1. Introduction One of the most closely-watched numbers produced by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is the seasonally adjusted civilian unemployment rate. It is computed from eight employment and four unemployment series. These and other labor force statistics are derived from the Current Population Survey (CPS), a survey of close to 50,000 households. A motivation for examining the aggregation issue is that four of twelve components of the unemployment rate are for teenagers and four are agricultural employment. With the decline in size of the farm sector and reductions in the CPS sample, it makes sense to examine adjustment quality. This study revisits work by Estela Dagum (1978) for the Levitan Commission. An impetus for the use of models is the development by Augustin Maravall and Victor Gomez (1997) of the TRAMO/SEATS software for adjustment based on seasonal ARIMA models. TRAMO/SEATS offers advances in model identification and signal extraction, making the use of models more practical, and its availability makes these methods more accessible to the public. Fischer and Planas (1998) for Eurostat have worked extensively with the package.


Complex real-world systems are currently developing into a decisive instrument for IT-supported problem solving for a great number of problems posed by science, economy and society. Like in many environmental simulation systems the Man Model Measurement (M3) Simulation (http://mmm.first.fraunhofer.de) contains numerous single scientifically founded models coupled to each other to reflect the complexity of our world. The unpredictable human factor is considered by actively involving real people into the simulation by a Virtual Reality framework. The evolution and enhancement of the M3 system will be provided by an open software API. This paper will focus on the control and the data communication between the distributed simulation models that are realized by specialized markup languages which employ the XML technology for easy extension and validation. The input and output data of the models is represented by an XML data model that includes also the physical and mathematical meaning of the transferred data so that different models can be easily coupled by connecting their XML formatted input and output streams, e.g. via sockets. The initialization parameters and the relevant output data of the models can be stored in an SQL database (MySQL) which can be accessed by a web interface or directly using JDBC. Legacy Code is included in the simulation system using wrapping technologies.


In this paper, we report the numerical and experimental solutions of the axi-symmetric flows in the axial plane driven by an impingement of fluid from the bottom wall of a circular cylinder. We managed to visualize successfully the flow pattern shown on the vertical plane through the container axis. The numerical results are shown to compare well with the experimental results for the case of infinity Rossby number. The satisfactory agreement between the two results was possible when in the numerics the free surface was treated as a solid wall so that a no-slip condition was applied on the surface. The numerical solutions reveal that inertial oscillation plays an important role at small Rossby numbers, or at a larger background rotation.


ABSTRACT To evaluate the association of shift work with 10-year cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk among Chinese workers. We included 23,064 workers in the first follow-up of the Dongfeng-Tongji cohort study. Questionnaires and physical examinations were conducted to collect data for all participants. Framingham Risk Score was calculated according to the multivariable risk algorithms, and used to evaluate 10-year CVD risk. Logistic regression models were used to assess the relationship between shift work and 10-year CVD risk. Among 23,064 individuals, 51.92% of workers suffered shift work, and the proportions of shift work duration of 1-<10, 10-<20, and ≥20 years were 17.29%, 17.35% and 17.30%, respectively. Compared with individuals without a shift work history, the odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of 10-year CVD were 1.027 (0.900–1.173), 1.058 (0.927–1.206) and 1.191 (1.036–1.368) for individuals with shift work duration of 1-<10 years, 10-<20 years, and ≥20 years, respectively, after adjusting for potential confounders. And the association was more obvious in males. When shift work and obesity were combined, the OR (95%CI) of high 10-year CVD risk (3.373, 2.390–4.761) was significantly increased for obese individuals with shift work of ≥20 years. Besides, the OR (95%CI) for higher 10-year CVD risk associated with shift work decreased as the leaving shift work duration prolonged. Shift work is associated with a higher 10-year CVD risk, especially among males. Obesity has a synergistic effect on such association while leaving shift work reduces such association.


The SPIRAL2 facility at GANIL-Caen is now in its construction phase, with a project group including the participation of many French laboratories (CNRS, CEA) and international partners. The SPIRAL2 facility will be able to produce various accelerated beams at high intensities: 40 MeV Deuterons, 33 MeV Protons with intensity until 5mA and heavy ions with A/Q=3 up to 14.5 MeV/u until 1mA current. We will present the final status of the high energy beam transport lines of the new facility. Various studies were performed on HEBT and beam-dump concerning beam dynamics, safety and thermo-mechanicals aspects. New experimental areas using stable beams and the cave dedicated to radioactive ion production will be presented according the scientific program.


This paper introduces Bayesian Flow Networks (BFNs), a new class of generative model in which the parameters of a set of independent distributions are modified with Bayesian inference in the light of noisy data samples, then passed as input to a neural network that outputs a second, interdependent distribution. Starting from a simple prior and iteratively updating the two distributions yields a generative procedure similar to the reverse process of diffusion models; however it is conceptually simpler in that no forward process is required. Discrete and continuous-time loss functions are derived for continuous, discretised and discrete data, along with sample generation procedures. Notably, the network inputs for discrete data lie on the probability simplex, and are therefore natively differentiable, paving the way for gradient-based sample guidance and few-step generation in discrete domains such as language modelling. The loss function directly optimises data compression and places no restrictions on the network architecture. In our experiments BFNs achieve competitive log-likelihoods for image modelling on dynamically binarized MNIST and CIFAR-10, and outperform all known discrete diffusion models on the text8 character-level language modelling task.


In this paper we consider the problem of detecting information about HTTP endpoints on the server by extracting requests from the commented-out client code of web applications. The algorithm that extracts commented-out requests is proposed and implemented. The developed module was integrated into a static analyzer. An experiment was conducted on more than a million web pages belonging to more than 50 thousand web applications from the Alexa Top 1 million list. Requests unique to the commented code were selected for each page. Then a check was made for the existence of an associated endpoint on the server for each of them. According to the results of the experiment, it was found that commented-out requests actually occur in real web applications, they were detected in ~2.78 % of all explored sites. In addition, ~40 % of them were marked as "live", that is having an endpoint on the server. Also, a cursory analysis has shown that such endpoints often turn out to be vulnerable. The module can be used as part of a web security scanner to obtain more complete information about the server side of a web application using the black box method.


A rare case of a long-standing idiopathic acquired blood coagulation factor V (FV) inhibitor is reported. A 78 year-old male was admitted complaining of hematuria and tarry stools of two weeks' duration. He was noted to have a prolonged prothrombin time and activated partial thromboplastin time. A mixing study suggested the existence of an inhibitor and the activity of FV was less than 1%. Western blot analysis revealed the presence of anti-FV antibodies in the patient's serum. Because of significant bleeding tendencies, the patient received fresh-frozen plasma, platelet transfusions and methylprednisolone. His PT, APTT and FV activity were partially corrected although the disease was exacerbated when the steroid dose was tapered off. The patient was then treated with low dose cyclophosphamide. The majority of the cases with acquired FV inhibitor occur spontaneously in older patients but this condition may be associated with a surgical procedure, administration of antibiotics, tuberculosis or malignant diseases; some of them are, however, idiopathic. No underlying disease was detected in our present patient. The inhibitor disappears within 10 weeks in most patients and the prolonged presence of an idiopathic FV inhibitor is rare.


Issues concerning with LGBT seem to be never lasting discussions. These are due to several disciplines, such as health, psychology, Islamic law, other related ones, that may give significant affects in the process making decisions concerning with the issues. Among the issues are dealing with positioning of LGBT either as nature or nurture, given or socially constructed, inherited or deviant, normal or diseased, and so forth. Such abnormal behaviors lead this group to the false understanding about sex in the wrong ways. This points out that the people that gets involved in LGBT fail to synchronize their desire and principles of life. This paper, therefore, aims at analyzing the perspectives of Islamic scholars of Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh) concerning with LGBT and the effects as well caused by


To succeed in many sports, players must not only adjust their movements during execution in response to environmental changes, but also switch to diŠerent movements altogether. Previous studies have implicated executive functions in movement switching ability. We aimed to clarify expertise diŠerences in movement adjustment and switching, and compared performance on three tasks of target striking between expert and intermediate kendo players as participants. Task 1 was a simple strike, whereby participants struck targets at one position; Task 2 was an adjusted strike, whereby participants struck targets at three positions in a random order. Task 3 was strike–defense switching, whereby participants struck targets as in Task 2 while were also required to switch to defense when an opponent made a counter-strike. That is, the participants were required accurate strike in Task 1 and 2 close to the kendo practices, and were required accurate strike and defense in Task 3 close to the real matches. We found no diŠerences in strike movement time and accuracy in any of the tasks between groups. However, expert players were able to execute successful strike-defense switching in Task 3, whereas intermediate players were not. These results suggest that an expertise diŠerence exists in executive functions, and that it is essential for players to practice focused on acquisition of switching skills in order to further improve their performance.


Native and cross-linked rat tail tendon collagen was irradiated with high energy electrons up to a maximum dose of 100x10 4 J kg -1 (100Mrd). Fibres irradiated dry showed greater damage when examined in the electron microscope using negative staining techniques than those irradiated wet. Cross-linking with glutaraldehyde prior to irradiation resulted in the band structure being preserved even at the highest dose but an unequal shrinkage of the bands was noted. Irradiation altered the reactivity of both native and cross-linked collagen with collagenase and elastase. Wet- but not dry-irradiated native collagen became resistant to collagenase. Both wet- and dry-irradiated specimens were digested with elastase. Cross-linked collagen, normally resistant to both elastase and collagenase, became sensitive after varying doses of radiation; different results were obtained after irradiation in the wet and dry states. Irradiated collagen reacted abnormally with various histological stains and tended to resemble elastin in tinctorial properties. No marked changes were noted in the amino acid composition of the collagen after irradiation. Solubility in dilute alkali, acetic acid and hot water was decreased after irradiation of collagen in the wet state and increased after irradiation in the dry state. The results were consistent with the hypothesis that electron irradiation of collagen in the dry state results in scission of the polypeptide chains and that, in the presence of water, this is accompanied by the formation of intermolecular bonds. It also appears that changes in the configuration of the polypeptide chains accompany both these processes.


—Requirements for asynchronous reset behavior extend the complexities of Clock Domain Crossings as designs add reset domains to meet power and functional requirements. Design configurability common in IP development and in construction of subsystems built of configurable elements introduces challenges to the verification of Reset Domain Crossings (RDC). This paper outlines an approach to RDC verification that efficiently addresses these challenges.


Spiral welded stainless tubes are produced by helical welding of a continuous strip of stainless steel. Recently, concrete-filled spiral welded stainless steel tubes have found increasing application in the construction industry due to their ease of fabrication and aesthetic appeal. However, an in-depth understanding of the behaviour of this type of structure is still needed due to the lack of proper design guidance and insufficient experimental verification. In this paper, the mechanical performance of concrete-filled spiral welded stainless steel tubes will be numerically investigated with a commercial finite element software package, through which an experimental program can be designed properly. Specifically, the proposed finite element models take into account the effects of material and geometric nonlinearities. Moreover, the initial imperfections of stainless steel tubes and the form of helical welding will be appropriately included. Enhancement of the understanding of the analysis results can be achieved by extending results through a series of parametric studies based on the developed finite element model. Thus, the effects of various design parameters will be further evaluated by using the developed finite element model. Furthermore, for the purposes of wide application of such types of structure, the accuracy of the behaviour prediction in terms of ultimate strength based on current design codes will be studied. The authors herein compared the load capacity between the finite element analysis results and the existing codes of practice.


Abstract:  We report a case of 14‐year‐old male with local augmentation of varicella zoster exanthems on the forearm on which cast application was performed. After 1 week, the first varicella zoster exanthems began to appear on the left forearm under the cast and trunk, while lesions on the other forearm and extremities were very rare. We postulated that the local pressure and heat increased the number of exanthems.


In this article we report an investigation on students' understanding of: 1) unit vectors and, 2) scalar multiplication of a vector. We administered two different tests to a total of 850 students after taking their first introductory physics course on mechanics at a large private Mexican university. The first test about unit vectors was taken by 270 students and the second test about scalar multiplication of a vector by 580 students. In the first part of this article, we analyze students' difficulties sketching the unit vector in the direction of a vector in the Cartesian coordinate plane. In the second part, we analyze students' responses in two types of problems: positive and negative scalar multiplication of a vector. In both parts of this article we describe frequent errors that have not been reported in the literature.


In recent years evidence has emerged that neurodegenerative diseases (NDs) are strongly associated with the microbiome composition in the gut. Parkinson's disease (PD) is the most intensively studied neurodegenerative disease in this context. In this review, we performed a systematic evaluation of the published literature comparing changes in colonic microbiome in PD to the ones observed in other NDs including Alzheimer's disease (AD), multiple system atrophy (MSA), multiple sclerosis (MS), neuromyelitis optica (NMO) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). To enhance the comparability of different studies, only human case-control studies were included. Several studies showed an increase of Lactobacillus, Bifidobacterium, Verrucomicrobiaceae and Akkermansia in PD. A decrease of Faecalibacterium spp., Coprococcus spp., Blautia spp., Prevotella spp. and Prevotellaceae was observed in PD. On a low taxonomic resolution, like the phylum level, the changes are not disease-specific and are inconsistent. However, on a higher taxonomic resolution like genus or species level, a minor overlap was observed between PD and MSA, both alpha synucleinopathies. We show that standardization of sample collection and analysis is necessary for ensuring the reproducibility and comparability of data. We also provide evidence that assessing the microbiota composition at high taxonomic resolution reveals changes in relative abundance that may be specific to or characteristic of one disease or disease group, and might evolve discriminative power. The interactions between bacterial species and strains and the co-abundances must be investigated before assumptions about the effects of specific bacteria on the host can be made with certainty.


Crowdsourced dialogue corpora are usually limited in scale and topic coverage due to the expensive cost of data curation. This would hinder the generalization of downstream dialogue models to open-domain topics. In this work, we leverage large language models for dialogue augmentation in the task of emotional support conversation (ESC). By treating dialogue augmentation as a dialogue completion task, we prompt a fine-tuned language model to complete full dialogues from available dialogue posts of various topics, which are then postprocessed based on heuristics. Applying this approach, we construct AugESC, an augmented dataset for the ESC task, which largely extends the scale and topic coverage of the crowdsourced ESConv corpus. Through comprehensive human evaluation, we demonstrate that our approach is superior to strong baselines of dialogue augmentation and that AugESC has comparable dialogue quality to the crowdsourced corpus. We also conduct human interactive evaluation and prove that post-training on AugESC improves downstream dialogue models' generalization ability to open-domain topics. These results suggest the utility of AugESC and highlight the potential of large language models in improving data-scarce dialogue generation tasks.


Chlorpyrifos (CP) is a pesticide used extensively in agricultural crops. Residual CP has been found in a variety of soils, vegetables and fruits indicating a serious danger to humans. Therefore, it is necessary to restrict its entry into agricultural products for food safety. A wire-house pot experiment was conducted with maize plants in biochar- and compost-amended soil (at 0.25% and 0.50%, respectively, in weight-by-weight composition) contaminated with 100 and 200 mg kg−1 of CP, respectively. Results indicated toxicity at both CP levels (with 84% growth reduction) at CP 200 mg kg−1. However, application of compost and biochar at the 0.50% level improved the fresh weight (2.8- and 4-fold, respectively). Stimulated superoxide dismutase (SOD) and peroxidase (POX) activities and depressed catalase (CAT) activity were recorded in response to CP contamination and were significantly recovered by the amendments. Both amendments significantly decreased the CP phytoavailability. With biochar, 91% and 76% reduction in the CP concentration in maize shoots and with compost 72% and 68% reduction was recorded, at a 0.50% level in 100 and 200 mg kg−1 contaminated treatments respectively. Compost accelerated the CP degradation in postharvest soil. Therefore, biochar and compost amendments can effectively be used to decrease CP entry in agricultural produce by reducing its phytoavailability.


The nephrotoxicity and auditory toxicity of high-dose (mean, 28.6 g) and prolonged (mean, 61.6 days) courses of gentamicin and tobramycin were monitored in 15 patients receiving 17 courses of treatment for pseudomonas endocarditis. Doses were adjusted in a manner that maintained peak levels of aminoglycoside in serum at 12-15 micrograms/ml and trough levels at less than 2 micrograms/ml. Drug-related renal dysfunction and auditory toxicity occurred in 63% and 44%, respectively, of gentamicin-treated patients and in 43% and 25%, respectively, of tobramycin-treated patients. Mean maximal rises (+/- SEM) in serum creatinine levels were 0.8 (+/- 0.4) mg/dl in the group given gentamicin and 1.6 (+/- 0.7) mg/dl in the group given tobramycin. Mean maximal decreases in pure-tone hearing threshold levels were greater in gentamicin-treated patients (58.3 dB) than in those given tobramycin (22.5 dB). Both forms of toxicity appeared earlier and at a smaller dose with gentamicin than with tobramycin.


As a crucial step toward a full narrative of Guerrero's life story, this article relies on private correspondences and public papers to retell the evolution of Leon Maria Guerrero as biographer of Rizal. Guerrero, a noted newspaperman before becoming an eminent diplomat, wrote the prizewinning The First Filipino (1963), which represents a significant contribution toward the present understanding of a Rizal human enough to be the national hero. This article traces the construction, appropriation, and reappropriation of Rizal in the context of different phases of Philippine state politics, which influenced the method and strategy that Guerrero used to approach Rizal.


Apologies are often given during mediation. Expressions of regret, remorse, sorrow or sympathy may go some way to resolving the conflict between parties in mediation. Parties and mediators will benefit from understanding how the law and lawyers view apologies. What are the legal implications of making an apology? Why are parties sometimes advised by their lawyers not to apologise? What benefits are there from a legal perspective for a party to make an apology in mediation? Is it possible to apologise "safely"? This article explores the answers to these questions and the meaning of "apology" in the legal context.


Time Slotted Channel Hopping (TSCH) behavioural mode has been introduced in IEEE 802.15.4e standard to address the ultra-high reliability and ultra-low power communication requirements of Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) networks. Scheduling the packet transmissions in IIoT networks is a difficult task owing to the limited resources and dynamic topology. In this paper, we propose a phasic policy gradient (PPG) based TSCH schedule learning algorithm. The proposed PPG based scheduling algorithm overcomes the drawbacks of totally distributed and totally centralized deep reinforcement learning-based scheduling algorithms by employing the actor-critic policy gradient method that learns the scheduling algorithm in two phases, namely policy phase and auxiliary phase.


Lithium–sulfur (Li–S) batteries are promising candidates for energy storage, but suffer from capacity and cycling challenges caused by the serious shuttling effect of polysulfide (PS) ions. To address these issues, a sodium alginate (SA)‐derived affinity laminated chromatography membrane built‐in electrode is designed. This is the first attempt to utilize this type of membrane, which is widely used for the selective adsorption of proteins, in the battery field. An ordered multilayer structure throughout the electrode can easily be obtained, and the number of membrane layers can be also conveniently controlled by varying the cross‐linking time of SA. The PS shuttling effect is efficiently suppressed and the permeability of PSs is reduced by enveloping the carbon/sulfur powder in ultrathin laminated chromatography membranes. As a result, these designed electrodes deliver a superhigh initial capacity of 1492 mA h g−1, with a capacity retention almost 20% higher than the contrast. This low‐cost and easily mass‐producible strategy inspired by affinity chromatography is expected to effectively solve the PS shuttling problem toward high‐loading and long‐lifetime Li–S batteries in practice.


With reconnaissance surveillance, and target acquisition systems becoming increasingly sophisticated in both sensor performance and processing capabilities, there exists a requirement to increase the camoufleur's ability to control and manipulate target signatures beyond those currently available. To assist in accomplishing this, a hybrid technology is required: one that combines the features of multispectral signature control, rapid deployment, and low cost. The WES fixed-facility CCD team is developing a suite of signature controlling materials termed 'Multispectral Camouflage Appliques' (MCSs). Due to the nature of this material, the spectral characteristics (e.g. emmissivity, radar scattering properties, UV-NIR reflectance, color) can be controlled with great latitude by the designer, by adding underlying material layers or external coatings. It is the ability of the designer to manipulate the fundamental characteristics of the MCA material that allows its uniqueness and maximum utility. THe first series of MCAs are composed of an adhesive-backed metal foil overlaid with a visual color coating that is transparent in the thermal IR wavelengths. The effect is that of a visual camouflage combined with a thermal mirror that reflects emissions of the natural surroundings. The 'peel and stick' adhesive backing provides a rapid method of applying MCAs to fixed and semimobile assets that would be beneficial to bare base and force projection msisions. Dual uses of this material include drug and border aerial surveillance as position markers that are visually disguised from ground observation but provide high contrast in thermal IR imaging systems by reflecting cold sky temperatures.


New Zealand, unlike most countries, does not have a single national vertical datum. Instead, twelve separate and poorly linked primary levelling networks tied to twelve different tide gauges are used. The current vertical datums are based on the false assumption that mean sea level, measured at the twelve tide gauges, corresponds to an equipotential surface. Due to the effects of longperiod tides and sea surface topography, offsets of up to 0.5 metres between vertical datums are possible. In addition, no regional geoid model is available for New Zealand. A consequence of the multiple vertical datums is that the gravity observations are downward continued to twelve different surfaces. This will cause the anomalies to be distorted, especially in the medium wavelengths, which will propagate into the geoid solution, meaning that the initial solution will not completely unify the datums. An iterative process to achieve a better unification is proposed. It is expected that this approach will be more successful than using a geoid model based on distorted gravity anomalies. The results of a regional gravimetric geoid computation using land based gravity observations, satellite altimetry and a global geopotential model are also presented.


HONG KONG/LEIPZIG, Germany: Scientists at the University of Melbourne, Australia, have announced that they have partnered with CSL Limited and Sanofi Pasteur, the country's largest biopharmaceutical companies, to further develop and commercialise a vaccine for the treatment of gum disease. The programme, which has been ten years in development, involves bacterial peptides and proteins that trigger the immune response to periodontal inflammation. The vaccine is currently being tested in mouse models and is expected to progress to clinical trials soon, the researchers said.


Thirty nonsurgically stressed dogs, anesthetized with pentobarbital sodium, were subjected to hypothermia induced by surface cooling. Plasma volumes, plasma 17-hydroxycorticosteroid concentrations and circulating amounts of corticoid were measured at rectal temperatures of 33°, 30°, 28°, 25° and, after 2 and 4 hours, at 25℃. No significant differences were encountered with respect to the plasma concentration of 17-hydroxycorticoid. Plasma volumes were significantly reduced in every instance. Adrenal cortical responsiveness was tested with exogenous ACTH in four dogs. It is concluded that hypothermia in the pentobarbitalized dog does not evoke adrenal cortical response as measured by peripheral arterial blood levels of 17-hydroxycorticosteroids.

Submitted on August 21, 1958


Relationship lending may create benefits for borrowers by reducing information asymmetries. However, empirical evidence is mixed. We conduct a meta-analysis to summarize and explain the heterogeneity in the results in the literature using hand-collected information from 101 studies in the United States, Europe, Asia, and Latin America from 1970 to 2010. We find that strong relationships are generally beneficial for borrowers, but lending outcomes differ across the relationships' dimensions. Long-lasting, exclusive, and synergy-creating bank relationships are associated with higher credit volume and lower loan rates. These benefits are more likely in the United States and in countries where bank competition is high. They are not related to the importance of small and medium-sized enterprises in an economy, suggesting that prevalence of relationship lending does not necessarily come along with borrower benefits. Our inferences are robust when we control for observed systematic heterogeneity in the original studies and hold in a bootstrapping analysis.Data, as supplemental material, are available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2014.2088 . This paper was accepted by Wei Jiang, finance .


A manipulator with free joints is a class of under-actuated mechanisms. Control of such systems is one of major topics in robotics and control engineering. In this paper, we apply the averaging method to manipulators connected by free joints and describe their behaviors in response to periodic inputs. We analyze 2R and 3R free-joint manipulators and show that each system has invariant manifolds defined by an energy-like conserved quantity. We also develop a control method via feedback modulation of the input amplitude to reach a desired invariant manifold. The effectiveness of the method is verified by computer simulations.


The first six niobium split-ring resonators for the Argonne Heavy-Ion Energy Booster have been completed. The average performance at 4.2K is an accelerating gradient of 3.7 MV/m or an effective accelerating potential of 1.3 MV per resonator for an rf input of 4 W/resonator. The resonators are constructed in part of an explosively bonded Nb-Cu composite material which performs well for rf surface fields of at least 200 G. In initial tests, the resonators frequently exhibit thermal instability at E a < 3 MV/m because of several types of microscopic surface defects. The methods used for locating, identifying, and removing these defects are discussed.


Active Appearance Models (AAMs) are able to align efficiently known faces under duress, when face pose and illumination are controlled. We propose Adapted Active Appearance Models to align unknown faces in unknown poses and illuminations. Our proposal is based on the one hand on a specific transformation of the active model texture in an oriented map, which changes the AAM normalization process; on the other hand on the research made in a set of different precomputed models related to the most adapted AAM for an unknown face. Tests on public and private databases show the interest of our approach. It becomes possible to align unknown faces in real-time situations, in which light and pose are not controlled.


This article aims to analyse liability issues as a further means to regulate risks, in case the precautionary measures of the delivered safety system fail. Through liability, the risk that cannot be prevented can be transferred onto those parties who are in the best position to spread them. The allocation of liability thus works as an incentive to the correct functioning of the preventive measures. Liability rules appear to be a key legal remedy which can ensure both tort reparation and a fair and efficient distribution of burdens in a legal order. In this vein, air traffic management (ATM) is addressed as a case study, which shows the main issues and the gaps that liability rules face when dealing with the trade off between risk and safety as conveyed by technology. After having clarified the nature of the relations between risk and liability on the one hand, and automation and liability on the other hand, this article analyses liability issues in the framework of ATM by approaching this topic in a comparative way between the National Airspace System (NAS) of the United States of America (USA) and the Single European Sky (SES) of the European Union (EU).


Developmental language learning impairments affect 10 to 20% of children and increase their risk of later literacy problems (dyslexia) and psychiatric disorders. Both oral- and written-language impairments have been linked to slow neural processing, which is hypothesized to interfere with the perception of speech sounds that are characterized by rapid acoustic changes. Research into the etiology of language learning impairments not only has led to improved diagnostic and intervention strategies, but also has raised fundamental questions about the neurobiological basis of speech, language, and reading, as well as hemispheric lateralization.


Sepsis-associated encephalopathy (SAE) is linked to increased morbidity and mortality rates in patients with sepsis. Increased cytokine production and neuronal apoptosis are implicated in the pathogenesis of the SAE. Neuroinflammation plays a major role in sepsis-induced brain injury. Thioredoxin-interacting protein (TXNIP), an inhibitor of thioredoxin, is associated with oxidative stress and inflammation. However, whether the TXNIP is involved in the sepsis-induced brain injury and the underlying mechanism is yet to be elucidated. Therefore, the present study was aimed at elucidating the effects of TXNIP knockdown on sepsis-induced brain injury and cognitive decline in mice. Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) was injected intraperitoneally to induce sepsis brain injury in mice. The virus-carrying control or TXNIP shRNA was injected into the lateral ventricle of the brain 4 weeks before the LPS treatment. The histological changes in the hippocampal tissues, encephaledema, and cognitive function were detected, respectively. Also, the 7-day survival rate was recorded. Furthermore, the alterations in microglial activity, oxidative response, proinflammatory factors, apoptosis, protein levels (TXNIP and NLRP3 inflammasome), and apoptosis were examined in the hippocampal tissues. The results demonstrated that the TXNIP and NLRP3 inflammasome expression levels were increased at 6, 12, and 24 h post-LPS injection. TXNIP knockdown dramatically ameliorated the 7-day survival rate, cognitive decline, brain damage, neuronal apoptosis, and the brain water content, inhibited the activation of microglia, downregulated the NLRP3/caspase-1 signaling pathway, and reduced the oxidative stress and the neuroinflammatory cytokine levels at 24 h post-LPS injection. These results suggested a crucial effect of TXNIP knockdown on the mechanism of brain injury and cognitive decline in sepsis mice via suppressing oxidative stress and neuroinflammation. Thus, TXNIP might be a potential therapeutic target for SAE patients.


Macrogeographic patterns of chromosomal banding sequences were studied in natural populations of the Holarctic species Chironomus plumosus . Of the 31 inversion sequences now known, 16 are endemic to the Palearctic, 7 are endemic to the Nearctic, and 8 are Holarctic sequences common to both zoogeographic zones. Differences in the sets of inversion sequences found on each continent, plus differing frequencies of Holarctic sequences, result in great overall divergence of karyotypes on the two continents. The karyotype of Nearctic C. plumosus differs from that of Palearctic populations primarily by the presence of a homozygous Nearctic sequence in arm A (n'plu A9), along with fixation (h'plu C2, h'plu E2, and h'plu F1), or high frequency (h'plu D2), of Holarctic sequences which are present but less frequent in the Palearctic. Although long continental isolation has led to great divergence of karyotypes on opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean, all populations of C. plumosus show sufficient cytogenetic similarity to constitute a single Holarctic species.


Longitudinal data analysis had been widely developed in the past three decades. Longitudinal data are common in many fields such as public health, medicine, biological and social sciences. Longitudinal data have special nature as the individual may be observed during a long period of time. Hence, missing values are common in longitudinal data. The presence of missing values leads to biased results and complicates the analysis. The missing values have two patterns: intermittent and dropout. The missing data mechanisms are missing completely at random (MCAR), missing at random (MAR), and missing not at random (MNAR). The appropriate analysis relies heavily on the assumed mechanism and pattern. The parametric fractional imputation is developed to handle longitudinal data with intermittent missing pattern. The maximum likelihood estimates are obtained and the Jackkife method is used to obtain the standard errors of the parameters estimates. Finally a simulation study is conducted to validate the proposed approach. Also, the proposed approach is applied to a real data.


Budd Chiari Syndrome, characterized by massive ascites, hepatomegaly, abdominal pain, and tenderness, nausea, and vomiting, is caused by obstruction of the hepatic venous outflow. Of the known causes of polycythemia rubra vera, hypernephroma, and other tumors invading the inferior vena cava have been most often reported, while pregnancy and oral contraceptives (OCs) have also been held as causes. In this paper the case is presented of a young woman, previously on OCs for 4 months, who developed the syndrome 2 weeks after delivery; she was also found to have multiple hepatic adenomas on laparotomy. The longterm use of OCs has been estimated to be associated with an annual incidence of liver cell adenoma of 3-4/100,000. Evidence suggests that the estrogen components, rather than the progesterone, of OCs seem more likely to cause liver cell adenoma since estrogens are carcinogenic in other organs and promote liver cell regeneration in rats. By interference with the metabolism of oncogenic bile salt derivatives, estrogen may exert its oncogenic effect. The patient is this case was told never to use OCs again since there is also evidence that the tumor may regress on stopping OCs, and she was advised against further pregnancies.


Recently, a new logarithmic mixed pixel classification method has been developed through the establishment of appropriate networks. Based on the fact that natural targets do not consist of equally distributed components, the Network Based Method (NBM) alerts the user for non-sampled endmembers in the image scene. In this paper, detection of misallocated endmembers in the hyperspectral space is investigated through the Network Based Method. Detection relies on the fact that misallocation of an endmember in the hyperspectral space affects its signature because the endmember includes spectral components from other endmembers, mainly from the one which is approached mostly. Three experiments were implemented and their results were compared with the Sum to One Constraint Least Square (SCLS) method's results. Experiments showed efficiency of the method to detect two endmembers with common components.


Four alnicolous (Alnicola citrinella, A. suavis, Cortinarius alnetorum, and Gyrodon lividus), 2 cortinarioid (Cortinarius alnetorum and C. scutulatus), 3 entolomatoid (Entoloma conferendum, E. pallescens, and E. sordidulum), 1 hebelomatoid (Hebeloma aff. aestivale), and 2 clitocyboid (Clitocybe applanata and C. elegantula) fungi were collected, studied, illustrated, and first reported for the Turkish mycota from Trabzon. Cortinarius alnetorum was evaluated as both an alnicolous and cortinarioid species. Field trips were made in 2012 and 2013, and the microscopical studies were performed in January and February 2014. Identification of the collections was made according to morphological investigations and field characteristics.


We propose an approach for motor skill learning of highly articulated characters based on the systematic exploration of low-dimensional joint coactivation spaces. Through analyzing human motion, we first show that the dimensionality of many motion tasks is much smaller than the full degrees of freedom (DOFs) of the character. Indeed, joint motion appears organized across DOFs, with multiple joints moving together and working in synchrony. We exploit such redundancy for character control by extracting task-specific joint coactivations from human recorded motion, capturing synchronized patterns of simultaneous joint movements that effectively reduce the control space across DOFs. By learning how to excite such coactivations using deep reinforcement learning, we are able to train humanlike controllers using only a small number of dimensions. We demonstrate our approach on a range of motor tasks and show its flexibility against a variety of reward functions, from minimalistic rewards that simply follow the center-of-mass of a reference trajectory to carefully shaped ones that fully track reference characters. In all cases, by learning a 10-dimensional controller on a full 28 DOF character, we reproduce high-fidelity locomotion even in the presence of sparse reward functions.


This article presents the results of a research study carried out in order to implement the HELER (from its Spanish acronym "Herramienta Libre para la Especificacion de Requisitos") tool (free tool for specification of requirements) which supports the activities of requirements engineering during the stage of understanding a problem within the framework of a unified process. It also provides a brief explanation of the tool in terms of the project modules, stakeholders, actors, applications, and requirements. It then goes on to propose future research work, and finally presents some important conclusions.


To increase the yield of females in the entering class, the executive admissions committee at a private West Coast dental school instituted gender-concordant applicant-interviewer dyads. Supported by Tajfel's social identity theory, members of the committee assumed that female applicants interviewed by female faculty interviewers were more likely to enroll than females interviewed by male interviewers. The purpose of this study was to test that assumption. Data were collected on all accepted applicants (n=1,192) and all faculty interviewers (n=43) for the 2001-05 entering classes and analyzed with chi square. Results revealed no relationship between applicant-interviewer gender concordance and the decision to enroll at the school. Although these findings suggest that applicant-interviewer gender concordance does not play a significant role in the enrollment decision, additional research is recommended on which factors are important to women in deciding to enroll at a particular dental school.


Neutron diffraction experiments with both conventional powder diffraction setup and under in-situ compressive loading were conducted to investigate the structural origins of large strength and toughness enhancements in Ti-16Al-27Nb alloy after Er addition. The primary phase is determined to be the ordered B2 structure form, in agreement with the previous electron microscopy study. Lattice strains of {210} and {100} planes were measured as a function of applied stress, and elastic anisotropy was found for both, and strong plastic nonlinearity was discovered for (210) reflection. The grain refinement during plastic deformation was proposed by both the 2D diffraction intensity distribution and SEM observations, while stress-induced martensitic phase transition was not observed in this study. It is believed that the activation of different slip systems and grain refinement might be the structural origin of the novel mechanical properties of this alloy.


Background Bepotastine besilate ophthalmic solution (BBOS) 1.5% is a topical antihistamine for the treatment of ocular itching associated with allergic conjunctivitis (AC). Allergic rhinitis and AC are common comorbid conditions. We explored the efficacy of BBOS 1.5% in alleviating nasal symptoms in an integrated analysis of two Phase III conjunctival allergen challenge (CAC) studies and a Phase IV environmental allergen study. Methods In the Phase III trials, a CAC was performed 15 minutes, 8 hours, and 16 hours following ocular instillation of BBOS 1.5% (n=78) or placebo (n=79), and subjects evaluated nasal symptoms. In the environmental study, subjects instilled BBOS 1.5% (n=123) or placebo (n=122) twice daily and nasal symptoms were evaluated over 2 weeks. Results In the Phase III trials, BBOS 1.5% had reduced CAC-induced nasal congestion and pruritus at 15 minutes and 8 hours postdosing and rhinorrhea and a non-ocular composite-symptom score (sum of nasal scores plus ear or palate pruritus) at all time points postdosing (all P≤0.01 vs placebo). In the Phase IV environmental study, BBOS 1.5% reduced sneezing and nasal pruritus over 2 weeks and median number of days to improvement of nasal pruritus and total nasal symptom score (sum for rhinorrhea, sneezing, nasal pruritus, and nasal congestion; P≤0.04 vs placebo). Additionally, investigator-reported improvement in overall ocular (pruritus, hyperemia, tearing) and nasal symptoms was greater with BBOS 1.5% vs placebo (P≤0.03). Conclusion Results of these exploratory analyses indicate that topical ocular BBOS 1.5% reduced nasal symptoms, supporting its use for alleviating rhinitis symptoms associated with AC.


One objective of this paper is to propose a novel class of sequence pairs, called "Quasi-orthogonal Z-complementary pairs (QOZCPs)", each depicting Z-complementary property for their aperiodic auto-correlation sums and also have a zero correlation zone when their aperiodic cross-correlation is considered. Construction of QOZCPs based on Successively Distributed Algorithms under Majorization Minimization (SDAMM) is presented.
Another objective of this paper is to apply the proposed QOZCPs in fully polarimetric radar systems and analyse the corresponding ambiguity functions. It turns out that QOZCP waveforms are much more Doppler resilient than the known Golay complementary waveforms.


The Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP), first formulated as a mathematical problem in 1930, has been receiving continuous and growing attention in artificial intelligence, computational mathematics and optimization in recent years. TSP can be described as follows: Given a set of cities, and known distances between each pair of cities, the salesman has to find a shortest possible tour that visits each city exactly once and that minimises the total distance travelled. The mathematical model of TSP is described below: Given a set of cities C = {C1, C2, C3... Cn}, the distance of each pair of cities is d(Ci,Cj). The problem is to find a route うC1,C2,C3...Cnえthat visits each city exactly once and makes


The government has launched the Public Service Agency / Regional Public Service Agency (BLU / BLUD) program with the issuance of Government Regulation Number 23 of 2005. PP 23 of 2005 concerning Financial Management of Public service agency which basically explains, Public service agency are not only a new form in management of state finances but also as a new paradigm for public sector service management. The purpose of this study was to determine and analyze how the implementation of PPK-BLUD policies in RSUD Dr. RM Djoelham Binjai in terms of improving the quality and quality of public services, especially health services to the people of Binjai City. The method used in this research is descriptive qualitative using the Merille S. Grindle theory where there are several variables that determine the effectiveness of policy implementation. From the research results it can be seen that after the implementation of PPK-BLUD in Dr. RM. Djoelham Binjai, there was a change where previously the budget management, finance and reporting processes, which had been purely based on financial regulations with the APBD mechanism. However, with the implementation of PPK-BLUD, all the income that the RSUD Dr. RM. Djoelham receives can be directly managed and used for the needs and needs of the RSUD. So it is hoped that it can simplify the bureaucracy, especially finance, so that in the end it can improve the quality of hospital services. In its implementation, there are several obstacles faced, especially the understanding of other sections and fields of PPK-BLUD in RSUD Dr. RM. Djoelham Binjai so that good coordination between divisions and fields is needed.


The objective of this study is to compare the demographic characteristics and symptoms in pregnant and postpartum women who died from Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) caused by COVID-19 or by nonspecific cause in different states of Brazil. This is a retrospective cohort study and the analysis was conducted on SARS death records between 02/16/2020 and 04/17/2021, obtained from the Information System for the Epidemiological Surveillance of Influenza (Sistema de Informação da Vigilância Epidemiológica da Gripe, SIVEP-Gripe). Pregnant and postpartum women, aged between 10 and 55 years, who died from SARS, were included and classified into two groups: SARS due to confirmed COVID-19 or SARS due to nonspecific cause. The cases were analyzed according to the women's demographic and epidemiological characteristics, clinical symptoms, risk factors and disease evolution. As results, 19,333 pregnant and postpartum women were identified. From these, 1,279 died (1,026 deaths from COVID-19 and 253 deaths from SARS with nonspecific cause). The groups showed significant differences in age, education, race, and occurrence of obesity and chronic lung disease. The group of women who died from confirmed COVID-19 presented a significantly higher frequency of symptoms of fever, cough, fatigue, loss of taste, and loss of smell, as well as a higher rate of admission to the intensive care unit (ICU). Data analysis draws attention to the high number of cases of SARS without a causal diagnosis, the low access to ICU and orotracheal intubation (OTI), which might be explained by the demographic and regional inequalities in the access to healthcare.


IN THIS Cardiff Symposium of the Postgraduate Medical Journal, I should first explain why the Pathology Department of the Welsh National School of Medicine became interested in emphysema as one of its main subjects for research. It arose out of a study of thousands of respiratory cripples in the coal mining industry. In the early part of this century coal miners were a healthy population apart from accidents, but by the third decade it was evident that respiratory disease of serious proportions was arising. At first it was thought that this was silicosis (Cummins and Sladden, 1930), affecting those miners who were exposed to rock dust as well as to coal. It soon became evident, however, that although there were cases of silicosis in those who worked especially on rock, there was a far higher incidence of respiratory troubles in miners who worked on the coal seams and in coal trimmers who load coal into ships. The name "coal worker's pneumoconiosis" was applied and is now accepted in law. A study of the lungs of miners showed that there are two quite separate forms of pneumoconiosis (Gough, 1947). The one is a massive fibrosis while the other consists of discrete nodules of coal with comparatively little fibrosis but which subsequently become surrounded by a characteristic emphysema now known as "focal dust emphysema". A technique was evolved to demonstrate this emphysema more effectively. This is the whole lung paper section method devised by Gough and Wentworth (1957/58; 1960). It is carried out on lungs fixed in expansion. The large section method was next used for a study of respiratory diseases of the general population and it revealed (Gough, 1952) two fundamentally different forms of emphysema. In the one there was a selective involvement of the centres of the lung lobules. This is known as central or centrilobular emphysema. In the other form there was no selection of the kind of air spaces dilated and since this lesion was not based on the lobule but often affected the greater part of both lungs it was referred to as generalised but this name was not sufficiently precise and the condition is now known as "'panacinar" or "panlobular". In view of the common use of the terms lobule and acinus in the classification of emphysema, it is necessary to define them.


This paper presents a study towards a framework for solving discrete optimisation problems modelled as partial constraint satisfaction problems (PCSPs). These studies follow two approaches, namely a bottom-up, and a top-down one. Three decomposition methods and an adaptive genetic algorithm (AGA) are associated with these approaches. The experimental results obtained for MI-FAP problems show a good trade-off between the quality of the solution and the execution time of the different algorithms.


The study investigates age-related effects across the adult life span on spatial abilities (testing subabilities based on a distinction between spatial visualization, mental rotation, and perspective taking) and spatial self-assessments. The sample consisted of 454 participants (223 women and 231 men) from 20 to 91 years of age. Results showed nonlinear age-related effects for spatial visualization and perspective taking but linear effects for mental rotation; few or no age-related effects were found for spatial self-assessments. Working memory accounted for only a small proportion of the variance in all spatial tasks and had no effect on spatial self-assessments. Overall, our findings suggest that the influence of age on spatial skills across the adult life span is considerable, but the effects of age change as a function of the spatial task considered, and the effect on spatial self-assessment is more marginal.


A Kuga fibre variety is a fibre bundle over a locally symmetric space whose fibre is a polarized Abelian variety. We describe a complex torus bundle associated to a 2-cocycle of a discrete group, which may be regarded as a generalized Kuga fibre variety, and prove the existence of such a bundle.


BACKGROUND: After thoracolumbar corpectomy, standard anterolateral instrumentation may consist of dual rods with cross-connectors. However, when the vertebral bodies are small or involved with disease, only 1 rod may be possible. OBJECTIVE: To compare the biomechanics of an in vitro L1 corpectomy model using 1 rod, 2 rods, or 2 rods with 2 cross-connectors. METHODS: Eight fresh frozen human cadaveric spines were potted from T9 to L3. Pure moments of 1.5, 3, and 4.5 Nm were applied, and the motion of the spine was measured using 3 infrared cameras. Loads were applied in flexion and extension, right and left lateral bending, and right and left axial rotation. Each spine was first tested in the intact state. After performing an L1 corpectomy and replacement with a carbon fiber reinforced polymer cage, 3 constructs were tested: single rod (1R), dual rod (2R), and dual rod with 2 transverse connectors (CC). RESULTS: Analysis of variance suggests significant main effects of load (P < .0001), axis (P = .022), construct (P =.0019), and individual spine (P < .0001). Overall, the single-rod construct is significantly less rigid than the intact spine in axial rotation. There is no significant difference between the intact spine and either the dual-rod construct or the dual-rod cross-connector construct. CONCLUSION: In our in vitro model of anterior spinal stabilization after corpectomy and grafting, a single-rod construct is significantly less rigid than the intact spine. Addition of a second rod returns the rigidity of the spine to the intact state. A dual-rod cross-connector construct is significantly more rigid than a single-rod construct.


OBJECTIVE
To determine whether catecholamine and cortisol secretory responses to surgery contribute to postoperative complications.

DESIGN
Prospective, randomized, case series.

SETTING
A university hospital operating suite and surgical intensive care unit.

PATIENTS
Sixty patients undergoing lower extremity vascular surgery.

INTERVENTIONS
Patients were randomized to receive either epidural anesthesia/epidural opiate analgesia (regional anesthesia) or general anesthesia/intravenous patient-controlled analgesia (general anesthesia).

MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS
Anesthesia was managed according to a prospectively designed protocol. Hemodynamic parameters and plasma catecholamine concentrations were determined at specific intraoperative and postoperative time points. Intraoperative and postoperative urine samples were collected and analyzed for free cortisol concentrations. Outcomes evaluated were cardiac (nonfatal myocardial infarction and cardiac death) and surgical (graft occlusion). Mean arterial pressure during emergence from anesthesia and in the early postoperative period correlated positively with plasma norepinephrine concentration (p < .01). In addition, plasma catecholamine concentrations were higher in patients with postoperative hypertension. Plasma norepinephrine concentrations at the time of emergence from anesthesia and postoperatively were also higher in patients requiring repeat surgery for graft revision, thrombectomy, or amputation (p < .05). Multivariate analysis indicated that the norepinephrine concentration at the time of emergence, but not type of anesthesia, correlated with reoperation for graft occlusion, suggesting that the previously reported beneficial effect of regional anesthesia may be due to modulation of the stress response. Myocardial infarction or cardiac death occurred in three patients. These patients had markedly increased catecholamine concentrations.

CONCLUSIONS
The catecholamine response to lower extremity vascular surgery contributes to the development of postoperative hypertension and may also be important in the development of thrombotic complications.


Infectious bursal disease (IBD) is ranked as the second most important disease of indigenous chicken, responsible for marked economic losses in Kenya after Newcastle disease. However, infected turkeys and ducks do not show overt IBD clinical signs and they may act as a source of IBD infection to naive chicken kept in such mixed flocks. Such evaluation has not been undertaken in mixed free range birds. A cross-sectional study was therefore undertaken to determine whether non-vaccinated indigenous village chicken, ducks and turkeys in Embu County, Kenya were naturally exposed to IBD virus (IBDV). A total of 97 free range indigenous chickens, 32 ducks and 13 turkeys blood samples were collected for serum. Indirect Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) technique was used to detect the IBDV antibodies. The result showed IBDV Sero-positivity in 64.9% of the chicken, 6.25% of ducks and 92.3% of turkeys. The presence of IBDV antibodies in non-vaccinated free range indigenous village chicken and healthy ducks and turkeys suggests an ongoing IBD virus circulation and maintenance in the area. There is therefore, a need for routine surveillance and vaccination against IBDV in indigenous village chicken, ducks and turkeys to prevent spread of the disease. More research is needed to find out the role of turkeys in the spread of IBDV.


In Summer 2009, a new model for student orientation was proposed and deployed as a pilot program at the Cascade Camus of Portland Community College. Traditional orientation models such as in-person sessions and online presentations had nto be fully effective in meeting the needs of new students coming to Cascade. The Student Training, Advising, Registration, and Troubleshooting (START) Lab sought to reconcile these problems by merging the best aspects of the in-person and online orientation models in order to provide a more comprehensive and flexible orientation experience. This article describes the START Lab pilot program and presents evidence from literature and research to support the model. Current and future assessment protocols are discussed and initial impressions of the pilot program shared. Lastly, suggestions for future development are considered.


Voltage-gated ion channels (VGICs) comprise multiple structural units whose assembly is required for function1,2. There is scant structural understanding of how VGIC subunits assemble and whether chaperone proteins are required. High-voltage activated calcium channels (CaVs)3,4 are paradigmatic multi-subunit VGICs from electrically excitable tissues whose function and trafficking is powerfully shaped by interactions between pore-forming CaV1 or CaV2 CaVα13 and auxiliary CaVβ5, and CaVα2δ subunits6,7. Here, we present cryo-EM structures of human brain and cardiac CaV1.2 bound with CaVβ3 to a chaperone, the endoplasmic reticulum membrane protein complex (EMC)8,9, and of the isolated CaV1.2/CaVβ3/CaVα2δ-1 channel. These provide an unprecedented view of an EMC holdase:client complex and define EMC sites, the TM and Cyto docks, whose interaction with the client channel cause partial extraction of a pore subunit and splay open the CaVα2δ interaction site. The structures further identify the CaVα2δ binding site for gabapentinoid anti-pain and anti-anxiety drugs6, show that EMC and CaVα2δ channel interactions are mutually exclusive, and indicate that EMC to CaVα2δ handoff involves a Ca2+-dependent step and ordering of multiple CaV1.2 elements. Together, the structures unveil a CaV assembly intermediate and previously unknown EMC client binding sites that have broad implications for biogenesis of VGICs and other membrane proteins.


In this work, chloroboron (III) subnaphthalocyanine (SubNc) was used as an electron donor, combined with a [6,6]-phenyl-C71-butyric acid methyl ester (PC70BM) or fullerene C70 acceptor in bulk heterojunction photovoltaic cells. In spite of the limited solubility of SubNc in organic solvents, the solution processed device exhibited an efficiency of 4.0% under 1 sun, AM1.5G solar irradiation at room temperature, and 5.0% at 80 ° C due to the temperature-dependence of the carrier mobilities. SubNc:C70 bulk heterojunctions were also fabricated via thermal co-evaporation, demonstrating an efficiency of 4.4%. This result shows that SubNc is a promising material for photovoltaic applications via various processing techniques, such as vacuum deposition and wet coating.


Minimizing water supply costs has always been the goal of water companies. However, it is not an easy task to minimize costs and meet customers' water pressure needs in a water supply system with multiple sources and different unit costs of water discharge. In this paper, we develop a search method that incorporates the concepts of local search and steepest descent. First, we establish the discharge pressure of each water source as a variable and start searching the neighborhood for a feasible initial solution. The steepest descent concept is then used to find the most cost-effective solution in the neighborhood, before the initial solution is updated. We then iterate the search as described above until either the constraint is met or the amount of cost variation reaches an acceptable level. A simple example is used to explore the optimal solution characteristics. This is then followed by an analysis of a practical water supply system with up to six water sources. Compared with the original operation model, the optimized result can save 15.6%, 9.0%, and 12.7% of the total cost of water supply during off-peak, normal, and peak periods, respectively. We use the commonly used hydraulic analysis software EPANET to build different functional valve classes to satisfy various constraints for the purpose of simplifying the optimized search codes automatically. This method uses low levels of computational resources to obtain an acceptable and reasonable solution in a short time.


The Strait of Malacca is most susceptible to ship-based marine pollution such as oil and grease due to the heavy
volume of shipping in the Strait. By nature, oil is toxic to marine life, especially the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons(PAHs), one of the main components in crude oil that is very difficult to clean up, and could remain for years in the sediment and marine environment. Marine species that are constantly exposed to PAHs can exhibit developmental problems and are more susceptible to diseases. The number of ships passing through the Strait in 2000 was 55,957 and increased to 62,621 ships 5 years later. In 2007, the traffic volume increased to 70,718 ships. During the five-year period from 2000 to 2005, there were 144 cases of oil spills into the sea. One hundred eight cases were due to illegal discharge of dirty oil. However, only 32 ships were charged and subsequently, 14 ships were found guilty. This paper analyses the challenges faced by the Malaysian maritime enforcement agencies in enforcing the Environmental Quality Act 1974 in the Strait of Malacca. Some of these challenges relate to the maritime enforcement agenciesu short-comings, nature of the Straitus users and the legal processes to bring offenders to court. Based on the analyses, it was revealed that the responsible agencies are inadequately equipped and trained to deal with the illegal discharge of dirty oil into the sea. In order to overcome these weaknesses, several new initiatives are suggested.


Introduction The early and prompt diagnosis of TBM is essential to improve outcomes. Delayed treatment leads to increased morbidity and mortality. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) findings may assist in early diagnosis as well as potentially identifying patients at high-risk of death. Methods A retrospective analysis of patients treated for TBM from 2000–2010 was undertaken using the London TB Register. Data was collected from medical records and pathology results. Results Mortality was 20% (8/41) and 12% (5/41) were left with permanent neurological deficits. Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) was cultured from CSF in 37% (14/38). Mortality in patients in whom CSF was culture positive was higher than those whose CSF culture was negative (33% vs 16%). The mean value of CSF protein was higher in patients with poorer outcomes than those who recovered fully (2.72 vs 1.92 g/L). Corticosteroids were given to 92% of patients (35/38). Of the three patients who did not receive steroids, one was left with a permanent disability. Conclusions In our population, we observed high mortality and morbidity rates for patients diagnosed with TBM. A large proportion of diagnoses were not confirmed microbiologically. Higher mortality rates were observed in those whose CSF cultured MTB A possible explanation for this finding is that those patients for whom microbiological confirmation was not obtained, the presumptive diagnosis of TBM was not correct. There is a trend towards higher mortality and morbidity in those with higher CSF protein values. This may be an indicator of increased bacterial load with an associated increase in inflammatory cytokines.


Synopsis The arrangements of chloroplasts and numbers within the stoma were examined as a rapid indirect technique for the identification ofploidy level in blackwattle (Acacia mearnsii de Wild). Chloroplast counts were made from stomatal guard cells from leaves of known diploid (2n=2x=26) and tetraploid (2n=4x=52) plants grown under nursery conditions. Three-month-old plant material was used and five plants were chosen at random across six lines (3 diploids, 3 tetraploids). For diploids the mean number ofchloroplasts per stoma was 9,89 ± 0,170 and 22,75 ± 0,170 for tetraploids. Chloroplasts in diploid guard cells were polarized into the corners, while evenly distributed in the tetraploids. These differences noted between the ploidy levels were significant (P<0,01). The analysis of stomatal chloroplast number and arrangement have proven to be an accurate indirect technique to distinguish between diploid and tetraploid black wattle.


Background: Obesity is a pandemic disease. Lifestyle modifications as diet and exercise remain as the first-line intervention for obesity; however, many patients fail to attain adequate weight loss and require drug treatment. Mazindol is a short-term useful agent in the treatment of obesity, whose safety profile has not been analyzed in Mexican population.

Objective: The current study was performed to investigate the reports of adverse events, received in the supplier laboratory for 8 years (2009-2016) with the purpose of determine potential issues of safety, related to Mazindol (MZ1®).

Methods: Adverse events were arranged in frequency tables and stratified by intensity and causality. Subgroups of sex, age and BMI with a higher frequency of side-effects were identified, as well as the main comorbidities and concomitant medications.

Results: One thousand three hundred eighty-six adverse events from 581 reports were received from 2009 to 2016. Most of reports were generated by patients in the fourth decade of life in both groups (25.5%). The most frequent adverse events were dry mouth (17.2%), polydipsia (10.6%) and constipation (9.0%). Most of them were both mild (90.5%) and possible (59.2%). Constipation was an important cause of withdrawal.

Conclusions: Data seems to indicate that 1 mg Mazindol is well tolerated for obesity treatment and its adverse events profile is acceptable. However, it is necessary to emphasize in the use appropriate of the drug, following the dosage schedule and indications approved.


A review of 121 children with burn injuries admitted over a five-year period (January 1992 – December 1996) at the Wesley Guild Hospital, Ilesa was undertaken. The patients were soaked in normal saline for at least one hour daily, prior to dressing with topical application of silver sulphadiazine. Scalds were responsible for 67 per cent of the cases while naked flame, including kerosene explosion and therapeutic burns were responsible for the rest. The burns were categorised as major in 58 per cent of cases. The trunk was affected in 66 per cent of cases, the upper and lower limbs were each affected in 51 per cent, the head and neck in 30 per cent, and the hands and feet in 25 per cent. Wound infection was the commonest complication occurring in 16.5 per cent, while mortality was 6.6 per cent; these were lower than the 24.4 per cent and 7.7 per cent respectively, obtained in previous studies in the Unit when saline solution was not used. Similarly, the rates of contractures and severe anaemia were lower among those whose burns were soaked in saline (5 per cent vs 10.9 per cent, and 2.5 per cent vs 10.3 per cent, respectively). Although the rates were lower in the present study except for septicaemia, the differences did not reach statistical significance except for severe anaemia. However, the study thus indicates that soaking of burn injuries in saline prior to dressing may improve prognosis. Nigerian Journal of Paediatrics 2001; 28:115. pp. 115-118


An accurate and less-disturbing active antiislanding method suitable for grid-connected converters using phase-locked loop (PLL) based grid synchronization is proposed in this paper. The orthogonal signal generator required by a single-phase PLL is built using a second-order generalized integrator. The inverter current reference is slightly modified each output cycle by an injected signal, and a feedback signal is extracted from the voltage of the point of common coupling (PCC). When the grid becomes unavailable, the feedback signal moves outside of a preset threshold value. The disturbance caused by this method is small compared to other active antiislanding methods, such as active frequency drift or frequency shift up/down. The method does not affect the zero crossing of the injected current, can be used to estimate the grid impedance, and is highly robust to different grid disturbances and stiffness. The performance of the proposed method has been studied through extensive simulations using MATLAB/Simulink and experiments. Selected results are presented to confirm its validity.


Various soil fungi were tested for their capacity to degrade the insecticide [14C]photodieldrin. Of nine species investigated, Trichoderma viride was the only one which degraded the insecticide to an appreciable extent into water-soluble, non-insecticidal compounds within 4-5 weeks. These products amounted to 32-41% of the radiocarbon applied to the culture media. The degradation was a function of live mycelia, which metabolized the insecticide and excreted water-soluble compounds into the culture media. Since soils usually contain a mixture of pesticide residues, the effects of several chlorinated hydrocarbon insecticides on the capacity of the fungus to degrade [14C]photodieldrin were studied. Thus, in fungal cultures treated with compounds structurally similar to photodieldrin, such as aldrin and dieldrin, only 4-17% of the applied radiocarbon was water-soluble and more photodieldrin remained. In controls, however, 35% of the applied radiocarbon was in the form of water-soluble products and less photodieldrin remained. The degradation of [14C]photodieldrin by T. viride, with time, was associated with a continuous decline of hexane-soluble radiocarbon and a steady increase of water-soluble metabolites, which appeared in the fungal media. The amount of hexane-soluble radiocarbon in mycelia was directly related to the fungal mass.


OBJECTIVES
The effect of magnesium sulfate on brain tissue of SD rats irradiated by 6MeV electron was investigated.

METHODS
SD rats were divided into three groups: control group, irradiation (IR group) and irradiation treated with magnesium sulfate (IR+M group). After being anesthetized, the whole brains of IR group and IR+M group were exposed to 6 MeV electron radiation. IR+M group was i.p. injected with 10% magnesium sulfate (400 mg/kg) one day before radiation and three days and five days after radiation. And on the 1st, 3rd, 7th and 14th day after radiation, SD rats were euthanatized to take brain tissue for the detection of calcium, redox status and cell apoptosis, as well as the expression of NF-κB and ICAM-1.

RESULTS
The results indicated that magnesium treatment may alleviate the elevation of calcium and enhance redox status through increasing the activities of superoxide dimutase (SOD) and myeloperodase (MPO), and decreasing the concentration of malondialdehyde (MDA). Tunnel and immunohistochemistry assay suggested that treatment with magnesium decreased the apoptosis rate of brain cells and the expressions of caspase-3, respectively. Decline of the expression of NF-κB and ICAM-1 protein was observed after the treatment of magnesium.

CONCLUSION
All the results demonstrated that magnesium may elicit protective effect against radiationinduced brain injury by reducing calcium overload, improving redox and inhibiting cell apoptosis. Moreover, magnesium significantly down-regulated the protein or mRNA levels of NF-κB and ICAM- 1. The findings may provide references for the application of magnesium in clinic for brain injury induced by radiation.


The concept, means, value chain, the persons concerned and possible issues of game item trading in cash are analyzed in this study. The trading is characterized by not only being performed with its own unique business model but also causing issues related to delicate social problems, such as digital contents distribution, work place and gambling. The way of game item trading in cash and its value chain have been changed with game market growth for the past years. I analyzed in this article the new concept of game item trading in cash that is different from the past. Also, analysis on several issues related to game item trading in cash is conducted.


In this paper, the possibility for a short-range cognitive radio (secondary communication system) to be located within the service area of the primary system is discussed. Although the secondary system interferes with the primary system, there can be certain locations in the service area of the primary system where the cognitive radio can reuse the frequency of the primary system without disturbing it or being disturbed by the primary system. We say that in those locations there is a spatial opportunity for communication in the secondary system. The primary and secondary systems have different features and usage scenarios, which result in different deployment conditions. This gives rise to differences between the path loss for a link in the primary system and the path loss for the interference from the primary to secondary systems. This paper investigates the impact of the heterogeneous path loss conditions on the spatial opportunity for the secondary system. Our approach can be applied as a general way to investigate the coexistence among multiple systems. We clarify that the change of the path loss coefficient due to the different antenna heights of the primary and secondary systems can largely affect the spatial opportunity for frequency reuse by the cognitive radios.


Coronary angioplasty was performed in 23 patients in whom within 10 days after acute myocardial infarction severe angina recurred despite continuing maximal pharmacological therapy. Initial success was achieved in 83% (19 of 23 patients). In three of the four failures bypass surgery was carried out as an emergency. There were no deaths, but myocardial infarction was a complication in 13% (three of 23 patients). At 6 months follow-up angina had recurred in 32% (6 of 19 patients) despite initial successful angioplasty. In 16 of the 19 patients, angiography was repeated and restenosis was seen in 31%, 5 of 16 patients, all of whom had recurrent symptoms. We conclude that, while coronary angioplasty is an effective initial therapy for selected patients with early post-infarction angina, its exact long-term value remains to be decided.


This article identifies key characteristics of participatory research and development(R&D) in the agricultural sector: it is client-driven, requires decentralized technology development, devolves to farmers the major responsibility for adaptive testing, and requires institutions and individuals to become accountable for the relevance and quality of technology on offer. Through case study material drawn from Latin America, Asia and Africa, the article then reviews ways by which institutions have responded to these characteristics and raises issues for further elaboration. Steps need to be taken, in particular, to safeguard equity, both between the more and less vocal groups of farmers, and between the requirements of present and future generations (the latter referring particularly to environmental concerns). It is argued that participatory R&D alone is insufficient to deliver innovations relevant to diverse client groups: policy mechanisms are required to define which clients are to participate, whose agendas are to drive the process, and what organizational innovations are needed to move agricultural R&D in these directions.


A 2D/3D nonrigid registration method is proposed that brings a 3D centerline model of the coronary arteries into correspondence with bi-plane fluoroscopic angiograms. The registered model is overlaid on top of interventional angiograms to provide surgical assistance during image-guided chronic total occlusion procedures, thereby reducing the uncertainty inherent in 2D interventional images. The proposed methodology is divided into two parts: global structural alignment and local nonrigid registration. In both cases, vessel centerlines are automatically extracted from the 2D fluoroscopic images, and serve as the basis for the alignment and registration algorithms. In the first part, an energy minimization method is used to estimate a global affine transformation that aligns the centerline with the angiograms. The performance of nine general purpose optimizers has been assessed for this problem, and detailed results are presented. In the second part, a fully nonrigid registration method is proposed and used to compensate for any local shape discrepancy. This method is based on a variational framework, and uses a simultaneous matching and reconstruction process to compute a nonrigid registration. With a typical run time of less than 3 s, the algorithms are fast enough for interactive applications. Experiments on five different subjects are presented and show promising results.


Introduction: This study aims to examine the effect of the Customer Engagement dimension on Marketing Performance using the SEM model, as well as provide information in the form of analysis results that can be used by private banking companies to improve marketing team performance through customer engagement. Method: This research is quantitative research with the help of Lisrel software. The data collection technique was carried out by survey method. The data collection instrument was a questionnaire which was distributed online to 400 customers of private banks in the Greater Jakarta area. Result: The results show that all hypotheses are acceptable, the four dimensions of customer engagement namely Absorption, Dedication, Vigor, and Interaction have a significant effect on customer engagement. Customer engagement has a significant effect on marketing performance. Marketing performance has a significant effect on the company's financial and non-financial profits. Conclusion: This research has the meaning of being able to provide information in the form of analysis results that can be used by private banking companies to improve the performance of the marketing team through customer engagement.


a 2008 The Authors This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/uk/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Vol. 168, No. 10 DOI: 10.1093/aje/kwn243 Advance Access publication October 17, 2008


ABSTRACT Introduction In order to solve the shortage of competent healthcare manpower at the village level of Yunnan Province, We compared the training mode of Kunming Medical University and The Medical Educational Center, Hat Yai of PSU. The aim of this study is to compare the difference of the two institutions and learn from each other's advantages. Methods The review covered relevant policy areas and stipulations governing general practitioner training for both countries. Qualitative research was done by using a questionnaire developed in house by the project team, students from the inaugural cohort at KMU and students from the MECH. In Qualitative research, in-depth interviews were carried out with the teaching administration and students from both schools. Results In Kunming Medical University, besides the conventional lectures, teaching methods such as case based learning and problem based learning have been worked into the basic science, laboratory, and clerkship/internship sessions. The desired end product is a general practitioner. The curriculum emphasizes general practice and clinical exposure during the course being guided and informed by the "Undergraduate Medical Education Standard — Clinical Medicine" and the "General Practitioner Training Guidelines" about teaching methods. In Prince of Songkla University, the first and second phases consist of basic science and preclinical integrated topics taught at PSU. For the third and final phase, the students have core clinical modules and selective at MECH where the methods are learner centered, problem based, integrated and set in the context of community primary healthcare practice. Conclusions We should start with the integration of the medical disciplines and the humanities, so as to restore the lost "art of doctoring". We need to integrate the various foundational and clinical disciplines into an organ system based curriculum, not just in form, but also in function and purpose.


Enhanced oil recovery by smart waterflooding represents an implementable and attractive emerging oil recovery technology. For sandstone reservoirs, smart waterflooding has shown an outright incremental oil recovery in most laboratory and field tests while some promising experimental data have been presented from carbonates. It seems more difficult to assume a favorable performance for some reservoir formation a priori while dismissing the other, so more data and better understanding of the underlying mechanism in carbonates are needed.This paper describes a series of experiments on Middle East carbonate core plugs designed to determine the impact of formation water and different versions of seawater (which has its sulfate concentration increased in the ratio (0.5:1:2:4:8) on oil recovery, wettability and surface charge modification. The results obtained lead to the following conclusions:Coreflooding experiments at 2300F and 3000psi with formation brine and various versions of seawater coupled with spiking sulfate concentration executed on carbonate core aged showed an incremental recovery of about 10% OOIC; An increasing concentration of sulfate in the seawater makes a Crude Oil/Brine/Rock system less oil-wet; The higher the sulfate concentration, the greater the repulsive forces in the electrical double layer, thereby forming an aggregate and detaching the oil from the rock surface, while increasing the sulfate concentration beyond four times seems ineffective as it gave a swift increase in pH and rock surface charges;The results obtained are therefore discussed within the framework of mechanisms previously described for smart water's ability to enhance oil recovery. The study concluded that a relatively economical modification of injection brine composition could considerably increase oil recovery.


Abstract Objective:   To study the frequency of placenta previa/ accreta in patients with previous cesarean section. Study Design: Prospective hospital based study. Place and Duration of Study:   Gyne unit 2 Nishtar Hospital Multan from November 2010 to September 2011. Patients and Methods:   The study included patients admitted with the suspicion of placenta previa through the out patient department in the ward and in the labor room as emergency cases with antepartum hemor-rhage. Diagnosis was confirmed by transabdominal ultrasound and in patients with anterior placenta previa and previous cesarean section, doppler ultrasound was requested to diagnose placenta accreta. Detailed his-tory, clinical examination and baseline investigation was done in all patients. Results:   During the study period 38 cases of major degree placenta previa were managed. 22 (57.89%) were emergency admissions and 16 (42.10%) were admitted throughout patient department. 29 (76.39%) patients had previous cesarean section and 9 (23.68%) patients had all previous vaginal deliveries. 8 (27.58%) patients had previous one cesarean section and 21 (72.41%) had 2 or more cesarean sections, 4 (10.52%) patients had placenta accreta and out of these 3 pati-ents were diagnosed antenatally by doppler ultrasound and one patient was diagnosed at emergency cesarean section. Conclusion:   The major risk factor for the placenta previa is uterine scaring and therefore the incidence is increasing with increasing cesarean section rate. Pla-centa accreta is one of the most serious complications of placenta previa. It is suggested that in patients with anterior major degree placenta previa and previous cesarean section, antenatal diagnosis of  placenta acc-reta should be made by doppler ultrasound so that appropriate management  plan can be made. Keywords:   Placenta previa, placenta accreta, cesa-rean section.


The amount of information flowing across communication networks has rapidly increased. The highly dynamic and complex networks, represented as large graphs, make the analysis of such networks increasingly challenging. In this paper, we provide a brief overview of several useful visualization techniques for the analysis of spatiotemporal anomalies in large-scale networks. We make use of community-based similarity graphs (CSGs), temporal expansion model graphs (TEMGs), correlation graphs (CGs), high-dimension projection graphs (HDPGs), and topology-preserving compressed graphs (TPCGs). CSG is used to detect anomalies based on community membership changes rather than individual nodes and edges and therefore may be more tolerant to the highly dynamic nature of large networks. TEMG transforms network topologies into directed trees so that efficient search is more likely to be performed for anomalous changes in network behavior and routing topology in large dynamic networks. CG and HDPG are used to examine the complex relationship of data dimensions among graph nodes through transformation in a high-dimensional space. TPCG groups nodes with similar neighbor sets into mega-nodes, thus making graph visualization and analysis more scalable to large networks. All the methods target efficient large-graph anomaly visualization from different perspectives and together provide valuable insights.


Machine vision using image processing of traditional intensity images is in wide spread use. In many situations environmental conditions or object colours or shades cannot be controlled, leading to difficulties in correctly processing the images and requiring complicated processing algorithms. Many of these complications can be avoided by using range image data, instead of intensity data. This is because range image data represents the physical properties of object location and shape, practically independently of object colour or shading. The advantages of range image processing are presented, along with three example applications that show how robust machine vision results can be obtained with relatively simple range image processing in real-time applications.


We have studied folding and membrane insertion of the porin OmpF and compared it to OmpA. Both are beta-barrel membrane proteins from the outer membrane of Escherichia coli, OmpF forming trimers and OmpA monomers. Each of them can be unfolded in solubilized form in a water/urea mixture. Refolding is initiated by dilution into a dispersion of lipid vesicles or lipid/detergent vesicles, whereupon OmpF and OmpA refold and insert into the membranes. Folding and insertion of the monomers proceed in a similar way for the two proteins, but native OmpF appears more slowly and with a lower yield than native OmpA because of trimerization of OmpF. The dependence of the yield of refolding, membrane insertion, and trimerization on pH, lipid concentration, and the presence of detergent was investigated. Trimerization of OmpF is shown to take place at or in the membrane and a membrane-inserted dimer is detected as an intermediate of this process.


The following is the summary of paper presented by Professor Wiranto Arismunandar concerning the establishment of a study program spesialising in the social sciences and humanities in Institut Teknologi Bandung. The idea is stimulated by the fact that the appreciation of the society on the advances of technologies and sciences as well as their products and services has not been so satisfactory. He, therefore, suggests that ITB establish a study program in which the students specialize themselves in social sciences and humanities. The students are expected to be able to interact equally with the scientists and engineers and able to inform the society the developments and advances of technologies and sciences when they graduate. In order to produce competent graduates to carry out the above-mentioned expertises, he recommends that basic sciences and mathematics, communication skills, and other relevant social sciences and humanities be taught to this group of students.


Objective: Otitis media (OM) is a common childhood disease and a frequent reason for seeking medical care in general practice. Only few studies have focused on what happens after diagnosis and initial treatment of OM. In particular, there is a lack of research on how different patientand disease-related factors influence the course of OM. The aim of this study was to analyze to what extent symptoms at the time of initial diagnosis are associated with the short-term course of otitis media. Methods: Cohort study in general practice comprising 747 children between 0 and 7 years with a new ear symptom. At the first consultation the GPs registered symptoms, results of otoscopy and tympanometry, together with diagnosis and treatment. The children were followed up four weeks later. Results: Sleep problems at inclusion are statistically significant associated with having one or more symptom after four weeks in children between 0 and 2 years (OR: 2.02 (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.24–3.31)). If the result of tympanometry is a flat curve, the OR for being referred is 3.24 (CI: 1.61–6.55) in children between 0 and 2 years compared to children without a flat curve. The OR for being referred in children between 2 and 7 years with a flat curve is 8.94 (CI: 4.18–19.11) when compared to children without a flat curve. Conclusion: Sleep problems at inclusion were the only symptom statistically significant associated with having one or more symptoms after four weeks in children between 0 and 2 years. 2012 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.


Spatial subsidies, or inputs of resources from more productive donor habitats, can cause numerical responses in consumer populations via behavioral and demographic mechanisms. In addition, subsidies may have indirect effects on the in situ prey of these consumers. These indirect effects can be either negative (e.g., apparent competition) or positive (e.g., via diet shifts) depending on the relative strength of the predator's functional and numerical responses to prey subsidies. Here we report a numerical response by a lizard (Western fence lizard, Sceloporus occidentalis) to experimental reductions in the flux of river-derived insects. Initially, equal densities of lizards declined significantly faster in plots in which aquatic insect abundance was reduced by nearly 50% (season average) relative to controls. Abundance and biomass of terrestrial arthropods declined significantly between the start and end of the experiment across treatments. Despite consistently lower lizard abundance in plots with reduced subsidy levels, however, relative declines in the abundance and biomass of in situ terrestrial arthropods (all taxa combined) were not significantly different between reduced- and ambient-subsidy plots. Relative declines in spider biomass differed significantly between treatments and were higher in reduced-subsidy than ambient-subsidy plots, but only over one of three 3-wk sampling intervals. Thus, over the biologically active summer season, aquatic subsidies exerted brief positive or no significant indirect effects on the in situ prey of riparian lizards. These results suggest that, although aquatic insect prey may determine the spatial distribution and local abundance of riparian predators, the effects of increased predator density on in situ prey may be offset by higher per capita predation by these consumers on in situ prey in subsidy-poor relative to subsidy-rich habitats.


Semantic segmentation is an essential task in computer vision that aims to label each image pixel. Several of the actual best approaches in this context are based on deep neural networks. For example, SegNet is a deep encoder-decoder architecture approach whose results were disruptive because it is fast and performs well. However, this architecture fails to finedelineating the edges between the objects of interest in the image. We propose some modifications in the SegNet-Basic architecture by using a post-processing segmentation layer (using Conditional Random Fields) and by transferring high resolution features combined to the decoder network. The proposed method was evaluated in the dataset CamVid. Moreover, it was compared with important variants of SegNet and showed to be able to improve the overall accuracy of SegNet-Basic by up to 17.5%.


ABSTRACT This paper presents the formal description of Impagidinium obscurum sp. nov. from the Thanetian strata of northwest Europe. The palaeogeographic distribution of this species covers a wide area, ranging from the North Sea to the Barents Sea. Palynologists working in the region have long referred to Impagidinium obscurum sp. nov. as Leptodinium? 'obscurum' and used it as an important intraPaleocene marker species. The informal specific name was with reference to the incompletely defined tabulation of the cyst. However, although the tabulation is often obscured by the dense folding of the walls, the cyst tabulation formula has been partly deciphered in this work, based on the organisation of sutural crests in exceptionally well-preserved specimens, which allows confident attribution to the genus Impagidinium. This species is restricted to the 'early' Thanetian and is associated with diverse dinoflagellate cyst assemblages which include Alisocysta margarita and Areoligera gippingensis.