dehiscence of the prosthesis only in cases of mucoid degeneration.3 Recently another case has been described by L. J. McCarthy and P. L. Wolf in a man aged 704 who had had a murmur for at least 20 years previously. He was admitted in heait failure with severe mitral incompetence, and a valvular replacement was performed. He died four days later with a cerebral infarct. The excised mitral valve contained pools of blue mucoid material. Mucoid degeneration of the heart valves has long been recognized as an association of Marfan's syndrome,' I but it is much less common than Erdheim's cystic medionecrosis ofthe aorta, which predisposes to dissecting aneurysm. In some of the cases of isolated mucoid degeneration there have been stigmata of Martin's sydrome,l 5 notably some skeletal manifestations. These presumably represent a forme fruste of the syndrome. In many others, including that of McCarthy and Wolf, there were no such stigmata, and the lesion appears to be a localized disorder of the valvular connective tissue. This condition is not as uncommon as would appear from its infrequent description. In one series of 140 patients who had had one or more valves excised between the years 1961 and 1967 there were 21 cases of mucoid degeneration.6 It is also a predisposing factor to infective endocarditis.1 These considerations and the troubles that may follow valvular replacement make mucoid degeneration a lesion to be watched for by surgeon and pathologist.


Arja, Pushpak Vasanth Rayudu. MSEE, Department of Electrical Engineering, Wright State University, 2015. A Reconfigurable SPICE-Based CMOS LNA Design in 90 nm Technology Using ADS RFIC Dynamic Link. In this thesis, a reconfigurable dual band CMOS LNA with a switching-type circuit topology is proposed. The reconfigurable dual-band LNA can be tuned to operating frequency of either 1.575 GHz for global positioning system (GPS) or 2.4GHz for WLAN 802.11b standards. The simulated results performed power gain of 11.2 dB and 12.4 dB, noise figure of 3.4 dB and 2.9 dB, input return loss(S11) of -25.26 dB and-21.4 dB, thirdorder input intercept point of -3.12 dBm and -2.137 dBm and the design dissipates 8.9 mW and 4.68 mW of power at 1.2 V power supply at the two frequency bands 1.575 GHz and 2.4 GHz, respectively. A simple but efficient design methodology for a low noise amplifier is also presented in this thesis. This employs a design metric(cut off 'or' transit frequency, ft) to achieve optimum performance based on quick first order design space exploration. The simulated results for the two designs with input frequency of 2.4 GHz show power gain of 26 dB and 20.3 dB, and noise figure of 1.5 dB dB and 2.48 dB, an input return loss (S11) of -32.57 dB and -26.63 dB and the 1 dB compression point of -3.12 dBm and -2.137 dBm and the design dissipates 6 mW and 600 uW of power at 1.2 V power supply at the higher (24 GHz) and lower (5 GHz) transit frequencies, respectively.


BACKGROUND
About one third of patients operated on for a "single" cerebral metastasis diagnosed by CT scan have probably more than one lesion. In fact, Gd-DTPA enhanced MRI has proved to be more sensitive than CT in detecting the number of cerebral metastases, reducing the number of patients candidate to surgery.

METHODS
Thirty-five patients with a CT scan picture of a single cerebral neoplasm of presumable metastatic nature performed a Gd-DTPA enhanced cerebral MRI. In 25 cases MR images confirmed a single lesion, while in other 10 (28.6%) showed a number of metastases ranging from 2 to 6. In order to assess the utility of MRI in surgical selection of patients and then to reconsider the concept of operability limited to single brain metastases only, we compared the survival of the 25 cases who preoperatively performed MRI (MRI group) with that of other 25 consecutive patients operated on in pre-MR era (during a 24-month period), with a CT picture of single cerebral metastasis (non-MRI group).

RESULTS
The median survival was 36 +/- 5 weeks for MRI group and 40 +/- 15 for non-MRI group. The Kaplan-Meier product-limit survival analysis and the log-rank test do not reveal any statistically significative difference of survival between the two groups.

CONCLUSIONS
Even if the number of patients is limited for definitive considerations, our preliminary results seem to suggest that the further selection of surgical cases obtained with MRI could not impact significatively the survival. Therefore, in selected patients with multiple cerebral metastases a surgical treatment could be reasonable.


The aim of the present research was to evaluate the effect of feeding graded levels of whole barley (WB) on broiler chicken growth and carcass performance, gastrointestinal morphology, and function. A total of 800 male Ross 308 broiler chickens (1-day-old) were randomly assigned to four treatment groups with four replicate pens of 50 birds each. Diets differed in their WB dosage: without WB (NO-WB); low WB amount (LOW-WB) dosages: 4% (1–7 days of age), 8% (8–21 days of age), 15% (22–35 days of age); medium WB amount (MEDIUM-WB) dosages: 6% (1–7 days of age), 12% (8–21 days of age), 20% (22–35 days of age); high WB amount (HIGH-WB) dosages: 8% (1–7 days of age) 16% (8–21 days of age), 25% (22–35 days of age). Body weight, average daily gain, and mortality of chickens did not statistically differ between treatments (P > 0.05). The feed conversion ratio was higher in the treatments diluted with WB. There were no differences in ammonia nitrogen concentration except for increased butyrate concentration in the caecum and reduced digesta viscosity in the broiler ileum in groups fed LOW-WB, MEDIUM-WB, and HIGH-WB diets (P < 0.05). The high WB amount in the diets increased Lactobacillus spp. in the ileal contents and improved ileum morphology (P < 0.05). The inclusion of graded levels of WB in the diets had no effect on carcass performance but it seemed to enhance the gastrointestinal tract development.


Rolling element bearings are critical mechanical components in rotating machinery. Fault detection and diagnosis in the early stages of damage are necessary to prevent their malfunctioning and failure during operation. Vibration monitoring is the most widely used and cost-effective monitoring technique to detect, locate and distinguish faults in rolling element bearings. In this paper, an efficient method is proposed to extract optimizing features. The method employs capability features as well as the Bees Algorithm to obtain faults detection accurately and separably. This work presents an algorithm using optimum radial basis neural network by the use of the Bees Algorithm for automated diagnosis of localized faults in rolling element bearings. Optimum complementary capability values extracted from time-domain signals, and complex cepstral analysis, and real cepstrum, and minimum phase reconstruction, and chirp z-transform, and discrete cosine transform, and discrete Fourier transform, and envelope analysis signal and the Hilbert transform are used as input features for the neural network. Optimum radial basis trained neural network are able to classify different states of the bearing with 100% accuracy. The proposed procedure requires only a few input features. Effectiveness of the proposed method is illustrated using the bearing vibration data obtained experimentally.


Prompted by previous observations of defective blood clotting in rabbits deficient in the sixth component of complement (C6), an evaluation was made of the hemostatic functions of the homozygous proband of a newly recognized human kindred with hereditary C6 deficiency. This human subject, who had no clinical evidence of a bleeding disorder, exhibited a total lack of C6 by functional and immunoprecipitin assays of serum or plasma. Standard tests of hemostatic function were normal; however, when the whole blood clotting time was measured at 25 degrees C in plastic tubes, it was at the upper range of our normal values. In confirmation of this observation, prothrombin consumption, when performed at 37 degrees C in plastic tubes, was at the lower range of normal. Inulin and endotoxin, in concentrations shown to cause activation of human complement, had little or no effect on clotting times or prothrombin consumption of normal or C6-deficient human blood. These observations indicate that absence of C6 does not have a significant effect on hemostatic function in man. In the light of other investigations, the observed differences in clotting function between C6-deficient human blood and C6-deficient rabbit blood could be due to species differences governing the susceptibility of platelets to complement activation.


This study was conducted to explore the knowledge and practice of nurses regarding breast self-examination (BSE) in the United Arab Emirates. Nurses working in different hospitals constituted the study population. A total of 154 nurses who had come to participate in the breast cancer awareness week programme were the participants. Approval of the Gulf Medical University ethics committee was obtained. A self-administered, pre-tested, structured, close ended questionnaire was used for data collection. Statistical analysis was performed using PASW 17. Age of the participants in this study ranged from 20 to 59 years, with a mean age of 24.1 years. 96.1% of the participants were aware of the ideal age to start BSE, while 87.7% respondents knew that women with regular menstruation should perform BSE monthly on a particular day, preferably on the fifth or seventh day after menstruation. With regard to BSE technique, 68.8% knew that both inspection and palpation were the ideal methods to detect any change in the breast. A high proportion, 84.4% of the respondents, reported performing BSE. Among those married, 87.0% and among single 78.3% were practicing BSE. The results point out that the nurses have a satisfactory knowledge regarding BSE and this is shown in their practice of BSE. Emphasis should be laid on BSE in undergraduate and postgraduate courses, especially for nurses, as they are mostly involved in patient care and education.


I. Introduction. Glossopteris is now among the most familiar of all fossil plants. The tongue-shaped fronds of this genus, with their reticulate lateral nervation, are exceedingly charactcristic of the Permo-Carboniferous rocks of India, Australasia, and Southern Africa, and occur also in the Permian of Russia, and in beds of Rhætic age in Tongking and China. So great is the abundance of these fern-like leaves in the Lower Gondwana Series of India, and its homotaxial equivalents in the Southern Hemisphere, that this plant has given its name to the flora of that former continental region. Although a very large number of Glossopteris-fronds have been described by different authors, it is only within the last few years that we have learnt, anything as to the general habit of this plant. We are chiefly indebted to the researches of Prof. Zeiller, of Paris, for progress in this respect. It has now been ascertained that this plant was heterophyllous,—a fact which was first suggested by M'Coy in 1847. In addition to the larger and often tongue-shaped fronds, much smaller leaves, generally spoken of as scale-fronds, were borne on a rhizome-like stem, which has been long known under the name of Vertebraria. The nervation of the scale-fronds resembles that of the larger leaves, except that there is no midrib. In shape they are, as a rule, ovately triangular, pointed at the apex, and strongly concave. An average specimen measures centimetres or more in length. Up to the present time we are without any definite


Abstract. Ambient seismic noise acquired in the Cerdanya Basin (eastern
Pyrenees) is used to assess the capability of different methodologies to map
the geometry of a small-scale sedimentary basin. We present results based on
a 1-year-long broad-band deployment covering a large part of the eastern
Pyrenees and a 2-month-long high-density deployment covering the basin with
interstation distances around 1.5 km. The explored techniques include
autocorrelations, ambient noise Rayleigh wave tomography, horizontal-to-vertical-spectra ratio (HVSR) and band-pass-filtered ambient noise amplitude
mapping. The basement depth estimations retrieved from each of these
approaches, based on independent datasets and different implicit
assumptions, are consistent, showing that the deeper part of the basin is
located in its central part, reaching depths of 600–700 m close to the
Têt fault trace bounding the Cerdanya Basin to the NE. The overall
consistency between the results from all the methodologies provides solid constraints to our basement depth estimation, although significant
differences arise in some areas. The results also show that, when
high-density seismic data are available, HVSR and ambient noise amplitude
analysis in a selected frequency band are useful tools to quickly map the
sedimentary 3D geometry. Beside this methodological aspect, our results help
to improve the geological characterization of the Cerdanya Basin and will
provide further constraints to refine the seismic risk maps of an area of
relevant touristic and economic activity.


Abstract: Marriage under the provisions contained in the classical books of men who wish to have more than one wife, there is no requirement as regulated in the provisions of Government Regulation No. 45 of 1990 amendment to Government Regulation No. 10 of 1982 concerning Marriage and Divorce Permits Civil Servants, five sufficient conditions for the prospective wife, prospective husband, guardian, two witnesses, and sighat. While civil servants in the PP Article 4 Paragraph 1 men who want to have polygamy should seek permission from their superiors and Religious Courts. According to the researcher need to do re-analysis with appropriate methodology and precisely because the Government Regulation concerning state law order, in order to find whether Government Regulation Number 45 Year 1990 concerning Permit of Marriage and Divorce of Civil Servant have expediency or vice versa. For that the researcher chose Maqashid al-Shari'ah Jasser Auda as a knife of analysis in this study.
This study aims to test empirically the variables that have been formulated in the formulation of the problem, namely reveal the history of birth PP. No. 45 Th. 1990 amendment of PP. No. 10 Th. 1983 on the marriage and divorce of civil servant, the application of the theory of Maqashid al-Shari'ah Jasser Auda to the PP. No. 45 Th. 1990, and analyzed the PP. No. 45 Th. 1990 amendment of PP. No. 10 Th. 1983 on marriage permit and divorce of civil servants with the theory of Maqashid al-Shari'ah Jasser Auda. Research Methods with Approach and Type of Research is a qualitative approach oriented to the statutory approach (Statute Aproach) with the type of research Library (library research). Methods of data collection using documentation, and data analysis using descriptive - inductive.


Physicians are often considered as the final pathway for nearly all professional decisions about the use of health resources. Yet with respect to drugs, pharmacists are in many cases the final link between the medication and the patient. This approach of medication intake can be hazardous to the patient. Several mechanical as well as automatic medication dispensers incorporating alarm and automatic opening and closing mechanisms have been developed in the past. Current automatic dispensers incorporate features such as alarms, dose missed indicators followed by the access to the next dose, and simultaneous access to medication of different types. We are developing medication dispensing methods suitable for use in remote dispensing for opioid dependent patients. These include remote patient monitoring, facial image processing, and background processing techniques for monitoring and assessing the patient


Molecular dynamics simulations were performed to determine two-phase configurations of model propane molecules below the critical point and in the near-critical, two-phase region. A postprocessor that uses a Monte Carlo method for determination of volumes attributable to each molecule was used to obtain density histograms of the particles from which the bulk coexisting equilibrium vapor and liquid densities were determined. This method of analyzing coexisting densities in a two-phase simulation is straightforward and can be easily implemented for complex, multisite models. Various degrees of internal flexibility in the propane models have little effect on the coexisting densities at temperatures 40 K or more below the critical point, but internal flexibility (angle bending and bond vibrations) does affect the saturated liquid densities in the near-critical region, changing the critical temperature by approximately 20 K. Shorter cutoffs were also found to affect the phase dome and the location of the critical point.


Error back-propagation has been used to train a multilayer perceptron to classify an individual's utterances of digits. The network has made no errors in classifying 300 new utterances, and has exhibited robust performance with gross variations in speaking style and signal-to-noise ratio. The novelty of the approach is the way in which temporal information is encoded for use by the perceptron. Specifically, the input is a pattern of decaying activations in a self-organized map of speech spectra. At uniform steps in time, the unit in the map that most accurately represents the current speech sound is fully activated. The activation of the unit subsequently decays exponentially, and at any time the level of activation of a unit indicates how recently its corresponding speech sound has occurred. One may imagine the map as a screen of luminescent elements and the speech signal as a point of light moving across the screen. The role of the network is to classify trajectories of digits on the screen. We have found that the rate of decay in the feature map is not an important factor in isolated digit recognition. Decay rate is expected to be a critical factor in training the perceptron to spot utterances of digits in fluent speech, however. Use of the digit-classifier in a "bootstrap" training procedure for a continuous speech recognizer is proposed.


With support from the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), USAID is leading a multi-country public-private partnership to economically empower adolescent girls and young women to reduce their vulnerability to HIV/AIDS and is employing a proven model from an intervention in Northern Uganda to implement income-generating livelihoods programs for this vulnerable population. The programs include activities such as business and life skills training, mentorships, participation in savings and social groups, and financial assistance in launching and growing a business. These activities were evaluated in Uganda and demonstrated positive income-generating outcomes for young women.


Objectives Concussions are a major public health concern, and, thus, specific policies have been developed for implementation targeting vulnerable populations such as school-aged children and youth in the school setting, in whom the majority of concussions are sports related. Currently, concussion policies exist in various jurisdictions, including Canada's first concussion policy for schools, Ontario's PPM158, initiated in 2014. However, these policies are often variable in terms of content and comprehensiveness. Our objective was to develop a consensus for the content of concussion policy for schools. Methods Following a pilot study in one Ontario school board in 2015, which identified missing elements in existing concussion policy, we employed a modified Delphi method to develop consensus for the content of concussion public policy for schools. We used an integrated knowledge translation approach with participation from a multidisciplinary stakeholder group of 20 experts including principals, school board directors, physicians, policymakers, public health representatives and parents. Results Based on the experts, we created a list of 30 policy recommendations for concussion policy in the school setting. This comprehensive list reflects the diverse perspectives of the experts and addresses the role of parents, teachers, coaches, school administrators, referees, trainers, physicians/nurse practitioners, public health and students. Conclusions This is the first expert consensus for content of concussion public policy for schools and can be used for policy development or enhancement in schools in other jurisdictions. We provide a comprehensive list of 30 recommendations to guide best practices for policy development and implementation to enhance school-based concussion prevention and management.


The site of H3-uridine incorporation and the fate of labeled RNA during early embryo-genesis of the newt Triturus pyrrhogaster were studied with electron microscopic autoradiography. Isolated ectodermal and mesodermal tissues from the embryos were treated in H3-uridine for 3 hours and cultured in cold solution for various periods before fixation with OsO4 and embedding in Epon. At the blastula stage, the only structural component of the nucleus seen in electron micrographs is a mass of chromatin fibrils. At the early gastrula stage, the primary nucleoli originate as small dense fibrous bodies within the chromatin material. These dense fibrous nucleoli enlarge during successive developmental stages by the acquisition of granular components 150 A in diameter, which form a layer around them. Simultaneously larger granules (300 to 500 A) appear in the chromatin, and they fill the interchromatin spaces by the tail bud stage. Autoradiographic examination has demonstrated that nuclear RNA synthesis takes place in both the nucleolus and the chromatin, with the former consistently showing more label per unit area than the latter. When changes in the distribution pattern of radioactivity were studied 3 to 24 hours after immersion in isotope at each developmental stage, the following results were obtained. Labeled RNA is first localized in the fibrous region of the nucleolus and in the peripheral region of chromatin material. After longer culture in non-radioactive medium, labeled materials also appear in the granular region of the nucleolus and in the interchromatin areas. Further incubation gives labeling in cytoplasm.


Nowadays the proctologist has the opportunity to perform various different surgical techniques for the treatment of hemorrhoids. Circumferential mucosectomy with a stapler, diathermic hemorrhoidectomy with high frequency devices, and the HLA doppler II system have significantly modified the classical indications for the treatment of the disease. There is, however, still no general consensus as to the indications for the use of each of these techniques in clinical practice, giving rise to confusion among specialists and an inappropriate use of health care resources. For these reasons the authors propose a new technique for the treatment of haemorrhoids based upon a new classification system, named PATE 2000 Sorrento. The transfixed correction of haemorrhoids makes it possible to treat third degree internal piles in association with the Milligan-Morgan procedure for fourth degree piles in a simple, definitive and safe session. This technique seems to offer a valid alternative to stapled hemorrhoidectomy, on the one hand, and classical open or closed hemorrhoidectomy combined with rubber band ligation, on the other. The authors describe the technical feasibility of their technique and underline the good clinical results obtained in their initial experience with 20 consecutive patients.


Background Natural killer (NK) cells activation has been reported to contribute to inflammation and liver injury during hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection both in transgenic mice and in patients. However, the role of NK cells in the process of HBV-associated hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) development has not been addressed. Killer cell immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIRs) are involved in regulating NK cell activation through recognition of specific human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class I allotypes. Methodology/Principal Findings To investigate whether KIR and HLA genes could influence the risk of HBV-associated HCC development, 144 HBV-infected patients with HCC and 189 well-matched HBV infectors with chronic hepatitis or cirrhosis as non-HCC controls were enrolled in this study. The presence of 12 loci of KIR was detected individually. HLA-A, -B, -C loci were genotyped with high-resolution. HLA-C group 1 homozygote (OR = 2.02; p = 0.005), HLA-Bw4-80I (OR = 2.67; p = 2.0E-04) and combination of full-length form and 22 bp-deleted form of KIR2DS4 (KIR2DS4/1D) (OR = 1.89; p = 0.017) were found associated with HCC incidence. When the combined effects of these three genetic factors were evaluated, more risk factors were observed correlating with higher odds ratios for HCC incidence (P trend = 7.4E-05). Because all the risk factors we found have been reported to result in high NK cell functional potential by previous studies, our observations suggest that NK cell activation may contribute to HBV-associated HCC development. Conclusions/Significance In conclusion, this study has identified significant associations that suggest an important role for NK cells in HCC incidence in HBV-infected patients. Our study is useful for HCC surveillance and has implications for novel personalized therapy strategy development aiming at HCC prevention in HBV-infected patients.


An expression is derived for the measuring error that must be expected when measuring shear stresses in an interface, that is, on foundations, buried pipes, silos, and so forth, by means of a plate-type shear cell fixed along the edge. A prototype cell of this type has been produced and calibration tests carried out using two types of calibration equipment; in the first a uniformly distributed shear load is transmitted to the shear cell while in the second, the shear stress is transmitted through a particulate medium to the wall in which the shear cell is mounted. The accordance between the theoretically predicted measuring error, using the expression derived, and the experimentally determined measuring error is good.


This paper proposes an application of the boundary-element method to two-dimensional electromagnetic field problems. By this method, calculations can be performed using far fewer nodes than by the finite-element method, and unbounded field problems are easily treated without special additional consideration. In addition, the results obtained have fairly good accuracy. In this paper, analyzing procedures of electromagnetic field problems by the boundary-element method, under special conditions, are proposed and several examples are investigated.


Pioneer aviatrix Jessie "Chubbie" Miller made a significant contribution to aviation history. The first woman to fly from England to her native Australia (as co-pilot with her close friend Captain Bill Lancaster), she was also the first woman to fly more than 8000 miles, to cross the equator in the air and to traverse the Australian continent north to south. Moving to America, Miller was a popular member of a group of female aviators that included Amelia Earhart, Bobby Trout, Pancho Barnes and Louise Thaden. As a competitor in international air races and a charter member of the first organization for women flyers, the Ninety-Nines, she quickly became famous. Her career was interrupted by her involvement in Lancaster's sensational Miami trial for the murder of her lover, Haden Clarke,and by Lancaster's disappearance a few years later while flying across the Sahara desert.


Despite years of policy reform in England and Wales, court responses to rape and sexual assault victims remain inadequate. Existing literature often relies on interviews, is outdated by policy, or ignores underlying assumptions. This study therefore observed rape and sexual assault trials, identifying underlying assumptions using critical discourse analysis (CDA). The main themes that arose were routine delays, notions of "rational" behavior, extreme interpretations of "beyond reasonable doubt" (BRD) and "burden of proof," and winning as priority. These highlight the need to move beyond prioritizing shorter term change and begin addressing the fundamental inadequacies of court responses to rape and sexual assault victims.


A method of designing an E-plane power combiner composed of two quarter-arc bent rectangular waveguides is proposed for sub-THz and THz waves. The quarter-arc bent-waveguide power combiner has a simple geometry which is easy to design and fabricate. By HFSS codes, the physical mechanism and performance of the power combiner are analyzed, and the relationship between the output characteristics and the structure/operating parameters is given. Simulation results show that our power combiner is suitable for the combining of two equal-power and reversed-phase signals, the bandwidth of the combiner is wide and can be adjusted by the radius of the quarter-arc, and the isolation performance of the combiner can be improved by adding thin film resistive septa at the junction of two quarter-arc bent waveguides. Meanwhile, an approximate method based on the analytic geometrical analysis is given to design this power combiner for different frequency bands.


Many Thai association football clubs in Thai Premier League have become sports tourism attractions to captivate sports tourists? attention to visit. However, some football clubs have still not reached an achievement. Thus, this study aims to investigate the goals and the elements of sports event tourism management of the football clubs in Thai Premier League so as to enhance the effectiveness of sports event tourism management which could lead to an economic drive, revenue distribution to local communities, and eventually the creative economic development as stated in the National Tourism Development Plan 2012-2016 of Ministry of Tourism and Sports. The methodology used in this study was a qualitative case study with the association football clubs competing in Thai Premier League and the unit of analysis was sports event tourism management. The results revealed that the goals of organizing sports events should be to create physical motives, interpersonal motives, and cultural motives. Such sports events were arranged by considering nonresidential tourists? curiosity to experience new environment and factors affecting tourist decision making. The elements of sports event management were administration, design, marketing, operation, and risks. The operational methods were carried out under the conceptual frameworks of sports management, tourism management, and event management with the aim to achieve the goals of sports event tourism management.


This paper proposes a general method for bi-directional relaying with three nodes over four time intervals, composed of alternate MAC phases and broadcast phases. Different nodes transmit in MAC phases, and the data stored in broadcast phases allows decoding of all information. The physical layer network coding strategy for this relaying protocol is a lattice-based coding scheme combined with power control, so that the relay receives an integer linear combination of the nodes codewords. This strategy is analyzed for MIMO with 2 receive and transmit antennas. Analytical expressions of the exchange rate and transmit powers under high SNR approximation are provided, and numerically validated with respect to the general SNR mode. The proposed method is then compared with Amplify-and-Forward. It is shown that lattice-based coding provides a gain of 4.5 dB in average SNR on the achievable exchange rate, and is totally fair, contrary to Amplify-and-Forward.


The control of Alphitobius diaperinus is based mainly on chemical insecticides, and the indiscriminate and incorrect use of these products has led to failures in insect control. Thus, it is important to monitor the efficiency of the products available on the market and to develop alternative insect control strategies. The present study evaluated the effect of a new product (cypermethrin-6%) under laboratory and field conditions and assessed its in-vitro compatibility with the fungus Beauveria bassiana (Unioeste 4 isolate). Its efficiency in dry powder and wettable powder formulations was also assessed in the laboratory through comparison with a similar insecticide (cypermethrin-5%) at five different concentrations. The field assays were conducted in two commercial broiler breeder houses (Treated and Control), applying the new product on the litter at the manufacturer's recommended concentration (RC). Germination, vegetative growth, conidial production, number of colony forming units (CFUs) and insecticidal activity of the fungus were used to evaluate the compatibility of the insecticide. The effects of the cypermethrin-6% product and cypermethrin-5% were equivalent in the laboratory, and the new product exhibited better performance at lower concentrations (1/4RC, ⅛RC). The strategy applied in the field reduced the insect population in up to 96% after 75 days. Additionally, all concentrations of cypermethrin-6% were compatible with the fungus under the evaluated in-vitro conditions. Therefore, the new product is considered selective for B. bassiana. Further studies are necessary to assess its compatibility under field conditions, consolidating this strategy as a viable alternative for managing this pest.


Numerical integration is a computational procedure that is widely encountered across disciplines when reasoning about data. We derive a formula in closed form to calculate the multidimensional integral of functions fw that are representable using a shallow feed-forward neural network with weights w and a sigmoid activation function. We demonstrate its applicability in estimating numerical integration of arbitrary functions f over hyper-rectangular domains in the absence of a prior. To achieve this, we first train the network to learn $fw \approx f$ using point-samples of the integrand. We then use our formula to calculate the exact integral of the learned function fw. Our formula operates on the weights w of the trained approximator network. We show that this formula can itself be expressed as a shallow feed-forward network, which we call a Q-NET, with w as its inputs. Although the Q-NET does not have any learnable parameters, we use this abstraction to derive a family of elegant parametric formulae that represent the marginal distributions of the input function over arbitrary subsets of input dimensions in functional form. We perform empirical evaluations of Q-NETs for integrating smooth functions as well as functions with discontinuities.


"Survival for the pursuit of Liberty and Happiness involves less inconsistencies, less arrogance, and more than instrumental reason. Generosity and a political will are also needed. The situation calls for the heart as much as for the head of the rich and poor. Hands and minds should move in tandem in a new world alliance to reconstruct societies through humane globalizing initiative" Orlando Fals Borda (2000) Who is speaking and from what perspective? Would projections about adult education look different if they were made by people from multiple countries, backgrounds, and perspectives? I strongly believe that no matter how much global knowledge one has, interpretations and projections would be different and would be influenced by those aspects already mentioned. If one knows who is speaking or where that speaker is from, it would be easier to understand the positions, interpretations, and projections of the speaker. So, who is speaking here? I am a feminist from Colombia who has been working for more than 12 years in non-formal educational processes from a social justice and human rights perspective--a woman who believes that critical thinking and taking action should occur together. This is particularly important today as we are facing global issues like peace, wars, humanitarian crimes, and structural injustices. Trying to think globally as an adult educator has not been an easy exercise due to the enormous spectrum of theories and practices that adult education has had, and could have. Besides, "The future has not yet happened and so cannot easily be defined. Consequently, writing about it is rarely uncontested. All that can be said without qualification is that writing about times future is to interpret the past and orientate the present in order to explore future prospects" (Zepke, 2005, p. 166). So, adult education's projections are framed by the alignment of "the desired ideal" and what the analysis of reality can tell us. For practical reasons, this paper concentrates its analysis in some aspects that are embraced within the "global notion" of adult education: first, perspectives and tendencies, and second, social movements and globalization. Perspectives and Tendencies We are guided by various perspectives, a few of which will be discussed below. Merriam and Brockett (1997) show the different philosophical perspectives that have shaped the foundations of field from a United States perspective. These include liberal, progressive, humanist, and critical philosophy, to name a few. The Liberal and Progressive Perspectives. John Dewey is the most well-known advocate of these perspectives. He was able to "translate these new perspectives into concrete educational goals and programs" (Merriam & Brockett, 1997, p. 35). Eduard Lindeman, "is probably the most prominent proponent of progressive adult education" (Merriam & Brockett, 1997, p. 36). Other important theorists are Cyril Houle, who is well known in the field for his definition of adult education and the concept of self-directed learning, and Dorothy C. Fisher, who provided strong leadership in writing the literature of the field during the 1920s and 1930s (Merriam & Brockett, 1997). The Humanist Perspective. Assumptions of this perspective lead to a focus on developing the potential of the learner. "Learners are internally motivated, can identify their needs and can make decisions about content" (Merriam & Brockett, 1997, p. 40). The most prominent writer of that perspective was Malcolm Knowles who brought out the concepts of andragogy, who continued developing and researching self-directed learning, and who was the champion for informal learning. As Smith (2002) expresses: Knowles "was a, perhaps 'the', central figure in US adult education in the second half of the twentieth century" (Para 1). Critical Philosophy. This perspective is considered "radical in the political sense of utilizing education to bring about social, political, and economic changes in society" (Merriam & Brockett, 1997, p. …


The model microfield method (MMM) may be used to include the effect of ion motion in line shape calculations. This kind of modelling of the time evolution of the microfield as a stochastic process, as is done in this method, yields a short time behaviour of the conditional covariance of the model microfield, which differs considerably from a conditional covariance calculated by considering the real motion of the plasma ions (microscopic conditional covariance). In this work purely ionic broadened hydrogen profiles are calculated using the microscopic conditional covariance within the MMM. It is shown that, depending on the reduced radiator-perturber mass, these MMM calculations may lead to unphysical line shapes. For comparison, hydrogen profiles derived within the MMM using the kangaroo process and from line shape simulations are given.


Aim: The aim was to examine root canal morphology of permanent mandibular incisors in an Indian subpopulation using cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT). Materials and Methods: CBCT images of 150 patients with 100 healthy permanent mandibular incisors were evaluated. According to Vertucci's classification, teeth were examined to determine the number of roots, number of canals, and canal configurations. The effects of gender and age on the incidence of root canal morphology were investigated. Results: Of permanent mandibular incisors, 71.64% had a single root with single canal. Mandibular lateral incisors (10.45%) had a higher incidence of the second canal compared with mandibular central incisors (8.34%). A slightly higher percentage of incidence of a second canal was found in males (10%) than in females (5%). Vertucci type I (68.5%) was most common followed by type IV (0.62%) which was the least common. Conclusion: The prevalence of the second canal in mandibular incisors was high but within the range of previous studies performed on different populations. CBCT imaging is an excellent method for detection of different canal configurations of mandibular incisors.


ABSTRACT Hou, J., 2020. Research on correlation degree between marine industry and marine economy low carbonization level based on particle swarm optimization. In: Liu, X. and Zhao, L. (eds.), Today's Modern Coastal Society: Technical and Sociological Aspects of Coastal Research. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 111, pp. 293–297. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. The 21st century is the century of the ocean, and the marine economy has become a new growth point of the national economy. the ocean has become the focus of world attention, which also intensifies the competition for reaching the heights of marine industry by major coastal countries. With the high-intensity development and use of marine resources, problems such as overfishing and environmental pollution have resulted in a series of depletions of renewable fishery resources, degradation of species, and even extinction, and the continuous reduction of nonrenewable resources such as marine crude oil. Based on the development status of China's marine industry, this article applies the improved particle swarm optimization algorithm to the study of the correlation between marine industrial clusters and the low-carbon level of the marine economy and then explores the transformation and upgrading path of China's marine industry from the perspective of the low-carbon economy.


Research on employer attractiveness has investigated the relation between various signals sent by the organization and the attractiveness of the organization as a potential employer, but has so far neglected the role the CEO can play in this process. We investigate through a series of experimental studies, how and under what conditions a specific signal, i.e., CEO sociopolitical activism, affects job pursuit intentions. CEO sociopolitical activism receives increasing attention, both from scholars and practitioners, as we see more and more CEOs publicly voicing their opinions on socially contentious issues. However, there is to date very limited understanding of the effects such activism has on the organization. Drawing on signaling theory, we argue that the effect depends on the political stance CEOs take: CEOs campaigning for humanistic values will increase job pursuit intentions when compared to CEOs remaining neutral, while CEOs campaigning for non-humanistic values will decrease job pursuit intentions when compared to neutral or humanistic CEOs. We argue that the process is mediated by how far potential job applicants perceive that the CEO is acting according to her or his role and moderated by CEO gender. We test our hypotheses in five studies, using an experimental between-subjects factorial design where participants are randomly assigned to one of different scenarios of CEO political activism (or non-activism). Except for the moderation of gender, we find support for our hypotheses and discuss the theoretical and practical implications of our findings.


Capital flight imposes a great danger to the developing economies by lowering their economic activity, devaluing the currency, and hindering economic growth.  This paper contributes to the literature by investigating the determinants of capital flight of developing economies. Determinants are studied as indices, and these indices are calculated by using the Arithmetic Mean approach. There is a two-steps model; in the first part, determinants are discussed, and in the second part, capital flight is used as an independent variable, and its impact on economic performance is measured in 59 Developing Economies. GMM (Generalized Method of Moments) is used for the determinants of capital flight, and panel GLS (Generalized least square) is used to check the impact of capital flight on economic performance. Macroeconomic variables (external debt, inflation, exports, interest rate, and exchange rate) are also part of the study with four indices as determinants (Country Risk Index, Economic Freedom Index, financial inclusion index, and Governance institution and corruption index). Results suggest that all included indices were significant along with all macroeconomic variables. Country risk, external debt, and exports have a negative coefficient, while others have a positive coefficient value. Capital investment, foreign direct investment, and Gross domestic product were used as proxies of economic performance. Results of GLS have shown there is a significant and negative impact of capital flight on economic performance. Capital flight is measured by using the residual methodology.


Abstract We present an experimental investigation of the dynamics and flow coupling of convective turbulent flows in a cylindrical Rayleigh–Bénard convection (RBC) cell with two immiscible fluids, water and Fluorinert FC-77 electronic liquid (FC77). With the lighter water above FC77, the latter is under the condition of constant heat flux at its top and bottom boundaries. It is found that one large-scale circulation (LSC) roll exists in each of the fluid layers, and that their circulation planes have two preferred azimuthal orientations separated by ${\sim }\mathrm{\pi} $ . A surprising finding of the study is that cessations/reversals of the LSC in FC77 of the two-layer system occur much more frequently than they do in single-layer turbulent RBC, and that a cessation is most likely to result in a flow reversal of the LSC, which is in sharp contrast with the uniform distribution of the orientational angular change of the LSC before and after cessations in single-layer turbulent RBC. This implies that the dynamics governing cessations and reversals in the two systems are very different. Two coupling modes, thermal coupling (the flow directions of the two LSCs are opposite to each other at the fluid–fluid interface) and viscous coupling (the flow directions of the two LSCs are the same at the fluid–fluid interface), are identified, with the former as the predominant mode. That most cessations (in the FC77 layer) end up as reversals can be understood as a symmetry breaking imposed by the orientation of the LSC in the water layer, which remains unchanged most of the time. Furthermore, the frequently occurring cessations and reversals are caused by the system switching between its two metastable states, i.e. thermal and viscous coupling modes. It is also observed that the strength of the LSC in water becomes weaker when the LSC in FC77 rotates faster azimuthally and that the flow strength in FC77 becomes stronger when the LSC in water rotates faster azimuthally, i.e. the influence of the LSC in one fluid layer on the other is not symmetric.


With the rapid development of spatial infrastructure in US, Europe, Japan, China and India, there is no doubt that the next generation Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) will improve the integrity, accuracy, reliability and availability of the position solution. GNSS is becoming an essential element of personal, commercial and public infrastructure and consequently part of our daily lives. However, the applicability of GPS in supporting a range of location-sensitive applications such as location based services in an urban environment is severely curtailed by the interference of the 3D urban settings. To characterize and gain in-depth understanding of such interferences and to be able to provide location-based optimization alternatives, a high-fidelity 3D urban model of Melbourne CBD built with ArcGIS and large scale high-resolution spatial data sets is used in this study to support a comprehensive simulation of current and future GNSS signal performance, in terms of signal continuity, availability, strength, geometry, positioning accuracy and reliability based on a number of scenarios. The design, structure and major components of the simulator are outlined. Useful time-stamped spatial patterns of the signal performance over the experimental urban area have been revealed which are valuable for supporting location based services applications, such as emergency responses, the optimization of wireless communication infrastructures and vehicle navigation services.


Numerical studies of the ductile-brittle transition are described that are based on incorporating physically based models of the competing fracture mechanisms into the material's constitutive relation. An elastic-viscoplastic constitutive relation for a porous plastic solid is used to model ductile fracture by the nucleation and subsequent growth of voids to coalescence. Cleavage is modeled in terms of attaining a temperature and strain rate independent critical value of the maximum principal stress over a specified material region of the order of one or two grain sizes. Various analyses of ductile-brittle transitions carried out within this framework are discussed. The specimens considered include the Charpy V-notch test and cracked specimens under mode I or mode II loading conditions. The fracture mode transition emerges as a natural outcome of the initial-boundary value problem solution.


The introduction of Geography as a compulsory learning area from Foundation year, such as Kindergarten, to Year 8 in Australia provides new opportunities for learning and teaching. Opportunities, in part, will be driven by challenges associated with the introduction of this learning area. Key challenges are about variability: in take-up of the curriculum; teacher expertise in geographical education; and resourcing. These challenges are examined in the context of the opportunities they afford for focused teaching and learning in Geography that draws upon teacher expertise and quality resourcing. The importance of designing and implementing high quality learning experiences for students, based clearly on the Australian Curriculum Geography, is discussed using an exemplar.


We develop a microscopic‐level formulation for the curvature elasticity of monolayer and bilayer systems of typical surfactant molecules. It is argued that both the bending and saddle‐splay force constants k and k are determined primarily by the conformational entropy of the flexible hydrocarbon chain rather than by the electrostatic interactions associated with hydrophilic head groups. A priori estimates of the chain contributions are made for the first time, without the use of any adjustable parameters. Both k and k are shown to be calculable wholly from the conformational statistics describing the planar film. In particular, these constants are expressed in terms of the derivatives and moments of the lateral pressure profile characterizing chain packing in the unbent layers. By considering the dependence of the curvature elasticity on chain length, area per molecule, and composition in mixed films, we are able to account for the order‐of‐magnitude variations in k observed in a variety of different su...


Preimplantation genetic testing for aneuploidy (PGT‐A) seeks to identify preimplantation embryos with a normal chromosome complement (euploid) during in vitro fertilisation (IVF). By sifting out embryos with abnormal chromosome numbers (aneuploid), PGT‐A should theoretically improve pregnancy success. However, earlier versions of PGT‐A were ineffective, and in some cases, detrimental, due to biopsy‐induced trauma and because the technology at the time could analyse only a fraction of all chromosomes. More recently, the emergence of technologies enabling all chromosomes to be analysed and a switch to less traumatic blastocyst‐stage biopsy have seen widespread uptake of PGT‐A. Assessing the full impact of blastocyst biopsy PGT‐A requires consideration of multiple factors, including embryonic mosaicism, sensitivity of the technological platform used, embryo loss during long‐term in vitro culture, embryo cryopreservation and inter‐clinic variability in expertise. Significantly, there hasnt yet been an appropriately designed randomised controlled trial (RCT) of blastocyst biopsy PGT‐A analysed by intention‐to‐treat that accounts for all these parameters on a per‐cycle basis. The three RCTs reporting benefits studied outcomes on a per‐embryo transfer basis were small and underpowered and demonstrated benefits for a very select sub‐group of good prognosis patients. The liberal use of this very expensive IVF add‐on for other patient populations has not yet been shown to be effective, or indeed, without harm.


The present work seeks to analyze the results of the educational reform of the secondary school system in Argentina initiated by the Ley Federal de Educacion in 1993. This article has chosen Greater Buenos Aires, the biggest conurbation in the country, as a "case study." The methodology used is based on quantitative and qualitative surveys administered to the top authorities of state and private schools in the area. We conclude that the reactions toward the reform are, in general, negative. Furthermore, there are no differences in attitudes between private and state schools. Both of them agree that the worst effect is the leveling down of the quality of education. In other words, the main cause of disagreement is mostly pedagogic.


Abstract Two distinct generations of pyrite, with different morphologies, are described from the Proterozoic Broken Hill-type Pinnacles deposit in western NSW. The earlier, py1, forms concentric layers interpreted as colloform banding. Although the textures are somewhat similar to those observed in supergene alteration zones, textural relationships in fresh rocks suggest that these are pre-metamorphic and that the pyrite formed as the result of precipitation from hydrothermal fluids in open veins, vugs and fissures. The second generation, py2, post-dates py1 and forms euhedral overgrowths on it. It is interpreted as being synchronous with the main phase of base metal sulphide mineralisation. The textures reported here are previously unrecorded for Broken Hill-type mineralisation, and have implications for the regional identification of feeder zones to the Broken Hill deposit. The evidence supports a model in which mineralising conditions at the Pinnacles were characterised by slightly higher oxygen and lower sulphur fugacity (further constrained by Fe contents of sphalerite) than at Broken Hill, where pyrrhotite is the major Fe sulphide. The pre-metamorphic textures observed in the pyrite at the Pinnacles deposit are also unusual because they have survived granulite facies metamorphism and five phases of deformation, whereas previously the preservation of such textures has not been recognised at metamorphic grades greater than amphibolite facies.


Aceh Tamiang is the province o f Aceh. The use of electrical energy is still not resolved in this case because of the lack of appropriate policies that can be taken because there is still no research how the amount of electrical energy consumption in Aceh Tamiang. the research method used is a model based approach to End Use of data population and households, the data GDP at constant prices, and consumption of electrical energy. All data is sourced from related agencies such as Bappeda Aceh Tamiang Data PLN Kuala Simpang branch. Forecasting electric energy consumption in Aceh on five sectors is the year 2013 was 48.8 GWh, while, in 2030 total energy consumption reached 76.5 GWh, this is an increase of 63.7 percent. The household sector accounted for the largest increase in consumption compared with other sectors for each year.


It is imperative to ensure the robustness of deep learning models in critical applications such as, healthcare. While recent advances in deep learning have improved the performance of volumetric medical image segmentation models, these models cannot be deployed for real-world applications immediately due to their vulnerability to adversarial attacks. We present a 3D frequency domain adversarial attack for volumetric medical image segmentation models and demonstrate its advantages over conventional input or voxel domain attacks. Using our proposed attack, we introduce a novel frequency domain adversarial training approach for optimizing a robust model against voxel and frequency domain attacks. Moreover, we propose frequency consistency loss to regulate our frequency domain adversarial training that achieves a better tradeoff between model's performance on clean and adversarial samples. Code is publicly available at https://github.com/asif-hanif/vafa.


This paper presents a novel size reduction technique for designing a Butler matrix using a new type of coupler. This coupler is half the length of a conventional coupler and has a swapped port characteristic wherein the locations of the isolation and coupled ports are switched. These features make the new coupler, called the "swapped port coupler," effective for reducing the size of the Butler matrix. The behavior of the swapped port coupler was mathematically analyzed, and its design equation was derived. Furthermore, the proposed coupler was employed to design a miniaturized Butler matrix. The area of this Butler matrix was 70 × 70 mm2, and its operating frequency was 1 GHz. When the area was normalized to the frequency, the area of the proposed Butler matrix was 10% of a conventional Butler matrix.


Sir Harold Jeffreys, F.R.S., writes: I have been asked to make a written contribution to the discussion, but have nothing new to say. My views will be found in the 1961 version of The Earth and in my lecture to the Royal Astronomical Society last October, which will be published in their Quarterly Journal. My main points are that the only type of imperfection of elasticity considered in con vection and drift theories is the elastico-viscous law, which has been found to lead to numerous contradictions when confronted with actual evidence. Different phenomena led to values of the effective viscosity differing by factors of millions. On the other hand, a modified law, chosen to fit two quantitative data and applied far beyond the range of periods related to those data, has steered its way nicely among the other evidence for some sort of imperfection of elasticity, without giving any contradiction. But it does forbid convection and continental drift. I should be disposed to agree that inability to explain an alleged phenomenon is not necessarily a disproof of that phenomenon; but it does require a higher standard of scrutiny of the evidence for that phenomenon. The standard actually applied to evidence for conti nental drift seems to be considerably lower than is usual for a new phenomenon, and is not associated with any alternative explanations of things that can be explained.


Ultraviolet (UV) absorption cross sections are an essential ingredient of pho- tochemical atmosphere models. Exoplanet searches have unveiled a large population of short-period objects with hot atmospheres, very dierent from what we find in our solar system. Transiting exoplanets whose atmospheres can now be studied by transit spec- troscopy receive extremely strong UV fluxes and have typical temperatures ranging from 400 to 2500 K. At these temperatures, UV photolysis cross section data are severely lacking. Our goal is to provide high-temperature absorption cross sections and their tem- perature dependency for important atmospheric compounds. This study is dedicated to CO 2 , which is observed and photodissociated in exoplanet atmospheres. We performed these measurements for the 115 - 200 nm range at 300, 410, 480, and 550 K. In the 195 - 230 nm range, we worked at seven temperatures between 465 and 800 K. We found that the absorption cross section of CO 2 is very sensitive to temperature, especially above 160 nm. Within the studied range of temperature, the CO 2 cross section can vary by more than two orders of magnitude. This, in particular, makes the absorption of CO2 significant up to wavelengths as high as 230 nm, while it is negligible above 200 nm at 300 K. To investigate the influence of these new data on the photochemistry of exoplan- ets, we implemented the measured cross section into a 1D photochemical model. The model predicts that accounting for this temperature dependency of CO2 cross section can aect the computed abundances of NH 3, CO2, and CO by one order of magnitude in the atmospheres of hot Jupiter and hot Neptune.


Zinc (Zn) is a key micronutrient used by phytoplankton for carbon (C) acquisition, yet there have been few observations of its influence on natural oceanic phytoplankton populations. In this study, we observed Zn limitation of growth in the natural phytoplankton community of Terra Nova Bay, Antarctica, due to low (∼220 μatm) pCO2 conditions, in addition to primary iron (Fe) limitation. Shipboard incubation experiments amended with Zn and Fe resulted in significantly higher chlorophyll a content and dissolved inorganic carbon drawdown compared to Fe addition alone. Zn and Fe response proteins detected in incubation and environmental biomass provided independent verification of algal co-stress for these micronutrients. These observations of Zn limitation under low pCO2 conditions demonstrate Zn can influence coastal primary productivity. Yet, as surface ocean pCO2 rises with continued anthropogenic emissions, the occurrence of Zn/C co-limitation will become rarer, impacting the biogeochemical cycling of Zn and other trace metal micronutrients. Significance Statement Zinc has tremendous nutritional importance in life, and due to its central role in carbon acquisition in major phytoplankton species, is directly connected to ocean carbon cycling. As a result, it has been hypothesized that co-limitation by zinc and CO2 could influence primary productivity, but a connection between Zn and CO2 had not yet been observed in field experiments. The present study demonstrates that Zn can be a limiting nutrient in natural waters, particularly in coastal environments where CO2 is diminished by bloom events, and explores the implications for Zn-C co-limitation in the context of climate change: the oceans may have decreased susceptibility to Zn-C co-limitations in the future due to the rapid input of anthropogenic CO2 to the atmosphere.


Grid-connected converters are an important class of power electronic systems. Many power and energy applications require grid-connected converters. To control grid-connected converters, precise information of the grid voltage frequency and phase are required. Gradient estimators can be very useful in this regard. They are suitable to estimate the frequency and phase of the grid voltage signal. Various gradient estimators are already available in the literature e.g. regression-based techniques. However, most of them are designed by using the instantaneous estimation error as the cost-function. This amplifies the effect of noise in the estimated parameters. To overcome this issue, an integral cost-function is considered in this paper. The integral cost-function tries to minimize the estimation error over the integration window leading to reduce the effect of noise in the estimated frequency and phase. Moreover, the cost-function uses tunable forgetting factor to give more importance to recent data. The proposed gradient estimator assumes the grid frequency to be constant. However, in practice the frequency is variable with known nominal value. To overcome this problem, a frequency estimation block is coupled with the gradient estimator. The frequency estimation block uses the idea of phase-based frequency estimation. Comparative numerical simulation and experimental studies are performed to demonstrate the suitability of the proposed technique over three other advanced techniques from the literature.


AIM
Solithromycin is a new macrolide antibiotic for the potential treatment of bacterial pneumonia.

MATERIALS & METHODS
Solithromycin N-acetylation by human NAT1 and NAT2 was investigated following recombinant expression in yeast and in cryopreserved human hepatocytes from rapid, intermediate and slow acetylators.

RESULTS
Solithromycin exhibited over twofold higher affinity for recombinant human NAT2 than NAT1. Apparent maximum velocities for the N-acetylation of solithromycin catalyzed by the NAT2 allozyme associated with rapid acetylators were significantly (p < 0.01) higher than by the NAT2 allozymes associated with slow acetylators. Robust gene dose responses (rapid>intermediate>slow acetylators) were exhibited in cryopreserved human hepatocytes in situ following incubation with 100 μM solithromycin.

CONCLUSION
Solithromycin is N-acetylated by human NAT1 and NAT2 and the role of the NAT2 acetylation polymorphism on solithromycin metabolism may be concentration dependent.


A simple and reproducible method for the rapid extraction and determination of trace amounts of Cd(II) ions using mesoporous organo-silicas mesoporous silica and atomic absorption spectrometry is  presented. Common coexisting ions did not interfere with the separation and determination. The preconcentration factor was 100 (1 ml elution volume) for a 100 ml sample volume. The limit of detection of the proposed method is 0.7 ng L−1. The maximum sorption capacity of sorbent under optimum conditions has been found to be 5 mg of Cd per gram of sorbent. The relative standard deviation under optimum conditions was 3.0% (n = 10). Accuracy and application of the method was estimated by using test samples of natural and synthetic water spiked with different amounts of Cd(II) ion.

 Key words: Preconcentration, Cd(II), mesoporous organo-silica, solid phase extraction, flame atomic absorption spectrometry  (FAAS).


There are formidable challenges in developing HIV vaccines that elicit potent neutralizing antibodies against a broad array of HIV-1 isolates. The key targets for these neutralizing antibodies are the viral envelope antigens gp120 and gp41. Although broadly reactive neutralizing epitopes on gp120 and gp41 have been mapped and studied extensively, these epitopes are poorly immunogenic. Indeed, various vaccine candidates tested in preclinical and clinical trials do not generate antibodies against these epitopes. Hence, novel immunogen designs to augment the immunogenicity of these neutralizing epitopes are wanted. In this review, a unique immunogen design strategy that exploits immune complexes of gp120 and selected anti-gp120 monoclonal antibodies (mAb) to elicit neutralizing antibodies against cross-reactive V3 epitopes is discussed. The ability of these complexes to stimulate neutralizing antibodies is dictated by fine specificity and affinity of mAbs used to form the complexes, indicating the contribution of Fab-mediated activity, rather than conventional Fc-mediated enhancement. Further improvement of V3 immunogenicity is attainable by forming immune complexes with gp120 mutants lacking site-specific N-linked glycans. The increased V3 immunogenicity on the mutated gp120/mAb complexes correlates with enhancement of in vitro antibody recognition (antigenicity) and proteolytic resistance of V3 epitopes when presented on the complexes. These insights should provide guidelines for the development of more potent immunogens that target not only the prototypic V3 epitopes but also other broadly reactive epitopes on the HIV envelope.


The use of a quenching gas, isobutene, with a low vapor pressure was investigated to enhance the utility of hyperpolarized 129Xe (HP Xe) MRI. Xenon mixed with isobutene was hyperpolarized using a home‐built apparatus for continuously producing HP Xe. The isobutene was then readily liquefied and separated almost totally by continuous condensation at about 173 K, because the vapor pressure of isobutene (0.247 kPa) is much lower than that of Xe (157 kPa). Finally, the neat Xe gas was continuously delivered to mice by spontaneous inhalation. The HP Xe MRI was enhanced twofold in polarization level and threefold in signal intensity when isobutene was adopted as the quenching gas instead of N2. The usefulness of the HP Xe MRI was verified by application to pulmonary functional imaging of spontaneously breathing mice, where the parameters of fractional ventilation (ra) and gas exchange (fD) were evaluated, aiming at future extension to preclinical studies. This is the first application of isobutene as a quenching gas for HP Xe MRI.


Objective: To establish an electrochemical immunosensor for the determination of serum trypsin levels using a multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs)-composite-modified electrode. Method: A MWCNT composite coated on the surface of bare gold electrodes was used for fixation of an anti-trypsin antibody. The assembly process and the performance indicators, including sensitivity, linear range of detection, anti-jamming performance, and stability, of the electrochemical immunosensor were examined by cyclic voltammetry (CV) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). Results: With optimized experimental conditions, the difference of the current value measured by differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) showed a linear relationship with the concentration of serum trypsin within 0.10–100 ng/mL. The detection limit for trypsin using this sensor was 0.002 ng/mL. Conclusions: The electrochemical immunosensor built using the MWCNT-composite-modified electrode is simple to operate and has a fast response time, along with a wide linear range, high sensitivity, and accuracy, making it suitable for serum trypsin detection.


The main aim of the paper is to incorporate the nonlinear kinetic term into non-Markovian transport equations described by a continuous time random walk (CTRW) with nonexponential waiting time distributions. We consider three different CTRW models with reactions. We derive nonlinear Master equations for the mesoscopic density of reacting particles corresponding to CTRW with arbitrary jump and waiting time distributions. We apply these equations to the problem of front propagation in the reaction-transport systems with Kolmogorov-Petrovskii-Piskunov kinetics and anomalous diffusion. We have found an explicit expression for the speed of a propagating front in the case of subdiffusive transport.


A general formalism is described whereby some regular singular points are effectively removed and substantial simplifications ensue for a class of Fuchsian ordinary differential equations, and related confluent equations. These simplifications follow provided the exponents at the singular points satisfy certain relations; explicit, illustrative examples are constructed to demonstrate the ideas.


The use of smart roadside infrastructure sensors is highly relevant for future applications of connected and automated vehicles. External sensor technology in the form of intelligent transportation system stations (ITS-Ss) can provide safety-critical real-time information about road users in the form of a digital twin. The choice of sensor setups has a major influence on the downstream function as well as the data quality. To date, there is insufficient research on which sensor setups result in which levels of ITS-S data quality. We present a novel approach to perform detailed quality assessment for smart roadside infrastructure sensors. Our framework is multimodal across different sensor types and is evaluated on the DAIR-V2X dataset. We analyze the composition of different lidar and camera sensors and assess them in terms of accuracy, latency, and reliability. The evaluations show that the framework can be used reliably for several future ITS-S applications.


The purpose of this study is to enhance the development of construction waste-recycling technologies and its economical efficiency by developing environment-friendly tetrapod, precast concrete, where recycled aggregate is used in order to promote recycling of waste concrete. The results of concrete mechanic characteristics experiments by the circulation coarse aggregate-replacement ratio are as the following. The circulation aggregate is lower and higher than natural aggregate in specific gravity and absorption ratio, respectively so that in case of mix proportioning, unit volume increases, while unit aggregate amount decreases. From the result, sufficient experiments of physical characteristics of circulation aggregate are required to get proper mix proportioning. When circulation aggregate-replacement ratio increases, compressive strength tends to decrease comprehensively, but 50% of replacement ratio is good enough to use. When circulation coarse aggregate's replacement ratio is 0%, drying shrinkage, which causes cracks in concrete and deteriorates durability, shows the minimum length change and the higher the ratio, the larger the length change. Thus, when using circulation coarse aggregate, drying shrinkage should be fairly examined. In freezing-and-thawing resistance, weight loss tends to comprehensively increase its loss at the circulation aggregate-mixed site. And the examination of surface aggregate-omission ratio is further needed and dynamic elastic modulus and durability factor(DF) require more study as well. In order to use circulation aggregate to tetrapod, a clear standard for strength should be first prepared and at the same time, more study about durability is needed.


The interest in discrete event systems (DEDS) has increased during the last years, due to the lack of methods and tools that are capable to handle the complexity of problems and tasks present in industry to day. In this thesis we will consider a symbolic and algebraic framework which will be used for modeling, analysis, and synthesis of DEDS.We will use polynomials belonging to a polynomial ring over finite fields to represent finite quantities, functions, and relations of a DEDS system. The polynomials make it possible to improve efficiency and scalability of DEDS computations, as shown in this thesis by the modeling and analysis of the landing gear controller of the Swedish fighter aircraft JAS 39 Gripen. A polynomial model, represented by binary decision diagram (BDD), is automatically generated from a 1200 lines Pascal implementation, which contains 105 binary variables of which 26 are state variables. Function specifications expressed with temporal algebra, are verified using tools for dynamic analysis, which we also use to compute a polynomial representing the set of all reachable states in the model.To explore the ability and applicability of the polynomial approach when doing synthesis, we use a tank system containing actuators (pump and valves) and sensors (the tank level and measurable disturbances). We propose a synthesis method that uses actuator priority, weighting of states, and Grobner bases to compute explicit control laws for the actuators, fulfilling the control objectives even if one of the actuators (the pump) is defective.Modeling aspects are emphasized further by comparing the polynomial approach which we have used, with Boolean expressions and established DEDS approaches in the community of automatic control like Ramadge-Wonham, Petri nets, and COCOLOG. We discuss how to handle transformation between signals and events for DEDS and how to modularize DEDS to gain complexity advantages. Model description languages are discussed and desirable features are stated, using the experiences achieved from the modeling of the tank system and the landing gear controller.


Psoriasis is a chronic, inflammatory, hyperproliferative skin disease, in which autoimmunity plays a great role. Natural killer T cells (NK T cells), are suggested to be involved in the pathogenesis of different autoimmune diseases. To examine the involvement of CD3+CD56+ NK T cells in the pathogenesis of psoriasis, we investigated the lymphocyte subpopulations obtained from blood samples of psoriatic patients before and after treatment, and of healthy controls, using two‐colour flow cytometry. We found no significant differences between total T cells, total B cells, T helper cells, T cytotoxic cells and NK cells in patients with psoriasis before and after treatment and in controls. Increased percentage of memory T cells and decreased percentage of naive T cells was detected in psoriatic patients compared to controls, but these changes were not statistically significant. The CD3+CD56+ cells of psoriatic patients were significantly decreased relative to controls. The percentage of CD3+CD56+ cells increased after different antipsoriatic therapies, but remained significantly lower than those found in controls. CD3+CD56+ cells of healthy controls were capable of rapid activation, while in psoriatic patients activated NK T cells were almost absent. The decrease in the number of CD3+CD56+ cells may represent an intrinsic characteristic feature of patients with psoriasis, which is supported by the fact that after treatment NK T cells do not reach the values found in controls. In conclusion our results suggest that CD3+CD56+ NK T cells could be actively involved in the development of Th1 mediated autoimmune diseases.


"In right light at right time everything is extraordinary"- says Aaron Rose. This is very true with respect to lasers. Discovery of lasers from the spectrum of light has revolutionized the technology in many fields. The word "LASER" means Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. They offer many useful clinical applications for general dentists in the diagnosis and treatment of patients. There are many clinical, aesthetic, and psychological reasons to use lasers. Herein we present a brief overview of "THE AMAZING SPECTRUM OF LIGHT"


AIM
Knowledge of axillary lymph node status is a key aid to staging and prognosis and it represents a guideline for adjuvant therapy in breast cancer. Despite the morbidity it causes, complete axillary dissection was long the mainstay of treatment. Sentinel lymph node biopsy has proved so reliable in the evaluation of node involvement that axillary node dissection is now generally performed when sentinel node biopsy tests negative.

METHODS
In this 3-phase study, 50 patients were enrolled to evaluate the learning curve of sentinel node biopsy (phase 1, September 1997-January 1998); 256 patients (age range 27-81 years) with infiltrative breast cancer (T <3 cm, clinical N0) underwent level 1 lymph node dissection when the sentinel node tested negative at histopathology (phase 2, February 1998-March 2001); 221 patients with T <3 cm underwent dissection of the sentinel node when it tested negative for metastasis (phase 3, April 2001-March 2005).

RESULTS
The sentinel node was preoperatively detected in 98.6% of cases after peritumoral and intradermic injection of the radionuclide tracer and intraoperatively in 99% (90% with radio-guided surgery, 10% with vital staining). The sentinel node was positive in 15% of patients with T1 and metastatic in 65%.

CONCLUSIONS
Our results are in line with the published data; therefore, the study will go forward to examine the role of the micrometastasis in the sentinel node and of in-transit tumoral cells.


Purpose of this study is attempted to look into laws on mismanagement of agrochemicals towards the agro food production and conservation of ecosystem in Malaysia. Artificial fertilizers, fungicides, herbicides and insecticides in manageable of rural farmers' food yielding production could cost human hardship upon consumptions and detrimental to conservation. Economic sustainable minimal or chemical free tropical food yielding agriculture food crop not only will reap in profits in upgrading income and livelihood but will definitely create a good environment in developing countries. There are significant differences on laws on the issue of mismanagement of agrochemical application towards the production and conservation of ecosystems in Malaysia with the implementation of laws on agriculture chemicals.
Keywords: Agriculture; conservation; agrochemicals; food production
eISSN 2514-7528 © 2018. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open-access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia.


This paper identifies subnational peripheries as regions with historical trajectories and social formations that differ from those the majority of state's territory, and that present distinct inferential challenges to within-country comparative designs using the subnational comparative method (Snyder 2001). These challenges are directly interpretable using standard concepts in quantitative and qualitative political methodology: unit heterogeneity, unobserved heterogeneity, complex interactive causes, small-n problems, and nonignorable missing data. I illustrate the stakes of the argument for current practice using three questions for which the subnational comparative method is ideally suited—local public goods and economic development, identity and insurgency, and ethnic voting—in the context of six Southeast Asian countries: Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. My discussion clarifies exactly how subnational peripheries complicate causal inference through within-country comparisons, and shows how many of the solutions to the problems raised by subnational peripheries frequently change the causal parameter of interest, or alternatively, the population being studied. These findings have important implications for current practice.


Bariatric surgery is the only effective procedure that provides long-term sustained weight loss. Sleeve gastrectomy (SG) has emerged over the last few years to be an ideal bariatric procedure because it has several advantages compared to more complex bariatric procedures, including avoiding an intestinal bypass. However, several published follow-up studies report an increased rate of gastroesophageal reflux (GERD) after a SG. GERD is described as either de novo or as being caused by aggravation of preexisting symptoms. However, the literature on this topic is ambivalent despite the potentially increased rate of GERDs that may occur after this common bariatric procedure. This article reviews the mechanisms responsible for GERD in obese subjects as well as the results after a SG with respect to GERD. Future directions for clinical research are discussed along with the current surgical options for morbidly obese patients with GERD and undergoing bariatric surgery.


The Penguin edition of Robin Pedley's The
Comprehensive School has on its cover a piper being
followed by a group of dancing children. The picture
brings to mind the lines of Browning's poem spoken by
the lame lad left at the entrance to the hill through
which his mates had passed:
It's dull in our town since my playmates left,
I can't forget that I'm bereft
Of all the pleasant sights they see
Which the piper also promised me.
The promise of course was of a place where flowers
were prettier, birds brighter, dogs faster and bees
kinder than ever they'd been. The reader, however,
suspecting malice on the piper's part, feels less
sadly for the boy who has been so captivated by a
promise that is probably false.
The Hamelin story is mirrored in the development
of comprehensive education in Tasmania. What was
promised for education and its outcomes during the
debates of the fifties has never been realised.
This study looks at the development of
comprehensive education in Tasmania. It suggests that
the Tasmanian experience of comprehensive education has
been marred by a systemic misinterpretation of the
principle. It considers the powerful social factors
which militate against the realisation of the
comprehensive education principle and questions
whether the influence of these factors will ever
weaken enough to allow it to succeed both in educational terms and with the social promise once expected.
Warrane High School, an urban four-year comprehensive
High School located east of the Derwent
River in southern Tasmania, is the focus of this
study because it was in this school that the writer,
as Vice-Principal, began to see educational failure
in terms of certain social factors which seemed not
to accord with the school's educational programme
or with the expectations held by the community and
the education system itself.
The study draws on the writer's experience and
observation of the Tasmanian secondary school system
and on various data which particularly refer to
Warrane High School. In making judgements about the
various intellectual and social aspects of the
school's population and in assessing its feeder
community, it looks at other studies and considers
their findings in the light of the expectations
held for comprehensive education.
In its final stages, the study examines the
federal government's compensatory education
programmes and then suggests directions that planning
for education should take to ensure that the system
of education which prevails caters fairly for all
children in Tasmania.


Abstract : The Winfield lockage facilities currently consist of two 360-ft x 56-ft chambers with a normal lift of 28 ft. With the increasing traffic on the Kanawha River, these facilities are no longer adequate to serve the towing industry using this portion of the inland waterway system. Excessive delays now occur at Winfield and if the predicted traffic growth materializes during the next 10 or 15 years without action being taken by the Corps to address the problem, transfers of traffic movements to other more costly modes of transportation will result. Accordingly, studies were conducted to determine the capacity of the existing lockage facilities and to evaluate possible solutions for increasing this capacity through the use of alternative operating policies and rules that have been considered to be beneficial at other lock sites. Using the two simulation models, TOWGEN and WATSIM IV, the following four alternative operating policies were simulated to determine their respective effects on the capacity of Winfield and the delays to be expected should such policies be possible:--(a). first In-First Out (FIFO) Unrestricted; (b). FIFO Unrestricted with a 10 percent reduction in lockage component times;(c) FIFO Ready-to-Serve; and (d) 3 Up-3 Down, Unrestricted. These operating policies are discussed in detail in the report. Input data for the models were collected through the Performance Monitoring System (PMS) of the Inland Navigation Systems Analysis (INSA) program.


With robust structure and high maneuverability, skidsteered vehicles have been widely used in terrain exploration, construction, rescue and relief fields. Inevitable slipping and sliding of the tire that makes the vehicle status difficult to obtain. In this paper, an equivalent differential driven kinematic model is proposed. Additionally, the mapping relationship of slippage coefficient defined in the original 4-wheel unmanned skid-steered vehicle and the wheel location in the equivalent model are discussed. The proposed equivalent wheel location obtains explicit physical significance. The slippage of the tire has also been calculated by estimating the position of instantaneous center of rotation (ICR) of the wheels from multi-sensors. An unscented Kalman filter (UKF) based fusion method is adapted to obtain the vehicle status. A prototype vehicle named DUBHE is adapted to verify the reliability of the informed method. Preliminary experimental results are compared to demonstrate the effectiveness of the method in different scenarios.


We show that the extinction effect explained by the dynamical theory of diffraction must be considered even in the case of protein crystals. Equal-thickness fringes, which are attributed to the Pendellosung effect, were clearly observed in the region of a tapered glucose isomerase crystal with wedge-like edges using X-ray topography carried out with a beam of monochromatic synchrotron radiation. This indicates that the perfection of this glucose isomerase crystal is high enough to produce this dynamical theory-related effect: this surely leads to difficulty in the collection of accurate integrated intensities of diffraction spots for X-ray structural analysis. Therefore, it is important to determine whether the crystal quality of a protein crystal under analysis is adequate to obtain accurate three-dimensional structures of protein molecules for X-ray structural analyses. We show that X-ray diffraction rocking-curve measurements can provide clues for this determination.


This article describes internet-based application for warehouse management written in Ruby with use of Ruby on Rails framework and distributed as Software as a Service (SaaS) platform. This approach allows for great compatibility between operating systems as well as makes it possible to access application from all kind of devices - from standalone desktop computers up to tables and all kind of mobile devices. Example application was developed in Ruby on Rails version 2.3.


We present the case of a healthy 32-year-old woman who came to our hospital due to fever and left otalgia. She subsequently developed dizziness and gait instability, opsoclonus-myoclonus syndrome, and altered level of consciousness. She was admitted to the intensive care unit, developing status epilepticus, which was refractory to third-line treatment with propofol and barbiturates. A thorough assessment including autoimmunity studies, viral testing, and mitochondrial disease testing yielded negative results. A brain magnetic resonance imaging scan revealed signal hyperintensities in both caudate nuclei and putamina, and gadolinium-enhancing small punctiform lesions in the left hemisphere and left cerebellar tonsil. Suspecting an immune-mediated disorder, we started treatment with high-dose steroids and plasmapheresis, in addition to different combinations of antiepileptic drugs. The patient was refractory to these treatments; electroconvulsive therapy improved the EEG tracing and may have helped manage status epilepticus. Subsequent examinations revealed paralysis of left cranial nerves IX, X, and XII, which resolved nearly completely in the final days of hospitalisation, leaving the patient practically asymptomatic. Our findings point to encephalitis with brainstem involvement and manifesting as cryptogenic new-onset refractory status epilepticus.


When an econometric model coincides with the mechanism generating the data in an unchanging world, the theory of economic forecasting is reasonably well developed. However, less is known about forecasting when model and mechanism differ in a non-stationary and changing world. The paper addresses the basic concepts ; the invariance of forecast accuracy measures to isomorphic model representations ; the roles of causal information, parsimony and collinearity ; a reformulated taxonomy of forecast errors ; differencing and intercept corrections to robustify forecasts against biases due to shifts in deterministic factors ; the removal of structural breaks by co-breaking; and forecasting using leading indicators.


The present work deals with the development of a framework for the modeling of dispersed flows, including the effect of coagulation on the particle size distribution. We also explore some techniques for experimental validation. Models are developed for incompressible, isothermal flow containing particles that have a small relaxation time compared to the fluid time scale. For the dispersed phase, an equilibrium Eulerian approach is used, extrapolating the particle velocity from the fluid velocity. The size distribution is modeled using the Direct Quadrature Method of Moments. In practice, this results in solving transport equations for the weights and abscissa of a Dirac delta approximation of the size distribution. To model the effect of coagulation, a collision kernel that makes use of the resolved instantaneous velocity is developed. All transport equations are solved using the Finite Element Method. For the fluid, the Streamline Upwind and Pressure Stabilized Petrov-Galerkin method are used, with additional grad-div stabilization. To decrease the solution time for DNS, a segregated formulation with an explicit advection term is proposed. The particle transport equations require cross-wind diffusion in addition to the streamline upwind stabilization when large gradients occur. All work is available in the open source Coolfluid 3 framework, using an Embedded Domain Specific Language we developed for the implementation of finite element models. The resulting code closely resembles the variational form of the equations and is generic in terms of element type and the number of spatial dimensions. A first validation uses literature results as reference. Correctness and accuracy of the methods are verified using the Taylor-Green vortex flow. For the fluid and particle concentration, direct numerical simulation of a turbulent channel flow is performed. The particle coagulation kernel is tested using particles of different sizes falling through a Burgers vortex. Finally, some experimental validation techniques are used on a small test chamber. Particle image velocimetry is used for the fluid motion, while the size distributions are measured using Phase Doppler Anemometry and Multiple Wavelength Light Extinction. The light extinction technique was found to produce size distributions that could provide valuable reference data for our particle model.


This paper examines the concept of the blason populaire in a corpus of Irish-language proverbial material covering the period 1858–1952. It will demonstrate that the focus of these blasons populaires is primarily regional, as opposed to national or ethnic, and, furthermore, that such proverbs are usually jocular, descriptive, and benign, rarely exhibiting ethnic or racial slurs. The study identifies and analyses the most salient stereotypical characterizations, and the proverbial forms in which they appear.


There are two main types based of remote sensing which is known as optical based and radar based. This study related to investigation of the use of AIRSAR imagery compare to SPOT imagery for land cover mapping purpose. Covering the Muda Merbok area as a case study, 10 meters resolution of airborne (AIRSAR imagery) and 20 meters resolution of optical based (SPOT imagery) which has been resample into 10 meters resolution output were used. The imageries used were at same year 2000. Both imageries had been processed by using ENVI (for AIRSAR imagery) and ERDAS IMAGINE (for SPOT imagery). The synthesize or decompress data, slant to ground range conversion, mask pixels of extreme values, antenna pattern correction and speckle removing were among the steps in AIRSAR data processing. For SPOT imagery the general steps like geocoding, subset, clumps, eliminate and recode were used. The supervised classifications for both images were performed to produce the classification maps. From these two images processing, comparison between both of the images were performed and then the land cover mapping for AIRSAR and SPOT were produced. It is found that land cover mapping based from the AIRSAR imagery is also reliable for land cover mapping compared to SPOT imagery.


The primary purpose of the study was to investigate the extent of financial integration between the four major money markets (Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh) in the SAARC region. To determine the association between these money markets, this study deployed variety of robust time series techniques such as JJ Co-integration Test, Granger Causality Test, Impulse Response Functions (IRF), and Variance Decomposition Analysis (VDC). Monthly data for the period 2007-2015 was utilized for the data analysis whereas Call Money rates and Interbank rates were used as proxies of money markets. The empirical findings confirmed the presence of long term relationship between the nominal interest rates in SAARC region. Additionally, the results also unveiled the existence of bi-directional causal relationship between the money markets of Pakistan, India, and Sri Lanka. It was also found that Bangladesh's money market is most rigid and unresponsive to other market in the region. This study also confirmed the existence of robust ingredients for formulation of a monetary union in the SAARC region.


This paper addresses the task of learning latent attributes from triplet similarity comparisons. Consider, for instance, the three shoes in Fig. 1(a). They can be compared according to color, comfort, size, or shape resulting in different rankings. Most approaches for embedding learning either make a simplifying assumption - that all inputs are comparable under a single criterion, or require expensive attribute supervision. We introduce Latent Similarity Networks (LSNs): a simple and effective technique to discover the underlying latent notions of similarity in data without any explicit attribute supervision. LSNs can be trained with standard triplet supervision and learn several latent embeddings that can be used to compare images under multiple notions of similarity. LSNs achieve state-of-the-art performance on UT-Zappos-50k Shoes and Celeb-A Faces datasets and also demonstrate the ability to uncover meaningful latent attributes.


This chapter contains sections titled: Introduction Discussion of the Disturbing Noise Assumptions Properties of the ML Estimator Using a Sample Covariance Matrix Properties of the GTLS Estimator Using a Sample Covariance Matrix Properties of the BTLS Estimator Using a Sample Covariance Matrix Properties of the SUB Estimator Using a Sample Covariance Matrix Identification in the Presence of Nonlinear Distortions Illustration and Overview of the Properties Identification of Parametric Noise Models Identification in Feedback Appendixes