The investigation included 30 isolates of lactic bacteria originating from different sources (composted green materials, EM "Greenland" preparation as well as Lactobacillus brevis and L. plantarum cultures), and the following pathogens: Salmonella sp., Listeria monocytogenes, L. innocua, Escherichia coli, Streptococcus faecium, Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Proteus mirabilis and Bacillus cereus. Lactic bacteria were inoculated pointwise and incubated under anaerobic conditions, then covered with a layer of fluxed medium with a pathogen tested. After incubation pathogen growth inhibition zones were read (the test for bacteriocins). The influence of other metabolites (e.g. lactic acid) on the survival of pathogens was tested under aerobic conditions (agar disc method). Bacteria isolated from composted green material showed the weakest inhibitory activity. The other lactic bacteria affected pathogens much more effectively, and were more active under aerobic conditions. Bacteriocins of selected strains of lactic bacteria were produced only on solid media and were separated with the method of pH-related adsorption/desorption. Wide range of metabolites produced by lactic bacteria allows to introduce them into the systems of aerobic and anaerobic technologies of sewage sludge hygienization.


In a group of women who gave birth to a foetus with marked growth retardation and 27 women who were delivered of eutrophic neonates the lead, cadmium, zinc and lysozyme levels in placental tissue were assessed. The investigation revealed the following results: the lead level was in the investigated group significantly higher than in the control group (15.24 ng/g vs. 11.31 ng/g). Conversely the zinc levels were significantly higher in the control group (20.52 micrograms/g vs. 14.3 micrograms/g of placental tissue). The lead, cadmium and lysozyme values rise with the womens' age in the examined placentae, while the zinc levels decline. With the elevated zinc level the lead and cadmium content in the placentae of the exposed group declines. The lysozyme values increase along with the rise of all investigated elements with the exception of zinc, where the dynamics are reversed. The findings justify the recommendation of zinc supplementation during pregnancy.


Background: Children younger than 15 years, carries almost 80% of the global burden of HIV/ AIDS. Nearly, 50% of cases of tuberculosis are attributed to HIV infection. HIV worsen the progression of latent TB to active TB disease. Despite antiretroviral treatment has shown marked reduction in Tuberculosis incidence , TB continues to occur in Sub Saharan country including Ethiopia. The effect of highly active antiretroviral treatment is quite successful in developed country while in developing country TB/HIV co-infection remains perplexing among children on the treatment. The aim of the study was to investigate the impact of ART on the incidence of tuberculosis among Children infected with HIV in southwest Ethiopia. Methods: A retrospective cohort study was conducted on randomly selected 800 samples from ART clinic; between 2009 to 2014. We used chi-square test, and Mann-WhitneyU test to compare HAART naïve and HAART cohort. We used marginal structural models to estimate the effect of HAART on survival while accounting for time-dependent confounders affected by exposure. Result: A total of 844 children were followed for 2942.99 child-years. The children were observed for a median of 51 months with IQR 31 and for a total of 2942.99 child-years. From 506 OIs that occurred, the most common reported OIs were Pneumonia (22%) and TB (23.6 %). The overall TB incidence rate was 7.917 per 100 child years (95% CI, 6.933-9.002). Whereas among HAART (7.667 per 100 -years (95% CI, 6.318-9.217) and 8.1686 per 100 person-years (95% CI 6.772-9.767) for HAART naïve. The mortality hazard ratio comparing HAART with no HAART from a marginal structural model was 0.642 (95% CI 0.442-0.931, p<0.02) Conclusions: HAART reduced the hazard of TB in HIV-infected children by 36%. This is by far less than expected. Key Words- TB incidence, HAART, Clinical Profile ted children by 36%. This is by far less than expected. Key Words- TB incidence, HAART, Clinical Profile


Background: Malnutrition is among the leading conditions that lead to disease complications
and prolonged hospital stay among the hospitalized. Patients that require assisted feeding will
need partial compensatory or supportive educative medical interventions that will help improve
patient outcome. Kenyatta National Hospital a teaching and referral hospital receives medical
patients from other facilities as referral-in and neighbouring area, who may be seen at the
medical outpatient clinic or be admitted to medical wards. Admissions can be from the accident
and emergency department or from the various medical outpatient clinics.
Objectives: The broad objective was to evaluate the nutritional management of adult patients
requiring assisted feeding at Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) medical wards. The specific
objectives were to determine their bio-demographic profile, to assess the nutritional status using
anthropometric measures, to establish patients' perception and nurses' perspective on nutritional
management of adult in-patients requiring assisted feeding.
Methods: This was a cross-sectional design study. The independent variables were Patients'
characteristics: age, gender, educational level, economic status, expectations and institutional
factors: timing of meals, food presentation, and staff assistance. The dependent variables were
patients' nutritional management. The outcome was based on level of nutrition. The study was
conducted at KNH medical wards among in-patients requiring assisted feeding. Systematic and
random sampling methods were adopted and questionnaires were used for data collection. Out of
a sample size of 187 patients and 89 nurses, 153 patients and 67 nurses were studied. Data was
coded and analyzed using Statistical Package on Social Science (SPSS) software. Quantitative
data was analyzed using descriptive statistics methods of percentiles, mean, mode and standard
deviation while inferential statistics were Chi-square, Fishers exact test and t-test. The study was
conducted according to the KNH/UON/ERC regulations upon being permitted.
Results and conclusion: The patients demographic profile revealed that patients requiring
assisted feeding were more likely to be females, of low educational level, self employed with
monthly income <Ksh5000. Formally employed patients were more likely to be malnourished. A
majority of the patients were within normal ranges of BMI, with 24.2% being malnourished.
Patients were partially satisfied with meals quality. Patients were rarely screened for

malnutrition. The most interrupted meal by medical procedures was breakfast (76.2%) and the
most frequent feeding assistant was the nurses.
Recommendation: The researcher recommends that KNH administration to lay emphasis on
initial assessment of patients' nutritional status and during hospital stay as recommended by
BAPEN. Since good nutrition is important in preventive medicine, the admission period should
be used to educate all patients on nutrition. Regular surveys of customer satisfaction should be
introduced. The researcher also recommend that an investigation be made on the factors
associated with nutritional status of formally employed.


Many studies have supported roles for both genetic and environmental factors in the etiology of schizophrenia. A major hypothesis at present is that schizophrenia is a polygenic disorder where alterations in a set of genes lead to impaired neurodevelopment, which in turn results in altered neurotransmission. Several neurotransmitters, including glutamate, dopamine, serotonin and gamma-amino butyric acid (GABA), have been implicated in schizophrenia, and, as such, there is a growing interest in trying to elucidate the mechanisms whereby alterations in the function of schizophrenia susceptibility gene products can lead to disturbance in signaling at synapses. In this article, we will summarize what is known about schizophrenia susceptibility factors that reside at postsynaptic density (PSD), a unique postsynaptic site where signals from neurotransmitters converge. PSD may be a promising target for novel classes of drugs to treat schizophrenia.


Text is ubiquitous and, not surprisingly, many important applications rely on textual data for a variety of tasks. As a notable example, information extraction applications derive structured relations from unstructured text; as another example, focused crawlers explore the Web to locate pages about specific topics. Execution plans for text-centric tasks follow two general paradigms for processing a text database: either we can scan, or "crawl," the text database or, alternatively, we can exploit search engine indexes and retrieve the documents of interest via carefully crafted queries constructed in task-specific ways. The choice between crawl- and query-based execution plans can have a substantial impact on both execution time and output "completeness" (e.g., in terms of recall). Nevertheless, this choice is typically ad hoc and based on heuristics or plain intuition. In this article, we present fundamental building blocks to make the choice of execution plans for text-centric tasks in an informed, cost-based way. Towards this goal, we show how to analyze query- and crawl-based plans in terms of both execution time and output completeness. We adapt results from random-graph theory and statistics to develop a rigorous cost model for the execution plans. Our cost model reflects the fact that the performance of the plans depends on fundamental task-specific properties of the underlying text databases. We identify these properties and present efficient techniques for estimating the associated parameters of the cost model. We also present two optimization approaches for text-centric tasks that rely on the cost-model parameters and select efficient execution plans. Overall, our optimization approaches help build efficient execution plans for a task, resulting in significant efficiency and output completeness benefits. We complement our results with a large-scale experimental evaluation for three important text-centric tasks and over multiple real-life data sets.


The practice of preparing printing of publicationsinvolves the processing of a variety of images. These imagesmay be distorted due to the conditions of photographing(motion effects, defocus, low light), or because of improperlyselected digitization modes. Traditional methods forimproving such defects use a variety of digital filters andways to correct the brightness, contrast and sharpness,which are implemented in popular graphics packages. Thisapproach to the problem of image enhancement based onheuristics, which result depends on the characteristics ofhuman visual perception.In contrast to enhancement, image reconstruction isbased on the modeling of the distortion and the use ofinverse models to restore the original image – this approachis also called deconvolution. Restoration can be done ifyou know the operator of distortion, or if it is not known(«blind deconvolution») [1, 2]. Spatial distortion operator isoften called the point spread function (PSF).Deconvolution methods with a known distortionoperator are very sensitive to differences between the modeland the real distortion. Moreover, the effectiveness of suchmethods is greatly reduced in the presence of noise, whichonly increases the discrepancy.


Abstract : Prostate cancer is the second most common cause of cancer deaths in men. We explore relationship between genes based on our novel approaches BooleanNet and MiDReG in prostate cancer and correlate them to patient information. Human prostate cancer is typically characterized by luminal cell expansion and the absence of basal cells. In normal prostate, tissue basal cells express Keratin 5 (KRT5) and Keratin 14 (KRT14). In the microarray datasets of primary prostate cancers, we observe a robust pattern where KRT14 high samples are always KRT5 high, but not vice versa. We summarize this in the form of a Boolean relationship: KRT14 high = KRT5 high. We identified three groups of patients in three independent prostate cancer gene expression microarray datasets: KRT14-KRT5-, KRT14-KRT5+, and KRT14+KRT5+. Recurrence-free survival analysis of these three independent datasets revealed that KRT14-KRT5- patients have the worst, KRT14+KRT5+ patients have the best, and KRT14-KRT5+ patients have intermediate clinical outcome. Based on this data, we predict that KRT14+KRT5+ cells are upstream of KRT14-KRT5+ cells, which could be upstream of KRT14- KRT5- luminal cells in normal prostate tissue.


The effect of electro-magnetophoretic force on gas bubbles due to the additional magnetic pressure distribution in the electrolyte is analyzed and a mathematical model is derived. According to the results, the integral force on an individual bubble is of similar order as the typical drag force associated with the electrolyte flow, opposing the motion of bubbles along the slightly inclined base of the anode. This could explain certain features of the anode effect onset. It is demonstrated that the presence of electrolyte channels, where the bubbles escape, has a crucial effect on the shape and size of the metal-bath interface deformation. A shallow layer flow model accounting for the channels is derived. Results on the interface stationary shape and MHD wave stability are presented.


This study's purpose is to help individual Christians and church, in general, to critically examine the homosexual worldview that is forcefully advancing against the biblical worldview and the potential threats it poses to the sanctity of human life and sexuality. Homosexuality is no longer a secret issue in this generation.  It has invaded the social, cultural and religious circus.  It is high time for the church to study, expose and confront this evil.  Any compromise will cause the church to lose its ethos and headed for peril.  Edward T. Welch, in his booklet on Homosexuality; Speaking the truth in love, acknowledges that "homosexuality is the hot issue of the day even more than abortion" (Welch, 2000). This study is of benefit to all religious organisations that subscribe to Christian biblical values.


Introduction: Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is an immunogenic cancer with specimens containing tumor infiltrating lymphocytes. T regulatory cells CD4+CD25+Foxp3+ (Tregs) accumulate in RCC and have been implicated in tumor immune escape. Since the chemokine receptor axis CXCR4/CXCL12/CXCR7 plays a crucial role in renal cancer biology and recent evidences demonstrate that targeting CXCR4 modulate inefficient immunotherapy, the aim of the project was to evaluate patients Tregs function from tumor tissue compared to unaffected surrounding tissue and PBL and to study the effect of CXCR4 antagonism on Tregs immuneresponse. Materials and methods: 26 specimens from RCC, unaffected surrounding tissue and relative PBMCs plus heparinized blood from 15 healthy donors (HD) were collected. Single cells suspensions were obtained; Tregs from renal tumor, unaffected surrounding tissues and peripheral blood and circulating T effector (Teff) cells were isolated using a magnetic isolation cell kit. Treg were identified as CD4/CD25/Foxp3 and characterized for surface activation markers (CTLA-4; CXCR-4; PD-1; CD39; ICOS) by flow cytometry. Tregs suppressive activity was evaluated through in vitro co-colture of purified Tregs versus CFSE-labeled autologous Teff cells. Tregs were added at different ratios and co-cultured for 5 days in presence of anti-CD3/CD28 antibody. CXCR4 antagonism on Tregs suppressive function was evaluated through AMD3100, a selective CXCR4 antagonist, and Peptide R/Peptide R29, a new class of CXCR4 antagonists recently developed (1). Results: Tregs were evaluated in tumor tissue, unaffected surrounding tissue and relative PBMCs from 26 RCC patients and 15 healthy donors (HD). Higher number of Tregs was detected in the RCC tumor tissues and PBMCs compared to HD (p Conclusions: Higher number and suppressive activity was detected for Tregs isolated from primary RCC tissues compared to peritumoral unaffected tissue and PBMCs isolated Tregs. CXCR4 antagonism through AMD3100, Peptide R and R29 prevented T effector cell suppression Tregs induced. Targeting CXCL12/CXCR4 axis in renal cancer might be a strategy for immunotherapeutic intervention. 1. Portella, L., et al., PLoS One, 2013. 8(9): p. e74548 Citation Format: Sara Santagata, Maria Napolitano, Crescenzo D9Alterio, Sabrina Cecere, Renato De Domenico, Carmela Cacciapuoti, Salvatore Dimaro, Luciana Marinelli, Nicola Longo, Sandro Pignata, Sisto Perdona, Stefania Scala. Targeting CXCR4 reduced T regulatory cells (Tregs) -mediated cell proliferation suppression in renal cell carcinoma (RCC) patients. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 106th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2015 Apr 18-22; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2015;75(15 Suppl):Abstract nr 426. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2015-426


A new reversible data hiding algorithm with better performance of robustness is proposed in this letter. In the scheme, the original image is firstly divided into some no over-lapping sub-blocks, then Inter Waver Transform (IWT) is applied to every image sub-block, the resulting low-frequency approximate sub-band is used to hide data based on the statistical features of image, two threshold parameters can be adaptively selected according to the peak-signal to noise rate (PSNR), such that watermarked image has better visual effect, the novelty of the algorithm lies in that a new histogram is constructed and the histogram is divided into two parts, which is used to hide data by using histogram shifting. Experimental results show that the proposed scheme is reversible, and also has better robustness to JPPEG compression attack; compared with relative literatures, the proposed algorithm also has the advantage of large capacity of data hiding and higher PSNR.


This paper proposes a semantic analysis of cardinal partitive sentences such as Three of the boys left. Its three components are: (i) the traditional 'two NP-hypothesis' of Jackendoff (1977), (ii) the traditional semantics of the preposition of of Ladusaw (1982) and Hoeksema (1983), and (iii)  the  semantic  analysis  of  the  numeral  recently  suggested  in  Kobuchi-Philip  (2006b). Specifically, for a cardinal partitive DP such as three of the boys, the presence of a phonetically null classifier, a phonetically null NP, and a phonetically null determiner is hypothesized. These assumptions form the basis for the proposed unified semantic analysis, which accounts for the cardinal partitive sentence both in classifier languages such as Japanese and in non-classifier languages such as English.


Symptomatic altered sagittal disfigurement will be common clinched alongside grown-up patients introducing should spine surgeons. Settled sagittal lopsidedness camwood a chance to be characterized as a syndrome to which those tolerant will be unabated with remained erect without flexing the knees Also hips. Around a long-cassette parallel radiograph, this abnormality is normally watched Likewise An plumb transport from C7 that falls great in front of the L5-S1 circle. Settled sagittal lopsidedness ordinarily comes about starting with iatrogenic makes for example, hypolordotic fusions, pseudarthrosis , postlaminectomy, alternately kyphosis, What's more it might additionally come about starting with trauma, intrinsic abnormalities, or malady states (e. G. , ankylosing spondylitis) bring long combined regions about their spine that restrain their capability should adjust to their disfigurement through neck positioning Furthermore pelvic angulation. Pedicle subtraction osteotomies (PSOs) need been utilized within those medicine for various spinal states directing, including an altered sagittal imbalance, for example, such that degenerative scoliosis, idiopathic infection scoliosis, post-traumatic deformities, iatrogenic flatback syndrome, Furthermore ankylosing spondylitis. Those perfect gas implication for An straightforward PSO will be a immaculate sagittal imbalance, to a tolerant with a firm spine because of ankylosing spondylitis, postoperative level back, posttraumatic kyphosis, or immaculate arthrosis. Lumbar PSO may be shown in the medication about sagittal or sagittal Also coronal disfigurement of the spine over vicinity of hypolordosis, spine firmness and when the measure about essential revision of bring down appendage will be huge.


The picture of biological membranes as uniform, homogeneous bileaflet structures has been revised in recent times due to the growing recognition that these structures can undergo significant fluctuations both in local curvature and in thickness. In particular, evidence has been obtained that a temporary, localized disordering of the lipid bilayer structure (defects) may serve as a principal pathway for movement of lipid molecules from one leaflet of the membrane to the other. How frequently these defects occur and how long they remain open are important unresolved questions. In this report, we calculate the rate of molecular transport through a transient defect in the membrane and compare this result to measurements of the net transbilayer flux of lipid molecules measured in an experiment in which the lipid flux is driven by differences between the mechanical stress in the two leaflets of the membrane bilayer. Based on this comparison, we estimate the frequency of defect occurrence in the membrane. The occurrence of defects is rare: the probability of finding a defect in 1.0 microm2 of a lecithin membrane is estimated to be approximately 6.0x10(-6). Based on this fractional occurrence of defects, the free energy of defect formation is estimated to be approximately 1.0x10(-19) J. The calculations provide support for a model in which interleaflet transport in membranes is accelerated by mechanically driven lipid flow.


Abstract Retrograde hydration of anthophyllite found in ultramafic lenses of the Lepontine Alps, southern Switzerland, resulted in the formation of talc and additional ordered and disordered biopyribole polysomes. Among the ordered sequences, 13 new short-range biopyribole polysomes were discovered using high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM). The most significant new polysomes are ordered sequences of quadruple-, triple-, and double-chains: (42), (432), (4323), and the first pyribole polysome with a composition between pyroxene and amphibole, (2111). Up to 40 unfaulted repetitions of these sequences are present in several grains. More complex polysomes like (423232) occur as intermediate steps in the formation of shorter polysomes, e.g., the polysome (332). The polysome (42) is the first short-range polysome, for which each step of the formation mechanism is documented. The precursors are disordered sequences countering quadruple- and double-chains, which are formed through coherent zipper transformations from anthophyllite. The disordered sequences are subsequently transformed to the ordered polysome (42). The multiple-step reaction path strongly suggests that energy minimization is partly responsible for the appearance of some of the short-range polysomes. The major element chemistry of the short-range polysomes, determined by analytical electron microscopy (AEM), is identical to that of the macroscopically occurring biopyriboles, excluding, therefore, a stabilization of the short-range polysomes by additional elements. The ordering of (010) stacking faults in enstatite connecting partial dislocations, each with a 1/4[100] ± 1/3[001]displacement component, led to the formation of the (2111) polysome. Along the fault plane, pairs of pyroxene I beams are juxtaposed and transform subsequently to amphibole chains. The composition of the (2111) polysome is colinear with the coexisting enstatite and anthophyllite.


The first binary neutron star merger event, GW170817, and its bright electromagnetic counterpart have provided a remarkable amount of information. By contrast, the second event, GW190425, with $M_{\rm tot}=3.4^{+0.3}_{-0.1}\, \mathrm{ M}_{\odot }$ and the lack of an electromagnetic counterpart, has hardly improved our understanding of neutron star physics. While GW190425 is compatible with a scenario in which the merger has led to a prompt collapse to a black hole and little ejected matter to power a counterpart, determining the mass ratio and the effective spin $\tilde{\chi }$ of the binary remains difficult. This is because gravitational waveforms cannot yet well constrain the component spins of the binary. However, since the mass of GW190425 is significantly larger than the maximum mass for non-rotating neutron stars, $M_{_{\rm TOV}}$, the mass ratio q cannot be too small, as the heavier star would not be gravitationally stable. Making use of universal relations and a large number of equations of state, we provide limits in the $(\tilde{\chi },q)$ plane for GW190425, namely qmin ≥ 0.38 and $\tilde{\chi }_{\rm max}\le 0.20$, assuming $M_\mathrm{tot} \simeq 3.4\, \mathrm{ M}_\odot$. Finally, we show how future observations of high-mass binaries can provide a lower bound on $M_{_{\rm TOV}}$.


Exact closed-form expressions are derived for the bit error rate of binary phase shift keying in Rayleigh fading channels with maximal ratio combining diversity in the presence of cochannel interference and additive white Gaussian noise. The desired signal and the interferer signals are subject to correlated Rayleigh fading and binary phase shift keying modulation is used by all users. Using the derived expressions, it is shown through some numerical examples that for a fixed number of antennas, there is a best radius for a uniform circular array at which the array performance is almost as if all antennas in the array were uncorrelated. Counterintuitively, at this radius, the adjacent antennas in the array are not uncorrelated.


Autonomous systems source energy from waste heat which are generated by home appliances and industrial machineries and mitigate the effect of global warming which threatens the environment as a result of fossil fuel energy based sources that release undesirable carbon-monoxide into the atmosphere. This paper described current waste heat recovery practices in different applications, and an innovative approach to convert heat energy into usable forms. This can significantly contribute towards sustainable energy development and meet the growing need for power in small scale applications due to its relative advantages over other sources of energy generation. It will help in optimizing existing waste recovery technologies and developing new heat recovery technologies and gives an insight into various ways by which waste heat can be exploited to meet the growing energy demand and increasing interest in space exploration, satellite activities, structural health monitoring and terrestrial monitoring in harsh and inaccessible environments place a high demand for energy sources for autonomous systems.


High-voltage hollow-cathode glow discharges are used more and more to generate intense, pulsed electron beams. Such intense electron beams can be produced with high efficiency in preionization-controlled open-ended hollow-cathode transient discharges (PCOHC). This novel discharge is initiated by a low-current dc preionization discharge. The beam parameters are similar to those of the electron beam generated in pseudospark discharges. In this work, we present some measurements of the parameters for the electron beam generated by using a multielectrode (multigap) system instead of the single-gap device in this PCOHC configuration. This kind of multielectrode device was already used in pseudosparks to improve the intensity and collimation of the extracted beam. By using the multigap instead of the single gap, the total beam current (100-120 A) and the energetic part of the beam current (peak current 60-90 A and electron energies higher than approximately 3 keV) were substantially increased. However, the energy spectrum of the fast component has a large fraction of electrons at lower energies (4-10 keV for 26 kV breakdown voltage) when a multigap device is used instead of the single-gap configuration. A comparison between the single-gap and multigap PCOHC-produced pulsed intense electron beam is made too. The differences between the high-power pulsed electron beams produced in single-gap and multigap PCOHC configurations seem to be due to different developments of beam generation phases.


This paper proposes a test strategy for improving SoC ATPG testing. On-chip clock controller (OCC) is used to yield better at-speed test coverage and pattern generation. In addition, clock gating structure, coupled with virtual clock grouping constraint is implemented to guide stuck-at ATPG generation process. The proposed solution enables fewer ATPG generation iteration which helps to reduce test pattern count and optimize ATPG run time.


Aramid macroscale fibers, also called Kevlar fibers, exhibit extremely high mechanical performance. Previous studies have demonstrated that bulk aramid macroscale fibers can be effectively split into aramid nanofibers (ANFs) by dissolution in dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) in the presence of potassium hydroxide (KOH). In this paper, we first introduced the ANFs into the structure of graphene nanosheets through non-covalent functionalization through π-π stacking interactions. Aramid nanofiber-functionalized graphene sheets (ANFGS) were successfully obtained by adding the graphene oxide (GO)/DMSO dispersion into the ANFs/DMSO solution followed by reduction with hydrazine hydrate. The ANFGS, with ANFs absorbed on the surface of the graphene nanosheets, can be easily exfoliated and dispersed in N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP). Through a combination of these two ultra-strong materials, ANFs and graphene nanosheets (GS), the resultant ANFGS can act as novel nanofillers for polymer reinforcement. We used the ANFGS as an additive for reinforcing the mechanical properties of poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA). With a loading of 0.7 wt% of the ANFGS, the tensile strength and Young's modulus of the ANFGS/PMMA composite film approached 63.2 MPa and 3.42 GPa, which are increases of ∼84.5% and ∼70.6%, respectively. The thermal stabilities of ANFGS/PMMA composite films were improved by the addition of ANFGS. Additionally, the transparencies of the ANFGS/PMMA composite films have a degree of UV-shielding due to the ultraviolet light absorption of the ANFs in the ANFGS.


The world-wide-web has revolutionized the way in which information is disseminated. This has led to new paradigms for commerce, entertainment, and the way in which the physical world can be experienced. Over 20 years ago, Stanford University introduced a new concept to learning: the use of video for distribution and broadcast of classroom lectures[Ref 1]. In the last few years, video broadcasting and the web have been merged, and classroom lectures are now available over the Internet, to students anywhere, anytime. The classroom setting has been globalized.


Earlier studies showed that the resistance of cotton genotype FMT 02102996 to Ramularia areola is governed by one dominant gene. More recently, the resistance of another genotype CNPA BA 2003-2059 to R. areola was detected under field and glasshouse conditions. Present investigation was conducted to verify the mechanism of resistance of the genotype CNPA BA 2003-2059 and to find out if the resistance of these two genotypes is governed by the same or by different genes. Segregating plant populations derived from the cross between the resistant genotype CNPA BA 2003-2059 and the susceptible genotype FMT 701, the back cross populations, as well as those derived from the cross between the two resistant genotypes were evaluated for disease severity by artificial inoculations under glasshouse conditions. The ratio of plants segregating for resistance and susceptibility was studied by χ2 test. The results indicated that the resistance to R. areola in genotype CNPA BA 2003-2059 is governed by one dominant gene and that the resistance in each one of the resistant genotypes is governed by a different dominant gene. These results may assist the local breeding programs aimed at pyramiding resistance genes to this pathogen and may form the basis for genetic mapping of resistance genes.


The urban transport infrastructure is one of the most important problems for the cities, and involves many aspects that concern to citizens, governments and the economical growth of the countries. The objective of this paper is to show how this issue has been studied in recent years, with emphasis in the use of simulation and optimization at the whole planning process. We also consider the important key topics as sustainability, costs and risks, mobility and environment impact. Some study cases are shown in order to clarify the concepts presented.


Case Presentation A 53-year-old male presented to the emergency department with acute onset of bilateral hearing loss as well as vertigo and severe vomiting. The Head Impulse– Nystagmus–Test of Skew exam was indicative of a central neurologic process. Computed tomography angiogram of the head and neck revealed near-total bilateral vertebral artery occlusions in the second and third segments. The patient was admitted for further evaluation; subsequent magnetic resonance imaging revealed multiple areas of infarction in the cerebellar hemispheres, medulla, and occipital lobes. Discussion This case describes a unique presentation of a posterior stroke. Common symptoms include vertigo, loss of balance, and vomiting. However, bilateral hearing loss as a prominent symptom is uncommon. Imaging revealed a rare finding of bilateral vertebral artery occlusion.


User-friendliness and ease-of-usage are two of the important qualities of a good measurement and characterization
system. This work attempts to bring these qualities into the characterization of oil palm fruitlets for easier grading.
Measurement of microwave energy parameters was first carried out on clean and ripe samples of oil palm fruitlets
within the frequency range of 2-4GHz. The dielectric properties of the fruitlets were extracted from the values of the
measured parameters and an intelligent Artificial Neural Network was designed and trained for prediction of the
percentage oil content of the fruitlets. This network was linked to a carefully designed Graphical User Interface (GUI)
written on MATLAB platform. Results of this work established that the prediction accuracy of the Neural Networklinked
GUI is high and serves as a reliable tool for rapid determination of the quality of oil palm fruitlets. Additionally,
the GUI served as a tool which helps users to efficiently characterize oil palm fruitlets with particular application in
research and quality control.


We introduce OpenIllumination, a real-world dataset containing over 108K images of 64 objects with diverse materials, captured under 72 camera views and a large number of different illuminations. For each image in the dataset, we provide accurate camera parameters, illumination ground truth, and foreground segmentation masks. Our dataset enables the quantitative evaluation of most inverse rendering and material decomposition methods for real objects. We examine several state-of-the-art inverse rendering methods on our dataset and compare their performances. The dataset and code can be found on the project page: https://oppo-us-research.github.io/OpenIllumination.


This study aims to determine the implementation of Islamic business ethics on the allocation of funds in the Baitul Maal Wat Tamwil Bina Umat Sejahtera (BMT BUS) Senori branch. Business ethics in allocating funds is very important for every financial institution, especially sharia. Because in allocating these funds must be done well and late so that the goals of the institute can be achieved. And Islamic business ethics must be applied in Islamic financial institutions as a form of implementation and responsibility of the Islamic ummah in carrying out Islamic law in muamalah. BMT BUS is one of the non-bank financial institutions engaged in savings and loans. The main activity is to collect and distribute funds from and to members in exchange for profit sharing from profit margins obtained by BMT from the sale and purchase mark up. The research uses qualitative methods with data collection methods using observation, interviews and documentation as well as descriptive qualitative data analysis methods. The results obtained can be concluded as follows: 1. The contract used at BMT BUS Senori is Murabahah and Mudharabah contract; 2. The allocation of funds in BMT BUS Senori so far is by collecting funds from the public in the form of savings and channeling them to the public in the form of financing; 3. The application of Islamic business ethics to the allocation of funds has been carried out in accordance with sharia business ethics as well as in accordance with its Standard Operational Procedure.
Keywords: Business ethics, allocation of funds, Baitul Maal Wat Tamwil Bina Umat Sejahtera


COVID-19 has affected the whole world drastically. A huge number of people have lost their lives due to this pandemic. Early detection of COVID-19 infection is helpful for treatment and quarantine. Therefore, many researchers have designed a deep learning model for the early diagnosis of COVID-19-infected patients. However, deep learning models suffer from overfitting and hyperparameter-tuning issues. To overcome these issues, in this paper, a metaheuristic-based deep COVID-19 screening model is proposed for X-ray images. The modified AlexNet architecture is used for feature extraction and classification of the input images. Strength Pareto evolutionary algorithm-II (SPEA-II) is used to tune the hyperparameters of modified AlexNet. The proposed model is tested on a four-class (i.e., COVID-19, tuberculosis, pneumonia, or healthy) dataset. Finally, the comparisons are drawn among the existing and the proposed models.


In order to advance the use of ensembles in forecasting space weather events, the workshop Ensemble Forecasts in Space Weather: Science and Operations took place at the Lorentz Center in Leiden, The Netherlands, on 2–6 September 2019. The aim of this workshop was to bring together space weather scientists from academic institutions and operational centers and experts in ensemble techniques in terrestrial weather forecasting. Ensembles are currently used across all the subfields of space weather; however, there seems to be no community‐wide consensus about how to best utilize them. Therefore, the Testing, Understanding, and Leveraging Ensemble Predictions for Space Weather (TULEPS) working group was created to provide a starting point for the space weather community to the use of ensemble techniques.


Statistical classification of the Helios solar wind observations into several populations sorted by bulk speed has revealed an outward acceleration of the wind. The faster the wind, the smaller this acceleration in the 0.3–1 au radial range. In this paper, we show that recent measurements from the Parker Solar Probe (PSP) are compatible with an extension closer to the Sun of the latter Helios classification. For instance, the well-established bulk speed/proton temperature (u, T p) correlation and bulk speed/electron temperature (u, T e) anticorrelation, together with the acceleration of the slowest winds, are verified in PSP data. We also model the combined PSP and Helios data using empirical Parker-like models for which the solar wind undergoes an "isopoly" expansion: isothermal in the corona, then polytropic at distances larger than the sonic point radius. The polytropic indices are derived from the observed temperature and density gradients. Our modeling reveals that the electron thermal pressure has a major contribution in the acceleration process of slow and intermediate winds (in the range of 300–500 km s−1 at 1 au) over a broad range of distances and that the global (electron and proton) thermal energy alone is able to explain the acceleration profiles. Moreover, we show that the very slow solar wind requires, in addition to the observed pressure gradients, another source of acceleration.


Electrically induced formation of valley-polarized free-carrier domains is theoretically investigated in two-dimensional (2D) honeycomb lattice systems exhibiting topological valley transport and the valley Hall effect. The results show that under a strong electric field $E$ applied along a nanostrip, the domains can be formed across the strip when this transverse dimension is comparable to the intervalley diffusion length ${L}_{iv}$. Further, these domains are found to be characterized by two distinct length scales dependent on $E$ and ${L}_{iv}$, i.e., the extended diffusion length ${L}_{\mathrm{ext}}$ ($\ensuremath{\propto}{L}_{iv}E$) and the compressed diffusion length ${L}_{\mathrm{com}}$ ($\ensuremath{\propto}{L}_{iv}/E$). The former determines the extension of the domain plateaus, whereas the latter specifies the width of the domain wall. Within each of the domains (excluding a narrow region of the domain wall; ${L}_{\mathrm{ext}}\ensuremath{\gg}{L}_{\mathrm{com}}$), the charge carriers are fully polarized belonging to only one of the valleys, providing a pure bulk valley current inside the considered domain region. The domain properties including the polarization amplitude and domain wall position are analyzed as a function of the applied electric field and intervalley scattering rates at the edges. The position of the domain wall, which determines the relative extension of the plateaus, can be controlled by a transverse current flowing between the Hall-type contacts. The current-voltage characteristic demonstrates a superlinear behavior in the range of electric fields corresponding to the valley-polarization domain formation. This feature is a distinctive signature of the anomalous transport arising from Bloch-band Berry curvature, which enhances the longitudinal conductance and diminishes the channel resistance. By reversing the applied electric field, the valley polarization and localization of the valley-polarized currents can be abruptly switchable. We suggest that the studied scheme of electrically induced domains of valley polarization in the 2D honeycomb lattice systems can be used in novel applications with all-electrical control and manipulation of the valley degree of freedom.


ABSTRACT:This essay examines twenty-first-century African science fiction in the context of the history of Afrofuturism. The Pan-African vision of the Black Audio Film Collective, a British group active in the 1980s and 1990s, provides a framework for analyzing contemporary works by artists including Nnedi Okorafor, Tendai Huchu, Wanuri Kahiu, and Wangechi Mutu. The essay argues for the inclusion of African artists in the discourse on Afrofuturism and identifies points of convergence between African and African diasporic futurisms that require, and will reward, further research, such as posthumanism, time travel as resistance, and the philosophy of the remix.


In this paper we present a comparative statistical analysis between Bouguer anomaly values calculated from land and satellite data acquisitions in the Faja Petrolifera del Orinoco by using basic statistical tools, linear models and geostatistical methods. Numerical and statistical similarities have been observed between the data sets. In general, the linear models show positive linear dependence, high correlation coefficient and similar increment of gravity with latitude. On the other hand, by proposing a 95% confidence interval around the values of unobserved locations estimated from land data, 90% of the satellite based observations satisfy the established uncertainty limits. These results, added to the numerical and spatial similarities seen before, let us to validate satellite data as equivalent to land data. In the Faja Petrolifera, the sources of error that produce Bouguer anomaly differences between land and satellite data are related to differences on elevation values greater than 20 meters, spatial distribution of data, and set of measure instruments used. Also it was demonstrated that homogeneous distribution of measurements along the selected area is important to obtain a substantial improvements in geological features observed in the Bouguer anomaly maps.


s) but too often I ant sure thue author and I tb not agree what is important. Now for thue point of my letter-has the editorial board of the journal ever considered adopting the plamu use(l by Staimu Techluology on which the autho,' PrePares an abstract w'hich precedes the paper auud is prihuted in boldface? I would like to suggest that such a policy h)e considered since it would aid the reader immensely and let the author stress what he feels is important and not leave the work (11) to someone who might not appreciate his deathless efforts and miss the point. If adlopted, I realize that I'll be out one journal for abstracting since the Chemical Abstract editors can then just lift the authors abstract. But it would let an abstract with the author's aim and riot mimic be listed iii the Chemical Abstracts with its imuternatiomial readers. The classical suummarv could still be rctaimied at the end of the paper and the author can there continuue as he (toes 110W in his efforts to sum up the investigation. This is just a suggestion but I hope that it might be considered seriously. Sorry to have bothered you but this has been brewing a long time and I finally decided to write "a letter to the editor" in the i)est Times form. June 20, 1958 JoHN F. LHOTKA, JR., Mi)., PHI). Associate Professor of A natommi y University of Oklahoma Oklahoma City 4, Okla. The Editor concurs thoroughly in the sentiments expressed by Dr. Lhotka. How'ever, it is not inteuuded to adopt the format of Stain Technology and to move the Summary from its present position at the end of lalers. Consultation of ilustructions to abstractors for Chemical Abstracts indicates that it would riot be feasible to include in the summary of a paper all of the data desired by that abstracting agency. Nevertheless efforts to make the summary an adequate description of the contents of the paper, its new data and new methods as well as summarizing the significant results and mentioning apparently important coincidental findings which are miot h)eing further explored, will be greatly appreciated by thue abstract services. My editorial in Juuh ' 1957 (J. Histoch. Cvtoch. 5: 443) should lie consulted.


The quantum controlled-not gate is an example of the maximally entangling gate, which is a broad class of operations that are necessary for scalable linear optics quantum computation. Here, we characterize a telecommunications-wavelength (1550 nm) quantum controlled- not gate, and for the first time, experimentally bound its process fidelity by measuring its operation in two complementary polarization bases. The gate's final process fidelity F is given by 91% ¿ F ¿ 95%.


Several preclinical and clinical studies that deal with the neuropathological consequences of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) have focused on unraveling its effect on ethanol drinking behavior. Previous reports describe changes in ethanol consumption, both in animal models of mTBI as well as in patients, after concussive brain injury. However, the neurobiological mechanisms underlying this phenomenon are still poorly understood. In the present study, we used a unique model of mouse lines divergently selected for high (HA) or low (LA) swim stress‐induced analgesia to examine the effect of mTBI on ethanol drinking behavior. In comparison with LA mice, their HA counterparts exhibited increased blood‐brain barrier (BBB) permeability, lower basal alcohol preference, and lower level of stress‐induced ethanol intake. Here, we showed that mTBI attenuates voluntary ethanol intake in LA, but not in HA mice. Interestingly, BBB disruption after mannitol infusion also decreases the level of ethanol drinking behavior in this line. We conclude that in alcohol‐preferring LA mice, BBB disruption as a consequence of mTBI attenuates ethanol consumption. Our results suggest that the innate level of BBB integrity plays a pivotal role in regulation of ethanol consumption in mice showing differential endogenous opioid system activity.


Delayed-type hypersensitivity to BCG was remarkably different in two inbred strains of mice, SWM/Ms and C3H/He, when measured by the spleen index, the disappearance of peritoneal macrophage, or the footpad reaction. High responsiveness in the SWM/Ms strain appeared to be dominant over low responsiveness in the C3H/He strain. Results of the footpad reaction test if F1, F2, and backcross hybrids of these two strains of mice suggested that the delayed-type hypersensitivity was mainly controlled by a gene which was transmitted under Mendel's laws and was possibly non-H-2 linked. The spleen cells and their nylon wool nonadherent fraction from BCG-infected C3H/He mice were not reactive to purified protein derivative in vitro, whereas both the spleen cells and the nylon wool nonadherent fraction from BCG-infected SWM/Ms mice reacted well to purified protein derivative. Possible mechanisms of the different responses in the delayed-type hypersensitivity to BCG were discussed.


Three different levels (1%, 3% and 5%) of noni juice were attempted in the formulation of low sodium reduced fat meat emulsion to explore the possibility of its utilization as antioxidants in functional chevon patties. The product was evaluated for various quality characteristics and sensory attributes. The pH, thiobarbituric acid (TBA), free fatty acid (FFA) and peroxide value were significantly (P<0.05) lower and cooking yield was higher in treatment compared to control. Mineral contents did not differ significantly (P>0.05) in either of the treatment. Springiness increased and cohesiveness decreased gradually and become significant (P<0.05) at treatment NJ3 (patties added with 5% noni juice). Lightness (L*) value decreased with addition of noni juice and differ significantly (P<0.05) at treatment NJ2 (patties added with 3% noni juice) and NJ3 compared to control. Sensory scores for NJ2 were either comparable or higher as compared to control. Therefore noni juice at 3% may suitably be used for the development of functional chevon patties without affecting its quality and sensory attributes.


This paper examines whether the effects of social class and academic achievement on access to university have changed due to rapid educational expansion since the 1990s. Analyzing the National Survey of Social Stratification and Mobility in Japan, the magnitude of the effects of the father's occupation decreased significantly after educational expansion only in male samples, but impacts of the father's and mother's education have not changed significantly in both male and female samples. The direct effects of the father's and mother's education remain strong after controlling the stable impacts of academic achievement, indicating that "secondary effects" play important roles even in Japan. Considering the above, it is argued that the trends and mechanisms of educational inequality appear differently depending on which social class variables researchers use.


A number of studies are underway to gain a better understanding of the role of immunity in the pathogenesis of hepatocellular carcinoma and to identify subgroups of individuals who may benefit the most from systemic therapy according to the etiology of their tumor. Human leukocyte antigens play a key role in antigen presentation to T cells. This is fundamental to the host's defense against pathogens and tumor cells. In addition, HLA-specific interactions with innate lymphoid cell receptors, such those present on natural killer cells and innate lymphoid cell type 2, have been shown to be important activators of immune function in the context of several liver diseases. More recent studies have highlighted the key role of members of the non-classical HLA-Ib and the transcript adjacent to the HLA-F locus, FAT10, in hepatocarcinoma. The present review analyzes the major contribution of these molecules to hepatic viral infection and hepatocellular prognosis. Particular attention has been paid to the association of natural killer and Vδ2 T-cell activation, mediated by specific HLA class Ib molecules, with risk assessment and novel treatment strategies to improve immunotherapy in HCC.


Abstract A new approach based on a synergetic combination of statistical/machine learning and deterministic modeling within atmospheric models is presented. The approach uses neural networks as a statistical or machine learning technique for an accurate and fast emulation or statistical approximation of model physics parameterizations. It is applied to development of an accurate and fast approximation of an atmospheric longwave radiation parameterization for the NCAR Community Atmospheric Model, which is the most time consuming component of model physics. The developed neural network emulation is two orders of magnitude, 50–80 times, faster than the original parameterization. A comparison of the parallel 10-yr climate simulations performed with the original parameterization and its neural network emulations confirmed that these simulations produce almost identical results. The obtained results show the conceptual and practical possibility of an efficient synergetic combination of deterministic and statist...


Monoterpenes are the main class of biogenic volatile organic compounds. They promptly react with oxygen and nitrogen species, leading to the formation of secondary aerosols. The determination of their physicochemical properties, such as their ionization energies (IEs), is crucial to understand better their reactivity. We previously introduced a modified atmospheric pressure photoionization source coupled to a tunable vacuum ultraviolet source at the SOLEIL synchrotron radiation facility. Here, this set-up is employed to determine IEs of ten monoterpenes with a good precision (±50 meV) and a small sample consumption limited to 10 μg.


Is the Nordic model of combating the trafficking of women for sexual purposes to be followed by all member states of the eu? At the moment, the member states still differ considerably in their legislative approaches towards prostitution and the extent to which this is linked to the combat against sex trafficking. In this article the differences between the Nordic and the legalisation model as well as their effects on forced prostitution, human trafficking and women's right to self-determination will be a central focus. The authors will discuss and compare the approaches and effects as found in Sweden and the Netherlands. By this comparison they will establish whether the Nordic model indeed should be endorsed.


The performance of dual-hop wireless communication systems with semi-blind amplify-and-forward (AF) relays over independent, but not necessarily identically distributed, η-μ fading channels is investigated. This performance is studied based on the evaluation of the outage probability, average bit-error probability (ABEP), and average end-to-end received signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). To this end, novel expressions for the outage probability and average end-to-end received SNR are derived. Moreover, an expression for end-to-end SNR of the probability density function (PDF) is derived. Based on the derived PDF, we then obtain a novel expression for the generalized moments of the received SNR. We conduct extensive simulation in order to study the effect of the fading parameters (i.e., η and μ) on the system performance. Our findings show that, in contrast to the fading parameter η, μ has a significant impact on the system performance. In addition, simulation results demonstrate that, the derived expressions match very well with the numerical simulations.


Abstract This article reports on collaborative action research in twelve northern rural and Indigenous communities in four Canadian provinces. Pre-kindergarten, kindergarten, grade one, and Aboriginal Head Start teachers worked with university researchers in three universities to create action research projects with the aim of supporting children's oral language and writing through play in their classrooms. Inductive analysis of focus group data shows that teachers gained understandings about play as a context both for supporting and for authentic assessment of young children's oral language. The building of trusting relationships, built through ongoing collaboration with colleagues within their schools and across four provinces, in addition to collaboration with university researchers over a number of years, was viewed as particularly influential to teachers' professional learning. Additionally, teachers talked about the value of opportunities to contribute to the development of teaching and assessment tools. Participating teachers came to see themselves as making valuable contributions to professional knowledge beyond their northern communities. The 4R's for conducting research in Indigenous contexts (reciprocity, respect, relevance, and responsibility) provide a framework for deriving implications from this collaborative research. It is important that the results of collaborative action research conducted in rural and Indigenous schools be widely disseminated to provide alternative perspectives to curriculum, research and practice that tend to be urban-oriented.


Acoustic response control of a corner-pinned plate using piezoelectric wafers was studied, both theoretically and experimentally Three different sizes of aluminum alloy plates were used and available ball joints were employed to hold the plate at the four corners. The plate with the largest aspect ratio showed the largest and most clear responses to the acoustic excitation in the range of frequencies (0∼200 Hz), and sound pressure levels (80∼100 dB) as predicted. The reduction of the acoustic response of the plate by piezoelectric actuator was very significant, more than expected, but abatement of the sound transmission through the plate was only slightly altered by the piezoelectric actuator. This work is an original work extending earlier work with doors excited by acoustic fields. The important difference is the used of ball joints to simulate the joints.


The interaction of antiperoxidative flavonoids artocarpin (AR), cycloartocarpin (CAR), dalspinin (DP), dalspinosin (DPO), and dalspinin-7-O-galactoside (DPG) with 2,2'-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) radical cation (ABTS(.+)) and O2(-.) was studied in phosphate buffer (pH 7.4). The ability of these compounds to inhibit lipid peroxidation and DNA scission was also investigated. The radical scavenging efficiency of flavonoids is demonstrated by the reduction of nitrogen-centered radical cation (ABTS(.+)). The reduction of ABTS(.+) follows the order quercetin > morin > Trolox > AR > DPO > CAR > DP. Inhibition of lipid peroxidation was studied by following Mb(IV) reduction, induced by lipid, arachidonic acid. These results are compared with those obtained for well-known antioxidants such as quercetin, morin, and Trolox. The structure-activity relationships between chemical structures of the flavonoids and their radical scavenging activities are anlayzed. The scavenging of O2(-.), inhibition of lipid peroxidation, and DNA damage depend on the oxidation potential of the flavonoids. The possible mechanism for radical scavenging activities of flavonoids in relation to their structure is also outlined.


Introduction: Primary central nervous system (PCNS) posttransplant lymphoproliferative disease (PTLD) is a rare complication of solid organ transplantation and treatment is not yet standardized. Case presentation: Here we report the case of a 54-year-old man who underwent renal transplantation 22 years ago for end-stage renal disease. He had been on long-term immunosuppressive treatment consisting of orally administered prednisolone 10 mg and then 5 mg daily and orally administered Mycophenolate Mofetil 500 mg twice daily. He presented in January 2019 to emergency with aphasia and then partial seizure. On brain MRI there was an expansive cortical mass in the left temporal lobe with perilesional edema. Biopsy revealed a diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. He was treated with one cycle of Cytarabine with his usual immunosuppressive treatment. In view of his renal allograft, he was not suitable for Methotrexate due to the risk of toxicity. He died on day 15 caused by a sepsis choc secondary to febrile neutropenia. Conclusion: PCNS-PTLD is regarded as one of the most serious posttransplant complications due to its high mortality. Further clinical and experimental investigations are required to develop optimal diagnostic and treatment modalities.


The deployment of network architectures is often manual, ad hoc and time consuming. In this paper we introduce a new paradigm for automating the life cycle process for the creation, deployment and management of network architectures and envision programmable networks capable of spawning distinct "child" virtual networks with their own transport, control and management systems. A child network operates on a subset of its "parent's" network resources and in isolation from other virtual networks. Child networks support the controlled access to communities of users with specific connectivity, security and quality of service requirements. In this paper we introduce the Genesis Kernel, a virtual network operating system capable of profiling, spawning and managing virtual network architectures on-the-fly.


The purpose of this paper is to study a fuzzy multiple attribute group decision making problem, where the attribute values are represented by trapezoidal fuzzy numbers, and the attribute weights are unknown completely, but each decision maker provides preference information on alternatives by the preference ordering. An assignment method is developed to solve this problem. Firstly, the contribution matrix of alternatives and the preference matrix of decision makers are created, then a quadratic programming is constructed to integrate the objective evaluations and the subjective preferences for determining the attribute weights. The ranking of alternatives or the best alternative(s) is obtained by constructing an assignment model to maximize the total contribution of alternatives. A numerical example is given to illustrate the proposed method.


The main target of this study is to examine the European Union as a whole and then to further define the economic dimensions of Turkey-European Union relations. In this context, the emphasis is placed on the economic criteria, rather than on the political criteria (the Copenhagen criteria) of the European Union (EU). The study basically consists of four main parts. In the first part, a broad picture about Turkey-EU relations has been put forward. Turkey-EU relations are discussed in detail along with the Customs Union and Maastricht criteria in the second part. In the third and fourth parts, the economic performance of Turkey and the EU countries are compared in a detailed manner. In these parts, the readers will also find an answer in response to the question of "what happens if the right to free movement is given to Turkey" that is on the agenda of the EU.


The averages of the electric and magnetic fine structure interaction operators for the nonpenetrating Rydberg states in diatomic molecules for four different Hund coupling d cases are obtained. A method which allows the author to avoid operations with the nondiagonal matrix elements is used. It is shown that in the d cases the differences between the levels of the electric fine structure satisfy the rule Delta E=EN+1EFS-ENEFS=G1(N+1)3-G2(N+1), where N is the total momentum without the spin and G1 and G2 are constants. It is shown that the recent experimental data for H2, He2 and NO are in good agreement with the theoretical results.


To explore the hypoglycemic effect of active polysaccharides from the branches and leaves of Taxus cuspidata on mice, and provide a scientific basis for the further study of the mechanism of hypoglycemic effect of Taxus cuspidata, in this study, the active polysaccharides from the branches and leaves of Taxus cuspidata were extracted and isolated, and the hypoglycemic mechanism of Taxus cuspidata polysaccharides was studied by establishing a mouse model of Type II diabetes. In this study, the polysaccharides in the branches and leaves of Taxus cuspidata were separated and purified to obtain the polysaccharides of Taxus cuspidata. 10 mice were selected as the blank group. 30 mice were screened as grouped subjects in the established type II diabetic mice. They were randomly divided into model group, high dose Taxus polysaccharide (500 mg/kg) group and low dose Taxus polysaccharide group (125 mg/kg). The hypoglycemic activity of Taxus cuspidata in leaves was confirmed by comparison, and the effect of Taxus polysaccharide on pancreatic tissue of mice was analyzed. The hypoglycemic activity of Taxus polysaccharides was further analyzed by establishing an insulin resistance HepG2 cell model. The experimental results show that the polysaccharides of Taxus cuspidata have consumption obvious effects on glucose consumption, which can reduce blood sugar and may be related to the change of sugar metabolism and insulin-like effects of Taxus polysaccharides. It was also found that the polysaccharide of Taxus can protect the pancreatic tissue of model mice while lowering blood sugar. The experiment found that Taxus polysaccharide could promote the glucose consumption of insulin-resistant HepG2 cells, and the best effect was obtained when the administration concentration was 0.05 mg/mL, which was significantly different from the model group (P<0.05). There are relatively few studies on the polysaccharides of Taxus. Therefore, it is necessary to further study its chemical composition, make its chemical composition clear, and at the same time conduct screening test on bioactive constituents, and clarify the mechanism of action to better provide a basis for clinical medicine use.


Continuous attractors of recurrent neural networks (RNNs) have attracted extensive interests in recent years. It is often used to describe the encoding of continuous stimuli such as orientation, moving direction and spatial location of objects. This paper studies the dynamic shift mechanism of a class of continuous attractor neural networks. It shows that if the external input is a gaussian shape with its center varying along with time, by adding a slight shift to the weights, the symmetry of gaussian weight function is destroyed. Then, the activity profile will shift continuously without changing its shape, and the shift speed can be controlled accurately by a given constant. Simulations are employed to illustrate the theory.


This paper proposes a new arrangement and new control strategies for a hybrid multilevel converter, aiming at a high-power high-efficiency converter system being free from harmonic distortion. The strategies enable one to expand the adjustable output voltage range up to 100% by keeping a very low harmonic distortion of the output voltage. The triangular-carrier-based pulsewidth modulation (PWM) and space-vector-based PWM strategies are applied to voltage control. The effectiveness is verified by simulation and experimental results. The proposed hybrid multilevel converter is applicable to medium-voltage networks as a high-power grid-interface converter.


Work-related musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) accounted for 32% of days-away-from-work cases in private industry in 2016. Several factors have been associated with MSDs, such as repetitive motion, excessive force, awkward and/or sustained postures, and prolonged sitting and standing, all of which are required in farm workers' labor. While numerous epidemiological studies on the prevention of MSDs in agriculture have been conducted, an ergonomics evaluation of blueberry harvesting has not yet been systematically performed. The purpose of this study was to investigate the risk factors of MSDs for several types of blueberry harvesting (hand harvesting, semi-mechanical harvesting with hand-held shakers, and over-the-row machines) in terms of workers' postural loads and self-reported discomfort using ergonomics intervention techniques. Five field studies in the western region of the United States between 2017 and 2018 were conducted using the Borg CR10 scale, electromyography (EMG), Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA), the Cumulative Trauma Disorders (CTD) index, and the NIOSH (National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health) lifting equation. In evaluating the workloads of picking and moving blueberries by hand, semi-mechanical harvesting with hand-held shakers, and completely mechanized harvesting, only EMG and the NIOSH lifting equation were used, as labor for this system is limited to loading empty lugs and unloading full lugs. Based on the results, we conclude that working on the fully mechanized harvester would be the best approach to minimizing worker loading and fatigue. This is because the total component ratio of postures in hand harvesting with a RULA score equal to or greater than 5 was 69%, indicating that more than half of the postures were high risk for shoulder pain. For the semi-mechanical harvesting, the biggest problem with the shakers is the vibration, which can cause fatigue and various risks to workers, especially in the upper limbs. However, it would be challenging for small- and medium-sized blueberry farms to purchase automated harvesters due to their high cost. Thus, collaborative efforts among health and safety professionals, engineers, social scientists, and ergonomists are needed to provide effective ergonomic interventions.


Recently, a large number of techniques of numerical taxonomy or cluster analysis are proposed and studied by many workers, and the needs for these techniques arise in many fields of applied science. Especially, the method of hierarchical cluster analysis is used widely, since all of these methods are suitable for various types of data and can be simply carried out. However, though the investigations for evaluation or comparison of these method are only little discussed in formal works, it is quite important and necessary to discuss them in order to study cluster analysis. Furthermore, we propose the fuzzy distance which is a new index of evaluating and comparing relationship between two relation matrices, the original similarity matrix S and S* which is derived from S by executing hierarchical clustering algorithms. Finally, numerical examples for several artificial datas are investigated by four well-known clustering methods.


This paper reports the study on a multiaxial 2D interlaced woven structure able to provide specified strengths in four different directions and the development of its manufacturing process. This structure is obtained by the insertion of interlaced bias yarns at approximately 45o between the weft and the warp. Using the principle of the insertion and interlacement of yarns in bias directions, a multiaxial weaving system has been designed which comprises the warp feeding, bias yarns feeding and criss-cross insertion, shedding, incorporating one heddle, weft feeding and insertion, beating-up mechanism, incorporating the reed, fabric taking-up and winding mechanisms. The designing of the system includes the use of conventional weaving elements with completely new mechanisms or the modification of existing ones. The multiweave prototype developed in this work is used to produce different types of directionally oriented structures using various types of fibres (HT polyester, aramid, carbon and glass) and yarn counts. The important characteristics of this new fabric structure is the criss-crossing between all four sets of yarns which increases the capability for supporting more severe mechanical loads without failure, i.e. without delaminating. The strength-weight ratio is expected to increase, which can be very advantageous for applications in the areas like composites for the aircraft and car industries as well as in marine textiles for boat and ship building, which are the products subjected to severe stressing conditions.


The glucocorticoid receptor (GR) regulates transcription through binding to specific DNA motifs, particularly at enhancers. While the motif to which it binds is constant across cell types, GR has cell type-specific binding at genomic loci, resulting in regulation of different genes. The presence of other bound transcription factors (TFs) is hypothesized to strongly influence where GR binds. Here, we addressed the roles of other TFs in the glucocorticoid response by comparing changes in GR binding and nascent transcription at promoters and distal candidate cis-regulatory elements (CCREs) in two distinct human cancer cell types. We found that after glucocorticoid treatment, GR binds to thousands of genomic loci that are primarily outside of promoter regions and are potentially enhancers. The majority of these GR binding sites are cell-type specific, and they are associated with pioneer factor binding. A small fraction of GR occupied regions (GORs) displayed increased bidirectional nascent transcription, which is a characteristic of many active enhancers, after glucocorticoid treatment. Non-promoter GORs with increased transcription were specifically enriched for AP-1 binding prior to glucocorticoid treatment. These results support a model of transcriptional regulation in which multiple classes of TFs are required. The pioneer factors increase chromatin accessibility, facilitating the binding of GR and additional factors. AP-1 binding poises a fraction of accessible sites to be rapidly transcribed upon glucocorticoid-induced GR binding. The coordinated activity of multiple TFs then results in cell type-specific changes in gene expression. We anticipate that many models of inducible gene expression also require multiple distinct TFs that act at multiple steps of transcriptional regulation.


Spectral filtering was compared with traditional mean spatial filters to assess their ability to identify and remove striped artefacts in digital elevation data. The techniques were applied to two datasets: a 100 m contour derived digital elevation model (DEM) of southern Norway and a 2 m LiDAR DSM of the Lake District, UK. Both datasets contained diagonal data artefacts that were found to propagate into subsequent terrain analysis. Spectral filtering used fast Fourier transformation (FFT) frequency data to identify these data artefacts in both datasets. These were removed from the data by applying a cut filter, prior to the inverse transform. Spectral filtering showed considerable advantages over mean spatial filters, when both the absolute and spatial distribution of elevation changes made were examined. Elevation changes from the spectral filtering were restricted to frequencies removed by the cut filter, were small in magnitude and consequently avoided any global smoothing. Spectral filtering was found to avoid the smoothing of kernel based data editing, and provided a more informative measure of data artefacts present in the FFT frequency domain. Artefacts were found to be heterogeneous through the surfaces, a result of their strong correlations with spatially autocorrelated variables: landcover and landsurface geometry. Spectral filtering performed better on the 100 m DEM, where signal and artefact were clearly distinguishable in the frequency data. Spectrally filtered digital elevation datasets were found to provide a superior and more precise representation of the landsurface and be a more appropriate dataset for any subsequent geomorphological applications. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Science graduates need to be effective communicators. Improvement in communication skills may also improve general learning outcomes by enhancing critical thinking ability and understanding of the subject material. It is generally acknowledged that students acquire communication skills most effectively when they are explicitly taught and embedded within the science curriculum. Our faculty-wide project has developed a program that provides all science, engineering and technology students with appropriate instruction in discipline specific tertiary literacy skills. At the core of the project is a web-based resource that is accessible by all students and all academics of the faculty. This interactive instructional resource supports the development of academic writing skills, essay and report writing, and oral communication skills. The resource contains discipline-specific material that may be used by students individually or incorporated into classroom activities. The resource also contains teaching and assessment tools to help staff integrate communication skills into their own curriculum. The impact of the project upon learning outcomes for students across the faculty is being assessed throughout 2003. This paper describes the development of the resource, and illustrates ways in which it is being incorporated into teaching.


OBJECTIVE
To explore the efficacy and shortcoming of endovascular therapy with mainly endovascular graft in treating disorders occurring in the thoracic or thoracoabdominal aorta.

METHODS
Total 137 cases with great vessel disorders including dissections, aneurysm, pseudoaneurysm, aortic deceleration injury and coarctation were treated by endovascular technique. The lowest lesion located between the celiac and mesenteric arteries.

RESULTS
Two cases underwent emergent surgery due to acute visceral arterial insufficiency. Seven cases had early endoleaks. After a follow-up of 1 - 43 (average of 11) months, 2 late endoleaks were detected; 5 patients died, 4 of them were due to endograft unrelated diseases, one due to a recurrent multiple aneurysms.

CONCLUSION
Endovascular treatment is relatively safe and effective for treating high risky patients with lesions occurring in the great vessels and seems to have a prospective future, although the device needs to be further improved and the long-term efficacy should be confirmed.


This research examines the quality of the traditions "manjara tsaubahu", that they explain the prohibition of lengthening cloths or pants with arrogant intentions, whether it is being arrogant to Allah or to others, being arrogant to Allah is where when you are worshiping Allah. Then the hadiths use several kinds of commands in terms of prohibitions, including; By threatening to be reluctant by Allah, there are also those who do not accept their worship (do not get rewarded) and so on. So that if we lengthen cloths or pants with arrogant intentions, it is prohibited by Allah. The main focus in this research is the sanad and observations of the Prophet's hadiths which contain the "manjaara tsaubahu". This research is library research with the main reference being the books of the hadiths of al-Kutub al-Tis'ah and maktabah syamilah. Besides the hadith books mentioned above, books related to takhrij al-hadith are also references in this study, such as: Ushul al-Takhrij wa Dirasat al-Asanid. Research methodology of the Prophet's hadith written by Syuhudi Ismail, and others. To examine the narrators of Hadith, the books that are used as references are related to the observational study of hadith. The result of this research is the authentic quality hadith sanad, namely the history of Abu Dawud. From the eyes of the hadith, the quality of authenticity does not contradict the Qur'an and authentic traditions, common sense, historical facts, language and with Islamic principles.


Terebralia palustris (Linnaeus, 1767), the giant mangrove whelk, is a prominent component of mangrove ecosystem malacofauna in the Indo-West-Pacific region. On the east coast of Africa, the range of T. palustris extends from Kenya to the south-eastern region of South Africa. Here we confirm reports that, in the past three decades, South African populations of T. palustris have declined. Terebralia palustris was recorded from only two estuarine mangrove forests during a survey conducted in 2013/2014, compared with six estuaries in the mid-20th century. At Kosi Bay, the average density was 186 ind. m-2 (SD 106) in comparison to only 7.1 ind. m-2 (SD 2.5) at Durban Bay. Additionally, the average shell height of individuals at Durban Bay (60.3 mm; SD 13.6) was larger than at Kosi Bay (31.84 mm; SD 16.09), indicating the absence of juvenile snails at Durban. In South Africa there have been no previous ecological assessments for T. palustris and, aside from one detailed survey in the early 1960s, most of the occurrence records are vague and incomplete. The ultimate causes for the decline of this charismatic gastropod in South Africa are unknown, although habitat loss and degradation are suspected. Further research is urgently required, particularly into aspects concerning its disappearance at the limit of its global distribution.


We show that a proper expression of the uncertainty relation for a pair of canonically-conjugate continuous variables relies on entropy power, a standard notion in Shannon information theory for real-valued signals. The resulting entropy-power uncertainty relation is equivalent to the entropic formulation of the uncertainty relation due to Bialynicki-Birula and Mycielski, but can be further extended to rotated variables. Hence, based on a reasonable assumption, we give a partial proof of a tighter form of the entropy-power uncertainty relation taking correlations into account and provide extensive numerical evidence of its validity. Interestingly, it implies the generalized (rotation-invariant) Schrödinger–Robertson uncertainty relation exactly as the original entropy-power uncertainty relation implies Heisenberg relation. It is saturated for all Gaussian pure states, in contrast with hitherto known entropic formulations of the uncertainty principle.


Most of the current Information and Computer Security (ICS) literature and research, appears to be following a traditional model of first addressing the technological and technical issues, and assuming that these issues will be augmented by humans. This is evident in the proliferation of security devices and software in our daily lives. Though we still have ICS problems. However, authors like Von Solms come back to the question, though in different degrees, of whether the involvement of humans is sufficiently addressed. The problem is that the elements of ICS are not correctly addressed in the right order to make ICS work properly. This paper presents a model that gives an alternative perspective on the different elements of ICS. This model was developed while the author were doing ICS-related work, and it borrows insights from Maslow's hierarchy of human needs and desires, where there are certain needs that have to be satisfied before the desires can be achieved. Using this idea that the bottom layers have to be satisfied or addressed before the upper layers should be considered, a layered pyramid has been developed as a model to be used in ICS. It is suggested that this model is a useful tool to help managers, computer professionals and users, get a better perspective on and understanding of ICS-related issues.


A new deconvolution algorithm based on making orthogonal projections onto the epigraph set of a convex cost function is presented. In this algorithm, the dimension of the minimization problem is lifted by one and sets corresponding to the cost function and observations are defined. If the utilized cost function is convex in RN, the corresponding epigraph set is also convex in RN+1. The deconvolution algorithm starts with an arbitrary initial estimate in RN+1. At each iteration cycle of the algorithm, first deconvolution projections are performed onto the hyperplanes representing observations, then an orthogonal projection is performed onto epigraph of the cost function. The method provides globally optimal solutions for total variation, l1, l2, and entropic cost functions.


The emergence of massive printing in the Arab Middle East in the nineteenth century entailed a multiple set of changes. As well as the production of written texts in unprecedented quantities and the rise of a big reading public, that historic shift also gave birth to a range of diffusion channels-from bookshops to public libraries and from newspaper agents to reading clubs-which carried the printed works to their audiences. This article examines a small section of this scene: the growth, spreading and changing characteristics of book dealerships and bookshops in the Arab Ottoman provinces during the formative half-century prior to World War I. Exploring this mechanism casts light on the nature and pace of printing assimilation in the region, projecting it as a rather dramatic makeover.


In the transportation sector, electric vehicles (EV) are expected to play an instrumental role in reducing carbon dioxide emissions due to their eco-friendly and high-energy efficiency features. Further, in light of recent plans that have been announced globally to introduce the EV, it is believed that the spread of this new technology will be inevitable.Although EVs were on track to become widespread many times in the past, they never did take off and the underlying reason(s) why must be investigated so as to not repeat the same mistakes that had prevented the past dissemination of this revolutionary new technology.The major factor impeding the spread of EVs is the limited capacity of the lithium ion battery stored inside the vehicle. Although, there have been price and performance improvements allowing for widespread application to cell phones and computers etcetera, the exorbitant costs make substantial onboard battery enhancements prohibitive. Although the present infrastructure is unable to support electric vehicles, it is believed that with sufficient upgrades such facilities can be made useful and help pave the way for reduced battery capacity. In developing the design of the CHAdeMO standard quick charger, the following past infrastructure challenges were addressed.


This paper presents a series of contemporary artistic methods and collective actions based on the pioneering work of the French avant-garde group Art et Action (AEA, 1919-1939). AEA actively responded to the fast-changing society of their time through their innovative 'theatre laboratory', an experimental artistic research environment in which actors and audience were invited to investigate together the rhythmic order of urban routines and rituals, through the re-enactment of daily urban atmospheres. Based on AEA's methods and concepts, atelier Area aims at responding to today's deep physical, sensorial and social transformation of the city by re-acting contemporary urban routines and rituals through public improvisations and interventions. Three concrete examples will be presented here.


The paper describes the method of symbolic evaluation that serves as a useful tool to extend the studies of certain special functions including their properties and capabilities. In the paper, we exploit certain symbolic operators to introduce a new family of special polynomials, which is called the Mittag-Leffler-Gould-Hopper polynomials. We obtain the generating function, series definition and symbolic operational rule for these polynomials. This approach give a wide platform to explore the study of classical and hybrid special polynomials. We establish summation formulae and certain identities for these polynomials. Further, we derive the multiplicative and derivative operators to study the quasi-monomiality property of these polynomials. Some concluding remarks are also given.


Geography Compass. 2017;11:e12306. https://doi.org/10.1111/gec3.12306 w Abstract Institutions are often regarded as static and unchanging, portrayed as constraints on innovation, entrepreneurship, and regional economic change. We propose an alternative perspective in order to understand how entrepreneurs experience and engage with institutions in ways that shape and help advance their collective interests. Motivated by our own research on regional entrepreneurial development, we theorize institutions as lived and interpreted experiences. We present institutional change as a creative and experimental response to emergent or competing logics. This conception of institutions has implications for how we theorize about economic transformation, recognizing that processes of institutional change are set in motion by endogenous attempts by economic actors to make sense of and act upon contradictory aspects of their varied institutional lives.


a-Calcitonin gene-related peptide (aCGRP) is a pleiotropic peptide neuromodulator that is widely expressed throughout the central and peripheral nervous systems. Although CGRP has been implicated in numerous physiological processes (including peripheral vasodilatation, acetylcholine receptor biosynthesis, nociception, and neurogenic inflammation), the precise physiological roles of CGRP remain to be elucidated. To provide a better understanding of the physiological role(s) mediated by this peptide neurotransmitter, we have generated aCGRP-null mice by targeted modification in embryonic stem cells.


Abstract Funding Acknowledgements Type of funding sources: None. Background and Aims Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most prevalent arrhythmia, associated with increased mortality and morbidity and causing relevant costs. Treatment options consist of catheter ablation (PVI) and rate or rhythm control drugs (non-PVI). Methods We analyze inpatient and outpatient data from the Upper Austrian Health Insurance Fund. Data of patients with a first hospitalization for AF in the years 2005 to 2018 were examined, using propensity score matching (PSM) including all CHA2DS2-VASc variables and working collar. Results Out of 21,791 AF patients, PSM identified 1,013 well-matching pairs (PVI and non-PVI). Over a ten-year period, the PVI treatment strategy group reveals significantly higher inpatient and outpatient expenditures (€2,200/year). Positive economic effects can be demonstrated by a 5.1 percentage points (pp) higher employment rate and fewer retirements (7.6pp). Utmost important is the 5.8pp all-cause mortality reduction over 10 years in the PVI treatment strategy. Conclusions A PVI based treatment strategy results in higher healthcare expenditures vs. drug therapy alone. Most of these higher costs are caused by the PVI procedures during this period. Thus, more effective and efficient methods are needed to further reduce costs for the intervention and prevent repeat procedures. The benefit of a PVI treatment strategy is seen in higher employment rates, which is crucial from a societal perspective and should be a strong argument for caregivers. We show a significant reduction in all-cause mortality, which we partly attribute to the PVI procedure itself, to a stricter risk factor assessment and treatment, and a tighter medical adherence.


We explore the time-series relationship between investor sentiment and the small-stock premium using consumer confidence as a measure of investor optimism. We estimate the components of consumer confidence related to economic fundamentals and investor sentiment. After controlling for the time variation of beta, we study the time-series variation of the pricing error with sentiment. Over the last 25 years, investor sentiment measured using consumer confidence forecasts the returns of small stocks and stocks with low institutional ownership in a manner consistent with the predictions of models based on noise-trader sentiment. Sentiment does not appear to forecast time-series variation in the value and momentum premiums. (JEL G10, G12, G14) Copyright 2006, Oxford University Press.


In the event of natural disasters such as earthquakes, tsunamis, landslides, floods and droughts, water occupies a key role in disaster relief. The presence of water is important for drinking, cooking and support the refugee areas of environmental sanitation and avoiding disaster victims of diseases waterborn disease. Water problem in disaster conditions may occur partly as a result: the disturbance of water sources because change of water quality, to become turbid or salty, the destruction of a piping system, treatment plant damage, disruption of distribution systems, or the scarcity of water in evacuation areas. Introduction of water quality becomes important to determine which process technology will be used and saved investments in emergency conditions. Priority handling of clean water usually comes first in the refugee areas with communal system, because the need of water for bathing, washing and toilet is big enough, while for a drink in the early events during disaster dominated by bottled water, but for their long-term, they have to boil water. For remote areas and difficult to reach individuals who usually use system more simple and easily operated. Water Supply Technology for emergency response has the characteristic 1). Able to operate with all sorts of water conditions (flexible & adaptable), 2). Can be operated easily, 3). Does not require much maintenance, 4). Little use of chemicals, and 5). Portable and easy removable (Mobile System).


One of the fundamental challenges that hinder further adaption of decentralized cryptocurrencies is scalability. Because current cryptocurrencies require that all transactions are processed and stored on a distributed ledger -- the so-called blockchain -- transaction throughput is inherently limited. An important proposal to significantly improve scalability are off-chain protocols, where the massive amount of transactions is executed without requiring the costly interaction with the blockchain. Examples of off-chain protocols include payment channels and networks, which are currently deployed by popular cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. A further extension of payment networks envisioned for cryptocurrencies are so-called state channel networks. In contrast to payment networks that only support off-chain payments between users, state channel networks allow execution of arbitrary complex smart contracts. The main contribution of this work is to give the first full specification for general state channel networks. Moreover, we provide formal security definitions and prove the security of our construction against powerful adversaries. An additional benefit of our construction is the use of channel virtualization, which further reduces latency and costs in complex channel networks.


Increasing the consumption of vegetables is a public health nutrition priority in Australia. This must be achieved in the context of lowering dietary environmental impacts. In this study, a subgroup of 1700 Australian adult daily diets having a higher diet-quality score and a lower environmental impact score was isolated from Australian Health Survey data. These diets were primarily distinguished by their lower content of energy-dense/nutrient-poor discretionary foods. Among these diets, those with higher levels of vegetable intake were characterized by greater variety of vegetables eaten, lower intake of bread and cereal foods, and higher intake of red meat. These diets also had a greater likelihood of achieving recommended intakes for a range of vitamins and minerals. These findings highlighted the importance of considering the total diet in developing strategies to promote healthy and sustainable food consumption, as well as the need to understand the interrelationships between foods that exist in a local cultural context. As vegetables are usually eaten with other foods, higher vegetable consumption in Australia could be supported by encouraging more regular consumption of the types of meals that include larger quantities of vegetables. Our results showed that this was possible while also substantially lowering total dietary environmental impacts.


Continued efforts to model the distortion behavior of custom-designed digitizing samplers for accurate measurement of dynamic signals are reported. This work is part of ongoing efforts at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to advance the state of the art in waveform sampling metrology. In this paper, an analytic error model for a sampler having a -3-dB 6-GHz bandwidth is described. The model is derived from examination of the sampler's error behavior in the phase plane. The model takes as inputs the per-sample estimates of signal amplitude, first derivative, and second derivative, where the derivatives are with respect to time. The model's analytic form consists of polynomials in these terms, which are chosen from consideration of the voltage dependence of the digitizer input capacitance and the previously studied error behavior in a predecessor digitizer. At 1 GHz, an improvement in total harmonic distortion from -32 to -46 dB is obtained when model-generated sample corrections are applied to the waveform. The effect of timebase distortion in the sampling system is also accounted for and corrected. The inclusion of second-derivative dependence in the model is shown to improve the model's fit to the measured data by providing fine temporal adjustment of the fitted waveform


Abstract:This article, which was originally presented at the annual conference of the Venerable John Henry Newman Association at Villanova University in July 2005, examines the "religious formation" of students at the Catholic University of Ireland as presented by Newman in his university sermons and discourses. Newman wanted the students to develop not only intellectually, but also religiously and morally. He saw tutors as critical to this process of formation.


The study provides comparison of grounding performance between square and rectangle ground grid, when given the same size of area of coverage. The result shows that the rectangle ground grid possesses better grounding performance than the square one. The study also finds the optimum compression ratio (OCR) of both grounding configuration. The OCR of square and rectangle ground grids are found to be 0.3 and 0.4 respectively. Modeling and simulation is carried out on the Current Distribution Electromagnetic interference Grounding and Soil structure (CDEGS) program. The simulation results support the fact that unequal span ground grid is more superior to the equal span type. The finding could be used as a guide line in grounding grid design.