In the last several years, technological progress has accelerated rapidly. Artificial intelligence (AI) has brought self-driving cars to our streets, super-automation to our factories, deep learning algorithms that beat world champions, image recognition programs that diagnose cancer more accurately than experienced oncologists can, voice recognition machines that understand speech on a par with humans and a host of other achievements which would have been hard to imagine even a decade ago. The critical interest, however, is not in what has been accomplished, but rather where technology is going and what will be the implications of forthcoming advances in all aspects of our lives, work and societies, including the possibility, some argue, of mass unemployment and huge income inequalities, as machines and robots powered by AI replace human labor. It is the purpose of this paper to discuss AI and related technological advancements and consider their implications for humanity in general and for a small country like Cyprus in particular. The paper is organized into three parts. It first looks at AI and its achievements and considers four scenarios of how it could affect us. In the second part, the paper presents a complementary to AI technology, that of intelligence augmentation (IA) that provides a different perspective to where technology is leading us and the implications involved. The final, third part considers the consequences of AI and IA for Cyprus and what would need to be done to exploit their advantages whilst minimizing their drawbacks.


Background and purpose Some authors use FLAIR imaging to select patients for stroke treatment. However, the effect of hyperintensity on FLAIR images on outcome and bleeding has been addressed in only few studies with conflicting results. Methods 466 patients with anterior circulation strokes were included in this study. They all were examined with MRI before intravenous or endovascular treatment. Baseline data and 3 months outcome were recorded prospectively. Focal T2 and FLAIR hyperintensities within the ischemic lesion were evaluated by two raters, and the PROACT II classification was applied to assess bleeding complications on follow up imaging. Logistic regression analysis was used to determine predictors of bleeding complications and outcome and to analyze the influence of T2 or FLAIR hyperintensity on outcome. Results Focal hyperintensities were found in 142 of 307 (46.3%) patients with T2 weighted imaging and in 89 of 159 (56%) patients with FLAIR imaging. Hyperintensity in the basal ganglia, especially in the lentiform nucleus, on T2 weighted imaging was the only independent predictor of any bleeding after reperfusion treatment (33.8% in patients with vs. 18.2% in those without; p = 0.003) and there was a non-significant trend for more bleedings in patients with FLAIR hyperintensity within the basal ganglia (p = 0.069). However, there was no association of hyperintensity on T2 weighted or FLAIR images and symptomatic bleeding or worse outcome. Conclusion Our results question the assumption that T2 or FLAIR hyperintensities within the ischemic lesion should be used to exclude patients from reperfusion therapy, especially not from endovascular treatment.


Stress responses have been posited to be a key component of mental health and disease by playing essential roles both in normal adaptive processes and maladaptive physiological responses that in part underlie the pathogenesis of certain subtypes of mood and anxiety disorders. Early research focused on delineating the function of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and subsequently examined its role in mediating the mammalian stress responses and its hyperactivity in depression. Much evidence now supports an important function of the biological mediators of this system in relation to not only depression, but also anxiety, substance abuse, and psychotic disorders, and implicates several components of this system as areas of intervention for novel pharmacotherapy. Perhaps the best studied central nervous system (CNS) component of this system is corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF), and considerable research has focused on its role in the HPA axis, as well in extrahypothalamic brain regions.


Many studies list the customer-supplier -relationship related issues among the most important reasons for software project failures. Today most of the software development is done outside the organization actually using the software, so the organizational interface of customer and supplier is something that we just need to live with. Since it is not possible, or desirable, to eliminate this interface, we need proper ways to manage the issues introduced by this organizational interface. In this paper we shall look at the customer-supplier interface and issues related to it. The purpose of the paper is to demonstrate common issues and how they can manifest themselves in the software development context. Our study identified six issues related to customer-supplier interface. The issues were related to knowledge transfer, changes during projects, and power relations between customers and suppliers. The paper has implications both for the practice and research. For practitioners the identification and exploration of the issues will provide a solid basis to manage these problems as they come up in practice. For researchers the paper provides an empirically founded description of issues identified in customer-supplier interface.


INTRODUCTION
Pyocephalus always presents serious complications in the treatment of brain abscesses, and is associated with high rates of mortality and morbidity. This study aimed to comprehensively evaluate this understandably feared complication from a purely medical perspective by using an evidence-based approach and drawing comparisons from the available literature, which mostly comprises case reports.

METHODS
This was a prospective monocentric study of all patients treated for brain abscesses at the Neurosurgery Clinic of the University Hospital Ostrava between 2012 and 2017. The cohort was divided into two groups for statistical comparison; one group comprised those in which pyocephalus occurred before or during treatment, while the other group comprised patients without this complication. Particular consideration was given to the effect of pyocephalus on morbidity and mortality rates and C-reactive protein levels, as well as to the identification of risk factors, and to its possible therapeutic influence. Patients were followed up for six months.

RESULTS
A total of 43 patients were treated for a brain abscess. An unequivocal diagnosis of pyocephalus was established via CT and MRI brain scans in five cases (11.6%). In the cohort as a whole, mortality and morbidity rates were 23.3% and 48.8% respectively. Among patients with pyocephalus the incidence of mortality and morbidity was 40% and 66.6% respectively. The presence of pyocephalus is not a significant predictor of either morbidity (p 0.575) or mortality (p 0.664). In patients with pyocephalus, we determined elevated CRP levels on the day of surgery (p 0.038). The occurrence of epileptic seizures in the acute phase of the disease is associated with a poor outcome (p 0.039).

CONCLUSIONS
Pyocephalus will continue to be a serious complication in the treatment of brain abscesses, although we were unable to determine its utility as a prognostic factor. Patients with this complication have elevated CRP levels on the day of operation.


The reference sample method using 15 micron diameter radionuclide labelled carbon microspheres was used to establish a rat model of pancreatic blood flow which was then used to follow up previously reported studies in dogs which showed that intravenously administered alcohol lead to a fall in pancreatic blood flow. In addition, the oral administration of alcohol alone and in combination with glucose was studied. The literature regarding pancreatic blood flow was reviewed with special emphasis on techniques of measurement and the effect of intravenously administered alcohol. While the rat model proved highly successful, it was not possible to use a dual injection technique as had been previously carried out in the larger experimental animal. This meant that instead of carrying out a control measurement on each animal it was necessary to have separate control and experiment groups. The major findings of the study were of difference in pancreatic blood flow between fasted (105  9, mean  s.e.) and non-fasted animals (134  11) which was significant at the 0.025 level using the unpaired t test (t=2.14, df 18, p<0.025). No significant changes in pancreatic blood flow were observed with alcohol administered via intravenous or via gastric infusion compared to control groups. The major finding of the study was that a combination of alcohol and glucose administered via gastric infusion was found to produce a rise in pancreatic blood flow (161 19) which was greater than that seen with either intravenous alcohol alone


Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is still the most common cause of hepatocellular carcinoma and liver cirrhosis world wide. Recently, however, there has been quite dramatic improvement in the understanding of HBV associated liver disease and its treatment. It has become clear that high viral replication is a major risk factor for the development of both cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Early studies have shown lamivudine lowers the risk of HBV associated complications. There are currently three nucleos(t)ides licensed, in addition to interferon, and there are more drugs coming to the market soon. Interferon or its pegylated counterpart are still the only options for treatment with defined end points, while nucleos(t)ides therapy is used mostly for long term treatment. Combination therapies have not been shown to be superior to monotherapy in naive patients, however, the outcome depends on how the end point is defined. Interferon plus lamivudine achieves a higher viral suppression than either treatment alone, even though Hbe-seroconversion was not different after a one year treatment. HBV-genotypes emerge as relevant factors, with genotypes "A" and "B" responding relatively well to interferon, achieving up to 20% HBsAg clearance in the case of genotype "A". In addition to having a defined treatment duration, interferon has the advantage of lacking resistance selection, which is a major drawback for lamivudine and the other nucleos(t)ides. The emergence of resistance against adefovir and entecavir is somewhat slower in naive compared to lamivudine resistant patients. Adefovir has a low resistance profile with 3%, 9%, 18%, and 28% after 2, 3, 4, and 5 years, respectively, while entecavir has rarely produced resistance in naive patients for up to 3 years.


UV radiation (UVR) is essential for formation of vitamin D(3), which can be hydroxylated locally in the skin to 1α,25-dihydroxyvitamin D(3) [1,25-(OH)(2)D(3)]. Recent studies implicate 1,25-(OH)(2)D(3) in reduction of UVR-induced DNA damage, particularly thymine dimers. There is evidence that photoprotection occurs through the steroid nongenomic pathway for 1,25-(OH)(2)D(3) action. In the current study, we tested the involvement of the classical vitamin D receptor (VDR) and the endoplasmic reticulum stress protein 57 (ERp57), in the mechanisms of photoprotection. The protective effects of 1,25-(OH)(2)D(3) against thymine dimers were abolished in fibroblasts from patients with hereditary vitamin D-resistant rickets that expressed no VDR protein, indicating that the VDR is essential for photoprotection. Photoprotection remained in hereditary vitamin D-resistant rickets fibroblasts expressing a VDR with a defective DNA-binding domain or a mutation in helix H1 of the classical ligand-binding domain, both defects resulting in a failure to mediate genomic responses, implicating nongenomic responses for photoprotection. Ab099, a neutralizing antibody to ERp57, and ERp57 small interfering RNA completely blocked protection against thymine dimers in normal fibroblasts. Co-IP studies showed that the VDR and ERp57 interact in nonnuclear extracts of fibroblasts. 1,25-(OH)(2)D(3) up-regulated expression of the tumor suppressor p53 in normal fibroblasts. This up-regulation of p53, however, was observed in all mutant fibroblasts, including those with no VDR, and with Ab099; therefore, VDR and ERp57 are not essential for p53 regulation. The data implicate the VDR and ERp57 as critical components for actions of 1,25-(OH)(2)D(3) against DNA damage, but the VDR does not require normal DNA binding or classical ligand binding to mediate photoprotection.


In the Zeida abandoned mine, pit lake waters exhibit alkaline pH and high conductivity. The concentrations of the total dissolved lead and zinc are very low due to their adsorption on clay minerals and iron oxyhydroxides. Conversely, arsenic concentrations in two lakes (ZL1 and ZA) exceed WHO water quality guidelines. The As content is relatively high in ZL1 and exists mainly as As(V). In ZA, As(III) occurs in low concentration compared to the total dissolved arsenic, while dimethylarsenic acid (H2AsO2(CH3)2, DMA) prevails. This means that arsenic was methylated by organic matter produced by micro-organisms such as chlorella. The sequential extraction of floor sediments in the two lakes shows that the bioavailable arsenic contents change between them. In ZA, the sediments show high concentrations of lead and arsenic compared to the ZL1 sediment since it is surrounded by mining waste tailings, which are rich in these elements. An arsenic leaching test of ZA sediment shows that bioavailable arsenic is distributed in equal proportion between clay/carbonates, sulfide-organic matter and iron oxide phases, while in ZL1, most of the arsenic is linked to hydrous iron oxides. Supplementary material: Information on quality control/quality insurance for the used analytical techniques, and additional figures 9–13 are available at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.5545316 Thematic collection: This article is part of the Hydrochemistry related to exploration and environmental issues collection available at: https://www.lyellcollection.org/cc/hydrochemistry-related-to-exploration-and-environmental-issues


In the various sites in Sea of Marmara, Appendicularian Oikopleura (Vexillaria) dioica were invaded by Oodinium sp. This study provides the first evidence of Oodinium sp. in the Sea of Marmara, Turkey. High probability of a fatal attack to the zooplankton communities will affect directly to the biodiversity via food web and finally to the fishery of the area. The effect may grow or/and spread exponentially to the Black Sea and Mediterranean Sea, because of the oceanographical and biological specialities of the Sea of Marmara and its connections trough Turkish straits. This study emphasizes the consequences of parasitic infection in the case of the special position of Sea of Marmara.


If the use of fossil fuels is to be limited to curtail greenhouse gas emissions, fission nuclear energy is, along with new renewable energies, one of the primary energy sources able to respond significantly to the increasing worldwide demand. In this context, it is necessary to design and evaluate new generations of nuclear reactors as defined by the Gen IV International Forum. The Energy and Nuclear Engineering (GEN) curriculum of the Ecole Nationale Superieure de Physique de Grenoble (ENSPG), one of the nine engineering schools of the Grenoble Institute of Technology (INPG), includes a balanced blend of basic courses in energy, nuclear and thermal hydraulic engineering, together with the corresponding engineering sciences to cover the technological aspects. The objective is to train engineers who shall master not only nuclear engineering for the production of electricity but, more broadly, energy and nuclear technologies and their various application fields.


Redox homeostasis and signaling are critically important in the regulation of cell function. There are significant challenges in quantitatively measuring intracellular redox potentials, and in this paper, we introduce a new approach. Our approach is based on the use of nanosensors which comprise molecules that sense the local redox potential, assembled on a gold nanoshell. Since the Raman spectrum of the sensor molecule changes depending on its oxidation state and since the nanoshell allows a huge enhancement of the Raman spectrum, intracellular potential can be calculated by a simple optical measurement. The nanosensors can be controllably delivered to the cytoplasm, without any toxic effects, allowing redox potential to be monitored in a reversible, non-invasive manner over a previously unattainable potential range encompassing both superphysiological and physiological oxidative stress.


OBJECTIVES
This study compares the prevalence of Mantoux positivity among prisoners in NSW in 1996 and 2001 and examines factors associated with Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection.

DESIGN
Cross-sectional random samples of prisoners, including a longitudinal cohort of prisoners screened in both 1996 and 2001.

SETTING
29 correctional centres.

PARTICIPANTS
747 men and 167 women participated in the 2001 NSW Inmate Health Survey; a cohort of 104 prisoners from the 1996 and 2001 NSW Inmate Health Surveys.

RESULTS
The prevalence of Mantoux positivity remained stable between 1996 and 2001 (12% and 14%, p = 0.2), and increased among prisoners from Asian backgrounds (21% and 47%, p = 0.02). The annual risk of infection in the cohort among those detained continuously between 1996 and 2001 was 3.1%, and among recidivists it was 2.7% (p = 0.6).

CONCLUSION
The risk of M. tuberculosis infection for Australian prisoners is assessed to be approximately four times higher than that for the community, however there is no attributable risk to the prison environment itself.


In the early stage of corrosion of Al or Al alloys (i.e., during the initiation of localized corrosion), an oxide film is generally present on the surface. This work investigates the possibility for a cathodic reaction to occur on these oxide films. We discuss realistic models of supported oxide films on Al(111) in order to disentangle the factors determining the reactivity towards O2. Three components of the complex film formed on Al(111) can be identified: an ultrathin under‐stoichiometric AlxOy interface layer, an intermediate Al2O3 phase with γ‐alumina structure, and an hydroxylated AlOOH surface termination with boehmite structure. The electron transfer to O2 molecules depends on the workfunction, Φe, of the metal/oxide interface and on the thickness of the inner Al2O3 phase. The electron transfer takes place both from the metal‐oxide interface and the oxide surface to the adsorbed O2 molecule. Very important is the role of the hydroxyl groups at the surface: they eliminate the Al surface states and stabilize the surface; they allow the reduced O2 − species to capture protons and transform into hydrogen peroxide in a non‐activated process. H2O2 is further reduced to two water molecules, in a series of two‐electron mechanisms. These reactions take place only when the internal alumina phase is ultrathin (here 0.2 nm). As soon as an Al2O3 inner layer develops (film thickness of about 1 nm), the film becomes unreactive and passivates the Al(111) surface. The results help to shed light on the complex reactions responsible for metal corrosion.


Feature selection is a crucial problem in efficient machine learning, and it also greatly contributes to the explainability of machine-driven decisions. Methods, like decision trees and Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (LASSO), can select features during training. However, these embedded approaches can only be applied to a small subset of machine learning models. Wrapper based methods can select features independently from machine learning models but they often suffer from a high computational cost. To enhance their efficiency, many randomized algorithms have been designed. In this paper, we propose automatic breadth searching and attention searching adjustment approaches to further speedup randomized wrapper based feature selection. We conduct theoretical computational complexity analysis and further explain our algorithms' generic parallelizability. We conduct experiments on both synthetic and real datasets with different machine learning base models. Results show that, compared with existing approaches, our proposed techniques can locate a more meaningful set of features with a high efficiency.


Abstract. Wijayanti F, Lisdaniyah A, Hasanah M, Elfidasari D. 2023. Minerals and fatty acids profile of armored catfish Pterygoplichthys pardalis from Ciliwung River, Indonesia. Nusantara Bioscience 15: 58-67. Fish is an important food source in human consumption due to its minerals and fatty acids needed for various body functions. One fish widely eaten by the people around the Ciliwung River, Indonesia is the armored catfish, Pterygoplichthys pardalis (Castelnau 1855). It has great economic value and is easily obtained by the residents along this river. Due to its high protein content, P. pardalis is a potential source of animal protein for humans. The unavailability of information detailing the minerals content and fatty acids in P. pardalis from the Ciliwung River makes it necessary to conduct this research to analyze the fish's minerals content and fatty acid profile. Analyses of minerals, fatty acid contents, and fatty acid profiles were conducted using Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometry (AAS), socletation, and Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrophotometer (GC-MS) methods, respectively. The mineral content of P. pardalis from the highest order was calcium, phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, sodium, iron, and zinc. Based on P. pardalis body size, large fish had the highest calcium concentration content, and the lowest calcium content was found in the medium fish. The fat content in this fish was very low (<1%), and the content of Saturated Fatty Acids (SFA) was greater than unsaturated ones. Furthermore, palmitate acid was the dominant fatty acid in the fish, while the biggest ratio of omega-6: omega-3 is fatty acids.


A systematic study of the signal peptidase cleavage site of the main cell-wall-repressible Saccharomyces cerevisiae acid phosphatase encoded by the PHO5 gene is presented. The last amino acid of the signal sequence, the chromosomally encoded alanine of the wild-type gene, was changed by any of 19 other amino acids in the chromosomal DNA by using in vitro mutagenesis in Escherichia coli and the technique of gene replacement. Processing and secretion are normal when the amino acid at this position is a small neutral amino acid, i.e. alanine, glycine, cysteine, serine or threonine. Processing glycosylation, and secretion of regulated acid phosphatase are distinctly affected with other amino acid substitutions and core-glycosylated protein accumulates in the cell. Surprisingly, PHO5 protein is still secreted to the cell wall and into the growth medium but at a lower rate and without cleavage of the signal sequence. The same features are exhibited by a mutated acid phosphatase with a deletion of four amino acids at the end of the signal peptide (-7 to -4 relative to the processing site) thus preserving the important -3 to -1 region.


As a Chinese-American woman writer, Amy Tan is aware of the marginalized social status of her identity. Her monologic narrative is deliberately used to utter their own voices in the white main stream of America, so as to construct their own cultural identity. The monologic narrative is virtually dialogic way of communicating between individuals of different cultures and different generations. By analyzing her featured narrative strategy, the deep thought inside Amy Tan's writing would be exposed to the readers.


Sea algae are widely consumed in the world. There are several seaweeds including brown algae which are authorized for human consumption. These plants contain important phytochemical constituents and have various potential biological activities. The present study investigated the presence of phytochemical constituents and total phenolic quantity of the seaweeds Sargassum angustifolium, Sargassum oligocystum and Sargassum boveanum. Cytotoxicity of seaweeds was tested against HT-29, HeLa and MCF-7 cell lines. Antioxidant potential of these 3 Sargassum species was also analyzed. Cytotoxicity was characterized by IC50 of human cancer cell lines using sulforhodamine assay. Antioxidant activities were evaluated using 2,2-diphenyl-1- picrylhydrazil. The analysis revealed that tannins, saponins, sterols and triterpenes were the most abundant compounds in these Sargassum species while cyanogenic and cardiac glycosides were the least ones. Sargassum angustifolium had the highest content of total phenolics (0.061 mg/g) and showed the highest antioxidant activity (IC50 = 0.231). Cytotoxic results showed that all species could inhibit cell growth effectively, especially MCF-7 cell line (IC50 = 67.3, 56.9, 60.4 for S. oligocystum, S. angustifolium and S. boveanum respectively). Considerable phytochemicals and moderate cytotoxic activity of S. angustifolium, S. oligocystum and S. boveanum make them appropriate candidate for further studies and identification of their bioactive principles.


The MeV cluster beam of (C)2+ ions has been bombarded on a copper target and K x-ray spectra of Cu have been measured with a Si(Li) detector. It is found that the K x-ray spectra of Cu induced by bombardment with 2.8 MeV (C)2+ and 1.4 MeV C+ ions are almost the same. In contrast, K x-ray spectra of Cu induced by bombardment with 2.8 MeV (C)2+ and 3.0 MeV Si+ ions are quite different. These interesting phenomena are discussed.


RAS genes have been implicated in several different malignancies. The mechanism of activation in most cases has been due to point mutations at critical domains responsible for guanine nucleotide binding. These changes alter the conformation of the protein resulting in insensitivity of the protein to the GTPase activating protein which normally hydrolyses the active p21RAS GTP-bound form to the inactive GDP-bound form. RAS genes have potent effects on the differentiation and proliferation program of cells. The mechanism induced depends on the context in which RAS is found as well as its mutational status and indeed which RAS gene family member is involved. RAS mutations have been described early in the disease process in haematologically normal individuals at risk of mutations induced by either occupational hazard exposure, such as benzene, or of secondary disease after chemotherapy for a previous malignancy. It also been associated with disease progression from myelodysplasia (MDS) to acute myelogenous leukaemia (AML), but it has also been described to be lost upon disease progression, thus showing that RAS mutations are unlikely to be initiating events or at least not required for maintenance of disease. As RAS appears to be involved in primary and secondary myeloid leukaemias, it is a good candidate for gene targeted therapeutic intervention. Studies to target RAS either directly or indirectly by interfering in the RAS pathway are underway. Clinical trials with a peptide RAS vaccine are also ongoing in solid tumours. This report seeks to review the evidence for RAS involvement as oncogenes, focusing on MDS, the reasons as to why the hot spots of codons 12/13 and 61 are particularly potent in activating the transformation potential of RAS and the different approaches being undertaken to translate laboratory findings into therapeutic reality.


s. L is a married 41-year-old woman with recently diagnosed stage I breast cancer. She comes to her oncologist's office for a routine visit following her third cycle of preoperative doxorubicin hydrochloride (Adriamycin) and cyclophosphamide (Cytoxan). Ms. L's major complaint is fatigue. The oncologist had started Ms. L on paroxetine (Paxil), a selective serotonergic reuptake inhibitor (SSRI), at 20 mg qhs 2 months earlier because of concerns that Ms. L might be depressed, based on her complaints about depressed mood, difficulties sleeping, and other depressive symptoms.


Awareness has been a very important concept in the CSCW field. Arguably, this concept is about the fact that an actor needs to monitor the work of his colleagues and, at the same time, inform them about his own work. This facilitates the coordination of collaborative activities. Despite important previous work on this topic, none directly addresses the number of actors that each actor should monitor and, similarly, the number of actors this same actor should inform their activities to. This set of actors is called the 'awareness network'. This paper presents an analysis of the scalability of awareness networks in the context of a large-scale distributed software development project. Our results can be used to inform the design of tools for collaborative software development. Awareness; Jazz; escalabilidade; distribuido (palavras-chave)


Do firms issue stock when prices seem irrationally high? Do they invest or save the proceeds from the sale of overvalued stocks? Is value created or destroyed in the process? This paper uses a novel identification strategy to tackle these questions. We examine the capital investment, stock issuance, and cash savings behavior of financially constrained and unconstrained non-tech manufacturers ("old economy firms") around the 1990's technology bubble. Our results suggest that, because they relax financing constraints, high stock prices affect corporate policies. In particular, during the bubble, constrained non-tech firms issued equity in response to mispricing and used the proceeds to invest. They also saved part of those funds in their cash accounts. We do not find similar patterns for unconstrained non-tech firms, neither for tech firms. Our findings do not support the notion that managers systematically issue overvalued stocks and invest in ways that transfer wealth from new to old shareholders, destroying economic value. Rather, our evidence implies that what appears to be overvaluation in one sector of the economy may have welfare-increasing effects across other sectors.


Agent construction system is a new project management mode to meet the need of modern engineering construction, and is an innovation of government-invested engineering management mode. There are some positive aspects and some risks during the implementation .This paper analyses the risk factors based on the characteristics of agent management projects, establishes risk index system, using Entropy measurement to calculate the risk degrees , Finally, it gives an example to show how to use this method. This paper sets up an reasonable and effectively method for risk management of agent management projects.


We have been monitoring the antifungal resistance in Candida parapsilosis isolates collected from inpatients at Madrid metropolitan area hospitals for the last 3 years. The study aimed to elucidate the presence of fluconazole-resistant C. parapsilosis genotypes in Madrid. ABSTRACT We have been monitoring the antifungal resistance in Candida parapsilosis isolates collected from inpatients at Madrid metropolitan area hospitals for the last 3 years. The study aimed to elucidate the presence of fluconazole-resistant C. parapsilosis genotypes in Madrid. From January 2019 to December 2021, a total of 354 C. parapsilosis isolates (n = 346 patients) from blood (76.6%) or intraabdominal samples were collected and genotyped using species-specific microsatellite markers. Antifungal susceptibilities to amphotericin B, the triazoles, micafungin, anidulafungin, and ibrexafungerp were performed according to EUCAST E.Def 7.3.2; the ERG11 gene was sequenced in fluconazole-resistant isolates. A total of 13.6% (n = 48/354) isolates (one per patient) were found to be resistant to fluconazole and non-wild-type to voriconazole but fully susceptible to ibrexafungerp. Resistant isolates were mostly sourced from blood (n = 45/48, 93.8%) and were detected in five hospitals. Two hospitals accounted for a high proportion of resistant isolates (n = 41/48). Resistant isolates harbored either the Y132F ERG11p amino acid substitution (n = 43) or the G458S substitution (n = 5). Isolates harboring the Y132F substitution clustered into a clonal complex involving three genotypes (one genotype accounted for n = 39/43 isolates) that were found in four hospitals. Isolates harboring the G458S substitution clustered into another genotype found in a fifth hospital. C. parapsilosis genotypes demonstrating resistance to fluconazole have been spreading across hospitals in Madrid, Spain. Over the last 3 years, the frequency of isolation of such isolates and the number of hospitals affected is on the rise.


Tungsten oxide thin films with different stoichiometry have been deposited on Si (111) wafers by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique under different conditions. The structural properties and infrared emissivity of WO3 thin films were analysed using a scanning accessory of a transmission electron microscope (STEM), x-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectra (RS) and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectra. Thin films deposited at 200 °C on Si showed an amorphous structure, while those annealed in air at 300 and 400 °C showed nanocrystalline and porous triclinic structures. These porous and nanocrystalline structures could be used to improve electrochromic colour efficiency and responsing, recovery properties. However, samples deposited at 200 °C and annealed at 240 °C for 0.5 h in oxygen showed a triclinic structure with average 10 nm crystallites. Nanocrystalline WO3 thin films on Si (111) synthesized by this technique might find applications in infrared emittance modulation systems.


Neurosteroids are a group of steroid hormones synthesized by the brain in the presence of steroidogenic enzymes. Specific neurosteroids modulate function of several receptors, and also regulate growth of neurons, myelinization and synaptogenesis in the central nervous system. Some neurosteroids have been shown to display neuroprotective properties, which may have important implications for their potential use in the treatment of various neuropathologies such as: age-dependent dementia, stroke, epilepsy, spinal cord injury, Alzheimer's disease (AD), Parkinson's disease (PD) and Niemann-Pick type C disease (NP-C). This paper focuses on neuroprotection afforded by neurosteroids.


The rate adaptive characteristics and pacemaker mediated tachycardia protection algorithm of an accelerometer based DDDR pacemaker were evaluated in 11 patients with bradycardia (seven atrioventricular block, four sick sinus syndrome). Rate adaptive programming was effected by collecting the acceleration level during a 3‐minute moderate exercise ("tailoring" of sensor). In comparison with an externally attached piezoelectric sensor, the accelerometer sensor showed lower rate changes during external tapping of the pacemaker (16 ± 3 vs 29 ± 4 ppm, P < 0.02) and applied direct pressure (1 ± 1 vs 40 ± 3 beats/min, P < 0.001) on the pacemaker. At nominal setting, the accelerometer sensor showed improved rate stability and higher rate response to jogging and standing, although responses to other daily activities and treadmill exercise were similar. Apart from changing the rate responsive slope, rate response could be improved by repeat "tailoring" of the sensor at a lower exercise level, resulting in better overall rate response characteristics. The ability of the rate monitoring software to collect acceleration levels for an activity and profile the projected rate response at different rate responsive settings allowed programming to be effected with the minimum amount of exercise testing. The pacemaker also discriminated atrial tachyarrhythmias from normal sinus response using the sensor to judge the appropriateness of the atrial rate, which correctly identified and prevented rapid ventricular tracking in two patients during atrial flutter/fibrillation.


ABSTRACT The purpose of this paper is to cast light on how the red glossy slipped pottery of the Urartian Kingdom (9th–6th century BC) was manufactured. Ethnoarchaeology and experimental archaeology, as well as more traditional archaeological research methods, are used to discern the processes involved. First, the pottery was categorized based on surface treatment. Next, ethnoarchaeological research was carried out in the village of Bardakçı in the province of Van (Eastern Turkey) to gain a more detailed understanding of ancient ceramic production techniques. This approach and subsequent experiments provided important insights into the technology that was used during the production of ancient Urartian pottery. The findings of the ethnoarchaeological work indicate that the practices of modern potters living in villages near Urartian settlements are similar, in terms of materials and methods, to the practices of the past.


We present a joint phase estimation and decoding method for convolutional turbo codes in the presence of strong phase noise. In order to overcome the problem of phase ambiguity and cycle slips, a combined state-space model for the time varying phase and the component convolutional codes is introduced. The proposed algorithm uses a Gaussian sum approach to approximate the multimodal a posteriori probability density function (pdf) of the phase in a blind context. We compare our method to the well known alternative consisting in discretizing the phase.Monte-Carlo simulations for the turbo code used in the DVB-RCS standard show that the performances of the proposed scheme are close to decoding with perfect knowledge of the phase.


As communications and information technology becomes ubiquitous in the delivery and management of education, the need for interoperability standards has become a high priority. Standards facilitate the description, packaging, sequencing and delivery of educational content, learning activities and learner information, to enable their sharing and reuse, and their compatibility with future technologies. As such, standards are arguably the key critical success factor for enabling technologies in elearning. Development of these standards is an iterative process, requiring testing and feedback from implementers and end users. The UK's CETIS offers a model for educational community engagement with the emerging standards.


The article discusses an alternative approach control air situation on the remotely controlled airfield with the use of channels of satellite communication systems.


It is necessary to analyze the impact that the competition have on athletes, in an objective and scientific way. The knowledge of the physiological and kinematic demands in sports competition is one of the factor that will establish optimal training processes. Therefore, the main objectives of this research were to characterize and analyze the differences between training and real competition in a women's senior basketball team during 2015/16 season. The design of this research is empirical with quantitative methodology, which focuses on analyzing the relationships and differences between variables. The independent variable was the Game Situation, categorized in Small Sided Games, Full Game and Competition. Five dependent variables were recorded: Impacts, Steps and Jumps per minute (kinematic variables); and Average and Maximum Heart Rate (internal load). A descriptive analysis was performed and the univariate general linear model was used to differentiate between categories of the variable Game Situation. Finally, Bonferroni Post Hoc test was used to identify differences between groups. The results showed that higher values of Average and Maximum Heart Rate and Steps per minute were found in competition. Coaches should consider these results to adapt the training to the requirements of the competition.


Norepinephrine (NE) neurons and extracellular NE exert some protective effects against a variety of insults, including methamphetamine (Meth)-induced cell damage. The intimate mechanism of protection remains difficult to be analyzed in vivo. In fact, this may occur directly on target neurons or as the indirect consequence of NE-induced alterations in the activity of trans-synaptic loops. Therefore, to elude neuronal networks, which may contribute to these effects in vivo, the present study investigates whether NE still protects when directly applied to Meth-treated PC12 cells. Meth was selected based on its detrimental effects along various specific brain areas. The study shows that NE directly protects in vitro against Meth-induced cell damage. The present study indicates that such an effect fully depends on the activation of plasma membrane β2-adrenergic receptors (ARs). Evidence indicates that β2-ARs activation restores autophagy, which is impaired by Meth administration. This occurs via restoration of the autophagy flux and, as assessed by ultrastructural morphometry, by preventing the dissipation of microtubule-associated protein 1 light chain 3 (LC3) from autophagy vacuoles to the cytosol, which is produced instead during Meth toxicity. These findings may have an impact in a variety of degenerative conditions characterized by NE deficiency along with autophagy impairment.


Some high frequency sounds alter physiological processes of the beet armyworm, Spodoptera exigua. This study investigated the effect of ultrasound ( 20 kHz) on larval feeding, pupal development, and adult mating behavior of S. exigua. Ultrasound suppressed feeding behavior of fifth instar larvae, and 30 or 45 kHz treatment inhibited more than 50% of feeding activity. Larvae treated with ultrasound exhibited alterations in major nutrient compositions in the hemolymph plasma. Plasma protein levels decreased with an increase in ultrasound frequency. In contrast, sugar levels increased with an increase in ultrasound frequency. Lipid levels increased with an increase in ultrasound frequency up to 30 kHz and then decreased at treatments > 30 kHz. Hemocytes, the fat body, and epidermis expressed three heat shock proteins and apolipophorin III. Ultrasound treatment markedly inhibited expression of some stress-related genes. Ultrasound treatment also inhibited S. exigua pupal development by extending the pupal developmental period and preventing adult emergence. Last, ultrasound treatment significantly inhibited adult mating behavior, which resulted in a significant decrease in female fecundity. These results show that ultrasound is a physiological stress to S. exigua.


Variogram calculation is a fundamental tool for studying ore grade data in mineral deposits. It allows the discovery of hidden structures within the data and preferential directions of mineralization where the geological continuity is longer. The variogram allows us to classify samples and to define both the search radii for interpolation and the use of kriging as an interpolation and resource classification method. It is not difficult to use it in one dimension; complexity increases in two dimensions as the necessity to search for possible grade anisotropies in all directions arises. Three-dimensionally it is even more difficult to try to define the parameters of lag, bandwidth, and tolerances that define the data of the variogram calculation algorithm. There are rules of thumb to help in the development, but a trial-and-error approach is used in order to find enough sample pairs to allow the generation of variograms truly representative of the data. In this paper, two strategies are shown to help in variogram construction, the use of variogram maps and the graphical representation of the pair search areas (cones or pencils). The freeware tool RecMin Variograms has been developed and is freely available for download at its website; it is easy to learn and use. R code based on RGeostats libraries is used to check the operation and results of RecMin Variograms. Applying geostatistics to mineral deposits is essential to know the areas with the highest grades, thus allowing exact planning of future mining exploitation and minimizing mine footprint and environmental impact.


— The Indian Agricultural sector generates huge employment accounting for over 54% of country's workforce. Its overall stand in GDP is close to 14%. However, this sector has been plagued by knowledge and infrastructure deficit, especially in the rural sectors. Like other sectors, the Indian Agricultural sector has seen rapid digitization with use of technology and Kisan Call Center (KCC) is one such example. It is a Government of India initiative launched on 21st January 2004 which is a synthesis of two hitherto separate sectors the Information Technology and Agriculture sector. However, studies have shown to have constrains to KCC beneficiaries, especially in light of network congestion and incomplete knowledge of the call center representatives. With the advent of new technologies, like first-generation SMS based and next-generation social media tools like WhatsApp, farmers in India are digitally more connected to the agricultural information services. Previous studies have shown that the KCC dataset can be used as a viable alternative for Chat-bot. We will base our study with the available KCC dataset to build an NLP model by getting the semantic similarity of the queries made by farmers in the past and use it to automatically answer future queries. We will attempt to make a WhatsApp based chat-bot to easily communicate with farmers using RASA as a tool.


Robust CYBersecurity information EXchange (CYBEX) infrastructure is envisioned to protect the firms from future cyber attacks via collaborative threat intelligence sharing, which might be difficult to achieve via sole effort. The executive order from the U. S. federal government clearly encourages the firms to share their cybersecurity breach and patch related information among other federal and private firms for strengthening their as well as nation's security infrastructure. In this paper, we present a game theoretic framework to investigate the economic benefits of cyber-threat information sharing and analyze the impacts and consequences of not participating in the game of information exchange. We model the information exchange framework as distributed non-cooperative game among the firms and investigate the implications of information sharing and security investments. The proposed incentive model ensures and self-enforces the firms to share their breach information truthfully for maximization of its gross utility. Theoretical analysis of the incentive framework has been conducted to find the conditions under which firms' net benefit for sharing security information and investment can be maximized. Numerical results verify that the proposed model promotes such sharing, which helps to relieve their total security technology investment too.


: Recent molecular and karyologic studies have deeply modified the delimitation of the genera of the Carthamus complex, and have led to a new classification of the group in four genera (Carduncellus, Carthamus, Femeniasia and Phonus). Molecular studies have confirmed the position of the group among the derived genera of the subtribe Centaureinae, and have suggested a faint relationship between the Carthamus complex and the small genus Aegialophila. However, despite the importance of pollen evolution in the subtribe, a comprehensive study of the pollen of the involved genera with electron microscopy was lacking. Therefore, we have carried out a survey of pollen morphology and ultrastructure in a wide sample of the genera, using both scanning and transmission electron microscopy. Our results suggest that pollen type of the Carthamus complex is homogeneous and should be classified as a new pollen type in the classification of Wagenitz. Pollen type of Aegialophila shows strong similarities with the Centaurea scabiosa pollen type of Wagenitz, but there are slight differences in shape and in ultrastructure of the exine. These differences are evaluated, together with morphological and molecular evidence; the authors conclude that similarities are the result of parallel evolution and that pollen of Aegialophila could be considered a new pollen type. Some considerations are made on the placement of the new types in the cadre of pollen and molecular evolution in the subtribe Centaureinae.


This article aims to give an overview of tourism based on a literature review of this social phenomenon and the related special interests held by geographers. The main traditional ways that geographers contribute to the study of tourism cover each aspect of tourism and have several geographical implications, including concerning environmental issues, regional development, spatial studies, and historical processes. To understand tourism, we first need to understand what we mean by tourism, which is an important aspect of the topic of greater human mobility. But for a critical, statistical and qualitative understanding, clearer boundaries are needed.
Keywords: tourism, travel motivation, tourist typology, geotourism


The French Federation CECOS (Centre d'Etude et de Conservation du Sperme Humain) sperm banks collate the results of its 20 centres and provides annual reports on their activity. Since its creation in 1973, approximately 17,000 pregnancies have been obtained using frozen donor semen either for artificial insemination by donor (AID) or for in-vitro fertilization. The recruitment of the donors was very strict, only 62% of the 6810 donor candidates were accepted. The overall mean success rate per cycle for all women who began AID was approximately 8%, and the theoretical cumulative success rate was 48% at six cycles and 66% at 12 cycles. The population of recipient patients was very heterogeneous, including fertile, sub-fertile and infertile women. Some of these female factors have been analysed.


BACKGROUND
Enamel extracts are biologically active and capable of inducing osteogenesis and cementogenesis, but the specific molecules carrying these activities have not been ascertained. The purpose of this study was to identify osteogenic factors in porcine enamel extracts.

METHODS
Enamel proteins were separated by size-exclusion chromatography into four fractions, which were tested for their osteogenic activity on osteoblast-like cells (ST2) and human periodontal ligament (HPDL) cells.

RESULTS
Fraction 3 (Fr.3) and a transforming growth factor-beta 1 (TGF-beta1) control reduced alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity in ST2 but enhanced ALP activity in HPDL cells. The enhanced ALP activity was blocked by anti-TGF-beta antibodies. Furthermore, using a dual-luciferase reporter assay, we demonstrated that Fr.3 can induce the promoter activity of the plasminogen activator inhibitor type 1 (PAI-1) gene.

CONCLUSION
These results show that the osteoinductive activity of enamel extracts on HPDL cells is mediated by TGF-beta1.


The ideology of postindustrial capitalisms heavily relies on the idea of choice and perceives the subject as a consumer who can rationally decide the path of his or her life. The underside of this ideology has been an increase in people's feelings of anxiety, inadequacy and guilt for not making it in today's world. People's identification with the ideology of choice and constant self-critique are preventing them from perceiving choice outside the spectrum of individualism and as something that might incite social changes. The chapter takes the example of the choice of dress and analyzes new types of anxieties that are on the rise with the idea that one can dress oneself for success. Psychoanalysis can be of great help to political theory in understanding the idea of choice, since it shows how people's choices are influenced by their unconscious desires and drives, as well as by what other people are choosing and by the larger social setting, the so-called big Other. Making a critique of the ideology of choice does not mean embracing the idea that people do not make choices, but rather that choices are far less rational than they appear.


Professional sport has entered the digital economy as organisations adopt data-driven business model innovations. The purpose of this article is to highlight the potential ethical vulnerabilities sport organisations and their leaders face when adopting digital sport business models. Here, we treat data as a species of capital that can be converted into economic capital once it undergoes a computational transformation via a data-driven business model innovation. We argue for two advantages in this approach. First, it helps make transparent the mechanisms through which digital sport business models work. Second, it reveals how the extraction and application of big data exacerbates inequitable power relationships between sport organisations and supporters – the big data divide – that leads to ethical vulnerabilities for sport organisations and their consumers. We suggest that sport consumers might be particularly vulnerable to digital data risk as a consequence of their high levels of brand loyalty and involvement, which tend to encourage trust in the sport properties soliciting, analysing, and monetising their data. Platform broadcasting partnerships, e-ticketing in smart stadiums, and cryptocurrency-based fan tokens are used as examples of data-driven business model innovations based on the conversion of data to capital, demonstrating how sport organisations risk violating the trust of supporters when using digital strategies. The article concludes with directions for future research to deliver an ethically informed data-driven sports industry.


Between April 1, 1984, and Feb 1, 1985, nine cases of hepatitis B occurred in the patients of a dentist practicing in a rural Indiana county (population, 35,000). This was over 20 times the mean annual incidence for the county in the previous decade. All of the patients had been treated by the dentist two to five months before illness. Although the dentist had never had hepatitis symptoms, his serum was positive for hepatitis B surface antigen and hepatitis B e antigen and negative for anti-hepatitis B core IgM antibody, indicating that he was probably a hepatitis B carrier. Two patients (22%) died of fulminant hepatitis; the case-fatality ratio was over ten times the reported US mean for hepatitis B. Using a case definition based on anti-hepatitis B core IgM antibody positivity and exposure to the dentist during a defined time period, a serosurvey of the dentist's patients identified 15 asymptomatic cases (overall attack rate, 3.2%). Infection risk was related to the amount of trauma involved in the cases' dental procedures. No cause was found for the unusual lethality of the outbreak.


Whereas the process of integration economic is accentuated in Europe, regional integration dynamics of space seems to be a crucial issue. Reflexions engaged, in particular through the SDEC, aim at promoting a voluntarist policy of polycentric adjustment of European space. Thus we are led to consider both structuration and regional integration dynamics of this space. An inventive use of the most recent tools of spatial econometrics makes possible to appreciate and to quantify the concerned processes. More particularly, we seek to improve the modelization of the interactions between areas.


Convective afternoon rainfall (CAR) events, which tend to generate a local rainfall typically in the afternoon, are among the most frequently observed local weather patterns over Southeast Asia during summer. Using satellite precipitation estimations as an observational base for model evaluation, this study examines the applicability of ten global climate models provided by the sixth phase of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6) in simulating the CAR activities over Southeast Asia. Analyses also focus on exploring the characteristics and maintenance mechanisms of related projections of CAR activities in the future. Our analyses of the historical simulation indicate that EC-Earth3 and EC-Earth3-Veg are the two best models for simulating CAR activities (including amount, frequency, and intensity) over Southeast Asia. Analyses also demonstrate that EC-Earth3 and EC-Earth3-Veg outperform their earlier version (i.e., EC-Earth) in CMIP5 owing to the increase in its spatial resolution in CMIP6. For future projections, our examinations of the differences in CAR activities between the future (2071–2100, under the ssp858 run) and the present (1985–2014, under historical run) indicate that CAR events will become fewer but more intense over most land areas of Southeast Asia. Possible causes of the projected increase (decrease) in CAR intensity (frequency) are attributed to the projected increase (decrease) in the local atmospheric humidity (sea breeze convergence and daytime thermal instability). These findings provide insight into how the local weather/climate over Southeast Asia is likely to change under global warming.


During his work in Perm University (1918-1932) Vladimir Nikolaevich Beklemishev created theoretical and methodological foundations for the concepts of constructive morphology and structure of the living cover of the Earth. His conclusions about topical problems of general biology are still valuable for biological thinking.


Background: Changes in dietary protein in adults are associated with changes in urinary calcium excretion. The mechanisms under-lying this effect are not completely understood, but alterations in intestinal absorption of calcium are not thought to be involved. Objective: We reexamined this mechanism by evaluating the effect of 2 amounts of dietary protein (low: 0.7 g/kg; and high: 2.1 g/kg) on fractional calcium absorption in 7 healthy, young women. Design: The experiment consisted of 2 wk of a well-balanced diet containing moderate amounts of calcium, sodium, and protein followed by 5 d of an experimental diet that contained 1 of 2 amounts of protein and constant amounts of other nutrients known to influence calcium metabolism. Seven subjects received both amounts of dietary protein in random order. Blood and urine were sampled at baseline and on day 4. Fractional calcium absorption was measured by dual-stable calcium isotopes on day 5. In a second study of 5 additional women, we evaluated the effects of dietary fiber on calcitropic hormones. Results: Subjects developed hypocalciuria and secondary hyperparathyroidism on day 4 of the low-protein diet. Urinary calcium excretion and the glomerular filtration rate were elevated significantly by day 4 of the high-protein compared with the low-pro-tein diet. Fractional calcium absorption after the low-protein diet was 0.19 – 0.03, which was significantly lower than that after the high-protein diet (0.26 – 0.03, P = 0.05). Conclusion: These data provide evidence that depressed intestinal calcium absorption explains, in part, low-protein–induced secondary hyperparathyroidism.


This paper explores the use of applying a deep learning approach for 3D object detection to compute the relative position of an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) from an Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV) equipped with a LiDAR sensor in a GPS Denied environment. This was achieved by evaluating the LiDAR sensor's data through a 3D detection algorithm (PointPillars). The PointPillars algorithm incorporates a column voxel point-cloud representation and a 2D Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) to generate distinctive point-cloud features representing the object to be identified, in this case, the UAV. The current localization method utilizes point-cloud segmentation, Euclidean clustering, and predefined heuristics to obtain the relative position of the UAV. Results from the two methods were then compared to a reference truth solution.


The stability regions of high-energy, single-pulse, microsecond- and millisecond-range lasers are analyzed for the case of quasi-cw pumping with negative electrooptic feedback. The approximation of an instantaneous negative feedback is used, and integration in the feedback loop is taken into account. The unwanted photorefraction in DKDP crystals is analyzed. This photorefraction is an additional and very effective factor in the excitation of spiking in these lasers. The photorefraction is treated in the linear approximation and is assumed to occur once a threshold oscillation power is reached in the laser. Those parameter values of the feedback loop which completely neutralize the photorefraction at a high power or energy of the single-pulse lasing are determined. The results derived here can be used to develop computer-controlled, high-energy, single-pulse lasers with programmable output-pulse characteristics.


Christopher Caliendo is a guitarist/composer who has written for a variety of performance mediums. His works been performed on international concert stages and recorded for film and television media. His compositions have garnered him the Henry Mancini Award for Film Composition, the Artin Arslanian Scholarship for Humanities, and the Peabody Grant for Scholarship. He has also received two commissions from the Vatican in 1992 and 1995. In 1988, he received an Emmy nomination for his work with the television series Paradise. The purpose of this project is to present a study of selected clarinet works by Christopher Caliendo: The Tango Concerto No. 1 is a three-movement work that Caliendo arranged for clarinet and piano in 2010, The Little Gypsy was written for solo clarinet, and Jal, Ven a mis Brazos, Amanacer, La Milonga, Acariciame, Amor Perdido, Caliente, Impulso, and Passione comprise a series of nine guitar/clarinet duos that were composed or arranged between 2009 and 2010. The document is comprised of a brief description of the career and compositions of Christopher Caliendo, a performer's guide to the selected works, a track listing for the performance recording, and a list of Caliendo's other clarinet and chamber music compositions that are intended for the concert stage. It is the hope of the author that this project can generate more interest in Christopher Caliendo's clarinet repertoire throughout the clarinet community.


E-grocery is fast growing worldwide and represents a relevant issue for city logistics. Although in almost all countries the percentage of food e-buyers was lower than those purchasing other commodity categories, due to the pandemic, they have increased significantly in the last two years, with consequences that are difficult to fathom and estimate. This phenomenon therefore deserves more attention, especially with respect to its environmental impact, mostly at the urban scale. This paper presents a systematic literature review (SLR) on how e-grocery impacts the environment through the CO2 emissions generated and the equivalent energy consumption. The methodology used for the review follows a standard approach, with different combinations of keywords used for the search performed in SCOPUS and the Web of Science databases. Emissions and energy consumption assessments were performed for all of the papers considered. The results point to two different findings: some studies consider online grocery as an environmentally friendly channel, while others note that the energy consumption of this emerging channel is higher than alternative ones. This paper contributes by suggesting future research directions to be explored on the relationship between e-grocery and energy use and provides some reflections that are useful not only to e-grocers and logistics operators, but also to policy makers with an interest in developing sustainable urban plans and promoting less environmentally impacting distributions/configurations of grocery delivery systems within city logistics.


In this study we look closer at content analysis as a tool in design research and question some of the, more or less explicit, assumptions about what can be achieved by such analyses. To do so, we applied a qualitative content analysis (QCA) on six interviews with service design practitioners.The topic of the interviews was service prototyping, inquiring the practitioners about their approaches and conceptions, but starting with some more general questions about their work process in the later stages of service design. The interviews were conducted over telephone (2) and Skype (4), most of the time not using video. So a large part of communication that can usually be accessed in physical interactions between people could not be used to enhance understanding of the material.Qualitative content analysis is used to create an abstract version of a larger data set. QCA is often understood as negotiating the weaknesses associated with qualitative approaches (Mayring, 2000). We discuss this understanding of QCA by looking at an instance where a conventional QCA was used. Conventional QCA is used when existing theory is limited (Hsieh & Shannon, 2005), and researchers are looking to understand a phenomenon by immersing themselves in data and letting categories emerge. This has also been called inductive category development (Mayring, 2000). Little is known about service prototyping practices, making this an appropriate approach.A paper by (Graneheim & Lundman, 2004) was used to decide what the approach should look like. In this study the analysis was divided into stages:- Identifying meaning units- Condensing the meaning units- Coding- Constructing Sub-categories- Applying the Sub-categories to categories- Generalising categories into themesIn our approach we avoided using preconceived categories (Kondracki, Wellman, & Amundson, 2002) and instead let them emerge from the data, keeping an open attitude to the content. We see this approach as way to go from a straightforward condensation of manifest content, and then, in creating categories and themes, a shift is made to underlying meaning and thus towards the latent content of the material.Using this example we show the many subjective choices involved in data collection, choosing unit of analysis (and thereby excluding material), dividing the material into meaning units, and in how to understand the collected data. Unlike the idea that the result of such an approach is somehow more objective or "scientific" than other types of qualitative analysis, we argue that the strength of QCA lies in transparency of data and analysis. The bottom-up approach does not ensure that the result is a consequence of the material, but rather that choices have been made visible. The analysis becomes a rationale for the decisions made during analysis that can be accessed by external researchers. This opens up the analysis for critique but should still be seen as the consequence of subjective choices, perspectives and understanding.


Protobothrops mucrosquamatus is one of the common venomous snakes in Southeast Asia. This retrospective cohort study conducted in six medical institutions in Taiwan aimed to obtain information on the optimal management strategies for P. mucrosquamatus snakebite envenomation. Data were extracted from the Chang Gung Research Database from January 2006 to December 2016. The association between early antivenom administration and patient demographics, pain requiring treatment with analgesic injections, and hospital length of stay was analyzed. A total of 195 patients were enrolled; 130 were administered antivenom within 1 hour after emergency department arrival (early group), whereas 65 were treated later than 1 hour after arrival (late group). No in-hospital mortality was identified. The difference in surgical intervention rates between the early and late groups was statistically insignificant (P = 0.417). Compared with the early group, the late group showed a higher rate of antivenom skin test performance (46.9% versus 63.1%, respectively, P = 0.033), longer hospital stay (42 ± 62 hours versus 99 ± 70 hours, respectively, P = 0.016), and higher rate of incidences of pain requiring treatment with analgesic injections (29.2% versus 46.2%, respectively, P = 0.019). After adjusting for confounding factors, early antivenom administration was associated with decreased pain requiring treatment with analgesic injections (adjusted odds ratio: 0.51, 95% CI: 0.260-0.985). Antivenom administration within 1 hour of arrival was associated with a decreased likelihood of experiencing pain and hospital length of stay in patients with P. mucrosquamatus snakebites. Antivenom skin testing was associated with delays in antivenom administration.


In a comprehensive article, pharmacy professor Charles A Walton informed his readers about key competences for the specialism of drug information.1 The Drug Information Specialist provides close and continuing support to the clinician, increasing the latter's efficiency and effectiveness in patient care by supplying selected literature evidence in justification of specific drug usage practices.

He also mentioned the importance of critical analysis of the available drug literature and introduced his preferred term 'clinical drug communication specialist'. To him, the latter pointed out more clearly the value of service (ie, drug communication) over the product (ie, information). He elucidated the explicit link between drug information and …


The Danish Minister of Social Affairs is a very eager protagonist of quality in treatment, almost searching for the "perfect" treatment for children, youngsters, disabled, etc. Many expensive research projects dealing with quality management as well as developmental projects have been launched during the latest years in order to improve professional practice. Within that context this article will deal with the relations between paternalism and ignorance and between pro-social behaviour and anti-social treatment in order to grasp "why professions are doing vicious things". The main focus is concerned with the knowledge field of social pedagogy.


We present tongue-palate contact (EPG) and acoustic data on English sibilant assimilation, with a particular focus on the asymmetry arising from the order of the sibilants. It is generally known that /s#ʃ / sequences may display varying degrees of regressive assimilation in fluent speech, yet for / ʃ #s/ it is widely assumed that no assimilation takes place, although the empirical content of this assumption has rarely been investigated nor a clear theoretical explanation proposed. We systemat ically compare the two sibilant orders in word-boundary clusters. Our data show that /s#ʃ / sequences assimilate frequently and this assimilation is strictly regressive. The assimilated sequence may be indistinguishable from a homorganic control sequence by our measures, or it can be characterized by measurement values intermediate to those typical for / ʃ / or /s/. / ʃ #s/ sequences may also show regressive assimilation, albeit less frequently and to a lesser degree. Assimilated / ʃ #s/ sequences are always distinguishable from /s#s/ sequences. In a few cases, we identify progressive assimilation for / ʃ #s/. We discuss how to account for the differences in degree of assimilation, and we propose that the order asymmetry may arise from the different articulatory control structures employed for the two sibilants in conjunction with phonotactic probability effects.


BrlA and AbaA are key activators of the central developmental pathway (CDP) that controls asexual development in Aspergillus but their roles remain insufficiently understood in hypocerealean insect pathogens. Here, regulatory roles of BrlA and AbaA orthologs in Metarhizium robertsii (Clavicipitaceae) were characterized for comparison to those elucidated previously in Beauveria bassiana (Cordycipitaceae) at phenotypic and transcriptomic levels. Time-course transcription profiles of brlA, abaA, and the other CDP activator gene wetA revealed that they were not so sequentially activated in M. robertsii as learned in Aspergillus. Aerial conidiation essential for fungal infection and dispersal, submerged blastospore production mimicking yeast-like budding proliferation in insect hemocoel, and insect pathogenicity via cuticular penetration were all abolished as a consequence of brlA or abaA disruption, which had little impact on normal hyphal growth. The disruptants were severely compromised in virulence via cuticle-bypassing infection (intrahemocoel injection) and differentially impaired in cellular tolerance to oxidative and cell wall-perturbing stresses. The ΔbrlA and ΔabaA mutant shad 255 and 233 dysregulated genes (up/down ratios: 52:203 and 101:122) respectively, including 108 genes co-dysregulated. These counts were small compared with 1513 and 2869 dysregulated genes (up/down ratios: 707:806 and 1513:1356) identified in ΔbrlA and ΔabaA mutants of B. bassiana. Results revealed not only conserved roles for BrlA and AbaA in asexual developmental control but also their indispensable roles in fungal adaptation to the insect-pathogenic lifecycle and host habitats. Intriguingly, BrlA- or AbaA-controlled gene expression networks are largely different between the two insect pathogens, in which similar phenotypes were compromised in the absence of either brlA or abaA.


"Fuzzy front end"--fatuous fallacy! The "Stage-Gate process" is typically depicted with a little light bulb in a circle captioned "Ideation" as the starting point for new product development. However, if you start there, the new product coming out at the end of the process (if indeed any concept makes it all the way through) may well not succeed in the marketplace; in any case, it will have cost a lot more (if you count all costs) than it should have. As we all know, Purgamentum init, exit purgamentum! ("Garbage in, garbage out" sounds much classier in Latin.) A "Stage-Gate" process is not actually a new-product development process at all; rather, it is a conventional project-management process incorporating milestones as it proceeds. It can be useful in managing and controlling the efforts and investment in any project (including new product development) where the starting point is vague and ill-defined, the activities altogether require significant time, inputs from various sources are contributed along the way, and the outcome is in doubt. The cost of developing a new product tends to increase exponentially--by an order of magnitude--as a function of elapsed time (see Table 1). The dollars and duration for your own company, or for any given new product development project, may be off by plus-or-minus 50 percent or more, but in my experience the broad relationships are always roughly the same. The measure of the value of a Stage-Gate process is how early it can kill a new product candidate. The worst case occurs when the new product gets all the way through and is introduced but then flops, for one reason or other. The biggest savings result from killing the product prior to the latest stages. It would be nice to avoid wasting the investment in the mid-stages (that's real money); best of all, abort the new product concept in the beginning and save all that money! The Stage-Gate cross-functional review committee is typically well-staffed to do the job of killing any proposed new product, from the standpoint of: Production: A new manufacturing process would need to be developed, with lots of problems in the beginning and costly short runs. Marketing: New prospective customers would have to be visited to obtain small trial orders, if any. Finance: The investment will hurt our performance this quarter, on a gamble for gains in some future period. Technology: That certainly is not the most technically elegant concept in our lab now. How about the cold fusion project? Rather work on that! The Place to Start Any fuzzy new product concept is a lamb led to slaughter by the Stage-Gate review committee. The little light bulb--Ideation--is not the place to start. Fuzzy is at the front end, but not the front end. The very first thing to do is to step back a pace and establish a set of specific success criteria which define, in advance, all of the essential attributes and desired characteristics of the ideal, next-generation new product line. That can be accomplished by the company's top executive team (those who know most about the organization's capabilities and have the authority to set objectives and make go/no-go decisions) in two sittings facilitated by a leader--first to draft, then to refine and confirm. They will cover the financial goals that any new product lines must meet (minimum, specific dollars and dates), the company's unique technologies which the product should leverage, production processes it should utilize, the kind of market the company is comfortable serving, any deep-seated predilections and prejudices, and finally, the acceptable means of implementation (produce, out-source, partner, or some combination). The success criteria should be ranked in order of importance, in the practical recognition that an acceptable new product line may not fill the entire wish list, but some demands are mandatory (see Table 2). …


How do life experiences impact cortical function? In people who are born blind, the "visual" cortices are recruited for nonvisual tasks such as Braille reading and sound localization (e.g., Collignon et al., 2011; Sadato et al., 1996). The mechanisms of this recruitment are not known. Do visual cortices have a latent capacity to respond to nonvisual information that is equal throughout the lifespan? Alternatively, is there a sensitive period of heightened plasticity that makes visual cortex repurposing possible during childhood? To gain insight into these questions, we leveraged naturalistic auditory stimuli to quantify and compare cross-modal responses congenitally blind (CB, n=22), adult-onset blind (vision loss >18 years-of-age, AB, n=14) and sighted (n=22) individuals. Participants listened to auditory excerpts from movies; a spoken narrative; and matched meaningless auditory stimuli (i.e., shuffled sentences, backwards speech) during fMRI scanning. These rich naturalistic stimuli made it possible to simultaneous engage a broad range of cognitive domains. We correlated the voxel-wise timecourses of different participants within each group. For all groups, all stimulus conditions induced synchrony in auditory cortex and for all groups only the narrative stimuli synchronized responses in higher-cognitive fronto-parietal and temporal regions. Inter-subject synchrony in visual cortices was high in the CB group for the movie and narrative stimuli but not for meaningless auditory controls. In contrast, visual cortex synchrony was equally low among AB and sighted blindfolded participants. Even many years of blindness in adulthood fail to enable responses to naturalistic auditory information in visual cortices of people who had sight as children. These findings suggest that cross-modal responses in visual cortex of people born blind reflect the plasticity of developing visual cortex during a sensitive period.


This study explore and analyse rhetoric of political leaders of some selected parties of Pakistan during election campaign. For this purpose, speeches of political leaders of the three mainstream political parties were studied from sources including YouTube, TV shows and tweets. Content analysis method was used to analyse the data. Various forms, modes and types of rhetoric have been identified which were subsequently contextualized with the speeches, advertisements and rhetoric of the political leaders of the selected parties. Four themes including argumentations, storytelling, credit claiming and partisan cueing were extracted from the selected speeches. It was found that political elites and party leaders are so wisely manage to generate arguments, counter arguments, illustration and storytelling. The study also found that elites seems very justifiable by telling the stories and arguments but later on there is no substantial evidence in the form of performance, success and public service. The study concludes that the rhetoric used by party leaders are mostly directed towards political opponents and party leaders of other parties and less focused on the public policies and programs of general interest. Keywords: Rhetoric, Arguments, Leaders, Elites, Party


Necrotizing pneumonia caused by Staphylococcus aureus (SA) is a complication of Influenza A (INFA) related to the SA virulence factor, Panton-Valentine leukocidin (PVL). Patients presenting with Influenza-like illness and respiratory failure underwent bronchoscopy and testing for viral respiratory pathogens and SA using Diatherix target enriched multiplex PCR (Tem-PCR) proprietary assay. The assay is nested PCR, with tagged, target specific primers providing initial target gene identification, and common flanking Super Primers providing bulk amplification. Two patients with SA PVL necrotizing pneumonia complicating INFA are described. 22 yo female presented with respiratory failure, SA-PVL bacteremia and septic shock. Bronchoscopy revealed necrotizing, hemorrhagic pneumonia with specimens positive by Tem-PCR for INFA H3N2 and PVL positive SA. Patient eventually died. 64 yo male presented with progressive shortness of breath after viral illness, rapidly developed septic shock and multiorgan failure. Bronchoscopy showed severe necrotizing hemorrhagic tracheobronchitis. Tem-PCR revealed INFA H1N109 and methicillin resistant PVL positive SA. Patient was successfully treated with linezolid and clindamycin with complete recovery. PVL is a cytotoxin causing leukocyte destruction, tissue necrosis precipitating shock, respiratory failure and leukopenia. Bronchoscopy reveals airway bleeding and acute inflammatory exudate. PVL-producing strains of SA have affinity for exposed basement membrane in the ciliary epithelium of the lung present after viral illness. Tem-PCR is unique technology detecting PVL-positive SA and INFA resulting in targeted therapy.


The investigation of creep behavior of the single crystal superalloy CMSX-4 at 1288°C is important for the understanding of deformations mechanisms under hot isostatic pressing (HIP). This treatment is used to increase the lifetime of single crystal superalloys by reducing the number of cavities. The understanding of the internal processes during this treatment is still limited due to the material being not single-phase at room temperature, the extreme conditions of HIP and the complexity of the material.
The result of predicting the pore shrinkage rate using classical crystal plasticity was not satisfying. A more complex model has been implemented, now taking the heterogeneity of dislocation sources into account. By introducing a dislocation density, one can describe the transport, nucleation and interaction of dislocations.


(2S)[3,3,3-2H3]Isobutyrate, sodium salt, was synthesized and administered intraperitoneally to normal rats. Urinary organic acids were analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. 3-Hydroxyisobutyric acid excreted by the rats, analyzed as both a methyl and an isopropyl ester, was found to be enriched almost exclusively with two deuteriums in the hydroxymethyl moiety of the molecule. This result, together with our previous observation that deuterium of [2-2H1]isobutyrate was lost before the formation of 3-hydroxyisobutyrate, indicates that isobutyric acid is dehydrogenated stereospecifically at the (2-pro-S)methyl and alpha-methine groups. The resulting methacrylate is then hydrated with hydrogen addition to the same side of the molecule as it was abstracted from to produce (S)(+)-3-hydroxyisobutyric acid.


Objective: To develop a system for automatic detection and classification of cars in traffic in the form of a device for autonomic, real-time car detection, license plate recognition, and car color, model, and make identification from video.Methods: Cars were detected using the You Only Look Once (YOLO) v4 detector. The YOLO output was then used for classification in the next step. Colors were classified using the k-Nearest Neighbors (kNN) algorithm, whereas car models and makes were identified with a single-shot detector (SSD). Finally, license plates were detected using the OpenCV library and Tesseract-based optical character recognition. For the sake of simplicity and speed, the subsystems were run on an embedded Raspberry Pi computer.Results: A camera was mounted on the inside of the windshield to monitor cars in front of the camera. The system processed the camera's video feed and provided information on the color, license plate, make, and model of the observed car. Knowing the license plate number provides access to details about the car owner, roadworthiness, car or license place reports missing, as well as whether the license plate matches the car. Car details were saved to file and displayed on the screen. The system was tested on real-time images and videos. The accuracies of car detection and car model classification (using 8 classes) in images were 88.5% and 78.5%, respectively. The accuracies of color detection and full license plate recognition were 71.5% and 51.5%, respectively. The system operated at 1 frame per second (1 fps).Conclusion: These results show that running standard machine learning algorithms on low-cost hardware may enable the automatic detection and classification of cars in traffic. However, there is significant room for improvement, primarily in license plate recognition. Accordingly, potential improvements in the future development of the system are proposed.


We present a linear time algorithm for scheduling iterations of a loop that has no loop-carried dependences. The algorithm is optimal in the sense that any p consecutive iterations in the schedule can be executed simultaneously without any possibility of false sharing, where p is the number of processors, and the algorithm uses at most two wait synchronizations per iteration. Our algorithm is asynchronous in the sense that it allows the loop iterations to be scheduled greedily so that no processor will ever be kept idle if it could be safely executing an iteration. This property makes our algorithm superior to a "barrier" type algorithm, in which barrier synchronizations are used instead of pairwise signal-wait synchronizations.<<ETX>>


The purpose of this study is to analyze he relationship between consumer credit and consumer confidence index is analyzed for Turkey. The period that is covered in the study is between 2005:01 to 2018:12 and the data used is monthly. As a model, in order to measure short term relationship, Granger causality test is used. For long term relationship, Johansen Cointegration test is used. The results of the tests show that there is no short term relationship among consumer credit and consumer confidence index. For the long run relationship, there is long run relationship from consumer confidence index to consumer credit.


The world of insurance business that is full of competition makes the perpetrators must always think about breakthrough strategies that can guarantee the continuity of their insurance business. One of the main assets owned by insurance companies is business data in an extraordinary amount.Data mining is a new technology that is very useful to help insurance companies find very important information from business data as the main asset they have. Data mining can predict trends and traits of business behavior that are very useful to support important decision making. Automated analysis carried out by data mining exceeds that carried out by traditional support systems. Apriori and FP-Growth are the most famous algorithms for finding high frequency patterns, these algorithms are part of the Rule Association used in this study.


Invasive fungal infections are devastating. Despite state-of-theart antifungal therapy, the mortality rates for invasive infections with the three most common species of human fungal pathogens are Candida albicans, 20%–40% [1]; Aspergillus fumigatus, 50%–90% [1]; and Cryptococcus neoformans, 20%–70% [2]. Although invasive fungal infections can affect people with intact immune systems, the vast majority of disease occurs in the setting of an immunocompromised host. As discussed recently, the dismal outcomes for invasive fungal infections cannot be completely attributed to a lack of efficacious antifungal drugs [3]. However, because most patients with invasive fungal infections are immunocompromised, the immune system cannot effectively assist in the clearance of the infection, and consequently, the success of treatment is more dependent on the efficacy of the antifungal agent than in the setting of an immunocompetent host. Unfortunately, our repertoire of antifungal agents is limited, particularly in comparison to the number of agents available for bacterial infections. In fact, it took 30 years for the newest class of antifungal drugs, the echinocandins, to progress from bench-to-beside (Figure 1A). Furthermore, it is sobering to consider that the gold standard therapy for cryptococcal meningitis, a disease that kills more than 650,000 per year world-wide [2], is based on medications (amphotericin B and flucytosine) that were discovered nearly 50 years ago.


To the Editor.— It is interesting to note that the conclusion of Krober et al 1 concerning the efficacy of early treatment of streptococcal pharyngitis is essentially based on a comparison of seven patients (penicillin group) with documented streptococcal pharyngitis with eight patients (placebo group) with documented streptococcal pharyngitis. Considering the frequency of this disease in the United States, I would advise extreme caution in altering clinical practice based on a study with a total of only 15 patients with documented streptococcal pharyngitis.


Abstract An ice-flow model is used to simulate the Antarctic ice-sheet volume and deep-sea temperature record during Cenozoic times. We used a vertically integrated axisymmetric ice-sheet model, including bedrock adjustment. In order to overcome strong numerical hysteresis effects during climate change, the model is solved on a stretching grid. The Cenozoic reconstruction of the Antarctic ice sheet is accomplished by splitting the global oxygen isotope record derived from benthic foraminifera into an ice-volume and a deep-sea temperature component. The model is tuned to reconstruct the initiation of a large ice sheet of continental size at 34 Ma. The resulting ice volume curve shows that small ice caps (<107 km3) could have existed during Paleocene and Eocene times. Fluctuations during the Miocene are large, indicating a retreat back from the coast and a vanishing ice flux across the grounding line, but with ice volumes still up to 60% of the present-day volume. The resulting deep-sea temperature curve shows similarities with the paleotemperature curve derived from Mg/Ca in benthic calcite from 25 Ma till the present, which supports the idea that the ice volume is well reproduced for this period. Before 34 Ma, the reproduced deep-sea temperature is slightly higher than is generally assumed. Global sea-level change turns out to be of minor importance when considering the Cenozoic evolution of the ice sheet until 5 Ma.


The transmission of light through an atomic gas can be controlled by manipulating the confining cavity. Photons are excellent information carriers but normally pass through each other without consequence. Engineered interactions between photons would enable applications as varied as quantum information processing and simulation of condensed matter systems. Using an ensemble of cold atoms strongly coupled to an optical cavity, we found that the transmission of light through a medium may be controlled with few photons and even by the electromagnetic vacuum field. The vacuum induces a group delay of 25 nanoseconds on the input optical pulse, corresponding to a light velocity of 1600 meters per second, and a transparency of 40% that increases to 80% when the cavity is filled with 10 photons. This strongly nonlinear effect provides prospects for advanced quantum devices such as photon number–state filters.


Potato possesses a huge potential for production in Nepal and is a major source to ensure food and nutritional security among people of mountainous region. The study was carried out in four rural municipalities of Mustang district to assess the economics of potato production. A pre-tested semi-structured questionnaire was administered randomly to 90 different farmers. The collected data was tabulated and analysed using STATA. Potato production was identified as a profitable farming business with an average productivity of 18.95 t/ha with benefit-cost ratio of 1.59. The average per hectare total cost of production of potato was found to be Rs 660774.8 on mustang district. The study reveals that expenditure on labour wage and organic manure contributed more than three-quarters of total production cost of potato. There were no any significant differences between the different rural municipalities in terms of the total cost of production but a significant difference (1% level of significance) was observed over the production of potato per hectare. An increment in 1% cost of seeds was found to result in increase in 0.27% of income from potato production, however a diminishing return to scale (0.232) was revealed in the study. Incidence of disease and pest and price fluctuation were identified as a major constraint for potato production and marketing respectively. Timely availability of inputs, mechanization to reduce labour cost, training on advanced technology, wide coverage of agriculture extension service, and adoption of climate smart farming technologies


ABSTRACT There is a noted lack of primary historical documents related to the Prague Spring, one of the key moments in the Cold War, available online. As such, there is a need for an online resource that presents these primary documents in their entirety, allowing researchers and the public to engage with these materials in a user-friendly, open access format. The Prague Spring Archive, a new project at The University of Texas at Austin, fills this gap. This article addresses the development, promotion, and future steps of the project.


ii i Direct-Sequence Code Division Multiple-Access (DS/CDMA) has for some years been considered as a candidate for future personal and mobile communications. The reasons are mainly the properties of universal frequency reuse and the multipath mitigation. Generally, the focus has been on low rate services such as speech, and very little has been done on evaluating the performance for a system that can support many types of services, such as speech, fax, image and data transmission. In this thesis, we present several schemes for multirate support and evaluate their relative performance. It is shown that the multi-channel scheme, using several channels (codes) in parallel, is the most efficient scheme. The main advantage is a high processing-gain even in " narrowband " systems (a few MHz). The drawback, though, is the need for linear amplifiers also in the mobile. Furthermore, we present a new multiuser receiver for the synchronous CDMA channel. The receiver is optimum in the maximum likelihood sense, and has a lower complexity than the previously known optimum receiver. Also, the thesis includes a survey of multiuser detection for the synchronous DS/CDMA channel. The optimum and several suboptimal receivers are described and their advantages and disadvantages discussed. The third part of this thesis considers joint optimization of several components in a multiuser system. For a synchronous DS/CDMA channel, we optimize the source and channel decoders, and the multiuser detector jointly, resulting in a soft multiuser decoder for transmission of vector quan-tized data. The optimum and several suboptimal receivers are presented. We also show that the performance gains for these decoders, with respect to individual optimization of the source and channel decoders and the detectors , are significant. ABSTRACT ii iii Abstract i Contents iii Acknowledgements vii 1 INTRODUCTION 1


The relation between Q-factor and phase noise is verified in this paper. According to the phase noise model proposed by D.B. Leeson in 1966, it estimates about a 6 dB reduction in phase noise as Q-value of resonator doubled. By fabricating three substrate-integrated waveguide cavity oscillators on different substrates with different Q-values, we could obtain the same tendencies between measurements and computed values from the proposed model and thus verified the relation between Q-factor and phase noise.