If B2B and B2C marketing should be considered distinct domains, is an ongoing debate that is affecting marketing research and practice. Recent contributions in the IMP school of thought have tried to solve this century old dichotomy. Scholars adopting some theories and methods mostly developed in consumer culture theory (CCT) have demonstrated the existence of some thick commonalities between the two fields as well as common consumption patterns in B2B and B2C contexts. With this paper we contribute to this cultural debate showing the importance that product attachment plays in the context of truck and truck drivers. Through an exploratory survey on a sample of 514 Italian truck drivers we demonstrate the existence of a diffused feeling of product attachment. In a second study, we have deepened the understanding of the product attachment using the experiential phenomenological research methods. Findings of this second study suggest that the extended self is a suitable framework to describe truck possession and usage.


The temperature dependence of the electrical resistance (R-T) and the current-voltage (I-V) characteristics has been measured and analyzed in a 40 nm thick Ti thin film, which is used as a transition edge sensor (TES). The analyses of the I-V characteristics with the vortex-antivortex pair dissociation model indicate the possible existence of the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) transition in two-dimensional superconducting Ti thin films. We investigated the noise due to the vortices' flow in TESs. The values of the current noise spectral density in the TESs were estimated by employing the vortex dynamics caused by the BKT transition in the Ti thin films. The estimated values of the current noise spectral density induced by the vortices' flow were in respectable agreement with the values of excess noise experimentally observed in the TESs with Ti/Au bilayer.


This chapter examines the history of the establishment and development of the European Union (EU). It discusses the underlying motives for its founding, which include the desire for peace, security against the rising threat from the Soviet Union, and economic development. It describes the origins of the Union which can be traced from the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) and the European Economic Community (EEC). This chapter also explains the roles and obligations of the EU in managing the external relations of its members, particularly in international trade. It looks at the subsequent extensive developments to both the Communities and the Treaties.


In this paper we use Floquet–Lyapunov theory to derive the Floquet factors of the state-transition matrix of a given linear time-periodic system. We show how the periodicity of one of the factors can be determined a priori using a constant matrix, which we call the Yakubovich matrix, based upon the signs of the eigenvalues of the monodromy matrix. We then describe a method for the numerical computation of the Floquet factors, relying upon a boundary-value problem formulation and the Yakubovich matrix. Further, we show how the invertibility of the controllability Gramian and a specific form for the feedback gain matrix can be used to derive a control law for the closed-loop system. The controller can be full-state or observer-based. It also allows the engineer to assign all the invariants of the system; i.e. the full monodromy matrix. Deriving the feedback matrix requires solving a matrix integral equation for the periodic Floquet factor of the new state-transition matrix of the closed-loop system. This is achieved via a spectral method, with further refinement possible through a boundary-value problem formulation. The computational efficiency of the scheme may be further improved by performing the controller synthesis on the transformed system obtained from the Lyapunov reducibility theorem. The effectiveness of the method is illustrated with an application to a quick-return mechanism using a software toolbox developed for MATLAB™.


Introduction: A recent trend involving the use of local delivery systems to deliver chemotherapeutic agents implies improved periodontal health. As part of this study, a locally delivered 0.5% azithromycin gel was evaluated for its clinical and microbiological efficacy in treating chronic periodontitis patients with controlled diabetes.
Material and Methods: The split-mouth study design was used in this randomized control trial. The study included 50 sites from 25 patients who had pocket depths greater than 5 mm and were diagnosed with chronic periodontitis. Two treatment groups were randomly assigned: scaling and root planing only (control group) or scaling and root planing with 0.5% azithromycin gel (test group). At selected sites, gingival index, probing pocket depth, and clinical attachment level were analyzed for both groups at baseline, 6 weeks, and 12 weeks.
Result & observations: Both the test and control groups had improved parameters when compared to baseline. The depth of the probing pocket was 6.64±1.07 mm and 7.36±1.15 mm at baseline, which decreased to 4.84±0.59 mm and 4.32±0.98 mm respectively at 12 weeks. The difference was statistically significant at p<0.001. Statistically significant difference in clinical attachment levels between baseline and 12 weeks, at p<0.001. The results of all microbiological categories improved significantly in both groups, while the test group showed a greater improvement.
Conclusion: It was concluded that locally delivered azithromycin could be beneficial in treating chronic periodontitis patients with diabetes when used in conjunction with scaling and root planing.
Keywords: Local drug delivery, Periodontal disease, Diabetes, Azithromycin gel.


OBJECTIVE
Tuberculin skin test (TST) is a useful tool to find non-symptomatic infants with tuberculosis. In 2005, Japanese government starts direct BCG vaccination without prior TST, and we may miss one of the chances to find the above patients. In this study, we tried to find if there is any clinical examination to find non-symptomatic infants with tuberculosis instead of regular TST.

SUBJECTS AND METHODS
We found out 20 non-symptomatic infants with tuberculosis among 131 infants who referred to our clinic because of positive TST prior to BCG vaccination from 1996 to 2003. We examined the data of gastric aspirate examination for Mycobacterium tuberculosis, complete blood counts, and serum chemistries in the 20 infants with tuberculosis. We also tried to find out the source of tuberculosis of these patients by the contact investigation.

RESULTS
Induration of TST among 20 non-symptomatic infants with tuberculosis were 7 to 26 (median, 13.5) mm. Mycobacterium tuberculosis from gastric aspirates was positive in 13 infants (65%). The level of blood hemoglobin was more than 11 g/dl in all infants. The white blood cell count was increased in 6 infants (30%), and exaggerated lymphocyte predominance was recognized in 8 infants (40%). Serum CRP was normal, or subtly increased. Serum GOT (AST) was increased in 15 infants (75%), though the reason was unknown. Serum albumin was normal in all the infants. In the contact investigation, suspected sources were found in 11 infants (55%), and 6 out of 11 sources (55%) were their mothers. Nine sources did not belong to the risk groups for tuberculosis except two mothers coming from tuberculosis epidemic countries.

CONCLUSION
In 20 non-symptomatic infants with tuberculosis, examination of gastric aspirate for Mycobacterium tuberculosis, TST, and chest imaging were useful tools to diagnose tuberculosis. However, these examinations are not done in non-symptomatic infants. Eleven family members who might infect the infants were found by the contact investigations, and none of them realized that they have tuberculosis. Our study suggests that there is no realistic clue to find non-symptomatic infants with tuberculosis instead of regular TST, and that the control of infant's tuberculosis still depends on the examination of close contacts of sporadic adult patients with tuberculosis.


After escaping from three of the world's most secure juvenile detention centers, fifteen-year-old Will Drake is transported to the Rig, a derrick turned prison for teens run by corporate military giant, the Alliance, in the middle of the Arctic Ocean. Now, surrounded by icy shark-infested waters and tracked by a bracelet that records his every move, Drake almost gives up hope of escaping. But vicious guards, violent bullies, and a desperate need to reach his mother motivate him to try, and unexpected new allies soon help him find a weakness in the seemingly impregnable maze of tunnels and cells. His clandestine explorations inadvertently uncover a terrible secret about the Rig's true purpose, though, one that the warden and the Alliance will do anything to protect. Readers will pick up this near-future prisonbreak adventure for its unique premise and stay for the taut action sequences and likable cast of misfit characters. The rig is fantastically wrought, almost a character unto itself, and the plot builds tension into a few really strong nail-biting events. There are some implausibilities, but readers who are willing to roll with them will enjoy a wild, riveting ride that packs action right through to the final pages. The novel ends with freedom for Will but an uncertain future on the run, setting up audiences for more thrills and a final showdown in expected sequels. AM


We consider the phase diagram of the BCS (Bardeen–Cooper–Schrieffer)–BE (Bose–Einstein) crossover in the ground state (T = 0 K) of a dx2−y2-wave superconductor, with a nearest neighbour tight binding structure, when we take into account the Debye (phononic) frequency around the chemical potential, μ. This approach is a continuation of the work of den Hertog (1999 Phys. Rev. B 60 559) and that of Soares et al (2002 Phys. Rev. B 65 174506). The latter authors considered the influence of the second-nearest neighbours, but neither set of authors took into account the effect of the Debye frequency, ωD, or the influence of the next nearest neighbour matrix hopping element. We have found the following results: (1) there is not a metallic phase—that is, when , , , and , where n is the carrier density per site, V is the attractive interaction, t is the nearest neighbour hopping integral, and is the next nearest neighbour hopping ratio; (2) the BCS–BE crossover line is strongly affected by the presence of ωD/4t and that of —actually, the values of V/4t needed to achieve the Bose–Einstein regime become extremely large for small values of ωD/4t; and (3) both Δ/4t and μ/4t strongly depend on the values of ωD/4t and . The results (1) are in agreement with the ones found by Perali et al (2003 Phys. Rev. B 68 066501 (Preprint cond-mat/0211132)) and Rodríguez-Núñez et al (2003 Phys. Rev. B 68 066502), and in disagreement with those of den Hertog and Soares et al.


It is recognized that business models provides ways to explore new business ideas and hence design and redesign operational business processes. Business model describes who are involved in the business and what resources are exchange between them. Process model on the other hand, shows ordering of exchange of resources, communication among agents to coordinate these resource exchanges. Process model is use to trace and coordinate value exchanges. The business model used in this work is e3-value model. The e3-value model was originally designed to support the explorations of new business networks. The paper contributes by addressing the research questions of identifying: e3-value model elements that needs to be mapped into the process model, essential sub processes that should be in a process model with respect to the e3-value model and nature of the process patterns. The paper provides answers to these research questions. The paper also discuss a method to transforms a business model to a process model in a systematic way. Such a method would provide support for traceability, evaluation of design alternatives. When two agents are exchanging resources in a value transaction, the order of exchange of resources would be vary from one business case to another business case. It depends on the contractual agreement setup between the involved business partners. The derivation of a process model from a business model is considered to be a nondeterministic design process. There would be different ways of achieving same goal. As such there would be different process models that achieve the same goal. Process patterns are ready made solutions to a certain problem in a specific problem domain. Process patterns are using as a candidate to build the process model. It is up to the designer to choose the appropriate patterns to construct process model. The selection is depends upon costs and benefits. He could compare the alternatives and choose the suitable one that achieves the goal. In this work we use elementary process patterns discussed in the Open-EDI, in particular negotiation, actualization and post-actualization, as the starting point. In e3-value model the in and out value ports are visible to the out side environment. The actor uses his interfaces which contains the value ports to interact with the environment. The value activity is internal to the actor and not seen by the outsiders. The function of a value activity that belongs to an actor in e3-value model is to produce resources, that needs to be used in value transfers. To create a new resource the value activity some times needs to accumulate all necessary input resources. Before the production these resources some times needs to be further pre-process. After the production the new resources some times needs to be post-process before being delivered to the other agent involved in the value transfer. In this work we identify in and out value ports, value interface and value activity are the essential elements in e3-value model that are important during constructing business model from the process model. The process model is to depict order of exchange of resource and communication among parties involved. Hence it is important to discuss the receiving and provisioning of resources in the process model. Therefore, based on the analysis of components of e3-value model we identify essential sub processes that should be in a process model. These sub processes can be choreograph in different ways to construct the process model. Based on the sub processes, we discover a basic set of process patterns. They are the most common process patterns that could be find in a process model. This process pattern library could be further expand by adding additional sub processes to deal with more business cases. Using these process patterns, the paper suggests a set of guide lines to construct the process model. The results are applied to a running case for illustration.


The Clinical Breast Care Project (CBCP) was established by direction of the U.S. Congress in January 2000. Human biospecimen collection (breast organ site) is a seminal pillar of the CBCP. To date, more than 33,000 total specimens have been collected and stored under a cooperative congressionally sponsored agreement with the Windber Research Institute in Windber, Pennsylvania. The National Cancer Institute sponsored a workshop in June 2008 entitled Economic Considerations for Implementing the NCI Best Practices for Biospecimen Resources. The authors were asked to present details from the CBCP experience on the cost of setting up and operating a high-level biorepository. These costs were meticulously gathered with input from our clinical, tissue banking, and medical bioinformatics teams. Set-up and operational costs were then computed for each facet of the operation to calculate the total expense of establishing this biorepository. Development and operating costs for other institutions will vary, but the chronology and costs presented here can serve as a guideline for other organizations, clinicians, and scientists interested in establishing a biorepository for translational research.


This article explores the results of the adaptation of Louis C.K.'s stand-up persona to the narrative and genre conditions of the sitcom and the television dramedy. The research belongs to the field of television studies and applies narrative analysis (with a focus on characters) to the TV shows Lucky Louie (2006) and Louie (2010–). The first section of the essay offers an analysis of Louis C.K.'s stand-up performances in order to identify the subject matter of his comedy and the traits of his comic persona. This analysis makes it possible to define the influence of his television projects on the transformation of the original comic character. Unlike the sitcom, dramedy favors genre and narrative experiments and features an ambiguous yet relatable protagonist. This character provides a wider range of opportunities to reinforce the original message about everyday life conveyed in Louis C.K.'s stand-up comedy.


The fusion of synaptic vesicles with the presynaptic membrane of the neuron in response to action potentials results in release of neurotransmitter into the synapse. But why are there spontaneous fusion events during which a single synaptic vesicle fuses with the presynaptic membrane in the absence of action potentials? As
 Verstreken and Bellen
 explain in their Perspective, it seems that spontaneous fusion does not merely reflect leakage of the synaptic machinery but rather is crucially important for organizing glutamate receptors in the postsynaptic neuromuscular junction of the developing fly (
 Saitoe
 et al.).


BACKGROUND
The primary response to the coronavirus pandemic has been to minimize social contact through lockdown measures. The closure of non-essential businesses to tackle the spread of the coronavirus has had negative consequences for the global economy, production, and employment.

OBJECTIVE
To outline how known occupational health principles can be used for preventative management of the coronavirus in workplaces to support resumption of work.

METHODS
A discussion of current knowledge of COVID-19, the cost of the lockdown strategy, and preventative biological cycle management.

RESULTS
The evidence-based literature indicates that biological cycle management can control the risk of coronavirus infection, provide a suitable and sufficient exit strategy from lockdown, and support getting employees back to work. Adherence to personal protective equipment standards has been insufficient, indicating a need for workplace investment and education.

CONCLUSION
Imposed restrictions on workplace operations can be lifted without compromising worker health and safety when a workplace commits to practicing the three principles of biological cycle management.


Gillespie's Stochastic Simulation Algorithm (SSA) is an exact procedure for simulating the evolution of a collection of discrete, interacting entities, such as coalescing aerosol particles or reacting chemical species. The high computational cost of SSA has motivated the development of more efficient variants, such as Tau-Leaping, which sacrifices the exactness of SSA. For models whose interacting entities can be characterized by a continuous parameter, such as a measure of size for aerosol particles, we analyze strategies for accelerating these algorithms by aggregating particles of similar size into bins. We show that for such models an appropriate binning strategy can dramatically enhance efficiency, and in particular can make SSA computationally competitive without sacrificing exactness. These strategies are especially effective for highly multiscale problems. We formulate binned versions of both the SSA and Tau-Leaping algorithms and analyze and demonstrate their performance.


In mulsemedia applications, traditional media content (text, image, audio, video, etc.) can be related to media objects that target other human senses (e.g., smell, haptics, taste). Such applications aim at bridging the virtual and real worlds through sensors and actuators. Actuators are responsible for the execution of sensory effects (e.g., wind, heat, light), which produce sensory stimulations on the users. In these applications sensory stimulation must happen in a timely manner regarding the other traditional media content being presented. For example, at the moment in which an explosion is presented in the audiovisual content, it may be adequate to activate actuators that produce heat and light. It is common to use some declarative multimedia authoring language to relate the timestamp in which each media object is to be presented to the execution of some sensory effect. One problem in this setting is that the synchronization of media objects and sensory effects is done manually by the author(s) of the application, a process which is time-consuming and error prone. In this paper, we present a bimodal neural network architecture to assist the synchronization task in mulsemedia applications. Our approach is based on the idea that audio and video signals can be used simultaneously to identify the timestamps in which some sensory effect should be executed. Our learning architecture combines audio and video signals for the prediction of scene components. For evaluation purposes, we construct a dataset based on Google's AudioSet. We provide experiments to validate our bimodal architecture. Our results show that the bimodal approach produces better results when compared to several variants of unimodal architectures.


In article the phenomenon of national safety of a modern Russian society is investigated. In the centre of attention of article scientific approaches to understanding of national safety, and also socially-synergetik potential of strategy of national safety of a modern Russian society. As a Faktologichesky basis of research the analysis of operating strategy of national safety of the Russian Federation, confirmed by the decree of the President of the Russian Federation has acted on May, 12th, 2009. Research of a modern condition of Russian world as which authors understand diverse unity of the Russian and Russian-speaking world's population united by space of Russian and Russian culture, in the essence being uniting form of existence of many people connected by the general historical destiny with the Russian society became the main problem of article. The carried out analysis has allowed authors to draw a conclusion on extreme calls and deep destructive processes which Russian world it has appeared is subject during the epoch which has followed disintegration of the USSR and come globalisation.In article destructive consequences and threats to development of Russian world in the field of a regional policy, economy and culture are investigated. Russian world is considered by authors as the general factor of safety not only Russian and Russian-speaking population in theworld, but also the major factor of national safety of the most Russian society. The analysis of destructive processes and collecting of Russian world, as general factor of national safety of Russia in the globalized world became the major aspects of research. The factor of Russian world is considered in unity with the factor of the Civil society in Russia. As a methodological basis of research the approach, allowed to formulate unity of a civil society and Russian world as major condition and simultaneously the major factor of national safety and strategy of a sustainable development of a modern Russian society has acted synergetik.


Leishmania parasites isolated in the Islamic of Iran were studied by a random amplified polymorphic DNA polymerase chain reaction (RAPD-PCR). Of 82 isolates, 80 were from cutaneous lesions, 1 from a human throat lesion and 1 from a dog. Of these, 42 isolates were L. tropica, 36 were L. major and 2 were L. infantum. There were 2 unidentified isolates (from the throat lesion and a cutaneous lesion) and these demonstrated 52% and 48% similarity with L. tropica and L. infantum. Both L. tropica and L. major were isolated from four provinces indicating a recent change in the epidemiology of cutaneous leishmaniasis. L. tropica was isolated from three provinces; L. major from one province. L. infantum was isolated from a human cutaneous lesion and from a dog in Bushehr province.


We report the surface characteristics and superconducting properties of epitaxial NdBa2Cu3O 7 − δ thin films grown on (100) SrTiO3 and (100) LaAlO3 substrates by pulsed-laser deposition technique from a stoichiometric NdBa2Cu3O 7 − δ target. The NdBa2Cu3O 7 − δ films grown under the newly optimised deposition parameters showed a clear two-dimensional nucleation followed by a layer-by-layer growth resulting in a very smooth surface with typical root-mean-square surface roughness as low as 0.5 nm for a 2 μm×2 μm area. The films showed high crystallinity and excellent in-plane epitaxy. Also the films showed good metallicity and gave a zero resistance superconducting transition of 92 K with a narrow transition width of ~ 0.5 K. Even the films with thickness above 400 nm grew in the same growth mode indicating that there was no change in the growth mode of NdBa2Cu3O 7 − δ films with increasing thickness under the newly optimised deposition condition. The realization of reproducible growth of NdBa2Cu3O 7 − δ films with high TC and smooth surface on LaAlO3 will have tremendous application in superconducting microwave devices.


A highly oxygenated chromone, conyzorigun (1), from Ageratum conyzoides plants was earlier reported to contain a novel stable ketene acetal system by virtue of an oxygen linkage between the benzopyrone and phenyl moieties. A reinvestigation of this structure in the light of biosynthetic experiments followed by chemical degradation is now described. The results obtained indicate that conyzorigun does not contain the above-described oxygen linkage, being a flavone of a known structure, viz. eupalestin (4).


The close spatial relationship between Devonian high-pressure rocks (eclogites) and Ordovician–Silurian calc-alkaline plutonic rocks, as observed in Liverpool Land, NE Greenland, is not easily explained by existing tectonic models for the Caledonide orogen. New field studies and isotope dilution–thermal ionization mass spectrometry U-Pb geochronology demonstrate, however, that the association is just coincidental, because the two rock groups are located within distinct terranes separated by a composite structure. The major element is the Gubbedalen shear zone, a N-dipping shear zone dominated by a penetrative top-up-to-the-S ductile fabric. Superimposed brittle-ductile top-down-to-the-N shear zones are typical of the structurally uppermost part of the shear zone. The contact against the hanging wall is the N-dipping, brittle Gubbedalen extensional detachment fault. A zircon age of 399.5 ± 0.9 Ma for an eclogite body is interpreted to represent the time of high-pressure metamorphism of the footwall. The host gneiss was migmatized between ca. 388 Ma and ca. 385 Ma, as constrained by the ages of a pegmatite predating migmatization and crosscutting granites. Coeval synkinematic granites intrude along amphibolite-grade, top-to-the-S high-strain zones in the Gubbedalen shear zone. Juxtaposition of the Ordovician–Silurian plutonic terrane (hanging wall) against the Early to mid-Devonian eclogite terrane (footwall) is best explained by a tectonic model involving early mid-Devonian buoyancy-driven exhumation followed by late mid-Devonian syncontractional extension related to thrusting on the Gubbedalen shear zone in a dextral strike-slip zone. Subsequent exhumation through the brittle-ductile transition occurred by extension on early semiductile structures and the overprinting Gubbedalen extensional detachment fault, and erosion.


The genome of influenza virus is composed of eight RNA segments of negative polarity. The RNA-dependent RNA polymerase is associated with each viral RNA (vRNA) segment and in virus-infected cells, involved in both transcription, i.e. vRNA-directed synthesis of viral mRNA, and two step reactions of vRNA replication, i.e. vRNA-dependent synthesis of complementary RNA (cRNA) and cRNA-dependent synthesis of vRNA. The RNA polymerase is composed of three viral proteins, PB1, PB2 and PA. PB1 is the core subunit for not only the RNA synthesis but also the assembly of PB2 and PA into this multifunctional enzyme complex. PB1 alone is able to catalyze vRNA-dependent RNA synthesis, but PB2 is required for capped RNA-dependent transcription, both together forming the transcriptase. The third P protein, PA, and an as yet unidentified host factor(s) are involved in the conversion of RNA polymerase from transcriptase to replicase. The functional map is being made for both PB1 and PB2 proteins.


The MIT iLab Shared Architecture is limited currently to running under Microsoft Windows. A JAVA implementation of the Batched iLab Shared Architecture has been developed that can be used on other operating systems and still interoperate with the existing Microsoft .NET web services of MIT's iLab ServiceBroker. The JAVA implementation provides a 3-tier code development model that allows code to be reused and to develop only the code that is specific to each experiment.


Filtration describes a variety of the construction complex problems: strengthening loose soil to create a solid foundation, the movement of groundwater with solid impurities near underground structures, and many others. A model of two-sized deep bed filtration particles moving with different velocities in a porous medium with three-size pores is considered. The competition of pores and various size particles for deposit formation is modeled. Solutions are constructed at the porous medium inlet and on the concentrations front of the fast particles. For constant filtration coefficients, a global exact solution is obtained. Numerical calculation illustrates the evolution of the filtration process.


DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.24018/ejfood.2020.2.6.84 Vol 2 | Issue 6 | November 2020 1 Abstract — Intervention using blended composite flours can reduce malnutrition in sub Saharan Africa. Prevalence of protein-energy malnutrition among the vulnerable children has necessitated research on cost effective food product development like food to food fortification of common staples like sorghum. An investigation was carried out on the nutritional properties of selected sorghum composite flours for the production of porridge for both home and industrial applications. In this study, composite flours V1 to V4 were made from sorghum, maize, grain amaranth, baobab and butternut at different rations; V1-(42.5:22.5:5:15:15),V2-(22.5:42.5:5:15:15), V3-(32.5:32.5:5:15:15) and V4-(65:0:5:15:15) were compared against composite flours AV1 to AV4 made from sorghum, cassava, chickpea, orange fleshed sweet potatoes (OFSP) and baobab; AV1-(42.5:22.5:5:15:15) AV2-(22.5:42.5:5:15:15), AV3-(32.5:32.5:5:15:15) and AV4-(65:0:5:15:15). Standard methods were used in determining the chemical characteristics of the composite flours. Composite flour formulations were based on Concept4 creative software. Results on proximate composition indicated a significant (p < 0.05) difference in moisture content of the control composite (V5) and the other composite flours with the moisture content ranging from 9.1% to 12.1% in V5 and V3 respectively. Carbohydrates were the most abundant nutrient in the composite flours 66.0 to 72.7% in V1 and V5 respectively, followed by fat 5.5% (AV3) to 9.2% (AV1), protein 5.1 (AV2) to 8.6% (AV4), crude fibre 1.5 (V2) to 4.3% (V5), and ash 1.4 (AV1) to 2.8% (AV4). The total energy ranged between 359.25 kcal (V4) to 379.94 kcal (V1) however, these values were not significantly different (p > 0.05). Zinc, calcium and magnesium concentration were significantly different (p <0.05) between the sorghum-maize-grain amaranthbaobab-butternut, on one hand and sorghum-cassava-chickpeaOFSP-baobab composite flours on the other. The concentrations of phosphorus and Iron were not significantly different (p > 0.05). Correlation analysis revealed significant negative correlation between crude protein and fibre (-0.512, p ≤ 0.001) and crude protein and iron (-0.386, p ≤ 0.047), whereas crude protein and magnesium had a significant positive correlation (0.455, p ≤ 0.017). The results indicate that both categories of flour composites have the potential to improve nutritional status of consumers. Thus, consumption of V1 and V4 composite flours with a protein content of 8.1% and 8.6% maybe encouraged for children aged 6 59 months who need products with good nutritional composition for proper growth and development.


In the last century, energy consumption has grown in parallel with population growth and the extensive use of technology. While increased energy consumption has major environmental consequences due to carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, it has also accelerated the search for renewable energy. In this study, we investigated the effect of technological innovations and renewable energy on carbon dioxide emissions. For this purpose, we examined the number of patents and the effects of renewable energy use on the environment of 37 Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, which constitute the world's largest economy, between 1990 and 2019, using the panel cointegration method. The empirical results show that the increase in the number of patents has a significant effect on CO2 emissions, while investment and GDP have a relatively small effect. It was concluded that renewable energy and export trade variables reduce CO2 emissions.


Supervision is a process that facilitates the management and the staff in the effective coordination of various activities within the setup. It provides feedback and helps in the professional growth of the staff.  The current study was aimed to find out the effect of the supervision system on the efficiency of teachers at the elementary schools level. This study derived this concept from the idea that supervision plays an integral role in the success or failure of any organization but this concept remained least preferred by researchers in past years. Thus, the objective of this study was aimed to find out the effect of educational supervision on the performance of elementary teachers. Moreover, barriers that are obstructing the performance of teachers, were explored. The role of training programs as a mediating variable was also considered. A descriptive survey was the research design of the study and the whole staff of the directorate of education was the population of the study. A sample size of fifty employees was selected based on simple random sampling and nine staff members were selected from each of the four departments of the Directorate of education. It was concluded that supervision plays an important role in the enhancement of teacher's performance by the provision of the right tools along with the right resources. The research indicated that appraisal results are the key factors for a counseling session because teachers considered that they are engaged when they are lagging. The study also concluded that if teachers are not satisfied with the job then supervision could not have an impact on performance.


Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) (N = 148) underwent general anesthesia with halothane (H) or isoflurane (I) each administered randomly to 74 patients. One hundred and ten pre-, intra-, and postoperative variables were analyzed, including outcome variables, which included intra- and postoperative respiratory complications. Univariate computer analyses demonstrated no differences between H and I groups with respect to all variables, the exception being tachycardia, which occurred significantly more frequently in patients given I. Log-linear analyses revealed that no interactions existed between H or I groups, the non-outcome variables, and the complications. We conclude that patients with COPD respond similarly to H and I and that these anesthetics are associated with similar incidences of respiratory complications.


The community who live near—or in—the forest, are quite often to be cate- gorized as a poor, uneducated, lazy, naive, marginal, and traditional people. But, for some reason, they are also, currently, being called—mostly by activ- ist—as local people, who hold a wise local knowledge: more commit to conservation rather than exploitation, more concern to community rather than market, having social instrument to deal with the conflict, commit to social justice, etc. In some places, such as Wonomukti, the forest village in Central of Java, and Siberut, a small Island around Sumatera, those kinds of stuff are not really clarified, just not to say fail to find some evidences. In those places, people or local people have changed their orientation in term of how to deal with the forest resources surrounding them. They switch their economic orientation: from moral to rational, from subsistence to market, from land to timber, and from local to regional scope, due to get maximum benefit. These are kind of transformation which has become an important issue for the forest villagers since couple of years ago. Unfortunately, no much attentions being paid for.


Multiple myeloma is the third most common hematologic malignancy in
Malaysia. The introduction of novel agents over the past decades has
improved patient outcome and survival substantially. The usage of novel
agents can be financially taxing, and hence resources limit its use.
This study aims to report on the real-world treatment outcome when
resources are limited. This is a retrospective study on newly diagnosed
multiple myeloma (NDMM) patients diagnosed between 1 January 2008 and 31
December 2018 in a single academic center. Patients demographic and type
of treatment were included for analysis of progression free survival and
overall survival. Ninety-eight NDMM patients with a median age of 63.5
(ranged from 38 to 87 years old) were included. Half of the total
patients received bortezomib-containing regimens while 40.8% received
thalidomide-containing regimens, and remaining 9.2% had other agents as
induction. Forty-seven patients (48.0%) achieved very good partial
response (VGPR) or complete remission (CR), while remaining 51 patients
(52.0%) have achieved partial response (PR) at best during induction
therapy. Bortezomib use was associated with significantly deeper
(p=0.001) and more rapid response (p=0.005) compared to other agents.
Five-year OS and PFS were 45.3% and 18.4%, respectively. Triplet
regimen, best initial response and upfront ASCT were significantly
associated with better PFS. In conclusion, deep response significantly
affects PFS and OS in NDMM patients. Thus, one of the goals of treatment
is to ensure earlier and deeper response by including bortezomib as part
of triplet combination in upfront therapy, followed by ASCT for those
who are fit. This is feasible in a resource limited country such as
Malaysia, especially there is a cheaper generic formulation.


Infection of the gastric mucosa by Helicobacter spp. is an important cause of gastric diseases and neoplasms in humans and animals. The objective of this study was to evaluate the presence of Helicobacter spp. in the livers of dogs with nonspecific histological changes. The association between Helicobacter spp. infection, hepatocyte proliferation and E-cadherin expression was also evaluated. Liver samples from 39 dogs were subjected to polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to identify Helicobacter spp. Hepatocyte proliferation was evaluated by the AgNOR method. The Helicobacter genus was detected in seven (17.9%) animals that exhibited liver histological changes. Twenty-six animals were PCR negative and exhibited microscopical changes, while six animals demonstrated no histological changes and were PCR negative. Infected animals showed a significant increase in liver lesional score and the area of NORs compared to non-infected dogs. E-cadherin expression showed no significant difference among groups. The results suggest that Helicobacter spp. and hepatocytes injury in the livers of dogs could contribute to increased cell proliferation, thereby influencing hepatocarcinogenesis.


Hydrogen bonds or 'H-bonds' are polar, non-covalent bonds or interactions between a hydrogen atom (H) attached to a more electronegative atom, such as oxygen (O) or nitrogen (N), which partially pulls the electron cloud away from the H, leaving it electropositive—with another electronegative atom, such as O or N from a different molecule or from a different part of the same molecule. H-bond interactions play a huge role in the biochemistry of living processes, and in the structures and interactions of biological molecules, with each other and with different molecules including water. Nature's natural solvent, water, is itself a dynamic H-bonded polar structure, which strongly affects solubility and, as (dynamic) water of hydration, interactions between molecules. Compared with covalent and ionic bonds, H-bonds are individually much weaker (<20 kJ/mol), which make them ideal for molecular recognition phenomena. When many H-bonds come together they can form strong insoluble structures such as cellulose and the impermeable derivative of cellulose known as chitin, or helical structures with intra-chain stabilizing H-bonds such as the α-helix. Perhaps the most important H-bonded structure of them all is DNA.


Background. Chronic spinal cord injury may be complicated by weight loss, muscle atrophy, and bone loss. Objective. The authors identified a combination pharmacotherapy using buspirone, carbidopa, and L-DOPA (BCD) that elicits bouts of locomotor-like movements in spinal cord–transected (Tx) mice. They then evaluated the effects of 8 weeks of treadmill training in Tx mice that received BCD or BCD + clenbuterol, a monoaminergic agent with anabolic properties, on locomotor function, muscle atrophy, adipose tissue loss, and bone density measures. Methods. Induced locomotor movement, adipose tissue, skeletal muscle, and femoral bone properties were compared in unoperated control mice, operated controls (untreated, untrained Tx mice), and 2 groups of treated, trained Tx mice (Tx + BCD, Tx + BCD + clenbuterol) that also received training. Results. BCD- and BCD + clenbuterol–treated mice showed comparable levels of locomotor movements that significantly improved over time. Soleus muscle mass and soleus and extensor digitorum longus cross-sectional area significantly increased in both groups of BCD-treated mice, with greater effects in BCD + clenbuterol–treated animals. Fiber type conversion, adipose tissues, bone mineral density, and content were reduced in all Tx groups compared with unoperated control mice. Conclusion. These findings suggest that locomotor movement and muscle properties can be restored to near-normal levels after several weeks of BCD treatment, regular training, and clenbuterol in completely paraplegic animals.


Background:  Effective precepting is important to ensure meaningful practical learning experiences and competency for entering pharmacy practice. Aim:  To describe the design, implementation and evaluation of a workplace-based pharmacist preceptor training session at an acute-care hospital. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in the hospital's pharmacy department. A needs analysis survey was used to identify knowledge gap. A session evaluation survey was used to evaluate satisfaction with the preceptor training session. Results: A total of 29 pharmacists (response rate: 48.3%) completed the session evaluation survey. Majority of pharmacists reported that the session was helpful (86.2%) and they gained new insights into precepting (89.7%). Most pharmacists, including those who had attended external preceptor training, believed that workplace-based preceptor training was as valuable as such training offered by external organisations (89.7%). Conclusion: Workplace-based pharmacist preceptor training was well-received by pharmacist preceptors and was perceived to be as useful as training offered by external organisations.


This paper focuses on improving the performance of stator flux estimation and elimination of mechanical sensors, using mechanical sensors could decrease the robustness of the direct torque controlled Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor speed control system. In this paper, a Robust Extended Kalman Filter is tailored to estimate the stator flux, rotor position and speed, mainly based on the stator flux linkage model in α-β reference frame, the filter is derived to guarantee an optimized upper bound on the state estimation error covariance despite of the model uncertainties as well as the linearisations errors. Simulations are conducted in order to test the performance both in steady state and transient operation. The results show that the proposed scheme can acquire precise stator flux and torque at very low speed even standstill, eliminate the DC bias and no precise initial state needed, it can estimate the state varibles accurately and improve the performance of the PMSM-DTC system. This paper provide an effective method for high performance sensorless control.


Acoustic liners can represent an effective strategy for noise reduction in aero engines. To assess the sound absorption effectiveness under representative operating conditions and to validate numerical methods, the treatments shall be characterized by using grazing flow rigs. Purpose of this survey is to describe the design solutions adopted in a brand-new test rig aimed at evaluating the performance of the liners under testing conditions representative of the turbine exhaust in an aircraft engine, i.e. high flow speed and temperature. The main components of the rig have been numerically investigated from an aerodynamic, thermo-structural and acoustic perspective. The relevant outcomes are reported in the paper. After the rig has been manufactured and assembled, a preliminary commissioning has been performed to verify the rig operability and performance, with special focus on the acoustic behavior.


The antiproliferative effect of alpha-difluoromethylornithine (DFMO) was investigated in a human ovarian cancer cell line (NIH:OVCAR3) both in vitro and in vivo. DFMO at 5 X 10(-5) M, 5 X 10(-4) M and 1 X 10(-3) M concentrations showed growth inhibition of NIH:OVCAR3 cells in culture. Parallel determination of CA 125 in the culture media of these cells show significant decrease in the presence of DFMO compared to controls. Oral administration of DFMO (2% aqueous solution) to nude mice bearing intraperitoneal tumors resulted in a mean survival of 45 days (38-60) versus 25 days (20-35) for control. Both in vitro and in vivo results suggest that DFMO has potential value in the treatment of ovarian carcinoma and should be considered for clinical trials in appropriate cancer patients.


At an individual level Helicobacter pylori was associated with the occurrence of gastric cancer but in some African and Asian countries its prevalence runs with low gastric cancer rates, the so‐called African and Asian enigmas. We assessed whether the association between gastric cancer and H. pylori prevalence at an area level is modified by the level of exposure to fruits and vegetables, alcohol or tobacco. Regression models were fitted to data from 58 countries using as dependent variable log transformed gastric cancer rates and as independent covariables the H. pylori prevalence, fruits and vegetables consumption, cigarette smoking, alcohol intake and interaction terms. The levels of alcohol consumption or cigarette smoking modified the association between gastric cancer and H. pylori infection. Models including H. pylori prevalence, alcohol consumption, cigarette smoking and the interaction terms H. pylori × alcohol or H. pylori × tobacco were used to compute gastric cancer incidence multiplying regression coefficients by a H. pylori prevalence of 85% (the approximate median in African countries) and the median figures observed in each continent for alcohol and tobacco availability. The expected gastric cancer incidence per 100,000 would be 5.7 assuming the alcohol and tobacco availability in African countries, 7.0 in Asia and Oceania, 16.0 in America and 26.0 in Europe. The interaction between H. pylori and cigarette or alcohol consumption may contribute to further explain the international variation in gastric cancer and the so‐called African and Asian enigmas. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Adams' extension of parsing expression grammars enables specifying indentation sensitivity using two non-standard grammar constructs --- indentation by a binary relation and alignment. This paper proposes a step-by-step transformation of well-formed Adams' grammars for elimination of the alignment construct from the grammar. The idea that alignment could be avoided was suggested by Adams but no process for achieving this aim has been described before.


Purpose: Deadhesion of metal/polyimide interface resulting from environmental aging had been reported as a common failure mechanism of polyimide dielectric. To assess the structural reliability of the polyimide based retinal electrode, a methodology to characterize the adhesion of metal/polyimide interface using blister and In vitro accelerated soak tests is proposed. The blister test is a reliable method for the adhesion measurement between a thin film and a rigid substrate, and its sample has a similar structure to the polyimide based retinal electrode. Methods: Blister test samples were designed and fabricated with consideration to the structure of the polyimide based retinal electrode consisting of polyimide/polyimide, titanium/polyimide and polyimide/titanium/gold layers. The blister test apparatus was customized for these test samples which have no rigid substrate. Each sample was put in a test tube filled with phosphate buffered saline for performing In vitro accelerated soak tests at 90°C in a forced convection oven. During the soak tests, the adhesion of each sample was regularly measured with the blister test for monitoring the long term reliability. Results: The adhesion between thin films could be measured with the customized circular blister test. The results of the blister test were recorded by the critical pressure (psi) indicating the adhesion strength between thin films. The accelerated soak tests at 90°C had performed on the adhesion test samples for 4 weeks. During 4 weeks, the adhesion of polyimide/polyimide interlayer had maintained an average critical pressure around 40 psi and the adhesion of polyimide/titanium interlayer had also maintained an average critical pressure about 25 psi. Conclusions: The blister and In vitro accelerated soak tests are useful for comparing the reliability of various metal/polyimide interfaces in a relatively short time. The results obtained from this experiment show that the adhesion of polyimide/polyimide interface is stronger than the adhesion of titanium/polyimide interface during the 4 weeks soak tests at 90°C. An additional experiment with soak tests at 75°C is currently in progress for estimating the degradation rate of the adhesion at 37°C using the Arrhenius equation.


In recent years considerable advances have been made in our knowledge of the peptide moiety of human mucins through cDNA cloning. In many diseases disorders in mucin biosynthesis are observed, which result either from changes in the synthesis of the carbohydrate side chains or from differences in the relative expression of the different apomucins, each of which may affect physical properties of the viscous gel. We describe in situ hybridization studies on healthy human mucosae with five different oligonucleotide probes corresponding to each of the human genes known to date that encode secreted mucins, i.e., MUC 2, 3, 4 (HGM nomenclature) and 5B, 5C (proposed name). These genes present a nucleic tandem repeat organization. The choice of oligonucleotide probes was made to amplify the signal by hybridization of many small probes on the same mRNA molecules. A characteristic pattern of mucin gene expression was observed for each mucosa.


This paper considers a wireless communication system with multiple transmit and receive antennas, i.e., a multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) channel. The objective is to design the transmitter according to an imperfect channel estimate, where the errors are explicitly taken into account to obtain a robust design under the maximin or worst case philosophy. The robust transmission scheme is composed of an orthogonal space-time block code (OSTBC), whose outputs are transmitted through the eigenmodes of the channel estimate with an appropriate power allocation among them. At the receiver, the signal is detected assuming a perfect channel knowledge. The optimization problem corresponding to the design of the power allocation among the estimated eigenmodes, whose goal is the maximization of the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), is transformed to a simple convex problem that can be easily solved. Different sources of errors are considered in the channel estimate, such as the Gaussian noise from the estimation process and the errors from the quantization of the channel estimate, among others. For the case of Gaussian noise, the robust power allocation admits a closed-form expression. Finally, the benefits of the proposed design are evaluated and compared with the pure OSTBC and nonrobust approaches.


The cyclotron-resonance behavior of a series of p -type, low p s , asymmetrically doped (cid:126) 311 A quantum wells has been measured over two orders of magnitude in energy. Landau levels for the structures studied have been calculated for comparison with experiment. The calculations use a rotated Luttinger Hamiltonian and invoke the axial approximation. In the quantum limit and at certain far-infrared energies we observe two resonances widely separated in field. We find at the lowest fields that the samples exhibit a light effective mass. For the narrowest quantum well the cyclotron resonance (cid:126) CR (cid:33) broadens and shifts to a slightly lighter mass into the quantum limit, above about 2 T. The CR energy is modeled by inter-Landau-level transitions from the highest level, and a discontinuous evolution to a higher effective mass, observed as the second resonance above 8 T, is explained by crossing of the highest two Landau levels, as modeled in the calculation. The discontinuous evolution to a higher mass is found to shift to lower fields as the well width increases, as suggested from the modeling. For the wider quantum wells the influence of additional anticrossings at intermediate fields, due to the proximity of the second subband, is observed. CR energy for these samples is adequately modeled at energies above and below the region of subband anticrossing. The limitations of the modeling procedure have been discussed and a number of features of the experimental data are explained qualitatively in terms of the expected modifications to the hole Landau-level structure when full Landau-level mixing is incorporated into the modeling. The influence of hole-hole interactions and factors influencing the CR scattering time are also discussed briefly. (cid:64) S0163-1829 (cid:126) 97 (cid:33) 08804-8 (cid:35)


MXenes have been considered as promising anode materials for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), owing to their specific surface chemistry, high electron conductivity and large specific surface. However, the low theoretical capacity and restack tendency of layers during the lithiation/delithiation process hinder their further development. In this work, sandwich-like Co3O4/Ti3C2Tx composites were prepared by a simple ultrasound treatment. In the composites, Co3O4 nanoparticles distributed in the interlayers of Ti3C2Tx prevent layers from restacking, enhancing the structural stability of the Ti3C2Tx matrix in the longitudinal direction. Acting as the substrate, Ti3C2Tx not only improves electronic conductivity of the composites but also provides a high specific surface area to load Co3O4 nanoparticles. Besides, the lithiation-induced refining architecture enhances reaction kinetics and provides more active sites. In short, the synergistic effect of Co3O4 and Ti3C2Tx and the effective architecture make the Co3O4/Ti3C2Tx composite with a Co3O4 content of 50% (Co3O4/Ti3C2Tx-3) exhibit remarkable performance. The capacity of Co3O4/Ti3C2Tx-3 remains at 999.3 mA h g−1 after 900 cycles at a current density of 500 mA g−1.


An approach of generation of tiled code with an arbitrary order of loops within tiles is presented. It is based on the transitive closure of the program dependence graph and derived via a combination of the Polyhedral and Iteration Space Slicing frameworks. The approach is explained by means of a working example. Details of an implementation of the approach in the TRACO compiler are outlined. Increasing tiled program performance due to loop permutation within tiles is illustrated on real-life programs from the NAS Parallel Benchmark suite. An analysis of speed-up and scalability of parallel tiled code with loop permutation is presented.


Three-component synthesis of protected secondary and "for the first time" tertiary homoallylic amines is achieved from carbonyl, carbamate, and allyltrimethylsilanes using a Re(2)O(7)-catalyst under mild and open flask conditions. Excellent chemoselectivities and diastereoselectivities were observed.


Analysis of land use and land cover change is a complex task on account of tensions between land classes where any land category has a series of specific needs for development. This research addresses resolution of a multi-objective land development problem in Kuala Langat district, Malaysia under an integrated model of Cellular Automata-Markov chain (CA-Markov) towards projecting land development for the year 2020. According to the current land use dynamics, four conflicting objectives are identified including urban and urban related development, oil palm development, agriculture development, and forest development. Four groups of evaluation criteria are developed that define the main driving forces of change in each objective. The Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) is adopted to assign a weight to each evaluation criteria based on the expert opinions and judgments. Multi-Criteria Evaluation (MCE) technique is used to conduct four disparate suitability analyses. A Multi-Objective Land Allocation (MOLA) analysis is then adopted to analyze four different outcomes of MCE. Simultaneously, Markov chain analysis is conducted to compute the quantitative transitions of each land category between 1997 and 2002 to project land change of the year 2008. The projected 2008 is then validated by real map of the year 2008 based on three validation methods. The overall agreements based on three approaches of quantity disagreement and allocation disagreement, Cramer's V, and Kappa are 79% (16% allocation disagreement and 5% quantity disagreement), 78%, and 77% (due to location and quantity) respectively. However, the higher accuracy achievementM requires model calibration to eliminate the deviations of projection. To increase the agreement of projection, this research initiates a method for calibration of CAMarkov land change projection. The proposed method is based on integration of cross-tabulation analysis and Markov chain analysis of observed and projected land use data. The method is successfully examined in a specific landscape and the time step. Model validation after calibration process reveals a meaningful increase in the agreement of projected versus observed land use data. The quantity disagreement and allocation disagreement approach measures 15% increase in overall agreement, Cramer's V measures 13% increase in agreement, and Kappa measures 6% increase in overall agreement due to location and quantity. Finally, the major signals of systematic transition of each land category including net change, swap, gross gain,and gross loss are extracted to compare land transformation process over time. The results demonstrate the high tendency of forest category to systematically lose to 'other' land category and the high tendency of 'other' category to avoid systematic gain from oil palm category by the year 2020. In the same time, results show the high disinclination of forest category to systematically lose to oil palm category.


The biggest challenge of building chatbots is training data. The required data must be realistic and large enough to train chatbots. We create a tool to get actual training data from Facebook messenger of a Facebook page. After text preprocessing steps, the newly obtained dataset generates FVnC and Sample dataset. We use the Retraining of BERT for Vietnamese (PhoBERT) to extract features of our text data. K-Means and DBSCAN clustering algorithms are used for clustering tasks based on output embeddings from PhoBERT$_{base}$. We apply V-measure score and Silhouette score to evaluate the performance of clustering algorithms. We also demonstrate the efficiency of PhoBERT compared to other models in feature extraction on the Sample dataset and wiki dataset. A GridSearch algorithm that combines both clustering evaluations is also proposed to find optimal parameters. Thanks to clustering such a number of conversations, we save a lot of time and effort to build data and storylines for training chatbot.


Kumbi or Voacanga foetida (blume) Rolfe is a plant of the family Apocynaceae. Lombok Island is the main area where the growth of Kumbi. Kumbi has a high cellulose content. Cellulose is a raw material in the manufacture of bioethanol. Research for bioethanol production from fruit Kumbi (Voacanga foetida (blume) Rolfe) generates yield of 14.793%. These results are not yet eligible to be used as raw material in the fuel mixture. This study aims to determine the effect of temperature on the yield of bioethanol fermentation of fruit Kumbi using Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Rhyzopus oryzae. The method used is by HCl hydrolysis and fermentation with Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Rhyzopus oryzae. The results showed that ethanol from Kumbi fruit can be produced by the hydrolysis and fermentation using Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Rhyzopus oryzae. Fermentation temperature variation used was 28 °C, 30 °C, 32 °C, 34 °C, 36 °C, 38 °C, 40 °C and distilled at a temperature of 78 C. The yield of bioethanol 66.02% (w/w ) obtained using Saccharomyces cerevisiae at a temperature of 36 °C while the same ratio used Rhyzopus oryzae produce bioethanol yield of 88.14% (w / w) at a temperature of 32 C.


This dissertation explores some of the causes of low-savings by the poor, which are linked to the persistency of poverty. The first two chapters study self-control problems, one of the channels that might explain the inability of the poor to save. Whereas the third chapter evaluates whether lack of access to safe savings mechanisms can be an explanation for insufficient savings. The first chapter has the goal of testing the broadly adopted assumption in economics that people apply a unique discount rate to the utility from different sources of consumption. The essay uses unique data from two surveys collected in rural Uganda to elicit time preferences over different goods based on both hypothetical and real choices from approximately 2,400 individuals. The data reject the null of equality in discount rates under a number of different modeling assumptions. These results have important theoretical and policy implications. In the first place, they provide support for the idea that time-inconsistent behaviors can be observed even if individuals do not exhibit hyperbolic preferences, the standard explanation in the literature for non-constant discounting. In addition, good-specific discounting, under certain conditions, can explain the persistence of poverty. The second chapter focuses on this last point and provides an application for the findings in the first chapter. It presents evidence that the poor spend a smaller share of their income than the rich on goods with higher discount rate, which implies a stronger disincentive to save, a necessary condition to predict the existence of a poverty trap in self-control models.The third chapter evaluates the impact of expanding access to safe saving instruments. Using panel data from a national sample of Mexican households, it studies the effects of a program expanding financial access on savings for beneficiaries of social programs. The article uses the exogenous source of variability generated by a national electronic payments program that opened savings accounts to a group of social beneficiaries. The findings indicate that the access to saving accounts increased reported total savings significantly, with larger effects for households living in rural localities, and non-significant effects for those living in urban localities.


X-ray spectral studies of the chemical composition of Irshansk ilmenite concentrates showed that it is leukoxenized mineral with a high (up to 79%) content of titanium oxide and inclusions of pseudorutile. The process of alkaline leaching of Ti4+ from ilmenite is investigated in the work. The study of the temperature effect on the reaction of ilmenite with potassium hydroxide at atmospheric pressure revealed that a temperature of 453 K is sufficient to obtain potassium titanate. A further increase in temperature does not provide a significant increase in the yield of water-soluble titanium. It is found that the optimal and sufficient ratio between ilmenite and potassium hydroxide is 1:2. An increase in the amount of potassium hydroxide in the reaction mixture is unsuitable, since it reduces the yield of soluble titanium and the final product will have a high alkalinity due to the presence of alkali which did not react. The main process of leaching with the formation of solid melt is completed in the first 30 minutes of the process. Infrared spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction showed that potassium titanate (K2TiO3) is formed under the studied conditions of alkaline leaching of ilmenite.


Objective: Individuals with decreased thiopurine methyltransferase (TPMT) activity are at risk of adverse effects of thiopurine administration whereas its increased activity may inactivate drugs faster. We evaluated genotype-phenotype correlations in patients with suspected hematological malignancies and inflammatory bowel disease from our region based on findings of nonlinear TPMT enzyme kinetics previously unreported. Patients and Methods: The study group comprised 267 individuals. They were screened for the most common variants of low TPMT activity. TPMT activity was measured in erythrocytes using the HPLC rate-blanked method. Results: Thirty-three patients (12.4%) were heterozygous (26 were TPMT*1/*3A, 5 TPMT*1/*2, 2 TPMT *1/*3C) and 1 was a compound heterozygote (*2/*3A). Normal and low normal TPMT activities substantially overlapped in wild-type and heterozygous individuals, whereas high activities were found in 29 wild-type genotyped patients. Extreme and life-threatening toxicity was observed in the compound heterozygote patient. Conclusion: Activity measurement performed at diagnosis provides clinicians with information on immediate pharmacokinetic-related adverse events and/or hypermetabolism, and genotyping may indicate the rate of pharmacodynamic thioguanine nucleotide accumulation due to slower overall thiopurine metabolism.


A guide to the holdings of the African-American Resource Center of the Tulsa City-County Library. Photos of the Sankofa Freedom Award Recipients


A pilot study of high-dose biweekly cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine and prednisolone (CHOP) chemotherapy with granulocyte colony-stimulating factor support was carried out at 11 centers. Twenty-five patients with aggressive non-Hodgkin lymphoma under the age of 65 years old were registered. Lowest values of leukocytes and neutrophils scored grade 3 and 4 levels of Eastern Co-operative Oncology Group Toxicity Criteria in over 50% of the courses. Very rapid recovery of leukocytes and neutrophils was observed, and the duration of leukocytes under 1,000/microliter was less than 3 days in 72.2% of the courses. Leukocyte counts exceeded 2,000/microliter within 3 days in 69.1% of the courses. In most patients the hemoglobin and platelet count remained at grade 1 or 2 levels. Fever was seen in 15 out of 110 courses. In two-thirds of the 15 courses, fever disappeared within 3 days. Thus, administration of the CHOP protocol at biweekly intervals was feasible in 76.5% of the courses. Of 22 evaluable patients, there were 11 complete (CR) and 9 partial (PR) responses with an overall response rate of 90.9%. Among 13 high risk patients excluding 9 low and low-intermediate groups by International Prognostic Index, 7 CRs (53.8%) and 5 PRs (38.5%) were observed. This protocol is promising for aggressive chemotherapy of non-Hodgkin lymphoma.


In the second half of the 20th century, discussions around the understanding of crisis phenomena that permeated all spheres of human life became more frequent, in particular, the spheres of art and aesthetics were also touched upon. The crisis in the artistic sphere was connected with the general cultural crisis of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the decline of spirituality, and the relativization of values, primarily moral and aesthetic. Analysis of the crisis in the sphere of artistic practice and aesthetics of the 20th century was the subject of scientific research by several representatives of Polish aesthetics of the second half of the 20th century: R. Ingarden, S. Morawski, B. Dziemidok, and others. The primary attention of these thinkers was devoted to the understanding of transformational processes in modern artistic creativity and the analysis of its influence on aesthetics with a clear emphasis on the importance of the axiological perspective. A thorough analysis of the problems of the crisis in artistic creativity and aesthetics of the 20th century can be found in the works of S. Morawski. He studied the causes and consequences of transformations in artistic creativity since the beginning of the 20th century, in particular, the consequences for the formation of the modern axiosphere, and its role in changing modern aesthetic consciousness. However, S. Morawski's prediction regarding the replacement of aesthetics with anti-aesthetics was not confirmed. On the contrary, art that implements aesthetic values has survived, although the range of aesthetic values has increased significantly. Modern philosophy of art is open to the most controversial artistic proposals. This is because it breaks with those normative principles that limit freedom. The most important thing, however, is that normative and descriptive aesthetics always have an axiological character, which all representatives of Polish aesthetics emphasized in the second half of the 20th century.


In this paper, we propose an availability analysis method for overlapping shared segment protection. We validate the proposed analysis method for different traffic demand matrices and different failure rate values. We show that the proposed analysis method achieves estimating the availability of a connection with a negligible error ratio. We then present two connection provisioning schemes, namely availability constrained generalized segment protection (AC-GSP), and share ability driven availability constrained generalized segment protection (SDAC-GSP) that are availability-aware adaptation of a conventional segment selection algorithm, namely the generalized segment protection (GSP). We evaluate the performance of these proposed schemes, and we show that as an enhancement to GSP, SDAC-GSP enhances the performance of AC-GSP in terms of the availability per connection, blocking probability and availability satisfaction ratio. However, it utilizes more wavelengths in comparison to AC-GSP since the more segments protects the links of the working path, the higher availability.


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the activation state of macrophage function in patients with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) by quantifying the production of the proinflammatory and angiogenic factor tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha) and by correlating its expression with dry and wet AMD.

METHODS
Circulating monocytes were obtained from the blood of patients with AMD or age-matched control subjects by gradient centrifugation. The monocytes were then analyzed for either TNF-alpha release from cultured macrophages in response to retinal pigment epithelium-derived blebs and cytokines or TNF-alpha messenger RNA content by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction.

RESULTS
In human monocytes obtained from controls and AMD patients, TNF-alpha was expressed by freshly isolated monocytes and produced by macrophages in culture after stimulation with retinal pigment epithelium-derived blebs. However, wide variability in TNF-alpha expression was observed among different patients. Patients with monocytes that expressed the greatest amount of TNF-alpha demonstrated higher prevalence of choroidal neovascularization.

CONCLUSIONS
Both controls and AMD patients vary in the activation state (defined as TNF-alpha expression) of circulating monocytes. Partially active monocytes, defined as high TNF-alpha expression, may be a biomarker to identify patients at risk for formation of choroidal neovascularization.

CLINICAL RELEVANCE
Early diagnostic testing may prove useful to detect those patients who will progress to the more severe complications of the disease.


The five AC dipole RHIC spin flipper design in the RHIC Blue ring was first tested during the RHIC 2012 polarized proton operation. The advantage of this design is to eliminate the vertical coherent betatron oscillations outside the spin flipper [1]. The closure of each ac dipole vertical bump was measured with orbital response as well as spin. The effect of the rotating field on the spin motion by the spin flipper was also confirmed by measuring the suppressed resonance at Qs = 1 −Qosc.


Neuropsychiatric symptoms of neurocognitive disorders have been classified into higher-order constructs, often called neuropsychiatric syndromes. As with the general psychopathology literature, these classifications have been achieved through two approaches: empirical and authoritative. The authoritative approach relies on expert panels that condense the available evidence into operational criteria, whereas the empirical approach uses statistical methods to discover symptom patterns and possible hierarchies formed by them. In this article, the author reviews the strengths and weaknesses of both approaches using general psychopathology literature as a reference point. The authoritative approach, influenced by the DSM, has led to several sets of criteria, which could aid clinical trials, diagnostics, and communication. However, unknown reliability and the complex relationships between empirical evidence and published criteria may limit the utility of current criteria. The empirical approach has been used to explore syndrome structures on the basis of rating scales for neuropsychiatric symptoms. The structures suggested in these studies have not been replicated easily and have been limited by either small sample sizes, restricted breadth of neuropsychiatric assessment, or both. Suggestions for further development of both approaches are offered. First, neuropsychiatric symptoms and syndromes need to be studied with measures of broad scope and in large samples. These requirements are prerequisites not only for eliciting highly informative empirical classifications but also for understanding these symptoms at a more nuanced level. Second, both approaches could benefit from more transparency. Finally, the reliability of the available authoritative criteria should be examined.


Three different kinds of (Br2-+e) emission band in KCl:KBr mixed crystals have been investigated based on cathodo- and thermoluminescence measurements. the green emission band is considered to be the normal (Br2-+e) pi emission; the violet and blue bands observed below 120 K are suggested to originate from the (Br2-+e) emission perturbed by a Cl- ion at two different sites. The relationships between the intensities of these three bands and the temperature are also reported.


ABSTRACT Against the background of a dearth of studies examining the properties of the scale scores of the Personality Assessment Inventory–Adolescent (PAI–A; Morey, 2007), this study was conducted to evaluate evidence of construct validity for the Anxiety (ANX) and Depression (DEP) scales of the PAI–A. Convergent and discriminant validity of the ANX and DEP scale scores were investigated using a sample of adolescents admitted to the adolescent program of a private tertiary care inpatient treatment facility. Multiple methods assessing anxious and depressive symptomology and diagnoses were included. Construct validity of the ANX and DEP scales was mostly supported. Advantages of using the PAI–A for the assessment of anxiety and depression were discussed.


We solve the largest sample eigenvalue distribution problem in the rank 1 spiked model of the quaternionic Wishart ensemble, which is the first case of a statistical generalization of the Laguerre symplectic ensemble (LSE) on the soft edge. We observe a phase change phenomenon similar to that in the complex case, and prove that the new distribution at the phase change point is the GOE Tracy-Widom distribution.


ABSTRACT The block toward human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) infection of dendritic cells (DCs) can be relieved by Vpx (viral protein X), which degrades sterile alpha motif-hydroxylase domain 1 (SAMHD1) or by exogenously added deoxynucleosides (dNs), lending support to the hypothesis that SAMHD1 acts by limiting deoxynucleoside triphosphates (dNTPs). This notion has, however, been questioned. We show that while dNs and Vpx increase the infectivity of HIV-1, only the latter restores the infectivity of a simian immunodeficiency virus of macaques variant, SIVMACΔVpx virus. This distinct behavior seems to map to CA, suggesting that species-specific CA interactors modulate infection of DCs.


We propose an explicit formula for a measure of entanglement of pure multipartite quantum states. We discuss the mathematical structure of the measure and give a brief explanation of its physical motivation. We apply the measure on some pure, tripartite, qubit states and demonstrate that, in general, the entanglement can depend on what actions are performed on the various subsystems, and specifically if the parties in possession of the subsystems cooperate or not. We also give some simple but illustrative examples of the entanglement of four-qubit and m-qubit states.


Instructional design is the art of creating and developing trainning experiences that make learning more efficient, effective and enjoyable for students (Merrill, 2012). This study aimed: (1). To find out how do teachers design online instruction during the Covid-19 pandemic; (2). To find out how are teachers perception in conducting online instructional design during the covid-19 pandemic. The participant of this study were an English teacher of senior high school in Karawang. This study used a qualitative narrative design. The instrument used for collecting the data is interview guideline that explained in the form of narrative inquiry. The result showed that by analyzing and understanding students' characteristic, the teacher could create online instructional design that suitable with the students' desire in learning. Meanwhile, related to teacher's perception, in conducting online instructional design in this pandemic. It made the teacher is difficult to carry out the learning materials effectively and achieve the maximum of learning process. In addition, the teacher had to adapt with a new system and it required her to be more creative and innovative in order the student had a motivation in learning during this pandemic. To all of this fact, it can be said that conducting online instructional design made teacher experiencing difficulties while preparing and applying the instruction.


In the current work, we have improved the sensitivity of a carbon paste electrode (CPE) from lysine for the sensitive detection of dopamine (DA). We have used density functional theory based quantum chemical calculations to characterize the lysine modified CPE (LMCPE) surface at the atomic scale. Quantum chemical modeling with analytical Fukui results suggests that lysine acts as an electrocatalyst on the LMCPE surface by increasing its active electron transfer (ET) sites. The obtained voltammetric results are in good agreement with the theoretical observations and electrochemical results showed that the LMCPE surface is stable and efficient in sensing DA in commercial samples.


Studies of event-related potential (ERP) in the human brain have shown that the N170 component can reliably distinguish among different object categories. However, it is unclear whether this is true for different identifiable levels within a single category. In the present study, we used ERP recording to examine the neural response to different identification levels and orientations (upright vs. inverted) of Chinese characters. The results showed that P1, N170, and P250 were modulated by different identification levels of Chinese characters. Moreover, time frequency analysis showed similar results, indicating that identification levels were associated with object recognition, particularly during processing of a single categorical stimulus.


Background: In oral cancer surgery, the decision to tracheotomize is often determined based on the experience of the surgeon. Sometimes, tracheotomy may be performed for cases that may not necessarily require tracheotomy. For such cases, safety is achieved by airway management, but the patients are exposed to tracheotomy-related complications. Several evaluation methods have been reported to predict the need for selective tracheotomy in patients with oral cancer. In this study, we investigated the competency of clinical scoring systems in identifying patients who require tracheotomy among the oral malignancy cases treated with surgery in our department, and examined the degree of agreement between the surgeon's decision and the scores of various scoring systems. Methods: This study was conducted on 110 patients with oral cancer who were treated with surgery under general anesthesia in the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Nagoya Ekisaikai Hospital, between January 2007 and April 2018. Among them, 67 patients (44 male and 23 female), who were managed by resection and reconstruction, were retrospectively analyzed. To derive the score, we evaluated the endpoint of these indices from clinical records and images. We divided the patients, based on the Cameron and Gupta scores, into two groups: tracheotomy and no tracheotomy groups, and evaluated the degree of agreement by calculating the κ coefficient. Results: After the assessment, the κ coefficients of the Gupta and Cameron scores were 0.61 (95% CI, 0.4-0.82) and 0.6 (95% CI, 0.38-0.82), respectively. The clinical evaluation of the κ coefficient indicated that the Gupta and Cameron scores agreed substantially. Discussion: These score matched the decision of the surgeon and confirmed that it was able to be applied to the decision of the airway management. However, these values are affected by prevalence. When unilateral total neck dissection and resection of the primary lesion were performed, though it was high-risk, the score was low, and an evaluation contradicted it. Conclusions: In this study, the Cameron and Gupta scores agreed with the decision of the experienced surgeon to some extent, and were confirmed to adapt to the clinical judgment.


I have tried to do three things: To propose a working hypothesis to conceptualize the action of the psychoanalytic process in children; in the hypothesis such action is linked to changes in ways of knowing; to offer the beginning of an outline of the steps in the developmental sequences of knowing in childhood; and to demonstrate the applicability of the working-hypothesis and the sequence in development by way of a clinical case illustration.


The activator protein 1 (AP-1) member JunB has recently been implicated in leukemogenesis. Here we surveyed human lymphoma samples for expression of JunB and other AP-1 members (c-Jun, c-Fos, Fra1, JunD). JunB was strongly expressed in T-cell lymphomas, but non-Hodgkin B-cell lymphomas do not or only weakly express JunB. We therefore asked whether JunB acted as a negative regulator of B-cell development, proliferation, and transformation. We used transgenic mice that expressed JunB under the control of the ubiquitin C promoter; these displayed increased JunB levels in both B- and T-lymphoid cells. JunB transgenic cells of B-lymphoid, but not of T-lymphoid, origin responded poorly to mitogenic stimuli. Furthermore, JunB transgenic cells were found to be less susceptible to the transforming potential of the Abelson oncogene in vitro. In addition, overexpression of JunB partially protected transgenic mice against the oncogenic challenge in vivo. However, transformed B cells eventually escaped from the inhibitory effect of JunB: the proliferative response was similar in explanted tumor-derived cells from transgenic animals and those from wild-type controls. Our results identify JunB as a novel regulator of B-cell proliferation and transformation.


Except for the internationally quarantinable diseases, no regulations require reporting of communicable diseases such as viral hepatitis in the United States. Practicing physicians voluntarily report viral hepatitis to their local health departments; however, for a variety of reasons, including inapparent infections and lack of interest, the cases represent only a small percentage of patients who develop the disease. Furthermore, no efforts are made to verify the physician's diagnosis by local, state, or federal officials. Despite these inherent defects, all states have reported viral hepatitis cases weekly since 1952, and consistent epidemiologic trends have emerged from analysis of the collected data nationally. Figure 1 shows reported cases of viral hepatitis by quarter since July 1952. Incidence of viral hepatitis peaked in 1953 to 1954 and 1960 to 1961 and is believed to represent predominantly infectious hepatitis. Another peak in 1967 to 1968 was anticipated; however, it did not appear. On


ABSTRACT Changes in gelatinization and retrogradation properties of two rice cultivars, Bengal and Kaybonnet, during rough rice storage were studied using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The storage variables included two storage moisture contents (12 and 14%), three storage temperatures (4, 21, and 38°C), and four storage durations (0, 3, 9, and 16 weeks). Rough rice cultivar, storage temperature, moisture content, and duration affected (P < 0.05) the enthalpies and temperatures of gelatinization and retrogradation of rice flour. Bengal had a higher gelatinization enthalpy (P < 0.005) but lower gelatinization temperatures (P < 0.0001) than the long-grain Kaybonnet. Rice stored at 38°C exhibited higher gelatinization enthalpy and temperatures (P < 0.05) than those stored at 4 or 21°C. Storage duration affected the gelatinization and retrogradation properties through a higher order, rather than a linear, relationship.


Any performance evaluation of broadband networks requires modeling of the actual network traffic. Since multimedia services and especially MPEG coded video streams are expected to be a major traffic component over these networks, modeling of such services and traffic prediction are useful for the reliable operation of the broadband based an Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) networks. In this paper, a recursive implementation of a Non linear AutoRegressive model (RNAR) is presented for on line traffic prediction of Variable Bit Rate (VBR) MPEG-2 video sources. This is accomplished by using an efficient weight adaptation algorithm so that the network provide good performance even in case of highly fluctuated traffic rates. In particular, the network weights are adapted so that the output is approximately equal to the current data while preserving the former knowledge of the network. Experimental results are presented to show the good performance of the proposed scheme. Furthermore, comparison with other linear or non linear techniques is presented to show that the adopted method yields better results than the other ones.


OBJECTIVE
Summarize information on reconstruction possibilities of extensive obstetrical injuries including anal sphincter injuries.

METHODS
Review of available information on the possibilities of reconstruction of severe obstetrical injuries including anal sphincter and comparison with own results in the developing countries.

CONCLUSION
Extensive obstetrical injuries of the perineum are major problem that require adequate and early treatment. In the developing countries, perineum dehiscence and the subsequent development of anal incontinence occur much more often. Even after several years, however, there is hope for an improvement in the condition if an adequate suture is performed.


The Youth & Policy editorial group are delighted to re-publish Bernard Davies' Manifesto for Youth Work, re-framed to reflect on the current context for the field. Originally published 10 years ago in 2005, Davies' Manifesto has been an influential document in both practical and academic discussions of what constitute the key features of youth work. We hope it stimulates reflection on the role of empowerment, voluntary participation and working with groups in youth work practice today. Re-publishing it in our 2015 election issue of the journal feels timely as we face what feels to be a critical juncture for youth work and youth services.


Real time vehicle dynamics models have been developed with the subsystem synthesis method for intelligent vehicle HILS system. Three different models for solving subsystem equations are compared in order to find out the best suitable model for HILS applications. The first model is based on the generalized coordinate partitioning technique, and the second one is on the approximate function approach, and the last one is on the constraint stabilization method. To investigate the theoretical efficiency of three proposed methods, arithmetic operators used in the formulations of three models are counted. Bump run simulations with half-sine bump have also carried out with three different models to measure the actual CPU time to validate theoretical investigation.


SUMMARY Erythropoietin treatment for anaemia in chronic kidney disease (CKD) brings important clinical benefits, but restricted healthcare budgets necessitate value-for-money therapies, requiring economic considerations also to be taken into account when selecting a treatment regimen. Subcutaneous (SC) administration of epoetin is effective at a lower dose than intravenous (IV) administration, offering the potential for substantial reductions in costs of treatment. Unlike epoetin alfa, which is contra-indicated by the SC route in Europe in patients with CKD, epoetin beta (NeoRecormon*) can be safely and effectively given by either route. The multidose presentations of epoetin beta (Reco-Pen†, multidose vials) may provide further opportunity for dose reduction. The tolerability of SC epoetin beta is excellent and superior compared with epoetin alfa or darbepoetin alfa. Epoetin beta given once weekly is as effective as two- or three-times weekly, and the dosing frequency can be further reduced to once every 2 weeks in patients who are stable on once-weekly dosing. Reduced dosing frequency is more convenient for the patient and may save nursing time in dialysis units. Overall, SC epoetin beta, compared with alternative treatments, may represent a cost-effective treatment option for anaemia management as it combines a well-established safety and efficacy record, favourable local tolerability, and the convenience of once-weekly dosing with the potential to reduce treatment costs by up to 30%.


Deep neural networks(DNNs) is vulnerable to be attacked by adversarial examples. Black-box attack is the most threatening attack. At present, black-box attack methods mainly adopt gradient-based iterative attack methods, which usually limit the relationship between the iteration step size, the number of iterations, and the maximum perturbation. In this paper, we propose a new gradient iteration framework, which redefines the relationship between the above three. Under this framework, we easily improve the attack success rate of DI-TI-MIM. In addition, we propose a gradient iterative attack method based on input dropout, which can be well combined with our framework. We further propose a multi dropout rate version of this method. Experimental results show that our best method can achieve attack success rate of 96.2\% for defense model on average, which is higher than the state-of-the-art gradient-based attacks.


Chiral boron dipyrromethenes (BPs) enjoy high fluorescence efficiency at visible to near-IR wavelength regions with a reasonable range of dissymmetry factors. Here, we demonstrate that the (quasi)propeller chirality, similarly to hexagonal propeller in hexaarylbenzene, can be effectively induced in heptaarylated BP. In addition, supramolecular dimer was formed at low temperatures in nonpolar solvent, which exhibits strong bisignate Cotton effects at BP transitions (the couplet amplitude A = 193 M-1 cm-1) in the circular dichroism (CD). Due to the bulky substituents on the propeller blades, but with void space around boron atoms, BP chromophores in the dimer are aligned in a head-to-tail manner with a small torsion (φ ≈ 15°), to avoid fluorescence quenching usually observed in H-type dimer of BPs, exhibiting strong circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) signals (glum = 2.0 × 10-3, Φlum = 0.45). Such supramolecular dimer formation would be viewed as an alternative approach for designing and developing novel chiroptical materials.


Nowadays, AI-based techniques, such as deep neural networks (DNNs), are widely deployed in autonomous systems for complex mission requirements (e.g., motion planning in robotics). However, DNNs-based controllers are typically very complex, and it is very hard to formally verify their correctness, potentially causing severe risks for safety-critical autonomous systems. In this paper, we propose a construction scheme for a so-called Safe-visor architecture to sandbox DNNs-based controllers. Particularly, we consider the construction under a stochastic game framework to provide a system-level safety guarantee which is robust to noises and disturbances. A supervisor is built to check the control inputs provided by a DNNs-based controller and decide whether to accept them. Meanwhile, a safety advisor is running in parallel to provide fallback control inputs in case the DNN-based controller is rejected. We demonstrate the proposed approaches on a quadrotor employing an unverified DNNs-based controller.


Peach (Prunus persica (L.) Batsch) is one of the most economically important fruit crops in temperate areas. Classical fruit tree breeding is generally slow and inefficient. Molecular markers could improve its efficiency but, although nowadays many Mendelian traits are mapped in peach and SSR markers have been found to be linked to some of the key major genes, its use in breeding programs is still limited. Main reasons for that are insufficient linkage between the markers and the genes and the lack of markers suitable for medium‐high degree of multiplexing. To address this limitation, about 1,300 peach cultivars were genotyped with the 9K peach SNP chip (Verde et al. 2012) in the frame of FruitBreedomics project. This germplasm was chosen to be representative of the genetic diversity present in five germplasm collection in Europe and in China. Out of the 8144SNPs present in the chip, about 4300 were positively genotyped and used for the further analysis. The average number of heterozygous loci in the genotyped accessions was 1186 (spanning from 13 to 2775). The preliminary results of the population structure reveal three main subpopulations and the presence of high number of admixed individuals. LD seems to decay at distance longer than ca. 1 Mb. These results will be instrumental for implementing LD‐based mapping of QTLs and genes in peach.


The UNSW WHO Collaborating Centre (WHOCC) in eHealth was established in 2013. Its designated activities are: mHealth and evidence-based evaluation, including use case analyses. The UNSW Yunus Social Business Health Hub (YSBHH), established in 2015 to build on the Yunus Centre/Grameen Bank eHealth initiatives, added social business and community participation dimensions to the UNSW global eHealth program. The Grameen Bank is a social business built around microcredit, which are small loans to poor people to enable them to "produce something, sell something, earn something to develop self-reliance and a life of dignity". The vision revolves around global partnerships for development, Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The scope includes mHealth implementation and evaluation in the context of the Internet of Things (IoT), with a growing focus on social business and citizen engagement approaches. This paper summarises a critical case study of the UNSW WHOCC (eHealth) designated activities in collaboration with Bangladesh institutions (International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDRB) and Yunus Centre). Issues and challenges are highlighted.


Many applications in high voltage or explosive environments require sensors which are electrically isolated from other components of a system. These sensors need remote powering as well as wireless or isolated data transmission links. A possible solution can be based on optically powered optical sensor links. These typically employ four different photonic components: for the data communication a fast LED as a transmitter and a photo diode as a receiver, furthermore for sensor powering a high-power light source and a photonic power converter. Additionally, two optical fibers are required for optical remote powering and the optical data link. In this paper we demonstrate an optically powered optical sensor link using only low-cost high-brightness LEDs and a single polymer optical fiber (POF) for all of these tasks. Coupling efficiencies, power transmission and modulation bandwidths are analyzed for LEDs with different colors. Potentials for many mW of electrical remote powering and Mbit s −1 sensor data links are demonstrated over 10 m of POF. This approach can be used for almost any electronic sensor with moderate power requirements.