Background: Aromatase inhibitors (AI) are effective for breast cancer risk reduction in postmenopausal women. TFF1, also known as pS2, is an estrogen response gene present in normal mammary tissue with increased expression in estrogen receptor positive breast cancer. Previous studies have demonstrated down-regulation of TFF1 and Ki-67, a marker of proliferation, in postmenopausal women with locally advanced breast cancer who receive neoadjuvant AIs. TFF1 and proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) may serve as biomarkers of effect of AIs in women at increased risk for breast cancer. Methods: We conducted a single-arm phase II trial of exemestane in women at increased risk for breast cancer and examined the impact on TFF1 and PCNA. Postmenopausal women at increased risk for invasive breast cancer by clinical or histological criteria received 25mg of exemestane daily for 2 years. Subjects were required to have stopped any hormonal medication ≥ 3 months prior to enrollment. Image guided breast biopsies targeting dense breast tissue were performed at baseline and at 12 months. Core specimens were obtained under local anesthesia at each time point from the same area of the breast. One core biopsy sample was formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded and examined for pathologic abnormalities, as well as TFF1 and PCNA. TFF1 was assessed by intensity of stain (0 to 3+) and percent of cells with any staining; PCNA was assessed by percent of cells staining within the tissue section. The pathologist (B.K.) was blinded to the time of biopsy. Change in intensity and % positive cells were evaluated by paired t-test. Results: Thirty four subjects underwent both baseline & 12 month breast biopsies. Eight biopsies at baseline and 5 biopsies at 12 months did not contain any ductal or lobular tissue and were not analyzed. Twenty-two subjects had evaluable breast tissue at both time points for TFF1 analysis and 23 subjects for PCNA analysis. No high risk lesions or invasive cancers were identified. Of the baseline specimens, 95.5% were positive for TFF1: 59.1% (13 of 22) were scored as 3+(intense), 31.8% (7 of 22) were 2+(moderate) and 4.5% (1 of 22) were 1+(low). Percent of cells staining for TFF1 ranged from 0 to 20% (median = 1%). After 1 year on exemestane TFF1 intensity decreased in 17 subjects (77.3%), 4 had no change and 1 increased. Mean TFF1 change was −1.32 (95% CI −1.87 to −0.76; p Discussion: Assessing tissue biomarkers with repeat core needle biopsies in a phase II prevention trial in high risk women is feasible. Since prevention agents are not universally protective, determining biomarkers of effect may allow tailored therapy. TFF1 is a biologically plausible biomarker of AI activity that was down-regulated in 77% of breast tissue following exemestane therapy. This is the first study to evaluate this tissue marker in the prevention setting. Further study is needed to correlate with other biomarkers of interest, e.g. change in mammographic density, serum hormone levels and clinical outcomes. Citation Information: Cancer Res 2012;72(24 Suppl):Abstract nr P1-09-04.


This document provides a general overview of human toxicity, provides a listing of laboratory animal and wildlife toxicities and a cross reference of chemical and common names with their trade names of the chlorinated hydrocarbon pesticides registered for use in Florida. This document is PI-53, one of a series of the Pesticide Information Office, Florida Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida. Original publication date July 2005.


Abstract Issues related to the provision of private education are discussed in relation to the need, clinical teaching, professional standards and financial implications. The advantages and disadvantages are summarised.


Receiver autonomous integrity monitoring (RAIM) has long relied on GPS to achieve lateral navigation by different aerospace and aviation systems. However, an advanced form of RAIM, called ARAIM, would achieve the additional function of vertical navigation. However, because vertical operations require tighter integrity capabilities than what is currently achievable by RAIM, more stringent evaluations of GNSS performance has become a greater focus, especially as new satellite service constellations such as Galileo become more operationally mature. There are two categories of satellite faults that ARAIM requires knowledge of: satellite fault, which affects each satellite independently, and constellation fault, which affects multiple satellites simultaneously due to a common cause. By analyzing GNSS performance, estimates for the likelihood of each type of fault can be obtained and its impact on ARAIM performance can be assessed. Different fault likelihoods result in different safety comparisons, thus, it is important to evaluate the fault types and their probabilities of occurrence. This paper examines the last 3 years of Galileo clock and ephemeris errors to obtain appropriate estimates for the probability of independent satellite failures, P sat , and the probability of simultaneous satellite failures, P const . This paper also examines the two most recent GPS faults in 2022 and 2023 and near-faults from 2017 to 2021 given that there have been no GPS faults between 2012 and early 2022, but still some anomalous events worthy of analysis.


The manuscript reports a study of Kr ion implantation in a Zn target in the 10-50 keV energy range at different source parameters, which combines experimental data and simulation with the SRIM package. The implanted thickness for the 45 keV was found to be 10 um. The ion penetration depths for different films at different energies (10-50 keV) were calculated using SRIM computer program and found to be 100 A at 10 keV and 475 A at 40 keV. Theoretical calculations using SRIM-2000 have been performed to investigate the ion range. The dependence of ion beam currents on the accelerating voltage is given at discharge current equal to 0.8A and for various pressures. The krypton ion beam current reaches 3mA at 45KV for a pressure of 2 x 10-5Torr and a cathode current equal to 130A. An analysis has been made for an implanted krypton ion beam in a zinc specimen using laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. Photographs show the examined zinc specimens are presented. The depth profile shows that the highest concentration of krypton ions under the surface of the zinc specimen is located at about 10 um.


Objectives: To determine the frequency of use of topical steroids by acne patients and to observe various cutaneous side effects in these patients.
Study Design: Descriptive study
Materials and Methods: This study was conducted in Dermatology out patient department, Pakistan Railway Hospital, Rawalpindi from February 15 to April 15, 2012. Total 110 patients were enrolled in the study. All the patients were having clinical diagnosis of acne vulgaris. Patients of both genders with age range of 13- 35 years were included in the study. Frequency of patients using topical steroids to treat acne was calculated and cutaneous side effects of topical steroids were noted.
Results: Out of 110 patients of acne, 76 were females (69%) & 34 were males (31%).Age range of patients was from 13 to 35 years. Topical steroids were used by 68 patients (62%) with acne vulgaris. Mean duration of application of topical steroids ranged from 2weeks to 5months. Most commonly used steroid was betamethasone valerate(62%), followed by clobetasol propionate(29%) and flucinolone acetonide(8%). Out of 68 patients using topical steroids cutaneous side effects were seen in 50 patients in the form of aggravation of
existing lesions in 18 patients(36%), perioral dermatitis 12 patients(24%), telangiectasias 8 patients(16%), increased facial hair growth 7 patients(14%), tinea incognito in 3 patients(6%) and acne rosacea in 2 patients(4%).
Conclusion: This study shows that a large number of patients are using topical steroids to treat acne lesions. Use of topical steroids is a misconcept in treating the lesions of acne vulgaris and their use is associated with various cutaneous side effects including aggravation of acne lesions, skin atrophy, telangiectasias, perioral dermatitis, hirsutism, acne roacea and tinea in cognito.


This paper evaluates Parler, the controversial social media platform, from two seemingly orthogonal perspectives: UX design perspective and data science. UX design researchers explore how users react to the interface/content of their social media feeds; Data science researchers analyze the misinformation flow in these feeds to detect alternative narratives and state-sponsored disinformation campaigns. We took a critical look into the intersection of these approaches to understand how Parler's interface itself is conductive to the flow of misinformation and the perception of"free speech"among its audience. Parler drew widespread attention leading up to and after the 2020 U.S. elections as the"alternative"place for free speech, as a reaction to other mainstream social media platform which actively engaged in labeling misinformation with content warnings. Because platforms like Parler are disruptive to the social media landscape, we believe the evaluation uniquely uncovers the platform's conductivity to the spread of misinformation.


When it comes to the representation of women, Bollywood/Hindi Cinema has followed certain stereotypical norms in most of the films: woman as mother, lover, spouse, sister or woman as vamp, prostitute, and cabaret dancer. Bollywood cinema has exploited the vamp's character in almost every film, characterising them as mean, seductive, coquette and vixenish, characterless and promiscuous. Since the lead actresses in the early Bollywood cinema were mainly shown as a virtuous and morally upright people, the vamp characters fulfilled the requirement of the eroticised, fetishised and sexualised imagery for the male gaze. In Bollywood cinema, the vamps are mainly depicted as cabaret dancers, courtesans, prostitutes and girlfriends of the villains. The depiction of the vamps in Hindi cinema has followed the archetype that was set in the 1930s and 1940s and continued until the late 1990s. Actors such as Helen, Bindu, Aruna Irani, Kalpana Iyer and Shashikala became notoriously popular, playing vamps during 1960-80s portraying an image of uninhibited, feral and licentious female and predominantly having a westernised outlook. In this chapter, I will examine the representations of the negative women characters in Bollywood films of the 21st century, and explore if their representation has changed in any way from that of the films of pre-2000s. I will examine how Bollywood films represent the duality of good and evil, virtuous and wicked. I will also analyse how the Bollywood vamp figure has been used to exploit eroticism, especially through the song and dance sequences. To conclude, I will discuss how in the 2000s the female characters in Bollywood cinema are no more represented in terms of black and white, the new age female characters operate in the grey zone, where the role of the lead actress can be actively interpreted as the merger of the classic heroine and vamp characters.


A new method of determination of the thermal neutron macroscopic absorption cross-section Sigma a for small samples has been checked experimentally. The measurements have been performed with spherical geometry by the pulsed method. Two samples (aqueous solutions of boric acid) with known values of the absorption cross-section have been used. Good agreement of the measured values of Sigma a with the known ones has been observed.


Successful deployment of geological carbon storage (GCS) requires an extensive use of reservoir simulators for screening, ranking and optimization of storage sites. However, the time scales of GCS are such that no sufficient long-term data is available yet to validate the simulators against. As a consequence, there is currently no solid basis for assessing the quality with which the dynamics of large-scale GCS operations can be forecasted. To meet this knowledge gap, we have conducted a major GCS validation benchmark study. To achieve reasonable time scales, a laboratory-size geological storage formation was constructed (the"FluidFlower"), forming the basis for both the experimental and computational work. A validation experiment consisting of repeated GCS operations was conducted in the FluidFlower, providing what we define as the true physical dynamics for this system. Nine different research groups from around the world provided forecasts, both individually and collaboratively, based on a detailed physical and petrophysical characterization of the FluidFlower sands. The major contribution of this paper is a report and discussion of the results of the validation benchmark study, complemented by a description of the benchmarking process and the participating computational models. The forecasts from the participating groups are compared to each other and to the experimental data by means of various indicative qualitative and quantitative measures. By this, we provide a detailed assessment of the capabilities of reservoir simulators and their users to capture both the injection and post-injection dynamics of the GCS operations.


Ground mass is redistributed during an earthquake causing the local gravitational potential to change. These gravitational fluctuations travel at the speed of light meaning they will arrive at a remote location significantly earlier than the fastest seismic waves. If these gravitational signals are measured by a gravimeter then early warning can be provided for an imminent earthquake. Earlier detection of earthquakes could be used to protect crucial infrastructure and save lives. The Torsion Pendulum Dual Oscillator (TorPeDO) is a gravity gradient sensor that has been constructed at the Australian National University. In this article we investigate the feasibility of measuring prompt gravitational transients from earthquakes with the TorPeDO. We simulated the response of the sensor to these signals and inserted these responses into scaled TorPeDO strain data to test their detection using a matched filter search. This simulation allows us to estimate the signal-to-noise ratio and detection time of the sensor to these transient signals, along with the influence of different detection thresholds on range and detection time. This article also proposes a method of earthquake localisation using TorPeDO sensors without the need for accurate signal timing. A real-time estimate of earthquake magnitude can be produced by combining this calculated location with TorPeDO strain data. We find that a TorPeDO system operating at design sensitivity would measure a moment magnitude 7.1 earthquake, 200~km away, reaching a signal-to-noise ratio of 5 at 15.7~s after the event starts. This will provide roughly 50.96~s of warning before the arrival of the first S waves.


The evolution of gene frequencies, at a locus at which selection is not so strong as to make it essentially deterministic, can be modelled by an appropriate stochastic differential equation describing a diffusion process. Unless the number of possible alleles is rather small, it is difficult to extract useful information from such models except under assumptions of statistical equilibrium. This paper suggests some different approaches to the non-equilibrium problem, with particular reference to the case of a neutral locus with a very large number of potential mutant alleles.


Communication between neighboring tissues plays a central role in guiding organ morphogenesis. During heart tube assembly, interactions with the adjacent endoderm control the medial movement of cardiomyocytes, a process referred to as cardiac fusion. However, the molecular underpinnings of this endodermal-myocardial relationship remain unclear. Here, we show an essential role for platelet-derived growth factor receptor alpha (Pdgfra) in directing cardiac fusion. In both zebrafish and mouse, mutation of pdgfra inhibits cardiac fusion and can lead to cardia bifida. Timelapse analysis of individual cardiomyocyte trajectories reveals misdirected cells in zebrafish pdgfra mutants, suggesting that PDGF signaling steers cardiomyocytes toward the midline. Intriguingly, the ligand pdgfaa is expressed in the endoderm medial to the pdgfra-expressing myocardial precursors. Ectopic expression of pdgfaa interferes with cardiac fusion, consistent with an instructive role for PDGF signaling. Together, these data uncover a novel mechanism through which endodermal-myocardial communication guides the cell movements that initiate cardiac morphogenesis. IMPACT STATEMENT Studies in zebrafish and mouse implicate the PDGF signaling pathway in the communication between the endoderm and the myocardium that drives medial myocardial movement and thereby initiates cardiac morphogenesis.


ABSTRACT:In this article I set out to develop an alternative analysis of national borders that grants them moral and politically normative standing while at the same time showing the limits of such merely normative analytics. The aim is to develop a genealogical analysis of the U.S. border, which is taken here as an exemplar of how not to implement borders. The first section develops what will be called here the "mobile panopticon," one that colonizes the so-called heartland, making of all citizens potentially extraditable subjects. The second section argues that the assemblage of institutions that make of the border not simply a geographic marker has become deeply enmeshed with the United States' peculiar institutions of hyperpenality and criminal branding, thus leading to the expansion and exacerbation of what I have called the "ethnoracial prison industrial complex." This analysis then offers warrants for the argument that the U.S. border is no longer a neutral arbiter of sovereignty but, instead, has become a "genocidal machine." In the closing section an engagement with Casey and Watkins's recent work on the U.S. border offers a bridge to the genealogical claim that the U.S. border is in fact a thanatological dispositif.


The concept of photonic frequency $(\omega)$ - momentum $(q)$ dispersion has been extensively studied in artificial dielectric structures such as photonic crystals and metamaterials. However, the $\omega-q$ dispersion of electrodynamic excitations hosted in natural materials at the atomistic level is far less explored. Here, we develop a Maxwell Hamiltonian theory of matter combined with the quantum theory of atomistic polarization to obtain the electrodynamic dispersion of natural materials interacting with the photon field. We apply this theory to silicon and discover the existence of anomalous atomistic waves. These waves occur in the spectral region where propagating waves are conventionally forbidden in a macroscopic theory. Our findings demonstrate that natural media can host a variety of yet to be discovered waves with sub-nano-meter effective wavelengths in the pico-photonics regime.


OBJECTIVES
We aimed to show how increased experience of a surgery team in fMMC repair influences maternal and fetal/neonatal outcomes.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
We compare perinatal results of fMMC repair in our Fetal Surgery Center (FSC) in cohort groups for the early period (2005-2011 year; previous - PFSC, n = 46) and current period (2012-2015 year; current - CFSC, n = 74) to results of the randomized Management of Myelomeningocele Study (MOMS, 78 patients).

RESULTS
The maternal morbidity due to fMMC repair was low and there was no difference comparing CFSC to PFSC and MOMS. The frequency of iatrogenic preterm labor (iPTL) ≤ 30 weeks of gestation decreased from 34.1% in PFSC to 23.9% in CFSC. Iatrogenic preterm premature rupture of membranes (iPPROM) was a common complication after fMMC repair in all cohorts. The total reduction rate of hindbrain hernation (HH) was similar in CFSC - 90.3% and PFSC - 82.1%.

CONCLUSIONS
The increasing experience of our surgery team in fMMC repair majorly decreased the risk of iPTL.


The Tarom metallogenic belt of the Alborz magmatic belt in NW Iran is characterized by two alignments of intrusion in its northern and southern parts. The northern intrusion is younger than the southern one. Mineral chemistry investigations on the northern and southern intrusions characterize calc-alkaline magmatism. The northern intrusion consists mostly of quartz monzonite, and the southern intrusion comprises 1) gabbro - pyroxene quartz monzodiorite – quartz monzodiorite series and quartz syenite; 2) gabbro-diorite. Electron microprobe chemistries indicate that the northern plagioclases are An22 to An49 (oligoclase to labradorite). Plagioclases from the southern intrusion are An35 to An54 (andesine to labradorite) and gabbro-diorite plagioclases are An65 to An61 (labradorite). All pyroxenes correspond to the Quad (diopside, augite, and clinoenstatite) and crystallized at <2 to 5 kbar and H2O=10%. Formation temperatures of pyroxenes from the northern intrusion are in the range of 1100-1175°C. The northern feldspars show temperatures ~550°C. Formation temperatures for the clinopyroxene and feldspar from the southern intrusion are estimated at 1140-1185°C and 550-600°C, respectively. The Fe-rich biotite minerals from the northern intrusion suggest high oxygen fugacity magma. The northern and southern intrusions formed in an arc-related tectonic setting. The northern magma is sourced from the melting of a mixed mantle-crust in a subduction-related environment. The mineral composition of the northern intrusion implies magma fertility and porphyry mineralization which can be due to its high oxygen fugacity magma and lower crystallization pressure relative to those of the southern intrusion.


Accurately assessing the contribution of cytochrome P450 (P450) isoforms to overall metabolic clearance is important for prediction of clinical drug-drug interactions (DDIs). The relative activity factor (RAF) approach in P450 reaction phenotyping assumes that the interaction between P450-selective probes and testing systems is the same as the interaction of drug candidate with those systems. To test this assumption, an intersystem clearance ratio (ICR) was created to evaluate the difference in values between RAF-scaled intrinsic clearance (CLint) and measured CLint in human liver microsomes (HLMs). The RAF value for CYP3A4 or CYP2C9 derived from a particular P450-selective probe reaction was applied to calculate RAF-scaled CLint for other probe reactions of the same P450 isoform in a crossover manner and compared with the measured HLM CLint. When RAF derived from midazolam or nifedipine was used for CYP3A4, the ICR for testosterone 6β-hydroxylation was 31 and 25, respectively, suggesting significantly diverse interactions of CYP3A4 probes with the testing systems. Such ICR differences were less profound among probes for CYP2C9. In addition, these RAF values were applied to losartan and meloxicam, whose metabolism is mostly CYP2C9 mediated. Only using the RAF derived from testosterone for CYP3A4 produced the expected CYP2C9 contribution of 72%–87% and 47%–69% for metabolism of losartan and meloxicam, respectively. RAF derived from other CYP3A4 probes would have attributed predominantly to CYP3A4 and led to incorrect prediction of DDIs. Our study demonstrates a significant impact of probe substrate selection on P450 phenotyping using the RAF approach, and the ICR may provide a potential solution.


Knowledge representation is base for expressing semantic content of input in intelligent information retrieval systems. Identification of semantic requires processing of input language at various levels. To make system understand text or speech is a challenging task as it involves extracting semantics of the language which itself is a complex problem. At the same time languages posses with multiple ambiguities and uncertainty which needs to be resolved at various phases of language processing. Level of understandability depends upon the grammar, syntactic and semantic representation of the language and methods employed for these analysis. Processing depends on the type of language, grammar of the language, ambiguities present and size of corpus available. Order free language posses different features as compared to rigid order language. Most of the Indian languages are order free; hence mechanism for such language needs to be formulated. One of the ancient Indian Sanskrit grammarians, pAninI has defined grammar of Sanskrit language in such a way that it is suitable for computational analysis. Six main semantic class identified under this theory is a baseline model for knowledge representation. This paper exploits the features of the language, applicability of rules and resolving ambiguities using neural network model. A hybrid model incorporating the features of rules based and neural network the is designed and implemented for pAninI based semantic analysis, generating case frames as output. Index Terms pAninI Grammar framework, Knowledge Representation, Case Frame, Natural Language Processing, Semantic.


Naturally-acquired immunity (NAI) to malaria develops first to the most severe form of disease followed by uncomplicated malaria episodes. NAI is never completely achieved therefore asymptomatic P. falciparum infections are often detected in adults living in malaria endemic areas. The timing and sequential acquisition of immunity to the three distinct manifestations of an infection suggests that different targets and mechanisms of protection are involved. Immunity is thought to be partly mediated by antibodies directed to blood-stage antigens. This thesis explores the potential merozoite targets and mechanisms of immunity to severe malaria and to uncomplicated malaria episodes in Kenyan children. First, using a well-studied cohort of children aged 1-12 years recruited during a period of high malaria transmission (Chonyi), IgG responses to five merozoite antigens were quantified using a standard reference reagent. Thereafter, protective threshold concentrations were derived using a statistical approach and applied to a separate age-matched cohort (Junju) in which antibodies to the same antigens were not associated with protection using a conventional cutoff of seropositivity. Children who achieved antibody concentrations above the proposed thresholds had a reduced risk of developing clinical episodes of malaria during the subsequent 6-months of follow-up. Second, using a matched case-control design nested within a birth cohort of children followed up every three months for the first two years of life, I examined the targets and mechanisms of protection against severe malaria. Children admitted to Kilifi County hospital with well-defined severe malaria were identified and matched to controls who were never admitted to hospital with severe malaria. Antibody responses to five merozoite antigens were measured in all the three-monthly samples from the cases and controls and prospectively associated with the odds of developing severe malaria. The ability of antibodies to inhibit parasite growth in the Growth Inhibition Activity (GIA) assay and mediate antibody dependent respiratory burst (ADRB) by neutrophils was also investigated and prospectively associated with the odds of developing severe malaria. Dynamic antibody patterns were observed with transient peaks in antibody titres occurring during asymptomatic infections in some children. Overall, antibody levels were similar in the cases and controls and were not associated with a reduced odds of developing severe malaria with the exception of anti-AMAl antibodies. Interestingly, children who had a combination of antibodies that mediated both GIA and ADRB, had a significantly reduced odds of developing severe malaria. This thesis provides direct evidence of an association between achieving specific antibody thresholds and protection against uncomplicated episodes of malaria. My findings also highlight the possible involvement of multiple antibody-mediated effector functions in protection against severe malaria in young children. These findings enhance our knowledge of the acquisition of immunity to malaria and provide insights that may be valuable for advancing malaria vaccine development and testing.


We extend the colourful complete bipartite subgraph theorems of [G. Simonyi, G. Tardos, Local chromatic number, Ky Fan's theorem,  and circular colorings, Combinatorica 26 (2006), 587--626] and [G. Simonyi, G. Tardos, Colorful subgraphs of Kneser-like graphs, European J. Combin. 28 (2007), 2188--2200] to more general topological settings. We give examples showing that the hypotheses are indeed more general. We use our results to show that the topological bounds on chromatic numbers of digraphs with tree duality are at most one better than the clique number. We investigate combinatorial and complexity-theoretic aspects of relevant order-theoretic maps.


Paraduodenal hernia is the most common form of congenital internal hernia and constitutes a protrusion of bowel into the retroperitoneal space through peritoneal defects near the third and fourth portion of the duodenum. The lifetime risk of obstruction and bowel strangulation is around 50% with a mortality of 20% and higher. Despite the rarity of the disease, it poses a serious surgical problem. The high risk of obstruction and the associated mortality mandate repair once the diagnosis is established. We present the interesting case of a 60-year-old man with a left paraduodenal hernia who presented with abdominal pain, distention and vomiting and underwent subsequent laparotomy with hernia repair. The purpose of this paper is to review the etiology, pathology, diagnosis and treatment of paraduodenal hernia and to heighten the awareness of this rare but significant disease.


This letter investigates the role of index coding in the capacity of AWGN broadcast channels with receiver message side information. We first show that index coding is unnecessary where there are two receivers; multiplexing coding and superposition coding are sufficient to achieve the capacity region. We next show that, for more than two receivers, multiplexing coding and superposition coding alone can be suboptimal. We give an example where these two coding schemes alone cannot achieve the capacity region, but adding index coding can. This demonstrates that, in contrast to the two-receiver case, multiplexing coding cannot fulfill the function of index coding where there are three or more receivers.


In early 2000's, Rivest [1,2] and Micali [2] introduced the notion of transitive signature, which allows a third party with public key to generate a valid signature for a composed edge (vi,vk), from the signatures for two edges (vi,v j) and (v j,vk). Since then, a number of works, including [2,3,4,5,6], have been devoted on transitive signatures. Most of them address the undirected transitive signature problem, and the directed transitive signature is still an open problem. S. Hohenberger [4] even showed that a directed transitive signature implies a complex mathematical group, whose existence is still unknown. Recently, a few directed transitive signature schemes [7,8] on directed trees are proposed. The drawbacks of these schemes include: the size of composed signature increases linearly with the number of nested applications of composition and the creating history of composed edge is not hidden properly. This paper presents a RSA-Accumulator [9] based scheme DTTS—a Directed-Tree-Transitive Signature scheme, to address these issues. Like previous works [7,8], DTTS is designed only for directed trees, however, it features with constant (composed) signature size and privacy-preserving property. We prove that DTTS is transitively unforgeable under adaptive chosen message attack in the standard model.


The onset of menopause and accompanying changes to ovarian hormones often precedes endothelial dysfunction in women. In particular, accelerated impairments in macrovascular and microvascular function coincides with the loss of estrogen, as does impaired endothelial responses to ischemia-reperfusion (IR) injury. In healthy, early postmenopausal women (n=12; 3.9 ± 1.5 years since menopause) we tested the hypothesis that acute dietary nitrate (NO3-) supplementation would improve endothelial function and attenuate the magnitude of endothelial dysfunction following whole-arm IR in comparison to placebo. In this randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover study we tested participants before and after NO3--rich (BRnitrate) and NO3--depleted (BRplacebo) beetroot juice consumption, as well as following IR injury, and 15 minutes after IR to assess recovery. Analyses with repeated measures general linear models revealed a condition*time interaction for brachial artery flow-mediated dilation (FMD; p=0.04), and no interaction effect was found for the NIRS-derived reperfusion slope (p=0.86). Follow up analysis showed a significant decline in FMD following IR injury with BRplacebo in comparison to all other timepoints (all, p<0.05), whilst this decline was not present with BRnitrate (all, p>0.05). Our findings demonstrate that a single dose of dietary NO3- minimizes IR-induced macrovascular endothelial dysfunction in healthy, early postmenopausal women, but does not improve resting macrovascular and microvascular function. Novelty: -In healthy, early postmenopausal women, a single dose of NO3--rich beetroot juice can protect against IR-induced endothelial dysfunction -This protection may be due to NO bioactivity during IR rather than improved endothelial function prior to IR.


Background: It has remained controversial on whether excessive loadings imposed on the ankle and foot complex during long-distance running have a deleterious effect. The aim of this systematic review is to determine whether long-distance running causes any visible changes of the ankle and foot on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Methods: Scopus, Web of Science, Embase and Ovid Medline were searched using key terms in relation to MRI findings of the ankle and foot in response to long-distance running, published between 1990 and 2016. The final search was conducted on 19 September, 2016. Studies were identified using inclusion and exclusion criteria. Methodological quality was assessed using a modified Quality Index. Results: The database search initially produced 551 articles and it was screened based on inclusion and exclusion criteria, finally resulting in four articles. Edema was reported in the talus, tibia, calcaneus, navicular, cuboid and cuneiforms. A significant alteration in signal intensity and/or edema was appeared in the calcaneus at the Achilles insertion point, intraosseous and subcutaneous over long-distance running. The diameter of Achilles tendon was also significantly increased. However, when comparing between race finishers and non-finishers, the plantar aponeurosis and subcutaneous were only significantly different, reporting a high rate of edema in non-finishers. Additionally, one study adopted T2* mapping and found significant alteration in T2* values in tibiotalar cartilage, but the value was unexpectedly decreased in the middle of long-distance running. Conclusion: This is the first systematic review to determine the effect of long-distance running on the ankle and foot using MRI. It shows that long-distance running may cause subtle pathological and biochemical changes in the ankle and foot, including the talus, tibia, the distal and proximal group of tarsal bones, 5th metatarsals, soft tissues and the Achilles tendons. However, there is no evidence that these changes have clinical relevance.


Residual stress development in heterogeneous or composite materials is an important problem in manufacture process modeling. Composites possess an intricate microstructure in which the mismatch in thermal expansion coefficients between the fiber and matrix can lead to residual thermal stresses upon part cool-down. It is commonly assumed that prior to cool-down, the entire composite at both micro and macro length scales is at a zero stress temperature. As cool-down initiates, the mismatch in thermostress behavior and the mismatch in viscoelastic time-dependent behavior of the two phases lead to built-in residual stresses in the final product. A novel finite element approach is presented here for the coupled thermovisoelastic analysis of polymer-matrix composite structures containing microscopic heterogeneities. Due to its inherent advantages over other techniques, the asymptotic homogenization approach is employed to obtain the homogenized properties for use in the macroscale problem. For illustration, a simple Kelvin-Voight viscoelastic solid is studied to demonstrate the formulations involved in similar materials for which the time-dependent stress-strain relationship is subsequently homogenized. The formulation accounts for the dissipative corrector behavior for heterogeneous viscoelastic materials. An analytical solution for the degenerative homogeneous viscoelastic material subject to uniform thermal relaxation is employed to verify part of the formulations. Additional examples are shown to further illustrate the approach for more complex scenarios.


[1] Dissolved inorganic ions (NH4+, Ca2+, Mg2+, K+, H+, NO3−, and SO42−) and organic nitrogen (DON) were measured in cloud water samples collected over the northern lower peninsula of Michigan. Within a given cloud field, several altitudes were sampled to examine changes in concentration and speciation with altitude. Several samples were analyzed for bacterial content and activity. Convective cumulus (cumulus congestus) were more concentrated than fair weather cumulus (cumulus humilis) for all major ions and DON, with the cloudy air DON concentrations in convective cumulus being twice as large as for fair weather cumulus, and for all other ions, the droplets were 4–6 times more concentrated. The molar average distribution of nitrogen in the cloud water was 43 (±10, 1σ)% ammonium, 39 (±7)% nitrate and 18 (±11)% DON. High concentrations of bacteria were observed in the clouds with an average concentration of 2.9 × 105 (±1.0 × 105, 1σ) bacteria m−3 of cloudy air but which contributed less than 1% of the nitrogen in the cloud water. In addition, nitrifying bacteria were identified, indicating bacterial processing of nitrogen in the cloud water may occur. Air mass origin and altitude influence observed cloud water concentrations, with the exception of DON. The correlation of ammonium and sulfate, and calcium and nitrate suggest that ammonium sulfate and calcium nitrate aerosol may be important sources of these ions.


Effect of rotation on turbine blade internal cooling is an important factor in gas turbine cooling systems. In order to minimize the impact from the Coriolis force, cooling structures with less rotation-dependent cooling effectiveness are needed. This study presents an impingement design in a two pass channel to reduce impact of rotational forces on non-uniform heat transfer behavior inside these complex channels. A Transient Liquid Crystal(TLC) method was employed to obtain local heat transfer coefficient measurements in a rotating environment. The channel Reynolds number based on the channel diameter ranges from 25,000 to 100,000. The rotation number ranges from 0 to 0.14. A series of computational simulations with the SST model were also utilized to understand the flow field behavior that impacts the heat transfer distributions on the walls. A 1-D correlation of zone averaged Nusselt number distribution was derived from the measurements.Results show that rotation reduces the heat transfer on both sides of the impingement, which is due to the Coriolis force and the pressure redistribution. The local change in the present study is about 25%. Rotation significantly enhances the heat transfer near the closed end because of the centrifugal force and the 'pumping' effect. Within the parameters of this test, the magnitude of enhancement is 25% to 75%. Compared to U-bended two pass channel, impingement channel has advantages in the upstream channel and the end region, but performance is not beneficial on the leading side of the downstream channel.Copyright © 2015 by ASME


One of the most shocking and amazing aspects surrounding the infamous bailout programs that Greece has been immersed in since 2010 surely must be the fact that throughout that period the country has experienced a lackluster and fast declining tax collection rate. That is, even as Greece kept receiving larger and larger amounts of loan disbursements from the Eurozone and the IMF, the government was less and less efficient (or willing) when it came to collecting taxes. To many non-Greeks, this would add insult to the injury of having provided an otherwise bankrupt nation with vast sums of money under incredibly increasingly generous terms only to have regularly faced the opprobrium and invective of those receiving the funds. About €95 billion had accumulated in unpaid taxes by end-2015, an increase of about €60 billion since 2010. Had the Greek government been more efficient or eager to actually gather tax revenue from its residents, the country would have been much more solvent and thusly much less in need of being rescued by official lenders. Many billions of non-Greek taxpayers money (which may never be repaid) would not have been put at risk. If besides the uncollected levies we consider the possibilities for state revenue generation through privatizations and asset sales, it becomes quite obvious that Greece could have stood on its own feet. Just as the bailout loans were about to be disbursed, the Greek government had assets estimated as between €400-500 billion. Added to the neglected tax revenue, clearly more than enough resources for Greece to have met on its own all the key payments (debt redemptions, local banks nationalization, liability management exercises) that have been eventually met with bailout money. And such self-reliance would have brought an added benefit: deprived of the chance to blame the Eurozone-IMF programs for imposing allegedly insufferable "austerity" on the populace, radical anti-system political movements would most likely not have grown influential and captured power. This would have facilitated Greece's return to capital markets as well as improved economic performance, leading to yet more internally-generated funds (with which to finance enhanced fiscal largesse, say). The inescapable conclusion seems to be that bailout aid was not needed and should not have happened. Euro and global taxpayers would have been swindled by a country that does not want to pay its own way even though it can.


A feeding trial was carried out to compare the effect of feeding broiler chicken with rations formulated with different types of palm kernel meal. A total of 96 one-day-old chicks (male, COBB) were reared in 2-tier battery cages in the open house system. Birds were assigned to 4 different treatments: T1, corn-soy ration as control, T2, ration formulated with 20% palm kernel expeller (PKE), T3, ration formulated with 20% commercial solvent extracted palm kernel cake (PKC) with about 4% shell and dirt and T4, laboratory produced solvent extracted palm kernel cake (PKC) with less than 3% shell and dirt content. The average weight of the birds, feed intake and feed conversion ratio were calculated for each ration. The feeding trial lasted 42 days and results showed that there were significant differences (p <0.05) among treatment rations in average body weight and feed conversion ratio for the starter and growth periods. Broilers fed with corn-soy-based ration gave the best result compared to PKE and PKC-based rations. Feed cost per kg bird live weight was lowest for T1 compared to other treatments.


ABSTRACT Achieving efficient heterologous protein production and secretion by Bacillus subtilis is an attractive prospect, although often disappointingly low yields are reached. The expression of detoxified Clostridium perfringens β-toxin (β-toxoid) is exemplary for this. Although β-toxin can be efficiently expressed and secreted by Bacillus subtilis, the genetically detoxified, and industrially interesting, β-toxoid variant is difficult to obtain in high amounts. To optimize the expression of this putative vaccine component, we studied the differences in the global gene regulation responses of B. subtilis to overproduction of either β-toxin or β-toxoid by transcriptomics. A clear difference was the upregulation of the CssRS regulon, known to be induced upon secretion stress, when β-toxoid is produced. YkoJ, a protein of unknown function, was also upregulated, and we show that its expression is dependent on cssS. We then focused on the heterologous protein itself and found that the major secretion bottleneck can be traced back to a single amino acid substitution between the β-toxin and the β-toxoid, which results in the rapid degradation of β-toxoid following secretion across the cytoplasmic membrane. In contrast to β-toxin, β-toxoid protein is more prone to degradation directly after secretion, most likely due to poor folding characteristics introduced with point mutations. Our results show that although the host can be adapted in many ways, the intrinsic properties of a heterologous protein can play a decisive role when optimizing heterologous protein production.


The effects of Bronsted acidity on the spatial structure and electronic properties of platinum clusters supported on zeolite Y have been examined with X-ray absorption (XANES and EXAFS) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The clusters contain 10−25 Pt atoms on average, with a nearest-neighbor distance of 2.70 ± 0.01 A. Static disorder in the atomic distributionwhile certainly present in the supported metalis shown to be symmetric on average. Increasing Bronsted acidity of the zeolite support has no measurable systematic effect on the spatial structure of the clusters but results in reproducible 5−10% enhancement of near-edge features in the L2,3 X-ray absorption spectra, as well as 0.2−0.3 eV shifts in Pt 4f and 4d core-level binding energies and valence-band thresholds. Evidence is presented that the interaction between the electronic levels of the cluster and the support is not dominated by charge-transfer effects but results in the creation of unoccupied antibonding states above the Fermi level. Stru...


Rural access is among the most important infrastructure elements to stimulate economic growth in rural and remote areas. The sustainability of feeder road maintenance is a challenge in many developing countries. Many feeder roads are unpaved and need to be maintained frequently, but they are often neglected under budget pressure. Output- and performance-based road contracts are an instrument to ensure the sustainability of road maintenance. Contractors are required not only to improve roads, but also to maintain them. Using micro data from household surveys in Zambia, the paper examines the impacts of output- and performance-based road contracts on agricultural production. It shows that the contracts have a significant impact on crop production, especially maize and groundnuts, two major crops grown in the study area. The paper also finds that the measured impacts are associated with actual road maintenance works, regardless of contractual methods. Any road work can improve people's connectivity, even if it is not an output- and performance-based road contracts. The impact of the contracts is catalytic: more road works were implemented on contract roads than non-contract roads, holding everything else constant. This is an important contribution to the sustainability of road maintenance. Finally, road improvement works are found to facilitate farmers' market participation, but the impact seems weak. There may be other constraints. Transport service costs are found to have a negative impact on farmers' market sales. Thus, although roads are improved, transport services may be not available or too expensive, which still hamper farmers' market participation.


We present Suzaku observations of the galaxy cluster Abell 2029, which exploit Suzaku's low particle background to probe the intracluster medium at radii beyond that which is possible with previous observations, and with better azimuthal coverage. We find significant anisotropies in the temperature and entropy profiles, with a region of lower temperature and entropy occurring to the south-east, possibly the result of accretion activity in this direction. Away from this cold feature, the thermodynamic properties are consistent with an entropy profile which rises, but less steeply than the predictions of purely gravitational hierarchical structure formation. Excess emission in the northern direction can be explained due to the overlap of the emission from the outskirts of Abell 2029 and nearby Abell 2033 (which is at slightly higher redshift). These observations suggest that the assumptions of spherical symmetry and hydrostatic equilibrium break down in the outskirts of galaxy clusters, which poses challenges for modelling cluster masses at large radii and presents opportunities for studying the formation and accretion history of clusters.


This special issue on e-gov shows RESI's trend to become each time more international, without forgetting its Brazilian origin and its interest in debating regional IS issues from a perspective of emerging economies. The issue was organized by two scholars with a special interest in electronic government in Latin America and strong connections within their academic communities: Professor Rodrigo Sandoval Almazan, from the Autonomous State University of Mexico, and Prof. Ernani Marques da Silva, from the Federal University of Bahia. Both did an excellent job advertising this special issue to other researchers in Latin America and abroad and, as a result of that, ca. 30 papers were submitted, some of which now comprise this excellent issue. We had papers submited by colleagues of several different countries and the final set of papers includes authors from prestigious universities around the world, among which Harvard, in the US, Universidad de Zaragoza, in Spain, and a few of Brazilian best schools. I will let Rodrigo present each of the papers in this special issue. Do not miss his excellent editorial notes, that can be read by clicking on the link "Full text: PDF " Very good job, guys! Alexandre R. Graeml Chief-Editor


Abstract Thaumetopoea pityocampa (Denis & Schiffermüller) (Lepidoptera: Notodontidae) is harmful to conifer trees because of defoliation and to public health because of the release of urticating setae from the caterpillars. Contact with setae by humans and domestic animals induces dermatitis, usually localized to the exposed areas. Recent studies demonstrated the presence of a complex urticating mechanism where proteins present in the setae may play a role as activators of immune responses. Yet, limited information is available at present about the proteins occurring in the setae of T. pityocampa. Using a refined method for protein extraction from the setae, and a combination of liquid chromatography tandem-mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS), de novo assembly of transcriptomic data, and sequence similarity searches, an extensive data set of 353 proteins was obtained. These were further categorized by molecular function, biological process, and cellular location. All the 353 proteins identified were found to match through BLAST search with at least one Lepidoptera sequence available in databases. We found the previously known allergens Tha p 1 and Tha p 2 described from T. pityocampa, as well as enzymes involved in chitin biosynthesis, one of the principal components of the setae, and serine proteases that were responsible for inflammatory and allergic reactions in other urticating Lepidoptera. This new proteomic database may allow for a better understanding of the complexity of allergenic reactions due to T. pityocampa and to other Lepidoptera sharing similar defense systems.


The transmission of real-time multimedia traffic on the Internet is becoming a challenging problem for current research in telecommunications networks. The idea at the basis of this paper consists of using an active queue management (AQM) technique in the router buffers and a rate-control algorithm at the source site which collaborate with each other, in order to meet source QoS requirements, depending on the available resources, simultaneously achieving pro-active control of network congestion. The proposed AQM technique, called dynamically adaptive random early detection (DARED), works on a network architecture characterized by a double feedback: from network to sources, and from sources to network. The paper shows via simulation, how the architecture simultaneously meets different target QoS levels, specified by sources belonging to different classes.


We conducted to clarify the present situation of agriculture in Yap, which is located in a typical tropical rain area. The giant swamp taro is the main crop but is being attacked by diseases so yield may decrease. A recent gradual diet change affects food production. An agricultural ecosystem suitable to the Yap environment exists, maintaining this system will lead to sustainable agriculture.


Eastern collared lizards ( Crotaphytus collaris collaris ) on the Ozark Plateau of southern Missouri are restricted to islands of rocky glade habitat located throughout the oak–hickory forests of the region. Human mediated suppression of fire neg-atively impacts collared lizard populations by permitting the overgrowth and consequent disappearance of this glade habitat and also leads to a dense forest understorey that impedes movement of lizards between glades. We present data examining the effects of a fire management regime on collared lizard populations we monitored via mark/recapture from 1998 to 2001. We demonstrate increased glade-to-glade dispersal, colonization of previously unoccupied glades, and a significant increase in population size in the burned area. In addition, we show that populations within burned areas exhibit body sizes similar to those reported for populations living on healthy habitat as compared to those living on habitat that has deteriorated because of fire suppression. We conclude that managed forest fires positively impact collared lizard populations in the Ozarks, promoting factors that increase the long-term sustainability of the species.


In this paper, a novel nonlinear learning controller called fuzzy-based goal representation adaptive dynamic programming (Fuzzy-GrADP) is proposed. In the proposed GrADP method, a goal representation network is introduced to generate an adaptive internal reinforcement signal to the critic network to help the controller provide a general mapping between the input and output actions. Moreover, in the proposed architecture, the action network in the GrADP is improved by using the fuzzy hyperbolic model, which combines the merits of the fuzzy model and the neural network model. Based on the back-propagation technique, the parameters in the membership functions and the fuzzy rules are all undergo training and online adapting. The proposed controller is tested on two numerical benchmarks, and the simulation results show that the proposed controller outperforms the original adaptive dynamic fuzzy controller and the pure neural network-based GrADP controller. In addition, the proposed controller is further applied on a large multimachine power system for static var compensator damping control, where simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach on real applications. Furthermore, in order to demonstrate the theoretical guarantee of the proposed method, Lyapunov stability analysis to support the proposed Fuzzy-GrADP approach has also been carried out.


Dentists have a particular risk of acquiring viral hepatitis because of their close contact with blood and saliva during dental manipulations--especially as the majority of dentists do not use gloves during work and often have small cuts and abrasions on their hands. On the other hand personnel in the dentist's office offers several potential modes of parenteral and oral-intestinal transmission of hepatitis. In order to find out the risk of dentists exposing themselves to hepatitis-infection (especially hepatitis B-infection) we performed a questionnaire-study among practicing dentists all over Oberbayern. 858 replies were received after distribution of 1030 questionnaires (participation: 83.3%) and could by analyzed. 116 dentists had had a hepatitis during their professional work (13.5%). The frequency of hepatitis among the younger colleagues--who were practicing from 1 to 14 years--was about 5%. The number of hepatitis-infections increased continually up to 33% after 35--39 years of professional activity. In a second study blood samples were taken from 773 dentists and were tested for HB3Ag by radioimmunoassay. Of these 773 blood samples taken 25 (3.5%) were found to be antigen-positive. Compared to the general population the risk of infection is 6- to 30 times higher in dentists. The challenge of hepatitis-virus-infection can at present be met only-and at least in part-by scrupulous attention to prophylactic measures, such as using disposable gloves, needles and syringes and in autoclaving all non-disposable equipment. Besides dental personnel and patients should be screened at regular intervals for the presence of HBsAG.


Abstract Mesozoic tectonism and the sedimentary mechanics of the Joaquin embayment in central California are poorly known. Much of the original basin in the west has been greatly compressed by severe folding and faulting into the Central Coast Ranges. Its relatively unaffected portion known as the Central Valley is still subsiding and receiving sediments. This Central Valley portion coincides essentially with the eastward thinning shelf of the formerly much larger embayment. Moreover, its deformed emergent marine sedimentary rocks are thrust eastward over shallower water deposited rocks along the Ortigalita-Tesla fault zone, accentuating still further the narrowness of the basin. Although orogenic movements have meen episodic since the Late Jurassic Nevadan orogeny, the climactic movements apparently occurred during the Miocene and later in the Pliocene. Quarternary or Recent movements are indicated by a strong monoclinal flexure involving Pleistocene unconsolidated sediments along the abrupt west border of the San Joaquin Valley and also by tilted stream terraces in the foothills. Several fundamental characters of this area must be thoroughly analyzed and interrelated before a satisfactory explanation of its sedimentary mechanics can be advanced. Not one cause but several interacting phenomena probably have shaped this area. Some of these are enumerated below: 1. Increasing sodic content and decreasing silica of granitoid rocks westward toward the San Andreas fault have been documented by many recent workers. The Cabilan massif, west of the San Andreas fault which shows relatively low soda and high silica, is anomalous. It perhaps represents a detached segment of the Sierran block achieved through either lateral or oblique slippage. 2. En echelon offset of the California Coast Ranges is obvious on the state geological map. Individual ranges deviate about 30 degrees more to the southeast than the broad regional alignment and supposedly represent second order fold belts produced by right lateral slippage of the San Andreas fault system, i.e., relative north motion on its west side. 3. Southward shift of the Late Mesozoic and Cenozoic loci of maximum deposition (or depocenters) along the west border of the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valley is apparent from measurements of their sedimentary sequences. Maximum thickness of the Late Jurassic Knoxville section is about 25,000 feet in the northwest Sacramento Valley; the Lower Cretaceous depo-center comprising about 20,000 feet is about 60 miles farther to the south. About 200 miles southward in northwest Fresno County of west central San Joaquin Valley, Upper Cretaceous beds are nearly 30,000 feet thick. A tremendously thick petroliferous Tertiary section locally exceeding 35,000 feet is located 100 to 150 miles farther to the south in the southwest San Joaquin Valley which is the setting for the well-known Bakersfield-McKittrick oil district. 4. The Cretaceous sequence of the Joaquin embayment which onlaps the tilted Sierran block thins eastward through loss of section from its base, through thinning of its various lithic components, and by truncation of the overlying Tertiary sedimentary wedge. 5. Both large and small scale sedimentary features ranging from current marks to buried submarine channels and imbricated sand lenses up to thousands of feet in thickness suggest sedimentary transport from the north and almost parallel to the sedimentary margin and to the gross sedimentary axis. This conforms with similar observations in both the Arkoma basin of Oklahoma and the Wales basin of Great Britain. Ironically, earlier interpretations were divided between an eastward Sierran source and a westward Coast Range source. Now, it appears that although some detritus came from various peripheral sources the bulk moved southward down the basinal axis. 6. Geophysical data indicates that the western Joaquin embayment is developed in an area of thin crust about 20 kilometers in thickness, whereas the nearby Sierra Nevada has crustal roots extending as deep as 50 kilometers. The Coast Ranges show intermediate values. Fitting these seemingly random factors into a scheme of interrelated basinal dynamics is a considerable challenge, and this writer, lacking really conclusive data, will attempt some guesses. The Pacific Ocean block and its western rim is relatively stable owing to its thin homogenous simatic crust. The Cordilleran province is notoriously unstable owing to its great thickness of heterogenous sialic crust. Orogenies and associated downwarped areas tend to migrate southeastward throughout its extent with the main compressional (Nevadan to Late Laramide) movements in that direction. These southeastward movements are implicated for the similarly shifting loci of the depositional troughs in the marginal California sector. These forces acting obliquely or almost tangentially to the southeast oriented California shore produce right lateral drag along this margin and in the adjacent sialic wedge. Shear directions tend to be tangential and parallel to the shelf, which coincides with the present shore. Secondary folds develop in the thicker sedimentary lenses at a roughly 30 degree angle to this shear direction. This condition is fulfilled by the major fault systems and fold belts in central California. Another possible dynamic factor unrelated to the above tectonic situation but nevertheless reinforcing it is the southward transport of sediments by longshore currents around the Klamath promontory. This promontory is essentially the pivot or right angle turn of the Nevadan fold belt from northwest to northeast in northwestern California and southern Oregon. The south current drift along the west shore of North America is probably a persistent feature related to the coriolis force which generates the extensive clockwise swirls of oceanic currents in the northern hemisphere. California, occupying the lee side of this promontory, received the bulk of these transported sediments which then prograded southward and were joined by sediments flowing down the slope of the ancestral Sierra Nevada. These sediments encroached on this Sierran massif during much of Cretaceous time, except for a temporary regression during the Late Cretaceous and Early Tertiary transition. This simultaneous southeastward regression by progradation and northeastward transgression by onlap warn that conclusions about transgression and regression derived from one vertical profile may be misleading. The best method for reconstructing the sedimentary dynamism of a basin such as the Joaquin embayment is still a three dimensional analysis.


The papers contained in this volume were presented at the fourth edition of the IFIP International Conference on Theoretical Computer Science (IFIP TCS), held August 23-24, 2006 in Santiago, Chile. They were selected from 44 pa pers submitted from 17 countries in response to the call for papers. A total of 16 submissions were accepted as full papers, yielding an acceptance rate of about 36%. Papers sohcited for IFIP TCS 2006 were meant to constitute orig inal contributions in two general areas: Algorithms, Complexity and Models of Computation; and Logic, Semantics, Specification and Verification. The conference also included six invited presentations: Marcelo Arenas (P- tificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, Chile), Jozef Gruska (Masaryk University, Czech Republic), Claudio Gutierrez (Universidad de Chile, Chile), Marcos Kiwi (Universidad de Chile, Chile), Nicola Santoro (Carleton University, Canada), and Mihalis Yannakakis (Columbia University, USA). The abstracts of those presentations are included in this volume. In addition, Jozef Gruska and Nicola Santoro accepted our invitation to write full papers related to their talks. Those two surveys are included in the present volume as well. TCS is a biannual conference. The first edition was held in Sendai (Japan, 2000), followed by Montreal (Canada, 2002) and Toulouse (France, 2004).


Using social identity theory, this study examines the conditions under which police officers become attached (or not) to their organization and to their work, and whether one's sex influences these relationships. Through an analysis of secondary survey data collected from a large Canadian police organization, the study found that fair treatment and psychological safety were significantly related to officers' identification with their organization, and in turn, their work. The findings also demonstrated that when officers perceived their workplace as a masculinity contest, they were less likely to identify with their organization. Additionally, perceptions of a masculinity contest were associated with a greater likelihood that officers reported lower levels of psychological safety, and this effect was more significant for female officers. While women overall were no less likely than men to be attached to their organization or their occupational role, women who perceived their workplace as psychologically less safe reported lower levels of identification. The study also found that race and level within the organization may have a greater effect than sex on work-related identification. Overall, the study makes a significant contribution to the nascent literature on work-related identification and policing, as well as to the body of research on women in policing.


Intelligent systems an aspect of artificial intelligence have been developed to improve satellite image interpretation with several foci on objectbased machine learning methods but lack an optimal feature selection technique. Existing techniques applied to satellite images for feature selection and object detection have been reported to be ineffective in detecting objects. In this paper, differential Evolution (DE) algorithm has been introduced as a technique for selecting and mapping features to Haarcascade machine learning classifier for optimal detection of satellite image was acquired, pre-processed and features engineering was carried out and mapped using adopted DE algorithm. The selected feature was trained using Haarcascade machine learning algorithm. The result shows that the proposed technique has performance Accuracy of 86.2%, sensitivity 89.7%, and Specificity 82.2% respectively. Keywords/


Events such as the Financial Crisis of 2007–2008 or the COVID-19 pandemic caused significant losses to banks and insurance entities. They also demonstrated the importance of using accurate equity risk models and having a risk management function able to implement effective hedging strategies. Stock volatility forecasts play a key role in the estimation of equity risk and, thus, in the management actions carried out by financial institutions. Therefore, this paper has the aim of proposing more accurate stock volatility models based on novel machine and deep learning techniques. This paper introduces a neural network-based architecture, called Multi-Transformer. Multi-Transformer is a variant of Transformer models, which have already been successfully applied in the field of natural language processing. Indeed, this paper also adapts traditional Transformer layers in order to be used in volatility forecasting models. The empirical results obtained in this paper suggest that the hybrid models based on Multi-Transformer and Transformer layers are more accurate and, hence, they lead to more appropriate risk measures than other autoregressive algorithms or hybrid models based on feed forward layers or long short term memory cells.


Niche apportionment models have only been applied once to parasite communities. Only the random assortment model (RA), which indicates that species abundances are independent from each other and that interspecific competition is unimportant, provided a good fit to 3 out of 6 parasite communities investigated. The generality of this result needs to be validated, however. In this study we apply 5 niche apportionment models to the parasite communities of 14 fish species from the Great Barrier Reef. We determined which model fitted the data when using either numerical abundance or biomass as an estimate of parasite abundance, and whether the fit of niche apportionment models depends on how the parasite community is defined (e.g. ecto, endoparasites or all parasites considered together). The RA model provided a good fit for the whole community of parasites in 7 fish species when using biovolume (as a surrogate of biomass) as a measure of species abundance. The RA model also fitted observed data when ecto- and endoparasites were considered separately, using abundance or biovolume, but less frequently. Variation in fish sizes among species was not associated with the probability of a model fitting the data. Total numerical abundance and biovolume of parasites were not related across host species, suggesting that they capture different aspects of abundance. Biovolume is not only a better measurement to use with niche-orientated models, it should also be the preferred descriptor to analyse parasite community structure in other contexts. Most of the biological assumptions behind the RA model, i.e. randomness in apportioning niche space, lack of interspecific competition, independence of abundance among different species, and species with variable niches in changeable environments, are in accordance with some previous findings on parasite communities. Thus, parasite communities may generally be unsaturated with species, with empty niches, and interspecific interactions may generally be unimportant in determining parasite community structure.


AIM
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the use of the Levandoski Panoramic Analysis in the diagnosis of dental and mandibular asymmetries and its contribution to clinical patient's evaluation and treatment planning. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Thirty-one randomly selected panoramic radiographs of children from 7 to 14 year old were analysed using 10 linear measurements. Right and left values were compared with Student's paired T tests. For each value, mean and standard deviation were computed separately for each side.

RESULTS
Statistics. A dominance for the left side over the right side was observed. The data obtained were not statistically significant with the exception of maxillary length: the right side length of the maxilla was shorter (p<0.05) compared to the left side.

CONCLUSIONS
Levandosky Panoramic Analisys represents a useful screening method in the diagnosis of dental and mandibular asymmetries.


Everyday memory and its relationship to working memory was investigated in adolescents with mild intellectual disability and compared to typically developing adolescents of the same age (CA) and younger children matched on mental age (MA). Results showed a delay on almost all memory measures for the adolescents with mild intellectual disability compared to the CA control adolescents. Compared to the MA control children, the adolescents with mild intellectual disability performed less well on a general everyday memory index. Only some significant associations were found between everyday memory and working memory for the mild intellectual disability group. These findings were interpreted to suggest that adolescents with mild intellectual disability have difficulty in making optimal use of their working memory when new or complex situations tax their abilities.


Old Icelandic short stories or novelle conventionally termed jDaettir1 seem to be consistently distinguishable from the whole body of relatively long works or sagas only by the criterion of relative length. Except for discussions on a high level of generality, it is less enlightening to speak of the saga as a genre inclusive of such widely disparate works as, for example, a contemporary royal biography such as Sturla's Hdkonar saga and a typical lygisaga than to employ smaller categories; similarly it is of limited use to deal critically with the whole heterogeneous body of short narratives as the J>attr.2 Instead we need a division of £>aettir into their most natural or at least critically revealing groupings based on a sustained attempt to analyse and describe the tales according to shared features. In "Genre and Narrative Structure in Some Islendinga paettir"* I attempted one aspect of this critical taxonomy by isolating one group of some thirty-one J>aettir according to Wellek and Warren's prescription for genre study:


Human (Hu) lecithin-cholesterol acyltransferase (LCAT) is a key enzyme in the plasma metabolism of cholesterol. To assess the effects of increased plasma levels of LCAT, four lines of transgenic mice were created expressing a Hu LCAT gene driven by either its natural or the mouse albumin enhancer promoter. Plasma LCAT activity increased from 1.2- to 1.6-fold higher than that found in control mouse plasma. Lipid profiles, upon comparing Hu LCAT transgenics to control animals, revealed a 20 t0 60% increase in total and cholesteryl esters that were mainly present in HDL. The in vivo substrate specificity of Hu LCAT was assessed by creating animals expressing Hu apo AI + Hu LCAT (HuAI/ LCAT), Hu apo AI + Hu apo AII + Hu LCAT (HuAI/ AII/LCAT), and Hu apo AII + Hu LCAT (HuAII/LCAT). Plasma cholesterol was increased up to 4.2-fold in HuAI/ LCAT transgenic mice and twofold in the HuAI/AII/LCAT transgenic mice, compared with HuAI and HuAI/AII transgenic mice. HDL cholesteryl ester levels were increased more than twofold in both the HuAI/LCAT and HuAI/AII/LCAT mice compared with the HuAI, HuAI/AII, and HuLCAT animals. The HDL particles were predominantly larger in the HuAI/LCAT and the HuAI/AII/LCAT mice compared with those in HuAI, HuAII/LCAT, and HuLCAT animals. The increase in LCAT activity in the HuAI/LCAT and HuAI/AII/LCAT mice was associated with 62 and 27% reductions respectively, in the proportion of Hu apo AI in the pre beta-HDL fraction, when compared with HuAI and HuAI/AII transgenic mice. These data demonstrate that moderate increases in LCAT activity are associated with significant changes in lipoprotein cholesterol levels and that Hu LCAT has a significant preference for HDL containing Hu apo AI.


W hen teachers are charged with educating students who are racially, culturally, or economically different from them, they may have little information on the culture and the expectations for family involvement, of their students. This lack of information may lead to perceptions of working-class families, in particular, as socially disorganized and intellectually deficient. Research embodying the theoretical framework of Funds of Knowledge (FoK) attempts to counter this deficit model through its assertion that all families possess extensive bodies of knowledge that have developed through social, historical, political, and economic contexts. The purpose of this study was to carefully examine one Hispanic family's support of their young children's early literacy development in the home. Findings indicated that the family possessed extensive FoK, which proved useful not only at home but in the classroom through action research. Additionally, this study led to changes in my own perceptions of families' experiences and prompted changes in the way I, as an educator, utilized home learning in the classroom. FoK research, in conjunction with action research and autoethnography, is not extensively addressed in literature.


In the last two decades, survey researchers have intensively used computerised methods for the collection of different types of paradata, such as keystrokes, mouse clicks and response times, to evaluate and improve survey instruments as well as to understand the survey response process. With the growing popularity of web surveys, the importance of paradata has further increased. Within this context, response time measurement is the prevailing paradata approach. Papers typically analyse the time (measured in milliseconds or seconds) a respondent needs to answer a certain item, question, page or questionnaire. One of the key challenges when analysing the response time is to identify and separate units that are answering too quickly or too slowly. These units can have a poor response quality and are typically labelled as response time outliers. This paper focuses on approaches for identifying and processing response time outliers. It presents a systematic overview of scientific papers on response time outliers in web surveys. The key observed characteristics of the papers are the approaches used, the level of time measurement, the processing of response time outliers and the relationship between response time and response quality. The results show that knowledge on response time outliers is scattered, inconsistent and lacking systematic comparisons of approaches. Consequently, there is a need to improve and upgrade the knowledge on this issue and to develop new approaches that will overcome existing deficiencies and inconsistencies in identifying and dealing with response time outliers.


The optimisation of the entire supply chain becomes ever more important due to increasing competition and a stronger customer orientation. In this context, new future solutions are expected by production planning and control systems that enable a fast and flexible planning and control on an inter-company collaborative basis. For this purpose, a paradigm change regarding the cooperation with preceding and following supply chain partners will be necessary. One-sided local optimisation at the expense of other supply chain partners will be replaced by inter-company collaboration in the planning and execution sector. For the sector of short-term requirements alteration a conception of inter-company planning processes based on collaboration and win-win-situations for all partners is presented in this paper. The basic of the model is formed by an in-company optimisation tool. It enables companies to gain necessary flexibility and data transparency to react to short-term requirements alterations. The optimisation process results in an in-company profit-maximising action, which enables the company to get in touch with customers and suppliers in the next phase of the inter-company coordination processes. Both, the in-company optimisation as well as the inter-company coordination model are designed in such a way that the alternatives of action converge to an optimum in the entire supply chain.


Overlays are reconfigurable architectures synthesized on commercial of the shelf (COTS) FPGAs. Overlays bring some advantages such as portability, resources abstraction, fast configuration, and can exhibit features independent from the host FPGA. We designed a fine-grained overlay implementing novel features easing the management of such architectures in a cluster of heterogeneous COTS FPGAs. This demonstration shows the use of this overlay in an FPGA cluster, performing a hardware application live migration between two nodes of a cluster. It also illustrates fault tolerance of the cluster.


The author describes an externally located, movable probe which can be applied to conventional sealed tube discharges. They have used a variable d.c. bench power supply to drive a commercial mercury discharge (lighting) tube. The proposed diagnostic method involves a series of ring electrodes fastened tightly to the outside of the glass envelope. A potential profile of the positive column has been obtained.


The Korean government makes an effort to raise the competitive power of nation through CM activation in the construction industry. Since the first CM service was applied to the atomic power plant project in 1986, the number of CM contracts are continuously being increased and will be up to 20% by 2002 in public sector. However, the public projects had been executed without any procedure manual or standard guideline of CM services. Meanwhile the Ministry of Construction and Transportation issued CM Service Guide, but the guide shows an indefinite description in the responsibility, authority and scope of activity for the project participants. Therefore, it is required the procedures be improved and scope of activities be established for the project participants. This study was generated from the comparative analysis of Standard CM Services and Practice Published by CMAA and domestic CM Service Guide and the case of Incheon International Airport construction. The purpose of this study is to provide the fundamental data for an improvement in the procedures of project execution and the construction manager`s activities/rolls shown on CM Service Guide


Erosion process in the Arctic is broadly classified into two categories: thermoabrasion and thermodenundation. The study completed under this MS framework is focused on thermoabrasion process. A numerical model is developed to predict the shoreline erosion during an extreme event like a storm. A conceptual model identified the thermoabrasion erosion as a combination of three separate physical processes (1) storm surge flooding, (2) wave cut niche growth and (3) bluff collapse. For each physical process, a separate numerical module was developed. The numerical modules dynamically interact with each other and estimate erosion rate. The model developed under the study is 1D and uses a probabilistic approach by considering distribution patterns of the input parameters. The results were found to be in good agreement with field measurements of Baydara Bay, Russia. A sensitivity analysis was performed to demonstrate the relative impact of the input parameters on the model. Thermoabrasion erosion rate was found to be greatly dependent on sustained wind speed during the storm, inundation depth at the base of the bluff from storm surge and ice wedge polygon size. In conclusion, the limitations of the model and the scope of future research are outlined.


Helicobacter pylori and Proteus mirabilis ureases are nickel-requiring metallo-enzymes that hydrolyse urea to NH3 and CO2. In both H. pylori and in an Escherichia coli model of H. pylori urease activity, a high affinity nickel transporter, NixA, is required for optimal urease activity, whereas the urea-dependent UreR positive transcriptional activator governs optimal urease expression in P. mirabilis. The H. pylori flbA gene is a flagellar biosynthesis and regulatory gene that modulates urease activity in the E. coli model of H. pylori urease activity. All flbA mutants of eight strains of H. pylori were non-motile and five had a strain-dependent alteration in urease activity. The flbA gene decreased urease activity 15-fold when expressed in E. coli containing the H. pylori urease locus and the nixA gene; this was reversed by disruption of flbA. The flbA gene decreased nixA transcription. flbA also decreased urease activity three-fold in E. coli containing the P. mirabilis urease locus in a urea- and UreR-dependent fashion. Here the flbA gene repressed the P. mirabilis urease promoter. Thus, FlbA decreased urease activity of both H. pylori and P. mirabilis, but through distinct mechanisms. H. pylori wild-type strain SS1 colonised gerbils at a mean of 5.4 x 10(6) cfu/g of antrum and caused chronic gastritis and lesions in the antrum. In contrast, the flbA mutant did not colonise five of six gerbils and caused no lesions, indicating that motility mediated by flbA was required for colonisation. Because FlbA regulates flagellar biosynthesis and secretion, as well as forming a structural component of the flagellar secretion apparatus, two seemingly unrelated virulence attributes, motility and urease, may be coupled in H. pylori and P. mirabilis and possibly also in other motile, ureolytic bacteria.


Background: The increased risk of treatment default among smokers raises concern over the secondary spread within the community. This study aimed to determine the prevalence and factors associated with treatment default among TB patients who smoke.Methods: A retrospective cohort of all registered TB patients who smoke in the state of Selangor between 2013 and 2017 via the Malaysian National MyTB database was included for analysis. TB patients who smoke were considered those with an active smoking status during the notification, while treatment default was defined as a TB patient who had interrupted treatment for 2 months or longer. There were 4 main variable domains included for analysis: sociodemographic profiles, disease profiles, treatment profiles, and comorbidities. Logistic regression analysis was used to identify determinants of treatment default among TB patients who smoke.Results: A total of 27.6% (N=6278) of the TB patients registered in Selangor were active smokers, and 15.1% (N=813) of the TB patients who smoke experienced defaulted TB treatment. The determinants of treatment default among TB patients who smoke were patients staying in an urban area (AOR 1.47; 95% CI 1.11,1.96), median income level less than RM2160 (AOR 2.0; 95% CI 1.34,2.99), no formal education (AOR 2.12; 95% CI 1.31,3.44), previously treated cases (AOR 2.78; 95% CI 1.99,3.88), active TB case detection methods (AOR 2.05; 95% CI 1.21,3.47), treatment duration of less than 6 months (AOR 7.56; 95% CI 5.74,9.92), and patients not on DOTS during the continuation phase (AOR 27.96; 95% CI 21.1,37.1). All the significant factors gave rise to the final model of determinants, with a predictability of 92.9% (95% CI 92.0,93.7).Conclusions: Our findings highlighted the high prevalence of treatment default among TB patients who smoke compared to the general TB population. Early risk detection that examines the two main domains of risk factors (socioeconomic factors and treatment profiles) should be provided for those who smoke in the TB population. Interventions should aim to reduce the prevalence of smoking among TB patients, together with close supervision during DOTS.


Anemia in pregnant women is a serious problem and determines the health of mother and child, so it is necessary to take preventive interventions. The purpose of this systematic review was to compare the effectiveness of intervention programs maternal anemia iron-based society, especially in developing countries. A major focus of study materials was the effectiveness of iron tablets, folic acid or multiple micronutrient another in pregnant women with and without iron-deficiency anemia. Information from various articles related to the topic was collected using three sources, namely database Pubmed (Medline), ProQuest and Ebsco (CINAHL Plus with Full Text) in the time range of 2010 to 2015. A total of nine research articles intervention iron anemia in pregnant women based society in developing countries were reviewed, of which five articles focus on interventions related to its effectiveness in pregnant women who are anemic, three articles are nutrition intervention programs anemia in pregnant women non anemia / anemia light, and one article relating to the use of supplements regularly or irregularly. Results of the review showed that the effectiveness of intervention programs iron anemia need to be adjusted to the target pregnant woman. Intervention programs and the provision of iron tablets not regularly every day provide protective effects in pregnant women who are not anemic. Intervention program of tablet combination of iron, folic acid or multiple micro-nutrients need to be given to pregnant woman with anemia or in the region with a medium or high prevalence of anemia in pregnant mothers, and feeding every day during the last trimester of pregnancy. Program interventions are integrated with the increase in food consumption and iron tablets adherence could provide optimal impact.Key words: anemia, iron tablet, pregnant woman, and intervention


A long tradition in the help giving literature assumes that mood states determine the level of prosocial behaviour shown by individuals. Most research in this area has been conducted in the context of low cost prosocial behaviour, whereas research has been neglected in which participants were confronted with situations involving potential severe and dangerous negative consequences (i.e., high cost situations) with the help-giver risking his moral integrity and social disapproval (i.e., moral courage). To address this gap in the literature, the present studies investigate differential effects of positive and negative compared with neutral mood states on help giving versus moral courage. Study 1 shows that in situations requiring low cost helping, participants were more likely to help in positive and negative moods than those in a neutral mood, whereas in situations requiring moral courage (high cost), participants were comparably likely to help in each of the three mood conditions. In Study 2, we find that salience of moral norms mediates the interaction between type of prosocial behaviour and mood. Finally, Study 3 investigates whether the apparent discrepancy between help giving and moral courage as established by the differential impact of mood states can be determined still differently. It reveals that justice sensibility, civil disobedience, resistance to group pressure, moral mandates, and anger lead to moral courage, but not to help giving. Differences between these two types of prosocial behaviour are discussed. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


The plasma Prl response to 200 micrograms TRH iv was evaluated in 6 hyperprolactinaemic women without radiological evidence of a pituitary tumour (group I), in 15 hyperprolactinaemic women with dubious (group II) and in 17 normo- or hyperprolactinaemic women with clear (group III) radiological abnormalities, in 18 normo- or hyperprolactinaemic men with clear radiological abnormalities (group IV), and in 4 women and 3 men with hyperprolactinaemia and sellar destruction who had been treated in the past for pituitary adenoma (group V). The responses were compared with those obtained in a control group of 83 (42 women, 41 men) normoprolactinaemic healthy individuals. The Prl response was defined as a ratio (R2): the 20 min value minus the 0 min value, divided by the 0 min value. The median R2 values were: female controls 5.1, male controls 3.1, group I 0.1, group II 0.2, group III 0.3, group IV 0.55, group V females 0.45 and males 0. It is concluded that 1) subjects suspected of harbouring a microprolactinoma (groups I and II) demonstrate absent or attenuated responses similar to those found in patients with definite prolactinomas and 2) a value of plasma Prl 20 min after 200 micrograms TRH iv greater than 3.5 times the basal level (R2 > 2.5) rules out the presence of a prolactinoma.


During the summer of 2014 the Eurosystem cut its inflation projections for the euro area up to 2016. During August, the financial markets also indicated a significant fall in medium-term inflation expectations. Moreover, the decline in current inflation and the fall in other business cycle indicators, including GDP, showed that the euro area's economic recovery was losing momentum. Faced with the risks that a prolonged period of low inflation might present for the maintenance of price stability and, more generally, the revival of activity, the Governing Council of the European Central Bank (ECB) decided at its meetings in June and September 2014 to take a significant package of measures, including a double cut in the key rates and a reduction in the deposit facility rate from 0% to -0.1% on 11 June 2014, and then to -0.2% from 10 September 2014. With these measures, the Eurosystem becomes the first central bank of a large currency area to take its deposit rate into negative territory. In simple terms, the negative rate means that banks have to pay in order to deposit their surplus liquidity with the Eurosystem. It is all the more important to understand this move into uncharted waters since the current financial environment of the euro area features a liquidity surplus on the money market and persistent fragmentation of the banking system. Given its dual role in the implementation of monetary policy, the reduction in the deposit facility interest rate, taking it into negative territory, implies a more accommodative monetary policy stance and safeguards the incentives for interbank trading while reducing the cost of Eurosystem refinancing for the banks. Although a negative deposit facility rate implies lower returns for savers, a cut in the real rate is warranted to support economic activity, and hence inflation. Furthermore, it will permit a return to higher rates in the future. The analysis also shows that the net costs of Eurosystem refinancing for the banking system have fallen since the beginning of June, even if the dynamic impact of the negative rate on bank profitability is harder to estimate. Finally, it should be noted that the effectiveness of cutting the deposit facility rate below zero has to be assessed in real time, taking account of the effects of interaction with all the other monetary policy measures announced in June and September. In particular, the targeted longer-term refinancing operations being launched in September 2014 should encourage efficient transmission of the negative rate to the real economy. In addition, combined with the purchase programmes of asset-backed securities and covered bonds, to be launched in October, they should considerably increase the liquidity surplus on the money market, in accordance with President Draghi's stated aim of increasing the Eurosystem's balance sheet to the levels prevailing at the beginning of 2012.


ABSTRACT Various software packages are available to conduct one-dimensional (1D) and two-dimensional (2D) site response analyses (SRAs). In this article, a finite element program is tested with the purpose of assessing the importance of several aspects on the obtained results and verifying the software. Abaqus (Dassault Systèmes) is compared with the 1D SRA software STRATA for simple 1D models to understand the influence of the boundary conditions; as being a 1D SRA program, STRATA does not require vertical boundary conditions. For Abaqus, the subroutine by Nielsen is used to implement free-field boundary conditions. In addition, we test the influence of mesh dimension and Rayleigh damping as well as the importance of buffer-zone width. 2D SRAs with Abaqus and FLAC3D, which is commonly used for geotechnical analyses, are compared as part of the assessment. Similar results are obtained from the two programs, but Abaqus is preferred as it is more efficient for linear elastic analyses than FLAC3D, which, on the contrary, performs well for soil presenting strongly non-linear behaviour and effective stress. We demonstrate that reliable results can be achieved, not only for simple uniform sites but also for complex sites with multiple layers and dipping stratigraphy.


The threshold properties of very small lasers (down to the nanoscale) are a topic of active research in light of continuous progress in nanofabrication. With the help of a simple rate equation model we analyze the intrinsic, macroscopic dynamics of threshold crossing for (Class-B) lasers whose response is adequately well–described by interplay of the intracavity photon number and the population inversion (energy reservoir). We use the deterministic aspects of the basic rate equations to extract some fundamental time constants from an approximate analysis of laser dynamics in the threshold region. Approximate solutions for the population inversion and for the field intensity, up to the point where the latter reaches macroscopic levels, are found and discussed. The resulting timescales characterize the laser's ability to respond to perturbations (external modulation or intrinsic fluctuations in the lasing transition region). Numerical verifications test the accuracy of these solutions and confirm their validity. The predictions are used to interpret experimental results obtained in mesoscale lasers (VCSELs) and to speculate about their extension to nanolasers.


Genetic interactions occur when a variant's phenotypic effect is altered by variation at other genomic loci. Also known as epistasis, these interactions shape the genetic architecture of complex traits and modify phenotypes across genetic backgrounds. However, the factors associated with their occurrence remain poorly understood. To investigate this, we employed high-throughput genome editing to measure the fitness effects of 1,826 naturally polymorphic variants in four genetically diverse strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. About 31% of variants affect fitness in a common laboratory environment, of which 24% have strain-specific fitness effects indicative of epistasis. We found that beneficial variants are more likely to exhibit genetic interactions, and that genetic interactions are depleted among variants at higher allele frequencies. In addition, we demonstrate that these epistatic interactions for fitness can be mediated by specific traits such as flocculation ability. This work suggests that adaptive evolution from standing variation will often involve trade-offs where a variant is only beneficial in some genetic backgrounds, potentially explaining why many beneficial variants remain polymorphic. In sum, we provide a framework to understand the factors influencing epistasis in natural genetic variants with single-nucleotide resolution, revealing widespread epistasis among beneficial variants.