The ability to reason about changes in the environment is crucial for robots operating over extended periods of time. Agents are expected to capture changes during operation so that actions can be followed to ensure a smooth progression of the working session. However, varying viewing angles and accumulated localization errors make it easy for robots to falsely detect changes in the surrounding world due to low observation overlap and drifted object associations. In this paper, based on the recently proposed category-level Neural Descriptor Fields (NDFs), we develop an object-level online change detection approach that is robust to partially overlapping observations and noisy localization results. Utilizing the shape completion capability and SE(3)-equivariance of NDFs, we represent objects with compact shape codes encoding full object shapes from partial observations. The objects are then organized in a spatial tree structure based on object centers recovered from NDFs for fast queries of object neighborhoods. By associating objects via shape code similarity and comparing local object-neighbor spatial layout, our proposed approach demonstrates robustness to low observation overlap and localization noises. We conduct experiments on both synthetic and real-world sequences and achieve improved change detection results compared to multiple baseline methods. Project web-page: ?http://yilundu.github.io/ndf_change


Most optimization problems in real life applications are often highly nonlinear. Local optimization algorithms do not give the desired performance. So, only global optimization algorithms should be used to obtain optimal solutions. This paper introduces a new nature-inspired metaheuristic optimization algorithm, called Hoopoe Heuristic (HH). In this paper, we will study HH and validate it against some test functions. Investigations show that it is very promising and could be seen as an optimization of the powerful algorithm of cuckoo search. Finally, we discuss the features of Hoopoe Heuristic and propose topics for further studies.


Logit models are developed to measure the effect of socioeconomic and demographic factors on the probability of consuming beef in the United States. The analyses are done in both the away from home and at home markets using the 1987-88 National Food Consumption Survey of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Factors that significantly affect the likelihood of eating beef include: race, seasonality, urbanization, ethnicity, household size, sex, age, and income.


Introduction Although aneurysms incompletely occluded after coil embolization are subject to recanalization, complete occlusion may evolve in some aneurysms during follow-up in clinical practice, even though the sac fills with contrast immediately after coiling. Stent usage may augment the progressive thrombosis within coiled aneurysms. We evaluated outcomes of small aneurysms (<10 mm) that showed filling of the sac with contrast immediately after stent-assisted coiling and assessed factors implicated in subsequent the progressive occlusion. Methods Between September 2012 and June 2016, a total of 463 intracranial aneurysms were treated by stent-assisted coil embolization. Of these, 132 small saccular aneurysms displayed filling of the sac by contrast immediately after the coiling. TOF-MRA or conventional angiography were used for postoperative monitoring according to our institutional protocol. Progressive thrombosis was defined as complete occlusion of these aneurysms at the 6-month follow-up. Progressive occlusion rates and related risk factors were assessed using binary logistic regression analysis. Results In 101 (76.5%) of the 132 aneurysms that showed filling of the sac with contrast, complete occlusion was observed on follow-up imaging studies at 6 months. Binary logistic regression analysis demonstrated that progressive occlusion was linked to smaller neck diameter (p=0.003; OR=1.533), hyperlipidemia (p=0.036; OR=3.329) and stent type (p=0.031). LVIS stent is susceptible to progressive thrombosis than Neuroform stent (p=0.008; HR=10.204) or Enterprise stent (p=0.098; HR=3.154). In 57 progressively thrombosed aneurysms with follow-up evaluations ≥12 months (mean, 25.0±10.7 months, median 18 months), 56 aneurysms (98.2%) exhibited stable occlusion, whereas minor recanalization was observed in only one (1.8%) instances, and major recanalization occurred in none. Conclusion In small saccular aneurysms occluded incompletely after stent-assisted coil embolization, aneurysms with smaller neck diameters or hyperlipidemia, and LVIS deployment seem predisposed to progressive intra-aneurysmal thrombosis over the course of time. Disclosures: J. Lim: None. Y. Cho: None. H. Kang: None. M. Han: None.


"This preprint has been reviewed and recommended by Peer Community In Evolutionary Biology (http://dx.doi.org/10.24072/pci.evolbiol.100032)" The Neotropical region has experienced a dynamic landscape evolution throughout the Miocene, with the large wetland Pebas occupying western Amazonia until 11-8 my ago and continuous uplift of the Andes mountains along the western edge of South America. Although the complex dynamics between the Andes and Amazonia may have strongly affected the trajectory of Neotropical biodiversity, there is little evidence for such an influence from time-calibrated phylogenies of groups that diversified during this period. Here, we generate one of the most comprehensive time-calibrated molecular phylogenies of a group of Neotropical insects: the butterfly tribe Ithomiini. Our tree includes 340 species (87% of extant species), spanning 26 million years of diversification in the Neotropics. We investigate temporal and spatial patterns of diversification, focusing on the influence of Miocene landscape tranformations on the dynamics of speciation, extinction and biotic interchanges at the Amazonia/Andes interface. We find that Ithomiini likely began diversifying at the interface between the Andes and the Amazonia around 26.4 my ago. Five subtribes with a very low extant diversity started diversifying early in western Amazonia, but a rapid decrease in diversification rate due to increased extinction rate between 20 and 10 my ago suggests a negative impact of the Pebas wetland system on these early lineages. By contrast, the clade containing the five most species-rich subtribes (85% of extant species) was characterized by a high, positive net diversification rate. This clade diversified exclusively in the Central Andes from 20 to 10 my ago. After the demise of the Pebas system (11-8 my ago), we found a sudden increase of interchanges with the Northern Andes and Amazonia, followed by local diversification, which led to a substantial renewal of diversification. In general, ecological turnovers throughout the Miocene strongly determined the dynamics of speciation, and extinction and interchanges, and appear as a key driving force shaping the region's current extraordinary biodiversity.


ABSTRACT Nutmeg seeds are a commodity that are well known in Indonesia, making nutmeg seeds as an important spice since the past. This study aims to analyze several drying parameters in the nutmeg drying process such as temperature, relative humadity, reduction in weight of the material, drying rate, intensity of solar radiation in drying using solar energy and LPG (Liquefied Petroleum Gas). This research was conducted at the Agricultural Engineering Laboratory, Faculty of Agriculture at Sam Ratulangi University. This research uses descriptive method of temperature in the dryer on rack 1 ranges from 35.7°C - 59.2°C, rack 2: 35.6°C - 58.4°C and rack 3: 33.6°C - 46.6°C while the ambient temperature from 30°C - 37°C. The relative humadity of the environment during drying is 60% - 88% and in the dryer is, rack 1: 25% - 66%, rack 2: 23% - 66%, and rack 3: 26%- 74%. During the drying process there is a decrease in water content from 61.52% bk dropped to an averange rack 1: 34.32%, rack 2: 33.34% and rack 3: 36.42%. The highest intensity of solar radiation reaches is 872.25 watts/hour and the lowest is 407.05 watts/hour. Drying using solar energy and LPG will speed up the drying process. Key words: nutmeg, dryer, LPG, solar energy


Escalation is a key characteristic of many consumption behaviors that has not received the theoretical attention it deserves. The aim of this paper is to propose both a definition and a theoretical treatment of escalation in consumption. We shall define escalation as the attempt to obtain "more" or engage in consumption acts that are "more intense" on a measurable quantitative or qualitative, objective or subjective, scale (more difficult ski slopes, stronger drugs, harder sex, better restaurants etc.), even if, previously, the subject preferred less intense consumption behaviors. Further, this evolution in preferences also occurs if the budget constraint does not change. We will find endogenous and exogenous theoretical microfoundations for escalation in models of hedonic adaptation, desire for novelty, acquisition of consumption skills, rising aspirations, positional effects, and envy. However, we will also discuss the possibility that the tendency to escalate is a specific innate behavior inherent to human nature. Finally, we will propose a preliminary theoretical formalization of such behavior and indicate the possible implications of taking escalation into adequate consideration.


Background: Sellar arachnoid cysts (SACs) are rare lesions and incidentally found on brain imaging. The pathophysiology is poorly understood. Some authors suggested that SACs develop as a herniation of arachnoid membrane through the diaphragma sellae followed by cyst formation. Furthermore, Meyer et al. postulated that SACs are formed by splitting of the arachnoid layers. Symptomatic SACs present with headache, visual field deficit, or pituitary dysfunction. The data are limited on the indications and timing for intervention. We present a case of symptomatic SAC that was fenestrated using orbitofrontal approach. Case Description: A 64-year-old female presented with chronic headaches and blurriness of vision. She was previously diagnosed with diabetes insipidus (DI) that was treated with desmopressin, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of her brain at that time was normal. Later on, she developed severe headaches that were managed medically. A year later, she had an episode of generalized seizure that led to the discovery of SAC on brain MRI. On examination, she had a left-sided monocular temporal hemianopia. The patient underwent an orbitofrontal craniotomy for fenestration of the SAC. At 6-month follow-up, her headaches had significantly improved with the resolution of the visual deficit. In addition, the DI had resolved, and the desmopressin was discontinued. Conclusion: SACs are rare with no consensus on the indications for surgery. Our experience suggests that fenestration of SAC through transcranial approach is a valid option for patients with visual deficit and/or pituitary dysfunction.


Novel nanocrystalline Mo(Si1−xAlx)2 films, with differing Al contents were synthesized by double cathode glow discharge. The films exhibited a compact columnar microstructure having a pronounced (111) preferred orientation. The corrosion behaviour of these films were characterized by using various electrochemical techniques including open circuit potential (OCP), potentiodynamic polarization, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) in 3.5 wt% NaCl solution. The corrosion resistance of the films increased with increasing Al content in the as-synthesized films. The composition and chemical state of the passive layers formed on the films were investigated by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). It was demonstrated that the passive layer formed on the binary MoSi2 film was highly enriched in SiO2 with minor amounts of MoO42−, MoO2 and SiOx. With the increase of Al content in the films, Al2O3 was generated and incorporated into the passive layers, enhancing the corrosion resistance of the films by inhibiting the dissolution of Mo. Built upon the experimental results, the first-principles density-functional theory was applied to calculate the inter-atomic bonding strength in Mo(Si1−xAlx)2 and elucidate the role of Al in controlling the corrosion resistance of the films. The new findings lay a solid basis for the development and application of MoSi2 based corrosion-resistant films.


Oxidation reactions catalyzed by Au nanoparticles
supported on reducible oxides have been widely studied both experimentally and
theoretically, whereas inverse catalysts,
in which oxide nanoparticles are supported on metal surfaces, received
considerably less attention. In both systems catalytic activity at metal –
oxide interfaces can arise not only from each material contributing its
functionality, but also from their interactions creating properties beyond the
sum of individual components. Inverse catalysts may retain the synergy between
the metal and oxide functionalities, while offering further specific
advantages, e.g. a possibility to have better control over interfacial sites or
to yield improved stability, activity, and selectivity. Our work provides the mechanism of O atom/vacancy
diffusion-assisted Mars-van-Krevelen CO
oxidation on gold-supported ceria nanoparticle through state-of-the-art ab initio molecular dynamic simulation studies.


The scattering transform is a multilayered wavelet-based deep learning architecture that acts as a model of convolutional neural networks. Recently, several works have introduced generalizations of the scattering transform for non-Euclidean settings such as graphs. Our work builds upon these constructions by introducing windowed and non-windowed geometric scattering transforms for graphs based upon a very general class of asymmetric wavelets. We show that these asymmetric graph scattering transforms have many of the same theoretical guarantees as their symmetric counterparts. As a result, the proposed construction unifies and extends known theoretical results for many of the existing graph scattering architectures. In doing so, this work helps bridge the gap between geometric scattering and other graph neural networks by introducing a large family of networks with provable stability and invariance guarantees. These results lay the groundwork for future deep learning architectures for graph-structured data that have learned filters and also provably have desirable theoretical properties.


Infection has been recognized as one of the major obstacles to the successful management of patients with malignant tumours. Aerobic and anaerobic bacteria of endogenous source are a major cause of infections in the necrotic tumour, especially when they occur in proximity to a site where these bacteria reside as part of the normal flora. Although surgical removal or evacuation of the purulent fluid is preferred, this is not always feasible in a patient with a malignant tumour. Antimicrobial therapy against potential bacterial pathogens is often the sole therapy or is used along with surgical drainage or removal of the infected area. This review describes the microbiology and management of infection in necrotic tumours.


Several recently identified metabolites have potent effects on food intake. They act in micromolar concentrations, and some suppress feeding, whereas others induce feeding. The neural networks involved in the integration of the signals from the chemosensitive neurons open new possibilities for understanding hunger and satiety.


In order to explore the fluid flow and heat transfer features of supercritical fluids used in Brayton cycle for waste-heat utilization of marine gas turbines, the effects of ocean rolling motion on thermo-fluidic characteristics of supercritical carbon dioxide (SCO2) in a circular tube are computationally investigated based on a verified turbulence model. It can be found that at a given rolling period, compared to that under static condition, the time-averaged heat transfer capacity is improved by 7.9%, but the onset of the heat transfer recovery is delayed so that the range of the heat transfer deterioration becomes widened. Under the action of the inertial forces, the heat exchange between cooler/denser and warmer/lighter fluids is enhanced, a secondary circulation formed at t/tc = 0.325 and the maximum improvement of section-averaged heat transfer coefficient is 71% at this time. For various periods, the variation trend of time-averaged heat transfer coefficient for SCO2 shows a parabolic, which is distinguishing from conventional fluids. A polarization phenomenon for instantaneous thermal performance can be observed under severe rolling. With rise of the layout height, the time-average heat transfer performance of tube increases monotonously, and the maximum increment is 10.64% in study range.


The hope of general agreement among physicians and surgeons in the treatment of duodenal ulcer may well be as visionary as the goal of world peace through the United Nations. Both physician and surgeon agree on the importance of the acid peptic factor in the etiology of duodenal ulcer. Both call for a spirit of cooperation in the care of problem cases. To put it bluntly, neither has much Confidence in the other's treatment insofar as long-term results are concerned. The surgeon cannot forget the changing vogues of medication. Each is hailed as the panacea for the control of ulcer. In addition, there is the implied hint on occasion that the previous "inhuman resections," made necessary by the vices of man, no longer are necessary. On the other hand, the physician's experience has convinced him that 85% to 90% or more of duodenal ulcers can be treated medically satisfactorily. He


Comparative Biogeography: Discovering and Classifying Biogeographical Patterns of a Dynamic Earth. Lynne R. Parenti and Malte C. Ebach. 2009. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-25945-4. 312 p. $39.95 (hard cover).—In Comparative Biogeography, authors Lynne Parenti and Malte Ebach present a concise history of the science of biogeography and provide a succinct summary of classic biogeographic methods. The book is written for scientists interested in learning the fundamentals of biogeography and how the science developed from map drawing to explicit hypothesis testing. It provides examples on how analyses are conducted as well as insights into the people and questions that have helped form the science. The book is divided into three sections, each of which contains several chapters. The first section, History and Homology, chronicles the development of biogeography from the early work of Candolle and Lamark in 1805 through the increasingly sophisticated treatments of Prichard, Murray, Wallace, and Merriam (whose work included the first usage of the adjective ''bio-geographic'' in English). The section also introduces a theme that will be recapitulated throughout the book: biotic area homology. This is seen as the fundamental unit in biogeography, akin to the idea of a taxon in phylogenetics. The second section, Methods, is perhaps the most valuable section of the book. Within this section, the authors outline several classical approaches to biogeographic research. They clearly outline the major methods in both systematic biogeography and evolutionary biogeography. In the former category, the authors include methods which are descriptive and do not rely on a priori hypotheses. The authors give the majority of their emphasis within this category on panbiogeography and cladistic analyses such as component analysis. Within the category ''evolutionary biogeography,'' the authors include those techniques using evolutionary, geologic, or geographic mechanisms to generate observed distributions. This includes niche analysis, phylogeography, and techniques such as parsimony analysis of endemism (PAE), Brooks parsimony analysis (BPA), and the program DIVA. While enough information is given about each technique for readers to get the gist of them, the book is asymmetrical in its emphasis. The authors focus on component analysis, PAE, and BPA, at the expense of other methods such as niche analysis and phylogeography. Perhaps the most indepth analysis in this section is in chapter seven, ''The Systematic Biogeographic Method,'' which deals with generating taxa area cladograms and areagrams, solving areagrams and conducting subtree analysis using the optimization program Nelson05. The last section, Implementation, strings together three rather disparate topics, geology, biogeography of the Pacific, and a ''future of the science.'' The goal was to provide examples where biogeography is applied to a variety of problems. However, unlike the other sections, the chapters here are rather disjointed, and one gets the feeling that these chapters are stand-alone theses that have been shoehorned into a catch-all section. This book contains several features that nicely complement the core text. Each chapter starts with an outline and concludes with a bulleted summary, notes, and a section for further reading. Throughout the book, the authors have used figures to their great advantage. Biogeography is at its heart a visual science, and this book provides numerous maps, trees, and diagrams to help walk readers through tricky points, or simply to highlight an interesting example. In addition, the authors use numerous sidebar boxes to discuss important figures or case studies; this adds a humanizing dimension to the scholarly text. This book is perhaps most useful to scientists who are interested in understanding the origins of biogeography and the historical accidents, personalities, and conflicts that have molded our science. For those who have not been exposed to such phrases as ''assumption 0,'' who cannot conceive of the vitriol brought about by the dispersal vs. vicariance debate, or who have not encountered the idiosyncrasies of Leon Croizat, then this book will shed light onto current practices in biogeography. To those who have not taken a formal class in biogeography or are too young to have gone through the events, this book provides great insight. This book will be especially useful to students who are going through the older literature and who wish to better understand how the data were analyzed as well as the prevailing intellectual environment of the time. My biggest critique of this book is one of omission. The book only mentions molecular data on two pages, and, in doing so, virtually ignores the revolution to biogeography that molecular techniques have ignited. While it was not the stated scope of the authors to include information about molecular techniques, to virtually ignore the contribution of those techniques is quizzical. Even if they did not want to make the analysis of DNA data their main focus, the book would have been well served to include at least cursory treatment of how molecular techniques could complement more classic biogeographic techniques.


ABSTRACT Background: Some previous research has hypothesized that executive dysfunction in patients with early Alzheimer's disease (AD) occurs as a result of a disconnection between different cerebral areas. The aim of the present study was to evaluate how the hippocampal volume influences executive function as a non-memory cognitive function. Methods: From 157 consecutive patients with AD or amnestic mild cognitive impairment (A-MCI), we recruited 107 subjects who had a global Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR) of 0.5 or 1.0 and whose degree of hippocampal atrophy had been measured using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI); the severity of atrophy was assessed using the voxel-based specific regional analysis for Alzheimer's disease (VSRAD) system. We divided the subjects into three groups: mild atrophy, 0 < Z-score < 1.0 (N = 21); moderate atrophy, 1.0 ≤ Z-score < 2.0 (N = 46); or severe atrophy, 2.0 ≤ Z-score < 4.0 (N = 40) according to the Z-score and compared the Frontal Assessment Battery (FAB) and its subtest scores between each atrophy group. Results: The results demonstrated that age, sex ratio, duration of illness, education years, MMSE score, Behave-AD score, and proportion of atrophy area in total brain (%) were not significantly different among the three groups. Only the go/no-go score among the six subtests was significantly lower for increasing atrophy severity (P < 0.05). Furthermore, hippocampal atrophy significantly influenced the go/no-go score independently of interactions from whether the diagnosis was early AD or A-MCI (P < 0.05). Conclusion: These results support a significant association between hippocampal atrophy and executive dysfunction as a non-memory cognitive impairment in patients with early AD and A-MCI.


Second-order rate constants for the alkaline hydrolysis of 3-thiol substituted cephalosporins are independent of the pKa of the thiol over a pKa range of 9. If there is a leaving group at C-3′ it is expelled after the β-lactam ring is opened and the expulsion of the leaving group does not enhance the rate of β-lactam C–N bond fission. The zinc enzyme β-lactamase II is about a 100-fold better catalyst than the serine enzyme β-lactamase I for the hydrolysis of the same cephalosporin. The second-order rate constant kcat/Km for both β-lactamase enzymes shows no dependence on the nature of the substituent at C-3′ which is not explicable by the different chemical reactivity of the cephalosporins. There is no evidence for a significant recognition site in either enzyme for the C-3′ substituent. The kinetic parameters kcat and Km for the β-lactamase I-catalysed hydrolysis may be complicated by the formation of intermediates.


In this article a modular system architecture for fusion of data from environment sensors for advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) is proposed. The architecture allows different applications to have access to the fused sensor data by processing the data with respect to specific demands of different application groups. In the article the growing interconnection of functions is illustrated by two examples and the most relevant consequences of this trend are given. The question, if an application independent processing of sensor data is feasible is discussed and the most important aspects for the design of the system architecture are given. This provides the basis for the explanation of the system architecture.


The identification and removal of systematic errors in object detectors can be a prerequisite for their deployment in safety-critical applications like automated driving and robotics. Such systematic errors can for instance occur under very specific object poses (location, scale, orientation), object colors/textures, and backgrounds. Real images alone are unlikely to cover all relevant combinations. We overcome this limitation by generating synthetic images with fine-granular control. While generating synthetic images with physical simulators and hand-designed 3D assets allows fine-grained control over generated images, this approach is resource-intensive and has limited scalability. In contrast, using generative models is more scalable but less reliable in terms of fine-grained control. In this paper, we propose a novel framework that combines the strengths of both approaches. Our meticulously designed pipeline along with custom models enables us to generate street scenes with fine-grained control in a fully automated and scalable manner. Moreover, our framework introduces an evaluation setting that can serve as a benchmark for similar pipelines. This evaluation setting will contribute to advancing the field and promoting standardized testing procedures.


Since the birth of clickers at Pennsylvania State University, there have been numerous arguments on its effectiveness. This study, aiming to review use of clickers in education, examined literature over around a decade on use of clickers, involving benefits and defects of use of clickers, peer discussion, use of clickers in learning, teaching and problem solving, the effectiveness of use of clickers among non-students. Besides, relationships between lecturing and learning aided with clickers, and current developments in use of clickers were also reviewed and discussed. It was concluded that clickers, as one form of modern technology, had gained growing popularity due to their advantages, such as peer discussion, anonymity and instant feedback although disputes still remained. More studies on clickers and other new technologies were still needed to further push forward levels of education. Cross-disciplinary cooperation between computers, education and psychology may be needed to design more advanced educational technologies.


As part of a comprehensive analytical survey, Raman spectra were obtained of pigments from ancient Egyptian funerary artefacts dating from the 17th Dynasty to the Graeco-Roman period, using several laser excitation wavelengths. A wide colour palette has been identified with mineral pigments and pigment mixtures; several variations were detected with dynastic changes. The artefacts include sarcophagi, coffin lids, shroud covers and mummy face-masks. Haematite was in universal use throughout the dynastic period studied here, which represents some 2000 years of Egyptian history, but minerals such as cinnabar and minium appear only in artefacts from the Ptolemaic and Graeco-Roman periods. Different pigments were used to produce similar colours on some associated artefacts and several artefacts have mixtures of pigments for a single colour. One 17th Dynasty sarcophagus, dating from ca 1600 BC, had an unusual suite of pigments, with the blue pigment lazurite and a mixture of crocoite, limonite and calcite used as a yellow pigment. This coffin was heavily restored in the 20th Century and these unusual pigments could have arisen from this restoration. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


The improved finite-element flux-corrected transport method (FE-FCT), developed by the authors, has been applied in its full two-dimensional form to the numerical solution of streamer development and propagation in air at atmospheric pressure. The numerical algorithm used employs the FE-FCT method for the solution of transport equations of charged species under the action of space-charge electric field, with the field obtained from the solution of Poisson's equation in cylindrical co-ordinates. Results of two-dimensional simulations of cylindrically symmetric streamers in air between parallel plate electrodes are presented. The breakdown voltages predicted by the model for different gap lengths are in agreement with the experimental measurements, which demonstrates the validity of the model. Furthermore, the avalanche-to-streamer transition - as described in Raether H 1964 Electron avalanches and breakdown in gases (London: Butterworths) - and the formation of anode and cathode directed streamers are numerically observed.


Cleft lip with or without cleft palate (CL/P) is the most common congenital craniofacial anomaly with considerable morbidity in affected children. Though extensive studies have established the basic histological and genetic mechanisms of palatal development, the cellular mechanisms that regulate secondary palate development are still not completely understood. Palate fusion is the crucial final step of palate development, in which the medial edge epithelial cells (MEE) make contact to form a midline epithelial seam (MES), which is subsequently removed to allow mesenchymal continuity. Though much progress has been made on understanding the cellular mechanisms of secondary palate fusion, major questions remain in part due to limitations in imaging technologies. Here we utilized new processing and imaging methods to visualize dynamic cell behaviors underlying secondary palate fusion temporally and spatially. We apply these methods to the study of mouse mutants in which apoptosis, or actomyosin contractility have been conditionally disrupted in the secondary palate epithelium. Our results indicate that apoptosis and cell extrusion contribute to MES removal, but that cellular compensation can overcome their loss. Our studies also reveal a unique form of collective epithelial cell migration that is critical for proper completion of secondary palate fusion and suggesting that secondary palate fusion may be a valuable model for understanding how collective epithelial migration occurs in other developmental and disease contexts.


This paper experimentally investigates the use of a single input multiple output (SIMO) free space optical (FSO) communication system in an indoor laboratory controlled turbulence chamber. Two receiver circuits are used with a single laser input. The current outputs of two receivers were combined using equal gain combining (EGC) scheme and compared with single input single output (SISO) FSO system. A weak turbulence was generated within the atmospheric chamber and link performances are measured using ß-factor and bit error rate (BER) for On-Off Keying (OOK) modulation scheme. The results demonstrated that the simplest form of SIMO can improve the performance of the FSO communication channel under weak turbulent condition.


We describe a variation of the Bergman norm for the algebra of cuts of a connected graph admitting a cofinite group action. By a construction of Dunwoody, this enables us to obtain nested generating sets for invariant subalgebras. We describe a few applications, in particular, to convergence groups acting on Cantor sets. Under certain finiteness assumptions one can deduce that such actions are necessarily geometrically finite, and hence arise as the boundaries of relatively hyperbolic groups. Similar results have already been obtained by Gerasimov by other methods. One can also use these techniques to give an alternative approach to the Almost Stability Theorem of Dicks and Dunwoody.


Abstract Estimated regression coefficients and errors in these estimates are computed for 160 artificial data sets drawn from 160 normal linear models structured according to factorial designs. Ordinary multiple regression (OREG) is compared with 56 alternatives which pull some or all estimated regression coefficients some or all the way to zero. Substantial improvements over OREG are exhibited when collinearity effects are present, noncentrality in the original model is small, and selected true regression coefficients are small. Ridge regression emerges as an important tool, while a Bayesian extension of variable selection proves valuable when the true regression coefficients vary widely in importance.


E-Business and Strategic Management methodologies problems can be efficiently solved by using corresponding adaptive algorithmic procedures. A class of case studies representing a variety of characteristic E- Business problems is presented by considering the proposed algorithmic approach. The adaptability and compactness of the proposed algorithmic schemes combined by the proper choice of singular perturbation parameters allow the (near) optimum solution of a wide class of E-Business and strategic management problems.


One of the most widespread techniques to evaluate various aspects of a manufacturing system is discreteevent simulation (DES) (Banks 1998, Law and Kelton 2000, O'Rielly and Lilegdon 1999). However, building a simulation model of a manufacturing system is a difficult task and needs great resource expenditures. Automated data collection and model buildup can drastically reduce the time of the design phase as well as support model reusability. Since most of the manufacturing systems are controlled by low level controllers (e.g., PLCs, CNCs) they store structure and control logic of the system to be modeled by a DES system. The paper introduces an ongoing research of PLC code processing method for automatic simulation model generation of a conveyor system of a leading automotive factory. Results of the validation process and simulation experiments are also described through a case study.


The diagnostic approach in a patient with lung cancer should be oriented according to the mode of presentation of the disease. The first step includes history and clinical examination of the patient, and frontal and lateral chest X-ray, before histological typing of the tumor. The various diagnostic methods are selected according to localization of the mass in the thorax, and staging procedures are determined by the type of the tumor and the possible therapies available. The complexity of the problems surrounding patients with lung cancer mean that the general practitioner should seek the opinion of the chest specialist early rather than late in the pretherapeutic evaluation.


Abstract In this paper, I first look at how the notions of "politeness" and "impoliteness" have been discussed in the literature including my own ideas of relating universal levels of impoliteness to culture and language-specific levels. Given this framework and my earlier postulation of a set of dimensions along which German speakers were found to prefer expressions that are more direct than indirect, more explicit than implicit, and generally more content-oriented than addressee-oriented, I provide several examples of German speakers interacting with members of other cultures in everyday talk and academic advising sessions. In interpreting the results of the analyses of these interactions, I attempt to relate them to the concept of impoliteness, to German speakers' communicative preferences and to the distinction between an emic and an etic perspective.


In this paper, integrating Gaussian kernel function and linear kernel function, we propose a novel hybrid segmentation method based on level set. The main contributions of this paper are to segment the medical images which are not homogeneous or uniform by using kernel function, and to give consideration to overall information and local information by using hybrid kernel function. Furthermore, our method modifies the stopping criterion; the curve of level set is close to the boundary. Experimental results for real clinical images show that the effectiveness of our method.


This study tested the hypothesis that parents participating in a pediatric obesity intervention who formed social network ties with a parent in the intervention arm would engage in more daily physical activity and less sedentary behavior (after controlling for participant covariates). Data were collected at baseline, 12 months, and 36 months from 610 low-income parent–child pairs participating in an obesity prevention intervention for 3- to 5-year-old children. A network survey was used to identify social network ties among parents and accelerometers were used to measure parental physical activity and sedentary time. Longitudinal regression analyses tested effects of social network ties on parents' physical activity and sedentary behavior. Compared with parents without a social network tie, having a tie with an intervention group participant was associated with a clinically meaningful 11.04 min/day decrease in parental sedentary behavior that approached statistical significance (95% confidence interval [CI] = [−22.71, 0.63], p = .06). Social network ties among parents in a pediatric obesity prevention intervention were not clearly associated with reduced sedentary behavior among those parents at the traditional level of p = .05. The large effect size (over 77 min per week improvement) suggests there might be potential importance of promoting new social networks in community-based health promotion interventions to elicit and support behavior change, but further examination is needed.


A palynological study of uppermost Maastrichtian to Lower Paleocene deposits from a stratigraphic section of the Vrancea Nappe (Eastern Carpathians), reveals the presence of diverse and well-preserved dinoflagellate cyst assemblages. The biostratigraphic interpretation of these dinocyst assemblages suggests that (1) the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary lies within a ~8 m thick sedimentary interval, between the Lepsa Formation (uppermost Maastrichtian) and Putna-Piatra Uscată Formation (Lower Danian), based on the Last Appearance Datum of latest Maastrichtian markers such as Pterodinium cretaceum and Palynodinium cf. grallator and on the First Appearance Datum of Danian markers such as Senoniasphaera inornata, Xenicodinium lubricum, Tectatodinium rugulatum and Eisenackia circumtabulata , and (2) a discontinuity between the two formations. The palynofacies analysis from this geological section indicates an abundance of continental organic matter (mainly opaque phytoclasts), deposited in a distal setting of the sedimentary basin. The occurrences in the palynological assemblage of some oceanic dinocyst taxa such as Impagidinium and Pterodinium suggest the same depositional environment for the geological formations analysed.


In many computer vision algorithms, a metric or similarity measure is used to determine the distance between two features. The Euclidean or SSD (sum of the squared differences) metric is prevalent and justified from a maximum likelihood perspective when the additive noise distribution is Gaussian. Based on real noise distributions measured from international test sets, we have found that the Gaussian noise distribution assumption is often invalid. This implies that other metrics, which have distributions closer to the real noise distribution, should be used. In this paper, we consider three different applications: content-based retrieval in image databases, stereo matching, and motion tracking. In each of them, we experiment with different modeling functions for the noise distribution and compute the accuracy of the methods using the corresponding distance measures. In our experiments, we compared the SSD metric, the SAD (sum of the absolute differences) metric, the Cauchy metric, and the Kullback relative information. For several algorithms from the research literature which used the SSD or SAD, we showed that greater accuracy could be obtained by using the Cauchy metric instead.


Grassland contributes to carbon storage and animal feed production. Its yield is largely determined by the cutting times of grassland. Previous studies have used remote sensing data for grassland biomass estimation, but only a few studies have focused on SAR remote sensing approaches for automatic grassland cutting status detection. Due to the occurrence of multiple cuttings in a year, it is crucial to effectively monitor grassland cutting events in order to achieve accurate biomass estimations of a whole season. In this study, we examined the capabilities of multilayer perceptron neural networks for automatic grassland cutting status detection using SAR imagery. The proposed model inputs are a time series dataset of VV and VH Sentinel-1 C-band SAR and second-order texture metrics (homogeneity, entropy, contrast and dissimilarity). The proposed approach has been successfully tested on a dataset collected from several fields in Germany in 2016, with an overall accuracy of 85.71% for the validation set.


Reconstructions of ocean primary productivity (PP) help to explain past and present biogeochemical cycles and climate changes in the oceans. We document PP variations over the last 50 kyr in a currently oligotrophic subtropical region, the Gulf of Cadiz. Data combine refined results from previous investigations on dinocyst assemblages, alkenones, and stable isotopes (18O, 13C) in planktonic (Globigerina bulloides) and endobenthic (Uvigerina mediterranea) foraminifera from cores MD04‐2805 CQ and MD99‐2339, with new isotopic measurements on epibenthic (Cibicides pachyderma‐Cibicidoides wuellerstorfi) foraminifera and dinocyst‐based estimates of PP using the new n = 1,968 modern database. We constrain PP variations and export production by integrating qualitative information from bioindicators with dinocyst‐based quantitative reconstructions such as PP and seasonal sea surface temperature and information about remineralization from the benthic Δδ13C (difference between epibenthic and endobenthic foraminiferal δ13C signatures). This study also includes new information on alkenone‐based SST and total organic carbon which provides insights into the relationship between past regional hydrological activity and PP regime change. We show that PP, carbon export, and remineralization were generally high in the NE subtropical Atlantic Ocean during the last glacial period and that the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) had lower Δδ13C than the Heinrich Stadials with sustained high PP, likely allowing enhanced carbon sequestration. We link these PP periods to the dynamics of upwelling, active almost year‐round during sadials, but restricted to spring‐summer during interstadials and LGM, like today. During interstadials, nutrient advection through freshwater inputs during autumn‐winter needs also to be considered to fully understand PP regimes.


Abstract Introduction: Quarantelli established criteria for evaluating the effectiveness of disaster management. Objectives: The objectives of this study were to analyze the response of the healthcare system to the Tsunami disaster according to the Quarantelli principles, and to validate these principles in a scenario of a disaster due to natural hazards. Methods: The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) Home Front Command Medical Department sent a research team to study the response of the Thai medical system to the disaster. The analysis of the disaster management was based on Quarantelli's 10 criteria for evaluating the management of community disasters. Data were collected through personal and group interviews. Results: The three most important elements for effective disaster management were: (1) the flow of information; (2) overall coordination; and (3) leadership. Although pre-event preparedness was for different and smaller scenarios, medical teams repeatedly reported a better performance in hospitals that recently conducted drills. Conclusions: In order to increase effectiveness, disaster management response should focus on: (1) the flow of information; (2) overall coordination; and (3) leadership.


The purpose of this study was to examine the hypothesis that the menstrual cycle-induced modulation of the cardiorespiratory response to exercise might be altered by acute exposure to altitude. During both the luteal and follicular phases, 9 moderately trained female subjects with normal menstrual cycles performed incremental exercise to maximal effort on a cycle ergometer at sea level (SL) and under hypobaric hypoxia (HH) at the equivalent of 3,000 m altitude. Both at rest and during exercise, minute ventilation (.VE) and oxygen uptake (.VO(2)) did not differ between the luteal and follicular phases (either at SL or HH). However, the ratio of .VE to .VO(2) (.VE /.VO(2)), both at rest and during peak exercise, was greater in the luteal phase than in the follicular phase under HH conditions. Furthermore, the partial pressure of end-tidal carbon dioxide (PETCO(2)) during exercise was lower in the luteal phase than in the follicular phase in HH. These results suggest that the menstrual cycle-induced modulation of the ventilatory response to exercise may be altered under acute hypobaric-hypoxic conditions.


This is a Foucault-inspired, postmodern study of ethical subjectivity. Technologies of life, personal truths and relations between truth telling and intoxication are highlighted in drug autobiographies and in materials from a study of Alcoholics Anonymous. Here other notions of the self are at play than the concept of the unified, autonomous, authentic self. These materials also offer an understanding of addiction as a dysfunction or disorganisation of temporality in everyday life.


In many scientific research and engineering applications where repeated simulations of complex systems are conducted, a surrogate is commonly adopted to quickly estimate the whole system. To reduce the expensive cost of generating training examples, it has become a promising approach to combine the results of low-fidelity (fast but inaccurate) and high-fidelity (slow but accurate) simulations. Despite the fast developments of multi-fidelity fusion techniques, most existing methods require particular data structures and do not scale well to high-dimensional output. To resolve these issues, we generalize the classic autoregression (AR), which is wildly used due to its simplicity, robustness, accuracy, and tractability, and propose generalized autoregression (GAR) using tensor formulation and latent features. GAR can deal with arbitrary dimensional outputs and arbitrary multifidelity data structure to satisfy the demand of multi-fidelity fusion for complex problems; it admits a fully tractable likelihood and posterior requiring no approximate inference and scales well to high-dimensional problems. Furthermore, we prove the autokrigeability theorem based on GAR in the multi-fidelity case and develop CIGAR, a simplified GAR with the exact predictive mean accuracy with computation reduction by a factor of d 3, where d is the dimensionality of the output. The empirical assessment includes many canonical PDEs and real scientific examples and demonstrates that the proposed method consistently outperforms the SOTA methods with a large margin (up to 6x improvement in RMSE) with only a couple high-fidelity training samples.


Abstract. The archaeological site is a mine of data and information that helps to deepen the knowledge of its origin, history, and structure. This virtuous approach becomes even more effective when these data, properly processed and structured, form the basis for a project of conservation and enhancement of the cultural asset.The Roman mosaics dug in Castiglione delle Stiviere in 1995 represent an interesting case in which all the archaeological information, made available by the Superintendence, was used through an HBIM (Historical Building Information Modeling) approach for the conservation project. The Stratigraphic Units (US) of the findings have identified the strategy for the geometric and informative modeling of the BIM (Building Information Modeling) model and have also been exploited in the design phase for the project of the new roof structure and especially for the cost analysis. The structuring of the data by stratigraphic units was also used in the drafting of the preventive and planned conservation, necessary to enhance and prolong the state of good health of the property.This work has been developed in the internship activity within a training course on HBIM, in collaboration with the Diocese of Mantua, owner of the property.


This study investigated the frequency properties of a flexible printed circuit (FPC) coil and applied it to detect conductivity change of non-ferromagnetic metal materials. Theoretical analysis and measurements showed that the coil's resistance and inductance are almost frequency-invariant in a particular frequency range; the coil circuit resonates at its self-resonant frequency. With no concern for its thickness, the conductivity of a test object can be measured with high sensitivity and accuracy by using the coil in its frequency-invariant range, based on the "same ωσ, same impedance" principle. In the case that the influence of thickness has to be eliminated, the variation of conductivity can be sensitively detected by using the coil's resonant properties. The proposed methods have been verified with measurement of standard test pieces whose conductivities were given in advance, and applied to detect conductivity change of deteriorated tube.


Background: In a previous review of hairy cell leukemia (HCL) patients we found no difference in efficacy between cladribine and pentostatin [Else et al, Cancer 104:2442- 8; 2005]. With longer follow-up (median 15.4 years since diagnosis) we aimed to find whether efficacy remained equivalent and whether factors associated with relapse could be identified retrospectively. Methods: We reviewed data retrospectively from 228 HCL patients, treated between 1986–2005 with either single-agent pentostatin (n=187) or cladribine (n=41), at a median of 15.4 (range 1–38) years from diagnosis. Results: Patient demographics were similar for both treatment groups, apart from a male:female ratio of 4.5:1 (pentostatin) versus 2:1 (cladribine) (p=0.02). No statistically significant differences were found between treatment groups after first-line therapy. Complete response (CR) rates were 82% (pentostatin) and 76% (cladribine). After a median followup since treatment of 13 years (pentostatin) and 9 years (cladribine), 43% of pentostatin and 37% of cladribine patients had relapsed. Relapse rates at 5, 10 and 15 years were 25%, 42% and 47% (pentostatin) and 35%, 44% and 44% (cladribine). Overall, patients who reached 5 years remission had only a 30% risk of relapsing by 15 years. Median progression-free survival (PFS) was 10 years. After relapse (n=75) or non-response (n=5), 24 patients received single-agent pentostatin and 56 cladribine, with CR rates of 63% and 75% respectively (not significant). Eleven patients subsequently relapsed after pentostatin and 18 after cladribine. Ten years after second-line treatment the rate of relapse was 53% and 39% for the two agents respectively (not significant) and second-line PFS was marginally shorter after pentostatin than after cladribine (p=0.04). Relapse rates and PFS were no different between those switching treatment (n=51) and those re-treated with the same agent (n=29). There were 45 deaths altogether, of which only 8 were HCL-related. With non-HCL-related deaths censored, overall survival from first treatment was 95% (pentostatin) and 100% (cladribine) at both 10 and 15 years (not significant). Compared with all others, the 95 patients (42%) whose disease progressed (who failed to respond to treatment, relapsed, or died of HCL-related causes) were more likely to have haemoglobin 9 /l (p=0.002). The median first-line PFS of patients with haemoglobin 9 /l was 8 years versus 16 years for all others (p Conclusions and Recommendations: The long-term outcome for HCL patients was similar, whether treated with pentostatin or cladribine. The risk of dying of HCL-related causes was less than 5% and, among those surviving 15 years after treatment, 52% had still not relapsed. As in chronic lymphocytic leukaemia Binet stage C, patients with a low haemoglobin and/or platelet count appeared to fare worse. Further research will elucidate the factors underlying this difference in long-term prognosis. The outcome for relapsed patients may improve with the combination of either pentostatin or cladribine with the monoclonal antibody rituximab (Else et al, Cancer 110:2240–7; 2007).


Much has been written in the last two years on the Abderhalden test. The workers in this field may be divided into three groups: Those who support Abderhalden's contentions entirely and believe that a diagnosis of pregnancy, carcinoma and various other conditions can be absolutely made by exposing the serum from a case to the specific substrate against which these ferments are mobilized by the body. Those who believe that the method is of no possible value in diagnosing pregnancy or any other condition. Those who believe that, while the ferment content of the blood is undoubtedly increased in pregnancy and various other conditions, the specificity of the ferments as maintained by Abderhalden and his supporters is not proved as yet; and in the light of the most recent work is highly improbable. To the individual not engaged in the work, the many papers appearing, some of which contain contradictory


This study biomechanically evaluates solid and tubular interlocking nails in bovine neonatal femurs. Paired femurs from 40 neonatal dairy calves were obtained for mechanical testing. Intact femurs and four combinations of experimentally manipulated femurs (intact or ostectomized femurs with either a solid or tubular interlocking nail) were tested in craniocaudal and lateromedial bending, eccentric axial compression, and external torsion to evaluate composite rigidity, local/gap stiffness, and load to failure (compression and torsion only). In torsional composite rigidity, femurs with tubular interlocking nails were more complaint than intact femurs or intact femurs with solid interlocking nails (P < .001). Ostectomized femurs with solid interlocking nails were similar to intact femurs with tubular interlocking nails. Within femurs with tubular interlocking nails, ostectomized femurs were more compliant than intact femurs (P < .0001). In craniocaudal and lateromedial bending rigidity, ostectomized femurs were more complaint than intact femurs, regardless of interlocking nail type (P < .001). Within ostectomized femurs, tubular interlocking nails were more complaint than solid interlocking nails in craniocaudal bending (P < .05) and there was a similar trend in lateromedial bending (P = .06). In eccentric axial compression, local/gap stiffness was significantly greater in intact femurs compared with intact femurs with solid (48% of intact bone) or tubular (45% of intact bone) interlocking nails and ostectomized femurs with solid (18% of intact bone) or tubular (11% of intact bone) interlocking nails (P < .0001). In torsional testing, local/gap stiffness was not significantly different between intact femurs and intact femurs with interlocking nails, but was significantly lower in ostectomized femurs with solid (2% of intact bone) and tubular (0.2% of intact bone) interlocking nails (P < .0001).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


This thesis aims to develop a better understanding of the livelihoods of older people in rural Thailand. It asks whether their involvement in socio-economic activities in their daily life enable them to maintain their livelihoods, highlights implications for Thai government policy.
Drawing on a combination of the sustainable livelihoods framework and the gender perspective, the thesis examines the multiple activities performed by older men and women and analyses the factors affecting their engagement in these activities, and their access to different types of capital. The primary data is from 2 phases of fieldwork in a village in the North of Thailand, where 22 focus groups, 69 interviews and community maps and transect walks were conducted with the elderly. Further interviews with 75 carers of the elderly were conducted during the 2nd phase of fieldwork.
The thesis highlights the broad range of socio-economic activities at household and community levels in which older men and women engaged, including agricultural and non-agricultural activities for the purpose of generating income and reciprocating or supporting family members and others. These activities enable older men and women to maintain their livelihoods despite of insufficient state support. They also reveal that family support is somewhat not the main support that it is commonly assumed to be in Thai culture, and that older people often continue to support their offspring and family members financially and non-financially. Older men are more likely to provide financial support, reflecting their roles as household leaders who are responsible for financial matters, whereas older women are more likely to provide support that is based on domestic work. Older men's perspectives of involvement in activities are much focused on income generation, which makes it difficult for them to adapt in later life, situation when they may have to stop or decrease working. Older women are more likely to engage in domestic work and assist their spouses in farming. Both older men and women are willing to engage in any community activities, which in return provide them a link to cultivate other types of capital in maintaining their livelihoods. Therefore, ageing policy should take into account gender differences, the variation in livelihoods of the elderly, and the capacity of the community.


Sensor networks are a way to combat the fading in cooperative communications systems due to spatial diversity characteristic and they are so popular in the new generation of wireless networks. In this research the PCA relay strategies on a two-hop protocol sensor network is proposed and the better BER performance than the conventional relay matrix is achieved. It is considered one antenna for all nodes of the network including relays in the same distance from source and destination. The PCA method is applied for relay strategies, based on the eigenvectors corresponding to the largest eigenvalues of channels at both sides of relays, constraining total power usage. The BER and MSE criterion of the proposed scheme are derived.


The argument of the paper is the embedded model control that was developed and tested in the course of past years. The first aim of the method is to equalize implementation and design, which is obtained by explicitly including the design model as the core of the control unit: hence the name of embedded model. After four basic modelling axioms, the paper concentrates on the model error properties, concerning the plant-to-model discrepancies revealed by their output difference. Properties lead to a first theorem: the central error theorem. The theorem asking for model error reduction, the model error causes are investigated and partly included in the embedded model. Residuals will be treated in the Part II of the paper.


The purpose was to evaluate the influence of dentin pretreatment with titanium tetrafluoride (TiF₄) on the longevity of bond strength (BS) of an indirect composite to dentin, using conventional resin cementation strategy or a self-adhesive resin cement. Forty third human molars with exposed dentin surfaces were used. The teeth were divided into groups (n = 10), according to the cementation strategy and the presence or absence of pretreatment with TiF₄. Microtensile strength testing and failure mode analysis were performed after 24 hours, 180 and 360 days of storage in water. Split-plot ANOVA and Tukey's test showed that BS was significantly higher when the conventional strategy was used, regardless of the time period, and of the application or no application of pretreatment with TiF₄ (p ⟨0.0001). When TiF₄ was used for both cementing strategies, BS was lower after 360 days (p = 0.0019). Both cementing strategies led to the formation of a shallow hybrid layer, regardless of the presence of TiF₄. BS was higher when the conventional cementation strategy was used, regardless of TiF₄ pretreatment. TiF₄ used as a pretreatment agent associated with different types of resin cementation was unable to maintain adhesive bond strength in the long term.


Detailed knowledge of motion and seakeeping behaviour in an early design stage is indispensable in modern layout of marine offshore structures. Therefore, numerical methods are used to calculate the Response Amplitude Operators (RAO), which are generally based on potential theory or the Reynolds-AveragedNavier-Stokes-Equation (RANSE). Calculations with potential-codes are commonly used, well established and time-saving. Main disadvantages are the neglect of viscous effects and the hull structure above the still water level. By using RANSE-methods, these nonlinear effects can be investigated in detail, but at the price of calculation time and extensive grid generation. To achieve sufficient RAOs in frequency domain, time-consuming and intensive calculations would be necessary with these CFD-methods, using seastate applications with regular or irregular waves only. Therefore, these methods are not convenient for standard motion analysis by now. Transient Wave Packets (TWP) represent an approved method at model tests, revealing the entire RAO for any offshore structure within one single, short test run. Main advantage of this technique is the accurate predictability and short superposition in space and time. Containing all elementary wavelengths of the generated initial wave spectra, the TWP-method could be used in RANSE-methods, implementing all necessary initial conditions to the CFD-solver. To reduce the calculation effort to a minimum in space and time, the superimposed wave train is generated near the investigated offshore structure by using modified, linear wave theory in spatial domain. Address all correspondence to this author. To present this method by means of a practical example, the motion and sloshing behaviour of an offshore LNG-carrier (LNGC) are investigated in detail. For validation purpose, all results are compared to model tests, conducted in the seakeeping basin at Technische Universit¨ at Berlin (TUB), as well as numerical results of the potential theory solver WAMIT 1 .


SUMMARY This paper describes types, processes and importance of rent-seeking in the allocation of timber rights in Ghana. It is based on an analysis of 30 interviews with large-, medium- and small-scale timber firms, as well as government officials and timber industry organizations in Ghana. The paper documents that timber rights allocation is associated with both bureaucratic and political corruption. The latter comes in two forms. First, the findings suggest that well-established relationships exist between politicians and senior bureaucrats on the one side and large-scale timber firms on the other involving exchange of timber rights for political support and/or material, personal benefits. Second, timber rights are allocated to persons or firms outside the timber sector allegedly as payment for political support. The paper concludes that the Voluntary Partnership Agreement between Ghana and the EU is likely to reduce the observed practises in the future through increased transparency.


This study describes the functionality, cognitive, and neuropsychological performance of a child with Hemiplegic Cerebral Palsy, and the role of the "educational diet" in his performance. Executive dysfunction is expected in Hemiplegic children, and even those with normal cognitive functioning are predisposed to show specific learning difficulties. This particular case displays a profile disparate from what is expected. Results confirmed the high functionality of the child, FA, in all domains. Moreover, a parent interview verified that the educational diet followed may be an important aspect that is contributing to the child's divergent results.


A single cardiomyocyte is a vital tool in the cellular and subcellular level studies of cardiac biology and diseases as a fundamental unit of contraction and electrical activity. Hence, isolating viable, high-quality cardiomyocytes from the heart is the initial and most crucial experimental step. Comparing the various protocols for isolating the cardiomyocytes of adult mice, the Langendorff retrograde perfusion is the most successful and reproducible method reported in the literature, especially for isolating ventricular myocytes. However, isolating quality atrial myocytes from the perfused heart remains challenging, and few successful isolation reports are available. Solving this complicated problem is extremely important because apart from ventricular disease, atrial disease accounts for a large part of heart diseases. Therefore, further investigations on the cellular level to reveal the mechanisms are warranted. In this paper, a protocol based on the Langendorff retrograde perfusion method is introduced and some modifications in the depth of aorta cannulation and the steps that may affect the digestion process to isolate atrial and ventricular myocytes were simultaneously made. Moreover, the isolated cardiomyocytes are confirmed to be amenable to patch clamp investigation.


The present study was carried out to know the yield gaps between Improved Package and practices (IP) and farmers practice (FP) of Bajra Crop. In IP the recommended dose of fertilizers is 40 kg N + 20 kg P2O5 / ha and 15 kg N + 62.5 kg P2O5/ha under rainfed and irrigated situations respectively. The yield in IP under irrigated conditions ranges from 1868 to 3390 kg/ha whereas under rainfed conditions it was in range of 1990 to 2240 kg/ ha. The per cent increase in yield with IP over FP was recorded in the range of 9.3 to 54.1 whereas per cent increase over state average yield was between 26.9 to 182.7. The improved hybrid HHB-97 gave significantly higher yield over local check i.e. HHB-67 (Improved) under both irrigated and rainfed situation. The yield advantage with HHB-197 over HHB-67 (improved) was in the range of 13.9 to 24.0% under irrigated conditions whereas the yield advantage under rainfed condition was between 8.4 to 13.0%. Where other improved hybrids i.e. HHB-117, HHB60, HHB-94 and HHB-67-2 performed significantly better over the local checks i.e. HC-4, HC-20 and HHB-68. for realizing profitable yield of pearl millet farmers should apply recommended dose of fertilizers, used improved hybrid seed, integrated weed management, water management and insect–pest management. Conducting of frontline demonstrations on farmers field also help to identify the constraints and potential of the pearl millet in that specific area in realizing the food security as well as it helps in improving the economic and social status.


PURPOSE
The aim of the present study was to determine the prevalence of malocclusion among schoolgirls and to assess malocclusion using the Index of Orthodontic Treatment Need (IOTN).

MATERIALS AND METHODS
A total of 350 subjects were selected by a multistage randomised cluster sampling method. All of the selected subjects were schoolgirls aged 14 to 17 years. Malocclusion was determined using the IOTN. A chi-square test was performed to evaluate the data obtained.

RESULTS
The present study reported that 16.3% of subjects had no treatment need, 35.7% had a mild treatment need, 35.4% had a moderate treatment need and a further 5.2% to 7.4% had a severe to extreme treatment need, respectively. Therefore, the prevalence of malocclusion was found to be 83.7% among Tehranian schoolgirls of age 14 to 17 years.

CONCLUSIONS
The prevalence of malocclusion is very high among Tehranian schoolgirls; therefore, greater care is required to reduce this prevalence.


Between states, between enterprises and enterprises, between people, it can be stated that credit is full of every corner of our lives. But the current lack of social credit is fundamental. Credit risk is particularly prominent. In the extensive data generation today, the information on personal credit statistics is very large, but still lack the data system processing and screening. Through the information retrieval of 200 credit information reports, this paper constructs the evaluation system of personal credit by using the basic information of the individual. The basic information of these individuals has great convenience in information collection and information statistics, and this basic information covers all aspects that are likely to result in the breach of contract. Through the use of single factor analysis and logistic model to solve the index system, you can not only find the impact of individual indicators on the degree of personal credit, but also see the overall impact of indicators on the degree of credit, that is, the weight of the indicators. Finally, four different credit ratings are divided by assigning the indicators to the scores. Credit rating can clearly measure the respective credit situation. Through the classification of these levels, measuring the credit line when a person in the individual credit operation, at the same time, it can provide reference and proval to administrative departments, which is benefit for managing credit risks. It has a substantial meaning and value in use. The solution to the rating system cannot only be applied to individuals, but also to the enterprises, with a wide range of versatility.


The role of D1 receptors in motor control is poorly understood. In parkinsonian squirrel monkeys, the full D1 agonist C-APB (SKF 82958; 0.1-0.4 mg/kg s.c.) caused weak stimulation of locomotor activity. However, the motor stimulant effects of the D2 agonist (+)-PHNO (0.001 mg/kg s.c.) were not potentiated by C-APB (0.3 mg/kg). Differences between these observations and expectations from experiments using rodents are discussed.


Urolithiasis is a very usual problem affecting humans and animals both globally. Calcium-oxalate is the main component of the urinary stones, largely because of the excess consumption of oxalate-rich foods. The occurrence of urinary oxalate occurs by endogenous synthesis. In a normal, healthy individual the excretion of oxalate ranges from 10mg to 45mg per day, based on the age and gender, but risk of stone formation starts at 25mg per day reliant on the individual health history. This study determines a sensitive method for sensing the existence of calcium oxalate in urine. This can be done by measuring the variant amounts of calcium oxalate hydrate (CaC 2 O 4 .H 2 O) in urine and analyzing the dielectric properties of each sample. The proposed method can distinguish dynamic changes in the samples' electrical properties over a time interval. Even for the urine sample containing calcium oxalate hydrate as low as 10μg per ml. This makes the proposed method appropriate for identifying changes that are unrecognized by conventional methods. The potential to detect very small quantity of stone salts makes it a lucrative tool for sensing and quantifying stones in kidney.


Microalloying of MoSi2 to form Mo_(1− x )Me_ x Si_2 (Me = Nb or V) was investigated by the self-propagating high-temperature synthesis method. With alloying element contents up to 5 at.%, a homogeneous C11b solid solution was obtained. For higher contents of alloying elements, the product contained both the C11_b and the hexagonal C40 phases. The relative amount of the C40 phase increases with an increase in the content of alloying metals in the starting mixture. The alloying element content in the hexagonal C40 Mo_(1− x )Me_ x Si_2 phase was nearly constant at a level of about 12 at.% for all starting compositions. In contrast, the content of the alloying elements in the tetragonal phase is considerably lower (around 4 at.%) and increases slightly as the Me content in the starting mixture is increased.


A new algorithm for estimating parameters and angle-of-arrival (AOA) of chirps using matching pursuit (MP) method is presented in this paper. This algorithm is based on the concept of sparse representation of signal and applied into fractional Fourier transform (FRFT) domain and 2D AOAs estimation in the end of the paper. The problem of source localization of chirps has once been solved with time-frequency analysis which is called spatial time-frequency distribution (STDF) method. This method replaces the covariance matrix in subspace methods with the results after time-frequency transform, and then obtains AOAs as common subspace methods do. Wigner-Ville Distribution is the most popular method used for source localization, however, how to eliminate the effect of cross-item in results is still a problem which will make the estimations unacceptable sometimes. Algorithm in this paper fist constructs atom-dictionaries according to system models and then projects observations onto dictionaries, finally obtains parameters and AOAs by solving least squares problems. In order to be more resistant to noise, we preprocess observations and dictionaries with FRFT and only use values near the peak, then utilize MP method in transform domain to obtain AOAs. Numerical simulations have proved the effectivity of the algorithm.


Our intention for parameterization of convection is the simplest possible approach to study the global impact of this effect on tracer distributions, especially on the upward propagation of the CO2 annual cycle. We thank Ingo Wohltmann for his comment and agree, that in the current version, this parameterization is not mass-conserving, however there are few arguments (listed below) which support our simple method:


In a natural outbreak of respiratory disease during 1976, 31 of 43 calves showed moderately severe clinical signs which included pyrexia (maximum 42 degrees C) and tachypnoea. During the outbreak infection by respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) was demonstrated by isolation from nasopharyngeal swabs or by serology. Pasteurella haemolytica or P multocida were isolated from the blood of four and five calves respectively. In the month before disease 65 per cent of the calves showed significant antibody responses to P haemolytica. However a similar serological response to P haemolytica was demonstrated during 1975 in a comparable group of calves in which no disease and no infection with RSV was detected. No serological response to P multocida was demonstrated in either year. The temporal correlation of RSV infection with respiratory disease in the group of 43 calves was striking but the evidence neither reinforced nor discounted the possibility of interaction between RSV and P haemolytica infection in the pathogenesis of disease.


Two generations of a novel detector for high-resolution transmission imaging and spectrometry of fast-neutrons are presented. These devices are based on a hydrogenous fiber scintillator screen and single- or multiple-gated intensified camera systems (ICCD). This detector is designed for energy-selective neutron radiography with nanosecond-pulsed broad-energy (1–10 MeV) neutron beams. Utilizing the Time-of-Flight (TOF) method, such a detector is capable of simultaneously capturing several images, each at a different neutron energy (TOF). In addition, a gamma-ray image can also be simultaneously registered, allowing combined neutron/gamma inspection of objects. This permits combining the sensitivity of the fast-neutron resonance method to low-Z elements with that of gamma radiography to high-Z materials.


The energy consumption in office buildings can considerably be cut, if daylight is used as task lighting. A conservative estimate - starting from existing knowledge and calculation methods - gives a potential saving of 460 GWh a year or 46 % of the electricity costs for artificial lighting in Dutch office buildings, equivalent to 116 million Neth Fl/year or 51 million ECU/year. These substantial amounts justify the implementation of task lighting by daylight on a larger scale. To more accurately estimate the possible energy conservation by daylight, the designer lacks information on indoor daylight availability in the course of the year. The current way of tuning a daylight-controlled artificial lighting installation is too cumbersome and the human appraisal of these installations is still very low. because a daylight-factor-related control algorithm inherently has a very poor accuracy. The problem of comfortable photo-electric control of switched or dimmed artificial lighting upplementing the daylight illumination at the work'Place and correctly estimate the energy effectiveness of it, will require new research efforts to find a more accurate. prediction of the indoor daylight illumination level at points of the working area. The research objectives are: (i) for the designer: a frequency distribution of the indoor illuminance by daylight at various points, specified according to latitude, prevailing climate, part of the year, part of the day, and the geometry of the room and the window; (ii) for the artificial lighting engineer: an accurate conversion from the daylight environment outside to a control signal for the artificial lighting installation. The problem has to be tackled in a phenomenological way: the momentary indoor daylight illumination has to be related to the stochastical varying sky luminance patterns (in the direction of view from the window) by a function with a few measurable parameters. To this end it is necessary to measure and analyze the sky luminance patterns and the simultaneous indoor illuminances. In the running daylight research project of Eindhoven University an advanced sky luminance measuring instrument has been built.


Use of controlled source audio magnetotelluric (CSAMT) techniques to map thermal fronts associated with enhanced oil recovery (EOR) processes depends upon knowledge of the changes in formation electrical resistivity. Measurement of these changes required the development of a technique which survives high temperatures and a very corrosive environment while measuring over a frequency range of 5 to 5000 Hz. The apparatus to make these measurements is described. The results from a laboratory forward dry combustion test in the University of Calgary combustion tube are presented. It is found that there is a two-decade change in the resistivity as the fire front traverses through a region. Also there are indications of the separate zones within a fire front. The importance of these results to interpreting CSAMT data are then considered. The frequency dependence of the resistvity changes suggests means of increasing CSAMT sensitivity for deep oil pay-zone mappings. 4 figures.


First clinical experience with the use of a Q-switched pulsed Neodym-YAG Laser showed promising results. This paper focuses on two problems with respect to the optimal use of this laser: (1) is there any need for a special iron (Fe3+)-enriched irrigant, and (2) what is the best frequency for laser lithotripsy? To answer these questions, we used an in vitro model, measuring the laser-induced breakdown (LIB) photographically utilizing sodium chloride as an irrigant enriched with different amounts of Fe3+ ions. The disintegrative efficacy of the laser was tested utilizing a standard stone model (plaster cube) and working at different frequencies (1, 10, 40 Hz). The addition of Fe3+ ions resulted in significant improvement of LIB. However, in the presence of a test stone no difference between sodium chloride and Fe3+-enriched irrigants was noted. The use of lower frequencies (1, 10 Hz) lead to a remarkable improvement in the disintegrative efficacy of the laser compared to the standard frequencies (40, 50 Hz). For clinical use, addition of Fe3+ ions seems only necessary if optical breakdown (LIB) is insufficient despite the increase in generator voltage. In such a situation, we recommend the addition of an 1-ml Fe3+ solution to 10 liters of sodium chloride irrigant (= 0.5 mg Fe3+/dl). Moreover, the standard frequency for laser-induced intracorporeal lithotripsy should be 1-10 Hz.


Abstract Objectives Understanding the neural mechanisms underlying Internet gaming disorder (IGD) is essential for the condition's diagnosis and treatment. Nevertheless, the pathological mechanisms of IGD remain elusive at present. Hence, we employed multi-voxel pattern analysis (MVPA) and spectral dynamic causal modeling (spDCM) to explore this issue. Methods Resting-state fMRI data were collected from 103 IGD subjects (male = 57) and 99 well-matched recreational game users (RGUs, male = 51). Regional homogeneity was calculated as the feature for MVPA based on the support vector machine (SVM) with leave-one- out cross-validation. Mean time series data extracted from the brain regions in accordance with the MVPA results were used for further spDCM analysis. Results Results display a high accuracy of 82.67% (sensitivity of 83.50% and specificity of 81.82%) in the classification of the two groups. The most discriminative brain regions that contributed to the classification were the bilateral parahippocampal gyrus (PG), right anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), and middle frontal gyrus (MFG). Significant correlations were found between addiction severity (IAT and DSM scores) and the ReHo values of the brain regions that contributed to the classification. Moreover, the results of spDCM showed that compared with RGU, IGD showed decreased effective connectivity from the left PG to the right MFG and from the right PG to the ACC and decreased self-connection in the right PG. Conclusions These results show that the weakening of the PG and its connection with the prefrontal cortex, including the ACC and MFG, may be an underlying mechanism of IGD.


The problem of ensuring economic security of the enterprise is undoubtedly actual now as safety of the organization is directly connected with efficiency of functioning of the managing subject. In addition, in Russia there is an acute problem of unfair competition in the market, criminalization of certain segments that force enterprises to take certain measures. The analysis of risks of the enterprise allows to avoid not only essential material losses, but also irreparable damage and even bankruptcy. Economic security is an essential element of business operation and is a complex system of threat management inherent in business activities throughout the life cycle of the enterprise. It ensures achievement of business goals in conditions of competition and economic risk. The aim of the work is to study the main aspects of economic security of the enterprise in the Russian Federation. The object of the study of this work is the enterprise, and the subject – its economic security. The methods of cognition, retrospective and documentary analysis, economic and mathematical modeling, as well as synthesis, generalization, systematization were used as methods in the performance of the work. The efficiency of the enterprise depends not only on internal factors, but also on external: political, economic, geopolitical, environmental, social. The study of their complex influence on the functioning of an organization is the basis of ensuring the economic security of the company. In order to ensure the economic security of the organization, its stable operation and a stable position in the market, it is necessary to manage risks in order to minimize them, as well as mandatory measures to reduce the consequences and losses from risks.


Abstract Interclausal subordination, serving various functions in written discourse, has been studied mostly from a quantitative perspective in later language development. The current study applied a discourse-functional approach to a quantitative and qualitative examination of subordinate Adverbial Clauses (ACs) in Hebrew writing development. Analysis targeted narrative and expository texts, written by Hebrew speaker-writers in grades 4, 7, 11, and university students. Adverbial clauses were counted, and classified according to function. In narratives, they delineated either plotline events, surrounding descriptions, or subjective interpretations. Expository ACs served to enlarge on the current argument, anchor new arguments in previous discourse, or move on, initiating a new topic. Narrative ACs had similar prevalence across development, but shifted functionally, favoring interpretive roles in older writers. Expository ACs retained their enlarging-on and anchoring functions, while decreasing in quantity, parallel to an increase in alternative, clause-internal devices. The study underscores the usefulness of a functionally-oriented perspective in revealing developmental changes in the syntax-discourse interface.


In the paper a numerical and experimental analysis of post-critical state of a thin-walled channel-section simply supported beam under axial compression. The beam was made of carbon-epoxy symmetrical composite prepared with a pre-preg technology using 8 layers of unidirectional band. The material used was a composite of epoxy matrix reinforced with carbon fiber (system HexPly M12, Hexcel). The M12 system is used above all in aircraft structures. It exhibits high fatigue durability and good maintenance properties at relatively low specific gravity. The research was lead as the FEM numerical analyses and experimental tests in post-buckling and limit states, as well. Experimental studies were conducted to confirm results obtained from numerical calculations, which was performed using the ABAQUS software.


Larsen syndrome is characterized by flat face with hypertelorism, multiple and bilateral congenital dislocations and juxta-calcaneal accessory bone or bifid calcaneus due to a generalized mesenchymal defect involving connective tissue. This rare syndrome sometimes causes severe cervical spinal kyphosis in childhood. In this report a six-year-old female patient with severe cervicothoracic kyphosis due to Larsen syndrome is presented. The patient was operated on through the posterior approach and cervical and upper thoracic pedicle screws were used for correction of the deformity. Larsen syndrome and surgical correction techniques for the severe cervical kyphotic deformities are discussed with the relevant literature.


Immobilization of enzymes is important to improve their stability and to facilitate their recyclability, aiming to make biocatalytic processes more efficient. One of the important aspects is the utilization of cheap, abundant, and environmentally friendly carriers for enzyme immobilization. Here we report the use of functionalized cellulose for lipase and transaminase immobilization. High immobilization efficiencies (up to 90%) could be achieved for the transaminase from Vibrio fluvialis. For immobilized lipase CAL-B as well as the transaminase, good conversions and recyclability could be demonstrated in kinetic resolutions to afford chiral alcohols or amines. Moreover, such application of the immobilized transaminase enabled very high conversions in a continuous-flow process in the asymmetric synthesis of (S)-phenylethylamine (80% conversion, >99% ee).


In the Netherlands, bacterial canker in plum trees (Prunus domestica) is a serious and recent problem in plum production. It is caused by Pseudomonas syringae pathovars syringae and morsprunorum. The trunks of the affected plum trees are girdled by bacterial cankers resulting in sudden death of infected trees in 3-4 years after planting. Disease incidences can be very high, and sometimes complete orchards have to be removed. Recently, plum cultivation in the Netherlands has changed from a relatively extensive into an intensive cultivation. However, due to the risks of losses of trees due to bacterial canker, growers are reluctant to plant new plum orchards. In general nurseries and fruit growers are not familiar with bacterial diseases and lack knowledge in order to prevent infections. Therefore, control strategies to manage plum decline have to be developed.


In this paper, a domain-specific extractive scheme combined with fuzzy logic and rough sets is proposed. In this scheme, the senses of domain-specific vocabulary constitute a fuzzy approximation space and a document is represented by a fuzzy set of senses. The use of word senses instead of the word itself is to cope with the problem that synonyms are treated differently. Also, a characteristic of the scheme is that the core concepts of the document are approximated by the lower approximation of its fuzzy set in the fuzzy approximation space. The results of applying domain-specific datasets to the scheme are shown. Their quality is measured by an intrinsic method.


Purpose To improve disease severity classification from fundus images using a hybrid architecture with symptom awareness for diabetic retinopathy (DR). Methods We used 26,699 fundus images of 17,834 diabetic patients from three Taiwanese hospitals collected in 2007 to 2018 for DR severity classification. Thirty-seven ophthalmologists verified the images using lesion annotation and severity classification as the ground truth. Two deep learning fusion architectures were proposed: late fusion, which combines lesion and severity classification models in parallel using a postprocessing procedure, and two-stage early fusion, which combines lesion detection and classification models sequentially and mimics the decision-making process of ophthalmologists. Messidor-2 was used with 1748 images to evaluate and benchmark the performance of the architecture. The primary evaluation metrics were classification accuracy, weighted κ statistic, and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC). Results For hospital data, a hybrid architecture achieved a good detection rate, with accuracy and weighted κ of 84.29% and 84.01%, respectively, for five-class DR grading. It also classified the images of early stage DR more accurately than conventional algorithms. The Messidor-2 model achieved an AUC of 97.09% in referral DR detection compared to AUC of 85% to 99% for state-of-the-art algorithms that learned from a larger database. Conclusions Our hybrid architectures strengthened and extracted characteristics from DR images, while improving the performance of DR grading, thereby increasing the robustness and confidence of the architectures for general use. Translational Relevance The proposed fusion architectures can enable faster and more accurate diagnosis of various DR pathologies than that obtained in current manual clinical practice.


Automatic text tagging is an important component in higher level analysis of text corpora, and its output can be used in many natural language processing applications. In languages like Turkish or Finnish, with agglutinative morphology, morphological disambiguation is a very crucial process in tagging, as the structures of many lexical forms are morphologically ambiguous. This paper describes a POS tagger for Turkish text based on a full-scale two-level specification of Turkish morphology that is based on a lexicon of about 24,000 root words. This is augmented with a multiword and idiomatic construct recognizer, and most importantly morphological disambiguator based on local neighborhood constraints, heuristics and limited amount of statistical information. The tagger also has functionality for statistics compilation and fine tuning of the morphological analyzer, such as logging erroneous morphological parses, commonly used roots, etc. Preliminary results indicate that the tagger can tag about 98-99% of the texts accurately with very minimal user intervention. Furthermore for sentences morphologically disambiguated with the tagger, an LFG parser developed for Turkish, generates, on the average, 50% less ambiguous parses and parses almost 2.5 times faster. The tagging functionality is not specific to Turkish, and can be applied to any language with a proper morphological analysis interface.


Multiple input/multiple output (MIMO) is a hot topic in wireless communication and has a great advantage in its capacity. We investigate the influence of antenna topology on MIMO capacity and by comparing three topology schemes we find that selecting a proper antenna topology increases the capacity evidently. Three schemes under study are the traditional point-to-point concentrated antenna topology (CON), the multipoint-to-point distributed antenna topology (DIS) and the clustered antenna topology (CLUSTER). We explore their average capacity under different antenna number and power allocation methods. Simulation results show that DIS and CLUSTER excel the traditional concentrated MIMO structure in capacity.


The water aquifers of the regions of Asopos River in Viotia and Messapia in Evia (Greece) have been contaminated with hexavalent chromium (Cr (VI)) and bivalent nickel (Ni (II)). Given that these areas are the two biggest tuber producing regions of Greece, in our previous work, the cross-contamination of the food chain with these two heavy metals was quantified. In the present study, the potential of sunflower (Helianthus annuus) cultivation in these regions is evaluated. The scope of our study was to investigate the uptake of chromium and nickel by sunflower, in a greenhouse experiment. The study included two cultivation periods of plants in six irrigation lines with different levels of Cr (VI) and Ni (II) ranging from 0 μg/L (control) to 10,000 μg/L. In all plant parts, statistically significant increased levels of Cr (VI) and Ni (II) were found when compared to control ones. Also, a positive correlation, both for Cr and Ni, between levels of heavy metals in irrigation water and plants was observed. Following European Food Safety Authority recommendations, the obtained oil was evaluated as safe for consumption, therefore, sunflower cultivation could be a valid bioremediation solution for the Asopos and Messapia regions.


The gene of microbial lysozyme (lyz) of S. aureus 118 and the gene of lysostaphin (lzf) of S. aureus RN 3239 were cloned and their expression in B. subtilis cells was shown. Lysozyme production in B. subtilis recombinant clone pLF14-Lyz, obtained as the result of cloning, was 2.5-fold greater than lysozyme production in S. aureus wild strain 118. Lysostaphin production in B. subtilis recombinant strain pLF14-Lzf which had inherited the cloned genes was approximately equal to lysostaphin production observed in S. aureus initial strain RN 3239. The production of lysozyme and lysostaphin in the cells of B. subtilis recombinant strains was observed at 30 degrees C and pH 5.5, while in S. aureus initial strains 118 and RN 3239 bacteria produced lysozyme and lysostaphin at 37 degrees C and pH 7.5 respectively.


In the medical field, microscopic image-based investigations are broadly used to examine cell morphology and for disease diagnosis. In this article white blood cells (WBC) are identified from microscopic images by image segmentation. One of the important segmentation methods is multilevel thresholding of an image, in this process pixels are grouped into different classes depends on thresholding levels. The selection of threshold levels affects the efficiency of segmentation. Otsu's method is a significant and important segmentation technique based on the multi-threshold of the histogram. Optimization techniques can be used to compute optimized threshold levels, Harmony Search Algorithm (HSA) is used for this purpose. From the color, microscopic image red, green, and blue components are extracted and segmentation to find white blood cells, and from the same images gray, hue, saturation, and intensity components also extracted pathological features. After segmentation Morphological opening and closing are applied for an efficient finding of white cells, from results the green component of microscopic images is giving efficient results. Results are described by using standard deviation (STDR), mean square error (MSE), Mean of fitness of algorithm (MOFIT), time for execution, and FITNESS function.