Summary In this text, I describe a specific way of addressing the past in video games which are set in historical times but at the same time deliberately undermine the facticity of their virtual worlds. By grounding my argument in analyses of two blockbuster productions—Assassin's Creed (Ubisoft, 2007) and Call of Duty: Black Ops (Activision, 2010)—I introduce and define the notion of "simulational realism". Both games belong to best-selling franchises and share an interesting set of features: they relate to historical places, events, and figures, establish counter-factual narratives based around conspiracy theories, and—most importantly—display many formal similarities. Like most AAA games, Assassin's Creed and Black Ops intend to immerse the player in the virtual reality and, for this purpose, they naturalize their interfaces as integral elements of reality. However, in the process of naturalizing simulation, objectivity of the past becomes unthinkable. In my considerations, I situate this problem in two contexts: 1) of a cultural and epistemic shift in perceiving reality which was influenced by dissemination of digital technologies; 2) Vilém Flusser's prognosis on the effects of computation on human knowledge. According to Flusser's theory of communication, history—as a specific kind of human knowledge—emerged out of writing that was always linear and referential. Consequently, the crisis of literary culture resulted in the emergence of new aesthetics and forms of representations which—given their digital origin—dictate new ways of understanding reality. As history is now being substituted by timeless post-history, aesthetic conventions of realism are also transformed and replaced by digital equivalents. Following Flusser's theory, I assert that we should reflect on the epistemological consequences of presenting the past as simulation, especially if we consider the belief shared by many players that games like Assassin's Creed can be great tools for learning history. I find such statements problematic, if we consider that the historical discourse, grounded on fact, is completely incompatible with the aesthetics of sim-realism which evokes no illusion of objective reality.


The objective of this work was to evaluate and compare the Phyllochron and the Wang and Engel models for estimation of leaves appearance in seedlings of Eucalyptus grandis and E. saligna. Two experiments were carried out in Santa Maria during 2005 and 2006. One was a field experiment with nine sowing dates, and the other was a greenhouse experiment with two sowing dates. Phyllochron model assumes a linear relationship between leaf appearance rate and temperature, and the Wang and Engel model assumes a non-linear relationship between leaf appearance number and temperature. Four sowing dates from the field experiment were used to estimate the models coefficients and the other sowing dates of the field and greenhouse experiments were used as independent data to evaluate the models. The Wang and Engel model better estimated the number of leaves, comprising a root mean square error (RMSE) of 2.7 and 3.7 leaves compared with the Phyllocron model with RMSE of 7.1 and 10 leaves for E. grandis and E. saligna, respectively.


This case study utilizes a value of information decision framework to provide mine managers guidance regarding the purchase of ore grade scanners. LKAB's Kiruna mine produces three types of iron ore to meet long-term contractual agreements on a monthly basis. There is a priori uncertainty regarding the ore type in any given mineable section of the orebody. In addition, there is extracted ore type uncertainty that is introduced by the mining process. These uncertainties are better understood by obtaining more precise (real-time) information. In addition, a better understanding of the uncertainties can improve the quality of operational decisions and increase the overall profitability of the mine. This case study provides a framework for measuring the economic impact of information purchases in a mining context and discusses the implications of those findings.


Supercritical water is an excellent green solvent for many chemical reactions such as oxidation, gasification, pyrolysis and liquefaction. It is a promising reaction medium for the generation of hydrogen from biomass through a series of degradation reactions, such as hydrolysis, steam reforming, water–gas shift reaction, hydrogenation and methanation. Supercritical conditions at temperatures greater than 374 °C and pressures above 22.1 MPa are found helpful to degrade a variety of biomasses and organic wastes. The chapter gives an overview of the thermo-physical properties of supercritical water including temperature, pressure, density, dielectric constant, viscosity, diffusivity, ionic products and free radicals. The chapter reviews the hydrothermal degradation routes of different biomass model compounds, such as cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin, proteins, lipids, fatty acids, alcohols and sewage sludge. The candidacy of each of these substrates for conversion to hydrogen through supercritical water gasification is discussed in terms of promises and challenges.


Introduction Patients with BCS and short stenosis of the hepatic vein or the upper IVC can be treated with recanalisation by percutaneous venoplasty ± hepatic vein stent insertion. Recent data suggests >60% failure rate (PMID 23389867). We studied the long-term outcomes of this approach in our institution. Methods Retrospective analysis of patients referred from 1987 to 12/2012 for radiological intervention. Of 161 patients treated for BCS, 60 patients were selected. Results Median age, 34.5 years (19–65), M:F ratio 23:37. Mean follow up, 8 ± 6.6 years (0.1–26 years). 60% of patients had ≥1 haematological risk factor. Percutaneous recanalisation was technically successful in all patients. The obstruction was at the level of hepatic vein (s) (86.6%), IVC (6.6%) and both IVC and HV (6.6%). 30 patients were managed with venoplasty alone. Of the 30 who had stent placement, 15 had venoplasty prior to stent placements, ranging from 1–11 venoplasty episodes. Due to failure of recanalisation, 26.66% patients required TIPSS (16.7%), surgery (8.3%) and liver transplantation (6.7%). Actuarial survival at 1, 5, 10 was 95%, 93%, and 83% respectively (kaplan meier survival Graph 1). All patients maintained Child's A status throughout follow up and there was no incidence of Hepatocellular Carcinoma. Abstract PWE-148 Figure 1 Conclusion BCS patients due to short stenosis of the hepatic vein or the upper IVC can be successfully managed with percutaneous recanalisation alone with good outcomes over a long period of follow up. Our data supports the stepwise approach to the managements of BCS, with better results than recent series. Reference PMID 23389867. Good long-term outcome of Budd-Chiari syndrome with a step-wise management. Hepatology 2013 May;57(5):1962–8. doi: 10.1002/hep.26306. Disclosure of Interest None Declared.


Background: Observation of anticancer therapy effect by monitoring of minimal residual disease (MRD) is becoming an important tool in management of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The approach is based on periodic detection and quantification of tumor-specific somatic DNA mutation in circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) extracted from patient plasma. For such repetitive testing, complex liquid-biopsy techniques relying on ultra-deep NGS sequencing are impractical. There are other, cost-effective, methods for ctDNA analysis, typically based on quantitative PCR or digital PCR, which are applicable for detecting specific individual mutations in hotspots. While such methods are routinely used in NSCLC therapy prediction, however, extension to cover broader spectrum of mutations (e.g., in tumor suppressor genes) is required for universal longitudinal MRD monitoring. Methods: For a set of tissue samples from 81 NSCLC patients we have applied a denaturing capillary electrophoresis (DCE) for initial detection of somatic mutations within 8 predesigned PCR amplicons covering oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes. Mutation-negative samples were then subjected to a large panel NGS sequencing. For each patient mutation found in tissue was then traced over time in ctDNA by DCE. Results: In total we have detected a somatic mutation in tissue of 63 patients. For those we have then prospectively analyzed ctDNA from collected plasma samples over a period of up to 2 years. The dynamics of ctDNA during the initial chemotherapy therapy cycles as well as in the long-term follow-up matched the clinically observed response. Conclusion: Detection and quantification of tumor-specific mutations in ctDNA represents a viable complement to MRD monitoring during therapy of NSCLC patients. The presented approach relying on initial tissue mutation detection by DCE combined with NGS and a subsequent ctDNA mutation testing by DCE only represents a cost-effective approach for its routine implementation.


Patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection are more prone for gastrointestinal infections causing diarrhoea, particularly with parasites. Parasitic infections have been regularly reported in such patients. A female patient confirmed positive for HIV 1 on antiretroviral therapy came with complaints of chronic diarrhoea for the past 7 months. Her initial CD4 count was 89 cells/μl of blood, and antibodies to cytomegalovirus and herpes simplex virus 1 and 2 virus were found to be positive in the patient's serum, but there was no HIV-associated retinopathy. Her stool examination showed decorticated fertilised eggs of Ascaris lumbricoides, cysts of Blastocystis sp. and Entamoeba species in the unconcentrated sample and oocysts of Cystoisospora species, egg of Schistosoma haematobium and eggs of Trichuris trichiura in the concentrated. The patient responded well to cotrimoxazole and albendazole, and repeat samples were negative for all these parasites.


Slow steaming has over the past years become an increasingly common way for shipping companies to increase fuel economy and lower the environmental impact of their ships. However, it has shown over the years that just simply reducing the power output does not come without consequences. Ship operation below optimal engine load does come with problems such as higher specific fuel consumption, incomplete combustion and a reduced efficiency of for example the turbocharger and the exhaust gas boiler, if they are not retrofitted correctly.

The study should answer how engine manufacturers, turbocharger manufacturers and exhaust gas boiler manufacturers believe that their systems are affected by low load operation and what solutions and recommendations they provide for optimization in the low load range. Relevant background information has been put together from science articles, course literature and technical papers to provide support for the questions. Interviews have been carried out with people from three companies, one manufacturer for each of the components or systems in question. A qualitative case study was chosen to get detailed opinions and facts about the topic. Because the sample group is small a qualitative method was chosen to give a detailed and nuanced description about the subject. The interviews can be considered as semi-structured, questionaries' were prepared to give support for the interviews and there was opportunity for reformulation and follow up questions.

The study shows that turbo and boiler manufacturers agree about certain problems that could arise while slow steaming, where soot layers, lower efficiency and more frequent maintenance are the most common problems. The respondents from the engine manufacturer don't believe slow steaming is a problem for their engines, and consider their engines to be stable down to 10 % MCR, while still offering retrofits for slow steaming operation. The result also presents if there is any exchange of information with other manufacturers regarding slow steaming and technical solutions.


ABSTRACT High spatial variability of soil salinity in coastal reclamation regions makes it difficult to obtain accurate scale-dependent information. The objectives of this study were to describe the spatial patterns of saline-sodic soil properties (using soil pH, electrical conductivity (EC1:5) and sodium ion content (SIC) as indicators) and to gain knowledge of the scaling relationships between those variables. The soil pH, EC1:5 and SIC data were measured at intervals of 285 m along a 13,965-m temporal transect in a coastal region of China. The spatial variability of soil pH was weak but it was strong for soil EC1:5 and SIC at the measurement scale. There was a significant positive correlation between soil EC1:5 and SIC, while correlations between soil pH and either EC1:5 or SIC were weak and negative. For each saline-sodic soil parameter, the variability changed with the decomposition scales. The high-variance area at the larger scales (≥570 m) occupied less than 10% of the total area in the local wavelet spectrum, which meant that the spatial variations of the salinity indicators were insignificant at these scales. For local wavelet coherency, at a scale of 1500–2800 m and a sampling distance of 0–4500 m, the covariance was statistically significant between any two of the saline-sodic soil parameters.


Discovery of graphical models is NP-hard in general, which justifies using heuristics. We consider four commonly used heuristics. We summarize the underlying assumptions and analyze their implications as to what graphical models they can and cannot discover. In particular, we consider discovery of pseudo-independent (PI) models, a subclass of probabilistic models where subsets of a set of collectively dependent variables display marginal independence. We show that some heuristics essentially exclude PI models other than the simplest from the model search space. We argue for a decision theoretic perspective for choosing heuristics and emphasize its implication to mission critical applications.


It is difficult to assess the security of modern enterprise networks because they are usually dynamic with configuration changes (such as changes in topology, firewall rules, etc). Graphical security models (e.g., Attack Graphs and Attack Trees) and security metrics (e.g., attack cost, shortest attack path) are widely used to systematically analyse the security posture of network systems. However, there are problems using them to assess the security of dynamic networks. First, the existing graphical security models are unable to capture dynamic changes occurring in the networks over time. Second, the existing security metrics are not designed for dynamic networks such that their effectiveness to the dynamic changes in the network is still unknown. In this paper, we conduct a comprehensive analysis via simulations to evaluate the effectiveness of security metrics using a Temporal Hierarchical Attack Representation Model. Further, we investigate the varying effects of security metrics when changes are observed in the dynamic networks. Our experimental analysis shows that different security metrics have varying security posture changes with respect to changes in the network.


The 18-day continuous heavy rainfall occurrence from July 31 to August 17, 1998, over southern Korea is investigated to understand the synoptic-scale characteristics and development mechanisms of the long-lasting heavy rainfall. An elongated monsoon front is maintained over central China throughout the Korean Peninsula for about 20 days under strong summer time baroclinic development between the continental polar lows north of Korea and the northwestward extended Northwestern Pacific high. The remarkable features of the synoptic-scale environment that resulted in heavy rainfall events are the quasi-stationary location of the upper-level jet and the low-level jets. Further, there is a sufficient moisture supply from the low-level jets that are intensified by the typhoons in landfall on southern China and over the East China Sea. The daily heavy-rainfall event over southern Korea is strongly tied to the intensity and the north-south oscillation of the upper-level jet that locates just to the north of the heavy-rainfall area, as well as the diabatic heating process that well corresponds to the upward motion in the area of the heavy rainfall according to the solution of the Sawyer-Eliassen equation. The periods of 2-3 days and 1 day appearing in the variations of 200 hPa v-component wind and u-component wind, respectively, correspond well to those of about 2 days and 1 day appearing in the spectrum of hourly rainfall data. The 1 day period in the variation of 200 hPa v-wind fields demonstrates that the heavy rainfall over Korea was enhanced by the secondary circulation around the upper-level jet. The period also appears approximately in the variations of heat source, moisture sink, and vertical motion over Korea.


Abstract– The microstructures of lunar zircon grains from breccia samples 72215, 73215, 73235, and 76295 collected during the Apollo 17 mission have been characterized via optical microscopy, cathodoluminescence imaging, and electron backscatter diffraction mapping. These zircon grains preserve deformation microstructures that show a wide range in style and complexity. Planar deformation features (PDFs) are documented in lunar zircon for the first time, and occur along {001}, {110}, and {112}, typically with 0.1–25 μm spacing. The widest PDFs associated with {112} contain microtwin lamellae with 65°/<110> misorientation relationships. Deformation bands parallel to {100} planes and irregular low‐angle (<10°) boundaries most commonly have <001> misorientation axes. This geometry is consistent with a dislocation glide system with <100>{010} during dislocation creep. Nonplanar fractures, recrystallized domains with sharp, irregular interfaces, and localized annealing textures along fractures are also observed. No occurrences of reidite were detected. Shock‐deformation microstructures in zircon are explained in terms of elastic anisotropy of zircon. PDFs form along a limited number of specific {hkl} planes that are perpendicular to directions of high Young's modulus, suggesting that PDFs are likely to be planes of longitudinal lattice damage. Twinned {112} PDFs also contain directions of high shear modulus. A conceptual model is proposed for the development of different deformation microstructures during an impact event. This "shock‐deformation mechanism map" is used to explain the relative timing, conditions, and complexity relationships between impact‐related deformation microstructures in zircon.


In the late 1990s, the MP3 became the de facto standard for digital audio files and the networked computer began to claim a significant place in the lives of more and more listeners. The dovetailing of these two circumstances is the basis of a new mode of musical production and distribution where new practices emerge. This book is not a definitive statement about what the new music industry is. Rather, it is devoted to what this new industry is becoming by examining these practices as experiments, dedicated to negotiating what is replacing an "object based" industry oriented around the production and exchange of physical recordings. In this new economy, constant attention is paid to the production and licensing of intellectual property and the rise of the "social musician" who has been encouraged to become more entrepreneurial. Finally, every element of the industry now must consider a new type of audience, the "end user", and their productive and distributive capacities around which services and musicians must orient their practices and investments.


This study explores the use of different scaffolds in the computer-based learning environment (CBLE) watweetjeoverevolutie.be, designed from a pedagogical view and based on theories to promote self-regulated learning as well as knowledge about evolution theory. First, general theoretical constructs underlying the CBLE are described, in which the focus lies on the concept of scaffolding. Then the interface and the content of the CBLE are illustrated. Finally, the scaffolds implemented in the CBLE are described. Results showed a generally high use of the scaffolds by elementary school learners. However, a decrease in scaffolding use was found over time. Next to that, no differences were found between embedded and non-embedded scaffolding use. Relating these findings to the time learners spent in the CBLE, conclusions towards future designs and use of the CBLE and its scaffolds can be made.


The T,X-parameters of the main ore-forming stages of the Rogovik epithermal gold-silver deposit (northeastern Russia) were determined using microthermometric techniques on fluid inclusion assemblages. On the basis of these data we carried out thermodynamic calculations that model the formation conditions of three types of ore mineral assemblages: gold-silver – at the early volcanic stage, silver-polymetallic and silver-gold-polymetallic – at the late volcanoplutonic stage. The silver-gold-polymetallic mineralization is located at the sites where silverpolymetallic and gold-silver zones overlap. The calculations were made using the "Selektor-C" software within a complex geochemical multicomponent system. Several scenarios of formation of gold-silver mineralization at an early volcanic stage were considered: 1) boiling of a hydrothermal solution; 2) interaction of residual aqueous solution with host rocks; 3) mixing of an ore-bearing gas phase with meteoric waters. For the late volcanoplutonic stage, we modeled formation of "silver mineralization" using an ore-forming solution genetically related to a deep-seated granite massif and its interaction with host rocks and gold-silver zones of early volcanic stage. These physicochemical models substantially improve our understanding of formation of the three types of mineral assemblages at the Rogovik deposit and can be applied to other epithermal deposits with similar mineralization styles.


In rural communities of Africa, a mother carrying a bundle of firewood, with a child strapped on her back and another toddling behind her is common identity. It is a reflection of abject poverty happening at the same time women astronauts in America are leading teams to outer space! In Brazil, about 42 percent of the work force is women, and, a Newspaper in Sao Paulo called mothers who raise children full-time an "endangered species" implying that this category of women will soon disappear in the economy of Brazil! This is one reason Brazil is today one of the fastest growing economies of the Third World. These women contribute in no small way to family and nation building. It is for this reason that this study sought needed reforms/innovations in motherhood/gender education in enhancing attainment of the Millennium Development Goals in Africa for sustainable development. In doing this, responses of 1,672 working mothers, randomly selected from North, South, East, and West Africa were analyzed which identified top among ten others as providing mid-day heavy meals for children at school, free formal and continuing education for mothers, free transportation for children to and from school, free well-equipped hospitals inside schools.


The sub-population of quasars reddened by intrinsic or intervening clouds of dust are known to be underrepresented in optical quasar surveys. By defining a complete parent sample of the brightest and spatially unresolved quasars in the COSMOS field, we quantify to which extent this sub-population is fundamental to our understanding of the true population of quasars. By using the available multiwavelength data of various surveys in the COSMOS field, we built a parent sample of 33 quasars brighter than $J=20$ mag, identified by reliable X-ray to radio wavelength selection techniques. Spectroscopic follow-up with the NOT/ALFOSC was carried out for four candidate quasars that had not been targeted previously to obtain a 100\% redshift completeness of the sample. The population of high $A_V$ quasars (HAQs), a specific sub-population of quasars selected from optical/near-infrared photometry, is found to contribute $21\%^{+9}_{-5}$ of the parent sample. The full population of bright spatially unresolved quasars represented by our parent sample consists of $39\%^{+9}_{-8}$ reddened quasars defined by having $A_V>0.1$, and $21\%^{+9}_{-5}$ of the sample having $E(B-V)>0.1$ assuming the extinction curve of the Small Magellanic Cloud. We show that the HAQ selection works well for selecting reddened quasars, but some are missed because their optical spectra are too blue to pass the $g-r$ color cut in the HAQ selection. This is either due to a low degree of dust reddening or anomalous spectra. We find that the fraction of quasars with contributing light from the host galaxy is most dominant at $z \lesssim 1$. At higher redshifts the population of spatially unresolved quasars selected by our parent sample is found to be representative of the full population at $J<20$ mag. This work quantifies the bias against reddened quasars in studies that are based solely on optical surveys.


Density functional theory (DFT) calculations were carried out to describe the molecular structures, molecular orbitals, atomic charges, UV-vis absorption spectra, IR, and Raman spectra of bis(phthalocyaninato) rare earth(III) complexes M(Pc)(2) (M = Y, La) as well as their reduced products [M(Pc)(2)](-) (M = Y, La). Good consistency was found between the calculated results and experimental data. Reduction of the neutral M(Pc)(2) to [M(Pc)(2)]- induces the reorganization of their orbitals and charge distribution and decreases the inter-ring interaction. With the increase of ionic size from Y to La, the inter-ring distance of both the neutral and reduced double-decker complexes M(Pc)(2) and [M(Pc)(2)](-) (M = Y, La) increases, the inter-ring interaction and splitting of the Q bands decrease, and corresponding bands in the IR and Raman spectra show a red shift. The orbital energy level and orbital nature of the frontier orbitals are also described and explained in terms of atomic character. The present work, representing the first systemic DFT study on the bis(phthalocyaninato) yttrium and lanthanum complexes sheds further light on clearly understanding structure and spectroscopic properties of bis(phthalocyaninato) rare earth complexes.


In the period 1965 to 1976 inclusive, 55 patients suffering from duodenopancreatic adenocarcinoma were surgically treated at the Free University Hospital. Twenty of these patients underwent a 'curative' Whipple pancreaticoduodenectomy for a resectable tumor. The difference in survival time makes a differentiation important between carcinomas occurring in the head of the pancreas and those of the peri-ampullary region. In our series, 11 of the former were found and 9 of the latter group. Of each group one patient died within 30 days of the operation. The average survival time of 9 patients, operated on for a tumor in the head of the pancreas, was 10.2 months, with a range from 2 to 23 months. One patient is still alive 23 months after the operation. The average survival time of 5 patients with a periampullary tumor was 22 months with a range from 6 to 52 months. Three patients are still alive, one more than 12 years and 2 more than 19 months after operation. Considering the bad results, and the fact that 30 percent of pancreatic carcinomas are multifocal, it would seem that the classical Whipple operation is a thing of the past. One can then make a plea for total pancreaticoduodenectomy or even for a regional pancreatectomy. Thirty-five patients underwent a palliative procedure, consisting of a biliary bypass combined in a number of cases with a gastroenterostomy. Five patients died within 30 days of the operation. The average survival time for the remaining patients was 9.5 months with a range of 1.5 to 30 months.


Housewives play an important role in managing family finances. In managing finances, you must have a clear and accurate monthly budget. This budget must then be adhered to so that finances are really under control. Mothers can make it in writing in a book, or electronically. Currently, the use of gadgets is almost never out of hand because it is considered a source of information that can be accessed anytime and anywhere. Problems of housewives in general, namely: 1). There is no household budget; 2). Uncontrolled spending; 3). Not making a long term plan; 4). Haste in investing. This activity is carried out with the stages of problem identification, analysis of problem solving and solutions, making materials, implementation, evaluation and mentoring. Improving the ability of housewives to manage family finances by using the Android-based Mother's Savings application is considered very effective and efficient. The results of this activity enable housewives to increase their ability to manage finances, improve family welfare, and improve their ability to use information technology.


A endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine needle aspiration/biopsy (EUS-FNA/B) of pancreatic solid and cystic lesions is a modality, which huge numbers of articles has showed its high diagnostic accuracy. The degree of technical difficulty, size and type of needle, endoscopic technique, use of suction to aspirate tissue, use or not use of a stylet in the needle assembly, maneuvers to have high quality tissue, availability of an on-site cytopathologist, and, finally, end sonographer's experience and skills who does the procedure have impact on the EUS-FNA results. Standard 19-G and 22-G fine-needle aspiration needles with or without high negative pressure have proven to be reliable in obtaining high-quality histologic samples in various indications. Twenty-five-gauge (25-gauge) needles provide better diagnostic yield when sampling pancreatic lesions compared with 22-G needles. The novel 19-G and 22-G ProCore™ needles have demonstrated a high yield in obtaining histologic samples, whereas 25-G. ProCore™ seems unsuitable for histology. A cytopathology service should be involved early in the planning process for establishing an EUS-FNA service. Data on the newly developed 20-G ProCore™, SharkCore® and Acquire® needles are limited, but appear very promising. Use of the stylet does not increase the yield of endoscopic ultrasonography-fine-needle aspiration and is more cumbersome to use. In perspective, endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine-needle biopsy (EUS-FNB) is expected to refine differential diagnostic capabilities, favor widespread EUS utilization, and pave the road to targeted therapies and monitoring of treatment response. Approximately 3 to 5 passes should be sufficient to obtain a diagnosis. We need further studies for assessment of the use of Suction, Capillary ("Slow-Pull"), Wet and Fanning techniques.


We have analyzed observations of a uniform sample of 36 stars in the ASAS-SN variable star catalog, with mean magnitudes between 10 and 12, classified as Mira by the catalog, and with periods of 150 days or less. They presumably represent a transition from Mira type to semiregular type. The stars show a wide variety of light curve shapes, and of deviation from periodicity. The amplitude increases with increasing period, as is well known, but no other properties, including the degree of periodicity, seem to depend on period.


1 When a plant species is introduced into a new range, it may differentiate genetically from the original populations in the home range. This genetic differentiation may influence the extent to which the invasion of the new range is successful. We tested this hypothesis by examining Senecio pterophorus, a South African shrub that was introduced into NE Spain about 40 years ago. We predicted that in the introduced range invasive populations would perform better and show greater plasticity than native populations. 2 Individuals of S. pterophorus from four Spanish (invasive) and four South African (native) populations were grown in Catalonia, Spain, in a common garden in which disturbance and water availability were manipulated. Fitness traits and several ecophysiological parameters were measured. 3 The invasive populations of S. pterophorus survived better throughout the summer drought in a disturbed (unvegetated) environment than native South African populations. This success may be attributable to the lower specific leaf area (SLA) and better water content regulation of the invasive populations in this treatment. 4 Invasive populations displayed up to three times higher relative growth rate than native populations under conditions of disturbance and non‐limiting water availability. 5 The reproductive performance of the invasive populations was higher in all treatments except under the most stressful conditions (i.e. in non‐watered undisturbed plots), where no plant from either population flowered. 6 The results for leaf parameters and chlorophyll fluorescence measurements suggested that the greater fitness of the invasive populations could be attributed to more favourable ecophysiological responses. 7 Synthesis. Spanish invasive populations of S. pterophorus performed better in the presence of high levels of disturbance, and displayed higher plasticity of fitness traits in response to resource availability than native South African populations. Our results suggest that genetic differentiation from source populations associated with founding may play a role in invasion success.


1 . The administration of 2,4-diamino-5-(3',4'-dichlorophenyl)-6-methylpyrimidine (50-197) and 2,4-diamino-5-(3',4'-dichlorophenyl) pyrimidine (50-11) to mice and rats produced delayed effects characteristic of folic acid deficiency; 50-197 amid 2,4-diamino-5-p-chlorophenyl-6-ethylpyrimidine (50-63) produced similar effects in dogs. LD50 values have been calculated.

2. The diaminopyrimidines caused ileitis amid colitis with diarrhea in mice, rats, and dogs, and stomatitis in dogs; animals lost weight and became dehydrated. Microscopic changes found in gastrointestinal tract, lymphatic tissue, and bone marrow have been described.

3. The hematologic manifestations observed were (a) granulocytopenia and reticulocytopenia in rats and dogs; there was a relatively less severe lymphocytopenia, (b) alterations in dog marrow which included an appreciable proportion of erythroid development via the megaloblast series, numerous and varied mitotic abnormalities, nuclear fragments, giant metamyelocytes, hypersegmented polymorphonuclear cells and a change its nuclear chromatin of myeloid series corresponding to megaloblastosis in erythroid development.

4. Doses of the diaminopyrimidines in excess of the LD50 produced convulsions in mice and rats (50-197 and 50-11); acute convulsant effects were also produced in cats given 50-197 and in dogs given 50-63. This acute convulsant actions could be prevented by means of anesthetic barbiturates. It is a property of alkyl substituted 2,4-diaminopyrimidines and 2-methyl-4-aminopyrimidines and is not specifically related to anti-folic activity.

5. The delayed death of some, but not all, mice following the diaminopyrimidines could be prevented by the simultaneous administration of citrovorum factor. This suggests, on the analogy of 4-amino-PGA and PGA, that there might be another factor or factors its the folic-folinic acid reaction chain as yet unidentified in cells.


Most ecological diversity indices summarize the information about the relative abundances of species without reflecting taxonomic differences between species. Nevertheless, in environmental conservation practice, data on species abundances are mostly irrelevant and generally unknown. In such cases, to summarize the conservation value of a given site, so‐called 'taxonomic diversity' measures can be used. Such measures are based on taxonomic relations among species and ignore species relative abundances. In this paper, bridging the gap between traditional biodiversity measures and taxonomic diversity measures, I introduce a parametric diversity index that combines species relative abundances with their taxonomic distinctiveness. Due to the parametric nature of the proposed index, the contribution of rare and abundant species to each diversity measure is explicit.


The Airborne Surveillance Testbed (AST) program, managed by SMDC for BMDO, is a technology demonstration program that supports development, test, and evaluation of defensive systems to counter intercontinental and theater ballistic missiles (ICBMs and TBMs) and their warheads. The heart of the AST program is a Boeing 767 aircraft equipped with a Raytheon-built, large-aperture, multiband, high data rate infrared sensor and a wide variety of processing equipment designed to detect, track, and discriminate ballistic missiles at long ranges. A Raytheon interceptor seeker (part of a Navy risk reduction effort) has recently been integrated onto the aircraft; a staring medium wave infrared (MWIR) camera is currently being added as well. Onboard processing capabilities include a Concurrent TurboHawk (multi-CPU PowerPC flight computer) along with a variety of custom and off-the-shelf signal processing equipment, SGI workstations, DEC Alphas, and PCs, largely programmed in Ada and C++. These systems are linked via SCRAMNet, Ethernet, 1553B, RS422 and RS232, and communicate externally via various radio systems. Since the start of the program in 1984, AST has been making use of Ada83, Ada95, and C++ for both simulations and embedded flight software. During that time, we have gathered a lot of experience in the use of Ada for real-time distributed systems, especially concerning:• The pitfalls of task scheduling algorithms and priorities• The benefits of the (careful) use of generics• The importance of some changes between Ada83 and Ada95• Interfacing Ada software to hardware (and standardized interrupt handling)• The importance of proper use of exception handling to ensure fault tolerance


Under applicable law (The Act on Fertilizers and Fertilization 2007) sewage sludge produced in wastewater treatment plants is treated as waste. The article presents 5 variants of alteration and management of sewage sludge from the wastewater treatment plant in Szamotuły. Some of them include the use of green mass that can be obtained as a result of urban greenery maintenance works. For the purpose of this article there was carried out a quantitative balance of sludge, taking into account different degrees of its hydration. There were also discussed the results of an experiment conducted on the semi-technical scale. The drying process took place under a plastic tunnel with a length of 10 m. Two series of sludge drying at different outdoor temperatures were carried out. The sludge drying time in conditions of high ambient temperatures (24-36 ̊C) was 18 days. There was also determined the dependance between hydration and drying time at lower temperatures. In the final analysis, there were employed two basic methods of sludge treatment: solar drying and composting. The introduction of new solutions removes numerous existing sludge disposal costs. The benefits will consist in the elimination of sludge disposal costs or sludge hygienisation costs.


For a modern e-learning platform, it has to confront with an important issue that is how to provide meaningful learning for learners. In this paper, we used the method of concept maps to integrate the four tiers, which are knowledge management, instructional, learning and technological tier, in order to achieve the meaningful learning. The significance of concept maps is not only on the promotion of knowledge concepts and action skills, but also on the affection which can be rendered the right cognition and values for learners. Finally, this research proposed a knowledge management learning system (KMLS), where it can support learning-process progress and facilitate learners' learning more meaningfully.


Background Psoriatic arthritis (PsA) is associated with higher cardiovascular (CV) risk. The performances of established CV risk scores for general population in PsA patients have not been fully evaluated yet. Meanwhile, European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) recommended to introduce a 1.5 multiplication factor to the CV risk scores for certain patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Whether the multiplication factor could improve the performances of the risk scores in PsA is unknown. Objectives To evaluate the performances of different CV risk scores and their EULAR modified versions in detecting high CV risk in PsA patients defined as the presence of subclinical atherosclerosis (SCA) determined by carotid ultrasonography. Methods Four different CV risk scores namely Framingham risk score (FRS), QRISK II, HeartScore and American College of Cardiology and American Heart Association (ACC/AHA) 10-year atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) and their EULAR recommended modified versions were calculated. Sonographic evaluation measuring carotid intima-media thickness (IMT) and plaque was used to determine SCA. IMT>0.90 mm and/or the presence of plaque were classified as SCA+. Results 162 patients [49.27±11.9 years, male: 95 (58.6%)] underwent carotid ultrasound were recruited. 142, 137, 128 and 118 patients were eligible to calculate FRS, QRISKII, HeartScore and ASCVD, respectively. 69 (34.3%) patients were considered to have high CV risk based on the presence of SCA. The SCA+ patients were significantly older (55±10 vs 45±12 years; p<0.001) and more diabetic [11 (15.9%) vs 12 (12.9%); p<0.001]. They also had higher systolic blood pressure (SBP: 138±25 vs 128±17 mmHg; p=0.003) and total cholesterol (TC: 5.3±0.9 vs 4.9±0.9 mmol/L, p=0.005). All CV risk scores were significantly higher in SCA+ patients (FRS: 17±14 vs 8±8%, p<0.001; QRISKII: 13±9 vs 7±7%, p=0.002; HeartScore: 3±3 vs 1±2%, p=0.001; ASCVD: 14±14 vs 8±8%, p=0.002). Areas under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves discriminating SCA+ for FRS, QRISKII, HeartScore and ASCVD were 0.71 (0.63–0.80, p<0.001), 0.67 (0.58–0.76, p=0.001), 0.67 (0.58–0.77, p=0.001), and 0.67 (0.58–0.77, p=0.001), respectively. 42 (29.6%), 3 (2.2%), 6 (4.7%) and 35 (29.7%) patients were classified as having high CV risk scores according to FRS>10%, QRISK II>20%, HeartScore>5% and ASCVD>7.5%, respectively. By McNemar's test, all scores significantly underestimated the risk of SCA+ (all p<0.05, Figure 1a). By applying the EULAR multiplication factor, 55 (38.7%), 14 (10.2%), 7 (5.5%) and 53 (44.9%) patients were reclassified as having high CV risk, respectively. SCA+ risk was still significantly underestimated by the modified QRISKII and HeartScore, but not by the modified FRS (p=0.683) and ASCVD (p=0.885) (Figure 1b). EULAR modification increased the sensitivity of FRS and ASCVD in predicting SCA from 44% to 51%, and from 44% to 55%, respectively. Conclusions All CV risk scores significantly underestimated the risk defined by carotid ultrasonography. EULAR recommended modification improved the sensitivity of FRS and ASCVD to a moderate level. Disclosure of Interest None declared


The charge carrier dynamics that radically affect the performance of solution-processed 2,4-bis[4-(N,N-diisobutylamino)-2,6-dihydroxyphenyl]squaraine (DIB SQ):[6,6]-phenyl-C70-butyric acid methyl ester (PC70BM) based organic solar cells is analyzed by means of steady-state, impedance and transient spectroscopic techniques. Analysis of current density–voltage characteristics using the modified Shockley diode equation and the light intensity-dependent measurements signifies the contribution of shunt and trap-mediated recombination losses in reducing the fill factor (FF) and efficiency of the SQ based device. Bias voltage-dependent impedance spectra modelled with an equivalent circuit reveal information on the physical processes of charge carrier transport and recombination in the device. Poor charge transport limits the FF of the device, evidenced by the dominance of the resistance corresponding to the charge transport processes over the recombination resistance. Transient photovoltage analysis further confirms the existence of bimolecular and monomolecular recombination in the device. Bias dependent transient photocurrent analysis is performed to probe the charge carrier dynamics at the operating voltages of the device, and it reveals that poor charge extraction due to charge trapping also affects the FF of the device. Furthermore, the morphology of the SQ:PCBM blend film is found to be unfavorable for the smooth extraction and transport of the charge carriers, complementing the findings from steady-state, impedance, and transient measurements.


This paper aims at approaching the valuation of transactions between related parties of multinational companies with an updated arm's length approach. Based on transaction cost economics (TCE) and its related theory of the multinational firm, the paper takes the widespread criticism and shortcomings of the arm's length standard and asks for modifying allocation mechanisms. The paper proposes a three-step tax-world income allocation model which is more coherent with the business world of multinational companies. It is then suggested that such tax-world transfer pricing will release income allocation results in a more adequate fashion to global business processes.


Myasthenia Gravis is a disorder characterized by autoantibodies targeting different proteins across the neuromuscular junction. The typical presentation of Myasthenia Gravis involves oculobulbar weakness, classically ptosis that may or may not be symmetric. Patients may also present with a more dramatic presentation of generalized weakness or even in myasthenic crisis requiring respiratory support for oxygenation. While these are the common presentations, our patient, a 63 year old male, presented with an atypical presentation of what is described as Limb-Girdle Myasthenia Gravis. This patient presented with proximal arm and leg weakness that rapidly progressed and lead to loss of reflexes, appearing to be a myelopathy prior to obtaining an electromyography/nerve conduction study which demonstrated decrement of 21% in ulnar, 22% in median, and 59% of radial nerves during 2Hz repetitive stimulation. Our patient improved with plasmapheresis and prednisone with full recovery of strength.


Species evolve, very slowly, through selection of genes which give rise to phenotypes well adapted to their environments. The cultures, including the languages, of human communities evolve, much faster, maintaining at least a minimum level of adaptedness to the external, non- cultural environment. In the phylogenetic evolution of species, the transmission of information across generations is via copying of molecules, and innovation is by mutation and sexual recombination. In cultural evolution, the transmission of information across generations is by learning, and innovation is by sporadic invention or borrowing from other cultures. This much is the foundational bedrock of evolutionary theory. But things get more complicated; there can be gene-culture co-evolution. Prior to the rise of culture, the physical environment is the only force shaping biological evolution from outside the organism, and cultures themselves are clearly constrained by the evolved biological characteristics of their members. But cultures become part of the external environment, and influence the course of biological evolution. For example, altruistic cultures with developed medical knowledge reduce the cost to the individual of carrying genes disposing to certain pathologies (such as diabetes); and such genes become more widespread in the populations maintaining such cultures. Assortative mating can affect biological evolution, and particular cultures may influence the factors which are sorted for in mating. (For a careful discussion of the effects of cultural evolution on natural selection, see Cavalli-Sforza and Bodmer, 1971:774- 804). This paper examines mechanisms involved in the co-evolution of a biological trait, the critical period for language acquisition, and a property of human cultures, the size of their languages. A gene/culture interaction will be shown that can be described as a kind of symbiosis, but perhaps more aptly as an `arms race'. In this introduction, we will sketch the basic mechanics of the interaction in very broad terms; the rest of the paper will explain and justify the details. The implications of our model for second language acquisition are given toward the end of the paper.


The Science Council of the CGIAR encourages fair use of this material provided proper citation is made. and presents the following commentary. The SC thanks Drs Franz Heidhues (team-leader) and Benjavan Rerkasem for having prepared a very readable and concise report in a tight timeline. The SC had an opportunity to comment on an early draft of the report and finds that the final report has addressed some of the concerns, mainly those related to sources of information and references. The Panel's conclusions are very clear-that IRRI should continue to invest in research on rice in the uplands in Asia because new rice technology in the pipeline for uplands can make a difference. Their reasons are four-fold: Firstly, there is an obligation for IRRI to address the uplands because large numbers of poor people reside in these areas and because of a commitment to the Millennium Development Goals to alleviate poverty. Secondly, recent progress in research, namely development of aerobic rice and progress in breeding for tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses (drought in particular) significantly increase the probability of impact in the unfavorable uplands conditions. Thirdly, IRRI has accumulated a wealth of knowledge about the uplands in genetic resources, farming systems and socio-economics, which gives it a strong comparative advantage to work together with NARES for addressing the particularly difficult problems of the uplands. Fourthly, there is need for NARES and international agencies to invest in research and development in the remote uplands; a reduction in IRRI effort would be a disincentive for such local investment, a signal that may have already been perceived with the reduced investment by IRRI in the upland system. Notwithstanding this report the SC view remains that IRRI could better use its resources that are currently allocated for the uplands in the rainfed lowlands to meet the CGIAR goals. The SC notes that previous research has for years promised forthcoming results in terms of impact in people's livelihoods in the uplands, but there has been little documented outcome and impact so far. Furthermore, because the uplands present a highly complex, ecologically fragile and ethnically and socio-culturally heterogeneous environment, as described by the Panel in detail, probabilities for success are very low. Also, as stated by the Panel, research investment per hectare needs to be higher. While the Panel sees these characteristics as a justification for IRRI's continued and possibly even increased investment in the …


This paper considers the ontologies of relational repatriation, cultural reclamation and reorientation from past to present of ancestor photos by Aboriginal Elders, knowledge holders and their families. It leans into questions about cultural custodianship rights and the renewal of family kinship responsibilities to ancestors and kin, pictorially confined to repository collections of 19th and early 20th Century photographs. It engages with dialectical approaches to heritage reclamation and attends to the dialogic ethics and morals of an intimate social relatedness that does not separate history from meaningful experience, cultural authority from emotions. This paper explores cultural perceptions of identity and belonging animated by descendant family members when experiencing ancestors and kin pictured in photographs. Closely examined are the complexities of these interrelationships and the energetic social and political desire of Elders, knowledge holders, and their families to make something happen as part of contemporary knowledge practices, and for the continuity of collective memory and legacy – knowing the self through remembering ancestors and kin in relationship to country, each other, and the acknowledged power of oral narratives throughout time.


Foreign Language Anxiety (FLA) and Self-Directed Learning (SDL) are two areas in applied linguistics which are researched extensively. However, the literature seems to be lacking studies which intends to find a correlation between two phenomena. For that reason, the aim of this study is to find out if there is a significant relationship between FLA and SDL. The participants are 104 students of English Language Teaching in Edirne, Turkey and the data collection instruments are Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (Horwitz et al, 1986) and Self-Directed Learning Readiness Scale (Guglielmino, 1978). Correlational analysis reveals that there is no significant relationship between foreign language anxiety and self-directed learning, however, there is a positive correlation between test anxiety and self control. Keywords: Foreign language anxiety, self-directed learning readiness, learner differences


Abstract The Islamic marital contract is based on an ideal of masculine protectionism, with males assuming power over those presumed to be vulnerable, namely, women and children. Greater rights are accorded to males in accordance with their bigger obligation towards the security and prosperity of the family. In illustrating these dynamics, I trace the historical development of the Family Syariah in Malaysia, and analyse the provisions on marital dissolution contained within it. The notion of either protectionist or dominative masculinity is then explored by examining the litigious experiences of men and women, as revealed from case law files on divorce of the various Syariah courts in Malaysia. In these cases, many men do not live up to their religious obligation as family head and provider, but often given the court mandate to imagine that they can. Hence, when they fail to see to their families' maintenance, despite being religiously entrusted to be the source of women's and children's well-being, a social cost to society is exacted. In this situation, the manufacture of the submissive female is seldom successful as material conditions (such as wealth and social safety nets) do not always exist for obedience to be exchanged with protection. The article explores the extent to which an Islamic divorce contract can be sustained given that the axiom of male-protectionism can often be proven false in present day socio-economic context.


Previous studies have shown that auxiliary catalysts play a significant role in improving the activity and reliability of semiconductor photocatalysis for photocatalytic H2 production. However, designing an efficient and low-cost auxiliary catalyst to replace expensive noble metals has been a major challenge. In our study, we synthesized a non-noble metal co-catalyst Ni3N/Ni4N (NixN) by a two-step method. Upon loading 2% NixN on Zn0.5Cd0.5S (ZCS), the photocatalytic activity of 2% NixN/ZCS greatly improved. The corresponding H2 evolution rate was about 241.3 mmol h−1 g−1, which was obtained in 0.35 M Na2S/0.25 M Na2SO3. This value is about 33 times higher than that of pure ZCS, 12 times higher than that of 2% Pt on ZCS and 3 times higher than that of 2% Ni3N/ZCS. When the concentration of Na2S/Na2SO3 was increased to 1.05 M/0.75 M, the H2 production rate of 2% NixN/ZCS reached 297.6 mmol h−1 g−1 under visible light irradiation (λ > 420 nm), and the quantum efficiency (QE) was 43.8% at 420 nm. The H2 production efficiency of 2% NixN/ZCS is the highest H2 evolution efficiency among ZCS-based photocatalysts reported so far. The introduction of the Ni3N/Ni4N heterojunction could efficiently accelerate the migration of photocarriers and delay the recombination of electron–hole pairs.


A new model was developed for the characterization and quantification of the 'inaccessible' discharge parameters in closed tube high power electrodeless fluorescent lamps. The results obtained applying the model are verifiable by means of a simple comparison of the primary equivalent resistance and reactance as a result of the measured V1, I1, 1 with the equivalent primary resistance and reactance inferred from the proposed model. The results are in good agreement at all operating lamp power levels. What is unexpected is the capacitive behaviour of the inductive coupled plasma at lower powers. The investigation method is suitable for the optimization of high power electrodeless lamps with a long discharge path operated at low frequencies, in order to improve the efficiency and the system stability, especially if the lamp has to be dimmed.


This study determined the impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) along with other factors on exports of manufactured goods in Pakistan. The study employed time series data from 1990 to 2010. We applied ARDL approach to estimate the determinants of manufactured goods exported from Pakistan. Results showed that FDI, agriculture value added and technology have positive and significant impact on manufactured exports of Pakistan, while real effective exchange rate showed in negative and significant impact on manufactured exports from Pakistan. So, better environment for attracting FDI, investing in agriculture, value addition and introducing the latest technology in the country would further improve the exports of manufactured goods from the country.


The undertaken study was to evaluate the severity of iodine deficiency and to establish the prevalence of goiter in the city of Nizhny Novgorod and in 35 districts of Nizhegorodsky region. 1868 children aged 8—11 years were examined. The median of urinary iodine concentration was measured, and the size of the thyroid was determined by palpation and by ultrasound study. Among all the examinees, the detection rate of the goiter was 19.4% (as evidenced by palpation) and the median of urinary iodine concentration was 45.05 μg/l. The findings indicate natural iodine deficiency on the whole territory studied with severity variations from mild to moderate, and the disparity in goiter rate and iodine excretion level in some districts of Nizhegorodsky region. Cluster analysis and automatic classification of the districts based on goiter prevalence and urinary iodine parameters may be useful for a comprehensive assessment of iodine status in the whole region. Analyzing the pattern of the spread of goiter has demonstrated the role of geochemical, social and medical factors existing in the region. Key words: iodine deficiency, goiter, population based stady, thyroid.


Effect of Ocimum sanctum leaf extract was studied on paracetamol induced hepatic damage in rats. O.sanctum was found to protect the rats from hepatotoxic action of paracetamol as evidenced by significant reduction in the elevated serum enzyme levels. Histopathological studies showed marked reduction in fatty degeneration in animals receiving O.sanctum along with paracetamol as compared to the control group. It is stipulated that the extract treated group was partially protected from hepatic cell damage caused by' paracetamol.


This paper presents the practical implementation of a computer based slip frequency vector control scheme of an induction motor. A recurrent artificial neural network is used to transform the input parameters, speed error and rate of change of speed error, into an output quantity, the change in inverter output frequency. The recurrent neural network used has an output layer, an input layer and no hidden layer. A novel learning algorithm called the vector space searching algorithm is used to update the network weight. The control algorithm was coded in C++ and implemented on a 486 personal computer.


Supported Ni catalysts are widely used in the steam -reforming process (equations I to II) for industrial scale production of hydrogen and synthes is gas [1]. Synthesis gas, a mixture of H 2, CO and CO2 is a key intermediate in the chemical industry, an d can be used in a number of highly selective syntheses of a wide range of chemicals (e .g., ammonia and methanol) and fuels [2]. The synthesis gas composition can be adjusted by the wa t r-g s shift reaction (III). Recently, the steamreforming process has been largely applied for the "gas to liquids" (GTL) technology, in which the synthesis gas is transformed into high molecular we ight hydrocarbons by the Fischer-Tropsch reaction (IV). This waxy product is finally transfo rmed by catalytic hydrocracking into sulphur-free diesel fuels.


Site investigations provide characterization of soil properties, but inevitable uncertainty remains at locations that have not been examined. Only a limited scope of site investigation can be conducted due to budget and time constraints, hence there are always risks associated with design based on limited investigation information. An efficient geotechnical site investigation should involve choosing the optimal number and location of borehole sites to gain adequate information for a given cost. Using a slope as an example, this paper proposes a framework to find the best sampling location that gives the most information while minimizing the probability of making the wrong decisions. The results suggest that the slope crest appears to be the optimal location to conduct geotechnical site exploration for slope stability assessment.


Corona Virus (COVID-19) is a major problem among people, and it causes suffering worldwide Yet, the traditional prediction models are not yet suitably efficient in catching the fundamental expertise as they cannot visualize the difficulty in the health's representation problem areas This paper states prediction mechanism that uses a model of deep learning called Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) We have carried this model out on corona virus dataset that obtained from the records of infections, deaths, and recovery cases across the world Furthermore, producing a dataset which includes features of geographic regions (temperature and humidity) that have experienced severe virus outbreaks, risk factors, spatio-temporal analysis, and social behavior of people, a predictive model can be developed for areas where the virus is likely to spread However, the outcomes of this study are justifiable to alert the authorities and the people to take precautions © University of Tehran, Faculty of Management


In this paper, a hierarchical distributed coordinated control method is proposed based on the multi-agent system for dc ring-bus microgrids to improve the bus voltage performance. First, a two-level multi-agent system is built, where each first-level unit control agent is associated with a distributed energy resource to implement local decentralized control, and the second-level control agent is associated with the first-level agent to implement distributed coordination control together with the first-level agent. Afterward, the assessment index of each distributed energy resource subsystem is established. By the assessment index, the multi-agent system can judge whether the subsystem should implement the local decentralized control or the distributed coordinated control. Furthermore, by means of the assessment index, both the local controller and distributed coordinated controller are designed, respectively, based on two kinds of dynamic models of DER unit. To reduce the communication pressure, the distributed coordinated controller is built by local controller combined with the coordinated control laws. The coordinated control laws are synthesized by using the states from only neighboring subsystems. Considering the effect of communication delays on control performance, a delay-dependent H∞ robust control method is proposed to design the distributed coordinated controller. Finally, the validity of the proposed control scheme is testified by simulation results. INDEX TERMS DC microgrid, multi-agent system, distributed coordinated control, assessment index, decentralized control, delay-dependent.


The purpose of this study was to evaluate the benefit, if any, of routine monitoring of vital signs on clinical outcomes in hospitalized patients with deep venous thrombosis (DVT). One hundred forty-nine patients with DVT included in this study were categorized into two groups: those that underwent measurement of vital signs every 6 hours or those that had vital signs measured every 8 hours. Vital signs included pulse, blood pressure, respiratory rate, and temperature. Frequency of measurement of vital signs did not alter average length of stay; for patients with every-4-hours measurement, this was 5.16 days and was not statistically significant from patients with every-8-hours measurement, who stayed an average of 4.85 days (p = 0.507). Similarly, more frequent vital sign evaluation did not result in a statistically significant difference in survival, progression of disease, nor did it predict the disposition of the patient. These results suggest that present frequency of measurement of vital signs is not cost or time effective because they do not result in a favorable outcome, length of stay, or disposition. The study further serves to highlight the need for an individualized assessment of vital sign measurement, because this will also lead to a more efficient allocation of hospital resources.


We introduce RP2K, a new large-scale retail product dataset for fine-grained image classification. Unlike previous datasets focusing on relatively few products, we collect more than 500,000 images of retail products on shelves belonging to 2000 different products. Our dataset aims to advance the research in retail object recognition, which has massive applications such as automatic shelf auditing and image-based product information retrieval. Our dataset enjoys following properties: (1) It is by far the largest scale dataset in terms of product categories. (2) All images are captured manually in physical retail stores with natural lightings, matching the scenario of real applications. (3) We provide rich annotations to each object, including the sizes, shapes and flavors/scents. We believe our dataset could benefit both computer vision research and retail industry. Our dataset is publicly available at this https URL.


Extraction of organic compounds from soils is most commonly done using time-consuming laboratory procedures. Rapid, portable methods for measuring the concentrations of semivolatile organic compounds in the field are needed. This report describes the development of a supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) method using field-portable equipment that completes the extraction in less than 30 minutes and permits on-site quantification of such compounds in soil samples. 10 figs., 34 tabs., 21 refs.


The development of modern gouda cheese manufacturing protocol is a successful example of the marriage between cheese technology (chemistry and microbiology) and mechanical engineering. The foundation for this success is basic research on the interplay between manufacturing protocol and its affect on casein interactions. The goal of any cheese-maker is to produce the same high-quality cheese consistently and economically. To this end, it is not only necessary to control the rate of acid development during manufacture and the pH of the finished cheese, but also the composition of the milk and ratio of curd/whey flowing through the process. This paper addresses these issues. The manufacture of reduced-fat cheeses has posed problems whose severity has only escalated as the demand for increasingly lower-fat cheese increases. This presentation gives an overview of one method to produce a quality 50% reduced-fat cheddar cheese. The development of flavour in reduced-fat cheddar cheese is influenced by the starter culture, non-starter bacteria and manufacturing protocol. Insight into the development of desired flavour requires that all three be taken into account.


This paper is concerned with flow control and resource allocation problems in computer networks in which real-time applications may have hard quality of service (QoS) requirements. Recent optimal flow control approaches are unable to deal with these problems since QoS utility functions generally do not satisfy the strict concavity condition in real-time applications. For elastic traffic, we show that bandwidth allocations using the existing optimal flow control strategy can be quite unfair. If we consider different QoS requirements among network users, it may be undesirable to allocate bandwidth simply according to the traditional max-min fairness or proportional fairness. Instead, a network should have the ability to allocate bandwidth resources to various users, addressing their real utility requirements. For these reasons, this paper proposes a new distributed flow control algorithm for multiservice networks, where the application's utility is only assumed to be continuously increasing over the available bandwidth. In this, we show that the algorithm converges, and that at convergence, the utility achieved by each application is well balanced in a proportionally (or max-min) fair manner


It was examined whether calcitonin (CT)-induced hypocalcemia could modify the pharmacological actions of kanamycin sulfate (KM). CT produced a dose dependent and long-lasting hypocalcemia in urethane anesthetized and conscious rats. In anesthetized rats, KM infusion depressed the indirectly elicited contractions of the tibialis anterior muscle (MC), mean arterial pressure (AP), heart rate (HR) and respiratory rate. CT did not influence the stability of the above parameters and slightly modified the neuromuscular depression of KM. In conscious rats, KM infusion produced spontaneous and complete head drop, loss of corneal reflex, respiratory arrest and also depressed AP and HR. Much higher doses of KM were required to induce the same pharmacological actions in conscious than in anesthetized rats. CT dose-dependently potentiated the pharmacological actions of KM. A highly significant linear correlation between the serum total calcium levels and the KM dose inducing spontaneous head drop was observed. These data indicate that, in conscious rats, the actions of KM are dependent on the serum calcium levels. In the same experimental conditions, neither CT-induced hypocalcemia nor anesthesia did modify significantly the pharmacological actions of d-tubocurarine.


Two experiments were conducted to establish normative values for various measures of endogenous blink activities in each age and gender group, using relatively large samples and similar tasks. The ages of participants in Experiment 1 ranged from 3 months to 3 years and in Experiment 2 from 5 to 93 years. Video recording was performed during quiet resting for the former three age groups and an identical task of video watching was delivered to the latter 11 age groups. The major results were as follows: 1) the youngest infants blink infrequently, increasing gradually until the age of 9–10 years, with no statistical differences for the older age groups, 2) no differences in blink durations of closing, reopening, and total blink were obtained throughout all age groups in Experiment 2, whereas three age groups of infants aged less than 3 years in Experiment 1 showed some differences, and 3) the distribution patterns of blink frequency in each age group were roughly divided into three types.


The so-called "phase difference" is commonly introduced as a phenomenological parameter in Raman tensor theory, so as to fit the experimental data well. Although phase difference is widely recognized as an intrinsic property of crystals, its physics still remains ambiguous. Recently, Kranert et al. have presented a new formalism to explain the origin of phase difference theoretically. Here, we systematically conducted experimental research with polar phonons in wurtzite crystals, the results of which strongly suggest that the phase difference should be predetermined in a Raman tensor, rather than be treated as Raman tensor elements traditionally or as an intrinsic property. On the grounds of pinpointing existing logical flaws in Raman tensor study, we provide a logically clear paradigm.


In article unknown pages of history of the left bank of Saratov are considered. They are associated with staying in the city voivode Grigory Ivanovich Feofilatev. For the first time detailed biography of this figure of the Time of Troubles is presented. He participated in the revolt of Bolotnikov, and then has come over to the side of Lzhedmitrij II. The author traces future destiny of this man, who in the reign of Michael Romanov was a voivode in Alatyr, Kasimov, Surgut, and ambassador to Persia.


Industrial fires may be violent and significant and involve the combustion of large quantities of substances which could be hazardous. Therefore the environmental impact could be significant. Water is mainly used to extinguish industrial fires. Water is deployed to capture the energy released by combustion and consequently the water will be loaded with pollutants such as HCI and HCN. The project O2FEU is interested in analysing the life cycle of water in industrial fire fighting. This water presents a source of pollution for soil and subsoil. The project consists in studying the fate of run-off waters in environment using mathematical models. The aim of this work is the development of a mathematical model. This model will be used to determine the infiltration of the contaminated water in soil.


A number of well-characterized R plasmids (R1drd 19. K1.R100-1, R46, R55-1, R64-11, R388, and R751) will mobilize an integrated amp gene from the chromosome of Escherichia coli K-12. R391 will not act in this way. The process involves recombination, and in each case the mobilizing plasmid acquires an additional piece of deoxyribonucleic acid of molecular weight 4 X 10(6). Acquisition of this deoxyribonucleic acid may impair the transfer properties of the recombinant plasmid in some cases. The process will occur in a recA background.


Contemporary Japan displays considerable sociolinguistic diversity, particularly in urban areas, but its extent and historical background are often overlooked. The contributors to this volume provide new perspectives, with detailed accounts of the wide range of languages spoken in different contexts and by different communities in the Japanese archipelago. Each chapter focuses on a specific language community, and systematically explores the history of the variety in Japanese culture and the current sociolinguistic situation. The first part explores the indigenous languages of Japan, including the multiple dialects of Japanese itself and the lesser-known Ryukyuan and Ainu languages. Chapters in Part II look at community languages, ranging from the historic minority languages, such as Korean and Chinese, to the languages spoken by more recent migrant communities, such as Nepali, Filipino, and Persian. The final part examines languages of culture, politics, and modernization, from the use of English in international business and education contexts, to the ongoing use of Latin and Sanskrit for religious purposes. The volume sheds new light on Japan's position as an important multilingual and multicultural society, and will be of interest to scholars and students not only of Japanese and sociolinguistics but also of Asian studies and migration studies more widely.


Relation extraction (RE) has been extensively studied due to its importance in real-world applications such as knowledge base construction and question answering. Most of the existing works train the models on either distantly supervised data or human-annotated data. To take advantage of the high accuracy of human annotation and the cheap cost of distant supervision, we propose the dual supervision framework which effectively utilizes both types of data. However, simply combining the two types of data to train a RE model may decrease the prediction accuracy since distant supervision has labeling bias. We employ two separate prediction networks HA-Net and DS-Net to predict the labels by human annotation and distant supervision, respectively, to prevent the degradation of accuracy by the incorrect labeling of distant supervision. Furthermore, we propose an additional loss term called disagreement penalty to enable HA-Net to learn from distantly supervised labels. In addition, we exploit additional networks to adaptively assess the labeling bias by considering contextual information. Our performance study on sentence-level and document-level REs confirms the effectiveness of the dual supervision framework.


Recovery narratives and first-person accounts of people living with mental disorders are not really new. Nevertheless, scarce attention has been paid to them by mental health professionals. What is it like to live with a mental disorder, receive a diagnosis, or hide previous experiences of treatment in mental health centers or with psychiatric medication in the context of a job interview or trying to start a relationship with another person? What is it like to learn new coping strategies, to be able to contribute to society and to assume an identity that neither denies the pathology nor is reduced to it? These narratives are analysed in order to stablish both the novelty in their production, and who and how could benefit from them. In addition, mental health professionals could challenge their illusions based on the continuous bias of working with people during the exacerbation of their symptoms, but barely seeing those who have been able to make significant progress in their recovery processes.


With this study I wanted to capture the experience of support and increase the knowledge of what it means for women who are living with a husband who suffers from dementia. To do so I conducted four interviews and used an informal questionnaire. The result shows that there are four key words that can symbolize what the women experience as support: communica-tion, freedom, understanding and knowledge. The women's experience of support range from meaningful and secure to not satisfying and complicated. Living with a husband who suffers from dementia has made their lives very different from before. But even if they sometimes are in a tough situation they want to take care of their husbands. Being able to go away a few hours or half a day once a week, can sometimes be enough and gives the women a sense of satisfaction. On the other hand it is not certain that the support offered is what the women need or that it is satisfactory for the husband. The link between the women's experience of support and that of their husband is strong. And if the husband is not pleased nor will the wife be.


Calcium pyrophosphate dihydrate (CPPD) crystal deposition disease is a joint pathology that affects joints, fibrocartilages and periarticular structures. Chondrocalcinosis refers to CPPD deposits on the X-ray that does not summarize the disease. It willingly affects the knees and the wrists, but all the joints can be affected. There are primitive and secondary forms of the disease to particularly look for in patients less than 50 years. The diagnosis is usually easy with standard radiography, ultrasound and synovial fluid analysis that shows the microcrystals. The therapeutics of the acute attacks are nonspecific and close to those used for acute attacks of gout.


Civil society participation in international and European governance is often promoted as a remedy to its much-lamented democratic deficit. We argue in this paper that this claim needs refinement because civil society participation may serve two quite different purposes: it may either enhance the democratic accountability of intergovernmental organisations and regimes, or the epistemic quality of rules and decisions made within them. In comparing the European Union and World Trade Organization (WTO) in the field of biotechnology regulation we find that many participatory procedures officially are geared towards the epistemic quality of regulatory decisions. In practice, however, these procedures provide little space for epistemic deliberation. Nevertheless, they often lead to enhanced transparency and hence improve the accountability of governance. We also find evidence confirming findings from the literature that the different roles assigned to civil society organisations as "watchdogs" and "deliberators" are at times difficult to reconcile. Our conclusion is that we need to acknowledge potential trade-offs between the two democratising functions of civil society participation and should be careful not to exaggerate our demands on civil society organisations.


The oldest of the baby boomers (boomers) were age 63 in 2009 and on the verge of retirement. This cohort has had a history of making societal changes throughout its life cycle, and it is unlikely that retirement, as we know it, will remain unscathed. This article highlights two events—the Stonewall Inn riots and two prominent professional associations removing homosexuality from their list of personality disorders—and how they occurred early enough in the gay boomers life cycle to change their attitudes, behaviors, and lifestyles. This article introduces the reader to a broad array of facts, research findings, and issues that inform the topic of gay aging. A summary of the discrimination and legal concerns affecting the gay community are also highlighted. Two influential community programs are identified: Services and Advocacy for Gay Elders (SAGE) and the American Society on Aging's LGBT Aging Issues Network (LAIN). Gerontological educators need to be sensitive to the needs, desires, and resources of the coming cohort of gay boomers, who are more likely to advocate for responsive services, organizations, and policies than the current cohort of gay older adults.


The comparison of several statistical methods currently used for detection of differentially expressed genes was attempted both by a simulation approach and by the analysis of data sets of human expressed sequence tags, obtained from UniGene. In the simulated mixed case, mimicking a situation close to reality, the general chi(2) test was unexpectedly the most efficient in multiple tag sampling experiments, especially when dealing with variations affecting weakly expressed genes. On the other hand, Audic and Claverie's method proved the most efficient for detecting differences in gene expression when dealing with pairwise comparisons. By applying the above methods on UniGene-based data sets concerning two human kidney tumours compared with normal kidney tissue, three novel genes overexpressed in these tumours were identified. Software and additional information on statistical methodologies, simulation approach and data are available at http://telethon.bio.unipd.it/bioinfo/IDEG6/.


Background Nowadays, Chlamydia trachomatis is known as a causative agent of infertility. Because of, asymptomatic nature of infection, many may suffer from its lasting complications such as infertility. This study was performed in Tehran during April 2007 to April 2008 to compare the prevalence of Chlamydia trachomatis infection in fertile and infertile women using ELISA and PCR methods. Methods Overall, 234 infertile and 223 pregnant women, as the fertile group, participated in this hospital-based case-control study. After completing an informed consent form and the questionnaire, first catch urine and blood sample were obtained for PCR and ELISA (IgG, IgM) tests, respectively. Logistic regression analysis was used to control possible confounding factors, and determine adjusted odds ratio of infertility due to the infection. Results PCR results revealed that 29 (12.4%) of the infertile and 19 (8.5%) of the fertile women were positive for C. trachomatis infection (p = 0.440). IgG was positive in 21 (9.0%) of the infertile and 11 (5.0%) in the fertile group (p = 0.093). IgM assays identified that 2 (0.9%) of the infertile and 4 (1.8%) of the fertile women were positive for the micro-organism (p = 0.375). Conclusion We found no significant differences among fertile and infertile women for Chlamydia trachomatis infection. Nevertheless, molecular techniques which are more sensitive, more specific and non-invasive can be used to detect C. trachomatis infection.


The persistent low-interest-rate environment is proving detrimental to the funding levels of defined-benefit (DB) pension plans in the United States and around the world. In 2014, for example, plan sponsors experienced significant declines in pension funding status, primarily due to the decline in interest rates coupled with the adoption of new mortality tables, which offset equity market gains. More recently, funded status has improved because of a modest rise in interest rates and positive equity returns. Despite these secular headwinds, reasons to de-risk remain plentiful, and the recent increase in pension derisking activity is reflective of plan sponsors' response to the current pension landscape. Today's interest-rate environment also offers a unique opportunity for sponsors of underfunded plans, which this article discusses in detail, along with recent evidence showing that reducing pension risk increases financial flexibility and creates shareholder value.


Prescribed fire is used widely to manage grasslands on National Wildlife Refuges and other public lands in the northern Great Plains, but its effects on habitat use or production of wildlife in the region are poorly understood. During 1998-2003, we used point counts to examine effects of prescribed fire on vegetation and passerines in a mixed-grass prairie complex in north-central North Dakota, USA (n 5 7 units, each 40-70 ha). Vegetation structure and, to a lesser extent, plant community composition varied with year of study (likely related to changes in annual precipitation) and with number of growing seasons since fire. Fire altered plant structure, especially the amount of residual vegetation, which in turn influenced bird species richness and abundance. The number of indicated pairs for sedge wren (Cistothorus platensis), clay-colored sparrow (Spizella pallida), Le Conte's sparrow (Ammodramus leconteii), Savannah sparrow (Passerculus sandwichensis), and bobolink (Dolichonyx oryzivorus) were lowest during the first postfire growing season but generally increased and stabilized within 2-3 postfire growing seasons. Our results support the premise that grassland passerines are well-adapted to frequent, periodic fires, generally corresponding to those occurring prior to Euro-American settlement of the region. Prescribed fire is important for reducing tree and shrub invasion, restoring biological integrity of plant communities, and maintaining or enhancing populations of grassland-dependent bird species. Managers in the northern mixed-grass prairie region should not be overly concerned about reductions in bird abundances that are limited mostly to the first growing season after fire.


Exposure to ionising radiation results in mutagenesis and cell death, and the clinical manifestations depend on the dose and the involved body area. Reducing carcinogenesis in patients treated with radiotherapy, exposed to diagnostic radiation or who are in certain professional groups is mandatory. The prevention or treatment of early and late radiotherapy effects would improve quality of life and increase cancer curability by intensifying therapies. Experimental and clinical data have given rise to new concepts and a large pool of chemical and molecular agents that could be effective in the protection and treatment of radiation damage. To date, amifostine is the only drug recommended as an effective radioprotectant. This review identifies five distinct types of radiation damage (I, cellular depletion; II, reactive gene activation; III, tissue disorganisation; IV, stochastic effects; V, bystander effects) and classifies the radioprotective agents into five relevant categories (A, protectants against all types of radiation effects; B, death pathway modulators; C, blockers of inflammation, chemotaxis and autocrine/paracrine pathways; D, antimutagenic keepers of genomic integrity; E, agents that block bystander effects). The necessity of establishing and funding central committees that guide systematic clinical research into evaluating the novel agents revealed in the era of molecular medicine is stressed.


Ophiopogon bodinieri is an important turfgrass and ornamental cover plants which is widely used in urban garden construction in southern China.To understand the physiological biochemical responses of different leaves of O.bodinieri to increasing Pb contamination,the effects of different soil Pb concentrations on the activities of superoxide dismutase(SOD),peroxidase(POD) and catalase(CAT) and on the concentrations of free proline(Pro) and malondialdehyde(MDA) in different leaves were studied in a pot experiment with different Pb treatments.The activities of SOD,POD and CAT and the concentrations of Pro and MDA in fresh leaf(FL),mature leaf(ML),and old leaf(OL) of O.bodinieri were measured after Pb-exposure for 7 days.The activities of SOD,POD,and CAT increased at lower Pb concentrations,but decreased at higher ones,depending on the leaves and enzymes.Meanwhile,Pro and MDA concentrations in FL,ML and OL increased with increased soil Pb.The responses of different leaves of O.bodinieri to soil Pb stress differed.FL had higher activities of the antioxidative enzymes SOD,POD and CAT in comparison with the OL under the levels of soil Pb contamination tested,while the OL had higher concentrations of osmotic substances(Pro and MDA) in comparison with the FL and ML.O.bodinieri could adapt to a certain concentration range of soil Pb stress,and the response of fresh O.bodinieri leaves to soil Pb stress was more sensitive than that of old O.bodinieri leaves.The tolerance of old O.bodinieri leaves to soil Pb stress was stronger than those of fresh and mature leaves.


Passenger screening is a critical component of aviation security systems. This paper introduces the multistage sequential passenger screening problem (MSPSP), which models passenger and carry-on baggage screening operations in an aviation security system with the capability of dynamically updating the perceived risk of passengers. The passenger screening operation at an airport terminal is subdivided into multiple screening stages, with decisions made to assign each passenger to one of several available security classes at each such stage. Each passenger's assessed threat value (initially determined by an automated passenger prescreening system) is updated after the passenger proceeds through each screening stage. The objective of MSPSP is to maximize the total security of all passenger screening decisions over a fixed time period, given passenger perceived risk levels and security device performance parameters. An optimal policy for screening passengers in MSPSP is obtained using optimal sequential assignment theory. A Monte Carlo simulation-based heuristic is presented and compared with stochastic sequential assignment and feedback control algorithms. Computational analysis of a two-stage security system provides an assessment of the total security performance.


The seminar presentation demonstrates research on land cover analysis in western Estonia. Study area is Parnu region located on the western part of the country, along the coasts of Baltic Sea. The region is a valuable environmental part and a unique recreational area of Estonia. The presentation consists of two parts. The fist part presents technical workflow of the image processing by means of GIS and Lansat TM satellite imagery. Methodology is base don Arc GIS 10.0 and IDRISI GIS Andes 15.0 for image processing. The aim is to detect land cover changes using image classification by 'ISOCLUST'. Raster images processing and classification was applied for Landsat TM two images. The ISOCLUST is an unsupervised classification method in IDRISI GIS. It performs image processing workflow in semi-automatically regime. Results include 16 land cover types typical for the study area classified and visualized on the images. In 2006 the urban area became larger than in 1992 (land cover class "3" on the histogram. This can be explained by various reasons. Changes in land cover types in selected Estonian landscapes are shown on the statistical histograms on 1992 and 2006. The second part presents social analysis of the current development of tourism and recreation on Baltic Sea coasts with discussion of new directions and perspectives. Notable natural settings include mild marine climate condition and precious coniferous forests. Presentation briefly discusses historical development of the tourism in the country and gives directions on its modern development caused by active socio-economic changes since 1990s. The research is methodologically based on the author's fieldwork in the study area, literature review and analysis of the statistical graphs of the socio-economic data. The study presents photos of the Estonian landscapes.


Passive sampler using 4-amino-3-hydrazino-5-mercapto-1, 2, 4-triazole (AHMT) was developed to determine formaldehyde in indoor environment. The chromatography paper cleaned by hydrogen peroxide solution was experimently determined as a optimum absorbtion filter for the collection of formaldehyde. The passive sampler with a broad cross-sectional area and a short diffusion length was quite good in sensitivity. The passive sampler and the active sampling method with an impinger were strongly correlated with a correlation coefficient of 0.9848. The limits of detection and quantification of the passive sampler for the measurement of formaldehyde in the indoor environment were 7.5 and 10.2 ppb, respectively. Temperature () and relative humidity () had slight influence on the sampling rate of the passive sampler. However, the increase of flow velocity on the surface of sampler resulted in the increase of sampling rate.


ABSTRACT In this study, adaptive features of Spinacia oleracea to different levels of salinity, its use in desalination and production of 20-Hydroxyecdysone were studied. Plants showed survival up to EC 12 dS/m with reduced growth as compared with control. Net photosynthesis rate, transpiration, stomatal conductance, and water use efficiency of salt treated plants declines with increasing salinity stress. Higher antioxidant enzyme activities and compatible solutes accumulation were observed in salt treated plants as function of osmotic adjustment. Significant Na+ sequestration and Na/K ratio were noted with increase in salt stress in comparison to the control. Since the plant accumulates a bioactive, secondary metabolite 20-Hydroxyecdysone (20E), we observed significant 20E content in plants grown at EC 4–12 dS/m in comparison to control. Furthermore, a preliminary field experiment, showed significant reduction in the soil electrical conductivity by 1.8 ds/m after 90 days of plant growth with Na+ sequestration in plant biomass. Subsequent to this growth period, the phytodesalinized soil supported the significant growth of a glycophyte (rice). Our results suggest that S. oleracea can adapt to saline conditions with antioxidant defense and osmotic adjustment. The plant can be used as a potential candidate for desalination and also for enhanced production of 20-Hydroxyecdysone.


Tibetan word segmentation (TWS) is a primary task for Tibetan language processing. In this paper, a novel hybrid neural architecture is proposed to solve TWS which is considered as a sequence tagging task. Due to the high frequency of the contracted words in Tibetan sentences, we firstly use conditional random field (CRF) to deal with this problem. Then we use the character embedding method to obtain basic character representation as input. Most importantly, we apply bi-directional Long short-term memory and CRF (BiLSTM-CRF) to our system. Experimental result shows that our approach obtained state-of-art performance compared with previous approaches used in TWS.


This study examines rates of potentially traumatic events and associated anxiety and emotional/behavioral difficulties among 1,258 orphaned and abandoned children in 5 low- and middle-income countries. The study quantifies the types of events the children experienced and demonstrates that anxiety and emotional/behavioral difficulties increase with additional exposure. As policies for orphaned and abandoned children are being implemented, this study helps policy makers and care providers recognize that (a) children and caregivers are willing to report experiences of potentially traumatic events, (b) those who report such events are at higher risk for experiencing additional events, (c) resulting symptomatology indicates a need for appropriate mental health services, and (d) boys are as vulnerable as girls, indicating an equal need for protection.


This essay explores the philosophical affinity between Aristotle's concept of virtue as character habituation and the Yorùbá ethical and ontological understanding of ọmọlúwàbí as the foundation for re-examining the philosophical foundation of democratic governance in Nigeria. Based on the Aristotelian insistence that the good life is the end of politics, the essay argues for a rethinking of the concept of public morality as character-based political dynamics that enables politicians to think more about the social contract between the government and the governed, rather than an amoral understanding of politics that eschew morality and undermines the well-being of the citizens. The absence of public morality, the essay argues, has resulted in a neopatrimonial framework within which the political elite willfully circumvent constitutional rules and regulation in order to vitiate the public interest. The essay concludes by arguing for a rigorous public enlightenment as well as a reform of the educational curriculum through an injection of virtue ethics.