Spreadsheets are ubiquitous, heavily relied on throughout vast swathes of finance, commerce, industry, academia and Government. They are also acknowledged to be extraordinarily and unacceptably prone to error. If these two points are accepted, it has to follow that their uncontrolled use has the potential to inflict considerable damage. One approach to controlling such error should be to define as "good practice" a set of characteristics that a spreadsheet must possess and as "bad practice" another set that it must avoid. Defining such characteristics should, in principle, perfectly do-able. However, being able to say with authority at a definite moment that any particular spreadsheet complies with these characteristics is very much more difficult. The author asserts that the use of automated spreadsheet development could markedly help in ensuring and demonstrating such compliance.


The single pulse observation of PSR J1752+2359 at 1250 MHz made using the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST) is presented. We show that the pulsar exhibits two distinct emission states: a normal state with continuous normal pulse emission and a rotating radio transient (RRAT)-like state with sporadic emission. This makes PSR J1752+2359 the third pulsar that exhibits switching between RRAT-like and pulsar-like states. Our data show that, during the observation, 20 per cent of the time for this pulsar was in the normal state and 80 per cent in the RRAT-like state. A quasi-periodic switching, with a periodicity of around 568 spin periods, between the two states was observed. The pulse energies for the two states both follow log-normal distributions. We demonstrate that the polarization profiles and the linear polarization position angle (PA) swings differ significantly between the two states. There is a phase offset of about 0°.35 between the pulse profile peaks of the two states. We argue that the emission geometry in the magnetosphere may be different for the two states.


The results of in situ reflection high-energy electron diffraction, X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy and magnetization measurements of Ag/Cr metallic superlattices (with a few monolayers of Cr) are presented. The superlattice structure is confirmed even in the superlattice with one monolayer of Cr. It is found from simulations of the observed X-ray diffraction profiles that dramatic changes in the interplanar distances of Ag and Cr take place as a function of the number of Cr monolayers in a period. The interplanar distance of Ag contracts, whilst, on the contrary, the interplanar distance of Cr is stretched; for the superlattice which includes two monolayers of Cr it is stretched by up to about 10%. Magnetization measurements show that the magnetization per Cr atom at 5 K with an applied field of 5 T is at a maximum for two monolayers of Cr.


The present paper provide a method to obtain lead-free piezoelectric ceramics based on bismuth sodium titanate (Bi1/2Na1/2)BaTiO3 (BNBT), as well as the characterization of these, the elaboration consists from the dust mixture to the sinterized the pieces in a furnace, the BNBT systems had been studied for its dielectrics and piezoelectric properties, the characterization consists of determining the Curie temperature and resonance frequency. BNBT ceramics present similar characteristics to those of the PZT ceramics. Because of its high frequency of resonance they can be used in biomedical applications, concretely in ultrasound applications.


We report an adjustable unbalanced quantum random-number generator based on the polarization of photons,which can produce nondeterministic true random unbalanced numbers. The underlying physical process is inherently quantum mechanical. To prove the quality of the output sequence of the proposed generator, we test the obtained bias-free sequence through the 3-standard-deviation criteria and the National Institutes of Standards and Technology test suite. Another type of nondeterministic unbalanced random-number generator is also studied in this work, to evaluate the quality of the output biased random numbers.


There is a lack of transparency in the increasingly complex food system. Consumers tend to use environmental indicators, or eco-labels, to identify sustainable foods; however, many existing eco-labels do not clearly communicate the impact that food has on the environment. A carbon label conveying the amount of carbon emitted throughout a product's life cycle would be a better measure of the food's impact on climate change. While such a label does not yet exist in the United States, this research uses an online survey to determine how U.S. consumers would perceive a carbon label like those used throughout Europe. The findings from over 400 respondents suggest that consumers believe a carbon label would make it easier to compare the environmental impact of foods. Additionally, at least 45% of participants rated a carbon label as more important than five other eco-labels that do exist in the United States. Finally, participants reported that the source of the carbon label would not influence whether or not they would purchase labeled foods. Findings from this study support the potential for a carbon label to help consumers make knowledgeable decisions and influence purchasing.


The most important preventive and therapeutic effort to reduce inflammation is to remove the dental plaque thoroughly. Oral self-care is thus of crucial importance to achieve and maintain oral health. There is a scarcity of scientific evidence on the most effective models for behavioural change aimed to improve oral hygiene. There is a need for randomized-controlled trials, based on behavioural sciences and performed with great methodological rigour, to investigate the usefulness of these proposed behavioural changes. Oral hygiene regimens for patients with natural teeth as well as dental implants should include brushing twice daily, inter-dental cleaning once daily and rinsing with efficient rinses as an adjunct to mechanical infection control. Power toothbrushes are preferable as they are more effective than manual toothbrushes. Inter-dental brushes seem to be most effective and useful for inter-dental cleaning. Scaling and root planing is effective in reducing inflammation and probing depths in patients with periodontitis.


We propose and illustrate a hierarchical Bayesian approach for matching statistical records observed on different occasions. We show how this model can be profitably adopted both in record linkage problems and in capture--recapture setups, where the size of a finite population is the real object of interest. There are at least two important differences between the proposed model-based approach and the current practice in record linkage. First, the statistical model is built up on the actually observed categorical variables and no reduction (to 0--1 comparisons) of the available information takes place. Second, the hierarchical structure of the model allows a two-way propagation of the uncertainty between the parameter estimation step and the matching procedure so that no plug-in estimates are used and the correct uncertainty is accounted for both in estimating the population size and in performing the record linkage. We illustrate and motivate our proposal through a real data example and simulations.


Purpose Severe acute malnutrition (SAM) is an important public health problem which contributes to significant number of under five deaths. Protocol based management significantly decreases risk of deaths in children with medical complications. Methods Outcome of children aged 2 months–5 years admitted and fulfilling definition of SAM having diarrhea (group A) was compared to children with SAM having medical complications other than diarrhea (group B). Both groups were managed according to standard recommended protocols and monitored and followed up for 12 weeks after discharge. Results The average weight gain, defaulter rate, primary failure, secondary relapse rate and readmission rate were similar in both groups. Length of stay in group A was three days longer (p-value=0.039). Discharge rate was comparable with overall 68% of children successfully discharged and 50% of children reaching weight/height >−2 standard deviation at follow-up of 12 weeks. Conclusion The current management protocol is equally effective for managing children with SAM having diarrhea. Good adherence to management protocol of dehydration and timely modification of therapeutic feeds in children with persistent diarrhea results in satisfactory weight gain.


The ability of an anaerobic hybrid reactor, treating coffee wastewater, to achieve a quick start-up was tested at pilot scale. The unacclimatized seed sludge used showed a low specific methanogenic activity of 26.47 g CH4 as chemical oxygen demand (COD)/kg volatile suspended solids (VSS) x day. This strongly limited the reactor performance. After a few days of operation, a COD removal of 77.2% was obtained at an organic loading rate (OLR) of 1.89 kg COD/m3 x day and a hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 22 h. However, suddenly increasing OLR above 2.4 kg COD/m3 x day resulted in a deterioration in treatment efficiency. The reactor recovered from shock loads after shutdowns of 1 week. The hybrid design of the anaerobic reactor prevented the biomass from washing-out but gas clogging in the packing material was also observed. Wide variations in wastewater strength and flow rates prevented stable reactor operation in the short period of the study.


Knowledge graphs (KGs) have become important auxiliary information for helping recommender systems obtain a good understanding of user preferences. Despite recent advances in KG-based recommender systems, existing methods are prone to suboptimal performance due to the following two drawbacks: 1) current KG-based methods over-emphasize the heterogeneous structural information within a KG and overlook the underlying semantics of its connections, hindering the recommender from distilling the explicit user preferences; and 2) the inherent incompleteness of a KG (i.e., missing facts, relations and entities) will deteriorate the information extracted from KG and weaken the representation learning of recommender systems. To tackle the aforementioned problems, we investigate the potential of jointly incorporating the structural and semantic information within a KG to model user preferences in finer granularity. A new framework for KG-based recommender systems, namely \textit{K}nowledge \textit{I}nfomax \textit{R}ecommender \textit{S}ystem with \textit{C}ontrastive \textit{L}earning (KIRS-CL) is proposed in this paper. Distinct from previous KG-based approaches, KIRS-CL utilizes structural and connectivity information with high-quality item embeddings learned by encoding KG triples with a pre-trained language model. These well-trained entity representations enable KIRS-CL to find the item to recommend via the preference connection between the user and the item. Additionally, to improve the generalizability of our framework, we introduce a contrastive warm-up learning strategy, making it capable of dealing with both warm- and cold-start recommendation scenarios. Extensive experiments on two real-world datasets demonstrate remarkable improvements over state-of-the-art baselines.


This research was aimed at investigating the process of designing mathematical tasks on addition of teachers using lesson study. It employed the qualitative research method. An analysis was performed on data obtained from discussion protocols of the Lesson Study team during the development of lesson plan of Unit 8: Addition (2) and questionnaire on the designing of mathematical tasks. Results of the research indicated that the lesson study team utilized the following processes for designing mathematical tasks: 1) determining the lesson goal; 2) interpreting the mathematical tasks; 3) identifying the use of mathematical tasks; and 4) anticipating students' approaches.


Twenty-two patients with biopsy-proved para-aortic lymph node metastases from carcinoma of the cervix (15 patients) or endometrium (7 patients) received a median dose of 5,000 rad/25 fractions. Para-aortic nodal metastases were controlled in 77% of cases. Control was significantly lower following radical retroperitoneal lymph node dissection than less extensive sampling procedures. Obstruction of the small bowel developed in 3 patients with tumor recurrence in the para-aortic region. Eight of the 10 patients who were disease-free at 2 years received greater than 5,000 rad. Three patients were still alive without disease at 129, 63, and 60 months, respectively. The 5-year disease-free survival rate was 40% for cervical cancer and 60% for endometrial cancer: in the former group, it was significantly different depending on whether the para-aortic nodes were irradiated (40%) or not (0%). The authors suggest that 5,000-5,500 rad in 5-5.5 weeks is well tolerated and can control aortic nodal metastases in cervical and possibly endometrial cancer.


Shoot regeneration of Bacopa monnieri was achieved, on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium supplemented with 4.4 μM benzyl aminopurine (BA) from different explants. Nodal explants initiated 75-80 shoots, leaf explants 55-65 shoots and internodal explants 50-55 shoots within 40 days of culture. The initiated shoots were multiplied in MS medium containing 2.2 μM BA. Ascorbic acid (50 mg/l) and citric acid (25 mg/l ) increased the number of shoots and conservation period of the cultures. Isabgol, when used as gelling agent provided consistent multiplication of cultures compared to microbiology grade agar and cultures were conserved in medium containing 3% (w/v) isabgol for a period of 190 days as against an average of 120 days in 1% (w/v) agar containing media. The conservation period was increased to a period of 200 days in medium gelled with 3% (w/v) isabgol containing 50 mg/l ascorbic acid and 25 mg/l citric acid and more than 80% of the cultures survived in this medium. Rooting was achieved ex vitro by culturing the isolated shoots in autoclaved soilrite moistened with 1/10 strength MS salts. Rooted plantlets were established in soil. Genetic stability assessment with random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) primers showed no variation in the banding pattern of the cultures grown in different concentrations of growth regulators, agar or isabgol and additives containing media. These studies provide a feasible in vitro multiplication and conservation method and genetic stability assessment of B. monnieri cultures.


This paper aims to identify whether or not the spatial concentration of poverty –also called economic residential segregation- affects the opportunities of the poor in Chile. Residential segregation is understood as the concentration particular population groups in determined geographical areas within cities. To identify the effects of segregation we use a panel of cross sections of the Casen household surveys, although the measures of segregation are computed from the Census data. The results suggest that segregation makes more likely that children from poor households do not attend preschool education, lag behind grades in school and drop out from schools. Segregation also makes more likely that the non student young from poor households do not participate in the labor force. On the other hand, segregation does not seem to have an effect on the probabilities of teenage pregnancy, young single mothers or the health status of the working age population.


In the Computer Aided Industrial Design (CAID), the design evaluation is a non-quantitative but qualitative question involving many fields. So an appropriate evaluation system and method not only affects the evaluation result, but also affects the establishment and implementation of product design and production plan. According to existing evaluation methods and the characteristic of the CAID, this article brings forward the CAID evaluation idea and method of applying fuzzy analytic hierarchy process.


The French Revolution proclaimed the equality of all human beings, yet women remained less than equal in the new society. The exclusion of women at the birth of modern democracy required considerable justification, and by tracing the course of this reasoning through early 19th-century texts, Genevieve Fraisse maps a moment of crisis in the history of sexual difference. Through an analysis of literary, religious, legal, philosophical and medical texts, Fraisse links a range of positions on women's proper role in society to specific historical and rhetorical circumstances. She shows how the Revolution marked a sharp break in the way women were represented in language, as traditional bantering about the "war of the sexes" gave way to serious discussions of the political and social meanings of sexual difference. Following this discussion on three different planes - the economical, the political, and the biological - Fraisse looks at the exclusion of women against the backdrop of democracy's inevitable lie: the affirmation of an equality so abstract it was impossible to concretely apply. This study of the place of sexual equality in the founding moment of democracy offers insight into a persistent question: whether female emancipation is to be found through the achievement of equality with men or in the celebration of female difference.


ELIM LT3000CL uses an adapter that makes it possible to operate an engine on three different fuels Propane, Natural Gas, and Gasoline.


Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are a relatively new form of online education which allow a single instructor to teach tens of thousands of enrolled students from around the world; ostensibly offering free university-level education to anyone connected to the internet. A growing number of MOOC hosts have formed to create digital platforms allowing instructors to design and teach their courses; each offering a different set of tools to convey content, assess student learning, and allow communication in massive virtual classrooms. A new environment suggests that some educators might need to alter pedagogy to address the problem of how to teach a massive virtual population of student learners. Critics often cite a few well-publicized failures and a trend of high rates of attrition as evidence of failure, but educators continue to experiment with the MOOC model of instruction. Teaching a MOOC is not only different from traditional university teaching, but also different from earlier attempts to teach at a distance. Perhaps most notably, the massiveness of the MOOC model appears to prevent instructors from addressing individual needs of some learners. MOOCs have provided ways for students to communicate with each other, typically through discussion forums, allowing some to rely on peers to reinforce larger scale instruction. Some students find the sheer volume of information on forums problematic, even with search and sorting tools provided by MOOC platforms. Some MOOC educators have made use of other pedagogical methods which appear to be designed to encourage students to interact with and learn from peers, apparently finding value in social learning. If educators had a better understanding of different pedagogies used to promote social learning, and how students might react to these teaching methods, perhaps MOOC instructors could rely on students to address individualized instruction needs of their peers. Social learning methods seem a perfect fit for MOOCs, offering a way of teaching online students which would not require educators to add resources as enrollment numbers scale into the tens or hundreds of thousands. I engaged in this research project to provide more information to educators about the nature of social learning methods available to MOOC educators, as well as to provide a look into student experiences. To answer the following research questions, I engaged in a two-phase research project:1. What are the different methods employed in massive open online courses to promote student social learning and peer interaction?2. What do students report about their experiences with social learning and peer interaction methods used in MOOCs?a. To what extent does student motivation to take a course influence students' reported experiences?3. What learning outcomes or course-related benefits do students attribute to social learning experiences in MOOC environments? The first phase of the research project addressed the first question. I enrolled in 267 MOOCs from eleven hosts; representing every course I could find and enroll in over a six-month research window. Enrolling in these courses granted me access to course data about how instructors attempted to use social learning methods in their courses. I examined pedagogy and attempted to explain the intentions of educators based on information from course websites. Through this phase of data collection, it became clear that platforms offered a variety of tools, which instructor sometimes used for social learning. I combined tools with how educators appeared to use the tools to define seven categories of social learning methods (Forums, Peer Assessments, Groups, Face-to-Face Meetings, Synchronous Communication, Social Media, and Social Presence).I then placed methods from each category along a spectrum of social learning. Methods on the lowest end of the spectrum seemed to be less likely or less intent on promoting social learning; these methods represented the bulk of social learning findings from phase one. Social learning methods on the highest end of the spectrum were those which educators explicitly used to encourage or even necessitate student interaction to complete course activities. The data from phase one not only illustrated a broad view of social learning methods offered in MOOCs, the findings also guided my selection of sites and interview candidates in the second phase.In the second phase of the research project, I selected courses which appeared to be most intent on promoting social learning. I selected four courses, each on a different platform (Coursera, edX, FutureLearn, and NovoEd); each offered different social learning methods, though many used methods in overlapping categories. After briefly studying the first few weeks of content, I selected three or four students from each course who I felt likely to have the most experience with social learning methods: students appeared actively engaged in social learning methods and were nearly finished with their courses. Over the next month, I conducted virtual interviews (via Skype, Google Hangouts, or the phone) with thirteen students about their experiences. I asked questions specifically about how they experienced social learning methods and how different activities influenced their learning or other course-related outcomes. I based questions on specific conjectures of social constructivist learning.Some findings from the second phase of the research project were surprising, most notably the interplay between motivation and social learning methods. I had expected students to report having strong reasons for taking the course, perhaps partially explaining why they would be active and nearly finished with their courses. I did not expect six of the thirteen students to report finding motivation from social connections they felt with other students in the course. Most frequently, students reported experiencing closeness from relationships made with other students working in small groups, which sometimes used synchronous communication and face-to-face meetings. Students tended to cite smaller scale and more synchronous communication as the source of social connections, but at least one student felt a kind of connection with the class through large discussion forums, perhaps because of the course content.Forums, which most tended to describe as large and less personal than other social learning methods, did not appear to result in personal social connections. Students did report forums to be a useful means of communication and experienced improved learning outcomes, even without an available search tool. While forums appeared to be a viable means of exchanging information, students tended to report richer experiences when using smaller scale social learning methods; with the exception of anonymous peer assessments. The other methods discussed by students at a smaller scale (groups, synchronous communication, and face-to-face meetings) appeared to be much more likely to affect students' ability to connect with peers socially and often led to notable increases in student learning. Learning itself appeared to be difficult for some students explain. Students tended to describe positive outcomes from social learning experiences in terms of understanding other students' experiences or opinions. Yet, most did not define these experiences as learning; a word that most reserved for formal course materials, even from students who described finding value in social learning and peer interaction. The apparent absence of some students' ability to recognize social learning outcomes, together with a lack of explanation of many social learning methods by educators, suggested a few ways educators might improve social learning in MOOCs.The findings suggest that even students stating an awareness of the value of social learning may lack an understanding of what outcomes they can expect. There may be many students who would benefit from an increased understanding of social learning: how to use different methods, and what benefits they might find. Additionally, while all MOOC platforms appeared to offer tools which instructors could offer to promote social learning, and many educators used them, few offered explanations or models of how students might learn from peers in their courses. A good first step, and something relatively easy to accomplish, might be to increase student awareness of social learning, and instruct students on how and why to use social learning methods in MOOCs. If such knowledge became widespread, we could increase the learning, and perhaps motivation, of millions of students worldwide over the next decade. If students and educators increase the understanding and use of social learning, we may witness a shift in the culture of MOOCs. A shifting culture among students and educators might also motivate instructors to design their courses around small groups, synchronous communication, and even face-to-face meetings. Though these methods might be difficult for some educators to incorporate into courses, the findings suggest that the benefits to learning might make these efforts worthwhile.


Presents an efficient and accurate high level software energy estimation methodology using the concept of characterization-based macromodeling. In characterization-based macromodeling, a function or subroutine is characterized using an accurate lower level energy model of the target processor to construct a macromodel that relates the energy consumed in the function under consideration to various parameters that can be easily observed or calculated from a high-level programming language description. The constructed macromodels eliminate the need for significantly slower instruction-level interpretation or hardware simulation that is required in conventional approaches to software energy estimation. Two different approaches to macromodeling for embedded software offer distinct efficiency-accuracy characteristics: 1) complexity-based macromodeling, where the variables that determine the algorithmic complexity of the function under consideration are used as macromodeling parameters and 2) profiling-based macromodeling, where internal profiling statistics for the functions are used as the parameters in the energy macromodels.


The training of neural networks by gradient descent methods is a cornerstone of the deep learning revolution. Yet, despite some recent progress, a complete theory explaining its success is still missing. This article presents, for orthogonal input vectors, a precise description of the gradient flow dynamics of training one-hidden layer ReLU neural networks for the mean squared error at small initialisation. In this setting, despite non-convexity, we show that the gradient flow converges to zero loss and characterise its implicit bias towards minimum variation norm. Furthermore, some interesting phenomena are highlighted: a quantitative description of the initial alignment phenomenon and a proof that the process follows a specific saddle to saddle dynamics.


Sex trade in China resurfaced with the economic reforms of Deng Xiaoping in 1978, and has since evolved to an industry of gigantic scale. This paper analyzes the prostitution in China in a social, economic, political, and historical context, with a special emphasis on Shanghai. The problem posed is how to strike a balance between the positive and negative effects of prostitution. The solution proposed in the final analysis aims at achieving this golden mean.


In today's highly competitive world many subjects that are contrary to each other are continuously spoken over as if they are in competition such as; wealth-poverty, peace-war, love-hate, materialism-spiritualism…etc. This list is endless but one, especially one term plays a single leading role, and that is spiritualism. Since many people have lost or gave up their unique personal characteristics in favor to gain success, power or control in uniformed individualistic cultures, many on the other hand are trying hard to achieve self full filling, happy lives. The hard working ones are trying to obtain inner peace by focusing on their spiritual intelligences and trying to find ways to improve them. Spiritual intelligence (SQ) means much more than spirituality. Spiritual intelligence is a way of thinking. It is what we use to cover our longing and capacity for meaning, vision and value. Also it establishes a dialogue between reason and emotion, between mind and body. SQ allows the integration between intrapersonal and interpersonal in order to surpass the gap between self and other. And all these aspects in a broader sense cover the need to understand and know the others' "hearts." Spiritually intelligent people can be seen performing different jobs, but especially spiritually intelligent educators are the most valued and preferred ones since the future of the world is shaping in their hands. Educators who want to gain a broader perspective on this issue can take a journey into their inner-selves by the help of integrating the skills of emotional intelligence with specific spiritual qualities. After gaining enough insight to the topic, educators then, they themselves can be the illuminators of tolerance, unity, understanding, love and peace. Since sharing knowledge is seen as the main purpose of educators, teaching how to be "happy in life" is also a job to be performed by educators. From this perspective in this paper the main aim is to discuss SQ, the ways to improve SQ levels of educators and its positive results on educator-student relationship, and its reflections in the educational environment.


The entire process of image formation and refocusing of light field photography with microlens array is simulated using the in-house software OTS based on real ray tracing. The optical system consists of a photographic lens and the microlens array which are specifically designed. Objects are placed in different distance before the lens, and images of them on the detector plane are got by imaging simulation algorithm. Utilizing the color, intensity and the corresponding direction information of light rays on the image plane, pictures focusing at different depth in the image space are calculated, so that we can refocus at different objects in different distance. The paper also details the basic requirement of optical system and this simulation process is a fundamental work of research on design method and performance of lens using in light field photography.


The service quality of the Wedhatama Cooperative (KOPTAMA) is centered on efforts to fulfill the needs and desires of members and the provision of delivery to meet the expectations of members. Service quality depends on the ability of the service provider to consistently meet the expectations of members. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of service quality on cooperative member satisfaction and its implications for member participation as debtors of the Wredatama Ngada Pension Cooperative. This study uses explanatory study methods (descriptive verification). The dimensions used in this study are Service Quality (SERVQUAL) (X) which consists of the variables Tangible (X1), Reliability (X2), Responsiveness (X3), Assurance (X4), and Empathy (X5) which are associated with Member satisfaction variables. (Y) and Member Participation variable (Z) using simple linear regression and multiple linear regression. The results show that there is significance influence between service quality variables (Tangible (X1), Reliability (X2), Responsiveness (X3), Assurance (X4) , and Empathy (X5) on member satisfaction and the effect of member satisfaction on member participation by 48.40%, while the remaining 51.6% is influenced by other variables not examined in this study.


Much research in recent years has been done on sustainable hazardous waste management system, nevertheless the amounts of hazardous waste generated increases. The major share of these hazardous substances is a product of activities within NACE sectors. By now there are few studies trying to bring the problem of waste elimination down to the level of a single enterprise. This paper proposes the methodology for assessment of changes for the aggregate of hazardous waste flow at enterprise level due to relative impact of investigated factors, such as hazardous waste intensity, material intensity and the amount of raw material consumed in enterprise. The use of derivatives from IPAT and Kaya identities together with logarithmic mean Divisia index decomposition analysis is presented. Based on the proposed methodology case studies at enterprise level can be done in order to explore a cause in the aggregate changes in the past, present the forecast model for future trends, and also identify leverage points for intervention of policy tools with the aim to reduce the amount of hazardous waste. This research is the first attempt to link together government initiatives and hazardous waste flow at enterprise level based on quantitative indices.


The paper presents a fully integrated multiphase output low-jitter CMOS phase-locked loop for 1.25Gb/s to 6.25Gb/s wireline SerDes transmitter clocking. The self-biased bandwidth technology with simplified structure is applied to reduce the sensitivity to process variations. A diffierential Charge pump (CP) which is suitable for low power supply and process migration is proposed. An accelerator is built to avoid the disadvantage of great damping factor. Self-adaptive frequency dividers are used to improve power efficiency. The simulation results under 65nm and 55nm process almost maintain almost the same jitter performance and show the high process insensitivity and good jitter performance.


In view of the automatic recognition of electric meter dial,meter image askew,half of the character recognition,scale corresponding small digital numerical calculation,there are operation speed and accuracy is difficult,to establish the automatic recognition system of meter.It consists of two parts:intake meter image preprocessing and digital identification.For the image on the uptake,first with the texture characteristics for preliminary positioning,then the meter for precise positioning by morphology;and then the Hough transform and wavelet analysis,the image tilt correction,from the complicated background to remove interference,segmentation of a single digital and a series of algorithm as pretreatment.To put forward a different algorithm the whole digital and non whole digit recognition,for the former,using wavelet analysis,for the latter,take the digital recognition algorithm based on pixel and the proportion of the meter scale.For the collected meter image of 800,this system is a single digit recognition rate of 99.6%,the whole electric meter image recognition rate is 98.1%.The experimental results show that the system has strong robustness,it is of great practical value.


Multichannel seismic reflection, seismic refraction, and magnetic anomaly data are used to interpret the Mesozoic sea-floor spreading history and subsequent sedimentary evolution of the Sohm basin southeast of Nova Scotia. Observed M-series (Mesozoic) magnetic anomalies show that oceanic crust in the Sohm basin was generated at very slow rates of sea-floor spreading (5-15 mm/yr half rates). The slow spreading created very rough crustal topography, but the crustal thickness and seismic-velocity structure are typical of "normal" oceanic basement. Basement depths corrected for sediment loading fall below the predicted age/depth curve in the anomaly M25-M4 interval. These depth anomalies and an associated regional negative geoid anomaly suggest that the Sohm basin is underlai by asthenosphere denser and possibly colder than normal. Correlation of seismic reflection profiles in the basin to regional seismic stratigraphy, together with age constraints from reflection pinch-outs on dated oceanic crust, provides a chronology for interpreting the seismic sequences. The Jurassic to Lower Cretaceous sequences are similar in thickness and acoustic character to sequences observed along the United States Atlantic margin, suggesting that the New England Seamount Chain had little effect on sediment distribution patterns within the early western North Atlantic basin. Upper Cretaceous sediments in the Sohm basin are thin, probably because seaward transport of sediment was restricted by eustatic sea level rise and by a sedimentary ridge uplifted because of salt tectonics along the central and upper continental rise. Progradati nal sedimentary wedges and erosional unconformities characterize the Tertiary and Quaternary sedimentary record along the lower continental rise. The prograding sequences generally correlate to sea level lowstands. Repeated episodes of erosion by abyssal currents are marked by seismic unconformities Horizon Au (lower Oligocene), LM (lower Miocene), MM (middle Miocene), and L (upper Pliocene). The deep currents also controlled local patterns of deposition and modified cross-slope sediment transport and accumulation patterns. Thick supra-Horizon L sediments cover the Sohm basin and reflect rapid sediment influx caused by glacio-eustatic fluctuations in sea level during the Quaternary.


The hamartomatous polyps of Peutz-Jeghers Syndrome (PJS) can cause repeated episodes of rectal bleeding and intestinal subocclusion. Laparoscopic treatment of intussusception is rarely reported and must be considered for this clinical condition. We described a 35-year-old male with PJS who presented with rectal bleeding and abdominal pain. One duodenal polyp and two others in the jejunum, which caused intussusception, were visualized on preoperative investigation. Polyps were identified by laparoscopy and removed extracorporeally through enterotomies. All lesions were hamartomas. The patient was discharged on the third postoperative day and has been asymptomatic for more than 2 years. Laparoscopy allows an adequate access to explore and treat small bowel polyps and avoid the classic laparotomy.


Many esports use a pick and ban process to define the parameters of a match before it starts. In Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CSGO) matches, two teams first pick and ban maps, or virtual worlds, to play. Teams typically ban and pick maps based on a variety of factors, such as banning maps which they do not practice, or choosing maps based on the team's recent performance. We introduce a contextual bandit framework to tackle the problem of map selection in CSGO and to investigate teams' pick and ban decision-making. Using a data set of over 3,500 CSGO matches and over 25,000 map selection decisions, we consider different framings for the problem, different contexts, and different reward metrics. We find that teams have suboptimal map choice policies with respect to both picking and banning. We also define an approach for rewarding bans, which has not been explored in the bandit setting, and find that incorporating ban rewards improves model performance. Finally, we determine that usage of our model could improve teams' predicted map win probability by up to 11% and raise overall match win probabilities by 19.8% for evenly-matched teams.


We present a novel approach for improving particle filters for multi-target tracking. The suggested approach is based on drift homotopy for stochastic differential equations. Drift homotopy is used to design a Markov Chain Monte Carlo step which is appended to the particle filter and aims to bring the particle filter samples closer to the observations. Also, we present a simple Metropolis Monte Carlo algorithm for tackling the target-observation association problem. We have used the proposed approach on the problem of multi-target tracking for both linear and nonlinear observation models. The numerical results show that the suggested approach can improve significantly the performance of a particle filter.


Due to limitations in the traditional microprocessor design, such as high complexity and power, all current commercial high-end processors contain multiple cores on the same chip (multicore). This trend is expected to continue resulting in increasing number of cores on the chip. While these cores may be used to achieve higher throughput, improving the execution of a single application requires careful coding and usually results in smaller benefit as the scale of the system is increased. In this work we propose an alternative way to exploit the multicore technology where certain cores execute code which indirectly improves the performance of the application. We call this approach the Helper Core approach. The main contribution of this work is the proposal and evaluation of HelperCoreDB, a Helper Core designed to improve the performance of database workloads by performing efficient data prefetching. We validate the proposed approach using a HelperCoreDB implementation for the PostgreSQL DBMS. The approach is evaluated with native execution on a dual core processor system using the standard TPC-H benchmark. The experimental results show a significant performance improvement specially considering that the baseline system is a modern optimized processor that includes advanced features such as hardware prefetching. In particular, for the 22 queries of TPC-H, our approach achieves a large reduction of the secondary cache misses, 75% on average, and an improvement in the execution time of up to 21.5%.


Abstract Ever since the renewal in Afrikaans prose brought about by the works of the so‐called "Sestigers" (Men of the Sixties"), there has been a great deal of interest in the Afrikaans short story. During the past three decades contemporary South African social and political problems and conflicts came to the fore in these works. The question is posed as to why there was more emphasis on renewal of form in the prose of the Sixties, and not on important socio‐political themes. In this article important trends, lines of living constants, are closely examined, starting with the so‐called "border literature" of the Seventies and ending with the Nineties, the decade in which female authors dominated. The soldier as a figure of displacement and marginalization is added to the interpretation of the "border literature" of the Seventies and Eighties. The paper concludes with a discussion of a new relationship to alarming aspects of Africa, especially the irrational elements, which became apparent during the last half of the previous century.


This article discusses the use of hysterectomy as a form of sterilization at Hutt Hospital. Between the years 1960 and 1970 70 women underwent tubal ligation sterilization. The author followed these women with the interest in whether further gynecological problems and operations could have been prevented by hysterectomy at the time of sterilization. 25.7% (N=17) of the women did suffer further problems which were preventable by hysterectomy problems such as menorrhagia metorrhagia fibroids adenomyosis etc. 22 additional operations among these 70 women were needed predominantly dilatation and curettage with all requiring anesthetic. Subsequent to tubal ligation the rate of hysterectomy was 17.1% or a total of 12 post-tubal ligation hysterectomies. These figures have been compared to 2 other studies one by M. J. Muldoon (BMJ 1972 1 84-5) and the other by R. J. Whitelaw (BMJ 1979 1 32-3). In the 1st study 18.7% of the women or 70 of 374 underwent hysterectomy and 3.3% or 18 of 485 women underwent hysterectomy in the Whitelaw study. The latter figures are so low probably because women who are 35 years of age with menorrhagia or irregular vaginal bleeding are routinely treated by hysterectomy. While the author is not recommending prophylactic hysterectomies it does seem that hysterectomy at sterilization would obviate the high rate of problems and surgery subsequent to tubal ligation. Whitelaws figures for post-tubal ligation difficulty imply that a more carefully chosen sterilization method would be beneficial.


Design data are presented for a class of high-performance single-engine business airplanes. The design objectives include a cruise speed of 300 knots, a cruise altitude of 10,700 m (35,000 ft), a cruise payload of six passengers (including crew and baggage), and a no-reserves cruise range of 1300 n.mi. Two unconventional aerodynamic technologies were evaluated: the individual and combined effects of cruise-matched wing loading and of a natural laminar flow airfoil were analyzed. The trade-off data presented illustrate the ranges of wing geometries, propulsion requirements, airplane weights, and aerodynamic characteristics which are necessary to meet the design objectives. Very large design and performance improvements resulted from use of the aerodynamic technologies evaluated. It is shown that the potential exists for achieving more than 200-percent greater fuel efficiency than is achieved by current airplanes capable of similar cruise speeds, payloads, and ranges.


PURPOSE:Examine changes in oxygen saturation in well neonates at altitudes from 4498 to 8150 feet with serial measurements at 12 to 24 hours of age, 36 to 48 hours, and, if still hospitalized, at 60 to 72 hours. SUBJECTS:Convenience sample of well newborn infants meeting inclusion criteria of normal cardiopulmonary status (centrally pink with adequate perfusion) and no respiratory distress (absence of grunting, retracting, nasal flaring, or tachypnea-respiration ⩽60/minute). DESIGN:Nonexperimental, longitudinal, descriptive study. METHODS:Using Masimo Radical SET monitors the SpO2 values were recorded from infant's right upper extremity to obtain a preductal measurement and then from left lower extremity for postductal measurement at study intervals. OUTCOME MEASURE:SpO2 values. RESULTS:The well neonates' birth weights ranged from 1835 to 2805 g, with 94.3% classified as term and 5.7% classified as preterm. At the data collection intervals based on hours of life, mean SpO2 readings at 4498 feet were 95% to 96.67%, at 6800 feet were 93.91% to 95.36%, at 7851 feet were 91.80% to 94.37%, at 7890 feet were 93.44% to 96.10%, and at 8150 feet were 93.69% to 96.25%. SpO2 readings at sites at or above 6800 feet were significantly lower than those at 4498 feet. No significant differences were noted for sleep state or season. Significant differences were noted in the first and second lower extremity readings between preterm and term neonates, with preterm SpO2 readings higher than term readings. CONCLUSIONS:Mean oxygen saturation levels for well neonates born at higher altitudes are lower than those born at 4498 feet. Neonates born at or above 6800 feet exhibit "normal" oxygen saturation levels between 91% to 96% rather than the expected 97% found at sea level. These reference values for varying altitudes can guide clinicians to avoid hypoxemia or hyperoxia. If routine oxygen saturation screening for detection of critical congenital heart defects is implemented, these results will provide clinicians the mean values specific for additional altitudes, thus preventing unnecessary interventions when results are lower than the expected 97%.


Research on biological rhythms has revealed widespread variation in diel timing within populations. Repeatable individual chronotypes have been linked to performance in humans but, in free-living species, benefits of chronotype are poorly understood. To address this gap, we investigated fitness correlates of incubation patterns in female songbirds (great tit, Parus major) at urban and forest sites. We confirm repeatable chronotypes (r ≥ 0.31) and show novel links between chronotype and reproductive success. In both habitats, females that started activity earlier in the day raised more fledglings. We also observed that forest females started their day at a similar time throughout the breeding season, whereas urban females tied their onset of activity closely to sunrise. Our study points to possible mechanisms that underlie chronotype variation and provides sought-after evidence for its relevance to fitness.


Physics of radioactive nuclear beams is one of the main frontiers of nuclear science today. Experimentally, thanks to technological developments, we are on the verge of invading the territory of extreme N/Z ratios in an unprecedented way. Theoretically, nuclear exotica represent a formidable challenge for the nuclear many–body theories and their power to predict nuclear properties in nuclear terra incognita. It is important to remember that the lesson learned by going to the limits of the nuclear binding is also important for 'normalrsquo; nuclei from the neighbourhood of the beta stability valley. And, of course, radioactive nuclei are crucial astrophysically; they pave the highway along which the nuclear material is transported up in the proton and neutron numbers during the complicated synthesis process in stars.


In this study, we evaluated the applicability of various superoxide anion sensors which were designed based on either redox or non-redox mechanisms. Firstly, both redox- and non–redox-based superoxide anion probes were designed and synthesized using either coumarin or chromone as the fluorophores, and the photophysical properties of these probes were measured. Subsequently, the sensing preference of both types of probes toward various reactive oxygen species (ROS) was evaluated. We found that non–redox-based O2 •− probes exhibited broad sensing ability toward various ROS. By contrast, redox based O2 •− probes showed a clear reactivity hierarchy which was well correlated to the oxidizing strength of the ROS. Lastly, the detection selectivity of redox-based O2 •− recognizing probes was also observed when balancing various factors, such as reactant ROS concentrations, temperature, and changing reaction transformation rates. Herein, we concluded the selectivity advantage of redox-based O2 •− probes.


We describe the concept of a dielectrophoretic nanoparticle injector and its use in a plasmonic/photonic-based nanoparticle manipulation system. Particle motion is achieved by generating an electrostatic, non-uniform field between two tilted plates and applying the corresponding dielectrophoretic force to net-neutral nanoparticles. We investigate the dependence the dielectrophoretic force has on the plate angle of the charged plates as well as their separation distance, dielectric filler material, and exit interface membrane. Our results indicate an increasing average and maximum dielectrophoretic force attainable in the axial direction with corresponding decreasing plate angle and gap distance. The model also predicts larger field variation and deviation from the average with smaller plate angle and gap distance. Lastly, we conclude that the nanoparticles must be suspended in a dielectric medium with permittivity greater than their own permittivity so that their net motion is outward through the exit interface membrane and into the manipulator system.We describe the concept of a dielectrophoretic nanoparticle injector and its use in a plasmonic/photonic-based nanoparticle manipulation system. Particle motion is achieved by generating an electrostatic, non-uniform field between two tilted plates and applying the corresponding dielectrophoretic force to net-neutral nanoparticles. We investigate the dependence the dielectrophoretic force has on the plate angle of the charged plates as well as their separation distance, dielectric filler material, and exit interface membrane. Our results indicate an increasing average and maximum dielectrophoretic force attainable in the axial direction with corresponding decreasing plate angle and gap distance. The model also predicts larger field variation and deviation from the average with smaller plate angle and gap distance. Lastly, we conclude that the nanoparticles must be suspended in a dielectric medium with permittivity greater than their own permittivity so that their net motion is outward through the exit int...


Social networks are widely used as a fast and ubiquitous information-sharing medium. The mass spread of food rumours has seriously invaded public's healthy life and impacted food production. It can be argued that the government, companies, and the media have the responsibility to send true anti-rumour messages to reduce panic, and the risks involved in different forms of communication to the public have not been properly assessed. The manuscript develops an empirical analysis model from 683 food anti-rumour cases and 7,967 data of the users with top comments to test the influence of the strength of rumour/anti-rumour on rumour control. Furthermore, dividing the users into three categories, Leaders, Chatters, and General Public, and study the influence of human characteristics on the relationship between the strength of rumour/anti-rumour and rumour control by considering the different human characteristics as moderator variables. The results showed that anti-rumours have a significant positive impact on the control of rumours; the ambiguity of rumours has a significant negative impact on the Positive Comment Index (PCI) in rumour control. Further, the Leaders increased the overall level of PCI, but negatively adjusted the relationship between evidence and PCI; the Chatters and the General Public reduced the overall level of PCI, and Chatters weakened the relationship between the specific type of anti-rumour form and PCI while the General Public enhanced the relationship between the specific type of anti-rumour form and PCI. In the long run, the role of Leaders needs to be further improved, and the importance of the General Public is growing in the food rumour control process.


Falls are a key consideration for patient safety and play a prominent role under US legislation for affordable care. The built environment can either enhance safe practices and policy or act as an impediment for safe patient care. Falls are associated increased length of stay in hospitals and higher healthcare costs due to additional care, discharges to institutional care and litigation claims. With an increased focus on reimbursement related to patient safety as part of healthcare reform in the USA, organizations are becoming more aware of their own shortcomings and grappling with solutions to improve performance – typically people and processes. Yet the influence of the built environment, the space in which care is provided, can act as a barrier or enhancement to achieving the desired results – physically, cognitively, and organizationally. This paper presents the results from a mixed methods literature review on healthcare facility environmental design and falls. It is part of on-going research for the development of a Safety Risk Assessment (SRA) tool to promote discussion for proactive decision-making during the design of healthcare facility projects.


We report the multimodality imaging features of two cases of arteriohepatic syndrome (AS) complicated by a regenerating nodule. CT, ultrasound and MRI revealed nodular liver lesions with cirrhotic and portal hypertension changes. A large mass identified in both cases appeared hyperdense on unenhanced CT, hypointense on T(2) weighted imaging and showed normal-appearing hepatic vasculature coursing through the lesion in all contrast-enhanced imaging, highly suggestive of a regenerating nodule. Knowledge of this entity is quite important as patients with AS are also predisposed to hepatocellular carcinoma.


Raman spectra of perovskite-like (NH4)3WO3F3, (NH4)2KWO3F3 and Cs2(NH4)WO3F3oxyfluorides are obtained in a wide temperature range including transition points. Transition anomalies are found and analyzed. Transformation in (NH4)3WO3F3 is shown to be bound with octahedron groups ordering and strong distortion of ammonium ions due to H-bond formation, that is accompanied by cell volume multiplication, hardening and formation of complex discrete low frequency lattice spectrum. Same cell doubling was found in (NH4)2KWO3F3, but without lattice ordering Cs2(NH4)WO3F3 lattice stays disordered down to 15 K.


A non-uniform 3-point ternary interpolatory subdivision scheme with variable subdivision weights is introduced. Its support is computed. The C0 and C1 convergence analysis are presented. To elevate its controllability, a modified edition is proposed. For every initial control point on the initial control polygon a shape weight is introduced. These weights can be used to control the shape of the corresponding subdivision curve easily and purposefully. The role of the initial shape weight is analyzed theoretically. The application of the presented schemes in designing smooth interpolatory curves and surfaces is discussed. In contrast to most conventional interpolatory subdivision scheme, the presented subdivision schemes have better locality. They can be used to generate C0 or C1 interpolatory subdivision curves or surfaces and control their shapes wholly or locally.


The power and promise of genome editing, CRISPR specifically, was first realized with the discovery of CRISPR loci in the 1980s.3 Since that time, CRISPR-Cas systems have been further developed enabling genome editing in virtually all organisms across the tree of life.3 In the last few years, we have seen the development of a diverse set of CRISPR-based technologies that has revolutionized genome manipulation.4 Enabling a more diverse set of actors than has been seen with other emerging technologies to redefine research and development for biotechnology products encompassing food, agriculture, and medicine.4 Currently, the CRISPR community encompasses over 40,000 authors at 20,000 institutions that have documented their research in over 20,000 published and peer-reviewed studies.5 These CRISPR-based genome editing tools have promised tremendous opportunities in agriculture for the breeding of crops and livestock across the food supply chain. Potentially addressing issues associated with a growing global population, sustainability concerns, and possibly help address the effects of climate change.4 These promises however, come along-side concerns of environmental and socio-economic risks associated with CRISPR-based genome editing, and concerns that governance systems are not keeping pace with the technological development and are ill-equipped, or not well suited, to evaluate these risks. The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) launched an initiative in 2020 to understand the complexities of these new tools, their potential impacts on the LAC region, and how IDB may best invest in its potential adoption and governance strategies. This first series of discussion documents: "Genome Editing in Latin America: Regulatory Overview," and "CRISPR Patent and Licensing Policy" are part of this larger initiative to examine the regulatory and institutional frameworks surrounding gene editing via CRISPR-based technologies in the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) regions. Focusing on Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Honduras, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay, they set the stage for a deeper analysis of the issues they present which will be studied over the course of the next year through expert solicitations in the region, the development of a series of crop-specific case studies, and a final comprehensive regional analysis of the issues discovered.


Monaural and binaural auditory brainstem response (ABR) thresholds to clicks masked by high-pass noise with a cut-off frequency of 1,590 Hz were measured in normal-hearing subjects. In sleeping normal-hearing subjects, the 1,000-Hz frequency-specific ABR threshold for binaural stimulation amounted to 12 dB nHL and for monaural stimulation to 18 dB nHL. No significant difference in latency was found between monaural and binaural stimulation. Binaural ABR threshold was 5.5 +/- 1.4 dB (mean +/- SEM) lower than the mean monaural ABR threshold. This difference is statistically significant (Student's t test; p less than 0.005).


A tunable erbium doped fiber ring laser, pumped with a 980 nm InGaAs diode laser was constructed. Output power as a function of pump power and output wavelength for a given fiber length was measured. Spectral and temporal analysis of the signal showed mode-locked pulses of short duration and broad frequency content, as well as a CW component confined to a relatively narrow optical frequency range. The mechanisms for this type of mode-locking are discussed as well as the limitations placed on the lasing line width and spectral tunability.


To study the problem of widespread youth crime, I analyze a time‐allocation model in which consumers face parametric wages and diminishing marginal returns to crime. The theory motivates an econometric model that I estimate using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. My estimates suggest that youth behavior is responsive to price incentives and that falling real wages may have been an important determinant of rising youth crime during the 1970s and 1980s. Moreover, wage differentials explain a substantial component of both the racial differential in criminal participation and the age distribution of crime.


A multifocal metalens is proposed based on the optical metasurface consisting of subwavelength gratings etched on silver film. The larger transmission of grating makes the proposed metalens have high focusing efficiency, and the exquisite design of the metasurface enables the metalens to focus the light at multiple spots with the controllable intensity ratio. The intensity ratio of focal spots is controlled by adjusting grating structures. The numerical simulations give the good presentation, and the experiment measurement provides the favorable verification for the performance of the proposed multifocal metalens in light focusing and beam splitting. The advantages of the multifocal metalens, including simple design, compact structure, high efficiency, and the controllable focusing, are a benefit to its applications in optical integration and micromanipulation.


Pharmacological Actions Omeprazole belongs to the group of drugs known as proton pump inhibitors. It acts to reversibly reduce gastric acid secretion by inhibiting the enzyme H,K-ATPase in the acid environment of the intracellular canaliculi within the parietal cell. Omeprazole has a dose dependent effect on the final step of the gastric acid formation process. Basal acid secretion and stimulated acid secretion are both effectively inhibited by omeprazole.


One of the most severe floods that has ever been registered in the catchment of the Upper Danube River in Central Europe is the one that took place in June/July 1572. This flood was caused by a prolonged precipitation event related to a so-called Vb cyclone. Such cyclones develop either over the Bay of Biscay or the Mediterranean (Genoa region), move eastward via Italy and the Adriatic Sea, and subsequently turn northeast. Vb cyclones bring extreme weather conditions with sustained precipitation over the northern side of the European Alps and Central Europe.

The impacts of the Vb cyclone in 1572 severely affected transport routes and local economies as indicated for instance by salt transport data from the Salzach River, one tributary stream (via the Inn River) of the Danube River. Different means of remembrance as historical flood level markers or memorial stones at several cities in Central Europe suggest that contemporaries considered the outcome of the cyclone as catastrophic. The modern quantification of the effects of such an extreme meteorological event helps to increase the understanding of the human-nature relationship in a period when manmade, modern changes of riverbeds and protection structures against floods or debris flows did not exist or did so only to a very limited extent. However, quantifying the effects of a historical regional-scale flood event in terms of degree of devastation at local-sale is normally outright impossible due to lack of detailed data.

In the Styrian Provincial Archive in Graz, Austria, a detailed damage inventory referring to the cyclone of 1572 exists. The purpose of the inventory was to reduce taxes for the Benedictine Abbey of Admont. The interdisciplinary analysis (historian, geographer) of the source enabled a local-scale insight into the effects of the cyclone at Admont. The inventory contains a list of 355 subjects of the abbey distributed over 12 administrative units that suffered minor to severe (complete destruction) damage related to flooding (main river or tributary creeks), debris-flows or landslides.

Further historical sources and geographical data such as land registers and cadastres allowed the localization of 150 damaged buildings at cadastral scale in the valley surrounding the abbey. Our analyses show that most of the properties were located near watercourses at alluvial fans or at slopes above the Enns valley bottom. A significantly greater amount of damage was revealed for properties, which would be nowadays located in moderate- and high-risk hazard zones (according to the Austrian Federal Service for Torrent and Avalanche Control). However, only 18.7% of the properties damaged in 1572 are located inside modern hazard zones. Modern hazard zone maps are commonly based on runoff modelling using design flood events. Our analysis suggests, nevertheless, that previously undetected or unconsidered sources might contribute substantially to the understanding of the spatial pattern of potential damage in an entire valley region during an exceptional cyclone at a local and even cadastre scale. This achievement is possible despite obvious changes in geomorphological, hydrographical, building structure and protective measure conditions since 1572.


Telemedicine approaches provide many benefits to patients across both primary and specialty care. Patient acceptance is imperative to successful telemedicine implementation. As telemedicine utilization continues to surge, it is imperative that healthcare organizations have a method for evaluating the patient experience with these types of visits. Previous studies on experience with telemedicine have focused on smaller patient populations with narrow inclusion criteria and limited geographical reach. This research described how patients' satisfaction with video telemedicine-based visits varied based on patient characteristics and how they compare with in-person visits. We obtained and analyzed results from standardized patient experience surveys to compare telemedicine and in-person clinic visits during the COVID-19 pandemic (between July 1, 2020, and June 30, 2021) across a diverse patient population. During the study timeframe, surveys were sent to 1,521,398 patients with a response rate of 20% (307,185). Our organization's unique structure, size, and geographic spread allowed for a deeper and more comprehensive examination of telemedicine participants. Though a few trends emerged in the results, there were no significant differences in patient ratings of telemedicine visits and in-person clinic visits during the same period (p=0.672). This study demonstrated that patient satisfaction with telemedicine visits was non-inferior to in-person outpatient visits during the study timeframe. © The Author(s), 2022.


A highly sensitive method was developed for the analysis of short-chain perfluorinated alkyl acids (PFAAs) in serum samples using solid-phase extraction (SPE) coupled with ion chromatography-electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry. The synthesized amino-functionalized graphene oxide nanocomposites were used as an SPE sorbent for the enrichment of trace analytes and purification of samples. They exhibited high selectivity to polar compounds. The suppressor was employed to remove counterions and reduce background signals of mobile phase. These two crucial steps could effectively eliminate matrix effects and enhance analytical sensitivity. The lowest limits of quantification were 2.0 μg L-1 for perfluorobutanoic acid and perfluorovaleric acid, 1.0 μg L-1 for perfluorocaproic acid and 0.50 μg L-1 for perfluorobutane sulfonic acid, respectively. The procedure was successfully applied for determination of trace PFAAs in 25 serum samples. Mean recoveries ranged from 86.3 to 101.4% with relative standard deviations of 1.6-6.8%. The method allowed an excellent separation and quantification of short-chain PFAAs that were difficult to analyze by conventional chromatography.


The tetrameric amino acid sequence AsnProXTyr (NPXY), where X represents any amino acid, is conserved in the intracytoplasmic domains of several membrane proteins and has been postulated to play a role in receptor-mediated endocytosis. The human insulin receptor (hIR) contains a single copy of the sequence AsnProGluTyr (NPEY) in its intracytoplasmic domain. To determine if this putative consensus sequence is necessary for endocytic functions of hIR, we constructed a mutant receptor, hIR delta NPEY, that lacks NPEY sequence, stably expressed this mutant receptor in Chinese hamster ovary cells, and then studied its endocytic functions. When compared to wild type hIR similarly expressed in Chinese hamster ovary cells, the hIR delta NPEY mutant exhibited: 1) normal subunit organization and insulin binding affinity; 2) essentially normal internalization of covalent photoaffinity labeled insulin-receptor complexes; and 3) normal internalization of receptor-bound [125I]insulin as well as normal degradation and release of the internalized insulin. Therefore, we conclude that the NPEY sequence in the juxtamembrane domain of hIR is not necessary for its endocytic function.


The Na,K-ATPase is the membrane bound enzyme that maintains the K and Na intracellular gradients used in the nervous system (NS) by other proteins for electrical membrane potential changes and uptake of neurotransmitters. In astrocytes, it participates in the uptake of K after depolarization of neurons. The system consists of two subunits: the a subunit (112 kDa) and the b subunit (a 45 kDa glycoprotein). The a has four different isoforms. In brain, a2 predominates in astrocytes and a3 in neurons, and a1 is ubiquitous. The b subunit has also four different isoforms. b3 in the NS is only expressed in photoreceptors and oligodendrocytes. All ab combinations may exist and the patterns of subcellular and developmental specification are extremely complex. Also control of biosynthesis and the enzyme properties, such as ion affinities, are affected by the choice of a and b. The aim of this study was to determine the cellular redistribution of Na,K-ATPase subunit isoforms after injury of the sciatic nerve of the rat. We performed doublelabelling (ATPase/cell-specific markers) immunofluorescence in frozen sections of dorsal root ganglia (DRG) of the regenerating tissue using isoform-specific antibodies. Samples were collected from Sprague-Dawley rats after sciatic nerve transection and reconstruction into a Silastic chamber 1.47 mm diameter under ketamine anaesthesia, in both cases: during surgery and during sample collecting. Once samples were collected, animals were killed by overdosage of anaesthesic. We have found that a1 and a2 immunoreactivities in normal DRG are similar in intensity and localization in the plasma membrane of all kinds of cells, with no signal for a3 isoform. After injury a1 and a2 expression decreases evenly in all cells and there is a remarkable onset in the expression of a3, with a peak about day three and it gradually disappears during regeneration. Regarding b subunits isoforms, b1 immunoreactivity is restricted to a perinuclear halo of neurons, with no dependence on the kind or shape of neurons, and to the cytoplasm of the small glial cells surrounding these neurons. No b2 was found. b3 specific immunofluorescence is most abundant in the cytoplasm of small neurons and much less abundant in big and medium size neurons. Suddenly after injury, b1 shows a homogeneous distribution in the soma of neurons. As regeneration proceeds, this isoform recovers its original emplacement around the nucleus, although a faint signal still remains all over the cytosol. The b3-specific immunolabelling signal in small neurons progressively decays after injury until day 3, then the signal increases in intensity, becoming stronger than previous to injury at day 7 then progressively decreases to normal levels. The diversity of Na,K-ATPase subunit isoforms and their complex cellular, spatial and temporal patterns of cellular expression in the DRG suggest that Na,K-ATPase isozymes perform specialized physiological functions during regeneration.


Property law has traditionally relied on tangible boundaries to delineate legal thinghood and to inform the bounds of in rem rights and duties. Unfortunately, property doctrines have fossilized, causing fragmentation in the legal treatment of digital assets. In the United States, for example, cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) may be simultaneously classified as commodities, securities, currencies, assets, or not property at all depending on the jurisdiction, domain, or specific asset in question. This fragmented system of overlapping legal treatments increases the information cost of using digital assets, decreases efficiency, and ultimately hinders future innovation.

In this piece, I propose a single, unified, and tech-neutral approach to legal thinghood, providing a theoretically coherent and robust way to increase property law's resilience in adapting to future technologies. This approach also addresses a current doctrinal gap: distinguishing between digital assets that are property and those that are not.

Through the lens of information theory and the New Private Law, I deconstruct the conceptual purpose of tangibility in traditional doctrines of legal thinghood, uncovering its role as a technology in property law. Finally, I demonstrate how a tech-neutral understanding of legal thinghood can differentiate between digital assets that do fulfill all conceptual requisites to be legal things and assets that do not. By doing so, I conclude that the traditional ontological categories of property law are sufficiently robust to incorporate new and evolving digital assets in a tech-neutral way, paving the way toward an elegant and efficient legal treatment of digital assets and digital resource management in the twenty-first century.


Modern streaming multimedia applications are becoming increasingly complex and dynamic. Still, designers want to give guarantees about the quality and performance of their applications. A combination of model-based design methods and predictable hardware architectures enables designers to develop individual application components (jobs) in a way that it is guaranteed that real-time constraints are satisfied, even when multiple jobs are concurrently running on a single hardware platform. A multiprocessor Sytem-on-Chip is considered, which consists of a heterogeneous set of processing elements that are interconnected through a Network-on-Chip. Existing design methods are often based on the Synchronous Dataflow (SDF) model of computation, which offers the necessary design-time predictability. However, SDF can not adequately model jobs that contain dynamic behaviour, like conditionals and loops with data-dependent bounds. By making dynamic behaviour explicit in the specification model of a job, it is possible to estimate the needed amount of platform resources more accurately and thus arrive at more efficient job implementations. This thesis proposes an extension to SDF, called Predictable Dynamic Dataflow (PDDF). In PDDF it is possible to incorporate dynamic behaviour in a job's specification by the use of special constructions, while it is still possible to guarantee bounds on timing and memory usage. PDDF introduces two dynamic constructs: the conditional and the data-dependent iteration. Both constructs behave like SDF towards their environment, so they can be plugged into any existing SDF graph. Moreover, they are fully modular, in the sense that they can be nested in any possible way. The semantics of these constructs are explained and it is shown how the use of PDDF can lead to more efficient implementations compared to the SDF-based approach. To illustrate this, an implementation of an H.263 video decoder is used as a test case.


Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) for Crohn's disease (CD) have identified loci explaining ~20% of the total genetic risk of CD. Part of the other genetic risk loci is probably partly hidden among signals discarded by the multiple testing correction needed in the analysis of GWAS data. Strategies for finding these hidden loci require large replication cohorts and are costly to perform. We adopted a strategy of selecting SNPs for follow-up that showed a correlation to gene expression [cisexpression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs)] since these have been shown more likely to be trait-associated. First we show that there is an overrepresentation of cis-eQTLs in the known CD-associated loci. Then SNPs were selected for follow-up by screening the top 500 SNP hits from a CD GWAS data set. We identified 10 cis-eQTL SNPs. These 10 SNPs were tested for association with CD in two independent cohorts of Dutch CD patients (1,539) and healthy controls (2,648). In a combined analysis, we identified two cis-eQTL SNPs that were associated with CD rs2298428 in UBE2L3 (P = 5.22 × 10–5) and rs2927488 in BCL3 (P = 2.94 × 10–4). After adding additional publicly available data from a previously reported meta-analysis, the association with rs2298428 almost reached genome-wide significance (P = 2.40 × 10–7) and the association with rs2927488 was corroborated (P = 6.46 × 10–4). We have identified UBE2L3 and BCL3 as likely novel risk genes for CD. UBE2L3 is also associated with other immune-mediated diseases. These results show that eQTL based pre-selection for follow-up is a useful approach for identifying risk loci from a moderately sized GWAS.


The development of supervisors' behaviours has been proposed as an innovative approach for the reduction of employees' work stress. The UK Health and Safety Executive (HSE) developed the "Stress Management Competency Indicator Tool" (SMCIT), designed to be used within a learning and development intervention. However, its psychometric properties have never been evaluated, and the length of the questionnaire (66 items) limits its practical applicability. We developed a brief 36-item version of the questionnaire, assessed its psychometric properties and studied the relationship with the employees' psychosocial work environment. 353 employees filled in the brief SMCIT and the "Stress Management Indicator Tool". The latter is a self-report questionnaire developed by the UK HSE, measuring workers' perceptions of seven dimensions of the psychosocial work environment that if not properly managed can lead to harm. Data were analysed with structural equation modelling and multiple regressions. The results confirmed the factorial structure of the brief SMCIT questionnaire and mainly supported the convergent validity and internal consistency of the scales. Furthermore, with few exceptions, the relations hypothesized between supervisors' competencies and the psychosocial work environment were confirmed, supporting the criterion validity of the revised questionnaire and the UK HSE framework. We conclude that the brief 36-item version of the SMCIT represents an important step toward the development of interventions directed at supervisors and we discuss the practical implications for work stress prevention.


The Authors report on 52 rectal cancers treated with anterior resection and mechanical anastomosis according to the Knight and Griffen technique. Such technique is quite practical, allows for easier sphincter-saving operations and is followed by a very low percentage of fistulas and anastomotic stenoses. In this series, a good anorectal function was restored in 6-12 months even in very low anastomoses; sexual complications were registered in 8% of cases; urinary troubles were not significant. The Authors conclude that the Knight & Griffen procedure is useful and advantageous.


The performance of a centrifugal compressor is usually defined by its head versus flow map, limited by the surge and stall regions. This map is critical to assess the operating range of a compressor for both steady state and transient system scenarios. However, the compressor map does not provide a complete picture on how the compressor will respond to rapid transient inputs and how its surge behavior is affected by these events. Specifically, the response of the compressor to rapid transient events such as single or multiple (periodic) pressure pulses, is also a function of the compressor's upstream and downstream piping system's acoustic response and impedance characteristics. This unique response phenomenon was first described in the 1970 s and came to be known as the "compressor dynamic response (CDR) theory." CDR theory explains how pulsations are amplified or reduced by a compression system's acoustic response characteristic superimposed on the compressor head-flow map. Although the CDR theory explained the impact of the nearby piping system on the compressor surge and pulsation amplification, it provided only limited usefulness as a quantitative analysis tool, mainly due to the lack of computational numerical tools available at the time. To fully analyze pulsating flows in complex centrifugal compressor suction and discharge header piping systems, the principles of the CDR theory should be implemented in a dynamic flow model to quantify the magnitude of the amplifications of pressure pulses near the surge region. When designing centrifugal compressor stations within a transmission piping system, it is critically important to have a full understanding of the impact of the station's piping system on compressor dynamic behavior. For example, if a compressor system's piping impedance amplifies the suction side pulsations, the compressor's operating range will be severely limited and will produce unacceptable discharge piping vibrations. Whereas it is usually desirable to limit the downstream volume between the compressor discharge and the check valve to reduce the potential for transient surge events, a small discharge volume results in high piping impedance. This will amplify pressure pulsations passing through the compressor. The small downstream volume provides limited ability for any transient peak (such as a pressure pulse) passing through the compressor to be absorbed quickly, and an amplified discharge pressure spike will be the result. Also, if any periodic pressure excitation from upstream vortex shedding or any other continuously varying flow disturbance couples with a pipe resonance length, the result can be high fluctuations of the compressor operating point on its speed line, effectively resulting in a reduced operating range and higher than expected surge margin (surge line moves to the right). Both acoustic resonance and system impedance are functions of pipe friction, pipe and header interface connections, valve/elbow locations, pipe diameter, and valve coefficients, i.e., the entire piping system connected to the compressor. Thus, a careful acoustic and impedance design review of a compressor station design should be performed to avoid impacting the operating range of the machine. This paper describes the methodology of such a design review using modern pulsation analysis software. Examples and parametric studies are presented that demonstrate the impact of system impedance and piping acoustics on the dynamic operating response of the compressor in a typical compressor station. Some recommendations to reduce the risk of pulsation amplification and unsteady operation are also provided.


Astronomers have glimpsed a new solution to a long-standing puzzle: how black holes could have grown fast enough to explain the monsters a billion times the mass of the sun seen soon after the big bang. Most black holes are thought to start out as collapsed stars, but they grow too slowly to fit the bill. Instead, theorists have suggested, the behemoth black holes in the early universe could have gotten a head start when huge gas clouds left by the big bang quickly shrank under their own gravity and condensed into black hole seeds 10 thousand to 100 thousand times heavier than the sun. Those seeds would have grown further by sucking in stars and gas. Last week, at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Grapevine, Texas, astronomers reported hints of such "direct collapse" black holes in x-ray and infrared surveys of the early universe.


Scoparone (hereafter SPR) is a prominent candidate of plant-derived acaricide. The photodegradation of the pure SPR was first investigated under different light sources, initial concentrations, pH values, temperatures, organic solvents, aqueous media, and the photolytic characteristics of its formulation in pure water were also studied. The photodegradation rates of pure SPR under different light sources showed the following sequence: 28 W ultraviolet lamp (0.3045 h-1) > 500 W xenon lamp (0.1094 h-1) > 300 W xenon lamp (0.0312 h-1). Under the irradiation of 500 W xenon lamp, the lower initial SPR concentrations, higher pH value, and higher temperatures increased the photodegradation rates of SPR, especially, when the temperature increased higher than 35 ℃, the degradation rate of SPR increased slowly and maintained at a stable level, the pH and temperatures had small effects on the photodegradation of SPR. The photodegradation rates of pure SPR in organic decreased comparing to in aqueous media. The removal efficiency of 98% SPR technical material (TC) was higher than 5% SPR emulsifiable concentrate (EC) in pure water, indicating that the components present in formulated SPR greatly affected the photodegradation kinetics. Detecting the photoproducts by HPLC/ESI-MS indicated that three main types of reaction including photorearrangement, photohydrolysis, and photooxidation occurred in the photodegradation of SPR at aqueous solution. These results will be helpful for the rational use of SPR and provide a scientific reference for environmental risk evaluation of SPR.


Diazepam is an allosteric modulator of GABAA receptors which potentiates GABAA receptor activity resulting in enhanced inhibitory synaptic transmission. Diazepam is used to treat anxiety, insomnia and seizures, however, its use is limited due to the development of tolerance. Here I show that prolonged treatment of cortical neurones with diazepam triggers endocytosis and subsequent downregulation of cell-surface GABAA receptors. Using pharmacological reagents, I have demonstrated that diazepam triggers PLC-dependent release of calcium from the endoplasmic reticulum which activates the phosphatase calcineurin resulting in dephosphorylation of the γ2 subunit of GABAA receptors and their endocytosis. This was elucidated using a combination of biochemical and cell biological approaches. In addition, I have developed HEK293 cell lines stably expressing various subtypes of GABAA receptors to investigate further diazepam and isoguvacine-dependent regulation of GABAA receptors. The same calcium-dependent signalling pathway that regulates cell-surface stability of GABAA receptors in neurones was found to operate in HEK293 cells. Subsequently, I focused on a key component of this signalling pathway; PLCδ1. Using biochemical techniques I have demonstrated that PLCδ1 binds directly to the GABAA receptor β3 subunit at two independent sites. This binding was confirmed by coimmunoprecipitation of PLCδ1 and GABAA receptors from cortical neuronal lysates. Interestingly, upon diazepam treatments, PLCδ1 was shown to dissociate from GABAA receptors, thus leading to mobilisation of calcium from the intracellular stores and activation of calcineurin. To assess how changes in cell-surface expression of GABAA receptors affect the stability of GABAergic synapses, I characterised the size and number of post-synaptic GABAA receptor clusters and the number of presynaptic GABA-releasing terminals following chronic diazepam treatment. I observed a reduction in the size and number of post-synaptic GABAA receptor clusters and a reduction in the number of GABA-releasing terminals. These data are consistent with the loss of cell-surface GABAA receptors following long-term treatments of cortical neurones with diazepam. These changes correlated with an increase in the expression of the early apoptosis marker, cleaved-caspase 3, in glutamatergic neurones suggesting indirect cytotoxic effects of diazepam treatments. The loss of inhibitory GABAergic synapses following chronic diazepam treatment may contribute to the well-known development of tolerance to these clinically important therapies for stress- and anxiety- related neurological disorders.


Web-based lecture technologies cover a range of technologies, including iLecture/Lectopia, for digitally recording lectures for delivery to students online.

There has been a rapid uptake in WBLT in recent years. Despite their popularity with students, they are challenging some long held traditions associated with attendance patterns, teaching and learning. This project, a collaboration between Macquarie University, Murdoch University, Flinders University and University of Newcastle was conducted to gain a better understanding of these challenges.

The project report, supported by a number of research papers, summarises the key findings of the project. Based on these findings, a tool kit of resources has been developed for your use.


Eleven strains of eugonic, nonoxidative, gram-negative rods isolated from clinical specimens formed a distinct group that was designated CDC group IIg. Five of the 11 isolates were from wounds. The phenotypic characteristics of CDC group IIg were most similar to those of Weeksella species, with the major difference being that CDC group IIg strains grew on MacConkey agar in 1 to 2 days, did not hydrolyze gelatin, and did not produce urease. All 11 strains of CDC group IIg possessed a distinct fatty acid profile that was characterized by large amounts (19 to 29%) of 18:1 omega 7c, 16:0, and 16:1 omega 7c, moderate amounts (6 to 10%) of 3-OH-14:0 and 14:0, and smaller amounts (1 to 2%) of 18:2, 18:0, and 3-OH-16:0. This fatty acid profile differs from those of Weeksella species by the absence of branched-chain fatty acids. CDC group IIg contains ubiquinone-8, as opposed to menaquinone-6 in Weeksella species. The isolates were susceptible to a variety of antimicrobial agents, including the aminoglycosides, tetracyclines, quinolones, sulfonamides, and polymyxin B.


As there is a high prevalence of obesity in Tonga, we aimed to determine the distribution of the β2 adrenoceptor gene Gln27Glu polymorphism and to assess its relevance to obesity and to Type II diabetes, known to be prevalent in that population. A random sample of 1022 individuals from Tonga were genotyped for the Gln27Glu polymorphism in the β2 adrenoceptor gene. To assess the prevalence of obesity we measured body-mass index (BMI), fat-free mass, percentage fat and waist-to-hip ratio (WHR). To assess glucose metabolism we measured HbA1c, fasting blood glucose, fasting serum insulin, and 1- and 2-h glucose; we also measured serum lipid and creatinine levels. We found that 84% of the Tongan men and 93% of the women were overweight or obese (BMI⩾25kg/m2) and 15.1% had Type II diabetes. Genotype frequencies among the 1022 Tongans were: Gln/Gln 90.3% and Gln/Glu 9.6%; we found one Glu/Glu homozygote. The mean BMI (±S.D.) for men was not significantly different for those who were homozygous (30.2±5.4kg/m2) or heterozygous (30.1±5.5kg/m2) for the Gln allele; this was also true for women (33.7±6.2kg/m2 for homozygous and 34.0±5.6kg/m2 for heterozygous). The Glu allele was not associated with other measures of obesity or abnormal glucose metabolism in this generally overweight population. There is a unique frequency of the Gln/Glu β2 adrenoceptor polymorphism among Tongans. We found no association of the polymorphism with obesity measures or Type II diabetes-related variables in the Tongan population among whom we documented a high prevalence of obesity and Type II diabetes and a low frequency of the Glu allele.


Self-injurious behavior (or self-harm) is a frequently reported maladaptive behavior in the general population and a key feature of borderline personality disorder (BPD). Poor affect regulation is strongly linked to a propensity to self-harm, is a core component of BPD, and is linked with reduced attentional control abilities. The idea that attentional control difficulties may provide a link between BPD, negative affect and self-harm has yet to be established, however. The present study explored the putative relationship between levels of BPD features, three aspects of attentional/executive control, affect, and self-harm history in a sample of 340 non-clinical participants recruited online from self-harm forums and social networking sites. Analyses showed that self-reported levels of BPD features and attentional focusing predicted self-harm incidence, and high attentional focusing increased the likelihood of a prior self-harm history in those with high BPD features. Ability to shift attention was associated with a reduced likelihood of self-harm, suggesting that good attentional switching ability may provide a protective buffer against self-harm behavior for some individuals. These attentional control differences mediated the association between negative affect and self-harm, but the relationship between BPD and self-harm appears independent.


We report a list of species of bats occurring in Belo Horizonte, the capital of Minas Gerais state, southeastern Brazil. We recorded 16 species belonging to three families,Vespertilionidae, Molossidae, and Phyllostomidae. Artibeus lituratus was by far the most abundant species, representing 70% of the captures. Remnants of native vegetation in urban parks as well as the urban arborization which frequently includes chiropterocoric or chiropterophilous species, as well as the illumination that attracts a great range of insects and houses and buildings also attract and maintain a quite rich assemblage of bats living in Belo Horizonte. Roost search seems to be the most effective method to find mollosids that would not be recorded by mist netting.


One big slice of cheesecake. Pin-up travels the long road from barracks wall to high art. In the 15 years since TASCHEN released The Great American Pin-up, international interest in this distinctly American art form has increased exponentially. Paintings by leading artists such as Alberto Vargas, George Petty, and Gil Elvgren that sold for $ 2000 in 1996 are going for $ 200,000 and more today. Pin-up, defined as drawings or paintings of pretty girls that stop short of frank nudity, was produced between 1920 and 1970, and much of it was discarded by publishers and calendar companies after printing. Today it's huge, and ripe for an equally huge and truly comprehensive collector's edition. Formidably sized, The Art of Pin-up is an impressive book that will be coveted by casual fans as well as hardcore pin-up collectors. The reproduction quality of the paintings, pastels, and preparatory sketches - largely sourced from the original art - invites the viewer to trace the brush strokes in these full-page delights. Each chapter contains exquisite period calendars, vintage prints, and original model photos as well, documenting the artists' creative process. Much of these ephemera were photographed on-site at the historic Brown & Bigelow Company, home to the world's largest archive of vintage pin-up calendars. Following the chapters on the 15 featured artists, the book concludes with an "Encyclopedia of Pin-up," featuring thumbnail bios and representative art of 72 additional artists, the most complete compendium of pin-up artists ever compiled. All this adds up to a hard-to-beat book on this popular subject.