OBJECTIVES
Dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT) and mentalization-based therapy (MBT) are widely used evidence-based psychological treatments for borderline personality disorder (BPD). The study aimed to establish evidence on common and unique, and helpful and unhelpful, treatment processes.

DESIGN
Mixed-methods.

METHODS
In-depth qualitative interview data on patient experiences during treatment were combined with quantitative outcome measures in 73 patients diagnosed with a personality disorder and receiving DBT or MBT.

RESULTS
Across both DBT and MBT, accounts of learning not to react impulsively, learning to question one's thoughts and assumptions, learning to communicate more effectively, and exposure to painful emotions that may previously have been avoided were each associated with less baseline-adjusted self-harm at the end of treatment. Difficulties in interacting with other group members were more likely to be described by patients receiving MBT than DBT, whilst difficulties in the therapeutic relationship were equally common. Both of these types of difficult experience were associated with higher baseline-adjusted levels of BPD traits and emotional dysregulation, at the end of the 12-month study period.

CONCLUSIONS
The findings identify novel evidence of common therapeutic processes across DBT and MBT that may help to reduce self-harm. The findings also highlight the potential iatrogenic effect of difficulties in the alliance with therapists or with other group members. This underscores the importance of listening to patients' voices about what they are finding difficult during therapy and working to address these relational challenges, so that the patient is able to progress and make best use of the treatment.

PRACTITIONER POINTS
Regardless of whether dialectical behaviour therapy or mentalization based therapy is used, helping service-users to learn not to react impulsively, to question their thoughts and assumptions, and to communicate more effectively, may be beneficial for reducing self-harm. Across both types of therapy, exposure to painful emotions is a difficult experience for service-users, but may also be beneficial for reducing self-harm, if carefully managed. Whilst service-users' experiences across both types of therapy have much in common, accounts of mentalization based therapy stand out in more often describing both helpful and unhelpful experiences of interactions with therapy group members. Service-users across both types of therapy report the benefits of learning intrapersonal mentalization skills, whilst recipients of mentalization based therapy uniquely extend this to learning interpersonal mentalization. Ruptures in the therapeutic alliance, and distressing interactions with group members, may be iatrogenic and must be carefully managed.


The efficiency of producing embryos using in vitro technologies in livestock species rarely exceeds the 30 to 40% threshold, indicating that the proportion of oocytes that fail to develop after in vitro fertilization and culture is considerably large. Considering that the intrinsic quality of the oocyte is one of the main factors affecting blastocyst yield, the precise identification of non-invasive cellular or molecular markers that predict oocyte competence is of major interest to research and practical applications. The aim of this review was to explore the current literature on different non-invasive markers associated with oocyte quality in mammalian species, with an emphasis on the bovine model. Apart from some controversial findings, the presence of cycle-related structures in ovaries, a follicle size between 6 and 10 mm, large number of surrounding cumulus cells, slightly expanded investment without dark areas, large oocyte diameter (>120 microns), dark cytoplasm, and the presence of a round and smooth first polar body have been associated to better competence. In addition, the combination of oocyte and zygote selection by BCB test and spindle imaging have the potential to further optimize the identification of oocytes with better developmental competence for in vitro-derived technologies in livestock species.


This work presents a study about the hydrophilicity and conductivity of plasma polypyrroles (PPy) in contact with solutions of salt concentration similar to human tissues. PPy is a conjugated biocompatible polymer in which the electronic distribution produces partial relocation in contact with different compounds. PPy and PPy doped with iodine (PPy/I) particles of different sizes are being studied as implants in the central nervous system to restore the lost neuronal communication after severe injuries. Particle size, hydrophilicity and conductivity of these polymers are essential in this task. In this work, plasma PPy and PPy/I were synthesized as thin films using low-pressure, rf, resistive, electrical glow discharges and grounded up to obtain microparticles in the range of neuronal nuclei. The electrical conductivity of particles was studied with the addition of human-like ionic solutions, particularly with sodium and potassium ions which are part in the ionic transference of electric charges in neuronal membranes.


The ability to build higher order multi-modal memories comprising information about the spatio-temporal context of events has been termed 'episodic memory'. Deficits in episodic memory are apparent in a number of neuropsychiatric diseases. Unfortunately, the development of animal models of episodic memory has made little progress. Towards the goal of such a model we devised an object exploration task for mice, providing evidence that rodents can associate object, spatial and temporal information. In our task the mice learned the temporal sequence by which identical objects were introduced into two different contexts. The 'what' component of an episodic memory was operationalized via physically distinct objects; the 'where' component through physically different contexts, and, most importantly, the 'when' component via the context-specific inverted sequence in which four objects were presented. Our results suggest that mice are able to recollect the inverted temporal sequence in which identical objects were introduced into two distinct environments. During two consecutive test trials mice showed an inverse context-specific exploration pattern regarding identical objects that were previously encountered with even frequencies. It seems that the contexts served as discriminative stimuli signaling which of the two sequences are decisive during the two test trials.


Three algae species belonging to Chlorophyta; i.e Chlorella sp., Scenedesmus sp. and Haematococcus pluvialis, were incubated under different concentrations of the photosynthetic inhibitor dichlorophynyldimethylurea (DCMU). Algae were treated with 0, 1, 2, 4 and 8x10-5M DCMU added to N8 macronutrient solution containing ammonium acetate instead of potassium nitrate. The measured parameters were optical density, cell count, medium reaction (pH), total chlorophyll, total carotenoids, crude protein and lipids as ether extract. Results showed that DCMU inhibited growth as optical density for both Scenedesmus sp. and Chlorella sp. H. pluvialis exhibited more resistance against all given concentrations. Chlorophyll reached the maximum with lower and moderate levels of DCMU with Scenedesmus sp. and Chlorella sp. As for H. pluvialis, all used concentrations inhibited chlorophyll accumulation. A different manner was observed on carotenoids accumulation, where the decline of chlorophyll was associated with the decomposition of crude protein and rise in carotenoids and lipids content especially with H. pluvialis.


The need, benefit, and desirability of behavioral health integration in primary care is generally accepted and has acquired widespread positive regard. However, in many health care settings the economics, business aspects, and financial sustainability of practice in integrated care settings remains an unsolved puzzle. Organizational administrators may be reluctant to expand behavioral health services without evidence that such programs offer clear financial benefits and financial sustainability. The tendency among mental health professionals is to consider positive clinical outcomes (e.g., reduced depression) as being globally valued indicators of program success. Although such outcomes may be highly valued by primary care providers and patients, administrative decision makers may require demonstration of more tangible financial outcomes. These differing views require program developers and evaluators to consider multiple outcome domains including clinical/psychological symptom reduction, potential cost benefit, and cost offset. The authors describe a process by which a pilot demonstration project is being implemented to demonstrate programmatic outcomes with a focus on the following: 1) clinician efficiency, 2) improved health outcomes, and 3) direct revenue generation associated with the inclusion of integrated primary care in a public health care system. The authors subsequently offer specific future directions and commentary regarding financial evaluation in each of these domains.


The authors show that the superconducting-normal phase transition is due to spontaneous breaking of magnetic flux symmetry. In two dimensions the symmetry generator is Phi = integral d2xB(x) and in three dimensions there are three generators Phi i= integral d3xBi(x), only two of which are independent due to the absence of sources of magnetic field. In the normal phase the symmetry is spontaneously broken with a massless photon as a corresponding Goldstone boson. In the superconducting phase the symmetry is unbroken and the magnetic flux annihilates the vacuum which expresses the essence of the Meissner effect. In two dimensions they explicitly construct the pertinent gauge-invariant order parameter which is the operator creating Abrikosov vortices. Its vacuum expectation value vanishes in the superconducting ground state, while it is finite in the vacuum of the normal phase.


This paper revisits the issue of economic voting in the context of the 1996 Presidential Election in Russia. The election was branded as a fundamental choice between capitalism and communism, yet voters were also grappling with a large crisis of personal finances: about one in two workers experienced nonpayments of wages at the time of the elections. The analysis exploits a rich nationally representative household panel dataset to identify the impact of wage arrears on the second-round election outcome. Wage arrears reduced the vote for the incumbent President Yeltsin among workers from around 65% to 49%, which amounts to a drop of 4% in the Yeltsin vote in the second round. Support for Yeltsin vote declined with the amount of wage arrears at the time of the vote and with wage arrears in 1995. Wage arrears led more voters to believe the government to be noncaring and to favor income restrictions for the rich. Political attitudes of working men changed more than those of working women.


This paper introduces a dynamic finite element model for calculating iron loss in ferromagnetic non-oriented grain laminations under pulse-width modulation (PWM) excitation. The proposed methodology accounts for static hysteresis, classical eddy currents and anomalous losses and has been validated by measurements in Epstein device in different cases of PWM voltage waveforms. The model is based on a particular 2-D finite-element technique by using standard static iron lamination characteristics and offers sufficient accuracy in all studied cases.


1. The Making of a New Sector 2. The Emergence of the Colleges 3. The Present Picture 4. Recurrent Funding 5. The Qualifications Framework 6. Curriculum and Learning 7. Staff Relations 8. Governance and Management 9. The Changing Campus 10. Partnerships with the Community 11. Widening Participation 12. The Web of Interaction with Employers 13. Franchising 14. Accountability and Audit 15. Research 16. Colleges in the New Millennium


For Exploration Missions 1 and 2, the Orion capsules will be entering the Earth's atmosphere with speeds in excess of 11 km/s. In the event of a degraded Guidance, Navigation, and Control system, attempting the nominal guided entry may be inadvisable due to the potential for failures that result in a loss of vehicle (or crew, when crew are aboard). In such a case, a method of assuring Earth capture, water landing, and observence of trajectory constraints (heating, loads) is desired. Such a method should also be robust to large state uncertainty and variations in entry interface states. This document will explore four approaches evaluated and their performance in ensuring a safe return of the Orion capsule in the event of onboard system degradation.


The title of this journal writing is the Notary's responsibility for Employee Health Insurance. The purpose of writing this journal is to (1) To analyze the arrangement of Notary's responsibility towards the employee's Health Insurance registration according to positive law, (2) To explain and analyze the application of sanctions for Notaries who have not included their employees in Health Insurance. This study uses a normative - empirical approach. The data used are primary data and secondary data. The data obtained were analyzed qualitatively and then presented in descriptive descriptions. The research results lead to a conclusion that: (1) Every company such as a Notary office is an employer, in Law No. 24 of 2011 Article 15 paragraph (1) employers are required to gradually register themselves and their workers as BPJS participants, (2) Mechanism for imposing administrative sanctions for companies that have not become participants of BPJS Kesehatan Insurance are written warnings, fines and do not receive certain public services.


OBJECTIVES
To explore the features of high-intensity zone (HIZ) in anterior annulus fibrosus and assess the association of anterior HIZ with low back pain (LBP).

DESIGN, SETTING, AND SUBJECTS
A retrospective study of 5,940 discs in 1,188 individuals was conducted.

METHODS
Subjects' information and LBP symptoms confirmed by an orthopedic surgeon were acquired from the medical record. Magnetic resonance (MR) image reading and analysis were performed by two experienced blinded radiologists.

RESULTS
Two hundred eighty individuals exhibited 355 anterior HIZs in 355 discs. The prevalence was 23.57%; 88.45% were located in the inferior part of the annulus fibrosus. It frequently occurred in the middle and upper segments of lumbar spine, especially at L3/4 (45.63%). Of the 355 anterior HIZs, only 79 (22.25%) were consecutive-slides HIZ. Round type (63.38%) was the most common shape of anterior HIZs. The highest prevalence was found in individuals aged 60-69 years. LBP was confirmed in 141 anterior-HIZ individuals. The incidence of LBP in anterior-HIZ individuals was significantly higher than in non-HIZ subjects (50.36% vs 35.24%, χ2 = 18.314, P < 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS
Anterior HIZ is a lower-prevalence, age-related sign on lumbar MR images. The spatial distribution of anterior HIZ can be distinguished from posterior HIZ. The number of consecutive anterior HIZ slides might suggest fewer Dallas grade 4 anterior annular disruptions in this sample. Anterior HIZ was correlated with LBP.


We propose a memory-based naming game (MBNG) model with two-state variables in full-connected networks, which is like some previous opinion propagation models. It is found that this model is deeply affected by the memory decision parameter, and then its dynamical behaviour can be partly analysed by using numerical simulation and analytical argument. We also report a modified MBNG model with the forgetting curve of Ebbinghaus in the memory. With deletion of one parameter in the MBNG model, it can converge to success rate S(t) = 1 and the average sum E(t) is decided by the size of network N.


The production of insulin autoantibodies (IAA) was studied after common viral infections in 12 children with type 1 diabetes mellitus and in their 18 healthy siblings. In addition, the production of IAA was measured after influenza vaccination with booster in 39 patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus and in 39 healthy controls. In 7 of the 12 diabetic children 13 viral infections were serologically confirmed. Among the siblings 14 periods of infection were noted in 9 individuals. A significant rise in IAA antibody titre was demonstrated in patients twice (IgG both times) and in siblings 11 times (IgM 5x, IgG 6x, difference significant P less than 0.05). In only three cases the rise in antibody titres occurred 6-12 wk after documented infection. There was a significant inverse correlation with age in both patients (r = 0.89, P less than 0.0001) and siblings (r = 0.67, P less than 0.001) for IgM IAA. After influenza vaccination a significant increase in IAA was noted twice: IgM IAA in a patient with diabetes and IgG IAA in a healthy volunteer. A four-fold decrease in IgG IAA was demonstrated in one diabetic patient. From these results it is concluded that IAA formation is not a direct sequela of viral infection or vaccination.


Background: There is a growing interest concerning the role of probiotics as natural hypocholesterolemic
agents in etiopathogenesis of cardiovascular and related heart diseases. Based on the growing evidence of the importance of probiotics with potential cardiovascular benefits, the efforts to improve the lipid profile using lactic acid bacteria in an optimal direction are gathering momentum.

Methods: The effects of probiotic Dahi containing L. acidophilus LaVK2 and Dahi culture on lipid profiles in rats with diet-induced hypercholesterolemia were studied. Three treatment groups of rats (n=7) were fed experimental diets: LaVK2 Dahi, Dahi or buffalo milk (BM) for 120 days. After the consumption of experimental diets, animals were fed a hypercholesterolemic diet ad libitum.

Results: Supplementation with LaVK2 Dahi decreased plasma total cholesterol by 22.6%; however, in BM and Dahi fed groups, the increase was over 70%. The decrease in triacylglycerol level in rats fed LaVK2 Dahi was 64.2%. Plasma high density lipoprotein (HDL) increased by 72.6% in LaVK2 Dahi fed group, whereas low density lipoprotein (LDL) + very low density lipoprotein (VLDL)-cholesterol decreased by 89%, respectively. As a result, the atherogenic index (AI), the ratio of HDL to LDL+VLDL was decreased by 91.2% on LaVK2 Dahi when compared to only 13.1% decline on BM. Futhermore, the accumulations of total cholesterol and triacylglycerols in liver and aortic tissues were significantly (P<0.05) reduced in rats fed with LaVK2 Dahi.

Conclusion: These observations suggest that oral administration of probiotic LaVK2 Dahi attenuated dietinduced hypercholesterolemia leading to cardiac protection by decreasing VLDL+LDL-cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol and TAGs and increasing HDL-cholesterol. Probiotic LaVK2 Dahi may have a therapeutic potential to improve the lipid profile and the risk of cardiovascular diseases.


Some projects take time to build or are slow to yield cash flows. This may impact the dynamics of investment and liquidity management, although few studies test their financial implications. We exploit the peculiar advantages of copper mines as a laboratory to identify cash-flow sensitivities. In this context, investment decisions depend on the expectations of the long run price of the commodity, while the spread between the spot price and this long run expectations shifts current cash-flows. For this study we compiled a sample of copper firms between 2002 and 2012. We do not find significant effects of cash flow on current capital expenditures, but we do observe a systematic cash flow sensitivity of cash holdings, meaning that some of these transitory earnings are retained as liquidity. This cash stockpiling is stronger among financially constrained firms. In a context of time-to-build, our findings support financial theories emphasizing the salience of cash as buffer stock for liquidity in preparation for future investment opportunities.


In the previous papers, it was suggested that the 4-hydroxyl group of flavan-3.4-trans-diols altered in configuration upon the formation of the isopropylidene derivatives. In order to confirm this suggestion, the isopropylidene derivatives were prepared by the reaction of 4-16OH with acetone-18O, and of 4-18OH with acetone-16O, and the contents of oxygen-18 were analyzed. The oxygen atom from acetone was found in the isopropylidene derivatives of trans-3′,4′,5,7-tetramethoxy-cis- and trans-3′,4′,5′,5,7-pentamethoxy-flavan-3,4-diols.


We have used 5, 12, and 16-nitroxyl stearic acid (5, 12, and 16-NSA) to spin label erythrocytes in order to investigate complement-induced changes in the organization of lipid bilayers. These changes are characterized by measurements of the hyperfine coupling, 2T11, a sensitive indicator of the motional freedom of the spin label and hence a measure of membrane fluidity. When 5, 12, or 16-NSA-labeled E or EA are lysed in hypotonic solution the value of 2T11 decreases indicating an increase in the fluidity of the bilayer. Upon resealing the lysed E or EA in the presence of Mg2+, 2T11 returns to its normal value. The fluidity of EAC ghosts, as measured by 2T11 is comparable to that of hypotonically lysed E or EA. When EAC are resealed in Mg2+ there is a significant decrease in membrane fluidity, for 2T11 increases to values greater than those obtained for resealed ghosts of E and EA.


The main demands on a total hip replacement are to reduce pain or achieve painlessness and to recover or improve mobility and walking ability. Today more younger patients were operated replacing a destroyed hip joint: the reintegration in professional and sportive activities is a major part of the rehabilitation process. The postoperative management especially in physical therapy can be standardized inspite of the use of various models. Usually full weight bearing is accepted after 3 months. A review of consecutive treatment methods and professional and sportive rehabilitation measures are presented. Hip replacement leads to restrictions in activity in general. The evaluation, in relation to the different indemnifying, is differentiated.


Electron concentrations in low-frequency (100 kHz) sulphur hexafluoride discharges have been measured by microwave interferometry. To obtain high signal-to-noise ratios, the plasma was switched on and off with a 150 Hz pulse. Reproducible average electron concentration measurements were obtained for pressures ranging from 0.15 to 0.45 Torr and powers ranging from 13 to 92 W. The lowest time-averaged electron concentration measured is 4.3*107 cm-3 (corresponding to a line average density of 6.0*108 cm-2). Electron concentration variation within the 100 kHz cycle is obtained after correcting for response times of the interferometer. These time-averaged and time-dependent measurements are compared with measurements from an impedance analysis technique. Although the two types of measurements agree within a factor of two for all measurements, the impedance technique gives a stronger dependence of electron concentration on power and a weaker dependence on pressure. The large time-dependent variation of the electron concentration from zero to high concentrations is attributed to high attachment and ionization rates in sulphur hexafluoride discharges under these conditions.


We present nonlinear stochastic differential equations, generating processes with the q-exponential and q-Gaussian distributions of the observables, i.e. with the long-range power-law autocorrelations and 1/fβ power spectral density. Similarly, the Tsallis q-distributions may be obtained in the superstatistical framework as a superposition of different local dynamics at different time intervals. In such approach, the average of the stochastic variable is generated by the nonlinear stochastic process, while the local distribution of the signal is exponential or Gaussian one, conditioned by the slow average. Further we analyze relevance of the generalized and adapted equations for modeling the financial processes. We model the inter-trade durations, the trading activity and the normalized return using the superstatistical approaches with the exponential and normal distributions of the local signals driven by the nonlinear stochastic process.


Objective To understand the distribution of prevalence rate of primary osteopenia (POPA) in the middle-aged and the elderly in some parts of China. Methods Bone mineral density (BMD) was measured and questionnaire was administered to 5 600 people aged above 40 in five administrative areas in China, through a stritified-muti-steps-cluster sampling method. Results The total prevalence rate of primary osteopenia in some parts of China was 15.8%, according to the most significant parts of the rate of loss. Of them, the prevalence rate of males was 20.0% compared to 12.4% in females (P<0.01); There were also differences on POPA prevalence among provinces,age groups and areas between urban and rural(P<0.01). Conclusion Although prevention and treatment of primary osteopenia were important strategy in males however it should not be ignored in females as well.


Much of the literature on role-playing games (RPGs) focuses on their social, performative, experiential, and/or narrative aspects. The emphasis is on the playing of the roles, as it were, and less so on the game mechanics. Curiously, the phrase 'RPG elements' tends not to refer to the role-playing aspects of the genre, but to the rules, systems, and mechanisms that have been co-opted by other game genres and 'gamification' practitioners. In this article we unpack the term 'RPG elements' by examining a single element: mechanisms and systems for character progression in paper and pencil RPGs. In these open ended games, playercontrolled characters' capabilities change. Characters usually get better; though sometimes they get worse. We describe different ways positive and negative character progression systems are implemented and the role they play. We also discuss some differences we observe between paper and pencil RPGs and those played electronically. We conclude with thoughts on the utility of breaking down ambiguous terms, such as 'RPG elements' into smaller, clearer units.


The gyrotron installation on the DIII–D tokamak now comprises six 110 GHz gyrotrons in the 1 MW class, three manufactured by CPI[1] and three by Gycom [2]. Two tetrode rectifier/modulator/regulator power supplies were constructed to provide power for the CPI gyrotrons. A second system uses three mod/reg tetrodes connected in parallel, which are fed by a dual parallel tetrode mod/reg to power the Gycom tubes. The windowless evacuated transmission lines are up to 100 m in length, with 80% transmission efficiency. Engineering solutions were developed in specific problematic areas encountered in the development of this complex system, including: Gyrotron instability; high voltage circuit instability; gyrotron conditioning; rf beam forming and coupling to waveguide; output window vacuum seals; material control; launcher mechanics and diagnosis; polarizer mechanics; dummy loads; power measurements; polarization measurements; cooling; calorimetry; and operating controls. The system is in routine operation in support of tokamak experiments, with peak generated power of about 5 MW at 2 s. pulse length and about 3 MW for 5 s. pulses. This presentation focuses on practical lessons learned in the development and operation of these systems.


New cross-section and analyzing-power data are presented for elastic and inelastic scattering of 200-MeV protons from {sup 7}Li, which has a 3/2{sup {minus}}, {ital T}=1/2 ground state. A microscopic folding-model optical potential, obtained by convoluting a Pauli-corrected effective nucleon-nucleon ({ital NN}) interaction with {sup 7}Li ground-state densities constrained by weak and electromagnetic data, produces a satisfactory description of the elastic data. The effects of the nonspherical terms in the optical potential, estimated via the distorted-wave approximation (DWA), are appreciable. The inelastic transitions leading to the 1/2{sup {minus}},{ital T}=1/2 and 7/2{sup {minus}},{ital T}=1/2 states at 0.48 and 4.63 MeV, respectively, are also examined within the framework of the microscopic folding model and the DWA. Transition potentials are generated by convoluting the effective {ital NN} interaction considered with target transition densities constrained by weak, electromagnetic, and low-energy proton and neutron scattering data. These potentials are employed in DWA calculations along with the folded optical potential that is consistent with the transition potentials. These self-consistent calculations also provide a good description of the inelastic data. The results provide a clear indication that there are important shape differences between the {sup 6}Li and {sup 7}Li radial densities and that the two inelastic transitions inmore » {sup 7}Li, which are primarily quadrupole in character, have {rho}{sub 2{ital n}}{sup {ital m}}/{rho}{sub 2{ital p}}{sup {ital m}}{approx}0.9 and 0.9--1.2, respectively.« less


The electron velocity distributions measured in-situ in space plasmas reveal two central populations, a low-energy and highly dense (quasi-)thermal core, and a more diffuse but hotter suprathermal halo. Even if the core contributes much more to the total number density than the suprathermal particles, the energetic electrons play an important role in the higher moments. Using a dataset of more than 120,000 solar wind observations of electron distributions, measured in the ecliptic between 0.35 and 3.3 AU, we investigate here the main characteristics of the halo population and its potential influence on the core, and macroscopic properties of electrons, i.e., number density (n), bulk velocity (u), temperature (T) and temperature anisotropy (T⊥/Τ//). The analysis indicates that the parameters exhibit interdependence trends characterized by correlations between certain of these parameters and the kappa exponent (κ) corresponding to the power law of the halo population tail. The links between low kappa and low number densities (of both the core and halo populations) confirm that Coulomb collisions can be quite ineffective even at low radial distances if the density of the plasma is sufficiently low. Moreover, halo populations with lower values of κ are also associated to higher temperature anisotropies, and to higher bulk velocity. An interdependence between core and halo populations is also suggested by an apparent (inverse) correlation between their density and temperature ratios. We further show relations between the parameters fitting the sum of a Maxwellian core and a Kappa halo, and those of a global (single) Kappa fit that incorporates both the core and halo components. Such a global Kappa is used in an exospheric model of the solar wind, to predict the influence of suprathermal electrons on the characteristics of the solar wind. These results should stimulate future detailed analysis of these relationships and correlations, which may contribute to a realistic modeling of the solar wind and the formation and evolution of suprathermal populations.


The ILDs are exposed at elevations from -4900 m to -3300 m. Identified minerals concentrate at elevation between -4900 and -3800 m. Kieserite occurs massive and cliff-forming on high albedo knobs (-4860 to -4740 m; -4190 to -4080 m) or intervening thick layered sequences of polyhydrated sulphates (PHS; -4300 to -4090 m). PHS is present on smooth, low albedo regions and apparently slope-forming [5]. Alike PHS is observed in a regional assemblage with phyllosilicates (-4300 to -3840 m; Fig. 3). PHS is also identified eroding out of steep bright mesa slopes (-4640 to -4420 m; -3960 to -3880 m). Isolated mounds of phyllosilicate (likely nontronite; at -4550 m) is located topographically below the sulphates. One outcrop of nontronite (-3950 m) is present on low albedo massive terrain amongst a unit which has a kieserite signature.


Fecal immunochemical tests (FITs) are increasingly used as noninvasive screening tests in colorectal cancer (CRC) screening programs. Polygenic risk scores (PRS) are increasingly propagated for risk stratification in CRC screening. We aimed to assess the potential of combining FIT results and PRS to enhance diagnostic accuracy of detecting advanced neoplasia (AN) compared to using FIT results alone. Of 10,362 participants of screening colonoscopy in Southern Germany who conducted either one of two quantitative FITs, genotyping was done in all participants with advanced neoplasia (CRC or advanced adenoma) and a random subset of controls. Among 5,306 individuals, a PRS was calculated based on the number of risk alleles in 140 single nucleotide polymorphisms. Partial areas under the receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curves (pAUCs) were computed for FIT and PRS alone and combined, focusing on a specificity range of 100%-80%. Both FITs showed similar performance characteristics with pAUCs (95%CIs) of 0.661 (0.625-0.698) (Ridascreen Hemoglobin) and 0.682 (0.661-0.701) (FOB Gold) for AN detection. PRS alone reached a pAUC (95%CI) of 0.524 (0.499-0.550) and 0.530 (0.516-0.545), respectively, and its addition to FIT did not improve pAUCs (0.659 (0.622-0.697) and 0.667 (0.650-0.687), respectively). This finding was confirmed by investigating sensitivities at fixed specificities at 85%, 90% and 95%. Partial AUCs also did not improve when adding the weighted PRS to FIT instead of the unweighted PRS. In summary, the combination with PRS did not improve diagnostic accuracy of FIT-based screening in a large asymptomatic CRC screening population from South-Western Germany.


Principal Components Analysis (PCA) is the most commonly used multivariate statistical technique in construction of composite indicators. However, PCA and related methods, such as Factor Analysis, are based on a reflective model where the individual indicators (manifest variables) are seen as functions of a latent variable (principal component or factor). When individual indicators are causes of the latent variable, rather than its effects, a formative model should be adopted. In this paper, we compare the two approaches, and we show an example of reflective and formative composite index calculation.


Background Delayed coil migration is an infrequently reported complication following endovascular treatment of cerebral aneurysms with detachable coils. Here we report on a verified case of delayed coil migration following initially successful balloon-assisted coil embolization of a broad-based aneurysm of the basilar tip. Additionally, we perform a meta-analysis of case reports available in the literature to identify aneurysm morphological characteristics seen in cases of delayed coil migration. Methodology Systematic review of PubMed database making use of MeSH terms associated with cerebral aneurysms and delayed coil migration and review of published bibliographies. Results A 71-year-old man presented with subarachnoid hemorrhage and basilar tip aneurysm measuring 2.5–2.8 mm at the neck and 3.2 (AP) × 3.4 (TR) × 3.2 (CC) in maximal dimension. This was successfully treated with balloon assistance using detachable coils (Axium 3D 3 mm × 4 cm framing coil, completion packing percentage 24%). Follow-up imaging obtained during hospitalization verified stable positioning of the coil mass. Routine surveillance angiography obtained at 8 months however showed migration of the coil mass into a posterior cerebral artery cortical branch. The patient was asymptomatic, and the basilar aneurysm was subsequently treated with stent-coiling. Systematic review of the literature revealed 13 similar cases representing a cohort of 14 cases available for analysis. Aneurysm morphology was uniformly broad based, and most cases occurred in aneurysms less than 5 mm in maximal dimension. Framing coil selection and packing percentage were not reported for the majority of cases. The present case is the first reported to our knowledge occurring in the posterior fossa. Conclusions Ruptured cerebral aneurysms with small broad-based morphology remain among the most difficult lesions to treat endovascularly. In addition to increased rates of intra-procedural rupture among other inherent technical challenges, the Neuro-Endovascularist may consider adding the possibility of delayed coil migration to his or her list of considerations in addressing such lesions and modify their treatment plan accordingly. In the present case selection of a larger framing coil or higher target packing percentage may have been worthwhile considerations in retrospect. Disclosures B. Cristiano: None. D. Hoss: None. J. Jacobson: None.


Introduction/Background Endometriosis, although common, rarely involves of the urinary tract, with bladder being the most commonly involved organ. First described in 19211, the pathogenesis, management, impact on fertility, and risk of malignant transformation of bladder endometriosis still remains controversial. Methodology We report a case of a patient presenting with an infiltrative pelvic mass with local invasion into the bladder. Results The patient, a 49 year old Chinese female with 2 previous cesarean sections and a laparoscopic myomectomy, had no history or symptoms suggestive of endometriosis (dysmenorrhea, dyschezia, dyspareunia, chronic pelvic pain). An enlarged left ovary was seen on ultrasound pelvis with an irregular papillary focal mucosal lesion in the left lateral wall of the bladder with bladder invasion. A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the pelvis confirmed an invasive bladder lesion (figure 1). The 4 cm ovarian mass was inseparable from the left uterus. There were no enlarged pelvic lymph nodes or ascites. Ovarian tumour markers, renal function and an ultrasound of bilateral kidneys were normal. She underwent a total abdominal hysterectomy bilateral salpingectomy with bladder tumour excision and bilateral double J stent insertions. Intraoperatively, the solid left ovarian lesion noted on scan was found to be a 5 cm uterine fibroid. The 3 cm tumour involving the lower uterine segment and bladder extended into the bladder mucosa (figure 2). The tumour was removed en bloc with the uterus, with frozen section noting endometriosis. Both tubes and ovaries and intraperitoneal survey were normal with no pelvic endometriosis. Conclusion Isolated urinary tract endometriosis is rare and may mimic malignancy. It is thus an important differential diagnosis to consider in a woman presenting with an infiltrative bladder mass. Management may be in the form of hormonal therapy or surgery, where complete excision of the bladder mass is ideal to minimize recurrence. Disclosure Nothing to disclose.


In schools where water supply is either unavailable or insufficient, rainwater harvesting (RWH) systems may be a low-cost solution. We piloted large-scale RWH systems in rural primary schools in Nyanza Province, Kenya to investigate the sustainability of these systems several years post-implementation. This paper discusses the main findings of our pilot and, to our knowledge, is the only published study on school RWH performance in a low-income setting.


By 2050, 9.8 billion people are projected to live on Earth, which means that we need to double our current food production to keep pace with such a large population increase. In addition, rising greenhouse gas emissions and the associated climate change are placing a significant strain on the planet's ability to sustain itself. However, in order to increase the quantity of proteins of plant origin, it is necessary to increase crop production areas, harvesting frequencies and the quantity of crops produced. Unfortunately, the optimization of these factors is already very close to the available maximum in the current situation. The developed cultivation systems and maximum utilization of the soil power leads to very serious environmental problems, soil destruction, loss of biodiversity and serious environmental pollution through the transport of the produced plant raw materials. This poses a serious challenge to food security and further increases the risk of hunger. There is therefore a need for agricultural practices that can lead to the cultivation of food and feed crops that have better sustainability indicators and are more resilient to climate change, which can be used to safely produce health-promoting feeds, as well as novel and value-added foods. Within this group, a particular problem is presented by the protein supply of the population, as currently about one billion people do not have adequate protein intake. However, conventional protein sources are not sufficient to meet growing protein needs. As mentioned above, food and feed proteins are based on plant proteins. In recent years, a prominent role has been played by the research into alternative proteins and the mapping of their positive and negative properties. Among alternative proteins, special attention has been paid to various yeasts, fungi, bacteria, algae, singe cell proteins (SCPs) and insects. In this paper, we focus on the presentation of algae, particularly microalgae, which are of paramount importance not only because of their significant protein content and favorable amino acid composition, but also because they are also sources of many valuable molecules, such as polyunsaturated fatty acids, pigments, antioxidants, drugs and other biologically active compounds. It is important to learn about microalgae biomass in order to be able to develop innovative health food products.


The Ramgarh structure is a morphological landmark in southeastern Rajasthan, India. Its 200 m high and 3.5–4 km wide annular collar has provoked many hypotheses regarding its origin, including impact. Here, we document planar deformation features, planar fractures, and feather features in quartz grains of the central part of the Ramgarh structure, which confirm its impact origin. The annular collar does not mark the crater rim but represents the outer part of a central uplift of an approximately 10 km diameter complex impact structure. The apparent crater rim is exposed as a low‐angle normal fault and can be traced as lineaments in remote sensing imagery. The central uplift shows a stratigraphic uplift of ~1000 m and is rectangular in shape. It is dissected by numerous faults that are co‐genetic with the formation of the central uplift. The central uplift has a bilateral symmetry along an SW‐NE axis, where a large strike‐slip fault documents a strong horizontal shear component. This direction corresponds to the assumed impact trajectory from the SW toward the NE. The uprange sector is characterized by concentric reverse faults, whereas radial faults dominate downrange. Sandstones of the central uplift are infiltrated by Fe‐oxides and suggest an impact‐induced hydrothermal mineralization overprint. The impact may have occurred into a shallow water environment as indicated by soft‐sediment deformation features, observed near the apparent crater rim, and the deposition of a diamictite layer above them. Gastropods embedded in the diamictite have Middle Jurassic age and may indicate the time of the impact.


Identifying intravenous immunoglobulin-resistant patients is essential for the prompt and optimal treatment of Kawasaki disease, suggesting the need for effective risk assessment tools. Data-driven approaches have the potential to identify the high-risk individuals by capturing the complex patterns of real-world data. To enable clinically applicable prediction of intravenous immunoglobulin resistance addressing the incompleteness of clinical data and the lack of interpretability of machine learning models, a multi-stage method is developed by integrating data missing pattern mining and intelligible models. First, co-clustering is adopted to characterize the block-wise data missing patterns by simultaneously grouping the clinical features and patients to enable (a) group-based feature selection and missing data imputation and (b) patient subgroup-specific predictive models considering the availability of data. Second, feature selection is performed using the group Lasso to uncover group-specific risk factors. Third, the Explainable Boosting Machine, which is an interpretable learning method based on generalized additive models, is applied for the prediction of each patient subgroup. The experiments using real-world Electronic Health Records demonstrate the superior performance of the proposed framework for predictive modeling compared with a set of benchmark methods. This study highlights the integration of co-clustering and supervised learning methods for incomplete clinical data mining, and promotes data-driven approaches to investigate predictors and effective algorithms for decision making in healthcare.


Abstract The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of cellulase treatment on wood surface physicochemical characteristics. The cedar wood samples were treated by cellulase for 30 min at different concentrations: 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, 1, and 1.2 mg/ml. Then the physicochemical properties (the wetting behavior and interfacial free energy) of the cedar samples surfaces were characterized by the sessile drop technique. The obtained results showed that the untreated cedar wood samples exhibited a hydrophobic character with a high water contact angle (θw = 71.9°) and a negative value of the interfacial free energy (∆Giwi = −59.3 mJ/m2). Thereafter, the wood hydrophobicity decreased continuously until it reached the hydrophilicity qualitatively (at the first concentration of cellulase (0.2 mg/ml)) and quantitatively (at 0.8 mg/ml of cellulase). The cedar wood surface treatment with cellulase also revealed a significant evolution of the acid-base parameters. Moreover, a linear relationship between the degree of hydrophobicity and the cellulase concentration has been found. This study clearly shows the impact that could have the produced enzyme by micro-organisms involved in wood biodegradation and especially their consequences on the physicochemical surface properties of the wooden materials.


This study is dedicated to faulty induction motors. These motors are often used in industrial applications and the monitoring of their condition becomes important for production maximization. This paper gives precise understanding of the effect of the broken bar on the stator currents, a quantity more and more used for fault detection and quantification. This study uses 2-D finite element (FE) models for detailed field analysis and considers different saturation levels (voltage levels). Fundamental electromagnetic laws are used to interpret FE results. It is shown that the presence of local saturation tends to lower the effect of a broken bar on the stator currents. This effect increases with the voltage level and must be taken into consideration for precise quantification of the fault. Furthermore, on a local point of view, the presence of a broken bar leads to highly saturated regions in the neighborhood of the broken bar that will influence the progression of the fault.


Estradiol-17 beta was injected into the 3rd ventricle of hemiovariectomized rats to study the sensitivity of the hypothalamic sexual centre. In aged (14--16-month-old) rats the dose of estradiol required for suppression of the compensatory ovarian hypertrophy by 50 and 100 per cent was 4--5 times greater than in young (3-month-old) rats. The results obtained suggest the age-associated increase of the threshold sensitivity of the tonic region of the hypothalamic sexual centre to estrogen suppression. These data can be used for the interpretation of the mechanism of both the age-associated elevation of gonadotropin secretion, and of the reproductive function.


People with mental health problems sometimes have the choice of whether or not to disclose this information to others. The decision to disclose or conceal is likely to depend on various factors. In this systematic review, we examined the findings of studies looking at factors affecting adults' decisions to disclose or conceal a mental health problem outside of the workplace. Key databases (PsycINFO, Scopus, and Web of Science) revealed 19 relevant articles published between January 2005 and August 2015. Common factors affecting disclosure or concealment included anticipated stigma, characteristics of the target, relationship with the target, mental health of the discloser, rules and beliefs about mental health problems, and fears about control and identity. Demographic factors were not strongly associated with disclosure decisions. We also found that measures used to understand mental health disclosure may fail to capture the complexity of the process. Implications for future research and policy are discussed, including the need for palpable public support for people with mental health problems, the need for health care professionals to establish better relationships with service users, and the value of respecting nondisclosure.


Tracey Emin is one of the best- known current British artists. Her art is essentially autobiographical. The major aim of the present essay is to analyze Emin's artist work and to study her artistic references. To fulfill this goal, biographic references, linked to her artistic work, are mentioned and her topics, obsessions, procedures, and techniques are reviewed, with a special mention to the central role of words in her art.


Unsteady flow due to harmonic oscillations of a two-dimensional supercavitating flat-plate hydrofoil in a free jet of finite width has been analyzed using first-order perturbation theory. The hydrodynamic loading coefficients thus obtained were used to study the hydroelastic instabilities: flutter and divergence. In conjunction with the analytical work, an experimental program was carried out using a free-jet water tunnel. Special attention was given to the influence of the free surfaces and the point of separation on the critical flutter speed. With proper interpretation of the location of the separation point near the leading edge, the theory and the experimental data were shown to be in fairly good agreement.


A cognitive radio wireless network is investigated, in which a number of primary users (PUs) transmit in orthogonal frequency bands. There are also a number of secondary users (SUs) in the network, which monitor transmission opportunities in these frequency bands by collaboratively detecting whether each PU is transmitting. Each SU can participate in detecting only one PU's transmission at a time although it may locate in multiple PUs' detection ranges. A network management issue is studied, which addresses the best assignment of SUs to detecting PUs so that the overall probability of detection error is minimized. A distributed implementation of the elimination algorithm is proposed to efficiently find the best assignment by drawing connection between the current problem and the inference problem in the context of probabilistic graphic models. The graphic representation of the problem is also discussed.


The calculations and analysis of the target compression state are reported for the HiPER facility under deviation of the baseline target irradiation conditions from the completely symmetric conditions considered earlier. The irradiation asymmetry readily arises at a small number of irradiating laser beams (or the directions of irradiation, for example, two or 8-20 directions) if the targets are used in a thermonuclear reactor where the number of beams is limited. The calculations have been taken by the scheme proposed earlier, which includes plotting of the irradiation maps and histograms, 1D- and 2D simulations of the target irradiation and compression. The calculations of the foam absorber targets have been compared to the experiments on the plane target irradiation at the LIL facility, where the absorber size and the irradiation conditions are in agreement with the conditions necessary for the HiPER facility.


By using mathematical reasoning, this paper demonstrates the economic intervening principle: "Virtual disease is to fill his mother but real disease is to rush down his son" and " Strong inhibition of the same time, support the weak" based on "Yin Yang Wu Xing" Theory in Traditional Chinese Economics (TCE). We defined generalized relations and generalized reasoning, introduced the concept of steady multilateral systems with two non-compatibility relations, and discussed its energy properties. Later based on the intervening principle of TCE and treated the economic society as a steady multilateral system, it has been proved that the intervening principle above is true. The kernel of this paper is the existence and reasoning of the non-compatibility relations in steady multilateral systems, and it accords with the oriental thinking model.


In line with the strategic management approach which was developed in the light of changes in production and markets, there is an emphasis in the literature of this field that companies need to be well managed in order to survive, to benefit from strategic management, and to have a sustainable competitive advantage. This study aimed to adapt and apply a scale of innovation and outsourcing. While adapting the scale, in addition to the data from the qualitative research, three different scales were used in the selection. We arranged a questionnaire and created new questions. The questionnaire consists of eight chapters: the characteristics of companies, outsourcing, supplier relations, suppliers' satisfaction level, innovation process, innovations in the last five years, and outsourcing-innovation. We collected the data from companies in Turkey, which are on the Fortune 500 list. We analyzed the data with SPSS 23 and AMOS 20. As a result of exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, the outsourcing scale was composed of 3 dimensions and 20 items. While the innovation scale consisted of 12 items in one dimension. The reliability coefficient of the outsourcing scale is 0.912, and the innovation scale is 0.911. The low number of items facilitates its applicability.


PIV measurements were made to investigate the turbulent wake flow generated by a vertical sharp-edged flat plate suspended in a shallow channel flow with a gap near the bed. The purpose of this study is to investigate the behaviour of large vortical structures in the wake flow. The investigation focused on the horizontal velocity field in the mid-distance between the bottom bed and the top free surface. Two different gap heights between the channel bed and the bottom edge of the bluff body was studied. These two cases were compared to the no-gap flow case which is considered as a reference case. The Reynolds number based on the water depth was 45,000. The large vortical structures were exposed by analyzing the PIV velocity fields using the proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) method. Only few modes were used for the POD reconstruction of the velocity fields to recover ∼50% of the turbulent kinetic energy. A vortex identification algorithm was then employed to quantify the number, size, circulation, and direction of rotation of the exposed vortices. A statistical analysis of the distribution of number, size, and strength of the identified vortices was carried out to explore the characteristics of the vortical structures.
 The results revealed that the number of vortical structures increased as a result of the gap flow with a corresponding decrease in the vortex size and strength. This behaviour is attributed to the production of new vortices and the enhancement of the tearing process.


Chloroplast development is inhibited in Euglena gracilis strain Z, when greened in a medium containing glucose. This inhibition is reflected not only in the pattern of chlorophyll accumulation but also in the chloroplast ultrastructure and activities of the 2 light reactions of photosynthesis. Chloroplasts of cells greening in the presence of glucose are delayed in developing certain structures. Photosystem I activity develops at about the same rate as that of the controls during the first 48 h of greening, after which it develops at a slower rate. The rate of development of photosystem II activity in cells greening in a glucose medium lags considerably behing that of the controls until the later hours of greening. There are similarities between glucose inhibition and chloramphenicol inhibition of chloroplast development. Glucose may inhibit a step in chloroplast development ultimately controlled by the chloroplast genome.


The multichannel digital revolution coupled with the development ofinteractive digital technology, virtualization, peer-to-peer networks, cloud computing, Internet of services, and other It developments is changing the rules of the game in many industries through disruptions of business models. New value propositions and revenue opportunities based on digital capabilities are emerging in the digital broadcasting industry. This study lies at the intersection of the intellectual domains of strategic management and organizational. It aims to contribute to fundamental debate in these fields exploring the business model transitions following the emergence of an incremental innovation and cross industry disruptions. We used both primary and secondary data sources for this study. Longitudinal data were collected on a sample of 792 firms across the supply chain of broadcasting industry in the Us and Europe between 1996 and 2008. Findings show three main business models transitions from a focus on the design of information systems, to the design of Itenabled business processes, and more recently to the design of business models for services provided through digital platforms.


Scaling up the radiance of coupled laser arrays has been a long-standing challenge in photonics. In this study, we demonstrate that notions from supersymmetry—a theoretical framework developed in high-energy physics—can be strategically used in optics to address this problem. In this regard, a supersymmetric laser array is realized that is capable of emitting exclusively in its fundamental transverse mode in a stable manner. Our results not only pave the way toward devising new schemes for scaling up radiance in integrated lasers, but also, on a more fundamental level, could shed light on the intriguing synergy between non-Hermiticity and supersymmetry.


The rapid growth of mortgages affected Bank X to launch product innovation "KPR Xtra Bebas." Realization since the establishment of KPR Xtra Bebas product did not reach the target desired by management. This study aims to analyze factors that influence consumer decision by using KPR Xtra Bebas products in order to do useful and efficient marketing. Sampling procedure used purposive sampling technique as one of the non-probability sampling techniques, namely sampling based on categories that have used the product. Data used are primary data by filling out the questionnaire conducted by the respondents themselves (self-administered survey). This study used the Partial Least Square (PLS) to analyze results from 94 samples. Results of the study identified the variables of price, place, promotion, and the process did not have a significant influence. While product, human resources, and physical evidence have a significant influence. Managerial implications that are generated are for variables that do not have a significant effect evaluation is needed to determine the appropriate strategy. Companies can build customer databases by implementing cross-selling so that promotional variables can function effectively.


Background: The adolescent suicidal intent in the county of Villa Clara and their incidence in the municipality of Santa demand
of assuming a detailed analysis to prevent suicide.
Objective: To prevent the suicidal methods educationally in adolescents.
Methods: A study of traverse descriptive type was used. The study population conformed to for 20 adolescents. The main variables
were: age, sex, used methods, family operation and educational method that it was obtained starting from an applied survey and
the contained data in the clinical histories of the patients.
Results: It was corroborated that the suicidal intents in the adolescence were associated with soft and hard methods where they
were the ingestion of medications and the hanging.
Conclusions: In educational methods with adolescents, a dysfunction with a high total prevalence of 52,7 % prevailed with the
use of soft methods from pills and the use of hard methods such as hanging


We present a new overlay network architecture for multimedia streaming content delivery. The architecture is intended to provide a flexible streaming service platform on top of the Internet, which enables clients to have streaming services on demand under multiple access environments. The new architecture facilitates mechanisms for overlay multicasting with QoS support, error resilience, congestion control for the new video coding standard H.264, and content adaptation based on the user's requirements and the bandwidth available in the network. Performance evaluation in terms of loss and delay is also presented.


Abstract This paper is concerned with the statistical analysis of closed loop data for diagnosing the causes of poor control loop performance. Higher Order Statistical (HOS) techniques have been developed over the last two decades, but until now have not been applied to the area of process monitoring. The main contribution of this work is to utilize the higher order statistical tools such as cumulants and their frequency domain counterparts (bispectrum, bicoherence, trispectrum) to detect and quantify the non-Gaussianity and nonlinearity of regulated processes or control error variables which are sometimes the main contributors to the poor performance of many of the control loops. The bicoherence index together with the process and manipulated variable plots are used to diagnose the sources of system nonlinearities. Successful application of the proposed method is demonstrated on simulated as well as industrial data.


The ability to perform sit-to-stand (STS) and back-to-sit (BTS) movements is important for the elderly to live independently and maintain a reasonable quality of life. Accordingly, this study investigated the STS and BTS motions of 28 healthy older adults (16 male and 12 female) under three different seat conditions, namely nonassisted, self-designed lifting seat, and UpLift seat. The biomechanical data were acquired using a three-dimensional (3D) motion analysis system and force plates, and were examined by one-way repeated-measures ANOVA to investigate the effects of the different seat conditions on the joint angle, joint moments, and movement duration time (α = 0.05). No significant difference was observed in the STS duration among the three test conditions. However, the BTS duration was significantly increased in the UpLift seat condition. Moreover, the peak flexion angle of the hip during STS motion was also significantly higher in the UpLift condition. For both motions (STS and BTS), the lifting seats significantly decreased the knee and hip joint moments, but significantly increased the ankle joint moment. Moreover, compared to the nonassistive seat, both assistive lifting seats required a greater ankle joint strength to complete the STS and BTS motions.


Plasma-based techniques are widely and successfully used across the field of materials processing, advanced nanosynthesis, and nanofabrication. The diversity of currently available processing architectures based on or enhanced by the use of plasmas is vast, and one can easily get lost in the opportunities presented by each of these configurations. This mini-book provides a concise outline of the most important concepts and architectures in plasma-assisted processing of materials, helping the reader navigate through the fundamentals of plasma system selection and optimization. Architectures discussed in this book range from the relatively simple, user-friendly types of plasmas produced using direct current, radio-frequency, microwave, and arc systems, to more sophisticated advanced systems based on incorporating and external substrate architectures, and complex control mechanisms of configured magnetic fields and distributed plasma sources.


The Great Escarpment in South Africa is known for its plant diversity and endemism. A spectacular example of this is the KwaZulu-Natal Drakensberg. In fact, South African mountain ranges in general appear to be nodes of endemism from the Magaliesberg, with its few endemics, to the 'mega-endemism' of the mountains in the south-western Cape.


The radiated sound from the impacted body must have the information with respect to the impact force and the other properties. We have proposed the method in order to identify the impact force and many properties by analyzing the radiated sound from the impacted body. In the present method, the relationship between the impact force and the radiated sound pressure is calculated by using FEM analysis. And, the time dependence of the impact force, the impact placement, the Young's modulus of the impacted body and the radius of the impact bar are identified by using least square method and the measured sound pressure of the many microphones. By the actual experiments, the efficiency of the proposed method is confirmed.


The special supplemental nutrition program for women, infants, and children program (WIC) allows its participants to purchase food items from a WIC approved list at retail grocery stores. However, this program restricts not only the type and the quantity of food to be purchased but also the specific food brand. In fact, participants are often required to purchase private label brands –the least expensive brand- for some of the food products. Using Nileson home-scan data on daily food purchases across the county, this study aims to evaluate how these food brand restrictions may impact consumer brand preference even outside of the WIC program.


The predictions of the distorted Fermi-sphere model for magnetic isoscalar resonances are summarized. In this model a heavy spherical nucleus is thought of as a charged piece of spin and isospin saturated nuclear Fermicontinuum possessing properties of an elastic-like matter. The magnetic resonances are described in fluid-dynamical terms and interpreted as manifestations of elastic torsional vibrations of the nucleus. The process of nuclear magnetization induced by inelastically scattered electrons is described as a transition from a currentless ground state to a magnetized excited one which is characterized by a non-zero magnetic multipole moment. We present calculations of a complete set of integral characteristic parameters of Mλ, T = 0 resonances such as position of energy peak, excitation probability and magnetic oscillator strength computed as functions of mass number and multipole degree λ ≥ 2. An analytic form is given for collective transition current density and the PWBA computed form factors that may be used for analysis of measurements with inelastically scattered electrons. Numerical estimates are performed with use of the DWBA code. Theoretical predictions are presented in juxtaposition with the DALINAC data available on M2 giant resonance in spherical nuclei. We briefly discuss the microscopic effects of two-particle correlations between nucleons occupying two different single-particle orbits of shell structured mean field that may, in our opinion, be responsible for the collective torsional magnetic response predicted by the model in question.


The continuing debate over the existence or non-existence of formal verbal aspect in Gothic triggered the author to write this monograph whose aim is to provide a completely new foundation for a theory of aspect and related features. Gothic, with its limited corpus, representing a translation of the Greek, and showing interesting parallels with Slavic verbal constructions, serves and an illustrative model for the theory. In Part I the author argues that a unified theory of aspect, actional types, and verbal velocity presented there possesses an internal logic and is not at variance with observed facts in various Indo-European languages. In Part II an analysis is presented of the Gothic verb system which seeks to explain the much-disputed function of ga- and to solve the problem of Gothic aspect and actional types which does no violence either to the Gothic text or the Greek original.


This article introduces a novel automated staircase procedure for a speech-in-noise test based on Vowel-Consonant-Vowel (VCV) stimuli. Conventional staircase procedures are based on pre-determined changes in stimulus presentation levels under the assumption of homogeneous set. The proposed staircase takes into account differences in intelligibility across the set by using changes in stimulus presentation levels that vary depending on the stimulus and the presentation level. Preliminary evaluation of the proposed staircase, as compared to a conventional staircase, demonstrated test-retest reliability, agreement with the conventional method in terms of speech-in-noise threshold estimation, and lower test duration. As such, the proposed approach shows promise for the implementation of rapid and reliable speech-in-noise tests in adults. Further research is needed to assess test performance in a larger sample of participants, also including subjects of various mother tongue and subjects with hearing loss.


This article explores how race is understood within an explicitly class‐based movement, the Knights of Labor. The movement presents an empirical puzzle: it simultaneously pursued racial openness and racial closure, and it justified both in the name of class interest. The article examines movement‐level narratives of race and class to show how underlying conceptions of class become implicated in the construction of interests regarding race. Communications drawn from the movement's official journal provide comprehensive data for identifying and interpreting the movement narratives of race and class. There were three separate Knights of Labor narratives. Although each connected race and class in a different way, all were driven by the movement's understanding of class and to "civic virtue" as a particularly important resource.


Research suggests that dedicated institutions, who have concentrated holdings and long-term investment horizon, make management focus less on short-term earnings benchmark. This study presents evidence in terms of CEO career concerns that explains why the management focuses less on short-term firm performance when dedicated institutions hold high levels of ownership. Using quarterly consensus analysts' expectation as a proxy for short-term earnings benchmark, I find that the likelihood CEO turnover is less sensitive to the frequency with which management misses quarterly forecast benchmarks for firms with high dedicated institutional ownership than for firms with low dedicated institutional ownership, suggesting that dedicated institutions reduce pressure on management in terms of career concerns for short-term results and align interests of managers toward long-term firm value creation. This study contributes to the literature on the governance roles of institutions by documenting how institutions affect the sensitivity of CEO turnover decision to firm performance. It has policy implication for business managers and regulators that attracting dedicated institutions alleviates management incentive to play the numbers game to meet quarterly Wall Street expectations.


In this paper, we introduce the generalization of feature-based image retrieval, the technology of semantic query and how to use CBIR on web. It research the different methods retrieval the image, including color-shape feature (CS) and color-texture-shape (CTS) feature. Through contrasting CS, CST we found CS and CST enhanced effectively and decreased the storage space and calculation. On the base of the color, texture and shape features, the technology of semantic query is proposed in this paper. The query not only reflect the low-layer physical property of image, but also joined with the high-layer semantic property of image. The retrieval performance is improved efficiently.


PURPOSE
The purpose of this systematic review was to identify studies in which either orthodontic extrusion or bone grafting was used prior to single implant placement in the maxillary esthetic zone and to compare the biologic, functional, and esthetic outcomes of these two approaches.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
An electronic MEDLINE search was conducted by three independent reviewers to identify English-language articles, published in dental journals between January 1992 and August 2013, reporting on single-implant site development accomplished by orthodontic forced eruption of nonrestorable teeth or by bone grafting procedures. The search terms were categorized into four groups comprising a PICO (problem, intervention, comparison, outcome) question. Supplementary manual searches of published full-text articles and related reviews were also performed.

RESULTS
The initial database search produced 301 relevant titles. After careful examination and discussion, 32 studies were selected for inclusion. No study directly comparing the two implant site-development methods was identified. The observation periods of the available studies were either short or not stated.

CONCLUSION
There is a substantial lack of evidence to determine which method for implant site development is better. Definitive conclusions cannot be drawn, since no clinical trials have directly compared these two methods. All included studies reported separately on the two implant site-development methods and used different protocols. According to the literature reviewed, it seems that both methods of implant site development are effective and neither method is superior. Multicenter studies and randomized clinical trials should be performed to evaluate the efficacy of these two methods.


To improve understanding of human background exposure to dioxins, the influence of cooking on dioxin concentrations in food has received much attention. Studies have focused on changes in the distribution of dioxins that originate from raw foods. However, the possibility of dioxin formation during cooking has been neglected. In this study, cooking experiments were designed to investigate the generation of dioxins during cooking at high temperature and with flavorings containing organic chlorine. Solid, liquid, and gas phase samples were collected during cooking. The results indicate that dioxins can be generated during some cooking processes, such as burning, or when cooking with reactive organic chlorides, and the dioxins are more likely to be present in the smoke (gas phase) than the edible portion (solid and liquid phases). Thus, more attention should be given to cooking of raw foods and organic chlorine-containing flavorings at high temperature. Maintaining good ventilation during cooking is also necessary to reduce human exposure risk to dioxins.


Previous studies have found differences in the cognitive and neural mechanisms between cognitive reappraisal and expression suppression in the regulation of various negative emotions and the recognition of regulated stimuli. However, whether these differences are valid for sadness remains unclear. As such, we investigated the effect of cognitive reappraisal and expression suppression on sadness regulation and the recognition of sad scenes adopting event-related potentials (ERPs). Twenty-eight healthy undergraduate and graduate students took part in this study. In the regulation phase, the participants were asked to down-regulation, expressive suppression, or maintain their sad emotion evoked by the sad images, and then to perform an immediately unexpected recognition task involving the regulated images. The behavioral results show that down-regulation reappraisal significantly diminished subjective feelings of sadness, but expressive suppression did not; both strategies impaired the participants' recognition of sad images, and expressive suppression had a greater damaging effect on the recognition of sad images than down-regulation reappraisal. The ERP results indicate that reappraisal (from 300 ms to 1,500 ms after image onset) and expressive suppression (during 300–600 ms) significantly reduced the late positive potential (LPP) induced by sadness. These findings suggest that down-regulation reappraisal and expression suppression can effectively decrease sadness, and that down-regulation reappraisal (relative to expression suppression) is a more effective regulation strategy for sadness. Both strategies impair the recognition of sad scenes, and expression suppression (compared to down-regulation reappraisal) leads to relatively greater impairment in the recognition of sad scenes.


Following tooth extraction, we often observe significant changes of ridge contour that is the result of alveolar bone loss. Most of the bone loss occurs during the first 3 to 4 months following extraction. To prevent this, it is strongly recommended to graft the extraction site with a biocompatible and bioactive osseous graft material at the time of extraction. There are many options available for socket grafting each with its own deficiencies. Most of the synthetic and allograft type bone substitutes preserve the alveolar ridge during the repair phase of the wound healing, but subsequently resorb during the following remodeling phase and therefore only achieve partial ridge restoration. Xenografts, on the contrary, do not osseointegrate sufficiently and form "islands" of foreign body within the bone structure. Recently, a novel procedure was developed where the extracted tooth is immediately processed into an autologous graft that preserves the alveolar ridge for many years and is biocompatible to the host site in a highly predictable manner. The procedure also helps to keep treatment costs lower than prepackaged graft materials. This autologous dentin particulate, made from the extracted tooth of the patient, undergoes ankylosis with the newly formed bone around it. The result is a biological connection or fusion of the graft and the host bone, an interface that is more biological than other alternatives, hence providing optimal and predictable results in the short and long term.


Despite of advances in perinatal management and treatment modalities conge nital diaphragmatic hernia(CDH) remains a frustrating problem. Although the sheep has proven to be a reliable experimental model for the production of in trauterine CDH, the rabbit may have some advantages. These include lower cost, smaller body size, year-round availability, high number of fetuses per pregnancy, and short gestational period. To evaluate the feasibility of the rabbit model of CDH, twenty-seven pregnant New Zealand rabbits were utilized. Hysterotomy and an operative procedure for creating a diaphragmatic defect on gestational day 24 or 25, in two fetuses of each pregnant rabbit were performed. In one fetus of one cornu of the uterus, the left fetal diaphragm was excised through an open thoracotomy(DH group). In another fetus in the other cornu, CDH was created and the trachea clipped(Surgiclip, USSC, Norwalk, Conn., USA) (TL group). Delivery was by Cesarean section on 30 days of gestation. Among twenty- seven pregnant rabbits, 12 in the DH group and eight in the TL group were born alive. The most common herniated organ was the left lobe of the liver. In thee DH group, the lungs were hypoplastic with decreased lung weightlbody weight ratio, reduced numbers of alveoli, thicker media of the pulmonary arteries, and immature alveoli. In TL group, the alveoli were more mature and did not differ from the control animals. In conclusion, (1) pulmonary hypoplasia develops in the fetal rabbit diaphragmatic hernia model and (2) simultaneous tracheal ligation prevents pulmonary hypoplasia.


Let (X, ρ), (Y, σ) be metric spaces and f : X → Y an injective mapping. We put ‖f‖Lip = sup{σ(f(x), f(y))/ρ(x, y); x, y ∈ X, x 6= y}, and dist(f) = ‖f‖Lip .‖f ‖Lip (the distortion of the mapping f). Some Ramsey-type questions for mappings of finite metric spaces with bounded distortion are studied; e.g., the following theorem is proved: Let X be a finite metric space, and let ε > 0, K be given numbers. Then there exists a finite metric space Y , such that for every mapping f : Y → Z (Z arbitrary metric space) with dist(f) < K one can find a mapping g : X → Y , such that both the mappings g and f |g(X) have distortion at most (1 + ε). If X is isometrically embeddable into a lp space (for some p ∈ [1,∞]), then also Y can be chosen with this property.


To the Editor.— Two cases of Mycobacterium marinum infections were successfully treated with minocycline hydrochloride (Minocin). Loria reported his experience with this drug in 1976. 1 Prior to that, Dr E. Epstein remarked in the SOCIETY TRANSACTION that he knew of four cases that were successfully treated with minocycline. 2 Kim treated and cured six cases of M marinum with tetracycline, which patients took over a two- to three-month period. 3 Report of Cases.—Case 1.— A 50-year-old man had a four-year history of nonhealing granulomas on the lower aspect of his right leg. The lesion previously had been treated with penicillin without response. A punch biopsy showed a granuloma, and culture of the tissue at room temperature grew a photochromagen that was identified as M marinum . He was treated with 100 mg of minocycline hydrochloride twice a day and showed complete healing of the lesions after eight weeks.


The aims were to follow stroke patients over time with respect to general pain, shoulder pain, weight loss, and health related quality of life (HRQOL), the latter also in stroke survivors' informal caregivers.

Methods

During a 1 year period, 416 first-ever stroke patients were included in the population based Lund Stroke Register; 327 survivors were followed up after four months and 305 one year later. Baseline assessments included weight, height (to calculate Body Mass Index), functional status (NIH Stroke Scale), plasma/serum albumin, prealbumin, and glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c). After four months, assessments included functional status (Barthel Index), HRQOL (SF-36), pain (visual analogue scale [VAS]), shoulder pain (clinical examinations and questionnaires), weight, albumin, and prealbumin. One year later the same parameters were examined, with addition of geriatric depression scale (GDS-20), and HbA1c.

Results

Patients' physical function deteriorated over time, but they improved in socio-emotional and mental domains of HRQOL. Surprisingly, caregivers had lower scores than patients in emotional and mental domains, indicating strain. In patients, depression was the most important determinant of HRQOL. Although prevalence of pain decreased over time, after 16 months a fifth had moderate-severe pain; across the entire study period one third experienced moderate to severe pain. Almost one third of patients developed shoulder pain, which mostly was moderate to severe and restricted daily life activities. Impaired arm motor function and low general status were the major determinants for shoulder pain. Weight loss >3 kg was found in a quarter of the patients at both follow-ups and appeared to be a marker of malnutrition. Major risk factors of weight loss >3 kg were eating difficulties, haemorrhagic stroke, low social participation, and low prealbumin.

Conclusions

Stroke patients need enhanced attention in post acute care regarding nutritional status, pain, and depression. An intervention program towards patients and their informal caregivers would have a potential to improve their life after stroke.


PURPOSE
A lateral approach for sinus elevation using plasma rich in growth factors (PRGF) technology is described. The long-term survival of dental implants installed following a two-stage procedure after sinus elevation using this procedure is reported, using implant loss as the outcome variable.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
A retrospective cohort study design was used. Eighteen patients received 43 implants (BTI implants, Biotechnology Institute, Vitoria, Spain) with sinus floor elevation. All patients presented a residual bone height of class D (1-3 mm). Implants were installed using a low-speed drilling procedure (50 rpm) without irrigation. Finally, the histological and histomorphometric evaluation of eight samples from PRGF grafted sinus involved in the study was carried out 5-6 months posttreatment.

RESULTS
The overall survival rate of dental implants was 100%. The mean follow-up period for all implants was 33 +/- 7 months ranging from 24 to 44 months. In addition, the histomorphometrical evaluation of the samples evidenced a 25.24 +/- 4.62% of vital newly formed bone, 50.31 +/- 15.56% of soft connective tissue, and the remaining 24.46 +/- 12.79% of bovine anorganic bone.

CONCLUSIONS
Based on these results, this new approach for sinus elevation and implant installation using PRGF technology can be considered safe, simple, effective, and predictable.


of knowledge and attitude about Human Papillomavirus(HPV) in college students. Methods : A cross-sectional survey design with a convenient sampling was used. The subjects were 215 college students. Data collection was done by self-reporting method from September 10 to 22, 2012. The reliability of the instruments were from .81 to .83. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the characteristics of the sample and knowledge and attitude about HPV. The independent t-test and x2 test were performed using SPSS 18.0 to confirm gender differences. Results : The participants in this study were 100 male 115 female students. 7.2% of the participants has family history of cancer of cervix, ovarian cancer and uterine cancer. The percentage of correct answer of knowledge items toward the HPV were 4.2% to 42.8%. 84.7% of the participants were heard about cancer of cervix, 31.6% of the participants were heard about HPV, and 68.4% were heard about HPV vaccine. There was a significant differences in the correct answer rate about knowledge items toward the HPV between the gender. Female students were more correct answers than male students about "HPV can be prevented with vaccine"(x2=5.90, p=.019), but male students were more correct answers than female student about "low risk virus make dysplasia of cervix area"(x2 =.01, p〈.001) and "for man, HPV can occur genital cancer, so preventive exam is necessary"(x2=7.26, p=.013). In attitude, of HPV vaccine, male was higher attitude score than female about "I am afraid of side effects of HPV vaccine"(t=2.704, p=.007). But female was higher attitude score than male about "I don't need HPV vaccine"(t=-1.984, p=.049), "I am not interest in HPV vaccine"(t=-2.339, p=.020), "HPV vaccination may lead to unsafe sex"(t=-2.304, p=.022). Conclusion: Subjects's knowledge about HPV were low level. College students were more aware of the HPV vaccine rather than HPV. The significantly differences between the gender were due to differences in gender characteristics. Difference of Knowledge and Attitude about Human Papillomavirus in Male and Female College Students


. A discrete framework of 3D tomographic phase retrieval with a coded aperture under the Rytov and Born approximations is analyzed. With the introduction of a beam splitter together with coded and uncoded apertures in the measurement, the dataset of diffraction patterns is reducible to that of projections under various measurement uncertainties such as sample heterogeneities, unknown orientations and positions. Without a beam splitter, this data reducibility holds true for random conical tilt (RCT) and orthogonal tilt (OT) schemes widely used in cryo-EM if performed with a coded aperture. This approach has the potential of leveraging highly successful projection-based techniques in cryo-EM to process diffraction data collected under uncertainties. The resulting phase unwrapping problem for 3D projection tomography is solved by the proposed sampling schemes including as special cases (i) the conical tilting of range at least π at a conical angle slightly greater than π/ 4, (ii) the orthogonal dual-axis tilting of a tilt range at least π/ 2 for each axis and (iii) a combination of a conical tilting of range at least π/ 2 at any conical angle τ ∈ ( π/ 4 , π/ 2] and an orthogonal single-axis tilting of a tilt range at least τ .


Author(s): Harewood Smith, Adeola Natasha | Advisor(s): Silver, Michael A | Abstract: The ability to discriminate individual items in the presence of flankers is necessary for tasks such as reading and driving. The reduction in the ability to identify an item in peripheral vision due to the presence of flankers is called crowding. Crowding tasks provide a measure of the spatial resolution of visual perception. Previous studies have found better performance on crowding tasks in the lower visual field than in the upper visual field, and this effect is known as the lower visual field advantage. However, when the size of the upper and lower visual field extent are taken into account by placing stimuli at locations with the same percentage of visual field extent, the lower visual field advantage goes away. Spatial working memory (SWM) is the short-term storage of locations of items not currently visible in the environment for immediate use. Manipulation of cholinergic or dopaminergic signaling alters the spatial tuning of macaque prefrontal cortical neurons during the delay period of a SWM task and can improve SWM performance in primates. Moreover, increasing synaptic levels of acetylcholine reduces the excitatory receptive field size of neurons in marmoset primary visual cortex and sharpens the spatial tuning of visual cortical fMRI responses in humans. These results point to cholinergic enhancement leading to increased spatial resolution and cholinergic and dopaminergic enhancement improving spatial working memory. In chapter one of this dissertation, I discuss the relationship between crowding and visual field shape. I show that for radially configured flankers there is a lower visual field advantage for critical spacing (the minimum distance between a target and its flankers that is required for a certain level of performance on a crowding task) when crowded stimuli are placed at the same eccentricity. This suggests that the spatial resolution of perception is better in the lower visual field than in the upper visual field. When stimulus locations are matched for the same percentage of visual field extent, however the lower visual field advantage for critical spacing is no longer present. We did not observe a lower visual field advantage for stimuli with a tangential configuration.In chapter two I present a study that examined the effects of cholinergic and dopaminergic enhancement on spatial working memory. I found that pharmacological enhancement of the cholinergic system (using donepezil) and the dopaminergic system (using levodopa/carbidopa) did not result in improved spatial working memory precision, which we defined as subjects being able to notice smaller changes in the spatial location of a remembered stimulus. The first study demonstrates that spatial resolution is different in the lower and upper visual field when stimuli are oriented radially. The second study concludes that the precision of spatial resolution in working memory is not limited by the spatial resolution of perception and that cholinergic or dopaminergic enhancement through an acute dose of donepezil or levodopa/carbidopa, respectively, does not improve spatial resolution in working memory.


Crustaceans include all the animals of the phylum Arthropoda Crustacea; the word comes from the Latin crusta , which means shell. Crustaceans are a very diverse group of invertebrate animals which includes active animals such as the crabs, lobsters, shrimp, krill, copepods, amphipods, and more sessile creatures like barnacles. Arthropoda is the largest phylum of Animal Kingdom. It includes about 11,340,000 species in all habitats. This constitutes about 83% of all the known animal species on earth. Arthropoda includes spider, scorpions, prawns, crabs, millipedes, centipedes, and many other insects. Arthropoda is characterized by heteronomous metamerism, chitinous exoskeleton, and joined appendages. The evolutionary acquisition of these traits is known as arthropodization. In very small crustaceans, exchange of the respiratory gases occurs through the general body surface. Large aquatic arthropods respire through gills and book gills, whereas terrestrial forms respire through trachea and book lungs.


Histone acetylation regulates many cellular processes, and specific acetylation marks, either singly or in combination, produce distinct outcomes. For example, the acetylation pattern on newly synthesized histones is important for their assembly into nucleosomes by histone chaperones. Additionally, the degree of chromatin compaction and folding may be regulated by acetylation of histone H4 at lysine 16. Histone acetylation also regulates the formation of heterochromatin; deacetylation of H4 lysine 16 is important for spreading of heterochromatin components, whereas acetylation of this site serves as a barrier to this spreading. Finally, histone acetylation is critical for gene transcription, but recent results suggest that deacetylation of certain sites also plays an important role. There are many histone acetyltransferases (HATs) and deacetylases, with differing preferences for the various histone proteins and for specific sites on individual histones. Determining how these enzymes create distinct acetylation patterns and regulate the functional outcome is an important challenge.


The Gumbel-softmax distribution, or Concrete distribution, is often used to relax the discrete charac-teristics of a categorical distribution and enable back-propagation through differentiable reparameterization. Although it reliably yields low variance gradients, it still relies on a stochastic sampling process for optimization. In this work, we present a relaxed categorical analytic bound (ReCAB), a novel divergence-like metric which corresponds to the upper bound of the Kullback-Leibler divergence (KLD) of a relaxed categorical distribution. The proposed metric is easy to implement because it has a closed form solution, and empirical results show that it is close to the actual KLD. Along with this new metric, we propose a relaxed categorical analytic bound variational autoencoder (ReCAB-VAE) that successfully models both continuous and relaxed discrete latent representations. We implement an emotional text-to-speech synthesis system based on the proposed framework, and show that the proposed system flexibly and stably controls emotion expressions with better speech quality compared to baselines that use stochastic estimation or categorical distribution approximation.


Finite Element Analysis (FEA) is a numerical modelling tool vastly employed in research facilities to analyse and predict load transmission between the human body and a medical device, such as a prosthesis or an exoskeleton. Yet, the use of Finite Element Modelling (FEM) in a framework compatible with clinical constraints is hindered by, amongst others, heavy and time-consuming assessments of material properties. Ultrasound imaging opens new and unique opportunities for the assessment of in vivo material properties of soft tissues. Confident of these advances, a method combining a freehand ultrasound probe and a force sensor was developed in order to compute the hyperelastic constitutive parameters of the soft tissues of the thigh in both relaxed (R) and contracted (C) muscles configurations. Seven asymptomatic subjects were included for the experiment. Two operators in each configuration performed the acquisitions. Inverse FEM allowed for the optimisation of an Ogden's hyperelastic constitutive model of soft tissues of the thigh in large displacement. The mean shear modulus identified for configurations R and C were respectively 3.2 ± 1.3 kPa and 13.7 ± 6.5 kPa. The mean alpha parameter identified for configurations R and C were respectively 10 ± 1 and 9 ± 4. An analysis of variance showed that the configuration had an effect on constitutive parameters but not the operator.


I offer here an interpretation and defense of John Stuart Mill's qualitative hedonism. One of the results of Mill's well-known mental crisis was a concept of utility substantially different from the orthodox Benthamite quantitative hedonism which Mill came to regard as being fraught with difficulties. He saw Bentham's concept as being excessively narrow, and he sought to overcome its limitations by enlarging his own concept of utility. He did this by including the quality of pleasures along with the quantity in the estimation of their worth. At the same time, Mill was highly critical of the intuitionist ethical theories of his day, and propounded utilitarianism as the rational, objective, and scientific alternative. So if Mill is to succeed in his enterprise of countering intuitionism while avoiding the pitfalls of Benthamite utilitarianism, he must retain the objectivity of Benthamism while repudiating its narrowness. Mill's critics have argued that when he opened up his concept of utility to include quality, he modified his theory so radically that he can no longer be called a hedonistic utilitarian, and that he relinquished the consis- tency and objectivity of Benthamite utilitarianism along with its weak- nesses. I argue here that Mill abandons neither hedonism nor utilitarianism, and that the objectivity and consistency of his theory are not undermined.


Video learning is becoming an increasingly important part of contemporary education. In the decade there has been an increase of many and diverse forms of research efforts on video learning. This paper focuses on the video learning research of the last years based on 166 peer-reviewed published academic papers. A categorization is then derived from these papers, delineating some basic characteristics of video learning. The taxonomy attempts to look at MOOCs rapid growth through the lens of video-based learning research. We also provide some directions for future research related to the use of video learning.