The spent RHDS (Residue HydroDeSulfurization) catalyst is deactivated mainly by deposition of various contaminants such as coke, sulfur and vanadium on the surface of catalyst. To eliminate those contaminants, the following remanufacturing process was conducted. The first, heavy oil on the surface of the spent RHDS catalyst was removed by kerosene and dehydrated. The second, the high temperature incineration was carried out to eliminate coke and sulfur components deposited on the surface of spent RHDS catalyst. The third, the excessive quantity of Vanadium deposited on the surface of catalyst was removed by leaching process as follows: ultrasonic agitation was carried out at 50℃, for 10 seconds with 0.5% and 1% oxalic acid solution. The purpose of this process is to find out regenerated RHDS catalyst can be used as SCR catalyst for NOx reduction by controlling the vanadium residual content of the regenerated RHDS catalyst through leaching process. The composition of regenerated RHDS catalyst was analyzed by XRF and the NOx reduction efficiency was also measured by continuous catalytic fixed bed reactor. As the result, regenerated catalyst, with 0.5% oxalic acid, ultrasonic agitation in 10 seconds, showed the most stable NOx reduction efficiency. Also, in comparison with commercial SCR catalyst, the NOx reduction performance of regenerated catalyst was similar to that of commercial SCR catalyst at the temperature 375℃ and higher whereas was lower than commercial SCR catalyst at the temperature range between 200∼250℃. Therefore, it was confirmed that the regenerated catalyst as powder form wash coated on the surface of metal corrugated substrate can be used for commercial SCR catalyst.


The microprocessor and digital network technologies have fundamentally reinvented the ways in which today's data acquisition systems handle data. Most of the laboratory and manufacturing unit, information is still communicated the old way, via analog electrical signals and a fundamental understanding of how analog signal transmission works. In this work, the low intense LASER beam is used for transmitting low power signals like audio signals and to enable a wireless communication between two nodes for information exchange. Also the same modules were used for transmitting standard signals like DTMF signals.


Two distinct regimes are considered when it comes to friction: gross-sliding regime and presliding regime [1]. Friction in the gross-sliding regime contains familiar and classic concepts of static friction, Coulomb friction, and Stribeck curve. It is more intriguing, on the other hand, that friction in the pre-sliding regime behaves like a non-linear spring with hysteresis, significantly impacting dynamic performance.


For some people, victimization comes with significant costs. One of these costs is the likelihood of being victimized a subsequent time. Unfortunately, research shows that a portion of victims do in fact experience more than one victimization. Although this likelihood has been established, the reasons why some people are victimized more than once are not fully understood. One explanation centers on individual risk factors that, if left unchanged, will increase risk of further victimization. Previously unstudied, however, are genetic factors that may place and keep a victim at risk, even after an initial victimization. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, the current study addresses this gap. The findings reveal that there is in fact a genetic factor, the 7R allele of the DRD4 gene, that distinguishes individuals who have been victimized once from those who have been victimized multiple times.


To the Editor:— I was very much interested in the report by Meihoff et al, "Small Intestinal Scleroderma With Malabsorption and Pneumatosis Cystoides Intestinalis" ( 204 : 854,1968). While a resident in medicine at the University of Washington Hospitals I had the opportunity of caring for an identical case. I should appreciate the opportunity of reporting this third case of the association between scleroderma with small intestinal involvement, malabsorption, and the presence of gas in the wall of the intestine known as pneumatosis cystoides intestinalis. Report of a Case:— A 40-year-old white woman was referred to the University of Washington Hospitals for evaluation and therapy of scleroderma. She had first noted the onset of blanching of the fingertips with exposure to cold some 22 years ago. This gradually progressed to deep cyanosis and ulcerations. Ten years later she first noted a feeling of tightness in her throat with some difficulty swallowing. Gastrointestinal


Education institutions worldwide have and continue to seek opportunities to spread their offerings abroad. While the provision of courses to students located overseas through partner institutions has many advantages, it raises questions about quality control that are not as applicable to other forms of international education. This paper uses a transaction cost approach to analyse quality control issues. Australian University Quality Agency reports supply the data. The paper concludes that there is a risk of opportunism and bounded rationality in license arrangements, thus universities need to monitor the contracts and their implementation very carefully. Specifically, systems are required to ensure equivalence of entry, teaching and assessment standards, the financial viability of the partners and the accuracy of their marketing material.


Research examining the encoding of geometry for orientation has received considerable attention in the last 25 years with the proposition of a geometric module.1 Supporting the importance of geometry in the formation of a spatial representation, to date the majority of species studied show an encoding of geometry, even when presumably more salient and reliable features could be used. Although studies have shown that animals encode geometric information such as distance, direction or angular amplitude from the environment, few have tested the assumption that geometry is encoded using global properties such as the major principal axis, a strongly supported proposition. Here we present an alternative model to principal axis, specifically medial axis. In addition we describe the straight skeleton model, which may also offer insights into the understanding of geometric encoding by orienting animals.


This research has intention to determine correlation between family socio economic status and phbs household application in kinali village kuantan mudik distric kuantan singingi regency. The research design is descriptive quantitative with systematic random sampling approach. Data collection method is questionnaire, interviews and direct observation. The analysis method is quantitative descriptive analysis presented in tables and then described in detail. The result indicates no significant correlation between family socio economic status and phbs household application in kinali village kuantan mudik distric kuantan singingi regency. Based on these results, it is recommended to improve hygienic and healthy behavior base on Principles of health.


Most observers of the Pacific Basin economies have been looking at socio-cultural explanations of the success the so-called "NIEs", i.e. South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong, have had in developing their economies in the last three decades. While these explanations are certainly worthwhile, they are not sufficient. We propose another one: strategic pragmatism. Pragmatism is a virtue usually associated with Americans, but Japan, and in its wake, the NIEs, practice pragmatism in their economic decisions. They do not shun one or the other economic theory on doctrinary grounds, but use any one of them as suits the need of the particular industrial sector they want to develop. They make the distinction between structure and action and tend to act even in conditions of uncertainty. They base their economic strategy on consensual relations between public and private sectors, and try to maintain a minimum of peace in labour relations. They are part of the world economy and are tuned to any change in demand and in the international division of labour. They tend to adapt structures to the need of action and they in turn try to follow Schumpeter's precept of creating a new demand for their new products. In a few words, their economy is characterized by active government involvement, a reluctant mercantilism, infant industry protection, currency undervaluation and a dynamic structure of capitalism.


With the increased demand for English translators in recent years, more scholars and researchers have begun to focus on college English translation education. The demand for computers to perform automatic natural language translation is at an all-time high, presenting another potential for machine translation (MT) research. Although neural machine translation (NMT) technology has advanced significantly, it still has several flaws. The reply NN-based MT technology is not optimal in the field of long sentence translation, and there are situations such as missing translation and overtranslation. So this paper proposes college English translation based on a convolutional neural network (CNN). This paper proposes that CNNs have stronger feature extraction and information processing capabilities than other deep NNs. It successfully solves the situation of missing translation and overtranslation, lowering the quality of college English translation instruction. The experimental results of this research reveal that when the length of an English sentence grows longer, the translation accuracy based on the reply NN drops to 47.9%, while the translation accuracy based on the CNN is 89.7%. It can be seen that college English translation based on CNN can be integrated into English translation teaching as an innovation of traditional teaching methods, so as to create a learning environment for students and enhance learning effects. MT based on CNN has greatly improved students' performance, which is conducive to improving the quality of college English translation teaching.


DOI: 10.7764/RDLC.18.1.96 As part of the analysis of the technical criteria for emergency housing of Fondef project D09I1058, the acoustic behavior of three types of dwellings was measured: brick social housing, structural insulated panel (SIP) emergency housing and "mediagua" emergency housing. The acoustic reduction index (Rw) was measured in medium-density fiberboard (MDF), oriented strand board (OSB), plywood (Plywood), hard fiberboard (HB) and particle board (PB). PB and HB obtained Rw values of 20 dB, while MDF and Plywood obtained Rw values of 17 dB, and OSB obtained an Rw value of 19 dB, reflecting an additional positive characteristic of their structural properties that enables a lower cost for the manufacture of SIP emergency housing in compliance with the technical thermal mechanical regulations enforced by the General Ordinance of Urbanism and Construction (Ordenanza General de Urbanismo y Construccion, OGUC). To reduce costs, these dwellings were not designed to comply with acoustic regulations, but if they were evaluated for compliance, their result would fulfill the important criteria for a positive impact on acoustic insulation. NCh 432-10, according to OGUC, requires a minimum attenuation of 45 dB (Insttituto Nacional de Normalizacion, 2010a) in paired walls for social housing but not for emergency housing. The test was performed according to NCh 2785-2002 (Instituto Nacional de Normalizacion, 2002), using a sound-emitting speaker and a sound level meter, to obtain the attenuation of the paired wall. The social housing reached an attenuation of 42 dB, the SIP housing reached an attenuation of 39 dB, and the mediagua housing reached an attenuation of 6 dB, evidencing the precariousness of housing that is constructed from low-quality wood and that is poorly assembled, without air- and water-tightness, consequently affecting quality of life.


The relationships between leadership behaviors and athletes' perceptions of role ambiguity were investigated within interdependent team sports. Early to midway through their respective seasons, the degree to which coaches engaged in training and instruction and positive feedback behaviors was investigated in relation to athletes' subsequent perceptions of multi-dimensional role ambiguity. For nonstarters, coaches' training and instruction accounted for significant variation in offensive and defensive role consequences ambiguity as well as offensive role evaluation ambiguity. However, for starters, neither of the leadership dimensions assessed in this study could explain significant variance in any of the role ambiguity dimensions. Results are discussed in terms of theory development and further research investigating possible antecedents of multidimensional role ambiguity.


While interpretive research is recognized for its value in providing contextual depth, results are often criticized in terms of validity, reliability and generalizability, referred to collectively as research legitimisation. This paper explores the criticisms levied on interpretive case studies and presents a research design that seeks to address these criticisms. The paper describes the research template developed by the author and applies it to a longitudinal case study carried out on a micro firm in the Republic of Ireland. Following some detailed evaluation and analysis the author concludes that legitimisation of an interpretative case study is improved when an integrative approach involving the combination of specific research techniques to relevant and appropriate standards is adopted.


This paper introduces a fuzzy logic system that is able to recognize common disturbances during automatic gas metal arc welding (GMAW) using measured welding voltage and current signals. A statistical method was employed to process the captured transient raw data, and the probability density distributions (PDDs) and the class frequency distributions (CFDs) were obtained. Based on the processed data (PDD values of welding voltage and current and CFD values of the short-circuiting time), the system automatically generates fuzzy rules and membership functions of linguistic variables, conducts inference and defuzzification, and completes the evaluation process without further expert knowledge.


For Ghana's national REDD plus scheme to be viable, the rights to carbon or the emission credits generated must be clearly delineated, and be accompanied by equitable and efficient benefit sharing systems. There are a number of approaches that the State can use to determine whom to vest the right to carbon in. If defined as a natural resource, the state would be vested with the rights. If recognized as an ecosystem service, then the right to the benefits would be vested in the owner of the trees. In the latter case, the beneficiaries will differ depending on whether the trees are naturally occurring or planted. The main opportunities in REDD plus in Ghana are in the forestation and reforestation of forestlands and degraded lands. It is possible that REDD plus could provide additional resources to build on existing systems that promote tree planting on degraded land, such as the National Forest Plantation Development Plan (NFPDP), by providing additional incentives in reserve and off-reserve areas.


This paper describes the successful development of monolithic millimeter-wave frequency converter circuits using an InP HBT-compatible Schottky-diode process. A 94 GHz singly-balanced mixer and a 47-to-94 GHz passive doubler have been fabricated and tested, and both designs have attained admirable conversion loss with low input drive requirements. The mixer has also demonstrated significant improvement in noise figure at low intermediate frequencies compared to a GaAs HEMT diode mixer. At an IF of 1 MHz, the InP HBT diode mixer achieved a DSB noise figure of 16 dB, which is a 17 dB improvement compared to the GaAs HEMT diode mixer.


Ten patients with relapsed and hormone-resistant prostate cancer were given intra-arterial infusion with, mainly, cisplatin using the reservoir system. The tip of the indwelling infusion catheter was inserted from the femoral artery into the internal iliac artery or common iliac artery. The opposite end of the infusion catheter was connected to a reservoir implanted subcutaneously at the thigh portion. Combination chemotherapy using methotrexate, adriamycin and cisplatin (MAC therapy) was mainly performed. According to criteria of the Jpn. Assoc. for Cancer Ther., the response rate was 23%, including 3 or PR cases. Regarding the survival rate, the 1-year survival rate was 66.7% and the 2-year rate was 33.3%. Concerning adverse reactions, nausea, vomiting and anorexia were noted in all cases. Stomatitis, leukopenia and thrombocytopenia were also found in 38%. We consider that the IA-MAC therapy is one of the most useful regimen for the treatment of the relapsed and/or hormone-resistant prostate cancer.


We analyze fiscal consolidations using a New-Keynesian model where agents have finite planning horizons and are uncertain about the future state of the economy. Both consumers and firms are infinitely lived, but only plan and form expectations up to a finite number of periods into the future. The length of agents' planning horizons plays an important role in determining how spending cuts or tax increases affect output and inflation. We find that for low degrees of relative risk aversion spending-based consolidations are less costly in terms of output losses, in line with empirical evidence. A stronger response of monetary policy to inflation makes spending-based consolidations more favorable as well. Interestingly, for short planning horizons, our model captures the positive comovement between private consumption and government spending observed in the data.


We discuss the problem of extracting control and data flows from vehicular distributed embedded systems at higher abstraction levels during their development. Unambiguous extraction of control and data flows is vital part of the end-to-end timing model which is used as input by the end-to end timing analysis engines. The goal is to support end-to-end timing analysis at higher abstraction levels. In order to address the problem, we propose a two-phase methodology that exploits the principles of Model Driven Engineering and Component Based Software Engineering. Using this methodology, the software architecture at a higher level is automatically transformed to all legal implementation-level models. The end-to-end timing analysis is performed on each generated implementation-level model and the analysis results are fed back to the design-level model. This activity supports design space exploration, model refinement and/or remodeling at higher abstraction levels for tuning the timing behavior of the system.


Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a group of conditions closely associated with obesity that are among the most common and socially significant liver diseases in the modern Western world. The emergence and progression of NAFLD from simple steatosis to non-alcoholic steatohepatitis with the subsequent development of fibrosis are the leading factors in the pathogenesis of a significant proportion of the most severe liver pathologies, such as cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma, as well as extrahepatic metabolic complications of NAFLD, such as insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes mellitus. The inflammatory component is one of the most important factors in the pathogenesis of NAFLD, particularly in the context of the progression of simple steatosis to non-alcoholic steatohepatitis. At the same time, the role of the most important mediators of the inflammatory response, innate immunity receptors and the Toll-like receptors in particular, in the pathogenesis of NAFLD has been poorly studied. In the present work, we first used the bioinformatics analysis of the publicly available gene expression databases to demonstrate that only TLR1, TLR2, TLR3 and TLR4 were significantly expressed in the healthy human liver. We then used the reverse transcription PCR to measure the mRNA expression levels of TLR2, TLR3, and TLR4, as well as those of the important pro-inflammatory mediators tumor necrosis factor (TNF) and interleukin-6 (IL-6), in the liver biopsy specimens obtained from 20 patients with NAFLD (simple steatosis, n = 10; non-alcoholic steatohepatitis, n = 10), as well as from 4 obese patients with clinical suspicion for NAFLD but no histological signs of NAFLD in their liver biopsies. We found a significant increase in the expression of TLR2, TLR3 and TLR4 mRNA in liver biopsy samples obtained from patients with non-alcoholic steatohepatitis as compared to those obtained from controls without histological signs of NAFLD. We were also able to demonstrate the association between the hepatic levels of TLR2, TLR3 and TLR4 mRNAs with the histological degree of liver damage as evidenced by the degree of steatosis and balloon dystrophy of hepatocytes, as well as with the plasma levels of uric acid, the important endogenous stimulator of innate immunity. Our data indicate the possible involvement of innate immunity, particularly the Toll-like receptors, in the pathogenesis of NAFLD.


Evapotranspiration is one of the most important hydrological cycle processes in balance and water availability studies in a crop field of the arid region of northwestern Mexico. In this work, images of the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) obtained from the PROBA-V satellite were used to develop a model to estimate the evapotranspiration (ET) in a watermelon crop in an agricultural area of the coast of Hermosillo, Sonora. The procedure was based on the correlation between the crop coefficient (Kc) and the NDVI value. With the developed model, the ET of a watermelon crop was estimated and the results were contrasted with ET values measured with the eddy covariance method. The correlation between the measured values and the estimated values was r2 = 0.729 and, although the results were acceptable, they can improve as the number of good quality satellite images increases and ET is measured in a greater variety of agricultural crops.


Face recognition technology has evolved as an enchanting solution to perform identification and the verification of identity claims. By advancing the feature extraction methods and dimensionality reduction techniques in the pattern recognition applications, number of facial recognition systems has been produced with distinctive degrees of success. In this paper, we have presented the biometric face recognition approach based on Multilinear Principal Component Analysis (MPCA) and Locality Preserving Projection (LPP) which enhance performance of face recognition. The methodology of the approach consists of face image preprocessing, dimensionality reduction using MPCA, feature Extraction using LPP and face recognition using L2 similarity distance measure. The proposed approach is validated with FERET and AT&T database of faces and compared with the existing MPCA and LDA approach in performance. Experimental results show the effectiveness of the proposed approach for face recognition with good recognition accuracy.


This article discusses the varying circumstances of the extensive travels abroad in 1875–1876 of Russian philosopher Vladimir Sergeevich Solovyov (1853–1900). The author devotes particular attention to Solovyov's time spent in the Italian town of Sorrento near Naples, where, in the old Hotel Cocumella, Solovyov finished his treatise The Sophia (in French) that he had begun in Egypt, a treatise in which he outlined the earliest contours of his great philosophical system. Using a wealth of documentary materials, the author examines events associated with Solovyov's stay in Sorrento, and later in Florence, Venice, and Genoa.


It is generally accepted that the metal-cutting rates employed in industry could be increased substantially, with very considerable improvements in the profitability of machine shops. This is particularly true of batch-production shops employing numerically controlled machines where, owing to uncertainties concerning the metal-cutting process, cutting speeds are generally much lower than they could be. This paper examines in some detail the problem of overall online computer control of a batch-production shop. Control is envisaged at various levels, the lowest level being online to the cutting process, and the highest level being concerned with scheduling and operational decisions which determine the best job for each machine and its time of loading. The decisions made at these different levels are essentially interrelated, and the paper puts forward an overall system which, it is believed, can bring about considerable increases in the profitability of batch production.


The standard management for residual osteomyelitis following amputation in a diabetic foot infection includes a prolonged course of intravenous antibiotic agents. The purpose of this analysis was to investigate whether oral antibiotic therapy led to treatment failure more than intravenous antibiotic therapy for this indication. The primary endpoint was treatment failure within one year of the initial amputation, defined by re-operation for residual osteomyelitic infection or a remaining nonhealing wound at the surgical site. All patients received at least 4 weeks of antibiotics and were chosen for oral or intravenous route of administration by infectious disease specialists. Characteristics including age, sex, hemoglobin A1c, BMI, tobacco use, PVD, homelessness and IDSA classification were also assessed for influence on antibiotic success and failure. Of the 65 patients meeting inclusion criteria, treatment failure occurred in 32 and treatment success occurred in 33. Of the treatment failures, 17 (53%) were in the intravenous group, and 15 (47%) were in the oral group. The differences between the modalities of antibiotic administration and their failure rates were not found to be statistically significant (p = .28 (proportional difference: -14%, 95% confidence interval [CI]:-36% to 10%)).


The idea of this thesis is to explore the possibilities of the new video game devices PlayStation Move and Microsoft's Kinect, further on the goal was to design and verify an interaction technique for each device, suitable for playing First-Person Shooter (FPS) games.During early prototyping it showed that it was not possible to turn the Kinect into an effective FPS game controller; because of this the focus of the thesis was shifted to the PlayStation Move exclusively. An interaction technique taking into account how FPS games traditionally have been played was designed. This technique differs from what is here referred to as the point-and-shoot technique which is often used in conjunction with motion controllers.Performing tests on the implementation of the PlayStation Move on a total of fourteen persons showed that the suggested interaction technique seemed to have high performance and acceptance among the participants of the test. However more testing would be necessary to support the result.


1. The T fibre habituates little to a series of sine-wave pulses, and recovery is complete within 10 min. 2. Both response level and rate of habituation are increased when the posterior thoracic ganglia are disconnected from the prothoracic ganglion. This indicates that response level and rate of habituation are maintained at a low level in the intact animal by an inhibitory input or inputs to the prothoracic ganglion, which arise within the pterothorax. These inputs are entirely central in origin, and are independent of extratympanal sensory input. 3. The function of the posterior branch of the T fibre to the posterior thorax may be to initiate a feedback loop which is completed by the input from the posterior thorax. It is suggested that such feedback stabilization of the response level would reduce loss of directional information at high stimulus amplitude, preserve discrimination at high stimulus repetition rates and reduce habituation. The implications of these findings for a warning neurone system are discussed.


Traditional medical approaches to the treatment of potentially distressing phantom pain and sensations have been inconsistent in their success. In this article, the subject of phantom pain and sensations is explored and reconceptualized according to Martha Rogers' science of unitary human beings. Emergent perspectives, illustrated by a series of short case studies, suggest that such a reconceptualization and particularly the use of therapeutic touch may have a significant impact on positive human field image patterning.


A genetic algorithm was used to optimize ion thruster grid sets with regard to maximizing impulse per unit area, essentially equivalent to maximizing propellant throughput capability per unit area. The genetic algorithm presented herein made use of the ffx ion optics simulation code for grid lifetime predictions. Grid sets were optimized for several combinations of net accelerating voltage and current density, and grid feature recommendations are made concerning how future missions can be met.


Understanding the architecture is vital for effectively maintaining and managing large software systems. However, as software systems evolve over time, their architectures inevitably change. To keep up with the change, architects need to track the implementation-level changes and update the architectural documentation accordingly, which is time-consuming and error-prone. Therefore, many automatic architecture recovery techniques have been proposed to ease this process. Despite efforts have been made to improve the accuracy of architecture recovery, existing solutions still suffer from two limitations. First, most of them only use one or two type of information for the recovery, ignoring the potential usefulness of other sources. Second, they tend to use the information in a coarse-grained manner, overlooking important details within it. To address these limitations, we propose SARIF, a fully automated architecture recovery technique, which incorporates three types of comprehensive information, including dependencies, code text and folder structure. SARIF can recover architecture more accurately by thoroughly analyzing the details of each type of information and adaptively fusing them based on their relevance and quality. To evaluate SARIF, we collected six projects with published ground-truth architectures and three open-source projects labeled by our industrial collaborators. We compared SARIF with nine state-of-the-art techniques using three commonly-used architecture similarity metrics and two new metrics. The experimental results show that SARIF is 36.1% more accurate than the best of the previous techniques on average. By providing comprehensive architecture, SARIF can help users understand systems effectively and reduce the manual effort of obtaining ground-truth architectures.


Background and Aim: Diabetes mellitus is a recognized risk factor for coronary artery disease (CAD). However ischemia in diabetics may express their ischemia as atypical symptoms. We aimed at comparing incidence and extent of diabetic vs. non diabetic with other risk factors for CAD. Patients: The study included 46 pts with 1 or 2 risk factors for CAD mean age 55+6 years, 18 males. Methods: Patients were subjected to laboratory assessment including lipid profile, HbA1C, microalbuminuria. Patients were subjected to myocardial perfusion imaging [(MPI) study using 2 day (stress-rest) protocol patients were injected 25 mCi Tc sestaMIBI intravenously at peak of stress. Rest study was acquired in a separate day. Gated SPECT was acquired 30-60 minute post-stress for estimation of LVEDV, LVESV and LVEF. Processing and analysis were done to get the classic short axis, vertical long axis and horizontal long axis slices with application of 20 segment scoring system for semiquantitative analysis of defect size to get summed stress score (SSS), summed rest score(SRS),and summed difference score (SDS). The study was interpreted as negative when SSS = 0-3, mild (SSS>3& <8), moderate (SSS=8 &<12), and severe >12)]. Results: Patients were subdivided into two groups; Group1 (Diabetic): 24 pts and Group 2 (non Diabetic): 22 pts. Laboratory data showed comparable lipid profile in G1 vs G2; Serum cholesterol (196+58 vs. 200+58 mg/dl, p>0.05), triglycerides 163+66 vs. 187+90, p>0.05), HDL (45+14vs. 50+14, p>0.05) & LDL (127+48vs 135+44, p>0.05). HbA1c level was 9+3% in G1 vs 7+2 in G2, p=0.01 and was abnormal in 19 pts of G1 vs. 10 pts in G2, p=0.03. Microalbuminuria was detected in 13/24 pts of G1 vs 6/22 pts in G2. Mean exercise duration was 7+3 min in G1 vs 7+2 minutes in G2 P>0.05, mean Mets achieved was 10.6+3 vs 9.4+2 in G2, P > 0.05. Myocardial perfusion imaging was interpreted as positive in 41% of all pts (19 pts) (46% in G1 vs. 36% of G2), Six pts had mild ischemia (4 diabetics), Nine had moderate ischemia (4 diabetics) and 4pts had severe ischemia (3 diabetics [75%]), Mean SSS, SRS,& SDS were comparable (4.7+4vs 3.6+4, (0.3+1.6 vs 0.2+0.9),& (4.4+4 vs 3.4+3.7%) in G1vs G2 respectively. left ventricular ejection fraction, LVEDV and LVESV were comparable in G1vs G2 (68.1+10.8% vs 70.6+8.2%, P = 0.3), (103+24 vs 97+17, P = 0.3) & (32+16 vs 28+12, P = 0.4). Neither microalbuminuria nor HbA1c abnormality correlated with severity or abnormality of MPI. Conclusion: Preliminary data from our ongoing study suggest high incidence of silent ischemia in patient with type II diabetes mellitus and non diabetic patients with other risk factors for CAD in our developing country, with tendency of more severe ischemia and higher poststress LV volumes in diabetic patients. [Akram Abd Elbary; Mohamed Khaled; Mohga Said, Hala Zakaria, Lamiaa Hamed, Shaban Mohamed and Alia Abd El-Fattah. Assessment of Ischemia in Asymptomatic Type II Diabetics versus Asymptomatic patients with other Risk Factors of Coronary Artery Disease. Preliminary Data from GSPECT Tc sestaMIBI Myocardial Perfusion Imaging Study in Egyptian Patients. Life Science Journal 2012;9(1):727-732]. (ISSN: 1097-8135). http://www.lifesciencesite.com. 105


We show how distributed control of reactive power can serve to regulate voltage and minimize resistive losses in a distribution circuit that includes a significant level of photovoltaic (PV) generation. To demonstrate the technique, we consider a radial distribution circuit with a single branch consisting of sequentially-arranged residential-scale loads that consume both real and reactive power. In parallel, some loads also have PV generation capability. We postulate that the inverters associated with each PV system are also capable of limited reactive power generation or consumption, and we seek to find the optimal dispatch of each inverter's reactive power to both maintain the voltage within an acceptable range and minimize the resistive losses over the entire circuit. We assume the complex impedance of the distribution circuit links and the instantaneous load and PV generation at each load are known. We compare the results of the optimal dispatch with a suboptimal local scheme that does not require any communication. On our model distribution circuit, we illustrate the feasibility of high levels of PV penetration and a significant (20% or higher) reduction in losses.


The isoflavonol 7,8,3'-trihydroxy-6,4'-dimethoxy-isoflavone (1) was isolated from the methanol extract of the bark of the trunk of Dipterix odorata. The structure was determined from spectral data and with aid of his acetylation to obtain 1a as a strategy to help the assignments of the 2D NMR experiments.


AIM
Thyroid cancer prognosis is determined by several variables, even with extremely elevated survival rate. The most debated issues are the type of thyroidectomy and extension of lymphadenectomy. Aim of the study is the analysis of benefits of level VI lymphadenectomy associated to total thyroidectomy in the treatment of thyroid cancer.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
316 total thyroidectomy with central node dissection were carried out in the Unit of Endocrine Surgery, University of Perugia. Direct parathyroid auto-implantation was carried out if damage or accidental excision occurred. High risk patients received radioiodine treatment.

RESULTS
Lymph node metastases in the VI level were observed in 42% of cases with a significant difference (p 0.0042) of positive lymph node in level VI comparing tumor larger than 1 cm vs smaller than 1 cm. No significant differences were observed when considering difference of sex, and age. Significant difference (p 0.005) was shown when considering over 45 years old male patients with tumor larger than 1 cm vs smaller ones. The 78% of patients underwent iodine ablation after surgery. Recurrence rate in these patients was 3.2%, with no significant difference compared to not treated patients. Bilateral temporary recurrent nerves palsy were observed in 0.6% of cases, unilateral temporary recurrent nerves palsy in 3.4%, unilateral permanent palsy in 1.5%, temporary hypoparathyroidism in 17%, permanent hypoparathyroidism in 4.4%.

CONCLUSIONS
Total thyroidectomy combined to central node dissection, even in absence of risk factors and without clinical evident nodes, is the treatment of choice offering clear indications to radioiodine ablation.


This research focuses on the intersections of Project Management, Information Technology (IT), and Emotional Intelligence. The Project Management Institute (PMI) created the Project Management Professional (PMP) certification, which is one of the most highly regarded and sought after professional certifications (Project Management Institute 2005, p. 15-18). This certification acknowledges the holder as a knowledgeable practitioner in Project Management. The purpose behind Project Management is to obtain requirements, sometimes fluid at best, and develop solutions that are traceable by schedule and cost controls. This approach allows a Project Manager to monitor and control the project through successful completion. However, the PMI also notes that the main aspects of the Project Manager's job are team leadership and communication. These aspects provide the art of Project Management. The Standish Group published an article noting that less than 20 percent of IT projects are successful. Some of this failure is due to the dynamic nature of IT projects. This research focuses on the question of whether or not an IT Project Manager's Emotional Intelligence influences the customer's perception of project success.
In this research, ninety-two IT projects were evaluated. The evaluation included project demographics and the use of the Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQ-i) to assess the IT Project Manager's Emotional Quotient and the five subscales (Intra-Personal, Inter-Personal, Stress Management, Adaptability, and General Mood). A separate customer satisfaction survey was sent to the projects' customers. A total of fifty-six complete datasets were used in this research.
The results showed no statistical correlation between the EQ-i scales Interpersonal, Intrapersonal, Stress Management, and Adaptability scores and the customer's perception of project success. A marginal negative statistical correlation, at the 0.1 level, was discovered between an IT Project Manager's Total EQ score and the customer's perception of project success. A strong negative statistical correlation, at the 0.01 level, was discovered between the EQ-i scale General Mood and the customer's perception of project success.
These findings are important to the practitioners of Project Management in the IT field because they help managers understand how customers' perceptions influence a project's success. Additional research opportunities are addressed in the final chapter.


The library is an important platform for readers to acquire information, and also shoulders the responsibility to cultivate readers' information literacy. How to enhance information literacy is a public service issue that warrants prompt solution. In this study, we establish a reciprocal teaching mode composed of four elements: teacher, student, learning content and interaction-supporting platform, based on the reciprocal teaching theory, in combination with the characteristics of information literacy training in information-based libraries, uses virtual reality (VR) technology to produce verisimilar teaching resources and build a virtual reading environment and a virtual reading community, to enable readers to discuss, read and evaluate under a dynamic reading mode. Meanwhile, a new reciprocal teaching technique of "Rain Classroom" is also introduced innovatively. We first conduct a quantitative evaluation on information literacy using fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method, then verify and correct the evaluation results using data mining technology, so that objective and accurate results can be obtained for the evaluation of readers' information literacy. After the implementation of this library learning mode, through a questionnaire survey and analysis, it is concluded that the proposed mode can help the library spread knowledge, improve the effect of information literacy.


The asymptotic distribution of a vector of autocorrelations of squared residuals is derived for a wide class of asymmetric GARCH models. Portmanteau adequacy tests are deduced. %gathered These results are obtained under moment assumptions on the iid process, but fat tails are allowed for the observed process, which is particularly relevant for series of financial returns. A Monte Carlo experiment and an illustration to financial series are also presented.


An ethanolic solution of caffeine was added to an aqueous solution of metal salts and followed by adding ethanolic solution of adenine and an aqueous solution of potassium thiocyanate to give complexes with general formula [M(CA)2(Ad)X2] where CA is caffeine, Ad is adenine, X is thiocyanate ion and M is Co(II), Ni(II), Cu(II), Zn(II) and Cd(II). The resulting products were characterized using UV-visible and infrared spectroscopies. Elemental analyses were performed using C, H, N analysis and atomic absorption techniques. The magnetic susceptibility and the conductivity were also measured. The results suggested that the complexes have octahedral geometry.


It is shown that the data on low-energy cosmic rays collected at the Oulu (Northern Finland) neutron monitor after the full-halo coronal mass ejection of July 14, 2000 exhibit well-defined extended self-similarity (ESS) in the time increments interval 0.3–17 hours. Comparison of the energy and ESS spectra of the cosmic-ray intensity fluctuations with those of the solar wind supports the idea of the solar-wind origin of these fluctuations.


This dissertation focuses on the reproductive experiences of Cape Breton women. Using feminism and symbolic interactionism, I explore these experiences by conducting focus group and semi-structured individual interviews with 47 women from the Cape Breton Regional Municipality. Three major themes emerged from the women's stories. First, women assess their situations and make decisions to maximize their advantages. Second is what I characterize as women's "intensified" pragmatism engendered by their complex socio-cultural environment. Problems of high unemployment, severe pollution and difficult access to health care have contributed to a culture that encourages individuals to expect the worst and to trust only those closest to them. In relation to women's reproductive experiences, this translates into distrust of medical professionals, great reliance on other women, and culturally influenced understandings of normal reproductive processes. Third, the advantages women identify for using medical interventions and treatments are subjective, arising out oflived experiences. For those not privy to the women's experiences or those operating from a biomedical position, these advantages may seem counter-productive or paradoxical. Considering the three themes as related parts of a whole, I found the difficulties and disadvantages associated with life in Cape Breton resulted in a strengthening of women's agency. Given the constraints on access to health care and the social problems, these women had no choice but to improvise and be pragmatic. Theoretically, this research reaffirms the need to pull together the literature focusing on structural constraints and lay perspectives to understand the role of medicalization in women's lives. It also illustrates that control is an important issue not just in women's interactions with medical professionals, but also in interactions between women. Substantively, this work contributes to our understanding of women's pragmatism, the importance of the context in which it operates, and how these impact on women's definitions of normal reproductive experiences.


The leader-following consensus of multiple linear time invariant (LTI) systems under switching topology is considered. The leader-following consensus problem consists of designing for each agent a distributed protocol to make all agents track a leader vehicle, which has the same LTI dynamics as the agents. The interaction topology describing the information exchange of these agents is time-varying. An averaging method is proposed. Unlike the existing results in the literatures which assume the LTI agents to be neutrally stable, we relax this condition, only making assumption that the LTI agents are stablizable and detectable. Observer-based leader-following consensus is also considered.


OBJECTIVE
To search for structurally novel and biologically active compounds from the secondary metabolites of gorgonian-derived actinomyces.

METHODS
Strains of actinomyces with antimicrobial activities were screened by biological methods. Then, those active strains were cultured under different conditions to obtain crude extracts. Subsequently, the chemical diversities of the extracts were investigated by reverse phase high-performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC) and thin layer chromatography (TLC), while the bioactivities of the extracts were evaluated by antifouling and antibacterial assays. A target strain Streptomyces sp. SCSGAA0009 was selected to further study by large-scale fermentation on modified ISP2 medium. The compounds were isolated by column chromatography over silica gel, Sephadex LH-20, and semipreparative HPLC, and their structures were determinated by spectroscopic analysis.

RESULTS
The target strain was identified as actinomyces, Streptomyces sp. SCSGAA0009. A new alkaloid N-(2-(1H-indol-3-yl)ethyl) propionamide (1) and a known compound phenazine-1-carboxylic acid (2) were purified from the culture broth. Compound 2 showed moderate antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli and Pseudoaltermonas piscida, and exhibited strong antilarval settlement activity towards Bugula neritina larva.

CONCLUSION
Bioactive and new compounds can be achieved from the secondary metabolites of gorgonian-derived microorganisms from South China Sea.


ABSTRACT

Characterisation in Ward's opera The Crucible: Melodic interpretation of Salem's witches and their accusers via historical accounts and Miller's play

This thesis is a consideration of the transition of the characters of Robert Ward's opera The Crucible from history through to Arthur Miller's play of the same name, and finally to the linear elements of the opera: the libretto and the vocal melodies.

Arthur Miller's The Crucible (1953) is widely known as a play that explores the complex characters that were involved in the real life events that took place in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692 as the town's young girls accused innocent townspeople of witchcraft. The thesis discusses the background to Miller's decision to write The Crucible; his concern about the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC); audiences' initial adverse reaction to the obvious parallels Miller was drawing; and ultimately Miller's own calling to HUAC.

By 1961 when Robert Ward, composer, and Bernard Stambler, librettist, collaborated on their Pulitzer Prize winning opera, The Crucible, the American public had revolted against McCarthyism and HUAC; and Miller had had great success with an off-Broadway revival of his play. The Crucible was a now familiar story for Americans, and Ward and Stambler wanted to convey the story's messages in opera.

The real people of Salem, as they were portrayed in Charles W. Upham's Salem Witchcraft (1867), are presented in this thesis. They are compared with Miller's representations of these people as characters in a play, and then as characters in the libretto of Ward's opera. The discussion of the decisions made by Ward and Stambler is enriched by personal opinions Ward expressed in interviews that were recorded for the purpose of this thesis. It is shown that Ward and Stambler considered characterisation to be a priority; Ward, as a composer, having a particular inclination to place special focus on the linear aspects of his works – the words and the melodies. It is identified that in spite of the need to excise material from Miller's play in order to facilitate the concise requirements of a libretto, Ward and Stambler included and excluded only what would serve the drama and their characterisation – and if they felt that the original did not include the words they required, they wrote their own.
Analysis of the vocal melodies demonstrated that Ward used a number of standard and traditional compositional approaches to ensure that the melodies sung by his singers were true to their character. Again, this analysis was enhanced by Ward's commentary which provided special insight into his compositional approach – in particular, that he considered that his approach was one that was second nature and not one that considered special deliberation of every note.

This thesis presents The Crucible in a way that has not been considered before, from history to play and to opera. The thesis is a contribution to the history of American Opera and the work of Robert Ward, presenting for the first time, extensive commentary on his linear approach to characterisation and operatic composition.


This research paper identifies the constraints and challenges of selected Ghanaian micro, small and medium scale enterprises (MSME) in GRATIS Foundation's food-processing and metal subsectors. It analyses which forces constrain GRATIS Foundation in assisting its clients to realize business opportunities and to overcome the problems they are encountering. A theoretical framework is derived from scientific literature and sheds light on the dynamics of MSMEs in developing countries. On the basis of the theoretical framework hypotheses are formulated and then tested in a case study by interviewing GRATIS' clients in the food-processing and metal sectors as well as GRATIS' personnel and other important stakeholders. The industry
dynamics of the food-processing and metal sectors in Ghana are analysed and forces influencing the business development of MSMEs are examined. The field research of this case study identified that GRATIS clients formulate additional demands regarding market access, technical upgrading, managerial and technical know-how and access to finance. The business environment of MSMEs in the food-processing and metal sectors is analysed to examine the underlying reasons why GRATIS clients encounter these
difficulties. The constraining forces arising from the macro-economic environment as well as on industry level are identified and possible driving forces to enhance the competiveness of GRATIS clients are assessed. These findings lead to a couple of suggestions how GRATIS Foundation could optimize its business development services to improve the performance of MSMEs. The major outcome of the thesis is that the case study confirms patterns described in scientific literature concerning the problems MSMEs in developing countries encounter. Scientific literature proposes also strategies how to improve the competiveness of MSMEs and recommends a number of business development services and financial services. The case study approves the relevance of these services. The analysis of the macro-economic forces and the industry dynamics within the food-processing and metal sectors in Ghana, however demonstrates that GRATIS clients can only overcome the difficulties they are encountering if GRATIS Foundation's
methods and approaches towards business development are tailored to the business environment of MSMEs in Ghana. The business environment of MSMEs is characterized by subsector
dynamics and country specific conditions. To enhance the performance of MSMEs, business differences in terms of capability and capacity within one sector need to be taken into account. A one-fits-all approach for MSMEs in Ghana is not suitable to enhance the competiveness of GRATIS clients.


The gingival perspective in restorative dentistry is important in harmonizing esthetics and biological function. In this regard, the gingival biotypes have been stated to be thick or thin. Patients with the thin biotype are more prone to recession, inflammation, and compromised soft tissue response. The correct recognition of gingival biotypes is important for the treatment planning process in restorative and implant dentistry. The purposes of the survey were to evaluate the prevalence of the gingival biotype in correlation with the morphology of maxillary central incisors and its variation among three ethnic groups of Malaysian subpopulations and the prevalence of different gingival biotypes in individuals with varying forms of maxillary central incisors. Materials and methods: A total of 300 individuals who were periodontally healthy, visiting the outpatient department of AIMST Dental Institute, Kedah, Malaysia, in the age range of 18–50 years, participated in the survey. Then, 100 participants from each race, that is, Chinese, Malay, and Indian, were further subdivided into two groups based on age as group I (18–30 years) and group II (30–50 years). Three clinical parameters were recorded by one examiner. This included the crown width/crown length (CW/CL) ratio of the two central incisors, papillary height (PH), and gingival thickness. The measurements were tabulated and evaluated. Results: There was a highly significant correlation between gingival biotype and crown length and area of papilla with p values of −0.002 and 0.013, respectively. Significant correlation was found between area of crown and PH with p values −0.013 and 0.016. The results of discriminant function analysis showed that the average crown length was the best single determinant of biotype and area of papilla was the next best choice. The thinner biotype was more prevalent in young Chinese and Malay population with medium forms of maxillary central incisors while the young Indian population had thicker biotypes and wide and short form of maxillary central incisors. The older group in both Chinese and Malay populations have no difference in their gingival biotype regardless of their crown form. In the older Indian population, gingival biotype is thicker with a short and wide form of maxillary central incisors. Decreased papillary height was observed in the thinner biotypes in younger Chinese and Malay populations but thicker in young Indian population. Conclusion: Within the limits of the current investigation, the existence and correlation of different gingival biotypes and dentopapillary complex dimension has been confirmed. These findings can be utilized as objective guidelines for determining the biotype and response of gingiva to many dental operative procedures.


Part of the attraction of object technology is its ability to remove or lower the walls that have traditionally stood between various aspects of software construction-analysis, design, implementation, maintenance. A good OO process should be reversible, allowing developers to move between tasks backward as well as forward, with many benefits for the quality of the process and the product. The author explains the concept.


Functional stimulation is one of the most fascinating applications of bioelectromagnetism. It deals with the stimulation of excitable biological tissues by electromagnetic fields. One of its most impressive medical applications is the subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation (DBS). It consists in the insertion of an electrode into the deep brain, delivering electric pulses to treat Parkinson's disease and other movement disorders. But despite its wide use throughout the world for almost twenty years, the understanding of the mechanisms of action remains unclear. To help clinicians to better understand the mechanisms of DBS, its limitations and implications from an electrical point of view, electrical models of the head can be used to predict the electric potential distribution generated by the electric pulse. With the development of medical imaging techniques, the information on biological tissues that can be used to build these electrical models has never been so detailed. The diffusion tensor magnetic imaging (DT-MRI) is able to provide the orientation of the fibers within the cerebral tissues. Thus, the high inhomogeneity and anisotropy of the head can be modeled through anisotropic electrical conductivity tensors to set up realistic models of the patient's head. This thesis aims to provide to clinicians an accurate prediction of the potential distribution generated by the electric pulse. With this purpose, a finite element (FE) model is set up using electric conductivity values based on DT-MRI data. Special care has been taken to model more realistic boundary conditions than the ones commonly encountered in literature. A great effort has also been put to model the tissues surrounding the stimulation. The results show that these two aspects are impacting significantly the potential distribution. To predict the neural extent of the stimulation, electrical equivalent models of axons are combined with the obtained potentials. Volume of tissues activated (VTA) are thus obtained. Results show that the VTA are also impacted by the decision on how to model the boundary conditions. They show that the usual choice assumed in literature up to now leads to an overestimation of 30% of the VTA.


The relationship between African dust and the climatology of tropical cyclones (TCs) in the North Atlantic is explored using the Community Atmosphere Model at a global horizontal resolution of 28 km. A simulation in which the aerosol model is modified to significantly reduce the amount of airborne dust is compared to a standard simulation. The simulation with reduced dust increases TC frequency globally, with the largest increase occurring in the North Atlantic. The increase in TC activity in the North Atlantic is consistent with an environment that is more conducive for the genesis and intensification of storms. TCs are more frequent (27%) and on average significantly longer lived (13%) in the low dust configuration but only slightly stronger (3%). This results in a 57% increase in accumulated cyclone energy per hurricane season on average. This work has implications for projections of future climate and resulting changes in TC activity.


OBJECTIVE
To understand the contradictions involved in the process of curriculum reconstruction in the training of nurses, on the professors' perception.

METHOD
Qualitative interpretative study, in which professors of nursing courses from three public and three private institutions were interviewed. The analysis was based on dialectical hermeneutics.

RESULTS
21 professors participated in the study. The proposals of changes are associated with advances and resistances, since the extended view of the health-disease process is opposed to the biological view; the diversification of learning scenarios is confronted with the hegemony of the hospital scenario; the integration of teaching and service faces the inequality of participation of the parties; and integration between the basic and the clinical cycle finds resistance in the knowledge accumulated in each discipline.

CONCLUSION
The contradictions found, although inherent to the change process, indicate that persistence and continuous movement towards curriculum reformulation are necessary.


We present a new framework for the crucial challenge of self-organization of a large sensor network. The basic scenario can be described as follows: Given a large swarm of immobile sensor nodes that have been scattered in a polygonal region, such as a street network. Nodes have no knowledge of size or shape of the environment or the position of other nodes. Moreover, they have no way of measuring coordinates, geometric distances to other nodes, or their direction. Their only way of interacting with other nodes is to send or to receive messages from any node that is within communication range. The objective is to develop algorithms and protocols that allow self-organization of the swarm into large-scale structures that reflect the structure of the street network, setting the stage for global routing, tracking and guiding algorithms.Our algorithms work in two stages: boundary recognition and topology extraction. All steps are strictly deterministic, yield fast distributed algorithms, and make no assumption on the distribution of nodes in the environment, other than sufficient density.


Associative classification (AC) is a data mining approach that uses association rule discovery methods to build classification systems (classifiers). Several research studies reveal that AC normally generates higher accurate classifiers than classic classification data mining approaches such as rule induction, probabilistic and decision trees. This paper proposes a new multiclass AC algorithm called MAC. The proposed algorithm employs a novel method for building the classifier that normally reduces the resulting classifier size in order to enable end-user to more understand and maintain it. Experimentations against 19 different data sets from the UCI data repository and using different common AC and traditional learning approaches have been conducted with reference to classification accuracy and the number of rules derived. The results show that the proposed algorithm is able to derive higher predictive classifiers than rule induction (RIPPER) and decision tree (C4.5) algorithms and very competitive to a known AC algorithm named MCAR. Furthermore, MAC is also able to produce less number of rules than MCAR in normal circumstances (standard support and confidence thresholds) and in sever circumstances (low support and confidence thresholds) and for most of the data sets considered in the experiments.


Neuroleptic malignant syndrome is caused by serious adverse effects of antipsychotic agents and occurs only rarely. Endomyocardial biopsies documented unique clustered lipid droplets in a Japanese man with this disease. After administration of haloperidol, he had symptoms of high fever, respiratory dysfunction, and cardiogenic shock, and subsequently suffered from multiple organ failure. Fortunately, he was completely cured with intensive therapy. in the convulsant stage, left ventricular endomyocardial biopsies were performed that yielded the interesting discovery of unique clustered lipid droplets among the myofibrils. It was suggested that although the pathomechanism of neuroleptic malignant syndrome is unknown, this disease may be characterized by a lipid metabolic disorder of the cardiac muscle cell.


In the underlay cognitive radio networks, the main challenge in detecting the idle radio resources is to estimate the power spectrum maps (PSMs), where the radio propagation characteristics are hard to obtain. For this reason, we propose a novel PSMs estimation algorithm based on the generative adversarial networks (GANs). First, we constructed the PSMs estimation model as a regression model in deep learning. Then, we converted the estimation task into an image reconstruction task by image color mapping. We fulfilled the above task by designing an image generator and an image discriminator in the proposed maps' estimation GANs (MEGANs). The generator is trained to extract the radio propagation characteristics and generate the PSMs images. However, the discriminator is trained to identify the generated images and help to improve the generator's performance. With the training process of MEGANs, the abilities of the generator and the discriminator are enhanced continually until reaching a balance, which means a high-accuracy PSMs estimation is achieved. The proposed MEGANs algorithm learns and utilizes accurate radio propagation features from the training process rather than making direct imprecise or biased propagation assumptions as in the traditional methods. Simulation results demonstrate that the MEGANs algorithm provides a more accurate estimation performance than the conventional methods.


Slit is a secreted protein that has a canonical function of repelling growing axons from the CNS midline. The full-length Slit (Slit-FL) is cleaved into Slit-N and Slit-C fragments, which have potentially distinct functions via different receptors. Here we report that the BMP-1/Tolloid family metalloprotease, Tolkin (Tok), is responsible for Slit proteolysis in vivo and in vitro. In tok mutants lacking Slit cleavage, midline repulsion of axons occurs normally, confirming that Slit-FL is sufficient to repel axons. However, longitudinal axon guidance is highly disrupted in tok mutants and can be rescued by midline expression of Slit-N, suggesting that Slit is the primary substrate for Tok in the embryonic CNS. Transgenic restoration of Slit-N or Slit-C does repel axons in Slit-null animals. Slit-FL and Slit-N are both biologically active cues with distinct axon guidance functions in vivo. Slit signaling is used in diverse biological processes, thus differentiating between Slit-FL and Slit fragments will be essential for evaluating Slit function in broader contexts.


Aims Diagnostic ambiguities regarding the malignant potentiality of oral submucous fibrosis (OSF), an oral precancerous condition having dysplastic and non-dysplastic isoforms are the major failure for early intervention of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) patients. Our goal is to identify proteomic signatures from biopsies that can be used as precancer diagnostic marker for patient suffering from OSF. Methods The high throughput techniques adopting de novo peptide sequencing (1D SDS-PAGE coupled nanoLC MALDI tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS)-based peptide mass fingerprint), immunohistochemistry (IHC), Western blot (WB) and real-time PCR (RT-PCR) analysis are considered for such biomarker identification and multilevel validations. Results Alpha-enolase is identified as an overexpressed protein in biopsies of oral submucous fibrosis with dysplasia (OSFWD) compared with oral submucous fibrosis without dysplasia (OSFWT) and normal oral mucosa (NOM). Total proteome analysis of an overexpressed protein band around 47 kDa of OSFWD identifies 334 peptides corresponding to 61 human proteins. Among them α-enolase is identified as a prime protein with highest number of peptides (44 out of 334 peptides) and sequence coverage (66.4%). Furthermore, RT-PCR, WB and IHC analysis also show mRNA and tissue level upregulation of α-enolase in OSFWD validating α-enolase as precancer marker. Conclusions This study for the first time identifies and validates α-enolase as a novel biomarker for early diagnosis of malignant potentiality of OSF. Hence, the identified protein marker, α-enolase can help in early therapeutic intervention of OSF patients leading to the reduction of patient's pain, treatment cost and enhancement of patient's quality of life.


Rationale Glioma has a poor survival rate in patients even with aggressive treatment. Temozolomide (TMZ) is the standard chemotherapeutic choice for treating glioma, but TMZ treatment consistently leads to high resistance. Aim To investigate the underlying mechanisms of TMZ action with new therapeutic regimens in glioma. Methods and results The biological effects of TMZ mainly depend on the three following DNA repair systems: methylguanine methyltransferase (MGMT), mismatch repair (MMR) and base excision repair (BER). Based on related genes in these three systems, web-based tools containing data compiled from open-source databases, including DrugBank, STRING, WebGestalt and ClueGO, were queried, and five common genes along with the top fifteen pathways, including the glioma pathway, were identified. A genomic analysis of the six genes identified in the glioma pathway by cBioPortal indicated that TMZ might exert biological effects via interaction with the tumor protein P53(TP53) signaling axis. Finally, a survival analysis with the six genes in glioma cases (low-grade glioma and glioblastoma multiforme) was conducted using OncoLnc, which might provide directions for the future exploration of prognosis in glioma. Conclusions This study indicates that a functional network analysis resembles a "BioGPS", with the ability to draw a web-based scientific map that can productively and cost-effectively associate TMZ with its primary and secondary biological targets.


The University of Strathclyde was commissioned by Macmillan Cancer Support in collaboration with NHS GG&C to support the early evaluation of an evolving training program for community pharmacy support staff, one of the key recommendations from a previous program evaluation. The aims of this study were twofold: (1) To assess the appropriateness of the content of the palliative care training and ascertain staff opinions concerning the webinar format and (2) To evaluate the impact of the training, regardless of the delivery format i.e. face-to-face and webinar formats. The four-level Kirkpatrick model allows the opportunity to explore learner initial satisfaction with an educational intervention, gained knowledge and/or skills, changes in learner behaviour due to training and the long-term impact the learner has on their organisation due to their training.


Carbon budgets provide a useful tool for policymakers to help meet the global climate targets, as they specify total allowable carbon emissions consistent with limiting warming to a given temperature threshold. Non-CO2 forcings have a net warming effect in the Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP) scenarios, leading to reductions in remaining carbon budgets based on CO2 forcing alone. Carbon budgets consistent with limiting warming to below 2.0 °C, with and without accounting for the effects of non-CO2 forcings, were assessed in inconsistent ways by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), making the effects of non-CO2 forcings hard to identify. Here we use a consistent approach to compare 1.5 °C and 2.0 °C carbon budgets with and without accounting for the effects of non-CO2 forcings, using CO2-only and RCP8.5 simulations. The median allowable carbon budgets for 1.5 °C and 2.0 °C warming are reduced by 257 PgC and 418 PgC, respectively, and the uncertainty ranges on the budgets are reduced by more than a factor of two when accounting for the net warming effects of non-CO2 forcings. While our overall results are consistent with IPCC, we use a more robust methodology, and explain the narrower uncertainty ranges of carbon budgets when non-CO2 forcings are included. We demonstrate that most of the reduction in carbon budgets is a result of the direct warming effect of the non-CO2 forcings, with a secondary contribution from the influence of the non-CO2 forcings on the carbon cycle. Such carbon budgets are expected to play an increasingly important role in climate change mitigation, thus understanding the influence of non-CO2 forcings on these budgets and their uncertainties is critical.


The paper presents a set of parameterized power flow equations containing asynchronous generator model,derives a hyper-plane equation to estimate part of the static voltage stability region boundary in the extended full injection space including wind power. Then a fast probabilistic method to evaluate total transfer capability (TTC) in power system including large-scale wind farms is developed,in which wind speed,loads,generation and device outage uncertainties are considered at the same time. Compared with traditional methods,the proposed method can not only consider conveniently the influence of wind power randomness,but also significantly reduce the computation load while maintaining a satisfied accuracy. Further more,the influence of wind speed probability distribution parameters on TTC is revealed based on the method.


ABSTRACT This study is a content analysis of two newspapers from Nigeria and Ghana to determine the coverage and framing of climate change issues for a period of 7 months. The main objective of this study is to find out how climate change stories are framed in Nigerian and Ghanaian national dailies. It was found among others, that the overall dominant frame was environment and action frame which focused on the predicted effect of climate change on the landscape and relief in Nigeria and Ghana and on several other regions. In addition it was found that the media in Nigeria and Ghana source their reports mainly from international fora. It is recommended that the Nigerian and Ghanaian press should use more of the information and awareness frame in writing their reports.


Abstract Tirofiban is a small non-peptide ligand-mimetic Glycoprotein (GP) IIb/IIIa inhibitor which can reversibly bind to the arginine-glycine-aspartic acid (RGD) recognition site of GP IIb/IIIa to prevent platelet aggregation. It reduces the incidence of thrombotic cardiovascular events in patients with non-ST-segment elevation acute coronary syndrome (NSTE-ACS). Although generally considered safe, tirofiban has been reported to be associated with thrombocytopenia in several case reports and clinical trials. The pathogenesis for this adverse reaction is not entirely understood, is thought to be due to immune-mediated reaction. This side effect caused by tirofiban is especially concerning given how frequently it is used in the practice of contemporary cardiovascular care. The present review provides an overview of the pathophysiology, clinical presentation, management, and risk factors associated with tirofiban-induced thrombocytopenia.


Bamboo leaf fiber (BLF) was incorporated into an eco-friendly foam cushion made from natural rubber latex (NRL) to enhance the biodegradation rate. The objective of this work was to investigate the effects of BLF content on the foam structure, mechanical properties, cushion performance, and biodegradability. The NRL foam cushion nets with and without BLF were prepared using the Dunlop method along with microwave-assisted vulcanization. BLF (90–106 µm in length) at various loadings (0.00, 2.50, 5.00, 7.50, and 10.00 phr) were introduced to the latex compounds before gelling and vulcanizing steps. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) showed that the BLF in a NRL foam caused an increase in cell size and a decrease in the number of cells. The changes in the cell structure and number of cells resulted in increases in the bulk density, hardness, compression set, compressive strength, and cushion coefficient. A soil burial test of 24 weeks revealed faster weight loss of 1.8 times when the BLF content was 10.00 phr as compared to the NRL foam without BLF. The findings of this work suggest the possibility of developing an eco-friendly cushion with a faster degradation rate while maintaining cushion performance, which could be a better alternative for sustainable packaging in the future.


Brazilian Metropolitan Regions lack the institutionalized arrangements for the formulation, implementation and control of public policies involving multiple municipalities, particularly policies with strategic elements that cannot be resolved within municipal boundaries, such as urban development, transport and environment. Th is paper researches the possibilities for creating a metropolitan municipality, understood as a specifi c urban reality that is distinct from the traditional municipality and the spatial fragmentation of megamunicipalities which, given their political and economic importance, have exercised a disaggregating role in the metropolitan space. Th ese possibilities are understood as interventions that, in spite of their political and technical complexities and their diffi cult implementation, can contribute to resolving two of the principal obstacles to Brazilian metropolitan management: a rigid and monolithic perception of municipal autonomy - a perception that is still widely promoted in the country - and asymmetry in power relations generated by the existence of megamunicipalities in almost all the Metropolitan Regions.


We are met this evening to dedicate a "named" chair of dermatology and syphilology which will perpetuate the fame and the memory of one of our "medical greats," Dr. George Miller MacKee, a former professor of dermatology and syphilology at the New York Post-Graduate Medical School. I will not dwell on his contributions to the advancement of the art and science of medicine as these will be covered later in this program. As a result of a provision in Dr. MacKee's will, and with the enthusiastic concurrence of Mrs. MacKee, Dean Donal Sheehan and I recommended to the Board of Trustees of the New York University-Bellevue Medical Center that there be established at the earliest possible moment the George Miller MacKee Chair of Dermatology and Syphilology in the Post-Graduate Medical School and that Dr. Marion B. Sulzberger be designated as the first


INTRODUCTION
Neoplasmatic diseases during pregnancy are relatively rare, with the incidence of approximately 1/1000 pregnancies. The symptoms of neoplasmatic processes are unspecific and often mirror physiological changes during pregnancy Chemotherapy is the main therapeutic management of non-Hodgkin lymphomas. The strategy of the treatment and its influence on the course of pregnancy remain controversial.

AIM
The aim of this study was to present the case of a pregnant woman with non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

CASE REPORT
We described the case of a 27-year-old pregnant nullipara with anemia, breathlessness, cough and general weakness with diagnosed diffused large B-cell lymphoma. During pregnancy the patient received six cycles of CHOP chemotherapy without any serious complications. On 37 week of gestation the caesarean section was performed.

CONCLUSIONS
Coexisting non-Hodgkin lymphomas and pregnancy are seldom the case and the treatment requires complex chemotherapy.


This study aims to examine improving the performance of SMEs organizations through the development of knowledge quality and proactive behavior models with antecedents of entrepreneurial learning (complex individualized collective learning, intuitive sensing learning) with research gaps. Respondents are leaders of Batik SMEs in Central Java Province with Structural Equation Model analysis techniques. The findings of this study indicate that entrepreneurial learning can improve the quality of knowledge, proactive behavior and organizational performance. While limited entrepreneurial learning have a low effect.


This article presents a sentiment analysis of Twitter users' opinions regarding the use of ChatGPT in education. ChatGPT, an AI chatbot developed by OpenAI, has gained significant attention for its ability to provide detailed responses across various knowledge domains. However, concerns have been raised about its occasional inclusion of inaccurate information. This study aims to analyze the sentiment of Twitter users' opinions towards ChatGPT in education and evaluate its accuracy. The sentiment analysis process involves data crawling, labelling, preprocessing, sentiment analysis, and evaluation. Data is collected from Twitter using the RapidMiner Studio tool and labelled as positive or negative sentiment based on the presence of positive or negative words. Preprocessing techniques are applied to standardize and reduce the volume of words in the data. The sentiment analysis classification is performed using machine learning algorithms, specifically Naive Bayes and Support Vector Machine (SVM). The accuracy, precision, and recall of the classification models are evaluated. The sentiment analysis results provide insights into Twitter users' overall sentiment towards ChatGPT in education. This study contributes to understanding Twitter users' opinions and sentiments regarding using ChatGPT in education. The findings can be valuable for educators and policymakers in assessing the potential impact of ChatGPT on academic integrity and the educational landscape.


In this paper, a solar thermal absorber based on a dielectric filled two-dimensional nickel grating is designed and numerically investigated for wide-angle and polarization-independent broadband absorption. The absorption of the proposed two-dimensional meta-surface absorber reaches nearly 100% in the whole visible region (400-800 nm). The physical mechanisms responsible for the high absorption including the impedance matching with the free space, the cavity resonances and the surface plasmonic resonances have been elucidated in detail. The strong resonances effectively trap the incident light in the nano-cavities and then dissipate it by the ohmic losses of the metal, giving rise to the high absorption of the proposed absorber. The meta-surface absorber may find applications in solar cells, photovoltaics, thermos-photovoltaics, thermal emitters, plasmonic sensors, and solar-energy harvesting.


ABSTRACT The type I interferon (IFN) response is part of the first-line defense against viral infection. To initiate replication, viruses have developed powerful evasion strategies to counteract host IFN responses. In the present study, we found that the Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) NS5 protein could inhibit double-stranded RNA (dsRNA)-induced IFN-β expression in a dose-dependent manner. Our data further demonstrated that JEV NS5 suppressed the activation of the IFN transcriptional factors IFN regulatory factor 3 (IRF3) and NF-κB. However, there was no defect in the phosphorylation of IRF3 and degradation of IκB, an upstream inhibitor of NF-κB, upon NS5 expression, indicating a direct inhibition of the nuclear localization of IRF3 and NF-κB by NS5. Mechanistically, NS5 was shown to interact with the nuclear transport proteins KPNA2, KPNA3, and KPNA4, which competitively blocked the interaction of KPNA3 and KPNA4 with their cargo molecules, IRF3 and p65, a subunit of NF-κB, and thus inhibited the nuclear translocation of IRF3 and NF-κB. Furthermore, overexpression of KPNA3 and KPNA4 restored the activity of IRF3 and NF-κB and increased the production of IFN-β in NS5-expressing or JEV-infected cells. Additionally, an upregulated replication level of JEV was shown upon KPNA3 or KPNA4 overexpression. These results suggest that JEV NS5 inhibits the induction of type I IFN by targeting KPNA3 and KPNA4. IMPORTANCE JEV is the major cause of viral encephalitis in South and Southeast Asia, with high mortality. However, the molecular mechanisms contributing to the severe pathogenesis are poorly understood. The ability of JEV to counteract the host innate immune response is potentially one of the mechanisms responsible for JEV virulence. Here we demonstrate the ability of JEV NS5 to interfere with the dsRNA-induced nuclear translocation of IRF3 and NF-κB by competitively inhibiting the interaction of IRF3 and NF-κB with nuclear transport proteins. Via this mechanism, JEV NS5 suppresses the induction of type I IFN and the antiviral response in host cells. These findings reveal a novel strategy for JEV to escape the host innate immune response and provide new insights into the pathogenesis of JEV.


To evaluate the usefulness of ultrasound in hypertrophic pyloric stenosis (HPS) and to analyse the correlation between the dimensions of the pyloric muscle and the age and the weight of the child, 34 children with suspected HPS and 34 controls were examined. An overlap between the dimensions of the pyloric muscle in the HPS group and in the controls stresses the need to assess the muscle length, the muscle diameter, and the muscle wall thickness in establishing the sonographic diagnosis of HPS. We found the following criteria useful: muscle length greater than or equal to 19 mm, muscle diameter greater than or equal to 10 mm, and muscle wall thickness greater than or equal to 4 mm. The results did not confirm previous reports of increasing dimensions of the pyloric muscle with age and weight.


Provided is a transparent aldehyde-gas-adsorbing liquid that has high aldehyde-gas adsorption performance and has excellent workability and storage stability. Also, an aldehyde-gas-adsorbing processed product, such as paper, nonwoven fabric, or fiber, exhibiting excellent adsorption performance is provided by employing said gas-adsorbing liquid. This aldehyde-gas-adsorbing liquid includes a dihydrazide compound and a metal oxide sol, wherein: the content of the dihydrazide compound is 1.3-6 mass% to the total amount of the gas-adsorbing liquid; and the total content of the dihydrazide compound and the solid content of the metal oxide sol is 18-45 mass% to the total amount of the gas-adsorbing liquid.


A theory for the fluctuations of the magnetic moment of the grains in ferrihydrite is developed, and their influence on the Mossbauer spectra is studied in the range of temperatures between 26 K and 65 K. The evolution of the spectra can be interpreted in terms of isotropic relaxation, in spite of the fact that they are not ordinary relaxation spectra. The results make it clear that superferromagnetic relaxation is present.


Abstract Justus Lipsius (1547–1606) was among the most influential thinkers of the late 16th/early 17th centuries. His guides for action were highly influential in the establishment of moderate absolutism and what has been called the fiscal-military state across Europe. In this article I explore Lipsian thought in an International Relations context. Special attention is paid to his ideals of discipline, which were meant to order both the ruler and those that he ruled. Dignity, self-restraint and discipline were the recipes for the foreign policy of the prince, while the individual was subordinated to the purposes of the state, and taught to control his own life by mastering his emotions. If not a seminal thinker in his own right, it is necessary to understand Lipsius' thought and influence to be able to fully understand the 17th century theoretical approaches to peace and prosperity and the relative discipline of early-modern statecraft.


A scheme for a fast decomposition of the total density of states evaluated by the recursion method is presented. It is suggested that all the projected densities can be obtained in a single recursion calculation instead of applying the complete recursion procedure to each projection separately. The proposed scheme appears to be exact for the correct choice of the initial vector of the recursion transformation. It is shown that when the random initial vector approach to the total density of states is implemented, good results can be obtained, in particular for calculating the partial densities of states. The applicability and efficiency of the proposed method are demonstrated on two model systems. A simple criterion of reliability is formulated. Possible ways to eliminate spurious effects caused by the random initial vector approach are discussed.


Cerebrovascular injury is a common pathological feature of a spectrum of neurological disorders including traumatic brain injury (TBI), stroke, Alzheimer's disease (AD), as well as aging. Vascular manifestations among these conditions are similar indeed, including the breakdown of the blood-brain barrier (BBB). However, whether there is a common molecular mechanism underlying the vascular changes among these conditions remains elusive. Here, we report secondary transcriptomic analysis on cerebrovascular cells based single-cell RNA-seq datasets of mouse models of mild TBI and aging, with a focus on endothelial cells and pericytes. We identify several molecular signatures commonly found between mTBI and aging vasculature, including Adamts1, Rpl23a, Tmem252, Car4, Serpine2, and Ndnf in endothelial cells, and Rps29 and Sepp1 in pericytes. These markers may represent the shared endophenotype of microvascular injury and be considered as cerebrovascular injury responsive genes. Additionally, pathway analysis on differentially expressed genes demonstrated alterations in common pathways between mTBI and aging, including vascular development and extracellular matrix pathways in endothelial cells. Hence, our analysis suggests that cerebrovascular injury triggered by different neurological conditions may share common molecular signatures, which may only be detected at the single-cell transcriptome level.


A software maintenance process is important for reducing maintenance effort and for improving software quality. In recent years, the Lean–Kanban approach has been widely applied in software practice including software maintenance. This approach minimizes Work‐in‐Progress (WIP), which is the number of items that are worked on by the team at any given time, thus improving the maintenance process. In this paper, we describe our simulation studies, which show that the Lean–Kanban approach can indeed help reduce the average time needed to complete maintenance requests. We develop a process simulator that can simulate both existing maintenance processes that do not use a WIP limit and that adopt it. We perform two case studies using real maintenance data collected from a Microsoft project and from a Chinese software firm. The main results of our study are twofold. First, we demonstrate that it is possible to effectively model and simulate, using actors and events, a maintenance process where a flow of issues is processed through a sequence of activities, correctly reproducing key statistics of real data. Second, our results confirm that the WIP‐limited process could be useful to increase the efficiency of software maintenance, as reported in previous industrial practices. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


This paper proposes a new sampling-based kinodynamic motion planning algorithm, called FMT*PFF, for nonlinear systems. It exploits the novel idea of dimensionality reduction using partial-final-state-free (PFF) optimal controllers.With the proposed dimensionality reduction heuristic, the search space is restricted within a subspace, thus faster convergence is achieved compared to a regular kinodynamic FMT*. The dimensionality reduction heuristic can be viewed as a sampling strategy and asymptotic optimality is preserved when combined with uniform full-state sampling. Another feature of FMT*PFF is the ability to deal with a steering function with inexact steering, which is vital when using learning-based steering functions. Learning-based methods allow us to solve the steering problem for nonlinear systems efficiently. However, learning-based methods often fail to reach the exact goal state. For nonlinear systems, we train a neural network controller using supervised learning to generate the steering commands. We show that FMT*PFF with a learning-based steering function is efficient and generates dynamically feasible motion plans. We compare our algorithm with previous algorithms and show superior performance in various simulations.


The telomere biology of extra-abdominal desmoids was investigated. In 12 specimens, telomere length was assessed by Southern-blot analysis and telomerase activity was measured using a PCR-based TRAP assay. There was a significant correlation between telomere length and tumor size, with telomeres being shorter with increasing tumor size (p = 0.049), and between telomere length and PCNA-positive cell rate, with telomere shortening with increased positive cell rate (p = 0.017). There was a significant correlation between telomerase activity and age at surgery, with increased activity with younger age (p = 0.015). Telomere length increased with recurrence, but telomerase activity decreased, and rate of PCNA-positive cells became lower, whenever the tumors were recurrent. Decreasing telomere length correlated with tumor size, probably due to increased duration of proliferation in the tumor, and tumor aggressiveness. Recurrent case results may be due to a lower rate of cell division and the presence of telomerase activity.


Meta-heuristic algorithms play an important role in solving combinatorial optimization problems (COP) in many practical applications. The caveat is that the performance of these meta-heuristic algorithms is highly dependent on their parameter configuration which controls the algorithm behaviour. Selecting the best parameter configuration is often a difficult, tedious and unsatisfying task. This thesis studies the problem of automating the selection of good parameter configurations. Existing approaches to address the challenges of parameter configuration can be classified into one-size-fits-all and instance-specific approaches. One-size-fits-all approaches focus on finding a single best parameter configuration for a set of problem instances, while instance-specific approaches attempt to find parameter configurations on a per instance-basis, based on identifying specific features of a specific problem. Both approaches have their strengths and limitations, yet neither offers a generic approach for finding instance-specific parameter configurations. In this thesis, we take a middle ground hybrid approach, where our goal is to perform instance-specific tuning via clustering of problem instances using a problemindependent feature. Our approach is similar to ISAC [64], but instead of using problem-specific features, we propose a problem-independent feature from the local search trajectory. We are primarily concerned with the tuning of target algorithms that are localsearch based, where we make use of the local search trajectory as the feature, since they can be obtained from any given local-search based algorithm with a small additional computation budget. We show that there is a strong correlation between search trajectories and good parameter configurations, and hence clustering by search trajectories allow a configurator to find parameter configurations based on clusters rather than the entire set of training instances. We propose two generic frameworks: CluPaTra and CluPaTra-II that cluster a set of instances using search trajectories before configuring the parameters for each cluster. In CluPaTra, we use a simple pair-wise sequence alignment technique, while in CluPaTra-II, we design two pattern mining techniques to extract compact features for clustering purposes. Using our approaches, we run extensive numerical experiments on three classical problems : Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP), Quadratic Assignment Problem (QAP) and Set Covering Problem (SCP) and demonstrate encouraging results in both cluster quality and overall computational performance. A second contribution of this thesis is the implementation of an automated parameter tuning system that comprises CluPaTra, CluPaTra-II, and other components required for automated tuning. More specifically, we develop AutoParTune, a webbased workbench that enables algorithm designers to perform automated parameter tuning with minimal effort. AutoParTune is constructed based on a three-tier architecture that integrates instance-specific parameter configuration with parameter search space reduction and global tuning. We implement two security techniques to prevent Internet attacks and design a communication schema to establish communication between components. We apply this workbench to tune two problems from industry: the Aircraft Spares Inventory Optimization Problem and the Theme Park Personalized Intelligent Route Guidance Problem. AutoParTune shows a better overall performance compared to the default configurations. Finally, as a bridge for future works, we consider an extension of the above instancespecific tuning approach to tune population-based algorithms such as Genetic Algorithms. We introduce two preliminary ideas: PeTra and PaRG which are designed based on generic features pertaining to population dynamics in a Genetic Algorithm. Preliminary experiments with the Two-Population Genetic Algorithm have given promising results in terms of the overall computational performance. In summary, we show in this thesis that our approach yields significant improvement in performance compared with the pure one-size-fits-all configurators on both classical and industry problems. We observe that our approach performs significantly better or equal to several existing instance-specific configurators which use problem specific features. Based on these results, we claim that: (1) Methodologically dividing the instances into smaller clusters before tuning provides better parameter configurations; (2) The Search Trajectory is a suitable generic feature to cluster similar instances for tuning process; (3) Our web-based workbench provides an effective tool for tuning complex optimization problems; and (4) There are viable extensions for automated parameter tuning of population-based algorithms.


Wealth in the Ottoman and Post-Ottoman Balkans demonstrates the economic and social transformations wrought by wars, state centralization, European expansion and the gradual Ottoman withdrawal from the Balkans. As a new middle class emerged, and the power of religion faded, Ottoman and post-Ottoman social, economic and cultural norms changed rapidly across the region. This book illustrates not only how markers of wealth accumulation and poverty were socially defined across the region, but also the ways inequality was experienced, revealing the relationships between the state, economy, society, modernity in the context of Balkan, Ottoman and European development. Evguenia Davidova marshals a compendium of thirteen contributions wherein new archival data and various case studies frame a comparative social portrayal of the modern Balkans, offering new truths to the major discourses about nationalism, modernity, and the Ottoman legacy in the respective Balkan national historiographies.