turn, has made it more feasible to model large scale practical systems. The formulae of DF cascading were derived to allow modelling systems of multiple embedded structures. Simulated models were validated by comparing them with the corresponding conventional fine mesh results. One-dimensional models were validated with the available analytic solution. Experimental measurements were conducted on panels made of this anisotropic material, which has manifested frequency-dependent characteristics that satisfy Drude model. These measurements have validated the corresponding numerical electromagnetic models.

The final product of this study is gaining better knowledge about the electromagnetic behaviour of different materials. This knowledge can help in predicting the shielding performance when these materials are used within large-scale systems.


Objective: To explore the correlation between the parameters of the new generation of Acoustic Cardiography and brain natriuretic peptide (BNP), left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) and cardiac function grading in the diagnosis of heart failure. Methods: One hundred and sixty-eight inpatients, who were hospitalized in Department of Cardiology, Haikou People's Hospital from May 2016 to July 2017, were enrolled as heart failure group, including NYHA class Ⅰ(n=29), NYHA class Ⅱ(n=40), NYHA class Ⅲ(n=64), NYHA class Ⅳ (n=35). And eighty-seven patients with normal cardiac function were selected as healthy control group. The data of the two groups were analyzed after the Acoustic Cardiography test, BNP determination and LVEF examination. Results: The differences in QRS duration, electromechanical activation time (EMAT), EMAT%, systolic dysfunction index (SDI), third heart sound (S3) and other indicators among the groups with different levels of cardiac function were statistically significant (P<0.05). The difference in left ventricular systolic time (LVST) between the cardiac function grade Ⅰ and healthy group was not significant (P>0.05), while the differences among the rest groups were significant. There was a positive correlation between QRS duration, EMAT%, SDI, S3 and BNP (t=9.46, 11.38, 12.14, 9.67, respectively, P<0.05); LVST and BNP were negatively correlated (t=-14.27, P<0.05). There was a negative correlation between QRS duration, EMAT%, SDI, S3 and LVEF (t=11.24, -8.764, -2.393, -0.579, respectively, P<0.05). There was a positive correlation between LVST and LVEF (t=23.48, P<0.05). There was a positive correlation between QRS duration, EMAT%, SDI, S3 and cardiac function grading (β=0.003, 0.234, 0.419, 0.352, respectively, P<0.05). There was a negative correlation between LVST and cardiac function grade (β=-0.021, P<0.05). Conclusion: The parameters of the Acoustic Cardiography test (EMAT%, EMAT, SDI, S3 ) are closely related to BNP, LVEF and cardiac function grading, and can be used as assistant indexes for the diagnosis and evaluation of heart failure.


In taking the decision to accept or reject special orders. Relevant accounting information differential is the differential revenue and cost differentials. Earning extra income differential is due to receive a special order, while the cost differential is an additional charge for special orders. Management may face a problem to ascertain whether special orders will be accepted or rejected. Classified as a special order because these orders have a lower selling price than the selling price of similar products to public subscription. In taking the decision to accept or reject the order if the sale price perunit a special order larger than variable costs perunit special order then an order should be accepted. Vice versa if the price is less than perunit perunit variable costs should be a special order should be rejected and advice given is better to receive a special order, due to the differential profit Rp.9.363.375.


In this context of climate change, agroforestry systems are acknowledged to have a good potential to increase carbon storage in agricultural areas. However, the carbon storage potential of agroforestry systems still needs to be quantified accurately, especially for hedges. The objectives of this study were to (1) add references to the existing literature on the potential for soil organic carbon (SOC) storage near hedges and (2) identify the main factors that influence the variability in this potential. To this end, we sampled soil in the adjacent fields of 25 hedges in France with mixed crop‐livestock agriculture, with sampling on both sides for 20 hedges and sampling on only one side for five hedges, giving a total of 45 study sites. We measured SOC stocks to a depth of 90 cm at distances of 1, 2, 3 and 10 m from the hedge. The results showed that hedges have a strong potential to store carbon in soils, with a mean increase of 15% in SOC stock within 3 m of the hedge. This increase in SOC stock had high variability because of site characteristics. Additional SOC stocks were the largest in rotations of annual crops and grasslands with a permanent grass strip 1 m wide near the hedge, followed by rotations of annual crops, permanent grasslands and rotations of annual crops and grasslands. Large additional SOC stocks because of the hedge were also associated with soils that had a high C:N ratio. The contribution of this type of land management to soil carbon storage thus depends on the local context in which it is implemented.


According to some philosophers, sentences like (1) "It is raining" and (2) "John is ready" are context sensitive sentences even if they do not contain indexicals or demonstratives. That view initiated a context sensitivity frenzy. Cappelen and Lepore (2005) summarize the frenzy by the slogan "Every sentence is context sensitive" (Insensitive Semantics, p. 6, note 5). They suggest a view they call Minimalism according to which the truth conditions of utterances of sentences like (1)/(2) are exactly what Convention T gives you. I will distinguish different propositions, and refocus semantics on sentences. As distinct from what the protagonists in the ongoing debate think, I argue that the content or truth conditions of utterances of both context sensitive sentences and sentences like (1)/(2) are not interesting from a semantic point of view, and that the problem sentences like (1)/(2) raises is not about context sensitivity or context insensitivity of sentences, but relevance of the content of utterances.


This work is an endeavor to evaluate and compare the impact of the SC welfare schemes in habitats and other dwelling places. It mainly focuses on three main factors which are crucial for shaping the future of SCs namely education, housing and employment. The Kottayam District of Kerala is taken as a sample for empirical study. Using the primary and secondary data the authors find the deprivation index, the indicator of the human development. An attempt is made to determine the major factors affecting deprivation. To compare the socio- economic status of SCs a new form of index of development, SEDI (Socio Economic Development Index) is developed and Statistical techniques are employed to find out the major factors affecting socio-economic development. This book is a hazardous journey of investigation based on theory, direct observation and shared experience which suggests some remedial measures. It also sheds light on certain dark areas of the miserable life of millions of SCs and highlights certain solutions, which would be of much use to policy-makers, planners, and above all, to the developing Nations that in turn provide tremendous benefits to the down-trodden in general.


This paper presents a case study in windthrow. The case study area was 1.7 ha of two forest gaps on the Pokljuka plateau, Slovenia, where strong wind had blown down 44 trees. An additional 44 standing trees closest to the fallen trees were used as a control group for comparative purposes. The following variables were measured for fallen trees: breast diameter, height, crown diameter and height as well, the number and diameter of roots, the volume of the root system, and root rot. Standing trees were measured for breast diameter, height, crown diameter and height, and the number and diameter of roots. The data were analysed using the machine learning methods in the Weka computer program. The most important factors of windthrow in the case study area were: storm wind (speed above 17 m/s), wet shallow soil, and the edges ofthe forest gaps. The results of the case study show that breast diameter, tree height and the presence of root rot can be classified as windthrow factors


The methods and software of the fast-running processes' investigation in various media (solids, liquids, gas, plasma) and technical objects were developed. The mathematical models of the objects under research were created in the conditions of exposure to the fields possessing different physical nature. The hardware and programming complex of the film-phototelerecording and data processing combining the computer equipment, television- and film technique, was created, permitting the use of the advantages of every type of the technical systems for the investigation of certain processes, objects and their characteristics. The hardware and programming complex of the film-phototelerecording and data processing is used both in the development and designing periods, and during tests, as well as under the long-term operation of technical objects in the ordinary and extremal situations. The fast-running processes' investigations in various media and technical objects were performed, and by their results the data bank was made.


The integration of multiple functionality in MEMS devices is explored in this paper. The goal of this approach is to maximize the integration level by simplifying the global system architecture. In this paper, a capacitive pressure sensor is also designed as a RF capacitor for radio telemetry. The experimental results validate this novel approach that opens new alternatives to single-device RF-sensor designs.


In the context of the teleparallel equivalent of general relativity, we obtain the tetrad and the torsion fields of the stationary axisymmetric Kerr spacetime. It is shown that, in the slow rotation and weak-field approximations, the axial-vector torsion plays the role of the gravitomagnetic component of the gravitational field, and is thus responsible for the Lense-Thirring effect.


This paper attempts to locate changing interspecies relations in the dynamism and violence of capitalist expansion on a world scale, setting out two primary ways that the rising exploitation of non-human animals contributed to the development of settler-colonial economies, destabilization of indigenous societies, and transformation of ecosystems. One path was set by burgeoning demand essentially turning some wild animal species into increasingly valuable commodities and driving the rising scale and systematization of extraction and trade, which tended to quickly undermine conditions of abundance and make these animal frontiers very mobile. The second way started from the introduction of domesticated animals, with the muscle power and bodily commodities derived from proliferating populations valued not only in the expansion of agricultural landscapes but also in the formation and functioning of other resource frontiers, and ultimately bound up in waves of enclosures and expulsions. This framework seeks to simultaneously pose challenges for historical analysis and provide insights that help to understand the trajectory of animal life today.


How do you deal with change--in either personal circumstances or in the turbulent health care environment? Do you rail against the variables that seem to put you in the uncomfortable situation, blame yourself, take it personally? Are there ways to start looking at change differently and more effectively? Here's the key: It's all weather. Whatever you can't control, no matter who does it or why, is just part of the weather--where you are right now. How do we treat weather? We try to find out as much as we can about what's coming, but we keep its unpredictability in mind. We prepare for its extremes as wisely as possible. We grieve any losses it causes us, and celebrate the lovely spring days and quiet summer evenings it gives us. And never once do we take it personally, think that the weather is out to get us, or that lousy weather means that somehow we have failed. We just know that its not personal.


Improved Google commitments (closer to) getting the thumbs up from the European Commission* On 5 February 2014, the European Commission issued a press release and a memo concerning the improved…


In order to investigate the tensile characteristics of lead-free solder at high strain rates, impact tensile test equipment for solder materials was developed, on the basis of the direct tension split Hopkinson bar technique. By using this equipment, tensile stress-strain characteristics data of the Sn-3.0 Ag-0.5 Cu lead-free solder and the Sn-Pb conventional solder up to fracture were measured with a high accuracy at strain rate of 1.66 x 103 and compared with those at quasi-static strain rates of 1.2 and 1.2 x 10-2. The results show that the proof stress and tensile strength of the Sn-3.0 Ag0.5 Cu lead-free solder increase significantly with increasing strain rate comparing with the Sn-Pb conventional solder. It is also shown that the fracture morphology of Sn-3.0 Ag-0.5 Cu solder changes from ductile fracture to brittle fracture with increase in the strain rates.


Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a chronic inflammatory skin disease characterized by pruritus, xerosis, and eczematous lesions. In Japan, treatment options, such as topical corticosteroids and tacrolimus, are associated with efficacy and safety concerns. Crisaborole ointment, 2%, is a topical non‐steroidal anti‐inflammatory agent approved in several countries for the treatment of mild‐to‐moderate AD. This phase 2b, randomized, double‐blind study (NCT03954158) assessed the efficacy and safety of two crisaborole regimens versus vehicle in the treatment of Japanese patients aged ≥2 years with mild‐to‐moderate AD. Each patient was assigned to one of two age cohorts (≥12 or 2–11 years) and randomized to crisaborole once daily (QD) or twice daily (BID). All patients had two target lesions that were each randomly assigned to crisaborole or vehicle at baseline and treated for 2 weeks. The primary endpoint was change from baseline in total sign score (TSS) in crisaborole‐ or vehicle‐treated target lesions on day 15, and secondary endpoints included change from baseline in Investigator's Static Global Assessment (ISGA) and pruritic assessments (Cohort 1: peak pruritus numeric rating scale [NRS]; Cohort 2: Itch Severity Scale Self‐Report and Caregiver‐Reported Itch Severity NRS) and incidence of treatment‐emergent adverse events (TEAEs). This study comprised 81 patients (Cohort 1: n = 41; Cohort 2: n = 40). Crisaborole‐treated lesions showed statistically significant reductions in TSS versus vehicle‐treated lesions at day 15 (p < 0.01), and numerically larger decreases in TSS were observed with crisaborole BID versus crisaborole QD in both cohorts. Furthermore, crisaborole‐treated lesions generally demonstrated greater decreases in ISGA, peak pruritus NRS, Itch Severity Scale, and Caregiver‐Reported Itch Severity NRS versus vehicle‐treated lesions irrespective of regimen or cohort. Overall, TEAEs were mild; the most frequently reported TEAEs was application site irritation. In summary, both crisaborole regimens, particularly crisaborole BID, demonstrated efficacy and were well tolerated.


A numerical method based on a fluid-structure interaction formulation is used to understand the role of viscoelasticity on flow in a two-dimensional collapsible channel. Three different viscoelastic fluid models have been considered - the Oldroyd-B, the FENE-P and Owens model for blood [R. G. Owens, A new microstructure-based constitutive model for human blood, J. Non-Newtonian Fluid Mech. 140 (2006), 57-70]. Initially the collapsible wall is considered as a zero thickness membrane model. Subsequently the collapsible wall is modelled as an incompressible neo-Hookean solid. Experiments in micro collapsible channels have also been performed. At present, there are no models in the literature thatsimultaneously account for the elastic nature of the collapsible wall and the non-Newtonian rheology of the flowing fluid. In this study, for the first time, a viscoelastic fluid-structure interaction model has been developed that accounts for a viscoelastic fluid and a finite thickness elastic wall, and the resulting governing equations are solved with a sophisticated finite element method. The rheological behaviour of the viscoelastic fluids is described in terms of a conformation tensor model. The mesh equation and transport equations are discretized by using the DEVSS-TG/SUPG mixed finite element method. The computational method developed in this work is validated by comparing with the available analytical and numerical results. While considering viscoelastic flow in a two-dimensional collapsible channel with a zero-thickness membrane, a distinct difference has been observed in the collapse wall profile for the Oldroyd-B, FENE-P and Owens model as compared to a Newtonian fluid at low values of membrane tension. The shape change of the collapsible wall depends on the Weissenberg number (Wi) for the Oldroyd-B and FENE-P fluids. The shape change in Owens model is essentially due to its shear thinning property. There is a limiting Weissenberg number beyond which computations fail, which increases with mesh refinement and decreases with decrease in membrane tension. One of the major outcomes of the zero-thickness membrane model study is that the significant differences that arise amongst the different viscoelastic fluids in the predicted value of the tangential shear stress on the membrane surface, has no influence on the shape of the deformable membrane, because of the boundary condition adopted in the model. Essentially it is assumed that the shape of the membrane is governed only by the normal stresses acting on it. In order to use a more realistic model for the collapsible wall, the zero-thickness membrane model has been replaced by a deformable finite thickness elastic solid which accounts for the effect of shear stress on membrane shape. The limiting Weissenberg number beyond which computations fail to converge is found to be sensitive to the choice of viscoelastic model and depends on a dimensionless solid elasticity parameter. The shape of the fluid-solid interface and the stress and velocity fields in the channel, for the three viscoelastic fluids, are compared with predictions for a Newtonian fluid, and the observed differences are related to individual fluid rheological behaviour. Predictions with a finite thickness elastic solid model for the deformable wall differ considerably from those in which it is modelled as a zero-thickness membrane. Experiments have been carried out in a micro-collapsible channel made of polydimethysiloxane (PDMS) that mimics the numerically simulated geometry. The experiments show that the channel width perpendicular to the flow must be significant in order for wall effects to be negligible (an assumption that is made in the 2D simulation). As a consequence, the commercial software ANSYS has been used to develop a full 3D model of the channel which captures the deformation of the flexible membrane in the absence of flow. The elastic properties of PDMS have been extracted by comparing the load-displacement curves obtained from the FEM simulations with the experiments. Preliminary comparison has been made between simulations and experiments for the flow of a Newtonian fluid in the micro-collapsible channel.


The inevitable decline of cognitive function with aging and the high incidence of clinical impairment make understanding the process of cognitive decline and the search for remediation an urgent priority. However, in spite of massive efforts in research and development, the effectiveness of pharmacological treatments for cognitive impairment remains extremely limited (Zhu et al., in press). Therefore, there is growing interest in the set of lifestyle factors that serve to maintain cognitive function even in the presence of neuropathology. These factors, called cognitive reserve (Stern, 2002), include education, occupational status, socioeconomic class, and involvement in physical, intellectual, and social activities (Bennett, Schneider, Tang, Arnold, & Wilson, 2006; Stern et al., 1994). Bilingualism appears to be another potent source of cognitive reserve (Bialystok, Craik, Green, & Gollan, 2009). For these reasons, a comprehensive review of the small but growing literature on bilingualism and cognition in aging is timely and scientifically important.


Background and Hypothesis: An early problem frequently present in infants born with cleft lip (CL), cleft lip and palate (CLP), or cleft palate (CP) is difficulty feeding. In many cases, health-care professionals are not familiar with the appropriate feeding techniques and unable to instruct parents correctly. This problem can be particularly significant in rural areas where health-care resources are limited and children with clefts are seen on an infrequent basis. The purpose of the investigation was to study the initial feeding experiences of parents who reside in rural areas and whose children were born with CL, CLP, or CP. Method: A 29-item questionnaire was developed and administered to 26 families. The results were analyzed and summarized descriptively. Results and Conclusion: The majority of parents reported initial difficulties with feeding their infants. They indicated the need to seek information and assistance from various sources. As a result of the findings, an informational resource was developed to inform rural health-care professionals of the early feeding issues of children born with CL, CLP, or CP.


Cheney and Seyfarth's pioneering studies on vervet alarm calls reformed our knowledge about nonhuman's understanding of the world and their social relationships. Since then, it has been reported that some other primate species also have functionally referential alarm calls for aerial and terrestrial predators, but recent research indicates that these calls, or acoustic variants thereof, are also used in other contexts. Since the use of unspecific general alarm calls for terrestrial predators that are also used during aggressive interactions with conspecifics appears to be more common among primates, particularly in phylogenetically basal lemurs, these calls may present the ancestral form of primate alarm calling. In addition, intraspecific comparisons between populations that are exposed to different sets of predators also suggest that terrestrial predator alarm call usage and comprehension is more flexible than usage and comprehension of aerial alarm calls. Thus, primates can infer specific meaning from calls either based on their predator exposure history or by taking additional contextual information into account. The fact that they can even extract specific information from non-specific signals puts the utility of the original concept of functional reference into question.


To our valued hospitality community, welcome to this thought-provoking second issue of 2020.  It has been a challenging, tumultuous and difficult year, especially for hospitality artisans, business owners and employees. At times, it seemed that offering hospitality  to tourists, local guests and even close family members became instantaneously inaccessible,  rather than being a fundamental right.  Yet, with creativity and resilience, throughout 2020,  hospitality professionals surmounted the challenges and adapted to new times with new ways.
This issue takes a hopeful view  of a post-pandemic  future beginning with an inspiring opinion piece, 2021 dreams of a hospitable society, from Paul Lynch (AUT Adjunct Professor) writing from Scotland. It is followed by an original philosophical reflection that views COVID-19 as an "intruder".   Other topics include the importance of communicating effectively online about accessibility in hotel restaurants, how to extend hospitality to customers with epilepsy, an industry interview with a hotel General Manager in Auckland on what makes New Zealand hospitality unique and finally, the far reaching effects of the Covid-19 crisis on women working in the hospitality industry.
The journal provides free, open access to the key implications of hospitality research for a wider readership along with opinion pieces of topical interest. We thus welcome your contributions to future editions of Hospitality Insights on the impact of COVID-19, as well as other issues currently testing the sustainable future of the hospitality industry and communities.
He waka eke noa. We are all in this together.


Indefinites display a great functional variety and they give rise to different pragmatic effects. We focus on free choice indefinites and in particular on the Italian qualsiasi . Our aim is to reconstruct the grammaticalization path of this item and understand how diachronic data might shed some light on existing semantic theories of free choice. We employ corpus-based tools to build a database containing occurrences of qualsiasi from its origin and early forms to its current usage. We show that qualsiasi emerged from a particular unconditional construction and we outline the different stages which led to its grammaticalization. We analyze the compatibility of our diachronic study with formal accounts of free choice inferences, with a focus on Alternative Semantics analyses for indefinite pronouns and so-called grammatical theories of free choice. Our work shows that an integration between formal semantics and historical linguistics is fruitful and worth pursuing.


The radon concentration in underground workplaces may reach tens of thousands of Bq m(-3). A simple MCNPXTM Monte Carlo (MC) model of a cave was developed to estimate the influence of radon on the in situ gamma spectrometry results in various geometries and radon concentrations. The detector total count rate was obtained as the sum of the individual count rates due to 214Bi in the air, radon in the walls and deposition of radon daughters on surfaces. The MC model was then modified and used in the natural conditions of the Mladeč Caves, Czech Republic. The content of 226Ra was calculated from laboratory gamma spectrometry measurements, and the concentrations of unattached and attached 214Bi were measured using the FRITRA4 device (SMM-Prague). We present a comparison of the experimental results with results calculated by the MCNPXTM model of the Gamma Surveyor spectrometry probe (GF Instruments) with a 3″×3″ NaI(Tl) detector and a 2″×2″ BGO detector.


Complex Event Processing (CEP) has emerged as the unifying field for technologies that require processing and correlating heterogeneous distributed data sources in real-time. CEP finds applications in diverse domains, which has resulted in a large number of proposals for expressing and processing complex events. However, existing CEP frameworks are based on ad-hoc solutions that do not rely on solid theoretical ground, making them hard to understand, extend or generalize. Moreover, they are usually presented as application programming interfaces documented by examples, and using each of them requires learning a different set of skills.
In this paper we embark on the task of giving a rigorous framework to CEP. As a starting point, we propose a formal language for specifying complex events, called CEPL, that contains the common features used in the literature and has a simple and denotational semantics. We also formalize the so-called selection strategies, which are the cornerstone of CEP and had only been presented as by-design extensions to existing frameworks. With a well-defined semantics at hand, we study how to efficiently evaluate CEPL for processing complex events. We provide optimization results based on rewriting formulas to a normal form that simplifies the evaluation of filters. Furthermore, we introduce a formal computational model for CEP based on transducers and symbolic automata, called match automata, that captures the regular core of CEPL, i.e. formulas with unary predicates. By using rewriting techniques and automata-based translations, we show that formulas in the regular core of CEPL can be evaluated using constant time per event followed by constant-delay enumeration of the output (under data complexity). By gathering these results together, we propose a framework for efficiently evaluating CEPL, establishing solid foundations for future CEP systems.


This chapter focuses on the finite element method applied to
spine modelling. First, the functional biomechanics of the healthy spine are
presented in terms of load transfers among the different spinal structures and
further related to the pathologic and treated spine. This overview naturally
justifies the finite element method as a particularly convenient tool to explore
the spine as an integrated organ where tissue maintenance and degeneration
are strongly influenced by complex mechanical factors. The different
approximations usually used in spine finite element analysis are presented
and discussed in relation to the exploitability of the predictions and the
computational cost. On one hand, spine models require thorough verification
and improved validation protocols. On the other hand, the rapid mechanistic
developments proposed are continuously increasing the reliability of both
model calibration and predictions on a clinical basis, suggesting that spine
finite element models will probably become highly valuable clinical tools in
the near future.


Recent advances in design and fabrication of helical nanostructures based on DNA self-assembly are reviewed. These helical nanostructures are either constructed entirely by DNA or based on DNA guided metal nanoparticles self-assembly. Biophysical properties and optical responses of corresponding helical nanostructures are also discussed.


 This paper proposes an analytical method to evaluate the delay violation probability of traffic flows with statistical Quality-of-Service (QoS) guarantees in an Earliest Deadline First (EDF) scheduler. The statistical QoS targets for each service class are expressed in terms of a delay threshold and delay violation probability. We study both cases isolated nodes and end-to-end paths comprising multiple schedulers. Moreover, we assume that traffic admits a linear variance envelope, therefore, we account for Leaky-Bucket-regulated traffic, for general MarkovModulated Poisson Process sources and Markov-Modulated Fluid Process sources and, more in general, to the wide class of sources for which the variance of the cumulative generated traffic can be upper bounded by a linear function of time. Under these assumptions, we are able to derive an approximation on delay distributions for each class of the EDF scheduler. Moreover, by exploiting a novel framework for the calculation of statistical end-to-end delay bounds (the bounded variance network calculus) we iterate our formulas, derived for the isolated node, to multi-node paths and, in turn, we provide analytical forms for the end-to-end delay. Numerical investigation shows that our approximations are very close to the simulated values. Index Terms  End-to-End delay, Markov Modulated Poisson Process, statistical guarantees, network calculus, Earliest Deadline First.


Abstract Few studies on herbicide resistance report data to establish unambiguously the correlation between genotype and phenotype. Here we report on the importance of the EPSPS prolyl106 point mutation to serine (P106S) in conferring resistance to glyphosate in a goosegrass population from Davao, Mindanao Island, the Philippines (Davao). Initial rate-response studies showed clear survivors within the Davao population at glyphosate rates that completely controlled the standard sensitive goosegrass population (STD1). Assessment of potential resistance mechanisms identified the presence of P106S mutant individuals in the Davao population. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification of specific alleles (PASA) analysis established that the mixed-resistant Davao population was comprised of 39.1% homozygous proline wild-type (PP106), 3.3% heterozygous serine mutant (PS106), and 57.6% homozygous serine mutant (SS106) genotypes. Further rate-response studies on plants with a predetermined genotype estimated the Davao SS106 individuals to be approximately 2-fold more resistant to glyphosate compared to Davao PP106 individuals. Extensive analysis at different goosegrass growth stages and glyphosate rates established strong correlation (P < 0.001) between presence of P106S in EPSPS and the resistant phenotype. Importantly, no differences in the pattern of absorbed or translocated 14C–glyphosate were observed between PP106 and SS106 Davao genotypes or Davao and STD1 individuals, suggesting that glyphosate resistance in the Davao population was attributable to an altered target site mechanism. This study demonstrates that whilst P106S in EPSPS confers a moderate resistance level to glyphosate, the mechanism is sufficient to endow glyphosate failure at the recommended field rates. Nomenclature: Glyphosate; goosegrass, Eleusine indica (L.) Gaertn. ELEIN.


By Jessica Vitrano, Health Sciences; Anna Griffin, Health Sciences
 Advisor: Daniel Carl
 Presentation ID: PM_B43
 Abstract: Many people around the world use caffeine while exercising on a daily basis. There is little data examining interactions between the two variables and how they affect normal body functions like recovery heart rate. Due to the lack of research on the effect of caffeine on post-exercise heart rate, it is important to examine these effects, as they may influence cardiovascular health. Therefore, the purpose of this research was to determine the significance of caffeine and the effect it has on post-exercise heart rate. Subjects were recruited from the University of Cincinnati student population having met the following inclusion criteria: age 18 or above, no known heart abnormalities, caffeine sensitivity, and must not be pregnant. Individuals were randomly assigned to a caffeine or placebo group. The caffeine group ingested _ of their safe daily dose as determined by their body weight. Each subject completed a resting heart rate measurement, completed a 10 minute bicycle ride at a resistance 50% body weight, and then a timed post-exercise recovery heart rate measurement. A repeated measures ANOVA will be used to test differences between groups. Our hypothesis is that individuals ingesting caffeine will take significantly longer to return back to their resting heart rate following exercise. A finger pulse oximeter was used to determine all heart rate measurements.


Automatic difficulty calibration (ADC) is the application of computational techniques to estimate the difficulty levels of assessment questions before administering them. Compared to traditional difficulty calibration approaches, ADC eliminates the need for pretesting, and minimises the time and efforts typically involved in manual calibration. In recent years, Ontology-based Automatic Question Generation (OAQG) has emerged as a powerful tool to generate assessment questions effortlessly and in massive numbers with minimal human intervention. Despite these benefits, not being able to control the characteristics of generated questions hinders their suitability to be used in pedagogical settings. However, much of the research up to now has tended to focus on the quantity of the questions rather than their quality. Indeed, most current automatic question generators produce simple questions which consist of a few facts, and simply test the recall of knowledge. Furthermore, the majority of existing frameworks are mostly technical and are not supported with a strong theoretical underpinning. In this paper, we propose a novel framework to assess the complexity of ontology-based, automatically generated questions. We discuss various aspects that are involved in determining the complexity of assessment questions, and attempt to quantify important characteristics of question complexity through the use of novel ontological metrics. To further support the plausibility of our computational framework, we shed light on its consistency with theories from education and cognitive psychology. This will provide us with a solid theoretical foundation which ensures that questions are generated according to principled methods that are grounded in theories of learning and cognition. The proposed approach is agnostic to different domains and independent of the question format, therefore, is highly general and applicable to a variety of contexts.


As long as metered dose inhalers have existed, patients have sought a reliable method to determine if a given canister was still potent. Concerning beta agonists, the answer to this question may be lifesaving. Issues of compliance have made dating canisters or counting doses impractical. Likewise, previous claims of floating characteristics are unreliable. In tap water, we float-tested 13 commonly used inhalers three times each, observing variations as they were incrementally actuated, emptying their contents. One essential pattern was observed. Almost all prescription-size canisters sink when full; all float by the time one-third of their contents is gone. Orientation of prescription-size canisters changes in a distinct pattern especially near 90% depletion. Sample-size canisters showed some variance. Results suggest that the pharmaceutical industry should include individual floating characteristics as part of the package insert as they provide a reproducible means of gauging contents.


In this paper we reflect on some analysis conducted by researchers as Laura Balbo, Mary Catherine Bateson and Martha Nussbaum who, although having not had direct relations among them or specific partnerships, have greatly contributed to elaborate concepts and categories regarding our new vision of the well-being. This concept, so dear to the economist Amartya Sen, draws nourishment from thoughts and lived belonging to women's life experience, particularly as concerning their capacity to organize their daily and family life, taking care of others, shouldering the vulnerabilities and building their biographical paths with creativity and adaptation. So we can understand what is a good life through the realization of our abilities, that is of each person, and not using a utility calculation. This involves a new approach to life quality and human development, that is exactly the capabilities approach described by Sen, rehashed by Nussbaum but, for some aspects, it was already present into the studies which characterize the gender prospective.