Digital signature with proxy delegation, which is a secure ownership enforcement tool, allows an original signer to delegate signature rights to a third party called proxy, so that the proxy can sign messages on behalf of the original signer. In today's modern society, many applications use this mechanism. Several types of delegations are quite prevalent and the delegation of signing authority is one of them. In a traditional digital signature scheme, signer transmits signature along with message for verification, which leads to additional communication, computation cost and requires extra bandwidth. To resolve these issues, in this paper, we present an efficient ID-based proxy signature scheme with message recovery using bilinear pairings. Because of the message recovery feature, the proxy signer need not send the message to the verifier, so that the proposed scheme reduces the bandwidth requirement and communication cost. Our proposed scheme is proven secure against existential forgery under adaptively chosen message and identity attacks in the random oracle model (ROM) with the assumption that the Computational Diffie-Hellman Problem (CDHP) is intractable. We compare our scheme with related schemes. The efficiency analysis shows that the scheme is computationally efficient. Thus the proposed ID-based proxy signature scheme is secure and efficient both in terms of computation and communication costs than the related existing schemes.


One of the issues currently facing nuclear power plants is how to store spent nuclear waste materials which are contaminated with radionuclides such as Cs, Cs, and Cs. Bioremediation processes may offer a potent method of cleaning up radioactive cesium. However, there have only been limited reports on Cs tolerant bacteria. In this study, we report the isolation and identification of Cs tolerant bacteria in environmental soil and sediment. The resistant Cs isolates were screened from enrichment cultures in R2A medium supplemented with 100 mM CsCl for 72 h, followed by microbial community analysis based on sequencing analysis from 16S rRNA gene clone libraries (NCBI's BlastN). The dominant Bacillus anthracis Roh-1 and B. cereus Roh-2 were successfully isolated from the cesium enrichment culture. Importantly, B. cereus Roh2 is resistant to 30% more Cs than is B. anthracis Roh-1 when treated with 50 mM CsCl. Growth experiments clearly demonstrated that the isolate had a higher tolerance to Cs. In addition, we investigated the adsorption of 0.2 mg L Cs using B. anthracis Roh-1. The maximum Cs <Review paper> Isolation and Identification Cesium-tolerant Bacteria 305


Abstract:
 We use the refined Laspeyres index decomposition method to determine the main CO2 emissions from industry and analyze differences in these over the period 1994–2007. Then we examined the decoupling state between carbon emissions and economic growth and the effectiveness of the implementation of emission reduction policy. We found that output effect is the dominant positive factor for carbon emissions growth in China's industrial sectors, and the effect of energy intensity change is the mainfactor affecting carbon emission reductions; the impact of these two factors is respectively 357.20% and -248.67%. The food industry, textile industry and machinery industry show a decreasing trend in emissions, and emissions from the oil industry increased by 217.75%. From 1994 to 2007 and 2000 to 2007, the decoupling index of carbon emissions and the industrial sector was 0.63 and 0.56 respectively. This indicates carbon emissions and economic growth are in a weak decoupling state, and emission reduction policies lack efficacy. These findings can be used in the design of policy priorities for improving decoupling across industrial sectors.


The overall purpose of this thesis is to improve our understanding of how disaster risk management (DRM) systems function. Specifically, it aims to increase our knowledge about effective communication in a multi-stakeholder, multi-level DRM system, with a particular focus on the exchange of risk-related information for risk assessment. The Swedish DRM system is taken as a study case to examine how DRM stakeholders collect and share information while conducting, disseminating and utilizing risk assessments, and the challenges that hinder effective risk communication. The studies included in this thesis highlight how risk assessment work and the associated communication issues influence Swedish DRM practice, both positively and negatively. They also propose countermeasures to overcome these challenges in order to improve the effectiveness of risk communication among stakeholders, increase their collective ability to assess and manage potential disaster risks, and thus enhance the overall performance of the system.Research methods include, for example, semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions,experiments, and document analysis. Empirical data are collected mainly from the Swedish DRM system (municipal, regional and national levels). However, some experiments involve participants from another DRM context (Nicaragua), and additional policy documents from the European Union are included in the analysis. The results highlight that a lack of standardization in risk assessment work has hampered the communication via risk assessment documentations. DRM stakeholders vary widely in terms of the scale and frequency of the potential risks they assess, making communication less meaningful since they are focusing on different types of events. They are unwilling to disseminate the results of their risk assessments, due to concerns that sensitive risk-related information and managerial shorcomings might be exposed. Finally, there is a lack of constructive feedback regarding the quality of risk assessments, making it unclear how to improve and resulting the risk communication a one-way process.Two sets of countermeasures are proposed to overcome these risk communication challenges:1) efforts should be made to solve systemic problems. Examples include the provision of constructive feedback that would make risk communication two-way, and the establishment of a clear information disclosure procedure; and 2) risk assessment documentation should be better designed. The inclusion of scenario descriptions, assessments of the likelihood of events and consequences, and background information concerning estimated likelihoods will probably improve the usefulness of the risk assessment for decision-making and communication. Quantitative and semi-quantitative scales seem to be promising ways to communicate risk-related information, especially if they are complemented by narrative evidence.


Background: The radial artery is superficially palpable and easily accessible, making it the preferred site for arterial cannulation. Various placement techniques are available for radial artery catheter insertion. However, catheter insertion is sometimes difficult and requires multiple attempts, especially by inexperienced trainees, leading to technical failure and insertion-related complications. Guidewire-assisted cannulation is a simple and effective technique, but this maneuver requires practice. The main objective of this study was to compare the effects of a direct arterial puncture and a guidewire-assisted cannulation technique on the success rate of radial artery cannulation by inexperienced trainees.Methods: This study was a prospective, single-center, single-arm clinical trial with a historical control. Sixty patients with an American Society of Anesthesiologists physical status of I to III underwent elective surgery requiring radial artery cannulation. In the guidewire-assisted cannulation group (GW group), thirty radial artery cannulations were performed by inexperienced surgical residents using a guidewire-assisted cannulation technique. In the direct arterial puncture group (DP group), 30 patients underwent radial artery cannulation with a direct arterial puncture technique by inexperienced anesthesiology residents. The primary outcome was the success rate. Results: There were no differences in the baseline blood pressure or comorbidities between the two groups. Overall, the success rate of radial artery cannulation in the GW and DP groups were 90% and 50%, respectively (P = 0.001). The success rate of first-attempt cannulation in the GW and DP group were 66.7% and 26.7%, respectively (P = 0.002). The total procedural performance time was significantly shorter in the GW than DP group.Conclusion: The guidewire-assisted cannulation technique achieved a higher success rate than the direct arterial puncture technique when performed by inexperienced trainees.Trial registrationThe trial was registered on Thai Clinical Trials Registry (TCTR20200601004). Date of registration was January 19, 2020. (Retrospectively registered) http://www.thaiclinicaltrials.org/page_user/#


The zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnONPs) have gained prominence in different biomedical applications nowadays. The phytochemical mediated synthesis of ZnONPs (green synthesis) is cost-effective, facile and generates negligible hazardous impact. In the present study we have utilised the leaf extract of abundantly available well known medicinal plant, Ocimum sanctum (Tulsi) for the phytosynthesis of ZnONPs via a facile process. Gum acacia, a widely recognised natural polymer was used as a capping agent of the biogenic ZnONPs in order to enhance its bioavailability and its therapeutic efficacy. These nanoparticles were tagged with a fluorescent dye, rhodamine-B to observe the cellular imaging applications. The nanoparticles were characterised by different biophysical methods like UV–vis spectroscopy, XRD, FTIR and FESEM for confirmation of their successful synthesis and their antibacterial and anticancer efficacy was then validated. The result clearly suggests that these nanoparticles are able to induce the oxidative stress in both eukaryotic and prokaryotic cells which in turn is responsible for their efficacy against both the pathogenic bacterial strains and hepatocellular cancerous cells. Moreover, these nanoparticles possess pH responsive behaviour and hence it fulfils the essential criteria of cancer therapeutic delivery system. Furthermore, these rhodamine-B tagged nanoparticles are endowed with fluorescence property which can be utilised for bioimaging applications. These nanoparticles could be conjugated with cancer specific targeting ligands in the future that could further augment their therapeutic and diagnostic credentials. Therefore, these nanoparticles could truly emerge as unique promising multifunctional therapeutic intervention in the near future.


The interaction mechanism between low-energy electrons and atoms is examined in detail. Electron interaction within a few meV of the energy of an excited state is studied. High-resolution data showing total ionisation cross sections of low-energy electrons with Xe atoms are reported. Interactions appear as small perturbations superimposed on the ionisation continuum. The observed perturbations are compared with the theoretical predictions for negative-ion resonances, excitation of neutral states and direct ionisation. These interactions are reported in the energy range between the states 2P(3/2) and 2P(1/2) of Xe+ and their spectroscopic configurations are given. These data do not show any obvious post-collision interaction shifts that are reported in other channels.


We present an analysis of dynamic operation of planar waveguide laser in which modal confinement in lateral direction is provided by 2D photon crystal of square lattice. In our theoretical model, we take into account the gain saturation effect, transverse and longitudinal field distribution. We consider laser structures with F-P and DFB cavities. That model allows to define in an easy way the influence of real structure parameters such as photonic crystal geometry, waveguide geometry, losses as well as strength of feedback on the damping rate and the frequency of relaxation oscillations and 3 dB modulation bandwidth. With the help of this model it is possible to define optimal geometry of the laser structures having F-P and DFB cavities, which provides maximal modulation bandwidth for a given pumping level (characterized by small signal gain).


Background—Although mutations of several genes are associated with arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC), the exact correlation between genotype and ventricular arrhythmia features remains unclear. This study was aimed to examine the possible association of the 9 known genes of ARVC with clinical and electrophysiological characteristics. Methods and Results—Ninety subjects diagnosed with ARVC who underwent electrophysiological study were recruited for screening the 9 known ARVC-causing genes. A total of 53 mutations were identified in 57 (63%) subjects. Mutation carriers had more frequent clinical ventricular tachycardia (VT; 89% versus 55%; P<0.001) and negative T waves in V1 to V3 (61% versus 33%; P=0.016). Subjects with plakophilin-2 (PKP2) mutations also had more frequent VT than those without mutations in PKP2. Comparison between subjects with multiple and single mutations showed that syncope occurred more often in the former group (58% versus 24%; P=0.018). VT was significantly more often induced in mutation carriers compared with noncarriers (75% versus 39%; P=0.001), as well as in PKP2 mutation carriers compared with subjects without PKP2 mutations (80% versus 48%; P=0.002). Induced VT with a rate ≥200 bpm was more often documented in mutation carriers (88% versus 54%; P=0.013), as well as in PKP2 mutation carriers (91% versus 67%; P=0.041). Conclusions—Pathogenic gene mutations were found in nearly two thirds of subjects diagnosed with ARVC. Mutation carriers, especially PKP2, had a higher proportion of a history of VT and more inducible fast VT.


Research experiments were performed in the Lath and laboratories of Faculty of Science / University of Babylon, to improve rooting response of White and pink oleander . Eighteen treatments were used depending on the best positive results that have been obtained from previous studies.The percentage of rooted cuttings of white oleander (7.41%) and pink oleander (22.59%) . Results also indicated that absolute difficulty in rooting of white oleander in the absence of supplied IBA ( 0.00%) ,while a limited difficulty rooting in pink oleander (6.76% ) .However the highest percentage of rooting for the two varieties white and pink with combination ( IBA + O-coumaric acid) were 33.33% and 60.00% respectively. The bioassay of white and pink oleander exudates proved that , the exudate of white oleander contain inhibitors by reducing rooting response of mung bean to half ( 8.40 )roots compared to control (15.50) root . Whereas, the mung bean cuttings treatment with pink oleander exudate was developed( 16.80) roots which equal statistically to control .Moreover, to reduce or prevent inhibitors effects that present in cuttings exudate the later has been supplied with IBA within combination with exudate of pink and white oleander. The cuttings of mung bean that treated with (white oleander exudate + IBA) developed almost half the number of roots (37.50) compared to control with auxin alone (71.10) root,whereas with a combination (pink oleander exudate + IBA) developed( 58.50) roots which was somewhat equivalent to ( 82.2%) of the control.


There are multiple formulas for estimating the percentage of body fat (BF%). Clínica Universidad de Navarra-Body Adiposity Estimator (CUN-BAE) is one of the most used formulas because of its accuracy and its association with cardiovascular pathologies. Equation Córdoba for Estimation of Body Fat (ECORE-BF) was developed to simplify the calculation of BF% while maintaining a similar level of accuracy. The objective was to compare ECORE-BF in a large sample of Spanish workers using CUN-BAE as a reference. A cross-sectional study was carried out on 196,844 participants. The BF% was estimated using different formulas: relative fat mass (RFM), Palafolls, Deurenberg, and ECORE-BF. The accuracy of the estimation was determined using Lin's concordance correlation coefficient (CCC) and the Bland–Altman method, using CUN-BAE as the reference method. ECORE-BF reached the highest concordance (CCC = 0.998). It also showed the lowest mean difference (−0.0077) and the tightest agreement limits (−0.9723, 0.9569) in the Bland–Altman test. In both analyses, it remained robust even when separating the analyses by sex, nutritional status, or age. ECORE-BF presented as the most straightforward and most accurate equation for the estimation of BF%, remaining robust regardless of population characteristics.


This article examines the long-run impact of capital goods imports, intermediate goods imports, and exports of manufactured and primary goods on total factor productivity in Chile. Using cointegration techniques, we find productivity-enhancing effects of capital and intermediate goods imports as well as manufactured exports, and productivity-limiting effects of primary exports.


Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is globally recognized as one of the most frequently occurring primary malignant liver tumor, making the identification of HCC biomarkers critically important. Methods: The gene expression and clinicopathology analysis, GO enrichment analysis (GSEA) and immune infiltration analysis are based on data obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), with additional bioinformatics analyses performed. The statistical analysis was conducted in R. The protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks was constructed and the module analysis was performed using STRING and Cytoscape. Construction and evaluation of prognostic model based on PDRG1 and tumor status used nomogram and calibration.Results: The expression of PDRG1 was significantly higher in HCC tumor tissues. High expression of PDRG1 in HCC patients was significantly correlated with poor Overall Survival and adverse clinicopathological features including advanced T stage, residual tumor, histologic grade, vascular invasion, TP53 status and AFP level. GO, GSEA revealed that PDRG1 was closely correlated with DNA repair, DNA replication and cell cycle. Spearman correlation showed high expression of PDRG1 was significantly correlated with Th2 cells level in HCC patients. Nomograms based on PDRG1 and tumor stage had good predictive performance on overall survival rates of HCC patients.Conclusions: Our study demonstrated the potential significance of PDRG1 expression in the diagnosis and prognosis of HCC and further explored the function in HCC. Further study is still needed to confirm these results. The underlying mechanism revealed by these results provides a basis for PDRG1 as a new molecular target for the prevention and treatment of HCC.


The article addresses the problem of combining the emerging country's new regulatory framework in the field of qualifications, based on professional standards, with the international standards of the Association "WorldSkills International" and corporate standards used in the development and evaluation of personnel, based on the competence approach. The authors focus on the proposals to overcome the differences in the conceptual apparatus relating to a term "qualification", which is interpreted differently in academic and business communities. The article discusses the possibilities of fixing the qualifications of employees directly in the professional standards that determine the requirements for them. Today there are three approaches that are applied to unite and standardize qualification requirements. The issue is to harmonize them in order to create the national qualification system where the key terms – "expertise", "competency" and "qualification" are properly aligned.


High-performance feature tracking from video input is a valuable tool in many computer vision techniques and mixed reality applications. This work presents a refined and substantially accelerated approach to KLT feature tracking performed on the GPU. Additionally, a global gain ratio between successive frames is estimated to compensate for changes in the camera exposure. The proposed approach achieves more than 200 frames per second on state-of-the art consumer GPUs for PAL (720 times 576) resolution data, and delivers real-time performance even on low-end mobile graphics processors.


This paper discusses stiffness and antagonistic actuation in light-weight cable-driven bio-inspired manipulators suitable for safe interactions. Manipulators under study are built upon arranging in series several tensegrity joints, called modules. A comparative study of several modules revealed that the X module, in contrast to modules based on pivots, allows one to increase joint stiffness by increasing antagonistic input forces like during muscle coactivation. For a planar manipulator with N modules, antagonistic actuation schemes with 2N and N+1 cables are proposed and compared. It is shown that the N+1 cable actuation scheme allows controlling both the manipulator configuration and joint stiffness satisfactorily. As compared with a manipulator with 2N active cables, one on each side of each module, higher forces are required to achieve the manipulator configuration. However, the N+1 cable actuation scheme is a reasonable solution that allows reducing moving masses and cost while offering more flexibility.


Background: Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) is one of the main differential diagnoses of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Key pathological features of patients with DLB are not only the presence of cerebral cortical neuronal loss, with Lewy bodies in surviving neurones, but also loss of nigrostriatal dopaminergic neurones, similar to that of Parkinson's disease (PD). In DLB there is 40–70% loss of striatal dopamine. Objective: To determine if detection of this dopaminergic degeneration can help to distinguish DLB from AD during life. Methods: The integrity of the nigrostriatal metabolism in 27 patients with DLB, 17 with AD, 19 drug naive patients with PD, and 16 controls was assessed using a dopaminergic presynaptic ligand, 123I-labelled 2β-carbomethoxy-3β-(4-iodophenyl)-N-(3-fluoropropyl)nortropane (FP-CIT), and single photon emission tomography (SPET). A SPET scan was carried out with a single slice, brain dedicated tomograph (SME 810) 3.5 hours after intravenous injection of 185 MBq FP-CIT. With occipital cortex used as a radioactivity uptake reference, ratios for the caudate nucleus and the anterior and posterior putamen of both hemispheres were calculated. All scans were also rated by a simple visual method. Results: Both DLB and PD patients had significantly lower uptake of radioactivity than patients with AD (p<0.001) and controls (p<0.001) in the caudate nucleus and the anterior and posterior putamen. Conclusion: FP-CIT SPET provides a means of distinguishing DLB from AD during life.


A magnetosonic shock wave propagating obliquely to an external magnetic field can trap and accelerate electrons to ultrarelativistic energies when vsh is close to c cos θ, where vsh is the propagation speed of the shock wave, c is the light speed, and θ is the propagation angle of the shock wave. Because of instabilities driven by the trapped electrons, some electrons can be detrapped from the main pulse retaining their high energies and can then be further accelerated to higher energies as a result of their gyromotions. The dependence of electron motions on the parameters vsh and θ is investigated by two-dimensional electromagnetic particle simulations with full ion and electron dynamics. If θ is fixed, electron energies become maximum when vsh is slightly smaller than c cos θ. If the value of vsh/(c cos θ) is fixed, the maximum energy of electrons tends to increase with decreasing θ for the range vsh/(c cos θ) < 1. The number of electrons that are detrapped to the upstream region and suffer the subsequent acceleration is also examined.


Many protein-tyrosine phosphatases (PTPases) have now been identified, but little is known about PTPase expression and regulation in vascular tissue and in vascular disease. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification and cDNA fingerprinting of PTPase catalytic domains, combined with random sequencing of PCR product libraries, identified 18 (8 receptor-like and 10 cytosolic) PTPases in the rat carotid artery and revealed differential expression of 5 of these PTPases during neointima formation after balloon catheter injury. In situ hybridization was used to localize mRNA expression in vessel cross sections for the 5 differentially expressed PTPases. This revealed that for 3 PTPases (SHP1, CD45, and PTPbeta), differential transcript abundance was due to appearance/loss of the cell types by which they were expressed (leukocytes for SHP1 and CD45, endothelial cells for PTPbeta). However, mRNA expression of 2 PTPases (PTPL1 and PTP1B) was specifically upregulated by proliferating and migrating smooth muscle cells (SMCs) in characteristic temporal and regional patterns in response to vessel damage. Quantitative PCR analysis showed that PTP1B and PTPL1 were induced approximately 30-fold and approximately 60-fold, respectively, by 2 weeks after injury in the damaged vessels compared with the uninjured vessels. PTP1B was rapidly upregulated in the media after vessel injury and remained highly expressed in the developing neointima. By contrast, PTPL1 expression did not increase dramatically until the SMCs had migrated into the intima. The differential expression of PTP1B and PTPL1 by SMCs after injury suggests roles for these PTPases in the regulation of vessel wall remodeling.


The study of the effective thermomechanical response of active fibrous composites with shape memory alloy (SMA) fibers is the subject of this work. A 3-D constitutive response for the SMA fibers is formulated first. To model thermomechanical loading path dependence, an incremental approach is used assuming that within each stress and temperature increment the volume fraction of the martensitic phase remains constant in the SMA fibers. The Mori-Tanaka averaging scheme is then used to give an estimate of the instantaneous effective thermomechanical properties in terms of the thermomechanical properties of the two phases and martensitic volume fraction. A unit cell model for a periodic active composite with cubic and hexagonal arrangement of fibers is also developed to study the effective properties using finite element analysis. It is found that since the fibers and not the matrix undergo the martensitic phase transformation that induces eigenstrains, the Mori-Tanaka averaging scheme accurately models the thermomechanical response of the composite, relative to the finite element analysis, for different loading paths. Specific results are reported for the composite pseudoelastic and shape memory effect for an elastomeric matrix continuous SMA fiber composite.


Simple to implement, low cost designs in CMOS Domino logic are presented. These designs require less transistors and are full Domino logic compatible while they attain better performance compared to the standard Domino logic implementations. Wide fan-in logic such as domino circuits is used in high-performance applications. Dynamic domino logic circuits are widely used in modern digital VLSI circuits. The novel feature of dynamic circuits is often favoured in high performance designs because of the speed advantage offered over static CMOS logic circuits. This paper compares static CMOS, domino (dynamic) logic design implementations.


Pregnant female rats were hypophysectomized on the 14th day of pregnancy without fetal loss or premature delivery. Completeness of hypophysectomy was confirmed by measurements of serum growth hormone and prolactin. Serum somatomedin activities were measured by the hypophysectomized rat costal cartilage in vitro assay using a human serum standard. In this assay somatomedin activity of normal rat serum is about four times that of normal human serum. Forty-eight hours after hypophysectomy serum somatomedin was maintained at 3.9 +/- 1.0 units/ml. At this time after operation somatomedin activity of nonpregnant hypophysectomized rat serum would be virtually undetectable. Somatomedin concentrations were still maintained on the 18th and 20th day of pregnancy. However, within 24 hours after delivery somatomedin had fallen to less than 0.6 units/ml and by three days post delivery were less than 0.2 units/ml. These observations indicate that the fetal-placental unit, probably by secreting a chorionic somatomammotropin, can maintain the concentration of growth hormone-dependent somatomedin in tha absence of the pituitary.


Annealing of neutron damage has been studied in n-channel, epitaxial silicon JFET's. This study includes measurements of the parameters, gmsat, IDSS, and VPO in devices with various phosphorous concentrations in the channel region. The recovery in device parameters during isochronal annealing exhibits a significant dependence on both the exposure fluence and the phosphorous concentration. The fluence dependence is due to the non-linear relationship between device parameters and defect concentration. The dependence on the phosphorous concentration is thought to be caused by E-center formation and break-up during neutron damage reordering. The recovery observed in the JFET's during annealing occurs at temperatures which are commonly reached during normal operation of power devices. Hence, significant self-healing of damage may occur during operation of such devices.


Inspired by gradient structures in the nature, Gradient Nanostructured (GNS) metals have emerged as a new class of materials with tunable microstructures. GNS metals can exhibit unique combinations of material properties in terms of ultrahigh strength, good tensile ductility and enhanced strain hardening, superior fatigue and wear resistance. However, it is still challenging to fully understand the fundamental gradient structure-property relationship, which hinders the rational design of GNS metals with optimized target properties. In this paper, we developed an adaptive design framework based on simulation-based surrogate modeling to investigate how the grain size gradient and twin thickness gradient affect the strength of GNS metals. The Gaussian Process (GP) based surrogate modeling technique with adaptive sequential sampling is employed for the development of surrogate models for the gradient structure-property relationship. The proposed adaptive design integrates physics-based simulation, surrogate modeling, uncertainty quantification and optimization, which can efficiently explore the design space and identify the optimized design of GNS metals with maximum strength using limited sampling data generated from high fidelity but computational expensive physics-based simulations.


Waveform relaxation (WR) has been shown to be an effective algorithm to simulate large digital circuits. In this paper, we explore parallel WR methods to further improve the performance. The parallel processing issues under investigation include partitioning, task granularity, scheduling and allocation. The difficulty of addressing these issues is that circuit simulation problems tend to have highly irregular computational structures. The use of high-level waveforms generated from logic or timing simulators is introduced as a way of improving speed. The speed improvements for circuit partitioning, window selection and task allocation using high-level information are presented.


This letter proposes an ant colony optimization (ACO) based energy saving routing, referred to as A-ESR, for energy efficient networks. The proposed A-ESR algorithm firstly re-formulates the energy-consumption minimized network (EMN) problem, which is NP-complete, into a simpler one by using the concept of traffic centrality. After that, it solves the re-formulated problem by 1) letting the flow to autonomously be aggregated on some specific heavy-loaded links and 2) switching off the other light-loaded links. Simulation results show that the A-ESR algorithm can get better performance than previous works in terms of energy efficiency.


Abstract This study examines the connection between relational mechanisms and performance measurement. The objective of the paper is to uncover the essential types of relational mechanisms and what factors determine the relational mechanisms of performance measurement in digital service supply chains. The authors conducted a multi-case study at companies that provide digital services. Relational mechanisms refer to mechanisms that initiate and enhance social interactions in performance measurement. The results show that trust between supply chain actors and improvement of knowledge through information sharing are the essential types of relational mechanisms of performance measurement in the digital service supply chain. These relational mechanisms enable performance measurement by engaging actors in providing measurement information. Personalization of services and the criticality of the service, but also compensation, and suppliers' ability to sell were highlighted to determine the relational mechanisms adopted.


This article investigates the problem of fixed-time event-triggered output consensus tracking for high-order multiagent systems (MASs) under directed interaction graphs. First, a fixed-time event-triggered distributed observer and triggering functions are proposed. Next, fixed-time convergence of the presented distributed observer is proved by the Lyapunov function approach, and an analysis is conducted to show the proposed distributed observer excludes zeno behavior. Then, an event-triggered adaptive dynamic surface fixed-time controller is designed to stabilize the tracking error system. Finally, simulation results are given to show the effectiveness and superiority of the consensus scheme developed. The contribution of this article is to present a novel event-triggered fixed-time distributed observer and a novel fixed-time controller, which can reduce frequency of communication and control update, avoid continuous monitor, exclude zeno behavior, eliminate the effect of mismatched disturbance caused by observation error, and achieve practical fixed-time output consensus tracking of high-order MAS under directed interaction graphs.


This thesis contributes to the knowledge of how computer-mediated communication and information sharing works in large groups and networks. In more detail, the research question put forward is: in large sharing networks, what concerns do end-users have regarding to whom to provide material? A theoretical framework of gift-giving was applied to identify, label and classify qualitative end-user concerns with provision. The data collection was performed through online ethnographical research methods in two large sharing networks, one music-oriented and one photo-oriented. The methods included forum message elicitation, online interviews, application use and observation. The result of the data collection was a total of 1360 relevant forum messages. A part from this there are also 27 informal interview logs, field notes and samples of user profiles and sharing policies. The qualitative analysis led up to a model of relationships based on the observation that many users experienced conflicts of interest between various groups of receivers and that these conflicts, or social dilemmas, evoked concerns regarding public and non-public provision of material. The groups of potential recipients were often at different relationship levels. The levels ranged from the individual (ego), to the small group of close peers (micro), to a larger network of acquaintances (meso) to the anonymous larger network (macro). It is argued that an important focal point for analysis of cooperation and conflict is situated in the relations between these levels. Deepened studies and analysis also revealed needs to address dynamic recipient groupings, the need to control the level of publicness of both digital material and its metadata (tags, contacts, comments and links to other networks) and that users often refrained from providing material unless they felt able to control its direction. A central conclusion is that public and non-public gifting need to co-emerge in large sharing networks and that non-public gifting might be an important factor for the support of continued provision of goods in sustainable networks and communities.


In this communication, conceptual design guidelines for a tri-band dual sense circularly polarized ceramic-based antenna is explored. An asymmetrical S-shaped aperture is used to stimulate the ring-shaped ceramic. Some exclusive features are obtained in the designed antenna: (i) creation of five different hybrid modes (HEM11δ , HEM11δ+2, HEM12δ-like, HEM12δ , and HEM13δ) is helpful for getting dual wideband impedance bandwidth; (ii) proposed aperture assists in achieving CP waves in three different frequency ranges with two different senses. Its experimental results confirm the simulated outcomes. The proposed antenna is operated within the dual-frequency ranges, i.e., 2.2–4.19 GHz and 4.74–6.11 GHz, respectively. The measured 3-dB axial ratio is achieved in three different frequency ranges within the operating band, i.e., 2.71–2.98 GHz, 3.6–3.79 GHz, and 5.5–5.81 GHz, respectively. The proposed antenna design is left-handed circularly polarized (LHCP) in the first and third frequency ranges, while it is right-handed in the second one. These features, along with broadsided far-field patterns, recommend the proposed antenna design for potential application in WLAN (2.4/5.5 GHz) and WiMAX (3.3/5.0 GHz) wireless networks.


The usual concern when opting for a rule-based or a hybrid machine translation (MT) system is how much effort is required to adapt the system to a different language pair or a new domain. In this paper, we describe a way of adapting an existing hybrid MT system to a new language pair, and show that such a system can outperform a standard phrase-based statistical machine translation system with an average of 10 persons/month of work. This is specifically important in the case of domain-specific MT for which there is not enough parallel data for training a statistical machine translation system.


Under laboratory conditions, we checked the possibility of purifying the hydrogen from ammonia by adsorption on molecular sieves of the NaX type with a view to the equipment existing at the enterprise


Aquaglyceroporins (AQPs) are a subset of the aquaporin family, and are permeable to water and glycerol. The aim of the present study was to determine the expression and clinical significance of three AQPs, AQP3, 7 and 9 in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Fresh HCC and adjacent non‑tumorous liver tissues were collected from 68 patients diagnosed with HCC. The expression levels of AQP3, 7 and 9 were detected by reverse transcription‑quantitative polymerase chain reaction, western blotting and immunohistochemical analysis. The association between the expression of AQPs and clinicopathological parameters of HCC were investigated. Compared with non‑tumorous liver tissue, HCC tissues exhibited a significant (P<0.05) increase in the expression of AQP3 and a concomitant reduction in the expression levels of AQP7 and AQP9, at both the mRNA and protein levels. Immunohistochemistry revealed that AQP9 was dominantly localized on the plasma membrane of hepatocytes, while AQP3 and AQP7 exhibited a predominantly cytoplasmic and nuclear distribution. High expression of AQP3 was significantly (P<0.05) associated with low expression levels of AQP7 and AQP9. High expression of AQP3 was correlated with tumor grade (P=0.017), tumor stage (P=0.010) and lymphatic metastasis (P=0.031). Low expression of AQP7 was correlated with tumor grade (P=0.043). AQP3 was upregulated, and AQP7 and AQP9 were downregulated in HCC. A high expression of AQP3 and low expression of AQP7 was significantly associated with the aggressive features of HCC.


Poly-α-2,8-sialic acid (polysialic acid) is a post-translational modification of the neural cell adhesion molecule (NCAM) and an important regulator of neuronal cell-cell interactions. The synthesis of polysialic acid depends on the two polysialyltransferases ST8SiaII and ST8SiaIV. Understanding the catalytic mechanisms of the polysialyltransferases is critical toward the aim of influencing physiological and pathophysiological functions mediated by polysialic acid. We recently demonstrated that polysialyltransferases are bifunctional enzymes exhibiting auto- and NCAM polysialylation activity. Autopolysialylation occurs onN-glycans of the enzymes, and glycosylation variants lacking sialic acid and galactose were found to be inactive for both auto- and NCAM polysialylation. In the present study, we have analyzed the number and functional importance of N-linked oligosaccharides present on polysialyltransferases. We demonstrate that autopolysialylation depends on specific N-glycans attached to Asn74 in ST8SiaIV and Asn89 and Asn219 in ST8SiaII. Deletion of polysialic acid acceptor sites by site-directed mutagenesis rendered the polysialyltransferases inactive in vitro and in vivo. The inactivity of autopolysialylation-negative polysialyltransferases in vivo was not caused by the absence or default targeting of the enzymes. The data presented in this study clearly show that active polysialyltransferases are competent to perform autopolysialylation and provide strong evidence for a tight functional link between the two catalytic functions.


The paper analyzes a negotiation between two players (e.g. finns in duopoly wishing to fonn a cartel or countries involved in a trade dispute) about levels of their activities that may be hannful to the other player. Negotiation takes place in discrete time, with alternating offers of the two players, and it can last forever. Until the players reach an agreement, they can freely choose levels of their activities. Once the agreement is reached, it is binding. The negotiation process is modelled by a noncooperative extensive fonn game. The analysis concentrates on Markov perfect equilibria, i.e. sub game perfect equilibria in Markov strategies. These strategies prescribe the same behavior in all subgames that are strategically equivalent. When players use Markov strategies, their current moves (actions taken, proposals in negotiation, and reactions to rival's proposals) do not depend on past moves of any of them that do not affect payoffs of at leastone of them from current or future moves. In each Markov perfect equilibrium the players reach an agreement on a pair of activities, which gives Pareto efficient vector of payoffs, in the first round of negotiation.


Product placement in TV shows is becoming increasingly common, yet little is known about its effectiveness nor even how to define and measure such effectiveness. This research examined the effectiveness of product placement with the use of two different types of measures: explicit measures that tap memory directly (with the use of a recognition and recall task), and an implicit measure that measures the effect of exposure on product choice indirectly. It was hypothesized that the ability of product placement to enhance memory and choice may be mediated by distinct mechanisms. The results showed an overall enhancement in product recall, recognition, and choice due to placement. Further, although products central to the plot were remembered and recalled more than products placed more subtly, no reliable effect of centrality of placement was observed on the choice measure. This dissociation also occurred with modality of placement—where seen-only products most influenced choice but were least recalled. The present data conform to theories of memory, which predict that performance on explicit memory task can be dissociated or uncorrelated with performance on implicit performance or choice. This finding has significant implications for how product placements are designed and how their efficacy evaluated. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.


We have demonstrated an all-fiber passively mode locked erbium-doped fiber laser (EDFL) based on graphene–polyvinyl-alcohol film. By watchfully adjusting the polarization controller, two different polarization attractors, including polarization locked vector solitons and a circular attractor, can be observed. This is first time, to the best of our knowledge, to explore the dynamics polarization attractors exhibited by a vector soliton generated from an EDFL based on graphene.


This paper describes a thorough analysis made with the Iterative error-reduction approach (IERA) for the determination of phase profiles of the output microwave beam of a gyrotron from known amplitudes. Based on theoretical field profiles of 170GHz/2MW coaxial gyrotron, a numerical/statistical approach is used to study the accuracy of Iterative phase retrieval algorithm. Several measurement parameters are optimized to get more accuracy during the infrared measurements of intensity thermograms of the microwave beam.


Background—Cell therapy with bone marrow–derived mononuclear cells (BMCs) can improve recovery of cardiac function after ischemia; however, the molecular mechanisms are not yet fully understood. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are key regulators of gene expression and modulate the pathophysiology of cardiovascular diseases. Methods and Results—We demonstrated that intramyocardial delivery of BMCs in infarcted mice regulates the expression of cardiac miRNAs and significantly downregulates the proapoptotic miR-34a. In vitro studies confirmed that the supernatant of BMC inhibited the expression of H2O2-induced miR-34a and cardiomyocytes apoptosis. These effects were blocked by neutralizing antibodies directed against insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1). Indeed, IGF-1 significantly inhibited H2O2-induced miR-34a expression, and miR-34a overexpression abolished the antiapoptotic effect of IGF-1. Likewise, inhibition of IGF-1 signaling in vivo abolished the BMC-mediated inhibition of miR-34 expression and the protective effect on cardiac function and increased apoptosis and cardiac fibrosis. IGF-1 specifically blocked the expression of the precursor and the mature miR-34a, but did not interfere with the transcription of the primary miR-34a demonstrating that IGF-1 blocks the processing of miR-34a. Conclusions—Together, our data demonstrate that the paracrine regulation of cardiac miRNAs by transplanted BMCs contributes to the protective effects of cell therapy. BMCs release IGF-1, which inhibits the processing of miR-34a, thereby blocking cardiomyocyte apoptosis. (Circulation. 2012;125:1765-1773.)


A new class of hollow mesoporous Pt-Ru and Pt particles with uniform size, named 'mesoporous metallic cells', are synthesized through a dual-templating approach using colloidal silica particles and non-ionic surfactants. To realize the full potential of mesoporous metals as electrocatalysts, the shell thicknesses, compositions, and hollow cavity sizes are precisely controlled.


Surface waves are one of the main types of coherent noise in seismic surveys, and standard filtering methods, such as F-K filtering, are not always effective. In this paper, we describe a non-subsampled contourlet transform (NSCT) based method for surface wave de-noising. The NSCT works like a "local F-Kfilter" and is implemented in time spatial domain. Compared to other surface wave filtering methods, the NSCT provides a platform for precise processing of the surface wave and can deal with aliasing data. Land seismic field data contaminated by high energy surface waves is used to test the effectiveness of this method. Preliminary results suggest that surface waves can be mostly attenuated by this method.


This paper addresses the nonlinear tomographic image reconstruction problem with particular emphasis on developing efficient numerical algorithms for early breast cancer detection using parallel algorithms to enhance both the speed and quality of the recovered images. Our goal is to illustrate an effective method of microwave imaging for early stage breast cancer detection, using parallel finite-difference time domain method (PFDTD) and parallel genetic algorithms (PGAs) optimization, by using message passing interface (MPI) library.


The staple diet of the Little Penguin Eudyptula minor at Phillip Island, Victoria is fish. Over a 38 month period 1149 birds were given emetics, 770 regurgitated food. Sixty one percent of birds had eaten anchovy Engraulis australis 51% had eaten pilchard Sardinops neopilchardus and 37% had eaten at least one of 19 other species of fish. Thirty four percent had eaten at least one of five species of cephalopods, the most frequently eaten cephalopod being Nototodarus gouldi. The composition, size of prey and weight of food brought ashore varied seasonally and from year to year. Birds ate mostly adult pilchards between August and December and post-larval anchovies between January and June. Prey items varied in length from 1- 13 cm and the wet weight of food brought ashore averaged 75 g over the year.


There has been emerging interest on recovering traditionally challenging intrinsic scene properties. In this paper, we present a novel computational imaging solution for recovering the ambient occlusion (AO) map of an object. AO measures how much light from all different directions can reach a surface point without being blocked by self-occlusions. Previous approaches either require obtaining highly accurate surface geometry or acquiring a large number of images. We adopt a compressive sensing framework that captures the object under strategically coded lighting directions. We show that this incident illumination field exhibits some unique properties suitable for AO recovery: every ray's contribution to the visibility function is binary while their distribution for AO measurement is sparse. This enables a sparsity-prior based solution for iteratively recovering the surface normal, the surface albedo, and the visibility function from a small number of images. To physically implement the scheme, we construct an encodable directional light source using the light field probe. Experiments on synthetic and real scenes show that our approach is both reliable and accurate with significantly reduced size of input.


Glomus mosseae (Nicol & Gerd.) Gerd. & Trappe, inoculation increased apple (Malus domestica Borkh.) seedling growth in 3 of 5 fumigated orchard soils without supplemental phosphorous. Mycorrhizae improved seedling growth in only one soil receiving additional P. Increasing P rates up to 100–200 mg/kg improved growth in only one soil receiving additional P. Increasing P rates up to 100–200 mg/kg improved growth of nonmycorrhizal-treated apple seedlings in 4 of 5 soils tested. The 5th soil had an adequate P content, 60 mg/kg soil prior to the addition of P. Mycorrhizal root infection of seedlings growing in soil that received G. mosseae inoculum decreased with increased P rates applied. Some infection was found in seedlings from all soils inoculated with mycorrhizae at P rates of 0–400 mg/kg, and seedlings from 2 of the mycorrhizal soils had infection at the P rate of 600 mg/kg.


This work aims to produce and to characterize physical-chemically an added craft beer of ginger, as well as its sensorial attributes, due to the new demand for products with innovative flavors. The traditional method of production of beer craft type Pilsen was used, with addition of 2 g L- 1 of ginger chips in the maturation stage. The final product presented alcoholic content of 3.40 °GL, primitive extract of 7.81 °P, real degree of fermentation of 68.71%, energy value of 115 KJ mL-1, bitterness of 21.5 B.U, pH of 4.46 and color of 7.13 E.B.C. Regarding the minerals, it presented (mg L -1 ) 58.4 of magnesium; 21.2 of sodium; 412.5 of potassium; 0.06 of iron; 0.23 of copper and 0.04 of zinc. On the sensorial evaluation, the index of global acceptability was of 92%, being others appraised attributes (color, flavor, aroma, appearance and bitterness) with index above 70%. As for the purchase intention, most of the fitting room indicated that they would buy (91%). A chemometric approach indicated that our beer added of ginger showed different characteristics from the others samples classified as pure malt, due to the alcohol, apparent and real degrees of fermentation, energy, potassium and magnesium contents.


Text categorization is the task of assigning predefined category to a set of documents. Several different models like SVM, Naïve Bayes, KNN have been used in the past. In this paper we present another approach to automatically assign a category to a document. Our approach is based on the use of Markov Models. We consider text as bag of words and use Hidden Markov Model to assign the most appropriate category to the text. The proposed approach is based on the fact that while creating documents the user uses the specific vocabulary related to the particular category. Hidden Morkov models have been widely used in automatic speech recognition, part of speech tagging, and information extraction but has not been used extensively for text categorization.


One of the major tasks of structural engineers is to reduce the building cost. Thus, an effective optimization of structural elements is gaining in importance every day. The teaching-learning-based optimization (TLBO), which is one of metaheuristic algorithms, for an optimum design and analysis of timber structures under fire in accordance with EN 1995 1-2 (Eurocode 5: Design of Timber structures - Part 1- 2 General structural fire design), is proposed in this study. The objective function in this algorithm is the building cost of timber structures under fire, considering premature collapse of the structure and limitation of fire spread. A structure made of wood is investigated under different times of fire exposure in order to determine the cross-section and wood type of structural elements. In conclusion, the cross section and strength of structural elements made of wood can be effectively and rapidly optimized with TLBO according to EN 1995 1-2.


There is a possibility that even a glass of grapefruit juice (GFJ) taken several hours before oral medication may enhance the bioavailability of many drugs, exaggerate the drug action, and increase the toxic effect by exaggerating the potency of the drug. This can be explained by inhibition of CYP3A4 in the small intestine by GFJ, thus suppressing drug metabolism. This interaction with GFJ is likely to occur mainly with those drugs that are metabolized by CYP3A4 and are associated with low bioavailability when given via an oral route. Thorough instruction on medication is necessary when these drugs are administered to patients. Examples of these drugs include: dihydropyridine calcium antagonists, terfenadine, cyclosporine, and carbamazepine.


A measured distance of 10 cm between the upper shoulder of a distal esophageal tumor as seen on barium swallow and midbody of T7 suggests feasibility of esophagogastrectomy with adequate margins via a left thoracoabdominal approach, obviating a separate right thoracic incision. The use of the EEA Stapler is recommended to facilitate such a high anastomosis.


Background Enhanced expression of CD14+CD15+ cells has been reported in the bone marrow of patient with severe rheumatoid arthritis (RA) (Tomita et al, J. Rheumatology, 1997). CD14+CD15+ cells (the phenotype of previously described "abnormal" myeloid cells) has been also reported to be increased in peripheral blood stem cell harvests on a per CD34+cell basis (Snowden et al, Br. J of Haematol, 1998) suggesting the abnormal process in the early differentiation of bone marrow cells in RA patients. Our study is focusing to clarify the appearance of CD14+CD15+ population in the early differentiation of bone marrow cells from RA patients. As the strategy, we utilize the monocyte differentiation system of induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells derived from RA patients. Objectives To examine whether the CD14+CD15+ cells appear during hematologic differentiation process of the iPS cells established from RA patients (RA-iPS). Methods iPS cells were established from skin fibroblasts and peripheral blood mononuclear cells from RA patients as described previously. Six days after transduction, the cells were harvested and re-plated onto mitotically inactivated SNL feeder cells. For the healthy controls, non-onset family members (NOF) of the patients are recruited as donors in order to adjust hereditary background as much as possible. Monocytes were induced from each iPS clone culture on feeder-free conditions using a previously reported method (Niwa et al, PLoS One, 2011). The cells collected from each culture were stained with specified antibodies against CDs, including CD14 and CD15 and were analyzed by fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) on day 12, 15, 18, 21 and 25. Results Cultured cells started to express CD14 on the day 12 and more than 90% of the cells expressed CD14 on the day 21 in the monocyte differentiation induction course. According to the expression levels of CD14, the cell population was divided into three groups: CD14 (−), CD14 (+) and CD14 (++). CD15 (+) cells were observed in CD14 (−) and CD14 (+) population but not in CD14 (++) population. The CD15+ cells in CD14 (+) transiently appeared in RA-iPS derived cells at 11.9±2.8% (mean ± SE) on day15. However these cell proportion in NOF was1.7±2.0%. Meanwhile, CD15+ cells in CD14 (−) proportion decreased during monocyte differentiation in RA-iPS cells, but remained in NOF-iPS cells (representative data, RA 31.5, 20.6, 15.6%, NOF 47.3, 46.1, 47.3%, on day15, 18 and 21). Conclusions We successfully differentiated iPS cells into monocytes and found CD14+CD15+cells transiently appeared only in the very early differentiation process of RA-iPS cells into monocytes. Taken together with the evidence that CD14+CD15+cells exist in RA patient bone marrow, abnormal early differentiation of myeloid/monocyte lineage cells may be pathologically involved in RA. Functional analysis will be required to elucidate the role of this distinct CD14+CD15+population in RA. Disclosure of Interest None declared DOI 10.1136/annrheumdis-2014-eular.3073


The angiography of tumours of the nasopharynx is an important contribution to preoperative diagnostis. Applying modern, improved techniques (superselective catheterisation, magnification angiography, subtraction methods) it is possible to have an idea of the size and the localization of the tumour as well as of afferent and efferent vessels. Often a differential diagnosis is achieved; in some tumours (angiofibromas, haemangiomas, cysts, vascular malignant tumours) the angiographic findings are pathognomonic.


Autophagy is a genetically regulated, eukaryotic cellular degradation system that sequestrates cytoplasmic materials in specialised vesicles, termed autophagosomes, for delivery and breakdown in the lysosome or vacuole. In plants, autophagy plays essential roles in development (e.g., senescence) and responses to abiotic (e.g., nutrient starvation, drought and oxidative stress) and biotic stresses (e.g., hypersensitive response). Initially, autophagy was considered a non-selective bulk degradation mechanism that provides energy and building blocks for homeostatic balance during stress. Recent studies, however, reveal that autophagy may be more subtle and selectively target ubiquitylated protein aggregates, protein complexes and even organelles for degradation to regulate vital cellular processes even during favourable conditions. The selective nature of autophagy lends itself to potential manipulation and exploitation as part of designer protein turnover machinery for the development of stress-tolerant and disease-resistant crops, crops with increased yield potential and agricultural efficiency and reduced post-harvest losses. Here, we discuss our current understanding of autophagy and speculate its potential manipulation for improved agricultural performance.


The studies on waves in India have seen rapid strides during the last decade. A review of the latest developments in the interpretation of shipbased observations, in wave hindcasting and in the instrumental measurement of waves is given. The new approaches in the study of short-term distributions, seasonal or year-round wave climatology and the long-term distributions are given in detail. The necessity for the consideration of nonlinear effects in the short-term distribution of wave heights and periods is highlighted. The developments in the relatively new fields of ocean wave research (in India), like the wave spectra, numerical methods in wave hindcasting and transformation, tapping of wave energy, remote sensing techniques etc. are discussed. The limitations in ocean wave research in India and a few recommendations for future research are given


Being the seventh most spoken language in the world, the use of the Bangla language online has increased in recent times. Hence, it has become very important to analyze Bangla text data to maintain a safe and harassment-free online place. The data that has been made accessible in this article has been gathered and marked from the comments of people in public posts by celebrities, government officials, athletes on Facebook. The total amount of collected comments is 44001. The dataset is compiled with the aim of developing the ability of machines to differentiate whether a comment is a bully expression or not with the help of Natural Language Processing and to what extent it is improper if it is an inappropriate comment. The comments are labeled with different categories of harassment. Exploratory analysis from different perspectives is also included in this paper to have a detailed overview. Due to the scarcity of data collection of categorized Bengali language comments, this dataset can have a significant role for research in detecting bully words, identifying inappropriate comments, detecting different categories of Bengali bullies, etc. The dataset is publicly available at https://data.mendeley.com/datasets/9xjx8twk8p.


The perception system in autonomous vehicles is responsible for detecting and tracking the surrounding objects. This is usually done by taking advantage of several sensing modalities to increase robustness and accuracy, which makes sensor fusion a crucial part of the perception system. In this paper, we focus on the problem of radar and camera sensor fusion and propose a middle-fusion approach to exploit both radar and camera data for 3D object detection. Our approach, called CenterFusion, first uses a center point detection network to detect objects by identifying their center points on the image. It then solves the key data association problem using a novel frustum-based method to associate the radar detections to their corresponding object's center point. The associated radar detections are used to generate radar-based feature maps to complement the image features, and regress to object properties such as depth, rotation and velocity. We evaluate CenterFusion on the challenging nuScenes dataset, where it improves the overall nuScenes Detection Score (NDS) of the state-of-the-art camera-based algorithm by more than 12%. We further show that CenterFusion significantly improves the velocity estimation accuracy without using any additional temporal information. The code is available at https://github.com/mrnabati/CenterFusion.


We show that postselection offers a nonclassical advantage in metrology. In every parameter-estimation experiment, the final measurement or the postprocessing incurs some cost. Postselection can improve the rate of Fisher information (the average information learned about an unknown parameter from an experimental trial) to cost. This improvement, we show, stems from the negativity of a quasiprobability distribution, a quantum extension of a probability distribution. In a classical theory, in which all observables commute, our quasiprobability distribution can be expressed as real and nonnegative. In a quantum-mechanically noncommuting theory, nonclassicality manifests in negative or nonreal quasiprobabilities. The distribution's nonclassically negative values enable postselected experiments to outperform even postselection-free experiments whose input states and final measurements are optimized: Postselected quantum experiments can yield anomalously large information-cost rates. We prove that this advantage is genuinely nonclassical: no classically commuting theory can describe any quantum experiment that delivers an anomalously large Fisher information. Finally, we outline a preparation-and-postselection procedure that can yield an arbitrarily large Fisher information.


We report on the first measurement of 39Ar in argon from underground natural gas reservoirs. The gas stored in the US National Helium Reserve was found to contain a low level of 39Ar. The ratio of 39Ar to stable argon was found to be ≤4×10-17 (84% C.L.), less than 5% the value in atmospheric argon (39Ar/Ar=8×10-16). The total quantity of argon currently stored in the National Helium Reserve is estimated at 1000 tons. 39Ar represents one of the most important backgrounds in argon detectors for WIMP dark matter searches. The findings reported demonstrate the possibility of constructing large multi-ton argon detectors with low radioactivity suitable for WIMP dark matter searches.


A possible etiological factor for the social disability described in children with attention‐deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a deficit in the ability to accurately evaluate emotional stimuli. Children with ADHD were compared to normal controls on a battery of emotional processing. This battery, the Minnesota Tests of Affective Processing (MNTAP), measures face perception and recognition of affective stimuli as conveyed via facial expression, language, and speech prosody. Overall, children with ADHD were found to be no different from normal children in their ability to process emotional cues. A subgroup of younger children with ADHD were found to have modest difficulties on a test of decoding facial affective stimuli. Significant differences were found between ADHD and normal control groups on those tasks requiring complex auditory processing and extensive use of working memory. Additional analyses found significant effects on affective processing for children with nonverbal impairment We conclude...


Hydrogels are materials widely used in countless applications, particularly in the biomedical, pharmaceutical, and nutraceutical fields, because of their biocompatibility and their mechanical and transport properties. Several approaches are known to evaluate their properties, but only a few approaches are under development to mathematically describe their behaviour, in terms of how the materials answer to mechanical stimuli and how incorporated active substances are released. In this review, the main properties of hydrogels are summarized and the structure-property relationships are investigated (i.e. how the macromolecular structure influences the properties of macroscopic samples made of hydrogels). A selection criterion is proposed based on the comparison of three characteristic times: relaxation time, diffusion time, and process time. Then, the most common experimental methods to investigate the hydrogel properties are summarized, along with the state-of-the-art of mathematical modelling, with reference to the mechanical and transport properties of hydrogels, with particular attention to the viscoelastic and poroelastic behaviours. Last but not least, some case histories which can be classified as viscoelastic, poroelastic, or poroviscoelastic behaviours are presented.

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The aims of this study were to develop a suitable model to study proarrhythmic potential using isolated rabbit hearts with atrioventricular block and to examine the proarrhythmic potential of several drugs using this model. With a normal K/Mg solution (K+=5.7 mM and Mg2+=1 mM), d,l-sotalol (10 and 30 microM), a class III antiarrhythmic drug, prolonged ventricular repolarization, such as QT intervals and monophasic action potential duration, and induced early after-depolarization and polymorphic ventricular tachyarrhythmia. Cisapride (0.1 and 0.3 microM), a 5-HT4 receptor agonist, also prolonged the ventricular repolarization, and induced early after-depolarization. With a low K/Mg solution (K+=1.5 mM and Mg2+=0.35 mM), d,l-sotalol at 30 microM and cisapride at 0.3 microM more potently prolonged the ventricular repolarization than with a normal K/Mg solution. Furthermore, the incidence of polymorphic ventricular tachyarrhythmia caused by cisapride at 0.3 microM with a low K/Mg solution was higher than that with a normal K/Mg solution. Mosapride citrate, another 5-HT4 receptor agonist, at 10 microM prolonged the ventricular repolarization and induced early after-depolarization with a low K/Mg solution, whereas the drug at 1 and 3 microM did not affect any of the parameters examined. Des-4-fluorobenzyl-mosapride, a metabolite of mosapride citrate, at 10 microM slightly prolonged the ventricular repolarization without inducing early after-depolarization or ventricular tachyarrhythmia. These results suggest that mosapride citrate and des-4-fluorobenzyl-mosapride have much less proarrhythmic potential than cisapride and that isolated rabbit heart with atrioventricular block, perfused with a low K/Mg solution, is a suitable model for predicting the proarrhythmic potential of drugs.


It is shown that the mass-shell equation as a quadratic polynomial equation induces general complex algebra, GC, which generate an additional evolution equation. We explore the evolution generated by GC-algebra and give geometrical and physical interpretations for that motion. It is shown that the evolution governed by GC-algebra describes the motion of the relativistic particle which is depicted on the Euclidean plane as a motion of the straight line, tangent to the circle with radius equal to the mass, around this circle. The momenta of the particle are expressed by the functions regular near the state with m = 0, v = c. The reflection from the momenta of the massless particle onto the massive one is interpreted as a q-deformation.


This paper sought to understand quality culture (QC) as a way of enhancing quality products and services at theUniversity of South Africa (Unisa), one of the leading open distance learning (ODL) Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). The paper focused on reviewing literature that explains key dimensions ofQC, namely: culture, quality and the importance of QC in assuring the quality of HEIs'provisions. It is a conceptual paper that outlines the prevailing thoughts on QC as it relates to quality assurance (QA) and organisational culture (OC).QC as a process operates best not just through evaluation and measurement procedures alone, but is best reflected in the values, practices and procedures shared and nurtured by varying levels of an institutional community. Measuring through predetermined standards is undoubtedly important for accountability but these processes cannot be regarded as quality guarantors. Quality is not a standard to be met but a process that is best achieved when those whose quality products or services are evaluated have willingly expressed aspirations and desire to ensure it.


Alveolar soft part sarcoma (ASPS) is a rare malignancy that, since its initial description, remains a neoplasm of uncertain histogenesis. The disease‐defining molecular event characterizing the diagnosis of ASPS is the ASPSCR1‐TFE3 fusion gene. Following identification of an index case of ASPS with a novel TFE3 fusion partner, we performed a retrospective review to determine whether this represents an isolated event. We identified two additional cases, for a total of three cases lacking ASPSCR1 partners. The average patient age was 46 years (range, 17‐65); two patients were female. The sites of origin included the transverse colon, foot, and dura. Each case exhibited a histomorphology typical of ASPS, and immunohistochemistry was positive for TFE3 in all cases. Routine molecular testing of the index patient demonstrated a HNRNPH3‐TFE3 gene fusion; the remaining cases were found to have DVL2‐TFE3 or PRCC‐TFE3 fusion products. The latter two fusions have previously been identified in renal cell carcinoma; to our knowledge, this is the first report of a HNRNPH3‐TFE3 gene fusion. These findings highlight a heretofore underrecognized genetic diversity in ASPS, which appears to more broadly molecularly overlap with that of translocation‐associated renal cell carcinoma and PEComa. These results have immediate implications in the diagnosis of ASPS since assays reliant upon ASPSCR1 may yield a false negative result. While these findings further understanding of the molecular pathogenesis of ASPS, issues related to the histogenesis of this unusual neoplasm remain unresolved.


Investigation on a series of ABs-type metal hydride electrodes reveals significant improvement of cycle life in the presence of zincate electrolytes (0.5 M ZnO in 6 M KOH) for alloys without substituents such as Ce. For alloys containing Ce, which are known to impart passive protection against corrosion no additional advantage was derived by using zincate electrolytes. X-ray absorption near-edge structure investigation at the Ni K edge, due to its relative high abundance and catalytic importance in the hydriding process, was used to elicit the corrosion characteristics as a function of cycling. The spectra averaged over the bulk of the sample (transmission mode) and those from the top 200 to 250 A (electron yield mode) indicate significant lowering of corrosion and buildup of Ni(OH)2 in non-Ce substituted alloys when using zincate electrolytes. In Ce substituted samples this effect was marginal.


In an attempt to hinder regurgitation of stomach probes in free-living endotherms, the use of spring-based anchors has been suggested although the difficulty of subsequent extraction of the probes from the stomachs has been acknowledged. We present a modification in the construction of such anchored probes so that units can be easily retrieved using a magnetic grab system. The system was tested on 8 free-living Magellanic Penguins Spheniscus magellanicus in Argentina and was found to be quick and easy to use, involving minimal stress to the study animal while being 100% successful.


As a variety of services are provided through mobile devices, there have been increasing security threats to mobile platforms and applications. Many mobile application security check methodologies are proposed to deal with such threats, but it is not clear exactly how the security vulnerabilities are inspected, and there is no correct methodology for such. One way to increase the execution rate of vulnerability check is to develop an automation tool that simplifies the process. Therefore, in this study, a work process of Android application vulnerability inspection was designed and a prototype of the automation tool for vulnerability inspection was implemented. Furthermore, the effectiveness of the implemented prototype was assessed through an actual application using the prototype.


Purpose The aim of this review was to (1) characterize the time-course of markers of exercise-induced muscle damage (EIMD) based on the level of maximal voluntary contraction torque loss at 24-48h post-exercise (MVCloss24-48h), (2) identify factors (e.g., exercise and population characteristics) affecting the level of MVCloss24-48h, and (3) evaluate the appropriateness of EIMD markers as indicators of MVCloss24-48h. Methods Magnitude of change of each EIMD markers was normalized using the standardized mean differences method to compare the results from different studies. Time-course of EIMD markers were characterized according to three levels of MVCloss24-48h based on a clustering analysis of the 141 studies included. Association between MVCloss24-48h levels and participant´s characteristics or exercise type/modalities were assessed. Meta-regressions were performed to investigate the associations between MVCloss24-48h and EIMD markers changes at <6h, 24h, 48h, 72h and >96h after exercise. Results Time-course of EIMD markers recovery differs between levels of MVCloss24-48h. Training status and exercise type/modality were associated with MVCloss24-48h level (p<0.05). MVCloss24-48h was correlated to changes in myoglobin concentration (<6h), jump height (24h) and range of motion (48h) (p<0.001). Conclusion As the exercise could differently affect markers as function of the EIMD severity (i.e., MVCloss24-48h levels), different markers should be used as function of the timing of measurement. Mb concentration should be used during the first hours after the exercise (<6h), whereas jump height (24h) and range of motion (48h) could be used as surrogate for maximal voluntary contraction later. Moreover, training status and exercise type/modality could influence the magnitude of MVCloss24-48h.


Coupling semiconducting nanocrystals (NCs) with organic molecules provides an efficient route to generate and transfer triplet excitons. These excitons can be used to power photochemical transformations such as photoisomerization reactions using low energy radiation. Thus, it is desirable to develop a general approach that can efficiently be used to control photoswitches using all-visible-light aiming at future applications in life- and material sciences. Here, we demonstrate a simple 'cocktail' strategy that can achieve all-visible-light switchable diarylethenes (DAEs) through triplet energy transfer from the hybrid of CdS NCs and phenanthrene-3-carboxylic acid, with high photoisomerization efficiency and improved fatigue resistance. The size-tunable excitation energies of CdS NCs make it possible to precisely match the corresponding energy of the relevant DAE photoswitch. We demonstrate reversible all-visible-light photoisomerization of a series of DAE derivatives both in the liquid and solid state, even in the presence of oxygen. Our general strategy is promising for fabrication of all-visible-light activated optoelectronic devices as well as memories, and should in principle be adaptable to photopharmacology.


This corpus based investigation deals with the present-day usage of and the semantic relation between the two verbs rise and arise. Concordance lines containing various forms of the two verbs in question have been taken from six different (sub)corpora and were examined in view of their collocational and semantic characteristics. The basic aims were to investigate the nowadays status of the verbs rise and arise and whether they (still) can be regarded as synonyms. The results show that both verbs can sometimes be used synonymously. Their general semantic relation appeared to be near-synonymy. Furthermore, both verbs seem to have developed a semantic specialisation, which is regarded a counterargument for the thesis that the verb arise is on the verge of dying out.


Exclusive breastfeeding was studied among 506 infants in Uppsala, Sweden, based on daily recordings during the first 6 mo. The mothers had previously breastfed at least one infant for at least 4 mo. Most of the mothers considered that they breastfed on demand. Wide variations in breastfeeding frequency and suckling duration were found both between different infants and in the individual infant over time. At 2 wk, the mean frequency of daytime feeds (based on one 13‐d record) between different infants ranged from 2.9 to 10.8 and night‐time feeds from 1.0 to 5.1. The daytime suckling duration (based on one 24‐h record) ranged from 20 min to 4h 35min and night‐time duration from 0 to 2h 8 min. At any given age, a maximum of only 2% of the infants were not breastfed during the night. At 4 mo, 95% of the infants were breastfeeding and 40% were exclusively breastfed at this age. Longer breastfeeding duration and longer duration of exclusive breastfeeding were both associated with higher frequency of breastfeeds, longer breastfeeding of the previous child and higher education. No gender differences were found. Maternal smoking was associated with shorter duration of exclusive breastfeeding, and pacifier use was associated with shorter duration of both exclusive breastfeeding and total breastfeeding. This study confirms that every mother‐infant pair needs to be understood as a unique dyad throughout lactation. These data demonstrate a wide range of patterns among women who are exclusively breastfeeding and indicate that it would be inappropriate to put pressure on individual families to adopt preconceived patterns of infant feeding.


Typical methods of stimulating intellectual capital (eg. to create KBE) are activities conducive to the development of business environment supporting the development of sectors based on high and medium-high technology. Th e article examines an alternative method of stimulating intellectual capital increasing tourist attractiveness of a region. In the case of not traditionally touristic regions, the improvement of tourist attractiveness requires innovative action – eg. conversion of a mine into a concert hall or a spa. Such activities are refl ected in the statistics as an increase in the knowledge-intensive services (KIS) in the regional service structure. Th e main goal of the paper is to fi nd whether two development policies – based on stimulating innovativeness or based on enhancing tourism function intensity are complimentary or substitutes. We found a statistically signifi cant correlation between the stage of tourism development and the share of knowledge-intensive services in total services in 2009 in Polish counties. Th e highest percentage of counties with the highest share of KIS relates to counties with low level of intensity but strong growth of tourist function. Traditional tourist destinations, based on natural attractions are characterized by low intensity of KIS.


Summary Historians of science have neglected early modern natural philosophers' varied attitudes to the history of philosophy, often preferring to use loose labels such as 'Epicureanism' to describe the survival of ancient doctrines. This is methodologically inappropriate: reifying such philosophical movements tells us little about the complex ways in which early modern natural philosophers approached the history of their own discipline. As this article shows, a central figure of early modern natural philosophy, Robert Boyle, invested great intellectual energy into his depiction of the history of philosophy. Boyle's historical worldview was mediated through an array of textual traditions: classical, patristic, humanist and contemporary. Drawing extensively on his manuscript notes, this is examined for three topics. First, from his turn to natural philosophy in the late 1640s, Boyle combined a sceptical attitude towards philosophy's potential – stemming from humanist historicisations of the 'speculative' heritage of Greek philosophy – with a belief in natural philosophy's efficacy as a spiritual exercise, as performed by ancient 'priests of nature'. Second, Boyle's attitude to the history of matter theory was far more complex than any simple comparison with 'ancient atomism' can convey. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Boyle held Epicurus to be a speculative and reductionist philosopher, leading him to posit a different lineage for a non-reductionist corpuscularianism which depended on exploitation of non-standard historiographical traditions. Appreciating this allows us to make an intervention in the ongoing debate about the relationship between corpuscularianism, chymistry and experiment in Boyle's philosophy. Third, Boyle's historicisation of supposedly anthropomorphic philosophies in his famous Free Enquiry (1686) exploited recent theological historiography, most importantly Samuel Parker's combination of the history of idolatry with the history of Greek philosophy, which itself relied on developments in continental sacred history. It was this historicisation, rather than any philosophical realities, which led to the positing of the mechanical philosophy as more compatible than Aristotelianism with Christian doctrine.


Environmental pollution is a threat to humans and wildlife species. Of particular concern are endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs). An important target of EDCs are nuclear receptors (NRs) that control endocrine and metabolic responses through transcriptional regulation. Owing in part to structural differences of NRs, adverse effects of EDCs vary significantly among species. Here, we describe a multiplexed reporter assay (the Ecotox FACTORIAL™) enabling parallel assessment of compounds' effects on estrogen, androgen, thyroid, and PPARγ receptors of representative mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish. The Ecotox FACTORIAL is a single-well assay comprising a set of species-specific, one-hybrid GAL4-NR reporter constructs transiently transfected into test cells. To harmonize cross-species assessments, we used a combination of two approaches. First, we used the same type of test cells for all reporters; second, we implemented a parallel detection of reporter RNAs. The assay demonstrated excellent quality, reproducibility, and insignificant intraassay variability. Importantly, the EC50 values for NR ligands were consistent with those reported for conventional assays. Using the assay allowed ranking the hazard potential of environmental pollutants (e.g., bisphenols, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, synthetic progestins) across species. Furthermore, the assay permitted detecting taxa-specific effects of surface water samples. Therefore, the Ecotox FACTORIAL enables harmonized assessment of the endocrine and metabolic disrupting activity of chemicals and surface water in humans as well as in wildlife species.


The content and distribution of acetylcholinesterase (AChE) activity in the skeletal muscle disorder malignant hyperthermia (MH) was examined. The AChE activity of sarcolemma membranes isolated from MH‐susceptible (MHS) swine was increased twofold when compared with normal sarcolemma. The total AChE activity of muscle extracts was also doubled in MHS tissue; however, the relative distribution between low‐salt extractable (globular forms) and high‐salt extractable (asymmetric forms) AChE activities were similar in MHS and normal muscle. Our results suggest that, for as yet unexplained reasons, both the sarcolemmal and total AChE activity of skeletal muscle is increased in porcine MH.


Hematopoietic progenitor kinase 1 (HPK1) is a hematopoietic cell-restricted member of the Ste20 kinases that acts as a negative regulator of T cell functions through the AP-1, NFAT, and NFκB pathways. Using HPK1-deficient (HPK1−/−) mice, we report in this study a novel role for HPK1 in dendritic cells (DCs). Specifically, we observed that matured HPK1−/− bone marrow-derived DCs (BMDCs) are superior to their wild-type (WT) counterpart in stimulating T cell proliferation in vivo and in vitro. Several characteristics of HPK1−/− BMDCs may account for this enhanced activity: Matured HPK1−/− BMDCs express higher levels of costimulatory molecules CD80, CD86, and I-Ab as well as produce more proinflammatory cytokines IL-12, IL-1β, TNF-α, and IL-6 than their WT littermates. The role of HPK1 as a proapoptotic molecule was assessed post activation with LPS, and results indicated that HPK1−/− BMDCs are significantly resistant to LPS-induced apoptosis. Our results led us to investigate the role of HPK1−/− BMDCs in tumor immunotherapy. Using a s.c. murine model of Lewis Lung Carcinoma, we found that HPK1−/− BMDCs eliminate established s.c. Lewis Lung Carcinoma more efficiently than their WT counterpart. Our data reveal a novel role for HPK1 as a negative regulator of DC functions, identifying its potential as a molecular target for DC-based immunotherapy against cancers.


Galvanized steel surfaces are widely used in industry as a solution to prevent corrosion of steel tools that operate in outdoor or corrosive and oxidative environments. These objects are coated with a zinc protective layer deposited by hot dip galvanization. Turning the surface of galvanized steel tools into superhydrophobic may lead to very useful functionalities, although it may be a difficult task, because the preservation of the thin zinc layer is a claim. We propose herein the use of a bottom-up approach based on sandblasting, followed by sintering of zinc nanoparticles on the galvanized steel substrate, which allowed us to produce a zinc-made hierarchical structure required for superhydrophobicity. These samples acquired a double-scale structure that led to superhydrophobicity when they were later hydrophobized with a thin fluoropolymer layer. We found that sandblasting might be useful but not mandatory, unlike the sintering process, which was essential to reach superhydrophobicity. We found that, under certain experimental conditions, the surfaces showed outstanding water-repellent properties. We observed that the sandblasting on galvanized steel caused more damage than the sintering process. Sintering of low-melting-point metal nanoparticles was revealed as a promising strategy to fabricate functional metallic surfaces.


In this paper, we investigate the issues of survivability and efficiency in a heterogeneous mobile ad hoc network (MANET) and Sensor network as a combined network where the communications is achieved using a mixed MANET and Sensor Network, referred to as SMANET for supporting mission critical applications. Using the cluster managed SMANET where, heterogeneous nodes with different capabilities and nodes from different organizations deployed within the same geographical area will support variety of multi-service mission critical applications while increasing the network lifetime. In this network, nodes from different organizations collaborate with each other for mission critical data to be delivered using multi-hop radio-sensor-radio type path routing while keeping the tactical operations supported by the battlefield command control structure transparent. While keeping the collaborative encounters, it is important to keep cross-organization data transfer at the lowest possible level for minimal disruption of the traffic within each organization and for security reasons. Assuming that all nodes are equipped with cognitive radio capability maintaining interoperability, we propose a novel routing metric that maximize the benefits from the collaboration of heterogeneous nodes and take the organizational constraints into account. Furthermore, we propose joint design of cognitive radio and multi-carrier modulation to maximize the bandwidth utilization and energy efficiency in SMANET. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed method provide much needed survivability and efficiency in battlefield environment while keeping the cross-organization data transfer at the lowest possible level as a value added enhancement compared to homogeneous MANET or sensor networks. Same network design can also find use in civilian environment for supporting applications such as emergency preparedness management and traffic efficiency in congested transportation systems.


This research discusses the Da'wah Bilin the tradition HikmahMassuro Mabbaca. The goal to be achieved is to know the implementation of rituals carried out in the tradition Massuro Mabbaca as well as to know the implementation of dakwah bil hikmah in the implementation of the tradition Massuro Mabbaca . The Tradition masuro mabbaca has been carried out by the community from generation to generation so that it is hoped that in its implementation there will be no mixing of religious teachings and customs. There is an awareness in the community not to make this tradition an obligation but that it is purely a culture. research reading massuro This is located in Lasare Village, Bone Village, Segeri District, Pangkep Regency. In data collection, a qualitative approach is used because this type of qualitative research has an inductive nature, namely the development of concepts based on existing data, following a flexible research design according to the context. The steps taken are to determine the research location, focus, research, research subjects, data collection methods, data analysis and continue with drawing conclusions. The conclusions obtained in this study is,tradition mabbaca massuro is tradition carried from generation to generation that has a value of philosophy as well as the value of propaganda in the implementation,  describes nflaivalues culture contained in the procession massuro mbaread at once an expression of gratitude for all the blessings that Allah has given. However, the implementation of this tradition still requires monitoring and guidance from the government and religious leaders so that people are able to distinguish between traditions that have Islamic values and traditions that are pure as culture.


Lawrence P. Shao, Marshall University, Huntington, WV, USA Dale H. Shao, Marshall University, WV, USA Ralph E. McKinney, Jr. Aston University, Birmingham , UK The catchphrase "Today's Challenges Lead to Tomorrow's Opportunities" succinctly describes the environment currently relevant to the area of business higher education. The future of business higher education in the 21st Centwy will involve dramatic changes that will lead to a vastly different ousiness education environment than we have today. By recognizing opportun ities and preparing strategies to em{Jrace these changes, business sclwols wfll be better able to prepare for what lies ahead. There will be new opportunities to try strategic initiatives that could not have been previously been attempted. Business schools must look for new alternatives and utilize a proactive approach for the "new non-normal" environment that is the future of business education. This paper will examine the major challenges and opportunities in business education. A discussion will also be provided on possible solutions to the problems facing business schools. It is important to realize that, the challenges and opportunities facing business higher education include technical as well as nontechnical influences. Recent technological advancements also offer both tremendous challenges and significant opportunities for business school administrators as they guide their institutions into the future.


A novel FDTD formulation for dispersive media called piecewise linear JE recursive convolution (PLJERC) finite-different time-domain (FDTD) method is derived using the piecewise linear approximation and the recursive convolution relationship between the current density J and the electric field E. The high accuracy and efficiency of the PLJERC method is confirmed by computing the reflection coefficients of an electromagnetic wave through a collision plasma slab in one dimension.


Self-efficacy is a medium in individual behaviour achievement and ability to complete task given with high desire. This paper is to discuss about the fundamental of self-efficacy in vocational and this research is focused on Automotive Technology. Research objective is to identify self-efficacy level based on National Occupational Skills Standard (NOSS), mastery experience, vicarious experiences, and verbal persuasion experience. Result shows high mean level in self-efficacy for NOSS Level 1, 2 and 3. While moderate mean level in mastery experience, vicarious and verbal persuasuion. Regression analysis showed that there is relationship in all three predictor variables with self-efficacy. In summary, students in Automotive Technology Course still need to increase their self-efficacy in order to prepare themselves to be skilled workers. Knowledge and skills blend with high level of self-efficacy to enhance teaching and learning strategies. The teaching practices which are able to increase the students' self-efficacy were also identified.


This paper aims to examine the meaning, role, inspirations, and place of corporealism in Tertullian's system of thought. The extent to which corporealism is a basic philosophical belief in Tertullian's work and to what extent it is a particular element of his theological doctrine is questioned. It presents the named ontological position as a rare specificity within the range of early Christian thought, especially in Tertullian's works De anima and De carne Cristi. This paper makes a clear distinction between corporealism and materialism, as it tries to determine the degree of influence of Stoic philosophy, especially ontology, on Tertullian, as well as the influence of Aristotle in selected areas. In this context, his traducianism is also examined. In the ontological context, the status of the soul and God in Tertullian thought is also presented. In connection with the metaphysical problem of creation, the article also touches on the question of creatio ex nihilo as a problem on which Tertullian had to take a stand. It investigates the role of corporealism in Tertullian's polemic against Marcion, Apelles, and the Valentinian Gnosis by mapping which elements in the teachings of these representatives and Gnosis, especially (but not exclusively) Valentinian, could provoke Tertullian to controversy. This paper holds the opinion that Tertullian's corporealism was due to his theological views and controversy with opponents, which were used as philosophical inspiration, especially stoic inspiration, but was used mainly in the service of his theological thinking and strategic needs for argumentation.