In this study, we synthesized and characterized narrow-band red-emitting K2SiF6:Mn4+ phosphors in order to improve the color qualities of warm white light-emitting diodes (LEDs). The deep red monochromatic LED was realized by fabricating a long wavelength pass dichroic filter (LPDF)-capped phosphor-converted LED (pc-LED) with a synthesized K2SiF6:Mn4+ phosphor. In addition, we introduced four-package white LEDs that combine InGaN blue (B) LED and LPDF-capped green (G), amber (A), and red (R) pc-LEDs to achieve the high color rendition at the warm white correlated color temperatures (CCTs, 2700 K) with the assistance of the narrow-band K2SiF6:Mn4+ red phosphor. We compared the optical properties, including the luminous efficacy (LE), luminous efficacy of radiation (LER), color rendering index (CRI), special CRI for strong red (R9), and color quality scale (CQS), of four-package white LEDs by varying the red pc-LED with one narrow-band red-emitting phosphor and five wide-band red-emitting phosphors. The RAGB four-package white LED using narrow-band red-emitting K2SiF6:Mn4+ phosphor exhibited high LE (107 lm W−1) and ultrahigh color qualities (CRI = 94, R9 = 93, and CQS = 93) at a CCT of 2700 K.


Serotonin reuptake inhibitors used for the treatment of depression act by increasing serotonin levels at the synaptic cleft and thereby activating 5-HT1A serotonin receptors. However, the effect of increased levels of serotonin on postsynaptic 5-HT1A receptor density is unknown. The purpose of this study was to investigate, in a culture model, how postsynaptic 5-HT1A receptors are influenced by serotonin. Different concentrations of serotonin (0.5, 1, 10, 50 and 100 μM) were added to organotypic hippocampal cultures and incubated for 1 week. The cultures were immunostained for the 5-HT1A receptor and the staining analyzed densitometrically. 5-HT1A levels decreased with increasing serotonin concentrations, being significant at 10, 50 and 100 μM. These results indicate that at increasing serotonin levels the density of postsynaptic 5-HT1A receptors is down-regulated.


Melanocytic matricoma is a rare dermal tumor that typically presents on the sun-damaged skin of older patients. While there is controversy in the literature regarding the proper characterization of this tumor, there are certain histological and immunohistochemical features that have been described. This report presents a case of melanocytic matricoma with several unusual features that were initially feared to be malignant melanoma. Careful histologic and immunohistochemical analysis was required to rule out malignant melanoma and make the correct diagnosis. Given the rarity of melanocytic matricoma and the potential for it to mimic malignant melanoma, it is important for pathologists to keep melanocytic matricoma on the differential and be aware of the clinical, histological, and immunohistochemical features of this tumor.


Results by an enzyme immunoassay method (EIA) performed at one serum dilution and results by indirect immunofluorescence (IFA) and hemagglutination inhibition (HI) tests performed at step dilutions were correlated with results by a neutralization test (50% plaque neutralization [PN]) performed at step dilutions on single serum samples for serologic evaluation of immunity status to measles virus. PN results were taken as true indicators of immunity, and the other tests were evaluated on that basis. The predictive value of a positive result being positive also by PN was 95.3% for HI and 93.3% for EIA and IFA. The predictive value of a negative result being negative also by PN was 81.1% for HI, 100% for EIA, and 75.0% for IFA. A similar study on immunity status to varicella-zoster virus by EIA and by an anticomplement immunofluorescence test versus PN showed a 100% predictive value of a positive or negative result by EIA. By the anticomplement immunofluorescence test, the predictive value of a positive result was 97.7%, and that of a negative result was 88.5%. Studies on the comparative ability of EIA versus complement fixation (CF) to detect significant changes in antibody concentration between acute-phase and convalescent-phase serum samples indicative of a current infection were also done. Both tests were satisfactory for the serodiagnosis of measles or varicella-zoster virus infections. However, EIA was preferable to CF because it was less technically difficult, less labor intensive, and could be performed on sera that were anticomplementary in CF reactions.


This paper studies the impact of antenna pattern and user handset random orientation on macro-cell and pico-cell propagation in heterogeneous LTE networks. The analysis combines measured 3D radiation patterns of basestations and handset antennas with state-of-the-art 3D ray-tracing for a large number of macro-cell and pico-cell basestations and user locations/orientations in an urban environment. Macro and pico propagation characteristics are presented as cumulative distribution functions of the received signal strength, the K-factor, the RMS delay spread and the RMS angle-of-departure and angle-of-arrival azimuth and elevation spreads. It is shown that using measured antenna patterns and considering the random user handset orientation has significant impact on the propagation characteristics of a heterogeneous LTE network.


Abstract
In the field of forensic medicine, diagnosis of sudden cardiac death is limited by subjective factors and manual measurement methods, so some parameters may have estimation deviation or measurement deviation. As postmortem CT imaging plays a more and more important role in the appraisal of cause of death and cardiopathology research, the application of deep learning such as artificial intelligence technology to analyze vast amounts of cardiac imaging data has provided a possibility for forensic identification and scientific research workers to conduct precise diagnosis and quantitative analysis of cardiac diseases. This article summarizes the main researches on deep learning in the field of cardiac imaging in recent years, and proposes a feasible development direction for the application of deep learning in the virtual anatomy of sudden cardiac death at present.


A prospective study of the virology of and serological responses to enterovirus infection in 16 neonates (< or = 2 weeks of life) and their mothers was performed. At study entry, 11 neonates did not have detectable serum neutralizing antibody to their own viral isolates, despite the presence of neutralizing antibody in 9 of 11 mothers of these infants. Viremia and viruria were demonstrated in 8 and 7 neonates, respectively, with maximal detected titers of 6.3 x 10(3) 50% tissue culture infective dose per mL (TCID50) and 6.8 x 10(1) TCID50/mL, respectively. Viremia was associated with onset of illness in the first 5 days of life, low initial serum neutralization titer, and the presence of echovirus serotypes. Randomized administration of intravenous immune globulin (IVIG; 750 mg/kg) to nine neonates overall modestly increased serum neutralization titers but did not reduce the daily incidence of viremia and viruria compared with that of controls. However, receipt of IVIG containing a neutralization titer of > or = 1:800 to the patients' own viral isolates was associated with significantly higher serum neutralization titers and more rapid cessation of viremia and viruria. Future trials of IVIG for neonatal enterovirus disease should assess the efficacy and safety of higher or repeated doses of this agent and/or of IVIG selected for their high titers to frequently circulating and/or particularly virulent enterovirus serotypes.


Objectives Skin fibrosis mediated by activated dermal fibroblasts is a hallmark of systemic sclerosis (SSc), especially in the subset of patients with diffuse disease. Transforming growth factor-beta (TGFβ) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) are key candidate mediators in SSc. Our aim was to elucidate the specific effect of IL-6 pathway blockade on the biology of SSc fibroblasts in vivo by using samples from a unique clinical experiment—the faSScinate study—in which patients with SSc were treated for 24 weeks with tocilizumab (TCZ), an IL-6 receptor-α inhibitor. Methods We analysed the molecular, functional and genomic characteristics of explant fibroblasts cultured from matched skin biopsy samples collected at baseline and at week 24 from 12 patients receiving placebo (n=6) or TCZ (n=6) and compared these with matched healthy control fibroblast strains. Results The hallmark functional and molecular-activated phenotype was defined in SSc samples and was stable over 24 weeks in placebo-treated cases. RNA sequencing analysis robustly defined key dysregulated pathways likely to drive SSc fibroblast activation in vivo. Treatment with TCZ for 24 weeks profoundly altered the biological characteristics of explant dermal fibroblasts by normalising functional properties and reversing gene expression profiles dominated by TGFβ-regulated genes and molecular pathways. Conclusions We demonstrated the exceptional value of using explant dermal fibroblast cultures from a well-designed trial in SSc to provide a molecular framework linking IL-6 to key profibrotic pathways. The profound impact of IL-6R blockade on the activated fibroblast phenotype highlights the potential of IL-6 as a therapeutic target in SSc and other fibrotic diseases. Trial registration number NCT01532869; Post-results.


An evolutionary Multi-Agent System is discussed as an autonomous decentralized system in which each agent is capable of adapting to its embodied environment by means of artificial evolution. This type of system is a promising approach to adaptive system design, although it is undoubtedly difficult to analyze what they are doing or how they interact with each other to achieve a given task. Moreover, it is also difficult to understand how they evolved their function. In this paper, the ecological method is experimentally applied to a multi-agent system to analyze the system dynamics. A food collecting problem is selected to illustrate how to use the ecological method to grasp characteristics of agents in a Multi-Agent System. After the consideration of the analytical results, we succeeded in improving the performance of the system. This proves that the ecological method for natural systems can effectively be applied to multi-agent systems.


Abstract Neotropical Ichthyology promotes the Special Issue (SI) "Human impacts and the loss of Neotropical freshwater fish diversity" with the purpose of publishing relevant scientific articles on the current biodiversity crisis and the loss of Neotropical freshwater fishes in the Anthropocene. The SI is composed of 22 publications, being two review articles and 20 original articles. A total of 107 researchers contributed to these papers, involving 44 institutions based in Brazil and six other countries. Published articles investigated main anthropic activities and their impacts on fish diversity, with special focus on river regulation, mining, land use changes, aquaculture, and fisheries. Studies provided evidence about the loss of fish diversity in the Neotropics, including fish kill events, demographic changes, contamination, changes in assemblage structure, loss of taxonomic and functional diversity, besides the degradation of ecosystem functions and services, and the lack of effective protection and conservation. Studies were conducted in rivers, streams, lakes, and reservoirs from different Neotropical systems. The studies published in this SI represent a relevant sample of the current worrisome situation of freshwater fishes in the Neotropical region and call for urgent revision in environmental policies, management and conservation initiatives, and socioeconomic priorities.


Hamiltonian systems of hydrodynamic type occur in a wide range of applications including fluid dynamics, the Whitham averaging procedure and the theory of Frobenius manifolds. In 1 + 1 dimensions, the requirement of the integrability of such systems by the generalised hodograph transform implies that integrable Hamiltonians depend on a certain number of arbitrary functions of two variables. On the contrary, in 2 + 1 dimensions the requirement of the integrability by the method of hydrodynamic reductions, which is a natural analogue of the generalised hodograph transform in higher dimensions, leads to finite-dimensional moduli spaces of integrable Hamiltonians. We classify integrable two-component Hamiltonian systems of hydrodynamic type for all existing classes of differential-geometric Poisson brackets in 2D, establishing a parametrisation of integrable Hamiltonians via elliptic/hypergeometric functions. Our approach is based on the Godunov-type representation of Hamiltonian systems, and utilises a novel construction of Godunov's systems in terms of generalised hypergeometric functions. Furthermore, we develop a theory of integrable dispersive deformations of these Hamiltonian systems following a scheme similar to that proposed by Dubrovin and his collaborators in 1 + 1 dimensions. Our results show that the multi-dimensional situation is far more rigid, and generic Hamiltonians are not deformable. As an illustration we discuss a particular class of two-component Hamiltonian systems, establishing triviality of first order deformations and classifying Hamiltonians possessing nontrivial deformations of the second order.


For any quantum algorithm given by a path in the space of unitary operators we define the computational complexity as the typical computational time associated with the path. This time is defined using a quantum time estimator associated with the path. This quantum time estimator is fully characterized by the Lyapunov generator of the path and the corresponding quantum Fisher information. The computational metric associated with this definition of computational complexity leads to a natural characterization of cost factors on the Lie algebra generators. Operator complexity growth in time is analyzed from this perspective leading to a simple characterization of Lyapunov exponent in case of chaotic Hamiltonians. The connection between complexity and entropy is expressed using the relation between quantum Fisher information about quantum time estimation and von Neumann entropy. This relation suggest a natural bound on computational complexity that generalizes the standard time energy quantum uncertainty. The connection between Lyapunov and modular Hamiltonian is briefly discussed. In the case of theories with holographic duals and for those reduced density matrix defined by tracing over a bounded region of the bulk, quantum estimation theory is crucial to estimate quantum mechanically the geometry of the tracing region. It is suggested that the corresponding quantum Fisher information associated with this estimation problem is at the root of the holographic bulk geometry.


Tourism is one of pillar industries of the world economy. Low-carbon tourism will be the mainstream direction of the scenic spots' development, and the path of low-carbon tourism development is to develop economy and protect environment simultaneously. However, as the tourists' quantity is increasing, the loads of scenic spots are out of control. And the instantaneous overload in some spots caused the image phenomenon of full capacity of the whole scenic spot. Therefore, realizing the real-time schedule becomes the primary purpose of scenic spot's management. This paper divides the tourism distribution system into several logically related subsystems and constructs a temporal and spatial multiresolution network scheduling model according to the regularity of scenic spots' overload phenomenon in time and space. It also defines dynamic distribution probability and equivalent dynamic demand to realize the real-time prediction. We define gravitational function between fields and takes it as the utility of schedule, after resolving the transportation model of each resolution, it achieves hierarchical balance between demand and capacity of the system. The last part of the paper analyzes the time complexity of constructing a multiresolution distribution system.


Transferrin is an iron‐binding protein that plays an important role in iron metabolism and resistance to bacterial infection in a variety of organisms. A comparison of transferrin coding sequences from four salmonid species shows that the rate of evolution at nonsynonymous sites is significantly higher than the rate at synonymous sites, suggesting that positive natural selection for new alleles has played an important role in the evolution of transferrin in some salmon species. We hypothesize that the selective agent driving rapid divergence is interactions between host transferrin and the iron‐scavenging proteins of pathogenic bacteria.


Cyber-induced dependent failures are important to be considered in composite system reliability evaluation. Because of the complexity and dimensionality, Monte Carlo simulation is a preferred method for composite system reliability evaluation. The non-sequential Monte Carlo or sampling generally requires less computational and storage resources than sequential techniques and is generally preferred for large systems where components are independent or only a limited dependency exists. However, cyber-induced events involve dependent failures, making it difficult to use sampling methods. The difficulties of using sampling with dependent failures are discussed and a solution is proposed. The basic idea is to generate a representative state space from which states can be sampled. The probabilities of representative state space provide an approximation of the joint distribution and are generated by a sequential simulation in this paper but it may be possible to find alternative means of achieving this objective. The proposed method preserves the dependent features of cyber-induced events and also improves the efficiency. Although motivated by cyber-induced failures, the technique can be used for other types of dependent failures as well. A comparative study between a purely sequential methodology and the proposed method is presented on an extended Roy Billinton Test System.


Many task-oriented dialogue systems use deep reinforcement learning (DRL) to learn policies that respond to the user appropriately and complete the tasks successfully. Training DRL agents with diverse dialogue trajectories prepare them well for rare user requests and unseen situations. One effective diversification method is to let the agent interact with a diverse set of learned user models. However, trajectories created by these artificial user models may contain generation errors, which can quickly propagate into the agent's policy. It is thus important to control the quality of the diversification and resist the noise. In this paper, we propose a novel dialogue diversification method for task-oriented dialogue systems trained in simulators. Our method, Intermittent Short Extension Ensemble (I-SEE),1 constrains the intensity to interact with an ensemble of diverse user models and effectively controls the quality of the diversification. Evaluations on the Multiwoz dataset show that ISEE successfully boosts the performance of several state-of-the-art DRL dialogue agents.


In their article Xiao and Hill (see ibid., vol.44, p.2108-10, 1996) show via an example that the conditions of the Theorem 3 in an earlier paper by Tzafestas et al. (1992) may not guarantee stability of 2-D linear systems. The authors incorrectly conclude that the BIBO unstable 2-D linear system may have a stable finite wordlength implementation using saturation arithmetic. The authors comment that this incorrect conclusion is due to an erroneous result in the earlier paper by Tzafestas et al.


The 2018 anti-government protests in Nicaragua generated a vast amount of photographic imagery, video documentation, and visual graphics. On the street and via social media, everyday citizens engaged with this material, activating a multisensory environment. The production of visual content was nonetheless accompanied by iconoclastic gestures; vandalism became a means of reclaiming Nicaragua's revolutionary past and its symbols, while deploying them towards the making of a yet to be imagined political future. Drawing on examples from Chile and Mexico, the article argues that acts of vandalism may be understood as symbolically reparative. The materiality of the protests, manifested through image, trace, gesture, and sound (slogans, chants, noise) becomes a means towards analysing, ethnographically, revolutionary imaginaries caught within the flux of an unsettled present.


The network log file database is important to security management. But, with the development of internet, it has become too bulkiness to be used directly. In this paper, the wavelet decomposition is adopted to mining the useful rules from the network security data. This is different from traditional data mining methods of association rules. Multi-resolution analysis of wavelet transform method is used to analyze and mine the data of network security log file database on different time scale. The period law of the attack number in different time domain is found by this method. These are important messages for taking relevant measures to insure network security.


Objectives: For many practitioners and patients, the most critical aspect of medical practice is healing. Healing requires compassion in order to elevate clinical practices above the skills of a medical technician. At the same time, the act of healing is deeply involved. When practitioners heal, they must take care not to experience physical, mental, or spiritual fatigue or injury to themselves. By practicing healing as recycling energy from negative to positive, practitioners develop contemplative compassion. The more practitioners treat patients, the more they understand how to recycle and heal, and the better the practitioner they become. Methods: Healing recycling involves practitioners engaging their own chakra system on the physical, mental, and spiritual levels. Negative energy is drawn from the patient and flows through the practitioner to their solar plexus, where it is converted to positive energy. The practitioner then returns the positive energy to the patient as a vital healing force. In order to avoid injury through this process, practitioners must purify and harmonize themselves through practice and discipline in body, mind, and spirit exercises. Results: Traditional Chinese Medical philosophy will be introduced and used to examine the concepts of energy, healing, discipline, and holistic medicine. The various modalities of healing recycling will be demonstrated, including through the hand, the eye, the nose, and the third eye. By practicing healing recycling, practitioners will avoid becoming "wounded healers", and improve their overall ability to heal. Conclusions: Practitioners who can contemplate compassion in their medical practice become healers. Without compassion, there is no healing. Without healing, there is no medicine. Therefore, the practice of medicine needs a better understanding of how to recycle energy. At the same time, greater healing will translate into improved quality of life for patients.


There is a tension between rival anti-fascist praxes: social democratic, orthodox Marxist and indeed some anarchist movements privilege consequentialist approaches because the goal of defeating fascism is viewed as the supreme value, whilst most anarchists and heterodox Marxist approaches have tended to support prefigurative methods. This paper clarifies the concept of prefiguration to illustrate the differences and conflicts between these anti-fascist approaches and the possibilities of a convergence. In doing so it identifies and replies to some of the main criticisms of prefigurative anti-fascism.


ABSTRACT We report here the draft genome sequence of the Pseudomonas sp. TAA207 and Pseudomonas sp. TAD18 strains, isolated from Antarctic sediments during a summer campaign near coastal areas of Terra Nova Bay (Antarctica). Genome sequence knowledge allowed the identification of genes associated with the production of bioactive compounds and antibiotic resistance. Furthermore, it will be instrumental for comparative genomics and the fulfillment of both basic and application-oriented investigations.


Cu2ZnSn(S, Se)4 (CZTSSe) device is fabricated with Zn1 xSnxO (ZTO) buffer layer deposited by atomic layer deposited (ALD). The ALD process results in a precise control of thickness and Sn/(SnþZn) ratio of the buffer layer. The performance of the CZTSSe device with ZTO buffer layer has been enhanced by adjusting proper Zn and Sn ratio during the ALD process. The optimized Sn/(SnþZn) pulse ratio is found to be around 0.167, with a thickness of around 50 nm. The champion device with a ZTO buffer layer has an efficiency of 8.60% (active area efficiency 9.20%) compared with 8.14% (active area efficiency 8.70%) of the reference solar cell with chemical bath deposited CdS buffer layer. The optimum device performance is a result of optimized band alignment between CZTSSe absorber and the ALD ZTO buffer as shown by ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy (UPS). & 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.


SUMMARY: Glucose tolerance and insulin release were evaluated in 16 families with Friedrich's ataxia. Impaired glucose tolerance differed in incidence according to the method of evaluation, but was increased in number in parents' and siblings of Friedreich's cases. Insulin output was not quantitatively different from normal, although the insulin peak was often delayed. This finding, in association with impaired glucose tolerance, suggest a defect in glucose entry into cells.


Recently, a subset of starless cores whose thermal Jeans mass is apparently overwhelmed by the mass of the core has been identified, e.g., the core L183. In literature, massive cores such as this one are often referred to as "super-Jeans cores". As s tarless cores are perhaps on the cusp of forming stars, a study of their dynamics will improve our understanding of the transition from the prestellar to the protostellar phase. In the p resent work we use non-magnetic polytropes belonging originally to the family of the Isothe rmal sphere. For the purpose, perturbations were applied to individual polytropes, first by r eplacing the isothermal gas with a gas that was cold near the centre of the polytrope and relativ ely warm in the outer regions, and second, through a slight compression of the polytrope by raising the external confining pressure. Using this latter configuration we identify therm odynamic conditions under which a core is likely to remain starless. In fact, we also argue that the attribute "super-Jeans" is subjective and that these cores do not formally violate the Jean s stability criterion. On the basis of our test results we suggest that gas temperature in a star- forming cloud is crucial towards the formation and evolution of a core. Simulations in this work were performed using the particle-based Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics algorithm. However, to establish numerical convergence of the results we suggest similar tests with a gr id-scheme, such as the Adaptive mesh refinement.


Eutrophication of bodies of water has become an increasingly prevalent issue all over the world. The primary driver of this issue is the increase in plant nutrients, mainly phosphorus and nitrogen, which cause algal blooms that have undesirable consequences such as causing poor water quality and fish kills. In this experiment, we tested the levels of dissolved oxygen in samples of water from a nearby pond with different concentrations of phosphorus and nitrogen. We attempted to link our findings to explain why eutrophication causes decreased levels of dissolved oxygen in bodies of water. We found that after two weeks, the dissolved oxygen level of the water had increased significantly, so we added a decomposer to our samples to mimic natural decomposers found in pond. Our results showed a substantial decrease in the dissolved oxygen level after the decomposer was added to each sample.


Research suggests that spirituality and religion are significant variables contributing to mental well-being and that they can also play an important part in the treatment of mental disorders. The present paper reviews studies which show that psychiatrists are less likely than their patients to report religious affiliation. While mental health service users report that they wish spirituality to be addressed during their treatment, psychiatrists appear to be more divided as to whether spiritual or religious matters should be addressed within routine clinical enquiry and treatment planning. However, psychiatric practice itself might be understood as requiring a kind of faith, albeit not religious, within which basic principles of clinical care are accepted by virtually all psychiatrists. It is also clear that explicit religious faith (of the patient and the psychiatrist) does potentially have an important impact on the clinical consultation, whether for good or for ill. There is a need for guidelines to govern the ways in which this impact might most effectively be managed, both ethically and therapeutically.


Postprandial hyperglycemia increases the risk of mortality among patients with type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. Additionally, the gut microbiota and type 2 diabetes and cardio-vascular disease are known to be correlated. Currently, fasting blood glucose is the primary in-dex for the clinical diagnosis of diabetes; however, postprandial blood glucose is associated with the risk of developing type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease and mortality. Therefore, the dynamic change in blood glucose levels under free-living conditions is considered an important and better marker than fasting glucose levels to study the relationship between glucose levels and microbiota. Here, we investigated the relationship between fasting and postprandial glucose levels and microbiota under free-living conditions for one week in older adults. In addition, in order to clarify the relationship between blood glucose level and intestinal bacteria, postprandial 4-h AUC was calculated and the correlation with gut bacteria was investigated. As a result of the present study, we observed many of the most significant correlations between the gut bacteria and the peak glucose levels after dinner and the 4-h AUC after dinner. Together, these findings suggest that the individual pattern of microbiota may help to predict post-dinner hyperglycemia and the risk of abnormal glucose metabolism, such as diabetes.


A generic visualization framework (VF) is proposed in this paper with the aim of aiding the debugging of mobile object-based distributed programs running on large networks. This framework consists of three logical layers, namely, the lower public Intranet (PI), the middle visualization data structures (VDS), and the upper visualization user interface (VUI). The VDS makes the VF generic because data structures can be adapted easily to accommodate different platforms that support mobile objects (agents). The adaptation does not affect the VUI and PI features described in this paper. In the simulation and tests, the VF was adapted for the stable Aglets mobile agent platform, and the preliminary results confirm that the VF is indeed a viable approach to help debug mobile object-based distributed programs running on large networks such as the Internet.


R1233zd(E) and R1224yd(Z) are two HCFO (Hydro Chloro Fluoro Olefin) low-GWP refrigerants recently proposed as substitutes of the HFC (Hydro Fluoro Carbon) fluids commonly used in air conditioning, high temperature heat pumps and ORC applications. A few experimental works regarding the two phase heat transfer in small diameter smooth and microfin tubes have already been published in the open literature. The estimations of thermophysical properties may have a remarkable impact on the prediction of the heat transfer coefficients and pressure drops, especially during two-phase heat transfer. The thermophysical properties databases and predictive tools for these refrigerants are continuously being updated and improved as additional, accurate measurements are published in the open literature. The present paper aims to highlight the impacts of thermophysical properties prediction models on the consistency of estimations of heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop using correlations published in the open literature. As a benchmark, some experimental heat transfer and pressure drop data collected for two new HCFOs, R1233zd(E) and R1224yd(Z) are used. The experimental database has been collected at the Department of Management and Engineering of the University of Padova. For the thermophysical properties estimations, different Equations of States contained in REFPROP as well as a more "simplified" approach based on group contribution methods coupled with a Peng-Robinson Equation of State, are considered.


BACKGROUND
General practice registrars are now required to undertake a summative assessment of their consulting skills. Simulated surgeries have been developed as an alternative to the existing method of assessing video-recorded consultations.

AIM
To evaluate the simulated surgery assessment method, developed in the General Practice Postgraduate Education Department in Leicester, for use in assessing general practice consultation skills.

METHOD
General practice registrars in Leicester performed two eight-patient simulated surgeries separated by four weeks. Assessment outcomes were compared to demonstrate the consistency of the method. Pilot surgeries in Yorkshire were videotaped, and then rated by video-raters trained for summative assessment.

RESULTS
The method consistently identified those registrars who were competent and those who were not yet competent in consulting skills. It proved acceptable to candidate doctors and has fewer resource requirements for both examiners and candidates than other consulting skills assessment methods.

CONCLUSION
The method developed in Leicester and successfully transferred to Yorkshire is feasible on a large scale, and offers an acceptable alternative to other consulting skills assessment methods. In this study it consistently identified competent from incompetent candidate doctors.


We develop a model of self-employment in the search and matching framework of Mortensen and Pissarides. We integrate two strands of theoretical literature: models of self-employment and models of unemployment. Our model explains many empirical findings which are not explained by the existing models of self-employment. In our model, higher minimum wage and unemployment benefits have negative effect on self-employment. These results are supported by empirical evidence. In addition, in our model selfemployed earn less, on average, than wage employed workers in equilibrium due to frictions in the labor market. Thus our model provides a novel explanation to one of the key puzzles identified in the empirical literature. We also find that a higher business tax and a lower wage tax reduce self-employment. Address: ∗ Corresponding Author: Department of Economics, University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, V8W 2Y2, Email: firstname.lastname@example.com ∗∗Department of Economics, University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, V8W 2Y2, Email: firstname.lastname@example.com


Genetic deficiencies of proteins of the complement system are associated with diverse clinical phenotypes. These clinical manifestations vary as a function of the specific component that is missing. Molecular and cellular biological methods, coupled with more intensive clinical studies, have defined the pathophysiological basis for this set of genetic disorders. Insights into the normal function of complement and its role in immunopathology have been derived from the extensive work in this field during the past few years.


Despite much debate about the productivity effects of flexible working and the regulation of working hours little attention is paid to temporal variance in productivity. This paper explains why one might expect to see productivity differences across days of the week. Although there is scant direct evidence on day-of-week productivity effects, studies suggest that the timing of labour inputs across and within days, such as the sequencing of work and rest periods, affect productivity-related outcomes such as illness, injury, sickness absence and error rates. The implications of these studies for government policy and managerial practice are discussed together with suggestions for future research. Alex Bryson is the Manpower Research Fellow and Research Director of the Employment Group, Policy Studies Institute. John Forth is a Research Fellow at the National Institute of Economic and Social Research.


Ekwall, H. 2007. Electron microscopy of cryopreserved boar spermatozoa. With special reference to cryo-scanning electron microscopy and immunocytochemistry. Doctoral thesis. ISSN 1652-6880, ISBN 978-91-85913-22-0. Cryopreservation of boar spermatozoa is as yet sub-optimal, presumably owing to variation in dehydration and membrane intactness among boars. This thesis work investigated, using cryo-scanning electron microscopy (Cryo-SEM), how cooling rates below –5C/min affect the frozen structure of boar semen in four different packages/volumes (maxi-straws and medium straws, FlatPacks [FPs] and MiniFlatPacks [MFPs]). The hypothesis tested was that the degree of dehydration differs between containers, as well as by cooling rate, which would explain differences in post-thaw viability among boars. Cryo-SEM allows the study of the fully hydrated ultrastructure of frozen sperm samples without introducing artefacts caused by fixation or processing. It further allows visualisation of the topography of the sample, including the distribution and amount/area of the frozen water which, when sublimated, leaves the partly or fully dehydrated extender and the spermatozoa intact. Furthermore, the thesis work investigated the effect of cooling/re-warming on the localisation of the hexose substrate carriers GLUT-3 and GLUT-5 and water/cryoprotectant channels (Aquaporin 7 [AQP7]) in the plasma membrane. Use of different cooling speeds and containers clearly affected the degree of (de)hydration of the extender/spermatozoa, thus explaining recorded differences in post-thaw sperm survival, but not inter-boar variation. The degree of dehydration was most favourable for the MFPs owing to their cryogenic properties. Ultrastructural analyses by SEM and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) of immunolabelling clearly showed that boar spermatozoa express the hexose/glucose transporters GLUT-3 and GLUT-5 in both the outer and the inner plasmalemma. Their distribution in the plasma membrane changed during the process of cryopreservation, particularly for GLUT-3, whose labelling decreased dramatically post-thaw. Likewise, the channel protein AQP7, involved in the transport of water and glycerol through the plasma membrane, is present in boar spermatozoa collected from the cauda epididymides and from different fractions of the ejaculate. The domain localisation changed in ejaculated spermatozoa during cryopreservation, with a clear redistribution and increasing intensity following freezing-thawing. Both hexose (GLUT-) transporters and AQP7 are markers of interest for non-empirical studies of boar semen cryopreservation.


With the advent of internet of things (IoT) technology, millions of smart devices will be connected to each other as well as to the internet. These connected devices will generate a huge amount of data and collaboratively dispense meaningful insights about the surrounding physical phenomenon by sensing, processing and actuating other devices to cater to various applications. In IoT networks, the sensor nodes need to continuously measure and transmit sensor data to the sink node or to the cloud directly. The communication cost in this transaction is usually high as compared to other operations of a sensor node. Keeping in mind that these battery-operated devices have a limited lifetime, efforts have been made in the wireless sensor networks (WSN) and IoT literature to improve the lifetime of the nodes. Of the many possible ways to increase the lifetime, reducing the sensor data communication to the sink node or other nodes is one of the most efficient ways. These data-transmission reduction techniques are often referred to as data reduction schemes. This thesis focuses on the popular data reduction schemes based on the classical least mean square (LMS) algorithm and the Shewhart test-based scheme. The algorithms have been implemented on a custom-designed low-cost sensor node using easily accessible hardware. The results of the proposed implementations have been evaluated upon real-time deployment of the nodes in our lab. Various results and measurements such as percentage reduction in data transmission, the current consumption of the node and estimation of the battery lifetime have been quantified based on the observations. Comparison of the LMS and Shewhart test-based data reduction schemes on different datasets encourages us to improve the accuracy of the estimated time series data at the sink node. To achieve this, a piggybacking and interpolation based scheme has been proposed along with the Shewhart test-based scheme to improve the mean square error (MSE) of the estimated data, without increasing the number of data transmissions to the sink. The proposed algorithm has also been implemented on the custom-designed sensor node. The current consumption and battery lifetime have been analyzed. It is seen that there is an inherent trade-off between the decrease in the MSE and the reduction in the battery-lifetime for the number of piggybacks chosen. However, the decrease in the battery lifetime is negligible as compared to the improvement in the accuracy. Later, the Shewhart test-based data reduction scheme is implemented on NodeMCU and integrated with oneM2M standard to show the proof-of-concept for using these algorithms for industrial and real-world IoT applications.


Background The introduction of treatment regimens comprising of cyclophosphamide or rituximab combined with corticosteroids has brought about dramatic improvements in the prognosis of ANCA-associated vasculitis.1 Severe infectious events, especially in the early phase of treatment, associated with risk of death have been reported in the past several studies.2,3 Objectives We retrospectively investigated the association between mortality and early severe infection in patients with antineutrophil cytoplasmic autoantibody (ANCA)-associated vasculitis (AAV), and we also attempted to identify the potential predictors for early severe infection. Methods We recruited 182 consecutive hospitalised patients newly diagnosed with AAV at our hospital, from January 2000 to June 2017, in this retrospective cohort study. All cause mortality, relapse, and severe infections within six months after starting treatment (early severe infection) were analysed. Results The mean age was 70 years at diagnosis, and the classification according to the Chapel Hill Conference definition were microscopic polyangiitis (MPA) in 82 patients (45.1%), granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA) in 36 patients (19.8%), eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis (EGPA) in 24 patients (13.2%), and renal-limited vasculitis in 32 patients (17.6%).4 Median follow up was 158 weeks (range 0–182 w). Using Cox regression analysis, elderly onset (age ≥75 years) AAV (p=0.027) and early severe infection (p≤0.001) were independent predictors of all cause mortality (table 1). Early severe infection tended to increase among patients who received immunosuppressive therapy of a corticosteroid combined with cyclophosphamide or rituximab (conventional treatment), and this trend was significant in non-severe (BVAS <20) AAV patients (p=0.030) (table 2). Treatment response rate (p=0.058) and relapse rate (p=0.137) were not significant between the different treatment groups.Abstract FRI0490 – Table 1 Risk factors affecting survival according to Cox regression analysis Risk factor Hazard ratio 95% CI P value Age≥75 years old 2.35 (1.1–5.03) 0.027 BVAS* ≥20 2.08 (0.99–4.32) 0.05 Creatinine≥1.5 mg/dl 1.18 (0.58–2.38) 0.654 Early severe infection 3.23 (1.63–6.48) <0.001 *Birmingham Vasculitis Activity Score (BVAS) Version.3Abstract FRI0490 – Table 2 Risk factors affecting early severe infection in non-severe AAV patients Risk factor Hazard ratio 95% CI P value Age≥75 years old 2.1 (0.85–5.32) 0.105 Conventional treatment 3.0 (1.11–7.89) 0.030 Lung involvement 1.0 (0.43–2.48) 0.936 Creatinine≥1.5 mg/dl 1.0 (0.41–2.33) 0.963 Conclusions Early severe infection is an independent predictor of death in patients with AAV, and conventional treatment has a potential risk of death due to severe infection. This study supports the current EULAR recommendation that several treatment strategies are recommended according to the disease severity of vasculitis.5 AAV patients who receive conventional treatment should be carefully monitored to reduce the occurrence of severe infection, especially in early phase of treatment. References [1] Little MA, et al. Ann Rheum Dis2010;69:1036–43. [2] Lai QY, et al. J Rheumatol2014;41(9):1849–55. [3] Solans-Laque R, et al. Medicine2017;96(8):e6083. [4] Janette JC, et al. Arthritis Rheum2013;65:1–11. [5] Yates M et al. Ann Rheum Dis 2016;75(9):1583–94. Disclosure of Interest None declared


AIM
A brief revision was performed in order to develop a topographic model of cerebral activation during silent reading, syllable's repetition and emotional prosody, based in recent neuroimaging studies.

DEVELOPMENT
It has been reported that the words are analyzed in both occipital hemispheres during silent reading, after they are 'written' in the right temporal cortex while the integration of the semantic and phonologic processes are integrated on different left temporal areas and also in the left frontal lower part. The understanding is achieved in the left-middle temporal cortex. In the other hand, activation during articulatory movements is carried out in the left supratemporal gyrus and the left motor and premotor cortex, the left putamen and part of both hemispheres of the cerebellum. Finally, recognition of the emotional prosody occurs in three stages: obtaining of the acoustic information in some areas of the right temporal lobe, representation of acoustic sequences in the right posterio-superior temporal area, and an evaluation of the emotional prosody in the lower frontal bilateral cortex, with the involvement of the basal ganglia in the emotional expression.

CONCLUSIONS
The location and synchrony of the areas that activate during the language processing is lateralized toward the left hemisphere and it involves cortical and subcortical areas, except for the emotional prosody. The understanding of the language processes will open the field for to take advantage of the plastic mechanisms for the speech therapy and rehabilitation.


Abstract Acute damage to the kidney is a serious complication in patients in intensive care units. The causes of acute kidney damage in these patients may be prerenal, renal and postrenal. Sepsis is the most common cause of the development of acute kidney damage in intensive care units. For the definition and classification of acute kidney damage in clinical practice, the RIFLE, AKIN and KDIGO classifications are used. There is a complex link between acute kidney damage and other organs. Acute kidney damage is induced by complex pathophysiological mechanisms that cause acute damage and functional disorders of the heart (acute heart failure, acute coronary syndrome and cardiac arrhythmias), brain (whole body cramps, ischaemic stroke and coma), lung (acute damage to the lung and acute respiratory distress syndrome) and liver (hypoxic hepatitis and acute hepatic insufficiency). New biomarkers, colour Doppler ultrasound diagnosis and kidney biopsy have significant roles in the diagnosis of acute kidney damage. Prevention of the development of acute kidney damage in intensive care units includes maintaining an adequate haemodynamic status in patients and avoiding nephrotoxic drugs and agents (radiocontrast agents). The complications of acute kidney damage (hyperkalaemia, metabolic acidosis, hypervolaemia and azotaemia) are treated with medications, intravenous solutions, and therapies for renal function replacement. Absolute indications for acute haemodialysis include resistant hyperkalaemia, severe metabolic acidosis, resistant hypervolaemia and complications of high azotaemia. In the absence of an absolute indication, dialysis is indicated for patients in intensive care units at stage 3 of the AKIN/KDIGO classification and in some patients with stage 2. Intermittent haemodialysis is applied for haemodynamically stable patients with severe hyperkalaemia and hypervolaemia. In patients who are haemodynamically unstable and have liver insufficiency or brain damage, continuous modalities of treatment for renal replacement are indicated.


Infertility is one of the developing problems in most countries and it has a lot of problems, which can be emotional, social and political. Intrauterine insemination (IUI) is the first line Assisted Reproduction Treatment (ART) modality for infertile couples because this method is inexpensive and non-invasive, which is effective for the treatment of couples with unexplained infertility or patient with normal or mild male factor. Two methods, mainly considered as laboratory techniques for improving the quality of sperm, includes Swim-Up (SU) and Density Gradient Centrifugation (DGC). The SU is a common technique in IVF labs, and is mainly performed in a sample of semen having normal sperm concentration. In this technique, sperms are selected based on their motility and their capacity to leave the semen plasma. In the DGC method, sperms are selected based on the density, motile sperm are separated from dead sperms, leukocytes and other high-density semen plasmatic compounds. The aim of this method is thus to select sperms with high motility and morphology rates. Therefore, the aim of the present study is to compare the effect of these two methods on the outcome in intrauterine insemination in different groups, including normal samples (< 60 million (type1)) and 20-60 million/ml (type2), oligospermia (type3) and asthenospermia (type4), in patients referred to the Infertility Center. The present experimental study was performed on 545 couples who referred to the Infertility Research and Treatment Center, in 2016 for infertile reasons and were in a good status in terms of general health. Processing of sperm was done by two common methods, swim-up and Density Gradient Centrifugation according WHO. Our study showed the effectiveness of the Density gradient-Swim up technique compared to Swim-up as a sperm preparation method with a favourable IUI success.


The structural symmetry is of great significance on the unique physical and chemical properties that closely related to pharmacological applications. To investigate the effects of structural symmetry on the NMR spectra, C2-3,9-diazatetraasteranes and non-C2-3,9-diazatetraasteranes were selected as the research object. They were synthesized by the self-dimerization and cross-dimerization of diethyl 1,4-dihydropyridine-3,5-dicarboxylates, respectively. The differences and similarities in NMR spectra of these two types of 3,9-diazatetraasteranes were discussed by the 1D-NMR and 2D-NMR analysis. The single-crystal X-ray diffraction (XRD) was used to demonstrate directly their structural symmetry.


An understanding of the molecular pathogenesis and heterogeneity of ovarian cancer holds promise for the development of early detection strategies and novel, efficient therapies. In this review, we discuss the advantages and limitations of animal models available for basic and preclinical studies. The fruit fly model is suitable mainly for basic research on cellular migration, invasiveness, adhesion, and the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition. Higher-animal models allow to recapitulate the architecture and microenvironment of the tumor. We discuss a syngeneic mice model and the patient derived xenograft model (PDX), both useful for preclinical studies. Conditional knock-in and knock-out methodology allows to manipulate selected genes at a given time and in a certain tissue. Such models have built our knowledge about tumor-initiating genetic events and cell-of-origin of ovarian cancers; it has been shown that high-grade serous ovarian cancer may be initiated in both the ovarian surface and tubal epithelium. It is postulated that clawed frog models could be developed, enabling studies on tumor immunity and anticancer immune response. In laying hen, ovarian cancer develops spontaneously, which provides the opportunity to study the genetic, biochemical, and environmental risk factors, as well as tumor initiation, progression, and histological origin; this model can also be used for drug testing. The chick embryo chorioallantoic membrane is another attractive model and allows the study of drug response.


Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the regulation thereof is a topic that is increasingly being discussed within various fora. Various proposals have been made in literature for defining regulatory bodies and/or related regulation. In this paper, we present a pragmatic approach for providing a technology assurance regulatory framework. To the best knowledge of the authors this work presents the first national AI technology assurance legal and regulatory framework that has been implemented by a national authority empowered through law to do so. In aim of both providing assurances where required and not stifling innovation yet supporting it, herein it is proposed that such regulation should not be mandated for all AI-based systems and that rather it should primarily provide a voluntary framework and only be mandated in sectors and activities where required and as deemed necessary by other authorities for regulated and critical areas.


A technique that performs better than conventional, noncoherent marine radars in detecting small pieces of glacial ice (growlers) in the sea is reported. A coherent detector based on an autoregressive (AR) parameterization of received radar echoes that distinguishes growler returns from the background sea clutter returns is considered. A conventional noncoherent detector is also evaluated as a basis for comparison. The AR-based detector is shown to offer significant improvements in detecting growlers. The results reported are based on real X-band radar data. >


In view of the COVID-19 pandemic and government policy to carry out online learning, the present research is aimed at investigating how EFL teachers carry out online EFL learning and its challenges. 16 EFL teachers volunteered to participate in this research through invitation. The EFL teachers were requested to make written reflections regarding their practices in carrying out online EFL learning and the challenges they encounter. Five of them were involved in a follow-up interview individually. Semi-structured interview was administered. Data coding was done and appropriate extracts were informed in results section. To validate the data, data coding was done independently by both researchers, continued by several cycles of discussion. As results, the EFL teachers have carried out online learning through a series of activities ranging from checking the students' attendance to giving score on the students' works synchronously or asynchronously depending on each school policy. Various applications and platforms ranging from learning management system to additional resource are employed. However, many problems emerge from the students, the teachers, and the students' parents along with the valid reasons. Therefore, the online learning does not run well since it lacks of preparation and planning. Implications for better online learning are discussed. Future prospective researches are directed and encouraged. Keywords: COVID-19, EFL teachers, online EFL learning, technology enhanced language learning, technology in language learning.


We show that the four-point functions in conformal field theory are defined as distributions on the boundary of the region of convergence of the conformal block expansion. The conformal block expansion converges in the sense of distributions on this boundary, i.e. it can be integrated term by term against appropriate test functions. This can be interpreted as a giving a new class of functionals that satisfy the swapping property when applied to the crossing equation, and we comment on the relation of our construction to other types of functionals. Our language is useful in all considerations involving the boundary of the region of convergence, e.g. for deriving the dispersion relations. We establish our results by elementary methods, relying only on crossing symmetry and the standard convergence properties of the conformal block expansion. This is the first in a series of papers on distributional properties of correlation functions in conformal field theory. January 2019 ar X iv :2 00 1. 08 77 8v 1 [ he pth ] 2 3 Ja n 20 20


Microstructures and magnetic properties of Ta/Pt/Co2FeAl (CFA)/MgO multilayers are studied to understand perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) of half-metallic full-Heusler alloy films. PMA is realized in a 2.5-nm CFA film with B2-ordered structure observed by a high resolution transmission electron microscope. It is demonstrated that a high quality interface between the ferromagnetic layer and oxide layer is not essential for PMA. The conversions between in-plane anisotropy and PMA are investigated to study the dependence of magnetic moment on temperature. At the intersection points, the decreasing slope of the saturation magnetization (Ms) changes because of the conversions. The dependence of Ms on the annealing temperature and MgO thickness is also studied.


Xylaneses are very common xylanolytic enzymes, which are widely used in food, papermaking, and other industries. In this study, a xylanase-encoding gene xyn1923, which encodes a protein of 1352 amino acids, was identified through the whole genome analysis of Microbacterium imperiale YD-01. Bioinformatics analysis showed that Xyn1923 only had maximum similarity of 37% with the reported xylanase from Alkalihalobacillus halodurans C-125, indicating that Xyn1923 was a novel xylanase. The enzymatic properties of Xyn1923 were systematically analyzed after purification. The results showed that the specific activity of the enzyme was 10.582 ± 0.413 U/mg, while the optimum pH and temperature of the enzyme were 7.0 and 70°C, respectively. The enzyme is stable in the pH range of 6.0-9.0, and the enzyme activity could maintain more than 85% of the original activity after 16 hr incubation at pH 9.0. The enzyme activity is relatively stable in the range of 30-60°C, and its enzyme activity could maintain more than 89% of the original activity after treatment at 60°C for 30 min. Low concentrations (≤1 mM) of Co2+ , Ba2+ , Fe2+ , and Fe3+ metal ions exerted a stimulatory effect on the activity of Xyn1923. And in contrast, high concentrations (≥2 mM) of the above metal ions inhibit the activity of Xyn1923. Mg2+ , Ag+ , Cu2+ , Ca2+ , Mn2+ , and Pb2+ ions showed a negative effect on the activity of Xyn1923. Enzyme kinetic studies showed that Km and Vmax values for xylan were 7.842 ± 0.538 mg/ml and 15.208 ± 0.822 U/mg, respectively. Xyn1923 was found to be a weakly alkaline thermophilic xylanase through an enzymatic property analysis. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: Xylanases are widely used in food and feed, biofuels, papermaking, and other industries. However, their use is limited by poor performance under the conditions of pH and temperature. Therefore, the discovery of xylanases with the capability of working efficiently at alkaline pH and high temperature is the priority for its industrial applications. In this study, a novel xylanase-encoding gene xyn1923 from Microbacterium imperiale YD-01 was cloned and heterologously expressed in Escherichia coli. Enzymatic properties of this novel xylanase were investigated, indicating that the robust thermal stability and alkali resistance of Xyn1923 make it a potential candidate for the food and paper industries.


Research in the field of Micro/nanofluidics has been extensively carried out for the last few years. With the available technological advancements today many complex systems can be fabricated in a more efficient and simpler way. Conventional methods in a laboratory consumes a lot of time, chemicals and in turn generates a lot of waste unlike the Lab-on-a-chip (LOC) devices where all the processes are carried out on a small chip with small drops of chemicals, negligible wastes and in minimum time. Most of all this is very efficient and inexpensive. Most of the work in this project was concentrated on developing and optimizing the technologies for the fabrication of micro and nanofluidic devices. Conventional soft-lithography was used initially to fabricate the microfluidic devices using PDMS. Realizing the limitations in working with PDMS the choice was made to replace PDMS with TMMF S2030 dry film photoresist (DFR) which turned out to be fruitful. Working with DFR is inexpensive, more accurate and easier compared to working with PDMS in microfluidics. Dry film photoresist (DFR) is a new type of photoresists, which is gaining importance in semiconductor industry. These are generally negative tone photoresists in the form of a thin foil protected by PET (Polyethylene terephthalate) on both sides. They are differentiated into permanent and non-permanent resists. The minimum known thickness of the available dry films is 15 µm and the maximum reaching to few hundreds of microns. They can potentially replace soft lithographic materials, since they are easier to process. Dry film photoresists have a big role to play in microfluidics, which is yet to be completely explored. Manipulating a single cell has been an interesting topic for the researchers in the field of microfluidics for a long time. Our design fulfils the idea of trapping, cell viability, manipulation, sensing and detection. The devices were equipped with different channels for different applications like, providing nutrients to the cell, to hold the cell with suction and to collect the reaction by-products, sense and detect them. Di-electrophoresis is a well known technique for manipulating neutral particles/cells in fluids and it is widely used in micro fluidic systems for forcing particles to desired trajectories. Since the particle has to be moved in the horizontal plane, the width and the introduction point of the particle are more critical variables. Presorter electrodes were introduced more upstream in the entrance channel which will bring far-off particles to the trapping range and also a minimum distance between presorter and trapping electrodes should be regarded. One more important goal is to keep the cell in the reservoir once it is there. This can be achieved by a simple electrode pair blocking the outlet of the hole. The particle is repelled from the resulting field. The same repelling force will prevent other particles to enter the hole. The geometry of electrodes was designed so that it is only necessary to modify the applied voltage according to the entrance speed. Experiments for trapping polystyrene beads followed by E.coli bacteria were successfully carried out with the help of a dedicated holder and an Olympus inverted microscope. Research stops nowhere. Following the path from microfluidic devices for single cell analysis, we have concentrated on developing nanofluidic devices for DNA analysis. Lot of research has been carried out in nanofluidics for DNA, protein and nucleic acid analysis studies. Existing devices have electrodes placed at the ends of microchannels and a potential is applied to move the particles into the nanochannels. The devices we aimed at have electrodes embedded within the nanochannels along with electrodes at the junctions of micro and nanochannels. The main idea in designing and fabricating these devices with embedded electrodes is to study the behavior of the biomolecules in a localized electrical field. Devices were fabricated by a conventional anodic bonding process and a completely new single silicon wafer process. To our knowledge this is the first time that nanofluidic devices (200 nm deep channels and integrated electrodes) were fabricated on a single silicon wafer. The nanochannels in this case were defined by sacrificial etching. Electrodes were patterned on the top side of the nanochannels. Microchannels were etched from the back side of the silicon wafer connecting to the nanochannels through a membrane of silicon nitride. Initial experiments were carried out with rhodamine + ethanol solution to prove the opening of nanochannels without any leakage followed by trapping carboxylate modified fluorescent polystyrene beads to confirm the working of embedded electrodes. Further experiments were carried out with DNA molecules tagged with a fluorescent dye. DNA molecules were injected into the microchannel and once the channels were filled completely, electrodes in the microchannels were switched on to drag the DNA molecule towards the entrance of the nanochannel. Then the EOF voltage over the nanochannel was switched on to drag the DNA through the nanochannel. A single DNA molecule was successfully tracked over the length of the nanochannel. Time and the distance travelled by the molecule were calculated. Using microfluidic devices further experiments on sensing and detection can be carried out with single cells. Behavior of different lengths of DNA within the electrical double layer in a localized electric field can be studied with the help of the fabricated nanofluidic devices. Experiments were also carried out to define the best etch mask to etch completely through a glass wafer. Amorphous silicon turned out to be the best etch mask material to etch the glass in 40% HF. Even though slight pin holes were observed by using PECVD amorphous silicon, we recommend that thick layers sputtered in batches will resolve this problem and a clear surface can be achieved. It is recommended that LPCVD amorphous silicon would be the best etch mask if it can be sputtered at lower temperatures. Along with amorphous silicon, Molybdenum can also be a good etch mask if more research has been done on improving the adhesion of 'Mo' to glass substrates.


ABSTRACT Of the currently known 75 species within the four recognized species groups of Leptodactylus, the L. fuscus group contains 30 species, of which tadpoles are known for 24, including L. plaumanni described based on a population from Argentina. Herein, we describe external and internal oral morphology of L. plaumanni tadpoles collected in Brazil and compare with tadpoles from Argentina. In addition, we compare phenetic groups obtained from analysis of larval characters with the currently recognized species groups. The tadpole of L. plaumanni from Brazil is identified by: body globular in lateral view, ventral fin forming a wide arc, oral disc lateroventrally emarginate, marginal papillae of oral disc biseriate, more than 10 papillae on each side delimiting the mouth floor, and buccal roof arena trapezoidal. Of the 23 analyzed external morphological characters, only eight were shared by tadpoles from Argentina and Brazil, and they also shared 14 of the 15 internal oral morphological characters. Tadpoles of both populations differ in external morphology and, although such intraspecific differences can be due to plasticity, the hypothesis that these two populations represent different species cannot be dismissed. Phenetic groups obtained using larval characters are consistent with species groups proposed for Leptodactylus by phylogenetic analysis, based on adult characters.


Ophthalmologic surgeries, particularly cataract surgeries, are amongst the most frequently performed procedures in the United States and worldwide. These procedures are generally associated with a low risk of major adverse complications and are well-tolerated. Traditional scoring systems used to calculate the risk of perioperative complications are not applicable to ophthalmologic surgeries and may overestimate risk, potentially leading to unnecessary development of worsened vision or vision loss. Conversely, while these surgeries are generally associated with a low risk, outcomes are improved when comorbid conditions are identified, communicated to the ophthalmologist, and effectively managed. Additionally, routine preoperative testing is frequently ordered, but rarely indicated. A reduction in unnecessary preoperative testing has substantial potential to reduce the economic impact on healthcare costs in this patient population.
Of particular note, the perioperative management of antiplatelet therapy and anticoagulation in the patient undergoing ophthalmologic surgery can be confusing. Internists may not have an adequate understanding of the bleeding risks associated with common ophthalmologic surgeries, and ophthalmologists may not have an adequate understanding of which patient populations are at highest risk of adverse events from an interruption of therapy. A better understanding of the bleeding risks associated with common ophthalmologic surgeries can help the internists provide more accurate recommendations to the ophthalmologist to allow for a more appropriate treatment plan in the perioperative setting and help determine optimal timing of surgical intervention.


A micro fluid system support unit includes a first support body (2), a first adhesive layer (1a) arranged on the surface of the first support body (2), a first hollow filament group consisting of a plurality of hollow filaments (501 to 508) arranged with an arbitrary shape on the surface of the first adhesive layer (1a), a second hollow filament group consisting of a plurality of hollow filaments (511 to 518) arranged in the direction orthogonal to the first hollow filament group, a second adhesive layer (1b) arranged on the surface of the second hollow filament group, and a second support body (6) arranged on the surface of the second adhesive layer (1b). The first and the second hollow filament group constitute a flow passage layer.


Cross laminated timber (CLT) are composed of longitudinal layers and cross layers. And as the laminations of the adjoin layers are glued orthogonally deterioration of the laminations such as check and shake and delamination can be rather frequently come out when CLT is exposed to humid and dry cyclic climate. In Japan more than 100 CLT buildings have been constructed and the number of CLT building is increasing. In some buildings the CLT is designed as to be the exterior members and exposed to the outdoor climate. Several CLT buildings that have CLT as exterior members was investigated to make clear what was ongoing on the CLT panels exposed to outdoor climate. Remarkable check and shake, warp and delamination was observed for the CLT in some of the investigated buildings. To bring out the mechanism of the distortion of CLT under humid and dry cyclic climate and to give a solution to prevent deterioration of CLT a series of laboratory tests were conducted. The CLT panels were set in a climate chamber and exposed to a humid and dry cyclic climate. And the moisture content and the movement of the laminations of CLT were measured. The movement was affected by the species of the laminations and also by the direction of the surface, sap-side or heart-side. And the film forming type painting worked well as to prevent the deterioration and the penetrating type painting could slightly reduce the deterioration.


N-IPAAm monomers were grafted in/on Poly vinylidene fluoride (PVDF) micro-pore membrane by γ-irradiation. The grafting was characterized by Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) measurements. Contact angle on the surface, electrical conductance and water penetration through the grafted membranes were tested. The results show that the N-isopropylacrylamide (N-EPAAm) monomers were successfully grafted on and inside the PVDF porous membrane. The hydrophilicity of the grafted membrane was improved and the membrane exhibits clearly temperature-sensitive permeability to water as expected, i.e., the permeability of water changes dramatically as the temperature goes above the lower critical solution temperature (LCST) of N-IPAAm.


Many research projects and scientific initiatives multiple their impact and relevance through collaborations. It is the contact and exchange with others that often brings a scientist's work to the next level. The same happens with outreach: sharing activities, concepts, materials and knowhow may lead to greater impact, more innovative, inspirational ideas with enough potential to create pioneering outreach activities. A good example for this is the FP7 European project "GoPhoton!", an initiative of ECOP (European Centres of Outreach in Photonics) that ran through 2014 and 2015 and finished at the beginning of 2016 and was directed at the general public, young minds as well as current and future entrepreneurs. This project was based on the idea of sharing activities which is at the core of ECOP's identityalready existing in other nodes (institutions within the project), or created within GoPhoton! The main concept was the effective leverage of local links such as the networks of educators and professionals in general, industrial clusters, museums, universities, governmental and non-governmental organizations, all from a Pan-European perspective possible through ECOP. This has resulted in over 200 events impacting over two million people. The sharing of activities across institutions that have different resources, facilities, and cultural environments is not straightforward. One of the biggest challenges for the consortium was to be able to extract the concept and identity of each activity, so that it could be realistically adapted to each local context. A crucial point was being able to effectively use the knowhow gained from a partner's activity, in a way that the essence of the activity remained untainted across the participating nodes, while still triggering innovation locally.


Background: Significant disparities in diabetes device (DD) use exist for Black adolescents with type 1 diabetes (T1D), meriting further exploration. We sought to describe how Black adolescents with T1D and their parents make decisions about using DDs and understand personal, familial, and cultural beliefs that may influence use. Materials and Methods: Nineteen Black adolescents with T1D and 17 parents participated in individual qualitative semistructured interviews. Adolescents were purposively sampled for a range of socioeconomic and clinical demographics. Interview data were recorded, transcribed, and coded for thematic analysis, analyzed separately for parents and adolescents, and then compared across groups. Data collection continued until thematic saturation was achieved. Results: Adolescents and parents reported similar themes related to the (1) intersectionality of multiple identities: T1D experience of Black adolescents; (2) decision to use DDs: complexities of T1D management and easing the burden; and (3) reasons for differential uptake of DDs in Black adolescents. Adolescents reported lacking peers with T1D "who look like me," leading to stigmatization, exacerbated by device visibility and alarms. Cultural and familial traditions as well as individual factors were described as both facilitators and barriers in DD use. Lack of familiarity with T1D, limited exposure to DDs, and mistrust of the medical community, both historically and currently, were brought up as reasons for inequities in DD use. Conclusions: Understanding the decision-making process surrounding DDs in one sample of Black adolescents and their parents is critical to guide further research to improve equity in DD use and glycemic outcomes.


Abstract Introduction: The effect of different intensities of pelvic floor muscle training (PFMT) assessed by 2D/3D ultrasound (USG) have not been sufficiently monitored in the literature. The objective of the study will be to evaluate the effect of this intervention by assessing the change in incontinence episode frequency, hiatal area (HA) and hiatal diameter by 2D/3D USG and quality of life over 12 weeks of treatment. Methods: Using a randomized interventional parallel study, patients will be assigned to groups A and B using simple software randomization according to odd and even patient sequence numbers. The following methods will be used for evaluation: change in incontinence episode frequency, power and endurance of pelvic floor muscles assessed by perineometer (in cmH2O), HA (in cm2) during contraction, Valsalva manoeuvre assessed by 3D USG, hiatal diameter assessed by 2D USG, the Incontinence Quality of Life scale (I-QoL) and the Patient Global Impression of Improvement score (PGI-I). Interventions: Group A, high-intensity PFMT 5 times a week for 30 minutes per day. Group B, low-intensity PFMT twice a week for 15 minutes per day. The duration of the intervention will be 12 weeks. Discussion: The study protocol presents the starting points, design, and methods of the PELSTAB Study. We expect that, after 12 weeks of high-intensity PFMT, women with stress urinary incontinence will have significantly less incontinence episode frequency, better reduction of HA during contraction and Valsalva manoeuvre, higher power and endurance of pelvic floor muscles and better quality of life compared to the group with low-intensity PFMT. Registration: This study was registered in the ClinicalTrials.govNCT04340323.


Hybrid DFT calculations are used to study the structures and chemistry of the diiron complex of MMO and RNR. The chemical model used is larger than the ones used previously and contains the full first ligand sphere. New types of structures are suggested for the intermediates observed in the reactions of these enzymes. To obtain the very short Fe-Fe distances recently measured by EXAFS, it is suggested that both compound Q of MMO and compound X of RNR have two bridging carboxylates like the reduced diferrous complex but unlike the diferric complex. Antiferromagnetic coupling is shown to have significant effects on the electronic structure of the complexes and is also important for achieving the short Fe-Fe distance. The new model is also used to study the activation of methane, and a pure hydrogen abstraction transition state is located where a hydrogen of methane is abstracted by a bridging &mgr;-oxo ligand. The combination of the methyl radical with the bridging &mgr;-OH ligand formed occurs without a barrier and is extremely exothermic. This reaction should therefore be very fast. A symmetric transition state for the activation of O(2) is also proposed leading from a suggested compound P to compound Q. In this process, one of the carboxylate bridges of the reduced complex has to move away from O(2) toward one of the irons. These results are discussed in relation to recent experiments.


Natural gas is currently produced from the Upper Cretaceous Niobrara Formation in northeastern Colorado, northwestern Kansas, and several small fields in Nebraska. As a part of studies of low-permeability gas reservoirs in the northern Great Plains, the regional geologic setting of the Niobrara has been investigated in North Dakota, South Dakota, and Nebraska. In North Dakota and South Dakota, 2 Niobrara chalk tongues grade into calcareous shales, which in turn intertongue northward and westward with thick noncalcareous shales of the Pierre Shale. In Nebraska, 3 Niobrara chalk tongues and intervening calcareous shales thicken southward as a unit. An isopach map of the interval from the Niobrara base to the Ardmore Bentonite Bed in the overlying Pierre Shale shows an oblate area of thin sediments extending from southwest to northeast out of the Nebraska Panhandle and into central South Dakota. Erosion along the basal Niobrara unconformity is greatest in the area of thin strata and an unconformity is locally developed on the top of the Niobrara in that same area. Structural contours of the Ardmore Bentonite Bed suggest that the area of thin N obrara strata presently approximates the south flank of the Williston basin and north flank of the Denver and Kennedy basins. Chalk tongues are interpreted as low-angle shelf surfaces, known as carbonate ramps, which sloped gently to the northwest and southeast off a paleotectonic high. The paleotectonic high cut obliquely across the seaway and was close to the position of the Transcontinental arch that influenced Paleozoic sedimentation. As a result, the present-day stratigraphy and structural setting of the Niobrara are different north and south of the arch crest.


Azonto is a Ghanaian urban dance craze whose popularity is built through its global circulation. I trace its production and flow across studios, radio stations, dance floors, and digital platforms in Accra and among Ghanaians in London and New York. I argue that, as a technologically mediated style, Azonto is the embodiment of being Ghanaian in a mobile, digital world. This dance reveals both the potentials and the hazards of digital repetition and copying for self-recognition. Ghanaian musicians and fans creatively use the repetitive aspects of digital technologies, making this dance a style of symbolic appropriation that links Ghanaian youth both in Accra and abroad into a dispersed community of musical participation that valorizes mobility itself. The dance's sudden ubiquity, however, creates "digital fatigue," an uncertainty among participants about belonging in an era of digital replication that threatens to unmoor signs of recognition from the cultural registers that empower them in the first place.


Waterways of the Sacramento San Joaquin Delta have recently become infested with invasive aquatic weeds such as floating water hyacinth (Eichhoria crassipes) and water primrose (Ludwigia peploides). These invasive plants cause many negative impacts, including, but not limited to: the blocking of waterways for commercial shipping and boating; clogging of irrigation screens, pumps and canals; and degradation of biological habitat through shading. Zhang et al. (1997, Ecological Applications, 7(3), 1039-1053) used NASA Landsat satellite imagery together with field calibration measurements to map physical and biological processes within marshlands of the San Francisco Bay. Live green biomass (LGB) and related variables were correlated with a simple vegetation index ratio of red and near infra-red bands from Landsat images. More recently, the percent (water area) cover of water hyacinth plotted against estimated LGB of emergent aquatic vegetation in the Delta from September 2014 Landsat imagery showed an 80 percent overall accuracy. For the past two years, we have partnered with the U. S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Department of Plant Sciences, University of California at Davis to conduct new validation surveys of water hyacinth and water primrose coverage and LGB in Delta waterways. A plan is underway to transfer decision support tools developed at NASA's Ames Research Center based on Landsat satellite images to improve Delta-wide integrated management of floating aquatic weeds, while reducing chemical control costs. The main end-user for this application project will be the Division of Boating and Waterways (DBW) of the California Department of Parks and Recreation, who has the responsibility for chemical control of water hyacinth in the Delta.


Mean and turbulent properties of the wake generated by a single wind turbine are studied in this paper with a new large eddy simulation (LES) code, the wind turbine and turbulence simulator (WiTTS hereafter). WiTTS uses a scale-dependent Lagrangian dynamical model of the sub-grid shear stress and actuator lines to simulate the effects of the rotating blades. WiTTS is first tested by simulating neutral boundary layers without and with a wind turbine and then used to study the common assumptions of self-similarity and axisymmetry of the wake under neutral conditions for a variety of wind speeds and turbine properties. We find that the wind velocity deficit generally remains self similarity to a Gaussian distribution in the horizontal. In the vertical, the Gaussian self-similarity is still valid in the upper part of the wake, but it breaks down in the region of the wake close to the ground. The horizontal expansion of the wake is always faster and greater than the vertical expansion under neutral stability due to wind shear and impact with the ground. Two modifications to existing equations for the mean velocity deficit and the maximum added turbulence intensity are proposed and successfully tested. The anisotropic wake expansion is taken into account in the modified model of the mean velocity deficit. Turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) budgets show that production and advection exceed dissipation and turbulent transport. The nacelle causes significant increase of every term in the TKE budget in the near wake. In conclusion, WiTTS performs satisfactorily in the rotor region of wind turbine wakes under neutral stability. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Understanding of the use of shells as an indispensible resource for land hermit crabs increases our understanding of their life history. We investigated shell utilization of the land hermit crab Coenobita rugosus from April 2011 to March 2012 on Phuket Island in the Andaman Coast of Thailand. A total of 1, 322 individuals of C. rugosus were collected (711 males, 507 non-ovigerous females and 104 ovigerous females) using multiple quadrat sampling, and were found to use 63 molluscan shell species, including 62 gastropod shell species from 20 families and one bivalve shell. The diversity of shells used increased with body size from small to medium-sized crabs, but decreased in larger crabs. The most commonly occupied shell species was N. albicilla (19.6 % of crabs). However, N. albicilla used by C. rugosus was not the lightest shell species based on the ratio between internal volume and weight following the "energy saving hypothesis". Globose shells and those with ovate apertures were the most commonly used shell types. The shell utilization patterns of C. rugosus at the study site were different among reproductive stages. Furthermore, strong correlations between internal volume and aperture size of occupied shells and hermit crab characters suggest that the shell internal volume and size of aperture are the main determinants for shell utilization of C. rugosus. Consequently, the pattern of shell utilization of C. rugosus is seemingly similar to those of other coenobitid species based on the frequent occupation of certain shell species and shapes. Additionally, the great shell diversity used by this population of C. rugosus compared with other conspecific populations and congeneric species may reflect more plasticity in shell utilization due to the high diversity of shell resources in the tropical habitats in the Indo-Pacific region.


The main goal of this paper is to acquire more insight into the relationship between wall and piston impingement of liquid fuel and unburnt hydrocarbon emissions (UHC) emissions, under early direct injection (EDI) premixed charge compression ignition (PCCI) operating conditions. To this end, the vaporization process is modeled for various operating conditions using a commercial CFD code (StarCD). Predicted values for liquid core penetration, or liquid length LL , have been successfully checked against experimental data from literature over a wide range of operating conditions. Next, the correlation between the CFD results for wall and piston impingement and measured UHC emissions is studied. The diesel fuel used in the experiments is modeled as n-dodecane and n-heptadecane, representing the low and high end of the diesel boiling range, respectively. A distinction is made between liquid spray impingement on the piston surface and cylinder liner. For a conventional DI diesel nozzle, the high UHC emissions in the EDI PCCI regime correlate well with modeled cylinder wall impingement. Conversely, piston impingement is negligible in this regime. Accordingly, it may be assumed that the primary cause for high UHC emissions in the EDI PCCI regime, using conventional DI nozzles, is caused by liquid spray impingement against the cylinder liner. In this regime it was found that a higher intake and fuel temperature, as well as an elevated intake pressure have a positive effect on both UHC emissions and the spray impingement against the cylinder wall. This provides additional evidence that the two parameters (i.e. UHC and wall impingement) are linked. Lastly, the impact of nozzle cone angle is investigated. When adopting a narrow cone angle nozzle in the EDI PCCI regime, wall impingement is negligible and piston wetting becomes the dominant source of UHC emissions.


This paper discusses the reasons of failure of TQM Implementation in Indian Public Sector Undertaking. Based on the weaknesses observed in the existing systems and practices of implementation, a system structural model of TQM Implementation is proposed. Based on the experiential learning through interaction with the public sector undertaking, the model is a proposition to build Total Quality Management as a core competence. A case study is presented where the authors have been involved in advising a public sector undertaking relating to TQM implementation. Some of the significant learning points have been highlighted for enriching professional practice.


eScholarship provides open access, scholarly publishing services to the University of California and delivers a dynamic research platform to scholars worldwide. Abstract: In this paper we demonstrate, in a parametric Estimating Equations setting, that the Empirical Likelihood (EL) method is an asymptotic instance of the Bayesian non-parametric Maximum-A-Posteriori approach. The resulting probabilistic interpretation and justifcation of EL rests on Bayesian non-parametric consistency in L-divergence. In this paper we demonstrate, in a parametric Estimating Equations setting, that the Empirical Likelihood (EL) method is an asymptotic instance of the Bayesian non-parametric Maximum-A-Posteriori approach. The resulting probabilistic interpretation and justi(cid:12)cation of EL rests on Bayesian non-parametric consistency in L -divergence. a


This work presents a systematic study by Raman spectroscopy of the vibrational properties of La0.7Ca0.3MnO3 (LCMO70/30) thin films epitaxially grown on LaAlO3 single crystalline substrates. The epitaxial LCMO70/30 thin films were prepared using a metal organic deposition process with thermal annealing at 800 °C, 900 °C and 1000 °C, with thicknesses ranging from 20–80 nm. The evolution of the Raman modes versus film thickness and annealing temperature have been investigated. The Raman spectra of the obtained films are found to be mainly dominated by three Raman lines at 225, 440 and 661 cm−1. The first two Raman lines are assigned to the vibrational modes of the LCMO70/30 films. However, by combining magnetization, x-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy with Raman spectroscopy, we concluded that the 661 cm−1 Raman line is due to the existence of a precipitate of a Mn3O4 phase in the LCMO70/30 films.


To measure extremely low concentrations of mercury vapor in gases as encountered in flue gases of coal-fired power plants, accurate and reliable online and/or portable mercury detection systems are needed. As discussed in this communication, resonating silicon-based cantilevers coated with thin films of gold change their resonant frequency when exposed to mercury vapors and could serve as the basis for such sensing devices. Two different types of commercial AFM cantilevers, which differed by physical dimensions and surface finish, were coated with a 10 nm film of gold and were tested in streams of argon containing mercury. The argon flow rates ranged from 5.7 to 57.4 ml/min, carrying mercury vapors at concentrations between 37 and 700 microg/m3. The results show that smaller cantilevers (approximately 140 microm x 40 microm x 4 microm) with a resonant frequency of 270-275 kHz were sensitive to less than 10 picograms of mercury, whereas larger cantilevers (approximately 245 microm x 50 microm x 7 microm) with a resonant frequency of 155-165 kHz have a sensitivity about 10 times lower. The results indicate that the kinetics of mercury capture by the gold coating follows a simple power law-correlation with the mass change (delta m) being proportional to t(n), where t is the capture time and n depends strongly on the concentration of mercury in the gas. It is also demonstrated that the mercury can be stripped off the gold coating by heating to 350 degrees C, which would allowthe cantilevers to be regenerated and reused.


THE purpose of this paper is to demonstrate an improved method of suturing corneal grafts. Technically, the first few sutures are especially difficult and frequently the graft suffers undesirable damage. This becomes quite obvious when one sees in the literature the multitude of devices available for fixing the donor graft. With the corneal transplant technique described below, trauma to the tissues is minimized. Although not complicated, the method to be described requires skill with the operating microscope (Fig. 1), which once mastered becomes an indispensable tool for the operator. In addition, pre-placed tracks, somewhat similar to the track suture described by Verhoeff (1927) in cataract surgery, are used.


This article studies regularization schemes that are defined using a lifting of the image pixels in a high dimensional space. For some specific classes of geometric images, this discrete set of points is sampled along a low dimensional smooth manifold. The construction of differential operators on this lifted space allows one to compute PDE flows and perform variational optimizations. All these schemes lead to regularizations that exploit the manifold structure of the lifted image. Depending on the specific definition of the lifting, one recovers several well-known semi-local and non-local denoising algorithms that can be interpreted as local estimators over a semi-local or a non-local manifold. This framework also allows one to define thresholding operators in adapted orthogonal bases. These bases are eigenvectors of the discrete Laplacian on a manifold adapted to the geometry of the image. Numerical results compare the efficiency of PDE flows, energy minimizations and thresholdings in the semi-local and non-local settings. The superiority of the non-local computations is studied through the performance of non-linear approximation in orthogonal bases.


In this paper, we present our position for a neuralsymbolic integration strategy, arguing in favor of a hybrid representation to promote an effective integration. Such description differs from others fundamentally, since its entities aim at representing AI models in general, allowing to describe both nonsymbolic and symbolic knowledge, the integration between them and their corresponding processors. Moreover, the entities also support representing workflows, leveraging traceability to keep track of every change applied to models and their related entities (e.g., data or concepts) throughout the lifecycle of the models.


Perfluorocarbons (PFCs) are fluorinated compounds that have been used for many years in clinics mainly as gas/oxygen carriers and for liquid ventilation. Besides this main application, PFCs have also been tested as contrast agents for ultrasonography and magnetic resonance imaging since the end of the 1970s. However, most of the PFCs applied as contrast agents for imaging were gaseous. This class of PFCs has been recently substituted by liquid PFCs as ultrasound contrast agents. Additionally, liquid PFCs are being tested as contrast agents for F magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), to yield dual contrast agents for both ultrasonography and F MRI. This review focuses on the development and applications of the different contrast agents containing liquid perfluorocarbons for ultrasonography and/ or MRI: large and small size emulsions (i.e. nanoemulsions) and nanocapsules.


Evolution in materio aim at revealing computational properties in materials. A bottom-up approach combining methods and theories from evolutionary algorithms, complex systems and unconventional computation, is used to explore inherent computational properties of alternative computational materials. This master's thesis build on earlier and ongoing research at NTNU focusing on interfacing materials. Mecobo is a prototype interface platform, including a physical interface, hardware for stimuli/measurements and software, developed at NTNU. The Mecobo platform is intended to serve as a platform for experimenting with unconventional materials' behavior in a dynamic complex system. This project describes the existing Mecobo platform, modications to it and the new extension Cellular Automata Central Processing Unit (CA CPU). With the new extension, Mecobo is now capable of modelling dynamic complex systems with a cellular automata and an unconventional material. The Cellular Automata Central Processing Unit extension is a parallel processor with 32 cores, but supports up to and including 64 cores, for controlling each material conguration pin. The core is implemented as a stack machine optimized for instruction space. It uses an 8-bit reduced instruction set computing (RISC) instruction set architecture (ISA). The modied Mecobo platform is tested and conrmed to work with several cellular automata rules and a simple model consisting of a theoretical material with constant response.