In this paper, we present a novel methodology for predicting job resources (memory and time) for submitted jobs on HPC systems. Our methodology based on historical jobs data (saccount data) provided from the Slurm workload manager using supervised machine learning. This Machine Learning (ML) prediction model is effective and useful for both HPC administrators and HPC users. Moreover, our ML model increases the efficiency and utilization for HPC systems, thus reduce power consumption as well. Our model involves using Several supervised machine learning discriminative models from the scikit-learn machine learning library and LightGBM applied on historical data from Slurm. Our model helps HPC users to determine the required amount of resources for their submitted jobs and make it easier for them to use HPC resources efficiently. This work provides the second step towards implementing our general open source tool towards HPC service providers. For this work, our Machine learning model has been implemented and tested using two HPC providers, an XSEDE service provider (University of Colorado-Boulder (RMACC Summit) and Kansas State University (Beocat)). We used more than two hundred thousand jobs: one-hundred thousand jobs from SUMMIT and one-hundred thousand jobs from Beocat, to model and assess our ML model performance. In particular we measured the improvement of running time, turnaround time, average waiting time for the submitted jobs; and measured utilization of the HPC clusters. Our model achieved up to 86% accuracy in predicting the amount of time and the amount of memory for both SUMMIT and Beocat HPC resources. Our results show that our model helps dramatically reduce computational average waiting time (from 380 to 4 hours in RMACC Summit and from 662 hours to 28 hours in Beocat); reduced turnaround time (from 403 to 6 hours in RMACC Summit and from 673 hours to 35 hours in Beocat); and acheived up to 100% utilization for both HPC resources.


Background Drug-eluting stents (DES) have proven superior to bare-metal stents (BMS) in terms of safety and efficacy. However, inference to the female subgroup has been limited by low enrolment rates of women in clinical trials. The objective of this study was to investigate the safety and efficacy of DES versus BMS in women and men. Methods In a pooled analysis of two all-comers randomised trials (Basel Stent Kosten-Effektivitäts Trial–Prospective Validation Examination (BASKET-PROVE) and BASKET-PROVE II) (n=4605), we examined safety and efficacy of DES versus BMS according to sex. Patients were followed 2 years for a composite endpoint of cardiac death, non-fatal myocardial infarction (MI) and clinically driven target-vessel revascularisation not related to MI. Results Among the 1076 women and 3529 men included in the analysis, 65.6% of the women and 67.2% of the men were randomised to receive DES. At baseline, men had more complex coronary artery disease than women. After 2 years, DES reduced rates of major adverse cardiac events (MACE) compared with BMS in both women (cumulative incidence, 6.1% vs 14.7%; adjusted HR 0.36 (95% CI 0.24 to 0.54)) and men (7.7 vs 12.1%, HR 0.62 (0.50 to 0.77)), although the reduction in MACE rates was more pronounced in women (adjusted p=0.02 for sex-stent interaction). Event rates were lower in DES for both safety and efficacy outcomes, with the largest effect seen for non-MI TVR, in both women (2.3 vs 9.2%, adjusted HR 0.24 (0.13 to 0.44)) and men (4.0 vs 7.8%, adjusted HR 0.48 (0.36 to 0.64)) (adjusted p=0.049 for sex-stent interaction). Conclusions In patients requiring stenting of large coronary arteries, DES were associated with improved safety in women and superior efficacy in both sexes as compared with BMS.


The isolated kidney has not been reported to acidify urine maximally. To study this defect, kidneys from dogs fed NH4Cl were perfused with autologous blood. Perfusate pH was 7.20 +/- 0.03 [HCO3] was 14 +/- 1 mEq/L, and urine pH was abnormally high, 6.60 +/- 0.08. When corrected for difference in GFR, UNH4+V was similar to that seen in vivo, but UTAV and UNet H+V were low. FEHCO3- was 2.3% +/- 0.8% and HCO3- excretion persisted to a small degree at perfusate [HCO3-] of 8 to 9 mEq/L. In response to HCO3- infusions, large increases in excretion were not seen until perfusate values were over 24 to 26 mEq/L. HCO3- Tmax was 2.94 +/- 0.07 mEq/dl of glomerular filtrate. The isolated kidney failed to raise U-B PCO2 with HCO3- infusion secondary to low urine [HCO3-] and [Pi]. During perfusion in another group of kidneys from dogs fed NH4Cl and given DOC, perfusate pH and [HCO3-] were similar to those in the first group. Urine pH was also inappropriately high, 7.12 +/- 0.09, and there was no UNet H+V. In response to Na2SO4 infusion, urinary pH fell to 5.00 +/- 0.27. Log10UUAV was correlated to urine pH during the control perfusions in both groups and after Na2SO4 in the NH4Cl + DOC group. Thus production of a low urine pH in the isolated kidney may be mediated by changes in transtubular potential difference resulting from increased distal nephron delivery of Na+ and nonabsorbable anion. The defect in acidification is similar to that observed in incomplete forms of clinical type 1 (distal) renal tubular acidosis.


Objectives To determine to what extent underlying data published as part of Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) can be used to estimate smoking prevalence within practice populations and local areas and to explore the usefulness of these estimates. Design Cross-sectional, observational study of QOF smoking data. Smoking prevalence in general practice populations and among patients with chronic conditions was estimated by simple manipulation of QOF indicator data. Agreement between estimates from the integrated household survey (IHS) and aggregated QOF-based estimates was calculated. The impact of including smoking estimates in negative binomial regression models of counts of premature coronary heart disease (CHD) deaths was assessed. Setting Primary care in the East Midlands. Participants All general practices in the area of study were eligible for inclusion (230). 14 practices were excluded due to incomplete QOF data for the period of study (2006/2007–2012/2013). One practice was excluded as it served a restricted practice list. Measurements Estimates of smoking prevalence in general practice populations and among patients with chronic conditions. Results Median smoking prevalence in the practice populations for 2012/2013 was 19.2% (range 5.8–43.0%). There was good agreement (mean difference: 0.39%; 95% limits of agreement (−3.77, 4.55)) between IHS estimates for local authority districts and aggregated QOF register estimates. Smoking prevalence estimates in those with chronic conditions were lower than for the general population (mean difference −3.05%), but strongly correlated (Rp=0.74, p<0.0001). An important positive association between premature CHD mortality and smoking prevalence was shown when smoking prevalence was added to other population and service characteristics. Conclusions Published QOF data allow useful estimation of smoking prevalence within practice populations and in those with chronic conditions; the latter estimates may sometimes be useful in place of the former. It may also provide useful estimates of smoking prevalence in local areas by aggregating practice based data.


Energy Services Companies (ESCos) all over the world are currently implementing energy saving initiatives. Stakeholders in the South African energy industry still need to overcome many barriers in order to improve operational efficiency. One such barrier is incorporating independent measurement and verification (M&V) into core ESCo processes. Dedicated M&V teams provide objective and independent quantification of energy savings stemming from the implemented interventions. Despite the importance of the M&V function, the process is often neglected by ESCos. This neglect can potentially delay critical project milestones. Incorporating the M&V process into the ESCo business model introduces its own challenges. Streamlining the management of the process is important to maximise the benefits without placing additional strain on existing resources. This article investigates the workings of the M&V process and how it can be integrated into an ESCo's business processes. Operational data is collected, processed and analysed to identify critical areas. A guideline to integrating the process into the general framework of an ESCo business is then developed. The article also presents a case study where the analysis and implementation is performed on an ESCo based in South Africa. The findings of the case study underline important improvements based on measured performance indicators.


Earth pressure balance (EPB) shields can be operated so that soil is forced away from its face; this heaving process may cause smaller surface settlements than would result from tunneling, without inducing any initial heave. Field observations made at the first EPB project in the U.S. and finite element analyses results of that project are compared to gain a better understanding of ground behavior around EPB shields. Field observations indicated that the ground response was both three-dimensional and time-dependent. To keep computational costs within reason, the EPB tunneling process was simulated in a finite element analysis using two, two-dimensional models. Besides approximating EPB shield tunneling effects, the finite element simulations explicity account for pore pressure mobilization and dissipation in time. Results of parametric studies indicate that intentionally induced heave decreases the net movement into the tail void gap behind the shield at the expense of increasing consolidation settlements at the surface.


The ADS-B (Automatic Dependent Surveillance - Broadcast) and MLAT (Multilateration) are becoming the leading surveillance techniques in the field of ATC (Air Traffic Control), and will play important roles in the future's tracking system. It is inevitable to need a framework to fuse the data from these modern techniques. However, traditional fusion method dose not provide sufficient precision in the surface surveillance and easily brings out saw-shaped trajectory. This paper designs a hybrid fusion framework based on environment database. The hybrid framework includes centralized filters and distributed filters to deal with the relations among different sensors. The environment database is used to better the settings of adaptive IMM in each sensor. Under such framework, ADS-B and MLAT data are processed intensively to achieve high accuracy. Experiment results based on simulation and practical data illustrate the algorithm can achieve high precision.


An individual church, an unincorporated juridical organization, can belong to a specific religious body, or may not. Looking into the Korean Presbyterian church(unification religious body), one of the most popular Christian organizations in Korea, there is a General Assembly of the religious body, a General Assembly of the Elders, and an individual church. A church with a congregation of 30 people or less isn't recognized as a regular individual church by the churches mentioned above. Only an individual church with a congregation of more than 30 people can join the General Assembly of Elders and can dispatch a delegation to it. The General Assembly of Elders consists of the representatives dispatched by an individual church. In general, the General Assembly of Elders establishes a foundation for the maintenance and management of the property that an individual church entrusts. It is generally understood that an individual church entrust its property to a maintenance foundation which the General Assembly of Elders established. However, the Supreme Court insists that the property of an individual church managed by it should be its own property. Hence, it is against the code of the Act to entrust money to the real name of the owner of the real estate. Such an ignorance raises lots of legal problems. The Supreme Court recently changed an usual legal opinion about the church. The main issues of the case are that the splitting of the church is not permitted, and since those who left the church are not members of the church any longer, they don't have the right to properties of the church because the principle of civil law of the unincorporated juridical organization should be applied to the church. I think that it's not fair for people who contributed money to the church to be deprived of their property rights and their rights as members of church by the Supreme Court. In this thesis, I studied the legal quality, the system, the authority and the relation of the properties of the church regarding the Korean Presbyterian church (unification religious body), one of the most popular Christian organizations in Korea. And by comparing the Constitution of the church leaders meeting for Korea Christianity(unification side) with the Civil Law, I tried to examine closely the difference between the Act of the church and the Act of the people. And I tried to examine the limitation of the right for self-control of the church and the limitation of judicial review about a legal contestation. I hope that this will contribute to the legal study of the church a little.


In the framework of quantum defect theory, we calculate photoabsorption cross sections of Na2+. Based on our calculations, there is an absorption window in the photoabsorption cross sections of Na2+, and more than one bump above the absorption window. The calculated photoabsorption cross sections provide an explanation for the abnormal bump in the experimental measurements of Hudson, which is a long-standing experimental puzzle.


Calmodulin mutants in which the calcium binding affinity of site IV was greatly reduced by a D133E mutation were prepared using site-specific, cassette-mediated mutagenesis as a multisite calcium binding protein model to examine structure/calcium affinity relationships in site III of calmodulin. Tryptophan was introduced in position 92 of the calmodulin mutants as a fluorescent label to monitor the calcium-induced structural changes in the C-terminal domain of calmodulin. The five calmodulin mutants, 3xCaM, 3zCaM, 4xCaM, 4zCaM, and 4xzCaM, were designed so that there were three or four acidic amino acid residues in chelating positions of site III with acid pairs on either the X and/or Z coordinating axes. The calcium dissociation constant of site III, KIII, of the five calmodulin mutants changes in a descending order from 3xCaM (237 microM), 3zCaM (140 microM), 4xCaM (5.8 microM), 4zCaM (3 microM), to 4xzCaM (2 microM), and these KIII values are significantly lower than that of F92W/D133E calmodulin (335 microM) in which three acidic residues with no acid pairs were present in site III [Wu, X., & Reid, R. E. (1997) Biochemistry 36, 3608-3616]. These results indicate that the calcium affinity of site III increases when the number of the acidic chelating residues increases from three to four, when the number of acid pairs increases from zero to one and further to two, and when the location of the acid pair is changed from the X axis to the Z axis. This study provides the first evidence that the acid pair hypothesis which correlates the nature of the chelating residues with the calcium affinity of the hlh motif is applicable to a multisite calcium binding protein model. The Hill coefficients indicate that reversal of the sequence of filling of the calcium binding sites in the C-terminal domain from IV --> III to III --> IV also changes the site cooperativity from positive to negative. The cooperativity returns to positive when the proteins are titrated in the presence of a calmodulin-binding peptide. Data from the present study also demonstrate that calmodulin mutants with a decreased calcium affinity have a reduced efficiency in phosphodiesterase regulation at low calcium concentrations (50 microM). However, high calcium concentrations (15 mM) restore the phosphodiesterase regulatory activity of the calmodulin mutants to a level obtained with F92W calmodulin, indicating that the mutations alter calcium regulation of calmodulin-mediated phosphodiesterase activity without affecting the interaction between calmodulin and the enzyme.


In 56 structured psychiatric interviews parents were asked to describe their experience as participants in the Denver prospective study of children with sex chromosome anomalies in order to assess its impact on attitudes toward the identified child and on family relationships. It was found that most achieved satisfactory understanding of the diagnosis with minimal disturbance, preferred early disclosure, denied its influence on parent-child and parent-parent relationships, and were reasonably comfortable in sharing diagnostic information with the child. Environmental and cultural factors did not correlate with the responses obtained. Emphasis directed toward obstacles in the adaptive process permitted evaluation of reported parental anxieties arising from faulty or delayed communication of the diagnosis, a child's adjustment to problems of growth and development, and, for parents of children with 45,X and 47,XXY chromosome constitutions, anxiety regarding anticipated difficulty in sexual maturation and fertility. The assessment interviews afforded additional opportunity for clinical discussion and counseling with parents on issues of concern to them.


Disease severity of wheat yellow rust, Puccinia striiformis f.sp. tritici , was analysed in Denmark from 1985 to 1999 in relation to the effects of weather on winter survival, distribution of host cultivars and pathotype dynamics. Below-average temperatures in January and February (midwinter) reduced yellow rust on the susceptible cv. Anja, and in three of four growth seasons following cold winters no yellow rust was observed on any cultivar under natural conditions. The agronomic consequences of dispersal of yellow rust urediniospores from external sources to Denmark, in a period during which large areas were planted with relatively few wheat cultivars, were demonstrated in several cases, most evidently when the Yr9 and Yr17 resistance genes became ineffective. Yr9 was overcome by the pathogen in a period with severe yellow rust epidemics on commercial cultivars, while virulence for Yr17 was first observed in a year with almost no yellow rust. In contrast, the resistance in cv. Kraka ( Yr1, CV ) was increasingly effective in controlling yellow rust, because pathotypes with the matching combination of virulence declined in the pathogen population. Pathotype frequency dynamics were thus influenced by selection forces within the country, and by selection forces in areas where spores were spread to Denmark from outside. The importance of a sufficient level of partial resistance in the wheat germplasm to prevent too much damage by yellow rust epidemics, in the event that the resistance genes are overcome by the pathogen population, is emphasized.


Issue Vaginitis is polymicrobial Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs), associated with some STD agents, presenting signs/symptoms such as foul smelling vaginal discharge, irritation, and itching. Among the leading infectious agents causing vaginitis among young women in urban communities in Nigeria, Gardnerella vaginalis (cause of Bacterial Vaginosis) was found to top the list. Also, unprotected sex during first sexual intercourse and multiple sexual partners are found to be the major risk factors for the wide spread of Bacterial vaginosis among the study's young women. Method Bacteriological and differential laboratory tests (microscopic examination, normal physiological saline wet-preparation, Potassium Hydroxide (OH) solution, whiff test, the litmus paper/PH level test, and gram staining) were carried out on High vaginal swab (HVS) specimens collected aseptically within 6 months from non-pregnant, non-menstruating young women who are not on antibiotics for a week before specimens were collected, and whose consent is sought before the study. The Study population is made up of both STD center attending and non-attending young women (mean age=25.50). In addition, a standard questionnaire (r=0.77) was administered to answer the major research/study questions on the major risk factors for Bacterial vaginosis. Result From the 200 HVS collected, 68 % of primary isolates were isolated: G vaginalis (51.72%), C albicans (41.92%), and T vaginalis (06.36%) respectively (p<0.0001). According to the result from the study questionnaire, among 200 respondents, 37.71% had their first sexual intercourse without any protection, 39.16% were protected during their first sexual intercourse, and 23.13% did not recollect. Also, 31.65% had engaged in sexual intercourse with more than one sexual partner before with no protection in few occasions, 37.21% had had multiple sexual partners before with protection, 31.14% declined to provide answer to the multiple sexual partner questions. Conclusions Bacterial vaginosis was found to be the most prevalent among young women in urban cities in Nigeria, and the major risk of contracting the infectious disease is unprotected sexual intercourse with multiple partners, and during first sexual intercourse. However, there is need for effective and efficient sex education and awareness to encourage the partners to be faithful to one another and for the promotion of safe sexual intercourse by using preventive means such as condoms.


Code coverage analysis, the process of finding code exercised by a particular set of test inputs, is an important component of software development and verification. Most traditional methods of implementing code coverage analysis tools are based on program instrumentation. These methods typically incur high overhead due to the insertion and execution of instrumentation code, and are not deployable in many software environments. Hardware-based sampling techniques attempt to lower overhead by leveraging existing Hardware Performance Monitoring (HPM) support for program counter (PC) sampling. While PC-sampling incurs lower levels of overhead, it does not provide complete coverage information. This paper extends the HPM approach in two ways. First, it utilizes the sampling of branch vectors which are supported on modern processors. Second, compiler analysis is performed on branch vectors to extend the amount of code coverage information derived from each sample. This paper shows that although HPM is generally used to guide performance improvement efforts, there is substantial promise in leveraging the HPM information for code debugging and verification. The combination of sampled branch vectors and compiler analysis can be used to attain upwards of 80% of the actual code coverage.


The joint use of Java and XML is a matter of fact for new developments, even in hard contexts. A recent research area is trying to address how to improve techniques for coupling Java programs and XML parsers and API. This paper briefly show the current state of the art of this young research area. Two perspectives are considered: efficiency (i.e. improvement of parsing performance) and effectiveness (development of techniques to obtain faster application development processes)


Two columns were experimented to compare trickling filter with integrated A/O trickling filter (IA/OTT) in this study. Denitrification and phosphorus removal were limited in traditional trickling filter. By designing anoxic section, adding carbon source and recycling outflow, denitrification was enhanced in IA/OTT. Meanwhile, chemical-biological methods were used to improve the phosphorus removal. It was shown that removal efficiency of CODcr, NH3-N, TN and TP were ideal. Compared with the traditional trickling filter, especially, the removal efficiency of TN and TP were respectively about 35% and 50% higher.


The dominant mechanism of electroluminescence (EL) from 4-(dicyanomethylene)-2-t-butyl-6-(1,1,7,7-tetramethyljulolidyl-9-enyl)-4H-pyran (DCJTB) doped in poly-(N-vinyl-carbazole) (PVK) system was demonstrated to be a charge carrier trapped by DCJTB molecular rather than Förster energy transfer from PVK to DCJTB. The chromatically coordinate EL emission of PVK:DCJTB changes from (0.41, 0.31) to (0.67, 0.31) with an increase in DCJTB doping concentration. The emission peak in DCJTB shows red-shift and the shoulder emission peak at 656 nm becomes stronger as the doping concentration increases. The effect of DCJTB doping concentration on EL spectra is attributed to strong dipole–dipole interaction between the DCJTB molecule with an increase in doping concentration.


Background Recurrent angina and long-term occlusion following coronary artery bypass graft surgery is often treated with percutaneous coronary intervention, a high-risk intervention for distal embolization. Here, we present the utilization of the novel oral anticoagulant, rivaroxaban, in the treatment of saphenous vein graft thrombosis with complete resolution of the thrombus secondary to graft outflow mismatch. Case Presentation. A 69-year-old man with triple coronary artery bypass grafting using a saphenous vein and left internal mammary artery, performed in 2017, presented at our hospital for recurrent angina. Coronary angiography revealed a patent LIMA to LAD and a large clot burden in the venous conduit to the first OM/terminal circumflex—theorized to be due to an outflow mismatch of the large saphenous vein to the native artery resulting in stasis. Instead of percutaneous coronary intervention, he was treated with rivaroxaban 20 mg once a day. The angiography 4 weeks after starting rivaroxaban showed complete resolution of the thrombus. Conclusion Rivaroxaban could become a potential treatment option in thrombus reversal due to static venous flow with subsequent long-term patency of the graft. Additionally, its use may be indicated in the generalized prevention of VGF.


Since 1952, Norway has had an Ombudsman for Military Affairs who, assisted by a council of six members, deals with complaints against military authorities and supervises the treatment of military personnel. In 1963, the Ombudsman for Civil Affairs began to function. The reason for the establishment of these Ombudsmen was the steadily increasing influence of public administration on the citizen's rights and obligations. The judiciary's control of administration is time-consuming and costly, and it was considered desirable to let the "little man" have a control institution to which he could apply and which could simply and inexpensively examine his complaint. The Ombudsman must keep himself informed of conditions in administration, and can thus also take up matters on his own initiative. The Military Ombudsman handles about 350 complaints per year; the Civilian Ombudsman, about 1,000 complaints. Of the complaints which are taken up for examination by the Civilian Ombudsman, about 30 per cent are successful. It is generally agreed that the Ombudsmen come up to expectations concerning them, and there is no doubt that the institutions are now firmly established. Co-operation with administration has proceeded smoothly, and although the Ombudsmen cannot alter administrative decisions, nor order the agencies concerned to do so, administrative officials very rarely fail to comply with the Ombudsman's opinion.


Fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) is characterised by diffuse, long-lasting, widespread pain and aching, accompanied by fatigue, stiffness and sleep disturbances. The symptoms may be aggravated by physiological and psychological overload. The aim of this thesis was to obtain further knowledge of the functional limitations and disabilities of patients with FMS and to evaluate the effects of physical exercise and patient education from a physiotherapeutic perspective.

The patients with FMS included in these studies were mainly recruited from primary health care. The physical performance capacity of the female FMS patients was compared with that of the age- and sex-matched healthy reference group, using performance-based measurements. The reliability of these measurements was evaluated. A number of patients were interviewed to obtain further knowledge of the way they experienced their symptoms and the interviews were analysed using a phenomenological method. Two randomised, controlled, prospective studies were conducted to evaluate the effects of treatment in FMS, using performance tests and self-administered questionnaires.

FMS patients displayed a reduction in physical performance capacity when compared with the healthy reference group. Six of seven measurements were found to possess acceptable reliability for use in FMS. Four different patterns of how FMS symptoms were experienced and managed were identified in the interviews: struggling, adapting, in despair and giving up. The 6-week programmes produced an improvement in self-efficacy in the treatment groups as they were compared with the control group. Individually adapted physical exercise in a temperate pool once a week for 6 months, combined with patient education, was found to improve symptoms, functional limitations, disabilities and psychological distress in the treatment group as compared with the control group.


Nowadays, computer systems are presented in almost all types of human activity and they support any kind of industry as well. Most of these systems are distributed where the communication between nodes is based on computer networks of any kind. Connectivity between system components is the key issue when designing distributed systems, especially systems of industrial informatics. The industrial area requires a wide range of computer communication means, particularly time-constrained and safety-enhancing ones. From fieldbus and industrial Ethernet technologies through wireless and internet-working solutions to standardization issues, there are many aspects of computer networks uses and many interesting research domains. Lots of them are quite sophisticated or even unique. The main goal of this paper is to present the survey of the latest trends in the communication domain of industrial distributed systems and to emphasize important questions as dependability, and standardization. Finally, the general assessment and estimation of the future development is provided. The presentation is based on the abstract description of dataflow within a system.


Relationships, as the bond of isolated entities in images, reflect the interaction between objects and lead to a semantic understanding of scenes. Suffering from visually-irrelevant relationships in current scene graph datasets, the utilization of relationships for semantic tasks is difficult. The datasets widely used in scene graph generation tasks are splitted from Visual Genome by label frequency, which even can be well solved by statistical counting. To encourage further development in relationships, we propose a novel method to mine more valuable relationships by automatically filtering out visually-irrelevant relationships. Then, we construct a new scene graph dataset named Visually-Relevant Relationships Dataset (VrR-VG) from Visual Genome. We evaluate several existing methods in scene graph generation in our dataset. The results show the performances degrade significantly compared to the previous dataset and the frequency analysis do not work on our dataset anymore. Moreover, we propose a method to learn feature representations of instances, attributes, and visual relationships jointly from images, then we apply the learned features to image captioning and visual question answering respectively. The improvements on the both tasks demonstrate the efficiency of the features with relation information and the richer semantic information provided in our dataset.


Abstract:In protest, activists sometimes turn to disruptive and violent tactics to meet their goals. Doing so, however, can also undermine support for their claims. We argue that how protestors weigh this trade-off depends on their targets and the extent to which their claims appeal to diverse constituencies, which then factors greatly into their choice of protest tactics. We complement past work that suggests that forces of professionalization and counterpressure alter activists' tendency to use violent and disruptive tactics. With data on over 23,000 protest events in the United States between 1960 and 1995, we find that protest events characterized by broadly resonating claims are more likely to employ tactics that are disruptive but nonviolent. By contrast, events espousing narrower claims are more likely to employ disruptive tactics that are also violent. Moreover, when governmental entities are targeted, protests are less likely to witness the use of both violent and nonviolent disruptive tactics. We discuss the implications of our results for social movement theory and the dynamics of collective violence.


This paper presents a method for rectifying video sequences from rolling shutter (RS) cameras. In contrast to previous RS rectification attempts we model distortions as being caused by the 3D motion of the camera. The camera motion is parametrised as a continuous curve, with knots at the last row of each frame. Curve parameters are solved for using non-linear least squares over inter-frame correspondences obtained from a KLT tracker. We have generated synthetic RS sequences with associated ground-truth to allow controlled evaluation. Using these sequences, we demonstrate that our algorithm improves over to two previously published methods. The RS dataset is available on the web to allow comparison with other methods.


Friction surface cladding (FSC), a relatively new solid state surface modification technique, was developed to deposit thin metallic layers onto substrates to protect the substrates from chemical corrosion. The FSC process employs a specially designed rotating tool containing an opening as the supply channel of the clad material and a specific tool bottom to support the material flow. The objectives of the current thesis are to carry out a systematic analysis of the FSC process, to develop appropriate process models and to determine a FSC process window.
The various series of experiments presented in this work show that defect free layers can be manufactured within a large range of process parameters. The heat input of the FSC process is estimated using a 3D thermal model. A 2D axisymmetric thermo-mechanical model indicates that the heat generation increases with the tool rotation rate and the clad layer width, whereas the clad layer thickness and the size of the tool opening have negligible influence. The normal force exerted on the substrate decreases for larger values of the clad layer thickness, the tool opening diameter and the tool rotation rate, but it increases with larger clad layer widths. These results confirm approximately the experimental trends observed and supply further understanding of the FSC process. A quantitative comparison of the experimental and model results shows that the thermo-mechanical model overestimates the estimated heat generation and it underestimates the measured normal force, mainly ascribed to the assumed full sticking conditions at the tool-clad layer interfaces. Better comparison was obtained if the sticking conditions vary from full sticking in a region close to the FSC tool opening to almost full slipping at the FSC tool edge.
Additional experiments were performed to determine the FSC process window by adjusting the tool rotation rates in the cladding phase. It is found that continuous and defect free layers can be deposited with the substrate temperature between a lower and an upper bound of 317 ℃ and 407℃, respectively.


The influence of solid retention time, cadmium loading and the effect of the process of acclimation on the activity of activated sludge in the presence of the metal were studied. Activated sludge was cultivated in plug-flow and continuous completely mixed lab-scale bioreactors. Respirometric measurements were applied to evaluate the inhibition effects of cadmium on activated sludge. Monod9s equation and the equation of non-competitive inhibition were applied to describe the toxicity and inhibition of cadmium. Maximum inhibition effect of cadmium was observed at different time periods of cadmium acting on both acclimated and non-acclimated sludges. The dependence of the attainment of maximum inhibition effect on the metal loading as well as solid retention time was observed. Therefore, maximum inhibition should be included in the assessment of metal toxicity.


On page 207 of their article, the authors acknowledge that regret is a &dquo;real psychological phenomenon,&dquo; an unavoidable component of decision making. However, in the very next paragraph they suggest regret should be ignored because it may lead to &dquo;self-indulgence&dquo; on the part of physicians. This admonition against self-indulgence implies that clinicians should ignore regret after admitting that it cannot be avoided.


We present a robust, ab initio method for addressing atom-light interactions and apply it to photoionization of argon. We use a close-coupling ansatz constructed on a multiconfigurational Hartree-Fock description of localized states and B-spline expansions of the electron radial wave functions. In this implementation, the general many-electron problem can be tackled thanks to the use of the ATSP2K libraries [C. Froese Fischer et al., Comput. Phys. Commun. 176, 559 (2007)]. In the present contribution, we combine this method with exterior complex scaling, thereby allowing for the computation of the complex partial amplitudes that encode the whole dynamics of the photoionization process. The method is validated on the 3s3p(6)np series of resonances converging to the 3s extraction. Then, it is used for computing the energy dependent differential atomic delay between 3p and 3s photoemission, and agreement is found with the measurements of Guenot et al. [Phys. Rev. A 85, 053424 (2012)]. The effect of the presence of resonances in the one-photon spectrum on photoionization delay measurements is studied. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevA.87.023420


Purpose: Anemia is highly prevalent in patients with advanced cancer and adversely affects quality of life. There is limited data on the frequency, clinical utility and effectiveness of red blood cell transfusions (RBC), and no randomized controlled trials or clinical practice guidelines are available. The aim of this study was to evaluate clinician practices on RBC transfusion in an oncologic palliative care service (PCS) and its impact in patients' symptoms, adverse events and overall survival.Methods: Retrospective analyses of all advanced cancer patients who received RBC transfusions admitted, during a 3-year period. Pre-blood counts, reason for transfusion, subjective benefit and objective outcomes were listed.Results: We identified 179 patients with a mean age of 67 years. A total of 435 RBC units, during 301 transfusion episodes were recorded. Asthenia/fatigue was the most frequent symptom (68%). The mean pretransfusion hemoglobin (Hb) was 6.85 g/dL and 48% patients had an Hb above 7 g/dL. Symptomatic benefit was achieved in 36% of patients. Adverse events were reported in 4%, with a 30-day survival rate of 57%. A statistically significant association between ECOG performance status (ECOG-PS) and symptomatic benefit was found (p=0.005). Hemoglobin level pre-transfusion, ECOG-PS and symptomatic benefit with transfusions were significantly associated with survival.Conclusion: This study suggests that advanced cancer patients with a higher level of functioning may have a bigger benefit from RBC transfusion. Post-transfusion symptomatic benefit, and pre-transfusion ECOG-PS and hemoglobin levels seem to be independent predictors of survival. Further studies are needed to develop validated measures of objective functional changes to evaluate the clinical impact of transfusions and to identify patients most likely to benefit from it.


The notion of 'intellect' plays a crucial role in Spinoza's philosophy such as laid down in the Ethics. According to Spinoza the intellect is 'our better part' - pars melior nostri - that enables the human mind to achieve the highest ethical goal: blessedness. However, despite the important role that must be assigned to the intellect in Spinoza's ethical program, the notion cannot be found among the terms that are defined at the beginning of four of the five parts of the Ethics. Whereas concepts such as 'God', 'substance', 'attribute', 'mode', and 'idea' receive explicit descriptions on the basis of which Spinoza is able to unfold his philosophy in geometrical order, 'intellect' is sought in vain among the twenty-six definitions that Spinoza provides in his main work. This confronts us with an important problem: anyone who aims at understanding the exact purport of Spinoza's philosophy, is forced to construe an adequate conception of pars melior nostri. This study provides such a construction. This dissertation shows that the intellect not only has an instrumental function in Spinoza's philosophy (i.e. in reaching blessedness), but that it also has a constructive function. It will be shown that the structural characteristics of the intellect are recognizable in the very metaphysical structure that is laid down in the Ethics. That is to say: in this study it will become evident that the intricate metaphysical structure that is recognizable in the Ethics is an expression of the structure of (Spinoza's conception of) the human intellect.


The two volumes deal with cross-linguistic variation in valency classes in terms of argument coding and argument alternations. The first systematic typological attempt to uncover the universal and the language-particular in this area, the work includes synoptic introductory articles, 30 in-depth questionnaire-based studies of valency classes in languages from across the world, and featured articles by leading scholars who helped shape the field.


The past decade has been witness to a sharp increase in residential placement of adjudicated delinquent youth, including juvenile sexual offenders. It is argued that this trend has fiscal implications and may be clinically contraindicated for less characterologically disturbed and dangerous youth. The authors advocate greater investment of public funds in the development and refinement of community-based intervention programs. It is believed that clinically and legally integrated programming, using newer social-ecological methodologies and supports, offers promise of reducing the number of youth who require residential placement, shortening residential lengths of stay and improving the transition of residentially treated youth back into community settings. Key concepts relevant to bolstering community-based programming for juvenile sexual offenders are identified and discussed. Two programs are described, and program evaluation data reviewed, in support of the viability of innovative community-based approaches to the management of this population.


Contemporary socio-technical environments hold a great potential to drive a positive influence on the behaviors and attitudes of individuals. Drawing upon social cognitive theory (SCT) and the theory of planned behavior (TPB), this paper explores how and to what extent persuasive social influence features (namely, social learning (SL), social comparison (SC), and normative influence (NI)) alter customer behavior toward engagement in feedback sharing. A theory-driven research model was composed and then analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). Based on a pilot experimental study involving 69 Twitter users, the authors indicate that behavioral intention (BI) to engage in feedback sharing is partially explained by the perceived persuasiveness (PP) of a system, which is partly explained by means of NI, which in turn is partly explained by means of SC. On top of that, SL plays an important role in explaining and influencing all of the abovementioned constructs.


This paper presents the exchanged hypercube, a new interconnection network obtained by systematically removing links from a binary hypercube. It maintains several desirable properties of the binary hypercube yet with reduced interconnection complexity. We also introduce the extended binomial tree, a spanning tree of the exchanged hypercube that preserves many desirable properties of the original binomial tree. A fault-tolerant routing strategy is also proposed for the exchanged hypercube.


Mutations in ACTA2 (smooth muscle cell—specific isoform of α‐actin) lead to a predisposition to thoracic aortic aneurysms and other vascular diseases. More recently, the ACTA2 R179H mutation has been described in individuals with global smooth muscle dysfunction. We report a patient heterozygous for the mutation in ACTA2 R179H who presented with megacystis at 13 weeks gestational age and, at birth, with prune‐belly sequence. He also had deep skin dimples and creases on his palms and soles, a finding not previously described but possibly related to ACTA2. To our knowledge, this is the first report of the R179H mutation in ACTA2 in a child with prune‐belly sequence. We think the R179H mutation in ACTA2 should be included in the differential diagnosis of individuals presenting with the sequence without an identified mechanical obstruction. Furthermore, as ACTA2 R179H has been reported in patients with severe vasculomyopathy and premature death, we recommend that molecular testing for this mutation be considered in fetuses presenting with fetal megacystis with a normal karyotype, particularly if the bladder diameter is 15 mm or more, to allow expectant parents to make an informed decision. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


Various noises are usually mixed in the collection, processing or transmission of digital image, which reduces the image quality and which is bad for the subsequent image analysis; therefore, the image denoising processing is an essential link to conduct subsequent image analysis. With continuous development and improvements of wavelet theory, its excellent time-frequency characteristics have led to its extensive applications in image denoising. By analyzing the basic principle of wavelet threshold denoising, this paper has proposed a denoising algorithm of self-adaptive wavelet threshold. This algorithm decomposes and reconstructs the signal by using multi-resolution analysis; designs and constructs appropriate threshold function and realizes a new self-adaptive threshold denoising algorithm by optimizing the threshold with the threshold function. The experimental result demonstrates that compared with median filtering algorithm and mean filtering algorithm, the algorithm of this paper can improve the signal to noise ratio; maintain the detail information and texture features of the image over denoising and have better denoising effects.


This study considers the estimation of conditional causal effects in the presence of unmeasured confounding for a balanced panel with treatment imposed at the last time point. To address this, we combine Difference-in-differences (DiD) and tree-based methods and propose a new identification assumption that allows for the violation of the (conditional) parallel trends assumption adopted by most existing DiD methods. Under this new assumption, we prove partial identifiability of the conditional average treatment effect on the treated group (CATT). Our proposed method estimates CATT through a tree-based causal approach, guided by a novel splitting rule that avoids model misspecification and unnecessary auxiliary parameter estimation. The splitting rule measures both the error of fitting observed data and the violation of conditional parallel trends simultaneously. We also develop an ensemble of multiple trees via gradient boosting to further enhance performance. Experimental results on both synthetic and real-world datasets validate the effectiveness of our proposed method.


Rapid spread of a virulent race of stem rust of wheat has increased interest in looking different source of resistance. This investigation was carried out to identify possible sources of resistance in Ethiopian commercial wheat cultivars to the current stem rust race, UG99. 23 bread and 14 durum wheat cultivars were evaluated in two different sets. A standard bread wheat cultivar PBW343 (Sr31) as well as Morocco and Arendeto were included as susceptible checks. In seedling test, plants were inoculated with pure TTKS race and evaluated for their infection types. In field test, a 5 x 5 and 4 x 4 simple lattice design was used to evaluate bread and durum wheat cultivars respectively. Each block was separated by the spreader row composed of PBW343 and Morocco in a 3: 1 ratio. In order to create epidemics, natural infection was supplemented artificially by inoculating the spreader rows at different growth stages. Area under Disease Progress Curve (AUDPC) was calculated and analyzed. Coefficient of Infection (CI) was calculated by taking the severity of stem rust and response. Terminal severity of the cultivars was also considered for comparison. In the seedling test, all of the durum except Arendeto, Foka and Kilinto were resistant. However, most of the bread wheat cultivars were susceptible. Similar results were obtained in the field screening of wheat cultivars at Debre Zeit, an international known hotspot for stem rust of wheat. The identified sources of resistance in some bread and most durum wheat will serve as source in breeding programs for resistance to stem rust of wheat. Attempts should also be made to transfer stem rust resistance from durum to bread wheat as a valuable component of breeding strategy that will contribute to sustainable production of the crop. Furthermore, it is essential that the identified resistant wheat cultivars be evaluated against dominant stem rust races in different wheat growing areas of the country.


Almost all collegiate programs in Computer Science offer an introductory course in programming primarily devoted to communicating the foundational principles of software design and development. The ACM designates this introduction to computer programming course for first-year students as CS1, during which methodologies for solving problems within a discrete computational context are presented. Logical thinking is highlighted, guided primarily by a sequential approach to algorithm development and made manifest by typically using the latest, commercially successful programming language.
In response to the most recent developments in accessible multicore computers, instructors of these introductory classes may wish to include training on how to design workable parallel code. Novel issues arise when programming concurrent applications which can make teaching these concepts to beginning programmers a seemingly formidable task. Student comprehension of design strategies related to parallel systems should be monitored to ensure an effective classroom experience.
This research investigated the feasibility of integrating parallel computing concepts into the first-year CS classroom. To quantitatively assess student comprehension of parallel computing, an experimental educational study using a two-factor mixed group design was conducted to evaluate two instructional interventions in addition to a control group: (1) topic lecture only, and (2) topic lecture with laboratory work using a software visualization Parallel Analysis Tool (PAT) specifically designed for this project. A new evaluation instrument developed for this study, the Perceptions of Parallelism Survey (PoPS), was used to measure student learning regarding parallel systems.
The results from this educational study show a statistically significant main effect among the repeated measures, implying that student comprehension levels of parallel concepts as measured by the PoPS improve immediately after the delivery of any initial three-week CS1 level module when compared with student comprehension levels just prior to starting the course. Survey results measured during the ninth week of the course reveal that performance levels remained high compared to pre-course performance scores. A second result produced by this study reveals no statistically significant interaction effect between the intervention method and student performance as measured by the evaluation instrument over three separate testing periods. However, visual inspection of survey score trends and the low p-value generated by the interaction analysis (0.062) indicate that further studies may verify improved concept retention levels for the lecture w/PAT group.


The considerable impact of congestion on transportation networks is reflected by the vast amount of research papers dedicated to congestion identification, modeling, and alleviation. Despite this, the statistical characteristics of congestion, and particularly of its duration, have not been systematically studied, regardless of the fact that they can offer significant insights on its formation, effects and alleviation. We extend previous research by proposing the autoregressive conditional duration (ACD) approach for modeling congestion duration in urban signalized arterials. Results based on data from a signalized arterial indicate that a multiregime nonlinear ACD model best describes the observed congestion duration data while when it lasts longer than 18 minutes, traffic exhibits persistence and slow recovery rate.


A new strategy using non-porous silica (NPS) spheres as the support and covalent organic frameworks (COFs) as the porous functional shell for liquid chromatography was developed to ensure the independent effect of the COFs on the separation. As a proof of concept, NPS@TPB-DMTP was prepared for liquid chromatographic analysis using 1,3,5-tris(4-aminophenyl)benzene (TPB) and 2,5-dimethoxy-1,4-benzenedicarboxaldehyde (DMTP) as monomers by in situ polymerisation on the surface of NPS. It is a new way of developing COF-based stationary phases, which will be helpful in understanding what effect the COFs will have on separation.


We used a retrospective non-randomised study to investigate the clinical effect of selective embolisation of the right gastric artery before hepatic arterial infusion chemotherapy (HAIC) using a port-catheter system. We evaluated whether the hepatic artery or the left gastric artery is the better approach for selecting the right gastric artery. A total of 367 patients (244 men and 123 women; mean age, 64.1 years) with unresectable advanced liver cancer underwent percutaneous implantation of a port-catheter system. In 294 of these patients, right gastric arterial embolisation with microcoils was attempted before placement of the port-catheter system to prevent gastric mucosal lesions. Approach was either through the hepatic artery (175 patients) or through the left gastric artery (119 patients), with success rates in catheterising the right gastric artery of 78.3% and 77.3%, respectively. If the attempt was unsuccessful, the catheter was redirected to the alternative approach, which increased the final success rate to 96.3%. Only seven patients experienced gastroduodenal mucosal lesions acutely after HAIC, as revealed by endoscopy. Embolisation of the right gastric artery is a feasible procedure that can reduce the incidence of gastric mucosal lesions associated with HAIC. Approach through either the hepatic artery or the left gastric artery is equally acceptable.


Definite descriptions are phrases of the form 'the x such that φ', used to refer to single entities in a context. They are often more meaningful to users than individual names alone, in particular when modelling or querying data over ontologies. We investigate free description logics with both individual names and definite descriptions as terms of the language, while also accounting for their possible lack of denotation. We focus on the extensions of ALC and, respectively, EL with nominals, the universal role, and definite descriptions. We show that standard reasoning in these extensions is not harder than in the original languages, and we characterise the expressive power of concepts relative to first-order formulas using a suitable notion of bisimulation. Moreover, we lay the foundations for automated support for definite descriptions generation by studying the complexity of deciding the existence of definite descriptions for an individual under an ontology. Finally, we provide a polynomial-time reduction of reasoning in other free description logic languages based on dual-domain semantics to the case of partial interpretations.


The efficiency of digoxin in elderly and old patients with subacute myocardial infarction is dependent on the original disorders of left-ventricular systolic phase structure. Changes in systolic phase structural parameters in the presence of supporting digoxin therapy show correspondence to changes of these parameters in response to a single digoxin dose. Digoxin's positive inotropic effect was similar in patients with the sinus rhythm and those with atrial fibrillation. The positive inotropic action of digoxin is not associated with a negative chronotropic effect in patients with sinus rhythm and normal heart rate.


One of the challenging aspects of applying machine learning is the need to identify the algorithms that will perform best for a given dataset. This process can be difficult, time consuming and often requires a great deal of domain knowledge. We present Sommelier, an expert system for recommending the machine learning algorithms that should be applied on a previously unseen dataset. Sommelier is based on word embedding representations of the domain knowledge extracted from a large corpus of academic publications. When presented with a new dataset and its problem description, Sommelier leverages a recommendation model trained on the word embedding representation to provide a ranked list of the most relevant algorithms to be used on the dataset. We demonstrate Sommelier's effectiveness by conducting an extensive evaluation on 121 publicly available datasets and 53 classification algorithms. The top algorithms recommended for each dataset by Sommelier were able to achieve on average 97.7% of the optimal accuracy of all surveyed algorithms.


Background: World Health organization prognosis is that by the Year 2050 seniors aged over 60 will account for 22% of the world population (WHO, 2015). Recent research results indicate a relationship between aerobic physical activity and cognitive functioning (e.g. Erickson et al., 2011); however, there is still very little evidence on the impact of long-term aerobic activities on cognitive functioning.
Methods: This is a cross-sectional study, in which 33 healthy seniors aged 65 – 85 (M = 72.73, SD = 4.95) are currently involved. Participants are divided into three groups – seniors with regular long-term aerobic activity experience, seniors with recent regular aerobic activity experience and sedentary seniors. To assess working memory, The Numbers Reversed test (Woodcock, McGrew, & Mather, 2001) is used. To assess attention Map Test of Everyday Attention (Robertson, Ward, Ridgeway, & Nimmo-smith, 1996) and Reaction time test (Molotanovs, 2011) are used. To determine the physical activity of each participant a modified version of Social Determinants of Health Behaviours (FINBALT, 2008) is used. Data are analysed with ANOVA analysis with Post Hoc test (LSD).
Expected results: Preliminary results indicate significant differences in long-term aerobic activity group and sedentary group in attention switching (p = .015), working memory (p = .031) and simple reaction time (p = .045).
Current stage of work: Data acquisition and analysis is still in progress.
Discussion: The study results indicate that involvement in regular long-term aerobic activities may have impact on such executive cognitive processes as working memory, attention and reaction time.


Sesamum indicum L. is an important oil seed in Iran which is cultivated as summer crop in alternation with cereals and cucurbits, playing an important role in sustainable agriculture. Sesame wilt disease caused by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. sesami is one of the limiting factors in its cultivation. Application of genetic improvement of disease resistance is one of the effective strategies to solve the disease problems in sesame. In this project, the partial resistance of 24 genotypes including, some commercial cultivars and promising lines were tested against Fusarium wilt disease. The experiments were conducted in three different conditions (greenhouse, micro plot and field). In greenhouse and micro plot experiments, artificial inoculation was used while in field experiment, no artificial inoculum was used. For evaluating results, the infection percentage (wilted plants) was recorded on a scale of 1-6 scoring system. The results showed that in artificial inoculation conditions, none of sesame genotypes were immune. Infection mean percentages of sesame genotypes were calculated to be 58.34, 28.6 and 15.96, in greenhouse, micro-plot and field, respectively. Total results of the three experiments showed that 29.1% of the sesame genotypes (JL1, Jl14, JL10, JL11, JL13, Jl18 and Darab1) fell in resistant (R) category and 37.5% of the genotypes (JL2, Varamin37, Local, Yekta, JL29, JL16, JL6, JL14-1 and Darab2) fell in moderately resistant (MR) group. The resistant and moderately resistant genotypes can be used for breeding programs and development of resistant varieties, however further efforts are needed to identify highly resistant genotypes from among more native germplasms via screening program.


Technological advances have enabled the joint analysis of multiple molecular layers at single cell resolution. At the same time, increased experimental throughput has facilitated the study of larger numbers of experimental conditions. While methods for analysing single-cell data that model the resulting structure of either of these dimensions are beginning to emerge, current methods do not account for complex experimental designs that include both multiple views (modalities or assays) and groups (conditions or experiments). Here we present Multi-Omics Factor Analysis v2 (MOFA+), a statistical framework for the comprehensive and scalable integration of structured single cell multi-modal data. MOFA+ builds upon a Bayesian Factor Analysis framework combined with fast GPU-accelerated stochastic variational inference. Similar to existing factor models, MOFA+ allows for interpreting variation in single-cell datasets by pooling information across cells and features to reconstruct a low-dimensional representation of the data. Uniquely, the model supports flexible group-level sparsity constraints that allow joint modelling of variation across multiple groups and views. To illustrate MOFA+, we applied it to single-cell data sets of different scales and designs, demonstrating practical advantages when analyzing datasets with complex group and/or view structure. In a multi-omics analysis of mouse gastrulation this joint modelling reveals coordinated changes between gene expression and epigenetic variation associated with cell fate commitment.


The aim of the study was to assess usefulness of echocardiography in bacterial vegetations detection as well as their clinical value as the indicator for surgical treatment. 44 patients aged 16-65 (mean 37.6) with infective mitral and aortic valve endocarditis underwent the study. Authors assessed clinical state taking into consideration blood culture tests as well as M-mode and parasternal and apical projections two-dimensional echocardiographic examinations. Data were compared with intraoperative or pathomorphological findings to estimate specificity and sensitivity of echocardiography in bacterial vegetation detection. Vegetations were pathomorphologically or intraoperatively stated in 21 patients (48%). M-mode echocardiography revealed changes in 16 patients, and two-dimensional one in the next 3. In the group of 23 patients without vegetations, concordance between intraoperative findings and echocardiographic results was stated in 19 subjects. Therefore, sensitivity and specificity of two-dimensional echocardiography were respectively 91% and 83%. Vegetations stated in two-dimensional echocardiographic examination had an unfavourable prognosis. Embolic complications were observed in 14, and myocardial infarction in 7 of 21 patients with bacterial vegetations. Authors thought it advisable to early operate on such patients. Whereas in patients without vegetations embolic complications were stated only in 3, and myocardial infarction in 1 patient. Therefore two-dimensional echocardiography making bacterial vegetations detection possible in patients with infective valve endocarditis allows to identify patients with higher risk of thromboembolic complication or death.


This review of how dolphins are portrayed in popular media (including literature, film, television, and music) reveals four themes that may influence public acceptance of current scientific research into dolphin cognition. These themes are: (a) dolphin as peer to humans, of equal intelligence or at least capable of communicating with or helping humans; (b) the dolphin as the representation of a romantic notion of ideal freedom in nature, embodying principles of peace, harmony or love; (c) the dolphin as a naive, innocent being that is subordinate and in need of human protection; and (d) the dolphin as superior to humans, potentially affiliating with a higher power or intelligence. This review revealed that the use of dolphins in humor reinforced or lampooned the four identified themes, indicating a common acceptance of these themes. The paper concludes with a discussion of the importance of considering popular narratives in the presentation of scientific research results.


EEG-EMG based hybrid Brain Computer Interface (hBCI) utilizes the brain-muscle physiological system to interpret and identify motor behaviors, and transmit human intelligence to automated machines in AI applications such as neurorehabilitations and brain-like intelligence. The study introduces a hBCI method for motor behaviors, where multiple time series of the brain neuromuscular network are introduced to indicate brain-muscle causal interactions, and features are extracted based on Relative Causal Strengths (RCSs) derived by Noise-assisted Multivariate Empirical Mode Decomposition (NA-MEMD) based Causal Decomposition. The complex process in brain neuromuscular interactions is specifically investigated towards a monitoring task of upper limb movement, whose 63-channel EEGs and 2-channel EMGs are composed of data inputs. The energy and frequency factors counted from RCSs were extracted as Core Features (CFs). Results showed accuracies of 91.4% and 81.4% with CFs for identifying cascaded (No Movement and Movement Execution) and 3-class (No Movement, Right Movement, and Left Movement) using Naive Bayes classifier, respectively. Moreover, those reached 100% and 94.3% when employing CFs combined with eigenvalues processed by Common Spatial Pattern (CSP). This initial work implies a novel causality inference based hBCI solution for the detection of human upper limb movement.


Touch interaction with mobile phones enable users to have a more natural interaction with the device, since touch is a natural way of direct accessing an object of interest. But one disadvantage is occlusion; i.e., the user loses a high percentage of information presented on the small screen of the mobile phone during the interaction using his "big finger". On the other hand, interaction enhanced with accelerometers can react according to the device movements, e.g., while the user is tilting the mobile phone, the UI will be rotated. A drawback is that the user needs to move the whole device while interacting and consequently loses his eye contact on the phone's screen (screen-absence problem). Finteraction (Finger Interaction) is a new interaction concept that solves the occlusion and screen-absence problems. User interact with a large public display using his mobile phone. Moving the index finger in front of the camera at the backside of the mobile phone, the user can interact with the large public display even on the move.


The effect of lead oxide compounds in (Bi,Pb)2Sr2Ca2Cu3Ox ((Bi,Pb)-2223) precursor powder on the microstructure and properties of Bi-2223/Ag tapes was investigated. Firstly, precursor powders containing different types of lead-rich phases were prepared by controlling the calcination temperature and atmosphere. Then monofilament (Bi,Pb)-2223/Ag tapes were fabricated using these powders. Lastly, samples scissor from these tapes were heat treated under different conditions. The phase composition and microstructure of these powders and tapes were analyzed using XRD and SEM. Experimental results show that the lead-rich phases in BSCCO precursor powders played an important role on the formation of the (Bi,Pb)-2223 phase, the microstructure and critical current of Bi-2223/Ag tapes.


Objectives: The present study was conducted with the aim of psychometric evaluation of a tool measuring behavioral intention in relation to interprofessional shared decision-making based on the theory of planned behavior and its assessment among medical and nursing students. Methods: This descriptive study was carried out in two stages. In the first stage, the psychometric properties of the interprofessional shared decision-making (IP-SDM) tool were evaluated based on experts' opinions. In the second stage, the participants' behavioral intention was evaluated using the mentioned questionnaire. The questionnaire consisted of five domains of cognitive attitude (2 items), emotional attitude (2 items), subjective norms (3 items), perceived behavioral control (3 items), and intention to use interprofessional shared decision-making (3 items). Content validity of the questionnaire was evaluated qualitatively and quantitatively (using the content validity ratio (CVR) and content validity index (CVI)). Cronbach's alpha coefficient and interclass correlation coefficient (ICC) were used to determine the reliability of the questionnaire. In the second stage, the data were analyzed using descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation) and Pearson's correlation test in SPSS software. Results: Qualitative and quantitative content validity of the questionnaire was confirmed based on experts' opinions. The internal consistency of the tool, based on the Cronbach's alpha coefficient, was 0.92, and the tool's repeatability was calculated at 0.84 using ICC. Participants in the study intended to participate in interprofessional shared decision-making. Conclusions: The behavioral intention measurement tool in relation to interprofessional shared decision-making based on the theory of planned behavior has good validity and reliability in Iran. Regarding the participants' behavioral intention to participate in shared decision-making, it is suggested that a suitable platform for shared decision-making and teamwork between health team members be provided in educational systems.


Summary Background The aim was to evaluate and correlate anxiety and depression levels with response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in patients with breast cancer. The study also assessed the effects of family support on distress levels. Design It was a prospective study in a cohort of 84 patients with locally advanced breast cancer. These assessments were done using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). Setting A prospective study in a developing world setting. Participants Eighty-four patients with locally advanced breast cancer receiving neoadjuvant chemotherapy were included after taking an informed consent and ethical committee clearance. Main outcome measures A significant correlation was observed between response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy and depression levels in breast cancer patients. Joint family and literacy levels also had an impact on the levels of depression observed. Results A total of 84 patients receiving neoadjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer were evaluated using HADS. The effect of family support, literacy levels and employment on the psychological status of these patients were also assessed. Conclusions The response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy had a direct correlation with the levels of depression, the distress levels being lower in responders. This was found to be the most important variable determining the psychological status of the patients. It was also observed that Indian patients in comparison to their Western counterparts react differently to cancer-related stress. DECLARATIONS


INTRODUCTION
Many dimers consisting of structurally similar monomers are difficult to be identified even using NMR. Rapid structural identification of iridoid glycoside dimers, especially isomeric dimers in a complicated matrix, remains desirable.

OBJECTIVE
To develop a rapid, sensitive analytical method for structural elucidation of trace iridoid glycoside isomers in a complicated extract.

METHODS
Three isomeric iridoid glucoside dimers, paederoscandoside, saprosmoside E and saprosmoside D, were isolated and further analysed by electrospray ionisation quadrupole time-of-flight tandem mass spectrometry (ESI-QTOF-MS/MS) in positive-ion mode. Energy-resolved mass spectrometry (ERMS) was used to provide information on the relative intensity of ions versus collision energy. The crude extract of Paederia scandens was analysed by HPLC-ESI-MS/MS.

RESULTS
The relative abundance of product ions in the MS/MS spectra from ammonium adduct ions varied greatly for the three isomers. The energy-resolved experiments enhanced differences among the three isomers. A total of 13 iridoid glucoside dimers (three groups of isomers) in the extract of P. scandens were identified or tentatively characterised by using HPLC-ESI-QTOF based on the tandem mass spectra of references.

CONCLUSION
Linkage sites between different hydroxyl groups on the sugar and carboxyl groups for the three groups of isomers are confirmed. The reason for fragmentation differences might be that cleavage of the glycosidic bond accompanies the active H in vicinal hydroxyl rearrangement. The MS method is a useful tool for the analysis of isomers, especially trace isomers in a complicated extract.


Objective: The COVID-19 pandemic is the largest public health crisis of this century. Challenges include the overactive immune responses such as cytokine storm and hyper-inflammation, increased likelihood of severe complications in high-risk populations, limited treatment options mainly based on supportive care and potential long-term complications from clinical management. Falun Gong was the most popular qigong in China before 1999. Limited studies have demonstrated significant positive effects of Falun Gong practice on Health Related Quality Of Life (HRQOL), cellular function and gene expression. A health survey using SF36 in Taiwan revealed significantly higher HRQOL and abstinence of unhealthy behavior including smoking among Falun Gong followers. The health benefits were also observed in those 60 years and older, and those with previous chronic conditions, all of which are among the high-risk populations in COVID-19 for severe complications. Gene expression and cellular study results of Falun Gong practice were characterized by enhanced immunity, down regulation of cellular metabolism, and alteration of apoptotic genes in favor of a rapid resolution of inflammation. Biophysical and bio-energy study demonstrated enhanced energy field and cellular function. We hypothesized that the practice could play a potentially significant role in supporting the prevention, treatment and reducing long-term complications of COVID-19. Methods and Results: By searching the internet using diagnosis as keywords, including "SARS", "Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia", "Pulmonary Fibrosis", and "Femoral Head Necrosis", we found different number of cases in which patients recovered by learning and practicing Falun Gong. Conclusion: These results suggest potential benefits of Falun Gong practice in the prevention, treatment and prognosis in COVID-19 and warrant further studies.


Structured models of decision making often assume an agent is aware of all possible states and actions in advance. This assumption is sometimes untenable. In this paper, we learn influence diagrams from both domain exploration and expert assertions in a way which guarantees convergence to optimal behaviour, even when the agent starts unaware of actions or belief variables that are critical to success. Our experiments show that our agent learns optimal behaviour on small and large decision problems, and that allowing an agent to conserve information upon discovering new possibilities results in faster convergence.


Abstract. Mobility was severely impacted during the COVID-19 pandemic due to travel restrictions, curfews, and closed locations, such as businesses, schools, administrative offices, and other points of interest (POIs). This study uses SafeGraph visitation data to identify which POI categories experienced a significant drop in visitation counts and distance travelled from home between March/April 2019 (pre-pandemic) and March/April 2020 (during the pandemic) in Florida and California. The analysis identified a small set of POI categories for which visitation counts and travel distance did not change significantly. They can be characterized as essential services which are needed for a community's everyday operations. This study provides insight into the effect of COVID-19 on people's travel behavior to different types of trip destinations during the pandemic.


An iodinated compound, [125I]-8-iodo-2,3,4,5-tetrahydro-3-methyl-5-phenyl-1H-3-benzazepin -7-ol, has been recently reported [Sidhu, A., & Kebabian, J.W. (1985) Eur. J. Pharmacol. 113, 437-440] to be a specific ligand for the D-1 dopamine receptor. Due to its high affinity and specific activity, this ligand was chosen for the biochemical characterization of the D-1 receptor. Alkylation of particulate fractions of rat caudate nucleus by N-ethylmaleimide (NEM) caused an inactivation of the D-1 receptor, as measured by diminished binding of the radioligand to the receptor. The inactivation of the receptor sites by NEM was rapid and irreversible, resulting in a 70% net loss of binding sites. On the basis of Scatchard analysis of binding to NEM-treated tissue, the loss in binding sites was due to a net decrease in the receptor number with a 2-fold decrease in the affinity of the receptor for the radioligand. Receptor occupancy by either a D-1 specific agonist or antagonist protected the ligand binding sites from NEM-mediated inactivation. NEM treatment of the receptor in the absence or presence of protective compound abolished the agonist high-affinity state of the receptor as well as membrane adenylate cyclase activity. The above-treated striatal membranes were fused with HeLa membranes and assayed for dopamine-stimulated adenylate cyclase activity. When the sources of D-1 receptors were from agonist-protected membranes, the receptors retained their ability to functionally couple to the HeLa adenylate cyclase.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


Hemoglobins of rats switch from an embryonic to an adult type during fetal development. However, very little is known about the structures and molecular species of hemoglobins occurring in the fetal life of rats. In the present study we isolated five embryonic hemoglobins, designated E1, E2, E3, E4, and E5, from the blood of rat fetuses on day 14 of gestation by ion exchange chromatography. Reverse-phase high performance liquid chromatography revealed that these hemoglobins each consist of two kinds of globins: E1(11 alpha:epsilon 1), E2(1 alpha: epsilon 1), E3(zetta: epsilon 1), E4(1 alpha: epsilon 3), and E5(zetta: epsilon 3), respectively. The complete amino acid sequences of the zetta, epsilon 1, and epsilon 3 globins were determined. The zetta globin showed characteristic features common in alpha-type embryonic globins of known species in that the N-terminus is blocked and the amino acid at position 38 is Gln. epsilon 1 and epsilon 3 are beta-type embryonic globins, sharing 73.7% amino acid homology. Interestingly, they are more similar to the corresponding mouse beta-type embryonic globins, y and z, respectively, than to each other, implying that these globins have evolved orthologously from common ancestral proteins. It was also shown that the zetta, epsilon 1, and epsilon 3 globins are almost completely replaced by the adult type alpha and beta globins in the blood of rat fetuses by day 18 of gestation.


Water from shrimp aquaculture ponds was circulated through a mangrove woodlot, oyster beds, and seaweed ponds in biofilter experiments designed to reduce environmental loads. Though the nutrient concentrations in the shrimp culture ponds were lower than those in the other ponds in many cases, the Chl. a concentration increased explosively in shrimp ponds and exceeded 160 μg/L. These results suggested that nutrients were used for the growth of phytoplankton. The Chl. a concentration was very low in the oyster pond, and it was suggested that oyster feed actively on phytoplankton. Ammonia was always lower in the seaweed ponds than in the oyster ponds, which suggested that seaweed took up ammonia. From the nitrogen budget, 27% of nitrogen in supplied feed was incorporated into shrimp, 32% was flowed to mangrove, oyster and seaweed ponds and removed with these biofilters, and 9% was added in the aquaculture system as dissolved inorganic and particulate nitrogen. Therefore, this aquaculture system using mangroves, oyster and seaweed as biofilters was thought to be effective to reduce the environmental load.


The problem of high-fidelity reception is simplified to some extent because only local-station service is feasible due to the congested condition in the standard broadcast band. However, all of the general receiver problems are encountered in sets designed for both high-fidelity and weak-signal operation. A receiver suitable for both types of service is described here. In the design of a high-fidelity receiving system four sections of the system are of primary importance: 1. the loud speaker, 2. the audio amplifier, 3. the intermediate-frequency tuner and second detector, and 4. the radio-frequency tuner. Each of these sections is discussed and their relationship to high-quality performance is considered. Data applying to certain sections of the receiving system are presented and certain over-all data related to high-fidelity performance are included.


Position your company to keep pace in the changing environment of Managed Care!Managed Care Pharmacy: Principles and Practice analyzes trends in pharmacy benefit systems to provide physicians, pharmacists, payers, benefit consultants, and pharmaceutical companies with ways to preserve quality pharmaceutical care while reducing costs. Each chapter, written by an expert in the field, offers proven suggestions that will help you choose or develop a pharmacy benefit system that will maximize the goals of managed care organizations, pharmacists, and consumers. Discussing the importance of evaluating the success and cost-effectiveness of pharmacy benefit policies, this book gives you examples for creating and organizing monthly reports that will reveal how money is being spent or saved and if consumers are satisfied.Managed Care Pharmacy uses data and strategies that will help you understand and implement pharmacy benefits, enabling you to: examine past health care strategies--both successful and unsuccessful--to understand present changesincrease pharmacist involvement in health plans by offering capital contracts as rewardsevaluate models of money flow for pharmacy reimbursementschoose between staff-model pharmacies, community (retail) pharmacies, and types of pharmacy networks to cut costs and increase customer satisfactionuse the financial status of the benefit program, clinical outcomes reporting, prescription claims, and forms of electronic data interchange (EDI) to evaluate the cost-effectiveness and quality of care of various pharmacy systemsCombining present knowledge and future implications, this book gives you insight and information into several different aspects of pharmacy benefits. This allows you to understand how important your role is in this area of health care. Complete with a glossary of managed care terms and formats for sample monthly reports and plan enrollment forms, Managed Care Pharmacy will help you work towards providing better, less costly pharmacy benefits for consumers and health care professionals.


When the development cycle for a product is longer than the development cycle for a core technology that is embedded in it, designers may need to modify the products design to avail of upgrades in this core technology. We model optimal product positioning with regard to technology choice in this setting, using a stochastic dynamic programming framework. Under fairly general assumptions, we find that there are three possible optimal actions: to abandon the project, to maintain the current technology, or to reposition so as to use the best technology currently available.

We characterize the optimal positioning sequence in different design environments, discussing throughout the practical implications of our model. Previous research and conventional wisdom suggest early finalization of product specifications if design flexibility is decreasing over time. In contrast, we find that in some design environments, repositioning late in the development cycle can be optimal.


Holothurians were heavily exploited worldwide during the last decade. The high prices of the product prompted the opening of new fishing grounds in the west coast of American countries, such as Mexico and Ecuador. In these countries, the target species is Isostichopus fuscus . There is good information regarding the reproductive biology, growth and abundance of this sea cucumber, however, more studies are still needed, especially those which can supply information on the physiological condition of the individuals. The objective of this study was to estimate the relative condition of an exploited population of I. fuscus at Isla Espiritu Santo, in the southern Gulf of California, Mexico. A total of 1 446 individuals were analyzed during 1996-1997. Length and weight were monitored each month. We calculated the weight-length relationship and the index of relative condition (Kn). The mean length and weight were 23.3+0.1 cm and 385.9+3.9 g respectively. The weight-length relationship showed that I. fuscus grew allometrically at the study site. The index of relative condition (Kn) had an average of 1.040 +0.027, and ranged from 0.123 to 2.816. There were no statistical differences in Kn along the year, although the highest values appeared from November to April. Kn presented a parabolic relationship with total length, and peaked at 21 cm length, the size of first maturity. This pattern may indicate that the condition of individuals is slowly improving with age up to a point and then decreases gradually, a possible evidence of aging and the first indication of senescence in holothurians. Rev. Biol. Trop. 56 (Suppl. 3): 273-280. Epub 2009 January 05.


The research intends to evaluate the incidence and the effects of the appearance
in France of Spinoza's Opera Posthuma (1677-1680), in order to underline historical
circumstances, cultural facts and theoretical fields by which the so-called 'Spinozareception'
has come about – especially in Cartesian or post-Cartesian outlook.
Breaking into a cultural ground marked by lively theological and doctrinarian
controversies, Spinoza's thinking seemed to point out those themes and problems of
Cartesianism subject to many interpretative pulls, or even put aside, in the
developments of Cartesian metaphysics itself. In fact, after the death of Descartes, his
followers often turned to emphasize their compatibility with the requirements of
Calvinistic or Catholic orthodoxy. The leading thread through the entire work is
therefore the convergence of Cartesianism and Spinozism, and in particular the
encounter between 'Cartesianisms' (theoretical tendencies into a Cartesian ground)
and Spinozism. The beginning section is devoted to the analysis of the first Cartesian
refutations of Spinoza (by Poiret, Lamy, Jacquelot, and Regis). Then, the ambiguous
critical strategy deployed by Pierre Bayle in the famous article «Spinoza» is
discussed. In the final part, the work is focused on the oblique confrontation of
Fenelon's Cartesian metaphysics with the theoretical image of spinozisme. If, in a
historical view, the most important anti-spinozistic works came out from that
articulated and dislocated space which goes under the name of 'Cartesianism', in our
opinion the study of dynamics of connections of Cartesianism and Spinozism can
help to better understand the complex history of early European Spinoza-reception.
We find an a posteriori confirmation of it in the pages of the principal French learned
journal, Journal de Trevoux, whose chronological extent (1701-1767) actually
involved the majority of 'mediate' circulation of Spinozism. At the heart of the
controversies between supporters and opponents of Descartes, the encounter with
Spinoza brought to surface some common trends in both theoretical spaces, and some
shared features hard to remove. The latter will orient the peculiar modalities of
Cartesian criticism and confutation, through violent and misleading accusations, and
with clear omissions of perfectly Cartesian themes, but suspect of heresy
(antifinalism, divine omnipotence, free creation of eternal truths, determinism,
occasionalism and continuous creation…). If it is true that historically the
'spinozism' was a repulsive image, it also had the function to enable different
Cartesian positions to 'elaborate' their object - and, from this point of view, that
object was exactly the denial and the rejection of Spinoza. This Cartesian rejection
will pervade all the following history of anti-spinozism, across the journaux, through
Bayle's dissembling sarcasm and Fenelon's desperate elan, ending up with the
eighteenth-century Spinoza-renaissance, which already had almost a century of
battles behind him.


The camera is generally installed in the head of a biomimetic robotic fish with embedded vision. The issue of stability control of the head is explored to guarantee the steady acquisition of image data. Specifically, hydrodynamics of the biomimetic robotic fish is modeled based on the Newton-Euler method, which is applied to comparing the head swing status in the cases of different body models. In addition, a genetic algorithm is developed to optimize parameters for multiple moving joints, intended to minimize the swing of the robotic fish's head. Finally, experiments are conducted on a selfdesigned biomimetic robotic fish equipped with an embedded vision system. The results indicate that the swing of the head is decreased and the imaging stability and continuity are greatly improved by the stability control. However, it is inevitable that the swimming velocity decreases. This method lays the foundation for locomotion control and task execution based on embedded vision.


Background: Dopa-responsive dystonia (DRD) is a movement disorder that is highly clinically and genetically heterogeneous. Our study summarizes clinical characteristics and long-term outcomes in patients with dopa-responsive dystonia with the aim of obtaining further knowledge on this disorder. Methods: Patients who met DRD genetic diagnostic criteria through whole-exome sequencing and took levodopa for over 3 years were included in our study. Detailed information was collected on these patients, including family history, age at onset, age and dosage at starting levodopa, current medication and dosage, levodopa duration, diurnal fluctuation, and other clinical features. The Burke–Fahn–Marsden Dystonia Rating Scale-Motor (BFMDRS-M) score was used to evaluate patients' dystonia and variation after levodopa. According to the long-term outcomes, patients were further graded as good (dystonia improved by more than 50% after levodopa, and no further motor symptoms appeared) and poor (dystonia improved by <50% after levodopa, or new motor symptoms appeared). Results: A total of 20 DRD patients were included (11 with GCH1 variants, 9 with TH variants). During long-term levodopa treatment, three patients with TH variants (3/20, 15%) developed motor symptoms, including body jerks and paroxysmal symptoms, and responded well to increasing levodopa doses. The patient with homozygous mutation c.1481C>T/p. Thr494Met harbored more serious symptoms and poor response to levodopa and showed decreased cardiac uptake in MIBG. Conclusions: Most DRD patients showed satisfactory treatment outcomes after long-term levodopa, whereas few patients with TH variants presented motor symptoms, which is considered to be related to dopamine insufficiency. For patients with motor symptoms after long-term levodopa, increasing the dose slowly might be helpful to relieve symptoms.


Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most common cancer worldwide and the leading cause of cancer-related deaths. Recently, several studies have demonstrated that gut microbiota can alter CRC susceptibility and progression by modulating mechanisms such as inflammation and DNA damage, and by producing metabolites involved in tumor progression or suppression. Dysbiosis of gut microbiota has been observed in patients with CRC, with a decrease in commensal bacterial species (butyrate-producing bacteria) and an enrichment of detrimental bacterial populations (pro-inflammatory opportunistic pathogens). CRC is characterized by altered production of bacterial metabolites directly involved in cancer metabolism including short-chain fatty acids and polyamines. Emerging evidence suggests that diet has an important impact on the risk of CRC development. The intake of high-fiber diets and the supplementation of diet with polyunsaturated fatty acids, polyphenols and probiotics, which are known to regulate gut microbiota, could be not only a potential mechanism for the reduction of CRC risk in a primary prevention setting, but may also be important to enhance the response to cancer therapy when used as adjuvant to conventional treatment for CRC. Therefore, a personalized modulation of the pattern of gut microbiome by diet may be a promising approach to prevent the development and progression of CRC and to improve the efficacy of antitumoral therapy.


Success can breed a sense of failure. So it is with the welfare state, a political project whose achievements leave many unsatisfied. Nowhere is this more true than in the field of equality. Assessments differ, but there are few analysts who would defend the welfare state in terms of its ability to eradicate poverty, produce substantial equality of educational attainment, and eliminate inequalities of health status. All these points may be conceded while acknowledging that the welfare state has many achievements to its credit. In its period of expansion it reduced economic insecurity, raised standards of living, and provided political stability. To accept that it has not achieved all the egalitarian aims that have been held out for it is not to deny its achievements. But it is to suggest that those achievements are limited. The chief source of limitation appears to stem from the fact that its beneficiaries are "not only the poor."' It is possible to show that in a wide variety of circumstances nonpoor groups (hereafter conveniently, if rather inaccurately, referred to as "the middle classes") successfully use and benefit from a wide range of goods and services in the welfare state. It is not so much that the poor are precluded from benefiting at all by this middle-class participation as that their relative benefit is thereby reduced. Although, with the welfare state, the poor have gained access to health and education services as well as various forms of income


Contemporary ethics and moral philosophy need a kind of revision due to their negligence in human moral capacities, ordinary life, and humans' expectations of ethics. The assumptions and presuppositions of ethics result in their current unsatisfactory status. In this paper, we first explore and criticize those presuppositions. Then, instead of introducing ideal presuppositions of ethics, we introduce folk ethics and its components in order to show that contemporary ethics and moral philosophy should always begin with folk ethics. The most important advantage of folk ethics is its realistic foundation, which in turn will produce better results.


For better utilization of computing resources, it is important to consider parallel programming environments in which the number of available processors varies at runtime. In this paper, we discuss runtime support for data parallel programming in such an adaptive environment. Executing programs in an adaptive environment requires redistributing data when the number of processors changes, and also requires determining new loop bounds and communication patterns for the new set of processors. We have developed a runtime library to provide this support. We discuss how the runtime library can be used by compilers of HPF-like languages to generate code for an adaptive environment. We present performance results for a Navier-Stokes solver and a multigrid template run on a network of workstations and an IBM SP-2. Our experiments show that if the number of processors is not varied frequently, the cost of data redistribution is not signiicant compared to the time required for the actual computation. Overall, our work establishes the feasibility of compiling HPF for a network of non-dedicated workstations, which are likely to be an important resource for parallel programming in the future.