Immature albino rats were exposed to continuous illumination for 5-93 days and the light induced ultrastructural and electroretinographic changes were studied. Another group was exposed to continuous light for 7-9 days and then kept in complete darkness, or in cyclic light-dark up to 90 days. By comparison with the results obtained in adult animals, lesions appeared faster in the immature group. Tubular transformation of rods, phagocytosis of altered outer and inner segments with resulting changes in retinal organization, synaptic degeneration in the outer plexiform layer, and cell lysis of some photoreceptor cell perikarya are described. ERG recovery, following the period of darkness or cyclic light-dark was only partial, the amplitude of the "b" wave reached only 50-60% of the control preillumination values. However, the fine structure of the recovered outer segments was similar to that found in normal retinae.


Over the past decade, the concept of sustainable development has gained increasing importance within China's urban development. Urban(ising) China not only catalyses many of the country' sustainability issues, but also constitutes the locus where novel institutional arrangements for sustainable development are tested and implemented. This paper explores new paradigms of integrated territorial management unfolding in areas where concerns of water pollution intersect with objectives of urban renewal. The analysis focuses on the case of the Lihu Lake basin, located in the city of Wuxi (Jiangsu Province), considered by many observers to be at the forefront in China's quest for sustainable urban development. In Lihu the integration of environmental management with urban planning has led to the creation of a new organisational field, revolving around the issue of sustainable development of urban areas, with distinctive regulatory, normative, and cognitive aspects. While epitomising a case of integrated territorial management, the experience of Lihu Lake basin highlights the challenge of fostering inclusive social development in urban areas.


Improving living conditions, such as poor housing may be an important means of tackling the socio-economic roots of health inequalities. A systematic review of the health impacts of housing improvement carried out in 2000 identified 18 completed studies and 13 studies approaching completion in 2003. It is now appropriate to update this systematic review to incorporate recently completed studies. Published and unpublished studies dating from 1936, in any language or format, were identified from bibliographic databases, expert consultation and bibliographies. The review included studies where the physical fabric of the housing had improved and which had assessed a change in health status among residents. Improvements to reduce exposure to lead, allergens, or rodent/insect infestation were excluded. Rehousing on medical grounds and housing improvement restricted to furniture adaptations were also excluded. 32 eligible studies of housing improvement were identified dating from 1936; 11 studies used prospective controlled designs. Thirteen studies evaluated housing improvements which were accompanied by wider neighbourhood improvement; 13 studies assessed the health impacts of energy efficiency improvements. Unclear study methods and poor reporting made data interpretation difficult. A preliminary synthesis suggests that small improvements in health, particularly in mental health, were reported although occasionally health outcomes deteriorated following housing improvement. Few studies reported impacts on socio-economic determinants of health. The growing body of impact evaluation in this field is welcome, but it is disappointing that the evidence base for healthy housing policy remains weak.


The author described the "Broads" of East Norfolk as large lakes of fresh water situated in the valleys of certain rivers, such as the Bure, Yare, and Waveney, although never directly in their course, the distance of the Broads from the above-mentioned rivers being from one quarter of a mile to three miles. They are, however, connected with the rivers by watercourses. The Broads in the valleys of the rivers Bure, Yare, and Waveney are thirty in number, twenty-three of which are in the valley of the first-named river. The author gives the following list of them with their areas in acres:- The aggregate area amounts to 2816 acres. Many of the Broads are being reduced in size by the deposition of decaying vegetable matter, and the accumulation of detritus brought into them by the small streams which feed them. The bottoms of Martham, Hickling, Whitesley, and Horsey Broads are about on the level of low water at Yarmouth; the bottom of the united Ormesby, Rollesby, and Filby Broads is from 12 to 14 feet below that level. The surface of the water in the last-named Broad is about 2 or 3 feet above that of high water. The author maintains that the "Broads," although freshwater lakes, are relics of a time when the whole of these valleys were submerged, and in fact formed great estuaries. He instances the saltwater lake called Breydon Water, which lies on the west of Yarmouth, and to which the tide still has access; this


This is a synopsis of work conducted to improve the electrical and mechanical performance of antennas used for mobile communication base stations. To accomplish this we first consider the propagation characteristics to determine the optimal antenna pattern. In addition, the antennas mechanical size and profile are minimized to improve its appearance and mounting ease. The end result of this work is an antenna that has superior performance in terms of virtually every antenna and mechanical specification. This was achieved by the use of a specially constructed microstrip patch element in conjunction with technology for beam shaping and the use of environmentally proven materials. The present use for such antennas is for the 900MHz GSM and 1.8GHz PCN systems base stations but freedom in the design frequency range, polarization, and array configurations allow for a considerably wider range of applications.


Summary This study evaluated the effects of oocyte meiosis inhibitors roscovitine (ROS) and butyrolactone I (BL-I) on in vitro production of bovine embryos. Bovine oocytes were maintained in pre in vitro maturation (pre-IVM) with 25 µM ROS or 100 µM BL-I for 24 h to delay meiosis and for 24 h in in vitro maturation (IVM). Following this treatment, the nuclear maturation index was evaluated. All embryos degenerated following this procedure. In the second set of experiments, oocytes were maintained for 6 or 12 h in pre-IVM with the following three treatments: ROS (25 µM or 12.5 µM), BL-I (100 µM or 50 µM) or a combination of both drugs (6.25 µM ROS and 12.5 µM BL-I). Oocytes were cultivated for 18 or 12 h in IVM. When a meiosis-inducing agent was used during pre-IVM for 24 h, more degenerated oocytes were observed at the end of the IVM period. This effect decreased when the meiotic blocking period was reduced to 6 or 12 h. No significant differences were observed in the blastocyst production rate of oocytes in pre-IVM for 6 h with ROS, BL-I, or ROS + BL-I compared with that of the control group (P > 0.05). However, inhibition of oocytes for 12 h resulted in decreased embryo production compared with that in the controls (P < 0.05). There was no difference in the post-vitrification embryo re-expansion rate between the study groups, showing that the meiotic inhibition for 6 or 12 h did not alter the embryo cryopreservation process.


Introduction: One part of the most important individual identification procedure is approximate age can be done on an individual living or dead. Judging from some of the methods that have been there, have not found a method forecasts age through the frontal sinuses, particularly research conducted in Indonesia. The frontal sinus can be used for identification because the frontal sinuses began to evolve and look at radiographs at the age of 7 years and did not change after the age of 20 years, it reveals the existence of differences in the size of the frontal sinuses with age. Objective: To asses of the frontal sinus anteroposterior size based on against lateral cephalometric radiographs chronological age as forensic identification . Methods: A number of samples are 502 lateral cephalometric patient data from secondary data of patients aged 7-20 years, 335 pieces of lateral cephalometric. Purpose of of the study was to asses the frontal sinus anteroposterior size chronological age as forensic identification . Radiograph female patients and 167 pieces in male patients. Data anteroposterior size of the frontal sinus is obtained by pulling the longest line perpendicular to the line of Sh-Sl. Results: The results showed that at the age of 7 years the average size of the frontal sinus anteroposterior 4.20 mm and 5.05 mm which is the smallest size, while the average size of the biggest, by 8.46 mm in women and men at the age of 11.37 mm 20 years. Conclusions: In women, the fastest increase occurred at the age of 7-8 years, males at the age of 16-18 years. The frontal sinuses anteroposterior size increases with age, both men and women.


This paper tests the causal relationship between electricity consumption per capita and gross domestic product (GDP) per capita for Brazil, India, Indonesia, China and South Africa for the period 1971–2009. To reach this goal, we use panel cointegration analysis and Granger causality tests. Our results reveal that electricity consumption and GDP are cointegrated and the granger causality tests indicate a long-run relationship between electricity consumption and GDP growth for all countries except for South Africa. The short-run estimations indicate that GDP granger cause electricity consumption but not the reverse; hence the existence of unidirectional short-run causality relationship the two variables.


We study the implementability of stable correspondences in marriage markets with externalities. We prove that, contrary to what happens in markets without externalities, no stable revelation mechanism makes a dominant strategy for the agents on one side of the market to reveal their preferences. However, the stable correspondence is implementable in Nash equilibrium


Zener has shown how thermoelastic effects give rise to damping of the mechanical vibrations of a solid. For example, in a vibrating reed opposite sides are alternately compressed and extended. This gives rise to an alternating temperature-difference across the width of the reed, and the resulting flow of heat leads to dissipation of mechanical energy. In a vibrating single crystal of a metal an additional energy loss is observed which is usually attributed to the motion of dislocations. In the present paper the following mechanism is proposed. Dislocations are trapped in 'potential troughs' at the minima of the internal stress in the crystal. When the crystal vibrates the dislocations oscillate in their potential troughs and the moving stress-system associated with them produces a fluctuating temperature distribution in the material; this leads to damping as in Zener's case. The rate of loss of energy produced by a dislocation oscillating with given amplitude is calculated and the effect of a collection of them is discussed. An actual estimate of the damping in a vibrating crystal requires (i) a knowledge of the relation between the amplitude of oscillation of a dislocation and the vibrational stress causing it to move, and (ii) a knowledge of the density of dislocations in the material. A tentative discussion of (i) is given. The quantity (ii) is unknown; however, It is shown that the damping depends only on the ratio of the number of dislocations per unit area to the number of potential troughs per unit area. If this ratio is calculated from the theoretical result and the observed damping in copper single crystals, it is found to be of the order of unity. The present theory predicts that the damping should increase with frequency. This is in disagreement with the limited experimental data available. Two subsidiary effects are also investigated, the thermoelastic damping arising from the interaction between the vibrational stresses and the stresses surrounding stationary dislocations, and the damping due to the emission of elastic waves from an oscillating dislocation. Both these effects are shown to be small compared with the thermoelastic damping caused by moving dislocations.


Designing future ultra-high efficiency, ultra-low emission engines requires an in depth understanding of the multiscale, multi-phase phenomena taking place in the combustion chamber. The performance of the fuel delivery system is key in the air fuel mixture formation and hence the combustion characteristics, however in most spray modelling approaches is not considered directly. Thus, it is important to understand how the selection of models that mimic injection process affect predictions. In this paper we present an Eulerian-Lagrangian framework based on OpenFOAM libraries to model spray injection dynamics. The framework accounts for primary droplet formation (based on a parcel method with predefined initial droplet size distribution), secondary droplet breakup, evaporation and heat transfer. In order to account for the interaction of droplets with turbulence, simulations were performed within the LES context with two different turbulence models. A systematic variation of the key injection parameters (parcel number, parcel size distribution) of the parcel method as well as the grid size was considered. Varying the parcel number affects the initial droplet size distribution which in turn, depending on the selection of the turbulence and the evaporation sub-models, affects: spray dispersion; spray penetration; and subsequent droplet size distribution. Results were validated against the baseline experimental data for evaporating ECN Spray A with n-dodecane chosen as a surrogate for Diesel fuel.


OF THESIS EXPLORATIONS FOR EFFICIENT REVERSIBLE BARREL SHIFTERS AND THEIR MAPPINGS IN QCA NANOCOMPUTING This thesis is based on promising computing paradigm of reversible logic which generates unique outputs out of the inputs and. Reversible logic circuits maintain one-to-one mapping inside of the inputs and the outputs. Compared to the traditional irreversible computation, reversible logic circuit has the advantage that it successfully avoids the information loss during computations. Also, reversible logic is useful to design ultra-low-power nanocomputing circuits, circuits for quantum computing, and the nanocircuits that are testable in nature. Reversible computing circuits require the ancilla inputs and the garbage outputs. Ancilla input is the constant input in reversible circuits. Garbage output is the output for maintaining the reversibility of the reversible logic but is not any of the primary inputs nor a useful bit. An efficient reversible circuit will have the minimal number of garbage and ancilla bits. Barrel shifter is one of main computing systems having applications in high speed digital signal processing, floating-point arithmetic, FPGA, and Center Processing Unit (CPU). It can operate the function of shifting or rotation for multiple bits in only one clock cycle. The goal of this thesis is to design barrel shifters based on the reversible computing that are optimized in terms of the number of ancilla and garbage bits. In order to achieve this goal, a new Super Conservative Reversible Logic Gate (SCRL gate) has been used. The SCRL gate has 1 control input depending on the value of which it can swap any two n-1 data inputs. We proved that the SCRL gate is superior to the existing conservative reversible Fredkin gate. This thesis develops 5 design methodologies for reversible barrel shifters using SCRL gates that are primarily optimized with the criteria of the number of ancilla and garbage bits. The five proposed methodologies consist of reversible right rotator, reversible logical right shifter, reversible arithmetic right shifter, reversible universal right shifter and reversible universal bidirectional shifter. The proposed reversible barrel shifter design is compared with the existing works in literature and have shown improvement ranging from 8.5% to 92% by the number of garbage and ancilla bits. The SCRL gate and design methodologies of reversible barrel shifter are mapped in Quantum Dot Cellular Automata (QCA) computing. It is illustrated that the SCRL-based designs of reversible barrel shifters have less QCA cost (cost in terms of number of inverters and majority voters) compared to the Fredkin gatebased designs of reversible barrel shifters.


Fast and efficient data management is one of the demanding technologies of today's aspect. This paper proposes a system which makes the working procedures of present manual system of storing and retrieving huge citizen's information of Bangladesh automated and increases its effectiveness. The implemented search methodology is user friendly and efficient enough for high speed data retrieval ignoring spelling error in the input keywords used for searching a particular citizen. The main concern in this research is minimizing the total searching time for a given keyword. This can be done if we can pre-establish the idea of getting the data belonging to the searching keyword. The primary and secondary key-code generated by the Double Metaphone Algorithm for each word is used to establish that idea about the word. This algorithm is used for creating the map of the original database, through which the keyword is matched against the data.


We report on a new experimental result to generate dark hollow beams by using a geometric optical method.We propose two new methods to produce focused and localized hollow laser beams by using π-phates,Using Monte-Carlo simulations,we have studied the Sisyphus cooling of alkali atoms in pyramidal hollow beam gravito-optical traps,We discuss some potential applications of the dark hollow beams in atom optics and the preparation of an all optically-cooled and optically-trapped atomic Bose-Einstein condensation(BEC),Our research shows that an ultracold atomic sample with a temperature of -2uK can be obtained in the pyramidal hollw beam dipole trap and an all optical-type BEC may be realized in a far blue-detuned,hollw beam trap.


The problem of the semiclassical motion of an electron in a lattice subject to a strong magnetic field leads to a very interesting problem concerned with a low-dimensional 'periodic' topology [1], namely, the study of flat sections of two-dimensional surfaces in T3. Zorich [2] in the almost rational case and Dynnikov [3] in the generic case proved Novikov's conjecture that open orbits have a strong asymptotic direction. On the basis of the analysis carried out by them, Novikov [4] deduced the following remarkable picture: for a fixed dispersion law, to each direction of the magnetic field giving rise to generic open fibres there corresponds a unique indivisible integer 2-cycle in T3 that is locally constant. This means that a countable family of pairwise disjoint open domains on the two-dimensional sphere is given, numbered by triples of relatively prime integers. The union of these zones is an open dense subset of the sphere, but it is still unclear whether or not it has full measure. In any case, if the energy is fixed, then the set is of full measure along with the set of directions for which all trajectories are closed (see below). Novikov and Mal'tsev [5] applied these results to the theory of conduction in normal metals, describing new universal topological phenomena, which can be observed in experiments. It is therefore very important, also from the physical point of view, to study in more detail the nongeneric directions of the magnetic field, which are certain to appear. Below we present a selection of the strongest assertions to date concerning the measure and properties of the above zones. These assertions are required for physical applications. They are based on a technique developed by Dynnikov, and have not been stated in earlier publications. At the time when the present paper was being prepared for print I was informed by Dynnikov that these results had been published in his recent paper [6].


Introduction: Time limited eating (TLE) improves β-cell function, increases insulin sensitivity, lowers fasting glucose, and increases time in range in adults with T2D. Objectives: This study aims to evaluate TLE in pediatric new-onset T1D, at which time residual β-cell function may be preserved.
 Aim 1) Evaluate feasibility, acceptability, and safety of TLE. Aim 2) Test impact of TLE on β-cell function and insulin sensitivity. Aim 3) Assess effectiveness of TLE on glycemic control.
 Methods: A randomized controlled trial of youth aged 12-25 years diagnosed with T1D within 12 months; randomization to intervention (8-hour feed/16-hour fast) or control group (≥12-hour feed) for an 8-week period. Feasibility is evaluated using questionnaires and adherence. Safety is indicated by hypoglycemia frequency. β-cell function is evaluated by mixed meal tolerance test (MMTT) with area under C-peptide curve (AUC). Glycemic control is evaluated by time in range (TIR 70-180 mg/dL) on CGM and HbA1c.
 Results: Six youths have entered, three have completed (2 intervention, 1 control). Participants in intervention group adhered to TLE ~94% of time. Both reported TLE felt safe, noted improved stability of glucose, chose to continue TLE after study ended, and would recommend to others with T1D. No increased hypoglycemia frequency noted on CGM. Participant 2 (intervention) had increase in AUC from baseline (87.45 to 152.4) and decrease in HbA1c (-1.3 percentage points), although participant 1 (intervention) had decrease in AUC and no change in HbA1c. Participant 3 (control) had increase in AUC and decrease in HbA1c, both changes less than participant 2. No improvement in TIR on CGM was demonstrated in either group.
 Conclusion: This is the only known study evaluating TLE in youth with T1D and has the potential to advance management of T1D by introducing meal-timing early in diagnosis. Thus far the intervention appears feasible and safe, however more data is needed. Recruitment continues to be underway.

 C.Berman: None. A.Vidmar: Advisory Panel; Rhythm Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Research Support; Dexcom, Inc. J.J.Flores garcia: None. J.Raymond: None.


Abstract. Chlorophyll a (Chl-a) often retains its maximum concentration not at the surface but in the subsurface layer. The depth of the Chl-a maximum primarily depends on the balance between light penetration from the surface and nutrient supply from the deep ocean. However, a global map of subsurface Chl-a concentrations based on observations has not been presented yet. In this study, we integrate Chl-a concentration data not only from recent biogeochemical floats but also from historical ship-based and other observations, and present global maps of subsurface Chl-a concentration with related variables. The subsurface Chl-a maximum deeper than the mixed layer depth was stably observed in the subtropics and tropics (30° S to 30° N), only in summer in midlatitudes (30–40° N/S), and rarely at 45–60° S of the Southern Ocean and in the northern North Atlantic (north of 45° N). The depths of the subsurface Chl-a maxima are deeper than those of the euphotic layer in the subtropics and shallower in the tropics and midlatitudes. In the subtropics, seasonal oxygen increases below the mixed layer implied substantial biological new production, which corresponds to 10 % of the net primary production there. During El Niño, the subsurface Chl-a concentration in the equatorial Pacific is higher in the middle to the east and lower in the west than that during La Niña, which is opposite that on the surface. The spatiotemporal variability of the Chl-a concentration described here would be suggestive results not only for the biogeochemical cycle in the ocean but also for the thermal structure and the dynamics of the ocean via the absorption of shortwave radiation.


Eight family members spanning four generations were found to have 45 chromosome count D/D translocation identified by Giemsa‐trypsin banding as t(13q;14q). The only mature male is believed to be infertile on the basis of a very low sperm count with reduced motility. This is believed to be related to the chromosome aberration and not to be coincidental. Aside from this, all were clinically normal except the index case, a young girl with unusual facies and moderate to severe retardation of growth and development. It is believed that her abnormalities were coincidental to the chromosome translocation and fortuitous in locating this family and initiating the pedigree. This example of essentially benign (some males are fertile) Robertsonian centric fusion in humans lends itself to interesting speculations about the results from chance matings between such translocation carriers.


The effect of lead exposure (100, 300, and 500 μg/L lead nitrate) on embryos of the African catfish Clarias gariepinus were examined by gross morphology and histopathology. Exposition to lead nitrate caused a progressively longer delay in hatching and also reduced the percentage of embryos, which successfully completely hatch from 75% in the control group to 40% in the group exposed to 500 μg/L lead. Categories of gross morphological abnormalities comprised four major ones (irregular head shape, pericardial edema, yolk sac edema, and notochordal defect) and two minor deformations (finfold defect and reduction of pigmentation). The frequencies of recorded morphological malformations increased significantly (P < 0.05) with increasing lead concentration in all stages. Four histopathological categories comprising notochordal defect, gill malformation, eye malformation, and detached skin were recorded. All these malformations were recorded only in the embryos exposed to 300 and 500 μg/L lead. The degrees of histological lesions increased with increasing lead concentration and with length of exposure time. Mean concentrations of lead in the whole embryos were measured and the lowest concentrations of lead were recorded in the control groups (0.3–1.0 μg/g wet wt). Accumulated lead increased significantly (P < 0.05) with increasing dose in all stages. Accumulation of lead in the chorion suggests that the chorion acts as an effective barrier protecting the embryo. Low impact of lead on prehatching stages may be related to both the protective capacity of the chorion and the ability of the perivitelline fluid to concentrate lead. The present results show that (i) lead toxicity was dosage dependent and become evident in gross morphological malformations, followed by histopathological changes, and (ii) early life stages of the African catfish C. gariepinus are a very sensitive bioassay for aquatic lead pollution. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Environ Toxicol 22: 375–389, 2007.


The population of Soay sheep on the island of Hirta in the Outer Hebrides has been the subject of continuous study for more than 35 years. This paper focuses on the botanical aspects of the plant–herbivore interaction, showing how the vegetation affects and is affected by the sheep. Grazing impacts on biomass and spatial structure varied across plant communities, with Holcus/Agrostis grasslands affected most and Wet Heath least, consistent with the hypothesis that herbivore impacts are proportional to plant productivity. Within plant communities, the negative relationships between sheep numbers and plant abundance (sward height, gap/tussock cover and biomass) were significant in March but not significant in August, as expected if sheep numbers are limited by food supply in winter. In most species, flower stem density declined with increasing sheep numbers. There were no examples where unpalatable plants showed increased flowering (e.g. from competitor release under selective grazing). Plant production in temporary grazing exclosures (above‐ground net primary production) was greatest in Holcus/Agrostis grassland (12.6 t ha−1 dry matter year−1), lower in Nardus grassland (5.1 t ha−1 year−1) and least in Plantago sward (1.3 t ha−1 year−1) associated with differences in historical nutrient supply and microclimate. The net effect of grazing on plant species richness was positive: A few highly palatable species were excluded, but small‐scale coexistence of grazing‐tolerant species was enhanced by defoliation. The Soay sheep population fluctuated from 908 (in 1988) to 2,208 (in 2009), increasing by an average of 39 extra animals per year over the period 1985–2011. Between 2011 and 2020, the population fluctuated less widely and showed no trend. Population change (ln(N(t + 1)/N(t))) was inversely density dependent but positively correlated with plant production in Holcus/Agrostis grassland which increased during the study. This plant–herbivore interaction is highly resilient, and though some species (Festuca rubra and Ranunculus acris) declined in the Holcus/Agrostis grassland, there was no significant upward trend in the abundance of unpalatable plant species. Synthesis. Implications for future studies and analyses of plant–herbivore data. Concentrating on estimating primary productivity and herbivore offtake, rather than simply measuring change in plant biomass, is likely to provide greatly improved explanatory power for understanding herbivore population dynamics.


Lymphoproliferative disorders (LPDs) are a serious side effect of immunosuppression after liver transplantation, and the introduction on the market of a new immunosuppressive drug has been associated with an increased risk of these disorders. To compare the effect of cyclosporine A (CSA) and FK506 in a clinical setting, the incidence of monoclonal or oligoclonal gammopathies known to often precede the appearance of LPDs was evaluated. A total of 88 adult patients was analyzed, 46 were prospectively randomized to CSA and 42 to FK506 for immunosuppression. None of these patients had gammopathy before transplantation. All the patients were tested for immunoglobulin abnormalities five to nine times during a period of 1 year and then two to four times per year thereafter from December 1990 until March 1997. The same incidence of serum immunoglobulin (Ig) abnormalities was observed in both groups (13%) with a mean delay of appearance of 11.1 +/- 5.9 versus 7.6 +/- 3.6 months for CSA and FK506, respectively (P > .05). In each group, the gammopathies were transient in 3 patients and persisted in 2. The class of Ig involved was IgG, and a monoclonal component was documented in 2 patients treated with CSA and in 3 patients with FK506. One patient treated with FK506 developed an LPD localized to the lymph nodes 8 months after the occurrence of serum protein abnormalities. The lymphoproliferative lesions subsequently disappeared with the reduction of immunosuppression. In this study, an immunosuppressive regimen of FK506 has not shown an increased incidence of lymphoproliferation compared with CSA in adult liver transplant patients.


The classic DQN algorithm is limited by the overestimation bias of the learned Q-function. Subsequent algorithms have proposed techniques to reduce this problem, without fully eliminating it. Recently, the Maxmin and Ensemble Q-learning algorithms have used different estimates provided by the ensembles of learners to reduce the overestimation bias. Unfortunately, these learners can converge to the same point in the parametric or representation space, falling back to the classic single neural network DQN. In this paper, we describe a regularization technique to maximize ensemble diversity in these algorithms. We propose and compare five regularization functions inspired from economics theory and consensus optimization. We show that the regularized approach significantly outperforms the Maxmin and Ensemble Q-learning algorithms as well as non-ensemble baselines.


-This paper is conducted to analyze the factors and aspects of green library technology for environmental sustainability. In this paper, we focus the implementation of green library for environment sustainability by looking at the factors and aspects to implement green technology in library. In order to achieve this aim, we identify the attribute from the previous literature that will lead the future development of framework, which can be applied in library. The significant of this research will ensure the implementation of green library to improve environmental sustainability whether it is explicitly stated or not to improve the condition of community. Keywords--Aspects, Factors, Green Technology, Library, Sustainability.


Samama (Anthocephalus marcophyllus Roxb.Havil) is a tree with a canopy like a large umbrella so that if planted at any distance it will not affect the shape of the stem (Halawane et al. 2011). This type can flourish in tropical forests with an altitude of 50-1000 mdpl. This is including native Indonesian plants that have the potential to be developed in the development of plantation forests and for other purposes, such as reclamation of ex-mining land, reforestation and shade trees (Mansur and Tuheteru 2010). This is because samama can grow on various types of soil, do not have serious pests and diseases (Pratiwi 2003). In accordance with the permit for the implementation of silvopatura activities in production forest areas which are explained in full in the regulations of the Ministery of Environment and Forestry of the Republic of Indonesia No. P.14/Menlhk-11/2015 concerning procedures for granting business licenses for the utilization of silvopastura areas in production forests with the aim of ensuring sustainable forest management by applying the principles of good governance. In the framework of sustainable production forest management to support food sovereignty programs. Provision of sufficient light space, fertilize and selection of tolerant grass species under stands are the key to the success of silvopastura. Based on the results of the study, it was found that the density of trees with 2 tree/plot with light intensity in the morning was 70.48% and 95.29% during the day. Addition of nitrogen to grass is not needed if the soil used has good fertility. Pennisetum purpureum Cv. Mott has the best tolerance under the same stand as a source of cut grass (intensive retention) and Stenotaphrum secundatum a coarse, hardly perennial grass in the management of silvopastura extensive. Key words: silvopasture, density of tree, shade, samama


The experience of surgical treatment of 55 congenital mitral incompetence patients aged 3 to 34 years is analysed. Patients with the anomalies of the conotruncus, mitral stenosis, and open atrioventricular conduit were not included into the analysis. The preoperative clinical status of all the patients was evaluated as functional class III-IV. Twenty-one patients had attendant septal defects. Lung hypertension of group II was seen in 14 patients and of hemodynamic group IIIA in five patients. Pronounced disorders of intracardiac hemodynamics and circulatory impairments were indications to an operation. Failure of the mitral valve to close was secondary to several developmental defects. Deformities of the septa and of the chordal and papillary apparatus varied greatly. The mitral incompetence degree was aggravated in most patients by dilatation of the fibrous ring. The diversity of the morphological causes underlying mitral incompetence dictated a strictly individualized approach to the choice of the type and volume of a surgical intervention. Ten of the 55 patients underwent mitral valve replacement; various types of valvuloplasty were done to 45 patients. General hospital mortality rate was 10 percent; good and satisfactory outcomes were seen after reconstructive operations. Analysis of the outcomes of surgery for congenital mitral incompetence has shown that reconstructive operations on the valve are effective enough and may be recommended as a method of choice. Annuloplasty is required in most reconstructive procedures; in young children preference should be given to suture annuloplasty.


Characteristics of a single-frequency erbium-doped fiber laser (EDFL) controlled by an external light source is investigated. The frequency control is achieved by cooperatively induced spatial hole-burning (SHB) formed by the interference between the lasing light and the external light. We evaluate the frequency stability of several cavity designs of the fiber laser and the frequency control characteristics in detail. Tunable operation as wide as 30 nm wavelength range with a good frequency stability is also demonstrated.


OBJECTIVE
We screened the human aldose reductase (ALR) gene for DNA sequence variants in type 2 diabetic and nondiabetic subjects and investigated whether the previously reported and novel polymorphisms were associated with neurophysiologic deterioration and clinical peripheral neuropathy.

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS
The study population included 85 Finnish type 2 diabetic and 126 nondiabetic subjects. The genetic analyses were performed using the PCR, single-strand conformation polymorphism, restriction fragment-length polymorphism, and automated laser fluorescence scanning analyses. A detailed neurologic examination and neurophysiologic analyses were performed at the time of diagnosis and at the 10-year examination.

RESULTS
The genetic screening identified four polymorphisms: C-106T, C-11G, A11370G, and C19739A. The C and Z-2 alleles of the C-106T polymorphism and the previously reported (CA)(n) repeat marker were more frequent in type 2 diabetic subjects than in nondiabetic subjects. At baseline, the diabetic subjects with the T allele of the C-106T polymorphism had lower sensory response amplitude values in the peroneal (P = 0.025), sural (P = 0.007), and radial (P = 0.057) nerves and, during follow-up, a greater decrease in the conduction velocity of the motor peroneal nerve than those with the C-106C genotype. No associations were found between the polymorphisms examined and clinical polyneuropathy.

CONCLUSIONS
The C-106T polymorphism of the ALR gene may contribute to an early development of neurophysiologic deterioration in type 2 diabetic patients.


Binary phylogenetic trees inferred from biological data are central to understanding the shared evolutionary history of organisms. Inferring the placement of latent nodes in a tree by any optimality criterion (e.g., maximum likelihood) is an NP-hard problem, propelling the development of myriad heuristic approaches. Yet, these heuristics often lack a systematic means of uniformly sampling random trees or effectively exploring a tree space that grows factorially, which are crucial to optimisation problems such as machine learning. Accordingly, we present Phylo2Vec, a new parsimonious representation of a phylogenetic tree. Phylo2Vec maps any binary tree with $n$ leaves to an integer vector of length $n$. We prove that Phylo2Vec is both well-defined and bijective to the space of phylogenetic trees. The advantages of Phylo2Vec are twofold: i) easy uniform sampling of binary trees and ii) systematic ability to traverse tree space in very large or small jumps. As a proof of concept, we use Phylo2Vec for maximum likelihood inference on five real-world datasets and show that a simple hill climbing-based optimisation efficiently traverses the vastness of tree space from a random to an optimal tree.


: Writing style is considered the manner in which an author expresses his thoughts, influenced by language characteristics, period, school, or nation. Often, this writing style can identify the author. One of the most famous examples comes from 1914 in Portuguese literature. With Fernando Pessoa and his heteronyms Alberto Caeiro, ´Alvaro de Campos and Ricardo Reis, who had completely different writing styles, led people to believe that they were different individuals. Currently, the discussion of authorship identification is more relevant because of the considerable amount of widespread fake news in social media, in which it is hard to identify who authored a text and even a simple quote can impact the public image of an author, especially if these texts or quotes are from politicians. This paper presents a process to analyse the emotion contained in social media messages such as Facebook to identify the author's emotional profile and use it to improve the ability to predict the author of the message. Using preprocessing techniques, lexicon-based approaches and machine learning, we achieved an authorship identification improvement of approximately 5% in the whole dataset and more than 50% in specific authors when considering the emotional profile on the writing style, thus increasing the ability to identify the author of a text by considering only the author's emotional profile, previously detected from prior texts.


Hobnail variant of papillary thyroid carcinoma (HV-PTC) is an unusual entity recently included in WHO classification of endocrine tumors (2017) and proposed as an aggressive variant of PTC. Compared to patients of classical counterparts, HV-PTC frequently has extrathyroidal extension, exhibits nodal or distant metastasis, and responds poorly to radioiodine treatment, leading to increased mortality. We hereby describe the cytohistological and immunohistochemical features of a metastatic HV-PTC in 55-year-old male, previously diagnosed as poorly differentiated papillary thyroid carcinoma in thyroidectomy specimen. Five years after total thyroidectomy with radical neck dissection the patient presented with gross pleural effusion showing multiple lung parenchymal and pleural based lesions with complete collapse of lung on computed tomography scan. The conventional cytology of pleural fluid showed dyscohesive cells arranged in micropapillary form gave the suggestion of metastatic papillary carcinoma. But the cell block preparation highlighted >30% hobnail cells arranged in micropapillary pattern showing increased atypical mitosis and occasional pseudoinclusions. Supplemented with immunohistochemistry (CK19, TTF-1, and p53), final diagnosis HV-PTC was made.


Background: It is unknown if intraprocedural blood pressure (BP) influences clinical outcomes and what BP parameter best predicts outcomes in acute ischemic stroke (AIS) patients who undergo intra-arterial therapy (IAT) for emergent large vessel occlusion. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed 147 patients who underwent IAT for anterior circulation AIS from January 2008 to December 2012 at our institution. Baseline demographics, stroke treatment variables, and detailed intraprocedural hemodynamic variables were collected. Results: The entire cohort consisted of 81 (55%) females with a mean age of 66.9 ± 15.6 years and a median National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) score of 16 (IQR 11-21). Thirty-six (24.5%) patients died during hospitalization, 25 (17%) achieved a 30-day modified Rankin Scale score of 0-2, and 24 (16.3%) suffered symptomatic parenchymal hematoma type 1/2 hemorrhage. Patients who achieved a good outcome had a significantly lower admission NIHSS score, a higher baseline CT ASPECTS score, and a lower rate of ICA terminus occlusions. Successful recanalization was more frequent in the good-outcome group, while symptomatic hemorrhages occurred only in poor-outcome patients. The first systolic BP (SBP; 146.5 ± 0.2 vs. 157.7 ± 25.6 mm Hg, p = 0.042), first mean arterial pressure (MAP; 98.1 ± 20.8 vs. 109.7 ± 20.3 mm Hg, p = 0.024), maximum SBP (164.6 ± 27.6 vs. 180.9 ± 18.3 mm Hg, p = 0.0003), and maximum MAP (125.5 ± 18.6 vs. 138.5 ± 24.6 mm Hg, p = 0.0309) were all significantly lower in patients who achieved good outcomes. A lower maximum intraprocedural SBP was an independent predictor of good outcome (adjusted OR 0.929, 95% CI 0.886-0.963, p = 0.0005). Initial NIHSS score was the only other independent predictor of a good outcome. Conclusion: Lower intraprocedural SBP was associated with good outcome in patients undergoing IAT for AIS, and maximum SBP was an independent predictor of good outcome. SBP may be the optimal hemodynamic variable to monitor intraprocedurally during IAT and may predict outcome.


irne was when much heat and little light emanated T from prolonged discussions on the classification of leprosy: the experts could not even agree on the words for the types, forms, groups, or varieties they were talking about. From Cairo to Havana, from Madrid to India and on to Caracas, arguments and feelings ran high. Clinicians with limited geographic experience argued with histopathologists who had less, and laboratory technologists crossed swords with microscopists. One of the battlegrounds i s indeterminate leprosy. What is meant by the term? Does what I mean correspond with what you mean? Are there any objective criteria on which all-or perhaps most-could agree? Or is it a kind of wastepaper basket into which we throw the leftovers we are too ignorant or too lazy to place into the appropriate and well-defined pigeonholes of the definite and generally agreed determinate varieties of leprosy? Do we throw into this baskettiny or voluminous according to our own experience or individual predilection-all those patients with skin lesions that "don't quite fit in," that are unusual or atypical or unlike the great bulk of easily classifiable lesions? The indeterminate lesion may be compared with the primary affect in pulmonary tuberculosis, which is in effect an initial sensitizing lesion. The latter usually disappears spontaneously, having been visible radiographically for some weeks or months. Subsequent exposure to Mycobacteriurn tuberculosis results in an allergic response in sensitized tissue.


Oral physician has always been challenged when it comes to diagnosing rare nonsyndromic cases because of the varied presentation of multiple dental abnormalities caused due to mutations in developmental regulatory genes. This coupled with skeletal abnormalities makes the task more difficult. But as we come across such rare constellation of findings, it makes the field more intriguing. Here, we report an extremely rare case of non syndromic occurrence of dental manifestations like multiple dens invaginatus, generalised microdontia, generalised hypoplasia, hypodontia, pulp stones and widening of pulp chamber along with skeletal findings of bilateral syndactyly of legs and brachydactyly of hands and legs. Although many non syndromic cases have been reported in the literature, the unusual occurrence of findings in the present case is being reported for the first time.


Answer D The Z score expresses the bone mineral density measurement (as a standard deviation score) compared with an age-matched population. In a normal distribution, 68% of values are within 1 standard deviation of the mean (34% above the mean, 34% below the mean). Therefore 34% of an age-matched population will have a Z score between 0 and 1.0. By definition, because it is based on a normal distribution, 50% of the population will have a Z score of more than 0. Hence, 88% (34%þ 50%) of an age-matched population will have a bone density better than this patient. National Osteoporosis Society www.nos.org.uk/document.doc?id1⁄4662 Medical Statistics www.gpnotebook.co.uk/simplepage.cfm?ID1⁄46109921 73&linkID1⁄424306&cook1⁄4yes


Homoclinic trajectories of the interbeat intervals between contractions of ventricles of the human heart are identified. The interbeat intervals are extracted from 24-h Holter ECG recordings. Three such recordings are discussed in detail. Mappings of the measured consecutive interbeat intervals are constructed. In the second and in some cases in the fourth iterate of the map of interbeat intervals homoclinic trajectories associated with a hyperbolic saddle are found. The homoclinic trajectories are often persistent for many interbeat intervals, sometimes spanning many thousands of heartbeats. Several features typical for homoclinic trajectories found in other systems were identified, including a signature of the gluing bifurcation. The homoclinic trajectories are present both in recordings of heart rate variability obtained from patients with an increased number of arrhythmias and in cases in which the sinus rhythm is dominant. The results presented are a strong indication of the importance of deterministic nonlinear instabilities in human heart rate variability.


The naked body of a young woman is found hanging from a tree on a London roadside. Scrawled across her back, the words DIRTY GIRL. Detective Sergeant Stella Mooney and the AMIP 5 squad are faced with a murder as baffling as it is chilling. With no means to identify the victim and no apparent motive, the case is blocked, until... A man is found on a bench by the river, his throat cut back to the vertebrae. And, as before, the killer has left a trademark comment: FILTHY COWARD. Stella and her team can see there's a connection: but what? One victim is a young girl - maybe one of the hookers who work the Strip; the other a researcher for a prominent and controversial MP. More evidence is needed. And soon enough, it comes: another death; another message...


It has been shown in the literature that, the inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR) echo can be seen as sparse and the ISAR imaging can be implemented by sparse recovery approaches. In this paper, we propose a new parametric weighted L1 minimization algorithm for ISAR imaging based on the parametric sparse representation of ISAR signals. Since the basis matrix used for sparse representation of ISAR signals is determined by the unknown rotation parameter of a moving target, we have to estimate both the ISAR image and basis matrix jointly. The proposed algorithm can adaptively refine the basis matrix to achieve the best sparse representation for the ISAR signals. Finally the high-resolution ISAR image is obtained by solving a weighted L1 minimization problem. Both numerical and real experiments are implemented to show the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.


Background: In developing countries, Health and Demographic Surveillance Systems (HDSSs) provide a framework for tracking demographic and health dynamics over time in a defined geographical area. Many HDSSs co-exist with facility-based data sources in the form of Health Management Information Systems (HMIS). Integrating both data sources through reliable record linkage could provide both numerator and denominator populations to estimate disease prevalence and incidence rates in the population and enable determination of accurate health service coverage. Objective: To measure the acceptability and performance of fingerprint biometrics to identify individuals in demographic surveillance populations and those attending health care facilities serving the surveillance populations. Methodology: Two HDSS sites used fingerprint biometrics for patient and/or surveillance population participant identification. The proportion of individuals for whom a fingerprint could be successfully enrolled were characterised in terms of age and sex. Results: Adult (18–65 years) fingerprint enrolment rates varied between 94.1% (95% CI 93.6–94.5) for facility-based fingerprint data collection at the Africa Centre site to 96.7% (95% CI 95.9–97.6) for population-based fingerprint data collection at the Agincourt site. Fingerprint enrolment rates in children under 1 year old (Africa Centre site) were only 55.1% (95% CI 52.7–57.4). By age 5, child fingerprint enrolment rates were comparable to those of adults. Conclusion: This work demonstrates the feasibility of fingerprint-based individual identification for population-based research in developing countries. Record linkage between demographic surveillance population databases and health care facility data based on biometric identification systems would allow for a more comprehensive evaluation of population health, including the ability to study health service utilisation from a population perspective, rather than the more restrictive health service perspective.


In this Technical Note, the problem of random reference tracking by linear feedback systems is addressed. The approach is based on the so-called random sensitivity function, which plays the same role as the usual sensitivity function in step reference tracking. Using the random sensitivity function, quality indicators for random reference tracking are introduced, and their utilization for analysis and design of servomechanisms is illustrated.


The global dominance of the three crops, maize, wheat, and rice in the current food system has raised an alarm. Heavy dependence on these crops can limit our capacity to deal with food shortage and dietary imbalance.

 Teff (Eragrostis tef), a warm-season annual cereal, is one of the underutilized crops that can contribute to food security and crop diversification. Teff contains high and unique nutritional values, which will meet the need of health-conscious consumers. It is also a low risk crop, which resists many biotic and abiotic stresses. Currently, Ethiopia is the largest teff producing country, and the only country to have adopted teff as a staple crop. However, the teff production and value chain in Ethiopia largely rely on traditional practices, and the teff market is limited by the government's export ban. Instead, other countries such as USA are increasingly participating in the teff market.

 This study investigates the current status of teff production and value chain mainly in Ethiopia. The results suggest what areas Ethiopia should improve to take the lead in the rising teff market, and in what way others may participate.


Abstract Objective To examine trends of female physicians either pursuing fellowships or in active practice in maternal–fetal medicine (MFM). Methods This observational study examined complete sets of MFM fellows and active members of the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine (SMFM) between 1985 and 2016. Databases from SMFM, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), and Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education were used. Analysis of covariance testing was used to assess interactions over time between groups. Results The proportion of female MFM fellows increased steadily from 17.1% in 1985 to 72.5% in 2016. The proportion of females grew more rapidly among the MFM fellows than obstetrics and gynecology (ob-gyn) residents (2.1 vs. 1.4% per year; p = 0.001) and among those who were active SMFM members than ACOG Fellows (1.4 vs. 1.2% per year; p = 0.013). Slightly more than half (52.4%) of all SMFM members are now female and will approach two-thirds (64.4%) by 2025 (compared with 53.4% in 2016 and 65.3% in 2025 of ACOG fellows). Conclusion The rising proportion of female MFM fellows is directly related to the high number of female ob-gyn residents. Females comprise slightly more than half of all active SMFM members now and projected to approach two-thirds by 2025.


Performance in a computerized "mental rotation" task was measured in groups of males and females while they rotated Shepard-Metzler-like cube assemblies on either a standard laptop screen (size = 36 cm) or on a large display wall (584 cm) where the stimuli appeared at considerably larger sizes and within a much wider field of view than that typically used in most spatial tasks. Males and females did not differ significantly in performance in the standard size condition with regards to response time but females performed faster than males in the large display condition. Males were also found to be significantly more accurate than females, regardless of display. We found no sign of trading accuracy for speed for either of the sexes or screen size conditions. We surmise that such an effect may be due to differences in task-solving strategies between the sexes, where a holistic strategy--which may be preferred by males--is negatively affected by large object sizes, whereas a piecemeal approach, that may be preferred by females, is virtually unaffected by display size.


Anti-human T-lymphocyte serum (anti-HTLA) was used to investigate the relationship between differentiation antigens of human (HTLA) and Macaca lymphocytes. The percentage of lymphocytes sensitive to anti-HTLA is the same in both species, with thymocytes having a higher concentration of HTLA than more mature T-lymphocytes. Macaca bone marrow cells acquire phenotypic properties of T-lymphocytes in vitro in the presence of calf thymic factors. Our data suggest that phylogenetic distinctions between various T-lymphocyte differentiation antigens may be utilized to provide antisera of narrow specificity.


Myocardial perfusion scintigraphy is an established method in cardiology for the diagnosis and evaluation of coronary artery disease (CAD). Thallium-201 and Tc-99m sestamibi myocardial perfusion imaging has been widely accepted as non-invasive diagnostic procedure for detection of CAD, risk stratification and myocardial viability assessment. But, standard Tl-201 redistribution and same day or 2-day rest/stress Tc-99m sestamibi protocols are time-consuming. Hence, the dual isotope rest thallium-201/stress technetium-99m sestamibi gated single-photon emission tomography protocol has gained increasing popularity for these applications. Combining the use of thallium-201 with technetium-99m agents permits optimal image resolution and simultaneous assessment of viability. Dual-isotope imaging may be separate or simultaneous acquisition set-up. The more rapid completion of these studies is appreciated as an advantage by patients, technologists, interpreting and referring physicians, nurses and hospital management. Simultaneous imaging has the potential advantages of precise pixel registration and artifacts, if present, are identical in both thallium and sestamibi, and require only one set of imaging. Also, there are some disadvantages of spillover of activity from the Tc-99m to the Tl-201 window. Fortunately, despite this problem it can be overcome. Separate acquisition dual isotope also has some disadvantages. Difference in defect resolution in attenuation and scatter between T-201 and Tc-99m sestamibi potentially results in interpretation problems. But, studies about cost-effectiveness of dual isotope imaging showed that some selective elimination of the rest studies may decrease the cost of the nuclear procedures and should be considered in the current care health system.


Numerous examples exist in the literature of the successes and failures of the application of amplitude variation with offset (AVO) "gas effect" theory in hydrocarbon exploration. The acquisition of wireline and VSP shear data is considered critical information for accurate calibration, quantification, modeling, and successful application of AVO analysis techniques in a particular geologic environment. Wireline compressional, wireline dipole shear, well vertical seismic profiling (VSP), and surface seismic data are used to investigate the AVO behavior of the major lithologic boundaries and hydrocarbon bearing zones. Within the study area, lithologic boundaries produce significant AVO anomalies that may be easily confused with Class III AVO gas effect. In addition, the principal economic target, oil bearing sands, does not appear to produce AVO gas effect anomalies; although a Class III AVO gas effect response is observed when as little as 2 m of free gas is present at the top of the reservoir. Confirmatio...


Within the framework of scattering integral equations in momentum space, we present numerical results of scattering of three identical bosons at low energies in two dimensions for short-range separable potentials. An analysis of the present numerical results reveals the three-particle scattering observables to be independent of potential shape provided the low-energy two-particle binding energy and scattering length are held fixed throughout the investigation. We think that the present conclusion of model independence will be valid for any potential, local or nonlocal, whose range is much smaller than the size of the two-particle bound state.


We performed miniature flyer impact experiments to investigate the thermodynamic and optical properties of shocked single-crystal pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN). A thin metal plate was accelerated by irradiating it with pulse from a tabletop laser, and impacted on a single crystal of PETN along the [110] axis. The particle velocity history of the laser-accelerated flyer was measured using an optically recording velocity interferometer system. The relationship between the actual particle velocity and the particle velocity measured by the velocity interferometer was obtained by analyzing the particle velocities immediately before and after the flyer collided with the PETN [110] single crystal. The change in the refractive index of the shocked PETN [110] immediately after a shock wave had propagated was also studied.


Molecular dynamics simulations have the potential to provide atomic-level detail and insight to important questions in chemical physics that cannot be observed in typical experiments. However, simply generating a long trajectory is insufficient, as researchers must be able to transform the data in a simulation trajectory into specific scientific insights. Although this analysis step has often been taken for granted, it deserves further attention as large-scale simulations become increasingly routine. In this perspective, we discuss the application of Markov models to the analysis of large-scale biomolecular simulations. We draw attention to recent improvements in the construction of these models as well as several important open issues. In addition, we highlight recent theoretical advances that pave the way for a new generation of models of molecular kinetics.


Abstract A novel water-soluble flavonoid with good anti-bacterial activities, naringenin-6″-succl-7-O-glucoside (7-SGN), was synthesised. It was biotransformed from naringenin by Bacillus amyloliquefaciens FJ18 in aqueous miscible organic media, and characterised by LC-MS and NMR analysis. The solubility of 7-SGN in water was approximately 102 times higher than that of naringenin. These results demonstrated that both the water solubility and the anti-bacterial activity of 7-SGN were significantly improved.


Purpose: The mTOR pathway is frequently activated in ovarian cancers. mTOR inhibitors, such as everolimus, can reduce VEGF-A production by cancer cells. We investigated whether early everolimus treatment effects could be monitored by positron emission tomography (PET) with 89Zr-bevacizumab. Experimental Design: The effect of everolimus on VEGF-A secretion was determined in a panel of human ovarian cancer cell lines and in A2780luc+ ovarian cancer cells xenografted subcutaneously in BALB/c mice. Mice received daily 10 mg/kg everolimus intraperitoneally (i.p.) for 14 days. PET scans with the tracer 89Zr-labeled bevacizumab were conducted before and after treatment. Ex vivo 89Zr-bevacizumab biodistribution and correlative tissue analyses were conducted. Tumor VEGF-A levels were measured with ELISA and mean vascular density (MVD) was determined with immunohistochemistry. Results: Everolimus treatment reduced VEGF-A levels in the supernatant of all cell lines. Everolimus lowered 89Zr-bevacizumab tumor uptake by 21.7% ± 4.0% [mean standardized uptake value (SUVmean) 2.3 ± 0.2 vs. 2.9 ± 0.2, P < 0.01]. Ex vivo biodistribution also showed lower tracer uptake in the tumors of treated as compared with control animals (7.8 ± 0.8%ID/g vs. 14.0 ± 1.7%ID/g, P < 0.01), whereas no differences were observed for other tissues. This coincided with lower VEGF-A protein levels in tumor lysates in treated versus untreated tumors (P = 0.04) and reduced MVD (P < 0.01). Conclusion: Tumor VEGF-A levels are decreased by everolimus. 89Zr-bevacizumab PET could be used to monitor tumor VEGF-A levels as an early biomarker of the antiangiogenic effect of mTOR inhibitor therapy. Clin Cancer Res; 18(22); 6306–14. ©2012 AACR.


The aim of this paper is to show how Outlines of Pyrrhonism II constitutes an original, ambitious, and unified skeptical inquiry into logic. My thesis is that Sextus' argument in Book II is meant to accomplish both its stated goal (to investigate the topics typically grouped together by dogmatists under the heading of "logic") and an unstated goal. The unstated goal is, in my view, interesting in itself and sheds new light on Sextus' methodology. The goal is: to suspend judgement on the effectiveness of dogmatic methodologies.


The paper presents 82 cases of free-end situations treated with supplementary implants to gain a posterior bridge-post for a fixed bridge. All implants were in function for at least five and maximum twenty years.


A novel high-performance air cathode was prepared by synthesizing Co3O4 nanowire clusters on a nickel foam (NF) substrate and then decorating these clusters with Pd nanoparticles using a pulse electrodeposition method. This carbon-free and binder-free cathode had a well-defined, flower-like morphology, presenting clusters composed of nanowires with a diameter of ∼60 nm and a length of ∼5 μm on which were located Pd particles as small as 10 nm. The new cathode exhibited excellent low polarization and superior cycling performance. We found that its enhanced electrochemical properties could be attributed to the homogeneous distribution of Pd nanoparticles on the Co3O4 nanowires, which ensured uniform growth of Li2O2 on the Pd/Co3O4/NF electrodes. This, in turn, significantly improved the cathode's OER/ORR activity and aided the formation of discharge products with uniform morphologies, as well as the decomposition of these discharge products during recharging.


This article presents the locomotion analysis and optimization of actinomorphic soft robots, which are composed of soft arms actuated by shape memory alloy wires. The soft arm that is a composite modular structure is actuated by a self-sensing feedback control strategy. A theoretical model was established to describe the deformation of the soft arm, combining the Euler–Bernoulli beam model of the soft arm with the constitutive model and the heat transfer model of the shape memory alloy wire. The kinematics of the actinomorphic soft robot was analyzed using the modified Denavit–Hartenberg method, and the motion equation of the actinomorphic soft robot was presented based on the quasi-static hypothesis. Results show that the actinomorphic soft robot moves with a zig-zag pattern. The locomotion of four actinomorphic soft robots with three to six arms was analyzed, and the gait parameters of each locomotion type were optimized. The optimization results indicate that the three-arm actinomorphic robot with certain gait parameters has the best performance and achieves a maximum stride length of 75 mm. A series of experiments were conducted to investigate the movement performance of the three-arm actinomorphic robot in various environments.


In practice, pipe products are often produced. The surfaces of these components are often turned. The three-jaw chuck is often used to clamp the components for turning. It is a universal clamping fixture. The main advantage of three-jaw chuck is its high flexibility. However, its disadvantage is the inappropriate influence of the clamping forces on the geometrical accuracy of the produced components. This article deals with research of the influence of clamping forces on the roundness of turned pipes. A universal three-jaw chuck was used. The chuck was tightened using a torque wrench. The applied tighten torques were determined by monitoring the commonly used torques for a manually tightened chuck. The article presents the results of experimental research.


Introduction Congenital thoracic malformations (CTMs) are an uncommon heterogenous group of disorders including congenital cystic adenomatous malformation (CCAM), pulmonary sequestration (PS), congenital lobar overinflation (CLO), hybrid lesions and bronchogenic cysts. They are increasingly diagnosed antenatally with foetal ultrasonography and remain asymptomatic. In light of diagnostic advances, robust population based epidemiology is lacking. This study aimed to characterise the incidence of CTMs in a defined geographic area from 1994 to 2011. Methods Children with CTM in Northern Ireland are referred to a single tertiary centre. Patients with CTM born between 1994 and 2011 were identified from the paediatric respiratory and surgical clinics and from imaging reports on the regional radiology database. Medical records and imaging reports were reviewed retrospectively. Children diagnosed with CTM who were born outside of Northern Ireland were excluded. All births in Northern Ireland are registered with the Registrar General Office. Annual live birth rates were obtained from the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency. Incidence was calculated per 10000 live births. Results In total there were 92 cases of CTM between 1994 and 2011, 53 cases (57%) had CCAM. An upward trend in the incidence of CTMs is demonstrated (Figure 1). The average incidence of CTMs from 1994 to 1999, 2000 to 2005 and 2006 to 2011 was 0.49 (range 0.41 to 0.82), 1.6 (range 0.89 to 1.85) 4.08 (range 2.34 to 7.73) respectively. A similar increase in the incidence of CCAM was demonstrated 0.14 (range 0to 0.42), 1.22 (range 0.93 to 1.40) and 2.19 (range 0.39 to 5.59) for the periods 1994 to 1999, 2000 to 2005 and 2006 to 2011 respectively. Abstract P23 Figure 1. Annual incidence of Congenital Thoracic Malformations between 1994 and 2011. Conclusion This study provides incidence statistics for CTMs in a defined geographic location and demonstrates an increasing incidence between 1994 and 2011, likely due to advances in antenatal diagnosis. The retrospective nature of this study means that patients with CTM who were not followed up postnatally and not imaged postnatally would not be included. The incidence provided therefore represents the minimum incidence. The increasing incidence of CTMs has therapeutic implications as the complication rates may be lower than previously repoted.


We consider a market with two competing supply chains, each consisting of one wholesaler and one retailer. We assume that the business environment forces supply chains to charge similar prices and to compete strictly on the basis of customer service. We model customer service competition using game-theoretical concepts. We consider three competition scenarios between the supply chains. In the uncoordinated scenario, individual members of both supply chains maximize their own profits by individually selecting their service and inventory policies. In the coordinated scenario, wholesalers and retailers of each supply chain coordinate their service and inventory policy decisions to maximize supply chain profits. In the hybrid scenario, competition is between one coordinated and one uncoordinated supply chain. We discuss the derivation of the equilibrium service strategies, resulting inventory policies, and profits for each scenario, and compare the equilibria in a numerical study. We find that coordination is a dominant strategy for both supply chains, but as in the prisoner's dilemma, both supply chains are often worse off under the coordinated scenario relative to the uncoordinated scenario. The consumers are the only guaranteed beneficiaries of coordination.


Introduction Rapid developments in information and communication technologies (ICT) and their wide application in all aspects of life have led to dramatic changes. These changes are so revolutionary that is not realistic to expect stability in their wake (1). Information technology (IT) entered into libraries, especially academic and research libraries, during the 1960s. Libraries employed IT to speed up their daily activities and reduce their operating costs. Many repetitive activities were upgraded using IT (2). IT allows integration of library activities and increases efficiency and enables users to have remote access to information and around the clock access. New technologies provide unlimited information from different sources and facilitate reformatting data from different sources (3). Definition Ebijuwa and ToAnyakoha (2005) (4-5) define ICT as "tools and as well as means used for collection, capture, process, storage, transmission and dissemination of information". The American Library Association (1983) (5) defines IT as "the application of computers and other technologies to the acquisition, organization, storage, retrieval and dissemination of information. The computers are used to process and store data, while telecommunications technology provides information communication tools, which make it possible for users to access databases and link them other computer networks at different locations." IT and ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) are used somewhat interchangeably. Objectives of the Study The major objectives of this study are 1. To identify the ICT infrastructure facilities available in the university libraries. 2. To identify the ICT based software implemented in the university libraries. 3. To find out the various types of electronic resources available in the university libraries. Methodology The study is based on the primary data collected from the government university libraries and deemed university libraries given in table 1. A structured questionnaire was designed to obtain data. The questionnaire was divided into four sections: Hardware, Software, Technologies, and Electronic Resources. Sixteen questionnaires were distributed among university librarians, of which 10 university librarians were responded (62.5%). Review of Literature Walmiki and Ramakrishnegowda (2009) (7) studied ICT infrastructures in university libraries of Karnataka and found that most of the libraries were u "lack sufficient hardware, software facilities and do not have adequate internet nodes and bandwidth". The campus LANs were not fully extended to exploit the benefits of digital information environment. Ahmad and Fatima (2009) (8) found that researchers use a variety of ICT products and services for research and further remarked that ICT products help "to find information, access information, manage, integrate, evaluate, create, and communicate information more easily". It was recommended that training be organized to increase the use of ICT-based products and services. Adeleke and Olorunsola (2010) (9) studied ICT and library operations found that ICT facilities were the major constraints facing libraries in the use of tools. Shafi-Ullah and Roberts (2010) (10) found that ICT infrastructure is necessary to make provide a research culture in higher education institutions and recommended allocating funds for ICT infrastructure. Etebu (2010) (11) studied ICT availability and found a situation that is not encouraging. Patil (2010) (12) found that users were not trained to use ICT- based products and services and further recommended an ICT training programme to increase the use of ICT products and services. Data Analysis The study was carried out in ten university libraries. The demographic information related to these respondents is shown in table 2. Five ICT infrastructures such as computers, printers, laptops, scanners and photocopiers were identified for this study and same is shown in table 3. …


Please download and complete the membership form for the Asia Pacific Forum on Educational Integrity. Please forward with your payment to Ms Melissa Ellmers, Finance Officer, School of Management, University of South Australia, GPO Box 2471, Adelaide, SA 5001.

Benefits of membership include: Access to the APFEI website and discussion list; Opportunities to contribute to the APFEI wiki/respository of resources; Discounted individual membership; Collaboration with the Center for Academic Integrity (Clemson University, USA, and plagarismadvice.org (Northumbria University, UK); 15% discount on bi-annual APFEI conference registration to all delegates with individual or institutional membership; Networking opportunities with key researchers in the field, including mentoring to publish in the IJEI; Reputational benefit in being associated with the first organisation in the region specifically devoted to issues of educational integrity; and
 Access to key researchers/speakers/professional developers to conduct seminars and training.


The incidence of snake bite in rural West Africa is reportedly high with an 11–17% mortality rate. Nigeria has one third of the cases for snake bite cases in this region.Thus, most tribes in North-western part of Nigeria depend on medicinal plants for snakebites. However, it appears that a gap exists on documentation of these plants especially tropical flora used in the management of snake bite. This led to increase depletion of medicinal plant resources and knowledge of their traditional use. Consequently, this survey provided knowledge and data on medicinal plants use in management of snake bite which will help retard the current rate of extinction and decimation of the medicinal plants in these areas and then provide need to conserve what is left as medicinal plants for posterity sake. The study was carried in three northwestern states of Nigeria namely Sokoto, Kebbi and Zamfara for three months. A semi-structured questionnaire was administered and fourteen respondents made up of herb sellers (7%), traditional medical practitioners (93%). The majority of the respondents were male (100%) and 34% were above 50 years of age.  From the study, the data collected shows 25 medicinal plants were in use by different categories of practitioners. Botanical names, local names, family names, plant part (s) use and number of citations were also obtained and documented.

 Key words: North-western Nigeria, snakebites, medicinal plants.


Laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) provides a rapid and versatile approach for producing parts with complex geometries. However, many parts with intricate geometries have overhang structures, which are not easily fabricated by using LPBF and are often downgraded by staircase effects, warpage, cracks, and dross formation. Thus, the present study proposes a combined numerical and experimental approach for determining the optimal settings of the laser power and scanning speed that minimize the surface roughness and maximize the density of Inconel 718 LPBF overhang structures. In the proposed approach, the heat transfer simulations are employed to determine the melt pool depth, the melt pool length, and the solid cooling rate within the feasible input space of laser power and scanning speed combinations. Notably, the simulations take account of both the difference in the material properties of the solid and powder materials, respectively, and the variation of the laser absorptivity in the depth direction of the powder layer. The simulation results are then used to train artificial neural networks for predicting the melt pool depth for 3600 combinations of the laser power and scanning speed within the input space. The resulting processing maps are screened in accordance with three quality criteria (namely the melt pool depth, the melt pool length, and the solid cooling rate) to determine the optimal processing region, which improves the surface roughness. The feasibility of the proposed approach is demonstrated by fabricating 10 × 10 and 20 × 20 mm2 horizontal overhang structures using parameter settings chosen from the optimal processing map. It shows that the optimal processing conditions result in a low surface roughness and a maximum density of 99.78%.


It is the purpose of the this study to use preliminary data to improve job environment, after looking job satisfaction and environment of interior construction workers. The following were the method of study. First, Through the literature, concept and the main theory on job satisfaction are examined. And It draws elements affecting job environment and satisfaction of interior construction workers. Based on this, we analyze job environment and satisfaction, and find what the satisfaction level is low, after a survey of interior construction workers. According to the survey, the result of the job environment is poor that people are working a lot more than a standard 10-hour day, not paid for it and absence of the education system for future. The larger workplace was in poor job conditions. the result of the job satisfaction is higher in case of smaller workplace or workers with less than 1 year or more than 8 year. As job satisfaction for interior construction score 3.30, it showed relatively higher satisfaction than job environment and satisfaction elements.


This paper presents the assessment of the structural damage and stability of the church of the Royal Monastery of Santa Maria de Poblet, one of the UNESCO World Heritage sites in Spain. The structure presents damage affecting mostly the main nave and lateral aisles, including cracking in the vaults and significant deformation in the clerestory walls and the barrel vault of the main nave. Following the historical survey, a sophisticated finite element model was used for the structural analysis of a damaged bay of the church. The 3D model was developed on the basis of the results of a terrestrial laser-scanning survey. In this way, the current deformed state of the structure was taken into consideration in the performed analyses. A continuum damage model allowed a realistic representation of the masonry behavior under tension and compression, which is a key factor for the assessment of masonry structures. The simulation of past reported or possible actions i.e. earthquakes, structural alterations and settlements provided valuable information on the causes of the present deformation and damage of the church. The influence of the material parameters in the structural response was evaluated with a detailed parametrical analysis. The paper ends with the graphic statics solution for the structure and a comparison with the equivalent finite element analysis outcomes.


The paper focuses on a documentary research on the principles presented by John Rawls in Teoria de la Justicia (1971) and El Liberalismo Politico (1996), which leads him towards a reflection on the way in which those principles have evolved; mainly in the human rights field based on the principles of equality and dignity, presented in the rawlsian doctrine, to make a constitutional interpretation. In the jurisprudential analysis, it is presented a result in terms of the definition of justice set by Rawls, against the definition inferred in the 1991 Colombian Constitution, due to the fact that an approximation to the principles of equality and difference are determined. In addition, it is inferred a correlation between equity as a principle for determining the justice in society, trying differently to whom at a disadvantage should be treated differentially.


Abstract Direct measurements of spatially distributed vertical strain within ice masses are scientifically valuable but challenging to acquire. We use manual marker tracking and automatic cross correlation between two repeat optical televiewer (OPTV) images of an ~100 m-long borehole at Derwael Ice Rise (DIR), Antarctica, to reconstruct discretised, vertical strain rate and velocity at millimetre resolution. The resulting profiles decay with depth, from −0.07 a−1 at the surface to ~−0.002 a−1 towards the base in strain and from −1.3 m a−1 at the surface to ~−0.5 m a−1 towards the base in velocity. Both profiles also show substantial local variability. Three coffee-can markers installed at different depths into adjacent boreholes record consistent strain rates and velocities, although averaged over longer depth ranges and subject to greater uncertainty. Measured strain-rate profiles generally compare closely with output from a 2-D ice-flow model, while the former additionally reveal substantial high-resolution variability. We conclude that repeat OPTV borehole logging represents an effective means of measuring distributed vertical strain at millimetre scale, revealing high-resolution variability along the uppermost ~100 m of DIR, Antarctica.


Background Medicines reconciliation (MR) is a critical step for reducing medicines errors (ME) at admission to hospital care. However, because of resource constraints it can be difficult to implement in hospital pharmacists' everyday practice. The Lean method is used to streamline and optimise processes considering all stakeholders and resources. Purpose To redesign the medicines management process at admission to reduce MEs. Material and methods A Lean approach review was conducted of the current medicines management process at admission (retroactive MR process) in order to define the new process (proactive MR), with all the stakeholders (clinicians, nurses, pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, head nurses). 5 activities were performed: mapping of the current process (retroactive MR process) measure of unintended medicines discrepancies (UMDs) at admission analysis of the collected data and root cause implementation design of a new improved process (proactive MR) implementation and measurement of the new process Only patients more than 65 years old and/or taking at least 3 medicines before admission were included. Results 52 patients were initially included (75 years, 7.4 medicines/patient). 46% had at least 1 UMD (0.75 UMDs/patient) and 28.2% of UMDs had the potential to cause moderate to severe discomfort or clinical deterioration. After implementation of the new MR process, 50 patients were included (70 years, 6.9 medicines/patient). The percentage of patients with at least 1 UMD decreased to 12% (p < 0.01) (0.16 UMDs/patient) and 28.6% of UMDs had the potential to cause moderate to severe discomfort or clinical deterioration. Conclusion Results demonstrate that proactive MR is effective in reducing ME on admissions orders and suggest that Lean is fully adapted to improve the medicines management process. Other studies are warranted to evaluate the impact of Lean on ME reduction. References and/or acknowledgements No conflict of interest.


A reliable method of tuning and microwave integrated circuit (MIC) line connection which has potential up to X band has been demonstrated. The method utilizes integrable fabricated microcantilever air gaps which are cold-deformed in situ to accomplish trimming. The advantages of this concept are 1) high open-circuit impedance, 2) low short-circuit insertion loss, 3) high trim resolution, 4) low line perturbation, 5) high mechanical stability, and 6) in situ fabrication with the rest of MIC circuitry.


Background Arterial dissections during transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) procedures are not rare and can limit the successful treatment of unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Purpose To evaluate the incidence of arterial dissections during TACE procedures, the rate of spontaneous lumen recovery, and the predictive factors of dissecting stenosis during follow-up. Material and Methods Based on 69,651 TACE procedures from 1997 to 2016, patients who had procedure-related arterial dissections were identified by procedure report search. More than two months after the date of dissection, dissecting stenosis was evaluated using a three-grade scale: subclinical narrowing with diameter loss under 30%, overt stenosis with diameter loss over 30%, and occlusion. Pearson Chi-square and two-sample t-test were used to assess potential prognostic markers for dissecting stenosis. Results Eighty-four arterial dissections directly related to TACE were identified in 83 patients, resulting in an incidence of 0.12% (84/69651). After more than two months, normal or subclinical narrowing, overt stenosis, occlusion, and doubling were seen in 39 (46.4%), 26 (31.0%), 13 (15.5%), and one (1.2%) patients, respectively. No follow-up images were obtained for five (6.0%) patients. On univariate analysis, the dissection ratio (the ratio of the length to the diameter of the dissection) alone was related to dissecting stenosis (P = 0.035). Conclusion The incidence of iatrogenic dissection during TACE was approximately 0.12%. Less than 50% of the iatrogenic dissections showed normal or subclinical narrowing during follow-up of at least two months. The dissection ratio alone was the predictive factor for dissecting stenosis during follow-up.


The acquisition of localized molecular spectra with mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) has a great, but as yet not fully realized, potential for biomedical diagnostics and research. The methodology generates a series of mass spectra from discrete sample locations, which is often analyzed by visually interpreting specifically selected images of individual masses. We developed an intuitive color-coding scheme based on hyperspectral imaging methods to generate a single overview image of this complex data set. The image color-coding is based on spectral characteristics, such that pixels with similar molecular profiles are displayed with similar colors. This visualization strategy was applied to results of principal component analysis, self-organizing maps and t-distributed stochastic neighbor embedding. Our approach for MSI data analysis, combining automated data processing, modeling and display, is user-friendly and allows both the spatial and molecular information to be visualized intuitively and effectively.


The heart sound signal, as a kind of weak biological signal under the background of strong noise, is easily subject to interference from noise of various sources. De-noising of heart sound signals, therefore, forms the primary basis for achieving non-invasive diagnosis of coronary heart disease. The paper proposes the five-level wavelet decomposition method for heart sound signals using Daubechies 6 wavelet (db6), which has yielded satisfactory results. A bi-spectrum estimation of the de-noised heart sound signals is performed based on the ARMA model, with appropriately and meticulously selected parameters. Experiments conducted on a total of 36 subjects, one half having healthy hearts and the other half afflicted with coronary heart disease, indicate that the db6-based decomposition method is capable of satisfactorily differentiating normal heart sound signals from abnormal ones.


The title compound, (C10H9N2)[Al(C7H3NO4)2]·3H2O or (2,2′-bipyH)[Al(pydc)2]·3H2O (where 2,2′-bipy is 2,2′-bipyridine and pydcH2 is pyridine-2,6-dicarboxylic acid), was synthesized by the reaction of aluminium(III) nitrate nonahydrate with pyridine-2,6-dicarboxylic acid and 2,2′-bipyridine in a 1:2:4 molar ratio in aqueous solution. This compound is composed of an anionic complex, [Al(pydc)2]−, a protonated 2,2′-bipyridine molecule as a counter-ion, (2,2′-bipyH)+, and three uncoordinated water molecules. The anion is a six-coordinate complex, with the AlIII atom in a distorted octahedral geometry coordinated by two tridentate pyridine-2,6-dicarboxylate groups. In the crystal structure, intermolecular O—H⋯O, N—H⋯O, N—H⋯N and C—H⋯O hydrogen bonds, π–π stacking between two aromatic rings [centroid–centroid distance = 3.827 (10) Å], and C=O⋯π stacking [with distances of 3.2311 (13), 3.4924 (14) and 3.5731 (13) Å], connect the various components to form a supramolecular structure.


This paper addresses the ill-posedness of the classical Rayleigh variational model of conducting charged liquid drops by incorporating the discreteness of the elementary charges. Introducing the model that describes two immiscible fluids with the same dielectric constant, with a drop of one fluid containing a fixed number of elementary charges together with their solvation spheres, we interpret the equilibrium shape of the drop as a global minimizer of the sum of its surface energy and the electrostatic repulsive energy between the charges under fixed drop volume. For all model parameters, we establish existence of generalized minimizers that consist of at most a finite number of components ``at infinity''. We also give several existence and non-existence results for classical minimizers consisting of only a single component. In particular, we identify an asymptotically sharp threshold for the number of charges to yield existence of minimizers in a regime corresponding to macroscopically large drops containing a large number of charges. The obtained non-trivial threshold is significantly below the corresponding threshold for the Rayleigh model, consistently with the ill-posedness of the latter and demonstrating a particular regularizing effect of the charge discreteness. However, when a minimizer does exist in this regime, it approaches a ball with the charge uniformly distributed on the surface as the number of charges goes to infinity, just as in the Rayleigh model. Finally, we provide an explicit solution for the problem with two charges and a macroscopically large drop.


Managing long sequences has become an important and necessary feature for large language models (LLMs). However, it is still an open question of how to comprehensively and systematically evaluate the long-sequence capability of LLMs. One of the reasons is that conventional and widely-used benchmarks mainly consist of short sequences. In this paper, we propose M4LE, a Multi-ability, Multi-range, Multi-task, Multi-domain benchmark for Long-context Evaluation. M4LE is based on a diverse NLP task pool comprising 36 NLP datasets, 11 task types and 12 domains. To alleviate the scarcity of tasks with naturally long sequences and incorporate multiple-ability assessment, we propose an automatic approach (but with negligible human annotations) to convert short-sequence tasks into a unified long-sequence scenario where LLMs have to identify single or multiple relevant spans in long contexts based on explicit or semantic hints. Specifically, the scenario includes five different types of abilities: (1) explicit single-span; (2) semantic single-span; (3) explicit multiple-span; (4) semantic multiple-span; and (5) global context understanding. The resulting samples in M4LE are evenly distributed from 1k to 8k input length. We conducted a systematic evaluation on 11 well-established LLMs, especially those optimized for long-sequence inputs. Our results reveal that: 1) Current LLMs struggle to understand long context, particularly when tasks require multiple-span attention. 2) Semantic retrieval task is more difficult for competent LLMs. 3) Models fine-tuned on longer text with position interpolation have comparable performance to those using Neural Tangent Kernel (NTK) aware scaling methods without fine-tuning. We make our benchmark publicly available to encourage future research in this challenging area.


In this paper we extend the calculation of the propagation of the mutual power spectrum, Γˆ(x1,x2,ν), for nonlinear dielectrics to the case of optically lossy media. In particular, in the quasi-monochromatic limit, the dependence of the mutual coherence function of the second harmonic wave on the full fourth-order coherence of the incoming radiant flux is discussed. An experiment utilizing this phenomenon is suggested.


The Supercomputing Education and Research Centre (SERC) at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), located in the South East Asian Region, has been providing state-of-the-art services and support for High Performance Computing (HPC) for the academic users of the institute since 1990. This centre, facilitates OpenMP, MPI, CUDA and OpenCL based HPC jobs for academic research. To augment or support the existing demand for compute intensive, tightly coupled HPC workloads in the institute, it was desirable to explore cloud based HPC services. This study is a comparative cost-benefit analysis of the in-house compute facility at SERC with that of the commercial cloud providers like Amazon, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure and Sabalcore. The Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of SahasraT (the in-house supercomputer) is computed and used to identify the cost of running a small job for 24 hours on the in-house facility. This is then compared with the estimated cost of running the same job on comparative cloud instances. Several research papers that provide a detailed evaluation of HPC on the cloud with performance benchmarks and the comparison to in-house HPC facilities, were studied. These references have been used to compare performance of compute instance in the public cloud to the performance of HPC at SahasraT. The results obtained in this study, advocate that current cloud platforms are expensive in both cost and performance as compared to the in-house facility at SERC


The goal of this paper is to provide an optimal solution for data distribution management (DDM) in large-scale distributed simulations. Until now, all existing DDM approaches have tried to make DDM more efficient in different ways; however, none has been able to optimize performance. The main reason for this inability is that these approaches manipulate the data generated in a simulation without evaluating the size of it. We propose a novel resource allocation scheme, the adaptive resource allocation control scheme (ARAC). The ARAC scheme is designed to optimize resource allocations for local and distributed processing work at each federate according to the size of the simulation. Efficiency is achieved by applying the analysis results of a static probability model, which we call the matching model. Performance comparisons between the existing grid-based approaches and the new adaptive approach show that the new scheme is much more flexible in adapting to various simulation sizes and comes much closer to an optimal solution. The novelty of the ARAC scheme is that it is able to scale the size of a simulation and control the simulation itself by running it in the most appropriate mode to achieve the desired efficiency. As a final result, the optimum performance is best approached.


Cable set top converters are taking on an increased computational role in the distribution of cable television signals. The MPC505 processor implements a very advanced controller that can deliver new levels of performance in a microcontroller chip. These new levels of performance are required in such applications as automotive engine control where there are many timing functions to be performed with very critical timing windows. The modularity of the device allows code written for a module on one processor to execute on any of the MPC500 family processors that contain the same module. The MPC500 instruction set is fully PowerPC/sup TM/ compliant. These features insure reusability of code and forward compatibility of code with future members of the MPC500 family. The ability to run at low voltages, processing speed and high levels of integration of the MPC505 along with the advantages of very high volume production combine to make this processor family a very powerful, economical MCU engine for embedded designs.