The purpose of this study was to investigate influence of women group projects on their livelihood sustainability. This study was designed to fulfill four objectives: influence of women group on their income, influence of women group on the education of their children, influence of women group on the acquisition of wealth and the influence of women group on their psycho-social status. The study was significant in the attempt to unearth women groups in making correct choices on the income generating activities they engage in. The limitations of the study were that some of the groups were far in the interior places of the district which forced the researcher to use bodaboda to reach some of the interior places. The study was delimited to Oyugis Division of South Rachuonyo District and to formal women groups only. Literature was reviewed on the following sub-headings: influence of women on their income, influence of women groups on the education of their children, influence of women group projects on wealth acquisition, and influence of women groups on the psychosocial status. lhc study therefore adopted descriptive survey targeting a population of 1560 women in Oyugis division. The sample that was selected was 156 women through stratified, simple random, und purposive sampling techniques, lhe study used structured questionnaires, interview techniques and observ ation as the main tools of data collection. Data was analyzed using percentages and means, presented in tables and then discussed as per the findings in chapter two. The study found out that; women who were involved in these groups were married und mujority of them being primary school leavers; women had benefited from these associations through improvement of income; women were supporting their children in school due to the proceeds from the project activities; women hud acquired property from the proceeds from the project activities; and finully women had shared and sought advice from the challenges the experienced due to the projects they were undertaking. The study concluded that women groups were o f great influence to women in Oyugis as they enabled women to improve their incomes from the various income generating activities they engaged in. women supported their children in school due to the proceeds from the project activities, through women groups, women were able to acquire property and finally women were encouraged to share the challenges they experienced in and outside their groups. The study finally recommended that women needed to be given capacity building courses which will expose them to more possible ways of managing and implementing group activities. I here is need for women to be given frequent visits by officers from the ministries concerned so that they can be trained on how to diversify their group activities. The study finally suggested possible areas of future use based on the findings. I hat further research to be carried on the how rural women can be influenced to access formal education, study to determine the effects of women group projects on their livelihoods, study to investigate the effects of microfinance organizations in promoting rural women activities and finally a study to investigate the influence of women groups on their living standards.


This paper critically evaluates Elinor Ostrom's Institutional Analysis and Development framework and points to some of the challenges of adapting it to study patent pools, open source software groups, and other "cultural" as opposed to natural commons. Few have done more than Ostrom to advance the study of institutions, and no approach offers more insight into the structure of a common-pool resource or its management. But beyond Ostrom's considerable descriptive endeavor and rebuke of "thin" rational choice arguments such as the tragedy of the commons lies a difficult and as yet unfinished enterprise: the study of institutional change. The hazards of applying her framework to cultural commons, which include avoiding functionalist explanations, attending to the dynamic nature of commons creation, and acknowledging the role of narrative in shaping knowledge production and use, suggest the need to embrace and update Ostrom's concern for institutional change. I offer a few modest suggestions for how to accomplish this task. These include adopting a broader definition of "institution," incorporating a holistic approach to human agency, giving attention to the recursive interactions between a commons and its institutional environment, and focusing on how technologies are shaped by their interpretive and institutional context. Each proposal recalls efforts to bridge enduring divides between "old" and "new" institutionalism in economics as well as sociology.


Intensive farming practices and their continuous spread generate a large amount of livestock manure that cannot be disposed properly. This can cause water, air and soil contamination. Therefore, the identification of strategies for correct management of livestock manure is necessary for limiting environmental pollution. Nitrification/denitrification process (NDN) represents one of the most applied solutions. However, at real scale, many of those facilities that adopt this process suffer from managing issues and malfunctioning. Recently, alternative techniques have been applied to the recovery of nutrients along with their removal. An example is solid/liquid separation using chemicals to remove phosphorus and concentrate it into solid fraction, easier to handle. Other concerns are ammonia and greenhouse gases emissions derived from the management and the treatment of livestock manure. Their assessment is the first step to identify and apply proper mitigation strategies focused on limiting emissions. In this thesis, the application of biological processes for the removal of nitrogen from livestock manure was investigated to find possible improvements. First, a review of the state of the art of nitrification/denitrification process applied in the sequencing batch reactor system (SBR) to livestock manure was carried out to produce an overview on the SBR technology, monitoring parameters and process optimization. This can help the identification of SBR strengths and weaknesses when these systems are adopted for the livestock manure treatment and can support the definition of the best operation settings to adopt for reaching desired removal rates. Several treatment plants were monitored to attest operational and removal efficiencies achieved. The aim of these monitoring campaigns was the identification of possible improvements for NDN (nitrification/denitrification) plants. Eventually, the application of the NDN process in laboratory SBR systems was analysed to study how the nitrogen removal rate changes with the variation of the slurry inlet characteristics and of the applied operational settings. Concerning emissions, the use of different types of dynamic hoods and static chamber for estimating GHGs and NH3 emissions derived from livestock manure was investigated. Regarding recovery of phosphorus (P), the dissertation dealt with the evaluation of the effect of two additives (calcium hydroxide Ca(OH)2 and aluminium sulfate Al2(SO4)3) on the solid/liquid separation process of P, Copper and Zinc from raw slurry and co-digested slurry before and after a physico-chemical ammonia stripping treatment. The results outlined that the performance of monitored SBR treatment plants at real scale are less than expected. Rarely TAN removal exceeds 50% even if at lab-scale observed removal rates were higher (up to 95%). Pre-treatments are necessary to improve performance of treatment plants. Moreover, the upgrading of proper process control system and its correct use are required. These should be considered also if a new SBR is designed. Ammonia and GHGs emissions occur during the entire livestock manure management chain and their evaluation is possible applying the direct method. In particular, dynamic hoods can be useful tool for measuring site-specific NH3 and GHGs emissions except for CH4. The application of solid/liquid separation process for phosphorus removal using aluminium sulphate allowed to reach removal rates higher than 70%. This additive enhanced also the removal of suspended solids (58%), copper (up to 94%) and zinc (up to 93%).


Plumbism in pets and people Madam: Although animal tales appear rarely TheMedical journal of Australia. your readers may be interested in a recent case which highlights the kinship between human and veterinary medicine and indicates an area where increased cooperation might be mutually beneficial. Recently, a Ifl-year-olddesexed female cat was presented for examination with a lO-day history of inappetence, diarrhoea and intermittent vomiting. Physical examination provided no diagnostic clues, but laboratory findings of normoblastaemia and increased concentrations of urinary delta-aminolaevulinic acid (ALA) and blood lead (Table, cat I) established the diagnosis of lead poisoning. The cat improved after five days of chelation therapy with calcium EDT A and was sent home. The patient lived in a house with two people, two dogs and three cats. Testing of samples from these other inhabitants showed that two of them (Table, cat 2 and person I) had increased blood lead and urine ALA concentrations, while two others (cat 4 and dog I) had some increase in urine ALA. These individuals were all clinically well with the exception of person I, who was renovating the house and had recently been burning and sanding old paint off the exterior walls. She had been experiencing abdominal pains for a month and, in view of the laboratory findings, was referred to medical authorities for advice. It was of incidental interest that the lead and ALA values were lowest in dog 2, as this animal has an inherited defect in copper metabolism resembling Wilson's disease and was receiving chelation treatment with d-penicillamine. At The University of Sydney Veterinary Hospital and Clinic, we see about 10animals with lead poisoning each year, and colleagues in private practice also see cases. The majority are young dogs from inner-city suburbs. We do not test routinely other individuals in households of affected animals, but in view of these findings, we probably should. Perhaps further investigation of families whose pets have lead poisoning might enable Blood lead and urine ALA concentrations in household members


Background: Diabetes mellitus is a lifelong chronic condition that requires self-management. Lifestyle modification and adherence to antidiabetes medications are the major determinants of therapeutic success in the management of diabetes


The multiple-input multiple-output Tomlinson-Harashima (MIMO-TH) precoder is a well-known structure that mitigates interstream interference in flat fading MIMO systems. The MIMO-TH filters are designed by assuming perfect channel state information (CSI) at both the transmitter and the receiver. However, in practice, channel estimates are available instead of the true channels. In this work, we assess the MIMO-TH performance degradation in the cases where the channel estimates are used as if they were the true channels. More specifically, we develop second-order and high-SNR approximations to the excess mean-square error (EMSE) induced by channel uncertainties, uncovering the factors that determine the MIMO-TH performance degradation in practice. Numerical experiments are in agreement with our theoretical developments.


This retrospective study evaluates the clinical and radiographic outcomes of simultaneous guided bone regeneration (GBR) and implant placement procedures in the rehabilitation of partially edentulous and horizontally atrophic dental arches using resorbable membranes. A total of 49 patients were included, and 97 implants were placed. Patients were followed up for 3 to 7 years after loading. The data indicate that GBR with simultaneous implant placement and resorbable membranes can be a good clinical choice, and the data suggest that it could be better to horizontally reconstruct no more than 3 mm of bone in order to reduce the number of complications and to obtain stable results. However, this technique remains difficult and requires expert surgeons.


We have computed the one--body density matrix rho_1 in solid 4He at T=0 K using the Shadow Wave Function (SWF) variational technique. The accuracy of the SWF has been tested with an exact projector method. We find that off-diagonal long range order is present in rho_1 for a perfect hcp and bcc solid 4He for a range of densities above the melting one, at least up to 54 bars. This is the first microscopic indication that Bose Einstein Condensation (BEC) is present in perfect solid 4He. At melting the condensate fraction in the hcp solid is 5*10^{-6} and it decreases by increasing the density. The key process giving rise to BEC is the formation of vacancy--interstitial pairs. We also present values for Leggett's upper bound on the superfluid fraction deduced from the exact local density.


During Leg 122, a transect was drilled across the Wombat Plateau, a marginal spur of the Exmouth Plateau, complemented by two sites on the Exmouth Plateau proper. In this report, pore-water analyses for major seawater constituents, alkalinity, Ba, Fe, Mn, Li, Sr, Rb, and silica are presented. Large gradients in the pore-water profiles provide evidence of complex sediment/pore-water interactions associated with carbonate and silica diagenesis and the formation of authigenic minerals. Diffusion affects pore-water profiles but differs considerably from site to site. Advection of freshwater, probably of continental origin, helps maintain negative Cl and salinity gradients deep within the sediments of the Exmouth Plateau.


The immune system has routinely been the focus of cancer treatments. One of the strategies that targets the immune system is by use of monoclonal antibodies to specifically target tumor antigens leading to immune activation and tumor destruction. Therefore, many biopharmaceutical companies are interested/invested in antibody development, including the development of next-generation antibodies such as bispecific antibodies. The Development Center for Biotechnology (DCB) in Taiwan has developed a new platform for the generation of immunoglobulin kappa chain-bridged single chain bispecific antibody. Using this platform, DCB constructed a kappa domain-bridged HER2/CD3 bispecific single chain antibody known as the LBscbHER2-CD3. Utilizing a mammalian expression system, the antibody can be easily purified by affinity chromatography via kappa fragment capture. Binding affinity studies have revealed that the purified LBscbHER2-CD3 antibody is able to independently as well as simultaneously bind to HER2+ tumor cells and CD3+ T cells at low nanomolar concentrations. In co-culture experiments, the addition of purified LBscbHER2-CD3 antibody resulted in a significant increase in IL-2 production which is a strong indicator of human T cell activation. In addition, the co-engagement of either IL-2 primed or un-primed human T cells and HER2+ tumor cells by the LBscbHER2-CD3 antibody facilitated the killing of tumor cells from breast, colon and pancreatic cancers. Lastly, when administered in vivo, LBscbHER2-CD3 showed strong tumor growth inhibition in SCID mice xenograft models with implanted HER2+ SW480 cancer cells, HT29 human colon carcinoma cells, and Capan-1 human pancreatic cancer cells. In conclusion, the LBscbHER2-CD3 bispecific antibody has strong affinity for both the cancer cell-expressing receptor and the T cell antigen which leads to cancer cell elimination in vitro and in vivo. These results suggest that LBscbHER2-CD3 may have therapeutic potential for drug development in the treatment of human cancers. Citation Format: Yu Hsun Lo, Jei-Hwa Yu, Yu-Hsen Hsui, Ta-Tung Yuan. Developmental and functional characterization of immunoglobulin kappa chain-bridged single chain bi-specific antibody for targeted antitumor therapy. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the CRI-CIMT-EATI-AACR Inaugural International Cancer Immunotherapy Conference: Translating Science into Survival; September 16-19, 2015; New York, NY. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Immunol Res 2016;4(1 Suppl):Abstract nr B018.


Multiethnic borderlands, like Transcarpathia in Western Ukraine, are characterized by ethnic-linguistic-confessional complexity where ethnic boundary-making and ethnic categorization are constructed and rooted in politics. The present study aims to analyze how the mechanisms of ethnic categorization and boundary-making play out on a local level. Based on data analysis and fieldwork conducted in Hudya/Gődényháza in Transcarpathia, a village with ethnically, linguistically, and denominationally diverse population, we describe how "ethnicity" is getting blurred and reconstructed in the narrative strategies of residents. We examine the characteristics of the various classification systems (external classification, self-reporting) and their relation to each other. It is found that the ethnic, linguistic, and denominational affiliations in the village (and its wider region) are often divergent, which is reflected in the significant discrepancy between the data gathered in various ethnic classification systems. We argue that denomination is the prime factor of both self-identification and external classification, obscuring the boundaries between religious and standard ethnic terms. We further point to the formation of new boundaries between autochthonous and allochthonous populations. Although this cleavage emerged a few decades ago and has been transgressed by dozens of marriages among autochthonous and newcomers, it can easily get ethnicized, thus it adds an extra layer to the existing distinctions.


BACKGROUND Silicosis is a type of chronic pulmonary fibrosis caused by long-term inhalation of silica dust particles. There has been no ideal biomarker for the diagnosis and differential diagnosis of silicosis until now. Studies have found that elevated neuron-specific enolase (NSE) concentration in the serum of silicosis patients is helpful for diagnosis and severity assessment of the disease. However, the number of cases in these studies was not enough to arouse attention. AIM To investigate the clinical significance of serum NSE in the diagnosis and staging of silicosis. METHODS From January 2017 to June 2019, 326 cases of silicosis confirmed in Quanzhou First Hospital Affiliated to Fujian Medical University were included in the silicosis group. A total of 328 healthy individuals or medical patients without silicosis were included in the control group. Serum NSE concentrations of all subjects were determined by electrochemical luminescence. RESULTS There were no significant differences in sex, age, smoking index and complications between the silicosis and control groups. The mean serum NSE concentration was 26.57 ± 20.95 ng/mL in the silicosis group and 12.42 ± 2.68 ng/mL in the control group. The difference between the two groups was significant (U = 15187, P = 0.000). Among the 326 patients with silicosis, 103 had stage I silicosis, and the mean serum NSE concentration was 15.55 ± 6.23 ng/mL. The mean serum NSE concentration was 21.85 ± 12.05 ng/mL in 70 patients with stage II silicosis. The mean serum NSE concentration was 36.14 ± 25.72 ng/mL in 153 patients with stage III silicosis. Kruskal–Wallis H test suggested that the difference in serum NSE concentration in silicosis patients in the three groups was significant (H = 130.196, P = 0.000). Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis indicated that the area under the curve was 0.858 (95% confidence interval: 0.828-0.888; P = 0.000). When the NSE concentration was 15.82 ng/mL, the Jorden index was the largest, the sensitivity was 72%, and the specificity was 90%. CONCLUSION Serum NSE concentration may be a promising biomarker for the diagnosis and assessment of severity of silicosis.


The objective of this study was to produce microparticles of a new asthma-controlling drug by supercritical assisted atomization (SAA), proposed as an alternative to conventional jet-milling process. SAA is based on the solubilization of supercritical carbon dioxide in a liquid solution containing the drug; the ternary mixture is then sprayed through a nozzle, and microparticles are formed as a consequence of the enhanced atomization. SAA process parameters studied were precipitator temperature, nozzle diameter, and drug concentration in the liquid solution. Their influence was evaluated on morphology and size of precipitated particles. Spherical particles with mean particle size ranging from 1 to 3 μm of the new anti-asthma drug were produced by SAA. The mass median aerodynamic diameter (MMAD) of the SAA micronized particles and of the conventional jet-milled drug was used to compare, the results obtainable using the 2 techniques. Particularly, MMADs from 1.6 to 4.0 μm were obtained by SAA at the optimum operating conditions and by varying the concentration of the solution injected. MMAD of 6.0 μm was calculated for the jet-milled drug. SAA samples also exhibited narrower particle size distribution (PSD). A good control of particle size and distribution together with no drug degradation was obtained by SAA process.


The use of electromagnetic waves bearing orbital angular momentum in the radio frequency range is a growing subject, as well as the design of antennas enable to produce such waves. The aim of this paper is to present the characterization in an anechoic chamber, of a new type of antenna using a flat plate, designed to generate an electromagnetic wave bearing orbital angular momentum in the millimeter frequency band.


Hough Forest is a framework combining Hough Transform and Random Forest for object detection. The purpose of the present paper is to improve the efficiency and reliability of the original framework by the mean of two contributions. First, instead of generating the image samples by drawing patches randomly from the training set, we bias this step toward the most relevant image content by selecting a proportion of patches from a geometrical criterion. Second, during the creation of non-leaf-nodes of the trees, instead of sampling uniformly the parameter space for choosing the binary tests aimed at splitting the set of image samples, we choose them according to a probability map constructed from the sample set. We aim to drastically reduce the training time without impacting the accuracy, and decreasing the variability of the produced detectors. The interest of this improved model is shown in the context of car and pedestrian detection by evaluating it on academic datasets.


My role in joining the symposium is to discuss in general the possibilities of betatron therapy in cancers of the nose-and-throat area and its relation to conventional x-rays, and to present a few irradiated cases. The main question is what is the sense of using megavoltage radiations in lesions which are close to the surface and to which conventional x-ray may also deliver an adequate, high tumor dose. The betatron may produce two types of radiation: high-energy x-ray beam and highenergy electron beam. Their depth dose distributions, and accordingly their indications, are entirely different. Figure 1 shows the differences in depth dose distribution. In the curve of conventional 400 kvp the maximal dose is at the surface and the decrease is fast, so that at 10 cm. depth the dose is less than 40% of the maximum. In the curve for the 23 mev betatron x-ray beam, the dose is


The main aim of the book is to provide a forum for opinions held by Arabs who are neither Western puppets nor fanatical nationalists or Islamists, but rather academics with a vast knowledge of the Middle East as well as of the West. The authors all support the building of a democratic secular Middle East, but their writings also show that although there is no easy way to achieve this goal, neither is there any excuse for not making the attempt. Contributors: Nader Fergany author of the Arab Human Development Reports; Raymond Hinnebusch professor of International Relations and Middle East Politics, University of St. Andrews; Yezid Sayigh consultant to the international donor community in Palestine; Samir Aita Syrian scholar and dissident; Graham Usher British journalist; Hanan Rabbani Palestinian consultant for Amnesty International; Mai Yamani (Saudi Arabia) research fellow with the Middle East Programme at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, Chatham House; Fowziyah Abu-Khalid Saudi sociologist; Amal Shlash Iraq; Huda Al-Nu'aimi Iraq; Jorgen S. Nielsen Professor, director of the Danish Institute in Damascus.


Power electronics and related power processing technologies constitute an "enabling infrastructure technology" with a significant potential impact on US industrial competitiveness. This is manifested through the increased energy efficiency of equipment and processes using electrical power, and through higher industrial productivity and higher product quality, which results from the ability to control precisely the electrical power for manufacturing operations. Sales of power electronics equipment exceed $60 billion each year, and affect another $1 trillion in hardware electronics sales. Improvement in the technology of such a dynamic market is an exciting endeavor. Industrial firms are under constant pressure to produce power electronics products that are more powerful, dependable and durable, smaller in size, lighter in weight and less costly to the consumer. Power electronics products, to date, are essentially custom-designed, with a long design cycle time. The equipment is designed and manufactured largely using nonstandard parts. Thus, manufacturing processes are labor-intensive, resulting in high cost and poor reliability. Consequently, the US is losing its manufacturing base to global competitors, especially in those regions where labor costs are significantly lower than those of the US.


The spermatozoa of four fossorial (Litoria alboguttata, Cyclorana brevipes, Cyclorana novaehollandiae and Cyclorana cryptotis) and two non-fossorial australian hylid frogs (Litoria aurea and Litoria moorei) together with previously examined Litoria (Hylidae: Anura) are compared. In spermatozoal ultrastructure (in particular the structure of the sperm tail) Cyclorana includes species which appear derived (apomorphic) relative to non-fossorial species of Litoria while the fossorial L. alboguttata groups with Cyclorana. All hylid species examined here are united by the bufonoid synapomorphy of a conical subacrosomal cone consisting of separate sheaves and the eubufonoid synapomorphy of a mitochondrial sheath or collar separated by a cytoplasmic canal from the centriolar region and tail. Spermatozoal symplesiomorphies for the Eubufonoidea, seen in Litoria (with the exception of L. alboguttata), are the well developed thin undulating membrane with juxta-axonemal and axial fibre. L. alboguttata, C. novaehollandiae and C. brevipes appear monophyletic in the apomorphic modification of the undulating membrane as a thick, dense structure. In L. alboguttata and C. novaehollandiae this structure retains a swelling, at the free edge, homologized with the axial rod. C. brevipes has a further apomorphy as the undulating membrane forms a parallel-sided dense structure with no separate differentiation of an axial fibre. C. cryptotis, however, retains the plesiomorphic sperm tail with a thin undulating membrane, juxta-axonemal and axial fibre. That these differences in spermatozoal ultrastructure have phylogenetic significance is endorsed by the similarity of the fertilization biology of the species examined. On the basis of sperm ultrastructure three separate lineages are discerned within Cyclorana s. lat.: 1) C. cryptotis; 2) L. alboguttata and C. novaehollandiae; and 3) C. brevipes. The evidence of sperm ultrastructure, supported by previously published molecular, morphological and karyological data, clearly places Litoria alboguttata within the genus Cyclorana.


Hysteresis band current controller is proposed for active power filter (APF) to compensate power system harmonics. This control strategy is effective to make supply current sinusoidal. Shunt active power filter plays very vital role in harmonic elimination, which produces due to increase in non linear and unbalanced load, at a point of common coupling. Sensing load currents, dc bus voltage and source voltages controller calculates the reference currents, and compensating currents. Compensating Currents are produced by APF, which are exactly equal and opposite of those harmonic currents in supply by means of a signal provided by hysteresis band current controller. MATLAB/Simulink power system tool box is used to simulate the proposed system. The simulation results found quiet satisfactory to compensate the harmonics under different load conditions. Keywords— Shunt active power filter, hysteresis band current controller, Harmonic Distortion


In this paper, we report our discovery of a gaze behavior called Quiet Eye (QE) in minimally invasive surgery. The QE behavior has been extensively studied in sports training and has been associated with higher level of expertise in multiple sports. We investigated the QE behavior in two independently collected data sets of surgeons performing tasks in a sinus surgery setting and a robotic surgery setting, respectively. Our results show that the QE behavior is more likely to occur in successful task executions and in performances of surgeons of high level of expertise. These results open the door to use the QE behavior in both training and skill assessment in minimally invasive surgery.


:  Through empirical analysis and theory, this paper critiques technocratic regimes of protection vis a vis pesticide use, which are efforts limited to technical rationality and didactic communication of pesticide risks that model pesticide users as self-responsible individuals (ie Homo economicus). Data reveal that knowledge of pesticide risk does not translate into greater protective gear use, within the Costa Rican case presented and more broadly. This circumstance, across first and third world contexts, leads me to develop a more holistic conceptualization of farmers' subjectivities that highlights numerous constraints—informational, political economic, cultural, individual, and environmental—to which farmers are subject. This conceptualization reveals the inadequacy of most efforts to address farmers' protective gear use, and leads me to propose a multi-tiered solution to pesticide problems, including an industrial hygiene approach and fostering subjectivities through participatory research involving pesticide users.


The Bluetooth/sup TM/ industry has set itself an ambitious goal of just $5 for the implementation of a complete receiver/transmitter, including its DSP-based subsystem and associated ROM and RAM. Although this is unlikely to be realised until Bluetooth wireless technology has achieved considerable market penetration and gained economy of scale through very high volume production, some manufacturers appear to be closer to this goal than others. CSR, for example, had shipped over 1 million of its BlueCore single-chip Bluetooth radios by June this year, and 48% of all Bluetooth equipped end-user products on the market now contain this chip. This article takes a look at some of the design techniques that CSR has employed to reduce cost as much as possible, and outlines some of the issues that are likely to affect how quickly the market ramps up.


Results of behavioral genetic and molecular genetic studies have converged to suggest that both genes contribute to the development of ADHD. Although prior linkage studies have produced intriguing results, their results have been inconsistent, with no clear pattern of results emerging across studies. We genotyped 5,980 SNPs across the genome in 1,187 individuals from families with children diagnosed with ADHD. We then performed two nonparametric linkage analyses on ADHD families: (1) an affected sibling pair linkage analysis on 217 families with 601 siblings diagnosed with ADHD and (2) a variance components linkage analysis using the number of ADHD symptoms as the phenotype on 260 families with 1,100 phenotyped siblings. The affection status linkage analysis had a maximum LOD score of 1.85 on chromosome 8 at 54.2 cM. The maximum LOD score in the variance components linkage analysis was 0.8 on chromosome 8 at 93.4 cM. The absence of regions of significant or suggestive linkage in these data suggest that there are no genes of large effect contributing to the ADHD phenotype. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


ABSTRACT Background: Retinoschisis, or retinal lamellar splitting, can occur in a number of hereditary conditions. The most common cause of congenital or childhood onset retinoschisis is the clinical entity known as juvenile retinoschsis, which is caused by mutations in the X-linked retinoschisis 1 gene. Genes other than X-linked retinoschisis 1 gene have rarely been implicated in association with hereditary retinoschisis. Methods: We describe a 9-year-old male who presented with several phenotypic features associated with partial monosomy of chromosome 6q and partial trisomy of chromosome 11q, including myelomeningocele, mental and growth retardation, seizures, microcephaly, scoliosis, and facial dysmorphisms, as well as novel ocular findings including bilateral retinoschisis and hyperopia. Results: This case report highlights the necessity for a detailed ophthalmic examination of patients with both 6q deletions as well as 11q duplications to ensure accurate and timely diagnosis and treatment of the complications associated with the described ocular conditions.


Recent research progress on planar and conformal Fabry-Perot type resonant cavity antennas is presented. The proposed antennas are based on the use of multi-layer passive periodic surfaces that act as partially reflective surfaces (PRS) and significantly enhance the directivity of simple primary sources. Profile reduction techniques based on high impedance (HIS) ground planes are reported. An efficient periodic full-wave analysis has been applied to planar as well as cylindrical cavity antennas, providing physical insight in the antenna operation by identifying the supported modes. Measurements of final prototypes are presented validating the analysis techniques.


This paper deals with the simulation of steady flows in turbomachinery. Two approaches are proposed, the first one is the classical multiple-rotating frame method (MRF) by multizone approach where the different zones are separated by nonoverlapping interfaces and solved independently. Since each zone is loaded separately, a transferring system should be properly implemented at the interface boundaries. Two techniques are considered, in the first one the conservative variables are interpolated between zones while in the second one the fluxes are transferred through the interfaces. The other proposed approach is a new version of the MRF using a virtual interface (VMRF). This is a simplified of the previous one where the interfaces are created virtually at the solver level, rendering the method easy to implement especially for edge-based numerical schemes, and avoiding any re-meshing in case one needs to change interface position, shape or simply remove or add new one. Finally, numerical tests are performed to demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed methods by comparison with commercial codes (ANSYS FLUENT).


In this work, a set of experimental electrophoretic mobility (μe) data was used to show how inappropriate selection of the electrokinetic model used to calculate the zeta potential (ζ-potential) can compromise the interpretation of the results for nanoparticles (NPs). The main consequences of using ζ-potential values as criteria to indicate the colloidal stability of NP dispersions are discussed based on DLVO interaction energy predictions. For this, magnetite (Fe3O4) NPs were synthesized and characterized as a model system for performing electrokinetic experiments. The results showed that the Fe3O4 NPs formed mass fractal aggregates in solution, so the ζ-potential could not be determined under ideal conditions when μe depends on the NP radius. In addition, the Dukhin number (Du) estimated from potentiometric titration results indicated that stagnant layer conduction (SLC) could not be neglected for this system. The electrokinetic models that do not consider SLC grossly underestimated the ζ-potential values for the Fe3O4 NPs. The DLVO interaction energy predictions for the colloidal stability of the Fe3O4 NP dispersions also depended on the electrokinetic model used to calculate the ζ-potential. The results obtained for the Fe3O4 NP dispersions also suggested that, contrary to many reports in the literature, high ζ-potential values do not necessarily reflect high colloidal stability for charge-stabilized NP dispersions.


Drought is one of the most important abiotic stress factors affecting crop yields and qualities worldwide. One drought-sensitive plant is the cucumber, which has a high transpiration rate. Grafting is recognized as a promising approach to increasing tolerance to abiotic stresses in cucumber. In this study, it is aimed to determine the rootstock that will prevent negative changes in some growth, physiological and genetic parameters of cucumber under drought stress and to determine the mechanism of the system. In drought stress conditions, leaf number values were found to be 6 on average in non-grafted plants and between 6–13.16 in grafted plants. Average leaf fresh weight values (7.56–9.84 g) obtained from grafted plants were higher than non-grafted plants (5.7 g). Leaf chlorophyll content (SPAD) values were found to be between 24.43 in non-grafted plants and 37.83–55.36 in grafted plants under stress conditions. Malondialdehyde (MDA) concentration values also decreased from 5.66 to 3.23–4.36 in grafted plants. It was determined that the genomic template stability (GTS) rate was 64.1% in the non-grafted treatment group. DNA polymorphisms detected by ISSR (inter simple sequence repeat) can be used as a biomarker system for the detection of genotoxic effects of abiotic stresses, such as drought. These findings suggest that grafting with drought-resistant rootstocks may improve drought tolerance in drought-sensitive cucumber genotypes.


The quality of a shape-from-silhouettes 3D reconstruction technique strongly depends on the completeness of the silhouettes from each of the cameras. Static occlusion, due to e.g. furniture, makes reconstruction difficult, as we assume no prior knowledge concerning shape and size of occluding objects in the scene. In this paper we present a self-learning algorithm that is able to build an occlusion map for each camera from a voxel perspective. This information is then used to determine which cameras need to be evaluated when reconstructing the 3D model at every voxel in the scene. We show promising results in a multi-camera setup with seven cameras where the object is significantly better reconstructed compared to the state of the art methods, despite the occluding object in the center of the room.


Multiple hydrodynamic states in trickle bed reactors have been the subject of numerous hydrodynamic investigations. The extent of variation in the hydrodynamic parameters (like holdup and pressure drop) is large and this variation can be expected to have a significant impact on the conversion in a reaction system. This study presents reaction data for α-methyl styrene hydrogenation in a trickle bed reactor over a range of conditions that include gas and liquid limitations. It is seen that liquid flow rate variation induced hysteresis has a large impact on the conversion. For gas-limited reactions, the upper branch of the pressure drop hysteresis loop has a higher conversion than the lower branch at the same linear fluid velocities and catalyst weight, while for liquid-limited reactions the lower branch has a higher conversion than the upper branch (the difference in productivity being up to 20%). These trends cannot be explained by differences in wetting efficiency. Instead, it is proposed that for this system the gas–liquid mass transfer rate is the limiting step in gas-limited reactions, while the liquid–solid mass transfer rate is the limiting step in liquid-limited reactions. © 2007 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 2008


We present novel immersed grating (IG) based spectrometer designs that can be used in space instrumentation. They are based on the design approach that aims to optimize the optical design using the expanded parameter space that the IG technology offers. In principle the wavefront error (WFE) of any optical system the most conveniently can be corrected in the pupil, where in the case of the IG based spectrometer, the IG itself is positioned. By modifying existing three-mirror based optical systems, which can form the main part of double pass spectrometer designs, a large portion of the WFE of the optical system can be transferred to the pupil and to the IG. In these cases the IG can compensate simple low order aberrations of the system and consequently the main benefit is that the mirrors that tend to be off-axis conical sections can be substituted by spherical mirrors. The WFE budget of such designs has only a minor contribution from the very high quality spherical mirrors and the majority of the WFE can be then allocated to the most complex part of the system, the IG. The latter can be designed so that the errors are compensated by a special grating pattern that in turn can be manufactured using the expertise and experience of the semiconductor industry.


Nowadays, mobile robots are expected to carry out various tasks in all kinds of application fields ranging from manufacturing plants, transportation, nursing service, resource or underwater exploration. In all these applications, robots should navigate autonomously in uncertain and dynamic environments in order to achieve their goals. So, the most current challenge in the development of autonomous robot control systems is making them respond intelligently to changing environments. Navigation in such environments involves many mechanisms such as: object detection, perception, internal building model, decision making, prediction of the future state of the environment and on-line navigation. To attend its goal safely, the robot should minimise interaction with other actors in order to avoid conflict situations. Generally, this problem comes up when many robots and/or actors would have access to the same space at the same time. In this case, the control of autonomous robotic navigation for conflict resolution has been widely studied. Some researchers have been focused on navigation in dynamic environments, where either reactive systems (producing real time behaviour), deliberative systems (introduce reasoning and need much more time to calculate a suitable decision) or hybrid systems (combine deliberative and reactive approaches) have been used in order to attend a known goal. Typically, reactive systems are used to deal with simple problems (detect an obstacle, go away from an obstacle, follow a wall, etc.). Nevertheless, reactive systems are typically less affected by errors and do not require an explicit model of the environment in order to navigate inside an unknown space. Furthermore, they usually deal only with local information that may be captured at real time. However, in reactive systems, the robot can be derived to a conflict situation with other actors because they ignore prediction and reasoning in the decision process. To face this problem, global planning approaches are used. They consist of elaborating a global plan from beginning state to goal state. These approaches need prior complete information about the state of the environment, so they do not take into account the environment uncertainty. So, in more complex situations, hybrid approaches are used. They combine reactive approaches according to a higher level in order to include anticipation of the state of the environment in the decision process. In these cases, low level control operates in a reactive way (local navigation) whereas high level systems tend to be deliberative. It provides, at each step, a partial moving plan to the robot. But these systems are complex because they need much more time to calculate or to update a suitable trajectory toward a predefined goal. In this situation, it is interesting to introduce prediction


FLEMER, WILLIAM III. 1989. Correcting pruning mistakes. Ground Maintenance 24(6): 10-1 2, 14, 16, 20-21. Too many grounds managers and landscape maintenance firms inherit trees and shrubs that have been improperly pruned by their predecessors. Ideally, plantings should be designed so that remedial pruning can be kept at a minimum. Some problems with ill-tended landscape planting can be solved by corrective pruning and some cannot. Whether better pruning will be effective depends upon the kind of plant that is in bad condition. Deciduous trees and shrubs regenerate much more quickly than broadleaf evergreens and, in most cases, they look quite presentable after the first season's growth following a severe pruning. There are borderline cases when it is hard to decide whether a big, old tree should be cut back and shaped, or felled and replaced with a younger tree. There are no hard-and-fast rules. It depends on the condition of the tree. One of the most common shrub pruning mistakes is cutting them into globe or umbrella shapes with hedging shears. If long-time poor pruning has created ornamental shapes that are expensive to maintain, the best solution is to cut deciduous shrubs to the ground, leaving 4-in. stubs from which new canes can regenerate.


Carbon nanotube (CNT) is a type of carbon allotrope with excellent physical and electrical properties, including high thermal conductivity, mechanical strength, and thermal stability. Therefore, applications of CNT have been considered for a variety of fields, including biosensors, molecular electronics, X-ray, and fuel cells. However, the application of CNT to biomedicine is limited because this material is cytotoxic and inhomogeneous. In particular, the irregularity in the structural properties of paste or bundle-type CNTs causes an uncontrolled modification in biomolecules. Therefore, using CNT as biosensors to obtain quantitative analyses is difficult. In this study, we developed a new method to perform end-selective functionalization of CNT in order to enable quantitative analysis for biomedical applications. The process was as follows: (1) etching the tip of vertically-aligned CNTs under optimum conditions, (2) oxidation of exposed CNTs, and (3) end-selective linkage of functionalized CNTs with biomolecules (dsDNA).


Expertise retrieval has been largely unexplored on data other than the W3C collection. At the same time, many intranets of universities and other knowledge-intensive organisations offer examples of relatively small but clean multilingual expertise data, covering broad ranges of expertise areas. We first present two main expertise retrieval tasks, along with a set of baseline approaches based on generative language modeling, aimed at finding expertise relations between topics and people. For our experimental evaluation, we introduce (and release) a new test set based on a crawl of a university site. Using this test set, we conduct two series of experiments. The first is aimed at determining the effectiveness of baseline expertise retrieval methods applied to the new test set. The second is aimed at assessing refined models that exploit characteristic features of the new test set, such as the organizational structure of the university, and the hierarchical structure of the topics in the test set. Expertise retrieval models are shown to be robust with respect to environments smaller than the W3C collection, and current techniques appear to be generalizable to other settings.


This paper presents results for DCU's second participation in the SMS-based FAQ Retrieval task at FIRE. For FIRE 2012, we submitted runs for the monolingual English and Hindi and the crosslingual English to Hindi subtasks. Compared to our experiments for FIRE 2011, our system was simplified by using a single retrieval engine (instead of three) and using a single approach for detection of out of domain queries (instead of three). In our approach, the SMS queries are transformed into a normalized, corrected form and submitted to a retrieval engine to obtain a ranked list of FAQ results. A classifier trained on features extracted from the training data then determines which queries are out of domain and which are not. For our crosslingual English to Hindi experiments, we trained a statistical machine translation system for Hindi to English translation to translate the full Hindi FAQ documents into English. The retrieval then operates on the corrected English input and retrieves results from the translated Hindi FAQ documents. Our best experiments achieved an MRR of 0.949 for the monolingual English subtask, 0.880 for the monolingual Hindi subtask, and 0.450 for the crosslingual subtask.


Recently program learning techniques have been proposed to process source code based on syntactical structures (e.g., abstract syntax trees) and/or semantic information (e.g., dependency graphs). While graphs may be better than trees at capturing code semantics, constructing the graphs from code inputs through the semantic analysis of multiple viewpoints can lead to inaccurate noises for a specific software engineering task. Compared to graphs, syntax trees are more precisely defined on the grammar and easier to parse; unfortunately, previous tree-based learning techniques have not been able to learn semantic information from trees to achieve better accuracy than graph-based techniques. We have proposed a new learning technique, named TreeCaps, by fusing together capsule networks with tree-based convolutional neural networks to achieve a learning accuracy higher than some existing graph-based techniques while it is based only on trees. TreeCaps introduces novel variable-to-static routing algorithms into the capsule networks to compensate for the loss of previous routing algorithms. Aside from accuracy, we also find that TreeCaps is the most robust to withstand those semantic-preserving program transformations that change code syntax without modifying the semantics. Evaluated on a large number of Java and C/C++ programs, TreeCaps models outperform prior deep learning models of program source code, in terms of both accuracy and robustness for program comprehension tasks such as code functionality classification and function name prediction. Our implementation is publicly available at: https://github.com/bdqnghi/treecaps.


Nowadays, huge volumes of data, including scientific data, are organized or exported in tree-structured form. Querying capabilities are provided through tree-pattern queries. The need for integrating multiple data sources with different tree structures has driven, recently, the suggestion of query languages that relax the complete specification of a tree pattern. In this paper we adopt a query language with partially specified tree-pattern queries. A central feature of this type of queries is that the structure can be specified fully, partially, or not at all in a query. Important issues in query optimization require solving the query containment problem. We study the containment problem for partially specified tree-pattern queries. To support the evaluation of such queries, we use semantically rich constructs, called dimension graphs, which abstract structural information of the tree-structured data. We address the problem of query containment in the absence (absolute query containment) and in the presence (relative query containment) of dimension graphs, and we provide necessary and sufficient conditions for each type of query containment. We suggest a technique for relative query containment checking based on structural information extracted in advance from the dimension graph. Our approach is implemented and validated, through extensive experimental evaluation


The number needed to treat is a meaningful way of expressing the benefit of an active treatment over a control. It can be used either for summarising the results of a therapeutic trial or for medical decision making about an individual patient, but its use at the bedside has been impeded by the need for time consuming calculations. A nomogram has therefore been devised that will greatly simplify the calculations. Since calculations are now easy, the number needed to treat can be used to access the value of several interventions, although it does have its limitations. In particular it should not be used when it is not known whether the relative risk reduction associated with an intervention is constant for all levels of risk, or for periods of time longer than that studied in the original trials.


With the objective to evaluate the seeds quality of soybean genotypes at different harvest times, it was conducted a field experiment at the experimental farm at Universidade Federal do Tocantins in Gurupi – TO, in the season 2010/2011. The experimental design was completely randomized blocks with fifty treatments and three repetitions. The treatments were arranged in a factorial design and they were represented by ten cultivars (BRS ValiosaRR, M8527RR, P98Y51, TMG103RR, P98Y70, M8867RR, M8925RR, TMG115RR, M9056RR and M9144RR) and five harvest times (R8, R8+7, R8+14, R8+21 and R8+28 days). They were realized the following tests: standard germination and germination in sand, with four repetitions of 50 seed for each treatment, that were obtained from the field experiment, and the experimental design was completely randomized. With the delay in the harvest was verified the progressive reduction of germination in all cultivars, from seven days after the R8 stage. The cultivar M9056RR has shown the higher quality seeds.


The authors examine the operation and a reconfiguration strategy for two-dimensional SIMD parallel architectures in the presence of manufacturing cluster defects and/or link defects when used for image processing. The proposed technique is based on a conceptual reconfiguration of processing elements by covering each large defect area with a set of fault-free elements, thus creating a loss of image resolution instead of a loss of image data. The proposed technique has been emulated on a 2048 PE MasPar architecture assuming both mesh connected elements (four-way connection) and eight-way connections.


The massive diffusion of social media fosters disintermediation and changes the way users are informed, the way they process reality, and the way they engage in public debate. The cognitive layer of users and the related social dynamics define the nature and the dimension of informational threats. Users show the tendency to interact with information adhering to their preferred narrative and to ignore dissenting information. Confirmation bias seems to account for users decisions about consuming and spreading content; and, at the same time, aggregation of favored information within those communities reinforces group polarization. In this work, the authors address the problem of (mis)information operations with a holistic and integrated approach. Cognitive weakness induced by this new information environment are considered. Moreover, (mis)information operations, with particular reference to the Italian context, are considered; and the fact that the phenomenon is more complex than expected is highlighted. The paper concludes by providing an integrated research roadmap accounting for the possible future technological developments.


The article examines stone and petrified structures of different forms and sizes, ranging from a grain of sand to large rocky formations, which have mythological, religious, healing, fertility, prophetic, protective as well as memorial, glorifying, and symbolic meanings and functions; these make them different from other, "ordinary" stones. Since the mythological core of traditional lore about stones is closely intertwined with some other areas of traditional culture such as religion, rituals, and folk medicine, for instance, they cannot be excluded from this study.


The impressive homologies between mitochondria and plastids, on the one hand, and procaryotic organisms, on the other, make it almost certain that these important cellular organelles had their origin as independent organisms. The vast number of symbiotic relationships of all degrees of evolutionary antiquity which have been found in contemporary organisms point to the ease with which such relationships can be established. The presence of drainage agriculture probably indicates that populations exceeded the carrying capacity of the more easily cultivated land. When populations declined, following the conquest by Europeans, the drained fields were probably given up because of the large amount of labor required to cultivate them. Most of these lands are now used only for cattle, but could undoubtedly be reclaimed again for agriculture (46). However, the cost of such reclamation might be prohibitive where populations are sparse, transportation is poor, and distances to markets are long. The chinampas of Mexico are an exception, since there is a major urban market close at hand. The aboriginal cultures responsible for drainage ranged from the seminomadic Guato, to farm village and chiefdoms, to the high civilizations. The ridged-field farmers of the savannas were capable people but certainly not comparable to the farmers of the efficient and sophisticated states of the Andes and Mexico. Most of the drained-field systems could have been construted and managed through small-scale family and community co-operation, as in New Guinea, rather than through central political control. On the other hand, there does seem to be a frequent relationship between degree of agricultural intensification, population size, and complexity of social organization (47). Unfortunately, not much is known yet about the intensification process for drained-field cultivation or for other reclamation systems.


A new type of quasi-continuous spectra of femtosecond laser plasma in the vicinity of multicharged H-like and He-like ion resonance lines were observed and interpreted for the first time. It is shown that such spectra were generated by multicharged hollow ions and are caused by super high density conditions provided by a high contrast laser pulse.


The cloud computing model continues to gain much attention from software industry practitioners. As such, leading companies are investing in the development, packaging and delivery of cloud services over the Internet. However, although much work is being done to model and build cloud applications and services, there is significantly less research devoted to testing them. In this paper, we describe our research-in-progress towards migrating autonomic self-testing (AST) to the cloud. Our approach combines the development of an automated test harness for a cloud service, with the delivery of test support as-a-service (TSaaS). Both AST and TSaaS are supported by a virtual test environment, which utilizes the power of the cloud to enhance the self-testing process.


EXPERIENCE with a special design gas discharge tube, which has a kovar tubulation, indicated that a contaminant was appearing in trace amounts inside the tube during shelf life. Data are presented to support the proposal that the contaminant is hydrogen. A proposed mechanism of contamination follows. Water vapor in the air reacts with the kovar to produce hydrogen which then penetrates through the kovar into the tube interior. The surface of the kovar can be protected by a nickel chemi-plating process so that the device contamination is reduced to a negligible level even under accelerated conditions.


Precise microwave measurements of sample conductivity, dielectric, and magnetic properties are routinely performed with cavity perturbation measurements. These methods require the accurate determination of quality factor and resonant frequency of microwave resonators. Seven different methods to determine the resonant frequency and quality factor from complex transmission coefficient data are discussed and compared to find which is most accurate and precise when tested using identical data. We find that the nonlinear least-squares fit to the phase versus frequency is the most accurate and precise when the signal-to-noise ratio is greater than 65. For noisier data, the nonlinear least-squares fit to a Lorentzian curve is more accurate and precise. The results are general and can be applied to the analysis of many kinds of resonant phenomena.


We have experimentally studied the impact of an initially planar axisymmetric vortex ring, incident at an oblique angle, upon a gravity-induced interface separating two fluids of differing densities. After impact, the vortex ring was found to exhibit a variety of subsequent trajectories, which we organize according to both the incidence angle, θ(i), and the interface strength, defined as the ratio of the Atwood and Froude numbers, A/F. For grazing incidence angles (θ(i)≳70°) vortices either penetrate or reflect from the interface, depending on whether the interface is weak or strong. In some cases, reflected vortices execute damped oscillations before finally disintegrating. For smaller incidence angles (θ(i)≲70°) vortices penetrate the interface. When there is a strong interface, these vortices are observed to curve back up toward the interface. When there is a weak interface, these vortices are observed to refract downward, away from the interface. The critical interface strength below which vortex ring refraction is observed is given by log(10)(A/F)=-2.38±0.05.


Recently, many algorithms have been introduced to provide solutions for Virtual Machine Consolidation in Cloud Data Center. Such Algorithms are usually implemented using many Cloud Simulators, which may have different representation and behavior of cloud infrastructure entities like Data Centers, Physical Machines(PMs), and Virtual Machines(VMs). In this paper, we investigated the impact of using a simulator on the implementation of Cloud infrastructure that is necessary for the Consolidation process, we chose Cloudsim and DISSECTCF simulators in particular since they both support Cloud infrastructure entities. Our aim is to find common entities for cloud simulators that are necessary to build the same infrastructure with particular interest on monitoring the CPU utilization and energy consumption. We report our experience with the implementation on the two Simulators, in addition to the limitation and differences we found during the reproducing process.


In his De nominum analogia , Cajetan introduced a spurious distinction between analogy of attribution and analogy of proportionality that is not found in Aquinas's writings or anywhere else. Cajetan's mistake became a commonplace and it is still uncritically accepted today. In Aquinas and Analogy,/em>, Ralph McInerny carefully traces the source of the confusion to Cajetan's misunderstanding of a text from Aquinas's commentary on the Sentences and shows how unwarranted and how misleading that distinction is. Another source of confusion has been the attempt to equate the Greek word analogia and its Latin equivalent to try to find word for word correspondences between Aristotle and Aquinas. For instance, what Thomas calls analogy of names is consonant rather with what Aristotle describes as legetai pollachos, what ""is said in many ways."" McInerny brings in all relevant texts and analyzes the points they make, and he makes comparisons with the famous notion of focal meaning used by the Oxford philosopher G.E.L. Owen. McInerny shows how the word 'analogy' is itself analogous and gives an enlightening expose of the analogy of names. He criticizes Enrico Berti's and Ramirez's influential treatments of analogy, as well as those of a few others for unaccountably falling under the spell of Cajetan's errors. He takes the reader further still into the question of the 'analogy of being' and also of the 'argument by analogy.' But his conclusions steer the reader back to the momentous issues now made accessible by a clear understanding of analogy. The basic distinctions McInerny introduces, his criticism of the central piece in the literature, Cajetan's De nominum analogia , the applications he makes to problems such as that of the nature of metaphysics or of logic, his knowledge of contemporary debates on related topics, combine to make his contribution unique. Basic philosophical issues are renewed by this book and so is one's reading of Aquinas, Aristotle, and their many interpreters past and present.


OBJECTIVE
Cryoablation can directly kill tumor cells through sudden changes in temperature. It can also enhance lymphocyte function and cause distant tumor regression far from the ablation treatment area. In order to further explore the changes of immune function after cryoablation, the changes of Kupffer cells (KCs), the main immune cells in the liver, and their effects on untreated tumors in vivo were studied.

METHODS
Rabbit VX2 liver cancer models were constructed. The growth of liver tumors was confirmed by ultrasound after transplantation for 3 weeks. Fifteen Japanese white rabbits were divided into a tumor control group and cryoablation group. Cryoablation group was treated with cryoablation of a single or partial tumor. Histologic and immunohistochemical changes of the treatment area and untreated tumor area before and after cryoablation were observed, and the phagocytic function changes of KCs around the untreated area and treatment area were observed by electron microscopy.

RESULTS
Cryoablation areas showed necrosis, infiltration of inflammatory cells (including KCs), and fibrosis of tissue. The number of inflammatory cells in the unfrozen tumor area was increased in the same treated rabbit. There was a significant difference in the maximum diameter of unfrozen tumors between the frozen group and control group at 15th days after cryoablation (P<0.05), while the difference was not obvious at the 3rd and 7th day (P>0.05). Electron microscopy showed that the number of debris fragments engulfed by KCs around the tumor after cryoablation was significantly higher than that of the control group. In the same rabbit, we compared the amount of debris between tissue surrounding the unfrozen area and around the cryoablation area. There was a significant difference on the 3rd day after cryoablation, P=0.043, while there was no significant difference on the 7th day, P=0.348.

CONCLUSION
After cryoablation, inflammatory cells aggregated around the cryoablated area. The activity of KCs had been increased and the function of phagocytosis enhanced. KCs had a certain inhibitory effect on the untreated tumor in the same animal at the early stage (within 15 days), but it was not enough to restrain the growth of the untreated tumors.


Nanocomposites based on blends of poly(butylene succinate) (PBS) and thermoplastic cassava starch (TPS) were prepared using a two-roll mill and compression molding, respectively. Two different types of clay, namely sodium montmorillonite (CloisiteNa) and the organo-modified MMT (Cloisite30B) were used. The morphological and mechanical properties of the nanocomposite materials were determined by using XRD technique and a tensile test, respectively. Thermal properties of the composite were also examined by dynamic mechanical thermal analysis and thermal gravimetric techniques. Barrier properties of the nanocomposites were determined using oxygen transmission rate (OTR) and water vapor transmission rate (WVTR) tests. From the results, it was found that by adding 5 pph of the clay, the tensile modulus and the thermal properties of the blend containing high TPS (75 wt %) changed significantly. The effects were also dependent on the type of clay used. The use of Cloisite30B led to a nanocomposite with a higher tensile modulus value, whereas the use of CloisiteNa slightly enhanced the thermal stability of the material. OTR and WVTR values of the blend composites containing high PBS ratio (75 wt %) also decreased when compared to those of the neat PBS/TPS blend. XRD patterns of the nanocomposites suggested some intercalation and exfoliation of the clays in the polymer matrix. The above effects are discussed in the light of different interaction between clays and the polymers. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 130: 1114-1123, 2013


Adam has been widely adopted for training deep neural networks due to less hyperparameter tuning and remarkable performance. To improve generalization, Adam is typically used in tandem with a squared $\ell_2$ regularizer (referred to as Adam-$\ell_2$). However, even better performance can be obtained with AdamW, which decouples the gradient of the regularizer from the update rule of Adam-$\ell_2$. Yet, we are still lacking a complete explanation of the advantages of AdamW. In this paper, we tackle this question from both an optimization and an empirical point of view. First, we show how to re-interpret AdamW as an approximation of a proximal gradient method, which takes advantage of the closed-form proximal mapping of the regularizer instead of only utilizing its gradient information as in Adam-$\ell_2$. Next, we consider the property of"scale-freeness"enjoyed by AdamW and by its proximal counterpart: their updates are invariant to component-wise rescaling of the gradients. We provide empirical evidence across a wide range of deep learning experiments showing a correlation between the problems in which AdamW exhibits an advantage over Adam-$\ell_2$ and the degree to which we expect the gradients of the network to exhibit multiple scales, thus motivating the hypothesis that the advantage of AdamW could be due to the scale-free updates.


The paper presents the study of momentum and heat transfer characteristics in a visco-elastic boundary layer fluid flow over
an exponentially stretching continuous sheet with non-uniform heat source. The flow is generated solely by the application of
two equal and opposite forces along the x-axis such that stretching of the boundary surface is of exponential order in x and
influenced by uniform magnetic field applied vertically. The non-linear boundary layer equation for momentum is converted
into ordinary differential equation by means of similarity transformation. Approximate analytical similarity solutions is
obtained for the dimensionless stream function and velocity distribution function after transforming the boundary layer
equation into Riccati type and solving it sequentially. Heat transfer equation is then solved using Runge-Kutta fourth order
method. The accuracy of the analytical solutions is also verified by comparing the solutions obtained to those in literature
when Hartmann number is zero. The effects of various physical parameters on velocity, skin friction, temperature and
Nusselt number profiles are presented graphically.


Graphical user interfaces (GUIs) are becoming increasingly common for application software in process control. By necessity, process control applications manage numerous complex constraints. Conventional interfaces display the states of a system without conveying the constraints which drastically reduce the evolutions which must be considered. The authors' model resolves this difficulty by presenting system parameters in the context of ecological constraints mirroring those of the underlying process. A simulation of a simple steam plant with five different GUIs was used in this experiment. The displays were a conventional dials display, a mimic display, an object display, a seesaw analogue and a fluid-tank analogue. Poor over-all performance in maintaining specified values was found for the seesaw and the object displays. The dials and the mimic displays performed similarly with greater accuracy. The best control was observed in the experimental fluid-tanks display. These findings are consistent with the authors' hypotheses. For over-all failure detection there were few differences between the dials, object and fluid-tank. The seesaw display led the way with false alarms and latency of detection. The mimic display produced average latencies but with poorer accuracy.<<ETX>>


This paper investigates the influence of control packet (setup message) processing time and optical cross-connect (OXC) configuration time on the performance of optical burst switched (OBS) mesh networks with degree-four topologies. The performance analysis considers five resource reservation protocols, just-in-time (JIT), JumpStart, JIT+ , just-enough-time (JET) and Horizon, and focuses on the following topologies: degree-four chordal rings, mesh-torus, and the European optical network (EON). Among those topologies, D4T(1,19,3,9) leads to the best performance, while the worst performance is observed for EON. It is shown that the burst loss probability increases with the increase of the control packet processing time. It is also shown that values of OXC configuration time smaller than 1 ms does not have impact on the network performance, independently of the network topology or the resource reservation protocol. Moreover, the performance of the five protocols is very similar for the topologies under study


A single set of 5 bird tracks was discovered in the Tianjialou Formation (Barremian-Albian) of Junan County, Shandong Province, China. After careful study we infer that it is a new type of bird tracks, and a new ichnogenus was erected and the name Shandongornipes was given. The characteristics of the new bird track are as follows: Moderately large tetradactyl footprints with well-developed hallux impression. Track width (about 5.8 cm) almost equal to track length (excluding hallux); total length of track (including hallux) 8.7 cm. The digit impressions are slender, with distal ends showing long sharp claw marks. Hallux posteriorly-directed, and hallux impressions well-developed. Digits II, III and IV point anteriorly, exhibiting mesaxonic asymmetry: divarication angle between II and III much larger than that of III and IV, the former ranging from 91° to 118°, and the latter less than 30°. Divarication between digits II and IV ranging from 128° to 142°. Without web structures. Digital pads recognizable, usually at least three in digits III and IV, but sometimes only two due to preservation. The trackway shows slight positive (inward) rotation of feet. The bird tracks occur in association with abundant dinosaur tracks, and are believed to have formed in flood plain environments.


Objectives: To determine the association between clinico- pharmacologic score (CPS) and clinical outcomes in patients admitted in critical care (≥45 y), focusing on outcome prognostication. Methods: A retrospective study of patient's of ages ≥ 45 years was performed using a Hospital database. The study period was from 1st August 2017 to 31st August 2018. Data gathered included patient demographics, injury severity score (ISS), Glasgow coma scale (GCS), hospital and intensive care unit lengths of stay (HLOS and ILOS, respectively), home preinjury medications (prescription and over the counter), morbidity, comorbid conditions and in-hospital mortality. Then according to CPS ranges, patients were divided into four groups and then to two groups (for statistical purposes). Results: The variables for the 205 patients included in the study, were analyzed. The mean patient age was 72.4 ± 13.1 years. Males represented 52 % of the study sample. Mean GCS was 13.2 ± 1.8, mean ISS was 9.4 ± 6.9 and mean number of medications per patient was 3.6±1.5 (range 0-16). The independent predictors of mortality included age (AOR 1.21, 95 % CI 0.98-1.038, p<0.01), CPS (per-unit increase AOR 1.12, 95 % CI 1.01-1.24, p<0.02), GCS (per-unit decrease AOR 1.47, 95 % CI 1.13-1.69, p<0.01), and ISS (per-unit increase AOR 1.07, 95 % CI 1.03-1.13, p<0.01). Independent predictors of all-cause morbidity included age (AOR 1.02, 95 % CI 1.01-1.03, p<0.01), CPS (per-unit AOR 1.04, 95 % CI 1.02-1.07, p<0.02), GCS (AOR 1.08 per-unit decrease, 95 % CI 1.03-1.11, p<0.01), and ISS (per-unit AOR 1.09, 95 % CI 1.08-1.11, p<0.01). Independent predictors of discharge to a facility included age (AOR 1.02, 95 % CI 1.01-1.03, p<0.01), female gender (AOR 1.25, 95 % CI 1.10-1.43, p<0.01), ISS (AOR 1.09, 95 % CI 1.07-1.10, p<0.01), and GCS (AOR per-unit decline 1.18, 95 % CI 1.12-1.21, p\0.01). Conclusion: CPS can be readily determined in the era of medication reconciliation. This study confirms that CPS is an independent predictor of all-cause morbidity and mortality in older patients. Patients with CPS of 15 or greater are at greater risk of poor clinical outcomes. Prospective multicenter studies are needed to evaluate the use of CPS as a predictive and interventional tool, with special focus on correlations between specific pre-existing conditions, pharmacologic interactions, and morbidity/mortality patterns


For the first time, we investigated the impact of varying doping concentration and gate oxide thickness on the performance of band-to-band tunneling transistors. The output saturation current revealed a strong dependence on both parameters. Consequently, we were able to improve the saturation current by nearly a factor of 50.


It is worthwhile to point out the fact that nature of given data plays considerable role in classifying the data accurately. To select an appropriate classifier for certain type of data, we are required to understand the behavior of classifiers on different data characteristics. The varying dimensions, number of instances, class labels, data correlation, and data distribution on different data classes, might characterize the data. In this study, the performance and behavior of five different supervised machine learning classification techniques have been investigated using six real life datasets that are taken form UCI Machine Learning repository along with artificially generated data. In the end, we have come up with some conclusions and findings which will be very supportive for upcoming researchers to develop a better understanding about data characteristics in combination with classifier's performance.


Objectives The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of acute peritonitis on lymphatic drainage of the peritoneal cavity in conscious sheep Design Peritonitis was induced with the addition of 1% casein or 1% albumin to the dialysis solution. Thirty sheep (5 groups of 6) were used in this study. One group received 50 mL/kg intraperitoneal infusions of Dianeal 4.25% (486 mOsm/L); a second group received 1% casein-DianeaI4.25% (493 mOsm/L); a third group received 1% albumin-Dianeal 4.25% (487 mOsm/L). In the fourth and fifth groups (controls and casein-injected) lymph was collected from the caudal mediastinal lymph node and the thoracic duct, both of which are involved in the lymphatic drainage of the peritoneal cavity (peritonitis induced with casein). 1251-human serum albumin (25 μCi) was added to the dialysate as the lymph flow marker. Lymph drainage was estimated from (1) the appearance of the intraperitoneally administered tracer in the blood; (2) the disappearance of the tracer from the peritoneal cavity; and (3) the recovery of tracer in lymph. Results In noncannulated animals the cumulative volume removed by lymphatics over 6 hours (based on tracer recovery in blood) was 10.5 ±1.0 mL/kg in control animals versus 5.0 ± 0.6 mL/kg and 8.6 ± 1.2 mL/kg in casein and albumin-infused sheep, respectively. The suggestion of decreased lymph drainage in peritonitis was supported by the cannulation experiments. While the cumulative fluid removed from the peritoneal cavity over 6 hours in caudal lymph was unaffected by peritonitis (3.8 ± 0.4 mL/kg in controls vs 3.6 ± 0.5 mL/kg in casein injected animals), peritonitis reduced flow into the thoracic duct from 3.0 ± 0.3 to 1.1 ± 0.3 mL/kg. The sum of the volume removed in lymph in the cannulated preparations was 6.8 ± 0.4 mL/kg in controls versus 4.7 ± 0.5 mL/kg in the peritonitis group. The total volume removed from the cavity (including an estimate of flow based on the residual recovery of tracer in blood) was reduced from 12.6 ±1.4 in controls to 7.8 ± 0.6 mL/kg in the peritonitis sheep. In contrast, estimates of lymph drainage based on the disappearance of tracer from the peritoneal cavity suggested that lymph drainage increased (from 16.6 ±1.6 mL/kg in controls to 17.8 ±1.5 mL/kg and 25.5 ±1.7 mL/kg in the casein and albumin groups, respectively, in noncannulated animals and from 15.3 ± 1.4 mL/kg in controls to 25.0 ± 1.7 mL/kg in the cannulated group). In both noncannulated and cannulated sheep the total recovery of tracer was less in the peritonitis groups. Conclusions These studies demonstrated that lymph drainage of the peritoneal space was decreased in a casein peritonitis model. The decrease in lymph drainage is most obvious in the visceral pathway leading to the thoracic duct; however, diaphragmatic drainage into the right lymph duct may also be inhibited. The disappearance of tracer from the peritoneal cavity was elevated during peritonitis. Tracer disappearance has been used to estimate lymph drainage, but this approach suggested, incorrectly, that lymph flow had increased.


The increasing development of urban infrastructure has led to the significant loss of natural wetlands and their ecosystem services. Many novel urban development projects currently attempt to incorporate environmental sustainability, cross-disciplinary collaboration, and community engagement into the intricate challenges we all face in an era of climate change. This paper aims to communicate several key findings on design elements that can be adopted or incorporated in the design of created wetlands as infrastructural elements. Three major design elements—microtopography, hydrologic connectivity, and planting diversity—are presented, and their relations to restoring ecosystem services of urban wetlands, in particular water and habitat quality, are discussed. These design elements can be easily adopted or incorporated in the planning, designing, and construction stages of urban development. The success of urban infrastructure projects may require both better communication among stakeholders and a great deal of community engagement. The Rain Project, a floating wetland project on an urban college campus, demonstrates the role of interdisciplinary collaboration and community engagement as a model for sustainable stormwater management, a critical part of today's urban development. Further efforts should be made to advance the science of designing urban wetlands and its communication to transform cultural attitudes toward sustainable urban development.


This paper presents a microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) capacitive position sensor for nanopositioning applications in Probe storage systems. The objective of the sensor system design is to develop a high-precision X-Y linear and rotational position sensor with a minimum sensor area and a large range of movements at high speed. To achieve this, first, a simple sensor noise model scalable with a sensor area was developed, in which all the parasitic capacitances are taken into account. Furthermore, a signal-processing solution was developed to compensate for the nonlinearities caused by rotational disturbances and, at the same time, to generate a rotational position signal for active rotation-control purposes. A MEMS capacitive sensor prototype was constructed with the design of a 13-mum pitch, a 300-mum peak-to-peak linear stroke, and a 3.46-mm2 sensor area at a 3-mum gap. The measured sensor noise was 0.2 nm 1sigma, which corresponds to 12 mudeg 1sigma for the fabricated prototype sensor, at 25-kHz bandwidth. Furthermore, the signal linearity was significantly enhanced by the proposed sensor signal processing, with a measured sensor signal nonlinearity of 0.78% for an 80-mum peak-to-peak stroke at 200 Hz. Finally, the capacitive sensor-based dynamic closed-loop X -Y linear and rotational position control of an electromagnetic scanner was successfully demonstrated.


Social learning of optimal responding and producer-scrounger strategies in flocks of pigeons. This experiment evaluated the effect of varying the effort required in order to access food upon the acquisition of a novel response, and upon utilizing producer-scrounger strategies, in flocks of pigeons exposed to an expert conspecific. Flocks of naïve observers were exposed to a pigeon trained to open the seals on food deposits. The colors of the seals were correlated with differing required efforts. Later, the trained pigeon was removed while the color-effort correlation was maintained. The results showed that the observers acquired the response of opening the seals and that they executed it discriminatingly, responding in a greater proportion to the color that signaled the least required effort. They also assumed the roles of both producers and scroungers, which varied as a function of the composition of the group. The data obtained are congruent with prior findings regarding social learning, and also with the concepts proposed by the optimal foraging theory.


In practical applications of three-dimensional (3D) tomographic techniques, such as digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT), computed tomography (CT), etc., there are often challenges for accurate image reconstruction from incomplete data. In DBT, in particular, the limited-angle and few-view projection data are theoretically insufficient for exact reconstruction; thus, the use of common filtered-backprojection (FBP) algorithms leads to severe image artifacts, such as the loss of the average image value and edge sharpening. One possible approach to alleviate these artifacts may employ iterative statistical methods because they potentially yield reconstructed images that are in better accordance with the measured projection data. In this work, as another promising approach, we investigated potential applications to low-dose, accurate DBT imaging with a state-of-the-art reconstruction scheme based on compressed-sensing (CS) theory. We implemented an efficient CS-based DBT algorithm and performed systematic simulation works to investigate the imaging characteristics. We successfully obtained DBT images of substantially very high accuracy by using the algorithm and expect it to be applicable to developing the next-generation 3D breast X-ray imaging system.


The current availability of cheap computer power enables the construction of QSARs from modern ab initio quantum chemical data. Multivariate models for three classes of compounds are developed by means of the quantum topological molecular similarity (QTMS) tool, which incorporates descriptors originating from the "Atoms in Molecules" (AIM) theory. Correlations obtained outperform the Hammett and other traditional parameters. The advantage of QTMS over semiempirical and empirical descriptors is demonstrated by the following r(2)/q(2) values: 0.920/0.891 (acids), 0.974/0.953 (anilines), and 0.952/0.884 (phenols).


The emerging interest in low-latency high-reliability applications, such as connected vehicles, necessitates a new abstraction between communication and control. Thanks to advances in cyber-physical systems over the past decades, we understand this interface for classical bit-rate models of channels as well as packet-loss-type channels. This article proposes a new abstraction characterized as a tradeoff curve between latency, reliability, and rate. Our aim is to understand—do we (control engineers) prefer faster but less reliable communications (with shorter codes), or slower but more reliable communications (with longer codes)? In this article, we examine the tradeoffs between latency and reliability for the problem of estimating dynamical systems over communication channels. Employing different latency-reliability curves derived from practical coding schemes, we develop a cross-layer design methodology, i.e., select the code length depending on the system dynamics to optimize system performance.


IN A RECENT PAPER1 the author presented a method of analyzing time-varying sampled-data systems. The essential features of this method are the characterization of components by triangular transmission matrices, and the use of ordinary matrix algebra to evaluate system performance. The purpose of the present paper is to illustrate by a typical problem how this method can be used in practical situations. The problem selected is that of steering a missile toward a target (both of which travel in a common plane) by means of a closed-loop control system. In addition to the intrinsic importance of this problem, the procedure one uses in the matrix analysis of the system is characteristic of a variety of problems. Since the objective here is illustration of a general method rather than detailed investigation of an actual system, simplifying assumptions will be used where convenient. In practice, these assumptions may have to be modified to obtain more precise results.


The application of Operational Modal Analysis (OMA) in the railway sector opens a broad field of opportunities. The validation of the numerical model employed in the design phase is usually performed employing data obtained in static tests. The drawback is that some suspension parameters, such as dampers, only have an influence in the dynamic behavior and not in the static behavior. Because of that, the use of the mode shapes identified from track measurements in combination with the static tests leads to a more accurate validation of the numerical model. Apart from that, most passenger comfort and dynamic problems are associated to slightly damped modes. A correct identification of the modal parameters can be used as a continuous design improvement tool to improve the comfort and dynamic characteristics of future designs.Another valuable application of OMA techniques is the identification of the mode shapes corresponding to instabilities, due to the safety impact that they have. In railway vehicles, instabilities are associated to mode shapes that present a damping rate which decreases with the increase of the running speed. Above a certain speed value, the excitation coming from track cannot be damped by the vehicle and it reaches an unstable condition. This unstable condition leads to high acceleration levels experienced by the passengers and high interaction forces between the wheel and the rail that may lead to safety hazards. The speed above which the vehicle is unstable is known as critical speed, and has to be greater than the maximum speed of the vehicle with a reasonable safety margin.The use of OMA techniques allows identifying the mode shape that causes the instability. This paper presents the application of OMA techniques to measurements performed on a passenger vehicle, in which the speed was increased until the vehicle was unstable. The mode shape that caused the instability was identified as well as its corresponding natural frequency and damping rate.Copyright © 2015 by ASME


Earthquakes have been clearly linked to subsurface fluid injection in two places—near Denver at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal's waste-disposal well, and at the Rangely oil field in northwestern Colorado. The theory linking fluid pressure to earthquakes is based on the effective stress concept, i.e., that increases of pore pressure reduce the effective normal stress across existing or potential fracture surfaces. In both cases, evidence exists for substantial tectonic shearing stressses in the reservoir rock prior to injection. Although the initial shear stress was below the critical value necessary to cause failure, fluid injection relieved a fraction of the frictional resistance to shear fracture, and earthquakes resulted. There is presently no way to determine before drilling whether injection at a given site will produce earthquakes. At Denver and Rangely the earthquakes appear to be located entirely along pre-existing faults. At Rangely, the earthquakes have been drastically reduced in frequency by reducing pore pressures in the hypocentral region. In placing injection wells, existing faults should be avoided. Seismic surveiUance during injection can provide early warning of inadvertently triggered earthquakes and palliative measures can be taken. The Rangely experience suggests that seismic activity due to waterflooding in oil fields may be controlled without seriously disrupting production of oil.


Subsoiler is the main machine type to achieve conservation tillage, it requires larger power consumption, so the power been accurately tested can effectively guide the design and optimization of products, and achieve energy conservation. But now, this kind of equipment's power test is basically wired transmission method, due to bad field environment conditions, parameters changed greatly and other reasons, the testing process is difficult, and the test data is not accurate. This paper adopt advanced mathematical coupling sensors, researched and developed a signal modulation transmitter and receiver system and data acquisition & analysis software, formed a 500m distance wireless data transmission real-time telemetry equipment to test the power of operating in the deep pine.


A commonly used heuristic in non-convex optimization is Normalized Gradient Descent (NGD) - a variant of gradient descent in which only the direction of the gradient is taken into account and its magnitude ignored. We analyze this heuristic and show that with carefully chosen parameters and noise injection, this method can provably evade saddle points. We establish the convergence of NGD to a local minimum, and demonstrate rates which improve upon the fastest known first order algorithm due to Ge e al. (2015).
The effectiveness of our method is demonstrated via an application to the problem of online tensor decomposition; a task for which saddle point evasion is known to result in convergence to global minima.


Websites become essential means for most universities to communicate, exchange of relevant information and enable transactions among their stakeholders. Therefore, website accessibility accessible website is crucial to students to ensure equal access to of the university's information regardless of their physical disabilities and other possible limitations. This study reports the web accessibility of 20 Malaysian public universities based on AChecker and WAVE. The results suggest a relatively low level of compliance to the guidelines as specified in WCAG 2.0 and Section 508. Among the aspects that deserve immediate attention are the provision of text alternatives for any non-text contents, keyboard accessibility and colour contrast. Other concerns such as navigation, adaptability, input assistance, compatibility, empty link and empty heading can be further improved. Regardless of low conformance, most websites extensively integrated some of the accessibility features as set out by Section 508. Overall, this study offers meaningful insights, particularly to web developers for better compliance with the standards while designing their websites.


For research methodology scholars, rigor issues related to the quality of the research is a core issue. The objective of this article is to show the status of rigor in qualitative research, its main criteria, the differences in its interpretation and application, ethics and the researchers' social commitment. For such purpose, issues related to the instrument, field work, analysis and theoretical sampling, theoretical saturation and researcher's integrity, are analyzed. Validity, reliability, objectivity versus subjectibity, credibility, confirmability and transferability concepts, as well as evaluation guidelines, are reviewed. Those are necessary elements to all the ones who are involved in research from different perspectives and interests.


This book deserves praise as a fascinating, well-written, historical study of a little-known great "young Turk" of American medicine: Theodore B. Hayne. Here is a man of average high school and college achievements but with a burning curiosity that ranged from entomology, epidemiology, and clinical infectious disease to automobile mechanics. Would such a young man even make it into a respected medical college or postgraduate science faculty today? Indeed, Hayne could serve as an example that motivation, a wide range of interests, perseverance, and the ability to improvise and think creatively combined with good intellect can be predictors for achievement in science. What held my attention most, however, as an infectious disease physician in a tropical environment, was the discussion of the direct, technology-poor approaches to problem solving—now almost unknown—in field research some six decades ago. This was the age when enzyme-linked immunosrobent assays, radioisotope studies, and most other sophisticated


One of the most critical challenges in deep reinforcement learning is to maintain the long-term exploration capability of the agent. To tackle this problem, it has been recently proposed to provide intrinsic rewards for the agent to encourage exploration. However, most existing intrinsic reward-based methods proposed in the literature fail to provide sustainable exploration incentives, a problem known as vanishing rewards. In addition, these conventional methods incur complex models and additional memory in their learning procedures, resulting in high computational complexity and low robustness. In this work, a novel intrinsic reward module based on the Rényi entropy is proposed to provide high-quality intrinsic rewards. It is shown that the proposed method actually generalizes the existing state entropy maximization methods. In particular, a <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$k$</tex-math></inline-formula>-nearest neighbor estimator is introduced for entropy estimation while a <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$k$</tex-math></inline-formula>-value search method is designed to guarantee the estimation accuracy. Extensive simulation results demonstrate that the proposed Rényi entropy-based method can achieve higher performance as compared to existing schemes.